George watched the glittering star arch down toward the stage. He heard Nik yell, “Put on your helm, man! George! GEORGE! PUT IT ON!”

The scream broke his paralysis. He reached for his helm and nearly dropped the caster. That might be bad, so he crouched down to hold it in his lap as he fumbled with the headgear. Finally, he got it over his head.

The General turned out not to be the fop he’d appeared to be. “EVERYONE!” he yelled, “Shields! Shields! Shields!”

Someone was listening because a big wall formed in the air above them. And, none too early; the star immediately impacted it and started to melt through. Then it exploded!

George had just dropped to the ground when everything went white and he was blasted into the cavern. He hit something and bounced, then something else, and on and on. His armor did its job, so, although battered, he didn’t pass out.

Eventually, he landed hard one last time and slid to a halt. After a moment to gather his thoughts, he did an internal audit. When nothing reported in as broken, he unwrapped himself from around the caster and stood up to find himself deep in the boulder field, clad in his armor, but stripped of the borrowed uniform. From what he could see, the stage and tent were gone, but where it had been were several groups huddled under magical barriers. As he watched, most of the shields dissipated with loud pops.

Unfortunately, there was also evidence of people who’d not made it; smoking remains caught under boulders and limbs scattered about.

He looked over at the House troops. Both they and Horde showed losses; the rows nearest the stage were gone. Maybe pushed back, maybe worse. He couldn’t tell.

Well, Tenthé had warned them it was going to be rough. But this was more than he’d imagined! He hoisted the caster and ran toward the General, who had weathered the explosion and was standing where his table had been.

George had come up with a plan. Sort of. As he neared, he steeled himself and yelled, “Those damn miscreants! They fired on us!”

Hopefully, the situation didn’t demand a star performance. Whatever the case, the General was looking at him oddly. Nothing he could do about it, so he committed.

“Miscreants!” he yelled again. “Take this!”

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He pointed the caster in the direction of the Horde and pushed what he thought was the main trigger. Something didn’t work the way it should have. Instead of firing off one spell, the caster fed the entire cartridge through as fast as it could.

The kickback was incredible. George lost any semblance of control and sprayed spells everywhere; all over the Horde, the House troops, everything. He wasn’t in any position to notice because, for the second time, he was in the process of being blasted backward into the cavern. Along the way, he unknowingly passed over a prone figure.

Nik was slowly regaining consciousness. He remembered the star, then KA-BLOOEY! After that, nothing. It seemed the explosion had been enough to overload what his armor could handle. He wasn’t in any condition to be able to figure out how long he’d been unconscious.

At the moment, he was lying on his back among the boulders, watching the glows on the ceiling of the cavern. He tried to move, but his leg complained vigorously. Maybe it was broken, maybe not, but whatever; it really hurt! Just before he was about to try a little scream, his armor tightened up to stabilize the injury. Some feature he’d never had to use before.

With that basic first aid, he was able to make it to a sitting position where he had to pause as he found himself to be somewhat woozy and unable to track very well.

Once the world settled down, he went for it. Using the boulder next to him, he worked his way up until he was standing on his good leg. There was no chance that he was going anywhere, but now he could see. Smoke drifted everywhere, but he could make out enough to figure out that the tent and stage were missing… and the warriors were attacking! They’d pushed into the House formations.

House troops were trained to work in squads, where soldiers with defensive strengths protected those with offensive ones, all the while supported by ranged casters positioned behind. From what Nik could see, this discipline had broken down. All the officers had been up at the stage, and it was unlikely that anyone else was around to set up any sort of lines of communication. He was pretty sure that the troops further back had no idea what was going on at the front.

Yells, screams, the clash of weapons, along with the crack and flash of spells filled the air as the sides fought. After watching for a few minutes, though, it did appear that a number of soldiers were finally falling into formations, but it was not happening quickly.

Past the tumult, Nik could see something else going on at the rear of the cavern on the Horde side. Back there, the dome of a shield was lit up by flashes from the inside; some of the spells so powerful that the ground shook all the way out where he was.

Suddenly, the dome popped and smoke billowed out. Almost immediately, some massive weapon fired and blew through the area where the dome had been, indiscriminately wiping out scads of warriors and House troops before blasting a hole in the cavern wall.

At that point, all semblance of order disappeared, and it became a free-for-all. Nik was glad he was way out here and not over there. The fighting was brutal. In one case, he watched a warrior pick up a House soldier by the neck and shake him while the soldier stabbed the warrior over and over with his sword. They both fell back into the swirling chaos that surrounded them.

Truly, this was the worst kind of Hell.