Bab 71: Looming Chaos over the Syndicates - Part 1
After Vlad killed the syndicate leaders of Leviathan, respectively Gargoyle, he played out the district's map in his head to see what was next in target. As he walked away and playing out the map of the district in his head he chose to target the headquarters closer to him right now, and that would be the ones belonging to Gargoyles.
Walking out of the abandoned warehouse close to the district port, he took the fastest way towards the headquarters, as Aldenis explained to him in his letter.
With Nemesis prepared in his hand, with him jumping past some obstacles probably set by the syndicate, he arrived at the headquarters' central alley.
Vlad looked left and right like a vigilant bird of prey and noted no one nearby to disturb his plans. He saw the buildings here in bad shape as if they were never maintained since construction which hit the spot for him. The holes belonging to bullets stuck to Vlad's eyes, but he kept forward towards the main building overlooking this alley.
It was a building made of cheap bricks that also looked a bit scoffed compared to Aldenis headquarters.
Then as he approached the building, he picked a sound coming in his direction and stared forward. To his surprise notice, a bullet fired in his direction.
In seconds he pushed the blood powers to cover the zone targeted by this large bullet and made a larger covering for his head.
Then the bullet made contact with his head sending him flying crashing on a building belonging to the syndicate.
Vlad, who was in the building's rubbles, touched his forehead and noticed that his crimson mask and even his protection he summoned with his blood powers got shattered. As he touched, he felt the blood flowing from his forehead, as if he got his skin split.
'Ohh, those guns can actually pull this off? The bullet must have been shot from the top of the larger building. Otherwise, I can't explain why I didn't feel with my senses the bullet until the last moment.'
Then as Vlad was contemplating what just happened, the scream of men stuck in his ears even if he was covered in the rubble of the buildings.
"Prim, you got the fucker who was approaching?" as the sound of the person closer to Vlad resounded, he heard another one coming from far away, saying with a cracking laugh.
"Got him right in his head, check on him see who's this masked fucker. I bet he's the guy killing our guys for no reason."
"Right away, Prim." ended the voice of the person closest to him, which made Vlad, who heard everything look coldly ahead of him while gripping Nemesis' handle and slowly pushed away some rubble of materials on him to make way for Nemesis to thrust.
Quickly Vlad heard the steps of a person going in his direction, and when the guy in question arrived to check on him, he only saw the blade of a sword poking out from the rubbles nearing his chest at a fast speed.
As the sword stabbed him in his chest, he saw a white hand sticking out from the rubble's cover before all the stones and materials got pushed. He could see that the one targeting them, a handsome young man that didn't seem to tell at all that he was the killer making waves around the district, more like a young noble who never experienced life.
When the young man got out from the prison of stones, he heard his cold voice resounding in his ears, saying. "You have seen enough of my face."
Before he drew back the sword and followed up with a swift head slash that decapitated the person coldly and brutally, rendering him to drop on the ground like a rotten log.
The person on the top of the headquarters noticed that his mate got done and roared before picking up his rifle from the roof.
"NOOO, Val! You dare kill him, you piece of shit. If you didn't fall from my first bullet, I would make it so your head splashes like a watermelon in my next shot, damned bastard."
As he screamed that from the top of the roof, he also sounded the alarm for the entire headquarters, which was later picked up by them.
After one to two minutes, almost 50 people stormed out of the headquarters armed to the teeth with guns, swords and all kinds of weapons.
The syndicate guys looked murderously towards where the guy who got killed by Vlad was, then someone who seemed to be the leader in charge of the men raised his head and screamed to the one called Prim.
"Prim, you bastard, are you sure that the guy we're dealing with is the guy killing our men?"
"Yes, Brogg, there might be a small chance I'm wrong, but in this case, no. Be careful. This guy took a bullet of mine right in his head, and he didn't even die."
"Got you, brother, just give us fire support while we fight this guy."
Ended the leader of the group, shifting his attention towards Vlad direction.
As he did this swift change, he saw the stone rubbles being sent in the opposite direction, followed by hearing the footsteps of a person with a dusted black coat, whereas his head had a crimson mask that seemed to be modelled right on the guy's face.
When the guy stepped in his direction, he had this weird feeling about him, especially when looking at his dark eyes and jet-black hair flowing over his shoulder and back.
Then they saw Vlad raising his free left hand and pointing his index finger towards Prim, who was preparing himself to shoot Vlad yet again. But as he was placing the long bullet on his rifle and keeping his focus on Vlad, he saw as Vlad's pointing index finger began gathering blood that was morphing right in front of his eye in the shape of a spike the size of one of his bullets.
Suddenly he felt alarmed as Vlad sent that morphed bullet in his direction, shoot at a fast speed towards his chest, which made him crouch on the ground to avoid that crimson bullet but missing the action.
Meanwhile, Vlad, who saw the most dangerous guy in his view crouching on the ground to avoid his reproduced bullet, turned to look at the syndicate guys with his eyes turning black from using the dark energies to support his physical abilities.
Grasping Nemesis in his hand and summoning a blood armour covering his body, he rushed towards the syndicate members while his eyes gave a cold murderous intent.
Brogg, the leader of the group of 49 people, seeing that Vlad began rushing in their directions while preparing his sword to attack them, gave the fight order.
"Storm him guys, leave no piece of his body intact. Boss Nellon would reward us greatly for ending this annoyance."
The syndicate mobsters responded in kind, each of them pointing their firearms at Vlad, who was rushing to end them.
Vlad, who was prepared for such an outcome to happen, sneered as he extended his left arm and creating a large [Blood Shield] to coupe with the number of bullets he would have to eat from the syndicate members.
Like this with Vlad and the thugs finishing their preparations, with Brogg the one to start the showdown, a storm of bullets began raining over Vlad. Seeing all of this Vlad began pushing his [Enhancement] ability to the limits of his body to avoid at least most of the shots going in his direction.
Pushing the shield and Nemesis to fight most of the bullets, some managed to escape his defence and hit his armour, making some dents on it. As he approached them more and more, the bullets' force also increased, which caused in exchange greater damage to his [Blood Armour] and [Blood Shield] ability.
The lower body had the most damage taken, in the sense that the part of the armour covering the legs got shattered, leaving only Vlad's black trousers to be seen. Following that, when he was only meters away, even his armour and shield showed sights of shattering apart when Vlad reached close to the syndicate members.
Brogg saw that Vlad managed to survive this storm of bullets untouched, and by the time he reached close to them, he gave another order.
"Guys take the fighting formation, the cold weapon fighters get ready, while the rest of marksmen keep a close watch for openings and take note to not shoot allies."
The syndicate members began changing formation. The ones Brogg mentioned began to switch weapons, grabbing in their arms spears, daggers, sabre and swords while the rest started retreating more towards the headquarters building.
Vlad saw this sudden change and pushed his powers to take advantage of this open door of his mayhem. Then an intense blast of a rifle was heard close to Vlad coming from Prim, who began reading for another round.
This fire shot by Prim almost made Vlad miss his chance to attack the back rows of the syndicate, but sensing in time the fire coming in his direction, he sidestepped and jumped towards the marksmen who looked with shocked expression at Vlad's great jump.
As he got to the ground, he did an air [Blood Slash] that split in half a marksman. When he arrived next to the marksman, he gave clicked his tongue before saying to them.
"Your time is up hiding vermins. I'll not even bother myself with that list of people right now."
Ending saying that Vlad began attacking the marksman, sending them to the afterlife in quick succession. When Brogg and his men arrived to attack Vlad, he managed to kill 20 of the marksman, while 5 others were dropped on the ground, convulsing for an unknown reason.
After pushing Vlad a bit away from the dead thugs, Brogg, keeping himself calm, began clashing swords with Vlad and shouting at the remaining thugs.
"Assist me. This guy is powerful. I don't think I can take him out. Damn it, hey Prim, get your ass here and give us support-fire, you motherfucker. Twenty men died already against this monster."
"He's moving too much. I can't get a clean shot at him like this. Just make him stay in place for some seconds, and I'll see that his head splashes out."
"Damn you, weak marksman, who can't do nothing when their targets begins moving, same like those dead guys that only know how to use firearms,"
Commented Brogg as he was fighting with Vlad, feeling that he was equal to Vlad in swordplay since he managed to push him around.
Like this, Brogg and Vlad began clashing swords continuously, while he also tried to have his guys encircle Vlad to keep him in place for Prim, who was looking for a chance to shoot Vlad's brains out.
Yet as he seconds close to a minute passed while clashing swords with Vlad, he noticed that Vlad didn't focus his attention on him, instead looked towards Prim, who was moving his rifle from the top of the headquarters.
Whenever he tried to increase the pace of the swordfight, Vlad would just change his focus on him and also increase the speed along with him. The fight continued like this, making Brogg feel as if Vlad was stalling for time until he noticed that around him began appearing blood that circled both him and his thugs.
Suddenly when Vlad saw Brogg's surprised face, he gave a sinister laugh before gesturing up with his left-hand index finger making the blood around him, and the rest of the syndicate members raise up in the form of an isolating cage, which resembled more like a bloody empty room.
For Prim, who watched from a distance how the blood began to rise, was a shocking alarm that instantly made him pull the trigger on Vlad even if he wasn't sure of his accuracy. Still, he was a step late with his support because Vlad's prison was already closed when the bullet made contact with the blood structure.
"FUCK, I WAS SECONDS LATE!"
On the inside of the prison, Vlad eerie laughter increased even more seeing the faces of the thugs. Some were shocked, while others stared in fear at this blood world, trying their best to escape. Hitting the walls of the structure, they found that it was as hard as a metal.
Brogg seeing this took some cautious steps back, while finally, after long minutes, he heard Vlad's cold voice.
"You, the one in the front, tell me your name. I'll spare you if you're willing to work for me."
Hearing Vlad's offer made Brogg late twenties face frown. Not long after that, he replies to Vlad while also preparing his sword for another round of clashes.
"Hmph, you don't have to spare me. I Brogg will get myself out of this cage on my own."
Replied Brogg, the leader of the thugs. Where not long as he said that, he clashed his sword with the blood walls.
Seeing all of this bravado made Vlad's laughter resound in this crimson world, and not long, he appeared next to a split group containing 6 thugs who tried to break out. As he arrived next to this group, he did a sword spin cut that was synergized with his blood powers, that resembled a little crimson tornado.
Those 6 guys were slashed by the tornado, but to Vlad's surprise, they managed to stay alive, calling for Brogg's help. But before Brogg could do anything, Vlad continued with some classic sword strikes that ended their lives.
Then as he killed that split group, he said to Brogg. "So, one called Brogg, have you thought over, will you work for me?"
Then Brogg gritted his teeth and looked at the remaining syndicate members next to him before finally, he said this to Vlad.
"If I agree to work for you, are you willing to spare the rest of my men? "
Ended Brogg while staring at Vlad, who suddenly stopped from targeting the next group of thugs split inside the crimson world.
As he did stop, looking to Brogg that he was thinking over, not long after that, he heard Vlad, calm and cold voice resound in this world of blood.
"How many vermins do you still have in that building behind you?"
"This group of fighters and 6 who are the ones managing the trade networks." replied Brogg back while also not trying to do anything else except look at Vlad's now red looking eyes that were masked behind his mask.
Then after some seconds, Vlad said to him something unexpected. "You're lucky because it seems you're on my list of people that should be spared. Tell me the name of the guy from the top of the building who constantly pestered me with his bullets."
Brogg looked surprised to hear that this person, who seemed to think about nothing but kill them, actually wanted to spare some of them. As his surprise got dimmer, he responded to Vlad affirmatively.
"The one from the top of the building is called Prim."
Replied Brogg, feeling a bit weird for replying to this unknown person who targeted them, the syndicates.
In some seconds, Vlad nodded his head and said to Brogg.
"That pesky person he's also on the list. Tsk, he also got lucky since I really wanted to pay back for almost taking out my brains. Well, Brogg and you small vermins behind him, you better listen well to what I have to say next."
He quickly got all the thugs who got inside this crimson world attention and continued saying to them. "Since you, Brogg, the leader of this group, agreed to my condition, I will also spare the rest of you. Once I cancel my ability, if I ever sense a single bad intent on me, I will instantly kill you as I did with the rest."
" You with this group of people together with that Prim guy will go to Behemoth Syndicate and ask for a meeting with Aldenis. You only have to say that you are Blood's men, and he'll know what to do with you."
Ending saying that he spotted some minions that had other plans apart from being subjugated by his will. Vlad turned to look coldly at Brogg while his eyes began giving off some dark mist, making him look more sinister.
This reaction from Vlad made Brogg instantly react and kick the guys who evidently, from their faces, didn't believe a single thing from Vlad.
"You motherfuckers, I fight for your cheap lives, yet you actually can't even suppress that stupidity of yours. Maybe I should let sir Blood just kill you without having to suffer from your stupidity."
The rest of the guys around Brogg shook their heads quickly, taking a glance at Vlad, who began feeling much colder than moments ago. "No leader, we'll follow you. You've been the one who treated us scum of society much better compared to that greedy Nellon."
Finishing getting in place his men, he turned to Vlad and bowed down, saying to him. "Sir Blood, I can tell that I don't have a way out of this. I'll be responsible for my men. If in the future they do any harm, I'll take all the blame for them."
"Interesting, you're quite good, young man. I'll remember what you said and will keep a watch on everything happening in Sagletius, and especially this district. Better also inform that guy on the top of the building and the ones inside the building that they have to move towards Behemoth headquarters."
With that said, Vlad raised this left hand on the air and slowly, the crimson world began to crumble like a puzzle.
However, it didn't take long, and Prim began firing towards Vlad, whereas Vlad took Nemesis and slashed out the bullet with great precision.
"Enough playing around, little vermin. If you ever dare to shoot at me again, I'll instantly send you towards Hades." said Vlad in a cold tone while his eyes increased the intensity of the dark mist that was released.
Brogg saw all of this, but before he could put Prim off, the marksman retorted in annoyance.
"Hmph, you talk big, but I doubt you have that ability, while all I need is a bullet to send you on your way."
Vlad snorted and raised his left hand. Meanwhile, Brogg roared to Prim, seeing that Vlad was seriously preparing to kill Prim.
"DON'T DO IT PRIM. YOU'LL GET KILLED IF YOU CONTINUE OFFENDING THIS PERSON."
From the top of the headquarters, those words sounded so confusing, yet he looked around to see that Brogg was fine, and even most of the guys who got captured in that crimson cage.
"What are you even talking about, Brogg? Did you get forced to say those things?" shouted Prim from the top of the building while also placing a bullet in his rifle.
"No, you dumbass, I made a deal with sir Blood to spare the rest of the members. You're also included there. But if you keep on offending him, you'll really get killed. I will not fight and push my guys to die a lost battle."
Hearing that made Prim drop his rifle on the roof of the building and stare with a dumbfounded expression at Brogg and later intently at the masked person.
"Sigh, so that was all we could do? Fine, I understand we're just some pawns in a grander game. I will follow you in this mess, brother. It's our bad luck to be born a low birth and not live a decent life."
Vlad stared at Prim for a bit more before turning to look at Brogg. Seeing that this guy Brogg seemed to take him seriously and follow along on his deal, he decided to not follow restricting him too much. Like this, he moved along his next target after finishing his business with Gargoyle Syndicate.
Yet, when he began walking away as if targeting Prim, he said.
"That will remain to be seen, young man. Maybe the future will look much better than what you ever expected."
............
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