Industrious: Engineering Marvels - Chapter 19

So, here's a confession on behalf of all the superhumans out there.

Vampires are not, in fact, all that dangerous.

Yes, I know. It's shocking and unbelievable.

But it's true.

Your average vampire is the supernatural equivalent of a cockroach to anyone with substantial powers. They're stronger, faster, and generally tougher than the upper portion of normal humanity. Wounds that would cause crippling injury or life-threatening conditions are essentially inconveniences to most vampires. Just in this short fight, I'd already seen several take large-caliber rifle rounds to the chest, face, and appendages without substantially affecting them. At best, they went down for a minute or so before getting back up, angry and ready to fight again.

They could soak damage, quite a lot of it even, and still keep coming back for more.

Until they hit sunlight. Or got their head chopped off. Or took a stake through the heart. Or were set on fire.

Now, don't get me wrong, to your average rank and file human, vampires are a deadly menace that stalks the night unrestrained by the laws of man and god. It's why there are usually so many of them. It's easy for them to spawn more of themselves, they have an abundant food supply, and make great ambush predators. In terms of evolution, that's a pretty great winning strategy... outside of the whole crippling weakness to sunlight. But there are plenty of worms and other creepy crawlies that can't take too long on the concrete of a hot summer's day. So, yeah, it's not a complete game-ending problem, I guess.

They also, as I was quick to understand, had superhuman senses. Without some dedicated observation time, I couldn't tell for sure, but leaning on my old knowledge of common vampire tropes I felt justified in asserting that they had greatly enhanced night vision at the very least. In all probability, the way my opponents' slightly-pointed ears twitched and their nostrils flexed when coming upon us meant that they had at least two other enhanced senses. So, all in all you've got a very fast, very tough, very strong monster that can see, smell, and hear better than any normal human on the planet.

In a vacuum, that's nasty.

The real issue, though, is when a vampire meets something or someone they have absolutely no answer for.

Anything that's tough enough to take their claw-like nails and laugh it off, anything that doesn't have blood to feed on and can wear them down during a protracted fight, or anything that can just spam one of their weaknesses.

Or, as in my case, something that was fast enough to avoid their attacks and just cut off their heads.

The other problem with vampires, especially young ones I was realizing, was that they weren't exactly paragons of self-control. When they wanted something dead, they'd flex their claws, spread their jaws, and drive in head first. Against any number of normal creatures, that's an entirely valid attack strategy and would solve their problem in a few brief seconds.

However, a sensible soldier would realize that a small group of humans running through a base filled with undead monsters would have already encountered a great number of them and either been able to evade or, more likely, destroy their foes. Even if that 'sensible soldier' was, in fact, a bloodthirsty undead monster themselves.

Instead, they had continued to come at us as soon as they saw us. Like primitive NPC enemies in a bad video game that didn't call out for help or alert the greater group of enemies to your presence, they just mindlessly assaulted us in the name of trying to kill us and (presumably) feed on our blood.

Or, well... it could be just Nazi neophyte vampires that were stupid instinct-driven monsters with no tactics or strategy. In fact, it would probably be offensive to judge all of their kind by the piss-poor examples we'd been fighting all night.

The most appalling part of this state of affairs, to me, is that the Hydra soldiers that swept down on us as we moved through the base had guns. While those wouldn't have been as effective against me as they would any other soldier, they still posed a greater threat than an arrogant undead deciding to enter melee combat with someone who could slice bullets with his sword. If they'd stopped, pulled back, coordinated a proper counterattack, and came at us in force... well, I like to think we'd still win, but it would at least make the entire thing more challenging than running down castle hallways as we threw bombs into rooms along the way and absently killed a vampire or two from time to time.

Which... well, they say you should always be careful of what you wish for.

Because, the rub is?

Some vampires are not neophytes.

“Ground Dragon Flash!” I cried, my sword cutting through the stone like it was made of mystic sky-metal and forged by one of the world's greatest blacksmiths.

“You'll have to dry better than that, Yank!” The master vampire snarled as he darted between the hail of stone fragments that I'd kicked up.

Dumdum's shotgun roared in the background and I risked a glance at my comrades to ensure they hadn't been overrun.

It was a mistake.

Thankfully, my body moved on instincts honed by a lifetime of service as a combat specialist, my blade taking off clawed fingers before I slid away from the grasping attacks as he flew through the air.

Flew.

That was the important part.

All of the vampires we'd fought up to this point could... kind of hover? Or maybe glide? Something like that. They could move quickly through the air without touching the ground, but it wasn't the most graceful or coordinated kind of movement. They tended to use it in short bursts as they bounced off walls, ceilings, and floors to exploit their semi-weightless state and attack from all angles.

I bounced off a jutting torch holder that likely hadn't been used for a half-century at least, using the momentum of my body to throw myself into a sickening spiral of motion that both avoided Baron Blood's strikes as well as putting me in a position to-

His body jerked out of the way of my blade, the metal clipping his leg this time as blood sprayed out from it while it regenerated in a mass of dusty shadows while he put distance between the two of us.

I landed nimbly, my sword held in a relaxed grip as I felt my fingers itch to reach for one of my tags full of stored chakra.

Just five seconds... no, even three...

Baron Blood and I stared each other down, my dark blue eyes meeting his own crimson. I heard the quick retort of multiple rifle shots. I didn't look this time.

I'd learned my lesson. This wasn't the kind of foe I could afford to take my eyes off of.

“You guys alive?” I called out, my voice carrying to the next room over.

“Just fucking peachy!” Dumdum shouted.

“We could use some help! No rush, though!” Morita called back, the retort of his rifle sounding again.

“No promises. Looks like I've got a hot date for the night!” I yelled.

Baron Blood scowled at me. “Even if you are a worthy opponent, you will not impugn my honor by slandering me with such aspersions!”

I looked over his outfit again. It was a bodysuit of some make, leathery wings stretching between his arms and his upper thighs, somewhat like an actual bat. The limbs and sides of the torso were done up in a lighter shade of purple. Maybe mauve? While the center 'stripe' covering the insides of his legs up to his head was a darker purple. Only the mouth was truly exposed, pale skin surrounding elongated and sharpened incisors while a cowl covered his face and made his eyes appear like pools of solid red.

It was one of those things that should have looked stupid and silly.

Outright funny, even.

It didn't.

His arms and legs were too long, his limbs moved at strange angles, and all of his appendages bore elongated clawed fingers and toes that didn't look right on a human frame.

Very uncanny valley, if the reptilian hindbrain revolting against what I was seeing was any indication.

It probably didn't hurt his intimidation factor that he was actively trying to kill me and doing a decent job at it in my current condition.

Operational oversight noted, I've been depending on having the initiative too much lately. Lack of anticipation for being attacked rather than being the attacker. Sloppy.

Even the giant acid-spitting spider-monster, it'd been relatively stupid. Same as these young vampires. Depending on their strength and speed instead of any plan or cunning to subdue an enemy. I'd been treating this conflict more like an organized massacre of hostile forces rather than an actual military operation with risk involved up to this point.

I shifted slightly, making the monster in front of me twitch as the firefight behind us raged. “You speak English well, with a pronunciation and accent common to the United Kingdom's nobility. Why are you fighting for the Germans?”

Baron Blood huffed slowly, taking deep breaths as he began to laugh, throwing his head back and heaving as his jaw opened far wider than humanly possible. “Hahahahaha! You think I'm going to drone on about my past like some radio drama villain? Your pathetic attempt to press for time will only prolong your death by seconds!”

My fingers discreetly caught on the latch to the case at my waist and I pulled free a pair of chakra battery tags. One I slid up my sleeve and, with a spark of my own energy, activated as it adhered itself to my skin.

Baron Blood stopped laughing abruptly, his head snapping down from where he'd thrown it back in deranged amusement, moving so fast that it should have snapped at the neck and rolled freely onto the ground. A long tongue unfurled and slid over his lips, leaving a trail of glistening saliva behind it. “You just started smelling delicious for some reason. I think I just changed my mind. I'm going to tear that stupid mask off and drain you dry!”

 Synesthesia? Vampirism conferring the ability to interpret supernatural energies in human as a desirable scent-

Then he was in front of me, hand raised in a vicious strike.

My sword came up, the angle I'd been holding it at awkward as I tried to block-

The sword caught against his claws, my grip held for a fraction of a second, chakra surging through my fingers anew, then-

My blade spun away, the force of his attack sending it into one of the stone walls of the ancient castle.

At the same time Baron Blood's rictus grin, the chakra from the tag surged through my system as I moved. The world slowed down around me, my body speeding up as my perceptions quickened in time. For the first time in months I felt truly…

Alive.

“You who claim to kill monsters! Now die by your own hubris without your pathetic blade!” Baron Blood shouted, his fingers pressing together to form a wicked spear.

I grinned. “It doesn't really work here, and you won't get the joke, but... I'm not left-handed.”

Regardless of my banter, his hand came driving in, aimed straight at my chest. I didn't catch it, but smoothly stepped out of the way in a split-second and guided the strike into a flowing circle. The move was as natural as breathing, Blood's blank crimson eyes widening in surprise as he felt his momentum being compromised and overtaken by the gentle nudge I'd given him. Suddenly finding himself overcommitted to a strike he'd thought sure to land, I threw the vampire into a spinning tumble towards the door to the room where Morita and Dumdum were fighting for their lives.

Then, I flexed the body flicker seallessly, the technique leaping to my aid like the old friend it was as I launched myself towards the creature's exposed back in a fraction of a second.

“Heart Strike.”

With chakra flowing through my body, each and every part felt so much more responsive, as though I'd been half-dead and half-asleep for the longest time. Even the techniques of a foreign art came more smoothly to me as I cycled my muscles through the exact motions necessary to build up the power required. The art of koppo blended with panzer kunst, martial forms meant for the killing of mechanical lifeforms using strikes that bypassed their inherent toughness.

It was meant to be performed by other cyborgs, though.

But humans could do it, at great risk and with extreme skill required...

My muscles cycled again and again, building up not only energy, but rhythm as well, the straining of sinew growing faster and faster and faster until-

My open palm hit Baron Blood's back with the force of a freight train.

The master vampire shot forward, a supersonic bullet against the castle's stone, careening through the opening I'd lined him up with and through the room beyond.

Then through the stone wall.

The sound of collapsing rock, twisting metal, and snapping wooden timbers was deafening, drowning out everything else and bringing the fight to a standstill. The cloud of pulverized dust and rain of splinters reduced visibility to nil, even with the supernaturally-enhanced sight of the vampires.

I rolled up my other sleeve and slapped on the second chakra tag, hissing as the energy flooded my system again, my energy channels expanding and growing heavy with power. Shaking out my fingers, I snapped through the long-form seal matrix of a basic wind technique. It was an alteration of an elemental training exercise, bending the definition of 'technique' to creating a light and steady breeze for a dozen seconds.

I can only imagine what I looked like, to the slowly-revealed figures among the rubble of the half-destroyed room, walking forward calmly as I popped the joints of my neck.

Looking at the dust-covered forms of Morita and Dumdum, I gave them a grin as I turned a much more vicious expression on the Hydra-uniformed vampires and the slowly-shifting rubble that made up what had formerly been a wall. A moment later, stone blocks toppled over and the gasping form of Baron Blood pulled himself from within the pile of debris.

“So, that was a great warm-up, dickweed. Now... let's get serious!” I cried, practically teleporting to the first vampire and striking it full-force with another hertza haeon. The technique was coming so much easier now, the vibration-strike transferring cleanly and popping him like a dust-filled balloon.

“Jesus Christ,” I heard Dumdum mutter, a trace of awe and fear in his voice. Then grinned as He began to stand up, rifle in hand. “Snake-Eyes, you're a freak of nature alright, but goddamn if I'mma let you have all the fun!”

Morita chuckled, doing the same as I began to shift my weight between the balls of my feet. “Eh, what the hell? You only live once, right?”

…

Steve threw his shield, the disc catching a vampire in the mouth and taking the top of its skull off. Even as it staggered around, its body only beginning to fragment and turn to dust slowly, Steve caught the ricocheted shield as it rebounded back to him while his free hand popped another flare and used it to stab through the nearly-redead vampire before spinning and pushing it straight into the eye of another Hydra-vamp.

“Nazi Vampires!” Bucky called out, half-laughing as he unloaded with the heaviest weapon they had into the ongoing horde. It was something Stark had apparently cooked up and was the same caliber as an M17 Browning Machine Gun, only it fired a single round at a time instead of continuously doing so until you ran out bullets on the belt. “I blame you for this, you know?”

When Bucky fired the next round, Steve winced as it over-penetrated a vehicle and hit one of the two bloodsuckers that had been trying to sneak up on them. Bucky's specialization was, in theory, sniper, but when you gave someone a fuck-off gun and the ability to fire it as they ran around semi-accurately, it lent itself to closer fieldwork when there wasn't a good perch available.

Steve felt his lips twitch, leaping over an obstacle to cover his friend's back as he raised his voice to reply even while bullets impacted his shield from a few 'normal' Hydra men hunkered down behind one of the fallen castle walls. “Why's it always my fault?”

“It's just like your mom always said! You don't have the sense god gave a junkyard dog of when to back down from a fight!” Bucky shouted back over the near-deafening noise of his 'rifle.'

“And your mom always said you didn't have the sense not to follow me in,” Steve laughed back, then stood up from his crouch and pulled the pin on a grenade before throwing it at the cluster of human soldiers.

“The absolute truth!” Bucky laughed back as he turned and blew the head off a vampire. To the gun's credit, and Bucky's, the creature immediately fell over and began disintegrating. “Where's our ninja?”

“Probably-” Steve began, but cut himself off as one of the castle's windows blew out in a burst of flame that was...

“Nevermind,” Bucky shook his head, ducking to reload. His hands went through the motions even as his eyes remained locked on the flame shaped like an eastern dragon's head. “That crazy bastard.”

“Incoming!” Steve shouted, looking up himself as two bodies fell from the sky onto the courtyard. Grabbing Bucky, he pulled the other man with him as he rolled away from the estimated point of impact.

Well, for one at least.

A figure that was obvious Ray, if somewhat worse for the wear, landed in a three-point stance, swaying slightly as he rose from the crouch. His clothes were torn, cut, and singed, and he walked with a limp, but he was noticeably in a single piece. The entire battlefield was quiet as everyone followed Ray's masked gaze to the other body that had fallen.

The... giant... bat? He/It had landed on a trailer behind the jeep Bucky had shot through moments earlier and was barely moving from the collapsed wooden bed underneath him. Large sections of it's wings were clearly burned away and it was missing a leg that was slowly growing back as they watched.

Grabbing at a half-destroyed crate of ammunition Ray tore off a piece of the structure, and with one concentrated leap, hit the bat-creature just as he was starting to leverage himself up. There was a struggle for a brief moment as the stake was caught between the bat-vampire's claws before, with a mighty heave-

Steve realized a fraction of a second too late that Ray's strength was failing him and leapt up, Bucky hot on his heels behind him. Taking out his pistol, he took careful aim at the creature's head and-

The first shot missed as gaping jaws opened wide, aimed at Ray's neck.

The second shot grazed one of the oversized pointed ears, making the creature flinch and cry out as its arms crushed the piece of wood and made to grab Ray.

The third shot, just as it made to bite, hit home.

A bullet sank directly into the creature's head, blowing off a portion of it as other, less-friendly bullets whizzed by Steve and Bucky while the firefight around them resumed with gusto. Still, the damage had been done and the creature threw Ray off it instead of trying to attack him again. Specifically, Steve had to catch Ray as the vampire had thrown him bodily at the red white and blue garbed man.

Ray groaned as Steve set him down while Bucky raised his gun to take potshots as the now-fleeing monster. Blue eyes blinked behind the balaclava Ray wore and a voice muffled by fabric was barely audible over the fire. “Hey guys. Morita and Dumdum are clearing out the last of the bloodsuckers on the third floor. I think I just pulled a muscle in my soul fighting the boss vamp. How's your night been?”

Steve laughed right up until a stray round grazed his arm and tabled the matter for later.

~~~

Much better! Last chapter was a little bit... meh. Not bad, but I just wasn't feeling it. This one? I got on a roll and was really making progress. Even got a little bit longer than usual to make up for the kind of weak length last time around.

Enjoy! Next chapter for EM is going to be a brief flashback to offer some more detail on the fight as the Howling Commandos clean things up and do some investigative work in the castle's lower floors. But this arc is coming to a close soon. Which means we'll be headed back for an easy breather chapter or two in a little while.

Next update? Ahh... probably Where Your God Is. I really wanna' do a chapter of that. After that, more Winning Peace.

Rock on, Stay Awesome, and Thank you again for all the support!