A New City and a New Threat

An eerie silence had fallen over the woods on the outskirts of Springfield. Over the past six months since the Golden Order had fled the city, the various hunter clans had received reports of strange creatures in their woods, but no clan had even gotten concrete sightings, only panicked reports from mundane hunters or mangled bodies in their woods. The two groups that inhabited the woods around the city, The Wild Hunt and the Hunters of Artemis began taking this threat more seriously as more and more sightings and bodies were found. Soon, it became their scouts that went missing or found mangled. The Hunters of Artemis went onto high alert when the daily missives from The Wild Hunt suddenly stopped.

“Is this gonna be enough, dad?” a worried Cynthia asked her father as the two oversaw the Hunters of Artemis set traps along their perimeter before the hunters then got into a defensive formation.

“If what the Wild Hunt survivor said is true, then I’m not sure,” Arnold told his daughter as he grabbed her and gave her a hug. He could feel her shaking in his arms, her fear clearly evident. My poor girl, you’ve never had to face a truly unknown threat like this. Your mother and I always made sure hunts were at your skill level so we knew there would be no danger of you dying. But this, this is different. This may be war, a war you and the other young hunters should never have to face. “Don’t worry Cynthia, we’ll stop this threat here and now, and make these woods safe again,” Arnold said as he and his daughter moved to a better position.

“If only the Order were still here, they’d help us! Why’d they leave?” asked Cynthia, remembering the alliances her parents had told her about.

“That is a good question, sweetie,” Arnold replied to his daughter. “It seems that Lord Brighton was killed in a war with some unknown group and their new leader, a fully awakened Warden Moira, fled the battle. With them gone, the shadier elements have quickly moved into Springfield. It’s why we don’t venture there as much anymore, not nearly as safe as it used to be,” explained Arnold as he continued to hold his daughter.

“I see. Do you think it’ll ever be safe like it once was?” asked Cythnia, who did miss her shopping trips with her friends to the Springfield Mall.

“Perhaps. Depends on who becomes the controlling power. If it’s the Cabal, then we will never return to that city lest we be attacked so they can either prostitute our women out or make us into mana batteries. The Black Velvet, on the other hand, would probably keep control of the city and not interfere with us going there as long as we did not interfere with their work and provided a protection fee while in their city,” deduced Arnold as he thought of the various organizations in the city.

“What about the Moon Clan and the mercenary people...uh something legion...” Cynthia said as she pursed her lips trying to recall the name of the group she was thinking of.

“The Forgotten Legion is what you are thinking of sweetie,” Arnold said. “The Moon Clan doesn’t care what happens to the city as long as it doesn’t interfere with their mysterious mission and I doubt any of the other groups are strong enough to challenge the clan. They may be few, but they are powerful. As for the Forgotten Legion, well if any group can hire them, they’ll fight for them but if another group tries to **** them, they’d probably just leave the city and set up shop somewhere else. If there’s no profit in this city, Lady Arista is a shrewd businesswoman. Your mother both hates her and respects her,” Arnold said with a chuckle as he thought back to the ladies’ previous interactions. “There are also various small groups in the city that I’m sure will either be destroyed or absorbed by the end of this turf war,” Arnold informed his daughter. The two continued on until they heard a rustle of branches and leaves right outside their perimeter.

Every hunter quickly raised their weapons at the sound of the noise, patiently waiting for whatever creature that made that noise came out of the brush and into their kill zone. Quickly another noise was heard near the first, then a third, and fourth. It became clear to the hunters that someone or something was probing their perimeter. Suddenly, multiple loud crashing noises erupted through the protective barrier the hunters had set up around their normal barrier, the protective barrier shattered as floods of horrid creatures flooded into the barrier.

The hunters let loose their weapons, with arrows, crossbow bolts, and every other type of projectile they used flew through the air and penetrated the creatures. The hunters quickly reloaded and fired again and again as their attacks seemed to only slow the creatures.

“AIM FOR THE HEAD OR DESTROY THEM COMPLETELY!” Arnold shouted as he noticed that only headshots that destroyed the head or body destroying attacks would put these monsters down. Their attacks to the limbs or body only slowed the things down. The various hunters changed their aiming in accordance with their commander’s orders but it was already too late. The monsters had already begun climbing up the trees and attacking any hunter they got near.

“By Artemis, what are these things?!” yelled a female hunter before a creature jumped onto her, its jaws latching onto her throat as it pulled her esophagus out with its teeth. Arnold looked around as he witnessed more and more hunters share the same fate as that young woman. It was only when they got near him that he saw what they were.

“In the name of Artemis, it can’t be...” Arnold said under his breath as he looked at the twisted humanoid creature before him. The flesh was clearly rotten, parts of it hung off the bone. The teeth of the creature were pointed, clearly made to rip into the flesh of its prey, its fingers had become sharp claws meant to tear and rip their opponent apart. “Ghouls… We can’t win, not with these numbers...” Arnold said as he realized that a powerful necromancer must have been responsible to make this many ghouls.

“RETREAT! EVERYONE FALL BACK TO THE SECONDARY POINT!” ordered Arnold as he and Marco let loose a flurry of attacks to provide the hunters time to fall back. The hunters quickly moved among the trees, able to outpace the ghouls who were not nimble enough to move among the tree branches. The hunters were slowly starting to get away when a new problem presented itself.

As the hunters moved forward, they would notice a tree suddenly fall that would **** them to change their path. While it would be one tree every thirty or so seconds, it quickly became every five seconds a tree would fall. As the hunters looked down, they saw the cause of what was removing their escape route: hulking abominations made of the flesh of multiple people sewn together to create the worst nightmare fuel one could think of. The abominations were using their multiple hands, each with an axe, to hack away at the trees, forcing them to fall.
“Quickly, across the gap! We are almost there!” Arnold rallied his forces as they all made the jump. Arnold assisted Cynthia in making the jump as he stayed behind to make sure as many hunters cleared the gap as possible. Arnold looked on in horror as chains would randomly wrap an arm or leg of a hunter as they were pulled down to the **** powered creatures below. Once on the ground, the abominations would hack or tear the unlucky hunter apart. When all others were clear, Arnold distracted the abominations with Marco as he made the jump across the gap to the safety of the canopy of still standing trees.

“Dad!” shouted Cynthia as she raced over to meet her father but stopped when he raised his hand to her.

“No! Continue on to the secondary point! I’ll be right behind you!” Arnold ordered his daughter as he began racing with the rest of the group to their next base. Arnold and the rest moved as fast as they could until they reached their secondary base for the ****. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief once they reached the treetop defenses.

“Sir, we’ve set up a defensive line from where the enemy will be coming from. Any orders?” asked a hunter.

“Yes, just one,” Arnold said as he turned to his daughter. “Go to your mother and tell her what has happened here. She needs to know what we are facing,” he said in a very serious tone. Cynthia stared silently at her father for a few moments before she answered.

“B-but dad! I’m needed here!” she said as she held back tears.

“No! This information is vital and I would trust nobody else to deliver it than you, sweetie! You must do this! For me, for your mother, and your fellow hunters! Please… go...” Arnold said as he raised his hand up to stroke his daughter’s cheek. Cynthia brushed away his hand and hugged her father as tears began to roll down her cheeks. She knew her father was right, her mother needed this information and she was one of the fastest hunters here.

“Fine, I’ll go. But promise me you’ll come back, dad!” demanded Cynthia as she still hugged her dad.

“Of course, sweetie,” Arnold said as he patted his daughter’s head. “I’d never leave your mother and you alone,” he said softly as he smiled and looked down at her. She smiled at that as she released her father and wiped away her tears.

“Ok, then...I’ll see you soon?” Cynthia said as her father nodded. Satisfied, Cynthia turned and continued through the treetops back to the hunter camp to tell her mother what was transpiring at their borders. Once she was out of earshot, Arnold turned to talk to his troops.

“I won’t lie to you all, there is a very good chance none of us get out of this alive. But our sacrifices will not be in vain. Our leader will plead to Artemis herself for the power needed to stop these undead that scourge our lands. She and the rest of our fellow hunters will purge these filthy creatures and kill whatever necromancer decided to use us as their test subjects. We will make it a costly test, and thin out their numbers so our companions will not lose a single hunter! Are you with me?!” rallied Arnold to the cheers of the remaining hunters. Their cheers were silenced when the alarms went off that their pitfalls had been activated.

Arnold rushed over to the protective wall of their base and looked down to see various abominations and ghouls piled into their pitfalls. The traps, however, did not have their intended effect as the undead creatures merely crawled over their disabled compatriots to continue their advance onto the hunter’s position.

“Fire!” ordered Arnold as the group once again fought the ghouls and abominations. With their knowledge gained from the first skirmish, the hunters were able to stop the ghouls and abominations from getting too close to them. However, with all their focus on the battle happening on the ground, none of them noticed the new threat that stalked the skies until it was too late.

“AHHHH!” came the scream of various hunters as were picked up by strange flying monstrosities. These creatures let out a deafening screech as their talons dug into the shoulders of hunters and lifted them from their spots only to drop them to their deaths. Various hunters switched to attack the new airborne threats only to find their projectiles bounce off the stone flesh of the flying creatures.

With his group’s focus now split between two fronts, Arnold knew there was no chance of winning, or even causing any sort of substantial damage to the opponent’s numbers. His mind raced with how to best deal with this situation, but he was unsure of what to do. There was only one thing that came to his mind over and over again. He knew it was risky but it was the only thing he could do.

“SCATTER!” he shouted. “SCATTER AND MEET BACK AT THE CAMP!” he told his hunters as he tried to save as many as he could from the new flying enemies.

“But sir, what abo-”

“We must retreat. We’ll need as many hunters alive to protect the camp from this many enemies. NOW GO!” he said to the questioning hunter, who followed his orders and quickly fled. Arnold continued to fight off as many undead as he could to buy his people as much time as possible. Once the last hunter was gone, Arnold prepared to leave, when he noticed a new problem.

“Burn ze forest to the ground! Leave nowhere for ze filth to hide!” said an unknown voice with a thick accent. Arnold looked to where the voice came from to see soldiers in a mech suit armed with flamethrowers setting fire to the forest. The symbol emblazoned across the chest of the mecha made it clear who was in control of this undead army and a completely different threat than he had first believed.

“No...it can’t be...but how?” asked Arnold as he began to retreat just when a pack of the flying creatures swooped down to intercept him.