Chapter 192 - A Bitter Massacre

Karl deconstructed his trap so they could deal with this room similarly to how they had the other. Sure enough, there were indeed Fiends hiding inside... Only problem was the storage room was more like a storage closet, as soon as Afton tossed a rock inside four Fiends tried to make a break for it.

One was immediately shot dead by Boone who was observing from afar, but the others seemed to be off their rockers, foaming at the mouth with randomly roaming eyes. Whatever drugs they'd taken in there made them for similar to zombies than actual humans.​​

Karl quickly raised his LMG and started spraying them with bullets, annihilating two of them who, even while pumped up on every chem you can imagine, still can't function without complete heads or vital organs.

Afton dealt with the last one, smacking them over the head with Lucky, pistol-whipping them to their knee's before following it up with yet another smack with the butt of his gun. They fall over, dizzy but not yet unconscious. There wasn't really any reason to take prisoners, so he just pointed the gun at their head disinterestedly, making sure to get the extra point for his challenge.

[Blind Fire : Shoot the eye's of your enemies : 3/100]

After reloading their weapons and making sure there wasn't any more threats. Afton took a look in the storage room and quickly had his suspicions confirmed. The Fiends had swapped out the original intended use for this room and instead filled it to the brim with many chems... The four Fiends that attacked them weren't every occupant of the room, there were around six others who'd all apparently overdosed.

In fact, most of the chems had already been used, when the Fiends retreated, these guys didn't follow the rest, instead wishing to get high as fuck before they were presumably executed. Afton just sighs to himself, whatever the case, it saved him the trouble of killing them.

The group looked around a bit more but there weren't any Fiends left in this part of the sewer system, allowing them to claim their spoils of war. True to Karl's word, some of the NCR troopers were looking at the loot greedily, but had their minds 'changed' after seeing Afton go around severing the ears off of the dead Fiends.

The ears were worth 2 caps each, and with the amount they'd likely run into it wouldn't hurt to make some extra money aside from the main bounty. Of course, ears weren't the only thing they looted, the Fiends had a variety of weaponry that they could sell, most of which was heavily damaged and almost broken, but it'd still sell... Especially if you add Afton's [Mechanicus] Perk into the mix... Though, he'd need to come up with a way of explaining the sudden change to the weapons to his companions... Perhaps saying he stayed up all night to fix them up would work?

Regardless, the group had to keep moving. They hadn't come down to the sewers to help the NCR with their 'pest problem'. In-fact, their intervention here might spell bad news for them, as a few of the Fiends had retreated presumably to report back what'd happened here... That'd essentially put them on high alert and make them very aware of the sewer entrances.

Afton shakes his head, it was too late to worry about that now, he'd need Karl to lead to check for traps due to this...

The group leave the NCR troopers to their posts and continue onwards... To be honest, it was fortunate that Afton owned a Pipboy, otherwise they'd have undoubtedly gotten lost in the maze-like sewers... It was unlike the sewers under Freeside, the tunnels weren't straight, but winded up, down, left, right, and back onto themselves. It was as if someone was trying to make this place as impossible to navigate as possible.

The Fiends seemed to have gotten a good sense for where everything was though, as they'd stumbled onto more than enough camps of them. All of which seemed very aware that the group was stalking through the sewers and shooting at everything that moved.

Eventually the smaller Fiend groups start looking for others, banding together into a larger one and retreating to make a final stand... As strange as it was for three people to scare hundreds, the Fiends saw the group as the Harbingers of Death. Any who encountered them were lucky to escape with their lives, this was likely exacerbated by the large volumes of chems they were taking, making them more susceptible to psychological warfare.

In-fact, it had gotten so bad that Afton had received a title for it...

[Title acquired due to a group's accumulation of negative emotions towards you! : Fiend's Fiend]

[Fiend's Fiend] : You strike fear into every weak-willed Fiend you encounter! +20% Damage and Crit chance against Fiends. Truth be told, the title wasn't all that helpful as he one-shot most Fiends he fought anyway...

Eventually the group had tracked the congregation of Fiends to one of the sewers exits... Only to find that the exit was blocked off by some sort of reinforced metal wall? The large group of Fiends didn't seem to know why is were there either, judging by their shouts of terror, the wall hadn't been there previously...

This could mean a whole litany of things, but Afton suspected it might have had something to do with the switch he'd flipped in the maintenance room. He didn't know what purpose the wall served, but it had proved helpful in stopping the Fiends reporting the happenings in the sewer to their superiors, possibly allowing them safe passage towards their bounty.

But, before all of that, they had a huge group of terrified Fiends to deal with... Was it sadistic and probably evil to kill all these people? Probably. But Afton couldn't think of a more fitting fate for cannibalistic rapists, and murderers.

Karl hefted his LMG and pointed it at the group while Boone and Afton did the same. Without hesitation they immediately opened fire on the unaware group. Riddling them with holes as they feebly try to retaliate.

The Fiends had presumably been trying to lift the metal wall to get past it, causing them all to be in one vulnerable group. Most weren't even able to shoot at them as they were behind other Fiends, causing Afton's firing line to cut most of the group down in a scary amount of time.

Karl had reloaded twice, and everyone had done so significantly more... Once they stopped firing all that was left were many corpses and what could amount to a river of blood. Since the sewers weren't even really functional anyway, the blood streamed down the tunnel, heading towards the NCR's position... Afton didn't know whether he was evil for smirking at the thought of their shocked faces.

[Perk upgraded! Lord Death v2 400/400 kills]

[Lord Death v3 0/800 kills]

[Lord Death v2] : Deal an extra +2% damage to all enemies. Huh, seems like the number of kills needed doubles each time... Afton wondered if there was a max limit to this skill, or if he could just keep stacking the bonus damage... Could he increase it so much that a single punch would kill a Deathclaw? That'd be coo-

His thought is interrupted by Boone who was bent over next to the sewer wall while vomiting, Karl patting his back comfortingly... Had he been poisoned or something?