Now, Manila

“The rangers are falling back into a building, Spear Sergeant!”

Doran squinted. It was getting difficult to see through the fog even without accounting for the chaotic battle. Human shades kept appearing from every direction. “I see them, Marci. Good eye.”

That didn’t bode well for his spears.

They had already lost sight of the Watch at the front of the formation. The only thing that gave them any sense of orientation was the glowing sigil in the distance. How much distance? Doran couldn’t tell. It seemed to vary from a hundred yards to five times that much.

Still, his unit was holding their defensive box well.

Spears stabbed into charging shades. None of the enemy had weapons long enough to get past them. Shields did an adequate job protecting them from ranged attacks. The enemy didn’t get much of an opportunity to cast multiple spells or fire their weapons more than a handful of times thanks to the terrifying Rino.

The Weredog moved with striking quickness through the battlefield. Claws and teeth sent the shade mages and ranged attackers back to the fog each time they revealed their positions.

Doran was confident they could’ve held for a long time, but he knew that was a losing proposition since the goal was to get to the sanctuary. Which, when he saw the large and misshapen forms appearing out of the fog alongside the human shades, suddenly seemed too far to reach.

A giant bull-thing charged out of the thick fog. Swirling gray wisps trailed in its wake.

“Rear line to the front, double coverage, now!” Doran barked.

The rear of their formation was left open as the back line turned and hurried to press up against the front line.

“Right and left lines, change angle. Triangle formation!”

Doran stood in the center of the formation staring at the huge horned animal mutated to grotesque proportions with muscles so large that the skin had split in several places.

“Brace! Reflect Charge!” He wasn’t sure if his Unit Skills were going to be enough.

It was all he could do as he listened to the brave men and women facing the charge yell out their own Skills.

The mutated bull plowed into the spears.

Steel heads plunged through thickened skin and over-sized muscles. Hardwood shafts splintered. Shields broke.

The unfortunate Spearman that took the brunt of the charge was thrown back into his teammate trying to brace him. Both went flying. The Spearman was dead on impact.

Their Skills hadn’t been enough.

Although they had managed to keep the mutant bull from penetrating through the double line they failed to kill it.

The mutant bull gored and trampled more of them.

Marci rolled to the mutant bull’s flank and came up thrusting with her spear. “Power Thrust!” It sank deep into the side of the creature, just behind its left foreleg. The young Spearwoman pulled her weapon free along with a sickening gush of dark, diseased-looking blood.

The mutant bull roared and spun around to face her.

“I got its heart! I had to!” she cried in disbelief.

“Over here you giant walking hamburger!” Audra called out even as she fired her pistol into the side of the mutant bull’s enormous head.

The mutant bull regarded Marci for a moment then snorted before turning back to the rest of the spears.

“Get back in formation, Audra!” Brendon pulled the dark-skinned woman into line.

“My spear broke!”

“Here,” Xing handed Audra a bloodied spear. “He’s not going to need it anymore,” he eyed the dead Spearman on the ground.

“We are stronger together.” Doran stepped into the middle of the line. Directly in front of the mutant bull. “Brace. Reflect Charge. Shield Block. Penetrating Thrust.” Skills for his unit and for himself.

The mutant bull charged again.

The blow shattered Doran’s shield and shoved him back, but this time they held. Spears pierced the mutant bull’s flesh again. Yet, it still wouldn’t go down.

Worse, more monsters were closing in even as the two spear lines on either side of the formation were beginning to be swamped by the human shades mindlessly throwing themselves on the spears.

The mutant bull bellowed as it stamped the ground with a sound like thunder and lowered its horned head.

“Bash!” Xing clanged his crowbar into the creature’s skull wincing as the impact jarred his entire body.

“Double Thrust.” Doran lunged in. The tip of his spear angled from below to make two deep wounds in the creature’s thick neck with one move. Marci had wounded its heart, but it was still going strong, so he had hoped that maybe piercing a vital vessel in its neck would finish it.

The mutant bull flung its head up, nearly goring Xing as the stocky man barely got out of the way by throwing himself back.

“Get back!” Doran ordered. “Reform the line.”

Monsters resembling a hideous mix of goat and man had joined the human shades.

Audra, who had broken her second spear, was firing her pistol while Brendon wielded shield and spear in an effort to protect her.

Doran steeled himself to accept what was definitely going to be a fatal charge from the mutant bull. His one chance was to land a killing thrust in return and hope that his spears could find a way out of this mess.

The mutant bull thundered forward, bellowing with unearthly rage so palpable that Doran felt it as a tangible thing.

He tightened his grip. His spear never wavered.

He lunged forward.

A dark snarling blur plowed into the mutant bull from the side.

Rino’s nearly nine feet tall form looked small as she dug her claws into the mutant bull’s thick hide and rode it. The mutant bull bucked wildly, but couldn’t dislodge her. Even when it slammed into and trampled the rusted vehicles parked on the side of the street.

Rino opened wide and clamped her powerful jaws over the back of the mutant bull’s neck. Just barely wide enough. Sharp teeth bit down. The muscles in Rino’s neck strained visibly through her fur as she shook her head from side to side.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity an audible crunch echoed through the shrouded gloom.

The mutant bull collapsed.

Rino’s lupine face twisted with what looked like disgust as it appeared that she was trying and failing to spit.

She gave up and locked eyes with Doran before pointing toward a fast food restaurant on the other side of the street.

Doran understood immediately. “Retreat! Head there!” he thrust his spear. “Rapid Disengage!”

“Wait! Marci’s in trouble!” Xing pointed urgently.

Marci was out of position. She had placed herself behind the mutant bull away from the rest of her unit.

Bleating sounds tickled her ears.

She spun and swept her spear in a flat arc in front of her catching a couple of hideous goatmen mid-leap and knocked them back.

The distance was too great. There were too many shades in between the unit and Marci.

Doran looked urgently to Rino.

The Weredog shooed him in the direction of the restaurant and bounded toward Marci, scattering shades with vicious swipes of her claws.

“Marci will be fine,” Doran said.

The spears retreated in good order. They kept the shades at bay behind their shields and spears. They dragged the wounded with them, but left the dead to the fog.

For some reason the shades didn’t immediately follow them into the restaurant.

Doran took stock of their situation..

They had lost another five. All new recruits. A selfish part of him was glad that out of the remaining seven members that had been with him since the beginning, only Marci’s fate was uncertain. Although, the young woman was probably in better shape than the rest of them with Rino at her side.

He forced such thoughts away. They were unworthy and sentimental. He had to focus on the next steps.

“Pile up the tables and chairs. We’ll make a barricade with a choke point.”

He was left with a thought.

How effective was a Spear Unit when half of them didn’t have spears?

----------------------------------------

Vibrating Blade, Hanna thought.

Her sword hummed as she halved a leaping monster.

Blood splashed over her then vanished into mist, just like the monster.

She saw the glowing sigil up ahead.

It felt so close.

She thought she caught glimpses of the building through the swirling fog. That was an improvement from the opaqueness of it just a few minutes ago.

Human shades had given way to monster shades at some point and a part of her was glad for that. She had been unnerved to cut down people that either looked terrified or resigned with dead eyes. The thought of what it must’ve been like for them filled her with dread. She would share their fates were she to fall. Her entire team was at risk of what appeared to be eternal slavery to the fog.

Hanna cut forward, foot by foot toward the glowing light.

The vanguard leading the way for those behind her.

There was a muffled thump and a small cylinder bounced several feet in front of her.

The grenade exploded sending shrapnel into the clump of monsters in front of Hanna.

She flinched back as the metal shards pinged harmlessly off her Threnosh armor. She realized that she hadn’t even felt the concussion wave.

“I knew your armor could take it,” Cristos called out while he fired controlled bursts of his weapon.

Hanna didn’t dignify the soldier with a response. She leapt into the opening he had made and slashed through multiple monsters with sweeping strikes of her sword as she advanced.

An arc of bright blue-white lighting flashed triggering her faceplate to momentarily darken. The bolt split into multiples and charred several monsters.

“Sorry!” Jake said. “I… er… also knew your armor could take it.” The big Techmage had a smartphone in his normal hand and a pistol in his prosthetic. The ghostly mage hand spell glowed a dim blue around the dark gray of the skeletal metal.

“Don’t worry about me. We need to punch through to the light. Keep at it,” Hanna grunted.

A flaming baseball streaked past Hanna’s head and beaned a misshapen monster in its fanged mouth. The monster’s entire head erupted into flames.

Hanna lashed out faster than the human eye could follow and beheaded the creature.

She chanced a quick glance back and noticed Trevor nervously giving her the thumbs up.

She waved for him to continue what he was doing.

The rest of the team was barely managing to fend of the monster shades.

Rebekah was forced to support Max on her shoulder, while hacking desperately with her axe.

Del fought on Max’s other side with blade and pistol.

Ginessa fired her pistol wildly as she supported Jovita, who could barely walk.

Hanna cursed at that. She hadn’t seen how Jovita had been injured. The Eskrimador was a superb melee fighter.

Demi brought up the rear. Her recoilless rifle didn’t seem to run out of ammunition while her Threnosh armor kept her safe. She had Santi throwing bottles at the monsters. Several walls of flame hindered pursuit and kept the monsters from simply overwhelming their formation with sheer numbers.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

However, it wasn’t looking good in Hanna’s eyes. Where were Amber and Alexa? The rangers and the spears?

Someone started laughing as if to mock her growing desperation.

And just like that the monster shades disappeared back into the fog.

“Hurry! To the sigil!” Demi urged.

The group ran for it.

The building became visible out of the fog. It was several stories high and occupied a block. Restaurants and other commercial establishments were at street level. The floors above looked like apartments. It was as they were briefed. This was the main sanctuary.

The fog seemed to thin as they neared the sanctuary.

The glowing sigils adorning the walls shined a light out just past the sidewalk where a clear boundary existed. It was as if there was a glass wall that the fog couldn’t penetrate.

The laughter continued to echo when Hanna suddenly found herself driven into the asphalt.

The jarring impact had her struggling to breathe. She had a moment to recall that one of the tests she did with the Threnosh armor was to get hit by a car traveling around 40 mph. This one was stronger than that.

A dark shadow in the fog descended on her.

She rolled and came up slashing.

The person, the shade, was quicker and dodged back.

“Where’d you get that armor? I’ve dented steel plates easily before.” The shade was a young man in jeans and a t-shirt. He was wiry and of average height. Black hair, long on top and shaved on the sides.

Hanna recognized the sound of his voice. “You think this is funny? Why? You like being enslaved to a fog monster? Enjoy making others just like you?” She struggled to get her wind back, but still held her sword in a steady two-handed grip with its point toward the young man.

“Shut up! You don’t know—”

A streak of blue-white light crackled past Hanna and sent the young man flying back into the fog.

Jake appeared behind her. “God… it’s disturbing how burnt human flesh can sorta remind you of BBQ pork. What I don’t understand is why they smell and bleed before they turn back into fog? How does that even work?”

“I don’t smell anything.”

“Must be nice having a helmet with filters.”

“Hmmm…” Hanna ignored Jake as she searched the fog-shrouded space that separated them from safety.

“Why aren’t we moving?” Cristos said.

“My Danger Sense is still going off,” Del said.

The rest of the group caught up.

“I hit that guy with as strong a Shock Spell as I can manage right now, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t kill him… turn him back to fog… whatever,” Jake said.

The same laughter heralded the young man’s reappearance in front of them. However, now he had a burned hole in his shirt. The flesh beneath was blackened and weeping blood. “You’re not as dumb as you look. Still look like a meathead though. Shooting a spell out of a phone is new. Who are you people? I mean you obviously don’t look like you’re from here. You’re speaking English, but so am I. Then again, with the universal translation thing, who knows what language any of us are really speaking.”

“You’re being a lot more talkative than the others,” Jake said.

“It must be struggling with some other stuff. Could be cause of you guys? I dunno?” the young man shrugged.

“Can we convince you to step aside?” Del ventured.

“No chance,” the young man laughed.

“You said it yourself. If whatever entity that’s controlling you is busy then maybe you can fight it!” Jake pleaded. “Or at least do nothing. Just stand aside and let us pass.”

The young man was silent for a moment. Conflict roiled across his face, but in the end he shook his head. “Sorry, but not sorry.”

“Vern, right?”

Two women suddenly coalesced on each side of the young man.

The speaker appeared to be in her fifties or sixties. The other was much younger

“You don’t know me. I barely know you. You’re Tito Phillip’s wife’s… whatever… just cause we’re trapped in this hell together doesn’t mean anything. You can’t talk to me like we’re family!” Vern snapped.

“God, you’re such a dick,” the young woman rolled her eyes.

“Karlee, don’t take the Lord’s name in vain and don’t say bad words,” the older woman admonished. “Vernardo, then…” she began, “I can feel a difference. I’m sure you do too. Almost as if we can… I don’t know how to describe it… maybe not try as hard as we can to fulfill our duty.”

“You can do what you want. As for me… this is the closest I can get to feeling like I’m still alive. After this I go back to dreaming of a gray nothingness at best. At worst? I dream about the worst day of my life along with the worst days of your lives and all the lives that it took. I dream of aliens too? You understand?” Vern turned to Hanna, Jake and the rest. “Countless lives and worlds! I dream about them! All of them doomed to an eternity of gray and nothing! Only to be brought out for this…” he laughed, ugly and bitter. “So… sorry, but not… this is the closest I get to being alive again, which is bad luck for you guys.”

“Just wait a little bit, you asshole!” Karlee said. “Tita Lu… do you think it’ll work this time?”

“There is always hope if we have faith.”

Vern snorted.

Karlee stepped toward the invisible boundary between the fog and the sanctuary. She pressed her hand against it and pushed.

At first nothing happened. Her hand remained pressed up against the boundary.

Then her hand began to push through slowly.

“Tita!” Karlee smiled. “I think—” her smile turned into a grimace.

They watched as her hand turned into mist that burned away in the presence of the sigil’s light.

Karlee pulled her hand back. Her shoulders slumped and her head bowed. “Why?” Her whisper was audible to Hanna’s helmet.

“See,” Vern said.

The older woman sighed and went over to embrace the younger.

“Ma’am… Mrs. Lu. We’re here to do what we can to free you. If you step aside—” Demi began.

“Lu is fine and I’d love to, but that won’t be possible. Our wills aren’t our own. I do pray that you succeed. We’re already dead and we deserve to move on to heaven.”

“Pfft! I’m fucked either way,” Vern said.

“We’re not all like you, Vern!” Karlee spat.

“Enough talking!” Vern leapt.

Only to be thrown off course by a baseball grazing his forehead.

Vern came up with a curtain of blood running down his face. “What the fuck is this! Some kind of magic baseball?” he held it up.

“It’s my Cutter, a Skill,” Trevor said from behind a lot of people.

“How do you cut with a ball?” Vern muttered. “Such bullshit.” He hurled the ball at Trevor with blinding speed.

Hanna sliced it out of the air and the two halves harmlessly flew past everyone.

“You’ve got an automatic tracking system in that armor? Cause I needed to use car radar guns to find out how fast I can throw things.”

“My reflexes are my own,” Hanna said.

“Skills then? Or maybe you’re a magical swordgirl,” Vern smirked.

“I’ll handle him. Everyone break for the sanctuary,” Hanna said.

“We don’t leave anyone,” Del said even though his pistol shook.

“I didn’t mean just leave me. Eron’s in there. You go get him and come back for me,” Hanna said.

“We’ll be quick,” Demi promised.

“One on one, huh? Okay, okay,” Vern nodded.

“Thought you lived for this,” Hanna raised a brow.

“I do. Let’s see if you can last long enough for that piece of shit to get out here for his next beating,” Vern turned and grabbed a fallen motorcycle next to the sidewalk and hurled it at Hanna.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team faced the two women standing in their way to the sanctuary.

“Jimenez, get in there and send Eron and anyone capable of helping,” Demi said.

The small woman swallowed nervously, but nodded before disappearing from everyone’s notice.

“I don’t see her, Tita,” Karlee said.

“Good for her,” Lu said.

Demi fired her recoilless rifle without warning.

The first few round struck Lu in her shoulder, but the old woman raised a hand and a teal-colored forcefield appeared in front of her and Karlee to block the rest of the projectiles.

“Tita Lu!” Karlee’s hands were encased with large, orange-colored forcefields resembling a tiger’s paws and claws.

“It doesn’t matter,” Lu pressed a hand to her bloodied shirt. “Up you go,” she pointed and the forcefield in front of Karlee disappeared only to be immediately replaced by a smaller one oriented horizontally to the ground. Several more went up into the air like steps.

Karlee bounded up until they lost sight of her in fog.

The only hint of where she might have been was the faint teal glow from the forcefields.

“Jake! Watch for the girl!” Demi continued to fire at Lu. She wasn’t denting the forcefield, but she wanted to keep the woman pinned in one place for the rest of her team. “The rest of you head for the sanctuary!” She advanced on Lu while maintaining a steady stream of projectiles.

“What are you waiting for, Del!” Rebekah snapped. “Get your ass gone!”

“And leave you and Max?”

“Watch Captain’s orders!”

Del cursed. “Hide.” He suddenly vanished from their perceptions.

Cristos sprinted for the boundary.

“Santi, gimme something nasty,” Trevor reached out.

“Careful with this,” the teen handed a small vial of glowing greenish liquid over.

“Sinker,” Trevor threw it over Lu’s forcefield.

The vial suddenly dropped toward Lu’s head.

She responded with a hastily erected panel of translucent teal light that the vial shattered against.

The liquid immediately began to sizzle and smoke.

“Geez, that stinks,” Trevor gagged. “Acid?”

“Yeah, but worse,” Santi replied.

The alchemical substance ate through the forcefield in seconds, forcing Lu to move out from under it.

“C’mon! While she’s distracted!” Trevor dragged Santi by the arm as they legged it for the boundary.

Demi was relieved as she noticed the two making it into the warm glow of the sigil’s light.

She didn’t see Jimenez or Del, but was certain that they had already made it under the cover of their respective stealth Skills.

Which left Rebekah, burdened by the semi-conscious Max and Ginessa, similarly helping a concussed Jovita stagger forward. They were moving too slow for Demi’s liking. The only reason they had a chance was because the multitude of human and monster shades had been replaced by just three. Even if they had superpowers.

The ammunition counter in her faceplate indicated that she would need to reload soon. She’d need to have Jake take over pinning down Lu for the few seconds that would take. It was a dicey proposition.

Their clock was ticking down. She really didn’t like pinning most of her hopes on Eron bailing them out. They were there to bail him out, after all.

The young woman, Karlee, chose that moment to emerge. She pounced from above for Ginessa and Jovita. The former reacted with supernatural reflexes as she pushed Jovita to safety then turned to bring her pistol to bear.

Ginessa got off a single shot that missed before Karlee was on her.

The two tumbled on the ground with Karlee ending up on top. She swiped her forcefield covered hands as Ginessa frantically tried to cover her face.

The aswang screamed in pain as the claw-like forcefields shredded the once pristine skin on her arms.

Ginessa’s tongue lashed out.

Karlee moved her head to one side. Surprise writ plainly on her face. “Another aswang?”

“Magic Missile!” Jake sent a melon-sized orb of luminous blue energy flying at Karlee.

Karlee caught it in a forcefield covered hand then hissed in pain.

The spell had eaten away at the field and left her with a scorched, blackened hand.

Karlee cradled the useless appendage as she dashed back into the thicker portion of the fog.

“Get up and keep moving!” Jake barked at Ginessa.

Ginessa’s face was paler than normal, but she nodded and hurried over to help Jovita back to her feet to continue their desperate push to safety.

“It seems that some of you made it. I am glad and I am sorry that I have to stop the rest of you,” Lu pointed and flat panes of forcefield surrounded Rebekah and Max, along with Ginessa and Jovita.

“I don’t understand you,” Demi said in despair. “You do that to them, but not to me or Jake?”

“Like I said, right now it feels as if I can not try my best,” Lu replied. “So, please… keep trying yours.”

“I’ve lost the girl watch captain!” Jake called out. “And it looks like Hanna’s got her hands full with the douche!”

The big Techmage didn’t see Karlee coming out of the fog. The gray swirled as she dashed low to the ground, almost like a jungle cat. She lashed her forcefield-covered hand at the back of his leg before scampering away again.

Jake screamed and spun around, nearly falling, unable to put weight on his injured leg.

He felt stinging pain and wetness running down from hamstrings.

They had been shredded.

His mana shield had failed.

He risked a glance at the smartphone on his chest harness assigned with the shield spell.

No good. It was out. He was defenseless aside from his meager, by comparison, armor.

“Jake!” Demi called.

“I’m fine!” he grunted. “Keep on the old lady! You can’t let her pin us all down!”

He readied himself. The girl, Karlee, liked to attack from a blind spot. He had two shield spell smartphones left. He had already left several back there when he had to block off alleys to keep the shades from overwhelming the team.

He activated one and tossed it down a little behind him to the left. The second he placed to his right. Blue shields emanated out of the phones. They were about three feet wide at the flat bottom and slightly tapered to a rounded top, which came up to just under his chin.

He had intentionally left a gap directly at his back just large enough for a small and thin person.

He didn’t have to wait long.

“Jake! Watch out! She’s coming high!” Del suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The man was nearly at the boundary, but hadn’t gone in.

Jake reacted without conscious thought and spun. “Lightning Claw!” he thrust his prosthetic hand up.

Karlee hadn’t gone for the obvious gap. She pounced from above, over the spell shields, aided, no doubt by Lu’s flat forcefields.

The smell of ozone mingled with burned flesh as Jake’s spell-covered prosthetic pierced Karlee’s chest.

She swiped her own forcefield claws at Jake’s face, but his arms were much longer than hers.

“That’s a pretty cool spell,” Karlee coughed blood.

“Kinda like your power. It’s pretty cool too,” Jake said. “Sorry about this.”

“Don’t be. Better than ending up like me.” Karlee dissipated back into the fog.

Jake collapsed to one knee while he canceled his spell.

Del rushed over and helped him up.

“Man, what’re you doing? You were clear,” Jake said.

“I was about to, but then I got a sense that you were about to die,” Del grunted as he struggled to help Jake up. “Damn, you’re heavy,” he muttered.

“Just go. I’ll make it on my own.”

“You can’t walk and besides, I’m thinking your claw might be able to destroy the forcefields trapping our teammates,” Del huffed under Jake’s burden.

Lu watched it all with a resigned look on her face.

Farther back down the street, Hanna sliced the motorcycle in two.

The left half just clipped her shoulder and spun her around.

The Threnosh armor made her a tank in terms of protection, but it didn’t enhance her strength beyond aiding her in moving as if she wasn’t wearing it.

“I’ve punched huge dents into steel plate before. Like, full on knight armor stuff. Assholes from the north and from the south, thinking just cause they’ve got protection I couldn’t touch them. Broke ribs, one-punch knockouts, you name it, I’ve done it. That armor’s definitely better than anything I’ve ever seen, but I’m gonna break through it just like the rest,” Vern growled.

“Those that talk the most usually can’t back it up,” Hanna raised her sword in high guard.

Vern smirked right before he exploded toward her.