The plan was one Jake was familiar with. It was also one he hated. He would be the bait and distraction. Cass would stay up on the ridge, the huge distance would serve as her protection. While also being ideal for her. Ella had less range so she and the others would be their mid range. Leaving just Jake to go in and get their attention while the rest picked them off.
Standing on the ridge looking down on that anthill swarm of monsters he wasn't sure he liked the idea. "Don't worry. I have a few healing abilities. You will be fine." Gadget slapped him on the butt. "Oops, you are too tall." She grinned. Jake blushed. Cass and Ella glared.
"How many rounds do you have?" Jake skirted around Gadget to talk to Cass.
"Twenty. You have another still twenty right?" Jake nodded and started to unpack the extra magazines he carried.
"I have over two hundred arrows, in case you were wondering." Ella added annoyed he seemed more worried about the other girl.
"Um, ok." Jake said as he handed over Cass the extra ammunition.
"Don't worry I'll watch over you. I don't have enough ammo to just kill everything. So I'll focus on keeping you safe." Cass stacked the ammo up next to her chosen spot.
'Ugh, get a room." Gadget made retching sounds while Aero chuckled.
"Don't worry. We will keep him safe for you. I have a few defensive buffs I can use on him if things get too wild." Aero flashed them both a reassuring smile. He was the most normal of the group and they both found it reassuring.
"Come on. Let's get started!" Ella grabbed Jake's hand and started dragging him towards the slope leading into the lake bed. Cass resisted the urge to put the archer girl in her sights.
Jake had wondered how they would close in on the village. There was nothing to hide behind. But Aero cast another spell and a curtain of sand rose up in front of them, shifting gently as if it was just dirt being blown by the wind. "This will let us get into range. I have a speed boosting buff for you too. Similar to Wind Walk but shorter duration. Soaring Winds will let you close the last bit. After that you just keep them distracted. If you can get them to cluster up that would be even better." They had moved rather slowly allowing the billowing dust cloud to move at an angle to be less obvious.
"Everyone ready?" Gadget grinned, her goggles were once again dark. The rectangle metal box on her back broke apart, turning into six hovering drones. Two were larger, having been made from a quarter of the box on her back each. They were two foot by a single foot. While the other four were about eight inches by four inches. When Jake stared at her and the drones she grinned. "I'm a Drone-O-Mancer. My babies here can do all kinds of cool stuff." As she said that the bottom of the two biggest opened up and what looked like a small miniguns popped out of each of them.
"Oh, right. In case you hadn't figured it out. I'm an Aeromancer. A wind mage." Aero flashed him one of his big bright grins.
"Um, Power Claw." Jake mumbled.
With his approval Aero buffed him with the Soaring Winds. Just like before he felt lightweight, but when he charged through the billowing wall of dust it felt as if a hard wind was blowing at his back. It pushed him along even faster than before.
Shrieks rose up from the village as the Grims spotted not only him but the others, his passing thru had blown apart their dust cover. Jake hopped over the short wall, but instead of just barely clearing it as he expected. He went sailing high over. Several of the smaller Grims were below him and he came down with both fists doubled up in an overhead swing.
His blow landed on one, his reduced weight seeming to vanish. Bones snapped audibly and the monster crumpled as his doubled up massive fists came down on its head. He crushed it into a mass of broken limbs and bloody flesh. Blood splattered across his mask tinting his view red.
Grims were everywhere. Most of them were unarmed. A few had little more than wooden clubs but their sheer numbers were terrifying. Jake reached out his oversized hand closing on one of their small heads. He lifted them up easily to dangle, arms and legs flailing. Before twisting to smash them down on top of another. Using the first like a crude, flailing club. His fist tightened and bone and brain squirted from between his fingers putting an end to the monster's struggles.
After that things devolved into chaos. Jake was flailing away. Punching, clawing, kicking, smashing, crushing, and throwing Grims. They crawled over him like a swarm of angry ants. Biting, kicking, and punching him while trying to drag him down under their weight. They did hardly any damage to his shield and unlike the elemental were unable to damage his health while his shield remained.
Despite that Jake started to panic. There had been sixty or seventy of them before. But more were rushing out of the holes around the village like a shrieking flood.
"Merc! Get out of there. There are too many." Cass's voice came over the group chat sounding panicked. From her spot on the ridge, she didn't even know where to shoot. Worse she was afraid of hitting Jake as he moved through the camp like a dervish.
"What a noob. Don't you have any faith in him?" Ella's tone was condescending. "Rain of Arrows!" Her voice came loudly over the group chat. Jake was too busy smashing Grims as fast as he could to see. But Cass watched as the archer girl notched an arrow and fired it up into an arc over Jake. The single arrow blurred and became two then four then eight and continued to multiply. A wall of arrows rained down on the monsters charging towards Jake.
Jake suddenly found himself under far less pressure. He grabbed two Grims, one in each hand, and brought them together. Smashing both of their heads into one another with enough force they exploded like ripe melons.
Suddenly, the two larger drones were hovering on each side of him. The Brrrrr of automatic fire went off as they started mowing down Grims with terrifying ease.
One of the smaller ones zipped up to circle around his head. It made zapping noises and his depleted shield started to fill back up. Two more of the small ones circled around a few of the Grims that had climbed over the short wall intent on closing in on the others. They made more zapping sounds and little arcs of blue lightning struck at the Grims. Jake doubted they were recharging any shields. The fact that every Grim they zapped fell twitching to the ground helped affirm that belief.
Aero raised their glowing staff and a two story tornado rose up in the middle of the village sucking up the tiny humanoids. It went from the reddish brown color of the dirt to bright crimson as body parts started flying free. It acted more like a blender than a tornado.
Jake just stared at the mass destruction with a mix of awe and jealousy. A Grim charged up at him and he didn't even take his eyes off the massacre. His hand darted out, caught the creature by the face, and crushed it. "What the hell did they need me for."
A loud crashing sound snapped him out of his daze. Beside him, one of the larger Grims with three eyes had crashed down with a huge club of stone. One of Gadget's larger drones was smashed to pieces. It sparked and made whining sounds before exploding as it tried to fire thru its damaged gun.
"THAT!" Screamed Gadget in fury into the group chat. He hadn't realized he had spoken into the chat before. "Damn them."
The Three eyed Grim looked up at him. This one had its third eye right in the middle of its forehead. Up close Jake saw that unlike the other Grims that were spindly limbed with too much skin. This one's skin didn't sag. It was stretched over almost grotesquely large muscles. It flung itself towards Jake and swung that huge club with frightening ease.
Jake raised both arms to shield himself, his shield took a huge hit and the blow sent him skidding back. The other large drone circled around the Grim peppering it with bullets. The same bullets that had shredded the smaller Grims seemed to bounce right off the three eyed hulking monster.
"God fucking damn vitality monsters and their fucking bullet proof skin." The Three eyed Grim ignored the drone and charged right for Jake again. The oversized club was raised above its head as if he intended to swat Jake like a fly. Jake wasn't willing to try and tank a second blow and prepared to dodge when half a dozen smaller Grims tackled his legs keeping him in place. He looked up in time to see the hideous face of the Grim twisting into a smile. Oddly, it was at that moment Jake noticed Grims had no nose.