He heard a shout from near the trucks. He had been seen. Letting loose a bellow he charged in. His first drum held lead shells. The other four, attached to the body armor were loaded with silver buckshot.
Bullets from their AK74 carbines started cracking around him. He felt several hit his armor, and one graze his arm. No silver, though. He reached about fifty yards from them and took cover behind a tree.
Taking aim, he started firing shots off at those who had their weapons out and firing. Ten had scattered and rushed for cover but were not firing back at him.
Probably the wolves.
He fired off single shots at those firing at him. The AA12 wasn’t the most accurate weapon so he was gentle on the trigger, trying for single shots. The range was low, but he wanted to herd them in a direction, not try and kill them where they stood. He managed to take down fourteen of the soldiers in the process, even without trying.
Picking his targets from those on the edges caused them to bunch up without thinking. With the drum on his shotgun empty, he slung it out of the way before charging across the meters between them, now in an arc in front of him, with only his claws and teeth.
They tried to scatter as he advanced but he was too quick. Disemboweling one with a swipe of his paws, he switched to the short sword to take the heads of two more. Dan hadn’t asked him about the large grip. He reached his head down and bit a large chunk off another victim’s shoulder, severing the arm at the same time. He chewed and swallowed while staring at the others, blood dripping down his jaws and the stringy flesh hanging from between his teeth.
One of the remaining two fainted, accompanied by the stink of hot urine and the sulfurous odor of loaded pants. The final one chose defiance and emptied his magazine into Boris. The response was not what the shooter expected when Boris threw the sword impaling him through the spine. Collapsing after the futile resistance, the soldier’s legs stopped working, and he dropped, his weapon wrenched from his grip. Boris kicked him ‘lightly’ in the head, knocking him unconscious before the bear-man knelt and pulled the sword free.
Perhaps they could get information from these two.
Off somewhere to the right, Boris heard bursts of fire and the faintest of sounds that had to be Dan returning fire with his silenced MP5. It appeared to be a substantial group shooting at Dan, armed with something similar to a dozen AK-47s. At least Dan was having some fun even as the perimeter guards were circling around to get to the target they thought vulnerable. The soldiers were certainly in for a shock.
Boris felt the sting of a half dozen wounds dotted across his limbs as his body ejected a couple of bullets.
He lifted the trucks onto their sides, leaving their wheels impotently spinning, then stalked toward the other vehicles in the lot. The scent of wolf permeated the air, as did the odor of fear. As Boris strode forward, he roared “Therree is noo esscappe. Fight me or die like the currrs you are! Iiif youuu rrrun I will hunt dowwn annny you carrre for!”
There was a moment of silence in which he ejected the drum from the AA12 and, with a little fumbling due to his form, loaded the next one into the gun.
He heard a sudden howl and knew what would come next. He’d taken out large groups of wolves before and knew that their battles followed repeated forms. He knelt and held down the trigger spraying a one hundred eighty degree arc with silver buckshot. He heard a whine with each hit. Six whines, six hits. As he let the shotgun drop onto its sling, two wolves jumped for his neck. He swayed to the side and grabbed one by the scruff of the neck, adding to its momentum as he slammed its head into the other wolf’s skull. There was the sickening crunch of snapping and shattering bones.
One of the two remaining wolves circled around him and fled in Dan’s direction as the other, braver one, turned in the opposite route. Boris grinned as he made a leap for this last one and with a smack from the hilt of his sword, knocked it unconscious. For good measure, Boris broke all four of the wolf’s legs. He wanted information and needed to find out who they were, why would they help the NVG, and who was involved.
He went to check on the remaining wolves, the ones hit by silver. Two were clearly dead, the other four were severely injured, although one was trying to crawl away. Boris broke all of their legs too. Then he headed off in Dan’s direction. He could hear a yelp followed by silence from that direction and hastened his speed to answer his burning curiosity.
Dan was in position as he saw Boris move through the gate. As the Pricolici started herding the soldiers with gunshots he swore. The big Russian bastard was going to take all the fun for himself. Then he heard the crack of bullets from behind him and swore in chagrin. Boris had reminded him about the perimeter guards and like a boot he’d lost his situational awareness and focused on what the other guy was doing.
He turned around, looking for cover from the direction of the guards’ advance and cursed. For whatever reason, they were avoiding Boris to link up on this side. He had guards coming in spread in a 270-degree arc with no cover that would compensate for his exposure. He was effectively being enveloped now that he’d been spotted and was under continuous fire.
Thinking quickly, he drew his knife and charged the center of the arc. If he took them out and found cover beyond their line, he’d be in a better position. Firing from the hip as he went, he took out four of the guards quickly, shocked at the ease with which he accomplished the body count. He’d never been that accurate firing from the hip on the run before. Also, it was as if the MP5 just didn’t have recoil.
It struck him like a pie in the face. Of course! He’d trained with the rest of the troops since he’d been enhanced but that had been all on the mats. Only unarmed or knife fighting and team tactics. The gun work he’d done since he’d been upgraded were with railguns, not these 9mm lighter pieces. With his improvements, it really was a point and shoot situation. He didn’t notice the recoil because, with his increased strength, there wasn’t enough torque to even be an annoyance.
Running past the corpses of recent kills, he spotted a tree with a rock next to it. Sliding behind the stone, he started picking off the guards moving to flank him with the MP5. They quickly took cover, none of them revealing their heads long enough for him to draw a bead on them. Smart fighters.
Dan took a deep breath, looked around, and assessed his situation. There were more perimeter guards than they had expected. They had already killed five. There were at least eleven more out there firing in his direction.
While they had pinpointed him, their fire was inaccurate and suppressive in nature. They were either hoping he’d make a mistake, or they’d get a lucky hit. They were not advancing to take him out but rather trying to flank him. That might be their best tactic in the circumstance considering the lack of good cover, but it also showed a lack of confidence. They should be leapfrogging, half of the force suppressing him, the other half moving forward. He stopped critiquing like he was the boss and started developing plans.
He wasn’t an average human anymore. It had taken him longer to accept that than John Grimes and the team, probably because of his age. He could take a couple of bullets to his body armor and just keep going. If they flanked him or used grenades, he was in trouble, though. But he could probably move faster than they were used to. It would take time for them to adjust their aim to compensate, especially when leading their target.