Sky King II: Reborn

Chapter XII

Kuu was kind of surprised by the extremely bland white walls, the only decor being the gold lanterns and dark wooden pieces of wall supports. It was far from what she was expecting, having pictured endless jewels and bright colors in her mind, only to be met with such a bleak building. It matched it's exterior at least. Shayla ordered her men to clear the first floor themselves, her having Oliver, Narai, and Kuu follow her to the stairwell. Oliver gunned down two guards who stood at the top, one of their bodies tumbling down the steps while groaning in pain from the multiple bullet wounds. The second floor was filled with green uniformed soldiers. Shayla and Kuu ducked into a room to the left while Oliver and Narai took one to the right, avoiding the heavy fire from down the hall. The red haired woman grabbed Kuu's shoulder to get her full attention.

"I need you to cover this hallway with Narai. Oliver and I are going to find a way around and flank them," she stared into Kuu's dark eyes, her words commanding and stern, "do not hesitate anymore. You either kill or be killed now,"

Kuu nodded, aiming around the corner and taking a shot at the crowd of Hellot soldiers, Narai doing the same with his revolver. The weapon kicked back so hard it looked like it hurt his hand just to shoot it, but both of them shooting was enough to allow Shayla and Oliver to loop back towards the stairwell and find another hallway. Chambering another bullet, the black haired woman crouched low and looked down her iron sights, moving to face down the hallway again. Most of the soldiers had gone to a stairwell behind them to reach the third floor, but five remained behind to fight off her and Narai. She aimed at the front most one and pulled the trigger, the man dropping to the floor and clutching the center of his chest. The soldier right next to him had a submachine gun like Oliver's in his hands, opening fire directly at her. She ducked back around the corner and tried to move deeper in the room, a sudden striking pain exploding into her left leg. More bullets tore through the wall Kuu had just been using as cover, the woman diving to the floor to avoid the hail.

Splinters of wood flew over her, the young woman realizing the pain in her leg was gone, replaced by a complete numbness. Her left thigh had two bullets deeply embedded within her muscle, blood pouring from the holes like miniature rivers. It wasn't the amount of blood that scared her, but the fact her leg was entirely numb after just feeling the absurd amount of pain seconds ago. She could hear Narai yelling for her, but his words didn't reach her mind, the shock of having been fully shot taking over. Kuujiro's chest tightened, her body shaking and succumbing to what she had been holding back since the battle at the bunker.

Seeing Kuu laying on the floor in the room over, her body seizing up and shaking, let Narai know he would have to handle this hallway himself. He stepped out from cover as soon as the four spent their ammunition, shooting one down with a blast from his 500 magnum. He went to pull the trigger again, but one of the soldiers pulled a pistol from his waist, sending a 9mm round right through Narai's left shoulder. He winced and dropped the magnum, another bullet barely grazing the right side of his neck. The black haired rebel ran forward, one of the soldiers putting a hole in his left forearm. Narai reached for the hilt of his katana pulling the blade free with his scarred right hand, a round from the soldier's pistol now scratching his cheek, blowing the bandanna clean off of his face.

"OUT OF MY WAY!" Narai yelled, rushing the three soldiers. He ducked low and cut through the stomach of the first, then lashed at the one to his left. He blocked the sword with his rifle, Narai then switched to attacking the other green uniformed man, also bringing his rifle up in defense. The rebel retaliated by back handing the left soldier's face and kicking at the right soldier's knee at the same time, the pain in his left arm growing substantially after the punch. He shoved the sword through the left soldier's throat and drove it through the wall behind him. Narai pulled the sword free in a wild spray of blood, the fluid showering floor beneath them as the man brought the blade down on the other soldier who's leg he had broken, splitting his face horizontally. The first Hellot soldier he had attacked was writhing on the ground, holding his intestines in with both hands until Narai walked over and plunged the blade through his skull, ending the man's misery for eternity.

Remembering seeing Kuujiro panicking on the floor, Narai walked back to the room she was in to see her, sitting against the wall where bullets had passed through, steadying her breathing and gaining control over her body. Kuu looked up to see him kneel down next to her, setting his katana down on the floor. He tried to reach for her leg with his left hand, but his arm would not move a single inch. The damage done to it was far too great, rendering it useless for anything currently. Kuu took note of that, but also stared at his exposed face. Scars and mangled flesh covered most of his jawline, causing an indent deformity at the rightmost end of his mouth. She understood fully why he covered it now.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, breathing heavily and under obvious strain from the amount of bullets he had just taken. Gashes on his cheek and neck were minor, but the stream of blood down his left arm was worrying. It dripped to the floor freely, joining with the small pool that formed under Kuu's leg.

"I can't move it," she pointed at her injured thigh, "are you okay?"

"Had worse," Narai said with a straight face. He grabbed his sword and sheathed it, putting his right arm around her waist and helping her to stand. Not being able to feel her left leg at all was going to be a detriment, having to use Narai's shoulder for balance as she hopped next to him. They walked to the end of the hall, Kuu trying not to look at the bodies that Narai left, blood splashing under her foot as she hopped along. At the foot of the stairwell, Shayla and Oliver were firing up at the Hellot soldiers who had fled earlier. The store owner reloaded his weapon and ran over to help Kuujiro, taking Narai's place while he went to speak with the red haired second in command.

"Know how many are up there?" he asked her, eyeing the smoke now filling the end of the hall they just came from. It was very slow moving, but time was still running low.

"Should be around six or seven guards and the Prince in his throne room," Shayla told him, looking over his body and raising her eyebrow at his exposed face, "Are you sure you can continue?"

"No, but I need to," he responded, freeing his blade from it's sheath again. Oliver showed Shayla the two bleeding holes on Kuujiro's left thigh, the woman nodding to him.

"We're going to go forward, take her to safety outside of this place before it burns to the ground," she ordered the store owner. Narai removed his camo poncho by sliding his blade under the neck piece and cutting it, kicking it towards Oliver to use as a makeshift bandage for Kuu's leg. Seeing him stand tall, stained blade in hand, blood dripping from his arm, with a grin on his face was not only very attractive to her, but also a boost of confidence in them. She finally believed that they would take the estate with or without the death of the prince. She wouldn't be there to witness what would happen, hoping one of the two would tell her after the fight was over.

Oliver helped his friend down the stairwells and out of the front door where rebel soldiers were stationed tending to the wounded and covering the lifeless bodies of compatriots. It sounded like the fighting in the streets had simmered down to isolated shots from both sides, signaling a closing to the re-invasion of the city for now. The store owner set Kuujiro down by the fountain, wrapping Narai's poncho around her leg and tying it tightly over the bleeding holes.

"How bad does it hurt?" he asked her, adjusting his glasses, "on a scale of zero out of ten,"

"I can't feel my leg," Kuu answered, trying her damndest to move any bit of her leg or foot at least a single centimeter with no luck.

"That's uh...certainly not good," his attempt to sugarcoat the injury failed horribly, but did help to calm her down more. Somehow, somway, she was able to overcome her anxiety in the estate very quickly, marking at least some progression in that aspect. What didn't sit well at all, was the fact that she had one hundred percent shot and killed someone. That one soldier that fell holding his chest after she fired at him, was unmoving when going down that hall with Narai. It made her feel sick to the stomach, the young woman holding back her nausea.

While the thought was fresh in her mind, her vision began to blur, lightheadedness setting in and the world spinning around her. Eventually all became black and her head fell forward, Oliver shaking her shoulders. He said her name loudly, no response physically or vocally. Oliver checked her pulse and breathing, both low but still there. He came to the conclusion that she passed out from shock, yelling for a medic to come by and confirm his suspicion.