Chapter 514: Facing the Enemy [1]
Nikolai’s long trench coat flapped in the cold wind as he strolled to the entrance. He held his arms behind his back with two rows of battle maids on either side. Each one in their tactical gear and maid outfits with simple sub-machine guns in their hands.
"Leona, what clans are attacking and what are their numbers?"
The distant rattle and pop of various guns echoed in the distance, with the occasional boom and quake of an explosion.
However, Leona remained calm and stoic compared to her usual soft and gentle self. "We have confirmed there are traitors from the Vespera and Sanguis clans. With numbers are close to a hundred with several undead dolls from the Nosferatu."
"I see..."
’The Sanguis clan use their blood to fight by creating weapons...’
After becoming the patriarch, he spent hours studying the other clans; his lack of knowledge and ignorance became a liability. So even during his visit to Londis, he spent a few hours researching on most days with the help of Leona.
"Turn on the penetrative UV lights." He remembered something he spent a portion of the budget on, something cool. "That should reduce the effectiveness of the Vespera clan’s blood art."
"Understood." Leona tapped her left ear and gave the order. "The Patriarch has permitted to use of the experimental UV beam lights!"
Their pace increased with the low hum of electricity travelling through the walls.
However, normal UV lights only made vampires and werewolves uncomfortable. It was a scientist of the Volkov clan who found a brightness that caused direct damage to vampires and rendered their darkness-based blood skills less effective.
"Prepare for combat." Leona muttered to the girls behind her.
Nikolai’s steps echoed like a slow drumbeat as they reached the last corridor before the main blast doors. The stench of cordite and blood drifted from beyond.
Somewhere ahead, gunfire clattered in angry bursts, followed by the wet, meaty thud of bodies hitting the ground.
"How are the defences holding?" Nikolai asked in a low, steady voice.
"The third defensive line is barely holding," Leona replied honestly, her hand never leaving the comms unit in her ear. "They’re aim isn’t the main building but here. It’s estimated that they’ll breach the second defensive line in five minutes."
"I see, then we’ve plenty of time."
The blast doors hissed open with howling winds blowing from outside, accompanied by the scream of bullets. A dozen black-clad figures surged through the snow, rifles spitting fire.
"Contact!" a maid called out, ducking behind a steel barricade.
"Suppressing fire! Go, go, go!"
The first wave of maids slammed against a nearby wall rapidly in a disciplined motion, their MP5s chattering in measured bursts of silver-jacketed rounds. A custom 10mm anti-monster round with a cluster of sharp silver packed into the tip. Created from the bullets the SSS created months earlier.
The corridor filled with the sharp crackle of gunfire and the ringing hiss of ricochets and voices. Vampires screamed as the UV beams seared them alive, exploding into ash or slowing their movements.
A Sanguis clansman darted out of cover, blood swirling around his arm before shaping into a spear. The nearest maid pivoted, double-tapping his chest, then a full burst into his dome. A stopping force far lower than bigger guns, but the accuracy and moment the silver fragments penetrated his flesh, it was over.
He dropped before he could throw.
"Blood Bullet! Get down!" someone yelled.
A Sanguis female vaulted over a barrier, flicking a ball of crimson from her palm as several silver bullets tore through her chest. The droplets hardened midair into explosive rounds, almost like a grenade filled with shrapnel and glowed bright red.
BANG!
BANG!
The moment it exploded, a crimson flash blinded people, and a low howl followed, tearing a section of the wall apart.
Two maids hit the ground hard, their bodies convulsing with dozens of small holes in their flesh... but a medic quickly rushed to their side, sliding across the concrete.
"Leona, don’t worry about me." Nikolai looked at her, and the maids focused on protecting him as he held out his hand.
She hesitated for a moment before shaking her head. "Darling..." From her thigh holster, she drew a heavy, matte-black Desert Eagle with intricate silver engravings. "The recoil will be heavy. The mags have experimental Type-S custom .44 rounds..."
Nikolai weighed the weapon in his hand and locked the slide back before loading the magazine with the larger silver rounds. Then, flicked the side release lever.
"Make sure you grip it tight and stable, otherwise it will jam."
"I see see, thanks."
Although not perfectly trained with firearms, it was part of his daily training as a patriarch.
He stepped into the danger zone with the maids fanning on either side of him; his enhanced eyes could see the subtle movements in the dark. Vespera’s blood arts couldn’t trick him, and only made their bodies look dim in the shadows.
Bullets whistled past him, but he strode forward with confidence. After fighting a great elder, his fear and hesitation vanished. The first target popped over with an assault rifle, with a pale complexion.
She lunged over the wall, supported by two others...
Nikolai raised his Eagle.
BOOM!
The creature’s head vanished in a red mist. It wasn’t the pure power of his gun, but the special rounds that exploded with silver shrapnel that tore through the flesh of monsters like uranium.
Leona’s MP5 rattled with a sharp burst, as she and the maid beside her took down the supporting vampires with accurate shots to their abdomens.
’It seems these silver rounds don’t need a lethal shot to kill...’
Because of the silver material filling the bullets, almost all shots were fatal.
"To the left! A group have broke through."
Four more hostiles broke cover upon sighting Nikolai, firing wild bursts from assault rifles. Silver sparks rained as bullets chewed into the steel barricades. Nikolai ducked low, rolled, and popped up to return fire.
BOOM-BOOM!
Two enemies dropped.
Crossfire of submachine guns tore apart the other two.
A sudden whistling shriek split the air, another blood bullet. Nikolai dove sideways as it hit, detonating against the wall and spraying molten stone across the hallway.
"Push forward!" Leona barked. "We take the choke point at the second defensive line!"
’Damn she’s hot right now.’
Leona led the maids in a neat but structured formation, dashing ahead in small groups while others popped covering fire at the vampires.
The enemy also used well-trained tactics and movements, flanking either side and trying to pin down the Volkov forces.
Nikolai moved among them like a shadow, every pull of the trigger thunderous.
BOOM.
One Sanguis down.
BOOM.
A living doll popped.
BOOM.
A Vespera sorcerer’s head erupted mid-incantation.
Then Bang!
A round clipped his shoulder, spinning him sideways as he hissed the pain rapidly fading as his body knitted the wound together.
"Master, they’re trying to push through the eastern stairwell." Leona used her pet name for him. "If they breach that... they’ll have a path to your wives!"
"Can we stop them with what we have here?"
The Eagle snapped back after his last shot. He pulled out and replaced the mag with a satisfying click.
"I can’t let them get close to that building."
Nikolai’s eyes narrowed, his ears twitching as the gunfire intensified down the eastern corridor. The scent of blood, gunpowder, and scorched stone hung thick in the air, and he looked back at Leona again.
"Leona," he said, voice lowering into a growl. "The eastern stairwell. We’re going now."
"Yes, Master!"
The maids shifted formation instantly, peeling away from the main line. Half stayed to hold the choke point while the rest followed him. Nikolai remained in the centre as they half-sprinted down the bloody courtyard to the east.
The walls trembled as another explosion tore through the compound. Fragments of silver lined the walls like stars, followed by the scent of blood of a maid who moved too slow and took a blood bullet to the chest.
"Medic!" Leona barked, sliding across the floor to fire short, precise bursts from her MP5. Each round found a target. Throat, skull, heart.
"Three o’clock!" another maid screamed.
Nikolai reacted faster than the maids and saw a Sanguis member holding a blade and about to slice the neck of another maid.
He lowered his hips and fired.
BOOM!
The attacker’s chest exploded into gore, but two more were already there, following up as if to kill the maid like desperate berserkers. He swatted one aside with his free hand and returned fire, blowing half the knee of the second attacker into shreds.
"Keep pressure!" Leona ordered. "Push them back!"
The corridor descended into chaos with muzzle flashes lighting the dark like lightning, ricochets singing against steel, and the acrid smoke of burning vitae thickening with every kill.
"They’re here!" Nikolai saw the stronger Vespera using their shadow cloaking skill to hide and took pot shots at their blurred figures.
"Get down Leona!" The maids hit the deck just as a boom unlike anything else shook the walls.
The eastern stairwell doors burst open not from breaching charges or blood bullets but from something slamming into them from the other side.
Out of the smoke stepped a beautiful group of maids... but they weren’t normal, each of them with eight fluffy fox tails, and in their hands were different guns and masks covering their faces.
"...What the hell is that? Gatling gun?" Leona whispered, eyes wide.
"It’s my wife." Nikolai retorted.
The huge gun held by each fox maid hummed as the gun’s barrels whined and spun faster, and the air filled with the high-pitched scream of incoming death.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
The hallway erupted into a storm of bullets.