Chapter 346: Making An Entrance
Laz knew they had to make a big move before engaging in battle. Based on what he had sensed, there were far more powerful creatures waiting for them at the gate near the entrance. Sure, they could just escape out of the back, but that would mean abandoning everyone who was still alive in this hellscape. Laz argued with himself that if they just took their friends and made it out, he would be ok with it. But the voice inside of him wouldn’t let him do that. Laz didn’t know if the voice was his own conscious or if it was the whisperings of someone else, but Laz had the feeling that he would be letting down someone important to him if he just walked away and brought his friends out but doomed the innocents in the process.
The girl’s wouldn’t have had a problem with it. In fact, they would have considered it a smart move. But Laz knew he couldn’t pick that option. And since they would rather choose to die by his side then run away alone, Laz just figured it was better to keep them by his side then tell them to save themselves. Besides, they never would agree anyway.
As such, Laz figured that he should use them in the best way possible. Sure, they might not have any practice using a grenade launcher. But when it came to using weapons, War had insight beyond what even a trained solder could claim and she could teach the others without a problem. That itself was one of their values as sisters.
"So the plan is simple. I go in there and attack head on while you four just split into two teams and you know... blow shit up," Laz said with a carefree smile.
"Blow shit up? That’s your big game plan?" Death asked.
"Yeah. Doesn’t this seem just a little... I don’t know... too simple?" Famine asked while holding the weapon to her chest. While these things weren’t heavy in retrospect, they weren’t light either. But for these four girls, they could be ten times as heavy and they would still be able to swing them around like they were wooden swords.
"Why make things complicated when you can just keep it simple?" While the plan was more video game like than tactical warfare, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t work. And although it was just something he had come up with on a whim, it was because of who he had supporting him that he could make this call.
"So... You just want us to basically blow up everything in sight and then what?" War said, already instructing the others on how to hold, load, aim, fire and reload the unit. To be honest, she was kind of excited. While she was considered War of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, normal weapons would soon be pretty useless against these types of creatures, causing her value within her own mind to drop. After all, hot weapons like these were considered the strongest in the world at present and she didn’t have any thoughts about things being any different later. Laz had also not yet told her that soon, there would be more weapons like his sword that would cause someone with her skills to be a god in hand to hand combat.
"Then meet me on the battle field and kill anything that still moves."
"I am completely behind this plan," War responded with a devilish smile.
"Of course you are..." Her sister’s all commented at the same time.
"What about me?" Lyssa asked, feeling completely left out of this entire plan.
"Well... hmm... OH! When Death was fighting that fox earlier, you were keeping the other beasts in check and out of the way right? Can you tell me a bit about what you can do in a battle? Something like that, but maybe with a larger crowd?" Laz had remembered that she seemed to be singing in that fight and it had affected a large number of the beasts. While he didn’t think that, based on what he knew about her, she had any ability in close quarters combat, if she could somehow use that type of bewitching melody on a large number of beasts, she could control the entire battle from the sidelines. When thinking back to the games he used to play when he was younger, a crowd control based character was always amazingly important in large scale combat.
As such, Lyssa gave everyone a little run down of what she could do and to how many beasts she could do so. Of course all of these things she hadn’t tried yet. Instead, she was listening to the ancient blood within her body to guide her.
After listening to what she told them, everyone was more than just a little shocked.
"I know. It’s not much. I don’t actually have any experience with this kind of thing," Lyssa apologized after seeing the looks on their faces. She felt like she as pretty much useless since she didn’t think she could actually kill anything with her abilities.
"No... No... that’s like... that’s possible?" Pestilence was the first to break out of her trance and comment.
"It’s almost like cheating..." Famine said, shaking her head.
The girls have had more than their fare share of bloody fights to the death and therefore understood just how over powered Lyssa’s abilities could be if used right.
"Alright then. I guess she can just go with one of your groups and just make sure to keep her safe," Laz said, shaking his head.
"Who wants to baby sit?" Death said, obviously declaring herself not it.
"Let Famine do it, she could use the practice," War interjected before anyone else could say anything.
At first, everyone, including Famine looked at War in confusion before suddenly nodding their heads in agreement while Famine suddenly flushed red.
"That was one time, ok? Just that one time..."
"You only had that one time to reference and you still ended up killing him. Besides, since she’s like us, at least you won’t accidently drain her dry and kill her immediately, will you?" War shot back, silencing her protests.
"Besides which, while we call it babysitting, you should understand that as soon as she takes action, you’re going to be targeted by almost everything that can fly over to you or sneak it’s way past. You’re going to be under the most pressure once that happens so it will be a big job. And you know how important it will be to keep her alive until the end, correct?" Death asked, looking at her sister.
"Yes sister," Famine finally said lowering her head in defeat while Lyssa looked on in horror.
’No. Nope. Are you kidding me? What happened that last time? What do you mean drained him dry? Is that a sexual thing? And she’s the one who has to protect me? Wait. He can still object right? He will object right?’ Lyssa suddenly turned her head to Laz who had been listening in in hopes that he would assign her a better protector, but Laz just put his hand on Famine’s head and stroked it a few times before giving her a kiss.
"I know you’ll do fine. I believe in you!" Laz said, causing Famine to smile and go an even deeper shade a red.
Lyssa turned even paler as Death started breaking off with Pestilence while War walked over to Famine’s side to give her a few more pointers and suggestions, leaving Lyssa alone with Laz.
"Are.. you sure... she can protect me?" Lyssa said, feeling bad about questioning her but also still very nervous.
"Oh? Well... to be honest, no. Not entirely. But at the same time, I don’t believe any of the others would actually do any better either," Laz replied honestly.
Lyssa felt her heart drop, while Laz couldn’t help but laugh a little.
"Look. These girls, once they start fighting they lose themselves in it. For them, it’s like a drug or an aphrodisiac. So I can’t say any of them are going to be able to protect someone completely, especially with what we are going up against. But I know she will try her best. She’s the youngest of the four sisters and while we are only talking about mere seconds to minutes in an age difference, she has always been treated like the younger sister and has a need to prove herself to her older siblings. So, she will try her best while also killing everything in sight. In the end though, the only person who can protect you on the battle field is yourself and that’s not going to be easy. This is going to be your real first time, so prepare yourself for it to be messy. But just know that no matter what happens, as long as one of us is still alive, you won’t be forgotten about or left behind. You just have to do your part and survive, got it?" Laz said, his smile warm despite the rain soaked and chilly night.
"Ok. I’ll do my best." Lyssa voice was like the small and unsure squeak of a mouse as she tried her best to find her courage.
"That’s all we can ask. We have your back and you have ours. In the end, that’s all we have left in life sometimes." Laz absentmindedly stroked Lyssa head as though he wanted to comfort her but his gaze was somewhere else, thinking on something else.
Pretty soon, the girls had scouted around and found a few good positions for the ambush. While they would be protected and fairly hidden, they had a clear view to the group of beasts nesting themselves near the entrance.
The girls watched on while several creatures brought still living humans over, dropped them in front of the large and deformed leaders of their hoards before going back out to find more.
At one point, the Raccoon kicked away the now dead and twitchy human he was feeding on and smacked it with one of it’s tiny paws, causing the body to swell up like a balloon and pop, causing chunks of flesh, bone and sinew to go everywhere, disrupting the other feeding beasts.
"Something wrong boss? Not tasty enough? You could at least save some for those of us who need more than just leftovers..." A tall bear with antlers chuckled while finishing the meat in front of it.
"These humans are all weak. We’ve yet to get one with more than just a trace of power and yet..."
"Boss?"
"Something feels off..." The Raccoon looked around, not sure why it felt that way. Things had been going fine. Sure, the humans were weak and powerless, but just a few sniffs in the air was enough to show the little creature that there were far more powerful ones running around. Few... but enough. They would be caught soon and brought back since they had sent their strongest warriors out to hunt. Even at their levels, they were vastly superior to the feeble humans.
Despite that, the Raccoon felt like there was something it was missing, something that had become dangerous to it while it had been missing. It just didn’t know what that was.
While the other’s gorged themselves on the tender flesh of the delivery service, the Raccoon kept looking around before noticing something odd.
The entrance was was a large, circular area of paved stones and now ruined gatehouses. There was nothing but open space for hundreds of feet meaning that anyone trying to get close to the area would be seen almost as soon as they stepped away from the shade of the buildings hundreds of feet away. The Raccoon had figured it was better to wait here until his servants could get a better idea of the land as opposed to running into danger itself.
Despite that though, until it was looking right at the silhouette walking towards them, the Raccoon had not once sensed that anyone was within the area.
It could tell without a doubt that the thing walking towards them was a human on two legs with a large metal weapon in his hand. While it’s generals were focused on their meals, they too soon noticed the strange human that was walking right towards them. They all stood up and barred their teeth at once, as though following a silent command.
They could tell that this one was strong.
The Raccoon couldn’t help but wondering how strong he would become after eating this foolish human who had clearly given up hope and offered itself to them.
One of the smarter deer stood forward, ran, and stopped in place, blocking the route that would have led Laz straight to the gate and straight to the Raccoon. While no one knew what this human actually wanted, they all understood that right now was the time to act if they wanted a piece of this meat from the Raccoon’s mouth. The deer just happened to be the one to act first.
"Come to offer yourself to our great leader human? How noble of you to understand your place..." The deer’s words were cut off with a swing from ’Sever,’ cutting off it’s useless words. While the other beasts were surprised, the Raccoon just grinned wider at this show of power.
This was the kind of meal it really needed.
The Raccoon then just pointed at the beasts who were now more angry than ever at this frail creature not showing them respect and then pointed at the human.
"Die human," it said, bringing it’s hand down like a judgement from a god.
"You first," Laz responded with a smile while not moving.
The rain of fire arrived within seconds of his words.
