- Market Square -
The small group of citizens huddled in the back rooms in fear. The onslaught of monsters has shook them to their core and they thanked the gods for this woman that was sheltering them. Eventhough the wave of monsters had slowed, the portal had closed a few minutes ago, there were still horrors roaming the streets. Outside the shop, the owner was shouting curses and throwing bottles of alchemist fire at any beast that tried to get close.
"You shall not harm these people," the shop owner shouted and threw another bottle, breaking on a worg's face and engulfing it in a blaze.
This finally seemed to get the message across and the monsters began to give the storefront a very wide berth. The shop's owner smiled in satisfaction and walked back inside to fetch additional mixtures to throw from the storage room, leaving a pair of refugees that volunteered to help guard the front. As she opened the storage room door she was bombarded with a chaotic mixture of praise and questions.
"Thank you for taking us in lady Alyvia," one elderly woman cried.
"Many blessings to you my lady," a battered cleric praised.
"What news of the battle," coughed the badly wounded warrior that the cleric was trying to heal.
The shopkeeper bowed her head and thanked the people as she passed and made her way to the storage room and shut the door behind her. She then opened the cupboard and filled her bag with new flasks of acid and alchemist fire. As she did this, she mentally reached out to the real Alyvia who was at the Mages School Library.
'My Lady, the store is secure,' 'Alyvia' reported.
'Good. And the refugees?'
'Extremely grateful for their savior.'
'Excellent, continue the good work and I shall appeal to my lord for your ascension to a higher rank than imp.'
'I live to serve you mistress. This illusion spell is perfect. Not even the cleric can tell what I am.'
'I must go, my guests have arrived,' she ended the mental link and the duplicate smiled and left.
-
"The portal's closed, push them back," shouted an armour clad knight. He and the other 6 knights began to advance using their shields to push back the gibbering monsters, right into the waiting bows of a firing line of rangers. As one they loosed their arrows on the horde, volley after volley, whittling them down.
Once the creatures ceased moving both the knights and rangers left to join the battle against the towering hydra.
As they moved down the street, one of the many smaller heads noticed them and began spitting streams of ice at them. The knights knelt behind their shields and slowly pushed forward, using their own armoured bodies to shield the rangers from the worst of the attack.
"Hold the line," shouted one, almost inaudible from the howling winds.
The gale of ice stopped suddenly and the knights peeked up over their shields. In the distance a very large orc had embedded a battle axe in between the head's eyes and it had fallen to the ground dead. Chief Gorg let out a triumphant roar and wrenched the axe from his foe and ran off to rejoin the fighting.
-
Up above there were blasts of various attacks hitting the gigantic hydra from every side. Compared to its massive bulk, the defenders flying around it looked like gnats to a human.
"Keep it up! Its movements are slowing," Headmaster Milton urged the other on. Indeed the monster's movements were slowing as it expended vast amounts of energy from either overuse of its multiple breath weapons or growing new heads. However it was still a force of destruction, and was only now showing signs of tiredness.
Riding atop a giant eagle, shaman Gratz launched another chaotic orb from his staff as the bird swooped by. Ever since the battle had begun something had been bothering him. Being a druid gave him a unique connection with all living animals, granting him a small understanding of their desires, moods, ect., like one would converse with another person. But as they've been fighting this thing, he had been trying to get a grasp on what it might be saying. A lion's roar holds some language equivalent, and he was slowly figuring out this one's language but not fast enough.
"Get me to the central head," he said to the eagle, and it rapidly ascended and dodged a gout of fire from a smaller head. When he neared, Gratz jumped off with some magic assistance onto the giant black dragon head. It didn't seem to notice him and continued its fight. He closed his eyes and placed one hand on the warm scaled head and carefully created a link from his mind to the hydra's. The hydra's chaotic mind threatened to overwhelm Gratz despite his advanced experience. An incredible pain was rippling through the creature. Not from the city's defenders, but from its very being.
And its mind was repeating one phrase over and over: (Kill Me)