Tired from two weeks of constant vigilance and marching, sprinkled with sporadic moments of intense fighting and glazed with tidbits of rest, the expedition neared its point of egress from the quarantine zone. But it did not make them happy. For one, the closer they got to safety the more their minds dwelled on those that did not make it back. Losses were thankfully light but made all the more painful by the success so far. Second, they saw smoke rising from the horizon, roughly where the soldiers put the gate to be.

No sooner had the men begun to worry, did scouts return. A man clad in light armor, a gambeson, and a helmet, sped towards the pair of captains near the front of the column.

"There's an assault on the gatehouse in progress, sir," he reported, facing the army commander after nodding toward the paladin. “Looks like a fairly serious one at that. We got to four hundred fiends before losing count. We saw seven behemoths still alive with at least nine dead beneath the walls.”

"Nothing the garrison shouldn't be able to overcome. What do you think, Percy? Do we attack the demons from the back or wait for it to be over?" Tyr, the army man, looked to the paladin by his side. Even though the operation was under the army's purview, it was organized at the behest of the church and the knight order as the one in custody of their objective, as such the captain sought his counterpart's approval.

"I'd rather not risk losing the tome. Best we hold back, assess the situation and if need be, you and yours ride while we hold back, and in the event it goes wrong seek a different entrance," the paladin countered. He hated leaving the soldiers atop the walls to fend for themselves, but returning safely home was of the utmost priority.

Meanwhile, the scout started stepping from one foot to the other and looked downright uncomfortable. Perceval noticed and asked. “Is there more?”

"We believe we saw a siege tower, sir, ladders as well. We didn't get close enough to be sure, but Jer swears up and down that he saw an aberrant commanding the demons."

“Aw fuck! Today of all days they conjure up an aberrant? Seems our luck ran out."

"Calm Tyr, calm. Go help them, we'll keep the book safe," Perceval laid a hand on the commander's shoulder and squeezed to help quieten the man's nerves. A coordinated assault with scaling equipment wasn't an everyday occurrence. And one featuring an aberrant had to be put down before it became a problem. As Tyr nodded and turned to command the scouts and his men, the paladin ran off to deal with his own.

“Pjotr, Jehen, Stuart, Anden. Get our things and horses and get out of the army’s way. Helena, with me and keep an eye on the book. Don’t you lose it,” he called as he neared. The crew startled but sprang into action to fulfill his orders.

When the men left, Helena looked up at her husband and asked in a whisper. “What’s going on? Why are we separating from the mudboots? Should I worry?”

Perceval gave her a strained smile. "Looks like an aberrant chose this day to honor us with its presence. The gate is under siege. We're gonna hang back while the army deals with it."

“Doesn’t seems right, leaving it all up to them. We should help,” she replied.

"Like it or not, if it is truly what we hope, that book you're holding is more important than any one of us here. Let them do their job, ours is to keep it safe and get it home at all cost, even if it is as high as it might climb in a moment," he said sadly. He wanted to help as much as he knew she wanted.

The priest stayed silent for a moment but eventually let out a soft ok.

The group gathered at a side of the unmaintained road and let the other personnel pass. They followed after but stopped when the battlefield came into view. They'd observe how the battle would go and act accordingly. Wagons with supplies and non-combatants were the first to stop, not far from their small group. The rest circled the demons slightly to take advantage of a small copse of trees for some cover.

Ballista equipped wagons and those with mages on top were the next to stop as they got in range. Infantry and archers continued onwards. They got as far as Tyr dared without revealing themselves. He waited for a bit until he judged the moment right to intervene. With a silent command, foot soldiers formed ranks and ranged weapons loosed toward the demons. A second volley was in the air before the first one landed and a third followed right when the first fiend fell dead with an arrow in its back.

Chaos spread through enemy ranks as the back lines died. It did not last long as a singular demon restored order with shouts and hits. It stood at under two meters, skin the color of a healthy human with a similar build. He could have been mistaken for any man if not for his hooves and a lion's tail. Shoulder-length black hair flew in the air as he reasserted discipline among his troops. The five remaining behemoths finished pushing the siege tower into position and turned to run at Tyr's men, followed by some hundred fiends and a veritable wave of imps.

Two of the giants were felled by massive bolts to the back. released from the walls, one more was laid down, broken under a catapult's payload. One was stopped by the wagon crews, slain in a way similar to the one nearly six days ago with the same crew making the knee shot. Of the remaining two one was skewered by spears, but the last one managed to break through the first line, stomping on several soldiers and tossing more aside.

The line closed behind the behemoth. And right on time, as the imps arrived closely following the beast. They crashed into shields and many were crushed against them by those following behind. Some were flung over the soldiers and started harassing them from within. Yet more were trying to get around the ranks of footmen and at the archers. The army men were in disarray for the moment and into this came the fiends, many of which sported actual weapons. Their number was thankfully culled enough to not pose a significant problem for the infantry.

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Fiends were the first to all be slain, followed by the behemoth, who now had a hole from one ear to the other, courtesy of a mage's ice lance. The imps, though, were a menace. Albeit not particularly life-threatening, they did cause a light injury or two on most of the men before they were dealt with.

Seeing as they would not be able to scale the walls and win, the aberrant decided to throw the rest of his forces against the seventy or so men arrayed before him on flat ground. Around three hundred fiends rushed Tyr's position. The man himself was among his men, straight in the middle, where the fighting would be the hardest. The aberrant had no wish to be counted among the dead and as soon as the rest of the demons were on the right track, he dashed to the side and away from the fighting.

It might seem that he was a coward, but he saw what the group watching from a hill nearby did not. The gate in the wall was opening. And through it rode out heavy cavalry. Fifty horsemen crashed into the back ranks of the demons just as they made contact with the humans they were running towards. Some twenty minutes later, not a single demon was left standing.

“We’d better go and see how we can help,” whispered Helena. Her word broke the group out of their reveries and soon they were on their way to tend to the wounded and deal with the dead.

Perceval sought out Tyr among his men. He found him talking to a cavalryman a short distance away from the main group. As he neared, Tyr turned to him with a pained smile. His hair was plastered to his scalp with sweat and blood slowly seeped from a gash on his cheek, right where his helmet would have ended. The man looked tired but still radiated an aura of competence one found only in people who knew how to lead well. "How many?" Percy asked. He need not say more, the captain knew all too well what was meant.

“Thirteen dead, two will not live through the night. Four more will be lucky to hold through the week and about six whose soldiering days are probably over. We made out lucky, all told, could have been worse if not for Molyn here,” he gestured to the rider. “Percy, Molyn, the captain of our saviors. Molyn, Percy, captain of our paladin complement.”

"Well, this won't get confusing at all," chuckled Molyn. "Nice to meet you. Seeing as you did not participate, you were successful in whatever you were doing out there, I presume?"

“Likewise, and yes. We need to get to the capital post haste. After we are all done here, that is.”

A scrawny squire rushed towards them from the direction of the gate. He braked hard when he reached them and dried off his hands on his shirt when he managed to come to a stop. “Captain,” he saluted, not sure who he was supposed to address.

“Yes?” came the answer in triplicate. The trio looked at each other and laughed for a bit.

Molyn took pity on the clearly disturbed man and spoke softly. "Told ya, now seeing as he is none of the garrison's commander's or one of yours, I'd think he's here mainly for me. So, what do you got?"

“Sir, the Wall-Marshal sends word for you to ride out and meet with some expedition that left through this entrance into the quarantine zone some two weeks ago. You are to rendezvous with them and bring them back,” the man took solace in having just one man to report to and spilled the words almost faster than the rest could follow.

The cavalry captain looked at him incredulously before suppressing a massive grin. “Done, what next?”

“Uhm… what?” The messenger’s eyes bulged.

“I believe that should be: ’Uhm, what? Sir.’” Molyn couldn’t help himself anymore and a toothy smile spread over his face as he pointed to the two men beside him. “And seeing as I have the expedition commanders right here with me, I’d think that I can say that they are brought home safe if not exactly sound,” he cast a glance to where men were being treated. “Now what was I supposed to do once I got them here?”

"Uhm…" It took a moment for the stunned man to collect his mental faculties enough for his brain to start working again. "You are to report to the Marshal for further orders. You were supposed to be given a week to accomp…" he was interrupted by another man rushing to them with a shout.

“Sirs, the commander wishes to inform you, that this assault wasn’t the only one. Demons have been reported to be attacking all along the wall. Commander Porcs sends word that the west is holding but asks for reinforcements to help clean up. Worse news from the east, commander Erhard is presumed dead and a lieutenant Thorne is in command.”

“Lieutenant Thorne? What about captains Jeffries and Jefferson?” asked Tyr.

“Dead, sir, as far as we could make out of the message. The messenger did not arrive completely whole. The message said they have a breached gate and were so far holding the wall clear of demons but were unable to hold small groups of demons from heading into the countryside.”

One of humanity’s greatest fears seemed to be close at hand. A fear Perceval saw in his wife not long ago. It didn’t take any of them long, but he was the first one to shake the feeling of dread off. “What of the doubles? How are they faring?”

The stretch of wall circling the quarantine zone from a nigh impassable mountainside in the east to a similar mountain range to the west was divided into five zones of command. The south, where they were currently located, then east and west to its sides, and finally the east-east and west-west command, sometimes called the ends as in east-end and west-end. But commonly these outer parts were referred to as the doubles.

“Ends report heavy fighting but everything within their ability to contain,” replied the squire.

“Reaction forces?” Percy followed up on his earlier question.

“Fighting at their staging grounds at the ends, just like here.”

"Ok, sorry to pull my authority over you as a member of the paladin order, guys, but time is of the essence. Molyn, we can mop here up just fine. Go help close that breach and then scour the farms and adjacent provinces. Tyr, take your able men and reinforce lieutenant Thorne on the wall. Leave your lightly wounded under the command of Pjotr, he with Anden and Stuart will stay here and help commander Leon. I'll take your heavily wounded and your support personnel back to the capital. It'll be a nightmare to fetch everyone back together, but I believe it's the best solution in this case. Porcs will simply have to forgo running any demons down and burn the bodies on his own. Now, if I’m not missing anything crucial, go!”

“Yes, sir,” the cavalryman gave Percy a slightly mocking salute, all in good fun, and strode off to execute his orders.

"Same here, Percy. That's why we have the hierarchy in place, for cases like these when you have three captains in one place and decisions need to be made. No hurt feelings. And good luck, been a pleasure. Catch you back home," Tyr patted the paladin's shoulders before leaving as well.

With the other officers gone Percy glanced at the two messengers. "Anything else?" They both replied in the negative. "Then you are dismissed.”