Chapter 11 Part 1 of 4 (Patreon)

Four days quickly passed in the under-city as the Special teams and Edmond’s party rested and upgraded their gear to fit the situation.

“Stealth and mana gathering formations,” Erik said, checking the formation stack attaching it to the stack harness on his leg, much like a drop-leg holster.

“The less we have to fight the better, we have much ground to cover and little time in which to do it.” Egbert said. He was wearing Alvan Army caster robes and armor, with stacks on either leg and a stack backpack, allowing him to carry four stack formations within.

He pulled on a helmet, the fire of his eyes illuminating them from behind.

Erik checked his rifle seating a magazine into it and pulling on the cocking handle.

He looked around the room, George was wearing his battle armor, Davin was holding a mages staff carved from red gem that warmed the surrounding area. Rugrat checked his rifle and looked over.

“Well, lets do this.”

They grouped up with the others and moved to the front of the tower. All of them had Piercer blood on them to ward off the dropping creatures.

Esther and a Special Team member ran out across to a half-broken building, watching the area, the next group ran past them to another point further on.

So it went with them making a line across the broken area in the direction that Edmond had pointed out.

Erik ran with Egbert, they raced past the groups and into the denser building cover.

They moved through the city in such a fashion.

They bypassed roaming Chimora.

Kameela spotted a Jorken hiding underneath a broken building, its pods spread out just below the ground. There was only a slight disturbance where the vine passed to show where the pods hid, waiting for a victim.

They circled through several broken buildings and continued onwards.

They were crossing a main street in twos when a group of Chimora noticed them.

The Special team members threw out meat keeping up their progress. The Chimora went quiet as they fought over the scraps.

They’d be cute if their screams didn’t mean death.

Roska signalled back as they all ducked into buildings.

Erik had hist rifle up as he leaned against a broken wall inside the building. Egbert beside him, peering over the broken wall.

A growl cut down the street, followed by others.

A group of Rin with their weapons at the ready loped down the road, looking around. The smaller demi-humans and their Benir Descendents following behind.

One jostled another, crashing into another building, causing it to collapse. It shook free of the building and they continued running in the direction of the Chimora.

They grew distant as Erik relaxed and started pushing

Wait they have their own Chimora following.

The screeches rang out and the Rin roars came from behind.

“Shit.” Erik and Egbert moved to the front of the building.

“Engage them!”

Erik looked down the street the Benir were trying to turn, smashing into the buildings on either side.

The team opened up with their rifles and threw grenades into the creatures.

They died under the fire, blocking the other Benir and Rin.

A Rin jumped over a Benir, hit with multiple rounds it was pushed back, faint wounds on its body before two grenades went off beside the Rin, smashing them through a building and out of view.

Formation-less guns are too weak down here.

“Aussie peel-back!”Roska yelled.

Those at the rear turned and ran toward the front, passing others, then the second last, then the third.

They retreated up the street as a red Rin jumped onto a wall and landed on the street.

He hit the ground, gouts of flame shooting through the broken street and cracking the buildings on either side.

George roared and hit the ground, he sent a blast of fire back in his direction and halted the progress of the cracks as more Rin used the buildings to climb over the trapped Benir.

They shrugged off the incoming fire, it slowed them but didn’t stop them, the grenades the only thing to leave lasting damage.

George’s attack struck the fiery Rin, defeating his fire coated spear. Rugrat’s rifle fired, piercing and eye and making a yellow Rin’s head snap backwards.

“Aim for the eyes their skin is hardened!” Rugrat yelled.

“Last man!” A team member ran past Erik, hitting him on the shoulder.

One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi.

Erik felt the heat of George’s passing fire attacks, melting stone as he fired at the eyes of the Rin who were covering their faces with their raised arms. Kameela’s rifle thundered, taking out another Rin, more were falling under the weight of fire.

“Go!”

Erik grabbed Egbert, turning and running as fast as possible, letting him go as they ran down the street.

Erik slapped the next man on the shoulder, shooting past him.

“Last man!”

He ran on to the next.

“Second last man!”

The Rin were pushing forward under the attacks.

“Hit them with an arrow Egbert!,” Roska ordered.

Egbert grabbed an arrow, notched it and fired it. The mana stone was larger than before.

The mana stone shot down the road, making the Rin lower their arms, it pierced one Rin and stuck into another behind them.

The mana was drawn into their body.

The other Rin roared and ran forward to attack the teams.

“Looks like they’re smart enough to know where it came from!” Erik ran past George and on to the rest of the team that were keeping the road clear.

“The piercers aren’t!”

Erik glanced back to see piercers smash into the Rin, they fell in the dozens, the distracted Chimora, eating the Benir fallen didn’t make a noise as the leading Green Rin was nailed to the floor. They fell like a heavy rain, crashing into builings and using their waving walk to get close to the Rin absorbing the mana stone.

The piercers hit the ground where the last group were shooting from, spraying them in dust as their aprons covered the ground.

They shot point blank into the piercer’s head.

Killing the creature.

“Last two, pull back! Double time it!” Roska yelled. “Harrod blow it!”

Harrod yelled and threw a black spear, it stabbed into the ground.showing a silver line at the neck.

They pulled back as fast as possible, the Rin fighting off the pirercers.

The spear detonated the powder hidden inside, directed partially by the remaining buildings, right into the Rin’s teeth and chasing the teams as they ran. The building collapsed into the road, dust covered everything.

“Groups of  four, keep moving! We need to get clear of the area.” Roska said.

They ran in groups, covering one another but moving as fast as possible to put distance between themselves and the Rin.

Chimora were screeching all around the area , converging on the street. Other creatures were moing, to defend their territory or drawn in out of interest.

Erik was looking at the team ahead, checking the passing buildings when a minotaur ran out of several buildings, slowing to a stop between Erik’s group and Roska’s.

Tully yelled, turning and hurling a spear.

The minotaur raised its head to roar but only a gurgle came out as it collapsed to the ground.

Erik and the others picked up speed, following Tully who stored the spear and the minotaur.

They kept running, tossing out scraps that interested the Chimora’s and diverted their attention away.

A winged beast dove out of nowhere, grabbing onto Esther.

She fired her pistols into the creatures underbelly. It shook her trying to stop her but her attacks didn’t pause. Dammit, goddamn useless.

All of the teams were watching. Davin jumped into the air with George, gaining on the creature, their fire attacks startling the creature as it released Esther, increasing its speed as it shot away.

George caught Esther and brought her back to the ground. They had not time to wait.

Erik was panting under his helmet, his shrapnel a constant companion.

They found several warehouse looking buildings, Harrod and Davos scouted them before they piled into one of the buildings.

Erik found Rugrat leaning against George.

Erik pulled off his helmet, his teeth were stained red and he was panting.

“Shit man,” Erik made to move him into the seated.

“Just give me a potion,” Rugrat wheezed, pushing into George to stay standing.

Erik grit his teeth and pulled out a needle, he stabbed it into his shoulder and injected it.

Rugrat let out a shuddering breath as the potion went to work.

Erik drank a stamina potion in a few gulps, gasping as he wiped his mouth on the back of his arm.

“Well this is a fine fucking mess,” Rugrat said, recovering.

“Might be getting too old for this shit.”

“Hah, yeah.”

They recovered before Erik reached out to Rugrat.

“Come on, they’ll want to plan out what we do next.”

“More of the same I’d guess.” Rugrat accepted his hand and stood upright. He rinsed out his mouth clearing it of blood.

Edmond, Roska, Davos and Kameela had claimed a corner of the warehouse for their meeting..

“About time,” Edmond muttered loud enough to carry through the space. “We need to keep pushing in that direction,” Edmond pointed out of the building.

“We need some time to gather our strength and do another run. Everytime we go out there we run into some big bad,” Roska said.