„No… No… No! I refuse!”

Joe’s eyes shined and sparkled.

“Lookah mastah, big mammary glands, just like you love ‘em!”

Neira grabbed his head and buried his face in her overinflated chest. All but for naught. Not even his perverted nature could stop his desire for gold.

“A valiant effort but utterly wasted, I can hear registers going “ka-ching!” inside his head. All the free exp coming at us of its own volition… Come on. Get changed into something more appropriate, we’ll have lots of work to do.”

Savil already began buckling her heavy armor.

Annoyed beyond words, the Demi pushed away her master and ripped off the fancy dress. First time in her life she wore something like that and… a growl escaped her. Whoever stood behind all this, she cracked her knuckles, shall witness her rage!

Joe wailed.

“That. Was. A Damn. Expensive. Dress.”

He uttered through his teeth, holding the remains in his arms. Easily forty or fifty million gold wasted.

“Yeah, yeah. You two love birds can play house later. We must go. Now!“

Savil grabbed them both by their ears and pulled towards the exit.

“Guild Master,”

She gave a little nod towards their host.

“I can hear the horns already. It would be prudent to secure the hall. Just in case.”

A ring of fire spread around the city’s wall as soldiers with lanterns took their positions. And all that happened no later than a quarter since the town’s watch commander left. To mobilize an entire defense force in such a short time… No wonder why people called this place an Iron gate of the empire.

Without releasing her grip, Savile pulled them through the river off hastily leaving nobles.

“Ho-hum, sounds like they started without us. Where do we go, the gate?”

She asked as they run through an empty street.

Joe rubbed his ear. It hurt but the loss of the dress sting him even more. He put so much mana and time into it. Damn clueless fucktoy…

“That’s the best bet. We’ll peek at what’s going on and possibly get some exp. If it’s just monsters, that should be easy picking and a chance to grind archery. ”

“Get down!”

Neira flattened him on the ground and covered with her own body. A sudden explosion vaporized the entire gate and demolished most of the surrounding buildings, sending shrapnel everywhere.

“What the hell…”

Joe raised his head as the dust slowly settled in the dead silence. The gate… Where once the gate stood now a pool of molten lava trickled down the empty ravine, slowly filling the gap.

Gone. Everything except a cone of the unscathed earth, stretching from behind Savil’s back, perished within a heartbeat.

“You’ve been saying… something about easy picking…”

Savil rasped through her faceguard. Her blackened armor smoked while a third of her HP vanished.

An evil howl sounded through the night.

*DING*

Failed to apply status effect. Resisted Terror.

*DING*

Failed to apply status effect. Resisted Paralysis.

*DING*

Failed to apply status effect. Resisted Disarray.

*DING*

Failed to apply status effect. Resisted Panic.

*DING*

Failed to apply status effect. Resisted Madness.

*DING*

Status effect received! Howl Lvl 1 Mental attack resistance reduced by 5%

Large beads of cold sweat trickled down his chin. What on earth was that?!

He pressed his palm over his heart.

“Purify!”

His heart calmed and his mind cleared but this was no time to rest. Placing his hands over the demi he repeated the spell then screamed:

“Move!”

Pushed only by the strength of his order, they run towards the nearest cover, once a guard tower, now a pile of smoldering rubble. What remained of the previous owners, dripped down into the gutter.

“We run?”

Savil offered the only sane solution.

“No point,”

Joe steal a glance at the mass of bodies gathered on the other side of the ravine. The only thing that kept them there seemed to be the newly created bridge, still white hot and burning.

“One of you would have to carry me and even if we could reach the outer wall, they would overtake us in the open. No. We can’t run.”

There had to be a different way.

“So, we fight and die like warriors? You have my respect human. I shall no longer call you a shitty master.”

She saluted him with her half-melted shield.

“Well, I’m more inclined towards holding out till the reinforcements arrive.”

There had to be some reinforcements. Their surroundings seemed so utterly quiet. Forget about grinding exp, if they can get out of this alive…

“What if there are no reinforcements?”

Neira rubbed her singed ear. Part of it got blown away.

“Then we’ll die anyway.”

He scanned the area for something that would give them even the slightest advantage. The explosion flattened the entire area creating one utterly undefendable position.

Nothing to block enemy advance.

Nothing to shield them from an attack.

What left?

The bridge.

“Come, we need to secure a chokepoint.”

Joe stood up pulling out a bow and a quiver of iron arrows. For a moment, he considered using his staff but with the pitiful amount of mana he had, it would make no real difference.

“Chokepoint?”

Her eyes followed his arm.

“Oh…”

Shaped by chance and gravity, a stream of white-hot lava connected both sides in a burning arc. About twenty feet wide at each edge and perhaps nine feet wide in the middle.

“This might work.”

A sludge of burning arrows filled the sky though hardly any reached them. Several lucky ones harmlessly bounced off her heavy armor.

Goblins? Out here? En masse? There were hundreds if not thousands of them gathered on the other side. Wolf riders, archers, warriors, even sages. All working in unity and with each passing moment all the more desperate.

Several brave or maybe foolish club wielder entered the bridge and burned alive after few rushed steps.

“Since when do those buggers travel in such packs?”

Studying the horde through a scope, Joe recognized the markings of the magic users. On the other side, hundreds of dead bodies were being thrown into the ravine. So that’s how they pulled off that big explosion, sacrificing their own people.

“Never. The biggest nest we destroyed had about sixty of them.”

Another wave of arrows failed to reach their target.

“Are those mages? What are they doing?”

Neira pointed at a group in rags and fancy trinkets, chanting something at the edge of the bridge.

“They’re cooling off the path with some water and ice magic.”

Joe nocked an arrow and let it fly with a zing of his recurve bow. One of the mages gurgled and fell. Who would have thought that all those archery lessons his mother forced on him, would ever come in handy.

He nocked another arrow, there were plenty of targets.

These are not people. He told himself time and time again as the bow sang.

Maybe they were not. Regardless, his conscience made sure he would not forget even one that his arrow struck.