Sixth Sin: The Blooming Beasts (Pt. 8): Rushing The Enemy
--- Mercer ---
After sitting there for perhaps a moment too long, he shook his head and decided that with his grappler’s zip function still broken that risking a sprint through the building wasn’t smart. Nor was a straight fight with this horde of blooming beasts, given how his Rhapsodies weren’t quite to the combat level of his old guns yet. (Which leaves…)
He eyed the hall before waiting for a feral flora to slam into the wards before firing his grappling lines above the villainess's head during the impact’s echo.
Sure that his line was secure and that no one had noticed what he was doing he backed up ever so slightly as he mentally mapped out his path before reeling both lines in and rushing forward.
Leaping through the air, he flew a short distance as his grapplers pulled him forward, before gravity drew him back down. Forcing him to alternate the speeds and pace he reeled himself forward as he landed on a blooming beast, only to use it as a platform to keep moving forward much like he did with every other beast that stood between him and the villainess.
The floral mask had just enough time to turn around at the surprised roaring of her minions, but nowhere near enough to actually prepare herself as Mercer released his grappling lines and proceeded to tackle her to the ground. Both of them rolling forward in a painful tangle of limbs as he did his best to both capture her and keep from breaking her neck.
Something he was sure would really turn all of these blooming beasts into feral flora.
Unfortunately, this meant that he had to take most of the impact upon himself, and that he was the one to roll into the plant monsters as he held onto her. Monsters that were quick to instinctively wrap around him in their collision.
“Hey! Hey! Watch the tendrils!” He shouted at the beasts as he quickly struggled out of their grasp. “Only my wife is allowed to touch me there!”
“Wha- Who are- Mercer?” The floral villainess gasped as she began to process what had just happened.
“Yep.” He nodded as he quickly drew his gun and set it to the woman’s head. “Now just to skip over things. Already met your husband, aware of your plan and motivation, burned down your lab, he’s currently in the middle of a hentai with Safeguard and a whole lot of plant tentacles, the other stalkers are taking care of the rest of your monsters, and I am here to stop you from burning down the only truly competent hunters in the Way… myself excluded of course, because I’m not a hunter but a vigilante who enjoys shooting criminals… such as yourself.”
The plant villainess merely stared at him in confusion. “W-what?”
Mercer let out a sigh, watching one of the beasts ignore them in favor of continuing its suicide charge against the building wards. “This is what I get for overestimating the intelligence of my enemies.” He jabbed the female mask with his gun. “To summarize even more: Call off your monsters or I will shoot you.”
The woman blinked once more before glaring at him. “If you shoot me our creations will continue to rampage. In fact these ones here will rampage twice as hard as they seek to kill you.”
He nodded before aiming his gun at the woman’s foot and pulling the trigger, the concussive blast likely breaking her foot even if it didn’t draw blood.
“Fuck!” The woman screamed, her voice only audible over all of the screeching plants by how close to him she was. (And more importantly catch the attention of that half dead flower.)
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Before any of the pissed blooming beasts could lunge for him he quickly put the gun back to the woman’s head. “Move and I kill her!”
“You- you bastard!” The floral villainess cursed, unable to string together a proper sentence with her words.
“Not sure what that has to do with anything?” He frowned. “I mean I don’t think any of my parents -bio or adoptive- have been married. Which, honestly, that was probably a good call for bio-mom given what bio-asshole did to her. And I’m not counting the bullshit that adopt-a-mom had to- Wait.” He shook his head as he realized he was, “Getting off topic, uh… Just uncreatively reiterate my previous death threat.”
“Killing me won’t stop this!” The floral villainess hissed at him.
“And dying won’t bring your kid back, it just leaves your husband alone while you take the easy way out.” He pointed out ruthlessly, hoping the usual jarringness of the switch between insane and serious would make her consider his words.
Green eyes continued to glare at him from beneath the leaf like mask before the floral villainess yelled. “All of you bring the wards down now!”
All around him the horde of blooming beasts moved, a sudden tide rushing forward to slam into the wards, sending sparks of magic coursing through the air with every impact as the wards strained to remain whole.
“Shit.” He cursed, eyes darting over the horde before he turned back to the villainess in his arms and press his gun into her cheek as a double tap skull flashed on his helmet. “Call them off now!”
“Or what? You’ll shoot me and leave my husband all alone?” The villainess scoffed as her own eyes flashed with a light.
Before he could react an elbow slammed into his stomach with far more force than the floral mask should’ve been capable of with her size and leverage, sending Mercer flying into the wall of the library hall as several green vines lashed out from her arm.
“Fuck…” He wheezed, struggling to get his breathing back under control.
“You know, I’m starting to think those rumors about you being The Vigil Who Kills, are grossly overrated.” The floral villainess confessed as she looked down on him, massive green vines covered in thorns and growths wrapped around the arm she’d slammed into him as dead plant matter began to gather around her feet. Blue motes of magic slowly restoring it to life even if it was vastly different from the more active blooming beasts he’d been dealing with.
(Alright, so… the husband was an M.A.D. and she was the magic user…) He realized as he climbed back onto his feet, his helmet’s camera just barely picking up glowing tattoos beneath the shifting vines. (Guess that explains why he stayed at base while she left on her own… She can actually fight without the minions…)
His eyes darted to the side, and he couldn’t help but grimace as he saw the wall of floral flesh between him and the wards. Their sizzling plant matter filled the air with a faint haze of sticky smoke that was slowly obscuring his helmet’s vision with what he was assuming was an airborne pollen or sap.
“Maybe they are overrated…” He confessed, aware there was nothing he could do for the wards and instead focusing on what he could do right now as he drew his other gun and cracked his neck from side to side. “And maybe we should just see how I’m feeling in five minutes.”
A/N: Okay, it's been a minute since I posted, I know, but I’m going to try catching this story up a bit by focusing on chapters here until we’ve made up some of these missed months. (I am way behind quota with this one…)
That said, the previous choice triggered a one on one boss fight so… battle plans.
[]-Keeping a distance and whittling her down with pot shots.
-[]-Focus on the arm, maybe we can break it down.
-[]-Focus on her leg, she’s already injured, let's just make it worse.
-[]-Kite her, make her burn up her magical supply that’ll stop her cold.
-[]-Write-In Something Else
[]-Get up close and personal for a proper beat down brawl.
-[]-Focus on the arm, maybe we can break it down.
-[]-Focus on her leg, she’s already injured, let's just make it worse.
-[]-Go all in, we might take a beating but we can outlast her easy.
-[]-Write-In Something Else
[]-With the wards down this isn’t important anymore. Go back up Tris and Kur’silo who are getting swarmed.
-[]-Intercept the Blooming Beasts before they can reach the hunters.
-[]-Go to the Sanctum where you know Tris is.
[]-Write-In Something Else
Thank You:
-Rush99999
-Crazyone47
-Kupo Perfidious
A/N: Okay, it's been a minute since I posted, I know, but I'm going to try catching this story up a bit by focusing on chapters here until we've made up some of these missed months. (I am way behind quota with this one…)
That said, the previous choice triggered a one on one boss fight so… battle plans.
(Note: Due to... simplicity of Royal Road's polls, write-in your choice in the comments if you want to vote.)
Choices
[]-Keeping a distance and whittling her down with pot shots.
-[]-Focus on the arm, maybe we can break it down.
-[]-Focus on her leg, she's already injured, let's just make it worse.
-[]-Kite her, make her burn up her magical supply that'll stop her cold.
-[]-Write-In Something Else
[]-Get up close and personal for a proper beat down brawl.
-[]-Focus on the arm, maybe we can break it down.
-[]-Focus on her leg, she's already injured, let's just make it worse.
-[]-Go all in, we might take a beating but we can outlast her easy.
-[]-Write-In Something Else
[]-With the wards down this isn't important anymore. Go back up Tris and Kur'silo who are getting swarmed.
-[]-Intercept the Blooming Beasts before they can reach the hunters.
-[]-Go to the Sanctum where you know Tris is.
[]-Write-In Something Else
