(I literally forgot to include Dawn in this in the previous chapters, though it makes sense that she would know how to fight.)
They met at the best entrance to the caves. Giles lay out the plan of attack, with everyone putting in their two cents. It was finally ironed out.
"Here's what needs to be done. Vash, Wolfwood, and Xander have the guns. They'll open fire first. Spike and I will be on either side with the axes, etc. Tara, you'll be behind everyone working on the spells. Bloody hell, Dawn, where did you come from?" Giles looked at her with an exasperated stare.
"I stopped by the shop, Anya told me, I grabbed a couple of weapons and headed over. Do you really think that I would stay home while my sister was being held captive?"
Dawn was holding a decent size battleaxe, and a couple stakes for good measure. "And don't tell me I should go home, you and I know it's dangerous for me to be out here. And you can't risk someone escorting me back." She looked challengingly at Giles.
Spike rolled his eyes. There were days when he wondered why he put up with the Nibblet. "If you're going to help, cover Tara while she works her spells. We don't have time for you to run into the way of the gunfire. Someone might come up behind her or something."
Everyone started moving toward the entrance. Vash hadn't drawn his gun yet, but he looked ready so nobody commented. Wolfwood had already removed the covering from his weapon, and had it in the ready position. They stayed out of its line of fire. Spike also avoided looking at it. Tara had just performed a spell to search for more than just Buffy…. And let out a startled exclamation. "There are over 1,000 humans in there!"
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The demons took Chakra literally, and hosed the whole cage down with cow's blood. One of them noticed the slayers eyes when that happened, and became extremely grateful that the cage was able to hold her. She was fuming. Being covered in blood just didn't help her temperament at all. Willow had at that point woken up, but was too disoriented to perform any kind of magic. She kept slipping in and out of consciousness, mumbling something about Typhoons and rivers of blood.
About that time, all 15,000 demons, some of which had roamed in with the original ones that Chakra had trained, were in the main cavern. Coincidentally right where Vash and friends were about to make their appearance. Chakra had returned to the cages, with 50 of his chosen warriors. He clapped his hands in glee at the way his warriors had followed his orders, and told them to paint the rest of the cages the same way. About that time, the sound of gunfire and screams from his troops reached his ears.
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Wolfwood opened fire as soon as he was able to determine that innocents weren't around. Vash and Xander fired at targets of opportunity. Giles and Spike had a glazed look in their eyes from all the noise. Tara was attempting to build a spell of protection to assist in covering everyone. Dawn squealed with glee as she saw demons get sliced to pieces by the bullets.
Some of the demons managed to get to the sides. Giles and Spike had their hands full with Dawn ready to back them up. Vash reloaded and saw an opening.
"I'm going in." he said as he started to run straight through the demons into the other room.
Xander tried to cover him as best as he could. However, he couldn't determine where Vash would be, he was moving so fast.
Tara started creating fire spells to assist Spike and Giles, while Xander ran out of ammo and readied his axe.
Wolfwood had actually set up a type of automatic ammo belt feed on his gun when he was supposedly sleeping off his injuries back at the shop, so reloads weren't a problem yet. He also had numerous reloads for the pistols. Just too bad, he couldn't use the rockets. There were still two left after all the things it'd been used for on his home planet. As the numbers of demons started dwindling, he started moving forward, with the others flanking him.
Finally, Tara figured out a type of circular flame spell, and vaporized the rest of the demons in the room. They ran forward, all the while hearing screams of frustration and pain coming from several demons in the other room.
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Vash ran through, took note of the cages and the decorations, but didn't spare more than a glance. He had 51 demons to fight, and only 48 bullets to fight them with. He hoped the others would arrive in time.
Chakra yelled. "He's interrupting my dinner plans, tickle him with rocks!"
The demons hesitated for about two seconds, in confusion. Six of them died for that mistake. The rest charged and tried to hit Vash.
Vash started bobbing and weaving, while reloading. His machine gun arm wasn't much use right then with so many scattered around, he figured to save it for the head demon. Finally he got the gun reloaded, and fired 6 more times.
The demons screamed in frustration, and pain.
Vash reloaded again. It was going to be a short fight if everyone else didn't get in there. The demons were as fast in the reflexes as he was. His only advantage was his speed. However, it kept these creatures from eating anyone. So if he died, while the others saved the day, it would be worth it. So he decided to enjoy himself like he usually did during a challenge. After all, Wolfwood's gunfire was getting closer. The demons screamed in frustration even more, as Vash started pulling his characteristic stunts. More demons died. 24 bullets left.
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Chakra was getting extremely ticked. Then he noticed a group of people coming in, and got downright hotheaded.
When Xander reloaded using Wolfwood's ammunition and opened fire on the demons attacking Vash, Chakra lost his head. He screamed and ran after the closest person, Vash. Catching him by surprise, Chakra punched Vash into a rock wall 40 feet away.
Spike barreled into him and threw him into his bedroom.
Wolfwood followed up with a rocket. It flew in and hit Chakra. He was blown to bits along with his diary, and coincidentally Riley's head, which he had landed on and squashed right before being blown up.
Spike, Xander and Giles finished off the rest of the demons while Wolfwood and Dawn went to treat Vash.
Tara found the key to Buffy and Willow's cell and opened it. Then Spike retrieved it and went to open the rest while Tara performed a general healing spell on all those in the room that needed it.
Vash, for the first time, felt an easing of the stitches over his wounds that never healed, just scarred over. The stitches had to be removed however, because they were pulling his skin. For the first time he could look at himself without disgust. Though, his arm couldn't grow back. He still had the mechanical. It remained to be seen if he could heal from future wounds.
Exhausted, the group cleared out with Buffy and Willow, and called the police to tell them about some weird noises coming from some caves. Tara performed a removal spell, so that all specific evidence pointing to their being in the caves disappeared. As for the demons, they just let them lay. Let the police explain things. They went back to Giles place, so Buffy and Willow could get first dibs on the shower. After getting clean, and eating, they passed out where they were. Tomorrow would be another day.
(to be continued)