Death - Fall size

His entire face seeming to burn with a sudden inner light, War scooped up the ammunition clips and jammed them into his belt. He hefted the Redemption cannon inelegantly with one arm, then knelt beside each of the fallen angels collecting yet more of the clips. Ordering Ruin to follow behind, he strode out into the hallway, listening carefully until he felt he’d located the largest concentration of guards on the floor above. The cannon alone wasn’t powerful enough for what he had in mind, but then, he wasn’t using the cannon alone.

Standing some few paces back, he tossed one of the clips in a gentle arc and, just as it hung in the air directly beneath the enemy, opened fire.

From that point on, it was more a massacre than a battle.

On each floor, War blasted through the ceiling above, taking the enemy by surprise and, as often as not, killing a great many in the initial explosion. On occasion, the thick stone prevented him from hearing the footsteps on the next level, but Ruin’s more sensitive ears never failed him.

The building did not boast all that many guards. Still, had every angel in the building converged on him at once, they might have stood a chance. Most were determined to stand fast at their posts, however, so that was where they died.

By the time War found what he sought, roughly two-thirds of the way through the building’s many floors, the structure’s outer walls contained as much debris as they did intact rooms and halls. War stalked down a wobbling corridor, stepping over chunks of stone and chunks of angel, his armor scratched and smoking from those few shots he hadn’t managed to avoid. Acrid smoke swirled in his wake, leaving trails of soot where it passed.

***

Chapter 9