For a moment Lidia stared at the huge demons circling the fortress, at a loss for words. She’d fought demons before of course, but never so many powerful ones all at once. She was starting to wish she’d brought every sorcerer in the kingdom and damn the consequences. Even with fifty of them it would be a close fight. She conjured a viewing construct to get a better look at the blue things surrounding the fortress. Lidia had never seen anything like them.

They were certainly demonic, she could sense their corruption from here, but they were also inorganic, some sort of animated crystal. Where in the world had Connor found such things?

“What are those?” Zahara had flown up beside Lidia and was looking through her construct.

“I have no idea. I’ve never seen anything even remotely similar. Best warn the warlords not to bother with edged weapons. I can’t imagine hitting one of those things would do a sword blade any good.”

“Right. Can we beat them?”

“Of course we can.” Zahara gave her a doubting look. “We have no other choice. Talk to the general then join us. We have to attack before the demons decide to bring the fight to us.”

Zahara descended to talk to General Gauge. The grizzled warrior hadn’t been thrilled when Lidia told him the bulk of his forces needed to stay out of the fight, but when she explained the nature of the enemy, he’d deferred to her judgment and agreed to keep the regular fighters a safe distance from the pass and form a containing line. He promised not to let a single enemy get past.

While Lidia appreciated the sentiment, she doubted the whole army could stop even a handful of those crystal constructs. If they got past the warlords the rest of the army was doomed. And if Lidia and her sorcerers couldn’t stop the flying demons the warlords wouldn’t stand a chance.

“All right everyone, it’s time to show what we’re made of. Fight smart and watch each other’s backs. Let’s get them.”

“What do you want me to do?” John asked. “I’d only be a hindrance in a fight with demons.”

“Go to the fortress and make sure Jennifer and the others are okay. They may have need of your talents.”

John nodded. “Will do.”

Lidia strengthened her shield and flew toward the gathered demons. All around her she felt the others doing the same. How many of them would survive this? She feared the answer to that question was not many, but she couldn’t let it stop her. If they failed a lot more people would die, beginning with the eastern army.

The demons turned from the fortress and raced toward the sorcerers. It always amazed Lidia how ugly the things were. Only once in her career had she seen a beautiful demon and that one had been the toughest fight of her life.

She dove under a blast of hellfire and countered, burning a hole through the wing of a crocodile-looking brute nearly as wide as it was tall. It spiraled halfway to the ground before the wound healed and it flew into the fray once more. That was why Lidia hated demons: they attacked like sorcerers, but healed like warlords. It wasn’t fair.

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An insect-headed demon grabbed a fair-haired young sorcerer in its taloned hands. Lidia fired a blast at its face, but her attack struck an invisible shield and fizzled.

The demon ripped the young woman’s head off and dropped to the ground. Lidia snarled and powered toward it. She’d kill this one herself, whatever it took.

The monster looked content to oblige her. Black wings lashed and it rushed toward her like an avalanche. Hellfire swirled around its outstretched talons.

Lidia conjured a gold dragon and sent it at the demon. If she could bind it maybe she could land a solid hit. The demon slashed its claws through the air and a wave of hellfire burned her construct to nothing. It flew through the flickering remnants of soul force and plunged toward her.

Lidia’s eagle dove and it passed over her, missing her head by a good foot. She spun in her chair and sent a blast at its back which was deflected by its shield. Another of her sorcerers’ soul forces vanished from the battlefield. That was the fourth one so far and she still sensed all the demons. They were losing and losing badly.

Her opponent made a long swooping run before turning back towards her. A gray-haired sorcerer sent a golden sword at it, but the demon obliterated it with a single swipe of its clawed hands.

Lidia gathered a ball of energy between her hands, compressing it for maximum damage, and hurled it toward the approaching demon. It tried to dodge. She adjusted the orb’s trajectory and struck the demon square in the chest.

The orb detonated and sent the demon tumbling. Her tight-lipped smile vanished when the smoke cleared, revealing the unharmed demon. Its soul force had diminished, but there wasn’t even a crack in its carapace.

A giant fist dropped down on its head, driving the demon towards the ground. Zahara flew up beside her. “How about we tag team this monster? I’ll hold it and you hit it with everything you’ve got.”

“Good plan.” Lidia compressed more power, draining half her core. If this didn’t kill it they were in worse trouble than she thought.

The golden fist opened and snatched the demon out of the air. One leg stuck out between the first and second fingers and its head poked out around the thumb. Zahara winced. “Hurry. I can’t hold it for long.”

Lidia hurled her compressed energy blast at the demon’s exposed head. It screamed through the sky and struck. With impeccable timing Zahara detonated her construct at the instant of impact. The combined attack sent shockwaves rippling through the battlefield, sending demons and sorcerers alike tumbling like leaves. The mixing of light and dark energy created mist like clouds that obscured the demon’s location.

“Did we get it?” Zahara asked.

“No.” Lidia couldn’t believe it, but the monster had survived. Its soul force was greatly diminished, but she still sensed it. “How much power do you have left?”

“A little over half. You?”

“Nowhere near as much as I’d like.”

A gust of wind dispersed the mist revealing the demon, its black armor cracked and one arm hanging limp by its side.

“Impressive—”

Lidia blasted it in the head. “Keep attacking. We can’t give it a chance to recover.”

Zahara sent whirling blades of soul force at it. The constructs hacked at the demon’s good arm. Lidia blasted it again and again. She didn’t use a great deal of power with any of them, just enough to keep the demon from concentrating on healing. They had to wear it down. The demon was too strong to take down with a single blow.

One of the lesser demons, an especially ugly brute that looked like it had possessed a warthog, slammed into Zahara and bore her off into the melee.

The insectoid demon conjured a dark sphere around its body. Lidia kept attacking, but to no effect, the barrier deflected every blast.

Desperate now, Lidia surrounded its barrier with a bubble of her own. If she could time it right.

The black sphere vanished and Lidia detonated her bubble. The demon flew out of the explosion, its black carapace gleaming and injured arm moving freely. Only its vastly weakened soul force gave Lidia a glimmer of hope.

The demon grabbed one of its allies that resembled a toad and rammed its claws into the creature. Soul force flowed from the toad demon into its captor. In less than a minute the toad demon vanished and the other had mostly restored its core.

“Shall we go again, mortal?”