Spectral Forces
"You really don't want to do this, Jeffery. We aren't the same people who you met in Decatur." Tom tried to reason with the man.
"Fuck you, Tom. I will have my pound of flesh for the pain and humiliation you caused me!" Jeffery yelled back at him. "Destroy them! Leave no one alive!"
"Don't say I didn't try to warn you," Tom said turning back to the others. "Give 'em hell. Fire down at them. James, where's Squirrel?"
A grunt sounded from inside the wall and Tom turned to see the wolf staring up at him.
"You ready for a snack buddy?" Tom asked the wolf.
Squirrel began to wag his tail as he stood up in excitement.
"James, get him to the school bus size and have him get to work. Bron and I will drop in front of the gates and clear a path. Derek, you're with me. Everyone else keep us covered, and when Jay gets back, open the gates." Tom called out orders as he turned back and hopped down from the wall, Bron in tow.
Landing in a superhero pose in front of the gates, Tom and Bron equipped their weapons and met the first wave of goblins with murderous intent. Slashing through their ranks with a practiced ease, their movements were almost in sync as they carved down the small creatures with ease. Squirrel howled from the top of the wall as he grew to his largest form and dove into the ranks of goblins.
A goblin leaped at Tom from behind, managing to sneak in between him and Bron when they separated a little too much. Jerky suddenly appeared on Tom's back and jumped into the air to meet it, a small dagger in each hand that Roland had made for him. He let out a primal scream of rage at the audacity of the goblin to attack his master from behind. The goblin's eyes went wide at seeing the creature appear out of thin air and faltered in its attack as they met mid-air.
Stabbing out at its neck with both daggers, the pair went down in a pile rolling over and over each other. Jerky used his legs to kick the goblin off of him as he ripped the blades forward to deal a devastating amount of damage. The goblin dropped its weapon as it grabbed in vain at its neck to stop the bleeding, already beginning to gurgle from the blood running down its throat.
Continuing to step forward one dead goblin at a time, Tom and Bron fought like mad to clear an area in front of them. Tom activated his tattoo of strength and tattoo of absorption at the same time and equipped his second great sword. With both swords in hand, Tom was able to carve a path through the goblins with little resistance, their rusted and brittle weapons breaking against the power of his strikes.
A rattling sound came from behind the fighters already engaged as the gates began to open behind the pair. Tom barely had time to register the revving of an engine as several goblins noticed the opening gates and attempted to run past them for the new opening before the GS2 followed by several other vehicles drove past, tires squealing as Jay hung his head out the driver's side window yelling at the top of his lungs.
"Get the fuck off my planet you ugly green cunt warts! You're wasting my oxygen!" Jay yelled as his bloodlust and excitement hit a crescendo.
As he passed Tom, Bron, and Squirrel in their battle, Jay cut the wheel hard left and began doing donuts in the middle of a platoon of goblins. The poor little bastards didn't stand a chance as they tried in vain to stab at the vehicle with their crude weapons which splintered and shattered against the now reinforced sides of the vehicle as it continued to slam into their bodies and run them over with its oversized tires.
Kedron was right behind Jay and turned right as he gassed it in the Hummer and drove across several other platoons leaving a bloody mess behind him. Three other vehicles, including Tom's sedan, followed the Hummer out and began to carve paths through the ranks. Kevin, the mad bastard he was, was standing on the hood of Tom's old sedan with his greataxe in hand and was bellowing at the top of his lungs, his rage activated, as he swung down at anything he could reach while Bobby drove into the horde in front of them.
Behind the vehicles, the rest of the strike teams minus Kiera who was on the walls with her sniper team, charged into the fray as well followed by the majority of the guild, angry at an enemy daring to attack their home fueling their spirits. Squirrel was causing chaos in his largest form, stomping on goblins, clawing at groups attempting to get close, and grabbing up three to four goblins at a time in his mouth as he shook them from side to side like a chew toy.
From the rear of the goblin forces came a sudden crackling noise as fireballs were launched from the mages toward the fighters and the walls.
"INCOMING!" Derek yelled over the din of battle.
Looking up, the members of Vanguard did their best to dive out of the way of the incoming attack. Most were spared from damage, but a few of the members were not so lucky. The fireballs crashed into the battle, hitting goblins and humans alike. Screams echoed off the walls and buildings of the city as Clerics rushed to heal those of the guild who were injured.
"Kiera! Get on those fucking mages!" Tom called up to the walls as he redoubled his efforts to press to the rear of the goblin ranks. "Bron! Cover me for a moment!"
Stepping in front of him, Bron planted his feet in a wide horse stance and began to swing both of his greataxes in wide swaths aimed more at keeping the enemies back than killing. Tom stowed one greatsword in his inventory and began to summon Demon Chickens as fast as he could. With all of his bars refilling almost as fast as he used them, he managed to summon a horde of the little bastards before unleashing them on the goblins.
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"Get them my pretties!" Tom cackled in a high-pitched mockery of the Wicked Witches voice from Oz.
Being given free rein to attack any goblin they met, the Demonic Chickens became almost feral in their attacks, leaping at any green skin they could find while their skin-flap wings clapped like the applause at a stadium propelling them forward. They latched onto their opponents with needle-like teeth and began ripping them apart. Many of the goblins began to flee at the ferocity of the attackers, while the more steadfast goblins took the opportunity to kill the chickens, seeing the smaller foes. This distraction gave Tom the opportunity he needed to rush toward the back.
Kiera was busy aiming at the mages at the back of the battle formations but was having little luck at taking them down due to the magical shields they had erected.
"Fuck this shit!" Kiera finally said and took a glowing bullet out of her inventory.
Removing the magazine from her rifle, she put the single shining round into the top, inserted the clip again, pulled the bolt back to load the round, aimed at a mage beginning to cast another fireball, and fired. The world seemed to slow for a moment as the bullet flew toward the mage with unerring accuracy. As it hit the mage's shield, it met resistance, and then a small explosion went off as the magical round disabled the shield with a dispel enchantment and continued into the forehead of the goblin mage.
Since it had just been about to unleash its fireball, when the mage was killed it spun around before dropping to the ground. The spell was unleashed right at its feet and the following explosion spread out around it engulfing goblins in flames while shattering other mages' shields.
Just when the battle looked like it was going to be a complete route, blue glowing lights began to form at the very back edge of the goblin formations. They materialized into the forms of rotting corpses that floated in the air looking like semi-transparent zombies giving off an ethereal glow. With a ghostly scream, they began to fly at the enemies around them and claw at the Vanguard forces.
"What the hell are these things?!" Derek cried out as he tried to strike one with his mace, only to have it go straight through the creature before it struck him, causing him to fall to one knee as energy was sapped from him. "ARGH! I can't hit them!"
"Specters!" Bohdan shouted as he rushed to the center of the battlefield where Derek knelt.
Raising a hand, he cast a light in the air that shone so bright all around had to shade their eyes. The Specters recoiled in anger at the shining light and hissed at Bohdan.
"Use one of your Cleric abilities. You should be able to be doing something against them with the holy shit." Bohdan said down to Derek with his thick Ukrainian accent.
Derek rose to his feet, looked at the Specter closest to him, and used his smite ability on his mace as he swung it at the head of the creature. It made contact this time and blasted it into glowing blue dust.
"Excellent, not can you do that to more?" Bohdan asked.
"Evil spirits from the beyond, by the power of my deity I banish you!" Derek called out as he used his repel undead skill.
Every Specter turned to look at him at once and shrieked in rage as they tried to remain in place but were propelled away from the battlefield. The rest of the guild seeing this, bolstered their courage and went back on the offensive.
Gritting his teeth in anger as he sat atop his Warg mount, Jeffery seethed at being thwarted.
"This isn't over! I will kill you, Tom!" Jeffery shouted.
With a motion of his hand, a horn sounded, and all the goblins began to scatter into the city in a full retreat.
"Not if I kill you first!" Tom said as he leaped over the last of the goblins in his path and made to strike at Jeffery.
The Warg mount dodged to the right as Tom brought both of his swords down in a chopping motion and bounded away at a speed Tom knew he couldn't follow.
"Ah, running away are ya? You yellow bastard! Come back and fight me!" Tom called after him, quoting one of his all-time favorite movies.
Their bloodlust still high, members of the guild began to give chase to the goblins before Tom and Derek called for all members to stay near the walls. After the battle died down and the goblins had scattered into the city, the members of the guild began the grisly task of walking through the carnage to kill any still-living enemies. It was a part of a battle that not many talked about. Leaving enemies alive was tantamount to turning your back in a fight. As they moved through the area, stepping over bodies and poking at them with weapons, the guild stabbed or shot any that moved or breathed.
Next came the task of moving all the bodies into a burn pile they had started in the street in front of the walls they had erected around the guild building. After what had happened with The Master, no one was willing to risk the possibility that dead enemies could be raised again to attack them.
"What the actual fuck is Jeffery doing back here? I thought they were holding him in Decatur?" Derek asked.
"I thought so too. But I knew this would happen eventually. Just didn't need it right now." Tom replied shaking his head as he put his hands on his hips. "We need to figure out how to handle this before it gets even more out of hand."
"I've been meaning to call a meeting anyway. I'll set something up in the conference room for later today. Only the heads of departments this time." Derek said and rushed off to the guild building.
Jay drove up next to Tom with the window rolled down, the entire side of the SUV covered in goblin blood and gore, "I'm not washing this shit off. This was your idea."