Marie’s hands glow as she frantically seals the interlocking barricades together, melding stone, wood, and iron into a smooth defense. The spikes gleam, sharpened to deadly points in preparation for what’s to come. Her stuff might not get system bonuses, but in this case, the system can fuck itself. “You’re damn impressive, you know that?” I doubt she hears me, but I could swear I see a hint of a smile poke through her focussed expression. Tom heaves a weapon stand into place, near the back lines. Broken or dulled weapons won’t slow us down, and Tom will be fixing things as fast as they break, or so he swears.

Amy pulls out at least ten quivers full of arrows for her and Lynn to share, but goes back to pull out at too many more bundles of backup ammo for me to even count. I tasked Marie with supporting the archers by preparing quivers for them to use so they never have to pause firing. We’ll need their constant downpour to alleviate pressure. I really miss Rav right now, his magic would be invaluable. I look at my hand, clenching it in frustration. I could have filled that roll if I was willing to risk more, to experiment… but it would have been stupid to do so. Mana is too dangerous.

Lauren, Seth, and I all stand ready on the front lines, with either Lorian or I always available for healing. Having a backup healer does a lot to calm me down, knowing that if I get knocked out or too grievously injured to save myself, I have a last resort… and so does she. With that in mind, we agreed to swap out as needed.

Samuel stands ready to fill any breach that arises, with his newly finished monster of a tower shield. I tested the weight, just to see what it was like, and the thing honestly shouldn’t exist. It should be entirely unfeasible as a defensive tool, as you’re basically wielding 500 pounds of metal, but that scrawny guy is packing some serious muscle or something. He moves it as easily as I move my sword… so probably a mix of skills and system Strength. It still looks absurd, but I can’t fault the efficacy. Nothing is getting through that.

We manage to assemble and organize with unbridled efficiency, and we have the non combatants, Marie and Tom, to address any needs as they arise. We have barricades set up, crudely, at various fallback points, mostly utilizing the pits as natural blockades. Retreat across as needed, destroy the bridge, hold as long as we can. Rinse and repeat until we get to Zathis, then… we pray. I’ve left the Stone of Ascension in there with him, just in case I don’t make it.

“We will succeed, Predator, we always have. I will protect you.”

“I don’t doubt it, buddy. Thanks for sticking this through with me.”

He wiggles happily but doesn’t respond. With that new Tamer level I got, I gained a new ability:

[You may now supplant the consciousness of your ally, allowing you to directly control them. Effect drains Energy, increasing the drain as the ally moves further away from you.]

Not terribly useful here and now, but if we live, I’ll be able to throw Kaythe into terrible danger but avoid him having to experience it, which makes me feel a lot better about the whole thing.

We’re still moving making the finishing touches when we hear them: barking, howling, and a thunderous stampede of paws on grass. The ground shakes under their passing, reverberating the entire tunnel around us. A stream of Carnines, littered with more Lieutenants than I’ve ever seen, stream around from all around the entrance, throwing themselves headlong into the barricades with seemingly no regard for pain, or even their lives. The first twenty die without anyone needing to strike, but their bodies quickly clog the passive defences. Even as our archers stem the tide by creating more bodies for our enemies to trip over, they care little. Those behind the fallen simply push through, creating an ever growing wave of death, and a ramp of the dead forms within the first minute.

The dogs care nothing for their fallen, using them as springboards with which to assault us, and only a whirling dance of blades and one giant ass hammer keep them at bay. The hammer effectively knocks away the monsters turned projectiles, but Lauren and I quickly end up with pieces of Carnine and Lieutenant littering the ground around us, restricting our movement. She deals with it easily, with her crazy rogue footwork, but I can’t use the River’s Flow to augment my own footwork. I can’t risk dampening my critical thinking until it becomes clear they aren’t going to try anything. These things have intelligence, that much is clear, and underestimating them by assuming a suicidal rush to take us out is the best they’ve got is asking for a surprise death.

As if on queue, the first wildcard enters the field: three Carnines suddenly erupt from the writhing mass or barking and scratching dogs, launching directly at each of the three of us. The difference is, when I hew this one in half, the slime ball that was actively coating it explodes in a shower of acid. The roar of pain this elicits from me, amplified by my burning Energy, stuns everyone around me as I frantically try to rub and blink the acid out of my eye, but the time it buys me is insufficient to fully clear it, and my vision quickly fades to a searing black in my left eye. Cursing viciously in the hoarse whisper that’s all my destroyed vocal chords will give me, I ignore the plight of anyone else and focus on holding off the surge of attackers that seek to take advantage of the disarray in the front lines. I feel arrows pass mere inches from my body as the archers try their best to cover us, and I hear screams of pain as someone is pulled back and replaced. Hopefully Lorian can fix them quickly.

The first opportunist to assault my position is a snarling Lieutenant, who nimbly darts over the corpse ridden barricade and jumps past me, earning a nasty gash for its efforts, but also forcing me to defend against multiple angles simultaneously. Sensing this is their attempt at breaking through, I launch Kaythe into the face of the unsuspecting Lieutenant, and leave the transgressor to him. Teeth sink into my calf moments later, but release within a second as I feel triumphant glee emanate over the mental link. Some part of me is aware that Kaythe stabbed it a few times, was ignored, and used the opportunity of it trying to take me down to get it in the brain.

[Congratulations! Summoned monster (Kaythe) has reached level 3. +1 Endurance, +1 Strength, +1 Intelligence, +2 Dexterity.] [Congratulations! Summoned monster (Kaythe) has reached level 4. +1 Toughness, +1 Strength, +2 Intelligence, +1 Dexterity.]

I feel him crawl back onto me, anticipating my movements so as to not get in my way while still managing to ready himself for future use. I fucking love this thing. The onslaught continues, with my eye steadily regaining functionality and my various wounds closing as I struggle to adequately divide my attention to move it around. I feel my Energy start to flash, and stop burning the resource, instead switching over to Stamina overuse in River’s Flow. I don’t have the luxury of staying cognizant until my Energy comes back, so I’ll have to rely on the others. The comfortable focus and awareness slips over me like a well fitting glove, and I feel like a steady glow appears around everything near me. I can see, even feel the threats around me. Silhouettes turn red, and suddenly, they launch towards me. They entirely believe they’ll land their strike, even as their minds struggle to process their own deaths.

I feel Seth and Lauren waning. Seth is strong and sturdy, but he wasn’t made for extended combat. His weapon requires immense control to be used most effectively, and swinging at he has been for twenty or so minutes is clearly exhausting him. His hits aren’t killing as effectively, nor are his targets being thrown bodily into their comrades. Rather, he stops them, but only just. Lauren, in a similar vein, has only lasted this long because of the tremendous effort Zathis put into training our endurance. Even with that, her skills are mostly designed around ambush and fighting distracted opponents, and this is decidedly not that. Seth’s stone warhammer shatters as a wayward strike hits part of our barricade, and he ducks back to the weapons stand to grab a backup metal one while Samuel charges in and sends a small explosion of corpses and living Carnines alike back into the mass that ceaseless charges us. I’m dimly aware of how slowly the hammer raises when he lifts it. Too tired to continue.