“Archers!” Phil yelled suddenly, grabbing everyone’s attention.
“What?” Ed said, turning to face Phil.
“Red Archers! Headed here for the village…” Phil said. His eyes were closed, but his head darted around in all directions.
“Take cover! We move when we know what we’re up against!” Danny yelled, and headed for the forest. Mason addressed the villagers, telling them to take cover somewhere safe in the forest until the archers were taken care of.
“What’s the plan?” Priest said, leaning in close to Danny and whispering.
“Well, we go into the village…” Danny began.
“Right.”
“And then…”
“Uh huh.”
“…we fight,” Danny concluded.
“Excellent plan.”
“Thanks. It took me hours.”
“My gun’s running out of juice, you know,” Priest said.
“So? Find an energy source, then go and punch things,” Danny answered. Priest nodded.
<…dozens…> Said a voice in Danny’s head. It seemed vaguely familiar, then he realised with a start that it was Phil.
<…there’s dozens of them… at least…>
Danny looked back at the rest of the team. Phil sat with his eyes closed, his hands clutched against his temples. He realised that Phil wasn’t intentionally sending him a telepathic message. The thoughts were just spilling out.
“Hundreds of them. Eight of us. Anybody here call themselves a gambling man?” Danny said.
There was a large, wide path that led through the village, stretching from the north end to the south. To either side of it were huts constructed from stone and mud. There were smaller ones at the south end, domestic abodes and storage sheds. Larger ones were grouped at the north end, which houses places of a more public nature like the tavern. The blacksmith was the last building at the south end, and it looked over a small clearing.
The Red Archers were situating themselves along this main path, concentrating their numbers at each end. A few were scattered around the other buildings. Several were in the tavern, going through several kegs of mead and feasting off a dead boar.
Some were supervising the dragging into the village of a cart from the south end.
One of them stood at the northernmost tip of the path, where it tapered off and became indistinguishable from the floor of the forest. He noticed, much to his surprise, that a man with wings had exploded from out of the brush and was heading straight for him.
The Raptor swooped down before the Archer could react, keeping one hand stretched out below him and grabbing his prey by the shoulder as he passed. Ed threw the man hard against the stone wall of the nearest building.
An arrow flew past Ed’s shoulder, and he banked sharply to the left. Banshee appeared alongside him, and the two matched speed as they flew down the length of the village. Ed covered his ears as Brianna’s scream laid waste to the scene below her. Soldiers dropped their weapons and fell to the ground, clutching the sides of their head.
The Raptor distanced himself from her, trying not to let the sound of her scream throw him off his balance.
Priest raised his gun from the shelter of the forest and picked off the three closest guards. Another one noticed them falling and quickly raised his bow, finding nothing to shoot at but trees and grass.
Ozzy jumped out of the bushes and ran quickly across the edge of the path, disappearing behind the building that The Raptor had just knocked a man out against. The guard with the raised bow followed him, finding Ozzy standing motionless against the wall.
“Oh, hey,” Ozzy said. “What’s up.”
The man with the bow fired. The tip of the arrow slammed against Ozzy’s chest, falling to the ground ineffectually.
“Ow. You got me. I’m done for,” Ozzy said in a deadpan monotone. The archer had no time to react before a lethal dose of snake poison was jammed into his neck.
“Hi Danny.”
“Hey.”
“You got a guy behind you.”
“You too.”
They both spun around and connected with hard right hands to the jaws of their respective opponents. Danny had once again sheathed himself in a shiny black exoskeleton. An arrow hit his surface and snapped. Danny looked up to the source of the attack and saw a man on the roof, his bow raised and a look of confusion across his face.
“Turns out they’re stationed on the rooftops,” Danny said to Baxter.
The archer suddenly toppled off the roof, landing in a heap in front of Danny and Ozzy. A second quickly followed him. They both looked up to find Drake standing there, looking down at this two teammates.
“How’d you get up there without them noticing you?” Ozzy asked.
“Secret dragon magic.”
“I see.”
Drake spun around as something in the corner of his eye grabbed his attention. He instinctively shot out his right arm, catching an arrow firmly in his hand. A sound from behind him indicated the presence of a third man climbing onto the rooftop. In one fluid motion, he pivoted on his left foot and deposited the arrow in the kidney off his new opponent.
He ducked backwards and another arrow glided across his chest, barely missing him. He ducked to the ground and rolled across to the side of the roof, grabbing the edge in his hand and pulling himself off it. He landed on his feet on the ground where Danny and Ozzy had been standing a moment ago. Drake wasn’t surprised to find them gone.
The two men had charged confidently into the middle of the road that cut through the centre of town. Ozzy prided himself on being a particularly resilient distraction, and Danny’s shell had so far been providing a rather effective defence from the attacks of the Red Archers. An arrow smacked against his stomach, and another against his chest. He laughed, and launched a blob of poison laced spit directly into the face of the nearest attacker.
“So… This is the fun part,” Said Ozzy, running to the side of the road to engage an archer in a fistfight. He kneed the man in the groin, and then punched him in the back of the head, Ozzy felt a sword smack him in the shoulder, and spun around on the ball of his right foot to land a punch directly on his attacker’s Adam’s apple. Another approached Ozzy from the left, and the boxer stuck out his foot to trip the man. As he stumbled, Ozzy grabbed his arm and threw him shoulder first into his other opponent. The two sprawled to the ground at Ozzy’s feet.
Ozzy heard a loud thud and felt something odd tickling the inside of his ear. He turned his head and noticed that another archer had his bow levelled straight at him, the string still shaking as if it had just let loose an arrow. Danny punched the man across the jaw and he fell to the ground. Danny then turned to Ozzy and burst out laughing.
It took Ozzy Baxter a moment to realise that he had an arrow sticking out of his ear. If he’d been a normal man it would have split his head right open. He reached up a hand and began to wiggle it free.
“It’s not funny, you know!” He yelled to Danny as he marched back across the street, deflecting an attack from an archer by striking him across the face with the back of his hand as he walked. He brandished the arrow at Danny to make the point.
Priest was making his way through the undergrowth that surrounded the village. He was hoping that the blacksmith was still pretty hot inside, or that there were at least materials to build a fire. He’d be more useful with some immediate energy to siphon off.
He sprung out of the bushes and grabbed a guard from behind, driving him forward and smacking his head against the stone wall at the back of the blacksmith. A second one appeared from the around the corner, a sword gripped tightly in his hand. Priest pressed his palm against the side of the blade, deflecting the weapon. He stepped in close and punched the man in the side of the head, sending him to the ground.
There was a small opening in the back of the stone building, which he quickly crawled through. He found that the room was still warm, and Priest immediately began building strength. A quick search turned up a small fire still burning in one of the ovens. Some prodding and adding of fuel had it quickly building.
A red archer ran through the door, shouting at Priest. Priest ducked and rolled as an arrow shot overheard and smacked against the stone wall, and then he stood up and grabbed a freshly made sword from a rack. He threw it hard and it lodged in the shoulder of his attacker. He stepped to the side and grabbed another sword, then ran to the door brandishing it. Another guard stepped in and he slammed the sword deep into the man’s thigh, and then slammed the hilt of the sword into a third man’s chin as he withdrew it.
The room was filling with heat as his fired burned. He could feel it.
Drake had his arms around a man’s throat, slamming his head repeatedly into a stone wall until he fell unconscious. Drake was pressed firmly and silently against the back of the tavern. He jumped up, grabbed the edge of the roof, and hauled himself up onto it.
He noticed the archer before the archer noticed him. He quickly shot out his left leg and cut the man off at the shins, sending the man crashing to the stone roof. Drake shot out an arm and stole the man’s bow as he clamped a hand over the guard’s mouth, keeping him silent and cutting off his breathing.
Drake heard the sound of a man yelling coming from inside the tavern. He realised with some amusement that it was Mason.
Templar picked up and empty keg and hurled it at the door, slamming an incoming guard across the chest and sending him crashing to the floor. He upended a long plank being used as a bench and pushed it to the side, hitting two guards that were running at him with swords; they sprawled to the ground, one of them unconscious. The second one thrust his sword at Mason.
Mason parried with Caliburn and stepped forward, forcing his opponent into a defensive position. Their blades collided with a huge clanging noise, and then Mason pushed the man away with an outstretched right foot. He ran back towards the door, cutting one man in the thigh with his blade while ramming a hard knee into another’s stomach.
Banshee ducked nervously back into the relative safety of the trees, Ed following right behind.
“You’re much higher than them. You’re moving at incredible speed. You’re a moving target. They’re distracted by our teammates on the ground. Trust me, you won’t get hit,” The Raptor said reassuringly.
“I know. I just need a second to catch my breath,” Brianna replied.
“And then what?”
“We target that cart. Notice how many guys are standing around it, guarding it? It’s important to them. Weapons, maybe. Or their supply of food. Taking it from them will weaken them,” Brianna said.
The guards around the cart span around without focus as they heard screaming from above. They looked up to find two people coming at them from the sky, huge wingspans casting shadows across the ground.
Most of them ran away in that moment.
<I can see them!>
The voice slammed into all of their heads at once, momentarily stunning the Vanguardians.
“Phil?” Danny said out loud.
<Sorry for the shock. Still getting used to this. I can see all the guards.>
“You can see them? I thought you were blind…”
<Seeing… with my eyes? Oh yeah. People do that sometimes…>
“O… kay.”
<Sorry it took a while to get in touch. A lot to process. And I had to persuade Erasmus to do me a favour. I think we need all the archers gathered together.>
“Can you co-ordinate, Phil?” Danny asked.
<We’ll see.>
“There’s a clearing at the south end of the road.”
<Got it Danny. You and Ozzy grab the archers’ attention. Lead them to the south end of the road. >
A crack had appeared in the left side of Danny’s exoskeleton where a particularly forceful sword-swing had hit him. It hurt like hell, and he favoured the right side of his body. But he swung out his left arm and connected with a guard’s jaw.
<Fly ahead, Danny. There’s a small path that leads into the forest. Block it off before too many of the men get there. Ozzy can lead them there after you.>
Without a word, Danny sprouted a huge pair of wings. He hauled himself up onto the roof behind him, then launched from there and sped to the south clearing.
“Phil! I’ll need some back up once I’m down there!”
<Ed. Brianna. I think you should catch up with him.>
Danny found the small path that Phil had mentioned to him. He quickly covered the entrance to it with a huge spider web.
“Okay, guys, follow me…” Ozzy said. He ran down the road, glad to see that most of the men followed him. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that a few stayed, watching the north end of the road.
<Mason?>
The few men who’d remained at the north end of the road were shocked to find themselves set upon by a huge man with a sword who leaped out of the tavern door.
<Priest. Wait near the blacksmith entrance. When I say so, exit. Cover the road..>
Ozzy soon reached the south end of the road, finding the clearing. Danny, Ed, and Brianna were standing opposite him, keeping any escape into the forest closely guarded. Ozzy spun around to find a pack of men behind him. A few arrows smacked against his chest.
The Red Archers slowed their attack when they noticed the semicircle of Vanguardians standing before them, and the shadow that was rapidly growing larger on the ground around them. It started to dawn on them that they may have been led into a trap.
<Priest! Now!>
The ones at the back of the group turned around to head back into the village, when they found their way blocked by the largest man they’d ever seen. He stepped quickly out of the blacksmith’s hut, a huge axe held tightly in his left hand. With his right he grabbed the closest archer, throwing him twenty metres through the air into a stone wall with what seemed like almost no effort.
The shadow around the gathered archers grew. Before any of them fully processed what was happening, Erasmus unleashed his load.
Thick, sticky bird excrement showered down upon them.
“Nice, Phil…” Danny said softly.
The nearby Vanguardians took advantage of the opportunity to leap into the fray and disarm the men, when a yell from a nearby rooftop caught their attention.
A Red Archer stood there atop the building, an arrow in his bow ready to be fired.
“Shit,” Ed said.
<Got it covered.>
Drake kicked the archer in the small of the back, sending the man crashing to the ground.
