beneath us on the staircase.
No! I couldn’t believe this was happening. I had expected us to get a little bit further into our journey before having to deal with this level of crap. We had only just left the loft and already we were surrounded by dozens of Bloodless. I feared that the siblings’ blade might not be able to handle them all.
Maura, who had pulled out two guns from her backpack, began firing at both groups. She appeared to be aiming primarily at the Bloodless’ skulls, but also smattering bullets into their chests and necks. I already knew that bullets weren’t an effective way to deal with Bloodless—they had to be completely dismembered or burnt to ashes in order to end them. Her bullets were clearly a painful annoyance to them, however, and it helped distract them. But the real work had to be done by me and Orlando.
Orlando revved the rotor blades and sent them soaring to the Bloodless above us. I pressed down hard on my lighter’s flint wheel, coaxing the fire into my palm. I made it blaze up into a deadly billow and scorched the staircase, surprising some Bloodless so much they jolted back. Others willingly dove down the stairwell to escape my heat. But the more tenacious among them kept trying to get at us, even despite the flames. They backed up a bit before relaunching an attack, hoping to catch me off guard.
I couldn’t tell how many I managed to burn, since it was hard to see by now. It was dark as it was, and the smoke was beginning to impair my vision. But soon, the screeching lessened on my side, giving me confidence to relinquish my flames just a little and turn to my right to check on how Maura and Orlando were doing. There appeared to be a lot more attacking from their side, since they were still tackling the crowd.
“Orlando,” I yelled, “watch out!” One of the Bloodless had taken to the ceiling to dodge the blades. He was crawling above Orlando and looked like he was on the verge of pouncing.
Orlando’s reflexes were slower than mine on this occasion. I launched myself at him, shoving him out of the way, before engulfing the offending Bloodless with my flames.
Catching fire, it dropped from the ceiling and rolled down the stairs, attempting to put itself out.
More Bloodless attempted to pull off the same ceiling trick, but Orlando was more alert now. And so was I. I kept my fire directed at the ceiling while Orlando made the blade hover up and down in a constant whizzing motion to slash the Bloodless both ducking and leaping on the stairs… until Bloodless stopped approaching. We had fought them off… for now.
By now, we found ourselves standing in puddles of Bloodless stew. And the walls were completely coated with their juices.
Orlando caught my eye. His chest was heaving, his breathing coming in dry pants.
“Thanks,” he croaked.
I nodded, stoic. “I owed you one.”
Grace
“ A re we still honestly going to keep heading down to the ground?” Maura queried disbelievingly. “We’re only, like, halfway down the building and look what we’ve just met with.”
Orlando heaved a sigh. And I felt guilty. It was only because of me that we were forced to head downstairs. The IBSI weren’t a big threat to the siblings, or so they believed.
“Well,” I said, wetting my lower lip. “Maybe we could just wait here a while until the chopper’s gone out of sight.”
Orlando exhaled in impatience. He shifted on his feet, looking left and right along the corridor we had emerged in after leaving the Bloodless-soaked stairwell.
“All right. We’ll hang around for a bit.”
We moved back up the building cautiously, hoping we wouldn’t come across more Bloodless. We needed to climb fairly high up so that we could get a good view of the sky without actually being on the roof. We found a small janitor’s room on the top floor that had a skylight. Orlando pushed a desk that lined one of the walls until it was directly beneath the glass. Being the tallest, he climbed
No! I couldn’t believe this was happening. I had expected us to get a little bit further into our journey before having to deal with this level of crap. We had only just left the loft and already we were surrounded by dozens of Bloodless. I feared that the siblings’ blade might not be able to handle them all.
Maura, who had pulled out two guns from her backpack, began firing at both groups. She appeared to be aiming primarily at the Bloodless’ skulls, but also smattering bullets into their chests and necks. I already knew that bullets weren’t an effective way to deal with Bloodless—they had to be completely dismembered or burnt to ashes in order to end them. Her bullets were clearly a painful annoyance to them, however, and it helped distract them. But the real work had to be done by me and Orlando.
Orlando revved the rotor blades and sent them soaring to the Bloodless above us. I pressed down hard on my lighter’s flint wheel, coaxing the fire into my palm. I made it blaze up into a deadly billow and scorched the staircase, surprising some Bloodless so much they jolted back. Others willingly dove down the stairwell to escape my heat. But the more tenacious among them kept trying to get at us, even despite the flames. They backed up a bit before relaunching an attack, hoping to catch me off guard.
I couldn’t tell how many I managed to burn, since it was hard to see by now. It was dark as it was, and the smoke was beginning to impair my vision. But soon, the screeching lessened on my side, giving me confidence to relinquish my flames just a little and turn to my right to check on how Maura and Orlando were doing. There appeared to be a lot more attacking from their side, since they were still tackling the crowd.
“Orlando,” I yelled, “watch out!” One of the Bloodless had taken to the ceiling to dodge the blades. He was crawling above Orlando and looked like he was on the verge of pouncing.
Orlando’s reflexes were slower than mine on this occasion. I launched myself at him, shoving him out of the way, before engulfing the offending Bloodless with my flames.
Catching fire, it dropped from the ceiling and rolled down the stairs, attempting to put itself out.
More Bloodless attempted to pull off the same ceiling trick, but Orlando was more alert now. And so was I. I kept my fire directed at the ceiling while Orlando made the blade hover up and down in a constant whizzing motion to slash the Bloodless both ducking and leaping on the stairs… until Bloodless stopped approaching. We had fought them off… for now.
By now, we found ourselves standing in puddles of Bloodless stew. And the walls were completely coated with their juices.
Orlando caught my eye. His chest was heaving, his breathing coming in dry pants.
“Thanks,” he croaked.
I nodded, stoic. “I owed you one.”
Grace
“ A re we still honestly going to keep heading down to the ground?” Maura queried disbelievingly. “We’re only, like, halfway down the building and look what we’ve just met with.”
Orlando heaved a sigh. And I felt guilty. It was only because of me that we were forced to head downstairs. The IBSI weren’t a big threat to the siblings, or so they believed.
“Well,” I said, wetting my lower lip. “Maybe we could just wait here a while until the chopper’s gone out of sight.”
Orlando exhaled in impatience. He shifted on his feet, looking left and right along the corridor we had emerged in after leaving the Bloodless-soaked stairwell.
“All right. We’ll hang around for a bit.”
We moved back up the building cautiously, hoping we wouldn’t come across more Bloodless. We needed to climb fairly high up so that we could get a good view of the sky without actually being on the roof. We found a small janitor’s room on the top floor that had a skylight. Orlando pushed a desk that lined one of the walls until it was directly beneath the glass. Being the tallest, he climbed
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