Hearing Eriks' orders, his last squadmates moved toward the Ghouls and began work together to distract and isolate singular members before dispatching them. Eriks moved to intercept a swing from the Revenant's tail that would have gouged Carrie's side and worked with her to pull its attention away from the rest of us. Seeing they all had things in hand, I moved over the rafters before dropping down on the last living Reaper that was trying to flank around Smith while the two Cerberous distracted him.

"Happy you could join us, sir!" he greeted me as I crushed the Reaper's spine and sent the back end limp and dead before jamming my sword into its skull and ending it.

"Happy to be here!" I answered him before we charged the two Cerberous together.

Smith used a shorter sword than I did and when paired with a shield, it was even better against the Scourge than my own longsword; especially in an enclosed space like the basement we were in. As we charged the Cerberous, he placed his shield in front of him and used it to throw his entire body weight into the Cerberous when the two of them crashed into one another. I guess Smith won that, because he threw the Cerberous to the ground and sent his sword flashing out to cut the side of the other one that I had jumped over and managed to cut its clubbed tail off of.

While the now tailless Cerberous howled in pain, one of the wounded Hellhounds managed to pull itself to its feet and leapt toward Smith. Before it could crash into him he was rolling to the side while one of my hatchets whistled through the air and slammed into the Scourge's chest; too bad it wasn't dead yet.

Before Smith could thrust his sword into the sweet spot on the Hellhound, the other Cerberous was flicking its tail into his side and sending him flying back. I wasn't able to help him from the tailless Cerberous charging me and trying to crush me in its arms. While I tried to disengage from the Cerberous that was hounding me, the Hellhound limped up behind me and tried to stab me with a stinger; its last one, I noticed when I turned and ripped it off.

As the Hellhound reeled back from having its stinger and the tentacle it was attached to ripped out by the root, the Cerberous behind me managed to grab my leg and, with a sharp pull, sent me to the floor. Smith was there, slamming his shield down into the Cerberous' back, before it could do anything else to me. While he distracted it, I rolled to my feet and thrust my sword forward catching the Cerberous in the chest and forcing it to rear onto its back legs, while Smith reached around and jammed his shortsword into its brain.

Before either of us could celebrate our victory, the Hellhound was jumping onto Smith and working to maul him through his armor while I was suddenly engaged with the second Cerberous. It had lashed out at me with its many tentacles and while I worked to dodge and avoid them, it was reaching out with its arms and trying to crush me again. I avoided all of its attempts and worked to steer our fight to where the Hellhound still had Smith pinned; no damage had made it through his armor yet thankfully.

While the Cerberous and I were moving toward them, Smith and the Hellhound were rolling on the floor and nearly ran into my legs and sent me to the ground. I only avoided it because Smith had a similar idea to me, and, before he could be pinned under the Hellhound again, was jumping up and wrapping his arms around the Cerberous' head and wrenching it to the side while I scooped up his sword and plunged it into the Hellhound that was working to roll itself to its feet.

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With the Hellhound dead and only one Cerberous left, I faced toward it in time to see it jam a stinger into Smith before grabbing him and throwing his limp body off of it. It realized after it had thrown him away that there wasn't a Scourge that would finish him off that wasn't engaged or dead. As it made its way toward him, I sent my last hatchet and Smith's shortsword flying toward it before I scooped up his shield and charged the Scourge Guardian.

The hatchet it avoided, but the sword was impaled into its flank and made it cry out in pain. Before it could recover, I was there sending it to the ground and using the edge of Smith's shield as an improvised axe to cut through its neck. Over and over I raised the shield and worked to disconnect the head from the body, screaming from the adrenaline and rage coursing through me. I wasn't going to lose a Nephilim to something like this.

Eventually, I ran out of steam and the Cerberous' head was gone, I hadn't aimed the best while swinging the shield and I'd hit the head more than I wished to. I staggered to my feet and looked around to see the Ghouls and the Revenant weren't dead yet. Instead they and the rest of my Nephilim were staring at me and I could see something I'd never seen on a Scourge before. Fear.

"Knight Smith's Cyber, Gary, wishes to let you know that he is fine. Merely paralyzed." Cai's voice sounded in my ears.

"You ladies want to finish this dance already?" I demanded from the gathered Ghouls and Revenant. "Cause, I still got some in the tank for you."

I had never seen a Scourge flinch, but today I saw at least one do that when I bent down and picked up my Knight's shield. I still had a weapon to kill them all with.

"Let's go!" I heard Carrie shout out before she swung her axe into the closest Ghoul and reignited the melee that had been halted. This time though the Ghouls worked to run away, deeper into the basement and away from us. I wasn't about to let any of them get away though.

"If I see a Ghoul topside after this, you're all in trouble," I told my Nephilim as I grabbed a hatchet from the ground and sent it flying after the first Ghoul that fled. More from luck than skill, it impacted the head and killed it instantly but it got the point across to all the Scourge. None of them were leaving alive.

As the others worked to finish off the Ghouls and the Revenant, I moved over to Smith and inspected where the stinger had punched through his armor. If there was a weak point, we needed to know about it.

"Cai, how're his vitals?" I asked as I examined the hole in his armor.

"Stable, his Cyber reports that he needs only to rest until the paralytic has worn off."

"What about breathing?" I demanded.

"The armor is designed with Scourge venom in mind," Cai reminded me. "It is capable of forcing his body to breathe so that he does not suffocate after being afflicted with it."

"Great," I said. "Does he need a bandage or something?"

"No, the Cyber and his nanites have already stopped the bleeding. It is estimated that he will be healed completely in twenty-three seconds," Cai said.

"Cool," I said before turning Smith over and speaking to him directly.

"Congrats there, Smith. You've just taken the first injection of Scourge venom. According to Cai and your Cyber, you're going to be fine. Get up soon and get back in the fight. I don't need my Nephilim laying down on the job." I patted his helmet and stood up.

Where was my damn sword now?