The Servants charged in first, around a hundred of them, give or take a dozen more, growling and snarling and chittering as they ran. This was the fastest Chloe had seen them go. They retained their usual clumsiness, tripping and stumbling as they ran and limping, but they moved like they were driven by glorious purpose, charging right for the center of the district where Jin currently stood unarmed, placing her faith in Chloe and the others.
The Nighthounds appeared next, blurring in and surging straight past the Servants, overtaking them with ease. The hounds seemed much more aggressive than the ones Chloe and the others had encountered, and they seemed larger too, as if they were made entirely of muscle. Jin twitched slightly in the center when she heard the Nighthounds but she didn't move from the spot.
And then, just as the hounds and Servants were closing in on Jin, there appeared the angry gods.
It looked like there was only one at first, a crimson eye glowing in the distance. Then more eyes appeared, three more, from every cardinal direction of the district. The plan had been to close them in, to attack from all directions.
Chloe, who was perched atop the roof of one of the taller buildings in the district alongside Jon, saw the angry gods when they appeared and felt a shiver run down her spine, felt her skin crawl. She watched and waited, as did Jon, until the angry gods had crossed the boundaries of the district, and as soon as they had, Jon reached for his earpiece.
"Cole. Glenn. Now."
At once, the light-blue shade of the field flickered into being around the district as the electromagnetic fences fired back into function. The angry gods wailed in response to this but they did not bother with the fences. They continued toward the center, toward Jin, who was now only mere moments away from being at the mercy of the Nighthounds, and still she hadn't moved an inch.
"Now," Jon said.
At once, guards emerged from buildings around the district and from the Chancellor's Hall, roaring at the top of their lungs, weapons firing from the go. As soon as the battle started, Jin turned on her heel and vanished in a blur. She was taking no risks by participating in the fight herself. Not until the numbers had changed and the chance of capture was a slimmer one.
The Nighthounds, frustrated by their prey's sudden disappearance, went into a frenzy and ran at guards, snapping and clawing with all ferocity. When the district guards fired at the Nighthounds, the creatures turned their attention to them. The Nighthounds attacked at once, moving far quicker than any of the guards could possibly handle.
Chloe and Jon joined the fight, as did Lucas and Aiden, the four of them landing on the battlefield from the rooftops they'd been perched on. As soon as they landed, they wasted no time. They surged forward, tearing through Servant after Servant, each blow delivered with the intent to obliterate, maximum lethal efficiency being the goal. The hounds and the angry gods were the more pressing concerns; they couldn't let the Servants take up too much time, and with Jin's blood supercharging them, the Servants were significantly easier than before to breeze through.
The angry gods, however, were a problem. They thrashed about with their limbs, striking at anything below them, foe or ally, slicing buildings in half with easy movements and sending concrete and bricks raining down to the ground. Chloe saw one of the angry gods swing a limb at her.
Rather than dodge, she grabbed onto it and let it carry her through the air. As the limb swung again, she timed it, letting go and using the momentum to launch herself toward one of the Nighthounds, one that had been running straight for Hardy. She slammed into the Nighthound just as it leaped at Hardy and tackled it to the ground. The hound snarled beneath her and attempted to break free but found it difficult to do so. Chloe slammed an elbow into the hound's head and heard a satisfying crack. A whimper followed, and the hound's body went completely still a few seconds later, a pool of blood quickly forming beneath its head.
Four Nighthounds came at her then. Before, the hounds had seemed too fast, harder to deal with. Now, she saw them coming well enough. She spun on her feet and slammed a fist into the neck of one, snapping it in a single blow. Quickly, she spun around and swatted at two that had leaped at her, knocking them to the ground. A fourth went for her feet.
"Not again," she snarled, avoiding the Nighthound's bite before bringing a foot down hard on it. She crushed the hound's spine beneath her foot and put it out of its misery by stomping on its head.
The two Nighthounds she'd knocked to the ground came at her again. She snarled and went at them, both hands shooting out and wrapping around their necks. Angrily, she brought their heads together, slamming them against one another and doing so repeatedly until the hounds had gone limp in her grasp.
Breathing heavily, she let the hounds drop. Four Nighthounds taken care of and she didn't even feel tired yet. In fact, it felt like she'd gotten more fuel in the tank. Adrenaline and something else were coursing through her now, egging her on. She was unstoppable. Invincible. She could take on the monsters singlehandedly.
Snarling, and more animalistically than she knew, she surged into battle again. She grabbed a Nighthound that had taken down a guard and was now separating flesh from bone, lifted it up, snapped its neck, then hurled its body right at an angry god. The dead hound hit the angry god in the eye and staggered it. A flash grenade from Hardy staggered it further and it hit the side of a building, clearly disoriented.
Opportunity presented itself to Chloe. She moved quickly, grabbing a rifle from the ground that had belonged to a now dead guard, then sprinted toward the dazed angry god. Between her and the creature was Jon, who was tearing through the hounds like they were nothing.
Jon saw her coming, looked to the angry god and immediately understood.
"Lift!" Chloe yelled.
Jon kicked away one of the hounds closest to him, then lowered himself at once, intertwining his hands and holding them out. Chloe built up speed and leaped right at him, landing atop his hands. As soon as she did, he heaved with all of his might, throwing her higher up.
In the air, she hurled the rifle at the angry god with all the strength she had and this time, she did more than just pierce it. The rifle shot straight through its eye entirely and the monster convulsed, its entire body twitching violently, limbs going limp as it dropped completely.
She landed on the ground some distance away from the angry god and continued her sprint toward it. Quickly, she scaled to the top of the creature's head. She could feel it still twitching, vibrating almost. She held one hand up, pressing her fingers together the same way she'd seen Jin do it. And then she thrust against the top of the creature's head, striking with the points of her fingers.
She didn't pierce all the way through as Jin had managed, but her hand did dig through somewhat and the angry god twitched more violently beneath her. She repeated the move four more times before the angry god stopped twitching, before its eye dimmed entirely. At this point, she had its disgusting head slime all over her. But she didn't care. In fact, she reveled in it. There was something thoroughly pleasing about it, something almost sensual.
She slid off of the dead angry god and started to walk back toward the battle. Her breathing was heavier and she could feel fatigue starting to creep in, could feel the effects of Jin's blood starting to wane. But there was still enough left in her, enough left to cause some more carnage.
As she advanced toward the battlefield, Hardy watched her and seemed at first impressed, then a little frightened, concerned. She paid him no regard.
There were Nighthounds ahead of her that seemed to retreat as she approached. They were scared, scared after watching her bring down the angry god, scared at how much more primal than them she currently seemed.
She saw another angry god fall, this time to the combined efforts of Lucas and Aiden, who had disoriented the creature with multiple flash grenades before quickly putting it out of its misery, if at all it felt anything like that.
Chloe moved in a blur and tore one Nighthound's head from its body. One charged at her; she punched hard enough that her fist shot straight through its stomach and protruded from its back. She yanked her fist free of the hound in time to catch another that came charging, and bashed its head against the ground with enough force to flatten it completely, Nighthound brain going splat all over.
The remaining Nighthounds seemed scared now, spooked, and even more so when Jin finally appeared, joining the fight. In the blink of an eye, she'd separated six Nighthounds from their heads, limbs and hearts, all without getting herself needlessly dirty. The two angry gods left standing seemed to grow rather eager as soon as Jin reappeared, suddenly sweeping across the battlefield with their limbs, sending guards and Servants flying.
That was when the lights came on — every light in the district at once, so suddenly and blindingly that Chloe winced and had to shield her eyes. The lights were so brilliant and overpowering that bulbs literally exploded and shattered, plunging the district right back into darkness.
But the damage had been done. The two angry gods were disoriented and in agony. Jin and Jon took the last two, bringing them both down onto the Chancellor's Hall, the creatures' final screeches ringing long into the air before being silenced very suddenly.
After that, the rest was easy. The Servants stood no chance, and the Nighthounds started to run, but Lucas had absolutely no intention of allowing any of them to get away, nor did Aiden. By the time the sun rose over the district, the fight was over, limbs and entrails and heads strewn all over the place, soaking in puddles of blood, rotten or otherwise.
The strength had all but faded from Chloe at this point and she staggered to a pile of rubble and dropped onto it, drawing deep breaths as she did. Jon joined her a moment later, then Lucas, Aiden, and finally Hardy. All of them were breathing heavily, sweat mixing on their faces with the blood that had already stained them, chests and backs heaving.
None of them spoke for ten minutes. They all simply sat and attempted to catch their breaths. Lucas even chose to lay down for a bit.
Chloe felt sore all over, felt her muscles ache and throb, felt her head pound. The crash from Jin's blood was not at all a pleasant feeling.
But it'd done its work. They'd won this fight, finally earned what felt to her like a proper victory.
She knew, of course, that this wasn't enough. Sure, it was a start, but only that. There was no doubt that Tarran would be enraged by yet another failed attempt to retrieve his daughter, angered at being thwarted by them again.
When she looked up, she saw Jin's eyes locked onto her, and her gaze was not one of celebration or relief. She was thinking exactly what Chloe was.
This was far from over.