Nisha turned her gaze on Hump, her purple eyes glittering with golden flakes. Blood coated her mouth and stained her teeth pale pink. He reached for her mind but she was closed from him. Still there, but distant.

Despite the ferocity, Hump was enamoured by her radiance. Her scales were the purest of gold, radiating a glow like phoenix fire. An aura of intensity filled the air around her, pressing down even on Hump, powerful enough for him to feel an instinctual fear. Whatever change she had gone through, it had given her great strength.

But there was still fighting to be done. Hump glanced at Soren who had taken care of the other two attackers, their bodies now lay on the floor, pieces missing from them where Soren had used his metal magic to carve them up. It was ruthless efficiency, but war was always brutal. The important thing was that they’d been dealt with.

“Are you good?” Hump asked.

“Yes, I’m well enough. How about you? That was a nasty hit you took.”

“Felt nasty,” Hump said, touching the back of his head and wincing. His hand came away smudged with blood. “I’ll live.”

Soren nodded. “Why is your dragon looking so… shiny.”

“I’m not sure,” Hump admitted, keeping his voice calm despite his own unease. “Best you keep some distance for a minute.” He turned back to the little dragon.

“You had best hurry,” Soren said. “The fighting in the hallway is getting worse. We need to get a move on. I’m going to see if I can shut off this teleportation array before we have any more visitors.”

Suddenly, Nisha shuffled around to face the chamber door, hunching forward and unleashing a primal snarl. Her aura grew more intense, prickling against Hump’s skin. The air trembled. Smoke seethed from the corners of her mouth, her breathing heavy.

Hump glanced back to see Celaine and Emilia there, their weapons ready. They must have come to help when they’d seen Nisha rush to his aid. Celaine’s brow was furrowed with worry, but Hump waved them off. “Go! We’re fine here.”

He didn’t wait to see if they’d listened, turning back to Nishari. “It’s just Celaine and Emilia, you silly girl,” he chided. “Calm down, Nisha. It’s alright.” Hump extended a hand toward her, trying once more to reach out. Confusion, bloodlust, and fear poured back into him. She seemed caught off guard by her own strength and the changes happening to her. She stared at his hand. “You’re alright, my girl. It’s okay. You did it. I’m fine. You can calm down now.” His voice was soothing, and he flooded their mental link with reassurance.

Slowly, the little dragon started to calm. As she did, the golden light radiating from her scales slowly diminished. Her scales lost their lustre, darkening until they were black once more, with only the small flakes highlights of gold at the edges remaining. She scurried up to Hump, her head low and tail whipping anxiously from side to side. Pressing her head into him, she trembled with exhaustion. Hump petted her gently. “You’re alright,” he whispered. “Rest a minute, we need to finish up.”

The back of Hump’s head flared with pain as he stood.

Celaine was already gone, returned to the battle in the hallway. Once this was all over, she and him would need to discuss what this meant. It seemed that the power of the phoenix feather may have had an impact on Nishari after all, and whatever it had done, it had left her powerful.

After a final pat on Nisha’s head, Hump turned back to Soren. First, he assisted in removing the teleportation formation at the back of the room. Soren hadn’t been cautious—he’d manipulated the ground to tear apart the central runes. There would be no repairing that without completely remaking it. After that, they moved on to dismantling the remaining channels that connected to the central essence stone. The giant essence stone floated at the centre of the room, pulsing with power like the heartbeat of a giant, illuminating the room in a variety of colours as its functions became more and more disrupted.

Outside, the sounds of battle raged on, driving Hump to work harder despite the cold of essence overuse setting in. Blessings surged, flashing in the hall. Blasts of heat and cold reached them even in the chamber. The air was filled with the crackle of magic, the thunder of explosions, and the screams of orcs, demons, and people alike.

Hump’s limbs grew heavier with each spell he cast, but he couldn’t afford to slow down. He downed his second essence elixir, feeling it warm his weary body as he unleashed another Titan’s Wrath. It was a powerful spell, but a costly one. The runes and formations throughout the room started to go dim as they were severed from their power source. Even the wards started to fail as shards of Titan’s Wrath filled the space on the floor, their disruptive intent working together to finally shatter the protective magic over it all. Things went faster after that. Soren manipulated the ground to physically break apart the runes. The hum of power faded from the air.

“It’s done,” Hump said, panting. His hands and feet were numb, and he could barely keep his teeth from chattering. “Unless you see any more that we need to deal with.”

“No, this is good,” Soren replied, his eyes scanning the room. “It doesn’t have to be perfect, as long as we handle the majority of the fort’s defences. Will you be okay? You’re looking pale.”

“I’ll rest once we’re not at the heart of a demonic fortress,” Hump said, turning to the hallway. “It’s time to join the fight.”

The scene in the hall was one of chaos. To the right, Marshall Merrick and his squad fought valiantly on the stairs. Their weapons flashed in the dim light, enchantments and blessings enhancing them. To the left, Anara stood her ground at the base of the stairs where they had first come down, her staff glowing with arcane energy as she unleashed her flowers upon the battlefield, poisoning foes and enhancing allies. Bud, Dylan, and Emilia clashed fiercely on the front line, while Celaine loosed arrows with deadly precision, standing shoulder to shoulder with the other ranged combatants.

The bodies were piling up before them, a mound of green-skinned orcs lying dead at their feet. Blood flowed down the stone steps, trickling down to the floor where it pooled like some morbid fountain. No matter how many bodies they threw into the staircase, the frontline of Hump’s squad was an unbreakable wall. Their blessings created a halo of protection around them, bright with blue, green, and pink. They would not break.

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“Go to Marshall Anara,” Soren said over the din of battle. “I’ll report to Merrick.”

Hump nodded. “Good luck.”

The fighting was fierce at the base of the stairs. Hump approached cautiously, searching for a moment amidst the chaos but finding none. In the end, he simply called out.

“Marshall Anara. It is done. Their runes are broken.”

“Not a moment too soon,” Anara replied. “There is no end to the enemy. If we do not get out soon, we may be trapped. We fall back to Marshall Merrick and force our way up the staircase. Robert—I want a wall of ice to slow their pursuit.”

“Understood,” Bud said.

An aura of ice expanded around Bud, turning the air frigid. Power welled before him, transforming the world into a realm of cold and blue. Icy mist filled the stairway, shimmering like crystal. In seconds it hardened into a thin wall of ice, creating a barrier that blocked the orcs inside. Frostfire blazed out, turning the orcs closest to it to frozen statues, while others scrambled to get away, screaming out in agony.

An explosion blasted the other side after hardly a moment, a crack forming in the wall. Bud threw more of his power into it, but another explosion blasted it before the crack had mended.

“It will not last long,” Bud said.

“We don’t need long. With me!” Anara backed away from the stairs and started jogging toward the staircase to their right, where Marshall Merrick’s squad was holding strong.

The rest of them followed, rushing to join the other squad. Once they arrived, Anara quickly briefed the marshal on their situation, and the group quickly organised themselves.

“We push our way back to the surface and then blast our way out of this keep,” Anara said. “We’ve done what we needed to. Now we get out alive.”

“I can take care of getting us through the wall above,” Soren said.

They fought their way up the stairs, stepping over the mangled bodies of their foes—sliced, burned, and turned to minced meat. The stench of foul blood and decay was nauseating. Hump wanted to gag, but he pressed forward, stepping over the bodies as he followed the others, Nisha close at his side, exhausted. He saved his strength where he could. Most of his effort was spent keeping her safe, using Parry Shield or Rockshot when a particularly troublesome enemy appeared.

With two squads of Chosen, they advanced through sheer, relentless strength. Owen charged ahead with his hammer, Theron, the blood tank, sent waves of orc and demon blood against the enemy, sweeping them back with their fallen comrades. Ordinary foes were no match for them, falling easily or being sent flying back by their blessings. Some enemies cowered before the overwhelming auras of the Chosen. Soon, they reached the ground floor. All sense of subtlety had been abandoned now; their first objective was complete, what remained was to sow destruction. The army would soon arrive, and every foe they slew could mean a life saved.

As they reached the top of the stairs, Hump sensed powerful essence building. He raised a Shield just as Isabella alerted them to a dangerous ill intent. He glimpsed tightly formed rows of orcs and demons to their right. A tall, muscular creature with large tusks and red skin barked an order in a deep grunt, then fire exploded.

It washed over Hump’s barrier. He grunted from the force, cold shooting through him even with the supportive blessings affecting him, but was quickly relieved by Len and one of the Chosen from the other squad.

“Seems the more powerful demons had the sense to stay up here,” Merrick said cheerfully.

“Not powerful enough,” Anara said. Her flowers swept forth as she extended a hand toward them, sending the battalion of orcs and demons into a stumbling stupor.

They carved a path through to the left, coming up on the rear of the demons that had been attacking the other stairway. Owen swung his giant hammer at the ceiling, bringing down the floor above and filling the stairway with rubble. They moved on, returning to the hall where they had first gained entry. This time, they went onward, moving for the front of the keep. Orcs stepped out from the doorways along the hall, but they were hesitant to engage once they saw them, falling back into the rooms within.

They reached the forward wall, and Soren extended his wand toward it, blasting the keep wall to pieces and sending chunks of earth flying like shrapnel into the courtyard outside. The sound of crumbling stone echoed through the keep. Anara turned and unleashed a mist of spores, the toxic cloud spreading rapidly and incapacitating the weaker foes. Marian leapt through her portals, unleashing balls of energy that imploded any they touched. Owen tore through the enemy with his giant hammer, sending them flying with every blow. Marshall Merrick carved through the enemy with his slender sword, as fast as Emilia, as powerful as Bud, as deadly as any black paladin of Rathlar.

Finally, Hump was outside. The courtyard was in disarray. It looked like an explosion had gone off, or rather, a great many of them. The stone walls and floor were splattered with blood, bits of bodies and flesh scattered everywhere. Wounded demons and orcs cried out in agony. Others tried to reestablish some semblance of order. The killbox beyond the courtyard, leading up to the gate, was filled with fighting as Chosen tore through the ranks of enemies as they tried to assemble their traps. From the lack of dead Chosen, Hump guessed his effort to disable the runes had succeeded.

A long shadow swept over the ground and Hump looked up to see the Gatekeeper, Gorvol, flying overhead. This was the being the orcs worshiped as a god. A towering, minotaur-like being that had to be twice as tall as a person. Bat-like wings carried him through the air, stretching wide as he swept down from above. His eyes were smouldering flame, and his massive frame cast a larger shadow over the ground. He landed with a crash, greataxe piercing at a shadow. No, not a shadow, but Drexel.

The rogue was engaged in a dance of lethal grace, his every step a blur. Tendrils of darkness coiled around him as he clashed with Gorvol. The minotaur swung his massive axe, fire streaking from its edge in a blinding blaze. Drexel dodged and countered with his daggers, a blur of steel and shadow. Each clash sent shockwaves rippling through the air.

“Stay together,” Marshall Merrick said. “We sweep through the courtyard and create an area of safety. Are there any parties that can take down the keep towers?”

“We can do it,” Owen said. “Marian can portal us up.”

“Do it,” Merrick said.

This time, there were no complaints from Theodore as Marian opened up a portal and the group disappeared inside.

“The rest of you with me,” Merrick. “Ranged combatants, do what you can to bring down the Gatekeeper. Anara, I’m presuming he will be your target too.”

Anara nodded. “Take command here,” she said. “I’ll see if I can help out dear old Drexel.”

A great crack resounded, and all eyes turned to the Infernal Gates. Green essence erupted from it, pouring out like steam from a kettle as the dungeon granted entry to those outside. The air shimmered within the gate, as if staring through water. Hump saw the blurred image of the army beyond.

Two figures charged through the gate, one in heavy army with a sword as long and wide as a person, the other in elegant robes, curved blade in hand—General Korteg and Count Daston had come. They were shrouded in blessings, the red aura of Byzantius of war, and the silver of Avaroth, the god of protection and homes. Their presence filled the dungeon with such strength that Hump felt it even from a hundred paces away. The cold of essence overuse was pressed back, and the thrill of battle returned to him.

Behind them, Alveron’s army advanced. War horns sounded with a thundering boom, their deep notes resonating through the battlefield. Soldiered march to the beat of drums. The roaring shouts of the orcs and demons went quiet, as all eyes turned to watch.