With a deafening crash, the castle doors fell and the mob barged in. But they stopped short because they someone had to have been holding the door yet the room appeared completely empty. Empty and dark. They proceeded with caution.
"This place gives me the creeps." Baxter trembled, knowing for a fact that darkness and silence was never a good sign.
"Shhh!" Seviathan hissed at him.
"Well it does."
"Shut up."
"I really think we should reconsider this. I have a very bad feeling about all this."
"If you chicken out now I'll show you something much scarier than this. My sister in a rage."
Baxter did not say another word but nothing could make his fears cease. He along with every other man in that room had their eyes and ears open for anything suspicious. The lot of them had gone hunting and even fought some wars so they were familiar with ambushes and sneak attacks. However nothing could have prepared them for happened next.
Suddenly torches were lit up and a thousand sets of eyes were on them. Eyes of wild felines, rodents, arachnids, lizards, and moths. A whole army of stood in each direction of the castle and the leaders of each species was an unimaginably larger version of the specimens. The human sized feline pulled a battle horn from his coat and blew it.
Bubba-bum-bum-bum!
"Charge!" Shouted the over-sized female lizard.
The battle was on. First lynxes, European wild cats, squirrels, chipmunks, door mice, lizards, and geckos came rushing toward the men. Pouncing on them and tackling them to the floors, biting and scratching. Next came the spiders setting up giant traps for them with their webs or injecting the men with harmless but paralyzing venom. Then came the moths who swooped down and confused them by blocking their vision with their swarm.
"Fly my fellow moths!" Vagatha commanded the moths. "Fly! Fly!"
"Go for the legs guys!" Anthony instructed the spiders.
At first the regular animals seemed to have the mob overpowered by their huge numbers but they started to cower back when some of them began to breakout the firey torches and guns. This resulted in their more advanced leaders to bring out their own weapons.
"Yoo-Hoo! Up here you scurvy scum!" Niffty called, the men looked up to see her and her rodent friends with cups full of boiling tea. "Now!"
Down came the scorching liquid.
"Ah! It burns damnit! It burns!" They cried.
"Oh I'm sorry, do you fellas not like your tea piping hot?" She said feigning ignorance.
Cherri gleefully unleashed something that she had been saving for just the right occasion. Homemade bombs constructed from specially plants known to cause temporary blindness. She loaded them up into a sling shot that Anthony built with his webbing. The two them drew back the web's line and released it, the bombs came down, exploding in a powdery substance.
"Ah! My God I've gone blind! I'm blind!" Shouted the men who were effected by the powder.
"Let's do the catapult next!" Cherri suggested.
They pulled out the old catapult and filled it with more bombs and stones.
"Ready, aim, fire!"
With Anthony giving that phrase, he and Cherri pushed the catapult over the ledge, sending it crashing to the ground.
"Are you sure that's how it works Cherri?" Anthony asked her.
The catapult sprang, sending the cart bottom on top of some men.
"Works for me." Cherri grinned. "Quick! Get more ammo!"
Anthony scurried to get more bombs but he was intercepted by one extremely bulky man. He grabbed by arms and legs, lifting him on to his shoulders.
"Put me down you behemoth!" Anthony demanded.
"As you wish."
He slammed Anthony on to the floor and pinned him down with his boot.
"You know I don't like spiders!" He said. "So you know what I do to them? I squish em!"
He started stomping his foot repeatedly on to poor Anthony but before he could do any real damage, Husk tackled the man off of him and clawed at his face. Once blood was drawn the brute ran for his life.
"You okay bug eyes?" Husk said helping Anthony back to his feet.
"I think he broke my favorite tooth but other than that I'm good." Anthony said. "But Husk are you feeling alright?"
"Yeah. Why do you ask?"
"Well you just saved my life."
"Yeah well don't get all mushy on me okay? Now's not the time for us to have a big moment. In fact let's just not have one ever."
He then returned to fight. Husk and Vagatha much preferred to go straight to combat rather than attack from a distance. Both were naturally agile and quick reflexes so they had no trouble brawling against their human opponents. Though while Husk just used brute strength and claws, Vagatha relied on fighting techniques she had memorized from spying on human soldiers.
"What's the matter? A big strong man like you can't catch a little moth like me?" She teased as she slugged him with a fist and swept her spear under his legs.
She fought like a Greek Amazon, the men had made a terrible mistake in underestimating her. She moved fast, could dodge nearly any blow, and could pin point the right spot and the right moment to strike. But that didn't mean none of them could get the upper hand on her. One man did so by jerking off one of her wings, it caught her off balance and she fell. He seized hold of her upper body and his friend got the lower part.
"Not so tough now are ya?" He began to slowly tear apart her remaining wing.
"Ow! Hey! Stop! Ow!"
"You know for a big she actually has a nice body." The other man said. "I wonder what it looks like underneath."
"You horny toad! Don't you dare!"
He grabbed the skirt of her dress and tried to sneak a peek.
"Get your hands off my woman!"
Before the pervert could even get a glimpse of her bloomers, his head and the head of the first man were bashed together by Anthony's arms. They were knocked out and she was dropped, Anthony caught Vagatha quickly. Carrying her away from an upcoming shot that was fired and then deflected when it a stone shield Husk held up.
The mob couldn't believe what they were seeing. Animals actually fighting back with the same skills and intelligence as human beings. This was impossible. How was this even happening?
"I don't get it, they're just animals!" One man complained. "How did they get the drop on us like this?"
"I don't know." Another said. "They shouldn't be able to pull off a full on counterattack! They're stupid!"
"Hey who are you calling stupid?" Cherri dropped down behind the men, startling them with her size and scary, reptilian appearance.
"Who are you?" They asked fearfully.
"Your worst nightmare!" She flicked her tongue out and prepared to throw another bomb.
"AHHHH!" They threw themselves out a window, screaming in terror.
Baxter just hid himself behind the nearest curtain. He knew this was a bad idea. He knew this was going to get ugly. Oh why does nobody ever listen to him? He may not have been a handsome man but he wasn't a stupid one.
"Brace yourselves boys!" Niffty said. "I just finished boiling a new kettle."
That's when Baxter saw one of the men try to push a shelf on to her. He acted fast once it came down, shoving Niffty out of the way and on to a safe platform.
"Are you alright?" He asked her.
"Yes I am." She said. "That was too close for comfort. Thank you for the save but aren't you with the other side?"
"Not willingly. My brother in-law forced me to go along with this. He's not very reasonable, and truthfully I could never allow a lady to be harmed."
He stood up and offered her his hand. She accepted it and he helped on to her feet.
"I apologize for this. Really I do and I hope you and your friends will be merciful with the others. They've been lead to believe that their families are in danger from whatever beast lives here."
"Worry not, we don't want to kill them. We just want to chase them away. Also why don't you just go home now? I don't see anyone forcing you to be here anymore. Plus your wife must be so worried."
"Not really. She could careless if I live or if I die. We're unhappily married."
"Really?" She smiled while admiring his appearance which she found to be very adorable. "Well if you ever want to look into that new concept called divorce, and if you believe in interspecies relationships-"
"Niffty!" Husk called. "Now is not the time for you to be in heat!"
"Husk don't embarrass me or I'll pluck out all your whiskers!" She snapped and then returned to speaking to Baxter politely. "Pardon me sir, I have a previous engagement at the moment. We can continue this tomorrow."
The mob didn't give up easy. They fought long and hard yet nothing was as great as the loyalty those animal servants had to their master. They would fight to their very last breath if they had to. They had nothing to lose in this battle. But the mob did and eventually they realized that they were outmatched by these creatures. So they made a speedy retreat.
"Adieu monsieurs!" Niffty waved goodbye.
"Safe trip home!" Anthony replied.
"And stay out!" Husk added angrily.
In less than an hour they were all gone. All but one, who managed to sneak past them undetected.