Author's Preface
Aaron led the team in a jog toward Columbus. They were still a few miles out after the Humvee had rolled over. Aaron lifted his hand and balled his fist, then crept up to a tree and looked back at Blue and Yuki.
"Holy shit. If this is what it looks like outside, what the fuck does it look like inside the stronghold?"
Blue walked up to Aaron and looked at the scene. Hundreds of monsters were flooding through a giant hole in the stronghold wall, crawling over and stepping on the dead. Summoners were throwing their abilities from the top of the wall through the hole. Aaron pulled out his phone again and dialed a number.
The phone rang three times before it was answered. In the background, Aaron could hear monsters screaming and awakeners yelling.
"Aaron, where the fuck are you? LOOK OUT THAT WAY. YOU THREE, TAKE YOUR TEAMS NORTH. EVACUATE THE CIVILIANS. WE'LL KEEP THE HORDE HELD HERE FOR NOW."
"We're outside the wall of Dublin, Titus. I have Blue and Yuki with me."
"What the hell are you doing? You know what, never mind that. If I tell the awakeners on the wall to stop using their abilities, can you fight your way to me, and I'll fight my way to you? We can meet in the middle?"
"I was about to ask you to do that same thing."
"EVE, TAKE YOUR TEAM AND THE BUCKEYE GUILD MEMBERS AND PUSH TOWARD DUBLIN. AARON AND YOUR BOYFRIEND ARE GOING TO BE PUSHING FROM OUTSIDE THE WALLS."
"See you shortly, Titus."
"Yeah, yeah. Make sure nothing happens to Blue, got it?"
Aaron hung up the phone and looked at Blue. "We're going to attack these monsters from behind. I need you to save that until you absolutely need it. Understand?"
Blue nodded.
"Yuki, go all out from the beginning. Titus, Eve, and my guild are fighting the assault from the front. We push from the rear, and hopefully, by the time we meet them, this will be over. You guys ready?"
Yuki nodded.
"Then let's fucking go."
Aaron, Blue, and Yuki rushed the rear of the horde. Yuki summoned her earth spirit and her owl companion. Aaron conjured as many greatswords as he could as he ran. Blue stopped counting at thirty. Blue gathered his qi into his blade, jumped off Aaron's shoulders, and launched a wave of sword energy at the monsters in the back. It cut clean through a few rows of them. Blue landed as monsters started to turn and roar at him, Aaron, and Yuki. Aaron flicked his wrists as his greatswords started swinging at the monsters rushing Blue. Blue dodged in and out of attacks, swinging his jian as spikes formed from the earth and sprouted from the ground, impaling monsters around him. Aaron stopped next to Blue.
"I'm not your springboard. But that was cool as hell." Aaron smiled.
Yuki walked casually up to Blue while her owl flapped its wings, sending a gust of wind forward that sent dozens of monsters flying backward. They landed on a pack of monsters trying to get through the wall. It was no longer just dozens of monsters whose attention they had drawn. Now hundreds had focused solely on them. Aaron smiled and slapped Blue on the back.
"Now the real fun begins. Remember Lord of the Rings?"
"Yeah?"
"Loser buys drinks."
Aaron disappeared and reappeared in between a group of monsters as his greatswords came crashing down.
"Damn cheater! YOU DIDN'T SAY START!"
"13!" Aaron yelled.
Blue gathered qi in his legs and dashed toward another group, using every Silent Edge technique Wu Jin had taught him to slice through monsters one by one as Yuki supported them with her summons.
Just a few miles east of Dublin, Titus, Eve, her team, and the Buckeye Guild held a line, fighting monsters as they poured through the streets.
"Chris, do you think we can push through?"
"I think so. They aren't strong monsters." Chris swung and smashed a monster's head in with his shield, then turned back to Eve. "The problem is there are so fucking many of them."
Eve looked at Cynthia, who was already forming her mech. Darrien jumped on top of its head and looked out. All he could see were monsters lining the streets, climbing buildings, and flying through the air.
"Hey, Samantha! Now's a better time than any to get super annoyed and fry these fuckers so you can get back to Marco!" Darrien yelled from the mech.
Eve looked at Samantha and shrugged her shoulders. "He's not wrong. And we need to push through. Blue, Aaron, and that fucking girl are pushing from outside the walls."
Darrien hopped down beside Chris and started throwing daggers at the monsters rushing him. Chris looked back at Darrien.
"She just cussed. She really, really doesn't like Yuki."
"It's Blue's fault. Did I tell you what he did before he left?"
"HEY! IF YOU TWO HAVE ENOUGH ENERGY TO TALK BULLSHIT, YOU HAVE ENERGY TO PUSH FORWARD. WE NEED TO MEET UP WITH BLUE ASAP!" Eve yelled.
She looked at Arthur, who stood beside her. "I'm sorry, sir. Do you think you could leave some of your guild members back here to protect my new members?"
Eve looked to her right and watched her new guild members fighting alongside the Buckeye Guild against monsters that had gotten through the front lines.
"Of course. I'll stay with them. You take Olivia, her team, and my team and push to Aaron and Blue, and that fucking girl. We'll handle everything back here." Arthur winked at Eve.
Eve shook her head and summoned her spirits. She looked around to her left and right.
"Nomi?"
Cynthia cleared her throat and pointed. "Looks like she went ahead toward Blue."
Eve looked and saw Nomi hopping from building to building, killing monsters as she moved toward Dublin and Blue.
Samantha summoned a small tornado beneath her and floated to the top of Cynthia's mech. Machine guns mounted on both shoulders were firing at monsters on rooftops and buildings. The mech stood fifty feet tall. Cynthia had used every pound of material in her bag to make sure it was armored enough and had enough firepower to be the frontline for their team. Samantha stood on its head and yelled, "CHRIS, DARRIEN. FALL BACK. THIS IS GOING TO BE A BIG ONE."
Chris and Darrien rushed behind the mech as the sky turned dark. A large tornado spawned from the clouds above, reaching the street a few hundred feet in front of them. It swept up any monster in its path and sent them flying into buildings, onto the ground below, or several hundred feet over rooftops. Samantha's forehead started glowing with the runes from the tiara as she controlled the tornado with her left hand and forced it down the main street. Her right hand lit up with fire at the same time. The tornado began to turn red as it lit on fire, leaving a carved path through the road and charring monsters, buildings, cars, and anything else in its path. With a flick of her wrist, Samantha summoned bolts of lightning. They crashed down from the clouds onto any monsters standing on top of the buildings around them, sending debris flying everywhere.
Darrien looked at Chris with a look of pure horror. "Remind me to stop getting on her nerves."
"I told you she's been training with Arthur every night. I guess when he said she'd become the best mage this country had ever seen, he wasn't joking."
"That's definitely going to help her personality."
A lightning bolt struck the ground in front of Darrien, who jumped back and looked up at the mech. Samantha looked back, smiled at Darrien, and winked.
"What the fuck, man? Does she have super hearing now too?"
Cynthia controlled the mech and walked it forward, blocking falling debris and firing on monsters. It followed the tornado as Eve summoned Rhyla to put out fires along the way. Chris and Darrien killed any monsters that hadn't been swept up by Samantha's fire tornado.
Chris looked back at eve. "How for do we need to push?"
"Titus said they are outside the walls pushing in. But it only the three if them, so we may have to push all the way through."
As Eve started to yell commands to her team, something caught her eye far in the distance. Monsters were running for their lives. Some were sent flying hundreds of feet in the air. Large red and black swords could be seen flying around slashing everything. Finally a large gray wave of sword energy crashed into a building and taking out dozens of monsters with it.
Darrien looked back to eve. "Looks like blue is isn't holding back."
"Keep pushing!" Eve yelled.
Cynthia looked at eve. "How did they push into the city that fast?"
"I honesty, do not know." Eve shook her head and smiled.
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