Morana floated, invisible, above the rear of her line. She felt the leader of the demons die and couldn’t have suppressed a smile if she’d wanted to. Even though they were supposed to be on the same side she was tired of the arrogant creature mocking her, laughing when he called her general. She still sensed plenty of demons out beyond the wall. The loss of the strongest didn’t doom the rest. The monsters only followed the dead one out of fear anyway. Now that they were in the fight they’d keep killing because they were demons and that’s what they did.

Her focus turned back to her own troops where it belonged. The crystal demons held their own nicely against a superior force of warlords. The elite warriors were fast and strong, but they couldn’t hurt her soldiers no mater how much they battered them. Every minute or two one of the warlords went down under the claws of a demon. It wouldn’t happen quickly, but eventually her servants would wear the warlords down and finish them off, assuming the speedy fighters didn’t decide to run for their lives.

A painful jolt ran through the ring and up her arm. So, they’d managed to destroy one of her demons. It had to happen at some point. She still had over a hundred left, more than enough to handle whatever threats presented themselves.

Another jolt brought a frown. The destruction of one could be chalked up to luck, but two in such a short time…She didn’t like the feel of that.

The enemy fighters shifted, forming a tight defensive line. A familiar female form stood behind them, barking orders. As she watched, an opening formed and one of her soldiers slipped through. It almost looked intentional, but why would they let an enemy get behind their line?

Her answer came a moment later when the female warlord lunged in and started battering her construct, drawing it away from the line. As Morana watched the warlord smashed her soldier apart until it eventually exploded.

She didn’t believe it. How could a single warlord defeat one of her crystal demons? If it had been the paladin Morana could have accepted it. The holy warrior had already destroyed one of her soldiers after all, but that one, using nothing but ordinary weapons? Impossible.

Impossible or not, another demon was separated and destroyed in the span of several minutes. The woman had obviously discovered some weakness both Morana and Connor had overlooked. She needed to kill the warlord before she did any more damage to the army. Morana doubted a single warlord could destroy over a hundred demons, but she might do enough damage that the plan would be delayed, giving the kingdom time to increase its defenses. That wasn’t an eventuality she wanted to explain to Connor.

Morana soared down, gathering hellfire as she descended. She’d burn the warlord to ash. The woman wouldn’t know what hit her.

A ball of roiling black flames streaked toward the warlord. Halfway there they splashed against a white shield. The paladin’s hated voice said, “I’ve been waiting for you to show yourself.”

Morana spun and found the blond paladin seated on a white horse twenty feet away and thirty feet in the air. Her hammer glowed with white light and from the set of her jaw she looked ready for a fight. Morana was happy to oblige.