ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 115 The Tunnels of London

Chapter 115

The Tunnels of London

Friday

As Alexa made her way through the destroyed remains of Ealing, she began to see signs that there was a second battle within suburban sprawl. Sure, the first one was done with the dragon, that much was clear, the dragon had truly put a damper on things as it clearly destroyed buildings and structures in its way, structures that could be used to house people of the resistance.

No, what she found unnerving was the silence that such an urban area had. Even with the area long since evacuated, there should have been some sign of people, some token resistance. Going through a barbershop, she found what seemed to be a hidden tunnel entrance to the great tunnel system of London. There in the middle of the floor was a giant overturned barber’s chair that had fallen over and was just lying on its side. While the chair itself wasn’t all that odd, nor was the fact that such a large chair was used to cover an entrance to a secret network of tunnels. No, there was something darker and sinister about the chair, namely that it was covered in drying blood.

The fact that the blood was drying was of particular concern, as it meant that people had been here, recently. Were these people part of the resistance? If so, what happened to them? Were these the people that she and Ryelifa’s war party were supposed to meet up with?

There were a lot of questions.

Healing.

While the life that generated the blood was too old to do anything, she was able to use her magic to confirm a few things. First, she confirmed that the blood was from humans. The second thing she found was that there were multiple victims, men and women both had blood splatter on the floors and walls.

What is going on? She wondered to herself.

In fact, there was so much blood that it took Alexa a moment to notice the most concerning part. The blood, the spray, it all showed signs that people were trying to get out, to leave the tunnels, meaning that whatever had killed these people came from the very tunnels they were using to get closer to the dragon’s nest.

SKRAAH!

The high pitched wine of the dragon speaking in its tongue from a far distance cried out over the city, letting Alexa know that it was still hunting the surviving elves. Though it seemed that the elves weren’t the only monsters left loose to roam the city, as it seemed that something darker had been released in its tunnels.

Alexa was about to move on, the last thing she needed was to face an unknown enemy in addition to the dragons, but then she feltsomething that made her blood run cold with rage. She felt the residual traces of vampiric energy.

Realizing that there were vampires loose in the bowels of the city, hunting humans made a spike of anger flood her mind. Suddenly, the thought of having to deal with the dragon took a backseat to the idea that she needed to enter into the tunnels to eradicate the new menace at its root.

Logically, she knew these vampires likely had a tie with either Ryelifa’s party, or with elves in general, either way they needed to be exterminated. Focusing for a moment, she closed her eyes and used her enhanced senses to tell her where the vampires went after chasing down and slaughtering the humans that tried so desperately to flee them.

What was worse, she didn’t see the bodies of those who were attacked, meaning they were either taken as food, or worse to be turned. Mentally she came up with a few scenarios where the vampires would do either and none of them were good, not for humanity in the present, and especially not for humanity in the future.

If these humans were being turned, then the most likely reason would be that they were going to be the foundation of an army, or they were going to be used as cannon fodder to be sent against the dragon, while the elves went in for the kill. If they were for food, well Alexa didn’t know what that meant, she didn’t know if there was a way that vampires could level from devouring the blood of humans. She did know that consuming more types of blood, and particularly blood infused with power did strengthen the vampires, but Alexa was by no means an expert on what to expect from vampires.

No, the more she thought about this, the more she realized that this act would take immediate priority. With a wave of her hand, she focused her will on the blood and focusing on the Water of the cells, she moved the blood away. If she was going to go hunting vampires, in the confined underground tunnel system of London, then she would need to make sure she didn’t carry any scent of blood on her. Once the path in was clear, she entered and began making her way down.

The tunnel she entered was an odd mixture of concrete and metal rebar. The tunnel itself was a round circular construct that almost seemed like it was designed for a passenger train to ride on, while the rebar on the sides were there to prevent the train car from flying off the tracks too quickly. While Alexa had never seen such a tunnel, she could guess the original purpose of this tunnel system. Not that her guesses for what the tunnels were originally created for changed anything for the moment.

In a matter of seconds, her eyes adjusted to the complete pitch black nature of the tunnel. Then a second after that, the faint glow of magical energy began illuminating the tunnels around her. Looking down, she could see where glowing footsteps of energy walked, the toes of said footstep pointing towards the inside of the city. Even the tracks that were behind her, spoke to heading inward. There were of course a few steps that circled in and around the exit that Alexa had just come through, the one that led up to the now abandoned barbershop and aforementioned knocked over barber’s chair.

Chitter.

Up ahead, she could hear the unmistakable sound of enlarged teeth chattering against each other. Hearing the sound, Alexa could all but imagine the sounds coming from recently turned vampires. People who were trying to get used to their new jaw placement, trying to get used to opening and closing their mouths despite having an extra inch of sharpened teeth to cover.

Realizing this, Alexa hoped that there still might be a chance to save the people, to revert the conversion process. Logically if an action could be taken, then with enough will and force, couldn’t that same action be undone? Unwoven? If it was a simple process of using energy to convert the properties of cells, then logically that could be stopped, also with Alexa’s knowledge of Healing magic, she should be able to purge the corrupted blood from a body. All of this was of course assuming she would be able to arrive early enough to make a difference.

With a goal in mind, Alexa began running down the tunnels.

Clink clop.

Despite her best efforts to remain silent, her large body and weight made it so her steps echoed down the long stretch of tunnel, to where it opened up at the intersection ahead, the intersection where the vampires had apparently set up a staging area.

Chittering, then silence.

Almost as if hitting the mute button, the sounds coming from up ahead all stopped, as suddenly a wave of monsters all turned their attention towards the tunnel. In her mind Alexa imagined this to be the equivalent of a school of sharks all tasting the same drop of blood in the water and turning as one to face the wounded creature. While there could be a few similarities drawn between vampires and sharks, the most obvious of which would be the large groups of predators and their overgrown sets of teeth. However, that would be where the comparisons would end. Unlike a wounded sea creature, Alexa was neither injured, nor was she in danger of the number one problem facing one person who set out against a pack of monsters. Namely, she didn’t have to worry about being surrounded, while her movement was greatly hindered by her large size and the small tunnels, so too were the actions of the oncoming vampires.

For a pack of vampires, their number one strength would of course be the ability to flank, overcome and overpower any enemy. But being in such a small tunnel meant that only one vampire could advance at a time. Realizing this, it was the faster and stronger vampires that pushed their weaker counterparts out of the way. As the first blood of any target tasted the sweetest, as it was the blood filled with the most life energy, the energy needed to advance and level the quickest as a vampire. That was why such pains were made to find and track down new victims.

Sniff.

The vampires took in deep whiffs of the air, but were surprised that they smelled nothing. Alexa’s Scentless Stride made it so vampires and other creatures had a harder time telling her location. In this case, her masked scent was hindered by the fact that she all but radiated life energy. This only served to cause commentary confusion on the part of the vampires that were fighting for food in the underground tunnels. This was fine for Alexa as she began infusing her fists and body with Arcane energy.

Whoom!

In a second, the completely darkened tunnels began glowing with a bright glow that temporarily blinded the charging vampires that pulled up their hands to block the light from their momentarily blinded eyes.

Wham!

Alexa used that second, that one brief opening to deliver a devastating strike to the chest. Punching her burning fist into the chest and sternum of the lead vampire and then forcing their body back into the oncoming tide of monsters. There was a momentary pause, at which point Alexa used her Telekinesis to help push the bodies back.

Splat.

The body of the lead vampire collapsed as they were caught between Alexa’s near four and a half tons of force being ushed forward, while the wave of vampires tried to push their way forward from behind. What happened next was an opposition of force and pressures that caused the body of the lead vampire to burst at the seams as glowing black blood sprayed forth.

Chitter.

Instantly the smell of fresh energy, was smelled by the vampires as their animal instincts began taking over. Even the recently turning vampires began to go wild at the smell of fresh, powerful, vampire blood filled the tunnel. This only served to cause more confusion, as some vampires began lunging to the sides, towards the spots where the blood had splattered. Those that lunged were in turn both trampled over by their own kind trying to charge forward towards Alexa, and the body that was being used as a vampire-shield, as well as Alexa’s Telekinetic push that was unrelenting in its force.

Focusing her will, Alexa made it so the Telekinetic  force pushing everyone back went from being focused solely on the dead and crushed vampire, to a shield of protection that covered most of the tunnel.

Step, push, crunch.

Of course, Alexa didn’t make it so her will covered the entire tunnel, as she wanted to whittle down the throng of monsters charging at her, so she left gaps. Tiny holes that the vampires had to first find, then claw their way through.

Slithering on the ground, they first flattened themselves, breaking flexible bones in order to crawl their way under the invisible Telekinetic barrier. This of course was what Alexa wanted, as she made her way forward to the emerging bodies, and then with an Arcane infused foot stomped down on the skulls of the wretched skittering monsters.

Pop!

The sound of brain and gore splattering against the floor could be heard making a sick echoing pop. Yet, all this did was give Alexa more energy to absorb, more energy to feed off of. In this case, she was the hunter, the vampires that she was hunting just didn’t realize it. Worse, those that could see her, the ones that appeared truly frightened by her glowing malicious smile only noticed as they were pinned into place, as more and more of the cursed beings charged forward, pinning them in place as they watched the monster moving forward, relentlessly pushing her way through the squirming mass of monsters. Monsters that had been left unchecked to grow and feed in the under ground tunnels of London. Monsters that had all been created as a way to likely keep the human population in check, while also giving the elves a hefty police force to wield once the Integration began.

After the first wave of vampires was over, Alexa noticed a change in the appearance of the foul creatures, the ears changed. The body conditions changed. The vampires went from being thin gangly creatures, to larger sized with rounded ears. Seeing these Alexa knew she had finally made her way from the vanguard of creatures, to those that were converted humans. While it was almost impossible to tell when some of the creatures had been changed, many exhibiting signs of power far beyond that that mortals should have after just a few days, they were still there. The signs were all there.

With the human vampires, Alexa changed her tactics, rather than ruthlessly slaughtering these, she decided to cripple instead. Rather than aiming for the head, she stomped down on the shoulders, back, and groin, opting to disable rather than kill. Vampires were by their very nature notoriously hard to kill, their Regeneration allowing them to heal from near any wound so long as two factors were considered, time and energy. Time was needed for all wounds, as Regeneration could only work so quickly. The second and most important aspect was energy, as would be expected powers like Regeneration required a massive amount of energy to work and sustain. The more areas that required attention, the more she forced the bodies of the monsters to split their maximum healing potential over multiple areas all at once. This just went to make it so the time needed to heal all of the wounds would take longer. Time was something Alexa needed, as her next plan for retaking London would require people.

Stomp, crackle, pop.

Bones, blood, and carnage were all that remained. Once the initial onslaught was over, the amount of resistance Alexa felt gradually decreased, until finally she was able to walk her way back and over the bodies of the human vampires and freshly turned vampyres alike. None were cognizant enough to go against their base need for infused blood, for the power that came from consuming the blood of more powerful foes, and older vampires that had made the final transition from potential candidate, to true slave of the elves.

It was the vampyres that Alexa was the most gentle towards, that is, if one could consider just breaking the legs and arms of such creatures gentle. Still these were the times they were living in, a sign of how far she would need to go, if she was going to protect mankind. With the different levels of monsters disabled, she once again went into the tunnel and this time lowered her Telekinetic shield and began scraping and pulling the different bodies forward, so they would all be within range of her next power.

Scahh!

Hiss.

The monsters made pitiful wailing sounds, sounds that only desperate monsters could make while trying to survive. Monsters that had gone against something far more terrible and now realized that true death was imminent, but still fought on to survive nonetheless. Seeing their base instincts, Alexa couldn’t help but feel that the vampires were a truly perfect monster, relentless even in death. If this was a sign of what was to come, then she would need to do more, which is why she took moments like this to fix things.

Focusing her will, she began focusing on the idea of the power word in her mind. Focusing on everyone here, she began channeling the full weight of her power into this one word, this one thought. This was the equivalent of a channeled spell, one that required almost all of her energy wells to be drained. While casting this had gotten easier the more she did it, it still required time to execute. Just as Kelvin had taken time to formulate his power word, this one was not something she could do on a whim. This was part of why she had made sure to disable every monster first, before even attempting this as this would take all of her concentration.

Golden lights began to glow in front of her, as her magical energies were being compressed and solidified into one true form.

Glah!

More vampires sawn the light from distant tunnels and seemed compelled to cry out and come to the light. This was fine, as Alexa was certain she could get it off before the other vampires she had apparently missed arrived.

Slah!

More monsters hissed and cried out from distant interconnected tunnels. However Alexa didn’t let the threat of impending doom stop her, she didn’t take back her energy in an attempt to defend herself from possible incoming attacks. Instead, she focused on her current method.

With a pause, she held onto the form, filling it until it was completely full and ready to be wielded. Then she paused.

Silence.

It seemed that the vampires could either smell the carnage or were hesitant to come towards the blinding light. In fact, many of the vampires and vampyres alike that were around her all shielded their eyes and turned their heads away from the blinding light. Seeing that, Alexa realized she would have to use her one trump card, then wait to see what would happen next.

Taking one deep breath, she calmed herself then spoke into being the word she had been holding in place for so long.

“Hope.”

Whoosh!

“Scrah!”

There was a burst of blinding golden light for a moment, as dozens of vampires cried out in pain. The burst of light even caused the vampires that had been waiting off in the side tunnels to cry out in pain.

There was a moment of silence as the light died down and Alexa’s eyes slowly switched back to their Night Sight capability. Then just as her eyes shifted back to being able to see everything properly, it seems that the vampires that had been waiting were also finally able to see as well, as the vampires that had been waiting in ambush all charged forward as one.

Clink, clop.

Dozens of sets of feet stomped and trampled their way forward, as Alexa prepared for herself to be surrounded on not just one, but two sides now.

Still despite the odds, Alexa couldn’t help but let a smile fill her face as she prepared for round two.