Mickey was fighting alongside the guards, who hadn't taken Xavier's advice and stayed together. On one hand, this made Mickey's job of protecting them and blocking the fireball easier. But one the other, the consecutive fireballs were doing more damage. With dozen's of fireballs falling a minute, the consecutive explosions were doing damage to all of them and the damage was stacking up.
"Agghhh!!!" One of the guards croaked out, as he fell to the ground, his body covered in burns. He wasn't dead yet, but he will be soon if they didn't do something.
"Josh, get Collins out of here. Leo, Martin, Craig, use your stigma abilities now." The Warden ordered, and both Mickey and Nova looked at them in confusion. A guard came and brought the injured guard out of the battle and to the side, behind one of the buildings. The three men whose names were called, nodded their heads.
One of the guards, Martin, took aim once more, and a large smile appeared on his face, as the muzzle of the gun lit up blue. Bullets surrounded by blue energy were sent flying out of the gun, and whenever they hit the Diabolic Imp's, they would scream. The other guard, Craig, also activated his stigma ability as well, and the muzzle of his gun glowed green as bullets covered in green energy as he shot the monsters, forcing a terrifying scream from their mouths everytime they were hit. Leo lined up the sights of his gun with an imp, before he pressed the trigger, and what looked like a red beam exited the muzzle, tearing a hole in the monster's stomach.
"What the fuck?!" One of the guards said in surprise, as all of them, those not in the know, stared at these three in surprise. With their confidence renewed, they started firing again and one of the imps fell to the ground, leaving only five heavily injured monsters in the sky. One of the Diabolic Imp's roared as it fell to the ground, but as it descended, it's body lit up orange, and once it hit the ground...it exploded.
"Agghhhhhhhh!!!" A guard screamed as a wave of flames washed over them, burning a few of them. Mickey kneeled on the ground, and placed his circular shield infront of him, blocking the flames from touching his body.
'Damn it.' He thought as his shield felt hot in his hands. Before the guards could gather their wits, another imp fell from the sky, it's body glowing orange. But before it could touch the ground, Mickey threw his shield, hitting it in the face and causing it to detonate midair. The other monsters started falling from the sky as well, and two daggers came flying through the air, piercing a monster's chest and neck, causing it to explode midair.
"Hurry up and kill them before they touch ground!!!" Xavier shouted and the guards immediately started shooting, and Xavier noted that Leo wasn't using his stigma ability again.
He could see Mickey running towards a building to take cover and Xavier did the same. There were two remaining monsters falling from the sky, and due to their touch bodies and speed descending from the sky, they still managed to hit the ground. Two consecutive explosions responded, and the surrounding area was covered in flames. The guards screamed in agonizing pain, as it felt like their flesh was being melted off their bodies. Once the flames died down, both Xavier and Mickey came from their hiding places, and they could see many of the guards on the ground. The two that had retreated earlier, Josh and Collins were fine, and so were Leo, Craig, Martin and Warden Willis, especially the Warden who didn't seem to have a burn mark on his body. The others though, weren't so lucky, two of them died from the flames, while the other two was severely injured.
"Fuck!!" Nova said while gritting his teeth, and Xavier looked at him, and he was mostly fine, except for most of his clothes being burnt away, and a few minor burns on his hands and chest. Xavier had seen him hide jump into a building just before the last two monsters fell, which was what saved him.
"You two, gather the monster stones." The Warden ordered, using the "Warden's Command"stigma ability, and Mickey immediately walked over to the nearest spot where a monster exploded and Xavier followed after him.
"Damn it, that bastard did it again." Mickey said when Xavier held his arm, waking him up from the ability.
"Keep your voice down, and let's just do what he says. After witnessing all this, I'm certain he will accept our offer. The difficulty to kill these monsters might be high, but as long he or any of the guards aren't taking the risk, he'll gladly accept. The amount points these monster stones give is higher than the regular imps, and after seeing what these guys are capable of, I'm sure they are greedy for monster stones." Xavier explained.
"I don't like being exploited like this." Mickey said angrily, as they arrived at a small crater and in the center, was a large, red marble.
"Neither do I, but we are doing this for Maria." Xavier said, but half his mind was telling him to forget about the dumb little girl, but he quickly crushed that thought. He was never one to abandon a friend, and he wasn't gonna start now.
'But we need to do something about those guys. The longer we wait, the more power they gain, and I have no doubt that they are gonna want even more power. Who knows what they might do to achieve that?' Xavier thought as he looked at the Warden and the three other guards with stigma abilities. A similar also ran through Nova's mind as he looked at these four, but for a different reason.
'If these idiots decide to break ties with the government and keep the stones for themselves then.....I need to get a message to them.' Nova thought, but he knew the task will be even more difficult since the Warden knew there was a spy among the guards. He will be watching the portal constantly.