My body burst apart into a cloud of blood and drifted through the fence past the containers to the shipping yard proper. Rematerializing in the heavy rain my eyes locked onto a man strolling away from me four or five meters away wearing the same mask and slicker as those at the gate.
When I activated Analyze Lydia gave me a description:
Yakuza Street Enforcer Level 38
Tier F
Weakness: Slashing
Resistance: None
HP: 3,200/3,200
MP: Unknown
Demon Punch: When a Yakuza Street Enforcer activates the sacred tattoos that sleeve their arms their fists turn into leering demons that will take bites from their foes upon a successful strike.
Activating Surge of Blood, I rushed at the man wrapping an arm around his neck and driving my fangs into him. He tried to wrestle against my grip but started to falter quickly. He gasped, “Demon… help,” before slumping to his knees and going still. Assuring that no one else was around I quickly dragged his body into the shadows.
When the man’s lackluster loot was tucked into my inventory I made my way along the narrow and dark tunnel between the shipping containers scanning the breaks between them for signs of a place where they might be holding the girl. I paused when I caught sight of a two story warehouse, a huge steam ship looming above it, just visible in the faint light cast through the falling rain.
In short order a pair of men swaggered by as one of them said, “Did you see that girl they caught sneaking in?”
The other guffawed, his voice exaggerated and boisterous, “Ho yeah, how could I miss her! Too bad the boss is going to take care of her once she talks.”
“You’re telling me!”
They continued talking, changing the subject to something unimportant until a PA system crackled to life and a deep male voice growled, “All patrols except the main gate, meeting in the yard by the office!”
The two men immediately started toward the building I was headed to.
Ignoring them I continued on my way, dodging several more Enforcers all presumably headed toward the announced meeting. As I reached the small lot before the warehouse I could see a group of the Enforcers gathered in front of a weathered container where an older man stood underneath an umbrella held aloft by a woman beside him.
The man was well dressed and clearly didn’t belong in this yard. He looked like he was dressed for a night out on the town not a port yard that should be bustling with workers and sailors. As I watched he gave a young man beside him, who might have been his son, a half hug and shouted at the gathered men before starting a speech which was muffled almost completely by the rain. I was relieved to see that few if any of the gathered Enforcers carried firearms.
As I watched, a car pulled up at the warehouse. Several men climbed out ignoring the speech and making their way toward an open doorway. Each of them was tall and wearing black trench coats tied at the waist. They wore a band around their left arms but I couldn’t see the symbol. None of them looked like members of the Yakuza. I analyzed the old man first and then the men leaving the vehicle.
Possessed Yakuza Underboss Level 41
Tier F
Weakness: Hidden Third Eye, Forehead
Resistance: Fire
HP: Unknown
MP: Unknown
Nazi Agent Level 35
Tier F
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
HP: Unknown
MP: Unknown
Possessed Nazi Spy Level 38
Tier E
Weakness: Silver
Resistance: None
HP: Unknown
MP: Unknown
My eyes widened at the group of Nazis and the realization that the Yakuza boss and Nazi Spy were possessed by a demon. Nazis were bad enough without shoving a demon into the mix.
Taking advantage of the distraction caused by the meeting, I rushed across the open ground to the warehouse, slipping through a pair of loading dock doors and inside. The rain was still a dulled roar that echoed through the massive warehouse. As several men entered I ducked behind one of the few remaining crates. The men didn’t have the brutish look of the men I’d encountered outside. Analyzing them informed me they were level fifteen dock workers. They gathered several crates on the far side of the warehouse and exited toward the freighter.
The last of the Nazis were ducking through a doorway into an office on the far side of the room. The last stepped through the doors and closed it behind them. A pair of Yakuza Enforcers stood outside the doors with their Oni masks on.
The entire structure shook as the storm rumbled above. Moving as quickly as I could while remaining hidden from view I weaved my way through the boxes as more dock workers entered and gathered boxes for the waiting ship.
Kneeling within ten meters of the two guards I considered my options. There was no telling if the girl was inside or on the ship. I scanned my sheet for a long moment and settled on the Eyes of Theodora ability and then my poor Disguise skill. Time to work that Charm stat.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Standing and adjusting I banished the Sanguine Sisters back to my inventory. Making my way toward the two guards I adjusted my tie, I suspected it represented the Eye of the Priest of Pain item, and beamed a smile and activated my Eyes ability on the left most thug. His eyes widened and he sounded positively relieved as he said, “It’s you!”
The second man looked at his associate with clear confusion in his eyes.
Offering them a slight smile I nodded toward the door, “The boss wants me to sit in with our foreign visitors.”
The uncharmed man grumbled cartoonishly, “I don’t know you foreigner.”
My target elbowed him and gestured toward the door as he said, “He works for the boss. Don’t get in his way,” which shut the suspicious man up.
The suspicious guard glared at me but didn’t stop me as my charmed compatriot opened the door to allow me in.
Several eyes shot up and looked at me with interest but quickly turned back to the focus of their discussion. Obviously, if I had made it past the guards I was meant to be there. The three Nazis stood around a desk studying some documents and a chalkboard marked with what appeared to be a bulleted plan for the ship outside to meet another somewhere southeast of the Japanese mainland.
On the other side of the door the two men continued talking.
One said, “Who was that?”
The one I had charmed answered, “Not sure, I just know he is important,” and they left it at that.
One of the Nazi’s asked me in a cartoonishly evil German accent, “Who are you? Akiyama didn’t say anyone else would be joining us.”
Narrowing my eyes, I smiled as I put heavy emphasis on my first word, “BOSS Akiyama recommended I extend hospitality to you while you conduct your work. My name is Florin.”
The Nazi smirked at me, looked at the door behind me and then turned back to surveying the information on the desk. Thanks was due to Catacomb for giving this character some kind of universal translator. Makes sense. It’s just a game after all.
Their leader, wearing heavy black glasses that he had yet to remove, spoke up to his two compatriots as attention diverted from me, “I am relieved that our new allies have managed to keep all of this on schedule.” He was pale and pudgy with bloodless almost gray lips and now that I was closer I was far less surprised that this guy was possessed by a demon of some kind.
On the other hand he didn’t look terribly different from a lot of the Nazis I’d seen online or in the news over the last few years.
He continued, “Once we connect with our allies on the sub we can be done with this country and return to the father land.”
Strolling around the edge of the office I tried to give the impression I was disinterested in their plans by studying the room. Except for the bevy of conspiratorial information on the board and piled on the desk it looked a lot like an archaic warehouse manager’s office.
The demonic spy chuckled as he continued his monologue, “The information our temporary alliance has brought us will make our camps much more efficient.”
There was a note of sickly glee in the man’s voice as he continued, “I daresay that what we will learn from planned camp experiments using these methods might secure victory for the Reich.” His allies chuckled along with him as one of them added, “Heil Hitler.”
My jaw tightened and I drummed my fingertips on the desktop as I ached to rush the three men and put them down. My rage was pushing its way to the forefront again. This time, it was certainly justified.
A dim and distant voice added, “It’s just a game Mal,” as I took a deep breath.
One of the men nodded and looked to his superior with interest and a hint of fear as he stuttered a question, “Herr Vogel, may I ask how long the journey back to the Reich will take?”
Vogel chuckled and smiled displaying a mouth lined with sharp teeth, “The longer the war goes on the shorter the journey will be,” he stood up straight and raised a gloved finger as he continued, “but the Squadron has made an effort to assure that the journey isn’t without its comforts.”
There was a note of glee and danger in the man’s voice. Looking toward him I winced when I saw his sharp smile spreading into a predatory monstrous grin. The two others seemed relieved and gave each other reassuring nods.The unsheathed Sisters appeared in my hands ready for the inevitable Nazi shoe to drop.
It certainly did.
The possessed Spy rushed one of the men and grabbed him. The man didn’t even have a chance to scream when his superior’s mouth opened to the size of a shark’s. He snapped his jaws over the man’s screaming head, stifling the sound with a crunch.
The other spy grabbed a gun from his waist and fired two shots into the malformed demon creature. While it continued to consume the first man it reached out its gloved hand which stretched and writhed into black tentacles. They snapped around the second man dragging him across the floor and into a crushing embrace.
Sighing, I muttered, “Couldn’t happen to a better group of assholes,” and activated Surge of Blood as I rushed the creature. The razor blades of the Sisters snapped out and I rolled past the monstrous creature leaving a pair of wounds powered with Slice gushing black blood backward into the room, most weaving through the air unnaturally toward me.
The Spy let out a squeal of pain and as time resumed and before it could fully react to its wounds I was on it again. Bounding over a massive arcing tentacle that completely destroyed the desk and a file drawer, I rushed back in and struck several times in succession. Dance of the Rose Hurricane activated causing the monster’s blood to morph into fast moving orbital projectiles.
The headless body of the first victim slammed down into the floor where I stood moments before, reducing it to a pile of boneless meat. The other man screamed and pulled a knife driving it into the Spy’s trench coat, which was morphing into warted black rubbery skin.
Vaulting back in, I slid between the monster’s legs cutting into both of its calves and rolling to my feet. Before I could even turn one of its giant tentacles slammed into my back and sent me tumbling across the room and into the wall. In a breath I was up and off the ground quickly rushing back across the room toward my foe.
Triggering Evade I dodged a horizontal swipe of the massive tendril, rolled past it and came up carving an ‘X’ into its distorted rubbery stomach as I weaved and avoided all of its attacks, dancing to avoid another crushing blow. The man being crushed in the monster’s arms started to scream and beg me for help as he drove his own knife into the Spy’s neck.
Two more attacks came crashing in forcing me to narrowly dodge as they came down and crushed the concrete floor. Despite the attacks I left nicks and cuts in its hide that gouted viscous ichor coating me in stinking grime as my Abstract Feeder ability drew it in to fill my reserves.
The monster let out a chittering howl of frustration as I rolled and dodged, leaving the range of its powerful strikes. Coming up from a roll I tossed both my blades into its hide. They immediately vanished and reappeared in my hands ready to be thrown again and again.Five throws later the beast staggered and settled on the office floor with the still living and struggling man in its rubbery grip.
Flicking its blood off my blades I walked back over to the monster as the struggling man growled at me, “Help me out of this thing’s grip, you fool!”
Raising an eyebrow at him I casually raised one of the Sisters and in one fluid motion, slit his throat.
He looked at me in surprise as he grabbed at the wound, sputtering up blood gasping and hissing through his teeth. He struggled briefly but soon his neck was surrounded by a crown of spreading blood as he slumped in the grasp of the tentacle around his waist..
Chuckling with barely restrained fury, I shook my head as I spit on the corpse at my feet, “Fucking Nazis.”
A memory of my grandfather came flooding back with sudden intensity. What little time I’d spent with him was when I was very young but the tough old man had not restrained his toughest lessons for a six year old.
“A lot of people talk about understanding the Nazis these days, kid. Take it from someone who does understand them. I was your age when they came to my family’s home and dragged us all off to Salaspils,” his accent was thick and hard to understand but it was filled with cold venom.
“Everyday this soldier would come around to the building where they kept me, my sister… a hundred other children. His name was Wagner. He was so eager and bright eyed. He was like a teacher. His face was filled with kindness but all he wanted to do was explain to us why he was killing us,” he had coughed then and looked at the empty backyard where we both huddled in our coats.
He turned a rheumy eye on me, “He wanted us to understand and accept his hate. That is what so many of them want. They want you to hate yourself as much as they despise you while they smile and slit your throat.”
The memory sent a spike of new fresh anger through me. I stomped it down and ground my teeth in the real world. These NPCs were too lifelike. Why had that memory come back so intensely? I shook my head and took a deep breath.
Turning away from the spreading pool of dark blood I started to loot.
