The Fall of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 2) (64 page)

His eyes dilated in the purest of agony. He opened his mouth to scream. Nothing came out. He had no power to scream when Yoori finished the attack by stabbing into his neck and hitting a jugular vein.
 Nothing but blood sprayed onto her once she pulled the knife out of his neck.

She stared into his eyes, watching
him take his final breath. 

No guilt overcame her. Just satisfaction.
 

She let go and allowed his heavy figure to fall lifelessly to the ground with a big thud.
 It was easy. It was 
that
 easy to kill a piece of shit. She turned her blood-splattered face over to the ten remaining men. They were gaping at the scene before them in horror.

The curve of a small smile appeared on her lips. It was like a part of her had just been woken up; it was like a part of her just surged with life.

One down.

Ten more to go.
 

“Let’s play.”
 

Snapped out of his trance before the others, one pulled a knife from behind his back.

“You bitch!” he screamed, determined to slit her throat. He made the same mistake as his leader, thinking he could take her down by fighting her with a measly knife. He was no match for her. 

Running as well, Yoori easily jumped off a step for a boost. She flew in the snow filled air, kicked the side of the alley wall and spun toward him. She extended her leg out and kicked him down just before he reached her.
 His skull collided with the ground after he fell backward. When Yoori landed back down, she made sure the heels of her boots slammed down onto his fingers. Sounds of bones cracking spilled into the air with his screams. 

“You…” she said gravely, staring down at his petrified face. “
All
of you will pay for everything that you did.”

She reached down and stabbed the side of his face, cutting through the skin and effectively cutting off an ear. She recalled he was one of the ones who wanted to go back to see Chae Young.
 For good measure, she pulled the knife out, grabbed the back of his head, and pounded his face into the alley wall. She bashed his head three times – once to break his nose, twice to break his forehead and the third to turn his face into mush. His blood sprayed onto her and she smiled. His blood wasn’t enough. She wanted more.

When Yoori was satisfied, she threw his screaming body to the floor. She stood to her feet and anxiously watched as the rest charged for her.
 

“You fucking bitch! I’m going to shoot your brains out!”

The two ahead of the pack were smarter than the previous two. Instead of deeming her to be someone they could easily overpower with the force of a knife, they pulled out their black guns to shoot her down instead. The rest were running behind them, seemingly afraid to use their guns as they might fire on their own. 

Idiots,
she thought with a smile.

Reacting quickly while dodging the bullets, Yoori grabbed two knives from the ground. She strategically raised her arms, recoiled them backward, and threw the knives straight toward each of the men. The sharpness of the tip pierced into the bull’s eye of their foreheads, sending them to brutally snap their necks backward before their lifeless bodies fell to the ground.
 

Seven more remained.

More shots came in her direction.

“Augh!”
 The bullets ricocheted off the walls of the alley, slicing through Yoori’s arm and slicing off her skin. The heat of the pain ripped through her but she couldn’t waste time tending to her wounds. She still had bastards to kill. 

She retreated back to grab the guns from the fallen men behind her. Yoori wiped away the splatters of blood that were streaming down her face and grabbed the guns. She wasted no time in raising her guns.
 There was nothing to grow accustomed to. To Yoori, holding the guns and knives just felt right.

Like the focus lens on a sniper gun, she narrowed her eyes onto them and began to shoot. The bullets flew out chaotically, yet it met her targets with precision.
  The bullets went into kneecaps, buried into arms, punctured into chests, shot off pieces of ears and shot off fingers that held guns. 

Pain.

She was determined to give them pain and torture before they died
.
 

One by one, they fell, their blood and the flesh from their bodies garnishing the snow. They groaned in agony.
 

It was funny how, even then, Yoori felt like she was showing them mercy
.
They would never know that she could do worse than all of this.

“You will
 
never
 touch her again.” That was the last thing Yoori said before she relished in their screams and began to fire at their heads. The gunshots sounded off, causing sprays of blood and particles of brain tissue to fly into the snow drenched sky. The rage pumped in her veins and she glorified in the scene in front of her. Death surrounded her and for the first time this morning, Yoori felt…satisfaction. 

The time to revel in this feeling ended when a loud sound elicited in the alley, leaving Yoori distracted with new company.
 

Clearly having heard all the commotion from outside, the door to one of the building
s burst open. Three more gang members came out with AK-47’s in their hands. Their eyes grew wide at the carnage before them and with no hesitation, they began to shoot at Yoori.

She instinctively fell to the floor. She picked up two of the fallen men and shielded their bodies over her. The bullets slammed into their bodies
and she tried to think of what to do next. It was like the strength had left her after killing those eleven men.

Now, she was just Yoori again
.

Now, she was defenseless again.
 

The continuous firing of the three guns penetrated the silence around them.

These two bodies could only hold off the bullets for so long. She could hear their descending footsteps as they came closer to her. Just another foot closer and they’d have a good aim at her and her brains would be blown out.

When all was lost and it seemed that it was due time for Yoori to meet the bullets, three gunshots roared into the alleyway.

The three men died instantly. Their faces buried head first in the snow when they fell to the ground. 

She was saved.

Yoori turned. Her eyes widened when she saw Tae Hyun walking into the alleyway like a dark knight.

He was wearing black from head to toe. A black zip up jacket, black pants and black leather shoes. The snow danced around him. Yoori gazed at the two silver guns in his hands. It was clear he was the one who shot those men.

“Yoori.” He was beside her at once. He placed his guns on the snow. He framed a hand over her cheek. The softness returned to his once hard features. His gentle eyes skimmed over her in worry. “Are you okay?”

Yoori shook under his touch, still reeling from everything that happened to her. Before answering him, Yoori’s ears perked up when she heard sounds of shuffling. More gang members were coming and they were getting closer.
 

“Tae Hyun, there’s more—!”

“Keep them covering you,” he ordered, already knowing that there were more on their way. His enhanced hearing was as good as hers. 

He picked up his guns from the snow and sprinted toward the door where more gang members were piling out with knives and guns in their possessions.
 

Yoori’s heart dropped when she saw that there were
also snipers on the roof. They were lying across the foundation, getting into position to shoot Tae Hyun just as he was fighting the dozens of men whom were barreling into the alley like a hound of dogs. Yoori was ready to run out and help him until she saw that he was more than capable of taking care of himself.

Jumping in the air while kicking down three men with a powerful spin kick, Tae Hyun raised his guns in the air and began shooting at the snipers who loitered on each side of the buildings.
 

The impressive part?

He didn’t need to focus his eyes on them when he shot them. He was too busy sweeping his leg on the ground, creating a tornado of snow in the air and throwing several gang members off their feet. He didn’t focus his eyes on the snipers, yet one by one, in sequential order, six of the snipers fell like deadweights to the ground. 

“You shouldn’t have messed with my girlfriend,” Tae Hyun growled just as he punched several eyeballs out. He was clearly pissed that she had to resort to hiding behind dead carcasses as her shield from their bullets. “You just made the biggest mistake of your lives.”
 

While shooting upward, Tae Hyun was also kicking and elbowing each of the gang members charging at him, skillfully maneuvering around their swiping knives. There were a couple of gunshots that sprang into the alley but, each time, Yoori only heard sounds of other men groaning. Tae Hyun had allotted opportunities for himself to use others around him as shields. Seizing their arms and throwing others in front of him, they all began to stab, slit throats, and buried bullets into one another while Tae Hyun acted as their puppet master.

He shot upward again, this time shooting the last remaining snipers who had just taken a swipe at him, slicing off skin from his shoulder and piercing the heart of a gang member beside him.

“Who the fuck are you?” one shouted just before Tae Hyun bashed his head against the wall. Bones cracked and his face turned to mush at the powerful impact.
 

“Your fucking King,” Tae Hyun answered regally, performing a roundhouse kick to three gang members while aiming his guns upward. Another sniper bullet had just missed him.
He threw his guns high into the air after he shot them. While doing this, Tae Hyun grabbed the heads of the gang members surrounding him with his unoccupied hands and began to snap their necks like twigs. 

One…two…five…eight…
 

He successfully snapped eight necks apart before his guns fell back into the safety of his awaiting hands.
 

Once the last remaining snipers tumbled from the sky and fell onto several gang members on the ground, Tae Hyun averted his full attention to the dozens still standing before him.
 With no more evasions or distractions, Tae Hyun began to shoot at them, alternating each time by jumping onto alley walls and firing bullets from the air. The bullets plunged into the top of their heads. Once his heels fell back onto the foundations of earth, he began delivering bone-crushing blows with his elbows and the backend of his silver guns. 

Yoori was in awe as she analyzed all his moves. His reflexes and agility were to be envied…even by Yoori, who realized what a challenging opponent he would be if she were to wage a battle with him.
 

In the alley with Jae Won’s gang, when Yoori was first given a taste of Tae Hyun in action, she realized now that Tae Hyun was showing mercy when he fought with the Dragons gang. Considering what she was seeing now, she knew he could’ve easily overpowered Jae Won’s gang. He could’ve easily been more vicious…

The last sound of gunshots, breaking of bones, and snapping of necks swam into the once hectic alley, stealing Yoori out of her trance. The world around them was quiet again as dozens upon dozens of bodies laid in the alley like a river of death.

Tae Hyun was done.
 

Averting his attention back to her, Tae Hyun stuffed his guns into the holsters behind his back and ran back to Yoori. There were splatters of blood on his face and body.
 She wasn’t even fazed by the fact that he just murdered countless people in front of her.

That
should’ve been Yoori’s first clue that something was changing within her because all she felt was relief that he was okay. When he came closer, she noticed that he had some bruises on his face. She examined him. There were knife wounds on his upper body and his legs as well. He may have come out of the battle victorious, but he definitely hadn’t come out unscathed.

“Yoori.”
 

As Tae Hyun stood above her, his face gentle with her as ever, Yoori suddenly realized something…
 

She lowered her eyes onto the snow when she
 finally felt the blood drip off her face. The blood didn’t belong to her. It was only after she surveyed the scene before her did it all come together for her…

It was like an out of body experience
.

Akin to waking up from a stupor, Yoori’s eyes expanded when she stared at the bodies she was using to cover her. She peered at the dead men behind her and gazed at the blood covering her hands. She touched the splatters of blood on her face. A gasp ran through her soul. She just killed…She just
 killed all eleven of them.

A scream emitted from her lips and she started to gasp for air.
 “I just – I just killed—!”

“Shh, it’s okay, Yoori. It’s okay.” She felt Tae Hyun crouch beside her. He whispered calming words to soothe h
er, yet she heard none of it. She closed her eyes and covered her muffled screams. What did she just do?