As Hunter focused in on his senses of smell and hearing, he began to slightly hear multiple scared beating hearts about twenty meters below where he was standing. Hunter smiled joyfully and looked at the bishop's dead body before bowing his head in gratitude. "Thank you."
The other three looked at him with slight confusion but didn't say a word, hoping that Hunter had found their family was safe. As they watched, Hunter lifted the podium as if it were nothing and tossed it to the side. He then looked at the floor and saw a little handle that had been hidden beneath the podium. The other three saw it as well and smiles appeared on their faces as they looked at it. Ian walked over and reached down, lifting the handle and ripping the entire trapdoor out from the floor. Twenty meters down they saw the faces of their family looking back up at them.
The brothers faces broke out into grins as they looked amongst themselves and the children below them. The children, seeing the four, began crying happily as the older children began helping the younger ones climb up the ladder and join the brothers. After a couple of minutes, all the children finally climbed out of the hidden chamber and were either holding each other or crying upon seeing the nightmare around them.
Quixi and many of the younger children were clinging to Orion as he comforted them while kissing the top of Quixi's head. Sylvia had flung herself into Ian's arms as she sobbed into his shoulder. Spartacus was off to the side, listening as Asani and Tarenia recounted what had happened to the city. Hunter walked over, also wanting to listen and see what Spartacus was planning.
"Two days after you guys left we began seeing more and more goblin hunting parties roaming the woods, though they weren't directly attacking the town. They did however hunt down and kill many of the farmers who were living outside of the town which caused the town guards to put the place in lockdown, sealing the gates permanently until help could arrive. On the sixth day you guys were gone a legion of goblins came and attacked the town walls. The guards were able to push them back, however the casualties were high and so we didn't have enough guards when they attacked us again on the ninth day, yesterday." By this time Asani was able to only whisper as she remembered the nightmare as the goblins destroyed the gates and rushed into the city. "Had you four not ordered our well being to the bishop, the soldiers would've tried forcing my sister and I to fight for them. The bishop was able to help hide us in the secret room and told us to not make a sound, that you would be able to find us when you came back."
Asani, unwilling to continue talking, went silent as she hugged Spartacus and silently cried into his shoulder. Tarenia swallowed before she took over the narration, telling them of what they witnessed from a distance and then what they heard when the goblins broke into the church. "When the goblins first broke through, we were up in the tower, watching the nightmare unfold. They began killing the men and elderly women before they began gang raping the younger women. None of the girls were spared, they were all used and defiled right where they had fallen, mostly in the street but I believe that there were still many girls hiding in the houses as well. When they got about two blocks into the city, the bishop ordered my sister and I to go back down stairs and join our family in the secret chamber. After he closed the trap door, we heard a loud thud as he tipped over the podium, hiding the trap door beneath it. We than heard the cries of the people as they tried taking shelter in the church, and then heard them as the goblins killed and raped here in the church." By now Tarenia had also fallen silent, unwilling to continue talking about the hell they had to endure.
Hunter growled as he looked around at all the corpses. Finally looking at the bishop one last time he said, "I smelt a couple thousand girls far from here, heading north towards the mountains. They were surrounded by the goblin horde. I think we can rescue them, if we let go of our humanity temporarily."
Hearing this, the children became quite as they looked at Hunter and then the other brothers with a slight amount of fear in their eyes. Quixi looked up at Orion and cried, "You aren't leaving again are you?!"
Orion smiled and shook his head, however all the children could see his eyes were glowing a bright, cold white. "Don't worry I wont leave. I will stay here and keep all of you safe until our friends get back. As for the other three, they won't let those girls suffer such a horrendous fate."
Many of the children sighed as Orion said that he wouldn't leave. Hunter looked at Ian and Spartacus, both of them nodding as they gave a final comfort to their women before they walked out of the church and onto the stairs. Spartacus stopped and turned around, looking at Orion. "When we bring those girls back, you try and see what you can do when you embrace your Divine Race."
Orion smiled and nodded, "Don't worry, I think I can cast a heavenly blessing that will bring all these people back, and repair all the buildings. I'm an angel after all, a small town like this is nothing with my might. I'll wait till the women are brought back before doing it though."
With a flap of their wings the three brothers took off, flying north from Adenville quickly as the sun began setting to the west. The brothers flew close to each other, allowing them to speak. "So how should we handle all this?" Ian looked at the other two, both having cold and emotionless faces as they stared ahead.
"Try seeing if you can connect to your Leviathan bloodline. If you could turn into a massive monster that would be very useful for slaughtering massive amounts of the enemy. Hunter, if you try connecting to your demon bloodline, make sure you don't let the women see you or else they will spread the word that you are a demon. As for me I'm not going to connect to my god bloodline because I don't want to take the risk of alerting the other gods as of right now." Spartacus spoke quickly as they continued flying. Hunter nodded, not saying a word while Ian chuckled evilly.
After that the brothers flew in silence as Ian and Hunter both focused on trying to figure out how to activate their bloodlines. At this time Orion had taken the children to the river docks and were waiting for the adventurers to return. He too was also trying to figure out how to activate his angelic bloodline allowing him to pull off a massive healing ability.
Around midnight the three brothers finally began seeing the goblin army, which had set up a massive camp that spread for a dozen kilometers, and had the women prisoners near the center of their horde. Thanks to the night being the night of the new moon, the brothers were able to fly in the sky without alerting any watchers, flying over the horde and nearing the location of the prisoners.
"Hunter target the outskirts and if any of them try running away, stop them. Ian target the outskirts as well, but make sure your close enough to the prisoners that if I need your help you can protect them. I'll land directly in front of the prisoners and begin killing the goblins there." Spartacus spoke quickly as they watched a couple goblin generals begin pulling a few women out from their cages.
Hunter turned and looked at the others before nodding, however before he flew away he spoke. "Eldest brother, try seeing if you can alter your Divinity allowing you to create some sort of soldiers to fight for you. If you can do that, it will be easier to protect those girls."
Spartacus nodded before the brothers split and flew into position, hanging in the air as they waited for Ian to cause a massive commotion. Finally, Ian swooped down, crashing deep into the earth and sending the northern goblins into alarm as they looked at the crater that formed. Quickly, the ground began to shake as cracks began forming not far from the crater. Spreading to over a kilometer wide before the earth shattered and was flung upwards as a massive, reptilian head rose out from the ground on a long snaky neck.
Everything began shrieking as they looked at this massive monster that was no were near finished on climbing out of the earth. Many goblins began grabbing their weapons and rushing towards the leviathan, a few however began to run in the opposite direction, away from the monster. However, before the fleeing goblins got far, a tall, dark, and sinister green fire wall rose up encircling the goblin camp until the only way out was to get past the giant monster that now had it's shoulders out and one of it's forelegs were free from the earth. As the fleeing goblins tried seeing a way through the flames on the South end, the flames parted as a demon walked through them. After passing the flames, they sealed the gap again and the goblins trembled as they looked at the humanoid demon, with it's big black leather wings, it's two long horns that curled off it's forehead from above his eyebrows, and his black, emotionless, and viodful eyes that seemed to suck the soul into them.
The goblins despaired as they tried to figure out why two such powerful monsters were attacking them, not figuring out how they had aggravated them. At the prisoner sight, the goblin generals had thrown the women back into the cages as they rallied their troops to attack Ian, who was now nearly fully emerged; all that was left was his back legs as he finished rising up from the earth. The women looked in terror as they saw the green satonic flames that surrounded most of the camp, and when they turned to look at the giant monster, they felt as if it's large reptilian eyes were looking at them sinisterly. The girls began to sob into each other as they began praying to any gods for help in saving them from such a terrible fate.
One of the goblin generals banged the cages, threatening the girls into silence; however as he was walking away, a bright light occurred and then the women saw a rainbow winged angel standing on top of the dead remains of the goblin, his spear having impaled the goblin's heart. Shrieks of joy came out from the women as they excitedly jumped up and began hugging each other while they looked at the angel. The goblins however glared at the boy and began surrounding him. Spartacus raised his hand and green light glowed from his fingers, down into the earth. A loud rumbling occurred and all around the cages, roots rose out of the ground, wrapping and forming into Tree Warriors that stood about 2.5 meters tall and had spears and swords that were as long as a human's arm, allowing them to attack the goblins who in turn couldn't retaliate because of the reach.
Hundreds of Tree Warriors sprouted up around the cages, protecting the prisoners as they slaughtered the goblins. The goblins for there part tried everything they could to kill the Tree Warriors, but arrows bounced off, and they couldn't get close enough to use melee weapons before they were killed. Only the wolves that the goblins rode had a chance, but when any of them attacked, the Tree Warriors would focus on suppressing the wolves before reattacking the goblins. If a Tree Warrior wasn't killed by the wolf, new roots would grow out of the earth and repair it's injuries, allowing it to continue it's goblin slaughter.
Making sure that no more goblins were able to breakthrough the encirclement of Tree Warriors, Spartacus finally turned to the caged women and walked up to them. "Hey, don't be afraid. I'm here to take you all back home. You're going to be safe now."
As he comforted the captive women with his words, many of them both children and young adults, began to cry as all the pain and humiliation they had suffered for the past couple of days were finally coming to an end. Spartacus went around the cages, ripping off the doors so the women could get out. He then returned his attention to the Tree Warriors, finding that they had stopped marching forward and were instead holding a defensive position encircling the middle of the goblin camp. By now most of the goblins were busy attacking Ian in hopes of escaping, but the goblins that were on the southside and being hunted down by Hunter were now clashing with the Tree Warriors as they tried to escape the angry devil.
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After Ian fully broke out of the ground, he watched as a wall of green flames encircled the goblin camp, funneling all the goblins towards him as he blocked the only way to escape the green flames. He smiled sinisterly as he looked down at the thousands of goblins while they panicked and scurried around like ants in front of an ant eater. When Ian looked down at them, the goblins all froze and cowered, feeling as if they were being looked at as nothing more than a toy for this giant reptilian monster.
Ian raised his foreleg and smashed it down, crushing hundreds of goblins, and their cores, into a pulp. The goblins retaliated by throwing their spears and arrows, but Ian's entire body was covered in thick scales that were five meters thick, and his eyes, nose, and mouth, were all over a mile above them. His body reached nearly half a kilometer long, and as the goblins amassed in front of him, he let out a guttural roar that lasted for a good minute and could be heard all the way back at Adenville. Ian's roar caused the goblins to shake in terror, acting much like the debuff that the Feniri caused when they howled; however it was much more effective, to the point that the goblins closes to him died of heart attack while those closer to the cages were frozen in fear. By this time, Ian could see that Spartacus had created Tree Warriors and that they had encircled the captives, keeping them safe.
Ian took in a big breath as he felt a power building up from his chest. When he exhaled, a massive amount of silver flames came roaring out of his jaw, turning many of the goblins into ash instantly. He continued to rampage, but made sure to not leave the choke point as he didn't want any of the goblins to escape. After using his silver flames twice, and smashing groups of goblins multiple times, he finally brought the goblin army down to were not even a fourth of it still existed. By this time, many of the goblins had given up trying to get past him, and were instead focused on trying to hide amongst their fallen comrades, hoping to wait out the nightmare.
At this point Spartacus ordered fifty of his two hundred Tree Warriors to go out and kill any remaining goblins there were as he began guiding the prisoners towards Ian. "Don't worry ladies, that giant lizard over there wont hurt you. He's my brother, and he came here to help save you. We're going to go over, and he's going to carry you all back to Adenville where our fourth brother is waiting to heal all of you." Spartacus spoke gently but made sure that all the captives could hear his voice.
When they finally made it to Ian, Hunter was already waiting for them there, albeit in his angelic form. Many of the women took in a breath as a they saw another angel, one with black wings, standing there and waiting for them. The shopkeeper, among the mass, saw Hunter and gasped, shaking as she recalled her meeting and then watching the dual he had against Alexi. [No wonder he was able to beat Alexi, the boy is an angel!]