Chapter fifty-seven – Family and Duty

"That woman just turned into a monster!" Aliyah screamed in fear. "You guys saw it too, right? She was there, ripped off her clothes and turned into a big dog thing!"

"Her name is Lycandra and she's here to distract the Orcs, quick, we need to keep carrying the wounded to the getaway vehicles!" Sarah replied. "Don't let her hear you call her a dog, or you'll be in big trouble!"

The injured people inside the police station were being rushed to the building's garage, everyone who could walk went alone, while those who couldn't were dragged along by others, Sarah had managed to bring Burreal's tactical truck and parked it behind the station, it was already crowded with wounded people, there were also two police transport vans in the garage which soon became full as the truck.

"It was close and far from comfortable, but we managed to get everyone into those vehicles! Now we just need to hurry up and get out of here as quickly as possible!" Sarah commented.

"Here we go! Follow me!" Azaleah took over the direction of one of the vans and took the lead, steering the vehicle out of the garage, she soon saw the huge truck and the three vehicles escaped from the siege.

With the arrival of the werewolves, the Orcs that had surrounded the police station had returned to the entranc, they were more interested in the fight than in complying with the capture of humans, the two groups were embroiled in a fierce struggle.

Lycandra roared, her claws streaking through the air, making a sharp slashing sound, but her blow was deflected by Varfu's, the Orc used his tonfa to deflect the blow. Varfu grinned at the attack, his old green face looking like a madman, the Orc launched a powerful kick, aimed at the werewolf woman's chest.

Lycandra escaped the kick easily, with a nice turn of her body, despite their monstrous appearance, both she and Vargu were masters of melee battles, well trained and forged by years of fighting, two martial artists who didn't just rely on their pure strength, but used elaborate techniques and intricate's blows, in that sense, the two had an almost equal skill level, but Vargu had a great advantage above her, The cult had invested a lot in the orcs and he was full of magical equipment, the tonfas in his arms were far from being measly pieces of metal, they emitted an intense orange glow and Lycandra felt that Vargu's attacks didn't seem to tire the Orc, vargu also had a necklace on his neck that glowed brightly, and even his tactical gear didn't look like ordinary mercenary clothes, it seemed more to be a mix of magical equipment and human technology.

The other Orcs and Werewolves found themselves in a similar situation, the number of wolves was greater than the Orcs, but the Orcs were well equipped with magic items, although they were not as well equipped as Vargu, all their weapons emitted a magic glow and they managed to face the wolves even outnumbered.

When the two vans and the truck appeared on the streets, Vargu understood that the humans were on the run, but he didn't care for a minute, there was no way the humans could get far enough away to be a problem and his group wasn't the only one hunting humans. There are a big number of monsters wreaking havoc in the city, Goblins, Bugbears, Goliath's, Kobolds and other races, The Cultists had bribed some to fight by their side while others were forced, their weaknesses exploited. Vargu was far more interested in battling Lycandra and her wolves.

Vargu laughed, he ran towards Lycandra with his arms open, his body moved faster than it should and he appeared within inches of the werewolf, he launched a double attack with the two tonfas on Lycandra and she was forced to block by crossing her arms.

Blocking turned out to be the wrong choice, the weight of the blow was more intense of what she expected and the werewolf was thrown back, she could feel the bones in her arms crack from the attack but she waved her arms like it was nothing, she looked at Vargu and roared, while running towards him.

Vargu executed an cross attack, trying to hit the woman's chest with the both tonfas, but she moved nimbly and leapt at him, planting a kick in the back of the Orc, who stumbled forward.

"That was a good one!" Vargu smiled. "But you'll need to hit harder if you want to kill me!"

"That should have hurt you more than that! What did you do?" Lycandra questioned.

"The cultists gave me a lot of fun toys!" The Orc joked. "You know, it's not too late for you and your group to join the party!"

"And become a servant to a bunch of freaks? No thank you!" She ran towards the Orc and executed a spinning kick, but Vergu was gone again, appearing a few meters behind.

"I think you'll regret it... You know, they're pretty close to doing something big! Something that will completely change the status quo of this world!"

"I don't give a sh*t about the cultist's plans! They're one of the groups that fund the damn vampires, we're never going to be on good terms with them!" Lycandra replied. "And I also really like the current status quo! We wolves have no desire to make our existence public! After all, Wolves hunt in the dark!"

"Big sister! I already have the data!" A girl, the only one who had stayed on the bike and hadn't shifted in her wolf form, screamed.

"Looks like our game is over!" Lycandra commented, she howled and ran towards the bikes, her wolves following her, abandoning the fight with the Orcs.

"Hey, what are you guys doing? You can't go out like that! Not when we're having so much fun!" Vergu yelled, he looked more like an annoyed child than a mercenary at the moment.

"F*ck you, crazy Orc! Only you and your little group of rotten heads have this thought of always fighting to the death! No one understands your urge to die!" One of the wolves screamed, they accelerated on their bikes and started to flee.

The Orcs were furious and were ready to pursue them when Vergu motioned for them to stop.

"Let them go, it doesn't matter, the world is about to change and get interesting, chasing after cowards won't give us the death we want! Let's go! We have to keep bringing humans together..."

The Orcs seemed upset, but they listened to their leader, after all there was no fun in chasing cowards. Vergu sighed as his men parted, he looked up at the sky in dismay. "I'm getting too old for this sh*t... Where's that dragon when we need him?"

***

Azaleah was leading the group of vehicles, driving the first van, she was leading everyone into the countryside of the city, away from the center, towards a shelter where people had been evacuated, Joseph was driving the second van and Sarah was driving the truck.

The shelter was a familiar place, people thought it was just a place in case of earthquakes or storms, and it was big enough to hold half the city, no one knew that the shelter was also prepared for cases like these, city governments were aware of the paranormal society that lived in the shadows, and more than one city in the world had plans to deal with a similar scenario.

Sarah was still worried about her team, only Jason, with his four members broken , had 'returned', and he wasn't in a position to talk about the state of the other agents, she couldn't help but think about the rest of her team or the agents who stayed inside the building.

The vehicle practically can drove by itself and Sarah took the opportunity to use her powers, she connected with every camera possible in the city center and looked for her team, to her surprise she found them near the cultist's building, their agents were passed out and tied up along with Azaleah's police officers and the two clerics, all arrested and guarded by a group of monsters, all looked pretty battered but, toher surprise, they were all still alive.

"Why aren't they killing them?" Sarah couldn't understand, she could see several groups of monsters sweeping the city and causing chaos, but it was obvious that the creatures were purposely avoiding causing harm to people, she couldn't understand why.

The vehicles arrived at the shelter, Azaleah and her family started to help people out of the vehicles, Sarah also helped, soon all the injured were taken inside the shelter. Azaleah then started back to the van.

"Where are you going?" Joseph questioned.

"I'm not abandoning my cops!" She got into the vehicle. "You don't even have to start, I know you want to come along, so just get inside!" Joseph smiled and got into the vehicle.

"I'm going too!" Aliyah screamed.

"You're going to stay here!" Azaleah replied. "You going with us won't help at all! I myself am only taking your father because if I leave him here, he might follow me, even on foot!" She hugged her daughter. "Stay here and help these people! And keep trying to get in touch with your sister! You need to confirm Hanna's safety, got it?"

Aliyah wanted to retort but gave up, she knew her mother too well and knew she wouldn't make a difference, once her mother decided something it was almost impossible to make her change her mind. "I will do my best!"

"Wait!" Sarah yelled. "Going back to town is a bad idea! There's no way you and your husband can face the monsters alone!"

"I have a duty to this town and to my cops, I'm not going to run away and leave them behind!" Azaleah replied. "And my husband is too stubborn to let me go alone..."

"But it won't do any good! you don't even have weapons!"

"There may still be people caught up in the mess, the least we can do is provide assistance!"

"Fine! If you're going the least I can do is help out a little! Take this!" Sarah handed her tablet to Azaleah. "I can monitor the city cameras from here and I can keep in touch with you through that, I can guide you to people who need help!"

Azaleah accepted the tablet and thanked her, she got into the vehicle and started the car, disappearing down the road.

"I hope they're okay…" Sarah whispered.

"I need to talk to my sister!" Aliyah ran to the building, she didn't even want to think about the danger her mother was exposing herself to.

After finding an empty room she took out her cell phone and started calling her sister. Hanna answered the phone on the first ring.

"Hanna! Are you okay? Where are you? Did you find Locke?"

"Yes, I already met Locke! I'm at his house! And away from the city center so it's away from all the fuss! You do not need to worry about me!"

"Whew, at least you're safe… You won't believe what's happening, Hanna! They are monsters! Monsters are attacking the city! F*cking fantasy Monsters!" Aliyaj finally collapsed. "I have no idea what's going on, little sister, I still don't believe half of what I saw today!"

"Calm down Aly, try to breathe deeply…" Hanna advised her over the phone. "I know things are scary, but we don't have time to despair, the place you are is safe, wait around until things calm down! And try to keep other people calm!"

"No Hanna, you don't understand! If these things are real, what else is real? I always thought your future dreams were just exaggeration on your part… But if things like that can exist, my sister having prophetic dreams isn't impossible…" Aliyah chuckled trying to calm down. "Mom didn't look the least bit surprised by these monsters… I'm worried about her, Hanna! She and our father are going back to town! I'm worried about them both!"

"Don't worry about Mom and Dad, Aly! They both know how to take care of themselves and I'm pretty sure they'll be fine! Mom is too angry to be afraid of a dozen little monsters! They should be afraid of her! And daddy, you know how he gets when any of us are in danger! I pity the monster that stands in front of them!" Hanna replied. "Do you forgot? I already told you that mom and dad will be there to hold your first baby!"

Aliyah laughed at the mental image, she remembered well that day, when she and Hanna were still kids. Hanna woke her up at dawn to tell her how they would all be together when Aliyah had their first child, that he was going to be a cute chubby, smiling little boy, and that she would give him the same name as they father.

"No need to worry, Aly! I... I guarantee you! There's someone in town going to town who's going to keep our parents safe! Someone who will put an end to this whole problem!"

"What? Who are you talking about?"

"Someone strong and fighting for the right is heading to town! And when he arrives he will put an end to this whole situation!"