Masks 2

Finn pulled the spear out of herself and Esen cut it out of her own body. Interestingly, the spear regenerated its handle once it struck the ground.

Not that anybody noticed this, as both Esen and Finn quickly collapsed to the floor as Zil feverishly tried to heal them. Her fatigue was at its limits, and she was struggling to even keep them alive at this point. Next to them, Siren crumpled to the ground in overwhelming grief.

Sam went to Nocturne and La Chat, finding that Nocturne was already applying medigel to La Chat's wounds. He instructed Sam to help the others, since the two of them weren't exactly the team's heavy hitters anyway.

Candy threw down smoke bombs and began unleashing full-powered focused screams into the fish, rupturing their brains over and over again as she protected her parents, Zil, and the other wounded! She herself was barely standing, and probably had a few cracked ribs. The Demon stood beside her, harpoon torn out of her shoulder, stabbing, blasting, slashing, and bashing down Fishmen with impressive displays of combat magic and swordplay.

Sam mutilated a dead artillery shrimp, but wasn't able to get a handle on the mechanism. Jim defended him as he worked, cutting down Fishmen.

Finally, Theraea began moving Maria along, trying to get closer to the rift. Ken covered her with his pistol, clutching his black box tightly.

The tentacles, though, kept slamming down, launching up debris and making it difficult to progress. A few bits even struck Thereae, and Ken received a bad cut on his forehead from a flying chunk of rock.

"YOU CANNOT STAND AGAINST ME. YOU WILL FALL, YOU WILL BE FORGOTTEN, AND MY WILL SHALL BECOME REALITY."

And then, from the opposite direction, they heard another voice call out.

"STAND READY!" shouted a woman's godvoice. "AND RIDE!"

From the murky and cloudy waters came six riders, most mounted atop strange, colorful, ethereal horses as they rode side by side. Most of the riders were easily recognized from the party...

Lone Star, dressed in an armored outfit reminiscent of the blue, black, and white outfits he wore in his later days, wielding a revolver in each hand as he rode his ethereal horse. His pistols fired into the tentacles, and his old lungs yet out a howl. Mr. Smiley was on the back of his horse, aiming his pistol but not firing for fear of hitting his friends.

Earnest fired arrow after arrow as he rode in, perforating tentacles rather fruitlessly.

The Bronze Boz rode on the back of Earnest's horse, preparing to jump off the horse once they got in melee range and lay on the beatdown.

Darkmagic was there as well, clad in her own dark outfit, wielding two pistols as she rode in on Goldpony.

And finally, Chalchiuhtlicue ("Chalchi") led the pack upon an ethereal horse, lifting the water in a path as they went whilst launching fishmen and lampreys back as they rode. Lady Light flew in overhead behind them, glowing bright like the sun as she punched down occasional fishmen.

Once the reinforcement group was in range, Darkmagic loaded fresh clips into her pistols and began firing them into the allies. Healing bullets struck Esen, Finn, Zil, Nocturne, La Chat, Theraea, the Demon, and Candy. Esen and Finn's wounds rapidly began to heal while Zil felt her energy return. Theraea's wing returned to full functionality, and Candy felt her ribs mend back together. The Bronze Boz hopped off his horse and began to punch down artillery shrimp and car crabs, working alongside Candy to defend the wounded.

"Y'ALL ARE LUCKY WE REMEMBERED HOW TO GET DOWN HERE FROM LAST TIME!" Lone Star shouted. "LET'S KICK SOME FISH ASS!"

Chalchi's strength joined Maria's in pushing back the water, opening up a free pathway to the chasm...