TWENTY-TWO
“We’re nearly there,” Darren said to his small group of advisers around him. Roan wasn’t part of the knot of close knit friends, but he stayed close enough to hear them. Even with the amulet he was tired after an hour of fighting, shirt soaked in sweat and chest heaving like a bellows.
“Definite advantage, but not quite superhuman.” The continuous stream of energy had kept him on his feet and fighting longer than anyone aside from Taoya. Even the other bloodline fighters had backed up to catch their breath. Taoya was just on another level. Darren had had to fight to pull the big man off the frontlines, arguing that if this new alley led to another saferoom there’d be guardians to fight.
“Wonder if all the saferooms are rolling hills?” The question was enough to set off another round of discourse between the guards as they threw in their two cents. Darren and Taoya stayed in their own conversation, eyes locked on the alleyway that was nearly done being cleared out.
“Can’t get much further without more bodies to hold the line. Rotations are already too short. We’re going to have exhaustion start causing accidents soon if we don’t get reinforcements. That or retreat back down the halls, but we’d be abandoning everything we’ve gained,” Darren said to Taoya who nodded.
“We can always contract a bit. Let the skeletons have most of the hallways and just hold two for ourselves. That will shrink our footprint considerably,” Taoya suggested.
“If there’s not a saferoom waiting down this hall, that’s what we’ll do,” Darren agreed.
“Toaya! We have guardians!” A voice echoed down the hallway, bringing everyone’s attention to the end. Roan blinked twice as he repeated the words he’d just heard. Guardians. Plural. Roan was moving before he could think, racing just a step behind Taoya as the big man barreled down the hallway.
The clearing team had leapt into the graves to make room as the heavy hitters came down the hall. Behind Roan the rest of the sect fighters were a few paces behind, the teams that Darren had used to kill the first guardians.
“These halls are very long.” The hall was long enough that even at a near sprint he had time to think about the monotony of the crypt as he neared the end of it. The bouncing hammer on his shoulder was starting to form a bruise as Taoya gave a shout and leapt forward, clearing his viewline.
It was another cul-de-sac. Identical to their own in every way. Ten massive coffins propped against the walls with several of the guardians broken into pieces across the dirt. Unlike theirs though, three of the guardians were awake at the same time, standing silent sentinels with their massive clubs.
Bodies were laying in twisted and broken heaps along the far walls. Over a dozen of them with several of them wearing sect robes. Roan looked toward their targets and quickly scanned them, looking for a weakness.
Regardless of how many had died fighting to get to the portal in the back of the room, they had managed to injure the guardians. Cracks lined their bones from weapon strikes, long splintered wounds along their legs and lower ribs.
Taoya saw the same things. Even as the guardians started to lurch forward towards them, lifting their clubs above their heads as they aimed at Taoya. Energy discharged in a crack of lighting as the big man shot forward. Bone exploded out in a wave of shrapnel as the leading guardian toppled to the side as its leg was pulverized.
Roan knew what he had to do. Taoya wasn’t slowing down as he went toward the second guardian. Other fighters were right behind Roan and he had to rely on them to do their job and engage the third guardian.
Jumping straight up he landed on the guardian’s chest and brought the hammer around in a wind-mill strike. The spike on the back of the hammer hit the thick brow of the guardian’s skull. Spiderwebs of cracks immediately appeared from the blow. Roan put his foot on the guardian’s cheekbone and pulled the hammer free, spinning it around to the flat head and beginning to crush the skull into bone dust.
Taking his gaze off of his own beat down he looked toward the other groups. Toaya was fighting a guardian one-on-one, dancing around the unwieldy club strikes with ease. Harris led the rest of the elite team to encircle the other guardian, using the same methods they had perfected to begin whittling it down.
It took Roan another three heavy hits to finally finish off the guardian. Taoya was slowing down already, the nimbus of light around him was starting to fade and he with it. Roan hit the ground running, bringing the hammer around in a massive swing that saw the large, already cracked, femur break.
It took another five minutes to whittle it down. His heavy blows with Taoya’s enhanced strikes left it completely destroyed. Sweat was burning his eyes as Roan tried to catch his breath, wiping at his brow. Taoya was next to him in a similar state while the group fighting the final guardian seemed to be doing well.
“How many of the coffins are left?” Roan finally asked as he started to count. The three they had been fighting with three already killed. Four sealed coffins left. With the rate they were burning through the skeletons those four wouldn’t be sealed for long.
“Good work, guys,” Darren said as he came out of the alley with the last of the reserves. Several of them pulled off to join the last group fighting the guardian and Roan watched as they broke it apart.
“Taoya, you ready? Through the portal!” Darren said, excited as he started to jog forward. It was easy to forget that many of their friends and allies had been separated by the nature of the tower. This would be the first step in securing more allies and reforging their pre-made alliances into something impactful.
“It weakens your position. You have to be strong enough to stand out even with all of the other fighters. Still behind Taoya even with the amulet.”
It felt wrong to leave the fight unfinished, but fighting the guardians had become rote by now. Dangerous but simple. Wear them down with continuous attacks until they collapsed and the crack the skulls. Without Taoya’s massive attacks to shatter a leg, it would just take time and effort. Time and effort that Darren didn’t feel like spending as he walked quickly through the portal.
Roan was the third person through the portal, behind only Darren and Taoya. The familiar sense of nausea was muted as they stepped into the saferoom. The earlier question was answered instantly. Not all saferooms were alike.
There’s had been a rolling grasslands with gentle sloped hills. This one was a building. Square concrete walls with filtered sunlight coming through tinted windows. The smell of blood and sweat was thick in the air as the quiet groans of pain filled his ears.
“What happened here?” Darren whispered as he looked over all the wounded bodies lying on the ground. A few haunted looks turned toward them and a robe wearing sect member stood up from the side. The golden yellow robes were stained red along the hems and a tear ran from shoulder to wrist. Bandages were wrapped around her arm, visible through the tear as she looked at them with dark brown eyes.
“Darren? Not who I thought would be mounting a rescue mission.” Her voice was deep for a woman’s, strained though as from screaming or yelling.
“Tyler, what the hell happened?”