It was the capital all over again. Only ten times worse .

The wall of flame on the west side of town soared so high into the air that it appeared as if the sky was on fire. Black smoke rose from that direction and cast deep blue shadows across the town, turning the mid noon into dusk. The smell of burning wax threatened to suffocate them.

The wave of people running away from the fire almost tripped them over. Somehow Mr Orpheus could stand upright in it, his expression a mask of shadows. He looked up for a moment and saw something.

Then he suddenly took Elli's hand and said, "Follow the crowd. Len would find you. Follow him. I'll meet with you later."

Then without allowing them to say a word he unfurled his wings and leaped into the air.

At full length his wings were easily more than fifteen feet long each, brown and white, like a falcon's. They slammed down and with a gust of air, he flew up.

Russell was looking up in awe, until he felt a pull from behind. Vivi was pulling his hand. Elli and Arron were already few steps forward. As Russell turned around and ran to follow the crowd, blinding blue light illuminated the sky behind him, along with a deafening crackle. Russell turned around one last time to see blue-white tendrils of lightning ejecting from the Warden, spreading through the sky like a glowing net.

Following the crowd made no sense. People were running at all directions except West. Arrows fell like rain. Their tips were lit by blue flames. They exploded like firecrackers as soon as they fell on the ground. Even though Orpheus had kept most of the soldiers busy, some slipped past his offense.

Vivi turned around and made a very undignified whimpering sound. Russell followed her gaze and looked back.

Russell's mind had a hard time processing what he was seeing.

There were everyday soldiers, yes. They ran around stabbing and slashing at anybody who stood in their way.

But there were stranger things. They looked like swirling and shifting masses of black ink. It tried to take a lot of shapes at the same time, and ended up with none of them.

One decided that it'd become a dog. But it's other half decided to become a spider? scorpion? some kind of bug.

The awkward abomination growled and twisted for a moment, only a moment. Then it exploded back into it's chaotic swirling ink tornado form.

One of them collided with a house. For a second, it seemed to flaten itself on the wall, like a big blotch of ink. Then it exploded. Along with windows, the front wall and the door. Furniture and people hiding inside were thrown out.

Then, with a bright flash, the house was on fire, along with a number of unfortunate people nearby.

Vivi's grip on Russell's hand was gone for a while. His heart skipped a beat. He looked forward to see Vivi had only gotten further forward, apparently fixing on something behind the wall of people.

The crowd shifted and Russell caught a glimpse of what Vivi had fixed upon.

Among the crowd, a single abnormally tall person stood straight. He kept whipping around, screaming orders to the people, shoving some of the more frantic ones to a trap door beside him.

As Russell came closer he saw who it was.

Even though he had no one's reaction to know from, he suspected he had the expression of the century.

Why it was his good friend the bakery elf!

Just his luck. Two consecutive days on the run, a hungry stomach and now the person he purposefully ticked off that very day is his only hope of not dying. Perfect! He might as well take a knife on the back.

But he wanted take more chances with grumpy elf than swing crazy humans. Wasting time seemed less reason to kill people than demonic possession, if it needs to be put delicately.

But this was one of those times when his better conscience decided that he would be better off dead.

This was mayhem. Everyone was running around and not a single face could be recognized, nor a single voice distinguished. But even in this situation, Russell saw something very distinct through his peripheral vision.

It was the Lycanthrope girl from the bakery. He could tell from that white mane of hair. She was looking up in a shocked vacant expression. A pair of hairy muscular hands held her up. In front of her a soldier was coming forward with his sword raised.

Russell remembered seeing something like this in a street play.

He also remembered the next part.

Sure, jump in like a hero. Kill yourself to save some random wolf girl. Why not? It's not like leaving Vivi all alone with a bunch of strangers matters. A voice said from the back of his mind. A voice he really should listen to more often.

But his body was already moving.

He leaped through the crowd like it was nothing but a drizzle.

First jump. The soldier's sides were defenseless. He's too preoccupied with slaughtering people to put up a guard.

Second jump, he's wearing a helmet. So punches to the head will be in vain. But his neck is open. That could be a target.

Third, raise your hand. Make a fist. Drag your arm behind your shoulder. Shift your weight and hit right between the...

The soldier's head snapped to the right as Russell's fist connected right under his Jaws. The sword almost fell from his hand as he stumbled for balance.

Not bad for a noob, eh?

Nah, it was bad.

Russell took the bigger hit.
He completely went out of balance and fell on his stomach next to the wolf girl. The wolf girl stared down on him with paralyzed awe.

If this was the play, the soldier would've been knocked out and Russell would've walk away from the scene in a slow dramatic walk. Preferably while costumed people clearly overpaid, and overfed, rains petals of flower on him.

Sadly, this wasn't a cheap street play.

The soldier recovered almost as soon as he took the hit. He lifted his sword in the air again, ready to slash.

At that moment, the buff man behind decided that was a good time to make a run, leaving the children to die. What a noble sacrifice!

As soon as the man stood up to walk, the soldier swung his sword. Blood splattered as the man's gut sliced open.

"UUUGH!", He issued an ear splitting scream that trailed of to a sound not quite human. The man was behind them so Russell didn't see any more than he had to. The body hit a wall and slid down with a slippery noise.

The murderer switched his attention to the children. His helmet was knocked off when Russell punched him. His face was that of a handsome young man, but... His expression.

God, his expression.

It was not anger, or pain, or vacancy of emotion. No. It was despair. In the shadowy lines of his face and the ghastly eyes, horribly mutated and mottled despair, so abysmal and absolute it could not even be called despair any more.

He raised his sword into the air, clearly deciding that neither Russell not wolf girl was worthy of abduction. Russell was sure that this was it.

This is the end of his life.

"Died being an idiot"- would be written on his tombstone. Heck, he probably won't even get a tombstone.

He always wanted a fancy tombstone.

Russell would've had more last moment thoughts but suddenly the something hit the back of the Young man's head, making a sickening thuck. Then the body hit the floor.

Behind him was Vivi, standing with her the slingshot in her hand. Her short hair sticking to her forehead with sweat. Relief visible in her eyes, a growing smile on her mouth, "I let go of your hand for one moment and you almost go and get yourself killed."

He should be horrified that Vivi  could smile after shooting somebody in the head, but Russell couldn't help but smile. "And you were afraid for  her." He murmured to himself.

"What?" Vivi caught that he was saying something.

"Nothing."

Vivi looked down on the body on the ground, showing anxiety about it for the first time, " Is he...you know...dead?"

As if answering to vivi's question, the soldier grunted a little.

"I'm guessing no," Russell said as he stood up.

Without saying much more Vivi proceeded towards the Elf, probably named Len, who was looking at him, scowling.

Russell followed Vivi. The wolf girl looked back at her owner's dead body again, almost as if to see if had permission to go. When the dead body didn't respond she stared at it for a second more and then turned back towards Russell and proceeded to follow him.

One of the black things reached the crowd ten feet in front of Vivi.

For what happened next, Russell had no comparisons. Perhaps one day, when civilization has gone further enough, and seen enough of the horrors of creation and have created enough horrors of its own, a known comparison to something so... so... visceral, could exist.

Russell had a distinct feeling said thing would be called a blender.

Because that's what it did. It blended people. It ripped and tore and cracked anyone who came in contact with it until you couldn't tell who's hand is which, or if that even is a hand.

Russell yanked Vivi and they both fell back, just in time for a brilliant flash of roaring lightning to hit the nightmare. There was a pop, and where it stood, was only a patch of black goo.

Russell just laid there for a few seconds, Vivi on top of him, both staring at where near-certain death was. Then they got up to run past the goop and towards the elf.

Most of the people had been either evacuated or killed. Few were running around. Orpheus was still engaged in a battle with whatever those black things are. Lightning and thunder crackled around, disintegrating them upon impact. Everything was so flashy and noisy that it made Russell's head hurt. A metallic scent was in the air and a coppery taste in his mouth.

As Russell was to plunge into the darkness of the trap door, Len the elf suddenly grabbed his shoulder. Russell's stomach did a backflip.

So the elf did hold grudges!

But instead of throwing him out, the hand squeezed his shoulder, then they shoved him down headfirst, into the dark tunnel.