[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6it2Rjl.png[/img]

[i][b]Location: Smithy's drug and grocery store, Las Vegas 

Time: Evening[/b][/i][/center]

Katarina picked up the scent of the new arrivals long before they began their attack. Human blood - such a warm, inviting scent, though she knew these were no ordinary humans - from the rumbling of the engines of their vehicles outside, they meant business. Katarina had had time to familiarise herself with the basics of American society whilst she was around Ben - movies, TV, et cetera. And she knew that humans of the modern day loved nothing more than one thing in a fight; the gun. The guns of today were rapid-firing, able to shoot many different types of bullet, and they were unerringly accurate, unlike the old muskets and flintlock pistols of her era. Kat had had a brush with one of those types prior to this engagement - during her breakout at the museum, when the two security guards attempted to stop her, firing their ineffectual bullets that simply rebounded off her mighty undead flesh. These chaps, though, weren't likely to be quite as easy to take down as the previous types. She could hear their rapid, frantic breathing, their hearts pounding in their chests - hell, she could even hear their blood coursing through their bodies. And so it was, when they gave the order to commence the assault, Katarina was ready. Before even the first grenade had smashed through a window, Katarina had dived for cover behind a nearby aisle, expecting her world to light up before her in a cloud of flame and smoke. She got one, but not much of the other. "[b][color=921111][i]Rauchgranaten![/i][/color][/b]" she yelled as the sound of smashing windows and the staccato bark of semi-automatic assault rifle fire filled the air, with clouds of acrid smoke quickly expanding and smothering every corner of the shop. The screams of the poor wretched humans as these new interlopers fired at them - Katarina noted it was [i]at[/i] them, not over their heads - quickly drowned out even the deafening shouts and shrieks of rage and surprise that the rest of their group had met this assault with. 

Katarina, in contrast, met this attack with icy stoicism. She knew that the largest concentration of the interlopers were at the front of the shop, and likely would have very poor knowledge of where she was - unless they had that strange green vision she'd watched on TV - in the dark back of the shop. Which meant that she had the advantage over them, especially whichever poor [i]untermenschen[/i] thought it was a good idea to try and flank them and attack the group from the rear - where she was. She noticed that one of the wolves had taken a bullet already in the immediate volley of fire that had greeted their own response. [i]Don't shout and scream, for God's sake, they'll know where you are![/i] she thought, clenching her teeth in frustration and pent-up rage. And then, she noticed two of the blood signatures were moving towards the rear of the grocery shop. Exactly as she thought - their mission was to surround them, block off any chance of escape, and add to the confusion inside. Kat shoved several of the panicked shoppers to the ground, holding a finger to her lips. It was better for them, and for her, if they just [i]stayed the fuck down[/i]. The two that she had earmarked were now close to the rear door... she could smell their fear, their anticipation... what she couldn't hear, however, was the 10 pounds of C4 explosive they had planted on the rear security door to blow it in. Nor could she hear the countdown of the explosives timer... which meant that five long, arduous seconds later, Kat had no idea of the force that was about to strike her.

The door exploded. Instead of it remaining in one piece however, the door splintered, fragments of razor-sharp steel shrapnel hurled everywhere at a frightening speed. The unfortunate shoppers stood no chance. One fragment of shrapnel sliced the head clean off of one shopper huddled next to Kat, bright crimson spraying all across the shoppers nearby, the products on the shelves, and of course, the blood-starved vampire that also just happened to be standing right beside them. Another piece of shrapnel embedded itself in a light fitting, sparks and crackling flying all about, adding yet more acrid smoke and bright lights to an already deafening cacophony of noise, and morass of sights, sounds and smells. Another shopper was disembowelled by another fragment of shrapnel, bloodied intestines spilling out from their sizeable stomach whilst another fountain of crimson liquid sprayed all across the tiled floor. The rear of the shop was quickly turning into a charnel pit. The gunmen at the rear door then followed up, not with staccato semi-automatic fire as they had done so before, but with long bursts of automatic gunfire, hosing down random shoppers with bullets. One fell to the ground next to Kat with a strangled, blood-choked cry of pain, chunks of flesh roughly torn from the person's back where the bullets had struck home.

These fuckers meant business. Unluckily for them, so did Kat.

She had escaped injury from the explosion's shrapnel, but she was still momentarily stunned from the shockwave. However, this she quickly shook off. She bared her fangs in rage, and leapt at the closest soldier, closing the distance in a fraction of a second, perhaps even too quickly for him to comprehend. Her fingernails were like talons, her blood-soaked clothes fuelling her furious assault with the iron-rich smell of humanity's greatest prize. The soldier buckled as she drove her elbow into his throat, collapsing to the ground, wracked with debilitating coughs. Crucially, his assault rifle was on the ground, not in his hands. The other soldier was a problem though. He had had time to turn his attention to her, and was about to raise his weapon to attack. "[b][i][color=921111]Stirb, Abschaum![/color][/i][/b]" Though it was in German, the message was clear. She dashed over to him, but in the split fraction of a second it took for her muscles to tense and for her body to leap into action, the soldier was able to fire off a shot. The bullet impacted Kat directly on the right breast, a spear of agonising hot lead driven through her chest cavity. She was momentarily stopped by the force of the impact, but she couldn't halt her momentum, and she rammed into the second soldier with her shoulder, crushing his ribcage and flinging the soldier against the rear wall of the shop. The soldier's head impacted a split second later than his body, the head whipping back and cracking audibly against the wall, blood spattering across the painted plaster. Kat sank to her knees,  gingerly feeling at her bullet wound... this one had actually hit her, it had actually penetrated her skin... They had some kind of anti-magic field protecting the area, which had rendered her unholy protection moot. But... it had not hindered her undead constitution, for no sooner had she probed the area of the bullet injury, than the wound began to close. She staggered back to her feet, stumbling over to the coughing soldier. His helmet had began to fill with blood - evidently the injury that he had sustained was slightly more... debilitating than Kat had given the man credit for. A fractured larynx. Not going to heal in seconds, unlike [i]her[/i] injuries. She decided to exact revenge on this one.

She picked the soldier up by the legs. He began to flail around, his heartbeat rocketing as he panicked in sheer helplessness and fear. [i]"N-No! P-Please, no!"[/i] he was able to stammer out of his helmet as Kat began to wrench the man's legs apart. And then, only then, did he realise what Kat was doing. A final, strangled plea for his miserable life escaped his lips.

Kat ignored him, and lifted him above her head, only to wrench his whole body in half. She began to laugh. And laugh. And laugh...

"[i][b][color=921111]Das leben ist gut, meine Freunde! Das leben ist gut!"[/color][/b][/i]

[hr]

Rauchgranaten - smoke grenades
untermensch - scum, sub-human
Stirb, Abschaum - Die, scum
Das leben ist gut, meine Freunde - Life is good, my friends