Man Of Systems

Chapter 9: Fighting A Horde of Arhkars

“The path upwards is narrow. We can use their corpses to block it!” Rael spoke, having observed his surroundings, failing to see any other options. This was the only way they could reach their destination while alive.

Running alongside Della and Foldran, he lifted his arm, ensured the gun was held steady and shot at the Arhkar that intended to move in their way. His aim was quite off, only hitting its abdomen, causing it to flinch from the attack.

But, it wasn’t stopped by that, heading towards them. Right at this time, Rael flashed the light from the flashlight bundle at it, causing it to stop in place, affected by the intensity. Though, due to the ambient light from the three moons, it wasn’t as affected by it as the Arhkars within the building.

But, it was still enough for him to get closer to it before aiming at its weak spot to shoot again, causing it to scream in response and swipe its claws.

“Whoa!” He barely dodged the attack, watching the Arhkar collapse to the ground and begin to bleed profusely. It tried to stop the blood flow, but it only had the nails in place of fingers, inflexible.

So, when it tried to block the wound, its nails dug into its flesh, further injuring it.

The trio slipped past it, hearing the thumping sounds of their heart in their ears, for the Arhkars in hiding began to rush out. There were at least four of them on their way to the flight of stairs.

“Light will affect them!” Rael shouted. Though, even without him saying anything, Della and Foldran knew about it, having observed his actions.

They quickly pulled out their respective flashlights and flashed the light onto the incoming Arhkars, causing them to squint their eyes in response, having to rely on smell to target them. But, as their scents were masked by the Arhkar blood, it was hard to locate them anymore.

And, they weren’t equipped to pinpoint enemy movement through sound. They were able to hear as much as humans, but generally for sound, in places with reflective structures, it would echo or continuously reflect from the walls like light before being captured by the ears.

This would make locating the source of the sound all the more difficult. And, that was precisely what was happening here.

So, with their eyesight hindered, the Arhkars were unable to move effectively to target them.

Bang!

Della approached an Arhkar, standing two metres away from it, directly hitting the weak spot from this range, muttering, “If I had known about this before, I wouldn’t have wasted so many bullets.”

Within a couple dozen seconds, the trio reached the flight of stairs, wasting a bunch of bullets to target the Arhkars there.

Foldran dragged the semi-dead bodies of three of them and piled them on the flight of stairs while Della wrapped the rope around their bodies before coiling it through the metal rails. This way, a temporary rampart had been created.

In the meantime, Rael provided cover fire. Though, he mostly used the flashlight to slow them down, only shooting at them when they were close enough for him to target their vitals.

‘I only have six bullets left.’ He frowned, noticing that they were already running low on bullets. “How many bullets do the both of you have?”

“I still have ten, thanks to you,” Foldran replied, taking the lead as they scaled up the flight of stairs.

“I have only five,” Della said, stopping for a moment as she watched the Arhkars reach the rampart and become confused for a moment. Beyond that, they began to attack it, damaging the rope little by little.

“This won’t last longer than 10-15 seconds. We must hurry,” Saying so, she began to sprint up the flight of stairs.

“This’ll be difficult,” Rael readied himself, noticing that there was at least one Arhkar on every floor. There were five floors to traverse before reaching the helicopter.

“We’ll just distract them as much as possible,” Rael said, hitting the closest Arhkar with the beam of light, distracting it for a moment when they slipped past it, hurrying deeper into the first floor, intending to reach the flight of stairs leading towards the second floor.

Though, the moment they ran past it, the Arhkar was no longer affected, regaining its bearings as it turned around and gave chase, quickly closing in on them, swiping at them.

“Gah!” Rael flinched, feeling the tactical suit on his back being ripped off from the attack as four neat gashes appeared on the skin. They weren’t deep, but the pain still distracted him. Thankfully due to adrenaline, he was able to continue running, flashing the light at its face, using the proximity to his advantage.

Its eyes widened as the Arhkar was stunned, nerves popping on its eyes due to the intensity and the closeness of the light. The concentrated beam caused it to blank out, remaining immobile for more than thirty seconds.

All its senses blanked out.

“Ahh!” Foldran screamed when an Arhkar fell from the floor above, landing atop him. He barely managed to reach, stepping backward when it fell before him.

It attacked him, intending to impale him when he grabbed hold of its hands, shouting as he held it at bay. In response, the Arhkar’s head moved closer to him, intending to bite his chest off, for that was where it could reach him due to the height difference.

Bang!

Della shot at its weak point, causing it to lose power when Foldran bellowed, tugging it at the sides as he grunted, throwing it over the rails. He kicked it once, sending it falling towards the ground, causing it to smack another of its brethren in response, the fall breaking the bones of both.

“Dammit, I lost my gun!” Foldran was exasperated, noticing that he had dropped his gun during the ambush. And now, it lay on the ground, beyond his reach.

They were already on the first floor, with enemies swarming from under.

Followed by a resounding boom, the gates to the compound gave out, collapsing to the ground as many injured Arhkars rushed inside, their injuries further exuberating due to the barbed wire all over the gates.

But, they didn’t seem to care about that, rushing towards the flight of stairs in a frenzy, crowding the place before they simply swarmed over the rampart, scaling up the stairs after that.

Upon seeing the Arhkars rush at them, Rael paled in response, hurrying the other two as they reached the second floor. He took out a painkiller and plunged it on his thigh, using it to endure the pain.

For some reason, he felt a searing sensation from his back that continued to increase in intensity.

As the Arhkar on the second floor was the one that ambushed Foldran, there were no other enemies there, allowing them to reach the third floor without any further battles.

But, once they reached there, they noticed that the place was empty too as Rael frowned, gazing up to see that the rest of the Arhkars in the building had gone to the top, trying to climb into the helicopter.

They were unable to reach the helicopter whose landing pad was expertly above their reach. But, that also meant Rael and the group had to face them all in the end.

“This is…?” Suddenly, he noticed that one of the rails of the flight of stairs had come off, due to its joints being broken off, obviously the handiwork of the Arhkars. He yanked it out with some difficulty, noticing that it was a metre long and was made from steel.

It was more than enough to serve as a blunt weapon, especially since they were running out of ammo while the tactical knife was too short to wield against their opponent’s reach. “Guys, we can use this.”

Foldran looked around, quickly noticing another rail that was in a similar state, equipping himself with that. As for Della, she didn’t find any, but as they reached the fourth floor, she found one suitable for her use too.

The fifth floor too was vacant as they finally arrived at the top of the building, seeing the helicopter up close. But, the moment they appeared, the Arhkars surrounding the landing pad turned around before rushing at them.

“Attack with everything you got!” Shouting in response, Rael flashed the beam of light at them before emptying the gun, throwing it into the mouth of an Arhkar that tried to bite him.

Upon seeing a soldier seated within the helicopter, calmly observing their actions, Rael didn’t wish to expose himself. So, he didn’t use the 3D Printing to make more bullets.

He brandished the metal rod, whacking the closest Arhkar. He and Della targeted all the Arhkars with their remaining bullets, ensuring there was at least one bullet wound per each. This way, they would continue to bleed out.

There had been eight at the start, but three of them had been wounded at their weak point, collapsing to the ground. But, the rest weren’t that severely injured, targeting the three humans.

“Gah!” Rael leaped back, watching an Arhkar swipe its nails at him, nicking the tactical suit above his stomach. Thankfully, he wasn’t injured this time, but it was still scary, for it felt as if an attack from it would rip out his guts.

He smacked its head, watching it flinch in response to the hit. But due to its abundant vitality, it wasn’t affected much by the attack.

“Hah!” Taking a step back, he flashed the light onto its face, intending to attack when another Arhkar swiped at him, sending the flashlight bundle flying. The third Arhkar slapped it away from the building.

“Dammit!” Rael rolled on the ground, evading the attacks as he took out his backup flashlight, the one he obtained within the building at the start, switching it on before holding it in his mouth.

Using that, he distracted his foes while thrusting the metal rod at them from time to time, failing to damage much. He was now targeted by three Arhkars, making it hard for him to move.

In the meantime, Della and Foldran had an easier time, only having to face one Arhkar each. Foldran evaded the Arhkar’s attacks as he slipped to its back, stepping foot on its worm body as he slammed the rusted corner of the metal rod into the back of its neck, slamming forth attacks as if he was using a pickaxe, only the motion was linear instead of angular.

Grrr!

The Arhkar lost the ability to unleash any sounds as it was in a helpless state, unable to retaliate. Due to its anatomy, it was unable to reach its back. Usually, its flexible worm body compensated for that.

But as he had stepped onto it using his body weight, it was unable to pry itself out of his hold, getting smacked repeatedly before blood gushed out of its mouth. It was still alive but was incapacitated for the time being.

Foldran then ambushed the Arhkar targeting Della in the same manner, incapacitating it too.

They then noticed that Rael was struggling under the attacks of three Arhkars. But, he was somehow moving in such a way that they had approached the entrance to the top floor. He then shot a glance their way and nodded, implying that he had made the preparations.

Thankfully for him, Della and Foldran weren’t dense, understanding what he was implying. Without any hesitation, they sprinted and unleashed a leaping kick onto two Arhkars, sending them flying through the entrance, causing them to crash into the stream of Arhkars that were climbing up the flight of stairs.

This blocked their approach for the time being. And, while they wriggled around each other in an effort to move forward, the trio incapacitated the final Arhkar, kicking it at them too.

“Hah…haah…finally!” Rael grunted, beginning to climb over the final stretch of rails. He then observed the Arhkars streaming in from the entrance as he hurriedly climbed up.

Even though his entire body was in pain, lacking any strength, he barely resisted the urge to let go of everything. He was close to the destination but felt his vision turning blurry all of a sudden.

“I’ve got you, bro,” Foldran shouted on time, reaching the top as he helped pull Rael up.

“Thanks,” Rael nodded, gazing at the Arhkars that were no longer able to reach them. He then turned around as the trio entered the helicopter, a sense of accomplishment evident on their faces.