The Hollow

Bombs

On the street, the commander emerged through a thick cloud of smoke, screaming and charging at them through the debris, though Nom heard only ringing in his ears from the explosion. He braced his spear, but six feet away the commander smacked into Omega's wall and clattered to a heap on the ground. Jinns suddenly appeared, hurtling over the commander with a piercing war cry of her own and her sword thrust out. She flew right through the barrier, surprising Omega, who lost her concentration and backed away in fear. Dust quickly billowed through the broken field. Ahden sprung into motion like a whirlwind, whipped his sword around and struck aside Jinn's weapon. He carried through, colliding his body with hers, and knocked her out of sight into the dust. He immediately stalked after her, disappearing into the cloud.

Nom's hearing slowly returned, and more yelling approached from behind them in the alley. Dev protected Omega with his mace and shield, while Nom took the opportunity to engage the rising commander. He thrust his spear, hoping for a lucky surprise, but the commander swung his sword from the ground and swiped away the blow. Nom pressed his advantage, pushing the commander back. The commander managed to stand and pull a buckler off his belt, then moved in, parrying all of Noms attacks.

"Two from the alley!" Omega shouted, and Nom heard weapons strike against Dev's shield.

As the dust started to clear, Nom began a series of quick feints against the commander, keeping him busy. Suddenly the commander stepped forward past one of the false attacks and punched him in the face with his buckler. Nom's head spun in time with his ringing ears. He could see Ahden dueling with Jinns a short distance away on the street, Dev bashing his mace repeatedly into a struggling and bloody hunter on the ground, and Omega—he wasn't sure what she was doing. The other hunter from the alley wildly swung his sword several feet from Omega, and she periodically danced in and struck with her knife.

While Nom was momentarily stunned, the commander strode past him towards Omega's back. Nom shook his head to clear it, and the commander was almost upon her. Nom reversed his grip and threw his spear at the commander, piercing him heavily in the shoulder blade, forcing him down to the ground. Nom reached over his back and pulled his short sword out. He and Dev reached the struggling commander almost simultaneously, but let him be as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Ahden strode back to them, with Jinns laying farther away in a heap on the ground. The four assailants were all dead or incapacitated. The four companions had escaped unscathed other than Nom's head blow, but Keenow was missing and presumably had fled.

"There are at least two more out there," Ahden said, "and we're still stuck in this place. Let's move." They hurried across the street, opting to try the alleys rather than the main thoroughfares. They could hear distant clashing and shouting throughout the town, and an occasional explosion. They passed another dessicated, then on a cross street they stumbled on four Shaman sprawled dead on the ground. Up the street, another eight or so Shaman engaged with an equal number of hunters, but it looked hopeless for them as they fought with rocks and sticks against steel and armor. The seerhunters kept up their incessant yelling, which was getting on Nom's nerves.

"A seer!" Omega shouted, pointing at the melee.

Nom saw an additional man crawling, wounded, on the ground, occasionally turning and gesturing at the hunters. This seemed to knock the hunters down and force them temporarily back. The man stood up and disappeared, only to reappear and stumble to the ground. Nom made out goggles around the man's neck when the sunlight glinted off them.

"We have to help him, all of them," Omega pleaded.

"It might be our only way out," Nom added, and they charged into action.

As they closed the distance, Nom spotted another two seerhunters on the other side of the battle, kneeling motionless in their clarity pose. One of them stood and amazingly bellowed above the tumult, "SEER," pointing at Omega down the street. Several of the battlers turned to look. Ahden had outpaced the rest of the group, and barrelled into the fray, quickly striking two of the distracted hunters.