"So, this happens every month?" I asked Four as we ran alongside the wagon. Every time I touched the ground, I felt a jolt.

"Sometimes twice," she said.

"Stop talking. You will waste your breath!" Haltir shouted.

Looking beside me, I saw him and Three staring at us intently.

"I get the feeling they are enjoying this…" I muttered.

Four giggled, shaking her head. "They had to do the same thing. It's the only way to gain enough resistance against Demonic damage."

Shaking my head, I continued running. At least I wasn't hungry! Haltir seemed to have an endless supply of dried fish stashed in his enormous backpack.

"Ah! I got it!" Four squealed. Then she dashed to the wagon and climbed up.

"I've got it. I've got it!" She said to her father, wiping her feet with a dirty towel.

Groaning at the loss of my partner in pain, I trudged on.

An hour or so later, I heard a loud ding. Summoning my status, I frowned.

> Constant exposure to mild levels of Demonic poison has granted you resistance to it

> Resistances 0/1

> Accept? Yes/No

I could only take one form of resistance? I moved to the wagon and climbed in.

"What in the Stone's name do you think you're doing, Est?" Haldir growled, moving towards me.

"I unlocked Demonic poison resistance… but I have a question."

The chatter between Four and her father stopped suddenly, and everybody was staring at me.

"What?"

"This is the first time you touched Hellblood, right?" Four asked.

I nodded.

"How can you unlock a resistance to something in what, three hours?" Haltir barked, his face angry.

"Did you lie to us about not having touched it, or are you lying now that you have it?"

I snorted and shook my head. So it was because I was fast? I had noticed how my muscle mass and other attributes seemed to increase at a rapid pace but hadn't thought much about it.

"Why does it say I can only have one resistance?"

Three sad sighs came in unison. Looking up, I saw looks of pity from Four, a frown from Three, and a stoic look from Haltir. Now what?

"That might explain why you gained it so fast. You're unlucky, that's why," Haltir muttered. "Most people can get four resistances, and that's a good thing. But two is a minimum you truly need. One against Demonic poison and the other for chaos energy."

Fuck, well, that was just great. So I only had one versus an average of four? Shaking my head, I glared at the lines on my status.

"So, what do I do?" I finally asked Haltir.

"Take this one. Demonic poison is more common than chaos energy," Three said. Haltir nodded, and with a sigh, I clicked accept.

> Demonic poison resistance learned; continue exposing yourself to increase your level of resistance

> Demonic poison resistance 1/5

Staring at the line, I sighed and shook my head. "So how high do I need to get it for it to be useful."

This time the stunned silence lasted longer, and it was Three who broke it.

"Explain."

This time I was quicker on the uptake and frowned back. "I can increase the resistance."

"Impossible!" Haltir shouted, slamming his fist in the side of the wagon. The wood cracked, and an angry roar came from inside.

"Sorry!" Haltir roared back before turning to me.

"You can increase your demonic poison resistance to level two?"

I opened my mouth then closed it. If I told him I could get it up to five, I was pretty sure I'd be in a world of hurt. Instead, I quickly nodded.

"Yes."

Haltir's eyes glazed over for a moment, and then he grinned wickedly. I knew he would have, and without him even saying anything, I stopped putting on my boots and climbed back out of the wagon.

Four sat at the edge of the wagon, looking at my feet as if they would somehow do something magical, while Three and Haltir were talking about multiple levels of a single resistance and that they had thought it the stuff of legends.

Sighing, I wondered how long it would take to level the resistance.

-

A whole day of running, a dreamless night, and a morning of running. That's how long it took.

Climbing back in the wagon, I looked at the line saying my resistance was now level two. I was glad I hadn't told Haltir I could get it higher. I might have been running beside the wagon for the rest of the trip. I couldn't even raise my stamina anymore because I'd maxed it out during his grueling training.

"Just in time. We will reach Grainhaven tonight. We will have to walk the rest of the way," Haltir said. He was the only one still watching me. Four had gone with her father to one of the first wagons. They had needed to discuss something with the other mercenaries.

"Where is Egilla," I asked as I cleaned my foot. There were small blisters all across the bottom, and if I hadn't been running across mud the whole time, I would probably have been in a world of pain instead of being bored and exhausted.

"She will come back out when we reach Grainhaven, don't worry. Now get some rest. I am not sure if there is a place to stay tonight, and we might have to journey into the wild for a campsite."

The images of beds, no matter be they straw or feather, evaporated from my mind. Damn it. I missed my bed!

The rest of the day passed in a blur. The boring hills, glistening with mud, continued on and on as if without end.

The wagon stopping jarred me out of my daydream.

"Are we there?" I asked.

"We shouldn't be there yet. It's almost two more hours," Haltir replied.

"Let's go and see what's going on."

I jumped from the back of the wagon, and together, we moved along the line. I saw a large group of people gathering at the front of the wagons, and something seemed up. In the distance, a trickle of smoke rose in the air.

"By the Hound…" Haltir cursed as he ran forward. I followed a bit slower, looking at the massive group of mercenaries and wagoneers.

When I arrived, Haltir stood with four others who were shouting at each other.

"We are not going there! We have no idea what the situation is!" A mountain of a man growled.

"Many of us have family there! Do you suggest we wait until they are all dead?" A fiery-haired woman with two crossbows on her belt and a massive longsword across her back yelled back.

Behind them, far away atop a hill, was a burning town. Surrounded by a stone wall similar to that of Sart, it was almost ten times as wide. The wall was breached in four places, and an army of soldiers was pouring inside the town. A group of knights on what looked like horses raced along the wall, slaughtering people that were trying to flee.

"Enough!" Haltir's voice boomed out, a sense of authority in it that dwarfed everything I had seen from him before. The others fell silent as one, then glared at him. I could see right away they wouldn't remain silent for long.

"There are roughly a hundred Demon knights there. Each commands a dozen demons from below the seal, so that's twelve hundred demons inside. How many defenders are there? "Haltir's voice was calm, collected, and both his manner and question brooked no debate or argument.

"Roughly a hundred guards and perhaps two hundred fighting folk if we include random adventurers and mercenaries. But-" The redhead said, ready to say more when Haltir snapped his head to her. She fell silent with a shocked look.

From behind us, the talking had stopped, reduced to a soft mutter coming from the ranks of the mercenaries.

"How many warriors do you have on this wagon train?" Haltir asked as he looked at one of the others who had been shouting. An older with grey hair and a weathered face, his tunic held the now-familiar dagger of the Doom Daggers.

"Two hundred Doom Daggers," he grunted.

Haltir looked at the redhead, whose face fell. "Fifty!" She said, raising her head as if to challenge him to say something about it.

Haltir looked at the last woman, a long, slender elf with emerald skin. "We have forty archers, but we are not going to fight. We will defend ourselves if need be."

"There's forty Giantblooded here, and as the Leafskin says, we are not going to fight! If a single of mine fell in combat without payment, it would be a shame to Battal!" The giant man rumbled, folding his immense arms across his chest.

Looking at him for a moment, I hoped Sandra hadn't chosen that race. She would snap me in half with a hug.

"You would let them all die, just because of that?" The redhead roared, pointing at the battle in the distance.

Haltir was quiet, and his face unreadable. Looking at the watching mercenaries, I saw Three and Four between them. A shout came from the lead wagon, where one of the elves had been looking at the town under siege. He was pointing at the town, and following his finger, we saw that half of the Demon knights had grouped and were facing us. They seemed to be wearing a dull black armor, highlighted by shiny grey metal.

From the town, a host of unmounted figures streamed.

"They have spotted us," Haltir said. He didn't sound surprised, and I suddenly realized he hadn't been asking for the numbers to attack. He had already figured we would need to defend.

"Set up a defensive formation!" he snapped, looking at the female elf caravan leader.

She didn't need much motivation, sprinting away while screaming orders in a voice like a crow cries. Haltir turned to the three mercenary leaders.

"Archers atop the wagons, Giantblood's in the circle and all Doom Daggers inside the wagons. Pick off as many as you can, and when they climb the wagons, wait for half to pass. Then the Doomdaggers exit the outside of the wagon and split them up. Do we have any mages?"

The other three looked at him, and the Giantblood leader growled. "I know you! Why should we do as you say?"

The redhead and the older mercenary looked at Haltir with similar annoyance.

Somehow I had the feeling they didn't like Haltir a lot. Perhaps he had been their sergeant? If they had to go through his training, I could relate.

Haltir's face didn't change a single beat, but he turned to Three. "These fools don't want my help. Get your squad together; I might be able to get us out of here."

The Grablon nodded and began barking orders.

"Wait!" The redhead hissed, stepping forward.

"One question, and you leave? Aren't you supposed to be some war hero?"

Haltir swirled around; his eyes narrowed to slits.

"You three don't even realize the danger we are in. If we want to survive, either you do as I say, or I'll take my chances with fleeing. I am not here to die because you three can't follow orders!"

Then Haltir turned and motioned me to follow. I fully expected the three mercenary leaders to shout, call him back. Anything really. But, when we reached the small group of Doomdaggers under the lead of Three, I looked back and saw I was wrong. They were fighting amongst themselves again, one saying they should spread out and flee, while the others wanted to wait and fight.

"How come they aren't working together?" I asked Haltir, more than a little confused.

Haltir didn't respond, but a sad looked passed his face for an instant.

"Because they don't trust him," Three stated.

A group of seven mercenaries looked at him. Two were Grablons, the others humanoid. Egilla stood behind them, and I wondered where she came from. Her face held almost no emotions as she stared at the ground. The wagons were moving slowly, turning to create a circle.

Haltir looked at us, about to say something when a ball of green fire struck the side of a nearby wagon. Screams came from the wagoneers while the mercenaries scattered, hiding behind wagons. The mercenaries' leaders ran back to the wagons when more green balls began splattering on the ground and against the wagons.

“Demon trebuchet!” Haltir roared.

His words barely registered with me as I watched the old mercenary leader get hit in the back by a burning ball. I had watched the ball drop a meter from him, thinking it would miss when it suddenly changed course. He didn't even get time to scream as his body turned to a shimmering green form. Then it disappeared, and ash drifted to the ground.

"We can't flee now- everybody get inside the wagon circle!" Haltir roared.

Seeing green fire rain all around, I was panicking. I'd been in something similar during a VR game, but this was real, and that realization made it terrifying. Haltir dragged me with him, between two wagons. The enormous Charbull snorted at me, and I could feel the heat emulate from its body. The wagoneers were screaming as they tried to get the bulls to hurry.

Sitting with the others in the unfinished circle, I saw how the bulls and wagons turned into a circle of wood and flesh around us.

"Aren't we just putting ourselves in a kill box?" I asked, trying to keep my voice from rising in pitch.

"Yes. But those green balls target living things. If we run out in the open, we will never make it," Three said. We were sitting close to one of the Charbulls, and I was about to ask if that wasn't dangerous when a green ball came screaming towards us. I wanted to run, but Haltir held me in place. Cursing, I ducked. We were dead!

A loud whoosh and a soft moo followed. Looking up, I saw a dull scorch mark on the side of the Charbull. The thing didn't seem any worse for wear, just snorting as it's long tail swished around.

We sat there, balls falling around us, mostly hitting the bulls for a bit over an hour. The mercenaries were either inside the wagons or hiding close to the Charbulls. My tension was through the roof, and I held my ax tight. Haltir was having a yelling conversation with the two remaining leaders and the second in command of the Doom Daggers. All were willing to listen now, which wasn't surprising.

"Here they come!" A loud scream came from one of the wagons turned to the side of the burning town. Moments later, something slammed into a wagon, and the balls stopped falling.