It was a pretty simple plan based on a well-known military tactic. He had to trust these people for it to work right, but they seemed like they played for the good guys. The tactic was a play on fire and maneuver or shoot and scoot if you will.
The demon had started to move, but Travis didn't know which way. His mind raced with possible scenarios, but it was time. He popped out and fired five hollow-point rounds into the chest of the demon before it even had a chance to react. This wasn't a situation when he didn't trust himself to go for a headshot, no not at all, something told him not to.
A strange part of his new abilities was the strong 'feelings' he would get, not dissimilar from something normal people experience, just way more intense. He would be faced with a decision to abide by these senses or not. Sometimes they compelled him while taking part in the mundane, like turn here or talk to this person now.
That perception like the one he just felt was actually his strongest ability, or at least the most valuable part of his skill set. It was clairvoyance, although not by the technical definition. Regardless of technicality he was being prewarned against doing something that would harm him or his allies.
The demon was created with a built-in defense against sudden termination, and multiple head shots from the main characters magical weapon would have done exactly that. This will play a crucial role down the road if Travis begins to understand his power.
He ended up not firing his entire clip because the monster needed to be distracted and he would need bullets for that. His senses told him that it wouldn't die so easily anyway.
Five magical anti-personnel bullets entering the midsection would be bad news for almost any flesh-made being on Earth. The demon was no different. It stumbled back as it absorbed the bullets. While this happened, the six other people ran in the direction Travis and company had come from, trying to stay behind cars or run into yards to stay out of sight if possible.
For a moment, the demon looked to be shifting its attention in that direction, but Travis anticipated that. He pushed out his aura as hard as he possibly could directly at the huge monster. This seemed to affect the demon almost more than the bullets.
It was also shocked that a human had such potent spirit magic. When it locked eyes back on Travis, he shot it again. This time, it pulled an axe and started to throw it at him. Fortunately, Travis was faster, and with his enhanced reflexes, he fired the rest of the clip into the monster before it could release its weapon. Ten-plus magical bullets now inside this enemy, and it finally fell to one knee—that was the sign to run. He had given enough time to his companions to find the next strong point.
The crux of the plan predicted him being chased by either the demon or some of its lackeys, if not both. Travis risked a look behind him and saw the body-building demon still on one knee, but it seemed to be flexing.
He didn't have the time or inclination to analyze the movements of this fiend, so he kept running to the spot that the two mages picked as the first fallback. They were two blocks down and crouching on the porch of what used to be a beautiful house.
It was a good choice because they had three points of egress: through the house and out the back, through the garage and out the side of the house, or simply around the porch, which wrapped around. He could also see that the fence in the back yard was no more leaving them their escape.
Clyde and the two mages were standing ready to fight, while Omar and the other two were in the house hunkering down. As Travis ran up, Clyde was the first to speak.
"Did you get it?"
"I don't think it's dead, so let's keep moving." He could feel trepidation from Clyde. "What's wrong?"
"Omar sprained his ankle jumping from the back of the truck and then hit his head, he may have a concussion. This one here," he pointed to the female mage, "knows healing magic, but it takes a little time."
Travis looked at the women, getting a good look for the first time. She was very attractive, tall and bookish but with blonde hair and blue eyes. He knew this wasn't the time, but the eyes notice what the eyes notice. Making it a point not to reduce women to just their looks, he chided himself somewhat. "How long will it take until he can move?"
"If he has a concussion and we try to move him," she seemed calm enough if out of breath, but Travis politely cut her off.
"Sorry to interrupt but I'm familiar with the dangers of head injuries, I don't know how much time until Hellboy comes back, and I have to decide to hold this place or not. I need to know if you can get him ready to go and if so how long?"
She wanted to be offended that he cut her off but she couldn't question anything he said so she answered the best she could as efficiently as she could, "I can mend the ankle fast enough, but I have no experience with head trauma. With easy stuff you just think "heal" and push out magic at the affected area, I wouldn't trust that with his head though. By the way that is way over simplified."
She then made hands motions signifying that she was trying to talk faster and blurted out the next part. She did it all good naturedly which Travis appreciated, "I can get him ready to be moved in five minutes, but he would need to be carried, or if you can give me a bit more time I can find out if he even has a concussion or not."
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Travis reached out with his perception to try and see what type of odds they were up against; it had pretty much gotten a good picture when he was interrupted.
Her companion cut in, "How do you have a working gun man?"
"Not the time," brooking no room for discussion, he dropped it.
As they were deciding what to do, the demon had used one of his abilities. By tensing up, or what looked like flexing, he could purge his body of everything impure. For a demon champion of Lucian, that meant anything undemonic.
He wasn't serving Lucian anymore, at least not directly. At the Council of the Gods, it was ruled that the deities could only act through intermediaries, or if one of their numbers was summoned by a mortal. That left the demon wandering the streets with nothing to do and no real purpose.
For a brief time, it was actually kind of sad, if you find the loneliness of demonic killing machines saddening. He was not the only one left hanging, some wandered, some even considered suicide. Gorgesku though, which was the name of our demon friend had stumbled upon a hidden base of the Lich King.
After slaughtering a number of his minions, the Lich came out to see what single being was giving his forces so much trouble. Even in necromantic circles, they say you shouldn't judge a tome by its cover, but this being could definitely be judged. He was a large and strong being with obvious power but did not appear to be the most educated demon walking the earth. That was a perfect combination for the Lich.
They spoke briefly and came to an amicable agreement, at least as amicable as an agreement can be between a demon of a foul God and a necromancer. The Lich wanted more power, while the demon wanted purpose.
-
As the demon finished his ability, 16 bullets in total came out of his body. They were magical, and while inside its victim, hollow point, aka anti-personal bullets, remained as a sort of manifested metal substance. Unlike the other two ammunition types, hollow point had to have a physical state so they could cause real damage while inside the body of its victim. By purging them, the bullets leaked out of the wounds in wisps of smoke.
The holes didn't close up as easily, though; these were designed to cause damage to the insides of whatever meat sack they entered. This wouldn't hold back Gorgesku, and he got to his feet. He let out a loud roar, which signified to the cannon fodder he had been assigned to come to him. Communication was rudimentary for these creatures.
The Lich wanted to take this area from the mix of human groups that had formed and a mix of other more traditional monsters. On more than one occasion, an intelligent monster horde would even form a short alliance with a human group so they could drive the undead out. No one wanted this area controlled by the undead.
For the creation of zombies and other low-level troops, the Lich needed organic material, space, time, and preferably buildings protected from the worst of the weather. With all of these things, he could breed an army in a short time while giving him a power base to recruit other more powerful monsters.
For the task, he had given the demon a small horde of mindless zombies, but also close by would be a new variant of skeleton warrior as well as a zombie version of hunting wolves. Small in number these last creatures were to serve as the final striking force.
Normally, a small group of humans seemingly trying to leave this place would not concern him, but that one human had dared stand face to face and challenge his power. He would draw strength from the one true God if that petty mortal tried to use spirit magic on him again.
When he went off like this, the God Lucian never had the heart to tell his mighty follower that he too had become mortal since no longer wielding the Gods direct power. No, actually, he told him every chance he got, Lucian was a dick, but Gorgesku persisted in using the term as a slight towards the humans.
-
While Travis thought about all of his options, including carrying the kid, standing to fight, having the two cultists carry him, and many more, Clyde went into the house with the female mage. He finally introduced himself and asked them their names.
“Nice to meet you Clyde, although the circumstance could be better,” she laughed, and Clyde found himself understanding why men would be attracted to this woman. In that moment he remembered reading in many books about how a woman's laugh was “like tinkling water” or something, but he never gave it much credence.
Now he thought he understood; this woman's laugh was like a melodic poem transcribed into laughter. That might seem overstated but for a gay man to notice it so astutely probably meant it was a real thing.
He noticed that she said her name, but he missed it. “Come again, I'm sorry.”
“No, it's okay. My name is Cassandra.”
Her male companion cleared his throat and gave her a flat look. She peered back with a face that said, "Please don't make me," but he didn't budge.
“I'm acolyte Cassandra of the first-ever mage academy.” There was a mix of annoyance and something else in her voice, Clyde couldn't tell. He just stared at her, not really knowing what to say.
“I'm sorry, what?”, he ended up blurting out.
This time he was answered by the guy. “My name is Patrick, journeyman at the mage academy. I can see you are surprised to hear we have set up a school during these troubling times.”
“Nice to meet you, Patrick, but no, I am surprised that you think you are members of a school before there is any infrastructure, security, or government of any kind. A school comes after all of that, not before.”
That annoyed him even before thinking about their outfits; it's like they grabbed everything that looked anything like a robe and put it on, thinking it would look like a mage robe. A bathrobe or lab coat are not mage robes, he wanted to say, but they had more important things to do.
While that was playing out Travis had decided to hunker down. For one, he wanted to see what these people could do; he also needed Clyde to rank up, so he might as well start now. That demon was tough it seemed, but he could affect it with his spirit magic and his gun. Plus, the most important thing, Omar needed time to be able to move.
It had only been two minutes since Travis arrived. He interrupted their conversation, although even now he could feel Clyde's annoyance with the man. He didn't catch the entire conversation but got the gist. Clyde was right; they needed to set up basic authority for regular people to be able to live securely before any other nonsense.
Cassandra was attending to Omar in the middle of the occasional banter. She would cast a spell and wait, appearing to be looking for a certain reaction before trying something else.
“The bad guys will be here soon. Luckily, they are shit for tactics; whatever force he mustered is coming from the street. No one appears to be flanking us. Tell me though, what can you guys do with those wands?”