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With each beast slain, Vir’s sense of dread deepened. Yes, he was faster than before. Yes, any normal demon would gawk at his performance—and many of the rampart observers, including Janani and Greesha, did. Vir didn’t know why they’d congregated on the walls when he’d told them to stay put inside, but he didn’t have the time to worry about that right now.
He’d won every battle, but he was losing the war.
Already, several Ash Beasts had broken through the wall. At this rate, the city would soon be flooded, the spectators on the walls the first to die.
I can’t let that happen, Vir thought, decapitating a Phantomblade with his Prana Bladed katar. Without the prana of the Ashen Realm to strengthen them, these beasts were little more than fodder. Unlike Vir and Shan, they hadn’t learned to prevent their prana from leaking out.
Their sheer numbers, however, were astonishing.
Even as Vir defeated the current wave, dust clouds in the forest to the south signaled the arrival of another. It was a never-ending onslaught, and Vir now had a tragic choice to make.
Continue protecting the larger Southern front? Or quickly hop to the northern wall, dispatching enemies there, hoping he would make it back before the southern wave overran the wall?
It was a terrible decision to make, and it was the second of such decisions he’d had to make on this day. Either way, people would die. All Vir could do was choose whom.
The slums ringed the walls around the entire city, so it would be his people—Gargans—who suffered worst.
The castle and its keep were situated slightly closer to the northern wall than the south. If Vir stayed to fight the larger wave to the south, there was a chance that some of the beasts that broke through the north would attack the keep, which stood a better chance of defending itself.
Only one option might allow him to keep everyone safe. With Dance of the Shadow Demon, he could move quickly between the two fronts to save the city. But only if his prana held out, which he highly doubted. It’d take too many invocations to get him there all the way.
If I combine Dance with Blink, though…
It might just work. Yet even if it did, it’d give away his identity. With so many on the walls, using the ability without being detected would be tricky.
As Vir struggled with this weighty decision, a new presence suddenly appeared from behind him.
Vir whirled instinctively, slicing the new threat before his mind had even registered the demon’s red skin, its four arms, and giant stature.
“Hail, friend,” Cirayus said, easily blocking Vir’s blade with Sikandar. “I am Cirayus of clan Baira, and I mean you no harm.”
Vir froze for a full second, shocked by Cirayus’ sudden appearance. Vir was about to reply when Cirayus cut him off.
“While we have never met, I am here to aid Governor Asuman and Clan Chitran in their time of need,” Cirayus said, speaking loudly. Far louder than was required for the short distance that separated them. “Know that Clan Baira supports the plight of Samar Patag during this crisis. Would you accept my aid, masked warrior? I assure you, I can hold my own in battle.”
I see, Vir thought, catching on to Cirayus’ plan.
“Well met, Cirayus of Baira. Your reputation precedes you, Ravager,” Vir said, speaking loud enough for the demons on the ramparts to hear. “I hear your offer, and gladly accept your aid.”
Vir couldn’t hear the spectators on the ramparts, though with half of them pointing at Cirayus, it wasn’t difficult to imagine what they were saying.
“Allow me to deal with the southern horde,” Cirayus said. “You have other places to be, do you not?”
Vir nodded. “You sure know how to make an entry, I’ll give you that,” Vir muttered, too softly for anyone on the walls to hear.
It was as though the weight of a Godhollow had been lifted from Vir’s shoulders.
“Hey,” Cirayus replied in a similar tone, winking. “I can’t let you hog all the glory, can I?”
Vir shook his head wryly. “Thanks, Cirayus. It’s good to finally have you back. I… dunno what I’d have done without you.”
“Aye. We have much to catch up on. But that can wait. First, let us save this city.”
Vir nodded again, and Blinked away, High Jumping over Samar Patag’s wall.
As he bounded over the ramparts, he was greeted with shouts, hoots, and cheers. Most came from red demons—Gargan—but a surprising number of Kothis cheered as well. Vir hadn’t expected that.
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He sailed over the crowd, rushing for the northern wall, never noticing the one voice that called out to him. Janani’s voice, pleading for him to save her lost orphans.
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The fight for the northern wall raged longer than Vir expected. The bulk of the wave went down quickly, but it was the stragglers that gave Vir the most trouble. The forest, denser here than in the south, hid the rampaging beasts, forcing Vir to delve into its depths to eliminate them all.
It was times like these that Vir wished for wide-area magic like Balancer of Scales.
Maybe Cirayus will have some good news on that front, Vir hoped.
By the time Vir finished with the last of the horde, he was spent. Surrounded by dead bodies and covered in the blood of his foes, he felt as bad as he looked.
His prana reserves had run low, and exhaustion clawed at both his body and spirit. He wanted nothing more than to collapse on the spot. Both to recover and to avoid learning of the damage the beasts he failed to stop had caused.
Vir wasn’t naïve enough to believe that there wouldn’t be casualties. While he understood that without his intervention, many more Gargans would have died, it was still difficult to accept.
And yet, delaying the inevitable would solve nothing. So, with great effort, Vir picked himself up and returned to the orphanage.
He needed only one look at Janani’s expression as she came running up to him to know that something was terribly amiss.
“Bolin, Ekta, and Hiya,” she said in desperation. “They’ve gone missing. Please, find them!”
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Bang. Bang. Bang.
The terrifying winged Ash Beast smashed at the stone house in which Bolin, Ekta, and Hiya had hidden. It was a lavish two-story residence with four separate rooms. One whose Chitran owners had left in a hurry. While they’d locked the door, they’d forgotten to batten down the window, and Ekta had wiggled through the small opening to unlock the door from inside.
They’d barely made it in time, and while they breathed easily the moment they locked the door, their relief was short-lived.
Though they’d prayed that the Chitran dwelling’s sturdy walls would keep them safe, Badrak seemed to have abandoned them on this day, and they understood it was just a fool’s hope. The door was too small for the big Ash Beast, so instead, it chose to bring down the door and the walls around it, which it was in the process of doing.
“What do we do?” Ekta whispered, on the verge of tears.
“I… don’t know, Ekta,” Bolin replied, fully aware that these were not words the girl needed to hear. He was only just barely holding back the tears, himself.
What would Vaak do? he thought in desperation. Well, that’s obvious…
Vaak would use his godly might to slay the beast. That was a luxury none of them had. They were just kids without magic or any sort of training in combat. If they were to survive, they had to think differently.
“We can’t fight it,” Bolin said flatly. “We need to distract it long enough for us to escape.”
The answer was obvious. They wouldn’t escape unscathed. One of them would have to play the part of decoy. One of them would have to die to allow the others to escape.
As Bolin stared off into the darkness, he came to terms with the truth. He’d never allow the others to take that role. As the eldest, that burden fell upon him.
“We need a diversion,” he said, his voice now calm and steady. “Something that will give us enough time to run away. Does anyone have ideas?”
“We could throw a stone out of the upstairs window?” Ekta said.
Bolin shook his head. “Not enough. We need to keep it occupied long enough for us to escape through the front door. When it notices we’re gone, we have to be far enough away that it can’t find us again.”
He’d already looked through the place, and there were no windows or doors on the rear wall since the house shared a wall with another behind it.
Hiya frowned, pointing to a dark corner of the room. “What about that? Isn’t that a ball game net?”
Bolin’s eyes lit up. “Hiya, you’re a genius!”
Bolin quickly explained what they had to do, and while Ekta and Hiya worked to attach stones to each corner of the net, Bolin prepared himself for the role he was to play.
The beast’s banging grew louder as it chipped through the stone with its terrifying claws.
Bolin stood in the two-story-tall hallway, ready to face it. Ekta and Hiya stood above on a balcony on the second floor that overlooked the hall, net in hand.
Not long now…
With a screech and a roar, the bipedal winged beast broke through, squeezing through the opening it had carved.
Its spittle flew through the room, landing on Bolin, but he refused to avert his eyes. He refused to back down or run away, despite shaking in terror.
“Wait!” he shouted. “Just a little longer!”
The Ash Beast had to clear the door before they laid the trap, or else they’d be stuck inside along with it.
Crawling and squirming, the Beast finally came through, standing to its full height inside the house. It gazed hungrily at Bolin, paying no attention to the girls who stood above it.
“Now!” Bolin roared.
Ekta and Hiya flung the net into the air. It deployed perfectly, with the weights on its corners pulling it down to the ground. Directly onto the Ash Beast.
“Now run!” he shouted, keeping both eyes on the floundering creature. Confused, it thrashed violently, upending furniture, and smashing into the walls.
Ekta and Hiya rejoined Bolin, but none of them dared approach the door.
While their plan had worked, they hadn’t expected the Ash Beast to move around so erratically.
“Hey!” Bolin said, hurling an urn at the beast. “Over here!”
“Bolin?” Hiya said. “What are you doing?”
“Quickly,” Bolin replied. “When it comes this way, run for it!”
“But what about you?”
Bolin gave her a confident smile. “I’ll be right behind you.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
The Ash Beast lunged but became tangled in the net, falling over face-first.
“Go!” Bolin shouted, pushing Hiya, who sidestepped around the beast and dashed for the door.
The creature turned, raising its claw to slice them through.
“I’m right here, you overgrown bat!” Bolin shouted as he charged, an iron skillet in his hand.
He raised the skillet and slammed it on the beast’s snout as hard as he could.
The bat-creature jerked, going dazed for the briefest of moments. Less than a breath, but long enough for Hiya and Ekta to dash out into the street.
Bolin heaved a sigh of relief. He dropped the skillet and burst after them.
We’re… going to make it? We did it!
He couldn’t wait to tell Vaak about his adventure. How they’d saved Svar from an Ash Beast. How they’d led it into a house, trapped it there, and escaped!
Pride blossomed in Bolin’s chest as he rushed for the door.
Pride… and something else. Something cold.
Bolin stumbled.
Huh? That’s weird.
Though he’d stumbled, he didn’t fall. As if something was propping him up.
And then he looked down. At his stomach. It was red. And something protruded from it.
A spear? No…
A claw.
Bolin’s feet dangled in the air for a split second before the beast flicked him into the air, lifting him off the ground.
Strangely, there was no pain.
Bolin watched in a daze as he sailed through the destroyed house. The world seemed to slow as he met Hiya’s gaze, staring back at him with horror from the street.
Why’s she so sad? We won! We did it… didn’t we?
Bolin never felt the impact of his skull on stone. His vision simply went dark, and all the pain… all the worry—everything suddenly ceased to be.