6 Stampede
Dark. It became so dark in Acrine.
Normally, mages would set up an illusion inside the barrier to induce a feeling of darkness. Without this illusion, the town would stay illuminated all day. This would have some serious effects on the biorhythms of Acrine's inhabitants.
This wasn't of much importance though. As tonight, the worst case scenario had happened. The barrier had disappeared. Real darkness arrived at Acrine now.
The guards on top of the wall were baffled when they saw the barrier suddenly disappearing.
"Patrick, sound the alarm! RIGHT NOW!! QUICK!!" the guard's commander shouted.
"Squad 2, wake everyone up! Squad 3, 4 &5 be prepared to fight monsters! Squad one, with me to get that barrier back up! " he started commanding his squads.
As the alarm went off, squad 1 quickly moved towards the town center. There, they found all the guards responsible for defending the power source. They were laying on the floor, dead. Each and every one of them had their throat cut.
"F**K, this is an attack! Who the hell did this?! Find those culprits that deliberately took down the barrier! Do they want the entire town to die?!" the commander roared with fury.
---
Some people kept pets in Acrine. An old lady that mourned her husband's death would get herself a cat to keep her company. A bullied kid would want a pet, to have a friend.
These animals weren't affected by the darkness as they were inside the barrier.
This changed though, as darkness arrived in Acrine.
Animals were starting to transform. They were becoming monsters.
The old lady's cat grew into a ferocious monster, resembling a big panther, with fangs that could pierce its own skull.
It only took the monster a couple of seconds to kill the old lady and feast upon her corpse.
The same scenario was happening all over town, tons of people were getting betrayed by their own pets. The pets that they groomed for years, had lost their minds to the darkness.
The barrier had to be restored quickly, or Acrine would soon be no more...
---
Steve woke up inside Butch's guest room. He heard clocks ringing in the middle of the night. On top of that, he could hear there was a disturbance on the streets.
"Get towards the town center! NOW! This is not a drill!" a man shouted in the streets.
Steve hurriedly got up, to see what was happening to the town. What could have happened?
As he looked out of the window, all he could notice was darkness and chaos. People were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, monsters were lurking in the streets. Death was imminent.
He quickly left his room, but just as he was about to run down the stairs and make a run for the town center, he froze in his steps.
Down the stairs, a fierce monster was staring right at him. It started going up the stairs!
Steve shuffled backward, terrified.
Back in the forest, when he was being chased by monsters... He still had somewhere to run. However right here, in Butch's home, he was stuck upstairs.
The monster pounced forwards and clawed Steve in his leg, leaving deep marks. Blood was gushing out...
Steve had stumbled over a piece of wood, sticking out of the floor as he got hit by the monster.
"H-H-H-HELP ME!!! help... me..." he shouted as he dragged himself on the floor, trying to get a bit further away.
The monster approached Steve slowly. He had nowhere to run. He could only wait for his death. Steve closed his eyes.
He could feel a warm, stinky breath on his face. Some saliva had dropped onto him, as he could hear the monster preparing to strike once more.
He whimpered, as he realized these were going to be his last moments in this fresh Elean life.
A hot, warm fluid started covering his body. A metallic smell entered his nose. Blood was everywhere...
'It didn't even hurt as much as I thought it would...' Steve thought as he faded into darkness.
---
"Can you just wake up?! What kind of man are you..." Butch hopelessly said for the second time.
As Steve opened his eyes, it was impossible for him to not notice the corpse next to him.
On the ground, the monster's body could be seen, its head decapitated.
'Did butch kill that thing?' Steve thought as he saw Butch with a cleaver in his hands.
"I-I-I'm not d-d-dead?" he asked, still in shock.
"Of course you're still alive, you idiot. I just saved your ass. Let's get the f**k out of here!" Butch told him.
As Steve tried to get up, he quickly fell down again. He didn't think his leg got mauled that badly, that he wasn't able to move anymore.
"F**K, my leg hurts too much... I can't move it!" Steve said as the pain was killing him. He wouldn't be able to walk, let alone run, with his leg wounded like that.
"Here, use this... it should help heal your leg. At the very least, it will reduce the pain. We have to move! NOW!" he said as he handed over a bottle, filled with a green liquid.
After applying the paste on his leg, he saw the wound healing visibly. On top of that, the pain was quickly fading.
'I need to get me some of those bottles... would they be created with alchemy?' he thought as he pulled himself up.
Butch & Steve swiftly left the house and tried to sneak towards the town center. Some mages had already cast a new barrier there, although it was way too small to cover the entire town. The brightness this new barrier created, could be seen from far away.
They tried to reach the center through the narrows streets of Acrine. The main streets were already filled with monsters and corpses.
After running for a minute, they met another monster in the streets. Before Steve could blink, Butch had already arrived at the monster, it was as if he had teleported!
A second later, the monster had split into two halves... guts and blood were falling everywhere around the monster.
"What are you waiting for, let's go!" Butch reminded him, as he saw Steve was shocked at this scene.
"C-cool..." is all that Steve managed to mutter.
On their way to the center, they ran into some more monsters. Butch disposed every single one of them in a matter of seconds though. It didn't take them too long to reach the center.
As they arrived, they saw hundreds of mages fight off the monsters. Meanwhile, thousands of villagers were inside the barrier, trembling with fear. They could only watch as the mages tried to hold off the monsters.
"Get in that barrier and stay there. More trouble is coming. Don't do anything risky." Butch warned him as they reached the barrier. He then disappeared.
Once Steve was inside the barrier, he collapsed to the floor. The fear he had experienced and the blood he had lost, was way too much for him to handle...
---
"SKREEEEEEEEEE!!!"
"SKREEEEEEEEEE!!!"
A monster could be heard screeching in the distance.
Steve woke up as he heard the screech. He could hear some people talking outside the barrier.
"Not good..." an 8* Apprentice Mage said, "That's... the roar of a wyvern... a rank 2 monster..."
"Men, prepare to fight again! A stampede is coming, the monsters in the forest are about to launch their attack! Protect these villagers, and you'll become a wealthy man when this is over!" said Acrine's commander, hoping to motivate the other mages.
"Protect our families!" one of the mages shouted.
The others quickly followed as they started to prepare for the upcoming battle.
