Interlude - Wrath of God

Father Sergio Rodriguez hid in his small tent, clutching a club in his hands as children from the camp hid behind him. They were supposed to send them away, but the monsters arrived sooner than expected, before they had the chance.

The children were afraid, and his attempts at calming them were not going anywhere.

“It’ll be alright,” he said, knowing that he was lying. “God will protect us.”

His faith had been tested, but he still had hope. Three days ago, their scouts detected the horde from the city, the rifts had ruptured, spilling out monsters that had pushed everything in the surrounding out of the city and north. Straight for them.

The sounds of battle were loud, the cloth of his tent offered no protection against it. The children were crying, sniffling and clutching each other. He didn’t know what to do.

The fighting was getting closer, and closer. He looked at the children. Something rustled just outside the tent. He couldn’t let it enter, he had to keep the children safe. “It’ll be alright,” he repeated. He clutched his club tighter, then stepped through the thin divider, and out into the night.

The air was thick with the smoke from their trap. They’d burned half of the fuel they had left, soaked the ground in it and set it on fire, they dug holes and made traps. None of it seemed to have mattered in the end.

A pack of dogs was in front of the tent, and Sergio knew he wouldn’t survive for long.

He would buy as much time as he could, it was all that he could do. With one last prayer to God, he raised his club. The dogs growled at him, their mutated forms grotesque and twisted. Then they charged at him.

A crack filled the air, turning his eyes toward the sky. Something came down from the heavens, smashing into the ground in front of him, right on top of the monsters.

Sergio fell back from the force of the impact, dust rushed into his eyes. Sounds of flesh tearing and bones breaking filled his ears, and then it was over. Sergio wiped at his face, then with blurry eyes looked ahead. He saw a tall shape walk up to stand in front of him through the smoke. He couldn’t see much, they held a long weapon in one hand, long hair cascaded of their head, their skin was dark. But what he could see was glowing green eyes.

Was it one of the fighters? He wondered, some of them had powerful Masks.

He blinked rapidly, his vision clearing. Then he noticed more. It was a woman, her skin wasn’t just dark, it was blue. She was topless, black hair falling over her chest to protect her modesty. The bodies of dead dogs were splattered everywhere around her.

His eyes caught movement behind, then his eyes widened as wings spread from her back. Long and black, feathered and impressive.

“Get back inside father,” she spoke, a tone of voice that was both low and high, that reverberated with a holy tone that touched the soul. The voice was alien, but it was also familiar.

Sergio opened his mouth but couldn’t get any words out.

A sound caught his attention, and he looked up. A silver dragon the size of a bull flew above them, diving at something somewhere else in camp.

There was only one dragon that he had ever seen. He looked back at the winged figure in front of him. She grinned at him and he saw her fangs.

“Now father,” she said, snapping him out of his trance.

Then she beat her wings and was gone in a storm of wind and dust.

Sergio turned back as soon as he could, his heart filled to bursting. His prayers have been answered. God sent him an angel.

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Angelo Serrano pulled his dagger out of the corpse of a dog that had nearly bitten his face off. He pushed it off his body, the blood spilling over him and covering him whole. The beasts had gotten through the walls, the eastern quadrant was going to be overrun soon. The other scouts around him were fighting too, as did the non-combatants. It was chaos, they were all going to die.

His skill showed him danger everywhere, there was nowhere left to run. A loud roar came from the side, and a massive bear charged out of a tent, destroying it in the process.

He watched his death approaching and was too tired to do anything about it. The bear came, long bone spines growing out of its back crackling with blue sparks.

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Then a rush of wind, and wings. A silver shape smashed into the bear, jaws biting and claws tearing. The bear gurgled, its throat open, it fell as a dragon ripped it apart.

Angelo almost laughed, bear was dead, but death still loomed over him.

Then the dragon stood up from the corpse and Angelo frowned, he recognized it. Only it was a lot bigger.

There was a beat of wings somewhere in the smoke, then screams of beast filled the air.

The dragon looked around, and started attacking the beasts nearby, leaving people alone.

Somehow, it looked like Angelo would live.

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Kai danced to the side, avoiding the jaws of a wolf-like creature. She pulled her arm back.

[Power Strike]

Her fist flowed, a faint shimmer surrounding it. Her brass knuckles hit the strange creature straight in the side of the head. Bones cracked beneath her fist. The creature whimpered, and Kai advanced, she raised her hand, then stabbed the blade at the bottom of her brass knuckle straight in the beast's head.

She was next to the walls, protecting the gate along with the other fighters. A gunshot rang out from one of the towers, a sniper covering her. Beasts had attacked the gate, but they had barricaded it, as best as they could anyway. It didn’t matter. Some of the beasts could climb over or even jump across the walls, they were just concrete and sand blocks. They didn’t have room on the walls themselves to have people protect them, so they had to protect from within.

The beast that tried to attack her back fell, and Kai stomped on its head, making sure that it was dead.

The heat from the flames beyond the walls was scorching, the smoke was strangling her lungs, but she still fought. She had to. She had started up on one of the platforms next to the gate. Watching the big beasts coming out of the flames, some even on fire themselves.

They were a problem, but the rats were the worst of it. They were everywhere, and they could swarm and take down a person in seconds. They made holes in the walls to get through.

Kai kept looking around, the beasts had gotten inside. She heard people yelling but couldn’t understand anything.

Someone next to her fell, and a dog jumped on top of them, biting through their neck before Kai could even react.

Death was everywhere. She was going to die; she knew it deep in her bones. Still, she didn’t run like some others, she stood, and she fought.

“Gather close!” She yelled, hoping that others would hear her. They had spread too far; they couldn’t cover each other like this.

Some heard her and tried to follow. Not all managed to follow her command. In the distance, through the smoke, she saw a pair that had ended up too far away from the rest of them in the fighting, near a part of the wall that had nearly collapsed and had beasts getting in. They were trying to get back, one leaning on the other.

A large beast was charging at them. Kai grimaced and stepped forward, she started running, using [Burst of Stamina] to keep herself on her feet.

She reached the two and grabbed the one that was injured. As the person in the tower fired at the charging beast. She sent a silent thanks, the man in the tower was surrounded by beasts, but still he fought, covering the rest of them, firing even as beasts attempted to climb.

“Oh God, thank—” the other started, but she cut him off by picking the man up and throwing him on her back and running back.

We got to the gate and I dropped him, his blood soaking my shoulder. I leaned him over the gate and yelled for our medic. A woman ran up from the small defensive area next to the wall, and started treating the man.

A roar made Kai turn around, large cat-like beast jumped out of a tent, its claws covered in blood. It had gotten in somehow, that’s where they had hidden some of their injured. She pushed her thoughts aside and bent her knees as it saw her and charged.

A loud rush of wind flew by her, and the beast was torn into two pieces, blood splattering everywhere. Kai blinked as a dark shape with wings floated above her for a moment, and then it beat its wings. It rushed among the tents, and beasts died faster than she could even see.

Then it shot up into the sky and was gone.

Silence stretched, only distant sounds of fighting remaining. Kai fell to her knee, trying to get air in her lungs. She didn’t know what happened, but they had a moment to rest, and that she would take it.

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Carlito crouched behind a large wooden crate as a group of beasts ran through the street. His two daggers held firmly in his hands, dripping with blood. He was near the command tent, they had tried to move all of their non-combatants there, but in the chaos of the attack people got separated.

There was no real command structure, not that there was really any before. Gunfire sounded from his left, from the training yards. Carlito saw a lone beast, sniffing around tents, it was large, and wounded, cuts on its side bleeding lightly.

He got out of his cover and headed toward it, sneaking behind its back. It heard him, of course it did, because nothing could ever go according to plan for Carlito. His whole life had been a series of shit fucking constantly falling on top of him.

He raised his daggers and activated a skill.

[Bleeding Cuts]

The wounds on its body started bleeding profusely, but it didn’t slow the beast.

Carlito waited until it was close, then dashed out of the way with his movement skill. It smashed into the crates, breaking the wood in the process.

Carlito jumped on its back, stabbing in a flurry. Every stab he made, bled more than it usually should.

“Fucking. Puta. Die already!”

The beast twisted and turned, trying to throw him off. It rolled and nearly crushed him beneath its body. Carlito fell off, and the beast got to its feet. Claws biting into the ground as it got ready to pounce.

“Fuck.”

It growled, and then a rustle of a hundred little feet rushed out of a tent. A rat swarm flowed out, and Carlito cursed.

“Ah, shit.”

Dying by being eaten alive by rats was really not the way he imagined going out.

Then, before he could even attempt to run, the rats swarmed the beast and started biting, eating it. Carlito blinked, but took advantage, he got to his feet and started running as the rats killed and ate the beast behind him.

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The beasts weren’t united, that much was apparent to anyone looking from the outside. They were pushed together by necessity, they were running, driven into a frenzy by something worse coming behind them. The beasts that came out of the rifts, that had taken control of the city and even now fought for supremacy within it.

But while the horde of beasts wasn’t united, it didn’t in-fight. It had come together, and it was moving forward and attacking everything in its wake.

So, when suddenly, across the entire camp and beyond, the rats turned on the other beast. It was unexpected, and it changed the dynamic among the beasts. No longer was it them against everything now they all started fighting for themselves.

Giving the people in the camp a chance.