BOOM!
The two shield-bearers collided, the impact sending a circular shockwave that pushed both goblins and humans back. The result was shocking. Jacob was sent flying; blood and body parts littered the ground.
"Jacob!" They were horrified. Just one hit and their tank was dead.
Using the shock to his advantage, Gallagher spun around, his sword whistling towards Creed.
"Creed, watch out!"
Spinning further, he bashed Ronny with the side of his shield. The result was worse than Jacob; Ronny's body was pulverized into blood and chunks of meat.
"Creed! Ronny!"
In less than three seconds, three of their comrades were in pieces. Before Creed could dodge, the sword had already bisected him.
"Condense!" The huge fireball shrunk in size, but the heat grew more intense.
"How long?" a warrior asked. "We are getting massacred here!"
That warrior's head suddenly turned into a bloody chunk, his body falling lifeless. Gallagher had kicked a rock at high speeds while the unfortunate man wasn't paying attention.
"Filthy humans, today will be your end."
"Ready! Get the fuck out of the way!" the leader of the mages shouted. The remaining warriors quickly retreated.
"Fire!" The spell was sent flying towards Gallagher, its heat scorching the ground.
BOOM!
The fire collided with him, a mushroom cloud of smoke rising.
"Yes, we got him!"
"This is for Jacob and the others you killed, you monster!"
They cheered.
"Looks like those fools are celebrating too soon," Zarek chuckled. Vark just stood there silent.
"Now let's go to the other side of the battle; we need to help the others out," the mages turned, ready to leave.
A head exploded beside them, then another body.
"What the fuc—" One didn't finish his sentence before he also exploded into bloody chunks, his blood painting his comrades red. More rocks came flying from the smoke.
"Hold formation!"
Finally, the smoke settled. Gallagher stood there completely fine. His shield was cracked and in pieces, but he was okay.
"How... how did he survive that?"
"Now I'm angry. That was my favorite shield you just destroyed." Gallagher walked over and picked up Jacob's shield. He weighed it in his hands. "Hmm, too light."
"Get your filthy hands off Jacob's shield!"
"Oh, so his name was Jacob? He was too weak."
"Give it back, you ugly bastard!"
"Okay, here, have it." Gallagher tossed the shield back.
"Scatter!" Some were too slow; the shield crushed them. One was hit in the legs. "Ahhh, my legs!"
"Regroup now!" the mage shouted. "Defend us as we prepare another spell!"
"Are you crazy? Your last spell did nothing to him!"
"You fool, his shield is gone! He only survived because of it. Now defend us or we will all be dead!"
The warriors gritted their teeth and rushed back in. "Your shield is gone! Sooner or later, you will fall!"
Gallagher walked toward the huge hammer lying on the floor and picked it up. "Hmm, the weight is just right." The warriors surrounded him again.
Try as they might, the human warriors were decimated by Gallagher, their bodies laid on the floor motionless. The mages were also in the same state.
"You... you monster, you killed them all, you're a devil," a warrior on the floor sobbed. His legs were torn.
"I'm a monster? A devil? Look around you, you guys were the ones who attacked us first, what do you expect, huh?" His heavy boots cracked the charred ground as he walked over. "Do you expect us to just lie down and allow our people be massacred? Not fight back, huh?"
He lifted the human warrior by his head, his huge hands wrapped around his skull.
"Please spare me, I have a wife and a little girl, one more is on the way, please,"
Gallagher took a deep breath, the smell of blood and burned body drifted into his nose. "I also had a wife and daughter once, until you guys took them away from me. You should have thought about that before attacking."
"Plea..."
SPLAT...
Brain juice slid through Gallagher's fingers.
Then he turned his attention towards another part of the battlefield.
"That was intense," Zarek chuckled.
.....
Finally, Grom made his way to the residential area. All around him was pandemonium and chaos.
"Kael! Ajax!" He called out as he searched around.
His heart was beating wildly, but he forced himself on.
"No! No! No!" Getting to his house, he saw that some sections had caved in while the other side looked unstable.
Two humans stood at the entrance of the collapsed home.
"Hey, Jasper, be fast about it. Is anyone in there?"
"No, I can't find anyone here, just a half-finished meal."
"Are you sure? Check; they might be hiding."
"Oh, I'm blind, right? Why don't you shut the hell up and let me do my job, huh?"
"You!! Where is my family! What have you done to them?!" Grom swung his pickaxe, the tip plunged deep into the enemy's head.
Giving the other one no time to react, he pulled the pickaxe out of the dead man's head and swung it at the other man. The other man tried dodging but it was already too late as the pickaxe buried itself in the man's head.
"What's going on?" The last man poked his head out of the cracked house.
"I heard fig..." A huge hand grabbed onto the man and yanked him out.
He was then violently body-slammed on the floor.
"Ahhh!"
"Shut it. What did you do to my family? Answer fast!"
"I... I don't know, no one was here when we got here," his voice trembled as he spoke. The eyes of this devil looked horrific; he looked like a deranged lunatic.
"You aren't lying, right?"
"No, I swe..."
The head exploded as Grom stepped on it.
He quickly went into the house and searched but couldn't find them. "They are not here. I have to find them fast."
......
"Get away from me," Kael screamed as she swung a piece of iron she had found on the floor.
Kael backed away, her breathing ragged, her eyes darting between the three soldiers who had cornered her.
"Get back!" She slashed with the piece of iron.
"Ooh, a feisty one. Cut her down quick." They moved in closer.
One got too close and Kael took the opportunity; she slashed him across the face and then tried running.
"Ahhh! You bitch!" the soldier cried.
Before Kael could go far, she was yanked back by the hair.
"Ahhh!"
"You bitch, I will make you bleed before killing you. I'll kill your damned son before your eyes!" The soldier who had his face slashed violently tore Ajax from his mother and then tossed him to the side.
Ajax's scrawny figure hit the ground hard, his body tumbling before coming to a stop, a loud yelp escaping his mouth.
"I'll teach you a lesson, you damn whore!" the man with a cut shouted as he repeatedly punched Kael in the stomach, then pushed her onto the floor. His heavy boots kept raining down kicks nonstop.
"Mum!" Ajax ran to the man and clutched his legs.
"What's this?" The man picked Ajax up as he stared angrily at the little brat. "Looks like someone wants to play hero. Fine, I will just have to strangle you to death." The man wrapped his hands around Ajax's throat as he squeezed tight.
Ajax's little arms flailed about; he repeatedly pounded into the man's chest. Veins bulged from his neck as his eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of their sockets.
"No, please!" Kael wrapped her arms around the man's legs as she tugged at his legs.
"Get your filthy hands off me!" He swung his other leg as it came crashing into Kael's face. Blood was sent flying.
"Hey man, be fast about it; we got other things to do."
"Shut it!"
Kael didn't give up; she came back again and again as she grabbed onto the man's legs only to be kicked in the face.
"Fine. You keep holding onto me? Let me see how you would hold me when your hands aren't working."
He stomped onto Kael's hands.
"Ahh!" A guttural scream came from Kael. Her hands were all mangled up.
"Now let me see how you will hold me." The man continued strangling Ajax; by now, all color was drained from his face, his hands hung limply by the side.
.......
"Mum!"
"Ajax!" Grom heard a scream; he was sure that that was Ajax's voice.
His heartbeat increased; a cold thought grew in his mind. "I'm coming!"
Then he heard a blood-curdling scream.
"Ahhh!"
"No, no, no!" He hurried his steps.
Up ahead a group of four men stood; one of them was holding a little child in his hands and below him a woman laid.
"Ajax! Kael!" Fury erupted within him. "Get your fucking hands off my son!" He swung his pickaxe at the man, its tip driving itself through the armor and into the man's chest.
The man staggered back, eyes wide open, blood pouring from his mouth; then his body collapsed to the floor.
Ajax's body hit the floor.
"Gaaah..." the boy gasped, drawing in ragged, desperate breaths of air.
"He killed James! Get him!" the other soldiers shouted, drawing their blades.
A sudden, powerful punch caught the nearest soldier in the cheek, sending him spiraling through the air. Grom turned, his chest heaving, to see a familiar figure standing in the smoke.
"Joe?"
"Yeah, yeah, it me, Joe. You think I'm going to allow you to come here alone? Not a chance. Now hurry up and take Kael and Ajax," Joe threw his pickaxe at the last person.
Grom was touched; tears clouded his eyes. "Thank you, Joe. Thank you."
Slowly, Ajax's eyes fluttered open. The blurred world began to sharpen, the smell of smoke and iron filling his small nose. He felt a pair of large, familiar arms pulling him close, arms that smelled of the deep earth and home.
"Dad?" his voice was a tiny, broken rasp.
Grom let out a choked sob, pressing his forehead against the boy's. "I'm here, Ajax. I'm here. You're okay now. I've got you."
"Joe, get Kael!" Grom screamed, but got no response. "Joe! Joe!"
Grom turned around to see Joe standing; a sword was embedded in his chest with blood running down his lips.
"Grom... I don't think I will be able to eat Kael's food again. What a shame," Joe managed to wheeze, a small, sad smile twitching on his bloody lips.
For one heartbeat, the alley went silent.
SWOOSH.
The golden blade shifted with a wet, sliding sound. The sword ran down his body, bisecting him in two; blood and organs fell onto the floor.
THUD.
The two halves of Joe fell to the ground, his eyes instantly turning lightless.
"Joe!"
"Uncle Joe!"
A man in gold regal armor, with two coiling dragons imprinted on his chest plate, golden hair, and golden eyes, stepped out. In his hand, he wielded a huge sword that hummed with a cold, predatory light. His golden eyes were cold and his eyebrows were as sharp as his blade.
He looked down at Joe's body and kicked the remains apart. "Filth."
He began walking over Kael, his eyes fixed on her body sprawled on the floor.
"No! Get away from her!" Lifting his pickaxe, Grom swung it at the man, anger burning in his chest.
The man easily sidestepped the clumsy blow, then swung his sword in a golden blur. At the last second, Grom managed to raise his pickaxe to block, but the legendary steel sliced through the wood and iron like it was paper.
"What the—?" Grom managed to retreat, but the edge of the sword grazed Ajax's face. The cut ran from the top of his left eye to the bottom of the right side of his lips.
Blood gushed down his face, but strangely, Ajax didn't make a sound. He just stared at the golden man as the blood flowed, his eyes wide and unblinking.
"You bastard!" Grom threw the shattered half of his pickaxe at the man, who tilted his head as the wood whistled harmlessly past.
Grom dropped Ajax down on the floor. "Ajax, I want you to run, okay?"
Taking a deep breath, Grom scooped up a discarded sword from the man he killed earlier.
"I will kill you for this!" He rushed in, roaring as he repeatedly swung the heavy blade at the man in gold, but the Prince danced around the strikes with clinical ease.
SWOOSH.
A hand went flying through the air.
THUD....
The hand landed with a wet, sickening thud, its fingers still desperately clutching the hilt of the sword.
"Ahhh, my arm!" Grom staggered back, clutching his bleeding stump. Even in agony, his protective instinct took over. "You bastard, you will pay for this!"
Grom charged one last time, a suicide run fueled by pure love.