The group broke into two groups in a staggered formation as the rest of the company held their position and scanned rooftops or examined the surrounding homes and businesses before continuing forward. The sound of horns echoed in the distance, one cry was followed by another more distant call, almost as if each mournful blast was a communication of some sort. Aichlan tightened his gauntlets and hunched his shoulders against the freezing rain, droplets dripped from a miserable scowl across his face. Clarissa sneezed and cursed in Elysian behind him as she clutched her hood against the winds.

  They trudged down the rutted cobblestone streets, through countless puddles of mud, water and bodily fluids. A deep rumbling shook the ground, like the massive, meticulous footsteps of some colossal being. Blasts from the horn boomed at steady intervals in response to the howls. Aichlan surveyed the faces of the dead slumped over against the walls or face up in the puddles, their expressions were frozen in anguish and horror. Eth grumbled as he prodded the corpses with eagerness to test his new blade. Aichlan laughed aloud, much to his unit's surprise and Eth’s displeasure.

  “What the hell are ye laughin’ at?” He paused before tacking on: “General?”

  “You! I can smell the bloodlust wafting off you even in this torrent!” He laughed heartily, the act shaking more water from his hair. “You’ll get yer chance for combat Eth; you needn’t be so bloody hasty.”

  A streak of lightning arched across the sky, followed by a booming clap of thunder. Aislyn shrieked and leapt onto the back of an unsuspecting elf as Odell doubled over in laughter. Eth grumbled and put away his sword.

  “Be’er see tae the wee one’s there Aichlan.”

  It was now Aichlan’s turn to grumble as he turned to face the two archers. “Is everything alright with the both of you? Or did you just think now was an opportune time to fool around?”

  Aislyn bowed her head; her face flushed red in embarrassment, only Odell seemed unfazed by the rebuke. He was beginning to regret his decision to include them in earnest. They knew absolutely nothing of discipline and carried on if this whole ordeal were some elaborate game or carefree hunting excursion.

  “I’m sorry General, it is just that I have a fear of thunderstorms… it goes back to when I was a child…”

  Aichlan held up a hand for silence lest the woman tell the whole sad tale. He seriously considered sending them back.

  “That will be fine Aislyn, perhaps you and Odell should scout ahead, see if you can discern the source of those noises.”

  Thunder clapped again, and Aislyn jumped as she stifled a scream. Odell turned to the side as he tried to hide his smirk, only to burst out laughing despite his efforts. It was as if they did not fully understand the direness of the situation. He could not fault them entirely however, he had just been having a laugh at Eth’s expense. The rain continued to fall in heavy droplets, a steady low roar shattered sporadically by the rolling thunder and the horn like bellows that grew ever near. He shivered involuntarily; he regretted having given away his coat in a moment of chivalry.

  Enyo had draped it over her head, the too long sleeves having swallowed her hands. He did his best to smile through chattering teeth, but the gesture went unnoticed. Behind him, a foot splashed in a puddle nearby as someone or something came to a halt nearby. Aichlan whipped around to see a man in a full suit of armor, heavily stained with blood and bits of flesh. The rain bounced off its armor, the sound of heavy drops striking the metal was almost melodic.

  “What the hell?” He drew his sword and stepped forward, straining to get a good look at the figure in the dim light. “You there! State your allegiance and intentions.”

  The figure swayed gently in the rain, blood and water ran down its armor and blade. Eth increased the heat of his ‘umbrella’ and approached, gripping his sword with white knuckles. Aislyn readied her bow as Odell leapt up onto a stack of barrels, knocked his arrow, and took aim.

  “Hold, for now. All of you!” Aichlan barked, and held out his arm.

  Eth stepped back reluctantly as Aislyn and Odell lowered their bows. More figures clad in armor slunk from out of the shadows. They stood in silence as the rain drummed against their bloodstained armor. Aichlan slowly lowered his hand as he stepped forward. The lack of light and steady stream of rain made it impossible to discern who or what it was that stood before him.

  “Why are we waitin’? It’s bloody well obvious they’re the villains we search for!” Eth hissed as steam rose from his eerily dry skin and hair.

  Aichlan eyed the figures carefully. “…In the time we’ve known each other, when have I rushed in blindly without first assessing the situation?”

  “Do ye want an honest answer fer that lad?” Eth gritted his teeth as he stared down their opponents. “I say we burn ‘em Aichlan, I daen’t like this shit one bloomin’ bit.”

  The first armored figure slowly walked forward, its armor clanking with each step. A lightning bolt illuminated the figure as it stepped from the shadows, its body was that of a man or manlike, its head was that of a cobra, Rottweiler hybrid. Clarissa and Aislyn shrieked in terror as Aichlan recoiled in surprise.

  “Dawn's light! What the bloody ‘ell is that?” Odell swore and dropped his aim in awe.

  “We are the Sons of Epsilon, guardian of the forgotten wastes. We sensed the presence of this world for the first time in eons and came, only to find the soil born filth still walking this land.”

  “Holy ‘ell, dzey speak…” Clarissa made the sign of The Dawn and retreated behind Eth.

  Eth swung his sword in anticipation. “He did nae sound too fuckin’ friendly Aichlan.”

  The creature flicked its serpent like tongue in Eth’s direction. The sight of it caused a chill to run down Aichlan’s spine. The fact that these creatures walked and talked like men was oddly unsettling.

  “Son of Rhode, I shall force feed you excrement and see how long you survive caged for our amusement.”

  “…Damn, alright.” Aichlan steadied his sword. “Kill ‘em.”

  He issued the attack, and circled the lead monster. Aislyn and Odell let their arrows fly, but they struck harmlessly upon the creature’s armor. It looked down at its dented chest plate, then back at the archers and licked its fangs. Aichlan swore under his breath as he was reminded of Taryn’s assertion regarding the archer’s skill. While those shots were fine for game or lightly armored troops, these things were wearing plate armor, and the arrows were not so much as a nuisance.

  “Such fools…” The creature hissed.

  It dropped to its belly, and rapidly morphed into a serpent as it slithered over to Aislyn. It rapidly returned to its humanoid form mere feet away from her and raised its sword to attack. Aislyn leapt back in shock, narrowly missing the blow. Eth lunged over and swung his blade, the speed of the slash seemed to cut through the rain that now fell in sheets. The serpent leaned out of the way, contorting its body into an S, and returned the slash with equal ferocity.

  Aichlan charged forward and blocked an oncoming blow from one of the other creatures that had joined the fray. He evaded three heavy blows, and parried the last with his buckler before going on the offensive. The being effortlessly deflected his blows, but each strike sent the creature backwards towards a wall. The serpent slid lithely out of the way of every cut and slice. He pressed his attack in frustration, and continued to pressure the monster; sparks from their clashing blades briefly illuminated them before they sizzled out in the rain.

  Aislyn drew back her bow and sent an arrow flying towards the head of Aichlan’s opponent. Just as the arrow was about to impact, it turned and bit down upon the arrow, and snapped it in two while simultaneously lashing Aichlan with its tail. He stumbled back in surprise; he had not been able to connect with anything.

  Enyo’s squad joined the battle and formed up as the rest of the demons marched forward in military fashion. As more and more armored creatures came out of the woodwork, it became glaringly obvious that they were severely outnumbered. To compound their hopeless situation, undead burst through doorways and from out of alleyways to merge with the main force.

  All in all, there were at least two hundred of the creatures; those who call themselves the Sons of Epsilon, and several dozen undead. Aichlan opened his mouth to sound a retreat when Enyo broke into a sprint beside him. She was a flaming pale blur as she dragged her massive blade, leaving a trail of sparks that erupted from the stone upon impact with the strange silver alloy. She rushed headlong into the formation, and began a savage dance of power and flames that decimated an entire rank. He abandoned his current dancing partner and took off to regroup with Enyo and Eth.

   Eth swung his blade savagely about as his opponent flipped overhead and slithered between his legs, evading each attack. Infuriated, he plunged his blade into the ground; the cobblestone road buckled and erupted violently into a shower of magma that oozed into the sinkhole that formed around him. The beast stumbled and crashed into a flaming geyser of molten rock.

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  Aichlan skidded to a stop on the slick stone beside his second in command, and took out two of the undead that had snuck up beside him. Eth smirked, oblivious, and lifted his great sword overhead. The blade lit up like a massive torch before he slammed it into another of the creature’s chest. The sinkhole quickly filled with molten stone and rapidly cooled in the rain, solidifying into semi solid rock. He leaned upon his blade and thrust it deeper into his charred foe, twisting it for emphasis, and engulfed the remains in fire.

  Aichlan crossed blades with his opponent as it morphed and slithered around him. Their strikes flashed like streaks of lightning, the sound of steel striking steel competed with the roll of thunder overhead. He ducked a wild swing, and countered with a full force slash at the creature’s throat. With unnatural speed, the demon morphed its neck into the coils of a serpent and stretched back, just out of his reach. The attack left Aichlan stumbling and susceptible to counter attack. Almost on instinct alone, he flung himself to the ground as the creature struck as a coiled viper, its armor collapsed in a clattering heap where it once stood.

  The serpent reconstituted itself in its man like form, revealing a lizard’s torso and canine like lower limbs. Aichlan scrambled to his feet and rubbed his bloody hands off on his trousers. The demon crouched and leapt as a tensioned spring suddenly released. Aichlan stepped back and raised his sword in anticipation only for the beast to instantly fall back to the ground with wind shearing velocity. By luck or sublime skill, he dove out of the creature’s path as it shattered the street sending forth a shower of stone and mortar. He barely had time to stand before he was forced to block another strike. He reflexively took an impotent slash at air as his opponent slithered around him. He lashed out in counter attack, only for his blade to slide off of the demon's sword. The demon's blade managed to glance off his own and draw blood from his neck. Finding his opening, Aichlan slammed his redirected blade into the demon's thigh. He followed with an uppercut with his buckler and several knees to the solar plexus before he removed his blade and decapitated the demon.

  Aichlan swung his blade to shake the residual gore from its edge. Sensing movement behind him, he whipped around to slice another beast deep across the sternum. With a grunt of frustration and rage, he kicked the demon from his blade and planted it in its throat. The sound of footsteps in the puddles caused Aichlan to twirl back around and clash swords with Eth as he stumbled over.

  “Bloody--! Watch it will ya!”

  Eth whipped around to torch an approaching serpent and Aichlan shoved his way past and decapitated another that had snuck up on them. A steady stream of the undead at various stages of decay shambled or crawled their way onto the street, they had surrounded them and left Aichlan’s search party scattered.

   “What the hell are these things?” Aichlan ducked a strike, and Eth finished the kill. “We need to leave this place and regroup.”

“To hell with this!” Eth blasted a nearby home into a hellish inferno, the act demolished it and nearby buildings. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere. Ye and Clarissa can go after our missin’ men; I’ll stay here tae fight.”

  Aichlan waved for the group to assemble around him. Clarissa was the first to scamper over, her face ashen and her eyes wide. He felt horrible for having put her through so much trauma, but it was after all her choice to tag along. She nodded as he placed a hand on her shoulder, and he scanned the road for the rest of his group. Enyo whistled as she decapitated one of the serpents, and rallied her squad. The rest of the unit saw the commotion and fought their way over to aid. One of Enyo’s men was engaged in a duel he was unable to escape from, he tried to disengage but a single misstep left him to shriek in horror as he was rent and dismembered. Enyo paused and considered turning back to avenge her fallen man.

  “Enyo! It is lost to us.” Eth called in Elvish.

  Aichlan aimed his sword at the street behind the smoldering rubble. “We regroup o’er there, Enyo with me, Eth; hold them here. Should you become overwhelmed, lure them back to the port. Send a runner ahead.”

  Clarissa flinched as a corpse fell at her feet. “Just zee three of us?”

  “No. Enyo, bring five of your swiftest.”

  “Swiftest? Don’t tell me…” Clarissa whined.

  “We run.”

  “Yes General.” Enyo motioned for her squad.

  He grabbed Clarissa’s hand and took off through the ruin, leaping over flaming timbers and eviscerated corpses. They wound their way around several alleys before making their way back onto a main street. Upon reaching the thoroughfare, Aichlan collided into Alice, and they both fell to the ground. He leapt to his feet as Alice scampered away, a lightning spell on one hand at the ready.

  He lowered his sword in surprise. “Alice! Where is--?”

  “Ow!”

  Alice scrambled to her feet as Fiora jogged over followed by Maleah and her wounded brother.

  “No time Aichlan, the cities lost, everyone is undead!” Alice clutched her head; blood seeped from between her fingers.

  “Clarissa, Séverin is badly hurt, can you do anything for him?”

  Clarissa was already at Maleah’s side by the time she finished her plea. She took on the ethereal glow as she transferred the healing aura into Séverin’s broken body. Enyo searched the faces and frowned upon not finding Donough in the crowd.

  “Where is Donough? You did not leave him behind did you?”

  Maleah snarled upon catching Enyo’s suspicious glares. “Why the fuck are you lookin’ at me? He opted to stay on his own. It’s not like we weren’t going back. We lost Ransom and Emarosa as well.”

  Aichlan made his way over to Clarissa’s side. “Lost? What do you mean lost?”

  “No, not dead, I don’t think. Just missing.”

  Maleah avoided Aichlan’s eyes as she jingled the wards still affixed to the head of her lance. She had a nasty lump on the side of her head. He was surprised to see her so lucid. He looked up as Madden and Taryn rounded a corner, knocking over garbage cans and debris as they stumbled out of the alleyways and onto the main street.

   “Well if it in’it the big brute ‘isself. ‘Ow goes it ol’—?” Odell began, but stopped short upon catching their strained expressions.

  Madden and Taryn broke into a sprint, running with all their might, their arms flailed as if they were trying to issue a message.

  “What’s their problem?” Aislyn stepped forward, squinting to see their faces. “Are they in trouble?”

  It took a moment for Aichlan to recall that he had even brought the two of them along. His thoughts quickly turned to where it was they had been this entire time; he certainly did not remember telling them to tag along for this leg of their failed excursion.

  “Fuckin’ run you ijeets!” Taryn shrieked as Madden hoisted her up on his shoulder, but still kept the breakneck pace.

  Donough went crashing into the side of a building with a pained grunt. His head held a flowing mane of blue fire, and he appeared even more massive than usual. A pitch black, ephemeral arm shot out of the shadows and swatted at him, and he deflected it with his flaming sword.

  “That’s uncle Donough…”

  Aichlan turned to Enyo in disbelief. “Are you certain? He…burned off his hair.”

  “Yes, he has transcended the berserker rage of the others. He has become one with the flame within. For him to have deemed this strength necessary…”

  Madden charged past while Taryn still screamed from his shoulder. Maleah stood and backed away while trying to see what had them so terrified.

  “I think we should follow their lead general. This whole city is overrun by some Morlocks puppets and these giant, things.” Maleah frantically gestured over her head, attempting to convey the scale.

  She inadvertently backed into Clarissa, startling her as she helped Séverin to his feet. Though he was now fully conscious, if not dazed, his wounds seemed quite grave still.

  A massive shadow formed in front of Donough as he slowly dragged himself from the rubble. A grotesque quadruped rose from the void, its gaudy pelt splattered with orange blotches over grey and black. Its maw was that of an alligator, the hindquarters of a rhinoceros and the front quarters of a great cat. Its waiflike tail was a massive arm with knife-like claws. Its seven eyes shined like stars in the blank infinity of space, and a tongue hung limply from a mouth overcrowded with fangs.

  The creature’s tail shot into a building to its left, and re-emerged out of the building behind Donough, having bent through space and time. Caught off guard, he was slammed to the ground, and the ghoulish hand wrenched and squeezed him relentlessly. Odell knocked an arrow and took as steady an aim as his trembling arms would allow. He tracked the creature for several seconds, awaiting the perfect shot.

  “Are you insane?” Aislyn hissed, startling Odell into releasing his missile.

  The arrow impacted harmlessly in the creature's pelt and became lost in the fur. Aichlan turned and glared at the young man, but the boy’s evident terror prevented him from further scolding the child. He turned his ire next to Aislyn, who wore a self-important look as if she were beyond reproach. He swore aloud and turned his gaze back to the fight at hand, it was really his own damn fault for allowing children to tag along in the first place.

  “General, permission to intercede upon Donough’s behalf.”

  "What, you wanna talk to the thing?” Aislyn snapped.

  Enyo growled under her breath as she shot Aislyn a malicious glare. Aichlan placed a hand upon her shoulder, and she eventually turned her indignation elsewhere. Aislyn slowly backed away; unsure of what to do and whether to be more afraid of Enyo or the strange creature before them.

  “I believe you misused that word, however your intention is clear. You and I shall go together.”

  “That’s madness! You can’t take that beast alone Aichlan!” Alice cried, still bleeding profusely from a gash on her arm.

  “No, nor do I intend to, however, none of you are in any position to help. You will return to camp, ready the army. We will rendezvous with Eth and raze this light forsaken port.”

  Alice opened her mouth to protest, met only by Aichlan’s stoic gaze. She nodded slowly and allowed Fiora to help her back to her feet.

  “This is not up for debate. Enyo, with me.”

  The two took off after the creature as the rest stood dumbfounded. The moaning of undead and clashing steel from the other street grew closer brought Fiora back to her senses. She gently nudged Alice in the direction of the port and took Séverin from Maleah’s shoulder.

* * *

  “You heard the General, we must return to camp. Aislyn was it?” Aislyn nodded in response as Fiora took stock of who remained. “You and Alice go ahead and find a clear route.”

  Fiora turned to the group of five elves that looked longingly toward their commander as she engaged the behemoth. “You five, cover our escape. Lady Cardinal.”

  “Please Fiora; we’ve known each other far too long to resort to strained formalities.” Clarissa snapped irritably as she summoned The Dawn to seal Alice’s gash.

  “Fine, Clarissa, can you heal and run?”

  “Hmm, I can certainly try.” She replied and took on the ephemeral look of serenity.

  “Then we run!