Although most of the group only heard the name for the first time, they still turned towards the army mage.

“We did march through Rust-well Keep,” Clive nodded affirmingly. “However, it was in quite a bad shape. We had to clear it out of hundreds of fallen, barely a quarter of the locals remaining alive. Hopefully, things will get better with time. Anyway; if you have everything ready, we should get going.”

“Give me a few minutes,” the dark elf said as he turned towards the stairs. “I left a couple of things in the enchanters’ room.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Quentin stopped him. “We already picked up everything. Figured we’d let you sleep a bit longer after pulling another night shift.”

“Did you bring down...”

“We packed up the scrolls.” Valerie stated as she patted her knapsack.

“What about the...”

“The vambraces have been handed out as well,” Fabien nodded. “Don’t worry; we already packed up everything.”

“I guess nothing left but to head out then. Thank you for your hospitality elder Derris.” He turned towards the old scholar.

“No need to mention it, lad,” Derris sighed as he looked at the outlanders with a faint smile. “If anything; I should be the one to thank you for letting me out and helping the people of East Fork. I hope you know that our door is always open to you.”

“We’ll come back to visit once things settle down on our end.” Quentin promised as he shook hands with the elderly man.

“Thank you for everything.” Mary hugged old Derris before joining up with the others.

“You’re coming with us?” Regis asked as he looked at the young woman which is eyebrows raised.

“Is that a problem?” She asked back, fidgeting a bit under his gaze.

“No,” the dark elf shook his head. “I’m just surprised. I thought you didn’t want to fight. You know our journey won’t be uneventful.”

“I know,” the young woman nodded. But you were right. I need to become stronger and fighting is the only way I could gather Amaranth. I promise I’ll try not to get in the way.”

“No one ever thought you’d get in the way.” Fabien reassured her the rest of the group nodding in agreement

“If you have said your goodbyes and got everything ready,” Clive cleared his throat. “It’s best to head out as soon as possible.”

Saying that, the army mage walked out of the guild and over to the gateway that was built on the right side of the building. The outlanders followed him, both Regis and Valerie stopping for a moment as they felt their gateway amulet buzz with recognition as it automatically linked up with the portal. Clive stepped into the middle of the rune-carved circle and grasped his own talisman while the others surrounded him, making sure that no limbs or equipment reached out of the circle. The runes on the floor lit up one by one as a faint humming noise reverberated in the air. A moment later a strong light enveloped them along with the sense of weightlessness. They could feel the world shift around them for a split second before the light faded and they fell half an inch toward the ground, landing on their feet as a nauseated breath left their mouths. The wooziness Regis felt was overshadowed by the sensation of his portal talisman linking up with the local gateway.

“I think I’m going to hurl.” Fabien muttered while heaving in whatever air he could get in his situation.

“Halt!” A commanding voice heard and as the still disoriented group look it up towards its origin, they found themselves staring at several spears and swords that are appointed at them.

“At ease soldier,” Clive spoke up with a surprising authority in his tone. “It’s just me. I’m transporting a couple of people.”

“Forgive me, sir,” the soldier apologised post-haste as the rest of his companions lowered their weapons. “We feared that the enemy found a way in.”

“What... enemy?” The army mage tried to question his fellow soldier before the sound of a horn made everyone shudder.

“They’re gathering at the eastern gate!” Someone yelled and everyone turned around, running towards the wall of the town without even taking a second glance at Clive and the outlanders.

“I hate to be a downer;” Cruz sighed as she watched the local refugees rush into any nearby building while the soldiers headed towards the walls. “But I’m pretty sure there’s some serious shit going down around here.”

“It’s best if we see it for ourselves.” Quentin said as he and Clive headed towards the eastern gate, the rest of the group following them with a dejected sigh.

The wall was slightly smaller than East Fork’s, which was surprising, considering that Rust-well Keep was supposed to be more important from a strategic standpoint. The gates were closed and barred with large wooden beams, so they followed the running soldiers up the walls, the sight of a small army greeting them on the other side.

“What the hell are those things?” Amanda asked as she looked at the abominations that stared back at them from the cleared-out land in front of the wall of the keep.

More than a hundred figures could be seen gathering in front of the gates, sending a chill down most of the soldiers’ and outlanders’ spines. The roughly four feet tall creatures looked like misshapen children, their arms and legs too long compared to the rest of their body with dried blood and rotting meat scraps covering their skins. The people froze at the sight of the deformed faces that had several rows of teeth in their mouths, while inch-long claws could be seen on every hand and foot.

“I think it’s a Filth-spawn.” Regis said with disgust and nausea filling him as he caught a whiff of rot in the air.

“A what now?” Quentin asked as he stole a glimpse at the creatures.

“It’s pretty much the lesser cousin of the imps,” Valerie explained. “Which means that it’s a type of low-level demon. They have the IQ of a cauliflower and only know how to eat, fight and shit. A single filth-spawn is manageable, but if there are more than two and you don’t have a weapon, then run like hell. The problem is that they are seldom alone.”

“That’s a lot more than two.” Sophie whispered with a shudder.

Stolen novel; please report.

“How strong are they?” Quentin asked as he looked around, studying the terrified expression of the soldiers that manned the walls.

“Filth-spawns should be as strong as a six or seven years old kid. If they don’t have any weapons, then you only have to watch out for their claws and teeth. They can be real trouble in larger numbers though. Especially if there’s a higher-ranked creature leading them.” Fabien added with both Clive and Osmond nodding in agreement.

“You mean like that red-skinned jacked-up dude with the flaming mace in hand?” Cruz pointed at the creature that lead the small army of filth-spawns.

“You know,” Osmond looked at the muscular creature marching towards them with a slight annoyance. “As much as you guys hate my conspiracy theories, I’m pretty sure that this is the sin-marked demon Hyord was talking about before.”

“Shit!” Everyone cursed as one after realising that their companion might have been onto something.

“I thought that they might have headed towards Hunor to meet up with the Argents,” Valerie stared at the demon with the faintly glowing sigil on its chest as she unfurled her whip. “But the chances of another horde like that appearing here is quite low.”

“We don’t know that for sure,” her brother shook his head as his grip tightened on his sword's hilt. “From all that we know, there might be dozens of such demonic armies running about all around the kingdom.”

“It doesn’t matter how many of them are out there,” Cruz said as her staff’s ends grew metallic mace heads. “If they can bleed, then we’ll kill them.”

“That’s a sentiment I can agree with.” Clive said as a trio of arcane bolts appeared above both of his hands.

“Archers,” the local guard captain yelled. “Take aim!”

Dozens of bows, crossbows and even a few muskets were aimed at the incoming horde of lesser demons. When the horde reached firing range, the captain yelled once more.

“Fire!” He roared, arrows, bolts and cherry-sized bullets bursting through the air following his order.

Several of the charging demons fell as they got struck by the projectiles, the ones that got away unharmed reached the gates, crashing into them.

“Fire again!” the guard captain yelled, his fellow soldiers taking aim once again.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Valerie said as she watched the one-sided slaughter. “I know that flesh-mongrels are dumb as hell, but that sin-marked demon isn’t. So why is it charging at us like there’s no tomorrow, even though it’s obvious that they’ll get slaughtered?”

“It’s a diversion.” Regis and Quentin said in unison as they turned around, looking at the inner area of the small town.

“They’re sacrificing their pawns to draw attention outwards on one side.” Osmond added as the group hurried down the stairs and back to the local market square where the gateway was.

They barely reached the entrance of the market when screams caught their attention. Creatures of different sizes and colours were flooding out from a nearby well, attacking any of the refugees that were unlucky enough to have stuck around.

“Imps!” Fabien named the attackers, staring at the horned creatures that looked similar in size to the flesh-mongrels, but much more muscular and better equipped for the fight.

“We have to seal that well!” Quentin said as he rushed forward, bashing the nearest imp in the head with his shield.

A full-on battle broke out between the incoming demons and the outlander warband. Some of the local guards and Clive joined in, hoping to quell the enemy’s numbers before they could overrun the defenders. The flaming whip of the infernal woman lashed out several times, tearing into flesh before it folded into a longsword. Fabien’s weapon glowed blue as it crackled with lightning, each of his strikes reaping the small-sized demons like dry wheat.

Cruz and Amanda threw themselves into the battle with weapons burning, heavy strikes breaking bones with audible cracks. Letty and Mary tried their best to halt the advance of the imps with whatever crowd control spells they could muster while Osmond summoned his skeletal bear and his hell-hound puppets to aid him. Regis tried his best to weave through the tide of demonic creatures while glowing blue threads formed above his left palm, turning into a globe of light.

When he reached the well, he pierced one of the imps through its chest as it climbed out before aiming the light ball into the well. He released a greater runic ray of light into the well, the screams of dozens of spell-scorched demons rising from it before he used his innate terraforming spell to seal the well with a thick layer of condensed earth which he then proceeded to turn into stone using another geomancy spell.

“It’s sealed!” He yelled to the others, turning around to see them finish off the remaining imps.

“Is everyone alright?” Quentin asked as the final imp intruder got slain.

“Still breathing.” Cruz answered first, yanking her staff’s end from a demon’s crushed skull.

“Looks like the locals could use some help.” Sophie pointed it out before hurrying over to heal a wounded soldier.

The others followed her example, healing whomever they could, while the guards atop the walls finished off their supposed distraction.

“Thank you for your aid,” the local guard captain said after a cut on his left forearm got healed. “I didn’t expect the bastards to be smart enough to use actual tactics.”

“Not all demons are as dumb as a bag of hammers,” Osmond sighed. “Using the well as an entry point however does sound like something that only a really smart tactician would do.”

“How the hell did they even do it?” Amanda asked as she looked at the now sealed well. “Aren’t small wells like these supposed to be a straight hole dug into the ground to reach the water layers?”

“Not all of them,” Letty shook her head. “Some of them are connected to underground water passages.”

“If the passage dries up, it could become an underground tunnel.” Cruz continued following her sister’s logic.

“It doesn’t matter, whether it was a natural passage or if they dug their way through the ground,” Clive spoke up finally. “It must be collapsed or we will risk the chance of another incursion.”

“If they were capable of digging through the ground to reach the well,” Quentin shared his thoughts. “Then they would also be capable of digging towards other areas of the keep, and then dig a tunnel towards the surface.”

“Quentin’s right,” Valerie agreed as she folded her whip. “They found one way in, they’ll find another one soon enough.”

“What do you suggest then,” Clive asked almost growling at the infernal woman. “Should we just leave Rust-well Keep to its fate, so the demons could overtake it?”

“You need a priest to consecrate the ground.” Fabien answered the question.

“That would require a second-tier clergyman,” the army spell caster let out a defeated sigh. “It’s not that easy to procure the assistance of such personnel. We had an abundance of demonic attacks over the past month. Most of them were already sent out to deal with similar situations.”

“It’s not our job to tell you what to do,” Regis said with a firm tone. “Edmund claimed the royal army had things under control, and we won’t question his declaration. My companions only shared their opinion on the matter. What you do from here on out is up to you. We have our own task ahead of us.”

“Are we going to just leave like this?” Mary asked as she looked around, her eyes stopping at the dead refugees and the slain imps.