Just as Cannon had said, the church was surrounded. Instead of the earth-mud walls being manned by believers, they were operated by bandits who had forced the churchgoers off.
Though just T'balt feared they didn't look the same as Nrv's people. They weren't wearing the masks and the highlighter-painted jackets. These just looked like a bunch of common thugs ready to rob old ladies off the street.
He surveyed the area. The church was only dealing with a few injured, those who were watching from the top of the walls. But it didn't look like anything serious had happened yet.
Cannon showed T'balt to his place, which was apparently on top of a public bus parked in the church's parking lot. Acelin and a few other believers were there waiting for him.
On top of the wall in front of them, the bandits gathered with the leader of them holding a large megaphone. But it was the Bear. Vikram was his name, tall, athletic, and punked out with a vest and no shirt underneath. But no Nrv. The smaller one must've been around there somewhere, unless…
Cannon had organized a loudspeaker for them as well as a handheld microphone for T'balt to use.
"There he is!" the Bear exclaimed, voice echoing throughout. "You always keep your dates waiting like this?"
T'balt spoke into the mic. "Where's Nrv? I know he's around."
"Who on earth are you talking about?" Even the lesser bandits looked confused.
"Your leader. The short one with the robot mask."
"Kid. You must have me confused. I'm the boss around here." Vikram pointed at himself as all the bandits started howling like a gang of unruly teenagers.
Things really had changed. But he supposed it didn't make a huge difference. They were still bandits. Acelin, Cannon, and the others still saw enemies scaling the church's walls. And they had relied on T'balt to protect them. So he would, it didn't matter if it was Nrv or the Bear. He would protect them.
"So what is it that you want?" he said, sounding more annoyed than curious.
"We're here to take all your loot… that's all," he said. "Don't misunderstand. You don't have a choice in that matter. I just wanted to get the beat of you. Turns out the cult is led by some scrawny kid. Which I find absolutely hilarious. So you either surrender now or send out your best fighters with the juiciest loot."
He could hear the believers arguing amongst themselves. But thankfully, these guys were just as bloodthirsty as they were before. New boss. Same bad attitude. But T'balt thought that he'd rather end the farce while they were ahead. The people around him were getting antsy for the fight.
"Ehhh… you're bothering me to feed me that crap. Are you actually trying to avoid a fight here, or are you pulling my chain?"
"Heh.." the Bear scoffed. "I hear you're pretty strong with some good loot. I just didn't want to waste my time looking for ya. Blood loot always tastes sweeter fresh."
But then out of nowhere, Cannon swiped the mic out of T'balt's hands, letting his wrestling promo skills sing. "Listen here, you candy ass. If you're readying for a beating, then we ain't got to wait till the pay per view. If you want our loot, you earn it with blood, sweat, and grit. And that's what you ain't got. Cuz you can't get it suckling on yo mamma's saggy milk meat all your life. So if you want to get your ass kicked THEN BRING IT OOOOOOOONNN!"
It was over the top. It was brash and unnecessary. But all the believers were cheering and calling the bandits candy asses. Which T'balt didn't entirely mind. But any hope of a peaceful end was seized when Cannon capped off his promo by launching the mic full speed at the bandits.
It was almost a sonic boom with the strength of the throw. The bandit that ended up hitting got turned into a lawn dart and launched basically into the next city. This only brought more cheers from the believers.
T'balt was again unimpressed. "What was that?"
"A good taunt always gets under the opponent's skin right before a big match and pumps the crowd."
"And that helps us how?"
"Well, look for yourself."
When he looked back, the believers were assuming their formations, shouting out orders in small troops preparing their defense exactly as T'balt planned it. Not only that, but each believer had that determined icy glare in their eyes, ready beyond a shadow of a doubt to defend their home.
"We're ready, sir. On your command."
T'balt raised an eyebrow as one of the men stood up to him like he was a drill sergeant. Even Acelin was lighting sparks underneath himself, readying for a fight.
"I'm ready to torch these candy asses," the kid said.
"See. Even the kids pumped up." Cannon looked proud of himself.
"I don't think you're being a good influence," T'balt said.
"What? I'm a great influence. Inspiring kids all over the world."
"To become killers… Listen, Acelin." T'balt knelt. "I can't have you fighting here. It wouldn't rest good on my conscience. The demons are one thing, but these are people. I don't think it's right for you to be involved."
"Don't treat me like a kid. I know how to kill people," Acelin said. "I'm going to fight. And you won't stop me." Then, with a flash of lightning and speed loot, Acelin had disappeared in an instant, flying off ahead to the battlefield.
"Acelin, wait!" T'balt called.
Cannon stopped him before he could give chase. "You ain't got time to parent, kid."
Looking up, the hoards of bandits were storming the church from all sides. The Bear was at their head, sending them to charge, trying to salvage his bruised ego. "Crap," he said.
But Cannon's voice rang out again. "Alright, Everyone! Man your stations! Fire at will! Defend your church! Don't let them anywhere near!"
"YES, SIR!" they shouted in unison. Then every single man and woman out there was staunch in their defenses. Volleys of flame and earth flew to the charging people. Many were stopped half a mile away from the church.
The wrestlers played their parts as well. They formed something of a protective barrier, packing heavy strength and armored loot. Any bandit charging at them would find themselves running into a brick wall or trapped in a headlock.
The bandits tried to mount an attack, but they were scattered and unorganized. And they fought like basic thugs. All of T'balt's defenses worked, and the church was defending itself. They didn't even seem to need him.
Cannon manned the front lines, taking on any passerbys with his enormous strength, tossing cars like spears and tossing people like stuffed animals.
Acelin was shooting back and forth across the battlefield, too slippery to catch. With the speed loot, he could take out 20 men in less than a minute, and with the lightning loot, he could halve even that.
Ellie didn't choose this fight to sit out. She was manning the rows of element loot throwers. And when she was no longer needed to call the loosing of that power, she played the perfect combat medic. Leaping onto the front lines to heal Cannon whenever he got a loose cut or bruise. There were many who would've fallen in battle if she weren't out there.
The perfect strategy. It was all working before his very eyes. It looked like the tragedy of the Nrv attack was avoided, and the church would live on. He smiled.
He thought he might as well go after the boss. Even though he enjoyed seeing his people kick some candied ass, they had to stop things as soon as they could before things got rough.
He used the psychic loot to lower himself off the bus, seeing that the Bear was already caught up in a pretty heated battle. T'balt could hardly see the mosquito buzzing around him, but given the speed, he knew it was Acelin.
Vikram was throwing his hands, trying to catch the kid in one of his explosions, but Acelin was too quick. Even when the man tried to predict his movement, Acelin was able to easily buzz around him, change direction, and tag him on the back.
Why was T'balt ever worried… Even the kid could handle this guy. He was literally running circles around him. That was until one of the explosions nearly hit T'balt. But thanks to the reflex, he pulled a strip of concrete from the sidewalk to block the debris from hitting his face.
"That's enough now," he said. Both the Bear and Acelin stopped at T'balt's presence. Because he was hauling several large boulders at whim, ready to rain them on his enemies. He walked forward, haunted by the trails of black smoke that was glowing in his eyes and leaking from his skin
"Now surrender. Or I guess you can send your best fighters… but I don't think you have any more," T'balt said, his cockiness on him.
"You ff.." The man tried to send an explosion his way, but the reflex loot was always faster. T'balt ripped off a car mirror that hurled into the man's arm. It redirected the explosion to happen in the sky. T'balt pulled a fallen tree branch from below that tripped the man to his back. Then five floating rocks above the lines in his eyes spelled death.
"Alright. You're done. Call off the attack."
"Fine," Vikram conceded. "I surrender."
Then, just like that, it was all over. The bandits never stood a chance. They hadn't even gotten inside the church, let alone done any major damage. No significant casualties on the believers' side. Scrapes, bruises, maybe a couple of missing teeth, but no deaths.
What was left of the bandits was being cleaned up and tossed into the parking lot. It wasn't tough for T'balt and the others to build a temporary holding pin, tying them up with ropes, cables, tree branches, whatever they could find or be manipulated by loot.
T'balt watched over the prisoners. "Hmm. I can't help but feel like these guys were tougher before."
"That's because you didn't have the great Cannon Valkyr in your plans," Cannon boasted.
"Yeah, sure. That's what it is."
He couldn't lie and say that Cannon and his group didn't make a huge difference. Even Acelin. Before, only T'balt and Ellie were the only ones who could really defend themselves. With everyone having loot, it turned a nightmare into a walk in the park. He was almost disappointed.
"So what happens now?" the Bear asked, wrapped by a set of jumper cables. T'balt observed having not truly thought that far ahead.
"We should kill him." Acelin had his lightning firm in hand, ready and aimed at the man.
"No… we should not," T'balt chided. "We don't kill people in cold blood. They surrendered." Acelin's eyes faded in their electric glow.
"But he was going to kill us." The mob started surrounding.
"They were sent by the adversary."
"We can't let them walk free. They'll attack again."
"We can't spare the resources for prisoners."
It was happening again. The tsunami of the mob was coming to a head. And T'balt was caught in the middle again.
"Kill him. Kill him."
"He can't live. None of them can."
"No. No." T'balt denied. "We can't. We can't kill them." It didn't matter how much loot was in the world. It didn't make any sense. It was crossing a moral line they didn't need to. He wouldn't kill them. But again, it was up to Cannon to quiet everyone down.
"Respect your leader's decision!" He raised. "He says the bandits are not to be killed." And T'balt breathed a huge sigh of relief, praising Cannon for having his back as always. The big man's induction was invaluable to him.
With no other room for prisoners, the bandits ended up getting locked in the boiler room with each one of their restraints held tight. They had about 15 that weren't either killed or escaped after the battle. And the boiler room seemed to function as the perfect cell. It had one door, no windows, and was deep in the corner of the basement, where the others didn't have to pass it by.
Vikram spat on the floor before taking a seat far from his loogie. It was not the ideal situation for him and his crew. The church wasn't supposed to be this well defended. The people here were freakishly strong, especially the leader and that kid. Vikram was just surprised that they were too soft to off him and the others.
That kind of rookie mistake would come back and bite them in the butt. All he had to do was bide his time and find what he was looking for. Which, in that moment, didn't seem to be far away.
The man looked up at him.
"You must be Arthur…" Vikram said, with a sly crooked smile.