Inside an artificial living space, it was raining.
But it wasn't normal rain, no it was....
Blood.
Lots of blood.
All of it was coming from the dying swarm of flying creatures above the group caused by the machine guns and explosive arrows.
It was chaos.
Amidst the increasing chaos, Dean silently observed above him where countless creatures were diving to their deaths. Their seemingly broken mind ignored the bullets and explosive arrows tearing into them as they continue diving towards them even ignoring the blatantly exposed flanks around them.
Yes exposed flanks.
Dean told Mercury to focus his shield strength to just above them to conserve his energy, and Dean wanted to test these creatures. It was the correct move as the creatures didn't care for their own wellbeing or even recognize the group's vulnerability.
Instead they continue diving down and even started banging against the energy shield once they 'landed' to which Dean started stabbing into them. Mercury couldn't help Dean with that task since he was focused on maintaining the golden shield integrity and was even continuously cleansing it by mentally commanding the shield to 'slide' the foreign substances to the outer edge and slip off. It was something Mercury rarely had to do in all his years of using his power, but it wasn't unknown to him so the task wasn't too taxing on him mentally. This allowed the turrets to automatically target the flyers, giving Kat some space to calculate their odds while keeping an eye out for any ground-based enemies.
Luckily there wasn't any.
Dean wasn't sure if they were waiting until they were exhausted or....they could also be preoccupied with another group of survivors.
The thought itself gave some hope to the situation, but Dean threw that thought away as there was no confirmation on whether there were survivors or not on the other side of Pleasantville. So, he waited and silently stared up at the chaos unfolding above him.
Most if not all of the grotesque creatures in Dean's line of sight resembled the off-world flying animals from other planets.
Somehow....this thought relieved him a bit as he grew up enjoying seeing Earthling birds in his area. But now he was sightseeing hideous featherless flyers right above him.
Some of them had beaks.
Some of them had jaws.
Some large.
Some small.
It didn't matter as overall, they all continuously turned into the same form, meat-paste.
So, one-sided massacre continued until...
[Dean, sentry turrets are at 50 percent ammo capacity and rapidly dropping.]
"Dean, my shield's gonna break in a few minutes!"
"I'm out of explosive arrows here!"
Dean quietly looked around for a brief moment, unperturbed by the fact three people shouted at him at the same time...unless one looked closely at his face and saw the slight twitch his mouth did.
Nevertheless....
"Freddie start firing regular arrows at the most aggressive ones. Mercury strengthen the shield for the next minute then release it and take a break. And Kat slow the fire rate by 60 percent, I'll do clean up work here."
...he started giving out orders in a timely manner. His calm demeanor didn't match the group's restless demeanor, even Bob was growing restless as he saw the growing cracks on the shield and the invisible wall of .50 caliber gunfire was rapidly diminishing once the rate of fire started decreasing.
Yet, everyone stayed in formation especially when they saw Dean telekinetically lifting hundreds of javelins off the ground. After almost five minutes that felt like hours for everyone else, the huge flock of flyers were reduced to about 25 percent thanks to the mindless creatures continuously charging into machine gun fire and explosive arrows.
What was once a flock that numbered in the thousands were now less than 1000 at most.
Enough to be a danger for everyone, but not enough to survive the hailstorm of spikes that Dean was preparing. And so, everyone including Mary held their breath as they saw hundreds of makeshift javelins lifting up and pointing towards the sky. They didn't notice the strain on Dean as he was sweating and even had a minor nosebleed from the exertion, though except for Kat since she was dividing her attention to several things while making sure Dean didn't overdo it this early.
[40 percent of the javelins is enough Dean. You can stop.]
And so he did.
40 percent of his stockpile which numbered in the hundreds were sent straight into the flying swarm as they drew close to the overhead shield.
Splaat
Splaat
The previous blood rain slowed down momentarily when the sentry turrets slowed their fire rate, only for it increase tremendously once Dean sent the javelins. Dean had both his hands controlling the makeshift spikes as they shredded through the ugly monsters then he swirl the remaining ones to continue the massacre.
The mindless creatures continue to ignore the danger and try to reach the energy shield, only for them to get intercepted by Freddie and even Bob as he grew bored of letting the kids do all of the work.
Eventually...
Outside the student buildings, the statue fountain of the weeping angel was now weeping dark red blood amidst the eerie quiet mess around it.
All of the flying monsters were killed off leaving the surrounding area covered with blood and guts, enough to make a normal person's stomach to churn...especially the heavy iron smell of blood.
"Ahhh....that has to be a record on how long I maintained that shield."
"I can't believe I'm feeling tired from shooting a bow for once."
Freddie and Mercury were both celebrating their brief victory despite the mental exhaustion from using their powers. While Mary was panting heavily from supplying power to the turrets, unlike the others, she never bothered to train her body or esper power so the exhaustion was more prevalent. Upon seeing her state, Dean gave out an order.
"5 minute break then we move out towards Pleasantville."
"Haaa....haaa....Dean I can keep go-"
"5 minutes to catch our breath and to see if there'll be a counterattack. Freddie and Bob will keep watch along with Kat. Anything else?"
Mary was about to say something but stopped herself as the adrenaline was wearing off, revealing she was more exhausted than expected. So she and the others quietly nodded in response.
Then Dean use his telekinesis to wipe the blood off nearby benches for everyone to sit, at least the ones who weren't on watch duty. Dean walked over to a bench and sat down while wiping his blood off his nose with a clean handkerchief he found in the student housing office.
His mind was restless from Ha-eun possibly showing up with an army despite her injury and it was restless....from worry for another person despite the reassurance from Kat. Yet, he locked those thoughts away and started picturing different combat scenarios with Ha-eun for the best outcome.
***
Meanwhile
At the tram station for Pleasantville, there stood two people coming out of the building after leaving their tram.
"Look I know we can't escape this place, but Veronica...can you explain why we're back here?"
"Oh that's easy darling, I came back here to fetch my babies!"
One of them, a bald young man was confused by his companion's remark then quickly realized what she meant.
"Babies? Wait...are you talking about your sword collection? Come on, at least convince me we were searching for survivors or something."
His companion, a savage beautiful looking red-haired with silver streaks woman, was offended by him and shot a rebuttal.
"Tch...my babies are more important than normies, Johnny."
The bald young man, John Blackhorn, was rubbing his smooth head while muttering.
"Why did I stick with this crazy-"
"AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH"
The duo's brief bickering was interrupted by a husk screaming alerting a scores of husks, some fiends, and monsters that resembled alien creatures from other planets.
"Maybe we should get back on the tram..."
"Nah uh, my blades are thirsting for more blood hehehe"
The young woman, Veronica Swordheart, was giggling and smiling savagely at the incoming horde. Then she pulled out her two katanas and prepared to fight while John was behind her, ready to mimic her powers with his spear and possibly another power from one of the fiends.