The Rockers

A group of roughly twenty people poured into the hallway. They wore outfits consisting of black leather jackets, rough biker pants and heavy leather boots. Their hair was more diverse, ranging from mohawks over bald to messy long hair. A guy with spikey short hair lead the group and clicked with his tongue in annoyance when he saw the four of them standing there.

As he spoke he wave around a short wand with a delicate looking glass orb at the top. “Hey, Hey, Hey. You mean the Wall Shadow still didn’t take you out? And we even paid our guy extra to rent that thing.” He complained. John looked over their heads. Their levels ranged from 8 to 10, not a threat to the three people currently with him, would it not have been for their sheer number and the Wall Shadow still hiding somewhere.

“Who are you?” Moira demanded to know. “Ja, out with it.” Rave added and started tapping her foot to that rhythm again. “Just a Bunch of Rockers.” The spikey haired leader said. “Who need some money to tune their bikes. See, flying tires aren’t cheap you know?” He said and giggled. Then he pointed at John with the wand he was holding. “But a little birdy at this school sang us a song that there is a valuable asset to steal here. You will get us good money if we sell you to a Mana Factory, John Newman.”

Rave wrinkled her eyebrows. “There is an information broker at our school? For real’zies?” “Rave, you useless piece of garbage, why don’t you notice such things!” Travolta cursed at her. “Stop yelling at me, baldy.” “Will you both shut up and deal with the situation at hand?” Moira intervened, in response Travolta punched into her general direction and hit the Wall Shadow square in the face as it tried to attack her.

“Seems like Baldy has the situation covered.” The spikey haired leader said. “That is so my way to talk to him!” Rave complained and shook her fist. More curses were exchanged until the rocker finally stopped and said. “Enough of this, give us the Gamer or we will take him.” He raised the wand and the Wall Shadow peeked from the ceiling and hissed at the smaller group menacingly. “Try!” “I will never let the innocent be tortured in one of those factories!” Rave and Moira said and got into their respective battle poses.

Travolta on the other hand turned to John. “Yo, Gamer. Can you make out with what they are controlling the Wall Shadow?” John nodded, he already had a hunch. He used Observe on the small wand.

D-Rank Monster Controller

This item allows the user to gain and maintain control over an D-Rank or lower monster. The top is very fragile.

“It’s the wand.” John affirmed. Travolta nodded, his suspicion confirmed. “Fucking annoying, the Wall Shadow would immediately turn on the weak prey if they didn’t have that.” The giant cursed. “Bah, seems like we will just have to try and punch through.”

John hesitated for a moment as Travolta as well became ready to charge at the enemy. The Wall Shadow in between them and the enemy thugs pulled three more arms from the ground, covering the whole width of the hallway. “I have a better plan!” John intervened before the trio could try. “Travolta, just stay behind and protect me then I can destroy that wand.” Travolta frowned but then looked at the monster and the thugs, many of which were pulling out knives and other weapons. “Fucking fine. You two cover us then.” “Don’t tell me what to do, Baldy.” Rave said but took a step forward nonetheless. “You won’t attack or hand him to us? Fine, then we are coming to get him.” The spikey haired leader said and sent his thugs to attack together, the Wall Shadow vanishing back into the floor.

Moira and Rave met the Rockers halfway. Moira clashed right into them with her shield, halting their advance as Rave elegantly sidestepped the first attacks and retaliated with flickering punches and kicks that sent the Rockers to the ground. The difference in power was apparent but they were many and neither Moira nor Rave had the luxury to make sure that an enemy was actually finished or just resting for a moment to return into the fray.

Travolta was watching for the Wall Shadow whose objective surely was to snatch John away. John himself looked for the wand, through the mass of attacking bodies. All he needed was a second of visibility and then…

There it was. A strike of Moira’s Warhammer had created a small opening in the attackers and through it John saw their leader and the wand. Immediately he used Possession on the small thing. His conscious was divided half of it now resting in the sweaty hand of the enemy leader. This was a gamble, he actually didn’t know if he could get through with it with the limitation he currently had but if he just managed to wiggle the wand out of the hand that was holding it and destroy the orb at the top maybe the limitation on the Wall Shadow would be broken.

Maybe. First he needed to get out of the hand though. Thankfully the leaders grip wasn’t firm and the sweat made it easy to wiggle around. The other half of his consciousness was aware of a sudden gust as Travolta punched away the claw of the Wall Shadow. The monster must had realized his absent mind and chose to attack again.

John had to trust that Travolta would protect him as he slowly and with outmost care wiggled himself out of the Rockers grip. He felt the pull of gravity, saw the Rocker looking down, eyes opening wide. ‘This must be the view of a falling Smartphone.’ John thought as the spikey haired leader tried to catch the falling wand. He barely missed as John turned in an unnatural way mid-air, the last thing he did before breaking the possession was to make sure the glass would hit the floor first.

The cracking sound vibrated through the hallway and fighting stopped for a slight moment. Everything went silent. Then the Wall Shadow, with a triumphant hiss, appeared next to the spikey haired leader and wrapped its four arms around him. Claws dug into flesh, pulled him against the wall. The sound of breaking bones as the Rocker was crushed between the arms and the wall, leaving a mangled corpse and a bloody monster. The Wall Shadow turned to the other Rockers and made a hissing sound that might have been laughter before vanishing into the wall again.

A Rocker screamed and finally broke the silence. He ran away, others closely followed him. They realized that they were now stuck between three stronger opponents and a monster that could strike from anywhere at any second. What they didn’t realize is that the Wall Shadow could kill them one by one during their shattered retreat. Screams and the sounds of more bones breaking echoed through the hallways.

Then it was silent again. John and Moira’s eyes were glued to the mangled corpse of the leader that was left behind. Three thin lines over the chest and one over the head marked where the arms of the beast had wrapped around its former master and crushed his body open. Aside from the legs it was barely recognizable as a human corpse, looking more like a mass of crudely minced meat and black leather.

“Don’t be such pansies.” Rave said and snapped her fingers a few times. “It’s just a corpse, nothing new in the Abyss.” Moira nodded. “Yes…yes you are right.” John just gulped. He still felt unnaturally calm about all of this but that didn’t mean that the view of a corpse just left him without any feelings. He found his voice. “We should relocate….” He said. “That would be wise.” Travolta agreed with a glance at the nearby walls.