“Ah, fuck!” Seymour jumped, flailing and landing on his butt.
It was the red lantern man thing from the Inro, and it was standing here with them inside the bubble.
“What the fuck?” Shiloh yelped.
“You’re seein’ the weird lil’ lantern man too?”
“Yup.”
“Uh. Hi there, lil’ guy.” Seymour waved. “Choco—uh… Chocobo? Choco?”
The lantern tilted sideways, as if cocking its head, but his entire body was technically a head.
“Got a question for ya’.” Seymour pointed at the horde. “You wanna go kick a whole bunch of ass?”
Choco nodded and clapped. It seemed excited, but it was difficult to be sure. It took off, its tongue flapping wildly as it ran right through the bubble to join the fight. It skipped around Sariel and immediately headbutted—lanternbutted?—a skinny green lizard man out of the way.
And then there were more of the lantern men.
A lot more.
Seymour couldn’t even deduce where they were coming from, but they were able to pass through the force field without any problem. Gravity didn’t seem to be an issue for them either, as they scuttled along the sides of the path like Spider-Man. They effortlessly shoved monsters off or pulled them down by their ankles, but the majority charged into the building to attack and drive the horde back.
It was like watching ants swarm a lollipop, only much faster.
Andugh, a lot bloodier.
In spite of their small size, the lantern men were incredibly strong. They were quite literally pulling monsters apart with their bare hands and crushing their heads under their feet like grapes.
“Fuck yeah! Yes!” Seymour cheered, pumping his fist into air. “Let’s fuckin’ go! Let’s go!”
Sariel was up, his wounded wing tucked back as he helped finish off the stragglers. Day was right beside him, fiercely taking out anyone who got too close to Sariel or the bubble. There were a lot of decapitated bodies and heads scattered around.
Like, alot.
The rest of the fighting was now contained to inside the building, and many of the other monsters were retreating toward one of the stone doors. The door opened into something—a tree? The perspective made no sense. It was the underside of a tree’s foliage, as if the door was in the ground.
But then something came through the door.
Oh fuck…
It was the other troll.
The troll turned his head toward the bubble, and even though his face was covered, Seymour knew he was staring right at him.
Fuck.
The stone below Seymour’s feet moved. “The fuck?”
The cracks and varying hues of the stone morphed into… words.
HeLLo
“Izba?” Shiloh gasped. “The hell?”
I aM FaERiE nOW
i dO nOT LiKe iT
