Lionel lost his footing and went down hard on the slick pavent.
"Lionel!"
Paki pressed her face against the glass inside the cab, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Child, stay in the truck!"
The old woman shouted too, voice tight with fear.
Lionel didn't hear either of them. He glanced at the two massive monsters still tearing into each other in the distance, then at Luke firing nonstop to keep them distracted. He clenched his jaw.
This was on him. He was the only hope left.
He sucked in a breath, stopped trying to fight the water with brute force, and dropped low. Using his feet to brace against the ground, he crawled forward on his belly, inch by inch toward the outlet.
The holy water kept hamring his open wounds, sending fresh waves of burning pain through him. Sohow it also cleared his head.
Across the street, Jason and Vera had locked into a brutal stalemate.
Jason's fists kept smashing deep craters into her bloated body. Vera answered with ear-splitting shrieks, her massive belly-mouth snapping at him like a living trap.
Jason got his shoulder caught between her jaws. He didn't even flinch. Both hands grabbed the edges of the giant mouth and ripped outward with everything he had.
RRRRIP!
The belly-mouth tore open even wider. Vera scread and slamd Jason into the brick wall of a nearby building. Chunks of masonry exploded outward, but Jason just shook it off and charged right back in.
Luke circled the two giants with his shotgun, firing whenever he saw an opening. The buckshot barely scratched them, but every blast pulled their attention and gave the other fighter a montary edge. He moved like a matador dancing between two enraged bulls—every step balanced on the edge of death.
Lionel slipped again and hit the ground. For a second his dazed brain went blank. Then his eyes landed on the big valve right next to the outlet.
He scrambled over on hands and knees, grabbed the wheel with his one good hand, and twisted with everything he had left. The wet tal refused to turn. His strength was almost gone.
The cab door suddenly flew open.
Paki ignored the shouts behind her and sprinted to his side. She looked him straight in the eyes, voice steady and fierce.
"I'm helping you."
She wrapped both hands around his and they pulled together.
That was when the mangled remains of Freddy—forgotten in the chaos—suddenly lunged. His clawed hand shot straight at Paki's back.
"Watch out!"
Lionel reacted on pure instinct. He swung his severed right arm like a club. The jagged bone spike drove straight through the back of Freddy's clawed hand and pinned it to the ground.
A faint, broken scream ca from the twitching remains. Then nothing.
Creeeak.
The valve finally turned. The holy water stopped spraying.
They didn't waste a second. They slamd the spare hose onto the outlet, then flung the other end toward Luke.
"Nice work!"
Luke caught the hose, snapped the nozzle on, and cranked the valve wide open. A massive fan of holy water roared out and drenched both monsters in a torrential downpour.
"Ti for a bath, freaks!"
Vera let out a blood-curdling shriek as her flesh began dissolving at terrifying speed. She abandoned Jason completely and lurched toward the fire truck, toward her son.
Her grotesque face twisted. In a horrible, gurgling voice she called out.
"Lionel… my baby… co back to Mommy's belly…"
Lionel pulled Paki tight against his side. For the first ti he looked his twisted mother straight in the eye and spoke calmly.
"Mom, I've found real love. Rest in peace."
The mont the words left his mouth, Vera's reaching arm froze in midair. Her enormous body lted away completely under the holy rain.
[Holy Water LV2 (500/2000)]
[Detected: Host has purified a cluster of corrupted souls]
[Absorbing purified soul energy…]
[Physique 0.5]
[Physique: 3.1 (2.6 0.5)]
A rush of warm energy flooded through Luke, wiping away days of exhaustion in an instant.
He turned back to the fight. Jason was still standing.
Thick white smoke poured off the big man's body. New muscle kept forming only to slough away under the constant holy-water barrage. He refused to fall. He simply stood there, taking the punishnt, head slowly lifting until the hockey mask stared straight up at Luke on the truck roof.
Behind the mask, those eyes burned with endless hate.
Then Jason charged—straight through the holy water, straight at Luke, no regard for the damage.
Luke knew holy water alone wouldn't finish this monster fast enough. He shoved the nozzle into Lionel's hands.
"Kid, hold this. Keep it on him!"
Luke rolled his shoulders and sprinted forward to et Jason head-on.
Ti to see exactly how strong he'd gotten.
The two figures collided like freight trains.
BOOM!
Luke staggered back two steps—but he was grinning. Jason had taken far worse. The holy water had already left his flesh soft and fragile. Luke's punch had literally knocked one of Jason's hands clean off.
Jason looked at the stump without expression and kept coming.
Luke was done trading punches. He sidestepped, yanked the shotgun off his back, and swung it like a war hamr. The stock smashed into the side of Jason's masked head with a sickening crunch. The big man's neck snapped sideways and his whole body staggered.
Luke pressed the advantage. He stepped in and brought the shotgun down again and again—brutal, heavy blows that drove Jason to his knees, then flat onto the ground. In seconds the undead killer was reduced to a twitching pile of ruined at.
Luke grabbed the hose, blasted the remains until only bones were left, then gathered them up and tied them into a sack.
He turned toward the mangled lump that had once been Freddy, now trying to crawl away on its one good arm.
"Hmph. You still owe for my truck, and you think you're just gonna slink off?"
The pile of gore sohow managed a broken, pathetic smile.
"Brother… how about I buy you a new one?"
Luke gave a short laugh, grabbed what was left of Freddy by the collar, and hauled him up onto the fire truck. He popped the fill port, dropped the dream demon straight into the full tank of holy water, and slamd the lid shut.
"You goddamn cop! When I crawl out of hell I'm never letting you sleep again!"
Luke ignored the muffled curses bubbling up from inside the tank. He sat down cross-legged on the roof and began reciting from the Bible in a steady, powerful voice.
[Holy Water LV2 (800/2000)]
[Holy Recitation LV2 (500/1000)]
[Detected: Host has banished a demon from hell]
[Absorbing remaining soul energy…]
[Psionic 0.3]
[Psionic: 1.8 (1.5 0.3)]
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