Snap

Leonid and the rest of the group stopped after the fight to assess their losses. One dead, one injured. One more fight like this would ruin them. Leonid electrically cauterized the injured soldier's wound. The pain of the process caused the man to faint, so they took him inside an empty hut, closing the door to prevent any break-ins by straggling murlocs. Leonid and the group then searched huts nearby, finding 8 living soldiers who had barricaded themselves inside, swelling the group's numbers to 16.

After recuperating and reorganizing, the group advanced silently towards the center of the village. This was where most of the company's troops were concentrated the night before, including its captain, John Wals. As the group reached the village center, they came upon a horrific sight. Bodies lay strewn everywhere, most torn limb from limb, intestines spilled on the ground, faces ripped off, viscera and other organs made visible. The abominations had ravaged the area like locusts. A few murloc corpses could be seen, but it was little consolation for the dozens of bodies surrounding them. Leonid felt sick in the stomach. One soldier in the company vomited at the sight of it all. Amelia, with a grave expression, said, "We should try to find any survivors. Hop to it"

Before a meaningful attempt to follow her orders could be carried out, she abruptly shouted, "Stop!"

She started shaking slightly and showing obvious signs of panic as she stuttered, "Twe- twelve abominations in every direction, 800 feet away fast!"

Leonid cursed under his breath and ordered, "Form a circle. Get ready for combat!"

The group did as instructed, forming a circular formation and readying their weapons.

Leonid looked at the corpses. While there wasn't a distinct pattern to their arrangement overall, they formed a circle of sorts around the center. Leonid wondered.

Are we repeating history?

Before he could contemplate further, the murlocs charged in from all sides, growling and rasping loudly. Leonid charged his machete and threw it at a murloc, impaling it in the neck. The soldiers with rifles and pistols fired their weapons, killing one, injuring another. Then the beasts fell upon the group, biting and clawing wildly. Leonid stunned one murloc, electrocuting it, then he grabbed his Machete, and hacked it to death. Amelia used her rifle, killing another. The soldiers with spears and machetes fought back. One soldier had his neck bitten off, another had his leg eaten off as he screamed in agony. Leonid shot streams of electricity, stunning another murloc and allowing a soldier with a machete to kill it.

As he prepared to target another, one came from the side and bit into Leonid shoulder tearing into flesh and causing him immense pain, Leonid screamed, and directed intense electricity towards the abomination, frying it to death, once done Leonid collapsed from both nausea and exhaustion, exposing himself to two more murlocs who lunged towards him. Amelia, noticing this, aimed her rifle and fired a shot, killing one. A solider nearby rushed over and struck his spear through the remaining murlocs chest, slaying it instantly. It was the man Leonid had inspired earlier.

Before he could give so much as a nod in acknowledgment, a murloc thrust at him from behind. Sinking its teeth into his neck, Leonid watched helplessly as the man's head was devoured, his body falling over, gushing blood from the new opening in its neck. Amelia killed the murloc with three shots to the head. The smell of gunpowder and copper thickened as the fight progressed.

There were five murlocs left. These murlocs attacked as a group from the bottom and stayed together, murdering Leonid's companions with vicious brutality. A soldier armed with a pistol injured one before having his leg bitten off, causing him to collapse, his arms and head taken shortly afterwards.

Eliminating all opposition, they advanced on Leonid and Amelia, who retreated backwards. Surviving soldiers formed a new circle around Leonid, trying to protect him as he recovered. Leonid tried to stand up but failed, collapsing on the spot. He was too weak to rejoin the fight. The murlocs charged forward, killing two within seconds. One soldier stabbed a murloc in its eye, taking it out of the fight before being bitten non-fatally on the arm. Leonid realized the soldiers protecting him were going to die and desperately tried to stand. Struggling for a bit, he ultimately stood up and electrified his machete, preparing to strike. If his fate was to die, he would not accept it laying down, he would die fighting. There were three murlocs left and seven soldiers to face them, including the three injured.

Everyone understood that in the next few seconds, a fight to the death would begin. Leonid's heart beat with intense pain and speed as he produced a net of electricity that stunned the murlocs as they tried to approach for the kill. Amelia tried to use the net as an opportunity to slay another murloc.

Click!

Click!

Click!

She was out of bullets. Amelia's heart sank. No one else had a firearm and unlike the others who had the option of fighting melee, her abilities were entirely unsuited in such a confrontation. She was almost defenseless now!

The face off extended as the murlocs refused to risk running into the electricity, and the soldiers now had no means to strike them from a distance. Leonid struggled to keep the net up. It weakened as his endurance and stamina diminished. Leonid had a decision to make. Choosing to stall for time was only a short-term solution. The net would eventually disappear, exposing everyone to the murlocs. If he chose to focus his last reserves of energy towards killing them, then there was very little room for failure. If he failed to kill or stun a single murloc, the resulting confrontation could result in the deaths of almost everyone involved. Leonid couldn't make that choice. He kept trying to find alternatives, however, his current stamina made most, if not all, impossible without heart failure. As Leonid deliberated, a voice shouted in the distance.

"Everyone plug your ears!"

Dressed in an unbuttoned black lounge suit and wearing sunglasses, they saw Marke running to the battle. Everyone within the group plugged their ears, including Leonid, causing the electric net to drop. The murlocs moved in to seize victory.

Snap!

Marke snapped his fingers, producing a loud boom that knocked the murlocs unconscious, and ruptured the eardrums of those too wounded to plug their ears properly. The remaining soldiers quickly fell upon the knocked out abominations and began hacking them to pieces. After an opera of death and madness, it was now the soldiers' turn to rip the murlocs limb from limb in repayment. The ruthless executions made the moment cathartic.

At the sight, Leonid blacked out.