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Earl Garner

I made my way down from the building roof when I realized I could not help the fight against the Demon Of Storms. The giant corpses of the Uktenas kept my sights from reaching them. That and the distance wasn't too helpful either. But I expected something like this to happen.

Johnny made a decent plan that I cannot lie about, but all plans go to shit the second they are tested. So, in the meantime, I have someone find the best path to the clearing where Wyatt and Johnny are while I try to make my way down the building with the gatling gun and the rapidly depleting ammo. At most, I have another minute or two of constant shooting.

No longer can I waste it to blow a hole in a monster like it's nothing. But that's fine. To help against Hura will likely only require controlled and orchestrated shots.

The two men who help me carry ammunition and the gun itself move with me onto the street of Rustbank. Once we move the heavy weapon onto the streets, we start to move west toward the battle.

The western front is almost done fighting. A few dozen townsmen are injured, and about a dozen or so are dead. I turned the gatling to help them as Johnny and Virgil made their way through. Just a few moments of our aid turned the battle significantly. Mostly Johnny's, though.

So, we move toward the fractured line of people who are killing the few monsters that remain and searching among the corpses. Most people are wearing grim expressions, but there are a few that are smiling. Most of the happy ones are holding a monster's organ turned into an artifact. That or they likely advanced, finding the Sigil they wanted amongst the horde.

When we reach the line and start to step over the corpses to make our way forward, we hear screams behind us.

Worry mixed with abject horror rises as I turn my head. The only way screaming could come from behind us is if one of the other sides fell, Most likely of which is the eastern side. That was least fortified.

The north had Bonfire and his crew, but I trust Elizabeth to figure out how to hold it without the man of flames. His squad is specifically known for their teamwork, so I doubt they'd fall.

The South had Abraham, Sacate, Otto, and Marrion. Abraham and Sacate, I believe, are on Alexos hunting duty, while Otto and Marrion are supposed to be killing any powerful monsters or Outlaws. I know Sacate and Abrahams's skills quite well. The Woodsman and the Nightmare alone make that side formidable, let alone the redheaded duo of craziness.

The East is the one I worry about most for now. We were not expecting to be entirely surrounded, so the least people were sent east. It was more a precautionary just-in-case type of thing than actual preparation. The Sisters of Silence and Frank were the only ones of us from the meeting on that side.

The three sisters are a small group that escaped from a demonic cult many years ago. It left them slow and unwilling to speak or trust most people. I don't know how Johnny got them to help him, but I am thankful for it. All the spikes, traps, and makeshift ammunition was made by them. They are known for that, exactly, traps and bullets. They aren't Craftsmen, but their variety of Trapper combined with other Sigils gives them quite a bit of variety.

And Frank.. Well, he's a good fighter; that's about all you can say about him. He's kind, but the giant man definitely isn't the brightest. I like him quite a lot, actually, but I don't trust him to hold the direction of the city without supervision. He was more so for emergencies per se.

The four are not a good group for up close conflict, that's for sure. And as my eyes take in the horde in the streets, I realize just how fucked they were alone like that.

Just how fucked we all are now. Because if the monsters are behind us, then they are also behind the other directions as well. That also means they passed by the Gate. Where Esther is…

My heart skips a beat as I check the people sprinting toward us in front of the monsters. I see Frank first, the big man running with two black and white hooded figures on his shoulders. Two of the sisters. Damn. At least the third runs beside him.

My eyes scan some more as I set down the gatling gun to face backward with the two helpers. Screams come from my side as people turn to face a new threat, but I focus my eyes.

I see Primrose stumbling and struggling to move as she carries a little girl in her arms and pulls an older man with cracked glasses behind him. The lady is still heavily bandaged and bleeding from said dressings. She is pushing herself far beyond what she should.

I hurry up and set the gatling up as fast as we can to help them. The monsters are catching up to Primrose. And fast. Every few steps, she covers herself and the two beside her in clouds before shooting several feet forward, but every time she does that, more blood falls from her wounds.

The stress she puts her body through with her Gaseous damages her barely functioning body. My concern also moves to Frank, but whenever a Crownbear or Qiqirn gets close to him, he kicks the dirt beneath him, making it turn to quicksand as it covers and slows the creatures behind him.

My heart flutters as I see Primrose trip, taking Heath and the little girl in her arms, Esther, down with her. The gatling gun is almost set up as I frantically Reshuffle and grab a magazine. Then, I slam the magazine into the weapon without caution. I don't even check if it's working or if the magazine has ammo in it as I crank the gun, Marionetting the bullets as they leave the rotating barrel.

Dozens of bullets stream from the barrel and hit the overbearing Crownbear that stares down at Primrose as the lady struggles to get back up. Heath turns around in fear as he screams at the bear, about to eat him.

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Before the bear can eat or even hit them at all, the bullets pierce its thick fur and knock it back into the crowd of diverse creatures behind it. Even as it backs up, though, I keep the shots coming. Blood and fur go everywhere as the bear is rapidly killed despite its size, which is nearly fifty percent more than a grizzly, the largest Unsigiled species of bear.

The Crownbear falls back and reveals its namesake to the sky, a circling crown of blonde fur on a body of brown. But there are more. At least a dozen more of the oversized bears. The west side didn't have any in during its assault, but I supposed the bear's stamina in running allowed for it to get far enough to attack the East.

I use Marionette to move the bullets to new targets as Primrose stands. The woman gives Esther to Heath, and even from here, I can understand what she's saying. She's telling him to run. The doctor follows her orders and grabs the girl before sprinting as fast as he can toward me and the townsmen around me. The townsmen, who are forced to go from one brutal battle to the next, turn and face the new approaching foe.

I continue to slow the new horde's approach with my bullets, and Primrose joins me from up close. She covers herself in a massive cloud of noxious gas as she returns to the horde. I see her pull out the gun she got from the meeting. The 5th Mark. I believe it was called Mars.

She takes a shot with the gun as she instantly disappears, leaving a cloud of acidic and noxious gas to eat at the monsters that pass by. She reappears above the horde on the side of one of the rapidly collapsing buildings at the location of the bullet's impact. Primrose pulls herself up and over the ledge of the saloon. She then takes a short moment to breathe and check her bandages before rejoining the fight. I also see her do something to the gun, like her trying to unjam it or something.

My mind races with thoughts as I see her new Colt in action. Did she just teleport to the bullet's target? That's… That is incredible. Johnny was right. Whoever made that thing is a genius. Rarely can complicated abilities be put into Colts or Claymores. Typically the Craftsman has to keep it simple because of their limitations with manipulating Sigils. They are forced to strip it down to the barebones and deliver only the simplest of traits.

Like firepower, speed, flexibility, or durability, those are the most common traits. Sometimes a gifted person can create weapons a bit more detailed, but those are few and far between. Only Deanbrand, the Wildhammer, the only Pillar who is a Craftsman of any kind, can create weapons with such powerful and unique traits. It's said that he can even create 7th Mark Colts or Flamme Claymores.

I'd like to meet whoever made this gun. I think they could be a great addition to the Survivors. A constant flow of weapons like these would be excellent. It does seem odd, though, that the gun jammed… Maybe that's just from wear and tear. I have to force my thoughts for the future aside as I focus on stopping the horde. After about twenty seconds of shooting and a few reloads, Heath, Esther, Frank, and the sisters make it to where I stand. Primrose stays and tries to poison as many as she can from the roofs, teleporting with Mars whenever she needs to move.

The second the survivors from the East arrive, I yell at them to learn what went wrong.

"What the fuck happened!?"

Heath shrugs as he moves to tend to the sisters Frank is carrying. The big man sets two injured women on the ground as he hums.

"Frank did his best. Too many things."

I almost tear my hair out at his explanation and the detail within it. And by detail, I mean lack of. The last standing Sister Of Silence looks up at me as she gasps heavily for air. Her blonde hair is stuck to her face, drenched in sweat. I barely even notice the red cross earring as she tries to speak, but true to their titles, not much comes out.

"Not enough townsmen. We were alone. Had to retreat."

I curse to myself as I keep shooting the gatling gun, but it is rapidly running out of ammo. Long past since we ran out of Hunter-issued ammunition. At this point, it is all homemade bullets with a slight chance of failure. Which means every single shot needs to be Reshuffled and Marionetted.

Primrose is making monsters drop like flies from her poison, but there are so many. Almost as many as at the start of the fight. The townsmen also try to help, but at this point, they are nearly all out of ammo and exhausted of Ether, so they have to wait until the monsters get close. Which is terrible for us all.

I don't think I will be able to help kill Hura today. Not at all.

After not getting a good answer from Frank or the sister, I yell at Heath over the sound of my gun, who is busy tending to the wounded. His hands move like a flurry of strikes covered in yellow-tinted Ether as he does everything he can to help those injured. Esther just stands beside him, shell-shocked, and watches him move. I want to comfort her, but now's not the time.

"HEATH! What the hell happened!"

The older man briefly looks at me before returning to his work. He does at least answer me as he stitches up a woman with a gash across her neck.

"East side got overrun, and those there were forced through the city. Primrose stood on top of the Gate in case of an intrusion, so she saw them coming. She gave everyone inside a head start, but I doubt many survived. I ran with her, and she took Esther like Elizabeth asked, and then we met up with Frank and the sisters while we were running."

The doctor seems quite used to being around death and blood, though I suppose that's a requirement for a doctor with a Sigil. Otherwise, not only would they not have a Sigil, but they wouldn't be able to use it.

I continue shooting the horde while I listen to him talk, and by the end of his explanation, the flock slams into the townsmen. Frank had already rejoined them earlier, so they have the giant who can literally swim through the dirt like its water fighting alongside him. His method of violence is to drag monsters underneath with him using brute strength and suffocating them.

Only a man of his stature could do it. The natural strength bestowed upon him by his mother's womb allows him to contest actual bears in force. If he didn't have this gift, he would have to be a couple of Sigils higher to do the same, with most of the extra being something focused on strength like Soldier or Freak.

The two groups slam into each other as I do what I can to help. My rate of fire does suffer, though, as I have to be more careful with my bullets. The pounding headache that warns me of disaster keeps me from pushing through the challenge.

I see several townsmen who were just smiling from advancing or getting a new artifact get ripped to shreds by Crownbears, Qiqirn, or the other dozen types of monsters like Scrapbeaks, large ratlike deformed creatures with barbed limbs, Loperds, leopard-like wolves, Achiya, raccoon-like creatures that use flint weapons, and even more menacing creatures.

People start dropping like flies from Scrapbeak slashes and Loperd claws, and I see Frank get gored by an Achiya's flint spear through the chest. The big man doesn't fear his injury and only continues to fight. Primrose appears here and there whenever she recovers enough to help. She did start this whole battle stuck to a wheelchair, after all. Any amount of help she can give is both welcome and unexpected.

Everywhere people die, and I do everything I can to help, but I'm almost out of ammo and Ether.

Thankfully, though, this brutal skirmish lasts for only about a minute or so before the monsters begin to roar and lose formation.

The monsters lose their cohesion and start moving in every direction. Both toward us and backward. The horde regains their natural instincts and autonomy. Instantly, I know the cause. The Demon Of Storms has fallen. The lack of thunder strikes should have given me the realization before the horde's reaction.

Without the demon's innate ability to order monsters weaker than it, the horde falls apart. It still is dangerous, though. But we only need to hold the line and keep ourselves organized. That is fine. But after a short minute of this against the wild horde, I finally run out of ammo. This makes me come off the gatling gun with a splitting headache that almost takes me to the floor.

I recover because a man grabs my right shoulder and stabilizes me. I look to see who it is and surprisingly see an exhausted Johnny. He nods at me and moves toward the horde, but I yell at him as he does so.

"Go check the north! We're fine here!"

He just waves his hand with simple words as he spins his gun from his holster into his hand.

"Bonfire's got it."

Then, a roar of gunpowder thrice as fast as my gatling gun returns to the field. Monsters fall like wheat beneath a harvester's scythe. Only the Crownbears can take more than even one bullet from the Gunfighter. People move out of his way with cheers as he announces our victory with a lantern in one hand.

"The Demon Of Storms is dead! His Heirloom is seized!"

People become ecstatic and do what they can to help without getting in his way. After just a minute or so of him joining the fight, it ends. But the remains of the town are depressing. Dozens of buildings are destroyed, and rubble is everywhere. Not a single building in sight isn't terribly damaged.

My eyes scan and see Primrose lying on the back of a Crownbear whose face looks like it has been dipped into a vat of acid. A smile comes at seeing that she's at least still alive. Tough ass woman.

But that smile is quickly wiped away as more gunfire resounds from the sound. I share a quick look with Johnny as he yells for anyone still able to fight.

"Let's save the south side! Follow me!"