by Jan Stryvant
The biskop Lykta realized quite suddenly that something wasn't right. The force before him wasn't as big as his was, but they were coming at him with murder in their eyes, and the lion leading them suddenly looked pissed. He'd seen enough berserkers in his long life to know that you did not want to be the first to face them, or even the second.
Slowing his own charge, Lykta let several of his bonde run past him. They could take the edge off the lion's sword, he was sure of it. It was always better to fight a foe after they'd tired themselves out on your henchmen. That's was what henchmen were for, after all, right?
Sean's clash with the five bonde was brief. He really didn't give a damn about them, and didn't think twice about the danger they might present, just that they were between him and that bastard who was going to pay for the shit he'd said. He barely slowed down as he brought his sword around with all of his anger and his might, slicing two of them in half as he kicked a third in the crotch, his foot-claws extended as he gelded the demon, which started to shriek loudly.
The remaining two he simply ignored, leaving them for Cali, who was following close behind him. She could cover his back while he engaged the biskop, who had gone from looking angry to very surprised.
Lykta didn't know which was worse, the apparently enraged lion he was now crossing swords with, or the dark elf dancing behind him, who was slaying anyone that came anywhere near them. Dark elves were a known quantity to him; he'd been on raids to their homelands before. Most were decent fighters, but this one was well beyond that classification, though by herself he was sure she wouldn't prove too much of a problem.
But she wasn't by herself, and this lion that was attacking him would be a problem even if they were just one on one. He was moving that large fae sword of his with an amazing amount of both speed and strength. Lykta was hard pressed to keep from being cut by the sword and was slowly giving ground, when he noticed there were more of these beastmen charging his party from the sides!
Just then he felt his leg light up with pain as the lion kicked him, clawing his leg up! That got Lykta's attention! He'd never fought a lion before, and to find that one could actually hurt him with a physical attack was not something he had ever experienced before!
One thing was clear, they were going to lose this battle, and it was time for him to start thinking about his personal survival. The last thing he wanted was to be reincarnated back home! It would call his power and his expertise into question! Why, they might even mock him!
"To me! Rally to me!" Lykta yelled. He would make his escape in the brief moments that his bonde overwhelmed the lion, before they were slain.
He traded several more blows with the lion, who managed to slip his guard and almost had him then. Swearing, Lykta called for his bonde once again, then glancing around, realized with dread that his men were being cut down to either side of him. More than half were already dead, the remainder dropping shockingly fast.
Turning back to the lion, he could hear him growling as they fought, the sounds of battle around the two of them fading out as Lykta realized it was just him and the lion, who suddenly cast a jet of flame from his left hand, blinding him.
Sean grunted as he sliced open the biskop from shoulder to hip in a cross swing, its body opening up and dumping all of its internal organs to the ground as the biskop expired before him.
"That'll teach him to say bad things about my mom," Sean growled, and stepped back as the body began to slowly melt into another one of those gooey, tar-like masses on the ground.
"You can understand them, my Husband?" Cali asked, looking at him, surprised.
"No, but the First can, and he translated for me."
"Oh? What did the First say?"
Sean gave her a brief description, and Cali nodded slowly as he told her what had been said. The demon hadn't said any of those things; he'd been yelling orders to his men. She thought about telling Sean that, but he had fought so well and so fiercely, she thought perhaps the First had had the right idea. Sean always fought better when he was angry.
The Butcher's Bill
Roloff set down the phone and looked at Ruthelma and Bill. "They've just turned and are heading for Empire at a fast pace."
"Orders?" Bill said.
"Ruth, you deploy to the west of the gypsum plant, at the south end of the neighborhood. I'll go with Bill's men, and we'll set up to the south of you on four forty-seven. Once we see where they're going, we'll move to intercept, and you can move around to flank them from the north. There's about six hundred of them."
"That's two to one odds in their favor," Ruthelma pointed out.
"I know." Roloff grimaced. "They're sending us help, so we just have to hold them long enough for it to get here. Now go!"
Bill trotted back to the truck he'd been using and, climbing up inside, he pointed down the highway to the driver.
"Empire," he told everyone in his group over the radio.
"From which direction?" asked Roy, one of the team leaders. "The maps show mountains due east of them."
"They'll be coming from the southeast, through one of the high passes. I guess they got lost or something."
"Well, we better step on it if we want to get there before they can see us."
"Don't worry, we will," Bill said and looked at his map. They were all up in Gerlach, which was where they'd figured the demons would end up. But they'd taken a much different route than anyone had expected. Another group had already started to head east on Interstate 80, figuring that was where they were going to end up.
At least Empire was only a few minutes down the road.
As they passed the Empire store to the south of town, Bill could see a cloud of dust rising in the air to the southeast.
"Stop!" He called. "We're dismounting! I can see them!"
"Where are they?" Roloff commed back.
"If I'm guessing right," Bill said as they pulled over, the rest of his troops pulling their trucks over behind his, "they're coming down Empire Road, the one the gypsum plant made. It's a flat long run straight into town."
Roloff's truck pulled up next to Bill's, and he jumped out, accompanied by a half dozen other dwarves who were part of his security detail.
"Let's move over to the east and set up a reception."
Bill nodded and directed his troops to spread out and follow as they trotted across the road to where the water tanks were to set up.
"They sure can move," Roy muttered as they all checked their weapons.
"Looks like feeding time at the zoo," one of Roy's men muttered.
"Ruth," Roloff called over his radio, "better start moving up behind us now. I don't think we have enough men here to stop 'em all. You'll need to pick up the ones that bypass us." Roloff turned to Bill. "Get your flanks to move back and closer to the center. If they decide to flank us rather than keep on running to Empire, we'll put them back into a circle."
Bill nodded and gave the orders, checked to make sure his men had adjusted, then looked up at the oncoming horde. The demons had seen them now, and had slowed their advance, tightening up their ranks as the two mounted ones started making motions with their arms and apparently yelling commands.
"Looks like the moment of truth," Bill said, drawing his sword.
"Ever been in a fight before?" Roloff asked.
"Oh, I've been in lots of fights," Bill said with a laugh. "But never with a sword before. Definitely going to be a new experience."
"I think you can say that for all of us," one of the dwarves with Roloff grunted. "Still, I'd rather be here than anywhere else!"
"Hear! Hear!" the other dwarves all said with a laugh.
As they watched, the carts fell to the back, a line of demons forming up to defend them. So those were obviously important. The rest formed up in four skirmish lines, the two mounted demons behind them, and started to advance slowly, their own weapons drawn.
Bill watched quietly as they approached. He'd been through his share of firefights as a sheriff. Sometime
s things in Vegas got pretty nasty, with rival gangs coming through the area, or trying to move in on somebody else's turf. But those had all been small, and with regular weapons. Plus he had the advantage of being immune to anything a mundane crook could dish out.
But this was different. These demons were tougher than humans, and there were a lot of them. This wasn't going to be an easy fight, by any stretch of the imagination.
"Hold the line!" Roloff called over the radio. "When I give the word, pull the ends in."
At that point one of the two mounted demons yelled something, and the line charged forward and attacked.
The demons all screamed as they charged, but evenso, Bill could still hear it when they actually clashed with each other. The sounds of the swords and bodies slamming into each other was something he was sure he'd never forget.
He killed the one in front of him by cleaving its head in two, then ripped his sword out and dispatched the one to his right, at which point the second line was attacking them and he was killing yet another demon. For all that he was using a sword instead of a gun, or even his fists, he wasn't all that bothered by it. All those years of working the streets of Vegas had inured him to the desperation of the fight and the literal insanity of close combat in a day and age of firearms and ranged weapons.
He came up against one of the other demons then, he believed they were called bonde or something like that. Unlike the gnashers, this one knew how to fight, and Bill found himself having to give ground as the fighters to either side of him were either taking wounds or being overwhelmed and having to drop back as well.
He got cut and stabbed several times by fighters to either side of the bonde he was fighting, until he got it in the head with a desperate lunge, which earned him a nice stab wound as well.
But unlike the bonde, Bill's wounds healed, and he quickly retreated back to his line and took a moment to check on the others around him as they all fought. Several of his men were down, and were being hacked to pieces by the demons, now that the line had been pressed back. He wanted to rally a surge forward to try and save some of them, but at that point Roloff called for the ends to pull in, and Bill could see why: they were being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. They may have killed as many of the enemy as they'd lost themselves, but right now the enemy had four times as many fighters.
Returning his attention to the fight, Bill did what he could to help those to either side of him as he quickly dispatched another gnasher and then found himself fighting yet another bonde. The man next to him took a bad thrust through the body, and Bill had to switch the sword to his left hand and grab the man with his right to pull him back behind him, lest he end up being hacked to death while his body tried to heal the nearly mortal wound.
"Tighten up the ranks!" Bill called out. "And pull the wounded behind you!"
"If Ruth's gonna show up, now would be a good time!" Roy yelled back.
Bill growled as he was stabbed again, and took a moment to kill the gnasher on his right that had gotten him, picking up another slash for his trouble, as he returned to fighting the bonde before him. He had faith in Ruthelma.
Ruthelma was having her own problems; a full quarter of the attacking force had shifted to the north to bypass the defenders and make a beeline towards the town. She really had no choice but to commit her own force to taking them on, or they'd be in amongst the defenseless townspeople in no time at all. With her boyfriend Jonathon guarding her left side, she had her people moving forward in a wedge formation as they crashed into the center of the advancing party.
She was targeting the bonde; the gnashers were really no challenge for her, more of an annoyance really, but at least the bonde could put up a bit of a fight before she slew them. With Jonathon on her left, it really made her fighting so much more pleasurable. She could leave the gnashers to him so she could pursue more of the bonde as she led her men through the attackers.
That was when she saw him, a ridder! Oh she was so going to kill him! Finally! A real challenge!
"Sebastian!" she called to one of her lieutenants. "Take your men and go set on the main party while their backs are turned!" She gestured towards Bill and Roloff's now encircled troops. "'Ware the biskop!"
"Got it, Ruth!" Sebastian said and then took off at a run, he and his men disengaging from the fight to charge the others.
Dispatching a bonde quickly with her enthusiasm finally engaged, Ruthelma took a step closer towards her target.
"Yon ridder! Would thou fight with me? Comest thou closer and get thy yarbles cut off! Iffen thou havest any yarbles, that is!" She laughed and slew another bonde, who suddenly realized that this was not the place to be. The rest of the gnashers and bonde quickly moved out of her way; anything that would challenge a ridder was either crazy or beyond their skill, and they wanted no part of it.
Insats looked up from the beastman he had just beheaded at the yelled challenge. True, the things were tough, but he'd fought tougher. He was a little surprised that one would call out to him specifically, until he saw it. It wasn't a beastman, it was a fey.
A very well armed and armored fey, who from the way they were using that huge sword, apparently knew exactly what they were about. For the first time since the fight had started, Insats became concerned. They had been reassured that there wouldn't be any of the fey here; not yet, at least. But here one was, quickly striding towards him as his men wisely got out of the way.
Slipping out of the saddle, he gave his mount a slap on the rump. The last thing he wanted was to have her cutting off one of its legs and leaving him to walk. He started striding towards the fey as well; the sooner he killed her, the sooner he could go eat. All that food so tantalizingly close was making his mouth water.
Besides, what could one little fey woman do? It wasn't like she was one of those nasty berserker males of theirs.
Sean was looking at the bodies that were melting into that tar-like substance; some of them seemed to have taken actual damage from the bullets fired by the machineguns on the helicopter. There was even one dead one back from before they'd even engaged them.
Curious.
"Sean!" called George, Claudia's lead pilot, over his radio. "That other group is attacking Empire! They need your help over there!"
"Mount up, everybody!" Sean yelled and ran for the helicopters that were coming in and landing to pick everyone up.
"What about our wounded?" Hunter asked.
"Put them in number five and take them back to the ranch!" Sean said as he got the lead ship. "All those from number five, spread out into the other birds. Chop, chop people! Move!"
Everyone loaded up quickly and they took off.
"What's the story on the machine guns?" Sean asked Trey, his pilot.
"They're machine guns, what about them?" he said with a shrug as he turned them towards Empire.
"What type? What do they fire?"
"Oh! They're a couple of old M2s from like, Vietnam or something. Ask Roxy or her dad, they're the ones who mounted them up."
"What kind of ammo are they using?"
"Beats me, some sort of armor-piercing stuff I think. The tips are all black, the ones that aren't worn off. Mostly it's just to annoy them, give them something to think about. At least that's what Roxy told me."
Sean nodded as they came over the rise then, and he could see the fighting. One group was already encircled, with their backs to a couple of water tanks, and it looked pretty fierce. He spotted the biskop right away. It was trying to hack its way through the line.
"Make a pass with the guns, then drop us off as close to that bastard as you dare!" Sean yelled and checked his weapons. "Everyone, we're probably gonna have to jump!"
The pilot lowered the nose then and triggered the machine guns; there was a brief spat of bullets, and Sean saw that it had a greater effect than he'd expected.
"Why'd you stop?"
"Out of bullets. These things only hold about six hundred rounds."
Sean saw the other group then
; about half of the demons were making a break for the town, while the rest were fighting with what had to be Ruthelma's group.
Ruthelma herself was involved in a rather impressive sword duel with the ridder, while her boyfriend and a couple of the other members of her group made sure no one interfered in her fight.
Trey swung the helicopter around then and flared to an abrupt stop about twenty feet over the ground. Sean didn't even wait; he pushed the door open and fell out, twisting around to land on his feet as he drew his swords.
The wolves in the back weren't so lucky; about half of them landed in a pile.
Then Cali landed on top of them and lightly skipped down towards him.
Turning back towards the fight, Sean charged forward with a loud roar, setting almost immediately on the back of the group formed up behind the biskop. Several of them turned at the sound of his roar and were shocked at what they saw, just before Sean killed them.
Apparently they didn't know helicopters carried people.
Then again, Sean thought as he killed another bonde, maybe they didn't even know what helicopters were.
Sean roared loudly again, trying to get the biskop's attention before it killed any more of his people. There looked like a dozen dead on the ground around it. At least it looked to be wounded as well.
Stakar was swearing as he cut down these furry bastards. Apparently the beastmen really did exist, and the little buggers were hard to kill! None of the things they used on humans seemed to work. He couldn't rip their souls out, he couldn't deter them with fear, and he couldn't stun their minds.
He'd headed for the largest of them and had just started to fight with him. This one was fast, a lot faster than the others, and apparently stronger as well. Then there was the dwarf fighting next to him, that was another thing Stakar hadn't expected, in fact he doubted that anyone knew there were dwarves here!
He'd lost probably a third of his troops; it was mostly the gnashers that were dead, but a fair amount of his bonde and even one of his råge were now dead, too. He felt it more than heard it at first, something nasty was approaching, and that was when he became aware of the noise.