Cherreads

Chapter 24 - 24- The flooded district

In front of corvo lay what is practically a entirely destroyed factory.

All platforms broken in some form or another, so to get out he must reach the top where the only open exit remains.

Though he can only reach the top by climbing all these broken platforms with his one remaining hand then killing the assassins stationed at the top.

Usually he would hesitate. Pause for a moment to plan out how this whole situation would go. Now? None of that hesitation remains, everything left up to instinct and pure fucking will.

Corvo runs, as fast as his current body can push and jumps across the first gap that is in his way.

Predictably with his body still suffering from hours of blood loss, which he was only sustained by the lingering attachment to the void, he was still to weak to clear the wide gap. Only managing to land on his torso and use his arms for stability.

Swinging his legs up onto the metal staircase corvo puts his whole body into it and rolls, only stopping once on his back away from the danger of falling.

'I'll need to get my hand back first it seems. Not much I can do without my powers, especially if I'm up against a bunch of murder hobos that are secretly a bunch of wizards also.'

Picking himself up, corvo silences his footsteps when here's a pair of voices up above him in the same Transatlantic accent

Used in the older movies, same as the whalers.

One with his back turned to the stairwell, another on the outside platform with his shoulder resting up again the wall.

Seeing his chance, corvo climbs tbe railing of the stairs and uses it to launch himself up to the banister where the first assassin is and plung his newly acquired blade into his neck

"GHA-"

An agonal gasp worms out of the assassin loudly before corvo could silence him, alerting the other one to his presence.

The assassin turns around sharply staring at corvos rapidly approaching form, before… poof!

In the blink an eye he dissapears from corvos sight completely. He turns his body, scanning the area around himself in search of his opponent but not finding a single clue.

Just as corvo is about to give up and just escape this run down building, a distant whistle reaches his ears.

The whistle is heard loudly in corvos senses, his instincts in turn warning him of danger and forcing his body to turn sideways. Just in time for a blade to pass an inch away from where his knock would have been.

"Tsk!"

The assassins swing was over done, in return throwing his further than intended and bringing him off balance, creating an opening.

…an opening quickly exploited.

Before the assassin could blink away corvo tackling him to the ground. But the blink is still initiated, though due to the tackle the assassins aim is thrown off sending the two off the platform, flying down the massive drop… into the water.

*SPLASHHHHHHH*

A large splash of water is kicked up by their fall, along with a loud noise that if anyone were near by they would have been alerted to the position.

The two are both briefly winded by the fall into the water. Corvo more so due to his current state, so the assassin was able to recover before him and start drowning corvo in the dirty water.

*GURGLE*

And he stats struggling to try and get out of the assassins grip, only to suck in a mouth full of water and starting coughing his lungs out.

In merely a minute corvos world stats to darken at the edges of his vision, his body shutting down in response and putting up less of a fight.

But all of that changes in but a moment.

A spike of pure concentrated adrenaline surges though corvos veins in an instant so potent that it feels as if he shot up meth, cocain and all sorts of stimulants across the world in one explosive burst.

Now instead of a rapidly darkening world, corvos vision turns white and he all but passes out, his body taking over completely with his mind nearly gone.

Corvo rips the hands of his neck with his one remaining hand while grabbing the back of the whalers neck, head butting him back before swinging the handless arm like a mace to thoroughly batting his opponent and breaking the glass mask all of dauds wear.

This violent beat down continues for almost 2 minutes straight with zero breaks before corvo returns back to his senses, only to find bones sticking out of his stump and a quite confidently dead whaler.

Corvo himself is left a ragedly breathing mess, wincing in pain as the adrenaline drains from his body and feeling a surge of weakness that almost causes him to drown once again.

But quickly he is able to calm hiself down somewhat, just enough so he can drag himself…. and the corpse back towards some form of stable ground. Something rare apparently with all this water everywhere.

He lands himself and his 'friend' on a worn out piece of wood. Unstable, yes. Though it will have to do for now, just long enough to get his bearings anyway.

He quickly loots the body of any weapons that are useable for him, since the fall made him loose sight of his previous sword. It appears it's the same for the assassin unfortunately, no bladed weapon stationed on their person.

"Haaahhhh… I am so lucky!"

Mocking himself self deprecatingly he just sits there for a moment, mind blank before his eyes come across something else. A weapon. Though this one in a foreign form to what he knows.

… a wrist bow.

Or more accurately a wrist cross bow. Something he asked pierro to cook up for him, but due to his plan to leave corvo scrapped the idea thinking it wouldn't be made in time. But what would you know, fate works in mysterious ways.

'It won't be nearly as powerful as my own, now as precise. But it will work great in close combat or when needing to get a quick shot off. Yeah this will be great, especially with my missing hand.'

With that thought, corvo pries the wrist guard/glove from the corpses hand and attaches it to his own.

This creates an almost comical sight with the hand part left empty, with every little movement the hand is sent flopping around creating a little slapping noise.

But it's a fairly easily fix.

Grabbing a little bit of string from the dead assassins attire he wraps the glove to the back of the wrist bow and then ties the string around it.

Done and done.

So now with a weapon sorted, he continues on his way to recover his gear.

Running and jumping across the little floating pieces of wood strong enough too handle his weight, dodging the river crusts acidic blasts then climbing a Chain that brings corvo slows enough to a building roof that he can jump to it fairly easily, he makes it to the top to overlook a sort of mini slum full of weepers.

'Now, how to do this?"

He has a few options on how to handle the current predicament.

First is just to slaughter the poor people, but is that really an option?

'No.'

No matter how angry, how ragefull he is, corvo still has his mind intact and though grey, still has a moral compass.

Second, run and hope for the best.

'Denied.'

Third, sneak around all the weepers. Risky with becoming even more injured but In reality all the options are risky.

'Option three it is then.'

With a running jump corvo lands on a sort of courtyard a few stories high and with stairs leading to the exit corvo needs to make it to.

Though before continuing, corvo opens the compartment that allows the mouth to shift and downs a spiritual potion. He might not have access to mana or well powers, but the potion's original effect is to soothe the mind and heal spirit.

And the potion does just that. Improving his ability to hold focus and be separate from his emotions.

Using this he observe the wondering weepers and sneaks past them one by one using shadows as well as buildings as cover, weaving inbetween them to get to the door without being seen.

And he succeeds…. Before a weeper comes slamming through the door, his destination and alerts the rest of them.

And one by one they all turns their heads like demented zombies, growling and coughing like them too before sprinting at his position.

"….HAHAHA, Fuck!"

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Word count: 1,460

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