Sweetie bellowed in pain, bucking around in circles, trying to stomp all the beasts ravaging her legs. Rivers of blood leaked from a dozen wounds, with most flowing out of the gash where the minotaur cut down to the bone. Strapped to her horns, Harvey, Tyler, Steve, and Celeste were getting tossed around like they were on a sketchy carnival ride with more than a few missing bolts.
“Ahhh!” Tyler scread, his voice pitching up and down as they moved.
“What do we do?” Steve asked.
Harvey wanted to scream, but it took everything he had to hold onto his weapon and his lunch.
With a flourish, Celeste cut through the thick ropes binding Harvey and Tyler to the crystal horn, sending them both flipping into the air. Having ample experience spinning out of control during the early days of using his Booster skill, Harvey managed to right himself and swoop up his brother before they fell into the carnage. Celeste then cut herself and Steve free, gripping their father tight around his torso before gliding back towards the wooden platform the rest of her squad was standing on. Adrian and the rest of his crew kept a white-knuckle grip on the railings, desperately holding on as their wall-breaker turned into a rodeo bull.
“Hold on!” Celeste shouted.
Harvey dropped Tyler onto the deck before circling through the air. A pair of brimfiends accosted the squad from above, but their mottled wings couldn’t outrun the jet engines blasting out from his feet. Replacing Rupture with Aftershock, he charged into them one after the other, knocking them out of the sky.
Safe for the mont, Harvey surveyed the battlefield. Their own section had noticeably fewer enemies, proving their makeshift artillery strikes the night before were worthwhile. Less than half of the bulls had even made it through the wall, and those who did found themselves completely outnumbered. Multiple squads of angels were making a fighting retreat, but the demon army seed content with letting them go. Normally, they’d sacrifice a dozen of their summoned creatures if it ant taking a single angel off the board, but Hell was playing the long ga now. All they needed to do was survive this assault and continue stockpiling soldiers until they could break down Heaven’s gates with sheer numbers.
Below, Sweetie’s furious bellows grew tired. She’d lost too much blood, and stitching her back together with healing skills would only drain Cash’s essence while claws and axes continued opening new wounds.
“Jump!” Harvey scread, worried that the bull would tip over and dump his family right into the chaos. They didn’t seem to hear him, but a well-tid chop from one of the minotaurs finished carving off Sweetie’s leg, causing the bull to collapse onto her stomach. The platform rose and fell with her dying breaths. Exuberant roars filled the air as the demons carved into her exposed sides, rcifully ending her suffering.
Harvey could see the others struggling to stop the world from spinning, but brimfiends were already flapping up to the platform. Most of the minotaurs were preoccupied with dealing with the giants and lions still rampaging on the ground, but they’d turn their eyes on the platform the second they learned there were feathers to pluck.
Exchanging Aftershock for Rupture, he descended, carefully shooting the fiends rising up to et them. A single Heaven’s Wrath bullet was enough to kill the weak flying scouts, letting him buy ti for the others to recover.
“We’re surrounded,” Harvey announced. “The others are getting overrun and…”
Before he could finish, a brimfiend on the opposite side of the platform peeked through the railing, shrieking like a laughing hyena and pointing at the group. Harvey put a bullet between its eyes, but it was already too late. The infernal black flas of a mortarhorn lobbed towards them. Tyler was able to knock it away with the help of his movent skill, but the sluggish reactions of exhausted sentinels left them inches away from excruciating pain.
“Defend the platform! This is our mountain, and nothing gets up without a bullet through the head!” Celeste shouted, flashing forward in a burst of holy light before her sword cut a second fiend cleanly down the middle. Confident she could handle herself, Harvey posted up on the opposite side of the platform, revolver in one hand and an Inkbound Ordnance Heaven’s Wrath grenade in the other. More mortarhorn blasts rained towards them, but Tyler managed to bat most of them away, only calling for a shield when there were two falling at once and he couldn’t get them both in ti. The sheer volu of attacks ant he couldn’t control where they landed, but the other assault teams were far enough away that the only collateral damage they had to worry about was a few of their own summoned beasts.
A cacophony of gunshots rang out all around him, the angel rifles doing a good job taking out any brimfiends that got too close. Harvey only had 5 shots in between every reload, and half of those were wasted when three guns all fired on the sa targets. It was pure chaos, and Harvey found himself increasingly frazzled. His war with the Ossari was fought with bows and arrows. Terrifying, for sure, but not at the sa speed as a fight like this. He found himself spinning, looking for a proper target, and feeling impotent. It wasn’t until an axe head hooked onto the railing that his mind finally had sothing to focus on.
Using its weapon as leverage, a 12-foot minotaur leaped over the railing, flying right towards him. Its eyes were red, and a brimstone ring flopped between its flared nostrils. The double-headed battleaxe was held over its head, ready to crash down into the closest living being, which just so happened to be Harvey.
Booster rocketed him out of the way just as the axe cut straight through the platform and buried itself in Sweetie’s back. Muscular arms bulged as it ripped it back out, spraying blood-stained splinters all around. It stamped angrily, steam billowing out of its nose as it turned to find its prey.
Harvey was already unloading one bullet after another into the minotaur’s back. It staggered with every blast of holy flas, but the gun clicked helplessly after the third shot. He kept yanking the trigger, but the cylinder just spun. Panicked, he threw the Heaven’s Wrath grenade, but the minotaur was already moving out of the way.
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“Shit! Shit!” he swore
[Duck!] Julius scread.
Harvey dove backward just in ti for the axe to scream above his chest, practically shaving off pieces of his armor. The minotaur was grievously wounded, but it still had the energy to take him down with it. Boosting himself back to his feet, he traded his gun for the Sentinel’s Arcblade and stabbed the minotaur’s abdon. Lightning arced across its flesh, but it was far from a lethal wound.
“Oof!” Harvey groaned as the bull kicked him away. The violent exit widened the gaping wound from his sword, causing a fountain of black blood to spurt out. Despite his heavy armor, the minotaurs kick was about to send him over the edge. He knew he could easily fly back with Booster, but a strange sensation in his aura caused a montary lapse in judgent.
Suddenly, he was standing next to the sentinels, staring at the minotaur’s back as his father flew over the edge.
“Dad!” he shouted, sprinting after him as a gold and silver chain shot from Steve’s hand and wrapped around the minotaur’s neck. With a mighty tug, Steve pulled himself through the air, his silver sword aid for the bull man’s heart. Before Harvey could scream that the minotaur was too strong, the blade sank deep inside its chest. His montum sent them crashing back, gravity helping the sword thrust even deeper as they thunked to the ground.
[Did that just happen?]
“Switch back!” Harvey shouted as he hurriedly reloaded his gun, this ti with his new Prophet’s Suffering rounds. Steve nodded, and Harvey found himself standing atop the dead minotaur’s corpse. It disappeared into his spatial ring just as two more clambered up over the railing. They took a more asured approach than their dead brother, letting Harvey nail both with two life sucking thanefire bullets. Saving his final round for an ergency, he conjured an arc charge and threw it at their feet. He could see the thick muscles seizing as lightning bore into their legs, but his first F-Grade creations couldn’t stop the powerful monsters. Both staggered towards Harvey, slashing forward with their long weapons. Harvey sidestepped the first overhead swing and parried the second with the Sentinel's Arcblade. His arms strained to redirect the crushing blow, but he could already feel the beast weakening as its lifeforce continued burning away.
Minotaurs might be creatures of legend back on Earth, but his new bullets were legendary in their own right. Feeling their growing weakness, Harvey went on the offensive, using all of his 435 points in Strength to beat them back. He moved to put the closest minotaur in between himself and its backup, slashing down over and over again. With its height, Harvey was forced to aim for its midsection, aning any blow he landed probably wouldn’t be lethal, but it would be painful. The minotaur clearly understood this, splitting his grip and using the long haft of his axe to intercept Harvey’s swings. The arrays lining the blade sparked with every impact, shooting lightning into the minotaur’s hands. Those bolts were joined by gouts of fla from Flastrike, a skill that hadn’t seen much use after being left behind in G-Grade, but still added an extra dose of lethality when he fought in close combat. The flas would see a noticeable bump once he could infuse them with his new Forgefire Legacy, but he’d have to evolve it to an Imprint before he could start infusing it into his skills.
Every strike chewed a little bit farther into the wood, eventually snapping the weapon in half. Enraged, the minotaur let the blade bite into its flesh in exchange for landing a brutal punch on Harvey’s head. His neck whipped back, and the world started spinning, but it wasn’t enough to send him flying. Before he could right himself, the axe, now relegated to a single-handed weapon, bit into his side, carving a gouge through the silver despite his powerful reinforcent arrays and Soul Forge sharing a portion of his stats with the armor. Harvey scread in pain. The blade had only bit an inch into his skin, but his soul had been cut just as deep. Luckily, the agony sharpened his mind, helping him boost out of the way before a kick landed in his chest.
“No more swords,” he growled, pulling out Rupture and conjuring a cannon-sized projection with Innovator’s Arsenal. The kinetic arrays were already charged from before, and he activated all three rings to send his fifth and final bullet hurtling towards the minotaur. Just as the real bullet left the chamber, a ballista bolt shot from the projection, brimming with starving thanefire. They landed simultaneously, boring a hole right through the minotaur's chest before continuing into the second minotaur standing behind it.
You have slain Level 68 - Helltaur. Essence Gained. 9302 rit Earned
The first Helltaur died instantly, while the second struggled to pull the bolt from its chest even as thanefire withered away its flesh. Harvey gasped for air, the strain of forcing a third of his essence through his injured weave to conjure the projection of his complex weapon and even more powerful bullet. Innovator’s Arsenal scaled with his Wisdom, Willpower, and the quality of his weapon, making the cost of replicating his gun vastly more expensive than sothing simple like Aftershock. Even one more shot might bleed him dry, but he carefully reloaded his revolver anyway.
Across the platform, Celeste was finishing off her own pair of Helltaurs with the help of Adrian and his squad. Cash ran over and bathed Harvey’s wound in healing light, his eyes wide at the sight of the gory ss Harvey created.
“Told you it was worth it,” Harvey grimaced through the pain.
“That’s what you made with that Imprint ink?” Cash asked.
Harvey nodded, “We need to get out of here.”
No new foes were climbing onto Sweetie’s back, but the battle wasn’t won. Heaven’s army had earned a pyrrhic victory in their little section of the battlefield, but suffered heavy losses everywhere else. In the end, the other squads simply couldn’t overco Hell’s raw numbers advantage, forcing most to retreat while the divine creatures bought ti fighting a losing battle. Only a quarter of Hell’s beasts remained, but less than 10% of Heaven’s stood ready to defend the last bastion of their assault.
“Run! The commander has compelled the beasts to cover our retreat! Harvey, I know you think we’re cowards, but we have to live to fight another…” Celeste shouted.
“I’m getting the hell out of here!” Harvey interrupted, wrapping an arm around his brother and father and boosting them down off Sweetie’s back. The angels followed close behind, awkwardly gliding on their massive wings. Everyone landed near the shriveled husks of the Gluthogs that wasted away under Harvey’s thanefire, sprinting through the gaps in a mad dash towards heaven.
Behind them, Harvey could hear the pained yelps of lions, rams, giants, and eagles as they were surrounded on all sides. So were burned alive, others were torn apart by claws and axes. All fought valiantly, and all fought to their death. A smattering of brimfiends soared over the wall of swine to chase the angels retreating across the battlefield, but they soon retreated after the first squads to escape sent waves of covering fire. Looking back, Harvey didn’t see a single minotaur leaving the city. Instead, they dragged Sweetie’s corpse to the wall, using the house-sized bulls to plug the sa holes their charge had created. Their bodies were even better than the gluthogs', with thicker leather and heavy muscle blocking the way instead of pudgy fat.
After everything, they were leaving with fewer angels and a stronger wall to bust through tomorrow.
They failed.
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