The Turf War

Poultry Man to the rescue.

The fog had cleared since the confrontation in front of the Town Hall. The weather however had turned bleak, symbolic of the state of the Resistance. They were losing in the fight, badly. The HEP had virtually unlimited funds and were able to afford state of the art defences. Automatic arrow dispensers, ravagers and the like. The trio of Iskall, Etho and Jevin were struggling against these crushing foes. Jevin was their human shield, his jelly like body took most of the punishment from the first waves but he was still human, and so after another wave his body gave out and now he lied recovering behind a pile rubble, hidden in plain sight. False, Xisuma and Keralis kept the trio on their toes while Tango controlled the defences from up above, laughing at the state of the trio as he did so. That was until he was sent flying out of the tower, breaking the windows and falling to the ground, lifeless. There stood the figure of Poultry Man, taking of his elytra and putting on some armour he had. False took out her bow and shot at him, which he simply caught and responded with his trident in kind, which was dodged by False on its arrival and it's return. The white vigilante took off his mask and put on a helmet, ready to fight. Iskall was happy at this development, but forgot that he still hadn't been saved as an arrow hit him in his arm, breaking through his armour and making it bleed. It still hadn't penetrated the armour so it was still a slight bruise buy it was enough to send a message. The fight wasn't over and Iskall wasn't ready for it. His communicator vibrated as he pulled out the arrow from his armour. The message was from Grian, " Rescue Stress with Jevin. Etho and I will hold them off. Run". And that was it. Iskall and Jevin ran towards the front door but were pursued by Keralis. That problem was dealt with rather quickly as Grian landed in front of Keralis and punched him in his abdomen, making him bleed. "Where do you think you're going ?" said Grian as he kicked Keralis away from him and towards the HEP members, only to be caught by Xisuma. "Well, well if it isn't the leader himself" mocked False. "1v3 ,not very brave is it. 2v3, on the other hand." said Etho who teleported beside Grian and took his stance. "The rest of the members will be arriving quickly, you have no place to run to Grian. Just give up." said Xisuma, helping Keralis up on his feet. Grian simply smirked and threw a severed head their way, the severed head of Bdubs. This had the expected effect on the HEP members, it shook them to their very core. "You...you monsters !" shouted False, readying her sword at once. "Says the ones torturing a prisoner" replied Grian with glare that made Keralis back off. "Aren't we gonna fight ?" asked Etho who was growing impatient. "Technically we are supposed to bide for time for them to rescue Stress but if you say so." said Grian as he took out his axe. "We'll kill you !" shouted False as she and the rest of the members charged towards Grian and Etho. "You asked for it." said Grian as he shrugged and took his battle stance, charging in behind Etho who was punching Keralis in his face, breaking his nose in the process. And the fight broke out. If one was to describe the sheer brutality of the fight, they might refer to the gladiator fights in ancient Greece. Tridents were thrown and swords cut through the armour of both sides. Keralis was left bloody and beaten, over the console that controlled the zombie waves. False was struggling with a limp arm and a broken sword. Xisuma suffered multiple cuts on his bodies, made at precise angles to leave him paralyzed, courtesy to Etho. But it wasn't just the HEP forces that suffered from these injuries. Etho was the more injured of the two, barely clinging to consciousness as he fought on. Grian's armour had completely diminished, his clothes were tattered and he was bareback. His trident had broken apart and was lying on the ground, courtesy to False. However, the HEP were still in a much more stable fighting condition than the Resistance duo.

"Stress !" Iskall's voice echoed across the prison corridor, reaching it's recipient who immediately recognized the voice. It was Iskall and he had come to rescue her. However, it wasn't going to be very easy. The HEP, fearing such a rescue mission had made her cell a secret one, hidden from view. One couldn't prove the existence of her cell unless they knew the way to her cell or if they were to dig in the right spot. The latter being the most unlikely of the two. Iskall and Jevin were tired but angry, at HEP but also at themselves, for their inability to find her. "Damnit, where is she ?" shouted Jevin in frustration. Iskall was sitting on a chair, tapping his foot on the floor voilently, trying to figure out where she could be. She had smuggled them a map prior to her capture and they had checked everywhere. Was something wrong on the map, or was it the fake map and they had already figured out that Stress was an imposter. Jevin was walking around the table, thinking of all possible places she could be locked up. Iskall got up from his chair, tapping the tiles beneath him and that's when something occurred to him. "Hey Jevin, hear this" said Iskall as he got on the floor and tapped two tiles, each making different sounds. "The middle one here is empty." concluded Iskall, as he grabbed a pickaxe. "It's just a building error Iskall, leave it be." said an annoyed Jevin. "This is HEP we're talking about. They have unlimited funds and they wouldn't tolerate a broken floor. This has to be something." said Iskall as he got on the floor once again and, using the opposite side of the pickaxe, pulled out the upper face of the quartz tile, revealing it to be a trapdoor. "Grian was right, you are a bloody genius." said Jevin, astonished at the discovery, joining Iskall in going underground. What they found there left Jevin scared, and Iskall furious. It was a blood stained room with swords hanging on the walls. There were chains, tied from the ceiling, with blood dripping from them. There were empty vials with weakness potions in them. Jevin was nauseated but Iskall, he could feel his blood boiling in his veins. He could picture Stress being tortured there, her crying in pain and yet, not giving an inch in the battle of minds. He knew Stress better than anyone there. Her body might be broken because of those monstrous bastards but her mind, her spirit ,was stronger than even his. "Stress, where are you ?" asked Iskall in a low, saddened voice. He didn't expect to get a reply but he did, a low whisper that reached his ear, "I am here", telling him exactly where to find her. She was behind them, behind an one way glass. She could see them but they couldn't. It made sense now than it ever did before. "There must be a door here." said a skeptical Jevin, trying to figure out how to enter Stress's holding cell. But he didn't need to either way, for Iskall had burst through the concrete wall, injuring his hand in the process but, doing the job nonetheless. "Stress" said Iskall as he sat down on the ground, her blood soaking into his trousers. But he didn't mind, she was finally in front of her. She won't be tortured anymore and HEP was going to pay for what they did to her, and he was sure of it.

Etho was at his limit. He couldn't go on anymore and he knew it. He had suffered multiple fatal cuts yet he persevered, ignoring the pain the best he could, but it wasn't enough. Grian wasn't fairing any better either. Etho still had some armour on him but Grian, if he took one more hit, he will be finished. It was his priority to keep his leader safe. He was still in a fighting state but without any armour, he wouldn't last a second. And so he protected his leader to the best of his ability. Grian was a genius in hand to hand combat but when your opponent's have weapons, the fight just gets harder with time. It didn't take long for Etho's armour to break and then, it was time. And he knew it. Grian was already out of his breath so it was no use protecting a tired fighter. So Etho did what he knew best to do in this situation, he charged at them. With his sword in his hand, he charged at False, slicing her hand off as he did so . False screamed in pain and horror and he relished the moment. However, he failed to notice the sword that was coming for his chest. Xisuma stabbed him and kicked him out of the way, rushing to False's aid. Etho was sent flying towards Grian, who caught him and tried to stop the bleeding from the fatal wound but it was too late. Etho was dying and there was nothing he could do, nothing to save a fellow Resistance member, absolutely nothing he could do to save a friend but watch hin die before his own eyes. His last words : "Go all out"
And that was what set Grian off.
The last thing Etho saw before respawning in his base was Grian's eyes glow purple, like it had in the Resistance headquarters. It wasn't a trick of light, it was real and it was going to be one hell of a spectacle to behold.