Logan arrived just in time. After he had seen Levemoth in the sky, he had immediately rushed back to camp, scrambling through the bushes and low branches with his armful of armaments. Two black drops had landed dead in the camp, and several had landed close. Logan had already killed a scythe-fiend on his way back.
But there were new creatures, like the one that had attacked his father. Fortunately the flashbangs were extremely powerful. Yes, for now they were a crude solution, as they would also blind his allies. But these camp villagers were going to be useless in a fight anyway. So Logan wasn’t too careful. They worked like a charm on both types of monsters rampaging through the camp.
A well aimed crossbow bolt struck the beast attacking his father straight in the earhole. It fell down dead immediately.
[Skill Level Up!]
[Marksmanship level 8]
Logan wasted no time reveling. He needed to save the others too. Kat was out of commission, but he could trust Balmer. He had just the thing made for him anyway.
“Balmer!” Logan shouted.
“Here, Logan!” he heard a voice through the screams.
Logan saw the young agent in the middle of the chaos, blind and shielding his face with his arms, Logan’s scythe-rang in other hand.
A black and blue troll waved around its four arms violently as it rampaged forward blindly. Logan ducked under a smashing fist of the eight foot tall monster and ran towards Balmer.
“I’m here,” Logan said and took the scythe-rang from him. “Give me that.”
“I need a weapon,” Balmer said.
“Take this,” Logan said and offered him a wooden sword. It was a beautiful thing. Logan had thought he had all the time in the world when making it, so he had been very careful. Not because he liked Balmer, but he had liked making the sword. “It’s enchanted."
“What is it?”
“You’ll get your vision back in a moment,” Logan said. “Don’t cut yourself.”
With that he ran a few paces after the troll and threw the scythe-rang. As it flew, Logan loaded the hand-crossbow with another quarrel. He managed to pull the mechanism just in time to catch the boomerang that had come back after it left the troll without its head.
The catch was awkward and he almost dropped the hand-crossbow, but it worked.
“Freya!” Logan yelled. There was no answer. That was either really good or really bad. No time to think. A scythe-monster let out a hoarse screech and came at it, the scythe-arms clicking at the ground urgently.
They got their vision back, huh.
Logan threw the scythe-rang again, and shot another bolt at a troll that had ripped a shield out of an agent’s hand and was about to slam him with it. The projectile hit the lumbering creature in the back. It roared and turned, giving the agent and his friend to push their spears into its flesh.
Meanwhile the scythe-rang had cut a frontleg off from a scythe-fiend. It scrambled towards Logan in frantic rage. Logan took a few fast paces to the side, which meant the return path of his blue throwing weapon cleaved through the scythe-fiend's long head.
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[Skill Level Up!]
[Marksmanship level 9]
Logan saw one of the trolls lumbering towards the den.
Oh no, you don’t.
Kat was there, as was their sole shelter. Logan’s crossbow was not loaded, so he threw another flashbang.
“SHIELD YOUR EYES!” Logan yelled out as he threw. Before he brought a hand over his eyes, he saw that a good portion of the agent’s closeby were doing the same. Now, that was a great advantage.
The troll in front of the den was indeed blinded. In its confusion it grasped around at the air around it as it roared. One of its four arms clipped the den, cracking the wood paneling. Logan heard two women screaming.
“Freya! Hang on!” Logan shouted and threw the scythe-rang again. It wooshed in the air as it cut through it. It sliced off two of the troll’s arms. It screamed a bellowing wrathful roar and sprayed black blood everywhere. Logan was trying to load the crossbow, but the troll was coming close. Logan had to drop what he was doing and run. The scythe-rang was stuck on the broken wall of the den. Logan’s eyes went wide with the realization that the weapon wasn’t coming back. The Numa in the weapon’s enchantments was spent.
Fuck.
Logan ran away from the troll, but the large and seemingly clumsy creature was quick on its feet, even with two arms chopped off. It tried to swipe at Logan’s head with it’s long arms. Logan ducked and fell. He would have to use another flashbang and run. At least he had gotten the monster away from the den.
Before Logan could throw the last of his flashbangs, Three agents came at the troll, shields raised, taking its attention. Meanwhile as fast a wind’s shadow, Balmer came up behind the troll and pushed his wooden sword into the creature’s back, like the trollskin was nothing but butter. With a twist, Balmer pulled the sword, and the monster went limp and fell.
“Good weapon,” Balmer quipped and offered a hand.
Logan grabbed it and got pulled up. “Glad I finally found a way to make you useful.”
They shared a wry smile and refocused. Another troll just lumbered into the camp, lured by the screams and sounds of fighting.
Logan instinctively checked on Freya. There was no movement around the den. Freya and Kat must be hunkering down in some corner.
Logan couldn’t afford to just sit goalie around the broken down house though. The scythe-fiends had already cut two people down. A person Logan didn’t know had been sliced in half. He was dead with a horrified look on his face, his hands holding the stuff coming out of him. It was much more gruesome than Logan had ever imagined.
Some bile came up, but Logan swallowed it down as he loaded his crossbow. He shot down a scythe-fiend who was fighting with Simmons. The great ox of a man was wielding the scythe-saw Logan had given him in one hand, and a stone axe in the other. After the fiend fell down, Logan and Simmons nodded to each other and continued the defense. Simmons quickly found a troll to fight with, and traded with it blow for blow, his weapons blurring as he swung against the four long arms of the monster.
Logan reloaded again and watched his surroundings like a hawk. His father was collecting all the non-warrior types into a group and herding them out of the range of the battle. A scythe-fiend was clicking towards them, snarling like a prowling cat, but Logan managed to distract it with a crossbow bolt to its side. It let out a hoarse scream and rushed towards Logan.
Thankfully the enchanted crossbow string was easy to pull. But before Logan could aim and shoot, the monster was already upon him.
“Shield!”
A blue umbrella of energy bloomed out of Logan’s hand and the creature was toppled on its back. Logan wasted no time and shot it in the abdomen, nailing the creature to the ground.
With that, the sounds of battle were dying down. What was left was two scores of people stunned in horror. A girl around Logan’s age was holding her arm and crying a few yards away. One of the doctors in their white lab coats was looking at the sky with empty eyes. Logan moved with determined haste. He picked up any crossbow bolt he could easily find and then went up to the broken den and picked up his scythe-rang.
“Logan!” Freya cried out. “Are you alright? Is it over?”
“The camp is safe,” Logan said as he plucked an E-grader from his pocket to recharge the scythe-rang and his shield-watch.
Freya quickly picked up on Logan’s mood and sobered up. Logan looked in those beautiful, bright blue eyes. She understood what Logan wanted to do.
“Go get them,” Freya said. Logan nodded.
Then he turned and shouted at the agents.
“What the hell are you standing there for? You think this is over?”
The agents turned towards him. Most of them looked surly, but some of them took a few steps closer. From the edge of the camp opening, Malcolm Specter watched him with his arms crossed.
“Didn’t you see the Black Rain? There were dozens of drops. You want to let those things breed or something next door? Hell no. We’re going hunting, you damn goons.”