Nyxoria

THE MANSION

Everyone looked at him with a confused look and so he explained further.

“We have a lot of dead weight in the mansion that keeps holding potential survivors down. People that don’t want to use their abilities, so if we can divide everyone into units and put each unit in a section of the mansion, we can each focus on our dead weights instead of joining up and increasing the amount of dead weights.”

“Then what was all that speech you gave on the steps earlier, if you were going to divide the weak ones why give the speech.” Kai asked

“To give everyone a sense of unity so as to avoid people becoming desperate and jeopardizing others. No matter how you see it, this is our best way to survive.”

“The shoggoths are too many and if we divide into units,we might hold them off for a while. A night or two perhaps and when everyone is at their lowest, they’ll kill us.” Rory said.

“Why don’t we bring everyone together and barricade the entrances of the mansion and defend the barricades.” Zara suggested.

“That would spread us too thin seeing as it is a huge mansion. One wrong move from anyone and everyone is dead.” Koby remarked.

“I agree.” Luna supported Koby.

“Any ideas then, Koby and Luna?” Zara asked sarcastically.

“I don’t do well with strategizing.” Luna said before glancing at Koby.

“I might have an idea.” James said.

Everyone turned their gaze towards him, ready to hear what he had to propose.

“We can’t divide ourselves and we also can’t spread ourselves too thin. We should all gather at a corner of the mansion and barricade it, then we’ll know where the shoggoths are coming from and can easily give there our attention rather than dividing up the attention.” James explained.

“That’s a plan I can get behind.” Luna said chuckling.

“I agree, it’s not that bad of a plan. True unity.” Rory said.

“Do you have a section in mind?” Kai asked James.

“We could take the upper floor. It has a large hall we could use as a base of operations.” James offered.

“We still need to talk about defence, as a contingency for the shoggoths breaching.” Clifford said.

“If all the strongest people are in a room, it shouldn’t be that hard to defend the hall.” Luna said.

“If all the strongest are in a room, people are going to die if they use their abilities from stray fire in such tight conditions.”

“Not to mention, the fact that there might be cases of desperate people trying to sabotage anything.” Koby backed up Clifford .

“And what solution do you offer?” Ophelia asked.

“What makes you think I have one?”

“If someone is able to point out an issue, they should also be quite capable of finding a solution.” Ophelia reasoned.

“I do not agree with that reasoning but I do have a solution.- Koby paused to get everyone’s attention and then continued- well, we can bring out the strongest and use them as shields for the room.”

“I do not know if I should call that brave or stupid.” Luna said tapping her fingers on the table.

“It’s neither. The hallways are narrow, we can drop furnitures in the hallways to slow down shoggoths for an easier kill. They can’t move well in congested areas.” Koby explained.

“I don’t like that plan.” Ophelia said.

“You scared of getting your hands dirty, princess.- Kai teased – don’t worry we won’t pick you, you’re dead weight.”

“Well this princess has the most supporters. How many supporters do you have again? Remind me. Oh that’s right, you’re just a five man team.” She said giggling provocatively.

“Hold your horses, everyone. Let’s have a vote.- Rory said easing the building tension – anyone that goes along with the shield plan, show your hands.”

After a moments pause, hands were raised. Koby, Kai, James, Luna and Clifford had raised their hands

With Zara, Ophelia and Rory disagreeing.

“Well, I guess that settles it.” Rory said.

“We should all prepare for a marvelous death.” Zara quipped.

With the plan of strategy set, everyone headed off to bring their various factions together. The faction less groups or individuals just joined in out of desperation. Everyone headed up to the upstairs base of operations. An audience was given to those who would want to be shields and very few stepped forward. A total of thirty-nine counting both male and female had stepped up to be shields including the faction leaders.

“Well it’s better than nothing.” Rory chirped.

“We will make do of what we have.” James said.

As every single person of the shields gathered together at base, they were grouped into three. The Advance Team, the Recon Team and the Base Protectors.

Each team has a total of thirteen members with each faction leaders split across the teams. Koby, Luna, Zara and James were in the Advance Team.Rory and Clifford were in the Recon team while Kai and Ophelia were in Base Protectors.

“Why isn’t Rory on the advance team? He’s clearly the strongest here.” Ophelia asked.

“Exactly why he shouldn’t be on the advance team. He’ll be worn out.” Clifford said.

“I don’t get it.” Ophelia said

“It’s a strategy that I like to call, the three gateways. I used it a lot when playing online games.”

“Games? You’re basing our entire survival on a gaming strategy?” Ophelia asked with an eyebrow lifted up in astonishment.

“You have any better ideas?” Koby asked folding his arms.

“ I don’t .Doesn’t mean we have to bet our lives on a gaming strategy.” Ophelia said.

“That gaming strategy is all we got. It helps is secure the halls better, putting a strong force in front, a stronger force in the middle and no offence- Clifford glanced at Ophelia and Kai- the weak force at the end.”

Kai smirked at Clifford, ready to pounce on him any second but was held back by Koby. Everyone then proceeded to their assigned position.

“Who does Clifford think he is?” Kai fumed.

“We’re doing this to survive, Kai. We wouldn’t want to be the reason the group comes apart.” James said

“He’s just baiting you. Wouldn’t mind if you switched positions with me though.” Koby joked.

“It’s not funny.” Kai said hitting Koby on the shoulders.

“It’s a little bit funny.” Rory said as he approached the group.

“What do you want, Rory?” Koby asked

“Just wanted to wish you luck on the front lines.”

“Why are you so interested in Koby?” Kai asked.

“Well his group seems likely to survive and I just want to be on friendly terms.”

Just then the timer began to countdown. It was the last sixty seconds before the next stampede.

“Everyone hurry. To your positions.” Clifford announced as everyone hurried up with the final touches on barricades and setting their positions.

“Koby, James. If things get rough at the front lines, make sure to consider yourselves first.” Kai said to the two tapping them on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry, we won’t die just yet.” Koby said.

“Take care of the rest.” James said as he glanced at Raya and Rachael.

“Don’t worry about us and focus on surviving.” Raya said to James before glancing at Koby, who just faced the other way. He wasn’t sure how to face them seeing as how he had acted with Shoggoth Britney.

She moved to Koby and held his palm which shocked him.

“I don’t hate you for what you did. But we’re still humans, so try to retain your kindness.”

“I’ll show kindness if it benefits me.” Koby retorted and then left with James .

Everyone stilled their breaths as the last five seconds counted down and after a moment, the shoggoths started pouring in from the main door.

“Here they come!” Luna screamed as everyone readied their weapons.

The narrow hallways forced the shoggoths to come in pairs and the furniture dropped in the hallways prevented them from moving smoothly. As soon as the shoggoths got close enough, Zara fired the first fire wave supported by the fire element users. Creating a wall of flame between them and the shoggoths, Zara proceeds to send a burst of energy through the flames, spreading it across the hordes of shoggoths, successfully disorienting them. The melee fighters led by Koby , Luna and James attacked. Hacking away at the shoggoths while the flame users stopped the regeneration.

The clash was brutal, it sent some of the members flying of in different directions. Screams of a few as they were torn apart was heard everywhere. A few lost their nerves and started running back to base. The few that remained kept pushing on.

“Hatchet Fury.” Koby used a burst of energy to increase his speed and agility as he furiously swept through the hordes, sawing away like a maniac. As he finished of with one of the shoggoths, a tentacle came flying at him almost hitting him. Instinctually, he swayed his head left missing it by mere centimeters, using the wall as support he jumped and launched himself towards the shoggoth, hacking at it’s tentacles. Mid-air he shifted his weight so as to hit the ground faster rolling under the shoggoth, using it’s blind spot to cut under it’s belly before jumping up and cutting off its head. He then proceeded to throw his hatchet at a tentacle aimed at Luna.

“I’m pretty sure I would’ve caught it.” Luna smirked as she flinged the hatchet right back at him.

“Let’s keep the jokes for later.” Koby said catching it mid air and stepping to team up with her.

“Earth Tremor.” She shouted slamming her longsword into the ground directing a small tremor towards the horde, disorienting them while Koby leapt from her shoulder using Hatchet Fury to hack through the hordes. He loses his footing while landing and is about to be pierced by a tentacle when a flash of light appeared revealing James.

“Second technique: Moon Sweeping.” He said as he swept in cutting off the tentacle in a circular spin strike mid air before pointing his sword at the torso of the shoggoth.

“First Technique: Thousand Strikes.” This released a flurry of energized strikes destroying the whole upper body of the shoggoth and others behind it.

“Thanks for the save.” Koby said as they linked back up with Luna and readied to face more.