Riding Chase and Dash, the two male wolves, Alice and Shinji flew across Manhattan at breakneck speeds. In their full size, the monstrous wolves pounced on car roofs and bounced off the sides of buildings, a blur that left New Yorkers thinking some movie was being shot. Less than two minutes after leaving Englewood Cliffs, they were already putting the Brooklyn Bridge behind them. From there the four wolves ran over traffic on the I-278 until Fort Hamilton appeared.
“This is it, Shinji,” Alice said. “After today, there will be no more secrecy. The government might keep the secret from the general public, but we’re going to be exposed.”
“I gladly died defending my kidnapper, Arisu-sama,” the [Paladin] replied. “And I would gladly die defending my benefactor and current employer.”
“You better survive, no heroics today. Look, coordinate with my wolves, attack, and retreat. I have a healing spell for my tamed monsters that’s very mana-efficient. And potions. This is just the first fight, [Paladin].”
“Hai, senpai!”
That was all they said before the wolves jumped over the tall walls of the fort like it was a picket fence.
“Holy Armor!” Shinji shouted. A golden glow surrounded him, coalescing into a steel armor with golden trim. At his waist, a holy sword.
“No shouting move names! We’ll coordinate silently!” Alice hissed. “Aura, Nova, flank the enemy. Dash, stop to let Shinji get back on his feet, then support him. Chase, drop me on top of that building.”
The wolves howled their agreement. The two females darted ahead, heedless of the gunfire.
“INCOMING MWD LANDSHARK [1] FRIENDLIES!” Jack shouted at his military buddies. “HOLD YOUR FIRE!”
A soldier raised his rifle as Nova ran past him, his head below her shoulders. “What are they feeding the K-9s these days?” He asked his squadmates, flabbergasted.
Shinji didn’t wait for Dash to let him get down. With a mighty warcry, the [Paladin] jumped on the blob of flesh with his sword raised, golden light gathering around the blade. He brought it down with his momentum, slicing the monster halfway in two.
For the first time since his rebirth, the demonspawn screamed in pain as the holy energies in the Japanese warrior’s sword burned his repulsive flesh. That triggered his berserking instincts and he forgot his desire to kill Catherine. Instead, he reverted to a primal rage aimed at destroying everything.
A reforming arm that was loosely shaped like a tentacle slammed into the [Paladin] as Shinji attempted to dodge. He used no shield as his katana style required two hands to properly wield. He still jumped with the slam, mitigating the damage but letting the blow sent him flying dozens of meters away.
Aura and Nova took the opportunity to bite the demon from behind. The wolves' supernaturally sharp teeth ripped chunks of flesh which were promptly spat away as the canid monsters prepared to bite again.
On top of the building, Alice produced an ornate wooden bow and quiver from her magical bag. She tenderly brushed a hand along the carvings on the weapons and whispered, “Thanks, Marcy.” She pulled the string as an arrow jumped from the quiver to her hand, notching itself. After aiming, she ignored the flying [Paladin] and let loose her shot.
The enchanted arrow struck true the blob of flesh, although she couldn’t aim for any vital spots if the creature had any in such an amorphous form. Yet it did true damage as she monitored the System notifications. It was one of her greatest trumps against the other returners. While the others had their powers greatly diminished upon return, she brought inside herself a System sub-core. A tiny orb of inscribed crystal that empowered her and her wolves.
The monster screamed and launched itself at the nearest target. Pack tactics dictated withdraw and the two female wolves backed away, snarling and barking to draw the monster’s attention. The soldiers interpreted the wolves disengaging as clearance to shoot and they resumed their gunfire upon the monster. Angered, the berserking blob of writing flesh and vaguely humanoid bones jumped toward the military, reaching the soldiers in seconds, before they could receive orders from above.
Alice noted the creature was bleeding, something that didn’t seem to happen both in the rare footage from Doswell and the fight scene here at the fort before they arrived.
She sent mental commands to her wolves.
The monster slammed into the soldiers with the strength and speed of a runaway truck. Bodies flew like straw scarecrows in a hurricane. Alice flinched at the sight, the pain of losing people she loved to demons and monsters reopened a wound she thought long closed. In that nightmare, the attackers were numerous and their skin was green. She pushed her recollection to the back of her mind and readied another arrow.
The four wolves took turns dashing in and biting the monster when they thought he was focused on another target. The demonspawn ignored the furred assailants and went instead for the kill count. All it wanted was to murder and devour the souls of the soldiers, to strengthen itself. The wolves didn’t pin him down, wary of the danger of getting seriously hurt in a world where magic power was at so a premium people risked their lives for a source of mana. The four critters did what they could to harass and buy time for the soldiers to move away from the monster but it was too strong.
Alice kept firing as she saw the golden blur of the [Paladin] rejoining the fray. Shinji’s conjured armor spotted a dent where the tentacle-arm slammed him but he still pressed on heedless of personal danger. The [Paladin] was honor-bound to fight evil wherever it was found and he was motivated to protect his princess. If only he knew “she” was a “dude”.
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With Shinji delivering a flurry of sword strikes on the demonspawn, Alice didn’t dare shoot her bow. Instead, she kept the arrow notched and watched around for any new developments while she commanded her wolves telepathically. To her dismay, the monster mostly ignored or just dodged the [Paladin] while it sought the juicy human sacrifices. Their efforts were almost in vain as the demonspawn regained vitality with each kill. They needed to make the military evacuate and leave the magical fight to the magical people.
She identified the commanding officer. Alice dropped the arrow in the quiver and deftly jumped from the building, making a beeline for the man with the loudspeaker.
“Colonel,” she said as she approached and identified the rank insignia in his uniform, “Please evacuate your men. The monster grows stronger with each kill, they’re only feeding him.”
The officer stared at the young woman as if he was noticing her presence at that moment. He was extremely angered as he barked, “Who are you, civilian?”
Alice returned the stare, “The cavalry. Wolf cavalry. Tell your man to cease hostilities and fall back or they’ll keep dying.”
The colonel stomped his foot, “This is our land, our fort. We are not withdrawing from battle. You and your overgrown dogs are trespassing. Leave, this is your only warning.”
Alice had half a mind to do exactly what the colonel said but she knew she couldn’t let “innocent civilians” as she reckoned the military personnel and Shinji behind. The [Paladin]’s honor would not let him admit failure on the first confrontation once again.
“We stay, colonel,” Alice challenged him. “We’re fighting under the same flag for the same reasons. If this is the hill you chose to die on, so be it. Die with bravery. But we’re staying.”
The colonel grunted. He couldn’t deny Shinji and Alice’s wolves were effective against the monster. “Suit yourself. We’ll have a long debriefing session after this is over, Miss.”
“As you wish, sir,” Alice curtsied and nocked her arrow again. “We fight, for America.”
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Leaning against a wall and hyperventilating, Cat couldn’t take her eyes away from the carnage. Alice and Shinji changed the fight dynamics drastically. While before the demonspawn seemed to be happily playing and staking her, now it was an avatar of death and destruction. Soldiers flew whenever the monster jumped on them, and the wolves started to take a few wounds from the lightning-fast ripostes from the vaguely humanoid blob of flesh. She couldn’t look away and yet all the terror buried deeply in the brain she inherited from Catherine surfaced and threatened to make her throw up. Again.
At least Jack didn’t leave his side. She was in no condition to move and if the monster came for her she would just kneel and accept her fate. Her head ached, her legs felt like jello. Her heart was already halfway up her throat while her stomach churned emptily on itself.
She understood the princesses who kidnapped people from Earth. If this was the despair they felt when facing monsters of incomprehensible power on an everyday basis, she too would cast the spell to magic a hero or two to fight on her behalf. The prospect of imminent death by such gruesome means made one discard every sliver of reason. It broke their mind and shattered their spirits. It was so easy to condemn them for doing so from an outsider’s perspective, maybe sitting on a comfortable couch in a heated room, with plenty of food and the mundane safety modern Earth granted them.
She needed the silver. She needed a weapon so she could fight back. All she had was money. Catherine’s money to boot. Maybe she could withdraw all her cash in vintage silver dollars from the 1800s and then kill the demon by smothering them in money. As if.
All she could do was lean against a wall, bemoan her fate, and hyperventilate. While her friends were out there, fighting. Cat pledged every moment of her future life to develop ways to protect Earth from the supernatural. She’d be like Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark, using her money as a superpower. She was no billionaire, though. Of the 1%, Wallenstein’s fortune didn’t make even the second quartile. But William knew how to make money, and maybe they could get Uncle Sam to sponsor them.
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The first wolf to be knocked out of combat was Dash. As his name suggested, he had an agility-based build and all it took was one missed dodge to send the poor canid to the sickbay. Alice threw a healing spell on him, watching her MP descend. It would take more than a month to naturally regenerate that amount. At least her enchanted arrows were free to shoot, so long they didn’t break. She could only wish that as the demonspawn’s own flesh did that for her.
Then it was time to fire more enchanted arrows. Those were irreplaceable but she had hundreds of them. The battle of attrition put them on the losing side, so long the demonspawn had sacrifices to recover his health. As more soldiers arrived in trucks to join the fight, she noticed the demonspawn didn’t go for the fresh troops even when it had the opportunity. She remembered one of their planning sessions where they conjectured that the demon couldn’t attack unless in retaliation. Maybe that was true for this one too.
The second wolf to become critically injured was Nova. She was hurt by friendly fire as one of the newcomer soldiers fired indiscriminately at the monster fight. Enraged, Alice rushed to the commanding officer of the new troops.
“What the hell do you think your men are doing, captain? My wolves are fighting to defend your soldiers!”
The man smirked. Alice knew what happened. The army wanted to know if her wolves were also bulletproof and “misfired” on purpose. Assholes. She ignored the boilerplate answer and slung her bow across her chest. If they wanted to play games, they could do so on their own.
Alice crossed the battlefield, using her System-enhanced agility to remain safe. She reached Shinji who was resting after a protracted bout.
“We’re getting Catherine and leaving,” she said.
“What? No! We can defeat it!”
Alice grabbed him by the pauldrons. “Look, the army is testing us. The assholes shot a full-auto volley aimed at Nova. I tried to cooperate with them but if they want to play dirty, then they can die on their own. We’re getting Catherine, Jack, Martha, and leaving. Your duty is to your princess, [Paladin]. This berserking monster is no threat. Move or I’ll drag you.”
The wolves whined but acknowledged the order. Their monstrous instincts clamored for battle and they relished in the violence. Life on earth was too dull for some of them but they would endure it so long Alice was happy.
The wolves disengaged, leaving the demon free to slaughter the soldiers. Alice felt for them but their superiors’ pride decided to treat them like meat for the butcher’s block. As tanks entered the parking lot, she knew their part was over. Alice and Shinji took off on the wolves, toward the trio watching in a corner. The demonspawn did not pursue them, happy to feast on human flesh.
Alice reached Catherine’s location, “We’re withdrawing,” she announced. “We should go to--”
She never told them where she thought they should go. Two sniper rifles rang as Alice and Shinji fell on the spot.
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[1] “MWD”, Military Working Dog. “Landshark”, an attack dog that is particularly vicious.