Once, back when Adam was younger, smaller, and greener, he had witnessed a gang war between the west and south sides of Steeldale. It was the first time he understood that it didn’t matter how tough you carried yourself, it wasn’t worth shit if you didn’t back it up with smarts and dirty tactics. The south side gang led the west-side gang into an ambush, then dumped bottles of animal blood, stolen from the local butchers, onto them. A pack of wild animals came along and torn the west-side guys to pieces.

Whoever threw that sphere at them, they were smart like that south-side gang. Who needed to face Saria and Lucy in direct combat, when you could get the local wildlife to take care of the problem? The horde of vagrants charged at them like starving bulls towards a trough of meat.

He ran, faster and harder than he had ever in his life. The red gave him the energy to ignore the heaving of his chest and the acidic burning in his joints. Even then, he still lagged a few steps from Saria and Lucy. Mary’s pendant glittered and bounced like a lamp on a pendulum string.

It grabbed his hood from behind, sending him sprawling into the mob, the mouths of the vagrants aimed at his flesh…

He ducked and the vagrant’s head exploded into chunks. Saria grabbed his arm with one hand, the other hoisting her smoking rifle, and pulled him along. She turned around and fired while running. Her bullets flew in haphazard directions, but with this many targets, it didn’t matter. Vagrants fell from wounds in the head, torso, or limbs, bowling into more of their kind.

“Lucy!” Saria shouted. Lucy clipped a round object off her uniform belt, aimed for a fraction of a second, and threw it. Adam ducked as it sailed over his head. He then felt a wave of heat burst from his behind, along with several high-pitched moans and wet splats across the concrete.

“How many left?” he cried out.

“They’re still coming! Move it!” Lucy shouted back.

The trio passed the intersection, taking a right turn The brief cleansing from Lucy’s grenade was quickly filled up by more of the vagrants from before. Forward ahead, to the side, down a slope, a sharp left…they were approaching the edge of the city, but Adam no longer could discern their exact position. The dimming of the sun, casting shadows across the brown and grey walls, didn’t help.

“In front!” He cried out. Vagrants blocked the path. They were dormant like the ones the two girls had killed earlier but roused upon seeing them and the horde. Saria whipped her neck to the side, saw an open doorway, and made the decision.

“In here!”

They barged through, with Lucy slamming the door shut behind them. “Get behind cover!” She barked. They dove behind a nearby counter.

Lucy ripped out another grenade from her belt, pulled the pin, and waited. Seconds later, the door burst open on its hinges. Lucy hurled the grenade at the doorway, where it landed at the feet of the first vagrant. Adam shielded his eyes as the blast rippled through the room. He lifted his head to see the doorway blocked and vagrant remains scattered across the floor.

“Let’s hurry,” Saria said. “They’ll be back for us, before long.”

“What happened?” Adam said. He gasped for breath. His kneecaps felt like nails were wedged inside them. “Was that an ambush?”

“A scent bomb,” Lucy said. “Throw one down and the vagrants swarm over it. You can use it for defense, or in our case, offense. A very clever trap.”

“Why?”

“They were after us. No, not you. They wanted what’s inside Lucy and me,” Saria said through gritted teeth. “The whole ambush stinks of Raz’s goons, that bastard…”

Lucy and Saria took portable torches out from their belts and wrapped them around their foreheads. They continued further into the building at a brisk pace. Adam recognized it as a mall he had visited once or twice from the wallpaper and a few dusty signs. Scavengers had been busy here, emptying displays and overturning storage rooms.

“They’re here,” Saria said as they passed through the food court. She turned to Adam. “Hey, is there any place where we can hide?”

Adam thought. “There’s a second floor.” He said. “The escalators should be just up ahead.”

“Does it have stairs?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah, but they’re probably to the side."

“We can bottleneck them up there. Nice find, Adam!” Lucy said.

They raced through the hallway as the vagrant moans grew in intensity behind them. Once they were up the escalators in the front plaza, Lucy took the last grenade from her belt and blew up the escalator platform. The machine collapsed to the ground in a heap of rust and scrap. Chunks of balcony cracked and fell and they quickly vacated the area.

Now they’ll have to take the long way around.

Lucy took out a radio and began speaking into it. They surveyed the second floor. Space was devoted to a food court, filled with stands, tables, and small eateries. The two girls led Adam to the biggest one, a former steakhouse, and took him to the kitchen in the back.

They tossed their bags into the corner. Adam did the same. “Hide here.” Lucy said. “Don’t move until we come back. Remember what we told you, Adam.”

“You’re going to fight them?” Adam asked.

“Well, we can’t run forever. Best we kill them all while they’re gathered in one place,” Lucy replied. Her expression was grim. “Besides, we’ve radioed our position to West Junction. They’re sending reinforcements.”

“Don’t worry about us,” Saria said. “Just sit tight until we tell you. Hell, lie down and take a nap if you want.”

“Yeah, no. I get it though,” Adam said. He had no room to argue. “Don’t die.”

“We won’t.” Lucy said, giving him a smile.

Lucy and Saria marched in unison towards the front. Saria reloaded, slipping in the bullets with checkmark precision. Lucy ran a metal stick over her machete, sharpening it. Her reflection glinted in the torchlight, revealing a face of steel determination.

The horde was waiting for them outside. Two girls stood against an army of faceless, sinewy foes hungering for their flesh. The two girls did not flinch as the vagrants howled. They let the red energy blossom out from within their souls. Power flowed through their bodies and rolled into their weapons. The boy was safe as they could make him. Now, there was no reason to hold back.

A mantra resounded through their minds. Its words pounded like the melodies of war drums. Lucy glared at the horde. Saria twisted her mouth into a scowl.

From the stars above, the war maidens of Astraea have arrived. As long as we stand, evil shall not take another step upon these grounds!

They, alongside many comrades, had chanted this mantra during blissful times. Thrice a day, without hesitation or wavering, in courtyards and on battlements, where the moons shone bright and a Goddess bestowed her blessings down upon them.

Even when that home was now lost, and they could no longer sense Her protection, the two girls could still not let that precious memory go.

Advance with courage, justice in our hearts! Let us suffer no burden, with collective strength and hope! In Her name, we shall banish the evil before us into the light!

“Come and get us, you fleshy shitstains!”

Saria fired the first shot. Lucy sliced off the first head. The hoard surged forward and with that, the battle begun.

Adam crouched behind the kitchen counter, watching the battle rage on through a gap in the wall. The hordes of vagrants attacked without mercy. The two girls responded in turn. Gunshots whizzed into flesh and blew them to bits. Chunks of meat and goo fell like bloody rain amidst the hiss of Lucy’s machete. A vagrant managed to get close enough to assault Saria. She fended off the blows with her rifle and launched a kick, sending it straight to Lucy, who sliced open the vagrant with a powerful slash.

They screamed out words in a foreign language. Powerful war cries that through meaning alone gave strength to their blows.

This was no street battle, no hunting expedition. It was a god damn warzone. If he tried to step into there, he’d get pounded into the dirt.

The girls were fending off the horde, despite the constant attacks from all sides. He never was a religious man, and this world probably didn’t have a god, but at that moment, he prayed they would make out safe.

There was a rattle behind him. It was coming from the door to the back. Curious, he checked it.

A vagrant pounced out of the doorframe, its hands clamped around his neck…

“Shit!”

He fell back just as the door slammed open and a roar came from the passageway beyond.

Saria was just about to put a cap through another head when she heard a loud screech pierce the air. Several vagrants at the back there thrown aside, falling off the balcony. The culprit came into view. Saria groaned.

“Tumor beast!’

The tumor beast was a product of an artist taking a child’s drawing and horrifying it to the maximum degree. It was as if cancer made life. An amalgamation of human flesh, organs, and bones, stapled together to form a quadruped entity the size of a large horse. It swung a tail constructed from intestines, howled through a mouth stitched halfway, and saw through shining thirteen eyes embedded in its legs, upper back, and dangling stomach.

This creature was not in pain. It was very much alive and hungry. It slammed its bony hooves on the ground and screeched once more. The vagrants backed away from it, lurking into the shadows. Bloody spittle stained with the red cascaded everywhere. Good thing Adam wasn't here. If he saw this, he'd throw up.

“Lucy!”

“I’m on it!”

The second girl drew a second machete and ran at the tumor beast. She dodged the bite from its stretchy neck, instead of sinking her machetes into the ungainly flesh. The beast screamed, thrashing around to throw her off. Lucy caught Saria’s eyes and climbed over to the back. Saria positioned, aimed, and shot two bullets into the tumor beast’s mouth.

How was the boy doing? They couldn’t check. They could only defeat these monsters as fast as possible and hoped they all made it out alive.

“Get away!”

Adam kicked the vagrant sending it tumbling back. It got immediately and was joined from more from the open doorway. Why were vagrants coming out of the doorway? Was it connected to the ground floor somehow? It could be possible; the restaurants needed a way to haul up stock from the ground floor.

What do I do? Defend until Lucy and Saria come back? Would they even last that long? A glance at the gap showed the two girls were busy fighting against a monster. Something bigger than the vagrants. He couldn’t tell if they were winning or not.

He guarded just as a vagrant lunged forward with a headbutt. Even with the protection, he was knocked back, landing against a table. His vision spun. It landed on his bag when it finished rolling around.

That's right! The bottle full of red! It could give him the power to hold out until the two girls were finished. He then hesitated, remembering Lucy’s words. Don’t drink it without their permission. Bad things would happen if he did.

But this was an emergency. He couldn’t survive if the vagrants got him. The girls couldn’t win if the vagrants here ambushed them from behind.

I'll apologize to them later. Here goes nothing!

He stood up and threw a steel table into the path of the vagrants in the kitchen. He grabbed the bottle from the bag, ripped off the cap, and drank a mouthful. The buzz was instantaneous. He drank some more. Then more. The red liquid flowed down his throat in rolling waves until the final drip fell from the plastic rim.

Huh?

He stared at the bottle. It was empty, light as a feather. When had that happened? He only meant to drink a bit...

Pain streaked out from inside his chest. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his chest. The bottle fell and rolled across the kitchen tiles. A strangled cry escaping from his lips as his heart rattled and shook like a house in a tornado.

Something approached from the behind the table. He blinked and found himself standing up, his fists soaring forward like a missle. It hit a soft object and shattered it into a thousand pieces. Bloodstains splattered across his eyes. Red lines leaked out of them, filling his vision, clogging his nose, trickling down into his nerves and making it all cherry-red of the beautiful skies, pulsing along with his heartbeat, resonating with the color his and Lucy's and Saria's and Mary's soul and--

And then he felt not more.

Flesh chunks ran down their black uniforms. Their cloaks were stainedwith blood and bile. Lucy and Saria stared down at the wounded tumor beast. The thing was whimpering from its many mouths, a horrid squelching noise. Just a little more and it would die for good. The vagrants were advancing towards them, recognizing the dwindling threat from the beast.

It was fine, though. The battle was in their favor. The ranks of the vagrants were thinning. It would end with them dead tired, but they could do this!

Something burst out of the kitchen. Humanoid, loud and shrouded in red thick as bushfire smoke. It hurled a vagrant’s lower torso like a football. It dashed towards the dying tumor beast, grabbed its head, and slammed it against the wall. The beast wailed from its several mouths.

“No…” Lucy gasped, staring at the humanoid. More specifically, at its clothes. The muscles had bulged outwards, tearing through the cloth with their density. “It can’t be!”

Saria looked and wished she hadn’t. “Adam. Oh, Goddess no!” She said. The name felt heavy on her tongue. “You…you drank the red, didn’t you?”

The only response was Adam frothing at the mouth and jumping head-first into the horde.

Berserk rage. The most common side-effect of consuming too much soul energy at once. Gone was the surly youth whom had begrudgingly followed their orders. Instead, a rampaging monster was in its place. The two girls were ignored as the vagrants swarmed around him.

“We told you not to do it. Why?” Saria vocalized. Her voice escalated into a scream, her words falling on deaf ears, “Why didn’t you listen to us?"

Lucy dashed over to the kitchen entrance. Chunks of vagrants were splattered across the walls and floor. The furniture had been thrown in all directions. The leg of a chair was embedded in the torso of a small vagrant on the floor. She ignored all of it, because her attention was drawn to the unlocked door at the back. Her grip on her machete shook as she realized what had happened.

A blind spot! We didn't account for it in our haste! She punched the wall with her free hand, grinding her teeth. Her knuckles bled. Damn it to oblivion! This is utterly our fault!

The failure echoed in her ears like the gong of a funeral bell. She shook her head and forced her fraying thoughts down, shutting them inside a dark little corner of her heart. They would lash out violently later on, but for now she needed to focus.

"Saria, prepare for battle." She said, through gritted teeth.

"There's nothing we can do for him?" The other girl asked. When Lucy shook her head, she nodded, sadly. "...alright."

She took a deep breath and faced the monster rampaging in front of them.

"Let's put him out of his misery."