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– Still in Flashback –
'What a drag.' Dante thought after he had smashed down the school's front doors and calmed down a little. Buildings on fire just wasn't his thing. It was the human in him, Dante knew. Being half-demon, mortal flames couldn't hurt him, but still...trapped in a burning building is just a natural nightmare for human beings.
Dante focused on the task at hand and assessed the situation. Their was an enormous amount of fire and smoke, and what was left of the air was pretty dry. 'Well duh, Dante. The place is on fire. Let's find out something useful.' A chorus of screams echoed through the hallways. "That helps."
Dante ran through the corridors, following the screams. He was led to the cafeteria, where all the mayhem of any school was created. It did not help that a bunch of Blades and Flamebats were wreaking havoc. And, like the rest of the school, the cafeteria was aflame. Students were surging for the door, but the demons had already cut them off. The kids fell back but one girl tripped and sprawled on the floor. A Blade raised its claw to strike...! The girl screamed.
Dante caught the Blade's arm on the downswing with his left hand. His right hand was balled into a fist and crashed into the lizard's eye. The Blade screamed in pain and leapt to join its brethren at the opposite side of the room. Dante walked towards the final, unoccupied wall that had doors leading to the outside. He once more curled his fist into a ball and reared back. His punch collapsed the wall and created a hole big enough for a large amount of people to escape quickly.
"Everybody out!" Dante commanded. It took a moment for the kids to get it and Dante shouted again. They didn't need to be told again. A solid wall of teenagers scrambled to escape both the fire and the man-sized lizards.
The Blades, previously confused by Dante's sudden arrival, realized that their prey was escaping. As one, ten Blades attacked the student body, but again Dante was there to defend. He knocked two Blades away while the remaining eight circled him.
Dante understood the idea. The Blades were bred for battle, originally by Mundus himself. They understood the need to deal with the greatest threat first. If they were facing a powerful demon, they might have had the sense to retreat. But they knew this was no demon. They knew it was just a human who was foolish enough to believe that he could take them all. Dante knew the Blades would realize their mistake before the end.
Dante took half a second to turn around and check on the kids, knowing full well that the Blades would attack as soon as he shifted his attention. The lizards did not disappoint him. In the split second he had, Dante saw that the teens were already half done evacuating.
Dante then just-avoided the first lizard's swipe. 'Back to the fight Dante. Remember which demons you are dealing with.' Dante said to himself as he dodged a few more attacks. 'You've got no weapons save Ebony and Ivory, which you can't use because of the human kids.' Dante ducked a swipe to the face. 'If you were fighting for yourself, this wouldn't be difficult at all. But the name of the game this time is defend the humans. It could get a little tricky.'
Dante upper-cutted an oncoming Blade and rolled out of the war of a second. Dante was a much of a master of hand-to-hand as he was with any other weapon. However, without a sword or gauntlets, even he was disadvantaged against the demons. This had become solely defensive.
Hand-to-hand was designed for dealing with human opponents. Dante knew this because most demons had claws or some other amazingly deadly item of their own.
Dante checked on the kids. There seemed to be the same amount of students as before. 'Something's happened up at the hole in the wall.' Dante noticed a concentration of flamebats had cut off the exit and at the same time a chilling laughter filled the room.
'On second thought, this could become a problem.' Dante noted as the Sin Scythes soared above the mass of humans. Then Dante eyed the curved weapons the demons were wielding and an idea began to from.
Dante whirled and kicked at the lizards that were still trying to maul him. He drove a few back and then he leapt into the air. On the way back down to the ground, Dante crushed a Sin Scythe's mask under his heel and grabbed the weapon it dropped.
Dante hit the ground and swung his acquired scythe. He was pleased to see how easily the weapon could separate an annoying lizard's head from its body.
"Alright!" Dante exclaimed, expertly twirling his scythe over his head. "Time for some payback!"
There were 8 Blades left after the initial swing and Dante had to act fast for three reasons. One; because the school was still very much on fire and probably wouldn't last much longer.
Two; His own scythe wouldn't last long either, now that its master had been destroyed.
And finally, he still had the flamebats and Sin Scythes to deal with.
Dante darted forward and cut down another four Blades by utilizing the scythe's curved blade to attack the demons unprotected backs. Dante felt his weapon shudder at the end of the stroke; it was about ready to give way. 'If I can get the last four in a swing like that last one, I'll be in good shape.' Dante reasoned. Soon after he put his plan into action. And got his scythe stuck in the side of the third demon.
Meanwhile the last Blade dashed away from the fight and made its way toward the girl who was still on the floor. She seemed to have stayed there since the beginning. Dante let go of the scythe (which immediately shattered) knowing that the lizard he had wounded was in no condition to fight anyway. He sprinted after the remaining Blade.
Blades, basically being suped-up iguanas, were extremely agile creatures when they wanted to be. Dante found that out back on Mallet Island. And now Dante had lost the advantage of a head start. An advantage that the iguana had gained instead.
Dante put on a slight increase in speed and let his feet leave the ground as the Blade reached its target. Its claw came down and tore through flesh, though it was not the flesh it had expected.
"Gah...that freaking kills!" Dante muttered in annoyance, as he looked down at the scaly arm elbow-deep in his stomach. "Of course you realize, this means war." Dante told the demon. Then he reached up and completely turned the lizard's head around 360 degrees. "Prick."
Only after the Blade had begun to dissolve and Dante's wound had stitched itself back together, did Dante notice that the demon's left eye was shut. With an amazed shake of the head Dante turned and looked down at the shocked girl. "You know something? He must have really liked you." With that, he drew his guns and focused on the remaining demons. Now that he was out of the immediate frenzy of battle he could aim and safely dispatch his targets with no risk of harming the students.
And besides, he had no time for any more melee fighting anyway. With a few bursts, the cafeteria was safe and the kids could make it out on their own.
It was then that Dante realized something. He hadn't heard any other screams than the ones coming from this room. Dante bent down and picked up the frozen girl by his feet and took her outside to join her classmates.
"Hey! Is there anyone else inside?" Dante asked after setting the girl down. (She still refused to stand.) One Sophomore-looking boy spoke up. His voice was pretty strong considering everything. "It's a school-wide field trip today and tomorrow. Half the school went today. We were supposed to be headed out tomorrow."
"So there's no one else inside?" Dante asked, looking at the orange flames that seemed to be jetting out of every window in the school. "Well good, cause that makes things easy."
"Actually. I think Mrs. Jackson's class stayed behind!' Another kid said; a girl this time. "I remember cause my friend and I were talking about how much it sucked that she couldn't go..." the girl trailed off as Dante scowled.
"There's always a catch. Fine! Somebody call the fire department! I'm going back in to get the rest!" Dante told them before plunging back into the awaiting flames.
"You know, maybe I should've got directions first." Dante said still scowling. Pieces of the roof began to come down on him and Dante barely avoided getting pinned down under flaming wreckage. "Definitely should've gotten directions." Dante said under his breath, mentally kicking himself.
He was torn from his self pity by a collection of frightened voices in the room next to him. The door was blocked by rubble but since when is that ever a problem for the Son of Sparda? He raised a booted foot and kicked.
Some of the kids inside were unconscious, as the smoke was thick and getting thicker by the moment. "All of you get down!" The kids were quick to obey and Dante immediately shot out the glass in the windows to allow some oxygen to get in and some smoke to get out. Then he shot down all the bats in the area to prevent the creation of more fire.
Dante stepped up past the kids. "Stay down! I'm going to knock down the wall and then we'll have to jump through the fire out into the street!" Dante balled his rather sore right hand into a fist (again) and got ready to bust through whatever the hell it was that schools are made of.
"Ready! One, two, three!"
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