A Hero's Worth

By the time Recktor came atop the wall to see what preparations could still be made before the fight starts, all of the guards have stopped what they were doing and was looking out to the north at some sight. Wondering what the guards could all be looking at instead of preparing their defenses he started to walk up to them and pushed two men aside to clear his view.

Following the rest of the guard's eyesight, he came to spy six people slowly making their way to the beast horde. He could only begin to think about how the group of mercenaries he met the day before would carry the hopes of him and his men on their backs. Even without seeing how strong they were, the way they carried themselves and the way the man who calls himself "Yama" looked at Recktor when they talked gave him all the information he could ask for. Being a seasoned warrior himself he could tell every one of them was a disaster to any enemy.

Monsters of different shapes and sizes were fastly approaching Rak's group as they still casually walked closer. The winds of the flatlands howling around them as they strode forth.

After a good distance had been set, Rak spoke up looking at a certain person "Reaper, show us how you got that name will you?"

With a quiet nod, Reaper made his way in front of the group and stood dead center of the approaching horde and took a deep breath while his long black hair was blown around by the wind. With a slow-motion, he closed his eyes and rested his hand on the sword at his waist before lowering his posture for a quick draw. Letting his breath come out of his mouth slowly he began to focus himself, sharpening his mind and body.

"My heart gives strength and life," escaped his lips in a low voice when a sudden change came upon the area around him. His hair no longer flowed and draped down his back as the wind had suddenly lost its power. The grass in a small meter radius of him stopped swaying as well.

"My sword, born of steel and strife," he said after another breath. In a mere second, the strange windless state covered even more of the area in front of him. The monsters noticing nothing of the changes that were around them.

As the monsters grew closer and closer the first beast in the lead, a wolf in ink-black fur, just entered the circle of motionless land. As it came closer and closer, Reaper still did not move a muscle, focusing on what was to come.

"My actions, sever souls" came out of his mouth as he opened his eyes, the wolf jumped with its mouth wide open, baring its fangs. In what was faster than a lightning strike the length of the circle around Reaper expanded to cover half the wave of oncoming monsters. But with just a click, his sword had entered back into its sheath after which, he was standing back next to his group a few feet backward. With the wind blowing around them like before.

If any of the guards on top of the wall had been closer to the scene they would have run away in fear at not just the horde of monsters, but what happened next. The wolf in the lead of the pack, in mid-jump, started to fall apart, dissected into multiple pieces, and falling from the air. Behind it, half of the beast horde had met the same fate as they were all severed in half with their top half neatly falling to the ground.

Not registering what had happened, the back half of the monster horde continued to run forward, trampling the split lower and upper halves of their fallen running-mates. With a crazed look in their eyes, the gruesome end they had just witnessed did not register to them, and they continue to run.

"Showtime!" Face said before the six sprang into action fanning out into the horde of monsters. Shortly after a slaughter unfolded everywhere within the ranks of the monsters.

Bullets from Larry's rifle went through multiple creatures before losing power felling all in a line. Shifter, in the form of a giant praying mantis, dashed around and severed the heads off of any monsters unlucky enough to be in his view. A shadow dashed around multiple bodies before they were neatly cut and fell to the ground, Reaper was living up to his namesake by taking the lives of those anywhere close to him.

Face with his shield and bulky armor did not need to worry about any damage the weak monsters could do to him, he swung his sword in wide arcs not even looking at what he was hitting, and felling waves of bodies. Gremlin's chained scythe was whipping around in an almost dance-like manner, finding perch in the side of a hefty animal before it was sent through the air and landing on others crushing them in its way.

Rak had dashed deeply into the wave of monsters as fast as he could before the knives strapped to his battlesuit had sprung out like rockets with each one finding a home in the skull of a beast. After they killed a monster the flying knives would raise itself from the body and seek another, and another.

Before even the second minute was up, the horde of growling monsters had been reduced to nothing and the only thing left standing was Rak's group who did not even break a sweat cleaning them all up.

"We didn't even need their help, they went down a lot easier than we thought," James yelled across the battlefield for everyone to hear.

From the top of the wall, the guards were a mess. Not a one could even begin to describe what it was that their eyes could see. In a short couple of seconds, they went from preparing to fight for what they could protect, and all of a sudden like it was just a prank, the crisis was solved in front of their very eyes.

Recktor was more shocked than any other. His pride as a descendant from legendary monster hunters was destroyed thinking he could match up to these random people showing up and proclaiming to kill a demon. Then a thought occurred to him. If what the big guy said was true, and that only one of them could end up killing the demon they fought, how strong could they be, could he possibly kill one if he ever fought one?

A short time later, a loud and shrill scream could be heard coming from somewhere. With a knowing look, the group turned to look at the direction the horde had come from. In their sight were three red-skinned humanoid creatures with black horns staring right at them with their dark eyes aflame with ruthlessness.