Chapter 84: The Grave of Dreams III

  Janette opened up with her machine gun, bullets and tracers streaked into the darkness and seconds later ear deafening screeching filled the air. The beams of their torches illuminated a mass of leathery wings, and strangely skeletal bodies descending on the raid members. The rest of the ranged class holders joined Janette but it was not nearly enough to stop the swarm of horrors and seconds later they were in the midst of wings and claws. Marcus smashed two of the monsters as they slashed at him, but they were replaced by three new ones, who tried to overwhelm in with pure mass. Each of them was about the size of a Maken but thinner, with large leathery wings, metal claws and metal jaws. Marcus could neither see or hear anything beyond the monsters that swarmed him. He blindly hit against what ever he could find and every time a monster turned into a twisted corpse.

  He stomped down on one last beast, that tried to bite through his leg, and looked around to find out what was going on. It was pure carnage, the whole area was filled with flapping wings and monster bodies trying to tear apart the raid members. Everybody was fighting for their lives, Achara and Kou stood back to back trying to hold on while Rita’s circling blades had turned the ground around her into a slaughter house. Hammond had several of the monsters on him and his large machine gun was on the ground. Marcus ran towards the Spirit Guide and shouted into the com. “Close ranks and fall back into the structure! There are too many!”. He could not tell if anybody followed his call and he had no time to check. On the way to Hammond two more swooped down from the darkness and tried to rip off his head but Marcus swatted them away. Hammond was on the ground and Marcus could see blood on the claws of the monsters.

  With large steps Marcus reached the fallen man and landed several blows on the bodies of the feasting beasts. He dragged the corpses away and freed the bloodied Hammond who used a large knife to kill another scrawny monster. Marcus helped him up and the man looked completely calm even so, a moment ago he was about to be eaten alive. He grabbed his gun and Marcus held the swarm at bay until the roaring the machine gun told Marcus Hammond was back in action.

  Together they moved closer to the rest of heir team and as one they made for the closest entrance to the main structure. They left behind a trail of corpses but more and more fiends emerged from the darkness in search for their blood.

  “I need to reload!” Janette’s strained voice over com, followed by “We need support, we can not keep them back!” It was Grace’s voice and Marcus asked over the team channel “Orders?”. Rita turned to him and looked at the situation. “We are nearly in cover, go and help them to get out of the open.” Marcus nodded and sprinted towards the other group. He could see Grace’s glowing blade cut through bodies in blinding speed but she could only be at one place at the time and the swarm had encircled them. Alistair stood not far from her using his staff and abilities to fight of the monsters together with Carlos. His long sword moved faster than Marcus could see and monster bodies came apart mid flight. Candis was in between the two man, using hands and feet to keep the monsters at bay.

  Janette was crouched, trying to get her weapon going but the monsters had identified her as a major threat and claws and metal jaws carved into her body. Marcus rushed through the ring of monsters, smashing several on the way. He reached down and pulling the beasts away from Janette, breaking spines, liquefying brains. Beasts jumped him from behind and buried their claws in his back and shoulders but he did not stop cutting down the monsters attacking Janette.

  Janette was bleeding from a dozen minor wounds but her head came up and so did her machine gun. For a moment their eyes met and Marcus knew she would be okay. He moved on as the deadly sound of her machine gun returned to the battlefield. He tore two beasts from his back while walking towards the rest of team one. With Janette and Grace working together again, the flood of claws was pushed back in one direction and Marcus could concentrate on supporting the other members. “I need ten seconds of concentration!” Alistair shouted as Marcus stepped next to him. The old man looked exhausted, blood and sweat covered his white face and hair. Marcus nodded and took his place as defender while the man started a blood ritual. Marcus forced back several beasts and saw Carlos do the same. In spite of his speed and power the Accelerator had deep cuts in his armor and used only one hand to swing his sword, he was close to collapsing. Marcus doubled his efforts and made wide swings to drive the swarm back, allowing the monsters to get a few good hits in as compensation.

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  In the middle of the raging battle he could feel something hot crawling up his feet and then his legs. The heat traveled through his body and all his movements accelerated greatly. The Blood Oath of Alistair was active and it was mighty. The blood of the countless fallen monsters fueled the ritual and gave the defenders new energy. “Towards the entrance!” was Grace’s order and together with the rest they fell back to the other group who fought back the monsters in an advantages position.

  Grace and Marcus played rear guard while the rest joined the other team. They fell back into a hallway but the winged terrors still crawled along the floor and walls. Only after thirty meter the numbers diminished and they finally stopped after they had reached another room inside the structure.

  Half of the raid fell to the ground no longer able to stand or fight while Marcus and Grace kept up their guard. Marcus looked at her and she too was riddled with minor wounds and her face was wet with sweat. “Is everybody here?” It was Alistair, but his voice was weak. “All raid members are accounted for.” Rita said who gave first aid to Hammond while Candis was looking after Carlos. Kou and Achara both looked rough but they were not in mortal danger. “You can take a break too. If something comes up I will call.” Marcus said and Grace looked at him for a moment before she nodded. She staggered to the next wall and slowly slid down. It did not look like she would be able to stand for a while.

  Marcus took deep, long breaths and steadied his heartbeat. This was the first time in forever that he had been exhausted. The whole fight only took a minute or two but he had been firing off full power Impulse Hammers non stop and his body had healed dozens of small wounds over the time. As he cooled down he could feel the soft throbbing of new crests in his chest. That was no surprise they must have killed a hundred or more of those insane monsters. A level or two was the least he was expecting from that encounter. “Marcus I need you. Carlos is too exhausted, his wounds are not healing properly.” Candis called for him.

  Rita traded places with Marcus as guard and he moved over to the heavily wounded man. On the way he called for his three new crests and spent them on vitality, every bit was needed. He sat down next to Candis and let her Link a good amount of his vitality to Carlos. The man was awake but his eyes looked misty, as soon as the Link was active his complexion improved and his eyes revitalized. After only half an hour he was stable enough that Candis moved on to the next wounded raid member. Marcus followed her along and Link helped to bring the raid back to strength this much faster. Two hours after the fighting had ended Marcus sat down next to Janette and closed his eyes. He had forgotten how it felt to be completely drained.

  Marcus emerged from a dreamless sleep hearing soft spoken conversations and smelled FOOD! His stomach decided it was time to wake up. Janette brought him a double portion of curry with rice and he finished it in record tempo together with a large bottle of water.

  With a minimum amount of rest the whole raid came together to review the events. “Can we all agree, we stay away from the open space as much as possible in the future?” Achara said and everybody nodded. They had gained a lot of levels but they had also lost two of the Mules in the fight, not to talk about the wounds and damaged equipment. “Thanks to the efforts of our priestess we have no long term injuries. Overall this could have gone way worse. Everybody did amazing.” Alistair said and for once Candis smiled after he had said something. They decided to make it a full rest and only move on the next day.

  Marcus was still in his grimy armor and asked Janette to help him change out of it to clean it as best as possible under the circumstances. As he worked on his damaged armor Carlos stepped up to him and examined him from top to bottom. “You really have no scratch on you.” Carlos said, with a hard to read look in his eyes. “Rita said you have a healing ability but…” he shook his head. “Thank you for sharing your vitality. It really pulled me back.”, “No problem, if I have one thing than it is a lot of vitality.” Marcus answered, Carlos nodded and moved over to Rita. The two talked in private and there was a tenderness between them, Marcus had not expected.

  He got back to his work, while thinking about the last fight. It had been their first real fight in these ruins and it had been a bloody hard one too. Marcus thought about the endless darkness that loomed outside and what else was waiting in the depths.