Cory grabs hold of the pitchfork, wielding it against their foe. “I’m warning you, I’m well versed in the art of pitchfork fights!” They say, jabbing on the direction of their opponent. “I would back off if I were you. Before I exorcise you, right here and now!” Another couple of pokes. A malevolent laugh. “You think you can defeat me?” The voice is deep and cracked, as if it has not been used for millennia. “Actually, yes, I think I can. Just, maybe not with this.” Cory chuckles as they answer, tossing aside the useless weapon in favor of one they will summon. “Telum animae meae facio te vocare!” They hold out their hand, a summoning circle illuminating the dim barn. Out of it comes something much more appropriate for spirit fighting: a silver blade. It’s not very long, definitely built for very close-range attacks, but it does scare the spirit. “Time to go back to the void, Toryne. Depelle omnia mala.” Cory smiles as they lunge, closing the gap between them and the spirit. Toryne, rank Vengeful, is easily defeated with the silver blade. “How does it feel to have Lazarus touch you, I wonder.” Cory stands, dusting themself off. Ghosts leave behind some nasty ashes when they get exorcised.
Cory puts back their weapon, Terentius. As they move to clean up the mess left by Toryne, the barn door bursts open. It’s Tam, their friend and fellow exorcist. “We have a situation.” Tam is out of breath, her face serious. “A very bad situation. Rick wants us at the dance hall in ten.” Cory looks up, their face grim as they take in what Tam has said. “Meet you there, go get Finny.” Cory starts running out of the barn, heading to the main house, and Tam goes to find whoever is next on her list. “FINNY!” Cory yells. “FINNY!” Finny is a powerful spell caster, he’ll be necessary for whatever is coming. Finny is in the house, fresh out of a shower. He’s putting on a shirt. “What’s the matter, Cory? Is there a bug?” Finny flashes his signature smirk. “Situation. Bad. Dance hall in ten, Rick’s orders.” Cory bends over a little, catching their breath. Finny’s smile drops, and he hurries to finish dressing. He’s out the door, catching up with Cory in less than a minute. “Who told you?” He asks. “Tam, she looked scared.” Cory shakes their head as they pick up the pace, Finny keeping up. The pair are at the meeting spot quickly, joining the small collection of other people mingling about. Rick is nowhere to be seen, but Tam has 6 people around her, clamoring for answers.
“Everyone, shut it!” That’s Rick, his gruff voice quickly silencing everyone in the room. He’s chewing on the end of his cigarette, his tell-tale stress habit. He stands at the front of the room, glaring over the people present. “Ten Renegade-ranked spirits are heading our way, folks. I need defenses up and ready before the hour’s over. Offense, start planning. You want details? Find an oracle.” Everyone’s eyes shift to Tam again, and she smiles nervously. She’s the only Oracle-ranked Diviner in town. Cue the stampede. Questions, demands, terrified yelling are all thrown at her as she’s pushed into a corner—literally. “Please quiet down!” Tam begs. “I’ll look, but I don’t know if it will give us anything useful! Please follow Rick’s orders.” This quells the crowd, and they disperse to where they should be. She draws a circle under her, filling in the designs as she chants under her breath. The circle glows blue, the sign that she’s starting her divination.
Cory stands on a table near the back end of the hall. “All right! Offense, over here! We need to start planning.” They wave their arms, making sure that they get the attention of all the fighters. At the front of the room, Finny does the same, drawing all the defensive exorcists to him. He leads the, out of the dance hall so they can go set up the barriers. “Alright, first things first. Get into groups. Vengefuls, over here. Wraiths, next to them, please. Torturous rankers, step right up! Any Disasters? How about Renegades? Ok. And I’m the only Deity rank. Vengefuls, I want you to hold secondary ranks. Wraiths, there will most likely be lower ranked spirits with those Renegades. You’ll be in charge of taking those out. If you finish with them and we’re still working on the Renegades, play backup. Torturers. You’ll be bodyguarding the spellcasters. The spirits will go after our defense first. Disasters and Renegades, we’ll be going head-first with these things. There are about twenty of us and ten of them. Separate into partners. I think that about wraps things up. If you want to train, make it quick and don’t wear yourselves out. Make sure your weapons are in top shape, and you’d better have spares. Meeting over.”
“I need all spell-casters rank five and below to hold up a constant barrier. Rank four, protect the civilians. Three, keep a med ward going, there will be injuries and there will be curses. Ranks two and one will follow me into battle. Remember, we may be fighting, but we are long range, and our top priority will always be to keep the offense healthy and in peak stamina. No one trains. Conserve your mana and study up your chants.” Finny eyes the nervous spell-casters before him. Most of them aren’t used to spirits above rank Wraith. He sends them scattering with a flick of his wrist. They’ll be fine as long as they don’t panic. Tam approaches him from behind. “How’d it go with your troops? I have the Diviners all looking to the future for deaths. I’ll have them trace three or four people each when the battle starts, keep our fighters out of trouble.” Finny turns around. “God, can you believe we’re only seventeen and we’re already commanding troops?” He runs a hand through his hair. Tam chuckles. “Well, Rick trusts us and that’s enough. Looks like Cory really rallied up the fighters, they look pretty excited.” She looks over to where Cory is as they get off the table. “Hi! How are your troops looking?” It’s the question they always ask each other in missions like these. “They’re nervous but fine.” Finny looks away, trying to sound gruff like Rick. “I’m keeping mine busy and out of trouble,” Tam replies, nudging Finny to get him to look back to Cory. “Are you ready? You’re basically straight out of a mission.” She’s eyeing them, sizing up their energy reserves. Cory just brushes her off. “It was just a Vengeful, nothing much.” Tam elbows them in the arm playfully. “As expected from our Deity rank fighter!”
Everything is up and ready in the hour, just like Rick asked. He’s out there now, checking on te exorcists and eyeing the horizon. Everyone’s on edge, waiting for the spirits to reach the town. The spirits have been getting stronger and more frequent. A warning siren trumpets out, alerting the town that the spirits are here. Spell-casters activate their barriers and fighters get in positions. Tam gives out assignments to the Diviners. The Renegade-rank spirits are huge, and just as Cory predicted, smaller, less powerful creatures nip at their heels. Rick bellows out the final order; “Charge!”
Within minutes, the first of the Renegades has been exorcised. A second follows soon after. Cory is leading their fighters, keeping them safe when they can. The spirits are starting to fight back, and already, a few people have been rushed to the med ward with blistering curses festering in their bodies. “Close ranks!” Cory yells over the roars of the spirits and the clashing of spells. Cory is already panting from exertion. A glowing red circle, accompanied with chants, appears under their feet. It’s Finny, giving them a mana boost. It’s enough to let them topple another spirit. Now there are only three left, but they’ve started learning. “Go back. I need all of you below rank Renegade to go back. NOW.” The look on Cory’s face is scary enough to send the less experienced fighters scurrying back to base. “Finny, I need your spell casters to keep a constant mana flow to the fighters, we’re gonna need it.” Finny nods, repeating the order. Cory takes a breath. “I’m going in close. Back me.”
They chant under their breath, a purple summoning circle on their outstretched hand. Out of it comes matching swords, not long enough to be broadswords, but not short enough to be their regular dagger. “Lavitus, veni. Sutival, prodire.” They snatch the blades, one for each hand, and sprint towards the nearest spirit. “Depelle omnia mala, Lavitus, Sutival! Lazarum invoco, hos gladios benedic.” Cory jumps, landing on the spirit’s arm. It roars, trying to shake them off, but they use the blades as picks, climbing steadily upward to the shoulder, where they run towards the neck. “Redi ad inane,” Cory whispers as they stab the blades into the spirit’s “jugular”, releasing all of its mana and exorcising it. The other fighters finish off the remaining two. “Cory!” Finny yells. Cory still hasn’t jumped off the disintegrating form of the spirit, and they’re dangerously close to falling. “Animam Daedali obsecro, salva corpora eorum et adduc huc!” He uses the last of his mana to bring Cory to him before they fall. The sudden weight makes him stumble, but he keeps hold of Cory’s unconscious form. “Stupid,” Finny mutters.
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