The monsters that came out of the forest were terrifying. They looked nothing like the previous Infernal Horde monsters they’d seen.

From this distance, they looked to be about ten feet tall - slightly taller than the average Bhogad - though they had comparatively slim build. The extra height seemed to come from a second set of shoulders perched on top of the first, giving these monsters four huge well-muscled arms. Despite the low light, their skin shimmered and shined, as if made from metal.

The most striking feature, though, were their heads. They looked like matte clay vessels or vases perched on top of them, about a foot tall and studded with at least a dozen openings about the size of a fist each. About two cubic feet of greyish sand floated in the air around them, flowing in and out of the openings in a way that vaguely gave the impression of hair flowing in an underwater current.

Three of them emerged from the woods, but it was very obvious that they weren’t the only ones coming. Their stomping gait was relatively sluggish, which Kaldalis took to mean that these were the scouts.

The bulk of the raiding forces would be advancing at a similar pace, giving them some time before they arrived.

As hard as it was, Kaldalis held his position as the monsters marched forward. He held out an arm, signaling for everyone to follow his lead. The last thing they wanted was to charge forth into disaster. This was the first raid, so if the pattern matched exactly, there would only be more of these foes here, but the last thing he wanted was to invite disaster by assuming a pattern where there wasn’t one. If a second flavor of monster emerged from the forest, he wanted to see it coming instead of having it lunge out of the treeline as a surprise.

“Take the left and right,” the man in black armor barked, readying his sword. “The middle is mine.”

Kaldalis immediately bristled at the moron thinking he was in charge, but reminded himself that he was listening to Kaldalis’s orders. He wasn’t barreling forward and getting people killed. It would have to be enough.

“No survivors,” Kaldalis said, glancing over to Courbois. “When it runs, try and pick it back up and kite it back here. I don’t want another four-fingered syncoresi when this is over.” He turned around and caught Balrim’s eye. “Invites to people as they arrive, alright?”

“Fuck, man, don’t have to tell me,” Balrim said, he turned and made for the gate. The Talsar held a hand to his mouth and shouted into the entryway to the town. “ELL EFF EMM MORE ASSHOLES TO MAKE SURE WE DON’T ALL DIE!”

There wasn’t time to share a sensible chuckle at that before the monsters were within striking distance. They had marched together in a tight formation, but that just lined them up to be easily peeled off by their respective tanks. Without a proper face, it was impossible to tell what they were moving towards, but as soon as Kaldalis’s spear jabbed into a muscled metal thigh, the animosity radiating off of its clay pot face was palpable enough to make him eager to jump back and lure it away from the kill target.

He wasn’t looking forward to having five or six of these things glaring at him without eyes. It was beyond creepy.

The tip of his spear jabbed into the muscle of the monster’s thigh, and despite the metallic appearance, the weapon obviously bit in as if it was normal flesh. When he withdrew it, some of that greyish sand leaked out of the wound, hanging in the air for a moment before falling to the ground. The strike did sixty-two physical damage and seven wind damage. It felt really low at first, but Kaldalis quickly remembered how resilient the Infernal Horde normally were. These were burly foes even by that metric.

The monster’s upper left fist rocketed down at him. It was almost too fast to react to. If he hadn’t already been backing off as soon as it looked at him, he’d have been struck.

Despite its slow walking pace, its attacks were lightning fast, with so much force that when the blow smashed into the ground where Kaldalis had stood, dirt clods flew up into his face, forcing him to shield his eyes.

It took one large step towards him, and its lower right fist rocketed out at him immediately after.

Kaldalis ducked to the left, but that caused him to step right into the lower left hand as it thrust out, smashing the heel of its metallic palm into him.

He staggered away from the attack, taking one hundred and ninety-nine physical damage and thirty-three dark elemental damage. The force behind the blow was disproportionately high compared to the actual damage output, and he was grateful for that. These were still the normal-strength versions of these Infernal Horde enemies. Being ready for the attack this time meant that the camp would be unlikely to face as much damage as the first syncoresi attack inflicted.

Leading the monster off to the side, Kaldalis worked to get it out of the way of the group’s work on the one in the middle. He was glad to see everyone leaping to work together on the target. A storm of arrows bit into it, and the group of damage dealers who had been waiting behind the tanks took positions on its flanks and sides, hammering weapons against the monster.

Overworld aggro rules were a godsend here. Having a surplus of tanks available meant they just had to tap the monsters once to establish themselves as a target, and then the three of them could just focus their attention on keeping ahead of the quartet of giant silver fists they now faced. It was easy to imagine that thousands of damage were dumped into the kill target in those first few seconds.

Their luck couldn’t hold, though. There was an outcry from the archers on the wall again, and Kaldalis saw that seven more of the same four-armed humanoids were emerging from the forest.

The metallic monsters had the same slow marching pace as the forward scouts, which gave Kaldalis and Martok plenty of time to react. Kaldalis waited until his current foe finished its latest volley of punches, and then activated his Jump cooldown, launching himself towards the oncoming forces.

Martok was wielding twin daggers, and his sprint let him beat Kaldalis there.

Just the same, the bull-horned Vathon only dragged his short blades across three of the newcomers before sprinting back towards the fight before their counterattacks could hit more than empty air, leaving the others for Kaldalis.

Carefully, Kaldalis aimed his next leap to land in between the four that remained. He didn’t want to burn Sweeping Strikes this fast, and so he drove the head of his spear into the one at the head of the group and immediately leaped back. Huge fists caught only air as he got clear of that first target, but he landed where he could reach another one, and stabbed it as well, drawing a spurt of grey sand from its gut.

Giant fists launched towards him, but he was already gone, leaping away from the group. The two he’d tagged lurched towards him, giving chase, but the other two seemed intent on attacking the camp instead.

“I was hoping you would link,” Kaldalis grumbled. “I guess we have to follow through here.”

He couldn’t just reverse direction. Running past the two he’d picked up was going to be trouble, even as his original target was starting to catch up after he’d leaped away. Kiting the slow enemies was easy, but their attacks were impossibly fast.

The only way to dodge them effectively was to be dodging before the attack began.

But diving back into their range while so far away from his healers was a disaster waiting to happen. Instead, he dashed to the left, clearing a path before launching himself at the two targets that were still loose.

The edge of his spearhead caught the near one across the small of its back. Before it could whirl on him, he was already on the other side of the farthest one, driving the head of his spear into its lower left bicep.

An enemy who had approached him initially from the trio of scouts was lumbering into range again. Kaldalis coiled and sprang away as far as he could, leaving all five of his enemies behind. Their plodding pace meant he could kite them almost indefinitely. They were terrifying in close combat, though, and he was glad that he’d stuck the idiot edgelord with the job of actually standing and fighting one.

It had been too easy, however.

The damage came before he even knew the monster was there. A shining silver fist crashed into his shoulder, dishing out that same one hundred and ninety-nine physical damage and thirty-three dark damage.

Kaldalis had let himself get too close to the treeline, putting himself in the lunging range of the next wave of attackers.

The next group was five more of the same four-armed monstrosities. Unlike the others, though, this group seemed already intent on him, all of their strange vase-faces tipped slightly towards his direction.

Kaldalis told himself that this is what he wanted. He needed their “eyes” on him. The entire plan hinged on his ability to act as efficient crowd control. Swallowing his fear, he activated Sweeping Strikes and lunged into the thick of them, his awareness expanding as he lashed out.

There was a sweet spot right in the middle of them all. Planting his feet, his weapon lashed out, sweeping through all five muscular figures with one swing, dealing seventy-six damage and cementing his aggro on them all.

A fist brushed against his boot as he used his Jump cooldown’s mobility to hurtle away from the middle of the group. It didn’t connect solidly enough to deal damage, and for that he was grateful. He landed right next to one of the five he’d already aggroed, and forced himself to drop face-first into the dirt as a haymaker punch sailed through the space his head had occupied a moment ago.

Rolling away, the ground exploded from a second punch that seemed faster than a speeding locomotive. He had just enough time to get to his feet and leap back again, leading the ten foes arrayed against him back towards the walls.

Where Balrim was no doubt panicking at his health bar.

As he started to come back, the monster the man in black armor was tanking broke away from the group and tried to flee back to the forest.

“Courbois!” Kaldalis yelled, pointing at the fleeing enemy. “Fish it back! Everyone else, grab one off Martok!”

Kaldalis felt a surge of unexpected power as the much-scarred Finnian woman gave chase after the fleeing monster, and the man in black armor peeled a monster off of Martok’s group.

He didn’t know why, but people were listening to him.

Not just that, but his plan was actually working.

It felt good.

Even as ten nightmare Machamp-looking motherfuckers marched towards him, intent on pummeling him into paste, he felt a sense of elation building in his chest. A sense of ownership over victory.

Reminding himself that victory was still a while off, he pushed the undeserved joy down, forcing his attention onto the monsters making their way towards him.