CHAPTER 27

"Could you please hurry?!" Murray shouted for me. "One of them got a weapon!"

"Almost ready!"

The balor tried again to push through the doorway and the Guardsmen once again pushed him back.

We had tried the cunning plan of "have Athos kick the door of the restaurant down, we go inside, then the humans prop the door back in place so that hopefully any demons passing by won't figure out where we are." That worked for about zero seconds. We were inside for barely two minutes before the demons showed up and about ten seconds later they had yanked the broken door out of the doorway and were trying to storm inside. At which point Privates Smith, Garcia, and Funter had set up around the doorway with their tridents ready. The demons could only try to come in one at a time and the humans were managing to keep them back. Unfortunately, the balor were a lot stronger than the humans and they were able to simply walk onto the tridents and keep walking, pushing the humans back until I lay down behind them in order to brace them. Unfortunately, I could see over the current attacker's head and one of the ones behind him was carrying a trident of its own, probably looted from the body of a Guardsman it had killed somewhere else. With equal reach and vastly greater strength the humans wouldn't be able to hold it back.

The three who had been working at the far end of the restaurant vaulted over the counter into the front part and dropped to the ground. "Down!" Sergeant Carpenter shouted.

I was already lying down but I put my head on the floor and tried to think flat thoughts. The humans in the doorway dropped to a knee and hunched over.

The balor blinked in surprise at our change of position and then the explosion rolled past us.

The back wall of the restaurant was solid stone and divided this store from the one that opened opposite to it on the next block. When half a cask of boom juice (carefully poured into non-explosion-suppressing containers) went off against the wall the blast left me deaf and coated in rice, flour, eggs and various cooking ingredients and implements. The blast and the cloud of random foodstuffs made the balor stagger backwards and rub at its eyes. Before it could get itself together the humans were all on their feet and scrambling down the kitchen towards the newly-created door at the far end, moving as fast as exhausted legs would carry them. I stumbled to my feet and took up guard in front of the door, teeth bared and growling. My ears were ringing and I was feeling too dizzy to fight, but I braced all four legs, fluffed up my ruff and let the demons know that if they tried to come through that door they were going to get their heckin' faces eaten.

The one that had been discombobulated by the explosion had stumbled back two steps from the door and was still pawing at the flour in its eyes. It got rudely shoved aside by another one who was too eager to try its luck. It strode through the doorway, swiping at me as it came.

I ducked my head back just enough to let the claws go by, then lunged forward and bit half its head off. The body dropped across the threshold and I spat the head-half at the next one in line.

"Told you that you'd get your heckin' face eaten!" I shouted at them. The next balor was charging through, running right over the body of the first one. I swatted him with a paw, smashing him against the edge of the door frame. His broken body dropped on top of the first one and the doorway was no longer passable to anything the size of a balor.

The three that were trying to crowd in beat their chests and scream-growled at me. I lowered my head in threat and growled a promise of mayhem back.

The nearest balor bent down, grabbed the legs of the topmost corpse, and tried to pull it out of the way. I got my teeth into the corpse's shoulder and refused to let it be pulled. I liked the doorway blocked just the way it was, thank you!

The balor grunted something that sounded a lot like 'No fair!' except that balor didn't really talk according to Murray. It leaned back, pulling harder on the legs. I braced myself against the wall on either side of the door and hung on until the corpse's legs tore free and the balor fell on its butt.

The one with the trident, larger and more muscular than its cohort, was impatiently pushing them aside as it forced its way towards me. It got to the fallen one and kicked it aside then stabbed at me with the trident.

I ducked to the side as it was winding up and swatted at the trident, hoping to break it against the doorframe, but the balor pulled it back in time. I swatted at the remaining corpse that lay across the threshold, a rising strike that flipped it up and back. It hit the balor's trident and tangled it up.

The demon looked down in irritation and I lunged forward, head popping out through the door to get my teeth in its right arm. I bit down and pulled back, yanking him forward so that he smashed his face on the top of the doorframe. I braced myself and held him there, ignoring his struggles and screams of pain and anger. He made a lovely cork to plug the door and his other arm was outside where it couldn't hurt me.

"Hurry up, please!" Murray shouted for me. The humans had all gone through the wall into the next store to where we thought Wolf Platoon was holding off their own onslaught. I doubted they could hear me (well, Murray) over the din of demons howling and beating their chests outside the door. The one positive thing about this situation was that, unlike the ones we'd seen in Lord Gliv's weapons facility, most of these weren't carrying weapons and relied solely on their strength and claws. Of course, they were also larger and stronger than the ones in Lord Gliv's weapons facility, so there were definitely pros and cons.

The balor managed to twist the arm I was holding enough that it could scratch awkwardly at the side of my jaw. It hurt, but I ignored the pain and held the monster in place no matter how much it tried to pull away. I'd accept a few scratches if it meant not having to fight for real, no matter how much the scratches hurt.

Belatedly, I realized that Sergeant Carpenter had given me the answer to this. With a quick pulse of mana I activated Personal Mana Skin, pushing thirty mana into it. A pair of skill-ups flew past as it immediately jumped to level three. Suddenly an iridescent skin of mana shimmered across my body. The demon's awkward claw rakes stopped doing anything; a trickle of Attunement dropped onto my character sheet as the protection was depleted, leveling the Skill in the process. I stacked another on top of it, and then a third. The skill leveled up to five and capped out, a few leftover points of Attunement landing in my General Fund.

"We need to get out of here," said a woman's voice from behind me. "That barricade isn't going to hold them long."

"Hi," Murray said for me. "I'm Athos. Pardon me for not turning around, but I'm a little busy right now." It was very convenient being able to talk clearly while my mouth was full.

"Athos, I'm going to count down and when I say 'now' I want you to let the thing go and get clear of the door, okay?" Sergeant Carpenter asked.

"Okay."

"Three...two...one...now!"

I bit down hard, shearing straight through the balor's arm, and leapt away from the door. The sudden lack of resistance made the demon stumble backwards, howling in pain and clutching the stump from which sprayed black ichor.

"Fire in the hole!"

Sergeant Carpenter tossed something through the door and then the rest of the squad slammed four shields into place over the door, blocking it completely. There was a whump! from outside and agonized howls from the demon horde.

"Go go go!"

The shields were withdrawn and the humans threw themselves out of the door, shields up and tridents stabbing. There were eight more humans than I had brought with me—presumably the eight members of Wolf Platoon that we had been sent to rescue—and they got in my way as I tried to squeeze out. I shoved them aside so I could get out of the tiny restaurant and into the fight.

The bad news was that there were a dozen balor gathered around us. The good news was that there were only a dozen balor gathered around us. The majority of the demons were still on the other side of the block, attacking the door of the shop we had pulled Wolf Platoon out of. Better yet, there were none of the malazaheen here.

My original team and two others I didn't recognize had gotten out of the door ahead of me. One of them, a Guardsman with white stripes on her sleeves and shoulders, shouted "By the power of Melos!" and thrust her trident in the air. Everyone's tridents were suddenly encased in a softly-glowing yellow light. Strikes which had been unable to penetrate the balors' scales started going home. The Guards were shoulder-to-shoulder, their shields locked together and the tridents striking out over the top. They worked in pairs, some feinting against the demon in front of them in order to draw the block, leaving the demon unprotected against the actual strike coming from the next Guard in line.

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Three balor went down, clutching various wounds and momentarily getting in the way of other demons. The Guards took a knee, thrust once each to finish the downed monsters, then rose and resumed their positions.

The rest of the balor screamed and charged, coming from all sides. The Guards hurriedly wrapped their line around into a circle, backs together so that the enemy couldn't take them from the side.

Which, of course, is exactly what happened to the balor when a thousand pounds of angry war dog hit them in their stupid faces.

I swatted the first one into the wall, bit the second one in the shoulder and kept moving forward, dragging him with me as I plowed three others over, then bit the rest of the way through his arm and left him there as I got clear of the mess and turned around for another pass.

The balors turned to face me and three of them promptly got stabbed from behind by the Guards. I lunged in, snapping and snarling but stopping short and jumping back and to the side as the balor swatted at where they expected me to be. I jumped to the side and did it again, keeping their attention on me while the Guards, including the others who had come through the door behind me, swarmed over the larger demons and brought them down from behind.

It was all over in less than two minutes. A minute later the demons were busy dissolving into black smoke and we were jogging north.

"Well," the head of Wolf Platoon said to Sergeant Carpenter, "you weren't kidding when you said that he was handy in a fight. Let's get a little distance and then we'll donate that Spirit."

Hrmph. You could talk to me instead of about me, you know. I was right here.

o-o-o-o

Moritai, the head of Wolf Platoon, was the only non-human Guard in the group. He was a centaur made out of water with pebbles and bits of flotsam floating around inside himself. His face was a mask of multicolored sand, free-floating and held in place at the front of his head by nothing I could see. I wasn't quite sure how he talked since his 'mouth' never moved, but he managed just fine, although his voice sounded bubbly or swooshy, like a stream.

"I can't believe these idiots are still out in the middle of a major assault," he muttered, looking around at all the passersby.

We had gone ten blocks from the site of the rescue so as to be well clear of the fighting while we regrouped. This was a poorer neighborhood, the houses a little more worn and the streets a lot more dirty than the area around Mage Street. It hadn't evacuated yet; people were still on the street and stores were still open. There was also much more diversity than I'd seen before—where most of the city that I'd been through had been humans with a sprinkling of other races, this place was mostly other races with a sprinkling of humans. I could see elves and dwarves straight out of those Lord of the Rings movies that Dad liked, and also weirder things, like half a dozen six-legged turtles with raccoons melded into the tops of their shells. There were two Skaddra like Marza and her kids, plus an eye-popping variety of other species. The street wasn't crowded, but it was definitely busy. I shuddered to think what would happen if the balor charged through—or, worse yet, the fast-moving malazaheen with their lethal scythes.

"Attention!" Mortai shouted. His centaur build meant that he was taller than a human, nearly eight feet, and allowed him to be more visible. People weren't terribly interested; they glanced over and continued on their way.

"In the name of the Guard, attention!"

A few people, the ones immediately around us, stopped to pay attention but those who were more than a dozen yards away kept about their business.

"LISTEN UP!"

"Shut up, would you?" someone shouted. "Take your crazy preaching someplace else!"

Sergeant Carpenter snorted. "They think you're a street preacher."

"Godsdamnit," Moritai growled.

I put my bum on the ground, took a deep breath, and howled at the top of my lungs.

People stopped in surprise and looked over.

"Listen up!" Moritai shouted. "The city is under assault by demons in high numbers! You need to get to the shelters!"

"Stinkin' Guards!" shouted a well-dressed human on the sidewalk near us. He was carrying a sword on each hip and had a small shield strapped to his arm. "I don't gotta do anything you say! I'm a free man of Hellsport and I've got my rights!"

"Yeah!" / "That's right!" / "Say it!" shouted the crowd.

"I swear," Corporal Belker said to Private Funter, "it's like dealing with children."

"Don't even get me started," Private Garcia replied. "The whole 'sovereign citizen' thing makes me crazy."

"We aren't trying to take your rights, dumbass!" Moritai shouted. "We're warning you that you're in danger! Get to the shelters!"

The crazy guy with the swords turned to the crowd and spread his arms. "Listen to that! Bad enough that they go through beating on anyone they don't like and putting sterilization agents in our drinking water, now they're trying to herd us into their detention centers!"

"Right on!" / "Fuck the Guard!" / "Fuck off, Guard boy!" / "Wait, sterilization agents?" / "We don't want you here!"

"We aren't here to hassle you!" Sergeant Carpenter called, stepping forward with his arms spread. "We're warning you!"

"Fuck the Guard! You ain't doing nothing to us, asshole!"

"Why are they so angry?" I asked quietly.

"These neighborhoods get a lot of crime," Corporal Belker said quietly. "The property stuff isn't our problem and if you want to mug someone in an alley, fine—people shouldn't be walking down alleys if they can't defend themselves. The problem is that they like to fight in the streets and that's considered a threat to the city since you can never be sure who has access and who doesn't. Also, a lot of them are homeless and they'll shit in the streets, which is a health hazard. A Guard squad busts heads and makes arrests a couple times a day around here."

"Fuckin' savages," Private Smith muttered. "Why is it that only humans can follow basic laws?" He glanced up at Moritai. "Not you, Sergeant. You're one of the good ones."

Moritai didn't even look at him. He was busy surveying the street, watching to see how the public sentiment was shaping up.

The answer was: Poorly. More and more people were drifting towards the mob gathered around us, curious what was going on. When they discovered that it was a Guard squad they either turned around and walked quickly away or they joined in.

The Guards, mine and the eight that we had rescued, were standing in two lines, one behind the other. The front row had their shields half-raised and all of them had a tight grip on their tridents. The front edge of the crowd was maybe six feet away, staying just out of thrusting range as they shouted curses and waved fists at us. Even I could tell that things were going downhill.

"Fuck it," Sergeant Carpenter said. "These dumbasses want to get eaten by demons? Whatever. Ups the average. Let's get out of here."

Moritai nodded in agreement and made a hand gesture. The Guards stepped back in unison. The crowd came forward a step, the noise spiking louder. We backed up again. They stepped forward again.

"Present arms!" Moritai shouted.

The tridents came down, pointing forward at the crowd. The front ranks stumbled to a halt, getting pushed from behind by others who couldn't see the threat and were more anxious to get at us.

I whined, deep in my throat. I did not like the idea that my immediate group of people were threatening to stab another group of people, even if it was only because that group was thinking about punching us all in the face repeatedly.

We backed away, one step at a time, while the crowd shouted threats and imprecations but didn't follow. None of us relaxed until we were around the corner and out of sight of the mob.

"Well, that was exciting," Sergeant Carpenter said with a sigh. "Look...we were sent out to back you guys up or pull you out. I know you were hunting demons and I don't know if you had other orders, but I think we can agree that's all done for now. We're all low on Spirit, us more than you. You're cool with heading back to the Bastion so that we can all get healed up and Selb can tell us where we'll be most useful. Right?"

"Makes sense to me," the water centaur burbled. "Personally, I'd like some more backup before we go out there again. Plus more magical firepower than just Annette here." He gestured towards the woman with the white flashes on her uniform.

"Screw you, Top," she said with a laugh. "I'd say I was all the firepower you needed."

"Yes, you were," Moritai said calmly. "Once we had a massive and highly magical dog to back you up. Until then the best you could do was keep the demons from breaking into that store. And if you had died then the rest of us would have followed right quick. I'd like a little redundancy so that if you get your fool ass killed we can inter your ashes instead of all of us rotting on the ground."

"Also, don't even pretend you were going to hold out much longer," one of the other Wolf platoon guardsmen said with a snort. Their uniforms were scorched, ripped, and soot-stained to the point that I couldn't read their nametags. "You didn't have to donate to the dog, but with the amount of mana you burned through, you're down...what? Five Spirit? Six?"

She rolled her eyes. "Six, but who's counting?" She hesitated. "And I'm almost out of mana, so if I have to cast again I'll burn another point."

"Oh no you don't!" Sergeant Carpenter said, swinging the haft of his trident in between me and Annette before I could boop her. "Let me dismount before you do that."

Annette looked puzzled at him. "What?"

Sergeant Carpenter unfastened his saddle straps and dismounted. "Come over here and hold out your hand," he said, laughter hiding behind his voice. He took a grip on the pommel of my saddle.

She looked suspicious.

"It's cool," Corporal Belker said, grinning. "Go on. It won't hurt."

"You aren't filling me with reassurance here, bucko." Nonetheless, she stepped closer and held out her hand towards Sergeant Carpenter as though to shake.

So of course I slurped her from chin to forehead as I pumped six points of Spirit into her.

"Gack!" She ducked away too slowly and wiped her face on her elbow. "Gross! My mouth was open!"

I savored my tongue for a moment. "Ooh, spicy chicken." Hey, dividends!

"He just replaced all your missing Spirit," Private Garcia said, laughing. "Show a little gratitude."

"I thought we were supposed to be donating to him," someone behind Moritai muttered.

"You complaining about having more priest support, dumbass?" someone whispered back.

"Why are you smaller?" one of the Wolf platoon men asked me, eyes wide. I had shrunk down far enough that the saddle was only still on my back because Sergeant Carpenter was balancing it there. The girth hung loose around my belly like a deflated balloon animal.

"Side effect of the transferrence," I said, remembering what Estelle had told me about giving details on my Skills.

"Huh." He shrugged. Apparently there were enough weird Skills out there that he didn't find this more than a little surprising. I supposed it was much more believable than 'my body and spirit are one since I have this Epic Skill that probably no one else in the world has and so when I give away too much Spirit my entire body reshapes itself.'

"Thanks," Annette said. "Gotta admit, I'm still having trouble with the 'smart giant dog' thing, but I appreciate the refuel."

"Shall we get moving?" Moritai said.

"One sec." Sergeant yanked on the the saddle girth, tightening it, then swung up onto my back. "Okay, good to go."

And thus we set off back to the Bastion, leaving behind us hundreds or perhaps thousands of people who were too ornery to go to safety and would be completely defenseless if the demons spread in this direction. The world really was not a happy place, no matter how good a dog I tried to be.

On the upside, I had been a very good dog indeed, protecting everyone in my original squad and helping to save all eight members of Wolf Platoon. When we got back to the Bastion, someone darn well better give me some heckin' bacon.