It was a long night for the people in Slough. Although they felt safer in the areas of Burnham and Cipen, what they had gone through was frightening for them. For most of the general public, it brought them back to the days when the Underdogs were in control.
Frightening things like this would happen from time to time, but hardly to this level. It was the first time that such an attack had occurred on such a wide scale. When they tried to sleep, they couldn’t help but wake up every hour, worried about what could happen to them.
The truth was that the two areas were holding out well. There were a couple of attacks here and there, but those that were awake had managed to fend off the areas, and finally, the sun started to rise again.
Crowley stood in front of the blockade of cars in one of the areas of Slough, looking out at the street in front of him. It was partly destroyed due to the fighting that was happening before.
Park, one of the squad leaders in the Howlers, had come running over.
“I’ve woken up the majority of our fighting force. I sent over the other Altereds to keep an eye on the blockades in the different areas.”
“Each area has around twenty ground forces that can help them fight, and that includes this area as well,” Park reported.
Twenty people; it sounded like a lot, but in truth, it wasn’t a large number for who they were going up against. It reminded Crowley of how many people they had to have lost already.
It was hard, though, since they couldn’t just fight head-on; they needed to defend every open area of Cipen and even then split their people between the two areas.
“Another thing, sir,” Park said as he gulped. “I got word from our Vice-leader that they won’t be able to send in more support until another whole day. His orders were just to survive one more day and we can win this.”
This was the message that was sent out by Kai to everyone. The Howlers gang members knew that some of the stronger fighters and those that had been in the Howlers for a while had been taken somewhere.
No one had a clue why, but now they were given the order to hold out for an entire day.
“I’ll try my best, but what he’s asking for, I think, is a miracle,” Crowley looked ahead, and he could see it, a group of people heading their way.
Holding onto wooden boards, iron pipes, bike chains, and small knives. All of them with a large grin on their faces. These people, they weren’t even members of the Phoenix Gang, but gangs in the local area who were after the bounty on their heads and for favor with one of the kings.
“We still have plenty of Anti-Altered weapons, right?” Crowley asked.
To which Park nodded.
“Then, go talk to the civilians quickly, gather anyone who is willing to fight for the city and hand them a weapon. If Kai wants us to survive this, then they are going to have to fight as well.”
Park quickly rushed in, doing as they said, and he was quite surprised by the response. More people volunteered than he realized. Some of them looked to have been crying, perhaps those that had already lost so much in this fight.
Even if they could rebuild, the memories, their homes, precious items, all of that would have disappeared, and they were sure there were quite a few deaths as well.
As they were given weapons, those with ranged weapons were told to hurry; they were quickly shown how to use them and then they climbed on top of the cars.
“Get out of our city!” One of the men shouted as he fired the crossbow. It had hit the floor missing one of the gang members, but soon after, another arrow came out, hitting the gangster right in the chest.
As it hit him, his entire body started to electrify, hurting him on the spot.
“Everyone, don’t waste your energy just yet; I’ll get rid of the small fry, save your energy!” Crowley ordered as he walked out.
Appearing in his hand was a black feather; he threw it out hitting one of the men right in the head. His whole body lifted in the air as if he had been hit with an iron ball, and he was dead in an instant.
Crowley continued to move forward, and the arrows from behind him, he would avoid. He allowed them to go past him and hit the gangsters dead on. It was as if he had eyes on the back of his head.
He had told them not to worry, to fire at will because he would avoid every single one of them.
Grabbing the gang member’s face, he threw one of them smashing into the others. Sliding across the floor, he did a sweeping kick, tripping others before stomping on them, making sure that they wouldn’t get back up.
“Come on, I know this is just to wear us out; are they not tired of playing this game yet, or are they going to do the same as yesterday, after fighting for the whole day, then they’ll send out those from the Phoenix Gang!” Crowley stood there, and there wasn’t a single gang member left; all of them lying on the floor.
The crowd and civilians, seeing this, cheered in response. Seeing someone so strong protect them was giving them hope.
From the top of one of the taller buildings in Slough, from a distance with a pair of binoculars, Sin was observing everything. The Phoenix Gang was staying at a hotel of all places, one they had taken over and not destroyed so he and his members could get a good night's sleep.
He was taking the whole thing awfully casually.
“It looks like the Howlers have some annoying people in their group,” Sin commented. “I guess it’s time to up the heat a bit. Take a squad each of the Phoenix Gang; let’s see how our new blood will do.”
“Raven, you head to Burnham and deal with the mess there. Gil… let’s attack them where it hurts; why don’t you head to the hospital, and Glutton, take out this bird man for me, and don’t fail. Green and Garbo, us three will be on standby, but I hope we don’t have to get involved,” Sin ordered.