“Hold! Hold for your friends! Hold for your family! Hold for your future!”

“We will not let this gate fall! We were tasked with creating a safe pathway and WE. WILL. NOT. FAIL”

“Fire! Load the slings! Fire!”

Camile. That was Camile’s voice and they were firing hallowed lights into the horde of the damned. Every one of the walking monstrosities that touched the light moved slower and took more damage for each hit. Van and the forest apes began to demolish the corpses and clear a path towards the middle. I felt my stats begin to increase as we got closer to the range of Camile’s inspiration skills.

“Supports! Rotate! Maximum boost on my mark! One! Two! Three! Now!” Camile shouted.

The wave of stat increases moved through our battered line like a tidal wave. Each ape was now able to destroy one of the damned with each swing of their muscle laden arms. Each soldier was easily a match for two of the walking corpses. Each citizen easily handled one at a time even with subpar weaponry. The tide of the battle turned on the spot and we pushed towards the gate.

The stat increases began to waver as we reached the last few lines of the horde separating the two forces. Caught between a fresh group of fighters and the rejuvenated group with us, it was quick work to clear the rest out. Nadia began to rally her soldiers to create two new defensive lines facing the approaching hordes. Halev looked to me and nodded then moved his pack to support Haust.

“Sylar!” Camile cried out and rushed forward to embrace me in a hug.

“Camile! What are you doing here?” I asked after extricating myself.

“It’s a long story. We came from the mine to support Nadia and rescue as many citizens as we could. After Marci lost contact with you we feared the worst...” She started to answer and stopped short, looking around. “Your mother?”

“She...I wasn’t...I couldn’t...” I mumbled out. Trying to forget about it but the image of her smiling face took up my entire mindscape.

“Sylar, my boy!” I was wrapped again in a hug that left me struggling to breathe. Arthur was still the largest man I had ever met.

“Arthur. It’s good to see you.” I choked out between attempted breaths, the loneliness and sadness already retreating around my friends.

“Time for reunions later, we have two more hordes approaching us attempting to close off this exit of the city. We need to keep this gate open and get as many of our citizens out as we can.” Arthur said as he pulled away. “Sylar, if you need healing Leslie is near the gate. Stay by her and regenerate, don’t risk it all now.”

He noticed me still cradling my left arm, I had feeling back again but it was still weak. I nodded to him and walked with Camile over towards the gate. I had so many questions to ask but Camile beat me to it by blurting out.

“Identify me!” She said.

Camile - Human - Level 40 - Light Of The Eternal - Health 180/180 - Armor 50

“Woah.” Was all I could say.

Camile was practically beaming as she enjoyed my reaction to her level. How much fighting had she been doing in the last week? We reached the gate before I could ask any questions and Leslie noticed us right away. She came over and placed her hand on my chest and closed her eyes. I watched my health bar start rapidly filling and my left arm started to feel normal again. I triggered Identify on Leslie too and she was now level 38. My confusion must have been evident on my face and Camile couldn’t help herself anymore.

“Level three of the dungeon is persistent! You can train there and leave without any penalties. The cooldown time between attempts is only twenty four hours and each hour inside the dungeon is only one minute outside! You won’t leave us too far behind again Syl!” She was radiating pride at herself.

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I looked over at Leslie and saw her smiling too. “We owe you a great debt, Sylar. We have been pushing ourselves to the limit since you left. Our entire Thork’s Mine team has been leveling inside the dungeon so we could come help relieve Etes.” Leslie answered my unasked question.

“Ten minutes til impact. Anyone who can still fight pick a side of the street and report to Nadia or myself. If you need healing make your way to the gate! We are not out of this yet. There are still thousands of citizens trapped in the city and we will do everything we can to give them a way out.” Captain Haust’s voice boomed over the area.

“I have to go Sylar, we can finish catching up soon. Stay and heal.” Camile said and walked away before I could react.

To my utter surprise an entire team of the support personnel from the Old Mining Camp Dungeon level two peeled off and joined her behind Nadia. The other half of their group moved to the other side to join the force under Captain Haust. Marci was delighted to see Camile again and was swooping down around her playfully. I heard loud grunting and turned to see Halev and Van in a standoff with Captain Haust.

“Sylar, good you're here. I don’t know how to communicate with your allies. They are fearsome warriors, I have never seen a force of melee fighters so uniquely devastating.” Captain Haust said with deference.

“Captain Haust, I speak for Van only when I saw he just wants to be pointed towards something to punch. Allowing him to form your vanguard and stay out of their way is the best combat strategy I can give you.” I said with a smile and tried to translate that to Van and Halev.

Halev had a look of amusement and pride radiated over our mental communication. Van however took it to a new level and pounded his chest in a roar that was taken up by every forest ape. Van walked up close to Captain Haust, close enough that to another person it would have been offensive. He pounded his chest and looked expectantly at Captain Haust.

Haust was unsure at first but pounded his chest in the same manner, gauntlet striking steel breastplate. Van pounded his chest again twice in a rhythm, he was teaching Haust one of the forest apes battle rhythms. Halev and I traded smiles and Halev walked up to me and leaned his head against mine. Pride, friendship, faith all rumbled over in a jumble and I felt him trying to communicate with me.

I opened the connection and watched from Halev’s perspective as Van argued with the pack elders. It was clear Van wanted to rally them to war against the elders' wishes. The next part brought me a truly genuine smile, Marci landed on Van’s helmet and fiercely shrieked at the opposing apes. The one two punch of my companions was enough to sway the pack.

Returning to the world brought a new sense of pride for my companions and trust with Halev. I left them working on Haust’s battle rhythm and walked back over towards the gate. Just being near Leslie was accelerating my healing by a drastic amount. There were a few other healers nearby but none as high level as her.

“Do we have supplies to craft more hallowed lights? Health potions? Anything?” I asked Leslie.

“I don’t think so, Sylar. You should ask Melinda or Tul, they did the bulk of the crafting. All of our supplies are farther back in one of the villages. We couldn’t risk losing them near the city if the fight went poorly.” Leslie answered.

I wandered around the makeshift camp and looked for either of the other alchemists. There were hundreds of people milling about now, the mood tense waiting for the two hordes. More citizens were making it down the main street and leaving the gate after getting directions towards safety. There were four rally stations set up along the way towards the Eternal Forest. Gleice, I was happy to hear, was one of them.

Looking through my inventory showed not enough ingredients to make anything even if I had the time. My bow was still with me but I had lost my quiver at some point. My spear was left in the square but I still had the flimsy spare. My dagger was at my side, not that I wanted to get that close to the undead.

I found Melinda and got the expected and unfortunate news that there were ten hallowed lights left and a handful of health potions. The fighting had been heavy when the force arrived to hold the gate, against the first army and then the first horde. I thanked her and went to find extra arrows and climbed up inside the gate house, then out onto the ceiling to survey the area.

Calling Marci over to me, she arrived and perched on my shoulder. She nuzzled in against my neck and projected love, which I projected back. It occurred to me that Marci would be perfect to scout for survivors and try to lead them back to the gate. I described what I meant and she projected understanding.

Hurrying down to speak to Melinda, she scribbled a few lines on a piece of paper and tied it to Marci’s leg. It was instructions to the main gate that we got from some of the citizens that lived nearby. We asked them where they thought the bulk of the population would still be hiding and Marci flew up and went on her way. I worried about someone attacking her but she was powerful in her own right at this point.

I climbed back up to the gatehouse roof and waited for the calm to end.