“My my, you are a fabulous woman,” Leito purrs at Jilli. “What do you say we get to know each other better once this is all over?” He takes the barbarian woman’s hand and kisses her knuckles.
Jilli smiles, but it doesn’t touch her eyes.
Leito drops her hand when Blaize appears behind him, her knives poking into his sides. He lifts his hands in surrender. “Easy, easy,” he says. “I mean her no ill. I’m just very intrigued.”
“She’s not your type,” Blaize growls.
Leito hisses when the knives dig deeper. “Okay, okay.” As soon as Blaize drops back, spinning her blades but not putting them away, the bard turns to her, and his smile returns. “Perhaps an arrangement we could all benefit from.”
“Quit while you still have your manhood.”
“Eh, well. Point well taken.”
Aleria tightens her grip on her sword and shield. She meets a pair of approaching vaelfar, the armored demons, before they reach us, blocking their path forward. “Leito, protect me!”
The bard takes up his lute and begins to play. The song is rushed, the notes clipped, but when Leito sings a few bars, his voice is like honey.
I swear it looks like Aleria grows taller. When Jilli runs over to assist, I realize the fighter has indeed grown taller, almost as tall as Jilli. Blaize disappears. She reappears on one vaelfar’s shoulders, having avoided its razor-sharp armor, and she flings its helm from its head.
In that moment, I learn why it wears the helm. Its face is sunken, the skin taunt over its skull. Its nose is just two slits in the center of its face, but most disturbing is its mouth, sewn shut. All it can do is growl. It swings its axe over its head, but Blaize is already gone.
Jilli takes advantage of its distraction and removes its head.
“Fascinating,” Leito says, his voice breathy.
Aleria faces the other vaelfar, but she remains defensive. She leads with her shield, knocking away each of the demon’s attacks. I wonder when she’ll strike.
Instead, the twins, Kaehi and Noelani, begin their intricate dance, shaping the elements into a storm of ice. I can feel the chill of it, even though it’s directed at the vaelfar. The demon realizes Aleria is just a distraction, but it cannot break past her. Her shield is like a wall, blocking its path to her or forward. The storm coalesces over its head, and its armor grows ice crystals, icicles forming on its head and arms. The ice thickens, and the vaelfar freezes in place.
Only then does Aleria make her move. She bashes with her shield, and the frozen vaelfar shatters like glass.
The twins dismiss the ice storm as if it had never been there, and immediately, the shattered remains of the vaelfar begin to melt in the sun.
Blaize appears beside Hax. “How come you can’t do that?” she asks, elbowing the man in the ribs.
Hax sputters for a moment. “There are two of them!”
“My ladies are very talented, in a number of ways,” Leito purrs. “But instead of standing around here, we should help the city guard. There are still many more demons.”
Aleria’s size drops back to normal as she takes off toward the next fight, Jilli beside her.
I remember that I have my broadsword in my hands, and I go to follow, but Rent stops me with a hand on my shoulder. “You should stay back with us. These demons are no light matter.”
I straighten myself as tall as I can. “I’m no use to anyone back here. I need to help.”
Rent’s lips press into a bloodless line, but he nods, reluctantly. “Follow Jilli’s lead. Don’t take any unnecessary risks.”
I nod and run to catch up with the others, who are already nearing the main battle. An iridescent bubble surrounds me, staying with me as I run. It seems Rent is determined to continue protecting me.
I glance at the remains of the city wall. The other two moraxus have widened the hole enough that they could both fit through it, but for some reason, they wait. They stand sentry on either side.
Then I see the next wave of erebus.
These demons fly. Some have huge red, bat-like wings. They carry scythes, and their horns are bigger than their heads, curving back behind them. The other demons give me a cold chill even from a distance. They’re fully shrouded in ratty black robes, and they float more than fly, with no visible feet. Their hands are just fleshless bone, and I wonder if the rest of them is just skeleton as well.
Before I can announce our new enemies, a cry comes up from Captain Dmaris. He’s still alive! He and his soldiers must have gotten out of the tower before it fell along with a good portion of the wall. “Alloces! Ronove! Incoming! Be on your guard!”
He commands some of the city guards to break off and form a line to meet the new group of demons. They look haggard from the fight already, but they take their place to do their duty to their city.
Hax is removed from the melee, standing back with Leito and the twins. He casts ice daggers, and puts them to deadly effect. They strike where needed most, hitting belial in pockets where they’re beginning to overpower the soldiers.
Keahi and Noelani strike the vaelfar with precise bolts of electricity, frying them in their heavy armor.
Leito sings and strums, and as I run past him, I feel his song take effect. My broadsword feels lighter again, and my arms and legs are less fatigued. I run faster, readying my sword, Rent’s protective spell still around me.
The battle is favoring the city of Phiur’s protectors until the Alloces and Ronove join.
Alloces swoop down from the sky, cutting down several city guards at a time with their great scythes. Then they fly up and out of reach again before any can fight back.
The ronove hang back. They seem to just watch, but I can feel a strange pull, like icy fingers plucking at me. It makes me shiver and chases away the effects of Leito’s song. My legs feel like they drag through deep mud, and my broadsword grows heavier than before.
I finally reach Jilli, her giant sword cutting a path through the belial. One falls, its weapon hand cut off, but it's not finished. It rises to its knees and reaches for Jilli. She’s already moved on to new targets.
I charge in and stab into the demon’s throat. My blade catches on bone and doesn’t go completely through, but the belial’s lifeblood flows around my blade, and it crumples. I cringe at the black blood, but a surge of pride flows through me.
Blaize appears and finishes another injured belial before it can retaliate against Jilli’s savage strikes. Then she’s gone again.
A lightning bolt strikes a vaelfar less than ten feet from me, and I flinch backward. But the bolt is precise. It seems drawn to the demon’s heavy armor.
I’m shaken by the chaos of the battle. My eyes flick from around me on the ground, to the alloces swooping down like giant red bats, to the ronove who still seem content to hold back.
In my distraction, a belial charges me, and its huge square sword arcs down at my head. I raise my broadsword, but it won’t stop the blade and the demon’s weight behind it. I try to dodge, but I trip on my own feet, sprawling onto my side. Pain radiates up my arm, and I almost lose hold of my broadsword.
The belial’s sword stops a few feet from my head. It bounces away as Rent’s protective spell bursts like a soap bubble. I see Rent stagger under the blow, and I know he won’t be able to stop the demon’s next strike. I firm my grip on my broadsword, and thrust upward.
It catches the belial in the stomach, and its black blood sprays down on me.
Ice daggers lodge into the belial’s throat and eye. It crumples, my broadsword still lodged in its stomach, but I don’t let go. I tug and tug to no effect. I scramble to my feet, and brace with one foot and tug again. My broadsword comes free, and I almost fall to the ground again. Somehow, I catch myself, wobbling but upright.
As I’m catching my breath and regaining my bearings, I see a city guard fall. He lives, but he has a nasty cut across his temple and one splitting open his thigh. He can’t get to his feet. I grab him by one arm and slowly pull him out of the center of the melee. He helps with his good leg, and we get free of the chaotic fight.
Then, Rent is at my side, and together we get the soldier farther away. We bring him to the opening of an alleyway.
“You’re going to be okay,” Rent says, kneeling beside him.
The city guard grimaces and nods.
I don’t leave right away. I fight to catch my breath, my broadsword hanging heavy in my hands.
Rent begins a prayer of healing, but as his hands begin to glow with the power of his goddess, the city guard begins to choke. “What’s happening?” I ask, and as I watch, his face shrivels, like he’s decaying from the inside, his eyes bulging. Within seconds, he slumps to the ground, his face and hands completely desiccated.
Rent’s prayer dies on his lips. “The ronove. They’re attacking those weakened by the battle.”
Seeing the city guard sucked dry is too much. I’m tired and scared, and suddenly the gravity of it all is too much, and I begin to sob.
Rent’s holding me. “Easy now. You’re okay.”
“I had him. I pulled him to safety,” I choke out. “He was going to be okay.”
“I know.” He squeezes me tighter.
I watch from Rent’s arms as the battle continues. Soldiers are screaming in pain, screaming as they die. The alloces continue to strike from above, decimating the city guard forces, but out of range when they try to retaliate. The ronove float on the fringes, not engaging physically, but attacking the weak, the fallen, just like the soldier laid out at our feet.
“Hax,” Rent says, getting his brother’s attention, “we need to strike at the alloces and the ronove. They’re doing far more damage than the belial and vaelfar.”
Hax lowers his hands. I catch a tremor in them, and he’s panting as he says, “Indeed, but the alloces have skin like stone. My ice daggers do nothing to them.” His face is furrowed with frustration and fatigue.
“The ronove will be weaker to physical attacks,” Rent muses.
I squeeze Rent’s arm, signaling for him to release me. I continue to sniffle, and my eyes burn, but I have my emotions under control. “I’ll go. If they can be attacked physically, just keep me shielded, and I’ll kill them.”
“My shield can’t protect you from what they did to this soldier,” Rent says, frowning.
My shoulders slump. I can’t look at the dead soldier on the ground.
“Let me see what the twins and I can do,” Hax says.
He approaches Keahi and Noelani as they cast another lightning bolt. This one strikes an alloces right out of the air as it begins to dive. Its wings fold, and it crashes into the ground, landing on both a soldier and a belial. They turn as one to Rent’s brother, hands clasped together between them. He speaks, and they listen. Then they just nod and start to cast again, but they turn to face the ronove now.
Electrical energy builds in the air, and it raises the hair on my arms. A great black cloud coalesces above the ronove. Some of the demons are too caught up in their own attacks to notice, but several flee as the cloud opens up with an onslaught of electrical energy.
Multiple bolts strike down, I count six in all. Four of them find their targets, jolting the ronove violently. The last two strike the ground and dissipate, leaving scorch marks where they hit. The injured ronove collapse into piles of empty rags.
Hax is able to catch one of the fleeing ronove with his ice daggers. Two through its dark hood are enough to rend it to a formless, tattered robe.
I silently cheer, but I see that the storm has taken a lot out of Keahi and Noelani. They clutch one another, their foreheads pressed together.
Leito renews his song. It refreshes us.
“That’s quite nice,” Hax says, summoning more ice daggers. He throws them as fast as he can create them. Leito’s song continues, and Hax begins to laugh with the ease the magic comes to him.
My despair fades along with my fatigue, and I feel like I could take on the whole demon army myself. I try to flip my sword around in my hands, like I’ve seen Blaize do with her knives, but my hands don’t match what I picture in my mind. The broadsword clatters to the ground.
I snatch it back up before saying, “I’ve got this.”
Mieklo chitters in agreement.
“Be careful,” Rent says.
“Go slay some demons, Lo!” Hax says, riding high on the emotions of Leito’s song.
But the ronove are a scattered mess as lightning and ice daggers rip through them. The last few escape past the fallen wall.
And Jilli and Aleria, towering above the rest of the soldiers, have formed a coordinated team. They slice, stab, hack at the alloces as they dive, each working off the other woman’s energy. As one attacks, the other guards. Then they switch.
Several of the flying demons lie dead on the ground. The remaining retreat higher into the air, hissing their frustration. One brings a long, twisted horn to its mouth and blows a single, mournful note.
It vibrates in my bones, and even once it stops, I find I’m still trembling.
The two remaining moraxus stomp with slow, purposeful steps through the hole in the wall. They stop to either side of the hole, heralds for the horror that comes through next.
The dead, soldiers and demons alike, walk once more.
~ * ~
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