The mole pulled back its claws and gave her a brief respite. Soon after however, it renewed its assault with increased fervour. Strike after strike pounded against her and Evelyn struggled to keep up.

She parried most of the blows with Spinebreaker, though a few slipped through the cracks. Each time the mole struck her body it sent her reeling and the monster gained more ground. The situation was looking grim, but Evelyn wasn’t fighting alone.

Kayla slipped under the beast’s hairy torso and unleashed a furious torrent of punches. The first blow left a small dent in its steel hide and each blow that followed deepened it.

Not wanting to let her act with impunity, the mole relented its attack on Evelyn and slashed at Kayla. She wouldn’t let it have its way.

Smoothly depositing Spinebreaker into her inventory, Evelyn rushed forward and grabbed hold of one of the mole’s claws. Digging her heels into the stone, she tugged with all her strength. She was far from powerful enough to bring the monster down but it hadn’t been expecting her move and stumbled.

There was an extended screech and a crack as Kayla’s latest strike tore through the steel plated underbelly of the mole and smashed one of its ribs. It let out a piercing squeal, so loud and sudden that it stunned the group and gave the monster an opportunity to counter attack, slashing at Kayla while she was frozen still.

The woman was ready and moved with typical swiftness to dart out of range, but as she went to pull her fist from the creature’s body it snagged on the edge of the steel plate. There was a sickening crunch as her wrist twisted at an unnatural angle and then another as the mole’s claw pierced her chest and snapped two of her ribs.

Evelyn moved on instinct, not really aware of what she was doing or how it was happening but from the moment she had heard Kayla’s wrist snap she leapt into the fray, not caring about her own safety as she raced to save her companion from doom.

Her job was made easier by her father’s intervention. He had engaged the mole in a battle of blade and claw, preventing it from using its other deadly limb to strike at Kayla. Evelyn managed to reach her in time to grab hold of the claw and stop it tearing all the way through her torso, but the wound was deep and leaking copious amounts of blood even with the claw still plugging it.

“Crap, stay with me Kayla. How did you let yourself get caught by this pathetic monster?” she said, half serious and struggling to keep a straight face when she saw how serious the situation was.

“It’s just a flesh wound darlin’. No need to panic. Just kill the bastard for me so I can take a breather,” she replied.

“Be serious. There’s still two days left of this. I don’t know what I would do if-”

“Don’t say it. That will never happen, trust me. It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“If you say so. We can figure it out. Crap. None of us have healing skills.”

“That won’t be a problem, just help me out first and we can deal with this afterwards.”

Evelyn grunted as the mole pushed back against her firm hold. It was trying to tear back its claw but she refused to let it move in either direction. An arrow whistled through the air and buried itself in the middle of the mole’s arm.

“Anthea no! That’s not-” Evelyn yelled out, expecting the arrow to explode and further aggravate Kayla’s wound but what actually happened shocked her silent.

A sound like someone punching a pillow came from where the arrow had pierced, then all of a sudden a section of the mole’s arm was sucked into a shifting portal that sat at the end of Anthea’s arrow. After a few more seconds it winked out of existence entirely after pulling the arrow itself inside. Evelyn staggered a little, left holding the mole’s claw all on her own.

The monster squealed once more, furious at how its efforts had been defied and its body had been mutilated.

However, it had lost the advantage of speed and surprise. Following Anthea’s devastating spell, which she must have been keeping a secret from even Kayla because the woman looked just as shocked as Evelyn when it had been unleashed, her mother sent a flurry of frost lances at the mole which gradually pierced through its steel armoured hide.

Her father charged forward after a genius parry left the mole undefended and with a graceful slash beheaded the beast. Its corpse slumped onto the battlements, where it started to slowly fade away. The aftermath of its assault however was now more critical than ever.

Evelyn turned to Kayla with fear in her eyes. She had been very reassuring in the heat of battle, but that was perhaps only to keep her from panicking and not being able to battle with her full strength.

Now that there was less impetus to stay hyper focused, would she be able to withstand the pain and damage the beast had left behind?

“Mei, I need a favour darlin’.”

Evelyn’s mother frowned a little, but quickly pulled her mouth taut. She wasn’t a fan of the southerner’s overt friendliness. “What do you need Kayla?”

“On the count of three, Evelyn is going to rip this big ol’ claw from my chest. At that point, a tide of blood is liable to flow out of me. I don’t want that to happen, so if you could be so kind as to freeze my entire chest as a stopgap measure while I work on a proper solution that would be fabulous.”

“What? Are you insane Kayla? No I’m not going to rip the claw out, it’s the only thing stopping you from bleeding to death.”

“Don’t be a wimp, darlin’. I’ll be just fine. Three.”

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“It’s going to hurt,” said Mei.

“It already hurts,” replied Kayla. “Two.”

“Please think about this. There’s no need to rush into something stupid,” said Evelyn.

Kayla shot a glance over her shoulder and then motioned with her eyes for Evelyn to look beyond the walls.

“There’s already two more of those bastards getting ready to charge us down. The walls might not hold for long and we’ll need everyone in fighting shape. This is necessary, darlin’. One.”

“Fuck Kayla. I hate this. Don’t ever force my hand like this again.”

“Zero.”

Evelyn grimaced as she tore the mole’s claw from Kayla’s chest and was showered in the woman’s hot blood. The taste of copper filled her mouth as it dripped onto her lips and tongue and she tossed the claw over the walls, not caring where it landed.

Mei raised both hands, all her focus on this singular task. The gaping wound rapidly froze, trails of icy blood running down Kayla’s chest. Evelyn could see the two broken ribs poking out behind the layer of ice.

“See darlin’, I told you it would be fine. Now we just need-”

Kayla’s eyes rolled into the back of her head halfway through speaking and she started to fall, but Evelyn was there to catch her. She shivered when the deathly cold ice touched her skin but that didn’t stop her from lifting Kayla into a princess carry, making sure she didn’t aggravate the woman’s injuries.

“God damn it. What do we do now? We don’t have a healer,” said Evelyn.

“Will Kayla be okay?” asked Anthea.

“Your friend will be just fine, don’t you worry your pretty little head,” said Mei as she strode towards her daughter.

“You shouldn’t lie. Her life is at serious risk,” said Evelyn.

“WHAT?” exclaimed Anthea.

“Don’t listen to Evelyn, she has no idea what she’s talking about.”

“Are you not seeing what I’m seeing, mother?”

“My frost won’t melt for hours and while her flesh will be damaged by the cold, the wound won’t worsen. She told you she would be fine, so trust her. You’ve always had a problem with that.”

“Not the time. Fine. I’m going to lay her down as far away from the edge of the walls as I can. We’ll need to deal with the monsters without her. Father, can I rely on you to pick up the slack?”

“Of course, my little menace. We’re just getting started. Kayla is going to wake up to a whole lot more essence and stars than she fell asleep with,” he answered as he wiped mole blood from his sword and turned to face the next two that approached.

Do we really have no choice but to sit here for two whole days and just take whatever the tower throws at us? I refuse to believe it wouldn’t leave us a better way out. A hidden objective perhaps? The same way the puzzle unlocked something deeper on the 16th Floor.

This time, her father’s blade took on a shimmering silver hue as he clashed with the first mole to reach them. Instead of having to parry and block the lethal strikes, he cleaved through its claws like butter and then thrust his sword through the base of its skull. It fell limp and he flicked blood and brain matter onto the stones before turning to the next monster, as though what he had just done was child’s play.

“So you were hiding your true skills too, father? We just swore an oath of loyalty, so why do I feel as though I’m being betrayed and deceived by everyone around me. From now on can we be open with each other. We’re on the same side. Let’s avoid crap like this,” she said while waving in Kayla’s general direction.

“I didn’t expect to need this skill just yet. We already agreed that conserving our energy would be the key to this event. You’re worried about Kayla, I get it, but don’t take your frustration out on us.”

Evelyn sighed as she equipped Spinebreaker. Rather than use the blunt side of the warhammer, she flipped it around and swung at the mole’s underbelly. The spike dug into the steel and a trickle of blood ran down the side of the deep red hammerhead.

Before the beast could respond, she booted the hammer with all her strength and it tore through the armour and into the soft flesh beneath.

She tore it out and as the monster was reeling from the wound, brought the spike down onto its head and then repeated the process, stomping on her hammer and spraying its brains across the battlements.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s just that… usually I’m the reckless one. And now I feel guilty for all the times I’ve rushed into battle without thinking about the consequences for everyone around me. So I’m feeling crap about two things, because I don’t know if Kayla will pull through.”

“Kayla’s tough as nails, she’ll be fine. I know it,” said Anthea.

The girl was smiling. A real smile, too. Some of the tension left Evelyn’s shoulders. They were all right. Kayla had said to trust her, and so she would. Instead of worrying about what she couldn’t fix, she would just focus on doing what she did best.

When the next mole scampered over the top of the wall, it barely had a chance to react before a warhammer smashed its jaw to the side and a shimmering blade sliced its claws off at the wrists.

They were Defiance, and the tower would not break them today.