Maids VS Apocalypse

An oppressive pressure suddenly fell on the area surrounding the Dimensional Rift. With each strike to its chest, the massive armored gorilla sent powerful tremors through the surroundings. It slammed its tail on the ground as well causing the nearby ruins to crumble one bit at a time.

After going at it for a few more seconds, the beast raised its fists high once more in then brought them down with everything it got.

A familiar scene. Mark had only seen it once, but the impact it left on him was something he couldn’t hope to forget till the day he died.

The monstrosity reminded him of Malarak. Same as the malevolent dragon, the first thing it did when arriving in the new world was let out a celebratory cry.

"King Scorpion, huh?" Franco scoffed. "The bastard doesn’t even have a proper name."

Mark glanced at the long-haired Italian, a little confused by what he heard. His attention shifted back to the giant monster before he could ask for an explanation.

The violent display wasn’t for the humans watching it. The armored gorilla was sending a signal to its minions on the other side of the rift, and to answer the call, dozens of the smaller scorpion-tailed monkeys flooded out of the dark hole.

The horde of monsters rushed from either side of their boss, crying gleefully as they went to attack the Peace Keepers. Some remained on the ground while others climbed the surrounding ruins and rocks. The madness driving them was clear in the red glint in the depth of their eyes.

Elya was the first to meet their rush. Grasping the handle of her sword, she raised it high above her body, turned it around, and swung down with the flat side facing the monsters. As it descended, the blade seemed to grow in size quickly reaching twenty meters in length.

The massive slab of metal came down on the frenzied beasts like a fly swatter and crushed everything that happened to be in its way with blood erupting from either side.

Even with a couple dozen of their kin squashed in an instant, the rest of the horde didn’t even flinch and continued their demented advance.

Tendrils of blue lightning coiled around Alex as he held his shield up and leaned forward. The Exo-apes at the very front disregarded the remaining distance and lunged at him with raised claws.

Before any of them could touch him, the blonde one’s form suddenly blurred as he transformed into a massive bolt of lightning. A deafening roar blasted through the area a moment later along with the charred remains of everything that happened to be struck by the golden bolt.

"Hey! That’s cheating!" Elya shouted. Her broad sword shrunk back to its default size, which was still twice as big as her. Unbothered by its weight, she took off running toward the boss of the horde.

"You better not steal my kill!"

At some point, Ramsay had leaped onto a nearby building. He drew back the string of his bow then released it, launching three arrows that glowed with faint blue light. Going by their trajectory, his target was clearly the same as the other two.

The moment they struck its purple carapace, flames sprouted from the arrows and swallowed the giant gorilla. The monster remained unmoving, however, and when the flames subsided, it raised its hands and waved the smoke away as if to show how little effect the attack had on it.

"We have a show off this time!"

Franco let go of the sickle in his right hand and grabbed the chain. He then started spinning it, increasing the speed little by little. The sickle traced a green circle in the air making it seem as if he was playing with a glow stick. Slamming his left foot forward, the Italian twisted his body and swung the chain like a whip.

The sickle, now coated in a shimmering green, traced a long line through the ground from which a wave of similarly colored flames erupted. The flames washed over the rushing beasts, turning their demented cries into ones of pain.

Franco swung the chain a few more times then retracted it. He took hold of the sickle and used it to parry the tail swung at him by one of the larger Exo-apes that evaded the green flames.

The creature spun around and pointed its tail at him, shooting a dark purple liquid from its bulbous tip. Evading it with practiced ease, Franco let go of the sickle on his left, grabbed the chain, and swung it at the monster, burying the curved blade into its skull while it was still in the air.

Mark thought his eyes were tricking him at first, but the more he looked the clearer it became. The chain connecting the sickles could shrink and elongate, and from the looks of it, the long-haired man had control over when that happens.

Though he was doing a great job holding back the giant gorilla’s minions, there was only so much he could do on his own. Some of the scorpion monkeys managed to slip through and headed for the three at the back.

Lara readied her spear and was about to intercept the abominations when a massive hand landed on her shoulder.

"Let me handle this, lass." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Ben gave her a toothy grin then stepped forward. Looking at him again, Mark couldn’t help but think of how large the guy was. He looked like a sumo wrestler, or even slightly bigger. Despite that, the Peace Keeper didn’t seem to have any trouble moving around, showing that his size wasn’t a result of simple obesity.

A pair of gauntlets appeared and covered his arms all the way to the elbow. They were quite bulky, making his forearms look cartoonishly larger than the rest of his limbs.

Unlike the rest of his comrades, Ben’s weapon of choice didn’t have that fantastical feel to it as its design appeared more futuristic. The surface was made out of flexible red hexagonal plating that adapted to his movements, with thin lines running between the segments, each pulsing softly with a bright orange color.

Standing in front of the incoming beasts, Ben rotated his shoulders and neck then exhaled. The next instant, he raised his right fist high then brought it down, pinching the ground in front of him.

A tremor spread through the surroundings followed by a web of cracks originating from the small crater under the big guy’s fist. The Exo-apes continued their rush without a care, but a second after the cracks reached them, long spikes erupted from the ground.

The translucent orange spikes impaled the beasts all at once, penetrating their carapace as if it wasn’t there. Twenty or so were taken out in a single attack, but more were coming.

The ones that somehow passed both Franco and Ben were met with Lara’s spear. The maid didn’t launch any arcs of energy this time around. Instead, she limited the white glow of her ability to the head of the spear, molding it into a longer blade which she used to bisect the enemy.

Mark watched everything with wide-eyed amazement, but with each passing second, he became more aware of a little problem. Ramsay, Alex, and Elya were handling the boss near the Rift. Franco roasted most of the minions while Ben impaled those left. If any managed to slip past them, Lara dealt the finishing blow.

Not a single monster made it to his position, which should’ve been great news. Despite that, Mark couldn’t help but feel a little dispirited. It was his first time fighting actual monsters, excluding the zombie-like Fallen from the prison, yet he was being left behind.

Even if he had no chance against the boss, Mark wished he could take down one or two. Nevertheless, with his rifle being useless against the monsters, there was nothing he could do besides staying back and stopping himself from showing off what he can really do.