As night fell on the town, the cries and shouts of orders rang out around the perimeter—the final positioning of troops and townsfolk who had volunteered to defend. There must have been close to nine hundred men and women who had risen to the call alongside the guard force of one hundred and sixty. In total, over one thousand souls stood or lay in defensive positions. That was just the fighters; behind the line of warriors, some groups had been assigned to supply provisions, messengers, and medics. The efficiency of turning the town into a defensive location was a feat to behold. As they had been named, the' boom bottles' had been distributed around the groups, and the sentry guards in the towers that dotted the stockade wall had all been supplied with them.
In under 24 hours, the town had become organised and ready. Rifle and pistol ammunition was low, but every person also carried a melee weapon, from machetes and axes to hammers and mallets. Some had crude spears and a few owned bows and a couple of crossbows among those present. Everyone had at least one knife, from military-looking sheathed blades to everyday kitchen knives; anything that may give them an edge in a fight was being carried. Several people had also worn armour, nothing of a standard worth noting but a piece of metal hung around their necks protecting their chests or wood strapped to their arms. The groups of people were an armourer's nightmare seeing what they wore, but no one was being critical. They wore or carried it if it would give them the edge and allow them to survive.
The people eventually settled, and the night became silent, only broken by the calls of the messengers as they traversed the perimeter. It was eerie and fear-inducing. The town had not been quiet at night in decades. Even the Keefir's usual trumpets appeared stifled with the ominous battle cloud hanging over the township. The skies were dark, and the spattered clouds obscured the moonlight, reducing the watchers' visibility in the guard towers. Tension flooded the town, everyone's nerves on edge. All apart from Tiddles, who just sat there calmly waiting for the potential action to unfold.
Kyto stood with Tiddles, looking over the wall at the main gate. Only the entranceway had a walkway attached to two nearby towers on either side.
"I wish they would get a move on," Tiddles complained.
"You want them to attack?" Kyto said reproachfully.
"I am getting bored of waiting," he said, yawning.
Kyto stared at him in amazement. He knew Tiddles was fearless, but the fact that he was actively looking forward to the Geblex attack was concerning. "What about all those who may get injured?"
"They should be better fighters then."
"You cannot blame the people who have picked up arms in the last day to potentially not be as efficient as others," Kyto replied in shock.
"No, I don't blame them. I mean, I do, but not much can be done about it now. They will live or die after all.”
"Do you have no feelings?" he snapped at him.
"Yes, lots and lots. I feel the air, I feel heat, I feel ..."
"Not those sorts of feelings, you bloody idiot."
Tiddles just laughed at Kyto.
"You bastard, you are just winding me up, aren't you?"
Tiddles just smiled his grotesque toothy grin at Kyto.
"At least you no longer smell of fear now," Tiddles said as he turned and walked towards Lars.
Kyto stood watching Tiddles walk off; he had stopped feeling fearful and been getting angry at his disregard for what was coming. He smiled after the beast and shook his head.
"What has got you smiling?" TJ asked as he came up the steps to the wall.
"Tiddles being Tiddles," he replied. "Are we all set?"
"As good as we can be in the time we had. I hope that the spikes draw them to the groups. Otherwise, we are going to be in a world of shit."
"I hope so as well. At least we have the boom bottles."
"They should help a lot, especially if they do get funnelled into the areas by the spikes."
"I am going to grab a coffee from the guard house. Do you want one brought up?"
"Yes, please. It could be a long night."
Kyto walked down the steps to the entrance and crossed to the guard house. It was empty inside, everyone on the walls or around the perimeter. He lifted the coffee pot off the burner, poured two mugs before replacing it, and was about to leave when he heard a rifle shot. He placed the mugs down and ran back outside. TJ was coming down the steps and shouting to a messenger. He put his truck in gear and headed south along the perimeter.
"Came from the south," TJ said, seeing Kyto.
Kyto turned, watching the truck traversing the field, heading directly towards a group of men further down. He could feel the sweat trickle down his back as the tension mounted. They stood in silence, waiting for a report with bated breath. They watched as the truck reached its destination, its lights visible near the lanterns by the guards. It did not stay long before it turned, and its bright lights returned towards them. No other shots had been fired, and as the truck arrived, the driver yelled it was caused by a non-guard who had gotten trigger-happy in the tower, thinking he saw something.
Peace returned to the perimeter, and people began relaxing as the night waned. There were several shouts heard, but nothing pointing towards an attack. Three hours of the night had passed before there was anything else to report. Kyto had settled himself down behind the stockade wall by the gate. Tiddles lay beside him, and the pair had drifted off to sleep. Kyto had not slept in over 36 hours, and although he had not felt tired when he closed his eyes, it soon took him.
The explosion rocked the ground that Kyto lay on. His eyes shot open, and his heart hammered at being awoken so swiftly. His head spun as he stood, trying to see what was happening. He could hear TJ on the wall above shouting something. He ran towards the steps leading to the stockade, Tiddles on his heels.
"What's happening?" he shouted to TJ as he reached the top.
"A fucking moron, that is what. The idiot in the tower was playing with one of the boom bottles."
Kyto turned, looking left, and saw the tower burning. "Why the hell would he even light one?"
"The idiot was smoking when he dropped the bottle."
Kyto watched as a man was carried along the wall and taken down towards the guard house, his clothes and face burned from the ferocious fuel. " I will go see if I can help."
"Idiot doesn't deserve it." TJ snapped.
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Kyto ignored TJ, following the man down. He was carried inside and deposited on a table. His clothes were burned, and his face looked blackened and his hair missing. The fuel burned so violently, and areas of his skin blistered and melted on his face. His eyes were open with no eyelashes or eyebrows visible, and he was groaning in agony. Kyto looked at the injured man’s mana pool. It was low and dropping steadily, and he was not surprised at seeing the damage he had caused to himself. Kyto began to push his strands into him at once. His own pool began to empty quickly, and he cursed under his breath at the man's stupidity and the cost of healing him. The pain on the man’s face lessened, and his face began to reform, the puss-filled blisters shrinking and his skin tightening, losing its melted appearance. The man had lost his hair and any other facial hair in the blast, and as Kyto healed, they did not return.
Kyto's display was triggered as he healed, telling him the injuries that were being healed. His clothes had melted to his skin, and as Kyto tried to heal, he got an alert.
Foreign matter prevents the healing process. Please remove it before trying again.
Kyto looked over the man’s body, where his clothing had melted to his skin. "We need to pull his clothes off. I cannot heal him properly with them on as they are melted with his skin."
One of the men who had helped carry him down grimaced but complied and began to cut away at his clothes with his knife. The man's groaning increased as Kyto peeled the clothing from his skin, tearing away swathes of skin and flesh with them, at the same time pushing his healing strands into him. The man’s upper torso and face were the worst affected, his legs clear. Kyto gagged slightly as he removed a section of his jacket and skin over the man’s chest, leaving red raw, bleeding pussy skin underneath. As the clothing was removed where it had melted, his strands began to work and repair his injuries. He began to pull from the man helping him as his pool continued to drop. It was a horrendous and macabre operation removing burned flesh and melted clothing before being able to heal the man, replacing his disfigured skin with fresh, clean, unbroken epidermis.
Kyto was finishing the process when the sound of gunfire and shouting began.
"Shit," he said. The man was nearly healed, with all his ruined clothing now removed, the remains of which were discarded on the guard house floor in a blackened, congealed mess. He had been in the final stages of healing the man but stopped at the cries. The man had fallen unconscious through the pain inflicted when his clothing was removed. "I need to leave him," Kyto said to the man who had helped him as his healing strands withdrew. "Get him to the hangar. He will survive, and I will check on him later." He had seen the man’s mana pool increase as he had healed, and it remained stable, so he ran from the guard house.
On exiting the guard house, the sounds of combat had begun. Not everywhere, by all accounts, the gate itself still stood silent. The shouting of orders was the only sound here.
"Anyone sees anything?" TJ yelled.
"Nothing." Came back the reply from the second tower near the gate.
"Keep your eyes open."
Kyto reached the top of the wall and along the perimeter. In both directions, he could see the flashes of muzzle fire as rounds were sent into the outside darkness. He stood watching as the gunfire from one of the towers ceased, and the first signs of shooting inside began.
"It looks like they have breached to the south," TJ said.
"I am going to head down with Tiddles," Kyto replied.
Tiddles stood at the bottom of the steps, waiting. "South." That's all Kyto said as he turned and started running towards the breach. As they approached, the flashes of light from the rifle and pistol fire lit the night, showing the approaching dark forms of the monsters. They were flooding the walls, and it looked like a thick black line of ants was climbing over. The number seemed to be growing as they breached across a wider area, and they arrived by a group of men entrenched behind the spikes.
A dark mass of Geblex was now visible, battering the inner fence with their clubs. The crack of a rifle brought a Geblex to its knees as another stepped forward, replacing it, its fallen comrades' bodies disappearing under the swarm's feet. One of the posts started to tilt as their combined weight began to force the chain-link fence over, tearing the fence post from the ground. As the chain link fell forward, the crowd surged.
"Get ready." A woman called as the forms began to rush across the fence. Kyto watched as the first few got caught in the razor wire along its top edge but did not stop their momentum. The odd rifle shot rang out, releasing their lethal load, and Geblex fell with each shot, the mass of them making it near impossible to miss.
A group of fifty Risen was in this area, the funnelled spikes doing the job they had been placed for, drawing the mass of monsters in towards them. The croaks and sounds they made pierced the night. The group began to cross the open ground, screaming towards the funnel's mouth. Kyto noticed a couple of people turn and flee, their nerves getting the better of them as the form of snarling, croaking creatures ran towards them.
The group lit a fire, and Kyto watched as a woman lit one of the boom bottles. The rag taper began to burn, and she turned immediately, hurling the bottle towards the mass. It was like watching slowly as the bottle spun through the air, end over end. The bottle fell short of the charging group, shattering on impact with the ground and exploding in its glorious show of power. The fuel ignited, casting a fireball into the sky, and the liquid appeared to burn in the air as it was sprayed across the ground.
The Geblex seemed to pause as it exploded but then moved again around the blast site, avoiding the burning patches of ground. Another bottle sailed through the air, and another as they charged. Thirty metres, twenty-five, the distance was reducing. More explosions and some started to find their mark. Geblex screamed their unearthly croaking sound, replacing the cries of Risen as they burned from the liquid's power. The flashes of brilliant light caused by the explosions reduced the vision of all, in stark contrast to the night's almost impenetrable darkness. The bulbous eyes and sharp teeth of the monster's snarling face are visible with each flash.
Twenty metres and spears were thrown. A man to Kyto's right fell as a spear struck him in his chest, not seeing or hearing the spear as it thudded into him. Kyto watched the man fall, his mana pool dropping in an instant. The spear must have hit the heart as it was vanquished before he hit the ground.
"Spears! " he cried as they began to land amidst the group. There were cries of pain as more Risen were struck.
At fifteen metres, Tiddles howled. The sound was worse than any other on the field. It tore through the night and woke the dead as he charged. Kyto immediately linked with him as his dark mass met the charging group head-on. The mana link broke almost immediately as Tiddles disappeared inside the mass of bodies. There had to be hundreds looking at the swathe of them still coming over the wall.
Seconds turned to what seemed like minutes as Kyto watched Tiddles form barrelling through them. Croaks of what he only assumed was terror as the beast began laying waste. He watched Geblex scatter in his wake as he bit, snapped and clawed at their forms, and many began to move around his position, realising that the beast was amongst them.
Ten metres, five metres and then the two sides met. The funnelling had worked as several Geblex were skewered on the spikes, their flow not stopping as they hit the wall trying to reach the Risen.
Kyto was watching Tiddles's health bar slowly fall as he took wounds. He had bent and grabbed an axe off the man who had fallen due to the spear damage. His palms were sweaty, his breath harsh and rapid as adrenaline flooded his body. Kyto was not at the front. He was off to the side of the leading group of defenders as the melee broke out. There were too many of them, though the wall of Geblex now appeared several deep vying for Risen blood.
Tiddles re-emerged, battering his way back through and jumping the spikes coming to land by Kyto.
"There are hundreds." He growled.
Kyto pushed mana at him, healing his wounds as he turned, re-joining the fight, not stopping his ferocity, and began attacking the Geblex from the side as they pushed into the opening. Kyto could not explain the sounds of battle. It was unearthly in all its glory as the combat ensued.
More Risen arrived to support as the fight continued. Both sides suffered losses in numbers as Risen and Geblex alike fell to their sustained wounds. Kyto tried to heal when he could, pulling from those with high pools to offset his cost, but as the battle continued, he could not focus. Kyto moved to reposition nearer Tiddles, and he noticed Lars appear, his height making him stand out amongst the combatants. Kyto watched in awe as the man’s true skill was displayed. Tiddles was a slaughterhouse of grotesque damage, severing limbs, ripping out throats, and biting off heads, whereas Lars was a sight of pure efficiency. His moves measured, smooth and purposeful as he dodged and weaved, striking with his blades, cutting into the masses of monsters surrounding them and silencing their croaks. The blood of allies and foes covered the field, and the dark liquid glistened in the moon's light as the fighting continued.
The combat had broken through the initial funnel gap, and the Risen were pushed back as the swarm of Geblex continued their push. More Risen arriving to support their fellow man. Bodies lay everywhere. Screams and croaks, clashes of metal, the sickening sound of flesh being torn, hammered or sliced. Kyto could not help the fallen, though he was too focused on Tiddles, keeping him in the fight as he took wound after wound in the tight confines of the masses. He also pushed healing strands at Lars as he took a strike from a Geblex to his side.
The mayhem, the chaos, the fear, the adrenaline, the stench and the loss grew as every moment passed.