"What?!" Hessiana was flying when she heard the message and nearly fell from the sky. "Come again?!"
"Demon hunters!" The voice on the other end was frantic yet clear and there were sounds of combat in the background. "They have penetrated the Shadowy Divide! I'm not sure why the Divide shut down! They are all over the place!"
"Hold your ground!" Hessiana roared as she conjured up a group of bats and sent them towards every part of town. "Quickly! Check the crypt! Inform teams that consist of less than five men to group up with the nearest team and head towards the Shadeling's stronghold!"
Hessiana then cut the contact before raising other teams for more tactical information on the ground. After gathering some more information of the main areas of combat she quickly contacted homebase. "What's the situation now?"
"A breach had appeared near the rose path and some twenty odd hunters came out from it. Massive casualties." A steady voice came out from the communicator. "We have used artillery strikes to seal the area and had deployed poison gas and acidic incendiary bombs. From the reports we have got so far, there are ten more breaches around the city. Many streets are now lost."
"Secure our stronghold first. Help anyone nearby if possible. Those that we can't it's up to their own luck!" Hessiana quickly threw out orders. "Thank god we had not deployed the Tigers... Use the tanks to block the roads. Man the HMG nests on the stronghold! And deploy the Poison Mist Barrier as well. I'm trying to reach all the other Ancients, hold the damned line until I get them to mend the breach!"
Streams of reports and orders came and go, thankfully these bunch of vampires were in with the times and had portable communication devices to relay messages and thus swiftly recovered from the initial shock and awe of the attack. Other parts of the city was not that lucky, facing with the relentless onslaught by the demon hunters, a good half of the smaller clans and families in the city could not even muster any form in resistance. Besides that, the war between two vampire families and a shadeling was initially thought as 'business as usual' and most of the small clans had decided to turtle in their own strongholds until the storm had passed. When the demon hunters came crashing in, most of them had not even prepared to draw blade, and suffered heavy casualties as a result.
Yes, a war between the bigger clans in the shelter was not an uncommin thing. Hessiana's initial rampage against the established families was merely one of the many conflicts and the smaller clans was so used to that that they resort into hiding until the things have calmed down once again. But to everyone's dismay, the demon hunter had decided to strike in the most inopportune of times.
"F*ck! The city is in chaos" Hessiana clenched her fist. "How did the demon hunters get in?"
Hao Ren frowned as something came into his mind, it sounded almost impossible but yet most probable. "Can't it be Bethano..."
Before he could finish his sentence, a big explosion and roar of combat came from the shadeling's stronghold. From the flames a group of shadowy monsters charged forward, their killing intent almost palpable.
The shadelings that had been cowering inside their hideout all this while and now chaos had ensued they took the chance to counter attack and their timing was almost impeccable.
"The Shadowy Divide...." Hessiana looked towards the shadeling's stronghold as fire lit up in her eyes. "The Divide was designed by the shadelings....! BETHAHOS YOU F*CKING LUNATIC!"
More and more demon hunters were pouring into the streets from the breach but by now a good portion of the supernaturals had gotten the grips of the situation and had formed a steady line of defense. The shelter that had previously knew peace for a century were now a scene of smoke and debries. In just a few minutes a titantic event was happpening that will change it forever. But Hessiana did not dither, she was even more motivated as she lead the group towards the stronghold. She only had one goal in mind, and that is to drag that old lunatic out and flay him alive.
The stronghold was almost in sight before the group was assailed by monstrous creatures surrounded by black smog.
They were big, almost two meters at least and were humanoid in shape but their skin was pitch black with traces of runic laylines running through it. On their back was a pair of gigantic, almost ethereal bat-like wings. Perhaps demonic wings would have been a better description.
About ten of those half-human half demon monsters were blocking their path, and just happen that the street was a narrow one. Almost too perfect for a blockade. Hessiana lost her temper as soon as she saw them. "SHADELINGS!"
Hao Ren elbowed Y'zaks who was standing beside him. "Your relatives."
Y'zaks cracked his knuckles as a firey aura started enveloping him. "Too ugly. There are shadelings over where I came from and they have a beautiful pair of hooves."
"Finally, time for some payback..." Becky gripped her enchanted longsword as a small vortex formed around her. The mercenrary lass almost loss her life in the energy vortex and had been nursing a grudge against the shadelings. As seasoned mercenary, she had seen all sorts of hideous monsters and the ones in front of her does not faze her. All that was in her mind was sink her blade into each and everyone of them.
"Hessiana!" The shadelings facing them reacted in shock as it caught sight of the petite vampire. "You're not dead?!"
"Of course I'm not dead" Hessiana raised her hand as her Daredevils aimed their RPGs towards the foe. "I've even brought toys for you to play with! FIRE!"
Ten blessed warheads streaked out from the launcher as they shrieked towards the shadelings. In a blinding mix of flames and purifying light the warhead slammed against the shadelings. Hao Ren even caught sight of one taking two warheads straight in the face and was blown miles away for his troubles.
But many of the shadelings reacted in time to deploy their magical shields or to escape the blast zone. Before the dust had settled, they charged out like a darting shadow towards Hao Ren and his group.
The Daredevils (that will be their official name from now on) quickly threw down the rocket launchers and drew their blessed silver swords as their other hand held the assault rifle and started spraying bullets. Their unique style of fighting was almost a sight to behold as they counter charged the shadelings.
The supernaturals are indeed a tough bunch, after eating a barrage of RPG (and those were blessed with holy water) a good half of them were still unscatched as they charged. The two groups quickly clashed and the fight had turned into a chaotic melee.
Hao Ren had no time to see how the others was faring. At any rate all of the people present were at least competent fighters, even -the hide in a corner in a ball- Siren was imprevious to attacks for a good while. He now had to focus on the enemies in front of him.
A strong looking shadeling shrouded in black smog was charging towards him. Everything the smog touched had turned into dust. Hao Ren quickly raised his Steel Membrane Shield to weather the attack but something amazing happened.
The lethal smog dissipated the moment it came into contact with him. The shield did not even flicker.
The shield was not activated and the black smog was nullified.
The charging shadeling did not had time to even digest what had happenened before he crashed head first into Hao Ren and the latter quickly grabbed the shadeling's arm and slammed him into the group. While the shadeling looked bigger and stronger than Hao Ren, Hao Ren's physical capabilities had already been enhanced to the point that his outer appearance was just a ruse. He had tried out his strenghth before and he could use his thumb to bend a standard DN40 steel pipe into shapes. This was clearly outside the usual human physical ability and this had something to do with the stuff that is co-existing within him. Well, the shadeling was indeed strong, but Hao Ren felt that was the case anyway.
He too was surprised that the black smog was nullified and took him a few seconds to recover. He then grinned wildly as he tapped the dazed shadeling that he had held in a hold. "Look up, I have something nice to show you."
The shadeling looked up by instinct and saw a gleaming, almost bone-chilling thing closing in on it...