The Tattoo Summoner [System Apocalypse]

Chapter 22: Dust to Dust


They dropped like rotten fruit, hitting the floor with slaps too wet to be real. The smell came after—mould and copper and something chemical, like meat soaked in antifreeze.

Tanya's breath caught. Her grip tightened on the sword, but her palms were slick. She'd swung this thing a hundred times before, but never against whatever this was.

The first of them twitched upright. It had no bones, just sagging limbs made of something halfway between vines and intestines. Its face, or what tried to be one, twisted toward her with a jawless scream.

"Back!" she barked, heart thudding like a jackhammer in her throat. "Stay tight!"

She stepped forward even as her ankle cried out, the pain spiking from where she and Ishita shared the injury. Her foot dragged wrong. She stumbled.

The sword dragged with her, heavy. Too heavy. She wasn't ready. Not for this. Not again. Not after—

The creature lunged.

She screamed something wordless, something just to fill the air between them, and swung. The blade hit, metal teeth chewing through the thick corded neck of the thing. It didn't so much fall as unravel, slopping to the tiles in folds.

More of them were crawling out of cracks in the ceiling. Hanging. Twisting.

From outside came a bone-shaking boom, like something enormous had body-slammed the wall. A puff of plaster rained down from above.

Another dropped. Then another.

Four now. Maybe five. She couldn't keep count. Her vision was narrowing, heart jackrabbiting too fast to track.

"Tanya!" Ishita called, somewhere behind her.

"I see 'em!" she shouted back, though it barely felt like her voice.

She flicked her wrist. Assistant stirred from her forearm. Ink peeled away from skin, rising like an alien under her flesh, shaping itself inside and then outside until it was perched on her arm. It floated upwards and then hovered just behind her, twitching with thin grey fingers.

She pointed without thinking. "Grab that one!"

The hand surged forward like it had been waiting. It slammed into the second creature mid-lunge. It wasn't strong enough to take it down, but it didn't need to be. With the hand clamped on its face, it staggered different directions, no longer able to attack Tanya or the others.

It didn't stop it from clawing at its own face, narrowly missing the dodging Assistant with each strike. Tanya's breath hitched. If she didn't look away, Assistants distraction would be in vain.

She stepped forward again. Another swing. The sword screamed, metal warping mid-blow to adjust to the weight. It carved a chunk out of another creature, sparks flying as it clipped the countertop on the backswing.

She could feel that same draw of energy from deep inside her, but she had no fear of it taking over her this time. With each swing, she focused more and more, until she could feel its Ability working to help her learn from her strikes.

Behind her, Ishita moved in tight. She swung the fence post like a woman possessed. Her eyes were wild, jaw clenched, and with every hit, Tanya could see it take something from her. A wince here. A stagger there. Blood at the corner of her mouth that hadn't been there a minute ago.

And Fahad was nowhere to be seen.

Tanya froze. "Where's Fahad?!"

A shape flickered near the pantry door.

"I'm okay!" came his high-pitched voice. "They're not looking at me! They can't see me in the dark!"

A couple of monsters swung around. Tanya hadn't realised how many of them there were until she stared across the room; at least half a dozen. He disappeared again, ducking into another patch of shadow. Tanya didn't know whether to be impressed or terrified.

One of the creatures turned delayed—no eyes, but it hissed and moved toward the shadows he'd slipped into.

"No, you don't," Tanya growled. She dragged the sword across the floor with a grunt, turning the swing into a rising arc that caught it in the gut. The blade resisted, like cutting through raw rubber, but then gave, the metal changing again mid-swing.

It still felt wrong. Now that she'd escaped the worst of the sword's magical manipulation, her chest heaved from the effort and from the nausea in her stomach.

I wasn't made for this.

She hit the monster and it shrieked. It slumped, but didn't fall. It clung to the sword, writhing up the blade like it wanted to become part of it.

"Let go!" she snarled, yanking back. She could feel the sword pulling—trying to absorb it.

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"Tanya!" Ishita's voice again. Sharper this time.

She turned, too slow.

One of the vine-things had gotten behind them, squeezing between a busted prep station and the fryer. Ishita turned to meet it, swinging high—but the thing dodged, lashing out with a tendril.

It didn't hit Ishita.

It hit Fahad, who'd just flickered back into view behind her.

"No!" Tanya shouted.

Time lurched.

But the creature missed. Fahad vanished again—through the strike. It swiped through air and shadow.

He reappeared beside Tanya, gasping. "I didn't mean to do that—I didn't even mean to move—"

But his eyes glowed faintly now. Shadow clung to his shoulders. Tanya couldn't think about it. Not now. They were boxed in. No way out. The kitchen ceiling bulged again.

She looked up. Shapes moved in the plaster. Not above it. In it.

"What the—" she began.

The wall near the freezer cracked. Something pushed out. A wet lump pressed against the concrete, bulging outward.

"They're coming through the walls." Ishita's voice was flat.

Tanya swallowed hard. "This ain't just an infestation. This place is spawnin' them somehow."

She turned her head, scanning fast. There had to be something here. A source. A reason.

Drip.

A thick, black sludge oozed down from the wall seam just above the freezer, slapping the tiles beside a fallen shelf.

Then another drop. Then another. It wasn't plaster cracking—it was flesh splitting. The same sludge that coated the dead monsters. That same chemical-meat stench. Tanya's stomach turned, and her sword dipped just a hair in her grip.

Ishita shifted beside her. "They're not just spawning from the walls," she said, voice raw. "That thing—Tanya, I think something's making them."

Tanya's eyes darted to the slop near her boots, then to the creature she'd killed—the one still clinging to her blade like a bloated leech. Even dead, it moved. Splitting open like wet paper it revealed more of the thick sludge curling inside.

"Oh f—" Tanya yanked the blade back, trying to shake it loose.

It snapped off, folding in half like rotten bark, and spilled across the floor. More slime, more glistening strands. And in the centre of it—

Another limb. Small. Not yet formed, but forming.

Her head snapped toward the rest of the floor.

Bodies everywhere.

Half-slain creatures, twitching sludge, and too much liquid for a handful of monsters.

"They're formin' from the corpses!" Tanya shouted. "The sludge—when they die, it spawns more! Fahad—"

She spun just as he peeked out from behind a cracked prep counter.

"Get out!" she barked. "Teleport to the others—warn them! Tell them that the bodies on the street could come to life—pieces of the big one fallin' off—all of it!"

His face twisted, confused and scared, but he nodded. "I—I'll try!"

And then he was gone. Not with a flicker this time, but a collapse, a sucking sound of darkness, like light dipped when he disappeared.

Ishita slammed another monster into the freezer door, her arms shaking, her shoulder streaked in a long ribbon of someone else's blood.

Tanya turned in time to see two more dripping beasts fall from the ceiling. This time they didn't even bother the floor, they latched directly to the metal countertop and began pulling themselves together from the goo.

No more hesitation.

She raised her blade and charged, ignoring the scream from her ankle and the searing in her side. "Out of the way!"

Ishita ducked just in time. Tanya's blade came down hard, carving through one of the climbing monsters. It burst like a water balloon full of tar.

Sludge splattered everywhere—across her cheek, her chest, her sword hand. Assistant.

"Shit—!"

It burned.

Assistant shrieked in her head.

Tanya dropped to one knee, sword clattering beside her, clutching at her wrist like she could tear the ink back under her skin. The black sludge moved across her forearm. Crawling.

Ishita was there before she could shout again.

With a cry, she raised the fence post and smashed the closest puddle of goo. It exploded like an egg under a boot.

"Get up!" she shouted, hand already pulling Tanya back by the collar. "Come on, you're tougher than this!"

"I—I'm fine," Tanya gasped. She wasn't. Not really. But she could breathe again, the burning subsiding as Assistant retreated to the shelter of her skin.

Behind them, the creatures kept falling.

"Ishita," Tanya said, chest heaving. "I don't think we can hold this."

"No shit!" Ishita snapped, cracking the fence post into another creature's skull. It dented inward like a soggy melon. "Any ideas?"

"We need to get out. Back entrance."

Ishita was already nodding. "They'd get us before we got the rubble out of the way of the front."

Tanya turned toward the alley door—still open, a faint line of daylight showing through the smoke.

They could run. Maybe.

A sound echoed behind them like glass being dragged across stone. Fahad collapsed back into being. He fell hard—tumbling forward, face twisted in pain.

"Fahad!" Ishita dropped her weapon, scrambling to him.

Tanya reached him a heartbeat later, hand on his shoulder. There was a gash down his leg, from hip to ankle. Too big. Too bloody. A mark like a claw had tried to peel him open.

His little fingers trembled against his trousers. "They're everywhere," he whimpered. "The ones outside—the ones we killed—they're... moving. Again."

Ishita was already clutching his face. "Look at me. Look at me, babu, I've got you."

"I didn't mean to—" Fahad sniffled. "I went to the car park—Mrs Eceer said—said she thinks it's the big one. The one outside. It's making them."

Tanya ripped her attention away. She needed to keep them safe. Swing after swing she took down the monsters, but she was only buying time before they formed again.

A glance over her shoulder revealed Ishita's hands against his leg, her eyes wide, breath choking, and she fell to one knee beside him. Her back arched, jaw clenched.

She didn't make a sound.

Tanya could only stare for a moment before she was back to their assailants, each swing turning them back into sludge quicker and quicker. Their bodies were struggling to stay together.

"That feels better," Tanya heard a small voice say behind her. She looked again.

Ishita stood, barely. She swayed. The blood from Fahad's wound now ran down her leg instead. She croaked. "You were right. This isn't a fight. It's a trap. We don't want to kill them."

Tanya nodded slowly. Mind racing. "They want to be killed."

"Because then they spread."

Tanya's eyes snapped back to the sword in her hands. If she focused on it for too long the urge to kill returned, a pulse she knew wasn't hers.

"Then we don't give them what they want," Tanya said.

"You think we can get past all of them?" Ishita asked, lifting Fahad onto her back.

"Don't need to get past," Tanya said. "We go around. Back door leads to the alley, right?"

"If it's still standing," Ishita replied, adjusting her grip. Her arms bled now. Her leg buckled. But she didn't drop him.

"Mum are you okay?" he whispered.

"Yes," was all she replied.

Tanya pressed her back to the kitchen wall, eyes flicking from the door to the dripping ceiling to the twitching remains of their fallen enemies.

"We run fast," she said. "We don't look back. We don't stop."

Ishita nodded. Fahad clung tighter to her neck, burying his face in it.

"Ready?"

A pause.

"Ready."

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