by Juice Box » Fri Jan 13, 2017 7:39 pm
Repeat yells as a gigantic Juggernaut smashes her between its arm and the ground, pinning her with tons upon tons worth of weight. She continues yelling as the Juggernaut presses harder, intent on completely pulverizing the redhead to the ground.
A wounded DM, bleeding on different parts of his body, brings his attention away from the two Queens he is currently fighting and uses his telekinesis to bring the Juggernaut’s arm away from Repeat. He continues with strained force, and eventually forces the hulking monstrosity to fall down on the ground. Its sheer, immense weight prevents it from getting back up, and a sudden leap from Juice capitalizes on this, standing on the beast’s shoulders as she sends millions of volts rippling through the Juggernaut’s veins. The abomination shakes and convulses in pain as its very insides burn, and eventually it stops moving altogether. James moves in on Repeat, increasing his own speed with his time manipulation, grabs her, then jumps away.
The two Queens capitalize on their distracted opponent. DM regathers his attention, kicking the first one straight square in the head, knocking it back and surely killing it, but the second one sneaks up from behind and stabs him. He grimaces as the sharp blade penetrates his skin. It’s still not sharp enough to dig as deep, but the pain mixed with the fatigue of three-days’ worth of fighting nearly shuts his body down.
Another Queen appears, hurtling straight toward him. He fights off his backstabbing opponent and blasts her away with an energy wave, almost ripping its body apart with the sheer force of the attack. He points to the third Queen, but it is too fast and stabs him through the chest.
“DM! No!” Juice yells as she jumps off the Juggernaut’s corpse. James hands an unconscious Repeat to Cloudfall’s protection, and together the two Superhumans charge towards the Queen. The poor alien has little time to react, and is immediately met by Juice’s fist smashing through its scythe-arm, pulling it out of DM’s body. It attempts to retaliate, but its other arm is torn completely by James’s telekinesis. Juice delivers the killing blow, smashing her gauntlet right through its head, creating a pulped mass of green, oozing flesh as the corpse slumps to the ground, adding to the hundreds of thousands dead around her.
“DM!” Juice yelps, checking the boy’s wounds. “DM, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he coughs. His clothes are in tatters, and blood trickles lightly from his mouth. His body is completely fatigued, stab wounds and black bruises skittering all around his pale form. He’s tired. That last hit from the Queens was the final blow.
“He needs to get out,” Juice says to James. “He can’t fight anymore.”
“Neither can Repeat,” the black-haired boy returns. “She’s out completely, the Juggernaut got her unconscious. And I doubt us or Cloudfall can last much longer, either.”
Some feet away from them, surrounded by Reapers, is Cloudfall as he guards the slumped body of Repeat. Thousands of alien bodies litter around him, though they show not even the slightest wound. The next wave of Reapers charge, and one, dark shockwave emits from his body. The aliens all fall down at once, their strength completely sapped from them, their energies taken away completely. The aliens don’t understand this—Cloudfall is negating their power, taking away their life force—but this doesn’t stop them, and wave upon wave continues to assault the pale boy, adding corpses to the piles. From this distance, it appears as though he’s winning, but the two both wonder how long before the fatigue finally beats him.
Juice looks at her own body: her clothes are in tatters, too, bruises and wounds littering her pale skin. Her eyes are drowsy and her head throbs. It’s a miracle she can still fight like this. She knows James feels the same.
The only one who looks fine is Trenton.
The pale blonde’s eyes have gone completely grim as she slices onward with one hand and continues mindbending with the other. Her thin blade continues to arc elegantly as she fights on, the tip glowing blue as actual air molecules are sliced apart from the immense sharpness of the sword.
“Trenton!” Juice yells, slowly inching her way to the pale blonde, DM in her arms, as James covers her.
The mindbender makes no reply, too focused on the aliens in front of her, but Juice knows she’s listening.
“Trenton, that’s enough!” She continues. “We need to get out!”
A sharp pain suddenly pierces Juice’s mind, and an overload of thoughts tells her—no, commands her—to stay. She resists, but knows this onslaught is coming from Trenton. She peers at James and knows he’s experiencing the same thing.
“We won’t last, Trenton!” Juice screams. “Repeat and DM are down! A few more hours and me and James will follow—we need to go!”
The blonde stops fighting all of a sudden, a grey aura enveloping her. She lowers her sword and allows the oncoming Ravagers to charge at her. She isn’t moving at all, but the aliens all turn to ash upon contact with her skin. Even the Hornets’ attacks vaporize as they reach her. She turns to Juice.
“We can beat them,” she says calmly. “We can last.”
“Last? Trenton, there’s still thousands more all over! They’re not stopping! We need to go—”
Another sharp pain tears through Juice’s mind, forcing her to cooperate, convincing her to stay. She drops DM and suddenly charges for a nearby group of Reapers, continuing the battle. James resists, though he’s finding it difficult.
“Trenton…” He says, trying desperately to shield DM’s body. “We’re going to die if you don’t let us leave.”
The blonde pauses, Reapers and Ravagers still disintegrating as they foolishly attack her.
“You heard what Juice promised,” James continues. “You let Lazarus leave us. You’ve left us weaker. If even one of us dies here, the blame is on you.”
Trenton reflects for a moment, looking at the mounds of dead before her. The Linireans’ fallen can’t even be seen anymore: the entire Citadel is filled with mountains of dead Reapers. Whatever casualties the Linireans had, the six of them alone have inflicted the same upon the aliens, a hundredfold. Maybe even more. Then she spots the unconscious bodies of DM and Repeat, guarded by James and Cloudfall respectively. There is weakness in their eyes—they won’t last another day. Trenton finally sees this.
They’ve done their job. The king must surely have reached Silversword by now. It’s time they left.
“Let’s go,” she declares.
Juice, suddenly clear of the mindbending, looks at her friends and understands the scenario. She nods to James, then readies her gauntlets, and with one final gathering of energy, charges right through a line of Reapers, creating a straight pathway for them to escape through. She yells as she collides with alien after alien, fiery fireballs and lightning bolts escaping her body as she does so, eradicating all in her path as she continues on like an unstoppable human wrecking ball.
James signals to Cloudfall, who brings him the still unconscious body of Repeat. He slings her on one shoulder then carries DM in another, then follows Juice. Trenton covers them as she does so, forcing anyone who got near them to fight each other.
A part of her is still stubborn. A part of her still wants to stay.
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“They’ve reached Silversword Stronghold,” James says, using his Farsight to glimpse at King Denas’s whereabouts. “But a stray army of Reapers has caught up to them.”
“Is that all they have to face?” DM asks as his wounds recover. The process is slow, but thanks to his Superhuman durability, he’ll be back in full strength within a day or so. It’s been an hour since they escaped, finding sanctuary in a nearby forest. No sign of any aliens so far. “Are there more coming?”
“There are more, yes. Much more, and they’re coming at an increasingly rapid rate. Trenton’s Condemned Reapers are slowing down as many as they can, but it still won’t be enough.”
“Fuckers just keep coming,” Repeat says. She woke up just a few moments ago, completely bewildered by the fact that something actually made her lose consciousness. It was probably the closest she had ever been to death in combat. “Doesn’t matter how many we kill, the Matriarch will just make more and more.”
“The rest of them don’t know that,” Cloudfall replies. “They’re still stuck in Silversword.”
“And from the looks of it, they’ll be facing another battle if we don’t interfere soon,” James continues. “Defending the humans is imperative, but it’s only a temporary solution. If we don’t kill the Matriarch, Linirea will fall completely.”
“Who’s to say it hasn’t already fallen?” Juice rebuts. “The army is in ruins. Survivors are scattered. Hammerhold, Silversword, the other Bastions… how long will they even last unless we kill the Matriarch?”
“That’s why we should take her down,” James suggests. “Form a team to try and get rid of her.”
“Ooh! Ooh! Like a quest!” Repeat enthusiastically interrupts. “Like in the Lord of the Rings, except with different races. A bunch of Superhumans, throw in a Yordle or two, maybe even a demon girl or something. I’m down!”
“How would you even know that much about the Lord of the Rings?” Juice asks. “You don’t have a nerdy side IRL like me.”
“My character is being written by you, and you have a nerdy side. Therefore I can have one, too.”
“But—”
“Whatever the case,” DM interjects. “It’s always good to look at the positives. Denas has reached Silversword, so he’s in the protection of his soldiers for now. Soon enough, the nearby Dwarves and Archons will join him. Help him fight. Same goes for the Elves in Aredhel. We won’t have to fight this war alone.”
“The other main characters can help protect Denas and the survivors for now. We should start gathering a team to attack the Reaper Matriarch. Find whatever heroes we can to aid us—”
James raises his arm to catch a sudden arrow headed for him. It should have hit him straight in the head.
“… Starting with them,” he finishes, and with only two fingers, breaks the caught arrow in two.
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“FREEZE YOU MOFOS,” the bard-looking human exclaims as he emerges from nearby bushes. “FREEZE OR I’LL FUCKING SHOOTCHA TITS OFF.”
He fires off another arrow, and this time it hits Juice square in the chest. It breaks on contact, bouncing harmlessly off her skin. The brunette stares at her attacker, horribly unimpressed.
“Oh, sweet Jesus,” he exclaims. “CYNE! Cyne that one has IRON TITS!”
“Minuet, keep down, God damn it!” replies a red-skinned girl with horns on her head. “Shut up and stop provoking them!”
“Iron tits?” DM asks. “I mean, I never even knew you had tits.”
“Oh, FUCK YOU.”
“Be QUIET, Iron Titties!” Minuet replies. “And get the rest of your group to stay shut, too. You’re MY hostages now!”
“Hello over there,” Trenton begins, the most diplomatic in the group. “It’s all right, you can come out. We’re not dangerous.”
“Damn RIGHT you’re not, no hostage of mine is gonna be any danger to MEwwwwhooooooooaaaaa,” Minuet gasps, stopping all of a sudden as he lays eyes on Trenton. “Hello, Mama.”
“Disgusting pig!” Cyne throws a bat—which she had magically conjured out of nowhere—right at the bard, and it hits him right on the head.
“Oww, woman! Wouldja keep it down? I’m-a minglin’ with the ladies here,” he bites his lips and wiggles his eyebrows.
Trenton giggles, more than accustomed to advances from men (regardless of how admittedly sad this one seems to be). “You’re main characters, are you not?”
“Yessum!” Minuet replies. “I’m the lead man, the lead role, captain of the story. This here is Cyne, my sidekick—”
Another bat hits him in the head.
“Oww! Okay, my accomplice. Both of us are main characters, yes, though as you can see, I’m the more important one.”
“Great,” Trenton replies. “We’re main characters, too.”
“Ooooh la laaaa!” Another bat. “Oww, fuck, where are you getting these things?!”
“Be quiet and let them talk!” Cyne emerges from the bush. “I apologize on behalf of my… friend… here. He can get carried away.”
“I’ve noticed,” the blonde replies. “I’m Trenton. Come on in and sit with us so I can introduce you to the group. We have a lot to talk about.”