The Tattoo Summoner [System Apocalypse]

Chapter 21: The Drop


Tanya's breath caught in her throat.

The new weapon pulsed in her hands, strangely cool after it had been bent out of metal. It was heavier than before, with the rivets on one side of the hilt digging into her palm.

Why's it lookin' at me like that?

The monster cocked its head, or what she assumed was its head, the vine-like tongue writhing as they forced their way out from under the mask. One of the smaller ones dragged through a patch of grass, pulling up a spray of broken pavement and dirt. Tanya stepped forward instinctively, feet squelching in the puddle of something long dead. She should've been scared. Deep down she was certain she was.

What was it Mrs Eceer had said all those days ago? "Crying is a privilege of the living."

The new weapon in her hand, its coarse rubber grip and jagged edge, gave her enough nerve to raise it and point it directly at the abomination.

"I've got something for you," she muttered, just loud enough for herself.

Fifi's second mouth clamped down again and ripped, tossing a chunk of oozing meat away with an almost playful howl and then a gagging noise as it hawked up a piece that had gone down the wrong way. Tanya saw Boris behind her now, lumbering forward with methodical confidence. He didn't shout orders to her. He didn't even blink. His hand twitched and a signal passed between him and Fifi that she didn't understand—but the beast responded immediately, backing off, her fur slick with alien blood and her flanks glowing with that strange oil-sheen iridescence.

Behind him, Mrs Eceer yelled "Now!"

Tanya didn't know if that was meant for her but it felt like it. Tanya broke into a sprint.

The creature tensed, one of its huge limbs curling to swipe her. She slid under it, black sludge slicking her side. The air churned around her as the limb whooshed overhead, missing her by inches. Her pulse thudded in her ears, but she kept moving, sword out, the rubber grip sticky in her hand. She got close enough to the pulsing, oozing centre, and then leapt.

For a second mid-air, she regretted it. The world spun under her feet and she was certain she was about to fall on her back and stare up at the thing about to kill her, but she hit it before she could hit the floor.

Her new blade sank in. Not deep. But enough.

The monster's body twitched, mask bubbling atop the mass of tongues in a silent shriek. The metal of her sword sizzled against the creature's flesh, and a line of pale fire traced along its wound like it was cauterizing as it cut. Her feet hit the ground, knees buckling from the impact.

Then came the blast, not from her; from behind her.

Tanya turned, ducking down with her hands over her head, unsure if it would hit her too.

The cannon arm gleamed, humming. A blue-white beam, wide as a car hood, lanced into the monster's side. The thing howled. Entire segments of its flesh warped and folded back like paper curling in a flame.

"You good distraction," Olena yelled. "Now step back!"

Tanya stumbled away as a massive chunk of the beast sloughed off and hit the dirt with a slap. She tore her attention away from the beast and sprinted properly back towards the group.

Above them, a flash of gold flickered—and then a barrier, hexagonal and etched with glowing symbols, shimmered into view. One of the monster's flailing limbs crashed into it and rebounded, sending a tremor through the air.

Mrs Eceer stood at the edge of the field, arms raised, fingers twitching. Her face was calm, even distant. The barrier shimmered again and reformed.

"Hold it," she said. "You won't ruin Whitechapel too, you foul thing."

The monster reared back, half its body still steaming from Olena's cannon, and its presence swung back to Tanya.

She felt so seen—the same deep sensation as before that she couldn't wrap her head around the meaning of.

In a single grasp, the monster gripped onto a building and pulled itself forward. Its arms looked even gnarlier than before as they grew in real-time. More plant-like tendrils erupted from its shoulder, spiralling around its arm until its hand became a wrist and new digits uncoiled from the flesh.

Each pull marked a new hand and an even longer limb. It had cleared half of the distance between itself and them already. Tanya was running at full throttle but it was gaining on her anyway, the shopfronts flashing past her eyes the only sign that this wasn't a giant treadmill.

"Tanya!" Mrs Eceer's voice cut sharp through the chaos. "I hear something behind the kebab shop!"

Tanya's heart kicked. More?

She glanced back just in time to see the mammoth monster she was running from grip onto another building. Its fingers tore into the brick like wet paper. The structure groaned and cracked, floors crumpling inward as the thing pulled itself forward. Every building it touched twisted or dropped. The next one was the kebab shop.

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Shit—

"Ishita—" she started but then realised if they were still behind the counter, they might not make it in time.

Instead, she turned, and sprinted toward what was left of the ruined car. Its frame was a melted mass of twisted metal and tires, but it sat between her and the broken shopfront. No clean path through. The doorway was too far, she'd need to risk this.

Tanya gritted her teeth, slammed her blade into the wreckage, and climbed.

The sword's edge bit into the warped frame like a climbing axe. She hauled herself up, boot scraping against scorched steel. The rubber-wrapped hilt nearly slipped, but she shoved forward, driving the tip of the sword down again and dragging her weight up with a grunt. Through a hole her sword had torn through the steel of the front seats, she saw Asad's black hair matted with blood. She clenched her jaw and looked away, focusing on the climb.

Below, the monster bellowed. That wet, bassy howl that never sounded like it came from lungs. The shop creaked—violently. The monster's limb slapped down onto its roof, crushing part of the front awning.

Almost there.

Tanya scrambled up the last part of the car's crushed bonnet, kicked off the twisted bumper, and slid through the shattered shop window. It was already half-collapsed from when the car hit it earlier, frame bent, glass gone. Her foot caught the sill—

Something grabbed her wrist.

"I got you!" Ishita.

Tanya didn't argue. She swung her other arm in and Ishita yanked, hauling her through the empty frame just as the monster gripped the side of the building.

The impact was instant. The front of the shop groaned, bricks cracking. Half the sign gave way.

Behind her, the last flicker of Mrs Eceer's barrier flashed gold—then blinked out of existence as the structure finally buckled. Tanya didn't know if that was just Mrs Eceer's skill or if their shared Achievement had just saved her. A chunk of the roof tore free and came crashing down where Tanya had just been.

Dust exploded into the shop.

The frame above the window gave way with a final crack — not even a full collapse, just gravity finishing the job that the car and creature had already started.

Rubble poured down.

Tanya hit the floor hard, dragged in by Ishita just in time. The shattered wall collapsed behind her, sealing off the entry with a choking thud of debris. A cloud of grit washed through the room, making both of them cough.

"Are you okay?" Ishita said, running her fingers down Tanya's exposed body. Tanya stepped forward and it quickly became a limp as sharp pain rocketed through her ankle and up her leg.

"Agh…" Tanya hissed.

"Here, let me," Ishita said.

Tanya didn't take her eyes off the serving window to the kitchen. "You sure? Mrs Eceer heard something."

She tried another tentative step forward to no avail. This time she held in the noise, but her face scrunched up.

"You're no good to us like this," Ishita said. She crouched and gripped Tanya's foot with both hands like a seasoned professional. The throbbing lessened in Tanya's ankle and she could see from Ishita's face where it was going.

Tanya tried to tug her leg away but Ishita held it firm.

"No, let me," Ishita insisted.

"I made her promise she'd never do it if it hurt her too bad," Fahad said from behind her. Tanya hadn't seen him appear, he must have teleported.

"An' you little man?" Tanya asked.

He half shrugged, face etched with tiredness and fear that she hadn't seen him with since the fight where Ishita got her class.

With a sigh, Ishita pulled away, massaging her temples with a furrowed brow. Tanya attempted another cautious step. It ached but didn't throb anymore.

Ishita took a cautious step of her own with the same leg, nodding. "Now it's both of ours," she said, as light-heartedly as she could manage.

Tanya pushed herself upright with a grunt, sword braced against the cracked tile floor. Her ankle still flared, but it held. "Thank you," was all she could manage. It was weak but what else was there to say in a moment like this?

Ishita smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. "Stick close. We move together," she said, more for Fahad's benefit.

They pressed through the empty shopfront, boots crunching over broken glass and ash-streaked menus. The kitchen door swung slightly on its hinges, the room behind cloaked in shadows and acrid smoke.

"I'll take point," Tanya said, adjusting her grip on the sword. "You and Fahad stay tight behind."

"I'm ready," Ishita replied, twisting the fence post in her grip, and readied at her shoulder to swing. "You see anything, I'll hit too."

"Don't worry about me," Fahad added, quietly. "I can vanish. Don't worry."

Tanya flicked her hand and the door creaked open.

The three of them crept into the kitchen. It smelled like scorched oil and blood. Stainless steel counters were overturned. A fryer hissed somewhere. Tanya's blade dragged slightly on the floor, metal grinding tile.

"Anything?" Ishita whispered.

Tanya scanned the corners, under prep tables, the shadowed racks of sauce bottles and hanging ladles. "Nothing. Maybe it moved further out."

The silence suggested that Tanya wasn't the only one of them who doubted that.

They moved through the room in a staggered formation. Tanya checked left, then right. Ishita kept her hand on Fahad's shoulder, guiding him low beside the cabinets.

"Back door's clear," Tanya said.

"No movement," Ishita confirmed, peeking past her. "But—wait, feel that?"

It was subtle. The air back here should have been cooler, open to the alley. But it was muggy, almost sticky. The hairs on Tanya's arms stood up.

"Something's here," she murmured. "I don't know where, but it's close."

She raised her blade. Ishita wrung the wood in her hands even tighter.

Fahad backed towards the darkness of the corner. "Just in case."

Tanya moved to the door, blade up, exhaling through her nose. The glass here was textured. She could see blotches of green and brown—probably grass and fences—but with the rippling glass she could never be sure. She grabbed the handle.

"Alright," she said. "I'll open and check high. Ishita takes low. Fahad keeps watch on—"

She could feel the air change, like static crawling up her arms, and it wasn't just adrenaline.

Something was wrong.

They hadn't been in the building a minute before it all went to hell.

The scream came first. Not human. Not animal. Something wet from above.

TSSSH!

A sound like thick paint hitting tile. Then another. And another.

They dropped from the ceiling like overripe fruit—splatting against linoleum with sick, splattering weight. At first, Tanya thought it was garbage, someone's melted compost bin come to life. But then the black thing on the floor twitched. Its limbs—if you could call those dripping, vine-strangled stalks limbs—stretched out with awful intention. Its face, a warped mandrake skull with no eyes, turned blindly toward her. And screamed.

Mrs Eceer had been wrong. They weren't behind the shop, they were in it.

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