Whatever Joker said was definitely in the Kobold language, whatever it was called, because Oskar's two purple friends instantly launched themselves into the fray behind the Croc, Touwon shouting something back and Fox grinning fiercely.

Joker was a large, effective fighter, and the confusion of the situation and the unorganized clumps of combatants played heavily in his favor. He was at least as large as any of the Crocs Oskar had seen other than Gramm, and unlike the rounded folds that made up the bulk of Gramm’s size, Joker was solid, with just the smallest hint of a belly that seemed to slow him not at all.

They initially made quick headway along the wall, attacked from only from the front and one side before the Crocs and Hyenamen finally closed in behind them.

Touwon was darting under the Joker’s wide swings to attack the press of bodies with precise shots that left Crocs and Hyenas hamstrung or gushing arterial blood. Fox was darting forward when she could do so without getting too far away from Erik, to finish those downed by Joker and Touwon, as well as those Oskar speared or swept away using bursts of Sora.

When he gathered Sora for a strike, stones hovered over the ground as if responding to the call of Talau and Sora, but they fell as soon as he finished gathering enough for his attack. His ears were popping whenever he used those quick bursts of Sora, which likely meant he was doing something with air pressure on top of the wind. But figuring out exactly what was happening was something to study when he wasn't outnumbered twenty to one.

So much to unpack, so much to learn.

“Air magic is air magic; ground magic is ground magic. There should not be overlap, but what do I know?” Fox had told him in their cell the day prior. “At first, I worried about you learning your class, having not come from a world with magic.”

“What changed?”

She’d grinned at him. “I eventually realized that you ignoring how magic worked in this world was not because you are not capable of learning, but because you are better instinctively than consciously.”

I call that lucky, he thought, but he knew it wasn’t true.

He’d worked endlessly to better understand his power. Oskar had a bad habit of undermining his accomplishments, and now that he was no longer living in constant self-deprecation, he was slowly getting better at giving himself credit where it was due.

I have worked for this. And we’ve got a lot more work ahead of us… but first, I’ve got to get Erik to safety.

Erik was keeping up with them, moving steadily and keeping between at least two members of the party as they followed the big red Croc, moving steadily forward.

The press of bodies was constant and chaotic. Enemies stumbled into range as often as they attacked. They’d tried to swarm the small group twice, and that close, Oskar’s multicolored orb of air attack was most effective, seeming to explode outward in a forward cone. Joker and Touwon make the sprawling combatants pay heavily for those two attempts. The first time, Touwon smashed a bottle he’d tossed in the air with a backswing of his kukrang, splashing some liquid over the fallen, as well as a few of those that had tried to fill the gap afterward. A moment later, his kukrang caught with the same blue, sparking fire from the fight with the Gryphus Vulture, and with a single swipe, he set them alight.

Oskar would never forget the screaming as the fire quickly spread to everyone who had even a drop of the strange liquid on them. Luckily, the following stampede was aimed away from the group, and Oskar’s group had been rewarded with a small lull in the battle. Valla’s raging soon reinforced order, and the fight continued, albeit a little more cautiously, especially around Touwon’s blue flamed weapon.

A cry that set the hair on the back of Oskar’s neck to needlepoints rose from somewhere at the back of the press of attackers, and suddenly they were again being swarmed. He felt Erik’s grip on his shoulder tighten at the sound.

Screaming, just like Pale… just like Erik. Valla, using her sick magic to scare them forward.

Apparently Touwon wasn’t able to reproduce his earlier trick, but Joker, no slouch, suddenly moved forward with so much ferocity that he seemed to push the fallen backward. His massive axe fell indiscriminately in the pile with such effectiveness that the pressure on Oskar’s group dropped dramatically, even as the primal screaming behind their attackers echoed into nothingness.

With no time to contemplate what inhumane thing Valla had done, he fought with spear and magic. He honed his ability to convert Sora’s bursts into targeted thrusts, able to utilize them into his spear techniques by using it to off-balance his attackers. This was much harder with the physical bulk of the Crocs opposed to the Hyenamen, but he eventually realized their long claws made them less surefooted on the rock than he was, and blasting Sora towards their legs was more effective.

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Over the course of the next few minutes, they fought closer and closer to the entrance, staying close enough to the wall to avoid being surrounded completely. At one point, they found themselves further away from the wall than they’d intended, and a Hyenaman tried to work his way around Joker, who spun with surprising speed. His rock-hard tail crushed the Hyena-man into the wall behind him, and a second, shocked Hyena behind the first staggered backward, all thoughts of doing the same thing gone. Touwon shifted to fill the gap and Joker gradually shifted their trajectory back toward the wall.

Joker's face was grim and determined, but a flash of bright blue scales caught his eye, and suddenly the grim look was replaced with satisfaction. He spun, charged forward a step, and swung a heavy swing downward towards Blinker, who'd gotten a little too close while he was relaying Valla's orders. The surprised Croc blinked in surprise, and lifted his spear with both hands to deflect the heavy axe. The spear was not made for such abuse, and Blinker was split from neck to stomach.

Holy crap, he really did hate Blinker.

As the battle raged on, fear and leapfrogged orders from Valla shifted the pace of the battle from wild abandon to something more strategic, and the group’s progress slowed. They’d hit a groove, though. Oskar was getting better and better with manipulating Sora, and they were finding brief lulls in the battle to breathe. Their enemies were packed solid all the way to the south entrance. They’d earned some respect and fear, but that alone would not keep them alive. It quickly became apparent, though, that they would not have the energy to fight to the entrance and then possibly through the Clinkers as well. Who knew where their allegiance lay.

Oskar and Joker apparently came to that conclusion at the same time, because as Oskar moved forward and called out to Joker, the Croc immediately rocketed forward and swung a wild horizontal swing that eased the pressure, calling something out to the Kobolds. Fox and Touwon grabbed onto Erik and the whole group suddenly turned and followed an opening where their enemies were thinnest, and made a break west, where the V and its stairwell lay.

The move was unexpected, likely because it seemed suicidal, and so they had a decent lead before they were forced to react to a few of the quicker Hyenas that were quickly on their heels. Joker and Oskar turned to keep the attackers at bay, using the reluctance of the Hyena's to actually attack- rather than only harry and chase- to their advantage. As the Hyenas skidded to a halt, looking back for back-up, Joker and Oskar hurried to catch up the Erik and the Kobolds. They made it almost to the base of the steps before they were forced to fight again.

Joker was probably thinking they'd made for the choke-point to make their final stand. The choke-point portion was true, but as to the final stand; Oskar was desperately thinking of other options.

Joker was magnificent, though. He’d taken a few shots as they'd reformed formation, but was now tossing around Hyenamen and even some of the smaller Crocs like he’d trained for this his whole life. Yet even Joker was tiring by the time they’d gotten close to the stairwell. Fox had taken a hit from somewhere that was slowing her as well, causing the group to string out more than was safe. Fox was having a rough time keeping their flank clear and still staying close enough to Erik to keep him in the middle.

Erik moved and lay a quick hand on her back, a move that sent his brother straight to the ground for a moment before he pulled himself back up on his knees. However, Fox, fully healed, called out something in the Kobold language to Joker that he apparently understood, because he stopped pushing forward, and instead went wild, burning up the reserves of his energy to give the group time to recover. After a moment, the small but hardy Touwon was under Erik’s emaciated shoulder, and they were moving again. They were so close.

Joker led the way, but as they neared the opening of the stairway leading up to the split in the cliff, he took a nasty hit from a club on the side of his head that put him down briefly. He rose, but he wasn’t the same. Slower, sluggish, he ignored defense completely and pushed the group through the throng of attackers the last few meters.

Joker stopped in the opening to the stairwell, now bleeding from multiple wounds. His words were sluggish and slurred as he said, “I called All-Red. I stay. Hope you can fly, human.” He then said a single word to the two Kobolds in their language. Fox slammed a fist to her chest and pulled Touwon and the barely conscious Erik towards the stairs.

Oskar didn’t know what to say, so he nodded at the Croc and said, “You’ll be remembered. Thank you, All-Red,” as they rushed past. He heard the sounds of a bitter struggle as he took Erik from Touwon to help him up the stairs. His brother’s hand, frail as it was, held his shoulder in an iron grip as they climbed.

As they reached the top, some twenty steps upward, there was a platform, roughly textured- likely for better grip- that tilted upward to as they cleared the final few steps. Wind hit them full force in the back as they climbed those final steps, and the Kobolds squatted low as they struggled against the steady rush of hot, dry wind. Erik, who blinked his eye through the crooked Goggles sitting awkwardly over the leather covering one eye, looked around to take in his surroundings. His thin face somehow paled even further as he looked back down the steps.

Oskar’s stomach sank at the look on Erik’s face, and no longer able to hear the sounds of battle behind him, turned to see what had disheartened Erik. Valla’s crazed, grinning face was staring back at him. She stabbed a dagger into the side of All-Red’s neck, who lay on his side with several spears jutting out of him. The only thing that stopped Oskar from rushing down to kill Valla was his brother’s strong grip and the look on All-Red’s face. He was grinning too, eyes blinking slowly, as he said something Oskar couldn’t understand over and over.

Determined to let All-Red see his death was not in vain, he pulled his brother up on his back, who thankfully had the sense and remaining strength to realize what his crazy brother was about to do and latched on with all three remaining limbs. Oskar ran for the edge of the platform and leaped off the edge. He spun in the air and using a great pull of wind even the agile Kobolds couldn’t withstand, he snatched the stunned pair into his outstretched arms. He was careful to keep his spear clear as he felt the Kobolds latch onto him painfully. Fox’s face, inches from his own, was wide eyed, knowing what had to be next.

Holding tight to his new family, Oskar used Sora to launch them into the wind.