Chapter 12

Kang was furious, but Tarrin didn’t care.

With the city settled behind its magical defense, Shaz’Baket had plenty of time to march in her huge army without harassment and prepare them. Tarrin simply tuned out the Arakite field marshal as he raged that they needed to disrupt those preparations, that giving her time to set up was going to jeopardize the city itself.

On that account, Tarrin couldn’t argue too much. Shaz’Baket’s army was huge, fully twice the size of the first, but more than half of it were humans, and there was a large proportion of weaker Demons in her force than was in the first army. Those humans, Tarrin sensed, were all possessed. But, beyond those, he could sense three of those human focuses out there. Three of them. The first one had died because Tarrin had realized what it was quickly, and attacked it in a way that it couldn’t react fast enough, forcing it to respond to the visible threat while it was killed with the invisible one. It wouldn’t be so easy this time. With three of them, one of them could concentrate solely on protecting them while the other two could attack.

But, that wouldn’t be too much of an issue. Jasana could Circle with her sisters and deal with those three, that would be their job. It would balance out two of the biggest weapons on either side, leaving the armies to fight it out without any kind of overwhelming magical advantage.

Tarrin watched Shaz’Baket deploy, and then, to his surprise, he saw quite a few of the humans in the army collapse. In a grisly kind of metamorphosis, the spirits of the Demons within them came through those mortal vessels and manifested into the material world, killing the human host in the process. Those Demons, several thousand of them, were the Demons that they had thought wiped out. Vrock, chasme, the full adult stage of the nabassu, the Demons who were adept fliers, not like the ungainly nalfeshnee. In that moment, Tarrin felt justified in calling back his skyships and the dragons, for they would have been attacked by a horde of flying Demons.

It seemed odd that Shaz’Baket would reveal this secret weapon so early, before she even attacked…unless, of course, those Demons were going to be part of her initial attack strategy.

It was clearly time to start showing Shaz’Baket that they were ready for her. “Jasana, gather your sisters and Circle,” he Whispered into the Weave. “There are three more of those human focuses for Gruz in that army. Find them and kill them.”

“We’re already here, father. Just give us a couple of minutes, and we’ll go take them out.”

“Dolanna. Have Kang gather the skyships and the dragons and prepare to fend off flying Demons,” he ordered. “Have every da’shar summon air or fire Elementals to help. If Shaz’Baket’s revealing them now, she intends to use them first.”

“At once, dear one. Oh, Kang tells me to warn you not to tire yourself.”

“I’m not going to use Sorcery after I summon my Elementals,” he answered, hefting the Firestaff. “But I’m going to make sure they know I’m here.”

“Be careful, my dear one.”

Tarrin summoned all four of his Elementals. His earth and water Elementals were set down in the inner compound to act as reserves, but his air and fire Elementals were sent out. His air Elemental was ordered to escort one of the skyships and help protect it, which just happened to be a skyship upon which Sevren was stationed, and his fire Elemental was tasked to escort Sapphire and Tenshale, since its fiery body could ignite the rigging of the ships. The Elemental was smaller than the dragons and very fast, capable of reacting to any Demons that tried to land on the huge dragons and try to do them harm.

Once he felt his daughters Circle and Jasana project out to be able to see what was going on, Tarrin struck first. Raising the Firestaff in both paws, he called upon its power, and he called upon all of it. He summoned forth the same power he had used to protect himself from the One when they were in Acheron, as much power as he could control, and maybe just a little bit beyond that, pushing his ability to control the artifact to the limit. It was a huge blow, a devastating strike meant to force all three of Gruz’s foci to act in concert to protect the army, something he had not done the night before because he didn’t want Shaz’Baket to see what kind of power he could use and prepare for it before they arrived. He felt the Firestaff slip, shudder, try to wriggle free, and then when he summoned its power, he felt it strike back at him like an enraged bear, pushing, trying to wrest itself free of him, but it again felt the iron jaws of Tarrin Kael’s unshakeable will clamp down on it, and again could not find the strength to resist. It capitulated to him, submitted to his will, and did as he commanded.

The defenders of Pyros saw, first hand, the kind of power Tarrin Kael could command. They shrank back as a blast of pure, unmitigated magical power erupted from the glowing Conduit and raged through the air above the city, much stronger, much more powerful than the previous attacks they’d seen originate from the Conduit. That rampage of magical might slammed into a sheet of discongruent darkness that hastily appeared in front of it, a barrier of protection erected by the human foci employed by Gruz. The meeting of those kinds of powers, though, didn’t just stop when they hit each other. A powerful blast of wind blew out from that impact, where a blazing orb of magical backlash boiled around the contact point between the power of the Firestaff and the power Gruz derived from the mortals he had forced to worship him, and what was more important, it gave his daughters a point of reference to find those humans, and kill them.

The attack was almost like a signal. The massive numbers of soldiers in Shaz’Baket’s army rushed forward with horrid screams of anticipation, and the thousands of winged Demons took to the sky…but they didn’t fly towards the city. They instead flew the other way, quickly retreating back to the rear area of the army, some of which still had not fully marched in and reset. Even as he maintained his attack on the army, he felt something reaching around, feeling, probing the work he had done with the shield and the Ward. It was then he realized that only one of the foci was actively defending the army from him. The other two were already looking to undo the work he’d done to defend the city until Shaz’Baket revealed her tricks.

“Jasana,” he called.

“I sense it. We’re trying to find him now.”

However, it was already too late. With surprising speed, the focus found the Ward and disrupted it, destroying its power. It was done with such speed and ease that it was clear to Tarrin that the focus had trained specifically for that task, and it had performed that task well. It could not, however, find the weakness in his anti-magic shield that prevented any magical attack into the city. He could feel it sliding over the shield, trying to reach into it, puzzle out how it had been built so it could undo that work. But then it pulled back, and he felt no other attempt to try.

Naturally, it didn’t understand what it was looking at. The Ward was raised with Sorcery, which Shaz’Baket had probably had those foci trained to recognize and undo. The construction of the shield was done by the Firestaff, which built it using radically different techniques than a Sorcerer would. She had had her foci trained to deal with Sorcery, but they were not prepared to deal with the Firestaff in any intricate or detailed way. They could only protect against its attacks with the most basic forms of defense, dealing with the Firestaff as he dealt with the foci, at the basic level that stated that magic of any kind was still the same kind of energy once it manifested in the material plane, and could be attacked or defended against on that level. They could try to batter down the shield with raw power, but without understanding how the Firestaff had built the shield, they couldn’t reach in and unravel it as they could Sorcery.

And that was exactly what they did. Tarrin saw the attack, a crude release of raw power, originating from Gruz but channeled through his human foci. He reacted instantly, channeling all the power he was using against the defender to reinforce his shield. The shield flared into visibility when the attack struck it, and for a split second it almost shattered, until the power of the Firestaff reinforced its magical power and stabilized it.

Damn that bastard, Gruz. With three of them, they had Tarrin and Jasana both effectively tied up. Neither of them could help the army as long as they had to fight those three foci. They were on the defensive here.

Almost. Eron was the ultimate answer to those foci, but it would be insane to send him to kill them now. He had to wait, wait until the army was fully engaged, when they could send a counterattack to hit the back of their lines, which would let Eron get close enough. Either that or send him on a skyship once the flying Demons were killed off and returned mastery of the skies to the defenders, but that would be much more dangerous. The instant Eron had to defend the skyship from a focus, Shaz’Baket would do anything in her power to knock that skyship out of the air, because she would know what was coming.

“Cubs, back off. This up to our army now. Just pull back and defend the city from those three foci. We’ll send Eron to kill them once most of the army is engaged in the city, so just hold fast until then. Don’t overexert yourself, any of you.”

“Can do, father.”

“Dolanna.”

“Yes, dear one?”

“The foci have us stalled, we have to be fully defensive. There are too many of them. So listen carefully.”

“Go ahead.”

“Eron can kill the foci if he can reach them, but we can’t send him to do that right now. Once the enemy is fully engaged and we can send a force to circle around and hit them from behind, or we can clear the flying Demons and get a skyship over them, I need a force of men not afraid to hit a superior force head-on to escort Eron in there so he can find and kill those humans. Have Kang arrange it.”

“I am sure we can arrange that, dear one. And I will ensure it is the very best. We cannot expose your son to too much danger, both because of who he is, and what he is.”

“I appreciate that, Dolanna.”

With the Ward down, the Demons and their human allies charged towards the wall without fear. Wikuni artillery opened up, sending a hail of cannon fire into the lead of that line, led by the small dretches and manes, the dumb weaklings of Demonkin, but more than a match for the average human soldier. The dretches and manes were the cannon fodder of the Demons, the pawns, the footsoldiers, weak by themselves but existing in such vast numbers in the Abyss that they could be considered uncountable. Tarrin could see from his vantage point that while one focus attacked and another defended, a third was using magic to transport siege engines and equipment directly to the battlefield, which Tarrin had to admit was very clever. The army hadn’t been bogged down by having to move catapults and trebuchets with them, they simply brought they directly to the field. Huge non-Demons but extraplanar beings called slaads, massive creatures nearly fifteen spans tall, were put to work moving those siege engines, pushing them towards Pyros.

But before the foot army reached the wall, the flying Demons returned. They were all carrying large bundles, some of them struggling to maintain altitude while carrying them, and Tarrin quickly recognized the shape and color of those objects.

“Bring up everything that can fly and stop them!” he snapped as he divided his attention, maintaining his defense of the shield with the Firestaff and reducing the power he was feeding into it while calling on the power of Sorcery. Under no circumstances could they unleash those things on the city.

They were carrying kegs of gunpowder.

Alright, that was really damn clever. Shaz’Baket had maximized the destructive power of what few fliers she had available to her by having the drop kegs of gunpowder on the city, which would kill soldiers and damage fortifications.

The fliers came as fast as the could, even as the skyships and the dragons rose up, moving to intercept them, even as the order to seek shelter was called out to the defenders on the walls below. Not everyone fled, however. Wikuni artillery crews remained at their posts, continuing to fire on the advancing army. The Demons crossed over the first wall and were met by skyships and dragons. Demons tumbled out of the air in droves, and explosions high over the city heralded the magicians igniting the payloads before they could be released, but there were too many attackers. Demons slipped through the defense and dropped their kegs, aiming them at the second and third walls. Explosions rocked Pyros as the kegs hit the walls and the ground and exploded, most of them striking the ground between walls, but quite a few hitting where the Demons had aimed them. Sections of the second and third walls in the southeast quadrant were shattered by the explosions, but it was one hit close to where the defenders had pushed back the first army that did the most damage. One nabassu had dropped his keg directly onto the Wikuni artillery emplacement commanded by the alligator Wikuni, and the keg ignited the gunpowder they had on hand to use their cannons. The wall at that position was obliterated nearly to the ground, killing the crews of all five cannons and sending stone and fiery debris flying in every direction. The Demons who survived the initial attack turned to flee, but were chased to the protection of the shield by the defenders, killing many of them. Those defenders did not pass over the wall, however, for fear of being open to attack from the other side. Sapphire and Sirocco dove under the constant stream of power that Tarrin channeled into the magical shield defending the city from the magic outside, as Tarrin’s fire Elemental dove on a vrock with its talons at the ready, striking its smaller foe and tearing it in half with a defiant shriek of victory.

On the wall, Ulger came out from his covered position and surveyed the damage not far from his position, and came to an immediate decision. “Listen up!” he shouted, waving his hand on both sides of himself. “The wall is breached! All artillery pull back to the third wall! Vendari and magicians, assist the archers in towing their cannon to their fallback positions, then return to your positions! Archers, musketmen and footsoldiers hold fast and prepare to give the Demons trying to get through that breach one hell of a rough time of it! Do it fast, we’re about to have company! Amanelle, relay that order down the line and send it up to Dolanna!”

The horde of Demons passed by the first wall and spread out in a wide front, preparing to attack a wide expanse of the second wall despite the opened breach, to tie up the defenders and prevent them from focusing their fire on the breach. Wikuni and Vendari manhandled cannons, then were helped by Sorcerers and Elementalists to quickly move them across the second bailey, to their assigned second positions on the third wall, as the ranged attack units opened fire on the massive horde of small Demon lackeys rushing across the war-ravaged first bailey. The wave of small Demons surged forward like a wave on the beach, charging mindlessly and fearlessly through a withering sheet of arrows, crossbow bolts, musket balls, and once they got close enough, lances of magic, waves of cold, sprays of acid, and explosions of earth at their feet. Those Demons aiming for the breach missed a step when a hulking mass of brown earth rose up in the breach, an earth Elemental summoned by Amanelle to fill the hole and slow them down, but they did not veer away or slow down. Elementals of all four types appeared on the wall, then they dropped down to the ground and charged the Demons without fear. The forty Elementals slammed into the Demon lines, but the Demons did not stop to engage them, they simply ran past as the Elementals killed anything they could reach.

After carpeting the ground with decomposing Demon bodies from the first wall to the second wall, the Demons reached the wall and started their assault. A flying Demon dropped with a wet splutch of black blood and gore on the wall by Ulger as the Knight took up his sword and shield, and an explosion out in the carpet of invading Demons sent a shower of black blood and dirt spraying the men on the wall as a skyship turned and descended, laying into the horde below with magical attacks. Dretches and manes swarmed up the walls and up into the breach, where the earth Elemental standing steadfast in that hole started beating at them with its massive arms, slaughtering the little Demons with every blow. It effectively stopped any wholesale spill of Demons into the second bailey, but some did get by it. Small groups of dretch and manes got past the Elemental and started running towards the third wall, but they were cut down from both sides by musketmen on the second and third walls.

On the walls, the defenders were embroiled in a pitched, brutal fight to hold the wall, to give the cannons enough time to reposition and do as much damage as possible to the enemy before they were pushed off the second wall. Though the little Demons were weaker and easier to kill than the ones in the first army, the sheer numbers of them made it a heated battle. They covered the ground like ants all the way back to the main host outside, and still they came. For every one that was killed, three more stepped in behind it to take its place. Those numbers pushed the defenders back away from the edge of the wall and gave the Demons a foothold along a two longspan stretch in the main area of contention, as the Demons poured through the breaches in the first wall, even climbed over it because there wasn’t enough room for them all to go through at the same time, and rushed the city. Ulger refused to give any more ground, anchoring the line about halfway back and holding fast, spurring a surge of force from the defenders as they repelled the invaders. The wall became a bubbling morass as hundreds, then thousands of Demon bodies fell on the wall and decomposed, forming an acidic sludge that ate at boots and sollarets, burned skin, and forced magicians to constantly blow the toxic cloud away from the eyes and mouths of the defenders to prevent choking and blindness. The wall literally began to melt from the top down, but the defenders would not yield. These little Demons, they were the easy part of this battle. Behind them would be the possessed humans and the larger, more dangerous Demons. If they could not hold the second wall through this charge of the cannon fodder, they would lose this battle and Pyrosia would be lost to the Demon Lord.

“Amanelle!” he barked. “Can you summon another Elemental?”

“I already have two out!” she called. “My air Elemental is defending the air above us!”

“Find someone who can summon a water Elemental and clear this wall before these corpses melt it to the ground!” he shouted.

“Och, I’ll get it!” a Pyrosian Elementalist, a burly, sun-browned fellow wearing simple canvas clothing shouted. “I be a Water adept, me Lord! I’ll keep the deck clean!”

“Do it!” he boomed back.

The Elementalist was clever and experienced. He didn’t sweep the stone with a torrent of water, he instead used a light touch, sliding a layer of water beneath the corpses and the acidic sludge into which they degenerated to keep it from burning into the wall, then pushing it all back over the wall, between and around the feet of the Demons advancing on the line as it was pushed up and over the edge to dribble sloppily on the Demons climbing up and waiting their turn. The cleansing of the wall gave the defenders better footing, and they pushed back even harder against their smaller foes.

Above the melee, the flying Demons returned in force. They no longer carried kegs of gunpowder, they instead attacked the skyships. The Demons who landed on the decks found not spellcasters they could easily kill once they got within glaivethrust of them, but crack Wikuni Marines and Vendari soldiers, troops highly trained in fighting on a ship. Vrock, chasme, and nabassu contended with air and fire Elementals and the spells cast at them by the magicians to even reach the skyships, and those that managed to land on the skyships were immediately embroiled in savage combat with the ship defenders, highly trained, highly disciplined soldiers. The attacks on the skyships were short and savage, with the Demons retreating to regroup after a flurry of combat that left many Demons dead and not one skyship knocked out of the battle. The skyships all grouped into a tight formation for mutual defense as the dragons circled nearby, diving on the horde of Demons in the first bailey to rake them with breath weapons in turns so at least three dragons circled the skyships to protect them from another attack. The Demons did return, though, more organized. They moved in a loose formation and attacked only one skyship, losing nearly a quarter of their number to the dragons, Elementals defending the formation, and the magicians that turned their attention from the ground below to the threat above. On the ship, it was a chaotic frenzy of spellfire and flashing weapons as defenders and magicians fended off vrock and nabassu armed with heavy glaives. The deck became a savage bloodbath on both sides, as Demons were cut down more than their defenders, but one vrock managed to reach the flying device and plant its glaive into it before a Vendari crushed him to the deck with a hammer.

The skyship lurched as every Demon took to the air and tried to swarm the next skyship, listing to its port side as its bow dipped towards the ground. The panther Wikuni in command ordered the ship abandoned, and magicians helped Marines and Vendari off the wounded ship as Elementals and the dragons assisted. The stubborn captain remained at the helm as the ship sank from the formation, then plummeted towards the ground. The courageous captain turned the ship over the second wall, and crashed it directly into the horde of Demons in the first bailey. The crash of the skyship was a thunderous cacophony of shattering wood and geysering dirt and black blood as the ship plowed into the bailey, crushing a slough of Demons in the process. But it did not even phase the lowly Demons who simply swarmed over the wreckage as yet another obstacle.

Demons swarmed another skyship, but fewer made it to the deck than reached the first ship. A new pitched battle erupted on the deck, as Vendari warriors defended the flying device in a wall of formidable steel and muscle while the Wikuni Marines engaged the Demons in armed combat. This time, however, the other ships reacted quickly. The ship to the port of the invaded vessel dipped to starboard to turn her whole deck visible to the afflicted ship, and every magician on that vessel attacked the Demons with magic. The Demons withered under the crossfire between the magicians on the ship they attacked and the ship beside it, and the few that survived to flee were harassed by dragons and Elementals as they tried to scramble back over the first wall and to safety. Nightshade and Sandwing, the smallest of the dragons newly rotated into the battle to give Sirocco and Densheen rest, proved to be lethal to the Demons, for they were smaller than their larger, more plodding relatives, able to fly faster and turn quicker, which allowed them to chase the Demons down and kill them with speed and efficiency.

Only four made it back alive.

With the majority of the aerial Demons killed, the skyships and dragons broke into small units and spread out over the Demonic masses clamoring towards the second wall, and unleashed havoc upon them. Demons died in large chunks as the magicians unleashed on the small Demons, and whole companies of them withered and died when the blue dragons dove on them and raked them with their breath weapons.

They died by the thousands, but still they came.

The defenders were again hard pressed as the Demons kept coming, and kept coming, and kept coming. Ulger was pushed back further and further on the wall, because the Demons came in and endless wave that had no pause. Every Demon that died was replaced instantly, while every defender that fell left a hole that took time to replace, and that caused the defenders to fall back or get swarmed. When Ulger saw that he was only steps from the edge of the wall, he gave a shrill whistle and waved to Amanelle. “Call the withdraw of the center!” he shouted to her. “Shore up the defenses on the flanks, all defenders in the central push, fall back! Fall back!” he shouted.

The maneuver had been practiced over and over, to perfection. Sorcerers and Elementalists sprang into action as the soldiers at the center of the line turned and boldly jumped off the twenty span high wall. But instead of falling to the ground, they slid on invisible solid air, frictionless ramps that slid them down and well into the second bailey as the Demons that chased after them tried to follow, but then plummeted to the ground, a ground littered with non-native rock bristling with long spears and stakes placed into them. Those Demons were killed by the fall and impalement. A thousand men, Elarans, Dura, Wikuni, and Vendari raced across the flat second bailey, running over the moat that had been solidified so they could tread upon it by waiting Water Adepts, and charged for the far wall. The defenders on the flanks of that push absorbed the defenders closer to them then the center, and they held the wall against Demons that pressed them, but there weren’t many. The rather dim Demons had been told to make for the center, and that was exactly what they were doing. Very few stopped to attack the defenders holding the sections of the walls outside of their path to the inner compound. The defenders climbed up rope ladders to scale the forty span tall wall, twice as high as the first, with an extended barbican that would make climbing up it much harder. This third wall was the main defense, the wall the defenders would not surrender willingly. The plan had taken into account, even planned upon the eventual breach of the first and second walls. It was here, at the third wall, where there was less overall wall to defend, that the defenders make their stand.

The Sorcerers at the moat, after the last of the defenders were across, then worked their power on the water of the moat. They were already joined into a large Circle, and they used that power to alter its very makeup, as the entire moat, all the way around, suddenly turned a dark metallic green. When that was done, as the dretch and manes rambled towards them, they turned and fled. As soon as they were at a safe distance, the full complement of the most concentrated ranged weaponry possessed by the defenders, row upon row of archers and crossbowmen, unit after unit of musketmen, rank after rank of cannons, and thousands of magicians, all opened fire on the charging Demonic horde. A volley of musket fire and arrows so thick it shaded the land by their vanes and the smoke from the muskets arced through the air and slammed into the Demons, felling thousands of them in the first volley. Even the mindless manes seemed taken aback at the sheer power of that initial salvo, so much firepower concentrated on the wall facing them, it even caused the fearless dredges of Demonic society to hesitate, if only for a second.

The Demons began to advance again, but much slower. The slowness wasn’t from them moving slower or more carefully, it was from the sheer numbers of casualties inflicted upon them by the defenders. Hundreds died every second, so many, so fast, that their smoldering corpses piled atop each other before they could decompose. They marched into that flying death fearlessly, until they reached the moat. The first Demon to jump into the moat shrieked in pain, a high-pitched, tinny sound as it discovered, the hard way, that the magicians had transformed the entire moat into acid, and the Demons were not immune to it. That first dretch sank under the surface, a blackened hand stiffened into a claw as it slipped beneath the rippling surface, but it was not alone for long. The dretches in front, having some modicum of intelligence, tried to avoid the moat, but the press from behind by Demons unaware of the lethal nature of the obstacle pushed them in to their doom. The manes, being mindless and fearless, walked right off the edge and into the deadly liquid without even slowing down. A sizzling cloud formed over the moat as Demons by the hundreds were driven in, so many that the acid began to overflow the banks as their sheer volume of Demons began to displace a significant volume of liquid.

“Gunners, now!” Ulger commanded from his new position on the third wall. A horn blared, and all the artillery masters turned their guns not on the Demonic horde, but on the second wall behind them. Cannon fire struck the wall in a massive barrage from both the second and third walls, shattering stone and rocking the entire city from the impact. The cannons systematically destroyed the wall in those sections where the Demons had taken control, robbing them of the ability to spread out along the circumference, hitting it with deadly accuracy to destabilize it, and then collapse it. Demons were tumbled into the debris as the wall tilted, then fell outwards, towards the second wall. It collapsed in a cloud of dust and a rumbling shudder through the city, denying the Demons an easy route to totally conquer the second wall and lowering the obstruction to give the musketmen the ability to fire on Demons all the way back in the first bailey.

Ulger waved for the artillery crews to again target Demons when Amanelle scurried up to him. “Word from Dolanna, Sir Ulger!” she said breathlessly. “The rest of the Demons are starting to follow these in, as well as the humans! They are also bringing up catapults!”

“Get everyone set and ready to deal with incoming fire!” Ulger screamed, repeating his order to the other side. “Bring up the Legions! Everyone, find your shields and keep them ready! Musketmen, prepare to sustain fire on any engineers they bring up to deal with the moat!”

Everyone flinched when the glowing shield around the city seemed to buckle. The Conduit behind them blazed with sudden light, and the column of magical energy feeding from the Conduit to the shield grew in intensity. “It looks like Tarrin is really slugging it out with them,” he growled. “I hope he can hold, cause this is going to take a while.”

“What could they have sent to cause so much trouble for the Keeper of Keepers?” Amanelle wondered aloud.

“Whatever it is, it must be nasty,” Ulger answered her. “Relay my order down the wall, Amanelle.”

Tarrin was now the sole defense against the foci. Jasana and his daughters had to stop and rest, and the transition had been fast and sharp. Tarrin focused all his attention on holding the shield, keeping those foci from breaking his defense and using their power on the city proper, which meant a constant battle with the Firestaff as he continuously called on its power. Below him, Kang was already forming up the strike team that would slip around the city and counterattack the Demon host, because they were now committing more of their reserves. It would be a very dangerous mission, but they had no shortage of volunteers. In the end, one hundred Selani were assigned to the deadly task, with all four of his sisters along to help conceal them until the absolute last minute, and put his sisters in a position where they could react with immediacy in case of attack. Selani were chosen because they were stealthy and faster then a charging horse when on the move. If anyone could get Eron there alive, it would be the Selani. They were going to get Eron close enough to those humans so he could strip them of their power, and when that happened, Jasana’s Circle would strike and kill them. Eron seemed completely nonplussed by the deadly task, mainly because Allia and his sisters would be going with him, a fact of which Tarrin was unaware.

“I would not send the son of my brother into battle without taking the same risk,” she told Eron simply as she checked her shortswords.

“No other magicians could keep up with the Selani but us,” Jula shrugged.

“The children aren’t going without some adult supervision,” Triana said bluntly. “Kimmie, let’s get ready to move.”

“Yes, Triana,” she said with a nod, running towards Phandebrass to hand him a book.

“Remember, you have to get as close as possible before they see you,” Kang told the Were-cats going with them as Kimmie returned. “Stay low, move fast, and don’t use your powers unless they attack you first. Follow the Selani and obey them. They specialize in this kind of tactic. They’ll get you there, and once the foci are dead, they’ll get you back alive.”

“They will cause no problems. Were-cats excel in the art of ambush, Kang,” Allia told him, pulling up her veil. “Come, my nieces and nephew. We have a task to perform.”

“I knew this would be exciting, but this might be too exciting,” Rina said, putting her paw on her stomach.

“Aw, grow up you baby,” Tara chided. “This is everything I wanted it to be, and more. We get to go save father and the city, and be heroes! What more could you ask for?”

“I would ask for my nieces to be silent!” Allia snapped at them. “This is not a game, and what we do will be very dangerous! Now remember what we have taught you and let us move out!”

“Sorry, Aunt Allia,” Tara and Rina said in unison as they ran on silent feet out of the inner compound.

“Azakar, get a lancer formation of Knights formed up and ready,” Kang ordered. “If they pull this off, we can send a lance charge right down their throat.”

“I already have a division of Knights at the west slope,” Azakar answered. “That idea already occurred to me.”

“Good man. Darvon would be proud.”

“If I don’t do well, he’ll kill me,” Azakar grunted.

The addition of the larger, smarter Demons and the humans changed things significantly.

The dretches and manes sacrificed themselves to the moat for a good five more minutes before they all seemed to stop, and just stand there, sitting ducks for the defenders to pick off, not even trying to find cover. But the majority of the fire on the Demons shifted when the humans in the Demon army appeared, climbing over the rubble of the second wall. The defenders also got their first glimpse of the Demon commander, Shaz’Baket, as she glimpsed over the rubble to get a personal view of the situation, then disappeared back behind the wall. Artillery fire slammed down on where she was spotted immediately, and the skyships and dragons overhead raked the area with breath weapons and spells, but none of them were very hopeful that she had been killed, since the army did not disintegrate into chaos.

That one glimpse seemed to be all she needed, for the Demon army reacted quickly. The Demons near the moat seemed to shiver, and then, to the defender’s shock, they again started jumping into the moat, but only in a narrow area. In moments, a boiling cloud of blackish-green smoke was wafting from the moat, restricting visibility for a short moment before a dragon blew the smoke away with its wings as it landed. Another landed, then another, on the far side of the moat, and for a moment nobody was quite sure why. At least until the larger of them, a male named Basker, turned and then whipped his two hundred span long tail across the moat. Like a massive broom, the dragon swept hundreds of Demons into the air, sending them flying hundreds of spans, killing many of them outright from the massive force with which the tail struck. The smaller dragon, Goldeneyes, also turned and whipped her tail, slaughtering Demons by the score, while staying safely on the far side of the impassible moat. Though the two dragons were blocking the line of fire on the Demons at the moat for the archers, they were killing them at a fast pace and not using up the archers’ ammunition while doing so, and freeing up the archer to fire on the Demons further back while the musketmen concentrated on trying to kill the humans and larger Demons that were appearing at the rubble of the second wall.

But the Demons did seem to have a plan now. Dretches started carrying rocks from the rubble of the second wall with them, and those who got close enough tried to throw them into the moat before the dragons swept them out of the way with their tails. The dragons would not move from their defensive spot, even when archers among the Demons started loosing volleys at them. The arrows weren’t strong enough to penetrate their heavy scales, so all they really had to do was protect their vulnerable eyes by looking away or shielding their eyes with a forepaw. But, while that went on, the larger Demons began scaling the rubble of the second wall and attacking the defenders still there, who fought back with savage tenacity to hold their flanking positions that let them fire on the passing Demons with impunity. Vicious battles ensued on both sides of the collapsed wall’s edges as Elaran and Duran soldiers battled Demons to protect the archers and Wikuni musketmen behind. Skyships raked the Demons with ferocious persistence, but they also began to pull back to rotate out fresh magicians and allow their former crews to rest and rememorize spells. Sapphire and Tenshale rotated back in from the reserves, and their savage breath weapons were only slightly more destructive than the punishing Wizard spells she unleashed on the Demons from the air above them.

And still they came.

More and more stones were thrown into the moat. Demon bodies added to that detritus that dissolved quickly in the acid, as they decomposed into acid themselves. Goldeneyes and Basker just couldn’t kill them all fast enough, for it seemed that every minor Demon rushing the moat carried a stone or boulder, and enough of them were managing to get them into the moat that the bridge they were trying to build began to take form. The rock resisted the acid, and in two places, rocks did not settle under the surface. Basker bravely slammed his tail into the acid itself to knock down the land bridge, but the hiss of pain and the smoking tail he pulled out caused Sapphire to call him back to receive healing. He did what he tried to do, however, knocking down the stones and forcing them to start over. Sapphire called in a skyship, and the Sorcerers on the skyship attacked the wall, not the Demons, fusing all the rubble back into a solid mass, robbing the Demons of an easily obtained and ready supply of rocks to throw into the moat. The Demons were not phased by that counter, as they simply ripped the lumpy mass apart with the claws and continued carrying stones to the moat. Tenshale landed in Basker’s place and took up the defense of the moat, but even the old male found that it was like trying to kill a million ants with a maple switch…there were just too many to stop them all.

For over an hour, the Demons struggled to build a bridge over the moat, and the defenders labored to stop them. The cost to the Demons was absolutely staggering, as they lost tens of thousands of their pawns to the dragons, the ranged fighters, and the magicians, but they managed to continue to get stones into the moat, continued to do their job, until the land bridge they were building reached almost all the way across. At some unspoken signal, they all charged the bridge. Tenshale moved to smash the bridge with his tail, but he staggered back with a roar of pain when he was struck by an arrow that exploded into a puff of some kind of gas directly in his face, an arrow with a payload at the head, an arrow fired by a formation of archers that had managed to get close enough to fire on the dragons. Tenshale beat his wings mightily to blow off an incoming volley of arrows, then he and Goldeneyes turned and bounded away to give the ranged attackers an open shot at a large complement of human archers. The mighty male dragon only got a short distance before his knees seemed to falter, and he crashed to the earth, shaking the entire city. A single human female lowered herself down from the wall and fearlessly rushed to the dragon’s aid. It was Rilli, the Priestess of Breina, who divined quickly that Tenshale had been poisoned, and then chanted a counterspell that would neutralize it. Sapphire landed near him and unleashed a titanic blast of lighting on the that slaughtered nearly a thousand Demons and human in one massive blow, and Sandwing strafed the archers among the enemy with the last of his charge, killing half of them and injuring the rest before he banked away and returned to the inner plain to recharge his internal electricity. Sapphire then turned to her companion, forcing him to revert to a human form with magic, then picking both him and the Priestess up and spiriting them away to safety. Until the poisoned arrows were stopped, the dragons would pull back.

The Demons crossed the moat. Those first to make it across died in a hail of magical spells, for the moat was the outer range of most of the offensive battlemagic the defenders employed. But back at the ruins of the second wall, something new appeared. They were major Demons called bar-igura, ape-like Demons that looked like huge long-armed simians with a sickly orange fur. They had been held back, and did not advance, instead seeking cover among the rubble as the other Demons continued to advance. Ulger spotted them, however, and he warned that when they moved up to engage, they would climb the wall very quickly. Also with the ape Demons were glabrezu, many, many of them, all of them wearing piecemeal plates of steel tied to them with thongs, and carrying huge shields that looked like doors. These armored Demons quickly began to advance, rushing past their smaller kin, and every musketman and archer turned their weapons on them. The artillery that had been setting to blow the bridge apart now that the dragons were out of the way scrambled to find the mark as more and more Demons rushed over the bridge, sending geysers of acid into the air, splashing the Demons, until one gunnery crew finally had the mark. The bridge shuddered violently when it took a direct hit, blowing a ten span wide hole out of its center, but the larger Demons simply jumped the hole and continued rushing across. The armored glabrezu got across the bridge and charged the wall, meeting a hail of musket fire and spells. The musket balls were stopped by the shields, but the spells felled them. However, a dozen of them managed to reach the wall, under the barbican and out of reach of the defenders atop it…or so they thought. From tiny slits in the wall at the top, called murder holes, archers and musketmen turned their weapons down through those holes on the Demons at the base of the wall. Three more were killed, but the rest of them turned their shields up, shielding them from the attacks over their heads.

Just as more keg-carrying Demons appeared at the land bridge, escorted by armored glabrezu holding huge shields to protect them as they made their run at the wall.

The defenders reacted with desperate fear and speed as a wave of Demons carrying kegs and their armored protection charged over the bridge, burning their legs in acid, trying to reach the far wall. That tide of Demons stopped when the gun crew that had the line on the bridge had managed to reload and fire again, blowing another ten spans out of it and making it impossible to cross. Everyone watched in fear and worry as the Demons raced for the wall, as their armored protectors were struck and felled, but there were so many of them. Skyships above rained spells down on them, magicians on the walls tried to ignite their kegs before they reach the wall, and archers and musketmen peppered them with lead and arrows, but they still doggedly charged ahead, some of them staggering, some even crawling, trying to reach the wall.

Some how, some way, three keg-bearing Demons managed to make it to the wall alive. Everyone on the wall expected an explosion to rock the wall, but no explosion came. Those at the murder holes over the Demons looked down and prepared to kill them, but they saw them open the kegs and pour the contents onto the ground at their feet. They then knelt over that substance, as if to shield it from attack from above, which spurred the defenders to tear into the Demons with musket balls and arrows. All three of the Demons collapsed onto their kegs, their bodies starting to corrode into that acidic black sludge.

The instant the black ichor of the Demons touched the powder, a violent chemical reaction ensued. The powder flashed and turned highly energetic, generating a heavy black cloud of caustic, highly smoke. It clung to everything it touched and began to corrode it, forcing all the defenders to scramble away from the deadly miasma while Sorcerers used Air weaves to break it up. But the sudden commotion caused some of the forward fire to wane on the Demons, and still they came, daring to swim across the void blown open by the gunnery crew.

And still they came.

More and more reached the wall, all of them smoking and with some of their skin melted away, and they began to climb, but they were injured and weakened from the acid, and were easily killed off by the snipers using the murder holes.

But everything stopped when the entire city shook violently. The glowing shield over the city shuddered, then it shattered like glass, evaporating. Tarrin Kael, in the Conduit high above and behind them, roared in a voice so powerful it was audible to everyone, and lashed out with a brilliant, incandescent blast of magical power that raged from the Conduit towards the southeast. In seconds, as everyone picked themselves up off the ground or the wall, the shield restored itself, but in those seconds, Ulger saw as he picked himself up, they did their work.

The moat was no longer green. It was now a muddy brown. In those few seconds, in that narrow window of time, the magicians outside had changed the moat back into water. That seemed a strange choice to Ulger. Why had they not struck at Tarrin directly? Clearly, they had done something to beat his shield, why not press the attack?

Ulger looked back up at Tarrin, and then understood. They broke his defense because he was defending the entire city. If they took a direct shot at him, all he had to protect was himself, and they would fail. Instead of failing in an attack on Tarrin, they did the one thing they could do quickly that would give the Demons the most help, and that was remove the powerful defense of the moat.

He swore. That moat was their most powerful barrier, and now it was useless until another Circle got down there and changed it back, and that was going to take time. They could do it from anywhere, but the magic that changed it was very powerful, and required a large Circle with the right makeup and someone leading it who was a master of both the Earth and Water spheres. It was going to take them time to get the moat back to acid, and already, an absolute tidal wave of Demons were jumping into the moat and swimming across.

The defenders braced themselves as the Demons and humans swarmed towards them, no longer concentrating in one spot, but instead quickly spreading out to assault a large section of the wall at once, now that they no longer had to try to cross the moat in one point. Some of the humans were carrying scaling ladders, but the true threat were the bar-igura, who had rushed forward the instant the moat was changed. They were already across the moat, and those agile Demons, those great climbers, would be the first to get up the wall and engage the defenders. Ulger called quickly for everyone to prepare to repel climbers, as he dropped his bow and took up his sword and shield. In just a few minutes, he knew, he was going to need them.

Above the city, Tarrin struggled to recover. That push by the foci had worked, but it had also cost them. He could feel it, he could sense that one of them was dead. That one had sacrificed his life to put so much behind an attack that it broke his shield, and in the frantic seconds it took him to restore it, he felt them reach into the city and do Shaz’Baket’s bidding, transmuting the moat back into water. He would give them that small victory, for the Sorcerers down there would change it back any moment now, and it had killed one of them to do it. There were only two now, and that meant that they could either sacrifice another and leave the last exposed to Tarrin’s wrath to buy enough time for the last one to try something, or they could accept the stalemate and work only to prevent Tarrin from venting his wrath on the Demon army.

From that vantage point, he saw the fruit of that sacrifice. A sudden surge of Demons reached the third wall, and with shocking speed, many managed to climb it. All along the contact line, ugly battles erupted on the walls as the defenders fended off the Demons that had climbed the walls, long-armed ape Demons called bar-igura, masters of climbing and guerilla warfare. Those ape Demons lashed at the defenders with their long arms, and while many were shot off the wall by archers and musketmen, enough of them managed to gain enough purchase to fend off attempts by the defenders to reach the scaling ladders that hit the walls with loud clacks, giving the Demons and their human allies the time they needed to try to scale the wall and enter the battle.

Just like that, everything changed.

They had gone from holding the Demons at the moat to fighting tooth and nail against a horde of Demons and humans that were now scaling the walls. The fighting was chaotic in those first moments as Demons appeared in multiple places, those damned ape Demons, and that confusion was just what the Demons needed to get ladders up and get Demons starting up them. By the time the bar-igura were dealt with, most killed, the damage had been done. Demons were now on the walls, and the defenders still struggled to recover, to fight their way to the ladders and push them off the wall.

The moat was changed back to acid, killing every Demon that had been in the water and cutting off the Demons from additional reinforcements, but only temporarily. The ranged fighters on the wall now had to fight around Demons and could not concentrate on the bridge, and the Demons on the walls pushed to kill off Wikuni gunnery crews wherever they could reach them, to prevent those who could most easily hit the bridge with cannon fire from doing so. And the rebuilding of the bridge happened quickly as human threw down ladders over the opening, then dropped planking over it to form a wooden span over the destroyed area. Demons again started pouring over the bridge, charging the wall, and climbing the ladders.

Ulger met his first human adversary, and he was everything they warned him about. Chopping off one of his arms didn’t even make him flinch, but when Ulger decapitated him, he certainly didn’t shrug that off. The defenders again found them hard pressed by ever-increasing numbers, but for this, they had a plan. Ranged fighters were withdrawn and heavy infantry rushed to the scene of the attack from the reserve formations on the inner plain. Vendari, Knights, Selani, Elarans, Dura, church soldiers, and Arakite Legions swarmed to the scene, and when they arrived, the attackers were staggered back. Arakites formed a shield wall and advanced on the attackers with those behind attacking with spears and polearms, as they stabbed at the attackers with their swords from between their shields. Ulger and the other initial defenders quickly folded into the reinforcements. “I could kiss you, Captain!” Ulger called to the Arakite commander.

“Not on a first date you won’t!” the captain called back as the Arakites absorbed the Demon press on a wide front atop the wall, forming a solid anchor for the defenders from which to rally to push the Demons back.

The stalemate on the wall held for long moments, as the sun climbed higher into the sky, as Demons and humans crossed their makeshift bridge, restricting how many could charge the wall at any one time, but it was still enough to replenish the forces of those Demons assaulting the wall. Skyships and dragons appeared to the south to attack the bridge, but a sudden hasty call, showed the four surviving flying Demons, all of them carrying a large keg. They were high, high over the city, and then all four dove with blazing, amazing speed.

No one was in a position to stop them. The four Demons dove on the third wall, attacking directly across from the land bridge, one after another after another. Archers and musketmen tried to shoot the lead Demon down, magicians tried to intercept it, but it came so fast that it was already there before spells could be woven or incantations completed. It swooped in and then pulled up as it released its keg, which lanced in under the barbican and impacted the wall near the base, and when it struck, the entire wall rocked with a huge explosion. Ulger and his defenders, as well as the Demons and humans they were fighting, were thrown to the wall as the entire structure rocked violently. The second Demon slammed did not release its keg, it instead slammed into the wall in the same place as the first, diving into the cloud of dust, and Ulger was thrown violently several spans backwards, landing on an Elaran soldier and a Duran as a second explosion rocked the wall. The third Demon twisted in the air and dove on the inside of the wall, releasing its keg as it pulled out to sizzle only spans over the top of the wall, and its keg managed to hit the wall. Another thunderous detonation shook Pyros, and then the fourth Demon dove on the top corner of the wall, hitting it near the front, killing itself in the impact. Ulger found himself protected by a magical shield of defense, as Amanelle protected everyone around her with her Sorcery, but it did nothing to help the wall. With a shriek of protest, Ulger felt the wall shift under him, and then he heard loud cracks as the stone of the wall began to tear itself apart.

“Aw, nuts,” he breathed as he and over a hundred defenders found themselves on a section of wall that began to collapse inward, towards the inner compound. The defenders had no choice but to grab anything they could find and hold on as the structure fell out from under them, sending defenders and attackers down into an explosion of dust and cacophony of tearing stone. Ulger, Amanelle, and everyone around them vanished down into the dust plume as they wall upon which they stood collapsed into the inner plain.

The third wall was breached.

The dragons were all low on charge, having expended almost all of it defending the city thus far. Sandwing dove down towards the Demons with a ear-splitting roar, and then, to everyone’s horror, the young dragon crashed directly into the moat at high speed. A massive wave and splash of magical acid inundated all the Demons near the moat, pushing a wave down the moat’s circular bed that washed out onto land, but what was more important was that the brave dragon had plowed into the bridge built by the Demons, tearing it down well down under the surface. The dragon shrieked in pain as it scrambled out of the acid, limping on a broken left foreleg and both wings badly damaged, acid eating away the membrane between the bones, burning into his scales, blinding him when it got into his eyes. Tenshale and Sapphire immediately landed, and as Tenshale defended the injured dragon and his mother, Sapphire guided her broodling away, hurrying him to an area of wall to the south where he could climb over and receive magical attention for his terrible wounds.

Not every dragon was out of breath weapon, however. Nightshade gave her keening screech and returned from her rest, and seeing the humans now engaged with the rest of the army, she swooped down on them. As she passed over the host of Demons in the second bailey, she blasted them with her breath weapon, billowing a cloud of inky darkness. Within, the Demons were unharmed, but the humans in the Demon army shuddered and fell the ground stiffly, their strength and warmth sucked away by the attack, leaving them cold, dead husks. She killed hundreds with every pass, and her brief glimpse showed her that now the not-so-countless army would start feeling the bite of loss. More than half of Shaz’Baket’s army was destroyed, the numbers of reserves standing outside the walls dwindled more and more. Though the third wall was breached, Nightshade saw that with the destruction of the bridge over the acid, the Demon commander would have a problem getting enough troops over there to get through the army sitting on the inner plain in front of the plateau holding Tarrin’s compound and reach the Heart.

It seemed she had an answer for that, as well. From the army near the moat, a sudden thick white smoke billowed up, obscuring vision for a moment. Before the dust had settled from the collapse of the third wall, even as the echoes of its sound still reverberated off the walls, the enemy army vanished into a smokescreen. Sirocco and Nightshade moved quickly to blow it away with their wings, but in those short moments, as the dust and smoke blew away, the dragons saw to their dismay multiple heavy slabs of iron and stone spanning the moat, laid side by side, forming a bridge over the moat nearly two hundred spans across.

Shaz’Baket was now visible, with two dozen humans that carried no weapons, males and females.

Shaz’Baket had brought up her War Wizards, the only enemies who could use magic inside the shield for her side, since the attack of the wall had knocked the Sorcerers off balance and in no position to stop them.

It was a brilliant use of her limited resources, Nightshade could see. She had saved those magicians until the last moment, having them act in a moment of confusion where the defenders could not respond. If she had used them any earlier, the defenders would have reacted to them and destroyed their bridges, but instead she had waited until the third wall had been breached, when now the defenders had to redeploy to cover the hole in their defenses.

The Demon army surged across the wide bridge over the acid like an avalanche, charging the third wall, heading directly for the breach, and Shaz’Baket was among them. Nightshade dove on the six-armed Demon, but lances of lightning and bolts of fire launched at her from the magicians surrounding the Demoness burned into her scales, injuring her, one bolt of lightning hitting her in the head and causing her to swim in a haze of semi-consciousness. She tried to pull out of her dive but could not see, and plowed into the ground near the third wall north of the main breach, digging a ten span deep furrow into the ground as she plowed to a stop. Demons turned to swarm the dragon and kill her, but they were met with a withering round of arrows and musket fire, as well a heavy rumbling. Tenshale charged directly through the army, trampling dozens, roaring with fury to protect the injured shadow dragon from the Demons that sought to swarm over her. They were trampled, lashed with his long tail, slashed with his massive claws. They scrambled away from the rampaging elder wyrm as it used its five hundred span long body as the ultimate weapon, stampeding all over the ant-sized Demons that threatened his compatriot. Dazed and shaken, Nightshade somehow managed to take her human form, and Tenshale scooped her up and took to the air, rushing her to those who would attend her.

On the inner plain, Azakar, sitting atop his Brandywine Ro, settled his helmet as he looked at the thinning dust, at the toppled wall. Behind him were an army of mounted Knights, Arakite Legions, Elaran soldiers, and Wikuni Marines. Vendari flanked the mounted line, and all of the remaining skyships settled into the air over the Mahuut, a wall of steel and resolve to beat back the Demon assault.

A figure came up beside him. It was Zebri, mounted on a Knight’s charger, holding a large scimitar in her left hand and a triangular shield in the other. “A general should never charge at the forefront of her army,” she told him lightly.

“There are no generals among the Knights,” Azakar answered evenly. “We all serve equally. If I didn’t lead my men into battle, I wouldn’t deserve to wear this breastplate.”

“Honorable,” she murmured. “If you will stand in the face of the enemy, I would be a poor commander not to match your bravery.”

Azakar accepted a lance from a Wikuni footsoldier who was handing them out. He hefted it, the couched the butt into the stirrup of his saddle.

In moments, they were ready. The formation fidgeted in anticipation as Demons swarmed over the breached wall, running out onto the inner plain in a disorganized knot.

“Duty calls to us, my brothers!” Azakar shouted, raising his lance over his head. “Who honors the call?”

“The Knights of Karas!” came a thunderous reply.

“Five thousand years ago, the Demons tried to destroy our world!” he boomed, urging his charger out and turning to face his army. “This day, this world, a world not ours, is threatened with the same fate that nearly befell our own world. Who will answer the call to stand against the Demons? Who will defend the helpless, protect the weak, and stand strong in the face of evil? Who will protect this land from destruction?”

“The Knights of Karas!”

Azakar raised his lance once more, then clapped the visor down on his helmet. “Let us this day teach them what it means to be an enemy of the Knights of Karas!” he bellowed. “Come, my brothers! There are Demons waiting to be slaughtered! There is a world crying out for protection! There are people wailing into the night looking for justice and righteousness! Let the hammer of Karas fall on our enemies and restore peace to this land!”

Another rallying cry roared from the army before him.

“Let this day be known as the greatest sorrow the Demons have ever known!” he shouted, “the day they were defeated by mortals! Follow me into battle, and strike a blow for justice!”

A great roar rose up from the army, as Azakar turned and started towards the Demons at a trot. The Knights caught up with him, and that trot stretched into a canter. Demons slowed down and gathered into a line before them, then slowed to a stop as humans with pikes hurried to the front of the line. The Knights extended out into a trot, and then a full-scale charge, lowering their lances in unison, presenting a lethal wall of steel and flesh that hurtled towards their enemies. The Demons set to receive that charge fearlessly behind the wall of pike-wielding humans.

But then there was a bright light. The One appeared over the Knights, flying past them, and he dove directly into the heart of that formation without fear. Demons withered and died in a burst of holy power radiated from the icon, killing those reinforcing the human line, and then the armored figure raised sword and shield and struck down the nearest human, slicing into the line of pikes. Demons and humans swarmed the armored icon, but the One proved he could fight in the mortal way just as well as any warrior, expertly defending himself even as he disrupted the front line of the Demon army directly across from Azakar. The magicians on the skyships above attacked that lead line of pike-wielding humans, burning them, blasting them with explosions of earth and lightning and pure magical power. Humans were slashed apart with scythes of air, crushed between boulders, decimated on their front ranks, which created a moment of confusion.

Just as the Knights slammed into the Demonic horde.

Azakar and Zebri led the assault. Azakar’s massive horse plowed through humans and Demons, his lance splintering as it skewered a glabrezu, but he simply drew his sword and began chopping enemies down to the left and right of his horse as he stomped through the ranks of the enemy. Knights and Elaran regulars continued the press to his sides and behind him, the large Elara proving they were expert warriors, widening the gap created by the One and Azakar. The organized charge turned into a wild melee as the Vendari closed around the flanks of the enemy and crushed them into a tight mass, through which the Knights raged back and forth as the Elarans, Dura, and Arakite Legions formed a perimeter that prevented them going in any direction but backwards. But the lines of the Demons swelled as the next wave climbed over the wall, dodging musket fire, arrows, and exploding cannonballs fired from the unbreached sections of the third wall. Those sections of the wall, like the second wall, found themselves under attack from Demons who climbed the broken sections and got to the top, trying to push the defenders back to where they couldn’t threaten the army pouring into the plain. The defenders on the plain stretched, backed up as a crashing wave of the largest Demons in the army slammed into them, a large number of pincered glabrezu, but they didn’t buckle, they didn’t yield. A glabrezu killed a horse of a Knight, and the armored warrior toppled into a milling mass of flailing arms and flying weapons and claws, Two Knights worked in tandem to kill one of the twelve span tall Demons to Azakar’s left, while he and Zebri reached the One and flanked him. “Now would be a good time!” Azakar shouted to the One.”

“Just a moment more,” he answered, slashing a human wielding a pike in half at the waist. The upper half crawled towards the One steadily, but he fell still when a Duran warrior charged up and planted an axe in his skull. The Dura was none other than Darax, flanked by two gold-armored Dwarves wielding axes and shields.

“Ye didn’t think we’d let ye hog all the glory!” Darax shouted to them, chopping the knee of a glabrezu. The beast howled and fell limply, where it was swarmed over and killed by the Dura.

More and more glabrezu pushed in, until Azakar and Zebri’s horses were flank to flank, and the One stood just before them, beating back at the horde of humans, while the Demons actively avoided him.

“Now!” Azakar barked.

The One began chanting the language of the gods, casting a Priest spell. A sudden shower of golden rain descended upon them, glittering in the morning sun, covering nearly half the plain. The defenders were touched by that liquid and felt refreshed, strong, vital, as cuts and gashes and injuries healed over quickly. The Demons recoiled from that rain with shrieks of pain, as it burned into them like acid, but it had no effect at all on the possessed humans. The shower lasted only a moment, but in that moment the Demons in the army were injured and sent into confusion, which allowed the defenders to press the counterattack. Arakites and Elarans marched side by side in from the rear in sawtooth wedge formation, but the Demons roared back with a large complement of glabrezu charging over the wall, leading an eerily silent reserve of humans.

“This is it!” Azakar boomed. “Send back the order, rally all defenders to here! This is where they’re going to make their push for the Heart!”

Azakar was right. The Demon army surged ahead in an endless wave, cascading over the destroyed wall like sand pouring down the side of a dune. The defenders found themselves in a chaotic, frenzied slugfest on the flat plain, as the reinforcements rushed to shore up lines stressed by an avalanche of Demons, as Shaz’Baket called in all her remaining forces to drive to the Heart. After all, that was all she had to do. It was why she ignored any part of the city that was not in a direct line to the Heart. If they destroyed that, then the Demons would regain their powers, and they would win.

The defenders were pushed back, and pushed back, and pushed back. The Demons were in a frenzy, throwing themselves at the defenders with wild abandon, as the human pressed the attack with maniacal fortitude. Azakar found his charger being pressed backward by the horde, and he tried to reset the line while reinforcements charged in from the north and south, hitting the Demons on their flanks. But they continued to be pushed back, and pushed back, and pushed back. The One struggled to anchor the line, using his invulnerable body as a rock, flailing at all those around him, but the Demons simply passed him by, ignoring him as much as possible to continue raging towards the inner compound.

They were a quarter of the way across. Another charge of Knights hit the line near the wall, trying to cut it off, but they were repelled and had to fall back. Duran regulars raced across from the south and dove directly into the horde, as Demons vanished from sight in a powerful line as they slammed into them. But the void in the Demons filled in quickly, and then the Dura vanished from sight, swarmed over by the opposition. And still they came.

They had pushed halfway into the plain. Skyships and dragons converged, the dragons landing and attacking with their tails, claws, and teeth, for they had no breath weapon left, not even Nightshade. The Demons folded around the dragons and withered under the barrage of the skyship, but still they pushed forward, pushing the Arakite and Elaran line back, bearing down on it with their great weight and feverish need to reach their objectives. The gates of the inner compound were within sight now, defended by a gatehouse at the base of the slope and another at the top, and once they breached those, there was nothing but the compound defenders. The Demons pressed ahead with no thought of casualties, trying to bull their enemies out of their way with the sheer weight of their charge. Elementals entered the battle, beating, flailing, slashing, tearing, but they too could not stop the forward press of the Demons, who pushed forward with single-minded brutality, trampling their own if they did not move fast enough.

They were three quarters of the way across. Azakar tried feverishly to slow them down, for the gates of the lower gatehouse were now dangerously close, and the reserves trying to get into the path of the Demons were almost with their backs to the portcullis.

The surge pressed onward, but then, as if on some unspoken command, they all turned to their rights and hit the corner of the line, hitting right where the Knights and Arakites joined the Vendari flankers. Those flankers suddenly became defenders, massive walls of heavy muscle that resisted the crash of Demons, but the Arakites were trampled by the charge. The Demons weren’t going for the gatehouse, Azakar saw, they were going straight for the rocky cliff leading to the plateau holding the Heart!

They were going to climb it!

Clever Shaz’Baket, she baited them into putting all their reserves between the gate and the advance, only to attack a different place! The reserves charged to hit the Demons from the flank, but the fastest of them and the largest, the large complement of glabrezu, were already starting to climb up the wall.

But then Phandebrass was there.

He was a one man magical army. Spells flew with shocking, incredible speed as he cast spell after spell after spell. The Demons climbing the wall were encased in ice, and then the entire wall was iced over to make climbing it impossible. He then rained absolute death down on the Demons trying to climb the icy wall, bolts of lightning, waves of brilliant light, rays of rainbow colors, little glowing bubbles that hit Demons and trapped them inside, then vanished, taking the Demons with them, even meteors crashing to the earth from the sky above to obliterate whole companies of Demons as they charged the cliff. He was a solitary man casting more magic than a skyship, his words never wavering, moving from spell to spell to spell without hesitation. So savage was his magical onslaught that the Demons retreated away from him in fear, running back towards Azakar’s army, which effectively surrounded it. The Demons who had been pressing into his exposed right line then surged ahead again once they saw that getting past Phandebrass would be impossible, and before Azakar knew it, Demons had broken his left line and were trying to surround his troops.

He found his army enclosed on all four sides, cut off.

Azakar swore and worked hard with his sword to chop Demons and humans down from his saddle as the Demons that had charged the cliff and were turned back by Phandebrass’ amazing defense now turned on the troops trying to cut them off, squeezing them between the two sides of the Demon army, but now they didn’t have the sheer momentum of the initial charge. The Demons were pushed back, fended off by the quickly forming lines, as Azakar pulled his troops into a triangular wedge with the gatehouse and cliff securing their rear. From this defended position, the Demons encountered much stiffer resistance. They were rebuffed by Arakite kite shields and chopped down by Elaran scimitars and falchions, as the dragons rushed up to help by pulling up to the parts of the wall not encased in ice and holding it, beating the Demons back and killing anything that tried to scale the cliff. Azakar marched his wedge against the Demons to the south, pushing them back until the wedge’s back was at the gatehouse, forming a bristling wall of steel and shields through which the Demons had to go to reach the Heart. With the dragons defending the cliffs, there was only one way they could go. And to make it more daunting, Sandwing, the smallest of the dragons, jumped up with a single beat of his wings and occupied the road leading up to the Heart, between the gatehouses, showing the Demons what awaited them should they penetrate the defenders and the gate. Phandebrass was joined by the Elaran Worldwalker, Kyrienna, as he ran down the ramp, past Sandwing, and again the Demons found themselves being pummeled by magic unleashed from two of the greatest Wizards alive, their numbers withering away with shocking, staggering speed as Kyrienna joined the Tellurian Wizard in laying waste to the Demons trying to get to the Heart. The Demons seemed to fear those two more than anything else, and their disconcerted pause gave Azakar the time to fully reset his lines in front of the gate and get some calm and order in there. They were at the point where there could be no more retreat. If the Demons got into the inner compound, they would admittedly face the absolute best the defenders had, but they would also be within striking distance of Tarrin, and that could not be allowed, no matter what. The defenders would give no more ground. From here, the Demons would have to slaughter them all to pass.

Moving with speed on utterly silent feet, Eron and the Were-cats were escorted by one hundred desert-garbed Selani along the outer wall of Pyros.

They had come down around the volcano and now moved with the speed of a running deer. The Were-cats had no problem keeping up with them, moving with speed and silence, led by the matriarch of their race, whose confidence and calm demeanor kept the children settled and focused on the task at hand. The formation moved loosely around the wall a Allia and another Selani were far ahead, their eyes protecting the group by ferreting out any scouts the Demons had deployed along the wall. They passed several hissing, smoking black stains on the ground, testament that the land outside the walls was not safe for the defenders. Allia and the other scout were not only acting as the eyes for the group, they were also killing the Demon scouts so the Selani could advance and attack by surprise, blinding the army to their coming.

It took them about half an hour to work their way around the wall to where the fighting had taken place. The leader of the Selani held up a fist, which caused all the Selani to immediately stop and take cover, and the Were-cats followed suit. Triana slithered up to a rock with the Selani commander, a mature white-haired male with a long face and a scar just in front of his right ear. “Allia reports there are about a thousand Demons ahead of us, who stand in protection of a ring of wagons,” he whispered to Triana. “We were told that one among you can sense the location of these humans we must kill. Where are they?”

“Jasana, up here,” Triana whispered back. The white-furred Were-cat crawled up to their location.

“What is it, grandmother?”

“Where are the humans we have to kill?” the Selani asked her.

“They’re about a half a longspan ahead of us, just a bit to the right. That way,” she said immediately, pointing.

The Selani smiled. “Then Allia has found our quarry,” he told them. He gave a series of quick hand signals, and the hundred Selani quickly melted back, then turned away from the wall. “We circle and attack from the east, so the sun will be behind us and we will be downwind,” he told the Were-cats. “Follow us. Swift and silent.”

“We can do that,” Triana whispered back to him.

“A thousand to one hundred? Those are some long odds,” Tara said in the manner of the Cat, which was utterly silent.

“Not for the Selani it’s not,” Triana replied in the same manner. “And remember, girl, we’re not there to kill them all. We have a specific job to do. This is a hit and run surprise attack, plain and simple. We hit them hard and fast, kill our targets, then run.”

“I get it, gramma,” Tara grunted.

It took them about fifteen minutes to run in a wide circle around the formation of Demons and humans. When they got closer, Eron called for them to gather near him, and he shielded them from magical detection using his unique ability, allowing them to sneak up on their quarry. With the sun behind them, the Selani crept up on the inattentive formation, crawling up to a very gentle ridge that let them look over the encampment. It was filled with larger, more powerful Demons and about two hundred humans protecting some supply wagons, as well as two humans sitting facing each other, looking into a dancing flame emanating from a bronze brazier on the ground between them.

Jasana pointed silently to the two seated humans in the middle of the camp. “Them,” she mouthed soundlessly to the Selani commander. He nodded and gave hand signs to his Selani compatriots, then he waved the Were-cats to follow him as they slowly started creeping forward, getting as close as possible before attacking.

Eron was impressed, mightily impressed. Were-cats had stealth in their blood, and could sneak up on almost anyone, but the Selani were absolutely amazing. They slipped so close to the Demons that the closest of the Selani could have reached out and touched them, and they did it without the Demons or humans seeing them. But sight was one thing, and scent was another, and when the wind shifted, several of the dog-headed glabrezu stood erect and started sniffing at the air. They were now upwind of the Demons, and their scents were giving them away.

The commander gave a single sign, and then the Selani attacked.

The encampment was flabbergasted, both that enemies had gotten so close to them, and that they would be attacked by such small numbers. But some of them, those with experience of Sennadar peoples, did not think it such a weak attempt. The glabrezu especially barked in alarm and moved to intercept the Selani as they rushed into the encampment. One of the two humans looked their way, and narrowed his eyes. There was a sudden oppressive dark wave that rushed at them, but it fizzled to nothingness when Eron raced forward and starting using his ability, stopping the attempt before it could reach the Selani.

As the Selani attacked, moving Eron into the camp, the four daughters of Tarrin Kael stood up and formed a Circle. They immediately prepared to attack the foci, but they also turned their power on the Demons. The Selani saw the first ranks of the Demons moving to intercept them squeal