24.

“BREACH!” Foy’s voice boomed like a war drum across the courtyard, everyone stopping as they stared at the flesh golems slowly inching their way through the gates. Erak turned and saw heads pivoting further down the wall where a smoldering hole was spitting plumes of toxic yellow smoke.

Demons threw human corpses down, their bodies striking the ground limply. Waves of their hellfire caster fire rained down on the defenders, men and women disappearing in the bursts of flames. From where he was the breach looked small, but it would expand rapidly if nobody acted quickly.

“Erak, go and close the breach. We will hold the gate!” Sammus said as he lifted his sword up and over his head. The tip of the blade glinted in the light, flames and pale light reflected in the sword as the prince. Essence boiled around him, condensing in the blade before spreading out to encompass a small area all around him.

The soldiers who had the wave of Essence roll over them straightened up and grew stronger. Erak could almost watch as their movement became crisp and they leapt to the prince’s commands. An aura ability like his own, Erak surmised.

Nevia twisted a spar using her own sword as leverage and then Erak was falling, landing in a roll to get to his feet, smooth as silk. Nevia scrambled down as Erak pulled his helmet off to let all the viscera slop out of it as he breathed clean air. Even infused with smoke and death, it was sweet.

“That was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen,” Nevia said as she stood beside him. Erak shook his helmet, sending long strings of coagulated blood and guts to splatter on a rushing soldier. The man shot him a disgusted look but didn’t say anything as the shaking of the ground grew more intense.

Erak shoved his helmet back on and began to run, heading up and toward the squad of Infernal Soldiers and their suppressive fire ravaging the rear of the formation. Foy was back there, along with Rutledge and Julius.

Soldiers fled from his charge, forming a path for him as Nevia and the rest of her squad followed in his wake. Sammus was continuing to bark orders, the pulse of his aura still blanketing the area.

Having been in his presence, Erak could feel the change as he left the area. The thin layer of bravery that had coated him poorly dissolved, leaving nothing behind but his pounding heart and the desire to push himself. The wall loomed up and above him, stained gray and black with nearly twenty of the demons firing downwards without hesitation.

There was a small door that led into the interior of the wall, a maintenance hall or something in a similar vein. A half dozen soldiers stood about it, fearful as blasts of hellfire splashed about them. Erak lifted his shield and the great slab of metal scraped the sides of the wall as he rushed into the doorway and began to ascend the stairs.

Sticky fire clung to his armor, the heat uncomfortable, and the sides of the walls. Something screeched and cried out in a harsh foreign tongue and then his spear was piercing something. The screeches rose by several octaves and filled with agony.

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Erak shook the heavy spear, ripping it free of the Infernal Soldier and turning to the three others that had been holding the landing and filling the hall with suppressive fire. He kicked the closest one, his boot cracking ribs and smashing it into the wall opposite of them.

Erak shield bashed another, sending it flailing away as the last solider retreated, crying out in fear. He remembered the first time he had fought these types of invaders, the cowardly curs fleeing rather than dying with honor. He flicked his wrist and the spear shot across the short distance and skewered the soldier.

Erak gave the two injured Infernal Soldiers the mercy of a swift death with a boot to the skull. The interior of the wall was tight, his shoulders nearly scraping the sides while he had to keep his head bowed as he walked. Pipes and cables ran along the walls, cut and burnt and broken now.

“Erak, are you still alive?” Nevia called up to him, the stairwell still glowing with fire. Erak hit his spear against the wall in a rhythm, the spear ringing loudly.

“The fires will take a minute or two to go down, and then we’ll come up!”

Erak shrugged. So far none of these things had given him a challenge, failing to pierce his armor or do more than survive a single exchange of blows. He walked down the maintenance halls, searching for more of the demons to fight. Fallen warriors lay in broken pieces, burned to charcoal or cut apart. A few of the invaders were mixed in every few paces, still and ghastly with warrior’s blood on their weapons.

Erak turned a corner and saw where the enemy's siege weapons had blackened and blown a hole open. The size of a small house and twenty feet above the ground, more and more of the Infernal Soldiers clambered up. A dozen heads turned to look at Erak, most with their hands filled with things that weren’t weapons. They were helping each other up, stashing swirling orbs filled with black mist in piles, laying their brutal blocky casters in corners.

Erak was upon them like the fox in the hen house, a blitz of steel and fury as his aura burst out around him. Blood splashed the walls and painted them a kaleidoscope of death, demons screamed and begged and Erak felt his soul soar as he speared, punched, kicked and crushed the invaders. Bones shattered, organs were punctured, and Essence filled the room so thickly that one could breathe it.

Fear.

An Infernal Soldier jumped out the hole and towards the ground to escape Erak. Another three rushed up and over the edge and died, each of them in a single blow. A strangled laugh bubbled free of his scarred neck, vibrating painfully as he paused amongst the corpses.

A wide, red hand grabbed the lip of the hole. Black iron gauntlets that left the last half of the fingers free had spikes on the knuckles. A second hand grabbed and then a face was over the edge. Long and narrow, four yellow eyes peering from slits in the helm, the same dark metal as the gauntlets.

A sword pommel poked out from over a wide shoulder as it carefully stood tall, head scraping the top of the ceiling. It looked about carefully, observing the dead demons laying in pieces. A wide smile crossed its face, showing the long, pearlescent, needle like teeth.

“WORTHY!” its screech assaulted his ears as its overly long arms twisted and pulled the long sword free. Erak cocked his head as the big demon realized it couldn’t use its weapon in the tight confines. Its smile faded a bit, then it looked at the hold behind Erak, leading into the Armory.

It lowered its head and lunged, free hand knocking Erak’s spear thrust awry and slamming into Erak. The two of them staggered and tripped, Erak snarling as he grappled with the creature, but then they were falling. The floor disappeared and then the feeling of dropping overwhelmed him.

Erak’s eyes locked with the demon's four as they smashed into the ground and began to roll, each kicking the other to get free. Erak jumped to his feet and brandished spear and shield as the demon spun like a top, blade whipping around like a scythe. Bodies fell around it like wheat around it, Imperial Soldiers never having a chance to fight.

Blade Dancer lvl. 14