Invasion! - Riverside (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack said something else. "I love you." He smiled at her, because he didn't know if he'd be able to say the words again, because he didn't know if he'd be able to smile again. "Let's go kill some demons." He thought, fast, then turned to Atlas. "Atlas. Break the street. Make the non-fliers stack up in a hole in front of us or slow down the others as they come. I'll take point at the edge of the ravine. Dead Head, that shovel gives you reach, I want you in the back stabbing over my shoulder. Phantom, the sky is yours. As for me, I'm going to rip the throats out of their friends and make them watch."

[Cyroa]

The momentary respite for the heroes was over too soon. The hordes of demons approached far quicker than seemed possible. They almost seemed to move as one; loping, bounding and running almost perfectly in sync with one another. There were clusters of them, within the horde. Almost like units. These weren't military commandos obviously, but war was definitely in the demons purview. Apparently they had learned a thing or two from humanity's advancement in the field. These demons knew tactics and strategy. And they intended to use them as they came within range.

[Geez3r]

Atlas roars and buries his hands into the road. He then lifts a section of the road over his head and sends a wave traveling down the entirety of the road as if it were simply a very rocky sheet. The street was simply ruined by the force, and many of the faces of the surrounding buildings were broken by the flying debris. His task done, Atlas looked around the city in the moment he had before the demons would be upon them.

Much of it was in ruins, and he had put a significant amount of it in that condition. He saw how far he and the other heroes were willing to go just to save maybe one more life, or stall the Horde maybe one more second. It was quite frightening. To no one in particular he muttered "Zere isn't going to be much of a city after zis vill zere?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Confronted with a more organized enemy, Jack changed his tactics to match. He disappeared from view, focusing on his prey, and concentrated on those demons who seemed to be giving orders to the others. It was those he targeted as he moved amongst the demons, cutting and tearing, an invisible force that pulled and ripped and tore and feasted on the blood of the damned.

[alderwitch]

"Wouldn't be the first time we rebuilt," Phantom replied to Atlas as she floated up over the ground fighters. It wasn't comforting but at least it was truth. She watched Jack wade into the first masses, her lips a grim line, before she forced her eyes up to the sky. She had a task to do too.

Floating up, Phantom gathered the rubble around her in a whirling vortex, before firing the first volley at the demons darkening the sky. Rocks and large chunks of rubble went pelting through the air like missles.

[Cyroa]

The demons rolled towards, and even over, the heroes without pause or even noticing when their numbers diminished. There were still plenty more after all. None of the heroes were spared. This was not a pretty or isolated fight. This was war. And the demons had every advantage.

Phantom received a majority of the focus by those demons who were a cut above. Thsoe with special powers, those leading the hordes. It was almost impossible to see her through the colors, flames and energies that were sent her way. Avenger, though most couldn't see him, was far from spared. They still knew roughly where he was from the carnage he created. So, instead of wasting time trying to find him, huge swaths of fire and destructive energies would cover the entire area around him, sparing nothing. Often, the demons around him were destroyed as well, when they weren't immune. Not that it mattered to those throwing those energies. Sacrificing hundred, thousands, to just take out the stealthy hero was easilyu worth it to them. After all, they had plenty more demons to keep throwing at him... Atlas they dealt with somewhat differently. Considering he would send the regular demons flying by the hundred, they poured on those attacks. But it was jsut a distraction. Atlas was dive-bombed, had demons dropped on him from above, and was targeted by the biggest and meanest looking demons there were. Most were far larger than he was. Deadhead...actually, Deadhead was almost ignored compared to the others as the wave of demons crashed into the heroes. Whether he wasn't as known or whether he looked more like the demons than the good guys was unknown. While he was still attacked by demonic warriors in abundance, the bigger ones pretty much ignored him for now... It would have been insulting, if his unlife wasn't already in dire jeopardy from the hordes of demonic warriors that were not ignoring him...

[Geez3r]

To say that the demon's attacks were effective was quite a bit of an understatement. The claws, teeth, fire and seemingly the Horde itself tore through Altas' flesh. Atlas was left a bloody and mangled mess. As the Horde moved on to attack the others, suddenly Atlas' body stirred. He let out a massive roar, and suddenly, his flesh was sowing itself back together again. He didn't look nearly as good as new, but he looked quite good for someone who should be dead by all rights. "My turn!" roared Atlas as he charged the Horde again.

[alderwitch]

In the sky, the intangible heroine made a valiant showing as she floated amidst the demon lordlings and their volley after volley of power. Although bruised and bloodied, it was the fire that washed over her that finally ripped a scream from Phantom's throat. Her voice was almost drowned under the victorious roar of the demonic horde. With her blood spilled on the field of battle, they knew and Phantom knew, that defeat was only a matter of time now. Phantom, however, intended to make them pay for every scrap of ground they won.

Through the pain, she flung the folds of her massive cloak wide and with the last of her fading strength, Phantom sent the void itself out through the knot of demons surrounding her. The endless expanse of eternal darkness sliced through the demons around her. It ripped and tore through supernatural flesh and chilled creatures made of fire. Reality itself screamed at this new assualt on the tattered barriers of the world, but it was the last weapon Phantom had to wield. She did so without hesitation. Even as the attack on her was renewed, Phantom held the barrage before she finally fell under endless assault of the demonic horde.

Phantom's body fell from the sky, without her will to sustain her magic, and she was dragged under the demonic press.

[Avenger Assembled]

If there was one thing Jack knew was true, it was this. THE. DEAD. WILL. RISE. Despite horrific injuries that exposed bloodless flesh and dead tissue throughout his torso and head, he impossibly stayed on his feet, slicing his way through the demonic horde after the fallen figure of Taylor. The demons were pulling at him, too, but his hand closed on her wrist, claws digging in as he caught her arm and pulled with the implacable force of the animate dead. The demon pulling at her caught Jack's eyes and spat, "Unhand my meal or die!"

"After death I will let go," promised Jack, a moment before his hand came up and ripped off the demon's face as smoothly as tearing a knife through wet cardboard, the fiend giving a terrible burbling squeal as it fell backwards into the mouths of its waiting confederates. But as he and Phantom fell backwards together in each other's arms, the demonic horde around them closed in for the kill. He'd bought Taylor a second or two more of life, but now their time was about to run out...