Marie-Bell’s hammer crashed into a demon and sent it flying. During a brief respite she glanced at Jen. Could she really leave her friend to defend the whole wall on her own? “Are you sure?”

“Less talking more hunting.” Jen’s silhouette blurred as she sped up and battered the whole wave off the wall.

Marie-Bell nodded once, uncertain if Jen even noticed, and leapt down. The ghouls gave off a distinct flavor of corruption, different in intensity from that produced by either the demons or warlocks. Marie-Bell had no trouble tracking them. Not that it mattered, they were stuck between the two walls with nothing but a hundred yards of bare earth and stone in which to hide.

Kat flew above them and tried to blast the darting figures. She managed to hit one about every fourth shot. Two of the undead lay in rotting chunks, a testament to her effectiveness when she managed to make a strike. Dealing with them that way would take too long. She had to get back to Jen as quickly as possible.

“Can you round them up so I can hit them all in one go?” Marie-Bell shouted the question at Kat so she could hear over the snarling of the ghouls and explosions of her blasts.

“Too many and too fast.” Kat blasted the leg off another one and Marie-Bell darted in to crush its head with her hammer.

A pair of ghouls ran toward the second wall. They must have sensed Amanda back in the fortress. If they made it that far the girl wouldn’t stand a chance. Kat must have noticed them as well.

Stolen novel; please report.

Golden bubbles formed around the undead and hurled them away from the second wall. Marie-Bell rushed into their path. When the bubbles vanished she charged her hammer with holy energy and swung. The ghouls exploded like overripe grapes.

“Keep doing that,” Marie-Bell said. “We’ll have them cleaned up in no time.”

No time turned out to be five minutes. When the last ghoul burst Marie-Bell spun and raced back to the wall. An overwhelming wave of corruption stopped her in her tracks. Heaven’s mercy, what now?

She ran up the steps to the battlements. Jen stood with her hands on her hips staring out over the wall. Her core was almost fully depleted, but not a single demon had made it over the wall. The rush of constructs had stopped and combined with the arrival of the new power source, Marie-Bell had a bad feeling. Out beyond the wall eighteen massive winged demons stood in the pass surrounding the warlock. Each of them was immensely strong, but one, an insect-headed monstrosity as big as an ogre was easily the strongest she’d ever sensed.

Kat landed beside Jen and clasped her hand to her mouth. “Where did they come from?”

“The haunted lands,” Jen said. “The lot of them landed a minute ago. As soon as they did the attacks stopped. I can’t say I’m thrilled to see reinforcements on the enemy’s side, but the rest is welcome.”

Jen appeared far too calm considering what they now faced. Perhaps because she couldn’t sense just how powerful the new enemies were. More likely she was just putting on a brave face.

Jen looked over at Kat. “How do we stop them?”

Kat’s laugh held a hysterical edge. “Stop them? I couldn’t stop one, much less eighteen. And unless the good paladin has some hidden depths she hasn’t shown yet I doubt she can either.”

Jen turned to Marie-Bell who shook her head. She hated crushing Jen’s hopeful look, but Kat had the right of it. This battle was over. They had to run.

“If we fall back to the fortress we can hold out for a while,” Marie-Bell said. “But out here they’ll simply overwhelm us. We need to go.”

Down below powerful wings flapped as the demons took to the air.

“We need to go, now.”