Meanwhile, at the rear of the truck, Belinski was still hammering Bolt with a stream of punches, until the Dark Elf countered with a quick right hook, dazing the human.
"Look, human," Bolt grinned slyly, "You're new to this whole magical fighting thing. How about you surrender, hand over our stuff, and that little girl? Makes it easy for everyone, yeah?"
Before Bolt could finish his smug request, he didn't notice Polites stood up and summoned a spear from his Dimensional Storage.
Sensing danger, Bolt instinctively leaped aside and barely dodged the spear that landed where he had just stood. But the evasive maneuver left him wide open for Belinski's counterattack, who rushed forward and landed a sharp right hook to the face, followed by a brutal uppercut to the gut.
Bolt, though rattled, retaliated fast with a left hook followed by an uppercut, but Belinski seized the moment by grabbing the Dark Elf and throwing him toward a lamppost.
However, Bolt skillfully caught it mid-air, spinning gracefully around it before launching himself back at Belinski with a kick to the face and landed nimbly on the truck's rear.
"I haven't had this much fun in ages! How about you?" Bolt asked with a grin.
"Fuck you," Belinski spat venomously with blood dripping from his lip.
"I'll take that as a maybe," Bolt smirked.
Just as Bolt prepared to charge again, he suddenly found himself unable to move.
Confusion flashed across his face as he looked down, only to find his feet were encased in ice, as the frost creeped from the base of the golden staff Polites held behind him.
As he turned back upfront, he was met with the rageful eyes of the human.
"..."
"...Dude, can we negotiate first?"
"Go to hell, alien ni—"
BAM!
Before Bolt could understand what that word the human was about to say, Belinski delivered a powerful kick, sending the Dark Elf flying off the truck and crashing into the windshield of a parked carriage on the sidewalk. The impact startled the Land Dragons pulling it, causing them to snort and stamp in alarm.
Bolt groaned in pain. "Ow... my back."
The Dark Horse continued its chase and galloping after the truck with fury burning in its eyes. As Polites prepared to unleash another bolt of lightning from his staff, the creature summoned four black fireballs around itself and launched them toward the group with deadly precision.
Polites acted quickly, bringing put a giant enchanted mace from his [Dimensional Storage] and swinging it deftly, smashing three of the fireballs to pieces in midair. But the fourth was on a direct collision course with Belinski's face. Quick on his feet, Belinski raised his gauntlets and catcher the black fireball in his hands. With a grunt of effort, he throw it back like a baseball.
BOOM!!
Behind the group was a violent explosion that trembled the surrounding areas as it sent black flames surging through the asphalt like a tidal wave.
For a moment, the group thought the blast might have injured or at least slowed the Dark Horse. But their hopes were dashed when the creature emerged from the inferno unscathed and still charging at full speed.
"Come on!" Belinski growled in frustration.
Once again, the Dark Horse unleashed a barrage of dark tendrils and whipped at the truck from all sides. But Polites, wielding the Elemental Staff with fluid grace, parried and sliced through the tendrils with perfect precision, while Belinski used his gauntlets to smash the remaining tendrils to pieces.
Not missing a beat, Polites brought out another enchanted weapon, which was a massive crystallize spear, and with a powerful thrust, he drove it deep into the Dark Horse's head, and the creature let out a chilling screech as ice rapidly spread from its head, freezing its entire body solid in seconds.
With the Chaos Spirit now immobilized, Polites released the spear, and Belinski pulled out his revolver, aimed at the frozen spirit, and fired.
CRACK!
The frozen Dark Horse shattered into a million glittering shards.
"Adiós," Belinski muttered, holstering his revolver with a satisfied smirk.
"Guys, not gonna lie, this shit might be the coolest, and CRAZIEST thing we've ever faced!" Woods exclaimed, barely masking a mix of excitement and disbelief in his voice.
From what they have been experiencing lately, Woods has made a great point. They had ventured far beyond the realm of ordinary combat. This was no longer a simple firefight with other humans with guns. What they were up against was something far more bizarre.
"Absolutely!" Tavish agreed.
"But still, how the hell are we so lucky!?" Belinksi added.
"Everyone, please shut the fuck up!" Price interrupts everyone's ranting with a sharp voice as he tried to keep control of the situation. "Now we need to notify command that we've been compromised, and-"
"Hey guys, did you hear something?" Tavish muttered in confusion as he scanned the surroundings for the source where the sounds came from.
With his six senses sensing something wrong, Polites turned to glance behind them, and his face instantly transformed into a mask of horror.
"Gentlemen, we've got a new problem."
The rest of the team followed Polites' gaze, and what they saw frightened them.
Just behind them was a huge number of elves racing toward them at unnatural speeds down the road on foot. More elves can be seen sprinting across rooftops, leaping from building to building with inhuman agility. Above them, several more flew through the sky, propelled by Flying and Wind Magic, while their eyes locked on the group like predatory birds.
"You've got to be kidding me…"
"This is straight out of a superhero movie. Like the part where they chase down criminals after a heist."
"Yeah… except we are those criminals!"
"BATTLE STATIONS!" Price shouted.
Everyone scrambled into action. Tavish quickly mounted a machine gun and unleashed a barrage of bullets at the approaching enemy.
Polites and Belinski were locked on two elves who were flying toward them with their weapons raised and their bodies propelled by magic. But before they could strike, both magical attacks and high-calibre bullets tore through their chests and sent them careening into nearby buildings, where they slammed into other elves and knocked them out of the chase.
But the danger wasn't over, as one of the elves from the sky launched himself toward them like a missile, and swung his axe in an attempt to strike from above with lethal force.
"Left!" Woods yelled.
Price wrenched the truck to the left, and the flying elf crashed into the ground with a thunderous impact, creating a shockwave. The truck, fortunately heavy enough to remain stable, barreled down the road at full speed, while the shockwave sent several elves tumbling out of their path.
At that moment, Woods loaded a grenade into his launcher and fired it straight at the oncoming elves, only for one of them to quickly summon a magic shield that caused the grenade to explode against it and suffer no damage from it.
"...Well, that's embarrassing," Woods muttered, disappointed at his futile effort. But before he could dwell on it, he saw something worse as several flying elves casting a barrage of magic missiles directly at them.
"INCOMING!!" he shouted.
Without hesitation, Belinski, his face steeled with determination, leaped toward the incoming magical projectiles. His gauntlets glowed as he caught the energy mid-flight and hurled it back at the attackers.
The elves in the sky had no time to react as their eyes widened in shock just before their own missiles tore through them, sending their lifeless bodies falling from the sky. One crashed directly onto an elf sprinting below, crushing him instantly.
Enraged to see their own dead, more flying elves unleashed another wave of magical attacks. By sheer luck, the truck swerved wildly from left to right, narrowly avoiding the blasts. Some of the errant spells struck their own forces, turning the misfired magic into friendly fire, leaving several elves blown to pieces.
"Nice work, Belinski! Though I still hate what you said to that dark elf, but you're still making this easier for us to survive!" Tavish shouted over the gunfire as he continued to rain bullets on the enemy.
"I think you misheard. I said 'ninja,' not... that other word."
"Oh…" Tavish mumbled, feeling a bit sheepish.
Suddenly, Tavish's eyes caught movement, revealing to be a heavily armored elf, who is sprinting after them and launched a spiked ball attached to a chain.
Whoosh! Bam!!
It whistled through the air before smashing into the right side of the truck with a deafening crash, sending the vehicle tilting to the left. Woods and Tavish were nearly thrown off, barely saved by Polites, who grabbed them at the last second.
The armored elf reeled his weapon back, preparing for another attack as he relentlessly pursued the truck.
"He's going to hit us again!" Woods yelled with panic in his voice as another elf in equally heavy armor charging towards them, preparing to smash them with a massive weapon.
Before the armored elf could get too close, a flurry of gunfire rang out, and the elf's head snapped back as a shotgun blast hit him squarely between the eyes, sending him flying mid-air and crashing into the second armored elf, and both rolling to the ground in a chaotic heap.
Everyone turned to see who had fired the shot, and saw Price on the driver seat with a shotgun still smoking in his hands.
"You could have hit us!" Tavish shouted in disbelief.
"But I didn't," Price replied coldly without a hint of concern.
As the chase raged on, an elf named Alvin was preparing to cast a higher tier spell, one powerful enough to obliterate entire buildings.
Just as he was about to unleash his wrathful power, a barrage of magic missiles rained down upon them.
Though the other elves intercepted the missiles with ease, the distraction ruined his aim. Instead of striking his enemies, he unleashed a massive Lightning Serpent directly into his own ranks, annihilating them in a single blast.
"What now?!" Alvin bellowed in fury, watching the smoking remains of his team.
Another elf beside him scanned the skies and noticed a new threat, which were dozens of elves in unfamiliar garb flying toward them at high speed.
"It seems forces from other civilizations have arrived," the elf remarked calmly.
"Great, more annoyances," Alvin grumbled with barely contained rage. "Send some of our men to deal with them! I don't care what it takes, I'm getting back our stolen stocks, even if I have to burn this entire city to the ground!"
From the truck, the team could see the new arrivals descending upon their pursuers, engaging them in a furious battle of magic and enchanted weaponry.
The sky above became a battlefield, with spells and enchanted blades flashing through the air in a chaotic blur.
The carnage was immediate as elves fell from the sky, struck down by both sides as the bloodbath unfolded above.
Suddenly, Alvin, not content to wait for the fight to play out, cut through one of the new elves with a single swing of his blade and severed the unfortunate foe in half as if they were nothing. Higher up, even more of Lance's gang joined the fray and clashed with the new faction in a violent fantasy-version of aerial warfare.
"Dear Lord," Woods muttered in amazement as he took in the spectacle above.
"Might be another faction from a different country," Price said gravely as he noticed more elves approaching behind them. "And they just don't stop. Return fire!"
Everyone in the truck's rear opened fire, unleashing a hail of bullets and spells at the approaching enemies. The skies behind them lit up as enemies were picked off one by one.
In the midst of the chaos, Alvin grabbed one of the elves from the third party and hurled him toward the truck like a missile, only for Polites to intercept the airborne elf with a powerful kick and sent him crashing into two others, knocking them down like bowling pins.
As Polites caught his breath, something in the sky above caught his eye, and his stomach sank as he realized who was approaching.
Jason David Lance was descending toward them, riding his Chaos Spirit, who took the form of a larger horse with a pair of black wings on its back resembling a Dark Pegasus.
"Oh dear Gods. We are definitely going to be obliterated," Polites muttered in a tense voice.
"None of you are getting out of here alive!" Lance roared venomously from above and aimed his Magic Flintlock directly at the truck, with eyes gleamed with murderous intent.
"[Dead Eye]!"
Instantly, the whole world turned monochrome and time slowed to a crawl. The wheels of the truck turned sluggishly, and Lance could see every detail, the glint of steel in the men's hands, which appeared strange looking flintlocks or muskets, the Spatial Rings they wore which stored his stolen products, and then... the unconscious girl lying on the front seat of the truck.
Seeing his product in there, he decided to kill the driver and squeezed the trigger of his Flintlock.
BANG!!