Stabbing through one dwarf, Abe threw its lifeless body aside as another drove a sword into his side.

The dwarf immediately realized its mistake as it tried to pull its sword free to no effect. Abe could feel the worms wrapping their tendril-like bodies around the blade, refusing to let go.

Bringing his sword down and over his head, Abe split the skeleton’s skull in two.

The waves were coming consistently, but since Xer had joined Viara’s effort to attack the flying creatures above, fewer dwarves had been flying down.

He watched as another line of a dozen dwarves marched forward, their shields held high. He didn’t have time for their bullshit.

Turning to his side, Abe sheathed his sword, took hold of a golem, and hurled it at the steadily marching line.

The golem blew up spectacularly, completely shattering the ones who stood in the middle and dropping those around them to the ground.

Before the surviving dwarves could climb back to their feet, he charged—bursting their skulls apart as he swiped down at the rising skeletons.

Above him, the longboat-like whales turned after Viara, shooting another glancing blow as she returned fire, her explosive power bursting across its back and sending two dwarves hidden behind shields falling toward the ground.

The battlefield was filling up with the corpses of skeletons, zombies, and golems. But since the last wave of dwarves had been wiped, a lull swept across the hilltop.

Wounds were mounting up across his body, and he took a quiet moment to drink a vial of blood. It meant he only had one left, and while he could charge down the hill and reach the camp in a short moment to collect more, it seemed too risky in their current situation.

An earth-shaking explosion stole his attention. Flames ripped through the side of one of the whales above, sending burning debris flying through the hair and flaming dwarves falling toward their true deaths.

He spotted Viara, who was hunched over and appeared to be recovering her energy. His energy vision painted a bleaker picture. Her deathly energy that swirled around her chest like a core wavered. Weakening pulses of energy fluttered back and forth as it looked to be dimming. She had drained herself too much and wouldn’t be much more use unless she had time to recover.

He turned his gaze back to the whale, the flaming beast was falling toward the forest now, its flames spreading to the trees below. As it hit the ground, a mushroom of fire burst up into the air.

They had finally managed to down one of the whales, but there were still two left, not to mention all the sharks still circling above, and Viara looked like she was done for.

Slagot sneered at the display of power. He stood with his acolytes, controlling the shield of shimmering power he used to defend them from outside attacks. It had held up well enough so far, but being immobile, it would have been crushed in short order if the flying attackers had directed all of their power toward it.

Abe glanced over at the necromancer. Xer was doing his best, but the power he shot out didn’t seem strong enough to take the whales down, and the golems couldn’t fly.

Something had to be done before the battle became unrecoverable. He dipped into his back pocket and unholstered the magnum. Flicking the cylinder open, he unloaded the bullets into his palm and dropped them into an empty pocket. Taking out his remaining blessed bullets, Abe loaded the pistol.

He aimed up at the whales, but there was no way he could make a reliable shot from here.

Turning his gaze back to Viara, he began to wave. She had said she would see him, but he had no idea if she would listen.

A couple of dwarves charged across the hilltop, and he turned to them with a frustrated growl, leaping into the closet and cutting down the second whilst he was atop it. And then turning his blade down against the dwarf struggling against his weight.

“Give me a damn moment,” he roared as he began waving for Viara again.

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He watched her fly through the sky, barely dodging two beams as her movements slowed.

His eyes widened, and a gasp escaped his lips as another beam flew toward her. She dodged it by an inch, but two sharks twirled after her, firing their own beams, one hitting her shoulder and another slamming into her chest.

It seemed like a shield had taken some of the damage, but not enough, and her body fell toward the ground.

As he watched in horror, Abe noticed several dwarves at the far end of the hilltop that had fallen back, take notice. The dwarves were now moving to intercept where her body would land.

“Xer, you’re taking over!” he shouted as he began to run toward the group of dwarves.

“Cold feet already?” Xer shook his head as he fired green flames as he walked backward toward the shield surrounding the acolytes—with two golems fighting at his side.

Abe counted six dwarves as he approached, and Viara was quickly descending upon them. He needed to act quickly, but as the defensively-minded dwarves turned toward him, his stomach sunk.

He wished he had saved the vial for after this fight, but with no other options, Abe leaping toward the shields. Slashes gazed across his body as he twirled through the formation, cutting down dwarf that gave him an opening.

Turning wild momentarily, he funneled his and the worm's energy into his thrusts, throwing down any dwarf he couldn’t land a killing blow on. And within seconds, he was surrounded by a pile of broken, armored bones.

Thankfully, Viara seemed to fall gradually through the air—her remnant deathly energy allowing her to glide down.

Another skeleton charged Abe as she was barely a meter from him; he turned to it furiously and cut it down in seconds while receiving a shallow wound across his arm.

Gazing back up at Viara, Abe extended his arms, and she gently fell into them.

There was no time for romantics, and he placed her against the ground as he turned to cut down two more advantageous skeletons attacking his flank.

He looked down at Viara as she breathed rapidly and then across to the surrounding forest, where he could see the fish skeletons fighting through the last lines of golems with the occasional explosion sending them flying.

“You alive?”

“I am,” she groaned, wincing as her eyes fluttered open.

“Good, because we have a fucking situation.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

Abe shrugged, his gaze already turned back up to the whales.

“It’s over, Abe. You’d be better served trying to keep yourself alive. There’s no saving those acolytes now.”

“I’ve got a plan,’ Abe shook the revolver in his hand and looked up at the whales turning in the sky as they made their approach for the acolytes, several of their energy beams already shooting toward the shimmering shield. As the red beams slammed against the barrier, angry ripples cascaded across its surface, and it flickered several times.

“You’re going to save us all with that little gun?” Viara’s unpressed gaze dulled.

“It’s not little,” Abe said, tilting the pistol in his hand. “Besides, I’ve got blessed bullets, and they pack a punch.”

“They’re going to need to be some damn good blessing to take out those things,” she said through labored breaths.

“They are, trust me. I need to get up there somehow,” Abe pointed at Viara and then at the whales and smiled.

“I see,” she sighed. “It might be possible, but you’ll need to give me a moment. I can barely myself right now, let alone take you on a joyride. I need to recover some deathly energy.”

“Joyride?” Abe bounced his brows with a smirk.

“Don’t test me,” she groaned as she held her stomach.

“What’s dying without a little comic relief?”

“Just go kill some skeletons or something while I recover,” she said.

He could see her core and the energy flickering from it steadily calming. It seemed that her energy was recovering surprisingly fast, and he figured she must have a special means of recovering deathly energy.

That looks useful—I really should probably learn how to do something like that.

Since Xer seemed to be handling the attackers well enough for now, Abe took care only to engage the dwarves one by one. Even though he was still in a manageable state, he didn’t need any more wounds covering his body, especially not with whatever was coming next.

With the whales and sharks turning their attention to the tower, blasts exploded across the shimmering shield protecting the acolytes—causing the shield to flicker away several times before reforming.

Another beam flew by as the shield dissipated, and Xer was forced to have one of his golems leap into the air, it disintegrating the golem in seconds. While the beam was reduced in strength, it was not stopped. Continuing, it pounded into a section of the channeling circle, vaporizing two of the acolytes before the shield flickered back into existence, breaking off the beam’s attack.

Slagot yelled something from within the shield as he shook his fists at the group.

“Curse it all,” Xer shook his head, destroying another dwarf with his green flames as it blocked attacks from his golems. “We can’t let that thing attack again!”

“Think I don’t know that?” Abe shouted back and turned to Viara.

Tight-lipped and shaky, she climbed back to her feet and nodded.

“Are you sure?”

“Just get over here,” she muttered through gritted teeth as the energy in her core pulsed.

“Just don’t get us killed, okay?” Abe said as he dashed back over to her.

Sparks of energy flickered across balls of red, concentrated energy forming beside the whales as they prepared another attack.

“We can’t afford to lose any more acolytes!” Shouted a mouth that formed across the shield, and Abe turned to see that Slagot had somehow channeled himself into the shield.

“Yeah, yeah,” he shook his head as he reached Viara. “We’re on it.”

“That thing is getting a boot down its throat when we’re done with this,” Viara sneered as she took hold of Abe.

“Be careful; he might like that,” Abe grinned.

“Shut up, you,” Viara groaned.