NOVEL FROG «| Episode 10: The Storm |»
Chapter 124: In The Essence Of Time
The mere presence of the omens created a harrowing atmosphere unlike any other in every battle they were part of. The constant dread and anxiety brought by their unexpected strategies created uncertainty and mixed feelings of fury and desperation for everyone who tried to take them down. Their opponents knew who they were facing, yet they couldn’t seem to prepare themselves to go against them again. The distressing sentiment could be felt through every nook and cranny in the Dead Drop Gorge, and it only appeared to grow stronger the closer it got to the top, where any ounce of hope left was dissipated by the rain and thick fog slowly rising.
That same fog and rain concealed what was truly happening amidst the brutal brawl between factions. The battlefield was quickly becoming a graveyard for countless ravagers, burying the fallen as the rain washed away the blood. Soldiers dropped one after the other, either piling up with other corpses or disappearing in the mud afterward, never to be seen again. Their remaining comrades had to prioritize the slim chance of taking cover over avenging them as the omens relentlessly pushed forward, almost overtaking the pass as they grew closer to the edge of their mountain.
As a result of the chaos, and despite the tense air, the poor weather conditions, and the staggering cries of the injured or gunfire, everyone seemed to ignore the hundreds of corpses lying on the floor and remained focused on their missions. Each side was putting up a strong fight and struggling to gain ground. The antipunks had to block the pass to stop any other parties from joining the battle and interfering. The ravagers had to find a way past the barrage of bullets and cross the gap between the mountains to reach the omens. And the latter had to overpower their opponents and secure the base to own the tactical advantage of the pass, and from their sheer numbers, it was only a matter of minutes before they wiped out the defenseless Cloudstars.
However, the struggle between the four factions and their respective objectives was disrupted when a small force emerged. Crisis, EchoForce, and the Heartaches were a tiny fraction of the soldiers in battle, yet they were the only ones with a chance to shift the course of battle. If the antipunks had to secure the pass and block it, the Heartaches had to clear it up for the team’s allies to come through. If the ravagers had to cross their way to the other mountain to fight against the omens, EchoForce had to get there to destroy the omen’s base first. And if the omens had to massacre the Cloudstars and claim their base, Crisis was there to stop them and defend the position at all costs until backup arrived.
While they were late to the battle and the enemies were ten steps ahead, the team couldn’t let the pressure of catching up distract them or dwell for a second longer in the uncertainty, so all three squads split up and didn’t look back to focus solely on their tasks at hand. They were all alone, even more so when forming smaller groups, and they had no one to fall back on. It looked like backup couldn't arrive soon, and it wasn’t even midnight yet, though it was hard to tell with the clouds blocking the sky. Faint thunder roared in the distance, creating an even more tense and dire tone, but its rumble couldn’t compare to the gunfire above the pass, serving as a warning for what they were about to face.
But with their attention shifting upwards for a brief second, the team locked on to their respective targets and ran straight into action, with Crisis being the first to depart. Heading towards the right pathway ahead, Frost led the team to the end of the pass, where three rows of omens were blocking their way and preventing them from seeing what was beyond at the center of conflict. Luckily, they were all too busy shooting forward and didn’t turn back on time as the squad sneaked closer behind them.
While Frost drew his blades and allowed Kiwy to advance with clenched claws, the rest of the squad prepared to fight. Panda strapped his machine gun to his back, opting to use his shield to cover his teammates, with Candy pulling out her two low-caliber guns and covering the flanks, leaving Saint and Nitro at the back. The latter put away his grenade launcher but noticed Saint was taking a more offensive position after looking at the charged clouds. The sky seemed to call Dominion as the sword continued reflecting light just as bright, if not brighter, than before the ambiance grew cloudy and dim. Saint seemed both curious and anxious to see the lightning forming in the sky, but before he could inspect his weapon, he was startled by Frost making the first move.
Frost waited until he was right behind the first row of omens to strike the unsuspecting enemies, going as far as charging forward until he was in the middle of the horde, where he began slashing at torso level in quick succession once he was spotted. Giving no time to react, he cut through as many omens as he could to get past them, slashing the group in half and creating a direct path for the rest of the squad to attack through. His attacks weren’t as lethal, but they left the enemies momentarily stunned, making them fall to their knees or drop their weapons, facilitating Kiwy’s advance as she helped Frost mow down all the omens one by one. With the two charging through the wall of bodies, the omens farther away began to scatter, but as they kept their focus on them, Panda and Saint joined in on the action and struck with haste, leaving no survivors in the mud.
After securing the way for the team and completely clearing the blockade to the main event unfolding in the wide, leveled terrain ahead, Saint seemed to regain some of his energy after securing a few kills. He looked down at the dozen omens they were able to kill effortlessly and almost smirked, but his celebration was short-lived as he immediately noticed what awaited. Crisis found themselves in a much bigger area after stepping out of the narrow corridors of the pass, now entering the main battlefield, where there was no longer cover or any flank routes to take, only a barren valley of death.
They had reached the top of the pass, with their destination found not too far ahead of them, yet it appeared they had a long way to go. The enormous open field of mud and rock was slightly bigger than the quarry surrounding the factory EchoForce had escaped earlier, except this one was much more open. While they were still surrounded by mountains, only the way up north was blocked by the rest of the mountain range. The east and west were completely open, apart from the mountains used by the ravagers and omens respectively. It was like the intersection at the base of the pass, but it was immediately clear that these routes were of more importance and easier to access since they were overcrowded by enemies on both sides.
The mountains on the flanks connected to the field, with a few portions leveled to help both armies reach the center. They were deeper into the adjacent routes, giving Crisis enough space to stand safely in the middle but also witness the scale of the predicament they were putting themselves into. Both the omen and ravager armies were more focused on fighting for control of the main, center pass, but a good portion of their forces trickled down the mountains to gain ground on the field. These weren’t small groups of enemies like the ones found in the gorge either; they were full-blown armies crowding the opposing sections. They were more scattered to cover a bigger area rather than being bunched up together, but their efforts were more focused as they were trying to converge on one point, the Cloudstar base.
Surrounded by hundreds of troops from all sides, trapped in the middle of a plain full of nothing but corpses, there was one formation that stood out instantly: the large military base of the Cloudstars. It looked extremely similar to Savepoint, down to the tall, gray, circular outer walls covering the buildings inside. Even though Crisis couldn’t see what was found within the base or what the exact status of their allies was, it didn’t take long to determine they were in grave danger, as most of the structures looked in poor condition, taking heavy damage from the omen artillery found far deep in the left route. The base was both under and on fire, as it looked like some enemies had already breached it and were taking over the Cloudstars’ main headquarters, trying to burn it down from the outside.
Still struggling to win over the main gate facing Crisis, it looked like the omens had the advantage for now. After sticking to their formation, a few soldiers could be seen infiltrating the base through broken sections of the south wall next to the gate. They were causing more mayhem than the ravagers, who could barely get close to the base due to their opponent keeping pressure on them with relentless gunfire. Once Crisis cleared the right pathway, they had a relatively straightforward path to the base. However, as they stopped running for a second to assess the situation, they caught the attention of the omens coming from their main route, who were in the middle of flanking the ravagers when they spotted the squad and immediately changed objective.
Crisis began getting shot before getting a chance to form a good approach to the Cloudstars’ base, forcing Panda to step in front and cover the left flank while the rest got in formation. There were another couple dozen or so omens they had to take out before heading to the base, but this didn’t prove to be that much of an inconvenience to the squad once they got used to the new environment. Panda blocked all the incoming gunfire while cautiously pushing toward the enemy, who began panicking as he fell back on their reinforcements. But as soon as they ceased fire, Kiwy and Frost jumped from behind Panda to chase after them and prevent them from drawing the attention of the large stream of omens charging into battle.
Nitro tried to blow them up, but as soon as the enemy started splitting up, Panda stopped him and stood back to watch alongside him, Candy, and Saint. Frost and Kiwy single-handedly slaughtered as many omens as they could before realizing they were approaching danger as they were closer to the main omen army. They managed to surround a few other weaklings and pick them off without giving them a chance to fight back or alert their teammates. However, with the omens gaining ground and starting to swarm the ravagers, Crisis had no choice but to get closer and blend in a little.
The few omens that weren’t targeted by Kiwy or Frost found themselves separated from the main army, and with Crisis blocking their way back, they decided to fight, charging directly at Panda. They began shooting a couple of rounds while taking both sides until they ran out of ammo as their rifles weren’t very effective. After seeing Panda keep his shield and not reach for his machine gun, the omens dropped their rifles, pulled out their knives, and turned more hostile for close combat. Nitro couldn’t get a clear shot before the omens were right in front, and he couldn’t risk blowing everyone up, so he backed out, just like Candy. Saint stuck right behind Panda, but the latter saw the enemy drop their guns and got cocky.
Saint was about to defend his teammate when Panda pushed him aside and lowered his guard to let one of the omens strike, only to trick him and bash his shield on his face as soon as he jumped at him. The punch was strong enough to knock back the omen into another one, trapping him under his teammate, though the two others left didn’t falter and proceeded to strike at Panda from both sides, one after the other. The first omen went for a direct stab to the chest, but Panda grabbed his wrist and twisted it, disarming him and holding him in place until the next one attacked. However, even when he locked him in place, the omen continued to attack, throwing punches that Panda ignored now that he was facing his second attacker.
Without concern for his safety, he endured the punches to his left cheek to wear the first omen out before spinning his body to use as a meat shield once the second one tried to stab his throat. As a result, Panda tricked him into stabbing his teammate, and in a state of shock, the second omen tried to back away, only for Panda to bring him to the ground with a swift headlock. The latter mocked the two omens and grabbed his shield to finish the job. Nitro and Candy were mainly focused on watching Frost and Kiwy slaughter everyone, but they grew worried when the omen, previously pinned down, got back up and sneaked up behind Panda. Even though he seemed to have everything under control, Panda wasn't paying attention to the third threat, so Saint ran up to him to intercept before the omen could reach him.
The first omen to attack stayed behind, hesitating to confront Saint, who adopted a defensive attack to block any attacks. The two omens were thrown off by his appearance but decided to attack simultaneously, causing Saint to lose focus on the two targets and carelessly swing Dominion right as the omens pounced with their knives. The length of his sword gave him the advantage, contacting the omens' stomachs just before their blades could touch him. They both dropped in front of him, but Saint was stunned momentarily in disbelief, both shocked and relieved after confirming he suffered no damage. But as he turned around to his teammates and let the omens bleed out on the ground, he watched Panda have fun with the two remaining attackers.
After tackling the second omen, Panda held on to the one that had been stabbed, who desperately took out the knife to use it against him, only to be stopped by Panda’s hand again. This time, he finished him off by guiding the blade to the omen’s neck, making him stab himself, and as blood poured out, Panda covered the wound with his left hand while holding his shield with the right. The omen on the ground tried to crawl back as he screamed in horror from watching Panda hold his teammate’s corpse like a doll. If it wasn’t enough trauma for him, Panda proceeded to wiggle the dead omen to mock him with a devilish grin before disposing of the corpse like it was trash to grab his shield with both bloody hands and menacingly approach the terrified omen.
The rest of the squad watched anxiously, with Frost and Kiwy having finished hunting the other omens and returning to see the amusement and shock on their teammates' faces as Panda turned into a monster and began to torture the lone omen. He could only cry and beg mercy with panicked head shakes until Panda decided to end his suffering by planting his shield on his face with enough force to smash his skull, killing him instantly. But if it wasn’t enough, he continued jamming the sturdy shield on his forehead repeatedly until his head turned into a pulp of unrecognizable flesh that was buried in the mud.
After beating the omen up for a few seconds, long enough for everyone in the squad to watch and share their surprise, even if most of it was enjoyment, Panda stopped to admire the mess he had made from the poor, defenseless omen. He quickly wiped the blood off his hands and retrieved his shield from the omen’s skull, only to look around in confusion when all his teammates began staring at him silently, wondering why some looked unnerved, especially Saint, who didn’t want to get near the bloody mess.
–What? We have to make the most of it, don’t we? Who knows if we make it out of here….– Panda asked with a nonchalant expression and morbidly enthusiastic tone that didn’t sit well with Candy, though she couldn’t do much but ignore it as Frost and Kiwy returned to the group in a hurry. Panda showed little to no apprehension towards his brutal murders, and he did spark the same sentiment in Nitro and Frost, though he restrained himself as his chief returned the wicked grin for a second before bringing the squad back to focus.
–Yea, we’ll enjoy it for sure… But stay put, we gotta find a way to get in through that mess…– Frost replied with a similar demeanor, keeping the jokes to a minimum as he was focused on the formation the Omen army was taking now that they were gaining ground on the other side of the base. The whole squad nodded in compliance, with a few remaining enthusiastic, but all turned their attention to the base after seeing how grave the situation was.
They could now assess the situation without interruption, as every other omen just ran past their dead comrades to perform a pincer maneuver on the ravagers. Crisis managed to spot both armies clashing in the middle of the field, blocking all entrances to the Cloudstar base. Getting past all of those enemies without killing them seemed like an impossibility, but it was a requirement to earn their spot in the base. With the squad’s unwavering commitment and a new sense of confidence after slaughtering a few omens, it only took a moment to calculate the number of enemies they were about to face. After a brief, silent moment of collective staring and pondering, they began moving forward and willingly taking on the overwhelming challenge ahead.