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“Who,” Ranjit Singh grumbled as he brushed debris out of his hair, “Was supposed to be checking on the outer beacons this summer?”
Only Sergeant Lewis heard, crouched by his side, and she ignored him to line up her next shot. The bolt zipped past him, burying itself in the side of the enormous twisted beast as it heaved itself out of the mist, howling in what sounded like a thousand voices at once. Each sinew spiralled down along too many bones, to too many joints, under skin too thin, and a hundred sunken eyes in its bulbous head rolled towards them, its concentric mouths lolling open. What maybe used to be ribs cracked and fractured as it inhaled, a whistling roar that built in pitch. Singh grabbed Lewis’s arm and dropped them both into shadow, the blast of bile hissing into the ground where they’d been a second before. Singh straightened, eyes dark, and a streak of green fire shot along the ground behind the monster, filling the air with acrid smoke.
“Kelly!” Lewis bellowed, as soon as she steadied herself on solid ground, somewhere east of where they’d been before, and dragged Singh by his collar behind a stone outcropping despite his protests.
“On it!” The Steward of Respect finished tying back his unruly hair and cracked his neck, tugging up the sleeve of his signature hoodie. The bracer flared and metal glinted suddenly into the light, until the enormous shield shot into existence. He snatched it out of the air and it thudded into the ground just in time for bile to slam into its surface, splattering around him in a perfect arc. An oversized limb smashed into the shield with a reverberating clang and, with a grin, Kelly pushed forward, sending it stumbling back towards the flames with a shriek. He became vaguely aware of a small brass sphere hovering above to him.
“Keep it still, would you?” Came the exasperated sigh in his mind.
“Doing my best,” he shouted back with an eye roll, planting the shield once more as the creature righted itself, mouths hissing over each other in some garbled approximation of language. There was a familiar rush at his back and Lewis levelled her crossbow over his shoulder, shadows whispering off her as she was deposited in place. The bolt sank into one of the larger eyes and it popped, raining down liquid that almost glowed yellow in the dim light. Kelly pivoted, bringing up the shield over their heads, as the fluid fizzed and hissed on contact with the ground. Without a single beat, Lewis fired from under cover, nailing one of the too thin ankles, or maybe wrists, and the bone seemed to shatter completely, sending it lurching to one side, howling.
“Fuck,” Kelly muttered, planting his feet as the enormous body swayed above them, bracing for impact. It never came, as somewhere far above them, a dim circle lit up in the gloom and thin beams of light spiralled, blasting the fog away and piercing the creature’s side with a burst of mustard-coloured viscera that bubbled into the air. It gave a sickening, gurgling scream from every mouth, staggering away from the staff on the ground. The blood surrounded them, steaming, fumes curling thickly into the mist. It settled onto their clothes and suddenly leather boots stiffened, cracked, fabric dissolved, and stinging crept up their legs. Lewis grabbed onto Kelly.
“Singh, extraction!” She commanded and they slammed through the darkness to land below Singh, standing on the outcrop and muttering about glorified uber services. He flicked his fingers, annoyingly casual, and the verdant fire curled round, blocking off the monster’s escape.
“All good?” The Hexmaster called down, not taking his eyes off the creature as the figure hovering in the mist sent another concentrated beam through another spindly leg, sending it crashing to the ground. Kelly poured water over the sizzling hair on his legs, his rough hide resisting most of the damage, before passing it to Lewis, who winced as it hit red-raw skin.
“Fine,” she told him, tossing the bottle back, “Just don’t like how close it is to the outer walls.” Singh glanced over his shoulder, just about able to make out the shadow of the school in the distance.
“Nor do I,” he murmured, eyes flitting between the stuttering blue lanterns that should have been stopping its approach. The creature gave a howl, noxious fluid oozing over the bloated face, scrabbling aware from the fire.
“It’s fine. We got this,” Kelly assured them, adjusting his grip on the huge shield.
The shriek from the creature made them all duck reflexively, and it flailed upwards. The limbs that might have been arms twisted, elongated, bones creaking and buckling at the sudden growth. Hinks didn’t seen it coming as he was swatted from the air, leaving a gouge in the ground as he skidded to a stop, groaning. The creature shuddered, each eye bulging in the grotesque mockery of a head. Its pupils dilated, pushed upwards, until long fingers curled up around the irises, and spindly creatures without faces bust through the corneas, dripping in yellow acid, screams muffled by the taut white skin where mouths should be.
Singh and Lewis turned to glare at Kelly.
“Okay, that was my bad,” he muttered, as Hinks blinked out of existence and popped back next to them, covered in steaming liquid. Singh waved a hand at him hurriedly, vanishing some of the bile, as Kelly ripped the robe from him before it fully ate through to his skin. Patches of his shirt were completely gone, edges blackened and curling, and his exposed back was already blistering.
“Ow,” the blind teacher muttered, letting the sergeant haul him to his feet.
“Kelly jinxed it,” she told him, trying to wash off whatever was left on his skin as he leant heavily against the rocks. A small floating eye circled him, narrowing at his own back and Hinks grimaced.
“Of course he did.”
“All I said was-” Kelly began to protest.
“Later,” Singh said quietly and they snapped back to attention, to the creature that was quickly shrivelling like a dead balloon, sinking downwards. Its horrifying spawn swarmed over its face to drop to the blood-splattered ground.
“Did we know it could do that?” Lewis asked, pulling a fistful of bolts from the bag on her hip. Hinks shook his head, his expression flicking between pain and fascination. For a moment, they just watched the beings scrabbling over each other, until, as one, their stretched blank faces swung towards the distant shadow towering over them and a strained howl burst from a hundred twisted necks.
“Move!” Singh shouted as the mass surged forwards. He snapped his fingers, sending another spiral of flame into their path. The first wave screamed through skin-covered mouths, flesh bubbling and charring as they fell into the fire, but those behind them didn’t stop, scrabbling over the burning corpses without pause. Hinks pushed off the rock and gave an involuntary gasp of pain, Lewis's head snapping to him.
“Hinks, you need-” But the Hexmaster had already grabbed Hinks's arm and disappeared into swirling blackness. The two remaining looked at each other, and Kelly shrugged, not blinking as the sergeant swung herself up onto his back.
“Basic play?” He shot over his shoulder at her, vaulting the rocks more nimble that his size suggested.
“Sounds good,” she said mildly, slotting a bolt in place just before he jumped.
Kelly slammed into the mass of creatures, the ground buckling, throwing them away from him. He raised his shield with a bestial roar the students never heard, mowing over them with thundering hooves that cracked delicate bones. His usual kind golden eyes darkened, red tinging the edges, and muscles strained against the hoodie, seams almost splitting. The shield smashed into charging skulls, shattering bones, sending bodies flying. Bolts sank into disconcertingly soft heads, Lewis knocking them out the air with unerring accuracy. She slid under Kelly's shield strike, kicking away a shrieking cluster of limbs, and pulled out the nightstick she'd got for Christmas. She would have been offended - weaponry?! - had Hebden and Hinks not carefully engraved runes along its surface. It left a trail of sparks as her arm snapped out, lightning causing the creature clawing at Kelly's back to shriek, convulse, and collapse in a tangle of oozing limbs. She made a mental note to thank them again, and used the proffered shield to tumble over Kelly, shooting another dead in the blank space where its eye should be.
Lenny almost choked on his drink when Singh and Hinks dropped into the staffroom, both looking worse for wear, blood oozing into Hinks's shirt from angry, spreading burns. Frank Hebden shot to his feet, aghast.
“Matt, what-” Frank started but the Hexmaster turned, eyeing the gathered staff.
“Battle stations,” he snapped and then disappeared again in a flicker of shadow. Frank rushed to Hinks, helping him to a chair, but the man batted his fretting hands away.
“You heard him,” his husband chided, his head tilting as his sight flicked between distant eyes. “Eastern wall. They're getting through the beacons.” He hissed in pain, trying to keep his burning skin off the rough fabric, automatically reaching for his husband's hand despite himself.
“Lenny!” Frank rounded on the nurse, who was still blinking at where Singh had just been.
“Shit,” Lenny muttered, and then, “Shit.” He threw the can vaguely over his shoulder and scrambled over to Hinks, inspecting the still bubbling skin of his back. He rubbed his hands together, grimacing, and looked at Hebden.
“Go. I got this,” he said, placing his hands either side of the worsening burn. The taste of soot and acid flooded his mouth, and he felt Hinks shift beneath him as he swatted at Hebden.
“Frank, I swear-”
“I'm going. Don't you move til I get back,” the cubic man warned, kissing him firmly before breaking into a run, Phil Garrett as close behind as the little man could manage.
One of Hinks's eyes popped into being next to Lenny’s head and swept the staffroom. It narrowed.
“Moley.”
“Hinks,” the older man replied coldly, sipping on a cup of tea. He hadn't moved an inch. Lenny felt Hinks bristle but his mouth was too full of coal to do anything but spit it onto the floor, and he concentrated instead on the shrinking redness as threatening boils sank back into the skin.
Frank Hebden barrelled into the corridor, glancing at the geography teacher, who simply nodded and disappeared into a hidden side passage, heading down. Hebden swung around the banister, taking the stairs three at a time. He could hear the clamouring now, overlapping shrieks and the shifting rumble of bodies thundering in their direction. Swearing under his breath, he burst out onto the rampart, his distinctly underused apparatus covered in red dust, as per usual. His poor neglected creation.
“Alright, baby, let's see…” He pulled a long thin key out of his pocket and slotted into the mounted crossbow. The key hole lit up, for a second, and he swung the thing around. It creaked, resisted, and then he heard the clicking of the system locking place in the fog around him. The problem was clear through the scope he'd crafted himself - a writhing mass of spindly limbs, a swathe of yellow-tinged bodies, tumbling towards the outer walls. The two fighters moved amongst them, Lewis twisting out of the way as Kelly charged forwards, smashing thin bodies into broken messes against his bloodied shield, tossing them into the air with a flick of his horns. The sergeant almost danced in his wake, striking down stragglers with ruthless efficiency. It was, as always, impressive to watch, but they were doing little to stem the tide. Hebden gritted his teeth, tracking the mass back to the barely visible body, lying forlorn and wrinkled on the ground. An eye zipped across the lens, making him jump, and he swore, flexing his hand that had almost fired.
“Stretching yourself thin, Matt,” he murmured, making a mental note to lecture the man about his limits later, and re-focused the lens, just in time to see the sagging head twitch, leaving a trail of viscous fluid as remaining limbs started to drag it after the approaching horde.
“Dammit.” It was out of range. He swung the scope back to Lewis and Kelly, hoping they'd seen it.
They hadn't.
He pulled away, spinning his wedding band until it glowed gently.
“You okay?” Came the immediate mental reply.
“Mother is up,” he said aloud, re-centring the crossbow on the front line that was getting dangerously close to the school plateau. He heard his husband swear repeatedly over their connection, and smirked slightly, but only slightly. His square finger rested on the trigger, just waiting for one of them to get close enough for him to loose the twenty linked crossbow bolts from across the school walls into the horde. Then maybe this thing would start to regret hurting Matt.
“The main body is up again. Retreat.” Hinks's voice cut through the shrieks around them, clear as a bell in their minds. Not a bad idea, the sergeant thought, noting how close to the school they'd been pushed. Hearing a furious snort, Lewis glanced over her shoulder at Kelly as he smashed one of them into the ground with his shield, shattering its scrabbling arm with one heavy hoof. He roared, drowning out the muffled screams of the spawn, gore dripping from his horns that seemed to be growing. One of his eyes was almost completely blood-red.
“Alright, Kelly, rein it in,” she shouted over the noise, snapping the thin arm that grasped at her and dodging under another towards him. His good eye flicked in her direction and one short grunt told her that he’d heard, even as he knocked one of the spawn to the ground and drove the edge of the shield through its abdomen. Lewis sighed deeply.
Retreat was going to be easier said than done.
Burning fingers swept across her cheek, dragging her back into the fight. Swearing, she knocked the clawing hand away with her crackling nightstick and fired a bolt through its straining neck. It made a horrifying choking noise, and something simmered behind the stretched, unbroken skin of its face.
The shadow flared into life, forcing her backwards as the skin to split open, a rush of mustard-coloured acid spraying towards her face. It disappeared instead into the darkness, that shuddered in response and snapped forwards, twisting around the long pale limbs. In an instant, it was dragged shrieking to the ground, through the ground, disappearing from sight. She felt the touch on her back briefly - just Singh letting her know he was there, like she couldn't have guessed as Singh's shadow streaked back towards him. She pivoted, pulling them both back towards Kelly. The bigger man huffed, breath steaming in the air, tossing a body into the air that Singh set on fire with a snap of his fingers. It landed among its brethren and exploded, scattering the creatures away from them, a moment of reprieve.
“I thought you called retreat?” Lewis shouted over the noise, taking the moment to reload, pressing back into Kelly's space. The Steward of Respect roared again, slamming his shield into the rock, and there seemed to be a slight falter in the pale, bloodied ranks.
“I did,” Singh yelled back. Even in the murky air, she could see sweat dripping down his face, the bags under his eyes more pronounced than usual. She reached out, dragging him forwards as she kicked a flailing monstrosity away from them.
“How many times have you portalled? Four? Five?” He grabbed a blank, skin-covered face, hands bursting into flame, and distinctly didn't answer as it convulsed in his grip.
“Ranjit,” she said, the warning clear in her voice.
“I can manage one more, Lewis” he snapped, throwing the body away from them and sounding way more exhausted than she would have liked. She opened her mouth to argue but the roar shot through them, halfway between a scream and a howl. Kelly ripped the spawn off him, leaving deep gouges along his back that steamed in the air. Lewis sank her crackling nightstick into brittle ribs as it rolled to her feet, feeling the being fold in on itself.
“Prove it!” Now wasn't really the time for a fight. She darted to a heaving Kelly, who had almost reached seven feet tall, as Singh swept one arm in a familiar circle. The ground around them shifted, then disappeared completely, dropping them into the dark between.