The streets of Edinburgh were barely streets anymore. They were wounds carved into the city, their cobblestones cracked and slick with blood, ash drifting like snow in the air. Smoke curled through the alleys, carrying the acrid stench of burnt flesh and sulfur.
Robert led the group through the devastation, his staff glowing gently as his eye scanned for threats. The silence was unnerving, punctuated only by distant screams and the occasional howl of a Cu Sith.
"Keep sharp," Hamish muttered, his hand gripping the hilt of his blade tightly. His shield was raised, its polished surface reflecting the flickering light of distant fires. "They'll no' give us warning before they come."
The group moved cautiously, their steps muffled by the layer of soot and debris coating the ground. Then it happened, a flash of green light from the shadows, followed by the low, guttural growl that sent chills down their spines. Three Cu Sith darted out from an alleyway, their spectral forms glowing with malevolent energy. Their glowing eyes locked onto the group, and their snarls echoed like a death knell.
Hamish was the first to react. With a roar, he surged forward, his sword gleaming as it arced through the air. The first Cu Sith leapt at him, its claws extended, but his blade cleaved through its form with a satisfying squelch. The creature yelped before dissolving into a wisp of smoke.
Chaucer was already moving. With a flick of his wrist, three throwing stars soared through the air, leaving streaks of elemental energy in their wake. Two stars struck true, embedding into the second Cu Sith's chest and shattering it into flickering embers. The third darted wildly, only to freeze mid-air as Snow's turret intercepted it with a blast of frost magic. "Still gettin used to those! Thanks floaty bloke." The turret bobbed.
The final Cu Sith lunged at Snow, its spectral teeth bared. Her turret whirled around her shoulder quick as a thought from Snow, firing a concentrated stream of ice. The blast struck the creature mid-leap, encasing it in a jagged prison of frost. Snow waved her hand, and the frozen Cu Sith shattered into glittering shards that rained down like cursed snowflakes.
Robert scanned the alleyway, his magical left eye flickering to ensure no threats remained. Instinctively, he raised his staff, channeling Essence Refinement to dissolve the Cu Sith's smoky remains into glowing motes of mana and a single spectral claw, pocketing it for later crafting. His heart pounded, but his voice stayed steady. "Well handled," he said, nodding. "Let's keep moving."
They pressed on, the destruction growing more severe the closer they got to the southern barricade. The distant snarls of Cu Sith grew louder, and the flickering light of fires illuminated the horizon. Each step forward brought new atrocities, the air thick with death and despair. Stepping over dismembered and chewed corpses of people of all ages, they moved as quietly as they could.
The southern barricade came into view like a desperate gasp for order in a city consumed by chaos. A wall of overturned carts, shattered beams, and debris stretched across the road, manned by a ragtag group of defenders. Blood smeared the barricade's surface, and the ground below was littered with spent cartridges, shattered arrows, and twisted remains of Cu Sith.
Scotty made a low comment about the Cu Sith, "We still don't know why some disappear in smoke, or other particulate, and some just stay as corpses."
Behind the barricade, a small band of fighters struggled to hold their ground. The fighters moved with grim determination, their faces smeared with ash and exhaustion. The first was a towering figure wielding a massive flail, the weapon sweeping in wide arcs to crush the spectral forms of Cu Sith. Beside him, another soldier stood with sword and shield, their movements precise and methodical, their blade flashing with every strike. A few feet back, a fire mage hurled blasts of flame that erupted like miniature suns.
A soldier near the barricade thrust his bayonet into a charging Cu Sith, the blade sinking into its spectral chest. His face was etched with desperate resolve as he fought, but the beast howled, its claws raking across his face with a wet, sickening sound. His last thought was of his daughter, waiting for him back home, as another Cu Sith pounced, dragging him down amidst a flurry of snapping jaws and tearing flesh.
Blood sprayed across the barricade as the beasts savaged him, his body quickly disappearing beneath the writhing mass. The air was filled with the snarls of the beasts and the shouts of the defenders. Soldiers further back fired rifles at the charging hounds, but the bullets either passed through harmlessly or lodged uselessly in their spectral hides.
"They're barely holding," Chaucer muttered, his voice unusually grim. His hand hovered near his brace of throwing stars.
Hamish gritted his teeth. "Aye, and they'll no' hold much longer without us."
Robert didn't hesitate. "Move in. Support them. Snow, keep that healer protected."
The group charged forward, leaping over the barricade. The fighters already there cast brief glances of relief but said nothing, too focused on the Cu Sith bearing down on them. Robert's team entered the fray, their weapons and magic joining the desperate defense of the southern barricade. A young defender, no older than twenty, swung his rifle like a club, his movements wild with fear and fury. A tattered photograph of his family peeked out from the pocket of his jacket as he fought.
The creature snarled, its razor-sharp teeth tearing into his throat as he stumbled. Another Cu Sith joined the first, and the young man's desperate cries were swallowed by the snarling pack. The defenders nearby faltered for a moment, their faces pale, before regrouping to hold the line, pushing their grief down to be dealt with another day.
The moment Robert's team engaged, the chaos intensified. The Cu Sith seemed to sense the surge of power in their new foes, their howls rising to an almost deafening pitch. Wave after wave of the spectral beasts surged forward, their claws raking the barricade as they leapt at the defenders with savage precision.
Hamish stood at the front line, his shield raised like a fortress wall. A Cu Sith pounced, its claws slamming into his shield with a sound like shattering glass. He grunted, blowing it back with a blast of wind from the shield, before his blade came down in a brutal arc, cleaving the beast in two. "Come on then!" he bellowed, his voice thick with defiance. Another Cu Sith charged, and he slammed his shield into it with enough force to send it sprawling, neck broken at an odd angle.
Chaucer danced behind Hamish, his throwing stars blazed like a bursting sun, streaks of fire, water, and air magic swirling from each controlled toss. Every shuriken found a mark and released bursts of magic. This one burned, that one struck so hard with air element it flew backwards several meters, and a third hit by a water star slipped upon the ground and lost all momentum, making it an easy kill with a wakizashi slash to its throat.
Chaucer was poetry in motion. As he moved, he sang a verse, his voice rising over the chaos: "To the first I grant a fiery end, a blaze to sear the night. To the second, cold embrace, frozen still in fright." A water-infused star struck a Cu Sith, sending it sprawling in a misty burst. "The third I send a slicing gale, to cut through spectral might," he intoned, his next star laced with air magic. It cleaved a Cu Sith in two, its halves dissolving into smoke. He spun, loosing another star with a dark grin: "And this, a poet's final gift, to end the endless fight."
Snow moved with practiced grace, her turret spinning like a sentinel over her shoulder. It fired rapid bursts of frost and water, freezing Cu Sith mid-leap or blasting them back with sprays of icy shards, the frozen spikes burying themselves in the bodies of the attackers. Her hands glowed gently as she wove protective magic around the healer at the rear. "we got this, we got this, we GOT this!!," she urged, her voice tense in the chaos. "So many teeth!" She exclaimed aloud.
Robert took the center, his staff glowing with a brilliant light. He slammed its base into the ground, summoning a jagged wall of stone that rose sharply in front of the barricade. Robert ripped stone and concrete from the street itself to create a better, stronger barricade, too high to be leapt over. This forced the speeding animals to choose a side, and narrowed the team's kill zone. Able to focus fire in fewer directions, the band started making headway, even buying time to catch their breath somewhat.
He switched to his beams, one hand outstretched, releasing bursts of searing heat beams and aiming it at the closest Cu Sith to him, until it was ash then he would switch to a new target. Robert bolstered allies under heavy assault, his heat beams scorching Cu Sith to ash, their essence refined into mana wisps with a flick of his staff. When packs closed in, he unleashed explosive fire blasts down his searing ray to scatter them.
His other hand stretched over his head, channeling a shield of light. Any Cu Sith that travelled through the energetic shield would risk being seared to charred coal. One particularly berserk beast turned more feral from being hit by Chaucer's throwing stars.
In a rage it ran at Robert snapping and drooling. As soon as his wound came into contact with the shield, the light dove into his flesh and hollowed the beast out from the inside, burnt flesh and smoke filled the air, making his eyes sting. His left eye glowed brighter as he scanned the battlefield, identifying packs of Cu Sith still incoming.
The Cu Sith, relentless as they were, began to falter under the combined assault. But the respite was short-lived. From the shadows, a new wave emerged, larger, fiercer, their snarls echoing off nearby buildings confusing their approach.
One of the beasts lunged at Scotty, who had been reloading a rifle behind the barricade. Beside him, a soldier frantically swung a bayonet at another Cu Sith, his hands trembling as tears streaked through the grime on his face. "Not like this," he whispered under his breath, defiance and terror mingling in his voice. The Cu Sith clamped its jaws around his leg, dragging him to the ground. He clawed at the cobblestones, his fingers bleeding as he tried to escape. Another beast pounced, its glowing fangs sinking into his throat. His scream gurgled and then ceased, his body going limp as the Cu Sith tore him apart. Scotty's weapon jammed, and his eyes widened in panic as three Cu Sith closed in. "Bloody hell," he cursed.
A large beast leapt, its claws outstretched. Scotty raised his hands in a futile attempt to block. But before it could reach him, a burst of flame erupted from his palms, engulfing the Cu Sith in mid-air. The creature disintegrated into ash, coating Scotty in a fine, gray dust. He stared at his trembling hands, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "Holy shit," he muttered, his voice barely audible, as he stared at his palms "Holy shit!!"
"Scotty!" Snow called, her turret firing at another Cu Sith near him. "Focus! You're not out of this yet!" It didn't take long, with Moira's voice coaching him while he fought, before he was throwing bolts of fire at Cu Sith that were curving in mid air to strike the intended target. For a moment, Robert thought back to his first time in a dungeon, and he was doing something similar with sharp thorns. Robert grinned briefly at the thought, and turned his attention back into the violent night.
The barricade trembled under the onslaught, but Robert's voice cut through the chaos. "Hold the line! We're not losing this barricade! This is the path the people need to take!" Sweat poured down his face, mana flowing into him from the scores of Cu Sith that threw themselves into their steady churning Sith Grinder. Robert's team took the west portion of the barricade wall he had erected, and another team from Doras Dagda held on to the east.
Both teams were working hard, soldiers in the middle climbing the previous barricade to shoot over the top of the wall Robert had created to control the Cu Sith flow. They had used all their grenades, and there was little else they can do but shoot. That, and feel envious of the power Robert and his allies wielded. It was not a mystery in the slightest, who had saved them.
These men and women, who seemed to have stepped out of a comic book, and unleashed death against monsters from a horror movie. The world didn't make sense anymore, but these soldiers were glad to have them on their side.
The Cu Sith suddenly stopped charging. The howls and snarls that had filled the air only moments ago were silenced, replaced by an eerie, oppressive quiet. Defenders at the barricade exchanged wary glances, their weapons still poised for another attack. The air seemed to thicken with tension, the absence of sound almost more unnerving than the chaos that had preceded it.
Then, it came, a scream. A sound so deep and primal that it seemed to rise from the earth itself, vibrating through stone and bone. It was a horrifying, blood-curdling wail, like a million tortured souls shrieking in unison. The defenders froze as the scream tore through the city, an unrelenting call that drowned out all other sounds. The Nuckelavee was summoning its hounds.
The Cu Sith responded without hesitation. One by one, they turned, their glowing green forms shifting as they moved in perfect synchronization. Their spectral bodies poured out of alleyways and buildings, flowing like a river of death up the northern streets. The defenders watched in stunned silence as the creatures ran at full speed, their claws scraping against cobblestones, their glowing eyes fixed on some distant point.
"They're… they're leaving?" one soldier whispered, his voice barely audible.
"No," Robert said grimly, his magical eye blazing as it tracked the Cu Sith's retreat. "The Nuckelavee's calling its hounds to regroup."
The sound of the Nuckelavee's scream lingered in the air, a haunting echo that refused to fade. The defenders stood frozen, the sound it made reverberated through night, filling everyone left alive with dread.