Kaleb watched as his gnome familiar, still cackling, stepped toward the green, swirling, mini-tornado. Daivor had his sword out and was pushing it out and into the mass of incoming gremlins. Meanwhile, the rest of the hangar was shouting and push in closer, trying to see what was going on. Kaleb felt the cube he had built siphon a bit more mana before he cut off the flow. Once he did, the gremlin tornado went nuts and started writhing oddly in the air.
“I’ll handle the big one, you take the rest!” Daivor shouted as he dove into the swirling mass of gremlin bodies.
Kaleb wanted to ask what the gnome meant. But it became clear once the tornado began tossing out tiny gremlins. They converged on Kaleb, their beady eyes bright and their claws held high. Two Gun and hangar NPCs started firing with their weapons. Some hunters even charged in with their spears as a huge amount of gremlins burst forth. Kaleb drew his own two side arms and started firing, as the gremlins didn’t even dodge the laser or the weapons. They just kept pushing toward Kaleb’s pointless device, like zombies.
Daivor, meanwhile, dove sword-first into the raging green torrent. His body was suffused with a blue glow that seemed to help in cutting his way into the center of the tornado. Once there, Kaleb and the others watched as the green tornado pulsed angrily and buffeted the small gnome with streams of green magic. Kaleb kicked out at a gremlin, sending tumbling away as he fired a shot toward the tornado. The blue blast of his Cybar hit the green tornado and a screech of pain rose, but otherwise, the swirling vortex was fine.
Kaleb started firing at the gremlin horde to keep them back. But several hunters and Brutes tried to attack the tornado as well. But it was like the magic and gremlins that made up the tornado wouldn’t let them disrupt what was going on inside. Twin blue lasers fired out into the mass of gremlin bodies as Two Gun sidled up to Kaleb and his tiny machine.
“Is your friend going to be okay?” The old cowboy asked.
Kaleb nodded. A grim look on his face. “Yeah. But I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Two Gun’s hands blurred with speed as he acquired targets and blasted them with his twin pistols. All around them, the screeching of dying gremlins created an awful din that practically drowned out the rushing wind of the tornado. Inside the tornado, Daivor was standing with his sword raised, seemingly waiting for something. Soon the tornado stopped buffeting the gnome with its winds and pulsed angrily again. This time, as it finished pulsing, the tornado spat out a huge green blob in the middle of its tornado. Daivor watched patiently as the bulbous green bit of snot started undulating. The tornado feeding the blob tendrils of power.
Kaleb sent a blast from his Sun Gun into the tornado again. But all that happened was a gremlin appeared in mid-air and threw its body into his shot. Kaleb hissed as he punted another approaching gremlin. All around, hunters and brutes were easily keeping the tide of gremlins at bay, but they also weren’t making a lot of headway. More and more gremlins were spawning off the damn tornado while inside Daivor was about to be attacked by a green blob.
“I have to get to him to help!” Kaleb shouted over the noise.
Two Gun waved at the tiny horde before them. “Your welcome to try. But how far do you think you’d get?”
“Close enough!” Kaleb answered. “You stay here and guard that little cube, okay?”
Two Gun glanced down at the metal device and raised an eyebrow at Kaleb. “Wait. Is that what they are trying to get to?! Why didn’t you say something?!”
Kaleb simply shrugged and started kicking and shooting his way into the gremlins. They clung to his pants and shredded them with their little claws. Some tried to claw up his body, but Kaleb made sure to yank them off as quick as possible. As he got closer to the green tornado, more of the things swarmed him and soon he could barely move his legs. His legs and torso were being clawed and slashed up as he tried to push further. The gremlins had even gotten beneath his armor and were scratching at his chest.
Two Gun’s laser fire whizzed past Kaleb’s face, hitting the tornado just ahead of him. He turned around to see the old man waving him back. Kaleb grimaced. He didn’t like it, but the old man was kind of right. He wasn’t making anymore headway and his health was dropping quickly. Kaleb glanced at Daivor and saw the gnome holding his sword with one hand, pointing it at the slowly growing blob of green. He wasn’t sure if the gnome was even aware of what was going on outside the tornado. With a growl, Kaleb began rushing his way back to Two Gun. As he went, the gremlins fell away from his body like dying moths. He spotted a few of them turning into green mist and rejoining the tornado’s swirling mass.
He was still killing the things as he got back to his original position. “ARGH! Well, that was pointless!”
“Don’t worry about it, son. We learned something from it. That damn tornado was practically spawning the things on top of you as you got closer. So whatever it is, it’s smart enough to muster a defense.”
“And it doesn’t want me helping Daivor.”
Two Gun chuckled. “From where I’m standing, it doesn’t look like the little guy needs our help.”
Kaleb throttled a gremlin in his metal hand and turned to look back at the tornado. Inside, Daivor was brandishing his sword as the green blob finally formed into something. It was a two-foot tall gremlin with a crown. To Kaleb, it almost looked like an even pointy-er goblin. It had a long pointed nose and spindly little arms and legs. Each of its fingers and toes were capped with deadly-looking nails that it waved in Daivor’s direction. But the most notable part of the large gremlin was the silver crown on its head.
“Shit…” Two Gun swore. “is that little fella getting a boss fight without us?!”
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Kaleb cackled. “Hahaha! It looks like it.”
Inside the tornado, Daivor was waving his sword at the gremlin, his lips moving. But Kaleb and two Gun were too far away, and the noise was too much for them to hear. His gnome familiar was clearly giving a long-winded speech to the gremlin that just scowled at him. Kaleb grinned and looked at Two Gun as he started slaughtering the gremlins again.
“Did you ever get the feeling you're missing something epic?”
Two Gun nodded but then his face went slack and his eyes grew wide. “Oh Shit! I have to record this!”
The old man backed off as he dove into his menus. Kaleb snorted as he redoubled his efforts to kill as many of the little gremlins as he could. Around him, the hunters and brutes had fallen into a simple rhythm of slaughtering gremlins. Each swipe of the lizard’s claws or melee weapons took out scores of the things. But each time, their bodies turned to mist and were returned to the tornado. It took some time for the tornado to spawn a new gremlin, but it was happening. But no one groaned or complained about the phenomenon. In fact, both the lizards and the hunters seemed to take it as a great training exercise.
Kaleb nearly choked as he saw a group of hunters switching off with another group to take breaks. Someone had rushed off and retrieved the hunter’s armor, so now most of them were geared up and taking turns killing gremlins. Suddenly, the dire and tense moment had become something not so dangerous. Then Kaleb raised his eyes to the eye of the tornado.
Daivor and the crowned gremlin were fighting now. Daivor’s blue magic was infused in his sword and the Gremlin King’s claws were glowing green. Every time their weapons would clash, the resulting strike would send teal sparks floating into the air. Kaleb kept his own weapon firing and made sure that the gremlins near him were being killed. But mostly, he watched Daivor’s fight. The small gnome whirled and danced with his sword with practiced ease. His beard and hat were buffeted by the green tornado as he parried the gremlins’ claws. The two tiny combatants danced in the eye of the magic tornado until Daivor’s sword opened a large wound on the gremlin king.
“YES!” Kaleb shouted, only to be disappointed in the next moment.
Daivor didn’t let up as the gremlin king backed away. Kaleb could see the wound on the gremlin king’s side already healing. The wound was smoking green, and the mist rose into the tornado. Which seemed odd. Kaleb looked at the mist again as the gremlin king and Daivor went at it again.
“No.” Kaleb thought. “It’s not coming off the gremlin. It’s going to him!”
The tornado was empowering the gremlin king as it fought Daivor. Which both pissed Kaleb off and made him happy. Now he had a way to help his friend. Holstering his Sun Gun, Kaleb brought out the Quad Gun and switched it to electricity. As it spun to life, he let his trigger finger on his Cybar go nuts.
“Switch to AOE attacks! We need to kill as many as we can as fast as we can!” Kaleb shouted as he sent a bolt of electricity into the green swarm.
His blast killed a few, but mostly it seemed to delight the little shits as they cackled happily in their weird gobbledygook language. Cursing to himself, Kaleb switched to fire and sent a gout of flame across the workout area’s floor. He winced as the padded mat they had was scorched slightly, but he thought it was a good trade. All around him, the NPCs took up his orders and started taking it to the gremlins. The laser weapons switched to full-auto and the swords and spears were used to hew the gremlins in large sweeping motions.
Green mist rose from everywhere as the gremlins’ bodies returned to the swirling mass of magic that was the tornado. Kaleb thought the thing was slowing down, but he couldn’t be sure. Inside, Daivor was still wielding his sword like a pro, baiting the gremlin king into overextending and making him pay for it. Already he had cut the gremlin king several more times. Thin wisps of magic were feeding into the king, but they were clearly healing slower than before.
Kaleb grinned as his plan worked. Two Gun joined him, his two fingers working overtime on his pistols. Sweeping streams of blue laser fire destroyed gremlins by the score. The hunters and the brutes even managed to push in toward the tornado as Kaleb kept up his own wave of fire. The red flames mixed with the green swirling magic of the dead gremlins and seemed to follow it into the tornado. Soon, the green spinning vortex was tinged yellow as Kaleb’s fire seeped into the gremlin’s magic.
“Do you think that’s a good thing?!” Two Gun shouted.
Kaleb spotted a tiny invisible drone over the old man’s shoulder and knew that the man was recording everything. Rolling his eyes, Kaleb answered in the affirmative and kept burning gremlins to death. Soon their small army of teens and lizards pushed in again, and the green and yellow tornado wobbled visibly. All around, the gremlins started disintegrating and feeding back into the tornado again. Kaleb could see that the yellow coloring of the tornado was overtaking the green. Now the tornado was trying to balance things out.
Inside the vortex, Daivor was cleaving into the gremlin king’s arm with his sword. The king back off, swiping at the gnome, and Kaleb spotted several wounds on his small friend. Daivor was sweaty and tired-looking, but Kaleb could also tell his friend was mad. The gnome charged the king again carefully as the large gremlin played defense. Waiting for another opportunity to strike. But Daivor wasn’t giving the thing a chance. He swung his sword through an intricate formation, snapping it out into the goblin king’s face. But as the gremlin king raised his claws to defend, Daivor switched directions and stabbed the thing in the gut.
Kaleb’s attention was dragged away from the fight as a shout rose above the tumult of fighting. The green and yellow tornado was faltering noticeably. Most, if not all, of the gremlins were sucked back up into the vortex now. Kaleb kept his flamethrower aimed at the tornado though, hoping to, in some small way, help Daivor. The tornado shuddered again before it completely collapsed. Which resulted in an explosion of magic and heat that sent everyone tumbling back. Kaleb clenched his eyes against the heat as worried shouts echoed in the hangar.
Blinking, Kaleb willed his eyes to focus. Hoping to catch a glimpse of the end of Daivor’s fight. But when he finally managed to get his vision under control, there was a gray haze over the hangar floor. Teens and lizards helped each other to their feet as the backlash had knocked a few people over. A general hush fell over everything as people waited for the victor to emerge from the smoke.
The first thing visible was Daivor’s red hat. Which made Kaleb sigh in relief. The gnome’s large hat was followed by Daivor’s sweat-covered face and torso. The gnome was limping visibly and had several claw marks across his face and body. Yet he held his sword aloft as he marched out of the gray haze. Daivor scanned the crowd once before turning to Kaleb. His sword switched back into a pipe, and the gnome grinned at him.
“THAT’S how you deal with fucking gremlins.”
Kaleb grinned as, beside him, Two Gun chuckled to himself.
“This video is going to go nuts on the forum.”