Below, on the place, chaos reigned. It had only been moments since the attack began, yet the ground was already littered with bodies.

“What are those devil’s spawn?” Gal exclaimed, pointing the horizon.

Emerging from the faint mist were two towering silhouettes, nearly as tall as the surrounding walls. Between them, a small woman, whom I was sure only I could see, moved forward with deliberate slowness.

To my right, the distant sound of a horn echoed. I pressed against the wall straining to see beyond.

“They are close!” I exclaimed.

Foot soldiers approached from the east, likely from a tribe on the outskirts of the White Plains. Their swift advance was facilitated by their lightweight gear. I lurked again to the place, Caimis was not there, and his soldiers seemed unable to take even the slightest decision. Most of them were still attempting to rescue the poor souls crushed by the rocks.

“What a foolish lot. They will be slaughtered,” Gal remarked with disdain.

The tribe was on the brink of reaching the breach in the wall.

“Saki!” Gal yelled while looking for her.

“I will buy us some time. Round up as many soldiers as possible,” I commanded Mherlk, before cautiously descending toward the breach.

Utilizing the jutting stones that protruded of the wall, I navigated my way down despite its considerable height. As I neared the bottom, a figure perched atop the wall caught my eye, poised to leap. The man landed heavily with a charming smile.

“You really think that I was going to let you fight alone?” Gal asked.

I responded, relieved to not be facing our opponent by myself. Behind us, I heard Mherlk shouting at every soldier to prepare for the imminent attack. The hundred men, as I quickly estimated, now stood before us, eager for bloodshed.

“It’s only the two of us. If you want to run, this is your last chance” I signaled.

“Run? Those ones will be merely a warm-up before the real fight.” Gal laughed, pointing at the two monsters approaching.

Perhaps interpreting his words, which they didn’t understand, as provocation, the front line charged.

“Let me have some fun.”

At these words, Gal extended his right arm forward with an open palm. The remnants of the walls surrounding us rose. With a flick of the wrist, the stones crashed on our attackers, who never stood again.

“Caimis will soon be ready,” Mherlk informed me.

I nodded as he stood next to me. Having Mherlk would make it easier to defend the wide breach. The towering walls surrounding us meant that turning back would lead to certain death. We had to hold out until the city’s soldiers arrived. Gal had already engaged the next line. As I expected, they proved to be nothing more than cannon fodder for such a skilled fighter, their only strength being their number. He already stood atop a pile of body. Mherlk began dealing with those who managed to get past Gal. I sidestepped to dodge a spear aimed at me and struck back. The stream of enemies seemed endless. Our positioning left me as the last line of defense to catch the few survivors affording me the opportunity to watch Gal dance through his assailants. His weapons appeared to be made of blood, judging by their color. The fact that he alternated between a scythe and a curved sword conveniently reinforced my impression that they were made of his own blood.

“Mherlk! How is it going over there?” I called out.

What worried me was not our current enemies but the battles to come. Out on the field, we were exposed, and anything could attack us. Before Mherlk answered, they all ran away.

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“I didn’t expect them to be so numerous and feeble…” Gal chuckled, attempting to wipe blood from this face.

“They are plunderers, not fighters. You must have scared them,” I commended him.

“He didn’t. They did,” Mherlk interjected, his gaze fixed beyond the piles of bodies.

Both towered over me. I hurried forward, already anticipating what I would find. Earlier while looking for the tribe’s soldiers, I had spotted discrete shapes at the edge of trees. Those same shapes were there, waiting for us on the now red grass.

There they stood, waiting for us amidst the now bloodstained grass. Seven observed our every move, while the two massive beasts continued their slow advance towards the city.

“I counted more malts earlier,” I mentioned to my companions, my concern growing.

“Unfortunately, we must deal with these ones first. Saki is still aiding in the city.” Gal reassured us.

The threat before us was daunting. Yet he seemed unfazed by the situation.

“Afraid?” Gal taunted Mherlk.

“I am. It’s not something to be ashamed of,” Mherlk calmly admitted. His response made me smile. As the malts draw nearer, their oppressive aura weighed heavily upon us.

“My fear has carried me this far,” Mherlk remarked, addressing Gal. “I used it all my life to overcome every challenge thrown my way.”

Gal nodded, a proud acknowledgement of Mherlk’s resilience.

“You should be careful though. You may already know this, but you are not yet skilled enough to take on even one of them alone,” Gal cautioned him.

“Then I will have to rely on both of you.” Mherlk affirmed, stepping back, and raising his shields before him.

They charged towards us. It was a battle I doubted I would survive. At best, I might come out alive, albeit with several missing limbs.

A deadly dance began demanding my complete focus on the adversaries before me. These creatures wouldn’t give me any opportunity to assist my companions. They were ruthless and exploited any vulnerabilities to switch targets. Their relentless assault left me with little opportunity to retaliate. I found myself solely engaged in parrying and dodgind their relentless assaults, sensing a fatal blow looming ever closer. With swift reflexes, I narrowly evaded a lethal strike, feeling the rush of the enemy’s blade graze over me. Seizing the moment of surprise, I retaliated with a decisive thrust, driving my sword deep into the creature’s abdomen. It recoiled in agony, its darkened blood staining the ground. This brief downtime gave me the time I needed to assess what was happening around me.

“Ror’lok!

Mherlk unleashed a devastating blow, his voice laced with fierce curses in their native tongue. Meanwhile, Gal appeared to be enjoying this fight. All four of his opponents were bleeding. Suddenly, my attention snapped back as my opponent’s axe sliced through my arm. A moment later, my sword cut his hand which felt to the ground. A distraction that would not cost me my arm but would be leaving me with a handicap for a while. Enraged, he clenched his knife between his teeth, poised to strike with a primal force. My eyes stung as I resisted blinking, anticipating his next move. He jumped at me. His posture indicated that he had already planned what my next move would be. I misled him by half-dodging, then positioned myself to strike him where he didn’t expect me. Too close to me to avoid, all I had to do was mow down his legs. He died on the spot.

“Finally!”

With a triumphant cry, Mherlk’s hammer delivered a fatal blow. I could hear the skull shattering.

“It was a great fight!” Gal chuckled before falling on the grass.

I was astounded. He was calm, despite the harsh battle we just went through. Taking a moment to survey the aftermath of his battle, I was stunned by the scene before me. It was a gruesome sight, to say the less.

One opponent lay in pieces, only a torse remaining, while another was impaled on a thick bloody spear. The third writhed in agony, pierced by several spears emerging from the earth. The fourth crawled away leaving a wide trail of blood behind him.

There were distant screams, coming from behind us… coming from the city! I turned around.

“Can you hear that?” I asked, uncertain.

In the distance, screams echoed from the city. We had been drawn away from it by the intensity of the battle. I turned to my companions, and together we sprinted back towards the city. The screams grew louder with each step, a reminder of the malts’ terrifying power to induce nightmarish visions in humans, rendering them paralyzed with fear and often leading to their demise.

Arriving at the foot of the city wall, we were met with a grim sight. Three malts stood atop the wall, one of them holding a lifeless body. I recognized it immediately. In the city, the screams had fallen silence. With a determined glare, the malts dropped the body, which landed at our feet with a sickening thud.

“This is far from enjoyable now,” Gal hissed through clenched teeth.

I opened my mouth to respond but struck silent by the sight of him. Gal’s usual gentle expression was contorted with pain as he frantically pounded his fist against his leg, teeth clenched in agony. Red filaments began to spread across his body, a manifestation of his powerful, unchecked energy surging within him.

His aura, nearly non-existent since yesterday, now unfurled freely around him, a terrifying display of power capable of laying waste to an entire kingdom.