The long winded moaning of the figure on the floor reached my ears with every dull thud i heard. The heavy thuds coming from the kicking that rocked the body on the floor. There was no mistaking the scene in front of me. The cracking of bone, over and over, the blade suddenly lifted over head, the sickening sound of metal piercing flesh as the domineering killer aimed expertly for the throat a the vertebrae deep behind the trachea,instantly the figure on the ground died, and slowly the murderous intent shifted and turned to me, as blank cold eyes locked onto mine.

EYES.no mask.no armor. The mental equivalent of a battering ram slammed against my mind, i recoiled and gripped at my head, unable th fight such an attack.it was crippling. The figure slowly walked to me and slowly kneeled, pressing the blade to into the dirt and leaving it sticking out of the ground.they reached for my face and i couldn't even move to stop them.

The presence vanished as soon as jolie touched my face and brought it up to look into her eyes, her face flecked with spots of crimson as her lips quivered and her eyes grew wet.she buried her face in my neck and sobbed as i looked down at her incredulously, still shocked and my head throbbing.i looked at the body and back at jolie,then to the stakes still surrounding us. The sun had long since set and the moon made the whole area gleam like mercury under a strobe light. I gently stroked her hair and steeled myself.as harsh as it was we didn't have time for this.the ground trembled lightly, Rome must have been going all out and the stakes seemed to have a profound effect against me and her.

I began to reach to lift jolie,but she quickly pulled back and wiped her eyes with her forearm. She quickly grabbed the ominously gleaming blade, for a second i saw something flash on her wrist and the blade seemed to give off a strange jolt to her,she immediately rose,her eyes still puffy and face tear streaked but she had regained to look of blank, cold objectivity. She jerked her chin up,motioning for me to rise. Suffice to say I did, packing away my questions and worry for the time being. Rome hopefully was holding out.

As we dashed to the now horribly damaged warehouse there was wordless roar in the same voice Rome has commanded my retreat with. The ground shook and then several flesh piercing sounds reached my ears, i winced and looked at jolie, the cold demeanor had yet to recede but a slight flash or worry and anger crossed over her eyes for less than a second.at least she was ready to fight,whatever that meant.

We slid to a stop, quickly evaluating the scene in front of us. My face went pale but i held a ready stance. It was a complete massacre.

In the few minutes I took to retrieve Jo, Our 2 attackers had multiplied and they all focused on Rome. She was pierced in several places , the right half of her face shorn and slowly reknitting tissues,he clothes torn and ragged, her left leg charred on the thigh and the skin cracked and bleeding. Her undead nature meant no heaving in exhaustion, bit her right arm was a mass of torn flesh and visible bone.she somehow had it clawed around the throat of an assailant weakly clawing at the arm and stabbing at her with a stake.

Well,half an assailant, the killer was separated from his lower half, only long ropey internal organs dragging his unresponsive legs around as she moved to a less injured attacker. This on merely missing an arm. They raised a hand and a stake appeared from thin air, her threw his arm just as three other unharmed attackers jumped her way, one from the rafters, two from her rear flanks. With barely any effort she simultaneously rose the half dead attacker she held to block the stack. It pierced their back along the spine as his gorey, tangle lower half swung and hit the left most rear attacker,she threw the impaled corpse at the one armed target and the impact folded the figure im half, the backward momentum crushing his skull as his head snapped back against the ground,and spattering the backs of the 2 attackers that had turned and took stance in front of jolie and i, a good 30 meters away in the doorway.

The seconds it took Rome to dispatch the one armed combatant, Jolie used to arch back her arm and throw her strange blade at impossible speed with a tiny glow of her wrist.

I took no time to launch forward towards the other opponent, who jumped to meet me,i raised my hands to grapple them just as they raised their own in lightning fast motions and rained stakes at me .i was nicked by one narrowly passing my face and caught it from the air, i used the force to swing around and duck, holding the stake and batting away it's on coming brethren. My opponent changed tactics immediately and pointed at the stake i was holding, i feel pin pricks of pressure seconds before instinctively chucking it at them.they dodged but to do so jumped backwards, i could almost hear the surprise when two hands sprouted from their chest and immediately was torn two ways. It was brutal and sickening to hear.like a jello filled tree trunk splitting in a marble floored room. Viscera flying from her fingertips, Rome dodged half a second after her attacker and uttering a curse as the stake branched into spikes between the legs of the attacker that was coming from behind her,who she had forgotten on her right rear flank. The reaction was horrible,the assailants legs and..such...speared by tiny needles,held stationary by the single stake.they froze, partially because the stake went through all their lower bits, but also because the forward momentum carried them past Rome and the spike ball of a metal stake jerked as it impaled the concrete floor and held them in place next to their dead comrade..they said nothing,uttered no sound.just went limp and shivered in pain against the activate spikey stake. I turned to see jolie plunging blade into chest while narrowly dodging a stake, with a deft movement she flips the blade reverse grip with her right hand,grabbing her attackers own right with her empty left,she upward slashes the wrist to the bone and carries the path if the blade over her shoulder as she spins,dodging their left handed stake throw, and pulls the enemy to her,their chest against her back as she quickly lets go of their right hand and grips their left forearm.she flips the blade and stabs the left wrist,the blade jutting out the other side as she throws her butt back and pulls, with both her hand and the blade lodged in the combattants wrist. The attacks goes flying forward and over her head as she crouches,pulling them at an angle to the floor.a loud snap resonates through the room and she immediately hope up and turns around,surveying who's left.

The room was littered with corpses.8 if i counted the one jolie killed outside and the 2 Rome had decimated before we managed to get back.The second Rome was sure no one was near, she collapsed and groaned,shaking in agony as her body tried to heal and push the stakes out. I crouched and silently helped her remove the ones that wouldn't loosen.after a minute or 2 she was on her back,bleeding profusely, but healing slowly at least. After checking on her i turn to jolie, who was next to a puddle of vomit beside her as she heaved and cried next to her attacker.after Rome nodding me off i crawled over to her. And went to touch her shoulder..she flinched at the contact but relented as she sobbed. We stayed that way awhile,soon, Rome was healed enough to get up. Carefully she moved the body from Jolie who just muttered ‘thank yous’ through her sobbing. Rome began picking up the stakes and piling the bodies. the stakes went into the duffel bags we had brought a lot of the training stuff in. In that time jolie got her bearings and hesitantly grabbed her bloodied blade from the floor. Nothing happened this time.not even a flashed. She sucked in a scared breathe and went to sit by the door.i moved to Rome, and when she looked at me the confusion must have been evident on my face because she began explaining.

“Say hello to the Holy Roman sect of the Knights Templar.one of the many organizations that want to kill me, probably capture you,” Rome pointed to Jolie, whos grip tightened and her knees, “and maybe her too.” Rome shook her head and i looked down at one of the masked people.they all looked exactly the same. Flat chested,no junk bulges, it seems like they were either genderless or…

The realization struck me as soon as Rome continued her explanation. “ These are the failed ones though.order members who either were seen as treacherous or unfocused or for some other reason silenced. Unlike nicer secret organizations with evil master plans, instead of killed the unneeded rabble are taken,tongues cut out.blinded and tortured, while being taught how to fight, remain a shidow.make no utterance.have no desire or mind except to kill as the are ordered to. The men are completely emasculated. And the wound cauterized.” i winced and looked down at them.they knew their organization was so evil and stayed with them,and yet would do anything that could lead to this?this order seemed so….barbaric..

Rome shuffled around in the bodies and found the one i impaled in the legs.they were still breathing.she twisted the right wrist so i could see it and what was there was a silver cross like the one on their masks. “silver crosses however, are failed human experiments.they had no choice. probably were born there,use to breed and some have even more than the stakes to summon and augmented speed or strength. Like the first one we saw.”

“No wonder they seemed so intense...i. thought they were just trained killers…” I sighed, saddened by the loss of life.i checked another wrist. This one a black cross.i assumed this was originally a member that went wrong. “what about the females?”

Rome shrugged and indicated to the bodies “Everything here is titless and junkless.you think girls get special treatment? It's just two more things too cutoff.” i looked at her,my stomach queasy. “Yup, definitely barbaric.” i turn to find jolie not at the door and freeze.before i realize it I'm at the door and scanning for jolie,and relax,mostly. I see a full duffel bag on her back, and a naked scarred and disfigured body being pulled in tow.jolie,panting and pale, dragged the body and stakes too Rome's’ piles, she had the armor from the body and dropped it at her feet and spoke up. “ what are the armor and stakes made of and can it be melted.” Rome's eyebrows shot up but she nodded in reply. “Iridium.a higher form of silver some say. Also the best metal around for anything against supernatural and metaphysical. Melting isn't to much of a problem.its forging it without ruining the anti magical aspect. But….why?”

Jolie doesn't miss a beat, “ I want this one’s armor.and whatever else can be done with the stakes…” she absently gripped the small knife and her wrist seemed to shimmer slightly. Rome nodded and grabbed the armor and the bags,eying the knife carefully. “ok, we will talk about this more later...we go to my place for tonight..then we figure out what these guys want.” I turn just as Rome whips out a lighter, and kneels to the bodies, Jolie looks away just as light flares and the fire begins to crackle. I don't even question the intense flame starting by a seemingly normal bic. We hurriedly leave to escape the soon cimg smell as Rome makes sure the fire takes the whole warehouse,she catches up as the smoke rises,and leads us around the corner onto the main street, just as the first tint spiral of smoke coalesces around the moon.