Juvenile River Slade

Threat level: Moderate

–Addendum: Threat level upgrades to Very High when in groups of 10 or more.

* * *

A ravening horde of gray-skinned multi-limbed lizard monsters surged out of the river water and came howling and screaming right at the Albrights and their allies.

Alejandra's eyes flew open wide–and for a split second she was no longer in the jungle clearing, she was back somewhere else, watching over the scope of her rifle as a human wave rushed at her position waving machetes and firing wildly at her and her squad. Her pulse quickened and her knuckles went white on the grip of her rifle, and for an eternal second she felt that bright burning fear rip through her chest and down into her limbs.

"Clennais! Get your people clear!"

Her husband's basso roar shook the vision away, and she was back in the jungle clearing watching more than fifty juvenile slades scrabble-charge towards her and her family. Isabel lurched away from one of the creatures, then screeched in outrage as its long almost crocodilian maw snapped down on one of her mosquito-beak swords and sheared it right off.

"My sword!"

Right. Alejandra Albright brought her rifle up and blasted six fast rounds into the slade trying to eat Isabel. The red energy blasts hammered into its hide, driving it back and scoring the gray scales, but doing no other visible damage.

"They're as tough as the parents!" she yelled, switching fire and pegging another oncoming Slade right in the noggin. The creature's head snapped back even as his body kept going forward, causing his feet to shoot out ahead of him and for him to fall ass-over-teakettle on his back.

"My knights! Take to the skies!" The even deeper holler of the fairy chief cracked like a whip, and suddenly a dozen little people were zipping tree-ward. The horde was just a few yards away–

[Warden Arts: Unyielding Bulwark]

Golden light erupted from Matty like he'd just become his own personal baptismal fire. It spread out from him and a circle, and it plowed into the oncoming enemy like a bulldozer, sending them flying backwards and away.

"Whoof!" Matty grunted and shook his head like he'd just been punched. "Wow, that's draining my coins faster than I thought it would. Twenty seconds, guys, then I'm out! Billy, start whomping 'em!"

The tree rustled an affirmative, and massive branches started slashing down into the throng. Several of the juvenile slades were flattened outright, black blood splashing against the Bulwark where it sizzled and–

Matty screamed.

Time slowed to a crawl for Alejandra as she whirled to her husband. He was staggering backwards, and he was smoking. Patches of skin on his arms sizzled and turned red before her eyes, then black as his blood began to flow.

"Lucas!" Alejandra roared, jabbing a finger at her stricken husband. "Hurry!"

"Dad!" Lucas's voice was high and tight with panic. "Hang on! [Across The Alps!]"

Her son's form glowed gold and a blast of golden light shot from his outstretched hand and hit her husband, enveloping him in the same light. The sizzling stopped–for a split second. Then the damage began to war with her son's healing light, and Lucas' eyes popped wide as he started casting his Art again and again, trying to help his father.

"It's the shield!" Olivia's screech was high enough to be heard over… everything. Alejandra glanced back to see her daughter frantically reading over another scroll "The blood is acidic, but it's magic acid! It's hitting the shield, and it's hurting Dad! Billy, stop!"

Billy's branches immediately fell silent, and the horde of slades again started throwing themselves at the Bulwark.

"What do you mean Magic Acid," Bel hollered, setting herself and gripping her swords. "Can we kill them?"

"Yeah! It just… It eats up magic, so we gotta be careful not to get it on any of our special stuff, or to use any Arts that it can attach to! Dad needs to stay back, because that's like all he has! And I can't use my traps or else it'll get me too. It transfers through magic to the user!"

"I will be of no use here then," said Toraline the sword, speaking for the first time in a long while. "Matthew, I suggest you place yourself behind the line of defense and utilize long range weaponry for this fight."

"Yeah," Matty ground out between clenched teeth. "Sounds like a plan. Shield's off in five seconds guys. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, mi corazone," Alejandra said, placing a hand on her husband's cheek. "You did your best. Leave the rest to us."

Then she pressed a kiss against his cheek before turning back and hefting her rifle.

Right.

"Chief Clennais, can you provide support for us?" she called as the Bulwark began to flicker.

"We can, Lady Alejandra," the top-hatted snake rider said, his blade starting to glow green. "My blade is magical, but those of my knights are mundane, so they will lead the charge and I will remain behind to bolster as best I can."

The Bulwark flickered again… And then dropped, and Matty behind them let out a groan of relief. There was a brief pause as the Slades recoiled from the sudden change, but then a second later they screeched in near unison and charged forward en masse towards the gathered Albrights. Alejandra set herself and aimed at the nearest creature–

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Then Onesie launched himself over their heads, landing amongst the slades like a fox among chicks. The Bargalest landed with a shockwave that sent all the slades rearing back in surprise. The tide stemmed for a split second as the juveniles took a breath to consider the new threat in their midst.

And then Onesie went to work.

Non-magical shovels, eight of them now, lashed out like a threshing machine. Slades were flung into the air and sent tumbling with each blow. The Bargalest's massive snakelike mouth opened up and a wild hissing roar came forth, and its dozens of limbs struck out in trios and quartets, hammering into the slades like ninepins. It was like watching the world's largest tilt-a-whirl suddenly decide it'd had enough of this whole Circus business and was now out for blood.

Those slades that got around Onesie, sliding to the side or scampering underneath the Bargalest's bulk, were met with concentrated gunfire from Alejandra and her children on one flank, and by fairy knights and their lances on the other. The gray monsters charged without heed for their own safety, flinging themselves into the hail of gunfire and onto the points of lances, and Alejandra's world narrowed to the iron sights on her rifle and the flash of her muzzle.

It was a familiar rhythm. Gunfire and smoke filled the immediate area as a half-dozen firearms roared defiance into the teeth of the onrushing horde. Black blood began to gout as bullets found weak points in the creatures' scaley hides. One slade's head snapped back, blood shooting out the back of its skull to splatter across the eyes of the one behind it as Dinah's heavy bullet slammed into it. Another one tried to skirt around the body, only to be blasted off its feet by two quick blasts from Matty's shotgun. Isabel picked off another one that tried to come in from the side, her remaining sword slamming into its exposed belly.

Then Isabel was cursing like a sailor as the black blood started to eat away at her mosquito-sword, and she had to fling it away before the acidic liquid made contact with her skin.

"MY OTHER SWORD! YOU BASTARDS!" Bel drew the pistol from its holster on her belt and emptied the magazine into two more slades who were trying to get to her in the moment of distraction.

Alejandra forced herself to concentrate. Her children were powerful. They were now experienced in battle. They were fellow soldiers, to be trusted with their portion of the fight, not helpless babes to be protected. The staccato blasts from her assault rifle slammed into the horde as it came for them, the powerful energy projectiles blowing off limbs and ripping into torsos.

Her vision blurred, and for a second she was back in the Desert, her men screaming around her as enemy combatants rose from the desert like corpses in a zombie film, muzzle flashes sending lead towards her and those under her protection.

Then she was back in the present. Two slades had managed to push their way through the hail of gunfire and were charging straight at her, screaming in rage with their long claws extended and reaching for her–

"COMIN' THROUGH!" Lucas's young voice was high-pitched with excitement, and Alejandra had a half-second to notice that strange vibration in the earth under her when Lucas, riding atop Harry, plowed into the two slades like a freight train. The big mastodon simply trampled them, his six massive legs pounding the reptilian creatures into the dust. Then Harry finished the job by performing a hopping little two-step atop their corpses.

The slades had clearly been expecting a massacre, but to be on the giving side and not the receiving. Onesie cracked the skull of two of the reptiles at once, then lashed out with three shovels one after the other that stove in the ribcage of another in an eyeblink. Those around the big Bargalest started to fall back in fear, hissing and chittering to each other as Onesie slew another one simply by ramming a shovel as hard as it could into its belly so that the blunted blade erupted out of the back of the creature in a spray of ichor.

And those that tried to get around the Bargalest to the other side were met by flying armoured death. The lances of the fairies, unmagical as they were, were still needle sharp and iron strong. And the little knights wielded them with precision, darting in on their flying snake steeds and ramming the points of their lances into unprotected eyes, cracks in the scales, or even in one notable case an open maw. They did not kill as many as Onesie, or the Albrights, but they kept the foe at bay long enough for more powerful weapons to come into play.

And any slade that tried to run met Billy once more. The tree did not lash out at those in direct combat, likely for fear of hitting an ally. But if a slade ran? It was immediately crushed to death by a dozen heavy branches descending from on high like the wrath of God.

When the battle started, there must have been 40 of the creatures trying to overrun them.

Five minutes later, it was all over.

Alejandra lowered her smoking rifle and took a deep breath. The air was full of the acrid stink of gunpowder mixed with the iron tang of blood and something darker as the corpses of the slades oozed onto the ground. She closed her eyes then and waited for the familiar electric feeling to shoot through her body. They'd won. They'd won. Once more she was among the living after a battle that should have killed her. But through superior firepower, a few lucky breaks, and the assistance of allies, she was once again among the living.

"Is everyone alright?" she called out, eyes still closed as she fought against the shakes. "Is anyone wounded?"

There were some cuts and scrapes. Isabel had taken a particularly vicious claw strike to her abdomen, but her Arts had made her skin tougher and so a blow that should have disemboweled her had only caused deep cuts on her belly. Lucas was already on it. Matty was slumped against one of the rubble piles, two empty shotguns at his feet and an empty pistol in his hand. She hadn't noticed when he'd gotten the other weapons. He saw her looking and gave her a shaky thumbs up with an arm that looked like he had left it in the sun for hours but at least was no longer blackened and crispy.

"I think we're okay Mom," Olivia called, breathing heavily. Her staff was in her hand again, and she too held an empty pistol. "I don't wanna know how much ammo we just used up on this though. I went through six clips easy."

The shakes slowly faded away as the rest of her family confirmed their health. They'd come through relatively unscathed again, and she thanked God for his providence and protection.

"My swords," Isabel muttered piteously, glaring at the gristly puddles that had been her weapons up until only a short while ago. "I liked those, dammit."

"Language," Matty muttered.

"I liked those, dang it," Isabel said with a smirk.

"Well, you've been wanting an excuse to make new ones, right Sis?" Luc asked from atop Harry. "Hey, by the way, how's everyone on coins? That one felt like it was rougher than our last fight."

A quick check showed that coin reserves were very nearly depleted on everyone. It had, indeed, required a fair more amount of power than they had realized. Except for Olivia, who had not been able to use her strongest Arts due to the whole 'magical blood acid' thing.

"That was… amazing!" said a deep voice, and Clennais zipped down to hover in front of him, that strange green blade of his glowing brightly. "I have never seen such a battle! Truly, the might of Sojourners was not exaggerated by my ancestors!" The little fairy brought the blade up to his forehead in a strange martial salute, then bowed low. "Even if we cannot bring ourselves under your banner, it was an honor to fight beside you today."

"Yeah, about that," Matty said, shifting and wincing as the movement tugged at his still-healing arm. "Why exactly were your people in the water, there? I saw a bunch of them zip away when we weren't looking, and none of them were part of your little group that first got here."

Chief Clennais had the good grace to look abashed. "They were there to relay word to my people, should our negotiations have turned… Ugly," he said with an apologetic look. "We did not know how this would turn out today, and the stories we have of Sojourners suggested a measure of prudence would be necessary."

Alejandra nodded wearily. Lord, she was always so tired after a fight. "It is wisdom, Matty. We always posted snipers and reserve troops when dealing with unknown and possibly dangerous associates in the Desert."

"I guess I can understand that," Matty said after a moment, nodding. "We probably would have done the same, in your place."

Alejandra thought she saw the little man breathe a sigh of relief. "Then all is well?"

"Almost," said a quiet voice Alejandra has almost forgotten was there. All eyes turned to Toraline, who hung on Marty's hip and started to glow with a strange green light.

"Almost?" Chief Clennais repeated, raising his eyebrows. "What else would you discuss with us, madam fairy?"

There was a long beat, almost like someone drawing in breath before a boxing match.

"I would discuss, chief Clennais, why you carry my father's sword and wield it as if it were your own."

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