Savier lay there for a second longer, water sloshing over his shoulders, breath hitching like a dying dog’s giggle. He swiped a palm over his bloody nose, saring red across his cheek, then dragged his tongue over the blood like it was sugar.
"Ahh— goddamn... that was... that was the best five seconds of my entire life..."
He sat up, limbs flopping. "Johnkiss... my sweet little Johnkiss... you ever get ridden like that by an angel from hell? You ever—"
Johnquis punched an Eater straight through the mouth with his chain-wrapped fist, cutting Savier off.
"Shut up and stand up before you really die."
Savier rolled to his feet, squelching in the bloody flood, jacket patches plastered to his back. He caught sight of Dancer again, flipping off the side of a caved-in bus shelter — her blade dripping black gore, her thighs tense and gleaming as she landed in a half-crouch.
He made a low, shivering sound in his throat. "Look at her... slicing and dicing like a demon ballerina... god, just once, I wanna—"
He trailed off when Johnquis slamd another crawler into the wreck of a street sign, snapping its spine.
"Focus! Last wave, keep your filthy brain in your skull!"
The Eaters crawled over each other now — bones jutting, mouths yawning. So scrabbled over half-sunken cars, others slipped in the oil-slick water. Dancer wove through them, foot-blade flashing. Every ti her back arched, Savier’s eyes twitched like a man starved too long.
He leapt onto the hood of an overturned van, pumping the shotgun half of his hybrid.
BOOM! BOOM!
Skull pieces sprayed across the flooded curb. He ran forward along the van’s side, slamming on the rusted tal.
"HEY! Freak buffet! WHO WANTS SECONDS?!"
He blew another Eater apart, then vaulted backward, twisting midair so the last crawler’s claws only grazed his torn bomber jacket.
Johnquis slid in next to him, chains whipping. "Left!"
Savier pivoted on his heel, his hybrid blade flicking into sword mode — a neat slice took two heads at once. The blood hissed on the wet blade.
Behind them, Dancer flipped off a lamppost, her pale hair plastered to her cheek, claws punching through two crawlers in one clean spin. The wind died for just a second — enough for Savier to drink in that curve of her thigh, the delicate lines of muscle flexing under slick white skin.
He moaned out loud. "God bless your sins... I’d worship that ass till my jaw snaps off—"
Johnquis cracked him in the shoulder with his elbow. "Say one more thing and I’ll chain you to the next horde!"
Savier cackled, wiping blood from his lips. "Ha! You’d have to pry off her first!"
The last Eater shrieked. Johnquis lunged low, swept its knee out, while Savier pivoted behind it.
"Together?" Savier smiled.
"Together."
Johnquis’s chain blade looped around the freak’s neck like a noose, pulling it back. Savier ramd his shotgun barrel into its open maw.
BANG!
Its head shredded into the rain. Bone and at spattered across Johnquis’s face.
Savier let the hybrid blade rest on his shoulder, chest heaving. "God, I love this job."
Johnquis shook gore out of his hair, disgust in every line of his jaw. "You love everything that should get you killed."
Savier licked a stray chunk of Eater at off his glove. "And yet I’m still here — see that? Luck, baby. Or divine punishnt. Hard to tell."
Thunder rumbled but softer now. The heavy, cold rain slackened into a drizzle. Far above, the bruised clouds cracked apart. Gold light bled through, slicing into the storm.
Dancer landed on the overturned bus beside them, claws dripping. She flicked them clean, her eyes catching the dawn like molten glass.
The remaining Eaters froze in that thin line of sunlight. Their bone masks cracked. A hiss echoed out, a chitter like dry leaves. One by one, they skittered backward, dragging their broken limbs into alleys, under rusted cars, away from the dawn’s reach.
Savier squinted up at the light, rain dribbling off his nose. "Aw... looks like the freak buffet’s closed, Johnkiss. Ti for lunch with the angels."
He turned, mouth already curling into a wolfish grin as he stared at Dancer perched above them.
She crouched, skin steaming faintly where the dawn touched it. Her golden eyes t his cold, disinterested. One claw flicked the last drops of Eater blood into a puddle.
Savier took one half-step closer, voice husky. "Hey, monster queen... co back down here. I’m still warm for that second round."
Dancer said nothing. She just tilted her head once — a ghost of acknowledgnt. Then pivoted and vanished into the wreckage behind the bus, trailing mist.
Savier’s smile cracked wider. He slapped Johnquis’s gore-splattered shoulder.
"Tell your sister she’s got competition now, huh? Heh— oh fuck yeah..."
Johnquis let his chain clatter to the wet pavent, eyes rolling back with exhaustion.
"If I hear one more word outta your mouth about her, I’ll staple it shut."
Sunlight broke free, streaking down onto the ruined street — steam rose off the dead swarm like ghosts drifting upward. Rain dripped from battered rooftops. For one slow, peaceful breath, the city was just broken and bright again.
Savier wiped his nose, half-laughing, half-moaning. "God bless the end of the world. And monster booty."
Johnquis just sighed, scrubbing a palm down his blood-sared face. "We’re all so fucked..."
The storm was breaking. Dawn cracked through the clouds in streaks of pale gold. Rain fell softer now, dripping from ruined rooftops onto steaming, blood-slick streets.
Across the Southland, fallen coffins lay like shattered shells. So lodged in buildings or crushed cars into mangled tombs for the Eater Blades inside.
One lay split under a collapsed freeway. A young Eater Blade pinned beneath a steel beam, eyes wide, rain washing blood from lifeless armor.
In an alley, three coffins were ripped open — nothing left but scraps of black gear and blood trails vanishing under broken fences.
Near an old rail yard, a coffin jutted from a rusted tanker. Inside, an Eater Blade weakly pounded the hatch, voice raw: "Help... please..."
A few were lucky. On old tin roofs, three coffins landed in shallow water. One rookie crawled out, hugging his living blade, eyes wide at the ruined skyline.
Others weren’t so lucky. Craters scarred the road where coffins slamd down too hard. Bits of armor and limbs lay scattered in the dawn drizzle.
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