Jack let loose a controlled burst with his photon pistol at the first figure to run in shooting, dropping them with three accurate shots to the chest as more began piling in through the rubble. These enemies were seemingly uncaring of the risk as Jack took better aim, blasting the head off another one that jumped in as he moved further back. As the dust settled and Jack could see more clearly, he recognised with dread the polka-dot, makeup-covered, mutilated forms of Klowns as more of them rushed into the room...

An orb of roaring red flame smacked into the closest Klown before exploding in a massive fireball, obliterating several of his nearest fellows, as Svaartal moved out of cover and quickly followed his spell up by thrusting both of his hands forward, spraying out a thick, black grease on the ground of the bottleneck. A very simple spell in the Nirah’s arsenal, but a highly potent one in the right circumstances…

“Get to the upper levels! Warn everyone!” Jack shouted back at the few people still around, snapping them out of shock as he picked off several of the Klowns on the ground, though more were still stumbling through. Dante shot a bolt of chain lightning at the Klowns with an angry bark, killing them before they even hit the floor and igniting the magical grease.

As the flames rose and illuminated the opened passage, Jack could see just a hint of the sheer size of the swarm of Klowns that were raring to get in…

Several of the smarter Klowns leapt over the grease and the flames, using the bodies of their burning comrades as stepping stones to rush in close. Jack dodged a hammer aimed at his head, ducking low, and used his axe to trip the Klown before burying the axe into the freak’s neck, then tearing it out and throwing it into the chest of another that rushed up to him, taking the Klown off their feet as its momentum caused it to land right next to Jack. Svaartal summoned his sword and met another Klown’s charge with one of his own, using his serpentine body to easily dip under a swipe and lunge upwards, skewering the Klown through the chest, then dexterously pulling back and swiping diagonally upwards, releasing an arc of arcane light that shot out and caught another Klown in the face.

“Collapse the tunnel!” Svaartal called to Jack. “Carrow!”

Carrow squawked a challenge at the Klowns as the air around them shimmered. Appearing from nothing and rapidly growing, several red-hot rocks orbited the familiar, before a word of power from the bird flung them at high speed at their chosen targets, tearing through mutilated flesh and shattering bones.

Jack broke away from his melee with another klown, shooting them twice in the chest as Dante covered him by tripping another before biting their ankle and sending lethal electricity coursing through its body.

“OVERCHARGE!” Jack yelled, aiming his Dominator at the ceiling where he thought the rock was weakest, then letting loose a heavy shot that smashed into the rock. Dust and debris fell onto the bodies of the fallen klowns at the gate as several loud noises cracked around them over several seconds, before the ceiling finally gave way and fully collapsed.

And bringing another group of Klowns with them!

“Shit!” Svaartal cursed before he cast as quickly as he could. "Terralika!"

The globe of acid shot out from his hands, flying several feet before it exploded in a cone, catching several of the Klowns that were getting to their feet.

But if the Klowns could feel physical pain, they didn’t show it, getting up despite the debilitating attack.

And more were coming.

From the passage above them, another cluster of Klowns were dropping to the ground, either being forced to by the push of the crowd of their fellows behind them or simply being insane enough to jump down, relishing the chance to attack these interesting enemies!

“Carrow! Keep them occupied!” Svaartal snarled as he brought his sword up again, quickly finishing off one of the one of the Klowns as Jack did the same. Dante barked and summoned a sphere of ball lightning in the middle of the room that zapped any Klown that got too close with a bolt that put them down.

Suddenly, a larger form hit the ground, and this Klown clinched the landing perfectly. They were a bald mountain of meat with sinister painted tattoos all along the disfigured flesh of their powerful muscles. They clutched a thick shield of polka-dotted steel and a vicious-looking spiked flail, and flourished it in a way that meant business. Their wicked grin was painted a crimson bloody red on the pale white of their scarred face, with two sinister eyes of the darkest shade of black to form a truly intimidating visage. Jack fired a short burst with his Dominator that was easily deflected by the new threat.

“You…..die….slow….” the Klown articulated in a menacing growl as Dante barked in defiance.

“You shall fear me, Klown!” Svaartal snarled as he shifted blade stances, getting ready for an opportunity to strike.

“Let’s go motherfucker!” Jack roared as he charged in with his axe, dropping to a skid as the Klown reacted with impossible speed, swinging in a horizontal ark with the flail that flew just above his head. Svaartal slithered forward the moment the Klown’s back was turned, but they were clearly aware of him as their shield was well placed, preventing the Nirah from getting in close. They quickly brought their guard around to take the full brunt of Jack’s charge before the Klown attempted a counterattack, shaking off a lightning bolt Dante had flung at them.

Svaartal dodged the swing of the flail just in time for it to smash into what remained of the bar, shattering glass and splintering rock with the force of the powerful blow. Jack rushed forward again, and the Klown continued the motion of the flail’s swing, coming down in a vertical downward motion...

“Aegis!” Jack yelled, bracing himself as the spiked ball slammed down on him, before he quickly recovered and grabbed the chain, holding on with all of his strength.

Svaartal wasted no time in getting in close and stabbing the klown through the armpit with his sword, then easily dodging their foolish attempted counter, using the momentum of the attempted shield bash to get behind it and sever the arm in a devastating display of swordplay, before moving away.

Jack’s Dominator beeped to signify its charge-up had finished. Keeping hold of the chain of the flail as the klown desperately tried to break Jack’s grip, they didn’t notice the human take careful aim…

“OVERCHARGE!” Jack roared, pulling the trigger.

The heavy shot of red light smacked into the Klown in an explosion of red gore, obliterating the brute before they knew what hit them.

The room suddenly got quieter with the brief lull of combat. Klowns on their floor were trying to break through the debris, but they hadn’t done so yet. Up above them, Carrow had laid down a wall of flame that blocked off the Klowns as long as it stayed there, no longer as brave as they had been when the big one was alive.

“That was one of the Named,” Svaartal growled as he wiped his sword clean. “Chosen by the Killer Klown himself. I think that was Mister Mayhem, one of the Klown Kaptains that’s publicly known. There may be more powerful Named about though, I know there are stronger ones than him.”

Several shouts and screams could be heard echoing in the distance, along with the distinct sound of combat.

“Shit,” Jack growled. “They’re attacking elsewhere, so there are probably more higher ups coordinating the attack. Can you teleport us to the entrance?”

“Oh absolutely, Commander!” Svaartal replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Do you want me to lick your balls too?”

Jack didn’t look amused at that.

“No,” Svaartal confirmed with a sigh. “Teleporting out of here was the first thing I tried. There’s magical interference preventing magical travel weaker than a blink.”

“Alright, looks like we’re using the old-fashioned method.” Jack sighed as he made for the stairs.

“We?” Svaartal asked in a dry tone. “You, maybe.”

Jack turned. “Where the hell are you going?” he asked, as the Nirah slinked to the centre of the room and looked up towards the balcony.

“I’m going with a better route, and I can’t take you with me even if I actually wanted to,” Svaartal replied.

“Unless…” Jack began to propose, but he was cut off.

“What more do you want of me, human?” Svaartal sneered. “We have Klowns piling in, and I have no intention of hanging around.”

“Help me stop them,” Jack asked, his expression perfectly serious. “I know how good you are. If we work together, we can help save a lot of people.”

Svaartal said nothing for a moment, before shaking his head.

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“I think not, Frost,” the Nirah replied. “I’m going to find my sister and then we’re getting the fuck out of here.”

“I last saw her on the upper floors,” Jack confirmed, disappointed, but seeing no reason to withhold the information. “One of the private rooms with Vanya when they wanted to do a preliminary interview.”

“Appreciate it.” Svaartal nodded before blinking to the balcony.

Jack looked down to Dante as they went back the way they came, collapsing the balcony behind them to cover their retreat. “You with me, boy?”

“WOOF!” Dante barked in determination.

“Good.” Jack steeled himself as he quickly and carefully checked his corners, making his way up the tunnel and hearing the sounds of combat getting closer. “Let’s do this!”

******

“What the hell?” a voice called out of the crowd as the music suddenly cut out. Alora was on her own looking for Jack through the throng of dancing partygoers when several sharp noises echoed throughout the complex, somehow drowning out the cries and complaints of everyone around, and giving Alora a strong sense of alarm.

Alora pulled out a wand just as a thunderous boom roared from somewhere below, shaking the room and knocking several of the guests to the ground.

Then they heard gunfire, and all hell broke loose...

Immediately, Alora was battered and thrown about in the crush as people all around her screamed and yelled in panic as they rushed to get out. The Eladrie fought with all of her might to stay on her feet as she was squashed in the stampede, as hot, sweating and flailing limbs smacked into her and almost overpowered her. Eventually, somehow, she managed to scramble out of the mass to one of the walls, and leaned against it to regain her breath.

But there were others that weren’t so lucky, falling to the ground and getting trampled in the mad panic. She saw Rayle struggling to crawl to her, clothes already smattered in purple blood as the Squa’Kaar desperately fought to get to where Alora was, before an accidental foot booted her in the head.

“No!” Alora yelled in shock. “Help her up!”

Some bodies slowed down for a moment, before completely ignoring her and as several explosions and more sounds of violence came from close by.

“Can you hear me? Grab my hand!” Alora called out to her friend, before the crowd suddenly reacted in terror as one of the doors to the side of the chamber burst open to reveal a group of klowns that quickly levelled their guns into the defenceless crowd…

“Pyralis!” Alora yelled, pointing her wand at the group, quickly shooting out a snaking coil of fire that zipped past and around the fleeing crowd to smack into the klowns, throwing off their wild aim as they collapsed to the ground.

Noticing the caster, one of the other Klowns pulled out a wicked-looking knife and rushed her. Panicking, Alora pointed her wand straight at the crazy Klown and shot a quick stunbolt that was thankfully strong enough to take it down.

“Rayle!” Alora heard a familiar voice cry out over the screams. Turning around, she saw Zayle holding their sibling in their arms, having summoned an earth spirit to cover them from the crowd moving past. “Someone help me! She’s not breathing! Please!”

Alora steeled herself before shoving her way back in to get to her friends. She was not physically strong by any stretch of the imagination, and not for the first time that night she wished Jack was with her…

“Zayle, we can’t stay here!” Alora placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder as she quickly cast a diagnostic spell on Rayle, recoiling in despair as it instantly gave her every detail of every shattered bone, deep bruise and ruptured organ the frail amphibian had sustained in the stampede. Alora cast every quick stabilising spell she could, and fought down waves of panic as she realised she didn’t have what it took to heal Rayle.

“Can someone help us? Please!” Alora called out again as she tried to shake Zayle into action.

“Alora!” someone called out from the crowd as an avian pushed towards them, spectacles smashed with blood dripping down his face. “There’s Klowns coming this way! There’s so many! I can’t find Arlox!”

“Crill!” Alora called back in relief. “Help carry Rayle, they’re hurt bad!”

“Alright, but cover me, they’re right behind us!” the avian replied as he quickly scooped up the Squa’Kaar.

*****

“All guards to the walls!” Nika heard a Hoduth captain call out, as several loud alarm-like noises could be heard much closer by. “We’ve got Klowns attacking outside!”

The Kizun had stayed outside for a few more minutes to get some fresh air, and had assumed that one or more of her friends had wished to do the same, but had barely begun looking before she felt the ground rumble heavily beneath their feet. Then she felt another quake. Then another.

She looked back as her sensitive ears picked up several screams, her mind quickly at work as she unholstered and unfolded her shotgun. The others! Shit!

“Klown Kannons!” someone shouted as several forms flew over the walls in clusters to crash randomly among the fort grounds. Not wasting any time, Nika fell into a tactical mindset with practised discipline, and took a potshot at one as it came down, not allowing it time to recover. She knew that if these Klown Vanguards got a foothold, they were screwed, and by the way several others were pouring out of the fort, the Klowns had likely planned well for this attack.

Knowing they would need to be eliminated as a priority, Nika rushed to engage the closest group, shouting as she did to get everyone else out of the way. The moment she had a clean shot she took it, her shot thundering into the chest of the nearest Klown and knocking them down, but Nika knew it wasn’t a confirmed kill. These armoured and shielded Klowns were far tougher than the dregs they had fought on their way to the Oracle, and were clearly commanded far better too.

“Get out of the way or get down, you fucking morons!” Nika yelled, thoroughly annoyed as she had to check her fire as several people ran past her line of sight, desperate to get to safety. After finishing off the downed Klown and thinking quickly, she crouched down and aimed up, blasting another Klown in the face just before they were about to open fire in the crowd, the spread of her plasma shotgun dissipating harmlessly above their heads. Skidding forward on her momentum and using her tail to dexterously shift between moving bodies, she sprung up high and carefully aimed towards the ground - hot, up-close plasma ripping through the protective jumpsuit and melting the mutilated flesh beneath.

There were sounds of combat all across the grounds as people fought for their lives, and Nika knew they couldn’t keep this up for much longer as more and more Klowns were shot over the walls. Extending her combat staff, she quickly swung around in an arc to cave the head of another Klown, blasting fragments of skull across the battlefield, before continuing the swing into the legs of another.

Reacting to movement behind her, Nika prepared to dodge the hammer strike of a Klown Korporal that had deemed her a threat, before it stumbled back, a spray of acid hitting it in the face and decapitating the freak as it stumbled forward uselessly and dropped to the ground.

Svaarti’s eyes went wide in shock as she took in her handiwork, barely noticing Nika’s nod of thanks as she moved to engage another Klown, but the Nirah had enough sense to whisper a cantrip under her breath and summon her mother’s arcane staff, just as Svaartal had taught her, feeling the power of the golden, radiant artefact tingle through her hands as she held it in a two-handed grip, the crystal at the tip glowing a defiant sapphire blue.

Svaarti was scared beyond belief. She wasn’t a brave and powerful warrior like her brother, but Svaartal had taught her several tricks in case she ever had to defend herself. And curiously, Svaarti felt a wave of calm and confidence that was quite unlike her as she pondered what she could even do. It was as if the staff was reassuring her that she could do this!

A maniacal laugh came from the side as a Klown with a chainblade ran at her, and without thinking Svaarti cast the first, most basic defensive spell Svaartal had her practice until she could do it on reflex - a stunbolt that was the equivalent of a basic punch.

It was a weak spell that shouldn’t have done much other than to slow the Klown down.

Instead, it was as if the Klown had run right into an oncoming car.

With the loud crunch of multiple bones being turned to powder, the klown collapsed to the ground in a heap, as Svaarti was shocked and confused at the sheer power of her spell.

“Did you do this?” she asked the staff in wonder, as she took in the carnage occurring right in front of her and quickly began to think. She was no natural warrior, but she was still a powerful wizard in her own right, and had her own set of spells she specialised in. Could the staff enhance those spells as well?

Svaarti started casting…

******

Mister Mincer had followed his instructions perfectly! With his brothers and sisters leading the purges here and elsewhere, all across Hive Station Bastilla, they would exterminate all of the vermin inside and take the bodies for Klownification! It was just like a sweetshop, and he was especially looking forward to the new friends they would make once they made the meat puppets all better! He could just feel Grandfather Jingubash rubbing his hands in gleeful anticipation, and he knew that daddy would elevate him even further into the ranks of his much more powerful brothers and sisters!

Moving sneakily and silently, his sappers brought the Big Bomb to the foretold spot in the tunnel, guided by the Prophets of Jingubash. The mean monsters that hated Daddy would have no idea that they were using the Gloom Paths to attack from underneath while Daddy distracted them on the surface!

A few seconds later, the prophet of Jingubash happily gave Mister Mincer the signal, and without hesitation, the Klown Kaptain activated the explosive, blasting a sizable hole in the wall and taking out several of the Klowns in the process! Leading the charge with a cackle, Mister Mincer emerged into the chamber with his hammer held high, before his eyes widened in fear.

Lined up facing them was a squad of high school students with red armbands all levelling their guns at the newly blasted hole, having fully expected them.

But even worse was the angry red dragon right in front of them…

Surprise motherfuckers! Chiyo smiled in grim satisfaction.

Mister Mincer had no time to direct the swarm as Luvia unleashed a torrent of red-hot fire that cremated the Klowns in an instant, spreading all throughout the exposed tunnels and engulfing any Klown in them in a lethal inferno. Luvia then focused her flames on resealing the tunnel, melting the rock around the entrance.

“Well that was anticlimactic!” The dragon chuckled as she transformed back to her humanoid form. “Thanks for letting us know, Chiyo, I almost feel bad for them!”

There are other attacks like this throughout the complex, Chiyo warned, and Luvia nodded.

“Red Legion!” She addressed the room. “And friends!” She acknowledged with a tilt of the head at Chiyo. “The Klowns seek to hunt us down like prey! Tell me, are you prey?”

“NO!” The Red Legion aspirants around them shouted, and for once, Chiyo was inclined to agree with them. She could see Vaal and Plooderoo yelling the loudest, likely to show off for their dates who were in the room huddled behind them, who Chiyo recognised as two of the players from Luvia’s deathball team….

“I thought not!” Luvia roared as she summoned her impressive-looking crimson armour. “Follow me and let’s take the fight to them!”