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Bolin snuck out of the orphanage, eyes darting for any sign of Janani as he ushered the others to follow.

“Quiet!” he hissed, silencing the whispers that had broken out between Hiya and Ekta.

Janani had guided the children to the old storehouse where the rebels always had their talks. It was one of the few buildings in town both large enough and sturdy enough to stand up to an attack. But Bolin knew well that no structure could withstand an Ash Beast. Let alone a horde.

They’d be no safer in there than they would be out on the walls.

And on the walls, they’d get to see Neel, or rather, Vaak. A true Warrior of Ash. Fighting off an enemy that would ordinarily require an army to subdue. Alone.

It felt impossible. It felt like something out of a heroic tale. If Bolin knew anything about fights, it was that this one would be one to watch.

“I don’t know, Bolin,” Ekta whispered. “I’m scared. I-I think Janani will be worried and look for us!”

“It’s fine,” Bolin replied, waving off her concerns. “Neel will keep us safe. You worry too much.”

It didn’t take long to reach the southern wall. Bolin knew the city like the back of his hand, and could navigate its streets with his eyes closed. Still, while this was by no means their first foray to the walls, they hadn’t ventured this far in years.

The guards didn’t take kindly to their presence. Whenever they got too close, they’d be thrown out, usually with a painful lesson to dissuade them from trying again. They stopped coming after a few of those encounters.

It wasn’t so much the beatings that gave Bolin pause; he was used to it. He could handle suffering. It was watching Hiya, Ekta, and the others in pain that wrenched his heart open.

Ordinarily, Bolin would never have agreed to Hiya’s idea to sneak out. He’d never subject her to that pain again. This time, however, was different.

The ramparts were deserted.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Ekta, youngest among them, said. “How is it that nobody’s here? Where are the guards?”

Bolin’s expression darkened. He found himself grinding his teeth. “Protecting the keep, of course. Just like last time. We’re nothing to them, Ekta. Nothing.”

Ekta’s face fell. She knew he was right.

All their lives, the orphans had suffered under the Chitran’s thumb. They’d endured shopkeepers swatting their emaciated hands away, all while happily doling out fresh fruit to fat Warrior Calling kids. Kids who’d then smirk, taking a bite in front of them before tossing the rest to the ground, laughing as orphans desperately scrambled for the fruit before it became tainted with the grime of the road.

The orphans had dealt with hunger, mistreatment, and guards who heckled them for no reason other than sheer boredom.

Bolin ascended the stairs with the girls, dark thoughts coloring his mind. He couldn’t envision a world where the Chitran would ever protect them with their lives. There was only one person who would.

“Look! Over there!” Hiya shouted. They’d only just reached the ramparts, and she was pointing into the distance.

Great trees surrounded Samar Patag to the south, east, and west, but a clearing of a few hundred yards ringed the city in each direction.

Bolin strained his eyes, and when he finally saw what she had, he paled. There, somewhere inside the forest, was a wall of dust. A wall that grew steadily larger.

“That’s… Is that what I think it is?” Hiya asked.

“What else could it be?” Bolin said. “What else can kick up a dust cloud so large?”

The horde had arrived. And they were stampeding toward Samar Patag.

“But I thought they weren’t due for hours!” Hiya said, panic rising in her voice.

Bolin hardly heard her. His attention was elsewhere—fixated on the small, dark form that stood at the edge of the forest. Alone.

“It’s him,” Bolin whispered. “It’s really him!”

“Alone?” Ekta said. “Why, Bolin? He… He’s gonna die!”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Shut up,” Bolin snapped. “Just watch.”

The cloud of dust grew larger and larger. But Vaak did not move. He did not tremble. He did not back away in fear.

Finally, the horde broke through the forest, and Bolin understood just how enormous the threat really was.

Bolin wanted to believe. He wanted to believe that Neel—that Vaak—could defeat them. Another, more sensible, part of his mind, told him that Ekta was right.

This is impossible.

There weren’t just a handful of beasts out there, nor even a dozen. There were hundreds. Nightmarish abominations Bolin had only ever heard of. Beasts that were only ever whispered and rumored. The stuff of campfire stories.

They were real. They were here. They brought with them a promise of certain death, and the only thing standing in their way was one lone demon. Their dear friend. Who’d brought them food and clothing.

Ekta gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.

Perhaps sensing the threat he posed, the horde converged on Vaak, encircling him in a mass of monsters, each individually capable of annihilating squads of soldiers.

“He’s risking his life. Just for us,” Hiya breathed, tears falling down her face. “For strangers he only met weeks ago. Why?”

The beasts descended, and Vaak disappeared.

For a long moment, Bolin feared the worst. That Vaak had valiantly—and pointlessly—given his life for them.

But then something strange happened. Something no one could ever have predicted.

“No… way,” Hiya whispered.

Those invincible beasts—those terrors of nightmares—fled, in what Bolin could only describe as terror.

Beasts’ limbs went flying, sheared from their bodies. Creatures the size of three stacked Ash’va keeled over and died on the spot.

Bolin found himself moved to tears. “Why does he risk his life?” he said, echoing Hiya’s words. He pointed at Vaak. “Because he’s a hero, Hiya. Because that is what heroes do.”

The trio stood in shocked silence, watching in awe as Vaak reaved into his enemies.

The grounds around the Warrior of Ash soon became a death zone. It was as if Vaak had turned into a whirling blade of Destruction—slicing, dicing, and grinding any beast unfortunate enough to cross his path.

Bodies piled up in a ring around him. The ring soon became a mound. The mound became a mountain.

He was an army unto himself.

The Ash Beasts, perhaps fearing their lives, slowed, then routed. They dispersed in all directions—some running back to the forest, some heading east and west to the Gargan Sea, and some, for Samar Patag’s walls.

“This is bad,” Hiya shouted in panic. “We have to warn the others!”

“Wait,” Bolin said, stopping her. “Trust Vaak. Trust our friend.”

Hiya paused, turning her eyes back to the battle.

The terrifying bipedal beasts covered ground at a terrifying pace. Faster than any creature Bolin had ever seen. One hundred paces. Fifty. Twenty-five!

The horde would be upon Samar Patag’s walls in moments. Dilapidated walls that wouldn’t even slow them. And yet, Bolin didn’t once think of fleeing.

Before they reached the wall, the beasts all died. Suddenly. Inexplicably.

The momentum carried them all the way to Samar Patag’s walls, but when they arrived, they were little more than mutilated corpses.

It was only then that Bolin spied Vaak, standing amidst the bodies like a god who had manifested before them. He walked up to each corpse, and put his hand on each in turn, though for what purpose, Bolin couldn’t say. None of the orphans knew much of the magic that existed in the wide realm.

“Is he honoring the dead, do you think?” Ekta asked.

“Do you really think he’d take the time in the middle of a battle?” Hiya said.

“Well, look at him! Those beasts aren’t even a challenge!” Ekta said excitedly. Her prior doom and gloom had vanished, blown away by Vaak’s divine wind.

Their celebration was cut short when a group of Ash Wolves who’d fled west suddenly turned north, aiming for the walls.

“No!” Hiya yelped. “They’re too far!”

It didn’t matter how fast Vaak was—he wasn’t going to make it.

Vaak disappeared, reappearing some fifteen paces from the beasts, right under the wall’s ramparts.

Bolin leaned over the railing, straining to see, as did Hiya and Ekta.

“He’s too late!” Ekta shrieked.

Then Vaak did something truly nonsensical. Something that should have been impossible.

Vaak swiped his talwar. It should have been a meaningless gesture; his blade was simply too far to connect.

And yet, as if some invisible magic carried Vaak’s talwar, propelling it into the distance, his strike connected, bisecting the raging beast, and continued on to the next. And the next. And the one after that.

With a single strike, Vaak had decimated a half dozen wolves, each capable of killing all the orphans in the blink of an eye.

“How?” Ekta muttered. “How is this possible? How can he do those things?”

“It’s like… Like he’s a god,” Hiya said.

Hiya’s words reminded Bolin of a rumor he’d heard recently. A rumor about a demon god who had taken up residence in Samar Patag.

Who had carved such fear into Svar and his goons that they’d actually come to Bolin begging for forgiveness. Them!

It’d taken him the greater part of a week to understand that this wasn’t an elaborate prank on their part. That it was real, and that they were genuinely trying to make amends.

Whatever had happened to them had shaken them to their very core. And now it all clicked.

“Demon God Vaak,” Bolin whispered. It was Vaak who had struck the fear of god into Svar, and it was Vaak who would save them from this threat.

And, like a god, Vaak disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a devastated field strewn with the corpses of his enemies.

For the first time since hearing about the horde, Bolin breathed easily.

We’re going to make it. He’ll save us.

“Hey!” Ekta said, scanning the area. “Where’d he go?”

“Where else?” Hiya said, her eyes glinting devilishly. “To fight more beasts, most likely. Anyway, Bolin, don’t you think this is our chance?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I mean, there’s an entire field of treasure out there! All those hides! Teeth, bones… Can you even imagine what they sell for on the black market? We gotta grab some before Asuman snatches them for himself!”

Bolin blinked at the girl. “Are you out of your mind? There could be more beasts out there! You saw how some of them ran away. What if they come back?”

“That’s why we’ll take the ones near the wall. Only what we can carry! Can you imagine how happy Janani will—”

A deafening scream pierced the deserted city, cutting off Hiya’s words.

“What was that?” Hiya asked.

“It sounded close,” Ekta replied.

Bolin’s blood ran cold. Shivers rippled through his body. It could be anything, he told himself. But deep down, he knew. This timing could only mean one thing.

For while Vaak might very well be a god among demons, not even he could be in multiple places at once.

Ash Beasts had entered the city, and there was no one to help.

No one, except us.