by Max Jager
Meanwhile, a group of Red's men yelled when a gargantuan bolt of lightning rained down on them and shocked them to a crisp.
Multiple groups of Red's men screamed as several mercenaries threw nail bombs at them.
Rachel yelled as she spun around with her swords extended and cut down anyone who got in her way.
"Get out of my way!"
Mary gritted her teeth as she watched a hundred armed men walk towards her.
Damn it! A good number of them have yet to be taken down!
She grunted when she saw a man with a flintlock pistol take aim at her, and quickly jumped out of the way when the man shot it at her. Irritated, she leapt at them, and the men yelled as she grabbed a whip she had attached to her waist and began whipping them all over the place.
Hundreds of men were after Wake's head, but Wake all too easily cut off their own with his sword. It did not seem to matter how many of them attacked him at once; he beat them down nevertheless. One of the men aimed a grenade at him and threw it at him, but he picked up an enemy and threw him at the explosive to prevent it from hitting him. The terrified man's body exploded upon being struck by the bomb, and several of Red's men watched in fear and awe as the man's blood rained down on them.
"He's a demon!" one of them yelled in terror, "Nobody pulls crap like that!"
"What the hell?" another asked, confused, "I thought he was one of us! Why the hell is he attacking us?"
A number of mercenaries were facing off against Philemon, but it was all too easy for him to snatch their weapons from their hands and use their weapons against them. He had just snatched a bow and a quiver full of arrows from one of his enemies, and his enemies screamed as he ran around and shot them mercilessly.
"He's a maniac!" they screamed.
Wake heard their screams, and looked over at them with slight concern. He rolled his eyes as he watched his former ally terrorize them with their own weaponry.
Hopeless, he thought as he cracked his neck, Looks like I'll have to put Philemon down myself.
Meanwhile, Red panted heavily as he looked at his brother with tired eyes. He had just shot nine bolts of lightning at him, but despite the enclosed space, the shaking ground, and the fact that pieces of the ceiling were falling around them, Bandit had managed to evade all nine of them with relative ease. Irritated, he sucked his teeth as he cracked his knuckles.
I don't have time for this! he thought as his body became enveloped in Manna that manifested itself as red lightning.
Red blurred at Bandit so fast, Bandit had little time to defend himself. He punched Bandit in the face, and sent him flying across the room.
Bandit yelled as the back of his head slammed against the wall, and groaned in pain as he felt blood drip down the back of his neck.
Ah! he thought as he hissed in pain, Damn it!
Red proceeded to get on top of him, and screamed furiously as he began punching Bandit in the face.
"You see?" he asked while he beat his little brother to a pulp, "This is what happens when little brothers get in their big brothers' way!"
After having been punched in the face ten times, a bloodied Bandit suddenly headbutted Red, causing him to yell in pain as he stumbled back several feet.
Red held his face in pain as he looked at him.
Why won't he stay down? he thought, frustrated by his brother's relentless desire to survive.
Bandit balled up his fists in anger as he jumped back on his feet and raised his arms into the air. He screamed in fury he had not felt since he had fought against Zor's army in Vast Expanse, and Red watched as his body became enveloped in an icy blue aura.
"Red!" he screamed as though he was the God of Fury, "Die!"
The End
Philemon was in the middle of terrorizing the mercenaries with weapons he took right out of their hands, when he saw Mary, out of the corner of his eye, attacking his allies.
Now we can't have that…can we? he thought with a devilish smile as he dropped his weapon and blurred at her.
Mary was in the middle of whipping Red's men into the next century, when she suddenly found herself placed in a chokehold by Philemon, who had snuck up on her. She was taken aback by the situation, and took a deep breath as she closed her eyes and tried to calm herself.
"Please, scream," said Philemon, still smiling, "That will make this all the more…pleasurable."
He most assuredly would have snapped her neck, had she not suddenly broken out of his hold and kicked him below the belt, causing him to laugh in pain as he fell to his knees.
"Oh…yes!" he exclaimed as he slowly stood up, "That's what I'm talking about! But you need to do it harder, sweetie! I barely felt that!"
He smiled at her as he got back on his feet, but before he could do anything else, Wake came out of nowhere and kneed him in the groin.
"You're not going anywhere near my daughter!" he yelled angrily.
Mary watched in awe as her father punched Philemon across the face six times, but panicked when Philemon managed to fight back, and punched her father in the face four times.
He threw Wake aside, and smiled as he watched Mary charge at him.
"Yes!" he exclaimed, "A three-way! That's exactly what this party needed!"
Mary jumped into the air and tried to sweep kick Philemon's head, but Philemon jumped back to evade the blow. He was about to punch her in the face, but Wake quickly stepped in between them, and parried the punch downward. He grunted as he grabbed Philemon by his neck, and tried to choke him, but Philemon kneed him in the stomach and pushed him away.
Philemon tried to go after Wake, but Mary protected her father by grabbing Philemon's shirt, pulling him towards her, and punching him across the face with a more powerful blow than she had ever delivered to anyone.
Unfortunately, it did not faze him for long, and he tried to go after her, when Wake kicked him in the stomach. Wake tried to strike him in the face with a finishing blow, but Wake grabbed his fist and headbutted him, causing him to stumble back in pain. Philemon proceeded to spin Wake around and put him in a tight chokehold, causing Wake to gasp for breath as he spoke in his ear.
"So, this is your new daughter, huh?" asked Philemon as Wake continued to gasp for air, "Don't worry… I'll take good care of her."
He was about to snap his neck, when something suddenly lodged itself into his head. He felt blood run down his face, and looked up to see an arrow poking out of his head. He gasped in shock, and trembled in pain as he released Wake's neck and slowly fell to the ground.
Wake turned around to look at Philemon's dying body, and looked up to see Mary holding a bow in her hands. She looked at him with concern, and he sighed as he looked at her with a slight smile.
"Thank you…" he said softly.
Mary smiled as she walked up to him and gave him, to his surprise, a hug.
"No problem…Dad…"
Rachel was in the middle of combat when she sensed that a man behind her was aiming a shotgun at her. She quickly blurred right up to the man, and the man suddenly became struck with great fear. She sliced the man's head right off his shoulders, grabbed his head, and sent it flying into another man's face, effectively knocking him down and freaking him out at the same time.
"You all are crazy!" yelled the man, "You're gonna pay for all of this!"
"How are we crazy?" yelled Rachel, irritated, "You're the ones who have raped and killed your fellow Icelanders!"
Truly exhausted, Brayne put his hands down, and panted heavily as he watched the lightning he had summoned gradually disappear. His clothes were drenched in a massive amount of sweat, and he gritted his teeth as he aired them out.
A large number of men shot their shotguns at Brayne, but Brayne, despite his great tiredness, was able to evade their bullets with relative ease.
Damn it! he thought as he did so, I don't have the energy for this!
He pointed his index finger at them and shot a bolt of lightning at them when he got the chance, but to his
surprise, some of the men evaded his attack.
Oh, great! he thought irritably as he charged at one of the men, Looks like some of these guys actually have some skill… Well...if I can't hit them with lightning…
The man yelled when Brayne grabbed him by his legs, lifted him into the air, and started swinging him around at the others like a baseball bat.
…What a pain in the ass!
A number of men surrounded Wake and Mary, and they both raised their eyebrows as they pointed shotguns at them. The men shot at them, but the father-daughter duo managed to easily evade their bullets with quick jumps and ducks.
"You're wasting your ammunition," warned Wake calmly as he deflected some of the bullets with ease using his sword, "You lot won't win that way."
With Philemon defeated, the rest of the mercenaries were also doing a great job of holding their own, and hundreds of Red's men watched as their comrades got taken down by them. They were actually starting to get scared of them.
"What the hell is up with these guys?" one asked as he watched his comrade fly ten feet away after having been punched in the face, "There are so many of us, and so few of them, yet they're taking us down so easily! They're too skilled!"
Red's men were indeed reducing in number, and Scarlet noticed as much as she carried Abe out of Red's main headquarters.
Whoa… she thought, completely surprised by the situation unfolding before her, What the hell…?
Abe gritted his teeth in pain as he looked around at the battlefield, and gasped when he looked to Scarlet's side.
"On your right!" he yelled.
Totally entranced by the war she saw before her, by the sight of grenades, arrows and men sent flying all over the place, and by the sound of gunfire, Scarlet was not paying attention to Abe at first, but managed to notice three men charging at her on her right side.
"She has War!" one of them yelled.
"She must have betrayed Red, too!" yelled another.
"Kill her!" yelled the third.
Knowing she could not fight the men off with her hands full, she looked at Abe apologetically as she spoke.
"Sorry," she said.
Abe looked at her in confusion, but quickly realized why she said that when she threw him into the air.
What the hell is she doing? he wondered as he yelled in panic.
With her hands free, Scarlet was free to attack the men as she pleased.
She knocked one of the men right in the face, and he yelled as he crashed to the ground. A second man tried to punch her, but she parried his punch down, and kneed him in the groin, causing him to scream as he fell to the ground. The third man looked at her in surprise, and as she cracked her knuckles and looked at him with controlled fury, he dropped his weapon and ran away from her. She raised an eyebrow as she watched him run, and held out her hands just in time to catch Abe before he could hit the ground.
He looked at her with slight fear as he spoke.
"Don't…do that…again…" he said with widened eyes.
She closed her eyes and smiled as she looked at him.
"Sorry!" she apologized.
Abe closed his eyes as he sighed.
Oh, yeah, he thought with a slight smile, She's his brother, alright.
Rachel had just made another group of men victims of her blade, when she looked from the corner of her eye and saw Abe in Scarlet's arms. She could not help but take just a second to look at the girl in amazement, for she had grown up so much since she last saw her, and had always been like a little sister to her.
"Scarlet…" she said to herself in shock.
Remembering that the battlefield was no place for her to become sentimental, she screamed at the top of her lungs at her allies.
"We've got Abe!"
Her allies cheered with joy, while she blurred her way towards Scarlet.
Scarlet's face lit up when she noticed Rachel running towards her, but her jaw dropped when she saw three groups of men trying to get in her way.
"Rachel, watch out!" she shouted.
She had been scared that the men would hurt Rachel, but she quickly became scared for a different reason when she saw Rachel slice the men up like fruit.
Damn… she thought as her jaw dropped, When did she become so…scary…?
She continued to look at Rachel in awe as Rachel ran over to her.
"Scarlet!" greeted Rachel, "It's really you!"
Rachel was initially confused by her shocked expression, but upon realizing why she was so dumbfounded, she quickly pushed Scarlet's jaw up so her mouth was closed.
"Close your mouth, Scar," she said with a smile as she took Abe out of Scarlet's arms and held him in her own, "Otherwise, you'll catch flies."
Her attempt at a joke snapped Scarlet out of her shocked state, and Scarlet shook her head as she smiled at her.
"Really?" she asked, "Come on, Rachel, you know you can't tell jokes."
"Ain't that the truth," said Abe as he rolled his eyes.
He and Scarlet smiled at each other while Rachel opened her mouth in surprise.
"Shut up!" she exclaimed, "That wasn't that bad!"
Scarlet tried to stifle her laughter as she spoke.
"Maybe not for you…" she began, "but for the people who heard it…"
She burst out laughing, and despite the pain he felt coursing throughout his body, Abe did the same, for her attitude reminded him a lot of his beloved brother, Simon.
"What the hell are you laughing for?" asked Rachel, amused, "You never laugh!"
"What can I say?" said Abe as he winked at Scarlet, "She couldn't be more right."
"Hey, watch it," said Rachel with a raised eyebrow, "I'm the one carrying you. I'll drop you in a second, just you watch… Wait a minute! What the hell am I carrying you for? What the hell happened to you?"
"We can talk about that later," suggested Abe, "For now, I suggest we run."
"No, seriously," pressed Rachel, "What the hell happened to you? And where's Bandit? Is he here? We couldn't find him when we gathered together to attack the city!"
Both Scarlet and Abe's eyes widened as they looked at each other in fear.
"He's fighting Red!" they said at the same time.
Rachel looked at them in horror as her jaw dropped.
Oh, God…
"We need to go back and get him!" she exclaimed in terror, "I have to go and get him! Scarlet, here, I'm gonna give Abe back to you."
Abe looked at her as though she was insane as she handed him back to Scarlet.
"Wait!" he yelled, "Are you nuts? You can't beat Red! He took you down the day he came here!"
"It doesn't matter!" exclaimed Rachel as she looked at Abe earnestly, "I won't let Bandit die! Abe…you know I can't leave him behind!"
As he looked at her adamant face, he shook his head and closed his eyes before he responded.
"Fine!" he shouted, "But be careful! Red…is no joke!"
Rachel nodded her head, and ran towards the entrance into the headquarters, but right before she could step inside of the building, the ground shook violently, knocking her and most everyone else on the battlefield off their feet.
What the…? she thought in complete shock, What the hell was that?
The ground continued to shake more violently than any earthquake could, and everyone screamed in terror as they looked around for an answer as to why it was happening.
Cracks began to appear in all of the buildings in the city, and everyone watched as some of them began to fall apart.
"Oh my God!" exclaimed one of Red's men.
"What the hell is going on?" shouted Marshall, a mercenary.
Even more commotion than there had been before quickly spread across the battlefield, and everyone watched in astonishment when the ground began to shake even more violently, and when a sphere of red lightning suddenly appeared in the middle of the battlefield.
My God! thought Mary as her eyes widened in fear.
Oh, shit! thought Brayne, Lightning? That
means it's…!
Everyone gasped in shock when they noticed that the sphere was quickly becoming bigger.
No! thought Wake as he shook his head, No! Not when I just got my daughter back!
What the fuck? thought Abe, dumbfounded by what was happening, He's going to destroy the entire city at the rate that thing's growing! What the hell is he thinking?