Glad that's sorted out.
Part Ten Part One: Metal Hyena Man
"Now everybody-" Strop is talking but Leon can't hear him. A screaming drowns out the sound. Leon's ears flatten. He has half a mind to join the torrent of people fleeing. He pushes past them. Flames streak overhead. Leon stands looking over the scene. Flames, fighting, everywhere. Leon darted into a house. Knife clutched in his hand, he sought solace in the burning building. His eyes widened as he realized he was not alone. A man with a fierce spear stood in the doorway between the atrium and the kitchen. Leon searched for an exist as the man began to turn around. With a deep breath, he pounced on the man, screaming. Someone throws a punch at Leon. Leon breaks the offending arm without a second glance. As Leon runs off. Young man collapses on the ground. A screaming pierces the air. Raiders throw objects at Leon. Sticks, stones, flames break harmlessly against metal. Leon takes no notice of the attack or maybe he doesn't care. His focus is elsewhere...
He pulls a boy in a black, flaming shirt to his feet. HE looked over to see Armor Gamers fighting raiders: A kid in a cowboy hat takes down Guy Fawkes with a Mongolian bow and arrow. A twirling revolver takes down two more raiders bang bang as Leon calls for his hyena. The hyena bounds up and licks Leon's hand. Leon stroked Marley's fur. The vigilant hyena rubs his head against Leon's hand. The gnoll pulled his hand away and indicated a target some thirty yards off. Leon continues to ignore blows to his armor as he watches the hyena duck through the crowd. An inflatable clarinet is beating against Leon's back, but he is focused on disarming the attacker in front of him. Leon grabs the pipe, but the raider's grip is tight. Leon tries to wrench it from his grip, but the raider pulls his elbow into his body. Meanwhile, the clarinet begins to bop Leon on the head (squeak! squeak!). Rolling his eyes, Leon breaks the raider's arm. He tosses the pipe on the ground haphazardly. Bop bop. Squeak squeak. Leon is getting kind of annoyed now. His knife is ready, but he doesn't want to stab anyone yet. He leaves his knife in a stick man's chest and shoves the clarinet troll to the ground. He vaults over contorted grappling, running for the exit, perhaps to escape. Or maybe he wants to help stem the tide of invaders?
He stopped and looks at a group of black-coated trolls. These elite raiders are hurling fearsome spells, freezing users, bolstering raiders, collapsing entire buildings. They are in the center of a firestorm. "Stop feeding them!" Strop shouts but the Armor Gamers are to vehement in their attempts to save the city. The flames run along the trolls' magical shield, funneling into an open maw. The troll grows larger and larger as the flames pour into its mouth, dwarfing its friends, Leon or even Bullman. That one is running through the streets swinging a stick.
Leon fires an arrow at the well-fed troll, but it doesn't seem to care. As Leon nocks another arrow, he sees Strop running. He leaps through the air, swinging Thor at the head of the defenseless troll. Squeak squeak. It strikes his head. At the moment of impact, Leon whips around, smashing the troll with a backfist. He tackles it as it stumbles. Hand clutched around its neck, Leon begins to punch the troll. It throws up its hands as the metal glove slams into its face. Leon soon smashes its guard out of the way and breaks its nose. It lets out a roar. Leon keeps punching. Leon feels the skull cave in under his fist. He continues to pound the bloody mess as shards of bone and nervous tissue coat the ground. The trolls body has stopped twitching. It holds the clarinet limply in its hand as Leon further reduces the structural integrity of its visage. Leon shouts as he continues the assault.
"Leon!" Crimsonblade dances over to the hyena's side. Metal hyena man bounces to his feet, shaking his bloody knuckles. The troll's face is unrecognizable, but its flesh is already beginning to regenerate as Leon turns to Crimson. He glares at him. He responds with nothing but a quiet nod, eyes still locked. Leon grabs his bow, Crimson raises his sword. Leon averts his eyes and fires an arrow at a raider. Crimson jumps into the air and casts a rocket spell. He blasts behind Leon, fending off a mob with a wide jet of flames. The two of them stood back to back, daring the hordes to advance. An armored man with a spear rushed them. Leon's companion sprung into action, knocking the spear to the side with an outside twist kick. Leon slams his shoulder into a raider. A quick swipe of the knife is enough to get the raider to back down. Fall down. Crimson parries a tire iron and sends the kid flying backwards with a side kick. Leon throws a stick man to the ground as he smashes the face of a many-armed demon with his steel glove. He follows up with a palm strike to its sternum as it raises its tail, dripping with poison. Leon is about to jump when Crimson slices the tail from the beast with a lazy cut. As it howls, Leon delivers a close punch to its abdomen. It lunges at him, trying to bite. Leon dodges to the side and grabs one of its pincered arms. He breaks it as he twists it behind the demons back, spinning it to the ground. As Leon sets to work stabbing the demon, Crimson fires a cloud of blue energy at an oncoming steam punk. He slips falls backwards as the cloud strikes him in the chest. The raiders are forming a circle now, surrounding Leon and Crimson. Leon and Crimson stand back to back, weapons at the ready, eyes glancing from raider to raider. The raiders stand around them, holding chains, barbed-wire bats, and flames of pure malice.
"Well if it isn't emo kid and the fur***." a raider says. In his left hand he holds a long chain. In his right, he lugs a claymore to large for one hand. In both, Leon sees the beginnings of flames. A skull mask covers his face. Leon shivers involuntarily. The skeleton raised its chain above its painted head, thrusting the red hot whip at Leon. He dodged out of the way as it swung back, leaving shallow scores in the earth. He fired two shots rapidly from his bow, but they sailed uselessly past its pulsating heart. It raised its claymore and stepped towards him, fire in its eyes. Leon catches the chain and yanks the skull-masked raider forward. A quick kick breaks his knee as Leon throws him to the ground. Another raider loses a hand as he attempts to rush Crimson. The raiders push a black-hooded hooligan towards Leon. He tries to rejoin the circle, but his comrades keep him out. Leon raises his hands in front of himself and steps forward growling. The hooligan glances back at his friends before he charges Leon, swinging a lead pipe. That one blocks the pipe with his left forearm, punches the raider in the face with his right hand and delivers a left-handed close punch to the gut. As the raider doubles over in pain, Leon throws a hook punch to the head with his left hand, sending the raider sprawling across the ground.
"Anyone else wanna try it?" Leon growls, drawing his knife. As it so happened, others did want to try it. Together, a horde of trolls and raiders rushes in, weapons swinging. Leon punches one in the neck as he knocks a fist out of his way. He blocks a knife thrust with his empty hand and slices at the wrist of the offending appendage with an upward motion of his knife. He brings the knife back down into the raider's elbow. As the raider howls, Leon brings the knife up before thrusting it into the side of the raider's neck. He yanks the knife out and prepares to confront the troll in front of him. Meanwhile, Crimson is running a troll through. He pulls his blade out quickly to block an incoming spear. He grabs the spear and pulls on it, swing the sword back in front of him. The spear-wielding troll yanks back, trying to hold on to his spear. Crimson raises the sword above his head. Suddenly, he thrusts the spear back at the troll, hitting him in the side. The troll falls forward, clutching the shaft. Crimson neatly decapitates him. Leon takes down two more raiders with quick punches. He dodges a board with a nail in it as he delivers a quick punch to the raider. Crimson hurls a smoking orb with his left, sending a raider spinning. With his right, he fires a glob of quintessence, which bowls into a group, sending kids flying, shredding stick-men and scorching a troll's flesh from his bones. "You're gonna get creamed!" A hulking tank man steps over Leon as he is throwing yet another attacker to the ground. Crimson springs to Leon's aid. He sweeps at the tank man's feet, running the crimson blade along the ground. Sparks erupt into flames as Crimson pirouettes through the air, flaming blade creating a spiral of fire behind him. The flames pull the tank man up as the spinning blade strikes him. Drawing his bow, Leon takes a knee as Crimson reaches the zenith of his jump. Crimson runs the blade, now totally wreathed in flame, along his back as Leon nocks an arrow. Crimson swings his blade around, striking the take man and sending the flames flying from the blade. Having drawn his bow fully, Leon looses the arrow. The flames solidify, taking the form of three golden long swords as they fly through the air. The swords strike the ground, neatly pinning the tank man as Leon's arrow hits a white-hooded teen in the chest, knocking him off his feet. Crimson lightly falls beside Leon. Around them, the circle has been decimated. Remnants of stick men, injured raiders and maimed trolls lie in various states of twitching and agony. Panting, they raise their guards again as the trolls begin to regenerate.
"We can't kill 'em all, Leon!" Crimson shouts
"Not if they keep regenerating anyway." Leon says slyly.
"We have to do something." Crimson sets a particularly close troll alight with a spell.
"Find their leader, or something that can kill them." Leon looks around the battlefield with a trained eye.
"There!" Crimson shouts, pointing to a green-faced troll in a dark, pinstripe suit. The troll struts through battlefield, head held high. He glances around as he draws a mini-Uzi from a pocket inside his jacket. Crimson uses his rocket spell to blast past the crowd. Marley ducks through legs and under fights. Leon runs through the crowd, knocking people out of his way fast and hard. He does not have time enough to check if they are Armor Gamers or raiders. Swift-footed Crimson closes in on the suit-wearing troll before Leon. He blocks a burst of Uzi fire with his sword (assisted by magic). The force of the bullets causes him to stumble, falling. He regains his composure for only a moment, but it is enough for him to throw his blade straight through the troll's chest. The troll stumbles backwards, apparently more shocked than harmed by the blade lodged in his chest. Crimson falls face first on the ground. The successful troll, successful in warding off Crimson, turns his gun to Leon. That one grabs the weapon and strikes the troll in the neck with a knife-assisted hammerfist. He twists the gun out of the troll's hands as he stabs him twice more in the neck. He smacks the troll across the face with the butt of the Uzi before turning to Crimson.
"Hey! Stay with me, kid!" Leon shakes Crimson's shoulders. "Will you be alright?" Crimson reaches for the Uzi. "I'll be fine. We need to worry about this troll." The troll was beginning to stand up, brushing off its suit with flaming hands. Crimson quickly casts a spell, slowing the troll to less than five frames per second.
"There we go." Crimson shrugs, but the troll in already speeding back up. Leon breaks its neck, slits its throat and throws it to the ground.
"We need to take care of this thing permanently." Leon stomps on the regenerating troll.
"It only gets stronger when you attack it." Crimson informs him.
"What else should I do?" Leon snaps.
"Hmm... I may be able to stop it temporarily with a spell. But I'll have to keep recasting the spell. Only a moderator can really stop it."
"Sounds like a plan. You keep it down, I'll go get Ed." Leon nods.
"Who?" Crimson begins to lag the troll with a fancy program.
"Strop. The moderator. Any idea where he is?" Leon asks. Without waiting for a response, Leon scampers towards the sounds of bannings.
Strop is waving his arms and telling a mob to remain calm. Meanwhile, their panicked screams lend power to a group of blood-thirsty trolls.
"Strop!" Leon calls, running up to him. Strop glaces at Leon. He does a double-take, seeing his blood-stained armor.
"Not now, Leon. I'm busy!" he sends a spammer bouncing down the road with a spinning back kick and trots towards a throng of civilians.
"Wait! It's about Crimson!" Leon shouts.
"Not now, we're in a state of emergency, at least we WILL be once I figure out what's going on!" Strop shouts over his shoulder as he pulls a kid from under a tank "No time to argue about fighting."
"We found one of the leaders." Leon growls, putting his hand on Strop's shoulder. "I killed him, but he won't stay dead." Strop continues working. "We need you to ban him." Leon adds. Strop rolls his eyes.
"Let's make this quick." Leon begins pushing through the crowd without waiting for Strop. Leon has no trouble seeing where he is going over the crowd, so Strop follows him. They trek undisturbed until Leon greets a gangly kid with a metal fist to the face. His friends are displeased with Leon's conduct, and begin to attack him with anything readily available. He blocks most of the attacks and throws quick punches at his attackers. A hulking tank man swings an enormous fist at the side of Leon's head as he snaps his jaws at a ninja Guy Fawkes. Strop deflects the punch with a circular kick. He taps his hoof on the ground before throwing a front kick, sending the tank man stumbling backwards. Another runs forward, trying to grab Strop. The pony slides under his legs and delivers a back kick to the tank man's spine. He stumbles forward into Leon, who delivers close punches to his gut. Strop knocks a stick man down with a roundhouse kick and uses the momentum for a spinning back kick to the chest of a teenager. He adds a front kick for good measure before turning back to Leon.
Leon is throwing a raider to the ground while supplying one or two punches to the face. He has evidently made a habit of this, as three other raiders lay on the ground by him, clutching their well-punched faces.
"McAcid! Excessive force!" Leon looks up.
"Behind you!" he punches the raider's face. Without looking to see what exactly is behind him, Strop jumps up, spinning through the air. He sticks his leg out, whipping it into the troll's face. He lands facing Leon.
"What were you saying?" Leon asks cheerily, stabbing a teenager in the side.
"I said-" Strop knocks a grammar Nazi down with a side kick "-no excessive force." Leon looks genuinely confused.
"I thought 'excessive force was a directive." Leon pulls the knife out with a twist.
"I can see that." Someone leaps in front of Strop swinging a torch. Instantly, Strop reacts with a quick cross-leg kick to the knee. He looks over his shoulder and throws a high back kick to a troll's face, having seen him over his shoulder.
"My bad." Leon shrugs, returning to a fighting stance.
Strop throws two rapid fire kicks to a raider before turning to the next. A roundhouse kick to the face carves their path. Leon bounces forward and bowls one over with a fist. When the raiders press in on them, Strop becomes a whirling dervish, legs of swinging legs and tornado kicks. Leon takes down a hulking enemy with a rock-solid assault. They are making fast progress towards Crimson, but as they go, they earn more attention. Strop fires an arrow that explodes in a net, ensnaring entire circle of troll magicians, but another phalanx of green-faced, purple-tongued monsters stands between them and Crimson. These ones have formed a defensive wall with their shields, and are brandishing gladii at passersby. Leon fires his bow with practiced precision, sending arrows whistling through the gaps in their shield wall. They reel back in confusion, shield wall faltering. Strop slides towards the confused squadron, throwing fast, spinning sweep kicks. As the trolls are knocked off their feet, Strop rolls his weight onto his hands and shoulders and begins to spin around, legs extended. He knocks trolls flying as the weaponized windmill twirls its way through the horde. Strop springs up to his feet as Leon takes down the stragglers.
Only two hundred feet away, they resume sprinting towards Crimson, Strop taking in deep breaths through his nostrils, Leon opening his mouth wide to force air into his lungs. Their swift steps falter slightly a pair of huge, jackal headed men appear in their way. Each stands at least nine feet tall and wears only a loin cloth, muscular red body exposed. Leon lowers his body, barreling forward with a galloping gait. Strop steps forward, light on his feet. He begins to turn as he runs forward, sinking after a revolution. He jumps as he shifts his weight to his front foot, sending himself flying. His legs kick out as he twirls through the air, hands extended swinging to give him momentum. Sprawled out against the sky like an anesthetized patient on an operating table, Strop sails towards the second jackal man. As he nears him, his right foot swings from an oblique angle, catching the jackalman on the side of the head. The force of the blow sends the jackal flying, Strop bounces back to a standing position as the jackal demon bounces to a stop some twenty feet away. Strop straightens and turns back to Leon. Metal hyena man pounced on the jackal man, coming up from below. He bowled the jackal over with the ferocity of his pounce and has pinned the jackal to the ground. He is now punching it, but he'll stop when he sees Strop has defeated one of the jackals. Together, the two of them walk the last nine yards to Crimson.
Green light is flowing from Crimson's hands into the troll when Strop arrives.
"Watch yourself." Strop instructs as Thor appears in his hands. Crimson backs off as the hammer falls. The troll's suit is the first to go, but soon the rest of the furry monster is knocked into the stratosphere. Crimson will be disappointed to discover that the mini-Uzi has disappeared with the troll, but he makes no mention of it. He hasn't noticed yet.
"That's all?" Strop asks.
"Yeah. Now it's just me and Crim-" Leon sees Crimson rocketing his way down an ally, away from the trolls. "Guess he has more important things to do."
"Yeah, speaking of more important things to do..." Strop steps back a little and poof.
"Go ahead, Strop." Leon growls as Marley bounds to his side. "We'll be alright."
Leon gazed across the battlefield, reflections of flickering flames dancing in his eyes. He smelled the blood and the flames as they seeped across the landscape. He clutched his bow. Black figures fought blackness, occasionally lit by the burning buildings or the scorching light of the seraph. From his high roost, he saw confusion, frenzy, death and destruction. The all-consuming chaos of war. And nothing else mattered.