The group of helicopters charged forward, crossing into the main main battlefield. Fighter jets and missiles streaked through the air alongside monstrous forms and winged humanoids, their battles sending gouts of flame and smoke through the sky. From below, more explosions and the near-constant rat-a-tat of gunfire melded with shouts and shrieks into a blanket of sound.

A bulbous turkey marked as a Turturken (Lvl 14) dove toward the helicopters. A strange warbling screech coursed out of its beak, the sound grating in Chad's ears. Its feathers began to glow and puff up as it made a beeline for them.

Chad reached into his pocket for a ball bearing. But before he could take the shot himself, the helicopter's machine gun roared to life in Annie's grip. The bird went limp in a spray of blood, dropping like a rock to the battle below.

"Nice!" He called over.

Annie just nodded grimly. "Keep an eye out. There's more where that came from!"

She was right. After the initial assault, more and more enemies began to take notice of their approach. Evidently, a group of targets like theirs was a hard thing to pass up. More and more of the swarming foes arced toward them to attack.

Annie and the soldiers began firing out the open doors with abandon, taking down anything that tried to get close. Their bullets cut bloody swaths through the approaching fodder, downing wave after wave of creatures. But they didn't work for everything.

A massive floating ball of chitinous material zipped in their direction. It resembled a cannonball made of shiny black plates, except for the twin horns jutting out of its front. As Annie fired on it, her bullets pinged off and slid off the armor, leaving little else but scratches in their wake.

"Chad!" She called.

"On it!"

Pulling back his arm, Chad hurled the small piece of metal forward. At the speed it traveled, he couldn't even track the ball's path. But he could see the sudden quarter-sized hole that appeared in the ball of armor before them.

They all stumbled as the helicopter jerked sideways from the throw's recoil. "Hey, hey!" The pilot called back in annoyance. "Can ya go a little easier, you psycho?!"

Chad gave him an apologetic wave. "Sorry!"

"You'd better be!" The pilot struggled to regain control. "This whole thing goes to shit if we don't make it!"

I hope not, Chad thought as more enemies swarmed forward. Because there's a lot more of these things than I thought.

He pulled a handful of ball bearings out. If a full-on throw wasn't an option, maybe something less extreme would be? With that in mind, Chad started flicking the projectiles out like marbles. The power in his thumb alone was still plenty to get the job done. Even better, the pilot didn't complain again.

As he and Annie kept up their twin machine gun fire, Chad heard a roar sound from below. Looking down, his eyes widened at the massive piranha leaping up to meet them. It jaws hung wide open, revealing teeth the size of small trees set into its maw.

"Below us!" He yelled. "Pull up!"

The helicopters began to ascend as Chad scrambled for his other ammunition. Ball bearings weren't the only thing he'd packed. Especially once Major Geoffries had given them access to the military's better resources.

He hucked a brick of plastic explosives down the fish's gullet. With a brief call of "fire in the hole," he hit the detonator.

The world below them exploded into a fountain of meaty chunks. Bits of fish, bone, and tooth filled the sky, blotting out everything else. The smell of burning meat wafted up to engulf their helicopter as Chad gagged.

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"Good shot!" Major Geoffries called from his position. "We're getting closer! Just a bit further!"

Chad ducked back into the helicopter as a flash of motion streaked past his head. A long, needlelike orange spine slammed into the helicopter wall beside him. A dozen more followed, their paths curving unnaturally through the air to track his movements. Chad reached out and blocked them with his massive palm, the impacts barely even registering.

"They're shooting back!" He warned. "Look out!"

He reached out again to block another group of the spines, this time aimed at Annie. They shattered against his forearm, sending a spray of brightly-colored splinters into his face. Chad cursed as he wiped them away.

"Where the hell're they comin' from?" Annie called. "We need to take those down!"

"Trying!" He continued to alternate between defense and offense, flicking balls at any big baddies and blocking the arrows and other projectiles that came their way. The whole time, his eyes scanned the sky for anything orange. Eventually, his efforts were rewarded.

There, scattered throughout the fighting, Chad caught flashes of movement. Seahorse-like creatures with six arms and no legs. They seemed to swim through the air with strange, undulating motions.

They weren't the only orange creatures on the battlefield. But as he watched, Chad saw one of them aim its long snout towards their position. Its head rocked forward as if sneezing, and a moment later, another spine planted itself in the helicopter.

Found you fuckers.

With a grin, Chad reached out and grabbed a sledgehammer. Time to handle them.

He shouted over to the pilot. "Get ready! I'm gonna throw!"

Without waiting for a response, he hurled the hammer forward and activated Curveball.

The hammer spun forward, turning into a disk of death as it carved through everything before it. The projectile hurtled through the air and cleaved through the offending seahorse, turning it into orange marmalade before turning to seek out more targets.

"There! " Annie shouted. "Behind the smoke!"

He angled his hammer in the direction she'd indicated, catching more of the creatures as they hid in the battle. Even as fast as the things moved, he had no trouble catching up and cutting them down.

As he finished off the last of them, Chad took the opportunity to clear the path ahead of them a bit further. The staircase was close now, its ivory top glowing before them where it stood. Only a few more minutes and–

"Above!"

The call made him whip his head up. A formation of emaciated-looking humanoids with bat wings zipped above the helicopters. They weren't diving at them though. Instead, the bat-people seemed to have a different plan in mind.

As Chad watched, each one released a round shape that they'd been holding between clawed feet. The payloads dropped toward the helicopters' rotors.

"Shit! Everyone hold on!" Geoffries shouted. "Pilot, get us–"

Chad grabbed Annie in one arm and a railing with the other – gently, of course. The helicopter seemed to shudder as it suddenly banked. For an instant, Chad wondered if they'd already been hit. But then he realized the world was moving much, much more quickly than it had a moment ago.

The entire helicopter shimmered as it accelerated, diving forward and to the side faster than should have been possible. An instant later, the bats' payloads pass through the empty air where they had just been. They continued downward, hitting a building below with a shattering sound and exploding into sharp fragments of stone.

Shit. Did they just try to drop grenades on us?!

As they leveled out, Chad glanced around to check on their other companions as – just in time to see one of the grenades hit.

It smashed into one of the helicopters, tearing through the rotors like tissue paper. The helicopter struggled to pull up, but the sudden loss in lift sent it spinning in increasingly frantic loops. Inside, the horrified faces of its occupants flashed by, including a blue-skinned alien and a dark-haired musician.

"Jerry!" Annie screamed. Her hands reached out helplessly as if to grab him.

Chad's expression turned horrified as the helicopter began to lose altitude. Inside, soldiers scrambled about to deal with the crisis, but how? What could they possibly do but abandon ship?

In an instant, Chad's mind cleared. There wasn't anything they could do. None of the people aboard that aircraft could save it.

But maybe he could.

Shit. They're gonna hate me for this…

It was his responsibility to get rid of this portal. It was the whole reason they were here. But it was also his fault that Jerry and Nick were here in the first place. Even if they had wanted to contribute in some way, he was the one who'd insisted on them leveling and gotten them strong enough to actually join. More than that though, they were his friends. And he wasn't about to watch his friends die.

…But I can't just let this happen. I won't let it happen.

"Cover me, Annie. Squawk, tell them to hang on tight and don't bail out. Not yet."

The words came out calm and quiet. Still, the dark-haired masseuse heard them. She whipped around in surprise. "What–"

"Chad, what are you–"

But Chad didn't wait to hear their questions, or explain himself. If he did, then he was certain that someone would stop him.

With a few running steps forward, Chad jumped out of the helicopter.