NOVEL FROG Chapter 104: The Outburst
Catastrophe struck in an instant. No one could react, even if some were able to see it coming for a split second. It was pointless, though; they couldn’t brace themselves fast enough for the quick but devastating blast that engulfed the furnace room and destroyed everything in the explosion’s vicinity. Pretty much anything near the boilers evaporated, including all of the antipunks at the shutters, turning into dust or being burned alive if they were unfortunate enough, losing their lives in front of their teammates, who were either gone already or suffering the same agony.
The Heartaches and rookies couldn’t do anything but stay low and protect themselves from the heat wave coming from the explosion. They were at a relatively safe distance since the walls of the furnace room had contained most of the damage, but they were still exposed to a fireball that burst through the hallways, which was mostly absorbed by the mass of antipunks in front. They didn’t get to see it, but the roof of the furnace room was blown off, with all of the furnaces below being consumed and only fueling the explosion to produce multiple shockwaves in quick succession that rocked the entire structure of the factory.
The burst was so powerful that it destroyed all metal contained in the room, allowing a large flood to occur, which spread even more since the foundation of the room shattered completely. The walls broke down, with the metal beams now exposed and stretched out by the shape of the blast, turning the area into a bowl of fire that would seemingly burn for hours. With every inch of the non-existing room set ablaze by hundreds of violent flames, everyone found there was surely dead, but the adjacent rooms weren’t safe either. Luckily, no one in the hallways seemed injured apart from a couple of superficial burns on their clothes, but the same couldn’t be said about the diner.
Right next to the furnace room, even closer to the boilers, as the wall behind the counter was the same one with the boilers on the right side. Only a couple of inches of wall separated the explosion from that room, and it proved not to be enough, as the entire wall gave in to the weight of the room, and almost instantly, the diner became a complete wreck. The windows shattered with the shock of the blast alone, the ceiling caved in until it collapsed right on top of the tables in the middle, and the one exit of the room just so happened to lead directly to the flames on the right side. But just like the hallways, only the impact rocked the room, at least until one person opened the door to the outside at the perfect moment, worsening the situation tenfold.
Saint was knocked back a few meters by the blast. The door burst right in front of him, sending him flying back to the counter, where he smacked his back and fell, but that wasn’t anything compared to the whole ceiling dropping on him. Even if he tried to get up, he inevitably found himself buried by debris, crushed by the ceiling and parts of the wall, which directly exposed the room to the hell that the furnace room had become, allowing the fire to pour in and burn everything inside as well.
His friends had to witness him disappear in a cloud of smoke and fire as the diner collapsed, but they didn’t even get a chance to help him, as Panda had to protect them from the flames with his body and a sheet of metal. On top of that, the antipunks from the stairs took advantage of their shock to charge through both barriers and advance through the hallways while their enemy was still down. While he was buried, Saint remained alive but barely breathing since he had no space to do so, only able to hear the faint noises of his team fighting off the antipunks as they got overwhelmed, and since he couldn’t even open his eyes or see anything around, he was even more helpless than them.
Once he regained partial consciousness, Saint tried to clear the rubble above him. The counter next to him managed to block most of the debris and save him from being completely crushed, but he still had to use his back to climb out, only managing to poke his head out to see that their situation had completely changed in an instant. In reality, he had been unconscious for a couple of minutes, and now that the antipunks had really surrounded him, he realized there was no way to escape without risking it all.
After a while, the antipunk army regrouped and reassessed the situation to continue pushing through. It seemed like the major losses in the furnace room did nothing to slow them down, as they didn’t waste time searching for more paths to flank through. They approached the right side again, and after waiting for some of the flames to die out, they rushed through the destroyed diner. There were only a few of them, and it looked like the courtyard outside was still mostly clear, but that didn’t mean anything now that the team was cornered right where the shutters used to be. They could barely hold their ground since they had to confront endless waves of antipunks coming from the hallways, but they also couldn’t run back through the fiery hellscape, so they were only fighting for as long as they could.
The situation in the other hallway was pretty much just as dire, except the antipunks couldn’t flank through the side, so they decided to create an opening on the left wall by shooting their ballistae and catapults. They managed to break the window with a couple of arrows, and while they only caused some dents on the structure, they were slowly breaking the only wall that protected the Heartaches and Cookie from the army waiting outside. However, they were more focused on the threat in front of them, as they were also cornered at around the same spot as the rookies.
With both squads’ backs against the wall, or backs against a sea of fire, smoke, and molten metal, there was no other option than to defend themselves as much as they could until they somehow managed to find a way to escape somewhere else. They seemed to be waiting for the fire to subdue, but that seemed like it would take hours, so they were more desperate than ever, and Saint could only watch hopelessly as the antipunks were getting closer to taking his friends’ lives in front of him.
Shade, Panda, and Ace were the only ones able to get back since Chappy and Zoey had dropped their swords, but it wasn’t enough to keep the antipunks away from them. Luckily, they weren’t firing at them anymore, but even with Panda’s shield blocking most of the attacks and using his machine gun, the antipunks continued striking relentlessly, and it meant that they would die a slow and painful death at the hands of the enemy’s swords instead of being put out of their misery with a quick bullet to the head.
Seeing this, Saint cowered in pain and fear, and despite being glad to not have died, he couldn’t face the scene as there wasn’t much he could do to help his friends. There was a way out for him, though; the courtyard was completely clear now that the antipunks that came through passed by without noticing him. He was able to dig himself out of the pile of rubble, and while he could easily stand up, he had no strength to lift an arm or even run, so he could only walk away while he still had the chance. Even if he were lost, he would escape with his life, which seemed like the best possible outcome for him, one that he seemed to consider for a long while as he looked over the exposed diner walls, staring directly at the mountains and his way to freedom right before his eyes.
He was almost relieved to have this opportunity since he couldn’t fight anymore, but it wasn’t enough, especially when the only thing he appeared to hear was his friends’ cries for help. He tried to ignore them at first, turning his back to the hallway, but when he inevitably turned back to look at them, he noticed that Zoey was crying. She wasn’t screaming and whimpering like the rest, who put up a fight out of anger or desperation; she was just sobbing silently in a corner, giving up all hope and accepting her demise at the hands of the antipunks. And what seemed like a mortifying moment that would traumatize Saint forever, seeing his girlfriend about to be killed sparked a particular mix of emotions that conflicted him and made it difficult to know how to react.
Saint denied it, but out of the confusion, sorrow, dread, stress, anxiety, heartache, and all the thoughts crossing his mind, one emotion in particular predominated heavily in his expression. It was ire, pure, uncontrollable, vigorous anger, that he desperately tried to get rid of. He began fuming and growing furious at the sight of his friends on the verge of death, directing it specifically at the antipunks charging ahead. At first, he only continued to watch in silence while the rage filled his mind, visibly irritating him since he couldn’t get over it.
The urge to unleash this powerful emotion slowly took over him, and it was to the point that he seemingly forgot about the pain and exhaustion of his body, almost completely recovering despite his injuries. He was becoming mad to take action, but nothing seemed to be what he needed as he continued standing still. But while he struggled to adapt or harness his ire, his body quickly began doing the work for him. Instead of crying, screaming, cursing, or even throwing a fit, he only looked for something specific unconsciously, the one thing that he was missing. Saint only took so long since he searched frantically for it in the ruined diner, but once he let himself go and gave in to his urge, he found it right in front of him.
Dominion was buried in the rubble with him, its handle sticking out in front of his feet for him to spot, which took him a while. But once he saw his sword, all of his questions were seemingly answered, and his body was ready. He found his way and didn’t hesitate to follow it, almost being pulled towards the sword as he approached it in a daze. Determined to let his rage loose, the most appropriate option appeared to be violence, and while he didn’t seem to have the strength to do it, Saint still pushed through his limits to pick up that sword. He groaned just from reaching for Dominion, letting out a screech when he tried to raise it, but once it was in his possession once again, he immediately looked to confront the source of his anger.
His target became the oblivious antipunks that were about to leave the diner and reach his friends, and unfortunately for them, they hadn’t heard Saint scream in pain and were too late to react despite him taking his time to get his balance and hold his weapon properly. He didn’t look too comfortable wielding it, quite the opposite. Instead of providing some sort of comfort or safety now that he was up and armed and getting a chance to fight back, Dominion seemed to drain even more energy from him. It only intensified his rage to the point where his breathing slowed down to a dangerous level. But all the side effects didn’t matter to him, as he received the opportunity to strike, and as soon as he saw it, he took it.
Not hesitating for a moment, when the group antipunks were about to leave the diner and join the crowd overwhelming Panda and the rookies, a sudden burst of ire filled Saint up, granting him a boost in his abilities. His sword didn’t weigh anything to him anymore, and as he raised it slowly with both of his hands, gripping the handle tighter the more his breath grew heavy and slower, he became so enraged that even his weapon seemed to share the same sentiment.
Dominion was turning red, just like him but even brighter, as if he were harnessing the same fire torching his friends’ backs as they continued retreating into the smoke that was filling their lungs. The color of the sword fully shifted from pure white to hot red, though Saint didn’t pay much attention to it as he kept an eye on the condition of the rookies. Their time was running out, and after taking this phenomenon as a signal to make his move, Saint claimed his weapon and used its full potential against the unaware antipunks running only a few feet in front of him.
Accompanied by a powerful scream, Saint unleashed not only his but Dominion’s rage as he leaped at the two antipunks standing in front of him, swinging his sword directly at the back of the closest to his right with great speed but not much force. They finally heard him but couldn’t turn around on time, but the moment the blade made contact with the antipunk’s spine, it was actually quite underwhelming. It only managed to cut about an inch through his skin since only the tip slashed his back, and while it did shed some blood, it made a loud thud that only alerted the other antipunks, giving Saint very little time to confirm if he had claimed his first kill.
He couldn’t worry about that detail, though, as he took his sword out of the back of the first enemy and immediately followed up with another strike at the second one right next to him. Unlike the first, the antipunk did try to block the attack with his sword, but Dominion ended up breaking the weapon in half before slicing right through his hand and hitting his chest with another thud. Saint knocked him back a little, but at first glance, it looked like he did the minimum damage to both of his targets since they were standing perfectly still, only showing slight signs of discomfort despite one of them losing half of his hand.
Saint was stunned, but his rage wasn’t quelled, so he tried to strike again before it was too late. But before getting another hit on them, he watched as the first antipunk dropped dead on the floor, with the second soon doing the same. Both bodies shortly after twitched on the ground as their faces lost color by the second until they turned completely white and stopped moving. Saint stared at the corpses in disbelief as the antipunks bled out, but without actually shedding any blood, as if they were dying internally. He was speechless, not knowing what to think or how to proceed, but after seeing the effect of his rather weak attacks, one thing was for sure. He had just taken a life for the first time.
He didn’t have time to process it and quickly moved on to taking out the other antipunks on his way. He went unnoticed by the stream of enemies in the hallway due to his friends’ screams drawing their attention, but the ones in front tried to fight back. They were already charging at him, but Saint’s anger drove him to swing first instead of blocking, slicing their chests before their swords hit him. He ran past them, but not before noticing that they kept clinging to their weapons before dying as well. It was an instant death with a clean, well-positioned strike, and since it was also a mostly silent death, he took advantage of his unseen presence to continue killing as much as possible.
Saint continued chasing after the group about to leave the diner. He didn’t have a target in mind; he only directed his anger at anyone who got in his way and tried to join the long lines of antipunks trying to kill Panda and the rookies. But before reaching them, he had to take out the ones right at the diner’s entrance, and before they could join in on the fun, Saint stabbed their backs one by one without giving them a chance to react, trying to hit the same point to sever their spines and kill them with one strike. He took them out in order, with the last in line getting struck on the back of the neck. Surprisingly, the hit wasn’t too strong since it only cut through the left half of his neck, not even all the way through, but since it touched his spine, it was enough to kill him.
The enemy’s neck snapped and their head leaned forward, pulling their whole body with it, which alerted the other antipunks in front. Two antipunks turned immediately but were too slow to draw their swords, which led to Saint stabbing both of them in the hearts. Dominion pierced through both torsos, but despite Saint pushing it deep inside the corpses, he had no trouble retrieving his sword as the antipunks’ bodies collapsed, sliding right off the weapon. He was right in front of the hallway, but there was another antipunk in front, waiting with a weapon in hand.
Saint didn’t hesitate to attack, but as the enemy blocked his first attack, he got nervous for a second and tried to back away. He pushed his sword against the enemy’s to draw back and attack again, but in the process, the antipunk tried to take it away from him with his other hand. He managed to grab Dominion by the tip of the blade, but by doing so, Saint resisted and yanked his sword out of his hand, giving the enemy a small cut before trying to attack after finding an opening.
However, before either of them got to hit each other, the antipunk froze in place with a distraught expression. Even Saint, in his enraged state, hesitated for a moment, looking at him in confusion as he stood still, and once he went for the final blow, he realized it wasn’t necessary; the antipunk was already dead. It wasn’t clear at first, but once his face went blank like the others and his corpse tensed up on the floor, Saint knew that there was something off since he had just killed someone by scratching his hand. He was amazed by the power of his sword and its ability to kill anyone with a mere touch.
The longer he took to look at Dominion, the more he noticed that its hot red color had brightened up before slowly starting to fade back to white, so he tried to focus on the enemy again. It seemed like it was easy to kill someone, but this time he was facing an army of antipunks and couldn’t dedicate time to fight each one of them individually. But while it looked like it would be impossible to take on all of them, Saint could at least distract the enemy, as they hadn’t noticed him yet despite standing right at the diner doorway. So, after gathering strength and anger to attack again, Saint charged blindly towards the crowded hallway, trusting Dominion to do all the work since he wouldn’t be able to strike appropriately.
He charged straight forward toward the horde of antipunks, thrusting his sword into someone he didn’t even get to see at first until he kept running, pushing everyone aside until he pinned him against the wall right next to the stairs to the roof. For a second, Saint tried to restrain the antipunk after pinning him down, but he looked down to see that he had struck his stomach and was already dead. Once he noticed that he had killed another one, he also realized that he was now surrounded by antipunks who had just witnessed him taking out one of them. This time, they did react, but they weren’t the only ones, as the rookies and Panda noticed that Saint was not only alive but had just killed an enemy and caught everyone off guard.
They were shocked to see him, but apart from Zoey, who immediately lit up once she spotted him, the rest took this opportunity to push forward and make their way to Saint. They couldn’t do much, especially Panda, who couldn’t reload while surrounded and could only push back enemies, but they did have a chance of fighting with Saint, keeping the enemies busy in the middle of the hallway. The rookies started to fight back, though Ace and Shade were the only ones doing any damage despite not putting much thought into it as they swung their swords blindly and hoped they would hit someone. They did defend themselves, allowing the others to finish the antipunks off, those others being the Heartaches since they retreated and switched sides to back up the rookies in the right hallway while Cookie blocked the left one with Panda’s shield.
There were more coming from the left side, but the team chose to focus on clearing the right one first, mainly because the antipunks from outside had now completely destroyed the wall and could climb in, but also since Saint couldn’t hold out by himself for long. They began clearing the hallway, and with the diner having an exit waiting for them, they just had to make their way through a sea of enemies to run for it. But with their priority being protecting Saint, the team pushed forward, ignoring some antipunks on the side, to save him as soon as possible. But to their surprise, there was no need to intervene; Saint could take out everyone.
After being surrounded, Saint instinctively covered himself with his sword, dropping to the ground, where Panda only saw him being jumped by all the antipunks. But while he didn’t notice at first, in his attempt to reach Saint before he could get hurt, it turned out that he had to do the exact opposite as no one was able to touch him, or at least his sword. Anyone who approached Saint and made contact with Dominion’s blade died instantly, and since he didn’t cower in fear and kept fighting in full rage, his sword only grew more powerful. It looked like it grew hotter with every kill, and as he blocked every attack from all sides by placing Dominion between him and the enemies’ hands, Saint began claiming every life in his vicinity with the least amount of effort, only a few cuts to deliver instant deaths.
–H-how are you doing that?– Panda asked in bewilderment, hesitating to get close to Saint and even growing frightened of his power as everyone who did dropped dead on the hallway floor. Saint fought for his life and focused on taking out his anger on every antipunk nearby, but he seemed to be having some fun, or at least enjoying the ease of his killing spree, as the enemy corpses kept piling up without him having to do much. But despite being very effective, the rage his weapon harnessed was taking a toll on him and making him lose control.
The rookies started to notice that the hallway was quickly cleared of any threats, but then they saw that Saint was killing everyone by himself. They laughed nervously in disbelief for a brief moment at the sight of him mindlessly swinging his sword and eliminating antipunks in an instant, but they tried to continue fighting as Cookie needed some help in the other hallway. He stepped back and joined the Heartaches in the right hallway to hold their ground since it was clear the enemy wasn’t going to stop coming from outside now that they had breached the wall.
The Heartaches started to advance and stepped over every corpse they could to reach the stairs to the entrance corridor, but they were careful not to get in Saint’s way. As they got closer to the destroyed barrier, they noticed that there were still too many enemies waiting to get in, with more coming from the other side. Even though they had managed to turn their situation around with Saint’s help, there was still a lot to do, especially with the antipunks outside, who had picked up on what had happened and began flanking the right side of the factory. The enemy was growing near the diner, and with Saint running out of energy, it was up to the rest of the team to hold their ground while they worked out their plan to escape.