The rogue dove for cover behind a thick oak tree, a fireball streaking past him and exploding. "Crap, where'd these guys come from!?"

Next to him, the wraith-like elf assassin appeared in a puff of smoke, a pair of curved knives in her hands. "Well, we are hunting them down."

A second fireball lit up the area behind them, searing the air as it scorched the ground, the singed tips of the grassy carpet waving wildly as it did, and the rogue winced. "No, seriously, where'd these guys come from!? I mean, we were hunting them, not the other way around!"

She shrugged evenly. "There's no point in crying over spilled milk, Jonas. Let's just kill them and collect the reward."

They both turned to the heavily armored figure leaning against a tree, who was readying a squat weapon, a short barrel poking from the end and a dimly lit blue icon just above the main handle. Loading it with a small black cartridge, the figure turned to them and nodded silently.

Jonas grinned. "Well, that's the all-clear. Whether they're attacking or not, we're good to go."

They rolled out from the tree, pulling their recurve bows to full draw and aiming carefully.

In front of them, six black-robed mages prepared fireballs bigger than their heads and hurled them en masse, a veritable wall of flame hurtling towards them at an incredible speed.

Sprinting out in front of them, the armored figure slid to a stop and punched the ground, a glaringly bright blue field appearing around the dull green armor, and he froze at it happened. The fireballs screamed towards him, hit the field, and exploded.

Instead of bothering to worry about him, the assassin and Jonas ran around the trees, trying to use the smoke as cover to get to a better position.

As the smoke cleared, the figure walked through, aiming down the sights of his weapon, and pulled the trigger.

Sharp bursts of fire began to systematically erupt from the barrel of the weapon, and the enemy mages were forced to pull mana shields up to counter the fire. One of them wasn't fast enough, and he went down with a spurt of blood.

Swinging the weapon around and putting it on his back, the figure replaced it with a small handle. The mages weren't entirely sure what he was doing, but they increased the strength of their shields just to be safe.

It was a good move. The figure flicked a switch somewhere on the handle, and two mirrored blades of purple-blue light swept out from its sides, forming a sort of teardrop shape with an empty space in the middle to accompany the figure's hand.

Sprinting forward, the figure tapped into some unknown Skill, and twin jets of purple appeared at his shoulder blades, sending him rocketing forward at unbelievable speeds. Raising the strange sword, he sliced downward and neatly cut a shield in half, along with the person behind it.

Spinning, he managed to take down two more of the mages before they teleported a short distance away, panting heavily.

Jonas and the assassin slid to a stop next to the armored figure, and Jonas grinned at him. "Man, this is way easier with John around!"

The figure barely gave him a glance. "When we're in the field, I'm the Chief, got it?"

He gave him a cocky nod. "Yeah, I know. So what's the plan? Shooty-shooty or stabby-stabby?"

The assassin sighed. "Jonas, you are an adult."

He beamed at her. "Yeah, Paika, and that means I can do whatever I want."

John raised a gauntleted fist. "What are they doing?"

The two mages were frantically casting a spell at the ground, a red circle with inscribed runes carving itself into the dirt and steaming with mana. Jonas's eyes widened. "Ohhh, crap, that's a summoning circle!"

Paika's eyes narrowed. "Not just a normal circle either - they're summoning a demon."

Jonas snapped his head towards her. "WHAT!? John - I mean Chief - Oh, whatever, take 'em out before they can finish!"

John swapped the sword for his strange weapon again, the blades vanishing, but he was too late.

The circle glowed a vibrant red, and a pair of intimidating horns rose from it, a pair of closed eyes following it. The demon rising from the summoning circle was huge, easily twelve feet tall, and the curved battleax it clutched in one clawed hand could probably slice through any of the trees in the forest in one swipe.

Blood-red eyes opening slowly, the demon spoke in a terrifyingly deep voice, rumbling like gravel as it said, "I am the demon Kahg'an, pathetic eep!"

The sentence was finished with an uncharacteristically high shriek of terror as the demon saw John, and it physically jumped back. Glancing at the two mages who had summoned it, it hissed, "Never summon me again!" Raising a hand to its head, it proceeded to blow its own face off with a compact explosion.

Jonas and Paika were frozen in confused shock. John wasn't. Two rapid bursts of fire later, the mages were down, and they approached their slumped bodies.

Scratching the back of his head, Jonas asked, "What the heck was that?"

John's eyes narrowed behind the reflective yellow visor, and he raised a hand, palm facing upward. A flickering three-dimensional image of a woman appeared above his palm, glowing lines running up her body and up to her short hair and usually amused eyes, which were presently tense with worry. "Any ideas, Chief?"

John stared at the smoking corpse of the demon, his brain running rapidly. "No. But I have a feeling we're not alone here. Cortana, run whatever you can to find anyone that might look like another Spartan. We might have company."

She glanced up at him with a worried expression. "Do you really think any of the other Spartans ended up here? It was so long ago..."

John shrugged imperceptibly. "I don't know, Cortana."

He turned his vision to the circle seared into the ground. "But I think we're going to find out."