With a ferocious roar that shook the air, Nox leapt from the Island. His landing was not graceful or catlike. He hit the ground like a cannonball. The stone road cracked and shattered, sending a plume of dust into the air.

  There was a moment of pause as both the undead and the city’s defenders stared at the lion prowling out of the haze. With every step, a spark of brilliant golden flame charred the stone road black. With every breath, a stream of smoke rose from Nox’s mouth.

  Before the undead could even react to the new threat, Nox opened his mouth. This time, it was not a roar but a torrent of golden flames that shot out like a dragon’s breath. The three closest Demonkin were reduced to ash as the wave fire washed over them. Five other Demonkin were lucky enough to only get brushed by the flame. Their injuries were light, but the golden flame was not like any normal fire. The moment it touched the Demonkin it stuck to them, seeped inside of them, burning them from inside and out.

  One of the smaller Demonkin tried to extinguish the flame by jumping into a nearby horse trough full of water but even when completely submerged the flame did not go out. It spread and consumed until nothing remained.

  I smiled in pride as I watched Nox burn away his enemies. He jumped out of the way of one of the Demonkin trying to grab him as another undead leapt up and self-destructed. His fur was singed, but Nox was unharmed. Enraged, he let out another torrent of flames, cooking the Demonkin that had tried to hold him down.

  “Nox will not be able to handle them all by himself,” I said to Donte, “Set us down and let’s see just how dangerous Irene’s imitations really are.”

  “Move us there, where the defenders are gathering,” my dad said as he pointed towards an intact section of the wall, “Just because we have to fight, does not mean we must do it alone.”

  The brave among the city’s soldiers had already started gathering together. Using the stairs leading from an intact portion of the gatehouse to the top of the wall as a choke point these brave men and women had already started fighting back against the monsters invading their city.

  Steel met with claw and the soldiers were fighting valiantly, but a single Demonkin was enough to tear through a dozen of them with ease. These soldiers were brave, but they were not elites. Most of the soldiers could not even pierce the thick hide of the Demonkin when they attacked. The few that could cause some injuries were easily brushed aside due to the undead not feeling either pain or fear. I saw only three capable of using glyphs and only one using an innate talent.

  In the towers overhead, the bells were still ringing. I could see more soldiers starting to gather in front of the distant castle, but it would take a long time before they would reach us. For now, these common soldiers were our only allies.

  The floating island brushed up against the wall near the defending soldiers and my dad leapt over. His sword deflected a spear from an overzealous defender. Ice erupted from my dad’s sword, barely intercepting an attack from a Demonkin aimed for one of the soldiers. My dad’s booming voice erupted, conveying his command without any room for disagreement.

  “These creatures are being controlled by a glyph on their back. Circle them, attack the glyph, and they will stop moving.”

  Before any of the soldiers could voice their disagreement, Esben and his men jumped from the island. Completely ignoring the wall, the mercenaries leapt straight into the horde of Demonkin roaring like madmen the entire time.

  I noticed that Esben’s second in command, Habil, did not join them. He watched his comrades leap into the jaws of the enemy without fear while he just stood there.

  I shook my head but did not bother saying anything to the man. It was not my place to chastise Esben’s warriors.

  My mom, Donte, and I leapt onto the wall next to my dad while Charly fired his crossbow from the island. Explosions rang out with every shot fired, and for the first time, Irene’s undead did not back away. I had no idea what Irene could be thinking with this stunt, but she seemed determined to force a fight here, regardless of the sacrifice to her forces.

  With us no longer on the floating island, all the undead immediately focused their attention on my family and me. They were like a tide of vermin as they swarmed the wall. Cramming around the stairway and even climbing up the wall, the hundreds of Demonkin were like a flood.

  The mountain-sized rat attempted to charge the wall again, wanting to bring it down around us but was forced back by Nox’s flames. The Oversized rat was surprisingly nimble for its size. It cautiously avoided the flames spewing from Nox while attempting to crush the troublesome cat under one of its giant paws. Nox wanted to immediately pounce on the oversized rat and burn it to nothing but was constantly held back by the other Demonkin around him. They did not even try and fight Nox. The undead simply charged at him, trying to latch onto him before self-destructing.

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  Up on the walls, we were instantly overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies we suddenly had to face. My dad had tried closing off the staircase with a wall of ice, but the Demonkin were not deterred. They shattered the ice by sacrificing one of their own and continued their mindless assault.

  I rushed to the edge of the wall as a large claw tore into the stone. I barely even looked at the impish creature trying to scale the wall as a glyph was formed in front of my outstretched hand. The simple directed explosion could not compare to the rampage that Nox was creating with his fire, but it was more than enough to incinerate the Demonkin.

  Excited at my success in using the golden flames in real combat I immediately moved to another section of the wall and fired off another explosion. Again and again, I fired off explosions, with each explosion a Demonkin climbing the wall would turn to a charred husk. I may have gone a little overboard in my excitement and after more than three dozen explosions, I started to feel the exhaustion from the overuse of my talent. I could feel my head ache and knew I was approaching my limit.

  Even with me clearing the walls, more than a few Demonkin managed to find their way atop the wall. The normal soldiers were little more than a distraction for the creatures. My dad was busy blocking the stairs as best he could, leaving only my mom and Donte atop the wall with any power to face the creatures.

  My mom protected my dad’s back, preventing any of the creatures from attacking him from behind. Lightning flashed as she moved from one creature to another, circling behind the undead to attack the glyphs that gave them life.

  Donte moved across the wall, slicing through any creature that managed to slip past my explosions with deadly blades of wind. More than once he had to face more than one undead creature at a time, but he never faltered or panicked. Even when the creatures attempted to self-destruct around him, Donte still managed to maintain his composure and escape the explosion's radius.

  For a moment, I marveled at how much everyone in my family had improved as we cut down one Demonkin after another. Once, a single one of these creatures would have taken everything my family had, but now they had taken down dozens without faltering. It was made easier thanks to attacking the glyph that controlled the undead, but it was still an impressive feat that showed just how hard each and every one of them had been training.

  However, everyone had their limits. In order to face so many undead at once, nobody was holding back at all. We would not be able to use our abilities indefinitely. I was already feeling the wear from using too much of my talent too quickly and I knew my family was probably the same.

  After firing off another explosion down the wall, catching two Demonkin trying to scale it, I examined the battlefield. Reinforcements from the keep in the center of the city had not arrived yet. Everything was just happening too fast for them to be of any help to us. Irene’s reckless abandon of her troops meant that only about half of the Demonkin remained.

  I froze, nearly losing control of the glyph I had been forming as I realized something strange. All those attacking right now were Demonkin. Where were Irene’s human undead?

  I fired off the explosion that nearly collapsed and looked around carefully. I had been so focused on the fight; I did not even notice that a large portion of Irene’s undead were missing.

  I tried to think back on how long it had been only Demonkin, remembering when we had refilled our water a few days ago. I did not remember seeing any humans then either. I had not thought about it then, since only the fastest swimmers could attack us at that time.

  My thoughts were interrupted when another Demonkin succeeded in scaling the walls. Attempting to save as much energy as possible, I moved towards this one with just my dagger. The Demonkin did not hesitate to leap at me with the intention to self-destruct, forcing me to dive backwards. I tumbled to the ground as the explosion destroyed part of the wall where I had been standing.

  I cursed myself for getting distracted in the middle of a battle, but I could not help it. I could not shake the feeling that I was missing something important.

  My first instinct was to look back at the Preateritum ruin. If Irene wanted to sneak someone in, now would be the time. However, there was no one approaching it that I could see. Even that cowardly mercenary, Habil, was gone.

  I fired another explosion of golden flame down the wall and tried to shake away the growing headache. Why was Irene attacking this city? Was it just to draw us out, or was there something else hidden here I could not see?

  While I was looking around for anything suspicious, Nox continued tearing the imitation undead apart. His flames had seared more Demonkin than my entire family combined. Ten Demonkin surrounded him. Glowing with a bright orange light, they all leapt at once. Nox sprung up towards the top of a nearby building barely managing to avoid the worst of the explosion. Much of his hair had been burnt away and he was beading from the constant suicidal attacks, but his eyes were still locked onto the one quarry that refused to engage him.

  The giant rat was nearly as large as the castle in the center of the city. Its every step would flatten houses, and yet Nox could not hit it with his flames even once. The rodent had always managed to stay just far enough away from Nox so that his flames would not reach.

  At first, the rat had tried to attack my family and me, but now it was being forced to move back. Normally, I would have been happy not to have to face such a massive creature. Nox was protecting us admirably, but in backing up, the rat was also moving deeper into the city.

  At one point the rat literally rolled out of the way of a torrent of Nox’s flames. Homes and shops were flattened. Even as I fought atop the city walls I could hear the screams of people crushed beneath the monster rampaging through their city.

  I grit my teeth as I sliced through the leg of an undead with my dagger, forcing it to the ground where I was able to destroy the glyph on its back before the Demonkin could self-destruct.

  I turned to see the giant rat right itself, flattening another house. I did not know what Irene was planning with her human puppets, but it was clear she did not want to sacrifice that giant rat like the rest of her undead pawns. If I wanted to really hurt her, that was where I needed to strike.