Part 15

Bannute focused on the opening between the bulky machines on the other side of the room. There was some movement. Legs maybe. Even with enhanced vision, it was difficult to see. Then, something else. The side of a torso - something else, larger than the first. He recalibrated the scope on his railgun and a new image appeared - the heat patterns of several creatures hiding behind the machine.

Trest received the image and prepped his shieldarm for a 3-second concussion grenade. Bannute was ready.

Trest aimed for the space above the machine and fired. THUMPT. The grenade ricocheted off of the ceiling and landed where the creatures were gathered. BAKOOM!! The explosion sent chunks of metal and dust flying along with wet pieces of bodies. Then the rest of the creatures came flooding out.

annute's railgun whined into action. Bogen poured out from behind the machines. Thirty. Forty of them. The shrieking flechettes tore through them and the dense metal behind them. Inhuman screams pierced the air as the bogen shredded into pieces.

Trest readjusted his shieldarm for rapid dart bursts and added to the carnage. Spines flew at Bannute, and the levshield-shield, moving at the speed of his thoughts, deflected the attacks. Trest perforated the shooter bogen, and sprayed the other emerging creatures with a hail of needles. What did not enter flesh or bone squealed when the stream of darts drove into metal.

There were more coming. Over the top of the machines, the swarm of bogen came. There had never been so many in one place before. Bannute and Trest strafed anything that moved, but they kept coming. The bodies of the bogen were piled four or five high, not yet liquefying, and still more came. Trest screamed.
A blade between his shoulders. He swung around and riddled his attacker with darts. A demon had snuck up behind him. Bannute maintained his stream of flechettes at the wave of bogen, but they were more than he could cut down. He ran over to Trest, who was struggling to fire at the approaching swarm. A spine hit Bannute's helmet, cutting a gouge in the metal as he helped Trest to his feet.

"Let's get out of here!"

Saka leaped down to Jek's side. "There's nothing here. We have to go help them," Saka said with insistence. Jek agreed and they ran toward the machine room.

Dasart had been searching through the lower tunnel and found nothing. He suggested to Bal that they go help out Bannute and Trest as well. Bal agreed and they both turned back toward the falls.

Dasart's armor clanked as he ran toward the yellow-green glow of the falls area. He stopped at the end of the tunnel and looked up - waiting for Bal to appear. As he lowered his eyes to watch his footing, he met another pair of eyes... and felt a sharp blow to his chest and head. Dasart raised his blades and tried to move, but he was stuck to the cavern wall.

A demon crawled out of the dark place where the water fell, holding a large rifle. Dasart tried again to pull himself free, but couldn't. He looked down to see what had adhered him to the wall, and saw the wet spiny roots coming out of his chest. He looked up and the demon was aiming the rifle at his face.

Bal emerged from the top tunnel and caught the demon ready to fire. She jumped down beside Dasart and broke the rifle in half with her foot. The demon pulled a blade from behind his back and threw it at Bal. She ducked under it and it chimed harmlessly against the stone behind her. She rolled back up and thrust out with her palms, knocking the demon back several feet. At quick glance, she could see that this demon was from tribe of mercenaries banned from Earth, the Mungleff. They insert armor plates under their leathery flesh, which made it difficult for Bal to determine what soft spots to attack.

In a moment, she was beside the demon, and he struck out a fist. Bal caught the arm and broke the elbow, stepped in and thrust one of its own fingers deep into the demon's eye. The demon stood stiff, twitching for a few seconds, then fell back into the falls.

Kole and Kalisse were the first to assist Bannute and Trest. Bannute continued to spray the advancing bogen and occasionally bat away the closest ones with his levshield. Kalisse activated her armor and began her dance of blades. Kole took Trest aside and began to heal him. Trest grabbed Kole's hands and gasped, "Save it for the fight. I'm okay."

It was a lie, and Kole knew it, but Kole would be exhausted from the effort to heal Trest, and then not be able to defend himself or others from this attack. Trest forced a smile, and Kole stood. Kole raised the bonesword and called in the Earth elementals. The sword thrummed with the life of the oldest parts of the planet. Kole stepped in between Kalisse and Bannute and began to cut into the swarm. Creature parts flew. Bannute was empty. He threw down his railgun, and pulled a blade from off of his back.

The sounds of human grunts of effort, monstrous screams, squealing blades, cracking bones, and shredding flesh painted the cavern. The gelatinous remains of the bogen began to stream forth from the melee, making the battlefield slippery and almost comic. The advancing bogen would fall and push the ones in front into the guardian's line of defense.

All of a sudden, the bogen stopped attacking. They squealed a unanimous call and scattered into the surrounding caverns.

----

Bal leaned over Dasart and examined his wound. The demon had fired what looked like a negthorn into his chest - a thorny vine entwined Dasart's chest cavity, and blood streamed down the front of his armor. Bal removed Dasart's helmet and held his face in her hands.

"That was pretty nasty, what you did to him," Dasart struggled to speak. Bal looked at him and tried to smile. " That was just to show off in front of you, you know." Dasart attempted to laugh, but winced at the pain. His face was white.

"... always showing off..." he said as he looked up into Bal's eyes and managed a smile. Then, his head went limp, and his eyes emptied of life.

Bal let his head lean back against the wall as she choked back some tears. She stepped back, hiccuping down emotions she needed to hold back, then stormed out of the falls, breathing deep... each successive exhale becoming more like a growling scream.

Jek and Saka were approaching the gathering of the guardians when Saka's symbiotes alerted her to an attack. Immediately, she spun around to face the attackers that emerged from the dark. Ten demons, all armed with guns.

The dissonance of spines, arrows, and darts all exploding upon them at once did not drown out their battle cry. Saka leapt to the ceiling, then flipped down behind the gunmen, slicing three of them in half. Jek twisted space and repositioned himself beside Saka, his limbs striking out at five more. The two remaining rolled to the ground and continued to fire. Jek spun, catching a spine between his fingers, and using his own momentum to propel it back to the on shooter. Saka deflected the last gunman's shots with her gauntlets, and ran toward him, leaning over, so her wrist blade carved a ditch into the stone. She stopped at the head of the gunman, who fell into two halves, bisected from crotch to skull.

They returned to the five that Jek had knocked unconscious and found one that would be most likely to be able to have clear thoughts. Jek woke him enough to sift through its thoughts...

The other group of guardians joined them. Kole carried the body of Trest. Jek was reaching into the mind of the one assassin demon.

"Secret arrival... mercenaries..."

The guardians looked around at each other. A secret arrival meant that someone on the inside must have assisted the demons to breach the gateway. This was unprecedented.

" ... twenty assassins... one leader... herded the bogen together..."

They looked over at Jek. His eyes closed, his palms on either side of the demon's head.

"...demon lord... Klalech..."

A wave of shock ran through them. Klalech was one of the four demon lords who orchestrated the attack on the Earth a thousand years ago. One of the four who opened the Earth up to the Nether.

Klalech, one of the apocalytes has appeared on Earth... why??

All of these thoughts bounced between the guardians, until they were distracted by a chittering sound. The bogen had returned. More than before, they paused in a circle surrounding the guardians.

The guardians each examined the field of impending battle, analyzing potential escape routes and attack patterns. Blades were raised into position, but the bogen remained in place.

Then, slowly, demons emerged from the darkness to stand behind the various shapes of the bogen. The demons carried guns similar to their fallen allies. The guns were aimed at the guardians. Then, a deep cavernous voice.

"Look at you... the most skilled fighters on this wart-world... trapped by a simple ambush. How perfectly ironic."

Klalech stepped out of the shadows and chuckled. He stepped into the bogen circle and looked at the guardians.

His eyes almost held compassion for the guardians' unfortunate position. Each one of them, Klalech looked into, as if sampling each of their souls to later put on display in some memorial. A wave of hopelessness seeped into the guardians. Jhebon winked into Kole's consciousness and whispered a truth to him. There is a maga skill that causes this kind of hopelessness. Klalech may be using it.

It took only a moment for Kole to process this truth, and just as he was about to reflect it to the other guardians, Klalech turned away from them to exit the circle. It was the demon's cue to attack.

End Part 15