675 - The Four

Somewhere in the central plains of the Protectorate

A massive sinkhole had unknowingly appeared overnight on the plains., its width huge enough to swallow a city whole. Creatures out of nightmares had appeared and nearby work farms and villages were decimated, only stains of dried blood and destruction remained behind.

A lone creature looking like a centaur slowly crawled out of the sinkhole and its nostrils flared as it took in the surrounding scents. It let out a deep sigh before trotting over to a huge wilted tree devoid of any leaves. Stopping by the tree, it turned its head towards the sun and seemingly basked in its warmth.

"Youngling... Sun... Bad... Blind..." A rasping voice spoke suddenly. Kodia tilted his head to the wilted tree before nodding and a small smile appeared on its grey lips.

"It just... has been too long since... I felt its warmth..." Kodia replied softly. A piece of dirty rag that blocked the sun rays was bound around his eyes. "I have... forgotten how it feels to be under the sun..."

"Sun... Good... Eye... Bad!" The wilted tree shook itself upright and a pair of eyes and a mouth appeared on the rough bark of the trunk. The soil beneath the tree churned as if thousands of earthworms were moving around. "Roots... again... alive!"

"What is so good about the sun?" Another voice hissed from the side. A skeletal being on all fours crawled out from behind the ancient treant. It quickly climbed up onto one of the branches of the treant and sat there on its hunches and flexed its twin bone spars on its shoulders. "We all have been reduced to such a state and even if we return to the light, we shall never return to our original looks! Oh, Grandpa Grayfir you still look as ugly as ever!"

"Hail the Angel of Mercy," Kodia gave a mock bow as he greeted the angel perched on one of the branches of Grayfir. "Your Gracious Being is still looking stunning as ever!"

"Grayfir... Greets... Angel... Grace..." The branches of the treant wriggled and wove together a seat for the Angel.

"Kodia! Your mouth still lacks elegance as ever!" The skeletal being once hailed as an Angel of Mercy replied coldly. "I wonder what did Great God Ultron sees in you! Making you His Champion..."

"Because I am the strongest among the Hunters of Summer and Fire!" Kodia puffed his chest out proudly, his skin tone grey and pale under the sun. Kodia the Hunter was once a prime example of a perfect being. With the upper body of a person and a lower body of a golden moose, his muscular body once glowing with vitality and vigour was now grey and wane. Even the thick glossy coat of golden fur on his lower body was now dull and dirty.

"Who strong?" A rumbling voice called out excitedly and the ground shook as a giant being covered in a layer of rock like skin punched its way out of the earth. "Fight! I, Dorock, challenge strong!"

Dorock, a stone giant, the Champion of the Planes the Heavy, God of the Mountains, grinned as he hammered his fists together with a loud ear shaking crack, as a form of greeting. "Ahh... Finally, we can fight!"

"Here comes the one with rocks for brains..." Kodia shook his head with a wry smile on his face. "It seems that we have all gathered..."

"Queen... Hilsa?" Grayfir asked as it dug its roots deep into the soil. "Dathel?"

"They didn't wake up," Kodia replied in a soft tone. "Their powers were severely depleted..."

"Return... soil... Cycle... of... Life..." Grayfir added gravely. Even the Angel of Mercy bowed her head and made a prayer silently.

"This war with the New Gods has destroyed many of our lands and friends..." Kodia finally said after they finished their praying their respect. "Only four of us Champions remained of the Great Gods..."

"New Gods? Phat!" The Angel spat angrily. "Do those heartless beings even deserve to be called Gods? They are just a bunch of low life invaders stealing our followers' faith and lands!"

Dorock and the rest nodded grimly, as they recalled the devastating war that saw many of the Great and Lesser Gods falling. Even their patron gods were heavily wounded in the war, forcing many of their Champions and faithful to retreat from the world, away from the light, bidding their time to raise up to challenge the New Gods.

"My Lord, Ramuh has finally awoken and we will retake our rightful place in this world!" The Angel raised her clenched boney fist and shook it. "With my Lord, we will bring back order to this world of ours!"

Resentment and anger rolled off her blackened body thickly, making Grayfir recoil slightly from her aura. She brought her clenched fist down and stared at her skeletal hand. Once her skin was fair and smooth, now blackened and shrivelled up, her once beautiful looks turned hideous. Even her beautiful wings were now reduced to bones without any feathers. "Do you all stand with me and my Lord?"

"The warriors of Summer and Fire stand ready!" Kodia placed his palm across his chest.

"Seedlings... awaking..." Grayfir waved its branches gently in the wind. "Nature... always... returns..."

"We giants always ready for a fight!" Dorock the Giant happily banged his rock like chest.

"Then go! Reclaim our lost lands and bring faith back to our Lords!" The Angel cried as she leapt onto a waiting flying beast. "This is our world and we have returned to serve our Creator!"

-----

"Wooo... Boom!" A goblin dressed in a small grey t shirt and child sized overalls of an engineer let out an excited shout as he yanked the release lever. The huge wine bottle shaped steam cannon that was pointing upwards at a forty five degrees angle let out an angry sharp pop. Hot steam burst out and turned into thin puffs of clouds in the cold air before begin blown away by the winds, while hundreds of lead pellets, the size of a typical goblin's fist was sent flying into the air.

Watts, being the first goblin to go into space, covered his sight with his palm to block the light and squirmed his eyes, trying to follow the near invisible pellets' trajectory. In the midst of tracer fire and dark angry flak clouds, a small portion of the horde of flying beasts was suddenly knocked out of the skies, their screaming voices sounding very people like. The goblin let out a victorious laugh and turned to the rest of the goblins and yelled, "HAIL FIRE POWAAR!"

"FOR FIREE POW AAR!" The rest of the goblins fussing over the pipes and hoses of the modified steam cannon chorused gleefully. They pumped more steam into a compression chamber while another group of goblins loaded the steaming hot barrels with bags of grapeshot before sealing the muzzle with a stopper.

The dark dots of flying beasts became larger as they came closer. Tracer fire and flak also grew fiercer as the gun crews worked frantically to shoot down the approaching danger. Yet despite the heavy losses, the flying beasts seemed even more maddened by the deaths of their brethren and continued their headlong charge toward the airships.

The steam cannon went off with another loud wet pop and as the winds swept away the clouds, the goblins let out a cry of surprise as over a dozen flying beasts came dropping down right on top of them. Winged beasts looking like some deformed nightmare of a winged horse came smashing down on the wooden decks, shattering limbs and wings. The winged beasts kamikazed themselves, their blood and flesh splattered all over decks, the force of the impacts broke wooden planks and dented metal armour.

Cursing, the goblins took cover under the steam cannons and anything that protected them from the suicidal flying beasts. The other gun crews manning the unarmored gun mounts also joined the goblins in taking cover, immediately the hail of anti air fire dropped from the Old Ugly while the two other Icarus class sky frigates continued on, their gunners having better overhead protection.

The hail of bodies suddenly ceased as the magic barriers came online and the bubble of magical energies shimmered wildly under the barrage of flesh, the surface of the bubble visibly deforming. Suddenly arcs of lightning crackled across the skies and struck the side of the Old Ugly, shaking the entire airship off its course. Almost instantly, the magic emitters projecting the magic barrier exploded into sparks and magic ran wild as they were overloaded. The barrage of bodies of flying beasts resumed and they smashed down hard onto the decks of the Old Ugly.

-----

"All primary guns switch targets!" Trism roared as he half rosed from his command seat. "Target those spell casters!"

Orders were quickly sent out and the wing guns of the UNS Old Ugly, including the turret guns of UNS Icarus and UNS Daedalus quickly tracked towards a group of riders mounted flying beasts. Sharp thunder roared and almost immediately the group of spell casters were blanketed with deadly flak clouds. But the damage was already done, the magical shields of the Old Ugly were down and dozens of flying beasts and their riders were kamikazing onto its decks.

-----

Watts cursed as he spotted a pair of clawed feet landing right before him. He glanced up to the owner of those fearsome looking feet to see a tall eyeless bald being recovering from the landing. Instantly, he whipped out the saw off shotgun strapped on his back and squeezed the trigger without even aiming. The short distance made it moot to even aim as the buckshot turned the being into a blood mist and flying limbs.

Breaking the saw off shotgun open, Watts quickly reloaded and yelled at the rest of his cohort. "Boarders! Repel the freaks! No freaks getting onboard ma ship!"

The gunners and goblins on the open top decks quickly banded together and all kinds of weapons came out. Rifles, shotguns, knives and even wrenches were applied to the boarders that came crawling out from the flying beasts that came crashlanding on the decks. The eyeless beings let out ear piercing screams that dazed and stunned the nearby crew but were quickly countered by a barrage of concentrated gunfire.

"I got earplugs ya dumb freaks! Wahahahaha!" Watts laughed triumphantly as he reloaded his shotgun before he turned to the dazed crew and yelled. "Wear ya earplugs ya dumb dumbs!"

He turned back to the fight and fired off his weapon at the growing crowd of boarders who were using their flying beasts that were still alive to soak up the damage. "Damn freaks!"

Suddenly at this moment, there was a loud crack that tore through the air and Watts watched with shock as a literal hole opened up in the crowd of freaks. He could briefly see through their bodies to the other side before blood and other icky stuff covered up the massive hole that opened up in their ranks."Holy shaat!"

He turned around to the source of that weapon and saw a girl dressed in an officer uniform bearing the ranks of an ensign and his shocked expression turned to a wide smile. "Oh... ya freaks are sooo farked!"

-----

Plee yanked the charging handle of her hybrid magical rifle wand, pulling a fresh projectile into the chamber. Her other hand holding onto the pistol grip of the rifle wand glowed slightly as she channelled mana into the weapon and she squeezed the trigger, igniting several spells inscribed inside the innards of the rifle wand.

A sharp crack ripped out as Air Burst, Super Acceleration, and Reinforce were applied to the cold iron projectile inside the chamber. The magically bluffed up 10 mm super heavy projectile shot out at a speed of 1412 meters per second, almost comparable to the muzzle velocity of 105 mm pre space era cannon, tore through the air with a ripping roar before impacting into the crowd of boarders and continuing its way straight without any deviation in its path and disappearing into the horizon.

"ALL HAIL FIREE POWAAR!"



***** Author's Rumblings *****

Sorry for the super slow updates...
Trying to balance work life and writing... currently failing...
If I focus on work and writing... I will have no life...
If I focus on work and life... I will no time for writing...
If I focus on writing and life ... I will have no time for work...

Urgh...