Octavius was the first to reach the cave. His boots scraped against the stone ground as he skidded to a stop. Running forward once more, he stopped just in front of the tunnel that led to the massive complex that was magically excavated into the cliff.

He knew that the wind from behind him was currently carrying every sound they made into the tunnel and perhaps even into the massive cavern. The clacking sound of the thralls’ exoskeleton covered feet was quiet but growing louder with every passing second.

Leveling his spear, he saw the other spear users of his team stopping to either side of him. The final unblocked area of the tunnel’s entrance was blocked by three more spear users that he was unfamiliar with and Ava. Together they formed a phalanx ready to meet any approaching thralls.

A few feet behind them, every mage in the Sanctuary was lined up with spells ready. Blue balls of mana flickered above each outstretched hand. Although the wind blade spell did more damage, the spell “Mana Bullet” that was provided to them all upon gaining the mage class cost significantly less mana and was more precise.

The line of spear wielders would hold off any thrall rogues, and the mages would take out any mages. They were particularly looking for the stone shapers. Behind them, the sound of wood knocking against wood was covered by the roar of flames. More and more people added fuel to the fire as the warriors eyed the tunnel.

The first thrall that entered their line of sight was twenty feet away when it shouted something and drew its curved blade. It was quickly joined by a dozen more thrall rogues as they reached the line of spears.

It was clear that they all planned to sprint into the spear blades and rely on their hardened exoskeleton to allow them to avoid serious injury. They moved with ungraceful, robotic movements as they made sure to harden as much of their exoskeletons as possible. Even so, Octavius could barely hear their movements. Chalking it up to the wind and other sounds, he focused on the approaching enemy.

As soon as the thralls reached within five feet of the deadly line of blades, their images seemed to stutter. Octavius could barely follow their movements as they seemed to flash forward with double the speed of their previous advance.

He had originally planned to take out the thrall that was in front of him with a single thrust to the eye. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be confident in his aim with the thrall moving so quickly. Instead, he activated instant trust directly at the thrall’s center mass.

His spear flashed forward with an incredible speed. A shock traveled down the metal spear shaft and into his arms as it impacted the thrall’s chest. The thrall barely had time to widen its eyes in surprise before it was knocked back a dozen steps.

It had obviously not been prepared for the amount of momentum that Octavius could put behind a spear thrust and hadn’t even tried to deflect it. The strike didn’t do any real damage to the thrall, and it quickly stumbled to a stop and charged forward once more.

For the second that he wasn’t engaged, Octavius scanned the battlefield. One of the thralls had been killed by a lucky spear strike to the eye. He had told the others about the thralls’ weakness there, and he seemed one of the spear users had gone for it regardless of the speed of the target.

Others weren’t so lucky, however. Collectively, his fellow humans had all used instant thrust and had been braced for the impact. Even the smallest human in the lineup had significantly more weight than any of the thralls. While most had failed to knock their opponents back as Octavius had, many had managed to halt their wild charge.

Only a single thrall had been able to force their way past the spears and gotten in range to attack a human. It had tried to attack one of the unfamiliar spear users but was instantly killed when a pulsing blue ball of power had hit its eye. From such a short-range and with such a precise spell, the mages were able to hit whatever they aimed at.

Eying the thrall that was quickly charging at him again, Octavius turned slightly to the right. He thrust his spear forward to take the unprepared thrall that was engaged with Marcus in the eye. Quickly withdrawing his spear before it could be pulled from his hands, he dismissed the message telling him of the thrall’s death and facing the thrall charging him.

Initially, the thralls numbered only one less than the spear wielders lined up to kill them. Such a deficit could be made up for with teamwork and higher levels. Unfortunately for them, the unengaged humans used the opportunity to attack them when they weren’t expecting it.

As the thrall charged Octavius again, he slammed his spear into its chest without using a skill. It was forced to slow considerably, and Marcus used the moment to stab it in the eye. After that, the humans worked together to quickly bring the fight to a close.

Octavius snapped his head up as three blue balls of energy flashed past the line of spear wielders. One passed within three inches of his ear. Following their path, he saw them slam into a thrall stone shaper that was clearly focusing on doing something. It blended into the stone wall almost perfectly with its gray robe and skin, but that didn’t save it from the human mages.

The distance between the mages and their target was too much for exact accuracy, but every spell landed on the alien creature. Two impacted its chest, and one clipped its arm. It was unprepared for the attack and wasn’t able to compensate with high physical stats. Whatever it had planned to do was brought to a halt as it was sent tumbling down the incline of the tunnel.

The sound of the fire was growing louder and louder. Soon enough, Octavius couldn’t even hear his own steady breathing. Another group of thrall rogues and slight shimmers in the air that denoted the mages entered his field of vision. Even with their bodies invisible, the three growing blue orbs gave away their positions.

At that moment, the light smoke that the wind had been blowing past him became thick and black. Octavius knew that was the sign that the others’ jobs were complete, and he turned and ran past the mages. The other spear wielders followed his lead as the mages began to backpedal while firing spell after spell into the tunnel.

As soon as he passed the massive fire that was covered with leaves and other fresh detritus, he spun around. He threw his shoulder against the edge of the hastily assembled cart that held the fire along with the other humans that remained. Its wheels were mere slabs of a tree and wobbled dangerously on the irregular stone floor.

The combined strength of a dozen superhumans got the massive wheeled fire moving as the mages moved quickly out of the way. They barely had to move it at all before it reached the incline, and gravity took it. The thralls that had been slowed by the hail of spells turned and fled the rapidly approaching fire. Some of the mages fired their spell at it to little effect.

Proud smiles spread across the faces of the dozens of humans as they completed the first phase of the attack flawlessly. Some even let out exuberant cheers. All had been frightened by the idea of fighting a massive group of high-level aliens, but at that moment, they all believed that they would be able to come out on top.

Even for a massive group of superhumans, assembling a makeshift cart and building a massive fire over the course of a mere handful of minutes was impressive. The constant flow of oxygen from the wind definitely helped them and would make the fire even more effective. As the wind was funneled down the tunnel, it would only feed the fire and make it more difficult to put out.

The thralls would still be able to put out the fire. Even if wood shapers couldn’t affect burning wood, the stone shapers could smother the fire with stone. Either way, it would give the humans the chance they needed to prepare themselves for the next phase of the attack.

Octavius moved to the side of the cave, along with the other warriors, as more humans came down the path carrying the materials to construct a small wooden fortification in the middle of the cave. The group halted at the point that would require any thralls to practically exit the tunnel before they could see the fortification.

Octavius and the others stood guard as the workers began to hastily assemble a wooden wall that stretched halfway to the cave’s ceiling. As soon as the first wave of fighters carrying the materials entered the cave, the group that had built the fire ran up the path to collect more and bring it back.

None of them had any idea how long it would take for the thralls to start a counteroffensive, so they hurried. First, the beginnings of a wall went up. Planks of wood were fit into one another to create a structure that stretched to slightly above Octavius’s head.

A fit, silver-haired man barked orders to the various fighters that had been assigned to assembling the defense. Once the first wave of materials were all used up, the wall stretched the dozen feet from one wall of the cave to the other. Octavius, along with the various other guards that weren’t building, stepped close to the wall to peer in between the hastily assembled planks.

He could faintly hear the sounds of shouting and cursing forcing its way up the tunnel. The guard quickly moved to the small fire that had been removed from the massive cart and built it up as they waited. Barely a minute later, the others returned with more supplies, and work resumed.

Men and women grunted with the strain of lifting and maneuvering the multi-hundred-pound pieces of wood. The sound of wooden pegs forcing their way into various carved indents was loud even over the howling wind. Quickly, the flimsy wall turned into one that would be impossible to knock over.

A triangular frame was built up to brace the wall. Then, various pieces of wood and dirt were piled up until there was a ramp that led to about a foot below the top of the wall. With their work complete, many of the guards left the packed cave.

The guards that had been chosen to construct the defenses had the highest raw physical stats, but that did not mean they would be the best fighters. Soon enough, only three dozen men and women remained in the cave.

The mages all took up positions at the top of the ramp, ready to take down anything that walked up the ramp. Another half dozen fighters stood with them, slings swinging gently in the wind from their ready hands. The remainder of Octavius’s party began to build up the fire with the rest of the wood that the fighters had dropped off.

Soon, half of the remaining wood had been set ablaze at the mouth of the tunnel. The bonfire stretched from one side of the tunnel to the other, blocking any thrall from coming up it. The various remaining fighters returned to the relative safety of the wooden fortification.

Octavius exhaled a sigh of relief at no longer being within a few feet of the fire. The hair on his arms had been singed by the scorching heat, and he was glad for the powerful wind. Whereas normally, he would be sweating through his clothes at such a relatively close distance to the massive bonfire, the wind blew all of the heat and smoke down the tunnel despite its natural tendency to rise.

He watched over the top of the wall for half an hour, expecting a thrall wood shaper to create a path through the flames any minute. Instead, he saw nothing. At one point, he might have seen a single thrall come up the tunnel and look at the flames before disappearing, but he couldn’t have been sure.

The various guards took turns exiting the fortification to add more fuel to the fire as it burned through the wood incredibly quickly. After that half-hour, they were joined by two dozen more guards that carefully carried fresh wood from the trees above. Octavius knew that while they were busy down below, the vast majority of the attacking force was making their own preparations up above.

As soon as the fresh wood was added to the scorching fire, crackles and pops filled the cave. Plumes of smoke rose from the green wood and were blown down the tunnel.

The process continued for another two and a half hours without any interference from the thralls. Octavius wasn’t sure what they were up to and definitely didn’t like not knowing. They were supposed to rotate in and out of the cave in three-hour shifts. Just as his first shift was coming to a close, the first sign of an attack drew his attention to the tunnel that was obscured by the flames.

Squinting, he saw various moving shapes. Another few seconds allowed him to identify them as definitely humanoid. Looking around the nervous faces of the guards all around him, he spoke just loud enough to be heard over the roar of the wind and the flames.

“No one do anything yet,” he ordered, “Let’s see what they are up to. Mages and slingers get ready. If these alien bastards want to get to us, they’ll have to charge uphill through a rain of death.”

Readying his own spear, he stared intently into the flames. He was unable to see through them clearly but knew it would be a million times worse for the thralls on the other side. If a thrall shaper would work their magic from so far away through such a distraction, things were about to get much worse for them.

Instead, a loud slap was heard over the deafening flames, followed by a shout that was drowned out by their roar. The tense silence that followed stretched for a half dozen long seconds.

It was suddenly broken by an inarticulate scream of rage, desperateness, and sorrow. Octavius’s eyes shot open at the sound. That was almost definitely not a sound made by a thrall.

The sound was joined by a burst of sudden movement that dove into the bonfire. For a single instant, a dozen humanoid shapes tried to climb the massive fire. Heartrending screams of agony filled the cave as the figures fell one after another.

Octavius closed his eyes, finding the sight unbearable. The screams were far too human to be anything else. After a moment, he forced himself to open his eyes and watch. The human slaves scrambled over the burning wood, wailing in agony as they did so. He wasn’t proud that he was glad that he couldn’t see their faces through the flames.

The sound of retching reached his ears as many of the others threw up. Only a single figure managed to reach the top of the pile of blazing wood before toppling forward. Octavius barely paused to think before vaulting over the wall and dragging the man away from the fire.

The man’s skin was melted and bubbling. Where his eyes once were, there were only voids. Octavius already had a health potion from his belt uncorked when the man jerked and grabbed him feebly.

“Please… Help them!” he said. His voice was hoarse and low from the heat and smoke. Octavius ignored the man’s weak grip and moved the vial gently toward the man’s mouth, relieved that he was even still alive. The man tried to speak again but was met with the vicious red liquid of a health potion being forced down his throat.

As soon as he swallowed, he tried to speak again. “They said… They said I had to tell you, or they’d kill her,” he said.

Octavius cradled the man’s head as the potion began to knit his skin back together. “Tell me what?” he asked.

The man’s voice grew softer and softer until the soldier was forced to lean over to catch the man’s words. “I… They… They’ll kill three of us prisoners every hour until you all submit to them,” he whispered feebly, “You have to save her, my little girl. They won’t…”

The man passed into unconsciousness before he could finish his sentence, but Octavius got the idea. An angry curse escaped him as he dragged the healed man back to the wooden wall.

Leaping lightly, he was forced to duck by the low ceiling as he carried the man over the fortification. The rest of his party, along with every other member of the Sanctuary present, was staring at him with stricken expressions. They had obviously not been prepared for such brutality, even from their enemies.

“What did he say?” Asked a man that hadn’t been present five minutes before. Octavius realized that the man was part of the next rotation of guards and nodded to him solemnly.

“He said that they’ll kill three human slaves per hour until we all submit ourselves to them,” he responded and then walked out of the cave and into the setting sun. The rest of the first shift, minus four mages, followed him in silence.

Octavius had seen the horror of war before, but that didn’t make it any easier. He had set the fire that had burned this man nearly to death, and he was lucky compared to the other humans that tried to cross it. Beyond that, he had been the one who had started the idea of the raid on the Landing.

As he walked mechanically up the stone path, he forced himself to breathe deeply. With every breath, more and more of his self-loathing was turned into an icy rage. The thralls were the ones responsible for this, and he would stop them before they could do anything worse.