Sorry I couldn't get a chapter out on Wednesday, I had this terrible cold all week and could barely get to writing. I hope you understand and enjoy the chapter for the day.
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Magnus clearly understood what Bulut meant, this was the end of the line for him and all these remaining survivors. They had only two options left to them was to go down fighting or get torn down by these bloodthirsty creatures that clearly didn't understand the concept of surrender.
That was not going to happen on Magnus's watch, he needed to find another way to get them out of there.
Those two exists would not work, one would have to retaken from those monstrous and that can not be achieved since the survivors were barely holding out, forget going on the offensive.
The other remaining door had a giant boulder blocking it. Once Magnus traced its path, he summed it up that somehow it got tossed up from down below, creating that gaping hole in the center of the common room and flew through the air until it landed at the exit.
Magnus came to his decision, if there was no path of escape then he had to create one. He surveyed his surrounder, gazing up and down, looking for something, anything to work with.
Suddenly his eyes landed on the white, pristine silken table sheets, he stared at it and then an idea started to form inside his head.
"Ax wielder," Magnus shouted as he dropped his now useless bow since it ran out of arrows. "I might have a plan to get us out of this mess."
Without even looking up, Bulut responded with, "Then do it!"
Magnus nodded his head and rushed over to the tables, he grabbed the sheets and started to tie them up.
It took awhile but in the end it was worth it, in his hands were three hand tied sheets that made up a rope. There were plenty of sheets reminding but he didn't have all day to tie up. Every second counts here, and the survivors can't hold out forever.
Thus as quickly as he can, he ran over to the railing edge, tied up the handmade ropes to the railing bar, and then tossed the sheets over.
"Climb aboard," Magnus shouted as he waved the survivors over.
The few remaining survivors looked up to see what Magnus was talking about, and then when they saw their escape route laid before them, hope blossomed in their eyes.
"You heard the man," Bulut shouted. "Go, Go, Go!"
Without needing to be told twice, the survivors clambered up the hand made rope. Magnus helped those he could come over the edge, but what was of foremost concern to him was Bulut, who stayed behind.
"What are you doing?" Magnus shouted down at the man as he did his best to hold off the encroaching tide of teeth and claws.
"What does it look like," Bulut replied as he jumped back from a claw which almost split his stomach open. "I am holding them off while these people escape."
Magnus wanted to scream that it wasn't their concern, that they have already done more than enough for these people. He knew that was callous and selfish, but he had to get his priorities straight, friends and family came first.
At the same time, he knew the man could be as hard headed as he could be, to be exact; everyone that makes up the Infamous Manence can be like that.
At any rate, he knew Bulut won't listen to him, therefore he had to come up with some way to lend him a hand.
He knew jumping into the fray would be the height of idiocy, he might be good with a blae and can stand his ground, but he can't handle that onslaught down below. In the end, he will only be slowing Bulut down and would be putting him in a tougher situation, which is something he does not need at the moment.
Doing covering fire was not possible as well, he was out of arrows, couldn't recover the ones he already shot out, meaning that path was cut off.
Magnus then glanced around the area, looking to see what he has to work with, he was of the mentality that if he has nothing then he will make something.
His eyes landed on the tables and chairs, he rubbed at his chin and mulled it over, he really could think of anything else besides throwing them at the monsters. Although barbaric and couldn't end lives, it will distract the creatures and better yet, it might hurt them.
Coming to a decision he turned to face the people that made it over to the second floor, he quickly took charge of them-- which was an easy matter since they were as docile as sheep. That might have been the trauma at work, not every day do you come face to face with a nightmarish, bloodthirsty creature out for your soul.
Even Magnus who died and came back to tell the tale, felt uneasied by them.
In any event, Magnus had the survivors split into two groups, those that helped everyone come over the edge and those that threw tables and chairs at the monsters.
Still it wasn't enough! Things turned out to be exactly as he imagined, the tables and chairs might harm or in one case crush the creature's head, but more often than not it was only as good as a distraction.
With all the survivors fleeing up the handmade ropes, Bulut was all on his own and he was fighting a losing battle. Every second he lost more ground to the creatures as he was pushed further and further back.
Magnus knew he had to do something else, something that would give Bulut a surviving chance.
There was really not much to work with, once he gave the order for the survivors to start hurling things at the creatures they took to it with great vigor. Anything, and he meant anything that they could get their hands on which could cause any sort of blunt damage they threw it.
All that they left behind were the silken sheets, scattered on the floor and now they were making their way over to the bar, to start throwing the liquors, plus two were even trying to roll over a large barrel over the railing.
Silken sheets and liquor, what the hell could he even do with that?!
Magnus paused mid-stride, and repeated what he just said, silken sheets and liquor.
Then comprehension and realization struck him like a sledgehammer, he had the workings of a poor man's grenade!
"Stop, stop," Magnus shouted, drawing everyone to a pause. At first, their efforts to give it to the monsters were cute but now it just looked audacious. These bottles they were about to throw were literal gold in his eyes, these were the things that would send these creatures to kingdom come.
"Bring me all those bottles here," Magnus commanded as a handful of the survivors jumped right to it. "And do not drop it or even think about throwing it at those creatures," he shouted after them
"You lot," he said as he pointed to another group. "Tear me those sheets into handkerchief sizes."
"The rest of you, keep helping everyone climb up," he ordered to his last group. There were still some people left who climbing up the handmade ropes he made, tonight must have been a full house because there were a lot of people here.
Though there were more who were lying dead down below and getting feasted upon those creatures.
Magnus's stomach turned as he looked upon the monsters ripping and tearing into the dead corpses. He quickly turned his gaze from those appalling sights, best not to dwell upon things he can't do anything about.
All he could do for those poor souls is to give these fucking creatures hell and turned those creatures back into the abyss they came from.
However before Magnus could even get started with his plan, the situation down below took a turn for the worst.
With nobody left to stand with him, Bulut was all on his own and he was on the losing on.
Even with the help everyone was offering him-- throwing everything they could at the creatures, still, each second he was in the fight his life was in danger and each swipe or chop of a creature cut closer and closer.
It was only thanks to his skill with his axes and the superior stats he had that he was even standing against this onslaught.
Though like all things in life, it had to come to an end, and Bulut's endless streak of luck finally ran out.
As Bulut cleanly cleaved off one creature's head, another two simultaneously jumped him. While he was dealing with those two, another one of the creatures had the bright idea of scrabbling up an upturned table; which acted as a buffer so that only one or two creatures could come through at a time.
It was only thanks to a shout of alarm from one of the survivors that Bulut didn't lose his head when the creature leaped at him with his mouth hanging wide open.
Despite him making it out with his head intact, his left arm, on the other hand, did not fare well since it was the only thing he could put up in time to which the creature gladly chopped down on. Magnus like everyone else winced back in recoil and alarm as the creature held on tightly like a dog and started to wag its head from side to side.
It was some small miracle that Bulut's arm did not fall off, but the pain he must be feeling might say otherwise.
Despite the pain he must be going through, Bulut stood tall like an iron rod, not wavering for a single moment. He dropped the ax he held in his good arm and reached into his belt withdrawing a dagger and shoving it into the creature's throat.
Even in its death throes, the creature continued to cling on tightly to Bulut's arm, not willing to let him go or give him any respite. Bulut tried to par apart the creature jaws from his arm, but it looked like it was corkscrewed tight.
Thus with no choice left in the matter as the creatures were continuing to approach Bulut grabbed the ax he dropped and chopped down.
With three quick swings of his ax, the creature's head was severed off, letting its body drop to the floor with a thump. Leaving the severed head clamped down on his arm, Bulut got back into the fighting with vengeful fervor.
Then Magnus noticed the strangest thing, it wasn't up there with these creatures he saw today but all the same, Bulut's twin axes started to glow.
It was a red wine glow that appeared on his axes.
Magnus had no idea what it represented but as he looked closer to the fight, each time Bulut's right ax would even touch one of the creatures, they would gush out blood and bleed liters of it. Moreover, each time the ax in his left hand would slash down on a creature the gash would unnaturally cut deeper than it should and extend out more.
Magnus knew that was not normal, it was phenomenal, it was Magic.
He had no idea if it was a magical item like that bag of holding or it was a spell of Bulut's but he was doing a heck of a job slicing and dicing those creatures.
Magnus saw that as his moment to get on with his plan, there is no time to be a spectator here, he has a mission and he has to carry it out.
Once the liquor bottles and the torn up sheets were brought before him, he took out his flint fire starter. Thank Pandora that he came over-equipped to this fight, he literally brought along everything in the carriage that was of use in some fashion.
Magnus instructed the survivors to dip a bit of liquor on to the sheets, then shove the cloth into the bottle. Each of them did as they were told but the confusion on their faces was clear, they had no idea what he was up to. And who could blame them, even though this was easy to make, it was only invented in the early 19th century.
After that, he lit the cloths for them and had them chuck it down upon the monsters.
Immediately results started to come in as the creatures started to go down by ones and twos as bottled fire started to rain down upon to them.
The molotov cocktail provided to be a very effective tactic against these creatures; first and foremost these creatures were all clumped up together, thus when the fiery cocktail struck down upon them, it covered a bunch of them at the same time.
Furthermore, these liquor bombs proved to be these creatures' weaknesses. Once the bottle struck, it made their disgusting, pungent skin which was already starting to decay start to slosh off on to the floor.
The fires released by the cocktail made the faceless creatures melt like burning wax candles. The screams released by the creatures were haunting and eerie to the ear, it was like a child's cry, an old man grown, and a dying small prey's squeak.
But to Magnus they were music to his ears as he watched from above as those damn creatures burned. These things deserve one fate, and one fate alone-- to get wiped off the face of this planet with indiscriminate mercy.
Finally, when they broke it was a sight to behold as the creatures started to draw back in fear and terror from the raining fiery bottles of death.
Still, Magnus was not finished with them, he meant every word when he said he wanted to wipe out these things.
Magnus signaled to two of the survivors who were trying to roll the barrel of liquor down bellow. They quickly came over to him and Magnus said to them, "find some people to help. I want you all to be ready on my signal to roll every single god damned barrel you can get your hands on, down bellow."
They hastily nodded their heads as grins played on their lips and ran off to do as he ordered, it was plainly obvious they want this as badly as him. Who knows, maybe they lost a friend or loved one in the fighting down below, or maybe they were cold and ruthless like he was when he was in this sort of mood.
However, before all that, he needs to take of what he came here to do, to rescue those ungrateful bozos.
"Ax Wielder," Magnus shouted down at Bulut, "Come on up, those creatures are on the run."
Yet, despite his summons, Bulut ignored him, he didn't even turn his way to give him a glance. He carried on killing those monsters with ferocious vigor and it even seemed like he was going on the offensive as he chased the fleeing creatures.
"Ax Wielder," Magnus shouted once more shouted, thinking to himself or more like telling himself just to ease his suspicions-- that maybe the man didn't hear him. "The battle is over man, come on upstairs with us."
Still, the large man continued to ignore him and carried out doing what he was doing. "What the hell is wrong with him?" Magnus asked no one in particular.
However Codex took this as her moment to share her thoughts, "I do not know but something is clearly wrong."
Magnus couldn't help agreeing with that observation, the ax-wielding man kept on going and going, killing and creature after another with a vindictive ruthlessness and rage.
Still giving this one more try, he shouted again, "Ax Wieder, come on. Stop fucking around, you need to get your arm checked out."
Once more he got the same response which was none at all.
Magnus sighed to himself, it was clear that he needed to go down and drag his weapon master by the scruff of the neck.
Thankfully that was now possible since they faceless creatures withdrew to the off corner, far away as possible from the firing range molotov cocktail.
Magnus exhaled another deep sigh of irritation, he turned to the survivors and gave them stric orders to be on the stand by and only throw a bottle when those creatures start getting angsty. Also, he told those who brought out all the barrels to wait for his as he takes care of this.
Then he grabbed on to one of the handmade ropes with one hand and slide down it like a fireman's pole.
Magnus withdrew his sword from its sheath once he touched down on the first floor. 'Best to be on guard and be prepared even if those creatures were wary of us,' he thought to himself as he made his way over to Bulut.
"Be careful, Magnus," Codex whispered, "I do not like the state he is in."
Magnus rolled his eyes, not taking Codex's concern seriously, in his opinion the man was in the zone. It happened to him plenty of times before; like when he was working Mechs, they only way get him back is with extreme measures, ones which Codex takes loads of joys carrying out.
"Hey Ax wielder," Magnus shouted once he got near to the man, while constantly keeping a close eye on the creatures.
Finally, the weapon master turned his gaze upon Magnus who instantly paused in his steps.
The man's eyes were bloodshot like he hadn't slept for days on end, but what gave Magnus pause was the feral look in his eyes. He did not like that look one bit, and most importantly of all he wasn't feeling so safe anymore.
He had to admit, Codex was right on this, like everything else.
Taking an audible swallowed, he asked, "are you, alright man?"
In answer the large man attacked him.