The Crimson Carnival: Chapter XIII, A Dance Between Death And The Dracule

  --- Gregory Fischer ---

  “Alright, and what exactly is a… Dracule?” He asked, looking around for the beast performing hit-and-runs on them. “Other than a giant man-bat monster… thing.”

  “They’re…” Maeve grit her teeth before shaking her head and gaining a determined look. “They’re people who lost their minds to the Court’s Corruptive Bloodline. Rather than mercy-killing their feral corpses the Court mutilated their flesh into these monstrosities. Brutish warriors to work the noble’s twisted agendas.”

  “Great, so it’s a vampire super soldier.” He’d fought a few flesh-sculpted monstrosities during the war, but it wasn’t exactly a common practice given how unstable the monsters were. (That said…)

  He narrowed his eyes, pulling out a carton of smokes as he caught sight of the Dracule readying another dive. In a feat borne of a decade of practice he flicked a smoke in the air before catching it between his lips and quickly lighting it as he inhaled the chem filled smoke within.

  The moment he could make out the white of the beast’s eyes, he exhaled a torrent of magic infused smoke straight into its face. Blinding it and knocking the beast off course as it struggled to breathe through the smog he practically lived off of.

  He couldn’t help but smirk at the instinct born from an evolutionary track that every Flesh Sculptor tried to side-step. (These things always hate smoke and fire.)

  Keeping his eyes open, he told Maeve that, “We’re getting close to the gate. If we can just stall that thing for a few minutes we should be able evac.”

  “I’m afraid I won't be of much aid there.” The Theater Rose confessed even as she drew her dagger. “Whatever dark rituals they use to turn one of my kind into a Dracule it twists the Old Blood. Blood magicks will only empower it further rather than harming it.”

  “Fantastic.” He sighed, before feeling the carriage shake. “That felt different than last time.”

  Leaning out the door, he found himself having to quickly duck back inside to avoid having his face torn off, the Dracule having apparently decided that dive bombing them wasn’t worth it anymore. “Shit. It’s on the roof.”

  As if to punctuate this statement a set of claws punctured the carriage roof, digging into the metal as the beast tried to get inside.

  “W-what do we do?!” Melanie asked, pulling Ferris close as Louis tried to cover her.

  “Try to knock it off.” He grimaced, unable to help but glance at the ground far below before grabbing onto the edge of the door and swinging himself so that he was on the outside of the carriage. “Yo fugly!”

  The Dracule glared at him with snarl on its maw, before letting loose a screech that had him wincing as it tried to rupture his ear drums.

  “Fuck you too!” He spat back, before glancing at the next carriage over. (Here’s hoping this works the way I hope it does.)

  Willing himself forward he used his ‘Dodge’ spell to move onto the next carriage’s roof, putting him just above the Dracule clinging to their own carriage. A drop of several hundred feet separating them by a couple of meters. (Oh, what I wouldn’t do to be able to cast a fireball spell right now.)

  Not having that option, he instead once more cast the spell his Book had given back to him as he inhaled on his cigarette before unleashing another Smoke Screen at the beast. Hoping its instinctive fears would be enough to drive it back.

  A hope that proved worthless as he found himself stumbling back from the Dracule’s claws, just before the beast leapt across the divide sending the carriage swinging. Forcing him to cling onto the machine to keep from slipping off.

  Seeing an opening the Dracule swung its claws, hoping to exploit his slip-up to gut him.

  Which is why it stumbled back instead when he managed to parry the blow off his metal arm, sending a handful of pages flying around him but leaving him standing.

  “I’ll reiterate…” He huffed, trying to find his footing even as flicked the monster off. “Fuck you.”

  The Dracule reared back, its clawed feet letting it keep balance as it readied another soul rending screech. One he wouldn’t let it voice as he curled his fingers and unleashed a fist full of flame straight into its throat even as it cost him his balance.

  Something the Dracule had lost as well when he rolled with his lack of balance to tackle it, knocking one of its clawed feet loose of the carriage. Even as he clung to the beast desperate not to fall to his death.

  Not that a lethal fall was enough to stop him from grasping the beast’s snarling maw, bits of cinder from his prosthetic burning its face even as he held back his magic. Waiting.

  The struggling Dracule, moved to rip him off with its claws, each swipe tearing pages from his form as he held his ground. At least until he spat the remains of his cigarette into the mouth he’d pried open after pushing as much heat as he could into it.

  With a careful thought he dashed back to the carriage everyone else was in, hoping to buy himself a moment to breathe as the Dracule choked on his burning cigarette butt.

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  Pulling out a replacement, he watched the Dracule as in a feat of inhuman physiology it righted itself, his distraction not working half as well as he’d hoped. Even if it did let him get another glimpse of the gate. (A few more minutes… Just a few more minutes…)

  With his second chem smoke lit, he entered a stance and curled his fingers twice. “Round two?”

  The Dracule snarled and reared back to screech- only to instead leap forward, tackling him off of the carriage and causing them both to slam into the next. The majority of the impact hitting him as he was crushed between metal and flesh, his spine intact only due to the flurry of pages bursting forth from his being.

  Luckily or unluckily the Dracule managed to scrape and scrabble, clinging to the bottom of the carriage even as Gregory was forced to once more cling to it to keep from falling himself.

  The beast kicked its leg trying to shake him loose as the heat in his hand continued to burn at its flesh. His cybernetic grip managing to keep a hold of the beast even if his organic one would’ve been knocked loose by now.

  Inhaling deep, he took in as many of the chemicals in his smokes as possible, flooding his veins in fire to fuel his next physical feat.

  With a growl his organic hand shot forward, digging into the Dracule’s flesh as he used this newfound power to climb his way up onto the beast’s back, where he wrapped his metallic arm around its throat as tightly as he could.

  Unfortunately this was the last straw as the Dracule let go of the carriage.

  (Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Oh, shit!!!)

  They both spiraled through the air, and when they weren’t they were being knocked back and forth between the ferris wheel’s metal skeleton. Pain seeping through even as paper cushioned any impacts on his end.

  Eventually the beast tired of this treatment and began to spin, escaping the metal death trap before spreading its wings and taking flight.

  A series of events that left his world spinning as he continued to hold on.

  With more mobility available the Dracule began flying erratically trying to knock him off of it. Something he refused to accept. Especially when he saw how close everyone else was to the gate and escaping this hellhole. (I can… hang on… a little longer…)

  Seeing his refusal to let go, and that the rest of its prey was about to escape, the Dracule closed its wings shifting its focus from trying to shake him off to once more dive bombing the ferris wheel carriage.

  (Oh, no you don’t.) Gritting his teeth he began desperately kicking at the beast’s wings, hoping to throw it off course to minimal success.

  Glancing towards the carriage growing ever closer, he caught sight of Mr. Peabody standing in the door frame before rearing back and letting loose a sound so very much like that of the Dracule’s screech. Something the beast did not like at all as it let loose a cry of pain, its wings unfurling as it tried to hover away from its attacker.

  Which left them open for him to dig his flame filled hand into the thin flesh between its wings, tearing open a number of small holes that he promptly made larger as he raked his hand free.

  The Dracule struggled to remain in the air with its mutilated wing, only to find this increasingly difficult as with his added weight the beast slowly spiraled towards the pavement. (Really hope this works!)

  Beneath him the Dracule violently crashed into the ground, breaking several of its bones in the impact. A fate he just barely evaded by using his Dodge spell to kill his momentum just before the momentum could kill him.

  “Fuck!” Or most of his momentum, as the impact he felt upon hitting the ground still felt like he’d fallen a couple of stories.

  (Better than the full fall at least…) He gasped, staring dazedly at the ferris wheel and the fractured sky behind it. One that looked just moments from touching the horizon as he picked himself off the ground. (Shit. Need… Need to get back to everyone… No time left…)

  Something scraped along the pavement.

  Reacting faster than he could cast, he dove back to the ground, but even then he still felt claws rake across his back.

  “Oh, come on… How are you not dead yet?!” He yelled at the limping beast hunched over but still growling as he climbed back onto his feet.

  Rather than answering the Dracule merely shrieked at him, the sound so much less than the cries before its crash.

  “Yeah… you know what?” He gasped as he pulled out one last smoke and lit it. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…” With lungs full of Smoke he shot forward and leapt, grabbing onto the sides of the Dracule’s head before slamming its face into his left knee. “Fuck.” He spun and dropped his metal elbow onto the back of the beast’s neck. “You!”

  That last word echoed with the cracking of the Dracule’s neck over his knee, the beast going limp as the sound of breaking neck surrounded him. (Wait…)

  His eyes shot towards the sky, seeing the way that the cracks were rapidly growing, breaking the sky into a rainbow mosaic of a thousand pieces as they finally passed the horizon. (Oh no…)

  Something tackled him to the ground, sending him into a spin that he just barely managed to keep his balance from as he dragged his metal fingers against the ground. “I don’t have time for another- dog?”

  He blinked, as he looked at Mr. Peabody practically glaring at him before barking. “What?”

  The dog shook their head before shaking their head towards the ferris wheel.

  “R-right.” They weren’t dead yet.

  Both he and Mr. Peabody shot towards the ferris wheel, his eyes quickly locking onto the carriage with the kids in it as the crimson portal in the sky grew. Maeve sticking her head out with an expression that he couldn’t make out as she glanced between him and the gate.

  (I can’t get up there in time.) He realized. Even if he had his actual smoke dash he wouldn’t be able to get up there before they had to get through the gate.

  A growling sound and the fluttering of pages drew his attention towards Mr. Peabody, pages swirling around the dog as it seemed to almost triple in size, taking on an almost feral appearance.

  The massive beast suddenly crouched, causing him to stumble into it, before the dog leapt into the air with enough magical force to drag him up with it.

  While in the air Mr. Peabody did a flip, curling around Fischer in a flutter of paper seemingly to drag him along as the dog used his own dash to get them to the carriage.

  Or he’s pretty sure that was the plan before the dog suddenly exploded into paper, leaving Mr. Peabody his normal size with a wide-eyed yip. (Shit.)

  “Fischer!”

  Just as gravity began to drag him and the dog back down, his eyes shot towards a vine of crimson thorns flying his way.

  Moving as swiftly as he could he wrapped his organic arm around Mr. Peabody, and the vines around his metal hand, uncaring of the way it dug into the metal.

  With a visible show of exertion as the carriage began to fill with the crimson, Maeve pulled on her vine of thorns. The force of the pull dragging both him and Mr. Peabody through the air as they were sent flying towards the carriage.

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