Chapter 6: The Dreadful Omens

Now alarmingly close to the wall, the saviors and warriors' combined power didn't seem to match the one the omens possessed. They were feared for a reason, and the villagers were unfortunate enough to witness it firsthand. The wounded took cover behind the wall, where the sentry Tricky planted could provide some protection, but it looked like they solely depended on the saviors and their own kind to stay alive, as everyone else was too busy dealing with their own opponents. Between the burning wastes of their own village, the warriors fought for their lives, now being the only ones standing against the omens on this side of the battlefield, as their enemies prioritized the saviors, knowing they were a bigger threat. So, with most of the soldiers becoming casualties to the omens' might, the warriors were left to save themselves and their loved ones.

Even with Candy's help, and Nitro's explosives preventing more omens from piling up on them, the warriors didn't stand a chance against them. Regardless of the power difference, they still fought with the little they had. Even some of the women had to join in to fight, though it was mostly young men, and even just teens, trying to fight against highly trained killers with very primitive weapons. Their wooden swords and stone axes weren't enough to even damage the omens' armor, and as they were exposed to their guns without any protection from their bullets, the warriors began dropping dead fast.

The slaughter had just begun, and the omens were making sure to enjoy every second of it, choosing to fight in close combat to give the warriors a sliver of hope, even the tiniest chance of them somehow winning against them, yet it was all mere a cruel illusion for the warriors to suffer in shame as they failed to protect their village. Most of the omens couldn't stop laughing as they took the young lives of many villagers, and while it was discouraging, the warriors seemed to have the spirit to keep fighting. Trying their hardest to stay alive, they screamed, swore, and even cried as they fought tooth to nail. But despite their hardest efforts, they only delayed their own demise, as confronting such a strong enemy only ended in their numbers drastically decreasing. In about a minute, they would have all been wiped out, leaving the wounded defenseless and to the omens' mercy, or rather lack thereof.

The scene was traumatizing for those who could only stay and watch as heartless monsters slaughtered their family and friends. And while they did try to encourage the warriors to keep fighting, the shouts from the wounded sounded more like cries of agony, which, paired with the sounds of their people perishing, created a harrowing atmosphere that overwhelmed even experienced soldiers like Candy, who stayed back with the wounded after running out of ammo. She was also a witness, though she did manage to act more as she waved at Indie, the teammate closer to her, who was still busy dealing with Freak.

Seeing the carnage taking place around the corner, Indie desperately tried to get Freak to stop attacking, but she couldn't get close, as her enemy threw every little pointy gadget and sharp knife she had at her disposal. It looked like she had more lethal toys than bullets and wasn't running out any time soon. Indie was fast enough to dodge her attacks, even blocking most of them, but without her weapon, she could only back, parry more attacks, and wait for the perfect opportunity to strike. Freak knew to keep her distance so she wouldn't lose, and as she didn't seem tired at all, she kept barraging Indie with her gadgets, now using small spike balls as she had run out of knives.

Out of the couple dozen warriors that had stood up to fight, it looked like they were down to only half the original number, all while the omens still had triple their troops. Their enemies appeared to grow stronger and fiercer every time they killed one innocent villager, taking advantage of their weakness for their twisted amusement. Candy desperately tried to call for the warriors to retreat and stay with the wounded, but none of them heard her, or at least didn't seem to want to back down. Since the warriors would most likely end up dead if they kept fighting by themselves, Candy ran for help, trying to look for more teammates to come protect the villagers, which is what they came here to do. However, she quickly found that everyone was busy, even Nitro, who had to come back down to ground level after the house roof collapsed, now helping Panda deal with Onyx.

Despite being able to blow up houses and any enemy that was in close proximity, Nitro's grenade seemed to only be tickling Onyx, as his armor was strong enough to withstand the explosions. He tried keeping Onyx busy while Panda tried to find his bearings after losing a wrestling match with his opponent. He backed away to give Nitro a chance to blow Onyx up, but every time he shot a grenade, it either bounced off his armor or he shoved them away before they could explode, almost throwing one back at Panda. In the end, it only seemed to cause more damage to his teammate and the surrounding area, which had become a dusty pit of fiery mess with a smoke ring surrounding it.

However, as Onyx began approaching Panda again, Nitro shot one last grenade at his feet, not being able to knock him back but causing him to lose his footing for a second, enough for Panda to attack from the smoke. He threw his fist with great speed and power directly at Onyx's face, and while he delivered a mighty punch, he just shook it off and began sparring with Panda. Punch after punch, Onyx took every hit with pride and seemed to gain more energy from it. Rather than weakening him, he grew stronger, to the point where it looked like he was numb to the pain. Panda was clearly doing damage with some well-timed hooks, yet Onyx's body fat absorbed all of his force, with his neck being so big that his head barely moved when it was hit. It was to the point that Panda was wearing himself out, and even suffering more damage than Onyx, as his knuckles started to bleed, staining a shiny silver ring he wore on his right hand.

Nitro couldn't see anything inside the ring of smoke he had created, and he was too scared to shoot blindly, so he shifted his attention to some rogue omens trying to flank him, blowing them up in a second before they could even aim at him. But as he stayed near the broken well to defend the center of the village, Candy was able to spot him easily. Running to join in the fight, Candy didn't hesitate to pick up one of the rifles of the omens Panda had killed at the beginning, however, she didn't really seem too comfortable holding one of the rifles. She struggled to hold the weight of the gun, as it was much heavier and larger than her pistols, though she still got to reload one. She signaled at Nitro for him to give her some general direction to shoot, and while he didn't look certain, he still guided her to point right at the middle of the smoke ring, which was just starting to fade away.

Without giving it a second thought, though closing her eyes in anticipation, Candy shot a short burst in Onyx's general direction. The recoil of the weapon knocked her back, causing her to drop the gun right as the smoke dissolved. Not knowing if she had hit her target or her teammate, she trembled in fear as she saw Onyx standing right in front of her. She did manage to hit him and turn his attention to her, but that meant he was now coming after her. She tried to run away, but as soon as Onyx saw her, he lunged at her, trying to crush her with his weight. Not being able to get out of the way, Candy let out a mortified squeal as she lost her balance and fell to the ground, about to be crushed by the rocks that conformed Onyx's heavy armor.

As a last-ditch effort, Candy tried to roll aside right as Onyx was about to smash her, but that's when Panda appeared from behind, and by wrapping his arms around his opponent, he held him tight from behind to restrain him. Due to his size, Panda could barely hold Onyx in place, but before the latter got the chance to slip away, Panda let out a powerful groan as he used up all his strength to lift Onyx in the air, raising him to the level of his waist, only to then suplex him to the ground, smacking his opponent's head on a burning piece of debris and creating a large tremor. The actual hit didn't seem to hurt Onyx, though the fire began to cause him pain, which is when he opened his mouth to shriek.

With the enemy on the ground, Panda let go right away and began running, just like Candy kept rolling until she was at a safe distance from Nitro's attack. Seeing a perfect opportunity, Nitro shot a grenade right into Onyx's uncovered mouth, where it shortly after blew up right as he was closing it. At first, it looked like his mouth somehow managed to contain the explosion, but after a second, the damage caused was clear when Panda, Candy, and Nitro watched Onyx's jaw tear right off his face, with his tongue sliding out in a river of blood. The lower half of his body seemed to disappear, leaving only a few teeth dangling, with the rest now being spilled with the other remains of his mouth on the floor.

Nitro laughed maniacally at the brutal sight of Onyx's gaping mouth bleeding profusely, but Panda and Candy couldn't stand to see the gruesome injury and left the scene. After picking up his machine gun, Candy guided him to the others so they could help, and with Nitro following close behind, they headed towards Tricky and Kiwy, who were now both fighting off Voodoo and Scarecrow respectively, all while the warriors nearby kept fighting to survive. But as their teammates were closer, the rest of Crisis focused on protecting Tricky and Kiwy first, so they ran to their aid.

Despite being fast and capable of dodging any attack, Kiwy couldn't deal much damage to Scarecrow, who seemed invulnerable to her claws, taking any hit without flinching. Kiwy relentlessly scratched his body, but other than his old and dirty clothes, she wasn't ripping him apart like she expected, leading her to start panicking quickly. Tricky was doing no better against Voodoo, who could dodge all of her attacks in an instant now that she was solely focused on fighting her up close. Her opponent didn't fight back, yet Tricky was still losing energy as she grew frustrated for not being able to hit her despite how hard she tried. The most she could do was slash her black cloak, but it was clear she couldn't do much more damage. However, both Kiwy and Tricky realized they just had to stall for a bit of time as they noticed their teammates approaching to help.

With a mocking grin, Scarecrow teased Kiwy for her worthless attacks, which seemed to be upsetting the young cat girl, to the point she stopped attacking and tried to back away. Seeing her scared enticed Scarecrow to torment her, so he began approaching slowly with a menacing expression, sharpening his sickles with each other to prepare to kill her, but in reality, she was drawing him away. Tricky also stopped fighting as she had run out of energy and had to take a moment to catch her breath, or so Voodoo thought. She began casting another spell while Tricky was idle, but then she was caught off guard when her opponent started running away as a minigun revved up behind her.

Panda began firing at Scarecrow first, who was right about to slice Kiwy with his sickles. He came under direct fire, yet he barely reacted, though it did let Kiwy run away. After landing a couple of bullets on him, Panda aimed at Voodoo, but before he could even shoot her, she ran away before disappearing right around the corner of a collapsed house. Tricky didn't try to chase after her and instead helped Kiwy get away from Scarecrow and leave Panda's line of sight, giving him complete freedom to fire as much as he pleased.

Scarecrow slowly turned to Panda, who just continued shooting until his enemy was down. However, his bullets just went right through him. As heavy as his rounds were, no matter where he shot him, Scarecrow was still standing. He was unphased by it, and even though the bullets were leaving noticeable marks on his body, predominately in his clothes, he was still fully functional and even began walking towards Panda with the same wicked grin he had.

As he continued taking all the hits, Panda began panicking a little but still allowed Scarecrow to approach slowly, until he glanced at Nitro behind him, giving him the signal to attack and finish him off. Waiting until Scarecrow was close enough to Panda, maybe too close, Nitro aimed his grenade launcher at him. But despite having resisted hundreds of bullets to the entire body, as soon as he saw Nitro, Scarecrow was scared off into fleeing. Nitro tried getting a couple of shots, blasting the area surrounding him to prevent him from escaping, but the enemy was still able to casually leave without saying or doing anything, leaving the squad slightly puzzled.

–What was the deal with that guy?– Nitro asked curiously, with a lighthearted undertone but clearly confused, to which Panda had nothing but a shrug. In doubt, and after being dismissed, Nitro still managed to find the situation amusing, but he stayed silent and didn't say anything else as they were in a hurry to take care of the other enemies nearby.

–We need to help the people, they can't hold on for much longer…– Candy urged with concern as she turned to the source of the dying screams of the warriors, now trying to defend the wounded at the wall as they were getting surrounded by all the omens on the left side. The squad didn't waste time to reassess the situation, and now having taken care of two members of Spook, it seemed they had the advantage now, so they split up to take care of the remaining enemies while also defeating the rest of Spook.

| Their bodies, soulless, a corpse from the grave

Their minds are helpless and no one can save |