From all the roots of the black garden below the darkening sky, that dreadful growling resonates, nothing like an animal as it's nothing like what nature would produce. It echoes in the open field with a deep yet ethereal presence, emitting from those black roots whose white caustic veins pulsate as if breathing, as if alive. The size of trees, those roots stand like a forest themselves, one that surrounds the tall stone wall guarding the city, the only opening in the wall covered by the shut gate which stands behind the two towers each of which are occupied by two armed guards, petrified, speechless. Ahead of them stands the four Bellators on the ground among the bodies of the defeated Syndicate hunters, victory acquired the instant before the awakening. They stand side by side, though steadily most of them turn their heads as Dana and Kokei turn to face Meditat, which Ekitai then does, for they all look to him for guidance in this critical moment, all of them aware of what's to follow.
A gust of wind blows against them, lifting Kokei's hair, Ekitai's overcoat, and Meditat's cape, prompting Kokei's and Ekitai's eyes to squeeze whereas Meditat's lenses only shine brighter, staring straight at the pulsing garden.
At last he takes a single step forth before firmly commanding, "Take the guards to the top of the wall, I'll secure the bodies," at the moment that both of his hands ignite with blue flames. He then extends his hands forward and releases those flames in fanning streams over the ground, spreading over the bodies, temporarily covering them as if to burn them.
Both Ekitai and Kokei just stand in place, stunned at the horrid direction of what should've been a celebration, whereas Dana spins around as her right hand morphs into a tentacle which coils around Ekitai's waist. She relays, "Follow me, Kokei," before launching off the ground, leading Kokei to turn to face up at her.
All four of the guards watch Dana soar straight up, equidistant from the two towers, and right as she passes the tower's peak, four tentacles emerge from her back and coil around the waists of each of the guards, plucking them off the platform and dragging them in the air in a vertical climb along the wall, some of their screams reaching back to the grass floor.
Kokei watches the golden rocket rise before she then turns to Meditat whose hands remain still as the flames spread over the ground begin separating into capsule containers that form around the defeated hunters, creating a field of large pills as the fire continues to expand, reaching more bodies. Kokei frowns and extends her hand forward while offering, "Do you want me to-," before Meditat interrupts in a shout without turning his head, "I'll join you all after they're safe, go Kokei!"
Startled by the resolve, Kokei nods her head as pink arcs spark around her body, circulating around her torso and legs, charging her once more. She wishes, "Good luck," before throwing her arms down, launching herself in the sky where she ascends after Dana, leaving Meditat to focus on those capsules, the ones closest to him materializing with a silver hull.
The completed capsules begin to autonomously hover, rising steadily in the air past Meditat to follow the rest of the team. He glances at the furthest bodies just as they're safely tucked within their own capsules which then materialize.
Meditat watches those furthest capsules lift off the ground, beginning its ascension, which is when a single black arm emerges from one of the roots straight ahead of him, the clawed hand opening wide as if reaching forth. Meditat immediately notices that arm, functioning as his signal.
A brief scan is taken as Meditat observes the field around him to ensure no other bodies left in the grass, and upon confirming such, two cables fire from his shoulders up to the tops of the guard towers. He watches a whole mob of arms grow out of the roots not just directly ahead of him but also in the roots adjacent to them, just before his body is lifted off the ground. His cables detach just before his body is flung above the towers, and he spins to face the wall before boosting himself upwards constantly, leaving behind a comet's tail as his shoulders emit another pair of cables to pull him up, accompanied by his hands which raise up to project more wires that he rapidly zips from.
Clenching his cheeks hard to keep his scream inside his throat, one of the guards clutches onto the golden tentacle wrapped around him, hovering beside his female ally who is in the same terrified pose, holding herself steadily as she experiences perhaps the greatest speed while feeling the wind directly drive into her. She stares straight at the wall, watching it until that wall ends, which is when she suddenly decelerates.
Dana gently brakes her flight as she lightly dashes forward, passing slightly above the top of the wall, where she then descends lightly just about ten feet. All five of her tentacles extend upwards, allowing her to be the first to land on the stone surface with grace, her clawed feet touching ground before her tentacles all lower to carry their passengers down.
All five of them are placed with their feet on the ground concurrently before uncoiling, Ekitai's uncoiling being swift whereas the tentacles around the guards unravel slower to more steadily ease them in the landing, allowing them a moment to find their footing and acquire their balance. Once those other four tentacles slip into Dana's back, she spins around the same as Ekitai, taking a few steps towards the very edge of the wall they stopped a few feet from whereas the guards stumble away from that edge. They all do turn towards that edge at least upon watching Kokei rise past the wall, carrying herself over the wall and landing gently at Ekitai's side. The guards stare at her in disbelief, still processing the events surrounding them as Dana nods to Kokei before returning her gaze back over the edge, where she watches the field of silver capsules rise steadily, continuing on about twenty feet past the wall before gliding over that wall, passing over the guards who watch it hover towards the city. The young man shows puzzlement at the evacuation, but all of their attentions are again spun around as two blue cables attach to the edge of the wall just an instant before Meditat leaps from under the wall –those cables attached to his hands–, swinging around the edge to smoothly land beside Dana and Ekitai. He relinquishes the wires on his hands and drops his arms to the side before taking a step towards the edge and peering over as he reports, "They're all in the clear, I'll keep them in the air, the capsules will also maintain their sedation. Now we can focus on….," though his voice trails off as, now at this much greater vantage point, he's able to witness the sheer scale of the awakening, as every root in the garden he can witness far more of is pulsating, for it's clear that not only a section of the garden has awakened, but rather the entire field around the city.
That's when a sea of sudden grating shrieks pierces through the rumbling, prompting Meditat's three allies to peer over the edge beside him, and watch as suddenly the nest seems to begin bleeding over the field as a black substance spreads over the green grass quickly towards the wall.
That black substance isn't liquid but is in fact a horde of those lanky humanoids whose bodies are a slimy black all but the faint white veins running through its body, sprinting in the same direction. Their oversized hands swing back and forth as they raise their tall heads, the only facial feature being the mouth, the jaw reaching to half the head as the opening of the mouth unhinges the entire head evenly, revealing the spiral array of black teeth outlined with a gentle white light, the dimming of the sky pronouncing the glow subtly.
As more of them crawl out of the roots of the garden, grabbing those roots to pull their heads out, the front line leaps in the air, waving their arms before slamming into the stone wall. A few of them slide down the wall, though many others dig their fingers into the stone, allowing them to hang on the surface, same as their feet which they swing into the walls next. They raise their heads up and emit that piercing screech before they hastily begin climbing the wall, reaching one hand after another, followed by many of the same Pawns that follow them whether retrying or managing on their first attempt. In just a few seconds, there's at least thirty Pawns following up the wall, and a steady stream continues to pour out of the roots right behind.
At the edge of the top of that very wall, Kokei and Ekitai are quickly startled, the horror clear on their face as Dana's and Meditat's bodies similarly show a certain angst, shaken up from the rapid escalation. Meditat hastily glances at Dana, then Ekitai and Kokei, then turns his head back to the four guards, the pressure of this sudden weight pressing down on him. He frantically faces forward again, and knowing that every second is a waste that allows those monsters to continue climbing, he commands madly, "Shoot them off now, lethal force!" He extends both of his hands to the edge of the wall and releases a blaze as he spreads his arms, spreading that flame to a long bar along the cliff, which materializes into an array of sentry turrets mounted to the wall, hardly protruding as they don't jut a full foot out, though strangely enough their heads are not barrels but rather stretched curves that resemble an axe. The thin aperture along those curved heads flare before discharging a shot of concentrated red laser energy not in a thin bolt but a wide curve, spreading out the further it travels, enough that by the time it reaches the Pawns it's already extended to about twenty feet in width, a long, scalding wire.
Upon the wire's contact with the frontmost Pawns of the horde, the wire simply passes through the body, making impact on the wrists and ankles. Those wrists and ankles however are left completely unaffected, still attached to the body which continues to climb as do all the other beasts behind.
Observing the failure of the laser wire, Meditat chuffs as his hands ignite again, preparing another attack. Ekitai faces him first before shouting astounded, "Wait, you said lethal??"
Dana and Kokei turn to Meditat with similar bewildered expressions, watching Meditat glance at them too before briefly justifying, "Whatever they are, they're not human, they're not of nature, and we don't know if they're sentient. But we know that defense below maximum effort is subpar, mercy is unaffordable."
With that, he then releases his next flames by throwing his arms out, fanning out a fire over the wall's cliff which manifests into a fleet of ten foot tall unicycles with metal plates, each equipped at the front with a device six feet wide resembling a bush hog which has an array of physical spinning blades heated bright blue, which races down the wall as the tires are not made of simple rubber but rather hollow metal wheels that propel the whole construct at blazing speeds, reaching the Pawns in under two seconds. Those spinning blades make contact, which do successfully throw a few Pawns back, but those are only the ones who were, at that very moment, detached from the wall therefore they were only thrusted back by the physical vehicle itself. The blades themselves however fail to shave the Pawns, and in fact they're able to cling to the walls with enough strength to not be repelled, but instead it's the bush hogs that are smashed through, crumpled up and wrecked, destroyed without even being slashed or chomped.
Watching his second attack also more or less a waste, Meditat chuffs as he reignites his flames, standing beside Ekitai who aims over the wall and pulls the trigger, firing red bolts while Dana –on the other side of Meditat– transforms both of her arms into conal cannons as her shoulders extrude dart launchers, triggering both sets of weapons immediately, hailing energy bolts and propulsive darts. Kokei however just frowns and waits, hopping and shaking her arms as the enemies are beyond her range, angsty knowing she alone has shown consistent ability to counter them. Yet all she can do is wait as her two allies unload their barrages beside Meditat who releases another flame over the wall, his hands together to concentrate both streams together.
Snarling and shrieking, the Pawns hastily crawl up the stone wall though a few of them are struck by red bolts, which forcefully encases them in a watery bubble that pushes them off the wall, suspending them in place. Other Pawns are then struck by the golden storm, bolts raining down in great rapidity, prompting a few of the monsters to growl and scruff, though among those bolts are darts which explode on impact, chipping bits of the wall as their intensity is enough to cause physical damage to all but the skin of their targets who continue to crawl against the fire.
Even the monsters captured in the bubbles rage and slash the casing from the inside, popping the bubble and its red liquid, freeing them to begin falling before they catch themselves on the wall to continue the climb, hardly slowed. They continue to snarl and climb until met by a stream of raging blue flames which approach the monsters before the head hardens into a solid metal barrier, and those streams diverge which expands that barrier to board up more of the wall. That blockade extrudes about ten feet high before curving backwards, creating a ceiling to disallow simply climbing over. In just a second, many of the Pawns reach the blockade, bashing their heads maniacally into the solid barrier before they begin biting and slashing at it, quickly ripping apart the blockade.
Atop the wall, the three Bellators press heavy fire composed of variously colored bolts from Ekitai, primarily golden lasers from Dana along with rocket darts, and those azure flames Meditat spreads to manifest the barrier which seconds upon creation are already being torn down, allowing Pawns to pass through.
Still unable to reach the horde, Kokei is left to anxiously glance around the rising mob, noticing that the monsters off to the right side, not being targeted at the moment, have already reached distinctly higher up the wall, as they haven't even been touched.
Horror rises in Kokei's eyes as she glances to the left side to find that same sight, for despite her allies' best efforts at slowing the siege, the sheer scale seems impossible to contain, as they're only pushing against a minor fraction of the full invasion. She winces before then jogging up behind Meditat and tapping his shoulder who watches the Pawns race through the gaps already made in his barrier, choosing the quicker approach of climbing through an opening already present rather than continuing to create their own. Upon feeling the taps on his shoulder, he turns his head to Kokei who points to the distant right side of the wall, prompting him to follow the finger to that very worrying sight as those monsters were not far from the top either, perhaps not even in a full minute given their current speed.
His head turns to the far left side to find that same concern, proving that his efforts are being wasted at this moment, hyper fixating on a relatively negligible portion of the greater problem, and by the fret in his posture he struggles still to handle the scale of this assault for it's significantly greater than the raid they had just bested, this time without that grace period before reaching the city. A decision has to be made swiftly, and once more he glances down at the monsters crawling through the openings in his walls, unharmed by the explosive golden darts and acidic green gunfire clashing against their skin.
Meditat ultimately raises his head and turns to his allies before shouting his command over the barrage: "You three, evacuate these guards at least to the central ring, now!"
Bewildered by the call to retreat, Dana faces Meditat and shouts back dubiously, "Wait what, but what about the-."
"I'll handle them all, go!" Meditat interjects those doubts before inexplicably facing the city himself and launching off the ground, soaring straight for the center of the city as if also retreating. Dana just watches Meditat blankly for a moment before Ekitai bumps her metal shoulder and urges, "Let's go!"
She then faces Ekitai, and catching her own freeze, she nods as five tentacles emerge from her back, one of them slithering around Ekitai's waist. The other four crawl to the four guards, the young man initially stumbling back in fear though his older comrade holds him steadily, flashing a stern though assuring stare which alleviates the man. Standing still, he allows the tentacle to wrap around his waist as the other three guards are met with the same treatment, upon which Dana then launches off the wall too, carrying the four guards along with Ekitai. Left on the wall, Kokei sprints towards Dana and throws her arms down just as she charges herself with an electric field, carrying herself off the surface and soaring behind her ally, the last of the Bellators to evacuate the wall.
An evacuation on a far larger scale takes place down on the city streets, as civilians along the outer ring bust out of the buildings and homes they were previously taking shelter in, now racing towards the city's center. Shouts, cries, and shrieks fill the stone brick streets as parents grip their children's hands to keep them accounted for, same as couples do. Elders rush on foot, falling behind the mob, fighting against the rageful current streaming up as the sheer terror entrancing the city's people leads them to desperation even at the cost of their peer's safety.
That said, a few men and women take notice of those elders and grab their hands, guiding them at faster rates to help them reach safety despite slowing themselves down. More civilians and refugees continue pouring into the streets as everyone abandons their initial shelter, as if trying to evacuate a sinking beach. None of them take notice of the golden rocket high in the sky leading the pink plasma ball, nor the azure comet further ahead, passing the crowd on its way to the very center.
All along the wall now unguarded, the stone exterior is painted black by the dense horde climbing up with superhuman speed, snarling and shrieking, such a terrifyingly vast quantity completely covering the whole barrier.
Far worse, it's now when the front lines of that horde crawls to the top of the wall, pulling themselves over the vertical divider, rolling to their feet. At once the entire top of the wall is infested, rampaging straight through the city's cannons that had shot down the raiders, which are rapidly torn apart simply by being in the way, collapsing as the monsters race for the other side of the wall. Concurrently, that blue comet approaches the central tower of the city, moving at a gentle ascent whereas the pink and golden carriers descend sharper.
Alas passing well above the city's command tower, the comet abruptly halts, the trail dissipating swiftly which leaves only the head now hovering in place, his azure lenses shining as he spins to observe the utter takeover of the city's greatest line of defense. It's before his very eyes that those horrid monsters jump off the wall's edge, not climbing or crawling down but directly plummeting down the lethal drop, holding no regard for impact as though they have nothing to worry about.
Watching the monsters enter free fall, descending significantly quicker than they rose, Meditat takes not another second to think before acting, clenching his fists as his entire body ignites in a great blue blaze, as if overcharging himself, filling his pool without restraint. As his whole body burns bright, he tenses his arms, and at the very moment that his lenses flare blindingly, he throws those arms and spins, unleashing a wave of fire like an umbrella off towards the city's edge at a descent, thicker than his own body, the flame itself emitting its own shriek from the overwhelming intensity.
Just then, Dana lands her clawed golden feet on the stone brick floor by the top of the staircase, stopping beside the crowded street pushing up as refugees and citizens alike desperately search for shelter, some testing their luck to continue deeper into the ring for greater distance from the wall. Her tentacles gently place Ekitai and the four guards on their feet before unraveling and retracting into her back, which is when she raises her head upon noticing that a huge firewave passes over her, a ring thicker than the city's streets. She turns around to continue watching that flaming ring approach the wall drenched in black from the plummeting horde just as Kokei lands on the ground beside her, both her and Ekitai taking notice of that same sight as the four guards run off into the ground, joining the search for shelter.
Evenly, the fire ring makes impact with the very edge of the city, right against the wall in fact. Upon touching ground, a new wall is constructed with the same thickness of the wave, one that rises to the same heights of the neighboring buildings. The wall however is not solid, but rather there is a hollow channel lined from the inside with grated vents which materialize silver just before a blue light emits from those vents with a blaring hum, running along the entire wall as well as the floor which does have a solid elevation of about a story.
This wall forms around the entire perimeter of the city, like an inner lining of the main barrier, rising and materializing at the same time in synchronously. Just seconds after their deployment, Pawns fall through the hollow gap in the wall, the vents within suspending them midair, lifting them up to keep them harmless as more monsters continue to fall into this gap, none of them reaching past it.
While initially this moat succeeds, Pawns continue to fall into the trap at a constant rate, quickly filling it. As more monsters fall through the gap, they collide with other beasts who are flung deeper, some of them even being pushed to the wall itself where they're able to cling on. They begin to shriek as they start to claw at the vents, causing it to spark, the clawing happening everywhere along the ring, all over all at once.
Hovering above the center of the city, his black cape waving in the wind, Meditat watches over the trap until Orial's voice speaks with the worried report: "Sir, they are damaging the shell, the systems will likely deactivate in half a minute."
Chuffing upon the failure of this huge defense system he had just created, Meditat glances over to the edge of the central ring, generally where his allies had landed. After a second of contemplation, he then requests, "Direct the current towards the main gate."
"Very well sir," Orial obliges as, all across the hollow moat, the vents emitting the blue light tilt in one direction, casting their light along a path somewhat like a river. Similar to one, the monsters clawing at the machine are suddenly pulled and dragged in the direction of that tilt, shrieking as they lose their grip. While a few of them still manage to slash the vents at random, they're unable to consistently rip them apart despite the crowding problem, as the Pawns quickly approach the moat's capacity. They do collide into each other, but being moved at rapid speeds, they're unable to effectively cling onto the vents.
"The shell is still receiving damage, but it should hold for an estimated five minutes and counting. However, the convergence point lacks the same directed flow and may result in a weak point," Orial explains after following the request, to which Meditat nods his head and copying, "Understood," before boosting himself towards the main gate, reigniting the comet's tail as he next requests in hasty internal thoughts, "Link Network, head to the main gate now, I'm funneling all the Pawns there for concentrated interception."
Side by side, Dana, Ekitai, and Kokei all watch the monsters throw themselves directly into the moat, not a single one of them spilling out. That's when they receive the message, as told by their sudden changes in expression, Kokei's head raising and Ekitai's eyes sharpening. They both immediately face Dana who worries out loud, "All of them?? What is he-," though she then focuses on them before prompting, "Let's go, follow me." Her left hand extends, morphing into a tentacle that wraps around Ekitai before she lifts off the ground, blasting off and leading Kokei who follows her in the air with haste.
Up in the air over the brightly colored buildings, Kokei maintains an intimate distance from Dana, her body swarming with pink electric arcs whereas Dana's feet emit golden trails of propulsive energy like the exhaust of a jet. They only need to reach the other end of the outer ring through the middle ring they were already bordering, more or less heading back the way they came from, a brief trip they find themselves leading as the comet isn't visible ahead. Kokei frowns at the sight of the constant piling of Pawns in the moat despite being the most confident at handling them, as she can't imagine the scale of the assault she'd be facing.
She grits her teeth to push down those fears, descending as Dana does the same, flying over the road that the refugees had parted ways on, though they can't reach the gate itself as it's now been blocked off by the moat. Dana lands down a safe few buildings away from the moat, leading Kokei to drop beside her as Ekitai is freed from the tentacle that morphs back into Dana's hand. The three of them face the moat towering over them, preparing their stances as Dana's arms transform to conal cannons accompanying her shoulder guns while Ekitai exposes the cylinder from the side of his handgun, grabbing the flasks which are nearly empty, tossing them aside one by one. Kokei maintains her electric aura, though concentrates it more around her arms, waiting in anticipation as they can all start to hear heavy thuds coming from right ahead of them, within the moat. Ekitai hastily reaches into his overcoat's inner pocket, pulling out flasks containing variously colored liquids, one by one loading them into his cylinder, his gaze set on those thuds.
Those thuds are a result of the vents crossing paths as the left and right sides aim at each other, carrying all the Pawns trapped inside to be carried into each other, starting a pileup right in front of the gates. They shriek and growl, swiping their arms to slash at the vents, most of them being set still upon the collision which allows them to again concentrate on damaging the equipment while more continue to join their aid.
While more monsters clump onto that one point every second, the black waterfall dries out as the last lines of the horde can be seen plummeting from the top of the wall, the total mob released, all routed to one spot. Descending too though at a softer angle is the blue comet in the sky, soaring towards the three Bellators who stand side by side.
One last flask is slotted into the cylinder, allowing Ekitai to close it simply by flicking his handgun, triggering it to slide each of the flasks over each other before being brought back inside the body of the gun. He swipes the screen with his thumb just as the blue comet lands down beside him and Kokei, a graceful dive that Meditat springs from, his cape waving and his hands quick to ignite. His lenses glare up at the source of the thuds before declaring, "I'll open a port now, everyone prepared?"
Two tentacles emerge from Dana's back, both carrying cannon heads which aim at the moat, and Ekitai cocks the hammer of his gun. Kokei closes her fists, generating a denser electric aura though she's the one to admit hesitantly, "I…guess we have to be."
Meditat nods his head and waves his hand, which causes a portion of the moat's wall facing them ahead by the ground to suddenly burn in a blue flame that spreads to the size of a small gate. At the same time, the vents by this convergence tilt down slightly, pushing the Pawns towards the ground, just as that flaming wall evaporates to leave an opening in the moat, one that immediately shoves a pile of monsters out.
At once, Dana and Ekitai open rapid fire, and now that there's less distance from the enemy, Kokei guides an electric swarm, all onto that one port. Meditat's shoulders release flames which each form a spherical orb drone that rapidly fires blue bolts, though his hands aim outwards to fire flames not at the port but to its side, aiming instead at the buildings along the road. Those flames stop before the building but expand to form long walls down the street, sectioning the street in a hallway separated from the rest of the city, and those walls materialize to solid metal, nearly as tall as those buildings behind. The walls continue on further down the street, creating a straight line, yet he chooses not to form another wall to box them in, instead allowing a single opening behind themselves.
Upon forming the walls, Meditat aims his hands at the port where he finds that while the monsters simply run through all of the bolts, whether his, Dana's, or Ekitai's, they are suspended by Kokei's field before being thrown against the moat walls.
Just like before, now that there is an opening in the barrier, none of the Pawns bother attempting to create their own, even if it means needing a tighter squeeze to pass through. They just drop straight through the door, pushing up to their feet before charging at the Bellators. One is struck by a purple bolt which releases a field of purple spikes in all directions, though they fail to penetrate any skin, instead being chipped off themselves. Monsters get their feet caught in blocks of ice but pretty easily break through with just the strength of their legs alone, and others claw through webs erupted from white bolts meant to contain them. The whole time they also absorb the golden and blue gunfire, showing little to no reaction, aware of its ineffectiveness. The only attack showing effectiveness is the swarm of pink arcs that generate a field which catch a handful of monsters who are lifted in the air before being thrusted backwards, their knockback toppling others.
Despite Kokei's resistance showing impact, the sheer overload of monsters pouring in every moment is still overwhelming, as Kokei finds the need to start taking steps back to add more distance from the moat, no longer as confident in directly pressing against it. The other three Bellators follow her backtrack, understanding that in their current situation, they're providing little more than cover fire, and thus they work around Kokei, making sure not to stay too far ahead of her.
By pulling back even subtly, the tight seal on the port is softened, resulting in a near immediate increase in flooding, at a rate such that the monsters can't even easily climb to their feet upon landing, as they all slide in a tangled mess, fighting just to get off the rest of the mob. Monsters shriek with gaping jaws, their teeth shining under the darkening sky as they trample over each other, their clawed feet grabbing one another's faces to spring off, shoving each other aside rabidly. They spread over the street, the funnel opening up, resulting only now in a horde difficult to focus on all at once. At the very least, they all seem disinterested in scaling the walls around them, choosing instead to charge down the street at the Bellators, a mob so dense that they're constantly pushing against each other, sprinting with low postures.
That immediate uptick in intensity further draws the Bellators back, needing to distance themselves though they continue to resist, as Meditat releases flames from both hands which materialize into a cluster of metal rings about five in radius which hover autonomously above the horde. They all then emit a funnel made of blue energy, shaped like a tornado and spinning like one too, fast enough that it forms its own current which sucks the monsters closer to it as it glides over the horde. A few of the monsters are pulled towards it, their arms hitting the funnel though they don't seem damaged, eventually mustering the strength to simply out-spring the pull. While the funnel fails to damage the horde, it cuts through the stone floor, clearly strong enough to cut through skin yet still inadequate.
Dana presses fire through her conal cannons, but at the same time her triceps extrude, those extrusions then extending to transform into long guns like her anti-material rifle though even thicker. They happen to aim at the monsters already given her straight arms, and both begin firing rounds of solid, ballistic bullets carved in gold, though with engravings which a light shines from. On contact with the beasts, those bullets discharge a repulsive boom that quakes the streets, but fails to stagger the monsters.
She continues taking steps back –her arms ejecting shells upon every shot– as Ekitai rapidly fires with his trigger finger as his thumb swipes under the hammer, each of his bolts a different color, signifying different effects. A yellow bolt strikes the ground ahead, causing the stone to seem to soften or melt, and for the monsters above to start sinking into the ground like a quicksand. Just as they begin to sink though, they claw at the melted stone, pulling themselves out of the pit and back onto the solid ground, held back for perhaps just a couple seconds at most.
Regardless of the full invasion's tail already having dropped from the wall, more beasts flow from the moat's port, shrieking gratingly and crawling to their feet to join the siege. Given the simplicity of their bodies, simply coated in a black slime with faint white veins pulsing, it's their heads that pull the most attention, specifically the spiral of teeth lacing their gaping mouths.
They all run down the main street, having already gained impressive coverage, more than half of the outer ring already claimed, and pushing every second as the only defense present is constantly retreating, losing ground, the leader of whom fans a flame into the air directly above himself.
That blaze released from Meditat's raised hands separates into three hovering cannons which materialize concurrently, stationed on orbs that navigate down the street to follow the team as their long barrels, about six feet long in fact, fire not separate rounds but a solid concentrated laser beam that again fails to penetrate the monster's skin, only able to cut through the ground which it does as it razes straight through it. In fact, the only effective effect of the cannons is that they dig deep holes which the monsters fall through, though they're quick to cling to the dirt and begin climbing back up, every success being minor, yet their constant defeats stacking heavily. Standing among her allies desperately trying and failing to make a dent on the advance, Kokei grits her teeth and takes a deep breath, charging her arms once more. She raises those arms forwards and spreads them over, expanding her electric field over the whole street, suspending the front lines and those behind them as the lightning crawls deeper into the horde, swarming more, freezing them in place.
At last the Bellators stop retreating, turning their eyes to Kokei, exhausted but relieved. Meditat's relief ends quickly though upon noticing that further back in the mob, Pawns begin climbing over each other, piling up as they continue to charge into the field. They freeze themselves as a result, proving the effectiveness of the blockade, however it's quickly apparent that the arcs are beginning to wobble, thinning out. In only seconds, the monsters slowly begin to animate again, marching forth even if incredibly slowly, but as more leap into the field, the faster they as a collective can march.
Grimacing in dread at her own approaching limits, knowing she'd break possibly in just seconds, Kokei takes another breath before sprinting straight for the horde, prompting Meditat to immediately raise his hand towards her, all three of her allies terrified by the dangerous move. While maintaining the field with both hands, she clasps her hands together and balls them into a fist, pulling her arm back to ready a punch as the arcs suddenly begin to brighten even more from her hands. She lets out a shriek of her own against the monsters marching towards her, and as one tries to slash at her at speeds gradually reaching normal, she throws her own punch first, punching that very monster which causes every arc to thicken, the entire electric field abruptly flaring significantly, and concurrently with a crackle that snaps over the street, the entire horde binded in the swarm collapse to the ground, not to quickly pick themselves back up but truly remain on the ground. The field dissipates following that strike, leaving those Pawns laid across the street, trampled then by the remaining of the mob for the vast majority continue standing.
Kokei blinks twice and bends her neck as she battles the fatigue; all the shrieks and roars surrounding her are muffled, those surroundings blurring as her consciousness flees. She stumbles and sways as her body loosens, sparking still though not as intensely, the gleam in her eyes facing down dimmed.
She tenses her cheeks and balls her hands in any efforts to force herself awake. She raises her head forth as the muffled shouts grow louder, which is when she sets her eyes on the street full of fallen bodies, the new paving of the road which the horde races over –indifferent to the cannonfire, darts, energy bolts–, one of the leading monsters of which leap straight at her and swipe its clawed hand for a slash. Just before those claws meet her throat, the muffled rage clears enough for the leader's modulated voice to reach her, "MOVE," right when a blue cable attaches to her wrist and yanks her body off her feet.
Eyes bursting wide open in a sudden alert surge, Kokei's hands open, her body pulled back under the hovering cannons firing one after another, between Ekitai and Dana who rapidly fire out their guns and shoulders, reeling back to the other end of the cable that being Meditat's open palm; Upon grabbing Kokei's wrist, Meditat spins to rotate her behind himself, raising his free hand as he glares through his flaring lenses, facing the mob charging straight for them, being led by one that reaches them at last, the distance closed.
A blue flame bursts from his free, coiling hand, extending both ways to form a long pole the head of which expands into a warhammer. The pole materializes into silver with rubberized grips, the shell coursing with crevices that gleam blue, though the hammer's head is constructed out of frosty crystal which illuminates too, fully formed just in time for him to swing it straight into the head of the monster swiping at him. On contact, the warhammer's head flares blinding white just like the white veins in the Pawn's head that brightens, that head caving in against the hammer before the very next instant when the Pawn's body rockets straight into the wall isolating the street, upon which that head is smashed into the wall, splattering into a black slime littered with white veins like twigs, some sticking out of the neck.
Astonishment floods the four Bellators all of whom glance at the defeated Pawn before the three face Meditat –whose warhammer disintegrates–, flabbergasted by his own success. His lenses briefly flicker upon the realization, but before verbalizing his discovery, he returns his attention to the mob gaining close to him, not a full building's length away.
Acting quick, Meditat lets go of Kokei as his hands awaken a flame as he pulls his arms back, letting those fires fester for just a moment before then waving both arms down ahead of him, releasing the spreading blaze directly into the ground just a couple feet in front of himself, covering the whole street's width. He then raises both open hands straight at the monsters, guiding the flames to bounce from the ground, fragmented in a flurry of spikes that materialize out of frosty crystals that the leading horde race into, not only piercing the skin but penetrating the bodies whole, for each spike manages to penetrate multiple at once, every penetration immediately disrupting all movement and sound from those beasts.
Monsters further behind them climb up the bodies of those penetrated Pawns, crawling over those spikes and running along them, as there's no slowdown for the legion. They continue their grating shrieks, their carnivorous hunger absolute, claws sharp and hands tense, many more backing them.
Not allowing the moment to subside needed haste, Meditat boldly commands: "Fall back!" His three allies understand and abide swiftly, racing down the street though continuing to press fire back as Dana and Ekitai don't turn around but rather jog backwards. Meditat briefly waits for them to retreat a certain distance before taking steps back himself, waving his hands which causes the cannons hovering over him to vaporize. His steps start steady but accelerate as the mob approach him, guiding Kokei who shakes her head as she still battles off her own fatigue, blinking rapidly though seeming to get a handle of herself.
Running away from the horde, Dana and Ekitai rain suppressive fire ahead of Kokei and Meditat, the latter of whom ignites his hands in a fire that manifests into a pair of firearms shaped like Uzis, the body made of dark steel. He spins and continues running, though backwards, able to aim those firearms at the monsters quickly closing the distance before he holds the trigger, firing rapid bursts of what's not energy bolts but physical bullets made of small gleaming crystals. Those sharp bullets cut through the air, as they also cut through the black hides of the beasts, penetrating them with enough rounds to drop the bodies, shaving off the line. While the guns are effective, he can only keep them blazing for a few seconds before they stop, requiring him to flick his wrists to eject both magazines as flames from his chest release forth to manifest a new pair of magazines floating in the air for him to slide his weapons over after flicking them inwards, slipping both inside the handle as the physical bolt automatically cocks back. He straightens the guns and continues firing at the horde next to Kokei whose body again begins to spark more, surrounding her in an electric aura until she's able to spin around and raise both arms, releasing that swarm into the crowd, covering a handful of them before she throws her arms to throw that frozen group into the rest of the crowd, toppling the monsters before they're then shot down rapidly.
Once again supported by his ally who's regained her strength, Meditat nods before shouting over his own gunfire, "I should've realized, it's the same with him! They're impervious to just about everything but the crystals, but I'm still surprised that Kokei's effective against them too!"
Next to him, Kokei draws another swarm from her arms out into the mob, wielding another batch as she explains back over the sound of her electric crackles, "I mean it wasn't at first, it's only working now because I'm trying to concentrate harder! Like I still can't explain it well, but instead of attacking harder, I'm-."
"Purifying the Exmatter concentration, isn't that it?" Meditat cuts Kokei off with what almost sounds like excitement, perking Dana's head up as Kokei smiles and confirms, "Yeah, Dana said something like that too!"
Against the rapid bursts of crystal blue bullets and electric pink fields, the monsters struggle to continue pushing ground, though they do continue to press forward. They may fall to the ground, not to get back up but rather to be trampled over by their own, yet the sheer quantity of the horde allows them to continue driving just by using themselves as short shields.
"It's precisely how I manifest the crystals, they're not as intellectually engineered as my other constructs, but rather solid concentrations of Exmatter pools purified," explains Meditat while still retreating from the monsters charging straight for them.
Listening in on the brief discussion, Dana's head lowers slightly in contemplation for a few moments. She glances at Ekitai at her side, and then turns her head around to find that in only a few blocks, the street opens up into a plaza: the plaza that leads to the next ring as identified by the staircase.
Despite the boosting of effectiveness to combat the horde, Dana remains attentive that they're still unable to counter them adequately, for they'd need to manage to slow the advance completely. At least Kokei's no longer solely burdened with the ability to effectively neutralize them, though even then only half the team is truly contributing to the effort, as she's aware even now that her own weapons are hardly making a difference, nothing but a distraction being neglected. She's only continuing as it's all she can do. Though as she analyzes the discussion in front of her, she finds herself approached by a revelation, one sound theoretically though she's not entirely confident. But she couldn't just ignore it.
Dana raises her head and exclaims, "I need to do something, I'll be in the plaza but unresponsive for a bit, I have an idea!" She then spins around as Ekitai turns to her and shouts, "Wait what-," just as she launches off the ground, soaring straight down the street, abandoning the Bellators. She makes a diving position to accelerate herself as she retracts her shoulder cannons, tricep guns, and the conal cannons from her forearms, as well as retracting her tentacles to compact herself into her basic form. Just then she reaches the end of the narrow street, entering the open plaza which she soars to the end of, reaching the staircase where she then rockets up not over the stairs but right in front of it. After reaching to the height of the rooftops around her, aligned with the peak of the staircase, she spins around as her entire body begins to secrete golden helixes that start forming a mesh that wraps around her as a cocoon, covering her body.
She stares through the thin strands already crawling over her face, watching her team back in the street battling against the horde, and whispers softly: "Wait for me, I'll fight with you." She then lowers her head as the helixes fully cover her, solidifying the cocoon that completely conceals her body, hovering in place over the stairs. From that cocoon's shell burst a flood of tentacles that branch out into more tentacles, rapidly arching and growing out before reaching the ground, quickly forming a barrier in front of the stairs, almost like a web. After the creation of that web, she becomes still, inactive in the battlefield still raging.
Staring at that distant cocoon at the end of the road, Ekitai's forehead wrinkles before he faces forward and bewilderedly asks, "What is she doing?? She knows the shit we're in, why's she dropping out now of all times??!"
"Then she knows it'll be worth it, we just need to hold them off until then," Meditat shouts back as he vaporizes the orb drones accompanying him. While continuing to fire his own firearms, his shoulders shoot up flames over where his orbs where, manifesting a new pair of drones not in the shape of orbs, but instead as black cylinders which have a distinguished mounted gun hanging from the bottom, one that has a belt hanging off the gun feeding into the back of the cylinder, full of crystal bullets encased in silver packets. Both drones begin moving autonomously after full creation, and they are quick to begin firing rapid rounds out of their mounted guns, shooting down the Pawns who fall to the ground.
Silver cases are ejected off the side of the drones with incredible speed; those crystal bullets are shot out, just as fast, better supporting the team who continue to pull back, on the move as despite their better efforts, the overwhelming flood of the monsters have not even observably subsided.
As batches of monsters are frozen within electric fields and thrashed around, raised in the sky and tossed far back, more continue to pass its place, reaching just a few feet further before being repelled, allowing the next line to make another few feet. A crawl but one fast enough to keep the Bellators constantly on their feet, side by side, Meditat in the center.
After thrusting her arms forward to fling another cluster of Pawns, Kokei inhales sharply, clearly wearing herself down. She rolls her shoulders and shakes her arms, trying to keep herself in the fight, though not even a brief break to breathe was affordable. She keeps her eyes on the mob, charging her arms again with another surge of lightning. She rolls her shoulders one more time before lifting her arms and discharging another swarm, gritting her teeth as her hair is blown back while she pulls her arms back and thrusts them, striking down more of the beasts.
Bodies fall in droves, falling forward on their face, letting the Pawns behind them get shot next, causing them to fall over on each other. But not even a second after being shot, they vanish under the flood, trampled over indiscriminately. When more are caught in the pink fields of electric arcs, others simply run around, absorbing the variously colored radiating bolts that hardly leave an impact like a green bolt which, on impact, begins producing thorns that grow off the skin yet are simply ripped off by the beast, negated within a second. Fields of purple spikes litter the street, yet none of them pierce the bodies, only proving as brief obstacles for them to climb, some of their hands getting trapped by blue slime shot out in concentrated bolts though it only takes a jerk of the arm for the slime to be peeled off.
Gruffing from the show of his inventive attacks bearing no effect even when resorting to lethal solutions, Ekitai pauses his firing for just a moment to focus on swiping through his interface, scrolling for any valuable selection. Yet as seconds grow and he doesn't stop, that despair grows in his eyes, the understanding that the near limitless inventory of tricks he has in his pockets are collectively useless. He stops swiping left, and after a brief desperate glance up, he begins swiping up. After a couple seconds of non-stop swiping, he then grits his teeth and cocks the hammer back down, causing the coils around the barrel to brighten hot like earlier on the wall, enough that once more they begin to then emit smoke. Upon noticing the first strands emerge from the coils, he pulls the trigger down, and from the bright aperture of his barrel emerges a lime green bolt distinctly brighter, thicker, and shakier: supercharged, in fact to a greater extent than earlier.
That bolt strikes one of the monsters at the head of the line, spreading the acidic substance over the chest, which does cause the monster to lower its head in curiosity. The body sizzles slightly, as if actually beginning to melt, the stomach curling subtly.
The bright green acid however then slides off the body, the veins flashing briefly, revealing it to be unharmed but for a slight charred texture on the skin. That however doesn't slow the monster down, which continues to sprint at the three warriors, ultimately undefeated.
Ekitai clicks his tongue upon the sight, having fired with an intensity surpassing what he used against the pods, yet it ultimately failed. He can't swipe any higher either, and just as he swipes to the left once again with the stream of ideas drying up, he glances to the side to find that past the house to his side is a widening space, prompting him to turn around to find himself entering the plaza where the staircase stands.
After discarding another pair of magazines, Meditat observes the same dreadful revelation: they're reaching the end of their ground. He first recognizes that the plaza is completely open as he hadn't formed walls around it, and so he erases both of his guns to instead raise his arms out, firing his next flames in streams that reach further to the edge of the plaza. Those streams wrap around the entire square, from the end of the corridor he built all the way to the golden web obstructing the staircase, attached to the cocoon which has doubled in size but furthermore the material has faded from the royal gold, more of a whitish cyan now.
Meditat follows the creation of the wall's extension, following the same height as the hallway, which then materializes to frosty crystal. Flames rise from his shoulders and into the drones above him to replace the ammunition belts that've emptied, allowing the drones to resume firing to support Kokei who shoves the front line of monsters back, pushing them backwards for them to then be trampled.
At the same time, Meditat spins around and releases a fire from each of his spread fingers, aiming them evenly around the plaza. Upon nearing the wall, each of those flaming streams manifest into turrets as defined by the hovering orbs about as high up as the wall's peak, functioning as the base for the cannon to be mounted upon, though not all of them are the same as there's two designs interlaced, one of them sporting a tight clump of smaller barrels like a machine gun bounded by rings, and others sporting only one thicker barrel. All of the turrets materialize silver and immediately autonomously rotate to adjust their aim towards the infested street, where they then unload their ammunition, whether it be a rapid barrage of frosty rounds or significantly larger heavy shells shot between a couple seconds of rest.
As hoped, the support of these new turrets help pressure the monsters as their crystal ammunition successfully drops bodies in far greater count than the drones, the rapid machine guns mowing lines of the horde and the heavier shells blasting through clusters of Pawns effortlessly, punching holes in the flood.
However, as the horde reaches the plaza, they take advantage of the open space and spread over it, immediately complicating precise defense. Meditat, Kokei, and Ekitai remain side by side but find that their defense of holding back the line is speedily losing practicality. Whereas before they could generally face forward and have a full view of the enemy, they find themselves quickly getting surrounded, needing to turn just to take aim at another portion of the horde. Ekitai and Kokei continue trying to hold their positions, firing even if needing to constantly pivot as Kokei now has to decide where to aim her swarm.
Meditat takes a few steps back deeper in the plaza alongside the two, and after examining the situation at hand, he constructs the next of his weapons in hand: a pair of saber swords made with smooth crystal blades. He bends his knees and declares, "Don't let them get to the stairs, Kokei take the right half and I'll take the left. Ekitai, focus on hampering them and alert us for any near breaches." Both of his hips fire cables at an upward angle, and he pulls himself off the ground, straight for the monsters themselves. He flips upside down and swings both blades, beheading a few Pawns in one strike, letting their bodies topple over as he flips again and projects another pair of cables to switch direction, foregoing distance from the monsters.
Following the command, Kokei turns to the right where she throws her hands forward, releasing a swarm of pink lightning over a group of monsters racing down the plaza, suspending them in air before she moves that cluster through the crowd on that side, toppling them in great chunks.
Behind her, Ekitai begins taking steps back again, walking down the center of the plaza as he pulls the trigger, firing a purple bolt straight for the middle of the street's end, which grows a field of purple spikes that poke at the monsters, causing them visible discomfort as they grunt and stumble, yet remain on their feet as the spikes fail to surpass their skin. Still, he continues firing, blocking Pawns in a wall of ice that they have to claw through, or shooting a shot which prompts a geyser of green liquid, leading monsters who run straight through to stumble in their steps, making them more susceptible to being grabbed in another electric swarm or slashed in the head by Meditat, all fighting under the dark cyan sky, the supersun absent by now, the edges of its light being all that remains, reflecting off the sparkling cyan cocoon.
Airborne, Meditat pulls himself by two wires right above the horde, slashing their heads with his blades, strafing with quick boosts as a few Pawns leap in the air in an attempt to tackle or slash him though they fail to catch him. One of those monsters that pounce at Meditat is then used as an anchor point as he spins and fires a cable at the monster's hip, reeling towards it and angling its blade to drive it straight through the neck, the force of the pull functioning as the swing. As swarms of pink lightning rise in the air, catching clumps of monsters frozen still, Meditat barrel rolls to let his blades slice through beasts as the back of his hands emit flames which materialize several small pineapple-shaped items resembling grenades, which freely fall to the ground among the horde before detonating, blasting crystallic shrapnel which does in fact function like a bomb, repelling monster corpses in all directions. Just then, a monster leaps out and nearly swipes at his face, just barely missing as Meditat strafes hard to the side before roundhouse kicking the monster, making contact with the flaring crystallic padding on the boot, repelling the monster back into the ground before he fires another two cables and reels himself elsewhere, constantly moving to hold the crowd back.
Closer to the staircase now, Ekitai fires rapid barrages of various bolts from his smoking gun, some of them forming a stone shell over the monsters before they manage to break through, others striking the ground to create slimy clay-like patches from which small spikes grow out, stabbing the feet of the monsters running over, causing them to stumble forwards though they do pass the patch and continue their charge.
His attention then shifts to the right upon finding a group of monsters charging down the plaza, rather distant from Kokei who is currently holding two fields with each hand by the plaza's center, her back turned to them. The Pawns near him, unharmed by his shots, Ekitai desperately shouts: "KOKEI, ABOUT TO BREACH!!"
Just after dropping both arms to slam the two fields of monsters into the ground, Kokei's head perks up and she turns around to the other end of the plaza, finding the several monsters having slipped past her. Her body charges with electricity before she propels herself down the plaza, her flight causing the monsters around her to be repelled the other way. She reaches her left hand out, projecting a swarm of arcs onto that group, lifting them and pulling them towards her as her right hand balls into a fist that surges with intensely bright lightning. She pulls her arm back before thrusting it into a punch square in the chest of the closest monster, discharging those brighter arcs over the horde, causing them to shriek in pain before being released to collapse.
She lands on the ground and stumbles forward, shaking her head to push past the fatigue of those strikes, handling herself better as her focus remains clear. She rolls her shoulders and turns around to find the whole horde rushing at her, prompting her to jog backwards and raise her arms to release another field, succeeding though the entire flood has already reached three quarters deep into the plaza, notably consuming territory. The field she did release at least freezes those monsters before they're shot down by a rapid barrage from the turrets, yet more pass through, again forcing her to backtrack.
Dodging another monster's pounce, Meditat's attention shifts to the center upon noticing the horde's advance, prompting him to spin towards the stair side and fire two cables from his hands to pull himself towards it, retreating to join his allies steadily slipping ground. He quickly manifests two more sabers from his hands to cut through the monsters along his path, dropping more grenades to blow holes in the flood, but just like water it's filled just a moment later. Reaching the front line of the mob, he rolls in the air and discards both of his sabers, replacing them with machine guns once again to mow down the monsters, but regardless of the rate of his fire he finds the monsters continuing forward –their collective advance nearly unaffected–, for the sheer width of the plaza renders an absolute defense a challenge the warriors are struggling with. Knowing this, he discards the machine guns and raises both flaming hands, yet he pauses, stumped at this moment on what next creation could solve this predicament.
He watches Kokei throw punches to dismantle herds of monsters yet it's only minor portions compared to the whole mass, and again Ekitai can only try to slow the monsters down, though there's little ground left for him to push them back from. All three of them find themselves closer to the stairs than they would've liked, and with the rate of their fallback it seems possible for them to lose the stairs any moment now.
Pawns shriek as some are caught in swarms of pink arcs, but others beside them run free.
Red and yellow bolts absorb into the Pawns, only prompting minor stumbles but their pace remains unchanged.
In front of the staircase, Kokei discharges two swarms of dense pink lighting which surround herds of monsters, those arcs slithering between beasts, suspending those caught inside while others continue to advance. Next to her stands Ekitai, one hand on his gun, firing colorful bolts at the monsters who do little more than stagger back, some of them ripping off the buds and flowers growing off them, others waving the acidic liquid off their arms. Between both of them hovers Meditat, two cables projected from his hips to suspend him in place, both of his open burning hands empty in preparation for his next attack, his cape waving in the wind. The distance between them and the flood closes quickly, for it could be a matter of seconds before one reaches them. Yet they can't retreat any further, for their backs are nearly up against the golden web, the border to the staircase, the border to the populated region of refugees desperate to survive from this very infestation, doing all they can in a universe that's continuously ripped away all they have. All that separates the innocents from those beasts is that one golden web, connected to the cocoon lingering above the three Bellators, made of a material no longer resembling gold, but rather a cyan-tinted diamond, one that's vaguely translucent enough at least for the shape of a humanoid to be just barely visible, oriented upright, its body mostly clouded as if there's a cyan fog inside the cocoon.
At least there's enough visibility from the outside to watch that figure pull its arms together, before it then throws them outwards into the cocoon's shell, shattering the whole case into innumerable glass-like shards, causing the lingering cyan light to gleam directly on its body alas exposed. That entire body, retaining a similar shape albeit slightly larger with a better refined musculature, reveals itself clad not in gold but a shimmering cyan material partially translucent, the material resembling diamond, coating the body's entirety including the necklace, accents, and the face which curves back more aggressively, like a mix with the heavier form used when trying to halt the pirate train.
Then the diamond skin seems to slip off the body, peeling back to reveal the gold, crawling to the arms which transform and elongate, growing out into a generally conal shape though one sleeker, not made with a grated design but rather covered in holes that appear almost more organic, like spores, covering the arm without a precise pattern. The cones also don't reach a point nearly as sharp as before, left wide enough to be more akin to a rocket launcher, and it's those front barrels that are aimed down at the horde below as the diamond shoulders extrude into the launcher systems similar to what was shooting the grid of darts earlier, though again it lacks that mechanical appearance and instead has many openings spread over the face yet not aligned to a perfect array. As the diamonds cover the weapons, leaving the rest of the body gold, every orifice lights up not in gold but what's more close to cyan, and at once all of those cannons fire a barrage of energy bolts and cyan darts down on the front line of the monsters, which all collapse as their bodies are riddled with burnt holes or explode near impact which releases explosive energy bursts, causing them to shriek before falling.
Meditat raises his head back, and as his gleaming lenses flare upon the body of his friend laying down fire, that spark reignites within him to face back at the horde and raise his hands, releasing those flames into a pair of what at first appear to be swords, though the hilts are slightly thicker, as is the blade which has a primarily silver body except for a chain running along the edge made of frosty crystal. The crystal chain of both blades begin spinning rapidly upon a revving whoosh coming from the chainsaw swords, ready for Meditat to fire cables back down into the crowd and pull himself in, cutting through the horde just by letting the chainsaw graze them as he dashes over their heads.
After looking up to the returned warrior, both Kokei and Ekitai focus back on the monsters to continue their assault, motivated as well to push harder as they ultimately suspend the horde's advancement, and in fact slowly begin to shave it off, pushing slightly forward now that three of them can deliver lethal blows, for Dana's finally able to unleash her mass of firepower with true effectiveness, artillery in the shape of man.
As Meditat glides over the mob, razing through them with both chainsaw blades, Dana shouts to him in that same electric accent: "I understand it now, the Exmatter concentration in Kokei's abilities, the Exmatter concentration in your crystals, purified Exmatter is their weakness! It's the same Exmatter that powers just about everything, that powers me, the only issue was that the power conversion dilutes its potency. But by reprogramming my cells to allow direct output, I can hit them with the direct source!"
Down on the ground beside Kokei, Ekitai raises his head in curiosity which explodes in an astonishing epiphany, prompting him to shout: "That's why raising my charge intensity was doing something to them, upping the intensity mostly purifies the charge! It just doesn't reach high enough, I never saw a need to go all in!"
After dashing while spinning, cutting through a whole path of monsters, Meditat brakes facing Ekitai before firing two cables from his hips to reel himself in his direction, driving his chainsaws through another path, effortlessly cutting bodies down for other monsters to trample over them before being shot down by the cyan hailstorm or be frozen within pink electric fields before Kokei throws a punch that fries all caught inside.
After a flip that slashes through a few more monsters, Meditat disposes both chainsaw swords in an open flame just as he lands on his feet in front of Ekitai before reaching his hand forward and asking over the gunfire, "I may have a solution."
Ekitai stops firing upon noticing the leader's presence, and without a moment of doubt, he hands his gun to Meditat, placing it in his hands to briefly inspect it.
"Later it'd be best to go through the internals and modify this fundamentally for higher purity outputs, but for the time being this should function decently," Meditat studies before placing one hand over the barrel before his palm lights on fire, and he draws that fire over the barrel. He then gently moves his hand away, extending that flame about half a foot, which constructs into a shape similar to a muzzle brake, built over the handgun's barrel, shaped not cylindrical but more rectangular to follow the design of the gun itself.
As he drops that hand, the construct materializes with a thin silver wireframe binding a layer of smoothed frosty crystal, after which he hands it back to Ekitai and briefly explains, "This should supplement passing fire with an Exmatter charge, it won't be nearly as effective as originally charging them with a greater intensity but it should suffice."
Ekitai's eyebrow raises curiously as he grabs the gun back, and he immediately aims it at one of the monsters straight ahead of him, pulling the trigger to fire a which not only causes the coils to brighten but for the crystallic brake to flare, and as that lime green bolt exits the brake, its distinctly thicker with a lighter shade, and on impact it covers the monster in the green acid, however this time the acid melts through the body, dropping the monster to the ground as its whole body is devoured by the substance.
Ekitai's eyes widen and jaw drops in shock, and that dropped jaw curves into a delighted smile as he thanks, "No more blanks, hell yeah." He then pulls the trigger again, flaring both the coils and brake as it fires a purple bolt that strikes another monster, causing purple spikes to emerge from that beast, not only penetrating straight through the body but the body of the surrounding monsters, lifting some of their bodies in the air.
Meditat nods and leaps in the air, boosting himself back up as flames emerge from his hands to form his next set of weapons, the final Bellator now at combative capacity, who finally manages to take his first step forwards, and then the next, marching away from the staircase as the space clears ahead.
All the sudden, it's now the Bellators who are advancing down the plaza, able to better handle the spread flood now that every one of them wields the power to bring down the beasts. The Spirit zips through the horde on the left side, carrying two firearms that are in fact grenade launchers, firing them both at his sides which leaves behind a path of explosions.
On the opposite side, fields of pink lightning swarm the monsters, and rather than being repelled back they're instead pulled towards the Vanguard for her to throw a punch with her other hand, causing those arcs to gleam before discharging a lethal blow that drops the bodies at once.
Marching down the center is the Alchemist, focusing on the left leaning half of the center, finger on the trigger and thumb on the screen, each shot passing through the glistening brake either spurting an infestation of vines that crawl through the surrounding monsters, or liquifies the bodies whole into a black goop.
Above him, airborne like the Spirit hovers the Artificer, whose shoulder cannons continue to spit barrages of cyan bolts from her arm cannons which she aims over the center leaning to the right as the darts firing from her shoulders autonomously hone into that same region, handling the last portion as those monsters drop immediately upon each shot.
Coupled with the array of turrets stationed around the plaza continuing to provide support from above with a mix of high-speed machine guns and heavy cannons, the speed of the team's advancement climbs as it's not long before they reach the center of the plaza, the bodies left behind motionless if even fully intact.
As Pawns try to race into the plaza, not too far ahead they notice bursts of pink lightning flash and frosty explosions erupt, all among cyan hail raining down and brown stakes rise from the ground, carrying other monsters through the chest.
Straight up the plaza, the four warriors advance either it be a steady march from the Alchemist below the Artificer hovering beside him, or the Vanguard propelling herself straight at clusters bounded by her electric fields across from the Spirit being pulled by a pair of cables while strafing elegantly away from retaliatory pounces. They're nearly all lined up, an impenetrable wall grinding through the horde that had gotten so close to the hiding citizens and refugees. Monsters freeze either in blocks of ice or pink swarms, and are shot down either by cyan energy bolts or frosty crystallic bullets.
In fact, it's not long until it's those very Pawns trying to enter the plaza who are caught in the storm, no longer demanding the Bellators to divide the field into scopes as they all concentrate onto a thinner corridor: the street. After disposing of the final monsters in the plaza, they clear a path that allows Ekitai to march into the narrower street between the straight walls alongside the Artificer, and for both the Vanguard and Spirit to dash into the funnel, closer now to their allies. All of the sudden, their scopes merge together, as now some of the monsters bound in the pink electric nets are shot down by cyan bolts or blown up from explosive darts, and monsters caught in white webs expanded from radiated bolts struggle to break out before their bodies are sliced by crystallic greatswords. An immediate ascension in speed can be observed in the Bellator's advance, best read in the Alchemist's pace as his slow stroll rises to a speedy walk bordering a jog just to keep alongside the team, though it's not so difficult to maintain pace when there's a reduced cone to focus on, just needing to face forward to gaze upon all the monsters to shoot down, simple. Meditat still moves in the air, zipping from monster to monster though with notably tighter strides between them, no longer concerned over crossing long distances, broad strokes unneeded, for he switches to meticulously clearing any beasts around him.
Further up the street, the Bellator's pace doesn't wane but instead grows, as now the Alchemist carries himself with a light run, his left hand resting at his side as his right arm pans left and right while his trigger finger rapidly presses down, firing radiating bolts one after the other, one of them quickly stretching the body of a Pawn, deforming it flat, running over the flabby skin dropped on the ground. Next to him hovers the Artificer, gliding just a foot off the ground, her arms panning too as her pair of diamond conal guns shoot cyan bolts at a machine gun's rate, matching with her diamond shoulder cannons which deploy flurries of darts propelled by their own cyan trails powered by straight Exmatter energy, driving straight into the crowd where they explode to capture clusters at once. Both of them follow close behind the other pair, one being the Vanguard whose whole body constantly swarms with lightning to propel her in brief dashes, chaining many more electric punches on frozen herds, dropping the bodies to not regain themselves, a far decisive tactic as opposed to simply throwing them around. Strangely enough she manages to control her own fatigue, exhibiting none on her face, able to move and strike with grace and efficiency. Similarly dashing for speedy, close attacks is the Spirit, cables firing off his hips in all directions to allow him to strafe before pivoting his body. In both of his hands are compact machine guns which he holds by the triggers, but furthermore attached to those barrels are long crystal bayonets which he uses like swords, swinging the guns to slice through the chests of the monsters ahead of him, completing each swing with a trigger press which fires a burst of crystallic bullets at the next line, functioning as a followup attack. He boosts up to avoid another monster leaping for him, prompting him to flip in the air which slices the beast's head in half, letting go of the guns which leaves one to remain jabbed in that monster's head, falling behind as Meditat orients upwards before flames grow from his hands once again, priming for his next weapons.
Along the path to reclaim ground, the four Bellators maintain their formation of the advancing wall, pushing back against the black flood. The Alchemist fires blue bolts which cover Pawns in slime, making them easy targets for the Artificer to capture with her guns as she unloads constant fire. The Vanguard guides her electric field through the mob, lifting a clumped ball of them in the air for the Spirit to briefly create and toss a single grenade into the middle, vanquishing those beasts to be released in a limp fall.
They continue to battle through the streets, still densely crowded, sandwiched between the two walls, all the way up to the port not too far as they've well passed the street's center. Monsters still flood in from that port, as the moat still contains a decent river of monsters being pushed through. The traffic wraps around the front, a few blocks long, solid progress considering the sheer volume of the horde from the start, climbing from all around the wall, funneled out through this singular opening.
They steadily press closer to the port as more push through, all of them having been caught by the trap placed just beside the city's towering wall, yet one that itself nearly failed to guard the city. The turrets atop the wall assisting against the Syndicate's raid have been reduced to deformed scraps. Further above those turrets is the twilight sky, the cyan light fading into the black night as the supersun is not visible even from the unobstructed horizon. Among that darkening sky at least is the sprinkled glitter of twinkling stars among the strokes of purple nebulas, slowly peeking out.
Lifting his head to catch a glimpse of that destination through his parallelogram-shaped lenses, the Spirit swings his crystal dagger into the side of a pouncing Pawn's head to shove to the side, letting go of the dagger to keep it in the beast's head before then shouting: "We're nearing the port, maintain this pace!"
He then extends both hands forward which each breathe fire that stretches to merge, creating a long barrel gripped by those two handles which extends over his shoulder. The construct materializes with the same dark steel body and a trigger over his finger, though furthermore in the head of the barrel sits a cone head made of gleaming crystal, shaped like a bazooka.
At that very moment, the Vanguard uses both hands to project a wider field to bind a large clump of monsters before she thrusts both hands, up to the side, which flings that entire group in the air, thrown perfectly into the crowd straight ahead of the Spirit just when he pulls the trigger that fires the rocket, its contact explosion decimating that whole swarm among his original targets.
As the fired bazooka dissolves in the Spirit's hands, nearly black bolts fire from the Alchemist's gun which puff into orbs with orange particle disks that draw in not only the air surrounding it but the Pawns too, which the next barrage of cyan darts out of the Artificer's shoulders target, blowing up the crowds of monsters sucked in.
Piles of Pawns pour out of the port, pushing each other down just to prop themselves up, stepping on one another's heads and backs, trampling them just to get to their feet and begin running. It's unsure even if there are monsters who've been stuck at the port since the flood began, for there's no such factors like compassion or preservation in the horde, they merely carry the singular objective, annihilating their target.
The monsters who do raise to their feet and begin their sprint are then met with the bashing and shoving of each other, fitted tightly within the walls, yet without it resulting in a hindrance significant enough they pay no mind and just race to their primary prey. They however don't need to travel very far, as those prey are only a couple blocks away, moreover they're actively reducing that distance themselves by racing towards the port. They're close enough too that from the port, monsters can witness a ball of pink electricity ascend, containing a nest of monsters tangled and frozen, which is then bombarded by a volley of cyan darts that erupt explosions that leave few remains behind to fall once that field disperses. Even then, the monsters race from the port to the battle, which draws close enough that the monsters crawling to their feet can witness a handful of them further ahead raise their heads towards the man whose blazing blue hands hold a warhammer whose crystal head glows bright before he swings it straight down onto the group, crushing the monster he directly strikes while blasting back all the others from the sheer energy of the blow, flung in all directions, some to get shot midair by radiating bolts that melt their body by bright acid, and others that shrivel their bodies, heavily deforming them into husks. The keen man who fired those shots continues to sprint along the sparking woman whose entire body surges aggressively with pink arcs, some of them she guides with her hands to swarm more monsters ahead so she can then propel herself into a punch. On the other side of the man is the golden cyborg gunning down the monsters around her through the countless orifices in her arms and shoulders, helping to clear the path.
After swinging the hammer again straight through the abdomen of another monster, which slams it straight into the wall, the Spirit turns his attention to the port not too far ahead of him, staring at it for a few moments yet his focus isn't exactly on the port but rather what stands beyond.
Amidst the battle, the Spirit's gaze remains fixed for a few moments in contemplation, which ultimately concludes with the decision to discard his hammer, and shout: "I have an idea, but it requires blowing the port wide open; prepare for a heightened influx." His hands both ignite, those blazes growing quickly.
All three of the Bellators glance at the Spirit and nod to him, not needing to provide verbal affirmation to know he's received it. They draw their focus on the monsters ahead of them, priming themselves as the Vanguard's body begins emitting even more electricity for a greater charge. As she releases that charge forth while the Artificer unloads rain of cyan darts beside the Alchemist firing rainbows of bolts, together clearing the monsters ahead of them all, the Spirit whose made his way to the center of the wall compacts the flames in each of his hands into dense fireballs, all before first throwing the fireball in his left hand, which upon release expands out into a longer ray which takes on a cylindrical shape with a sharp nose which materializes into a missile with a silver body all but for the frosty crystal head. He then throws the fireball in his right hand, which similarly expands into a missile, yet doesn't have a crystal head but rather a fully silver body and head. Immediately after, he reignites both hands and brings them closer together, combining the flames into a single fireball which he rapidly grows while condensing.
Both of the missiles propels themselves straight for the port one after the other just as the wall around the opening ignites too, dissolving to widen the port by several magnitudes as well as opening a samely sized aperture in the back side, just as that first missile rams into the pile, exploding with a substantial boom that obliterates the Pawns in front of the port at that exact moment, clearing it for the second missile to pass straight through the moat's two openings, reaching the other side where the closed gate to the city's wall stands, before colliding with that exact gate and exploding with enough force that it blows through the entire barrier, revealing the open plains ahead where the black field stands not too far in the distance.
Staring straight through the port, through the breached gate, all the way to those black roots that reflect in his lenses, the Spirit ultimately throws this last fireball forth, once again taking the shape of a missile and materializing as one too, this one again with a crystal head though it's distinctly larger than the other two. It soars again through the moat and gate as the warhead flares up, nearly reaching white just before it reaches the black garden, which is where it detonates a larger huge frosty explosion, one that utterly atomizes the roots caught in the blast. The remaining branches of those destroyed roots dissolve too, withering away to leave behind a hole in the garden so wholly that the neighbors don't even trigger.
That dent in the garden is caught by all four of the Bellators, the Vanguard's and Alchemist's faces lighting up in awe, the Artificer's head perking up too, staring at the remains of the roots that had infested this world and many others, seeming to leave it in a permanent state of danger that forced humanity to cower from their own home. Yet before them all, that permanent nest has been revealed as vulnerable, an observation the Spirit takes before immediately escalating with his next order: "Kokei and Ekitai, freeze and hold the port, Dana clear the moat, I'll rid the nest."
He then immediately fires two cables at a sharp upward yet backwards angle which slingshots him straight up back down the street, compounded with a boost that rockets him towards the center of the city once again.
Without having room for doubts or questioning, the Artificer quickly follows by similarly launching herself straight up, parting ways to climb the air, leaving the Vanguard and Alchemist, once again only half the team left to fend off the monsters, yet they don't fall back as the Vanguard charges and releases another field through her arms, straight into the widened port, flowing through the moat itself which freezes all the monsters who were just pouring out. The Alchemist is quick to flick his thumb and start pressing the trigger in rapid succession, firing yellow bolts which, upon striking the first monster, causes it to explode into a black slime that attaches onto the surrounding Pawns.
In a straight ascension, the Artificer soars above the moat in seconds, lowering her head to observe its current state through the open top, noting that there's still a congestion of Pawns being pushed towards the port, however it's been shrunk decently, about double or so the capacity that was filling the plaza earlier.
Especially given their current helpless state all bunched together, the Artificer begins her work swiftly as she transforms both of her conal cannons, softening the shape and growing both of them as her shoulder cannons similarly grow. Six diamond tentacles emerge from her back, all of them sporting barrels as heads about as wide as the orifices in her cannons, all of them facing down at the moat as more tentacles branch off those six, exponentially growing a nest of her own off her own back, all of their heads the same, all facing the same collection of monsters.
Staring down at them through that slanted back golden plate, every single orifice in her two arm cannons, shoulder cannons, and the heads of every tentacle all simultaneously light bright cyan, and at once they all unleash their bombardment of darts which all soar autonomously in a honing strike that dives into the moat, plunging into the current and into the Pawns trapped within it, exploding with the potency to incinerate their bodies, their annihilation inescapable.
That bombardment continues constantly in the distance as perceived by that cyan rain above the moat above the pink flashes by the port, all well behind the Spirit who soars with a continuous boost that exhausts a comet's tail. While that blue residual energy is clearly emitted from his suit's propulsion system, he closes his hands before his entire body ignites in an azure flame, one that he concentrates on growing, giving the comet a flaming head. Over the middle ring, the blaze grows, the flames dancing more wildly.
After entering over the innermost region, he eventually rises above the wall itself, surpassing the ruined turrets left behind, rising high enough for the surrounding garden to become visible. It's at last that he comes to an absolute stop, braking to dispel the tail, leaving just his flaming body hovering high in the sky. He lowers his gaze down to confirm that the central tower sits right beneath him, before he then raises his head and slowly spins to gaze upon the long black garden, the nest that's made the world beyond the walls unsafe for all who sought safety in the city.
But as his body blazes with the flame of his resolve, the Spirit raises and waves his hands, prompting the entire blaze to spike out in all directions, firing off like petals of a flower, arching as they all expand far over the city beneath the bright moon.
Cowering behind the windows of buildings closed shut, civilians in their casual dresses and vests of various ages all watch the blue flower spread over the city.
Gazing through a set of windows on one floor of a building, the ten survivors dressed in their brown tunics and navy trousers all watch in awe at that burning flower.
One of those survivors is the young boy, his eyes gleaming in wonder yet his mouth frowning in concern. Beside his family who may not have been reunited under different circumstances, he just stares at the twilight sky as those azure flowers reflect off his irises like stars, resorting to hoping, believing.
Spreading far from the central bud, the heads of those flaming streams manifest each into a cylindrical missile, materializing with those crystal warheads, upon which their own propulsion activates which carries them further, leaving behind a blue trail but passing the flames. All of them reach the peak of the arc, where they then all begin to descend, forming a dome around the city's wall. The heads begin to brighten concurrently as that dome closes over the wall with a canopy, as the missiles soar well past the wall as its arc dips into a near straight dive, each one shrieking not that monstrous alien shriek but an ethereal, somehow serene shriek, bundled with imposing energy yet in a manner that feels angelic.
Then, they crash into the nest, which is where they detonate.
All at once, the barrage of countless missiles explode all around the black garden, lighting it bright in a ring of flaming balls, the blast consuming the roots in a bright orb.
An invasive plant, the black roots which passively emits a glow from its white caustics are devoured by the frosty blasts which launch shrapnel in all directions that raze those roots, decimating them absolutely.
What's not caught by the explosive shrapnel, most being the branches higher up, are detached from their destroyed roots, leaving them to fall, wither, and dissolve before they can even fall into the fireball burning the garden.
Around the massive city and its titanic ring wall appears another ring of bright frosty light, composed of beads that cover the previously present ring, its light brightening the green field around it even if briefly.
In front of the breached gate, the remaining neighbors of the first root to be destroyed are caught by the following wave, all of them lighting up or rather being consumed by the lights of the crashing missiles, vaporizing those roots in seconds, leaving its taller branches to die out.
Just as fast as the garden around the city lit up, that light disperses and leaves the plains dark once more, illuminated only by the moonlight, though it's enough to reveal the complete absence of that black garden, leaving only shallow craters in its place. But even in those craters, grass could always grow again.