“Hey kid.” The blue lady snapped her fingers in front of Lawrence’s eyes. “Hey. Kid. You all right?”

“Huh?” Lawrence flinched. He shook his head. “What?”

“You spaced out for a while. Are you all right?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did,” the blue lady chortled. “We’ve been walking. I saw it. You were staring into space with this smile. What were thinking about? Was it a girl?”

Lawrence realized he had been smiling. He could tell because the muscles in his cheeks hurt. He realized he’d imagined the whole thing. William still alive. The demons didn’t care about him. Sir Rickard was still a Schrodinger’s Ignorant. Lawrence’s good mood evaporated.

“What were you thinking?” the blue lady pressed.

“Nothing,” Lawrence lied. He stepped over an active bear trap. Behind him, the giant stepped into it. Lawrence heard the steel jaws close shut on stone skin with an ear-splitting sound. Lawrence clapped his hands over his ears. So did the devil cat lady. The blue lady shuddered. The hyena guy grimaced.

The giant pried the trap of his leg. He flung it into a dark corner by the wall. His skin showed no damage. He kept walking.

Lawrence raised his lantern. Yellow light spilled over an iron door. Lawrence inserted a key and turned. He pushed with his palm. He shoved the door open with his knee. It resisted opening.

“And here we are, people.”

“What room is this?” the hyena guy asked.

“The treasure room.” Lawrence lifted his lantern high.

“I don’t understand,” William shoved his foot through an empty crate. Pieces of wood decorated the ground. “Sir Rickard. Is he lying?”

“Ich sensæ th' veire ophe hǒu hæ sayſ.”

“What?”

“I sense the truth of what he says. Dī trī a'd keep up, dear boī.”

“Lawrence,” the blue lady said. “Where is it?”

“It’s exactly where I said it was.” He held up a tiny little pouch with a few coins. “This is it. A bribe for you to go away. The rest is in the armory.”

“So, you have an armory?” the hyena guy grinned, revealing yellow canine teeth. “Where is it? How much money is in it?”

“You got a bag of holding?”

“No. Why?”

“All the stuff is weapons. I keep telling you. This is a military fort not a treasure place.”

“Well. We can take your enchanted stuff. Anything we can’t use, we can sell.”

Lawrence shrugged.

“Well?” the hyena guy leaned over him. With his Size Up Skill, he stood a little over twelve feet. “Where is it?”

“Down the hall.” Lawrence pointed.

“Lead the way.” The guy gestured with his spear.

Lawrence wandered out. He heard the demons and humans stomping after him. Kat hurried to the front.

“DOO HUN-REE.”

“We’ll find you some food soon, big guy,” the blue lady patted his arm. “Hey kid? Where do you keep your torture chamber? You know, for the souls?”

“It’s in the opposite direction.”

The demons looked at each other. This caught the attention of the knights, who went on guard. Lawrence heard a hushed, rushed conversation as the demons put their heads together.

“All right,” the supervisor said. “New plan. Take us to the torture chamber first. Then we’ll hit the armory.”

“Aw, come on,” William complained. “You want us to take more time so you can harvest souls? No way are we doing that.”

“We require iliaster to survive, mortal. Otherwise, we’ll go into Dissolution. You wouldn’t want to see us suffer, would you?” the supervisor smiled at him.

“Not my problem.” William shook his head.

“He’s saying he’s going to eat you,” Lawrence told him. “You’re not really here for the extra help. There’s two of you and five of them. And one of them is huge. Unless you’ve got paladin miracles or something, you and your dad are here as emergency food sources.”

“He’s not my dad. And no, we’re not,” William said. “Boy. Stop talking to people like your opinion matters.”

Lawrence glowered.

“Break it up,” the mortal captain ordered. She put herself between them. She glared at Lawrence. “Keep it moving.”

Lawrence looked down at her. He wanted to disobey, but he knew William would kill him. Stiff as a board, he turned and marched. He led the party through the maze. The entire time he plotted ways to get back at William.

The simplest method was to just kill him. But Lawrence knew any attempt would be met with overwhelming force. The jerk and his friends would kill him. Instead, Lawrence stewed.

“Hey,” the blue lady appeared next to him. “What was your name?”

“Lawrence.” Lawrence hunched his shoulders. Her smile disarmed, and it put Lawrence’s alarm bells on alert.

“That’s a nice name. Does it mean anything?”

“It’s my surname.” Lawrence shrugged. “I prefer it.”

“Can I call you Law?”

“No.” Following this statement there came a chorus of adorable ‘Law-ren-sss’ and ‘la-aur-ens’ from the female demons. Lawrence leaned away. He looked from person to person.

“Can we call you Laurens?” the hyena guy leaned toward him with his lips pulled back. Lawrence instinctively knew his fiend species meant it as a friendly smile, but all he saw were teeth. Big, yellow, sharp teeth. The canines jutted forward a bit.

“No.” Lawrence shook his head fast. He tried not to show fear.

“You smell funny.” Hyena-guy sniffed hard. “You’re afraid.”

“No I’m not,” Lawrence lied.

“Why? Are you afraid I’m going to bite?”

“No,” Lawrence lied.

“You’re scaring him, Hyene,” the blue lady chided.

“I’m sorry, Laurens.” The hyena guy went from eager to apologetic in a flash. He leaned even closer. “I don’t mean any harm.”

Lawrence took off running.

“Wait—stop,” the hyena guy protested. “Where are you going?”

Lawrence sprinted through the hall. He raised his lantern high to see. He jumped a rusted bear trap. He came to an intersection. He ignored the shouting. He dashed to the right. He came to a staircase. He descended two at a time to the next landing. He turned around and doubled back. He came to the next set of stairs down.

“I don’t know where you think you’re going,” the devil cat lady shouted. “I smell you. I’m going to find you.”

“Yeah,” William agreed. “And we can see your lantern.”

Lawrence took the next flight down. He dashed through the halls. Left, right, left again. He shimmied around a still-active pit trap. He came to another intersection.

“Laurens,” the demons sang. “Wherrrre… arrrrre… youuuu?”

Lawrence took the main passage. He ran down an unguarded hallway. He arrived before the main entrance to the torture chamber. Moans of the damned emanated from within. These were not the frenzied screaming of damned being tortured, but the general despair of those waiting. Lawrence skidded to a halt.

He took some deep breaths. He took a sip from his canteen. The water tasted awful, but it was drinkable. It took several long minutes to work through his panic attack. Naturally, he did not have enough time before heavy footfalls approached.

The devil cat lady appeared first.

“You almost had us with the pit trap,” the beast-woman said. She padded across the ground on all fours, silent. In the light from his lantern, she looked like a giant tiger with camouflage fur. “Why did you run?”

“No reason,” Lawrence lied.

“He was afraid I was going to bite him,” the hyena guy announced. The rest of the party came into view.

“Weren’t you?” Lawrence raised an eyebrow.

“No.”

“He wouldn’t do that,” the blue lady said. She hadn’t taken Size Up, thus she wasn’t any taller than a human. She still smiled. “He doesn’t eat mortals. My name’s Larissa, by the by. It means cheerful.”

“Okay…” Lawrence trailed off. He wanted so very much to say something. But he couldn’t. He did know where to start.

“How old are you?” The blue lady kept looking at him.

“Fifteen.”

“How long have you been here?”

“I dunno. Maybe a few… weeks?” He had the feeling they’d had this conversation before. Perhaps the demons had not listened.

“What?” She did a double-take. Several people did. “All by yourself?”

“Pretty much. I used to have a pet llama who could talk. He died saving me from a level one-hundred demon lord. Then this half-demon lady I know—the dead lord’s heir, she’s the Face I keep telling you about—she won’t leave me alone.”

“There’s a girl who won’t leave you alone?” the hyena guy raised an eyebrow. “Hmm? Groovy. Gimme the wackymcsnappy, pizzazz.”

“People don’t talk that way anymore.” Lawrence’s brow knitted.

“Well, is Ray Charles still the greatest singer of all time?”

“Who?” Lawrence asked, confused.

“Ray Charles,” the hyena guy repeated as if Lawrence should know. “You know? Blind, black. One of the greatest pianist’s and one of the greatest music artists of all time?”

“He never was,” Lawrence shook his head. Hyena guy stared.

“Hey kid,” the devil cat lady glanced in his direction, lamp-like eyes reflecting the light, to make sure he understood who she was addressing. “Why are all the traps like this? This being a fort, someone must have set them all.”

“I dunno.” Lawrence shrugged. “I just assumed the leader knew what he was doing. He seems to get really mad whenever I question him.”

“Do you know what level he is? What species?”

“Um.” Come to think of it, Lawrence could not remember.

“You do recall who your own lord is, don’t you?”

“He’s not really my lord. Does it matter?” Lawrence looked down. “He’s no different from a textbook idiot. He got his position by strength and battle prowess. He gets his supplies either from slaves or tribute. He relies on other demons to do the torturing while he sits around with his succubi or slaves. Once in a while, he’ll fight.”

“This is not correct,” the devil cat lady flicked her tail. “There is much organization in managing a fort. Blood Well is a military. Your lord must possess leadership skills. Why should he be a fool?”

“He could be using his position to get more slaves. He could by expanding his territory, but he’s not. He’s sitting around.” Lawrence waved his arms. “Letting it all rot.”

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“DOOF HUN-REE.”

“S’okay, big guy,” the blue lady patted his arm. “We’re here. I can hear the cries.”

“Thanks, kid,” the tie-patterned supervisor said. “We’ll take it from here.

He strode forward. The damned slaves trailed behind him. Lawrence slid his foot under a tense wire stretched across the hallway at ankle height. He caught the wire on his boot and lifted, snapping it. The sound made the demons pause. The devil cat lady’s ears flicked.

“Uh oh,” somebody said.

A steel wall slammed into place behind the party. It stretched the width of the hallway. Warding symbols covered its surface. They lined up with inert ward lines on the floor, walls, and ceiling. With the connections made, the entire thing glowed yellow. Light spilled across the hallway.

“Uh o’,” Rickard said. “Wẹ̄-self līke not bæ goende sin waī.”

“What he said,” William said. He drew his sword. “Hey kid?”

“Who? Me?” Lawrence took several steps back.

“Yeah, you.” William pointed his weapon.

“DOOF SMEL TAP.”

The adventurers still had excited, happy-go-lucky expressions. But now their faces were juxtaposed with their weapons. Lawrence saw they took care of their gear. He backed under the archway.

“Nowhere to run,” the hyena guy giggled menacingly.

“I will take care of this.” The supervisor flung out his arm to stop the others. He drew his own weapon: a nine-tailed whip ending in wicked barbs. Lawrence’s fantasy had been correct. “How many demons are lying in wait?”

“Nothing,” Lawrence said.

“Let’s find out.” The supervisor marched forward. He froze mid-step.

“Wormwood,” the devil cat lady said.

“I just realized.” He took a step back. He jerked his whip at William. He gestured to the archway. “Shield-bearer. You go first.”

“No way demon,” William laughed. “You think I’m stupid enough to walk into an obvious trap?”

The demons looked at him. Silence descended. Rickard elbowed him.

Lawrence had been fantasizing earlier. Once the demons took him prisoner he zoned out. He didn’t recall if the barracks conversation had happened or was just in his head. Honestly, he did not care. The bullying was real. This was better.

William’s arrogant smirk faded as realization dawned. He may have been hired help and not a slave, but he was still trapped in a box with one exit and multiple people capable of great violence who did not care for him much. Lawrence could almost see the gears turning in his tiny brain. William stared up at Doofy. The twenty-four foot tall giant’s stomach rumbled.

Gulping, Initiate William moved to the front. Lawrence backed away. William swung his sword at the air. When nothing happened, he knelt and squinted at the ground.

“There’s something on the floor. It looks like—AH.” William tumbled forward as Wormwood’s boot connected with his backside. Symbols under and around the archway glowed golden. William faceplanted into a wall of invisible force. His skin turned red as if burning. Screaming, he recoiled.

“Another warding.” Wormwood studied the runes. “High strength. Tier four, at least. La-au-rens, is this your doing?”

“No one here by that name.” Lawrence jumped behind the archway’s wall. He exhaled relief. No projectile attacks could hit him here.

“Lawrence,” the demon sounded with difficulty.

“Yeah,” Lawrence called. “I wrote those. And the ones behind you.”

“Why?” the blue lady asked. She sounded appalled. “What did we do to you?”

“Well, you invaded my boss’s fort.” Lawrence crept to the edge of the archway. He peered around the edge. “You took me prisoner. I tried to get you to leave and you wouldn’t take the bait. We got nuthin’. No money. No treasure. The armory’s weapons are all rusted crap ‘n garbage. There’s nuthin’ to plunder. What is it you don’t understand?”

“How many damned do you have?” Wormwood met his eye. He hung his whip from his belt.

“Uhhh.” Lawrence stepped away. He spun around. He looked over the cages. He gave up. “I dunno. Some? I’m not a good judge of this.”

“From where I am standing, I count ten medium-sized cells,” Wormwood said. His pen scratched his clipboard. “Each can hold more than a hundred damned. You have at least a thousand lost souls. Your equipment is sub-par, but any old tools will function. This is your treasure.”

“Well,” Lawrence floundered.

“Let us out of here,” Wormwood ordered.

“We promise we won’t kill you,” the devil cat lady called.

“Don’t believe you,” Lawrence called back in the same tone. “You’re hungry. I’m fleshy. Your mercenaries are corrupt—which is why they can’t walk over the warding. I can—which means I’m not corrupt. According to the lord, if I wasn’t a faustian, I’d taste good.”

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Wormwood admitted. “If you drew these, you must be powerful. How would you like to come work with us?”

“Worm,” the blue lady scolded, but quiet, as if she did not want Lawrence to hear.

“What?”

“We can’t drag a kid into combat. What if he gets hurt?”

“He’s a mortal who’s managed to survive in a literal hellhole, in Hell. I think he’ll be fine.”

Lawrence looked around the room. He ran over to a rack of old bells with cords going up to the ceiling. In the old days, someone would ring a bell in the master suite, and one of the servants would come running. In this modern age, people used cell phones. Or they would, if demons had them. Lawrence knew this lord used imp messengers. Lawrence regretted not having working technology in front of him. He picked up a rock and smacked each of the bells.

“Did you hear that?”

“What was it?”

“Old servant bells. They used to use them to summon people.”

“Oh. Guess that means the lord’s army is on its way.”

“DOOF REDDY TO FITE.”

“I smell blood and sweat.”

“That’s just your own ass, Kitty-cat.”

“Shut up, mortal.”

“William, stanede fasÞ.”

“What?”

“William, stand fast. Pay attention, lad. The Lord doth call upon us to carry His torch into darkness. Make ready to fight. Lady lass, are thou people able?”

“I’ll take care of this.” A cross female voice cut through the chaos. “In case anyone forgets, this is why you need people like me.”

Lawrence turned his head. The captain marched through the archway unharmed. She took a hammer and a chisel from her satchel.

“No,” Lawrence protested. He ran toward her. “Don’t do that.”

It was too late, and in the end, it would not have mattered. The captain lady slammed her hammer. She chipped the stone next to one rune. The warding flickered but held. Then she realized most of the marks were chalk. She rubbed through them with her boot. The warding vanished.

“Oh no.” Lawrence skidded to a halt. He ran the other way. Even if he had the speed of a cheetah, he could not outrun the cat lady’s reflexes. She pounced on him. Lawrence slammed into the ground. She flipped him over. She pinned him to the floor. Lawrence blinked. They were nose to nose. He could smell her hot, stinking breath.

“You have beautiful eyes,” Lawrence mumbled. The words floated out of his mouth all on their own.

“Am I supposed to be—”

Lawrence puckered up his lips and kissed her square on her nose. She jerked her head back. Her teeth pulled back to snarl.

“Hellfire Bomb,” Lawrence intoned. A sphere of greenish-black fire appeared around his hand. He flicked his wrist. It exploded against the woman’s side.

The cat lady screamed. She leaped off him. She scrabbled at her blackening fur as the fire scorched her soul.

Lawrence rolled over. He jumped up. He sprinted past the cages. He grabbed the bar of one and used his momentum to swing himself around. A spear shot through the lower half of his robe. Lawrence tripped. The demons were on him in a flash. Several pairs of hands lifted him. Hyena guy took his spear out of Lawrence’s robe. Doofy the giant pinned Lawrence in place with a car-sized hand.

“All right, kid.” The hyena guy casually pointed his spear at Lawrence’s throat.

“What were you planning on going?”

“It doesn’t matter now, does it?” Lawrence grunted.

“I suppose not. Larissa?” He looked at the blue lady. Her mouth twisted.

“We were gonna let you live. Why’d you have to go and hit Kat? You know we can’t let that stand.”

“Let me duel him,” the cat lady growled. “I claim the right. He is mine.”

“He probably has multiple spells hung,” Larissa waved her hand. She drew her axe. “Safer this way.”

“You’re going to kill me?” Lawrence’s eyes widened.

“You attacked us,” the blue lady sounded apologetic. “I was hoping you’d join us. We could use a [Faustian].”

“Why don’t you just take the souls and go?” His voice rose an octave. “Those are what you want, right?”

“We’re all over level thirty, mortal,” the little dwarf said. “Guessing the fort’s demons don’t level their Species Jobs? Iliaster for them might be one unit a day. For us? Five or six each. Species level divided by five is how many units a day we need. You know how many souls we need just to stay alive?”

Lawrence looked at the handful of pale, androgynous shapes following Wormwood. Each of them wore an iron collar and chains.

“It’s not enough,” the cyborg dwarf said. He gestured to the under-half-full cells. “This lot, most of it is going to feed our company. We’ll take what we need, but we have a large company. We need every soul we can.”

“And the fact I can get you past all the wardings blocking the lord and the armory means nothing?”

“You burned all your goodwill when you tried to kill me,” the cat lady glared.

Lawrence gulped. He played his last card.

“I have six more hellfire spells prepared. At this range, we’ll all die.”

“Bet you won’t,” the blue lady said. “You’re afraid to die.”

“Not as afraid as I am of getting hit by that thing.” Lawrence looked over their shoulders. The cat lady blurred. A spear shot through the space she had been standing in. It rocketed through the air, missed Lawrence by a foot, and bounced off the giant’s hide.

“Ambush,” the devil cat lady shouted. Too late, as a horde of imps, fiends, and whatever else still alive descended.

The giant dropped Lawrence. It turned around to attack.

Lawrence curled into a ball and fired off a protection spell. He plugged his ears as guns spoke. The next few minutes were a hail of bullets, steel, claws, and teeth. Demons and mortals alike fought for their lives. A tide of imps and fiends descended from holes in the ceiling in an unending flood. Lawrence watched the adventurers fight.

They showed no fear. The hyena guy laughed, high and mocking. He and the blue lady were a whirling storm of steel. The giant punched and stomped. He popped imps in his mouth like candy. The cat lady viciously tore through a giant three times her size.

The two crusaders stood back-to-back. Their swords brightened with flame. Their cuts extended further than any spear. Lawrence recognized Skills at work.

“[Triple Thrust],” the hyena guy shouted. He stabbed once. His target, a towering giant, reacted as if struck three times. “[Summon Familiars].”

Three blue ghosts appeared. They took the form of hyenas, but they were larger than any real hyena Lawrence knew. They swarmed around the larger demons while their master poked.

The machinist demon tossed two spheres. When they hit the floor, the lower halves folded down forming a tripod. The top half retracted. Slim barrels extended. The demon pulled a steampunk gatling gun from his satchel. It was almost as big as he was. He held it in a chainsaw grip, but it stayed on target because the side of the gun attached to a harness on his hip. The weapon’s soul crystals flared. Lead and balls of lights sprayed.

The supervisor’s whip extended further, a full twenty feet. He waded into the melee opposite Doofy. He hit his own slaves with his attacks, but he didn’t seem to mind.

The last member of the party, the captain, pressed her back against the wall of the cage. She had her weapon out, a M4 made of glowing greenish-blue light. Lawrence pushed himself upright. He looked down at her. She looked at him without fear.

“If we surrender,” she whispered. Lawrence couldn’t hear over the chaos, but he saw her lips move. “Will they let us live?”

He understood her concern. Her party, while formidable, was outnumbered. The fort’s lord wrestled Doofy, like David versus Goliath, which was mostly to stop him from crushing dozens of cannon fodder. The defenders pushed the adventurers back, one step at a time. Both sides bled for every inch, but they still moved.

“Will they let us live?” she repeated.

Lawrence shrugged. She grabbed him in a headlock. Lawrence felt cold metal press against his forehead. The captain began shouting, but no one heard.

Lawrence went over his spell list in his head. He had taken the time to hang multiple copies of all his spells. The time and iliaster required was immense, not to mention the expensive physical resources consumed. He was glad he had persuaded the lord to put up with him.

“Command The Elements,” Lawrence intoned. He scuffed the floor. It was stone. It would move. It wasn’t a real element—Lawrence felt something shift in his head—but it would obey. He lifted a wall of rock between both groups. It appeared with such suddenness neither side stopped fighting. The wall slammed into Doofy and the lord’s grappled hands, breaking all of them. Both screamed.

The wall continued up to the ceiling where it merged. It covered the party’s entire front in a half-moon. The cage full of damned sat behind. All the damned pressed themselves against the opposite side. Lawrence felt the captain’s grip slacken.

He pulled himself free. On the way out of her grip, her arm smacked his glasses. He barely caught them. Oh great. Now they were smudged. He pulled a microfiber cloth from his pocket to clean them.

“What happened?” someone said.

“Aaa-yooo,” Lawrence hollered. Surprised silence answered. Dozens of demons and hundreds of souls went silent. He shouted, “Mercenary captain says she wants to surrender.”

“Did you try giving her the money?” the lord’s voice was muffled.

“Yeah. Twice.”

“We needed the iliaster,” the captain said. “We were starving and so couldn’t leave.” She pulled a bottle of glowing liquid from her purse. The other adventurers did the same. They slurped the liquid down.

“Doesn’t excuse trying to kill my sorcerer,” the lord snapped. Lawrence realized he was thankful the monster was on his side.

“He burned me with hellfire,” the devil cat lady yelled.

“Not my problem.”

“This is ridiculous,” Lawrence put his glasses on. Part of him realized the demons were drinking health and stamina potions. The defenders had none. “Everyone put your weapons down. Let’s talk about this.”

“Seems pretty clear to me,” the lord said.

“Well, I’m still trapped in here,” Lawrence shouted. “I don’t wanna die. And I know you don’t want to lose any more men. Therefore, lets—let’s just call it what it is and let bygones be bygones. Let’s give them the souls they need and send them on their way. There’s no reason to push to kill.”

“Whatsits got sum nise stoof,” an imp rasped. “Kill the meetbag. Poke its wit sum. It bleeds.”

“Is it talking to you or me?” William leveled his sword.

“William, stanede fasÞ.” Rickard touched his arm.

“Sorcerer,” the captain nudged him. “If I give you coordinates, can you teleport us out of here?”

“The fortress is warded against it.” A trail of sparkling pixie dust floated around the edge of the rock. The demons blinked as it passed through them.

“LITES SO PRETTEE.”

A box appeared in the air in front of Lawrence’s face. His eyes widened. His first ever Program notification appeared, and it wasn’t even his. He reached out and tapped the box. It expanded to the size of a sheet of paper. It had a transparent background with white letters in the air.

“Uh, captain?” Lawrence asked.

“What? Is that a message spell?” she said.

“Ye-yeah. It is.”

“What does it say?”

“I’m not supposed to tell you. They want me… to… um.” The message faded.

“Who sent you a message, boy?” the fort lord moved around the side of the cage. “What you made you think a wall would help?”

“Um.”

“We are not negotiating.” He swiped his hand. “Tell your new friends to surrender and we’ll ransom them.”

Lawrence and the demons glanced at each other. He shook his head.

“We’re not—”

“We’re not—”

“No.”

“Will you agree to a Contract?” The captain asked.

“No.” The lord took a loaded crossbow from an imp. It was not a little hobbyist weapon nor a movie prop. It was the real thing. It had a draw strength of two hundred pounds. It had a steel arrowhead. At this range, it would kill all but the giant. “You may surrender and beg for leniency. Or else die.”

Lawrence opened another message. The adventurers looked at each other. Lawrence elbowed the captain. She gave him a dirty look. He elbowed her again.

“Kid,” she warned.

“Command the Elements,” Lawrence intoned. The floor heaved like the surface of a ship riding a wave. Everyone present slipped. Lawrence ignored the various screams, squawks, or squeals. He opened a hole in the new wall large enough for anyone to pass. Doofy stared in amazement at the cavernous room beyond it. A horde of body parts littered the ground, but a few demons waited.

While the negotiations had taken place, the remaining defenders redeployed around the cage. Some of them ran to other cages for quick drink to heal. Lawrence pushed through the adventurers. They realized what was happening.

The cat lady moved first. She bounded through the opening with Doofy on her heels. Lawrence ran behind them. He turned the corner. He ran around the curve of the wall. He came face to face with the lord. He heard the twang of the crossbow as the lord fired through the bars—not at Lawrence, at the adventurers.

“Hey, dude,” Lawrence told the fort’s lord.

“Why you little,” the lord snarled. “I should grind your bones into dust.”

“Hellfire Bomb. Hellfire Bomb.” Lawrence activated a spell with each hand. He thrust his palms forward, sending twin balls of greenish-black, soul-burning fire. The combined blast made the demon scream.

The [Demon Lord] retreated. Lawrence pulled his remaining grenade. He didn’t want to waste it on this guy, but he needed something big. He pulled the pin. He chucked it at the demon’s feet. He dove out of the way.

“Shield.” He barely got his spell off in time. The demon screamed. Lawrence felt the shrapnel bounce off his bubble, like molten rocks against plastic. The shrapnel slid off his shield to hit whatever stood nearby.

Lawrence curled into a ball. A fiend flew over him. Something sharp poked his head. Lawrence swung his fist. An imp jumped back, wings fluttering like a startled bird.

“We pokes it.”

A dagger penetrated its chest. The imp made a choking sound. It staggered off before lying down and dying. Lawrence saw red hair parted on one side, shoulder-length, and an adventuring outfit with leather armor. Lily grabbed his shoulder. Lawrence forced himself to stand. Lily dragged him away from the fighting.