A/N: Enjoy the chap. AND LEAVE A DAMN REVIEW!
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[Hellmouth]
The gates breathed with a slow pulse, gusts of wind streamed through, brushing sand across their boots, accompanied by a rotten stench.
The guardians shifted with unease as the waves of Hive continued pouring out.
Tevis stood at the centre, a step ahead of the line, his onyx blade low and angled. He moved like a shadow, no wasted motion, no sound he didn't choose to make. Legions of Hive kept resuhign him, but with a single step the seasoned nightstalker flickered in and slit their throats with a vicious slash. He broke through their ranks, weaving through one wave after the other by force.
Tevis wildly scattered the Hive, and the others fought in the chaos that followed.
Pahanin swiftly slid through the dust, the Hive blade by his side. His form shimmered, three of him hit the same split from the main body and shot towards a Knight from different angles, then collapsed back into one as if the copies had only ever been intent.
The Knight flinched, its sword faltered, and Pahanin darted in with a stab to its head, taking it clean off.
Covering his back, Levi was pure speed and weight compressed into simple moves. He stepped, turned, and kicked.
With a bang, his heel put a dent in a Knight's helm deep enough to make it dazed. Levi shifted his feet, sweeping towards its body with another kick. He grappled the Knight with ease and twisted off its neck, sprang off it, and axe kicked a Wizard's chest hard enough to. Break through it.
Cory stood a half-step back from all the rolling heads, his hands loose by his side as he dodged the desperate swipes of an acolyte with ease, his eyes glued to the puddles of shadow surrounding the battlefield.
Shadow tendrils pushed out from the ground at his call—they wrapped ankles, jerked knees just at the right time and dragged hundreds of acolytes sideways into the dark. Just then, the puddles rippled, and a wraith shot out. Bandit swiped with his daggers, tearing through them all.
The ground shook. Cory raised his hands, and tendrils whipped across the sand, holding close a fissure that ran through the ground. A scream echoed, and an Ogre shouldered through the cracks. Cory set both palms on the ground, and chains of shadow slithered at the abomination's side, slithering around its gargantuan body till it bound it.
Cory swiped down, and chains dragged the thing's head down just at the right moment.
Levi coiled back, delivering a crushing kick through the Ogre's skull, shattering its eye in one blow.
All five guardians fought ruthlessly, but no one spoke. Their eyes darted around the field in a grim silence, because one glance was akin to a thousand words. Their instincts were running wild, syncing as they struggled tooth and nail.
They fought until the muscles in their bodies burned, and then fought through the ache that followed. They fought till titanic Ogres ripped through the sands, till Knights with wretched green swords tried to claim their soul, till a choir of wizards screamed for their demise.
Till legions upon legions of acolytes perished beneath their feet.
But even then, they did not waver.
The fight continued, and the dark fog in the distance drew closer. It gathered out past the gates of Hellmouth and sank into low ground, a dense sheet that carried no wind. The closer it came, the more they felt its terrifying power.
"Keep off it," Pahanin barked, zig-zagging through an attack. "Don't get any closer!"
The Nightstalker didn't ask him to explain. They swiftly adjusted to the tide of approaching fog, ensuring they were at least a step away from its grasp.
The fog rumbled, and a soundless shriek echoed.
Everything stopped.
Then sound followed—long, hard, pulled from somewhere deep inside the Hellmouth. It ran up the stone and through their boots and along their teeth. Levi's jaw set. Bandit blinked once and dropped to his knees. Cory's tendrils faltered and then reeled back to his feet. Tevis rolled his shoulders under it and held the front of the line with a steady blade.
The guardians grit their teeth; they moved with purpose, readying themselves for the next wave.
But no new wave crested the lip. The fog on the far plain thinned. The wind slackened. For a moment, Pahanin felt as if everything had gotten brighter or maybe the dark around them had stepped back a degree.
He didn't know.
They stood there breathing hard, armour filmed in Hive blood and dust. The quiet hit like cold water. Pahanin wiped his blade off on his cuisse by habit, his eyes flickering to Hellmouth's pit, a strange hunch settling in his gut, and he walked closer to its edge.
Tevis didn't move. He looked into the mouth.
"He did it," Bandit said, low.
Cory added. "Fog pulling back. Guess it really is him."
Levi's helm tipped toward the gate. "Means he's down there in it."
"Whatever made the fog was down there. If Void stopped the fog," Pahanin's hand tightened on the hilt of his blade, "He's definitely fighting it, all alone in the dark."
They all faced the black opening with the same thought for once—hope pinned to fear and neither willing to let the other go.
"He's done it before, hasn't he?" Levi hesitated. He continued with a wry grin, "I think he's got another miracle in the tank."
"I pray he does. If not, no soul on the Moon will be safe." Pahanin's face turned grim as he read the ominous energy gathering at the core of Hellmouth.
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[Ocean of Storms — Players]
The fight had gone wrong twice already. They'd learned the patterns, learned the entire moveset of the boss, then lost regardless in the last thirty seconds and wiped. This time, they didn't make the same mistake.
Undecided grits his teeth, "Don't f*cking chase the boss!"
"Rela,x dog! I thought he was one hp!" TheOneWhoKnocks answered.
"HE WAS INVULNERABLE!" Undecided barked back.
BearSpray and ILoveLoot wordlessly moved to the side of the room, already taking their positions.
Waffles cursed under her breath as she ran up to her spot, and Gandalf entered the centre of the room again.
The Swarm Prince stepped out of a shadow, blade low, posture arrogant. The HUD blinked.
[BOSS: SWORD PRINCE — HEALTH 100%]
The Prince sang, and the fissures in the ground irised open. Thralls poured into the chamber.
"Left vent!" Waffles called.
"Got it," IEatPaint said, firing short, controlled bursts until the fissure burst open. TheOneWhoKnocks blasted near the glyphs on the walls with three shots that broke a set, breaking the boss's shield.
Gandalf dropped and ran around the room as the boss chased him down, while Dumbledore shot at the glyphs on the ceiling.
Just as the boss's shield split open. BearSpray slid inside and rocked the boss with rockets.
"F*CK, DPS, DPS NOW!" Waffles screamed over the comms, and IEatPaint darted from the far side of the room with a perfectly timed Thundercrash.
The health bar moved—80%, 70%
"Second phase!" ILoveLoot chimed in. The entire chamber lit up with glyphs.
TheOneWhoKnocks and Dumbledore switched to their auto rifles, clearing the glyphs as fast as they could while Gandalf picked up aggro and hovered in the air to dodge the boss's savage strikes.
Just as the last glyph went, the boss's globe of invulnerability broke, fissures spread through the ground, but the players didn't pay them any heed.
ThunderClapping triggered his super, Waffles chucked a Nova bomb, followed by a rocket into the prince's chest. TheOneWhoKnocks spammed six shots of Golden Gun, and Gandalf threw down an empowering rift as BearSpray spammed more heavy rockets.
The screen flared up and blinked brightly.
[OBJECTIVE UPDATED: ELIMINATE THE SWARM PRINCES (3/6)]
The sword prince's body fell to the ground, and the battle came to a close.
"HOLY SHI*T" Dumbeldore heaved a breath, and everyone dropped to their knees in awe.
"LET'S GOOOO," IEatPaint roared.
But the players didn't get to celebrate for long. The map blinked again and drew a new line southwest across the desert.
[NEW TRACE ACQUIRED — Boss: Dakroor, Yul Prince.]
"My god, there are still bosses left for you dogs. Let's go!" TheOneWhoKnocks said. "FOR THE LOOT"
Everyone sighed, but the next second their sparrows screamed across the sand.
The new trace they were chasing was already being pursued by another fireteam that had already pulled Dakroor out and dented him hard.
As they reached the place, the boss's Health bar appeared across the screen.
"Almost dead! GET A HIT IN!" Gandalf barked.
They all dove in. The other team saw their frantic push and realised they had backup.
IEatPaint got to work, chucking grenades while Waffles dropped healing grenades for the others. Undecided got three shots in, and just then, TheOneWhoKnocks darted forward, with a quick triple jump, he reached the boss.
TheOneWhoKnocks swiftly pulled out his sniper and rocked it with the nastiest no-scope he had ever done just to get the last in. With a shimmer, the HUD updated, and the boss fell.
[Dakroor, Yul Prince — DEFEATED.][OBJECTIVE UPDATED: ELIMINATE THE SWARM PRINCES (4/6).]
The player rushed in for the loot, and some even planned to track the next trace. But then their HUDs flared again.
[GLOBAL UPDATE: ELIMINATE THE SWARM PRINCES (5/6).]
Waffles laughed once in disbelief. "Holy shit, someone else got another. Only one left."
The map flared open. A thin trace rose out of the ground like a wire. It ran east along a ridge, dropped into a canyon, and turned toward the Hellmouth's deeper ribs.
[FINAL TARGET: BANUK, UR PRINCE.]
"For f*cks sake, we missed out on loot!" TheOneWhoKnocks said. "Just go!"
Everyone immediately chased the line the HUD showed with a feverish dash. As the players reached the edge of the canyon, the trace dipped and flickered. The players looked ahead as a storm of fire swept through the base of the canyon and the boss arena opened up.
They all jumped down, and the proximity comms around them filled with other fireteams already engaged in the fight.
As all the players gathered and tackled the last sword prince, chaos ensued.
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A/N: Aite, THROW SOME REVIEWS!!!! And some stones.
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