She never realized how massive an aircraft like the Chinook was until it was descending from the heavens towards them, the push of air from its dual rotors like a physical force trying to knock her off her feet.
Suddenly, the Apache above erupted in a deafening roar as machine gun fire ripped through the air, targeting an unseen enemy beyond the southern edge of the stadium.
“Jigs up!” Mic shouted over the roar of the descending Chinook. “Apache reports a horde headed this way. Twenty Drow and a Wraith!”
"Shit!" Atreus cursed as the air ripped apart with the shriek of incoming artillery. The ground shuddered beneath them as an explosion rocked the stadium's exterior, sending a choking cloud of dust raining down.
A second explosion shook the stadium, and through the dust and smoke, Leta saw them – figures in black, agile as cats, scaling the south wall and swarming into the stands.
The Chosen on the pitch took cover against the remaining construction machinery and fired at the insurgents.
The Drow were just as fast as the one she’d encountered at the old tech company, their faces twisted in excited smiles as if they enjoyed the thrill of the hunt.
Sand sprayed out as Leta sprinted to the front line, her feet churning the ground into a swirling vortex of grit as she called forth a sandstorm between their company and the enemy. A roar ripped from her throat, and lightning crackled around her fist. She hurled the energy into the dust cloud, the air exploding with the shriek of superheated sand as it transformed into a volley of razor-sharp glass thorns that rained down on the stands.
A few unlucky Drow in the open were struck through and fell where they stood like glass pincushions.
There was only a flash and a hiss—the terrifying prelude to a grenade launched by a Drow hidden behind a support column in the shadows of the mezzanine.
“Fuck!” Leta threw two lightning orbs into the air, praying that the electricity would be quick enough to catch the oncoming explosive.
A tendril of lightning lashed out from one of the orbs, wrapping the grenade in crackling light just as it detonated mere meters above the ground. The detonation, a deafening roar, occurred only meters from impact, the force of it lifting two of the Chosen off their feet where they huddled behind a bulldozer.
An air horn went off at their back, the shrill noise cutting through the loud ‘whoop-whoop-whoop’ of the rotors.
Leta turned to see that the Chinook had landed, a small team of soldiers dressed in military gear standing guard at the lowered door and firing at the Drow still in the stands.
She could see Atreus’ mouth ‘Come on’ as he gestured with one hand for them to run.
Leta was turning to leave with the crew when she saw the change in Atreus—a flicker of surprise that morphed instantly into stark terror, his eyebrows leaping upward, his mouth going slack with dread.
Turning, Leta saw a figure emerging from the shadows of the mezzanine, the darkness swirling and solidifying into a distinct form.
It ascended from the ground, growing to twice a man’s height, with a skeletal face emerging at the peak, resembling a giant skeleton floating in space.
‘The wraith.’ Leta wasted no time in launching another volley of Storm Glass. Though she managed to hit one or two more Drow that had tried to rush the pitch, the shards passed right through it.
“Oh, shit.” Leta breathed in surprise.
The creature remained oblivious as a long shard of glass, like an arm extended, pierced its body.
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Within the shadowy mass, deep lines began to etch themselves, like creases in dark fabric. Slowly, these folds parted, revealing a black void that crackled with purple sparks—a sight chillingly similar to what Leta had witnessed inside Hayato’s gate.
Whatever it was doing, Leta didn’t want to find out what happened when it finished pulling the void open.
‘Gada! What are my options?’
[Physical attacks on beings that are between this plane of existence and the Quantum plane are ill-advised and will pass through it. It is recommended to test elemental attacks such as fire or electricity, which may be able to force it into one plane of existence.]
“Roger that!” Leta drew in a deep breath as she gathered power, bracing her feet apart as she pulled more and more energy from the storm hovering above before she let it loose with a scream of anger.
The thick lightning bolt split the air with a defeating crack of thunder, the strike landing directly in its gate.
It paused briefly, as if taking inventory before its gate began to widen again.
“Dammit!”
Heavy footfalls pounded the ground behind her, and she turned to find Hayato sliding to take cover next to her.
“We have to go!” he shouted. “Whatever is about to breach that gate is bad news.”
Leta turned her head back to the Wraith with a scowl.
A fierce light burned in her eyes, a reflection of her unwavering resolve to confront the creature, even as the order to retreat screamed in her mind.
She’d survive a complete onslaught, but the rest of the Chosen wouldn’t.
‘We’ll live to fight another day.’ She told herself.
She was about to turn when she heard Hayato curse before he drew a crossbow.
A tiny green light appeared in the emptiness within the Wraith.
Behind it appeared a hand followed by the bow it held and a Drow pulling back the notched arrow affixed with the glowing light.
The white-haired Drow was a head taller than any they’d seen before, and his well-maintained armor identified him as someone of higher rank.
Emerging from behind him was a diminutive woman, clad in tattered rags and adorned with bone ornaments. Dark, archaic runes were painted across her face, and she clutched a handful of arrows, each tipped with the same eerie, glowing substance.
Leta heard Hayato hiss, ‘The Witch!’ as Leta drew in more power.
From above, the Apache rounded and lined up an attack, its machine guns rattling a heavy staccato as it fired on the two figures.
A dark shroud, conjured by the Witch’s muttered incantation, halted the artillery better than any wall.
It was then that the Drow, brandishing the bow, let his arrow fly.
With a sharp whisper, the arrow flew, impacting one of the Chinook soldiers guarding the doorway. A wet ‘thunk’ resonated as it tore through the protective kevlar, the force of the blow throwing the soldier off his feet, his finger locked on the trigger, firing two last shots into the air.
The Healer moved to assist the fallen soldier but stopped abruptly as they witnessed the man’s violent spasms. He clutched at the arrow embedded in his shoulder, and a rapid necrosis began to spread. His skin darkened and flaked off, revealing prominent, pulsating green veins indicative of rapid decay.
He looked up at the Healer, a desperate plea in his eyes, before his eyes turned to dust within their sockets. The soldier was reduced to ash and remnants of his uniform within seconds.
‘Holy shit! What is that?’
[Components unknown. It appears to be corrupting nanites within the host at an exponential rate, causing their self-destruct programming to activate.]
“Fuck that,” Leta growled as she hurled her electric blast at the pair, throwing as much power as she could muster into the attack as she dared.
Her electric discharge ricocheted off the Witch’s shield before colliding with a support column.
Green eyes crinkled as the Witch grinned, her white teeth visible even from this distance as she handed the Drow another arrow.
He took it with an answering smile before lining up his shot.
This time, the Hellhound mauled Warrior from earlier fell, the green-tipped arrow sticking from their stomach as he, too, turned to ash in front of them.
Leta threw out more lightning balls, hoping that they would intercept the arrows as they had the grenade.
The arrow sailed through the air harmlessly between the blue-white bolts of lightning, burrowing deep into the second guard.
“Fuck!”
Hayato grabbed her arm and pulled her down to where he was kneeling behind the machinery. “Now!”
“Dammit.”
Taking a deep breath, Leta looked to the Chinook, where some of the Chosen had managed to pull up the floor compartment hatches and crouch down behind them, affording them a bit of cover.
An arrow ‘dinged’ off the side of the plane just as Hayato shouted, ‘Move!’