Why should he wait behind everyone else, waiting for an opportunity? What makes him more valuable? Playing to his strengths? Maybe. That didn’t account for the fact that the Nightmare Seed made him one hell of a shot.
Bullets flew into the crowd with deadly precision, weaving between friends and enemies alike as they hit their mark. As the deium oil in the bullet exploded into a dark red fury, the earthy smell of its smoke filled the surroundings.
Silas immediately felt four sharp gazes land on his body, his hair standing on end as his instincts sent him reeling. He powered through the feeling of his own body urging him to flee, instead narrowing his eyes and turning with a step.
Two more shots killed two more mutants, tripping up those around them before the bodies were quickly crushed. The tide of mutants was undeterred, thrashing relentlessly at the defenders. Silas had to trust them to kill the cannon fodder, it was the Voiceless he had to keep down.
If any of them snuck past the Wayfinders, they’d be left open from behind. His Nightmare Seed shook furiously as more and more fear energy filled his eyes and empowered his mind. The fog cleared beneath his gaze, looking for the Voiceless in the crowd.
The variant mutants were thrown into disarray within the crowd, their sense of hearing being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of noise in the surroundings. Only the Green Eyes moved with some semblance of freedom amidst the fight, followed by a Wayfinder and Sergeant respectively.
With most mutants barely matching those at the First Gate, the Wayfinders at roughly Six or Seven Gates a piece were able to keep them at bay with their various methods. The Ice Summoner had the easiest time, his puppets keeping them off the gate and away from him. Hector had the hardest time, running between the mutants as his chimes decimated the surroundings.
What was their purpose here if they were walking around like chickens with their heads cut off? Silas opened the cylinders and reloaded his guns before turning back to Hector’s battlefield and unloading every round once again.
To end the fight, they needed to free up more of their battle strength. That meant killing the Green Eyes. Silas quickly switched on the Aura Sensing Art and looked around the battles, his expression turning downcast.
Three of them were roughly equivalent to Eight Gates, Two of them were at Six. Cassandra had one of the former locked down, meaning they only had to deal with four. Silas scowled as he emptied the cylinders yet again to reload, still pooling fear energy within his mind and drawing in more and more from the civilians hidden away.
He was well over his reserves now, his mind working double time to shoot and keep the fear energy condensed at the same time. Every bullet was a kill and he only killed slower than the Wayfinders at the front, yet the horde never seemed to shrink. He had already run through a few dozen bullets. Silas’ hand twitched as a spike in fear energy was felt from the boardhouse.
One spike, and then another, then dozens. What was a silent fear turned into a full blown terror as screams echoed out from the building and Silas remembered what they did in the Lower City. Underground.
Sewers.
With a bend of his knee, Silas pivoted. Coming from the south, several speeding, lanky figures ran towards him with sharp claws and open mouths. Silas never stopped firing Glass’ gun towards the crowd of mutants north of him, aiming Noble Eye at the Voiceless. With the south to his left and the north to his right, he fired at both sides.
The gunfire didn’t disorient them nearly as much as the crowds did and even they weren’t fast enough to avoid a bullet. Mark after mark Silas hit until all six bullets in both guns were empty. Six Voiceless lay dead to his left with just as many about to reach him, while six extra mutants lay dead next to Hector’s feet.
He dropped Glass’ revolver and reached for the Black Iron Blade. Silas leaped back from the Voiceless and turned ever so slightly in the air to face them. The pool of fear energy in his mind rippled and the eye within the Nightmare Seed shook violently.
“Freeze.”
The pool immediately decreased by more than half and more fear energy began pouring in from outside. Freezing in place for a moment, the Voiceless stared at Silas with their glassy eyes, one of their claws infinitely close to his eye, tapping ever so lightly against the lens of his glasses.
Blood energy surged as Silas swung his arm around and cut its head off with one clean strike. Like clockwork, the rest immediately regained their movement, running past Silas and cutting straight through his coat in the process. Red stained his shirt within moments, the Nightweaver making small movements to avoid getting cut anywhere vital, his blade blocking the swipes towards his heart.
They can’t stop quickly. Silas stuck the blade into the ground and immediately loaded Noble Eye. Blood energy stuck the wounds shut with a red glare and he fired at the closest Voiceless to him as it attempted to turn around.
Its head exploded amidst a fiery bloom and only four were left. Those remaining didn’t run at him in a straight line, instead at angles. If it was anyone else, they wouldn’t be able to react. Silas’ eyes widened as he got ready to fire-
A familiar sound. Iron grating against stone. Silas turned his head a little to see a sewer grate mere feet away from Hector. All at the same time, storm drains and sewer gates opened up behind the front. Within a moment, figures shot out from them. Then their heads exploded, Silas’ bullet cutting their lives short.
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In exchange, Silas felt a pair of claws dig deep into his right shoulder, narrowly avoiding losing the arm entirely. Another ripped through his thigh, the third deflected by the Noble Eye. The fourth left just a nick on his neck. Even as the searing pain shot through his body and the grip of his arm felt weak, he breathed a sigh of relief. Reload.
He turned around as the Voiceless did and quickly fired, turning another head into black mist. The other three quickly ran at him, his wounded body too slow to accurately aim at such speeds. It had become a matter of attrition. At the same time, Silas was disheartened at how these things learned so quickly. Weeks ago they simply ran in straight lines, now they tried to avoid gunfire.
Just survive this wave and the next.
Silas took a deep breath as the claws tore through his flesh. Mere moments had passed, too little time to gather more fear energy. Little blood energy had been spent though. He scattered a large majority of it throughout his body, strengthening his bones and muscles and resisting their claws.
One more bullet, another head gone. Two more gouges along his abdomen, quickly sealed by red light. A second bullet, a second body dropped. A slash ran along the entirety of his outstretched arm, hand to shoulder and splitting open his clothes.
As Silas turned to once again fire, his heart stopped. The Voiceless had instead stopped mere feet behind him, digging its claws into the ground to counter its momentum. After sacrificing one of its arms, it managed to stop and turn almost immediately.
The Nightweaver only took half a step back and the creature’s arm swung wide, its one claw lightly grazing his face and leaving thin red lines on his cheek. Silas darted a few steps forth and his arm jerked up, sticking the Noble Eye’s barrel into the creature’s jaw and pulling the trigger.
Its head burst apart and painted Silas’ clothes black in blood. He weakly wiped the black blood away from his wounds, sending another burst of blood energy to purify the corruption. Stumbling back to the box of ammo, Silas was silently reloading his guns when he stopped. Each bullet contained Deium Oil, many of which were high content. With a single good throw and a great shot, it was practically a bomb.
Silas looked up and a blinding blue light shot forth from the rooftop as one of Valmor’s arrows entered the crowd. A loud roar silenced the battlefield as Silas saw what he recognized to be an Eighth Gate mutant get hit and its arm explode at the shoulder. Without hesitation, Silas’ eyes flashed purple and he suddenly met its gaze.
“Freeze.”
The eye within the Nightmare Seed grew lethargic as the colours dimmed and fear energy drained until his reserves were empty. The Eighth Gate Mutant froze in place and Lilith rushed forward, her flaming fist crashing into its skull and leaving nothing but a charred crater where its face once was.
Immediately after, a heavy stone was sent flying at the roof where Valmor sat and immediately the Archer went silent, a few drops of blood flying through the air as shingles and brick hit the ground. Silas had only seen one mutant throw anything so far.
Confirming his suspicions, Silas looked into the crowd and let out a silent curse, locking eyes with the limping Mutant even as it was getting chased around by a Sergeant and the Fire Mage. He didn’t like how much intelligence it had, forming grudges and using the closest thing to weapons any of them have.
He didn’t have the energy to make any more Commands, let alone the fact that they were on guard now. Silas could still fight with his blade, but not for long in this state. They only had two win conditions. Wait for Amus to finish or free up all their high end combat power. Thinking of something, Silas found Lilith in the crowd. “Lilith! Save Cassandra!”
The Solari staggered slightly as her fist pierced a mutants chest and then nodded without even looking at Silas. Her figure dashed through the crowd before eventually approaching the lone Wayfinder. Silas watched as Lilith walked right up and threw a punch at the motionless Eighth Gate Mutant. As if sensing danger, it’s green eyes immediately grew clear and the annoyance turned into rage. Cassandra woke up right after, the surrounding mutants suddenly aware of her presence.
With a shout, Lilith jumped back, grabbed Cassandra in a bear hug and leaped straight up, her legs covered in the same flame as her hands often are, A rock shout out from the crowd, only to be met with one of Silas’ bullets as he rapidly approached the battle, box of ammo in hand.
Killing one and freeing up Cassandra only returned them to the status quo, Lilith and her Sergeant quickly returning to the horde in an attempt to pin the mutant down again. Even now, more and more guardsmen fell beneath the onslaught, yet they finally seemed to see an end to the horde.
“Silas, what the fuck!” Cassandra asked in what was almost a laugh, visibly exhausted as she weaved a few more spells he couldn’t recognize. “There was a plan!”
“I have a new one.”
“Yeah, and what’s that? Ruin the advantage?”
“Get you out of the blast zone.” Silas picked up the heavy box of ammunition, doing his best to memorise exactly where on the bullet he needed to hit to set the whole thing off. Deium Oil was highly volatile, and in such high amounts, this box was practically a bomb.
Then he looked over at the limping mutant and his opponents and realised there was a better idea. With a grin, Silas lifted the fifteen pound box of bullets overhead and shouted. “Hey fire boy!”
Stumbling, the fire mage turned mid fight with a rather understandable wrath. Only when Silas tossed the box of bullets straight over the battlefield behind the limping mutant did his expression turn. He and Silas grinned at the same time, the Nightweaver not even needing to use a command this time, “Blow this the fuck up!”