Chapter 26

Sadly, there were no unattended buffalo wings. Nor any buffalo wings, actually. On account of humans being lying liars and this wasn't a barbeque.

We had snuck over to Mage Street and Fourth Avenue and found the back of the building in which Wolf Platoon was holed up. It was a big squat two-story thing that covered the entire block and was divided up inside into various store fronts on the first floor and living quarters on the second. Six demons guarded this side of the building while the main mass were on the other side where the actual fighting was happening. Murray said it was a bad sign that the demons had this kind of organization. It meant that either one of the hazdahem had shown up to run things (in which case 'youse is uttahly boned') or else one of the senior malazaheen had bullied everyone else into working together efficiently. The latter was a more than plausible theory, since the demons consisted of five balor congregating in the middle of the block and a malazaheem standing a short distance away with its scythes folded. The thing gave me a queasy.

Sergeant Carpenter was leaning around the corner just far enough that he could see what was happening. He pulled back with a grim expression, quickly relaying what he'd seen. "We need to get those guys out of the way," he said quietly.

"And we need to do it fast, before another of those patrol groups comes through," I said, spitting ichor out of my mouth. We had faced off against six more balor on the way here, traveling in pairs. We had it down to a science now; the humans would pin one of them in place with their tridents while I shoulderbarged the other away from its teammate, splatting it into a wall and killing it immediately. We would then wolfpack the other, the humans keeping it distracted until I could get behind it and bite its head into mush. That was the plan, anyway. It worked great on the first two pairs but on the third one I missed the wall and only hurled the demon away up the street. It didn't really matter, since I had time to run over and jump on it before it got back to its feet and then we repeated the tactic on the other one. The humans had been teasing me about the miss ever since, but it wasn't mean teasing so it was okay. It was actually kind of nice—fun teasing was what human friends did with each other! They were treating me like a People!

A short discussion of tactics between the guardsmen, all of whom were looking much more grim-faced than I would have preferred, gave us our plan. Everyone tapped fists (paw, in my case) and split up to their respective places.

"You ready?" Sergeant Carpenter asked. He was mounted and strapped in again, his trident in hand.

"Ready," I said. "Remember, I'm going to charge one of the ones on the right but jump at the one on the left," I told him. "And I'm going to use Mystic Acceleration when I get close, so brace yourself."

"No, no. Charge left, jump right. My shield is on the left. I can cover you better against attacks from that side."

"Oh. Oops. Yes, okay."

He chuckled and leaned forward to scritch behind my ear. "No worries. Also, do me a favor and don't run into the wall, okay?"

I huffed in amusement. "That's why I juke right. I'll be running straight at the wall when I go in, but this way the worst case is that I'll hit it at an angle and smoosh the demon."

"And maybe my leg."

I tossed my head dismissively. "You're the one with the great big shield. Cover your leg."

He sighed.

We waited, tucked away out of sight around the corner, until the sound of someone beating a javelin against a shield came from the south. I started forward just as Sergeant Carpenter's trident came into view, held out before us like a lance. I couldn't stop my tail from wagging furiously. Mighty war dog!

The demons were facing down the street from us, bellowing a threat. The balors beat their chests while the malazaheen on that corner charged towards where the five members of the Guard squad had stepped into view, javelins upraised and coated in burn gel, a burning match in their off hand.

The balor were simply human bodybuilders except taller, wider, more muscular, coated in red scales, and given long claws. They were also, as Murray put it, 'dumb as a box ah hammahs.' I wasn't sure why a box of hammers would be particularly dumb, but I understood what he meant. Regardless, they were dangerous to the humans—their skin was tough enough to turn most physical attacks and they were immune to non-magical fire.

The malazaheen were something entirely different. They looked like someone had made a human out of taffy, then stretched them upwards and given them another pair of arms. They were at least seven feet tall and sickly white like the maggots I had seen crawling around on a roadkilled raccoon that one time. Where feet should have been there were hands. Their first set of arms went straight up from their shoulders, had three elbows instead of one, and ended in scythes. The second set of arms was the same except they stuck out horizontally from the rib cage. Their heads were like a clown's head stretched upwards to a point, and where each eye should have been there were half a dozen finger-length worms that twisted and writhed and shrieked.

The malazaheen charged at the guards, moving in a gliding, zigzagging pattern that made it hard to follow. The flaming javelins arced out when it was fifty feet away; it sidestepped one, flicked a second out of the air, and two bounced off. Only one pierced the charging malazaheen's sickly white skin, and that only barely, falling out moments later under its own weight. It didn't matter too much because the burn gel from the three javelins that had touched it got smeared over the monster and suddenly it was a torch. The flames burned blue and smoky, and they drove the demon to panic and start thrashing around. The four arms scythed back and forth, the creature spun in circles and screamed.

I glimpsed this only briefly because I was in motion the moment the monsters had noticed our people. This was a main street, at least forty feet wide with two sets of rails in it for the steam trains, plus generous sidewalks on both sides. I charged across it, Mystic Acceleration speeding my steps so that I could loop down the block, turn towards the balor, and reach them before the malazaheen got to the guards. At the last moment I pushed off hard to the side, changing my target from the one in the center to the one second from the right.

Sergeant Carpenter was ready. He legs clamped tight around my barrel and his trident was aimed slightly off-axis from my run so it struck the rightmost demon while I hit the one next to it. The trident got the creature right in the face, piercing all the way through. The impact jolted through Sergeant Carpenter, into the saddle, and into me, slowing me down by a noticeable amount. That didn't matter all that much, since I was moving fast. I bounced the balor away, throwing it back into the wall of the building six feet behind it where its bones shattered. I kept turning, struggling to redirect myself so I didn't ram into the wall myself. I scraped the Sergeant's shield-covered leg against stone but didn't break anything so I called it a win. The demon that Sergeant Carpenter had speared went down but managed to rake at me with its claws, tracing a line of pain down my hip.

Unfortunately, Sergeant Carpenter had needed to let go of the trident after it hit, so he was now forced to rely on his backup weapons. He pulled a short javelin (really more of a lawn dart if you ask me, but nobody had) off the inside of his shield and hurled it as I charged towards the burning malazaheen. It went wide—the sergeant wasn't used to fighting on dogback—but it attracted the monster's attention. I turned away, not wanting to get lit on fire myself, and looped back to the two surviving balor.

Unsurprisingly, they were charging straight for me. I was okay with that. I went to meet them while Sergeant Carpenter cursed as he drew his sword, fumbled, and dropped it.

Of course, I only found that out later. All I knew was that something had thumped lightly against my side, which I ignored. I gathered my haunches under me and leaped at the last moment so that I barreled into the balor on the right. His friend slashed down and I heard the sergeant's shield crack; a moment later the balor howled in pain, probably from slamming its fist into a six-inch spike. I was busy with mine; it slapped me in the side of the head as I attacked, its claws stabbing into my neck, but I got my teeth into its upper arm and bit down. The bone crunched under my jaws and the balor went over backwards, howling in agony. I let go and trampled across him, heading up the street a hundred feet before slowing and turning around. Halfway there I pumped a point of Spirit into Sergeant Carpenter's leg where it was squeezing my side, figuring it would take care of whatever wounds he'd gotten as we went past. A moment later he reciprocated; I felt a jab in my neck as he used one of the injectors and topped my health up again. That was when I saw the sword on the ground and realized what had happened.

The malazaheen was still burning but it had gotten its focus back enough that it was once again attacking the guardsmen. They were turtled, crouching down with shields upraised and tridents poking out between. Four of the tridents were trapping the demon's arms and the last was planted against its chest, holding it back. It was howling and struggling to push forward but the guardsmen were holding their ground.

The last surviving balor was charging for their formation. If they stayed where they were it would smash right through and kill them all, but if they tried to move then they would need to release some part of the malazaheen and it would burn and stab them to death.

"Off!" I had Murray shout at the sergeant. I didn't wait for him to comply, I raced down the balor with today's last use of Mystic Acceleration speeding my steps.

Sergeant Carpenter barely got the straps undone and rolled awkwardly out of the saddle before I hit the thing. I had lined it up well; I hit the balor from behind and slightly to the side so that it flew forward, slammed into the malazaheen, and both of them pancaked into the wall of the next building.

At least, that's what was supposed to happen.

The balor hit the malazaheen and they both went flying, but they were heavy enough that they were only airborne for twenty-ish feet and then they rolled the rest of the way before fetching up against the wall. They weren't moving that fast when they actually hit, so they didn't crunch the way I would have preferred. Foreoffpaw, the balor had been stabbed in the thigh by one of the malazaheem's scythes, which had broken off and was stuck through its leg. It was barely able to stand and would be easy enough to deal with. The malazaheen...

"Okay, that's just not fair," said Private Chi as he watched the malazaheem casually push the balor off itself and climb to its hands relatively undamaged.

Maybe the burn gel had been scraped off during the roll or maybe it had simply burned out. Either way, the malazaheen was no longer on fire. Large patches of its skin had blackened and peeled away, revealing pulsing veins and muscles. Most of its body was covered in soot, one of its scythes was broken in half, and that was the extent of what we had managed.

"A little help, please?" Sergeant Carpenter called. He was on the ground where he had fallen, clutching his foot. Apparently he'd hurt it when he jumped off his mighty war dog. I hurried over and booped him back to health; he thanked me by injecting me with Spirit to replace what I had spent. We rejoined the rest of the team.

"We're going to want to find donors whenever we can," Sergeant Carpenter said, not taking his eyes off the enemy. "We're down to thirty Spirit in the injectors, but I can see going through that quick."

I sat down so that I could scratch my ear while I watched the malazaheem stagger towards us. It moved with the same weird, zigzag gait as before, its whole body swaying to the left for two steps, then swaying to the right. When it first attacked it had moved at a sprint but now it took its time, shifting forward only slowly and occasionally stepping directly to the side while clacking its scythes together in front of it. We all pivoted to keep facing it, the Guards having to shift their line as they did.

"Okay," I said, standing up with a sigh. "I'll just have to—"

Private Chi hurled a small glass bottle into the monster's chest; the bottle exploded on contact, staggering the creature slightly. A shower of bottles followed immediately after as the rest of the squad got in on the action, yanking explosive bottles out of their backpacks and hurling them as fast as they could. The explosions drove the demon back without doing more than superficial damage. Private Funter had good enough aim that he was able to hit it in the head once. That one rocked it, blowing a small hole in its flesh.

"Stop screwing around," Sergeant Carpenter said. "Go big or go home."

"Yes, sarge." Private Funter hurled a standard-issue Guard canteen containing one pint of the blast juice, straight at the demon's head.

The demon swirled around the container, caught it delicately between two massive scythes, finished its spin, and hurled the canteen back at me.

I yelped and ducked; the guardsmen hit the ground around me, angling their shields so that they were covered when the canteen hit the pavement ten feet behind us and exploded in a massive fireball. All six of us screamed as the blast front hit like a hammer and fire scorched over us.

The malazaheen was on me while we were distracted, jumping on me and stabbing with both upper scythes. The right one was unimpeded, the left one was barely slowed by the shield that Sergeant Carpenter hurriedly raised over me. Both of the upper scythes went straight into my back just behind my shoulders. The lower right scythe smashed Private Garcia in the head and knocked the entire squad over like bowling pins. The lower left tried to knock Sergeant Carpenter away, but that was the broken scythe and the demon forgot to adjust for the reduced distance of its strike.

I screamed in agony and rolled, snapping the scythes off but driving them deeper into my back. The demon hopped, not allowing itself to get pinned under my weight, and landed on my stomach, lashing forward to smash me in the teeth with its weirdly distorted head. One of my canines broke off and fell down my throat, making me gag. The worms coming out of the malazaheen's eyes wrapped around my snoot, holding it shut so that I couldn't bite and chewing their way into my flesh.

I kicked with both back legs, ripping at the monster's belly and tearing strips away. It stabbed me in the flanks with its one and a half remaining scythes, but that just gave me the leverage I needed to flip it over and get on top. I smashed it in the face with my head, then reared back. It didn't let go, so I tore the worms right out of its eye sockets. That let me get my jaws open enough that I could bite through its throat, rip and tear until the head was completely detached. It spasmed, rocking the scythes around inside me, and then went limp.

I rolled off slowly, whimpering in pain and having trouble making my front legs work. Blood was pouring out of me and my wounds were sparking furiously as my body tried to repair itself and couldn't do it fast enough.

"Stay with me," Sergeant Carpenter said. He and the other Guards were there, checking me over in shock at the two-foot broken-off segment of chitinous scythe that was sticking out of each of my shoulders. "We're going to pull these out. It's going to hurt, but we'll get you fixed right up. Okay? Deep breath."

Obediently, I took a deep breath, which I promptly howled back out when the scythes came out. Moments later he stuck me with an injector and Spirit poured into me, healing most of the wounds and washing away the pain. Thirty seconds later I was jabbed again and another twelve Spirit flowed into me. I checked my character sheet but I still had the 'Bleeding to Death' status effect.

Sergeant Garcia lay on the pavement beside me, a visible dent in his head where the malazaheen had swatted him with the back of its scythe. I rolled over and booped five Spirit into him; as I had hoped, his head undented itself and I reset back to my normal, smaller form. A form that was not bleeding to death. Still damaged, still with greatly reduced hit points, but not bleeding to death.

I lay there panting for several long seconds. The physical pain was gone but I was a long way from feeling good. "How many of those did you say were fighting over on the next block?" I eventually asked Murray.

"T'ree, plus around fi'ty balor. And dey've prolly gotten reinforcements since I checked."

We all digested that for a moment.

"Thank you," I said, slurping Sergeant Carpenter because he was standing closest. I promptly turned and gave Private Funter equal attention.

"Gack!" they both said, stepping back and wiping their faces.

I stood up, tongue lolling in amusement, and went for the other three but they all backed away, laughing and holding their hands up to fend me off. I hrmphed and gave them a disapproving look.

"The balors were a problem," Sergeant Carpenter said, clearly fighting off exhaustion. "This thing? That was nuts." He shook his head. "Athos, the injectors are empty and we've all donated as much as we're going to be able to. We need to find some donors or we're not going to be able to heal you again."

I hung my head. "I'm sorry you all had to get hurt to help me. What does losing Spirit mean for you?"

"It's nothing," Sergeant Carpenter said. "It'll heal on its own."

I eyed him suspiciously. "Sergeant," I said in my best Mom Voice.

"It's okay, really," Corporal Belker said when his superior didn't answer immediately. "We'll be tired and it's easier to get sick when your Spirit is compromised but it's fine."

"How long does it take to heal?"

No one said anything.

"About a week per point," Murray said. "Fah weak little t'ings like humans, anyway."

I whined in embarrassment. "I heal it much faster. I'll fix you up as soon as I can."

The Guardsmen didn't seem to know what to do with that.

"It's cool," Private Funter said. "The Bastion keeps Spirit injectors on hand in order to recharge the mana pools on mages, but they'll work just as well for this. As soon as we get back we'll be taken care of."

"How much of the burn gel is left?" Sergeant Carpenter asked after a moment.

"Maybe two more javelins worth, sarge. The boom juice cask is still half full, so that's something."

"Not nearly enough," the sergeant said. "Fifty balor and three more of those horrors? We are not fighting our way through that."

"No, sarge," Private Funter said. "Then again, maybe we don't have to. After all, the job isn't to kill all of them, the job is to get Wolf out. Right?" He grinned and hefted the cask of blast juice. "I've got an idea." He nodded towards me. "Hey, Mr Walking Battering Ram, you feel like opening a door for me?"

"What are you thinking, Funter?" Sergeant Carpenter asked.

"Wolf Platoon is trapped in a shop on the other side of the block. We kick in a door here, use the blast juice to blow through the intermediary walls, and evac back this way."

"Could work," Sergeant Carpenter said thoughtfully. "I sure don't have any better ideas. And maybe there will be some stuff inside that we can use too. This is Mage Street, there should be tons of shit."

"Might even be some civilians who need evac," Private Chi pointed out.

"Doubt it," Private Smith said. "The ones around here are smart enough to get to the shelters when an invasion comes. The whole place is probably deserted except for maybe some looters."

Private Funter laughed. "Hey, maybe we'll run into some looters with useful Skills."

Oh, hey. That was an idea.

I quickly looked at my character sheet to see how much Attunement I had earned today. It was a lot.

"How much Attunement did you guys earn from that?" I asked. "Maybe we can buy some Skills."

Everyone checked their sheets. Private Garcia whistled. "Wow. Including what I had saved up, a ton. Five hundred and seventeen."

I blinked in surprise. Only 517?

"Six hundred and twenty-four for me," Private Chi said. "I guess hitting it with the explosives counted for a bunch."

The others grumbled about not having earned as much; they were all in the three- to four hundred range except for Sergeant Carpenter who was just over eight hundred.

"How about you, Athos?" he asked. "You've done most of the work so far, so you must have earned the majority of it. Mind sharing?"

"Um... Well...I'm at 14,773."

"...You're what?"

"I'm at 14,773." I winced a little at the shocked stares everyone was giving me. "I had some saved up before we got here, and I earned some by healing you guys," I offered, feeling guilty about being so far beyond their totals.

They all shook their heads. "Okay, then," said Private Funter. "Well, I'm going to buy the Channeling +1 that was my signing bonus unlock so I can start earning Attunement on it. I'll save the rest for Minor Healing." He chuckled. "Looks like you were right, sarge. We'll be buying the whole package by sundown at this rate."

"Hang on," Sergeant Carpenter said. He put his hand on my shoulder. "I've been thinking I should do this and now I've got enough Attunement. Unlock: Personal Mana Skin."

I opened the Skillweb to see a new silver node had appeared, all alone and well away from the ones I could already see.

Personal Mana Skin Rank: Common Duration: 10 minutes or until expended Max Level: 5

You may place a protective skin of mana around yourself. Physical damage will be taken from the skin first before it is applied to your hit points. 1 MP spent = 1 HP blocked. Multiple applications will stack. You may use this skill at most (Level) times per day for no more than (Level x 10) points at a time.

"It's not much, but it will help," the sergeant said.

"But when you unlocked it for me, it got locked for you," I said. "You need it too!" I went ahead and bought it anyway. I could give it back to him that way.

He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. "Seems to me you've been doing most of the work. Best thing for all of us is to keep you in one piece. I'll buy it again after we have a few more encounters." He glanced over to where the bodies of the demons were slowly dissolving into greasy black smoke. "Somehow, I doubt this is the last of the Attunement we'll be earning today." He stared at the smoke for a moment, then turned back to me. "When we get back to the Bastion, remind me to show you the map of what's near that. There's some decent stuff. A bunch of Channeling, some Restoration, a couple of useful perks...even three Uncommon nodes."

I looked away, not wanting to mention just how many Uncommon and Rare and, oh yes, Epic Skills resided in the segment of the Skillweb that I was familiar with.

"Let me help," I said, starting to boop each of them so that I could unlock my Restoration +1 for them. I bought it back immediately afterwards, but the prices mounted up fast. So fast that I was only able to get it for Sergeant Carpenter and Corporal Belker.

"Wait, did you—"

"What—"

"What's happening?" demanded Private Funter.

"He just unlocked a Restoration +1 node for me," Corporal Belker explained. "Athos? Why? I mean, don't get me wrong, I really appreciate it. Still, two unlocks for other people? That's a lot of Attunement."

I shifted nervously. "Um...actually, it was the same node for both of you and I bought it back after each time, so it was four unlocks. And I had already done two today." I looked at the rest of the group. "I'm sorry I couldn't do it for you guys too. I will as soon as we kill some more demons, I promise."

"Melos, dog!" Sergeant Carpenter snapped. "By all the holy names, what are you doing?! You just burned...what, 11,000 Attunement to give the two of us a single stat bump? Are you crazy?"

I hung my head. "It's just...well, this part of the Skillweb is a lot better than the one you were talking about. There's a lot more good things. Lots of Uncommon and, uh, some higher-ranked stuff." I wouldn't use the word 'Epic' out here.

Sergeant Carpenter took a deep breath. "Thank you for the generous gift. Truly. That Attunement would have been better spent buying yourself some better combat Skills, or even some attributes. Or just pile it up for the luck bonus."

Oh, hey, good idea. I took his advice and grabbed myself another point of Channeling. The way the numbers worked, thirty was much better than twenty-nine and right now it was cheaper to buy it off my character sheet instead of trying to find another node on the Skillweb that would give it to me.

"The luck bonus is a myth, sarge," Private Funter said, unaware of my statistical adventures. "And if it's not, then the luck is most likely stronger right after a buy."

"How can it be a myth?" the older man snapped. "It's right there in the description! 'The amount of Attunement in your General Fund will affect the universe around you in subtle ways. Those with higher Attunement totals may experience better fortune and encounter positive opportunities. Those with low Attunement totals in the General Fund will have the opposite experience. Again, the effects will almost always be subtle.'"

"The Academy has done studies—"

Everyone groaned.

"Funter, how about you take your twenty-seven Academy credits and shove 'em up your ass?" Garcia said. "It's in the description so it's true."

"Even if we assume that, it doesn't mean the effect is—"

"Debate philosophy later," Sergeant Carpenter said. "Right now we've got a squad to rescue."