March of The Dead (MotD)

"Get up! Get up! The Inner Wall has been breached! The Demons are inside the city. Let's go! Are we gonna just let them dirty our streets?"

"No!" Came the reply from several hundred voices as they rushed out of the barracks.

They grouped up as they ran towards the walls. They had been on standby, in full gear, but told to rest and remain combat ready. The numerous barracks they had come out of each had numerous Spells to defend against trebuchet barrage.

The soldiers roared as they charged, their foe already in sight. The sound caught the attention of the Demons, who turned and charged forward.

Across the flattened city filled with only rubble and the occasional hollow ruin, several hundred Humans ran forward, not knowing if they would survive to see the sun rise.

Time seemed to slow as the two forces sprinted over the rubble and ruined streets. Over a thousand bodies, each intent to tear each other apart.

They didn't engage each other.

They crashed into each other.

Dozens dead in an instant not from weapons or spells, but from the impact and mass of bodies behind them. Such power, that limbs were torn off, organs ruptured, and bodies flew through the air.

It was chaos in an instant.

All either side needed to know was that the body on the other side of their weapon wasn't their own race.

There were no Battle lines. No strategy.

There was only a single command given to the hundreds.

Kill!

A command the soldiers took to heart.

Individuals found themselves alone fighting a foe in single combat only for an ally to come up and backstab the enemy. Then they found themselves grouping up with a handful of allies to defeat another small group of enemies only for the next moment to be alone again.

Weapons clattered to the ground as soldiers were disarmed or killed. The edges of shields were used to crush the necks of the enemy in front of them. Daggers were drawn and used to find the gaps in armor. Rubble was used to pummel and crush.

Hands wrapped around necks. Knees were aimed between legs. Fingers went for eyes.

There were no rules, only a desire to survive. And to do that, they had to kill.

In that moment, they fought not for a flag, a species, or a world, but for the right to live.

The Underground Field Hospital was soon enveloped by this chaos and with it, Evelyn and her friends.

They were scattered, absorbed into the horde and overcome by its suffocating nature.

Evelyn found herself without her sword, desperately searching for a way out, for fresh air.

She couldn't find the Hospital. She couldn't find her friends. She didn't even know if they were still alive.

Something crashed into her, sending her into the bloody rubble. Her hand instinctively reached for the nearest weapon, which turned out to be a discarded dagger of Demon Make.

She turned in the mud, facing her attacker only to see a Human with his hands wrapped tightly around a Devil's neck. The devil clawed desperately at the Human's face, trying to push him off even as his face changed colors.

Before Evelyn could act, another body tripped over her prone figure, falling on top of her. It landed heavily, its head bouncing slightly against the stone road. Allowing Evelyn to look at its face first as it lay across her stomach.

With a scream, she plunged the dagger into the small of the Devil's back, twisting it when it hit the bone.

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Dazed as it was, the Devil screamed and spasmed, trying to get away, but the position and the injury proved too much.

Evelyn pulled the dagger out with a wet gasp before plunging it back into the Demon.

Again and again.

Only after the tenth stab did Evelyn realize the Devil had stopped moving long ago.

Evelyn tried to push the body off, but it was a fully grown Devil and she was not built for strength.

With a grunt, she finally pushed it off her stomach and onto her legs.

Not a moment too soon.

An Argalon crashed through the chaos.

Evelyn sat up just in time to avoid having her head crushed as the Demon stampeded through, trampling two Humans as it did.

It reached up to the Human on it's back, throwing the man away like a sack of potatoes. A moment later, three Humans angled an assortment of pole weapons into the Argalon as it continued to run around.

Evelyn jumped to her feet, just in time to be collided with by another fighting Human and Devil.

This time, she grabbed onto the pair, grabbing the Devil from behind, she plunged her dagger over its shoulders and into the chest of the Devil.

It collapsed, Evelyn only barely managing to stay on her feet.

The Human soldier dove into another Devil, sword first, before a third Devil swung an axe into his neck.

A mace was swung at her head.

She backed up, into a Human, making him miss his killing blow but also knocking him out of the way of a thrown dagger.

The mace wielding Devil advanced swinging again. Evelyn dove forward and under the mace, placing her at the feet of the Devil.

She plunged her dagger into the ankle of the Devil, yanking it out as he fell to his knees.

She rushed to her feet clumsily and thrust the dagger into the Devil's spine and twisted.

Evelyn gasped for breath, finding a moment of reprieve despite the chaos and death around her. Between the fighting bodies, she managed to spot something that was familiar to her.

It was the Hospital. Its reinforced flat stone roof jutted out of the ground for three feet. If she did not know better, she would merely think it was a raised platform for an assembly area. The entrance to the Underground Hospital was not hidden, but nor was it advertised.

With luck, the Demon should largely pass over it. Evelyn just hoped that the few people within, capable of fighting, would be able to defend the narrow door against the few Demons that spotted it.

Yet her attention was caught by the fight that ensued on top of the Hospital. Ulex and Harper were working together to fight the Demons, using the height afforded by the Hospital to their advantage.

Evelyn tiredly tried to make her way there.

Evelyn ducked under a wild punch from a Devil, but her retaliation stab was interrupted by a Human tackling the Devil before using a nearby rock to repeatedly flatten its skull.

He did not notice the Devil approaching him from the side, but Evelyn did. She grabbed a small rock and hurled it at the Demon.

Her aim was true, striking the Devil in the cheek.

The Human finally noticed the Devil and took a nearby discarded sword to attack.

Evelyn kept moving.

She was attacked several times, inadvertently being saved a few times, but successfully defending herself against others. Sometimes, she attacked first, either picking off a distracted Devil, or helping a Human with their own.

Throughout the field, Argalon proved dangerous foes, but due to their size and known danger, they became valuable targets to quickly eliminate. Despite being much more powerful than the Devils in both physical and magical might, the true danger was the Devils.

Yet that did not stop the few remaining Argalon from charging around, sending Humans flying with their large frames and immense strength.

Evelyn found herself one such victim when an Arglon barreled through two Devils and clipped her shoulder. The force sent her flying back the way she came, crashing into a Human and Devil.

Evelyn felt her shoulder dislocate.

The Devil proved faster than the Human to recover.

Its dagger found its mark in the Human's throat.

The Human's screams turned wet and became gurgles.

The Devil pulled the dagger and turned it to the Human that had crashed into it and remained on top of it, but Evelyn was faster.

She caught the Devil's wrist.

Slowly, with more force than she thought she was capable of at that moment, she turned the dagger, still in the Devil's grip, back towards the Demon and put her body weight behind it.

The Demon roared its defiance, but the advantage Evelyn had, and due to its other arm being pinned underneath its own body, the dagger neared ever closer to its throat.

The tip finally cut into the flesh, drawing a stream of blood.

Something abruptly crashed into Evelyn, throwing her off the Devil. She looked up just in time to see the Devil that had pushed her take a thrown spear through the chest.

At the same time, a heavy maul was slammed into the first Devil, crushing its skull into the cracked stones.

Evelyn fought off two more Devils before she reached the Hospital roof.

"Evelyn!" Harper immediately spotted her, leaving her courted partner to twist the spear before pulling it out of the Devil and kicking it back down.

"Where is everyone?" Ulex asked, the sleeve of his left arm was wet and dark.

"I don't know." Evelyn admitted.

"There is no way we can find them in all this." Harper said with a sad sigh.

The battlefield stretched for as far as she could see. Which was not far given the piles of rubble, but there were over a thousand bodies frantically moving. It would be a miracle to spot one of her friends, let alone get to them.

"We don't have to. They will find us." Evelyn said with renewed determination, an idea forming in her head as she spotted something on the roof.

Evelyn stepped between the couple, grabbing the discarded flag with her good arm.

With a grunt of strength and pain, she lifted it up, driving the sharpened butt into the mortar of the stones.

Taking a deep breath, Evelyn drew what little remained of her Internal Mana towards her throat.

"Warriors of Humanity! TO ME!"