We stand for Her above all else,

She who gave us our true lives.

-Korek Song of the Covenant

The abomination snarled. Gritting his teeth, Gardinal stared back up at the perversion of man standing before him. Just looking at it made him ill. The daemon’s twisting musculature and bones jutted in odd, unnatural directions with blood seeping from its fleshy form with every beat of its two hearts. It took every ounce of Gardinal’s will to even stay standing in its presence, but he needed to do more than just stand. Glancing past it, Gardinal saw a chance. The doorway out.

He had to act. That door was salvation for Her Radiance, right now, her only salvation. And he could not be frozen in indecision. Not again.

“Stay behind me.” He commanded, not bothering to check if the Prophetess listened. He was too busy watching his sides. What Gardinal found caused him to clench his hammer with white knuckles.

The hound-like beasts now circled them. These were like the ones he had left Derenath and the Bishop with. Monstrosities that had taken nearly a dozen faith militia and two of the most powerful wielders of Light he knew to stop them. There had only been two of the daemons then. A quick count left Gardinal with nearly a dozen hounds, prowling hungrily, malformed eyes all leering at Her Radiance.

And only three to defend her, Gardinal realized. Looking at Vallerian, the man barely lit by flickering lantern that sat half-submerged in water. The lord looked as if all the blood had drawn from his face, and the man’s fist strangled his bow. A quick glance to Kriss showed that the lad held his spear equally tight. As their eyes darted from daemon to one another, Gardinal knew that they understood as well. There was no surviving this fight for them.

Whispering a prayer to the First Mother, Gardinal accepted his fate. If he could save Her Radiance, well then it was worth it. Raising his hammer to a ready position, Gardinal squared his shield before him and met the twisted man-like daemon’s gaze.

Its hollow eyes seemed to study him as it fell to its hands and knees, walking like an animal on all fours. Even then its unnaturally long arms kept it above Gardinal’s stout height, stumbling along awkwardly. It reminded him of an injured animal he had seen in the Shaded Lands; the beast had killed five men before they had put it down. This would be far more dangerous. Still, in Gardinal’s long career as a holy protector of the faith, there hadn’t been a single thing man or beast he couldn’t kill if he just hit it hard enough. Gardinal let out a roar and charged.

Splashing across the water, Gardinal rushed the nightmare-made-flesh, swinging powerfully at its form. It snarled, leaping back from Gardinal’s strike and careening into a stone column behind. With the beast dazed for a moment, Gardinal pressed.

With a deep grunt he swung with every ounce of his strength, battering his hammer into the flesh and blood-soaked torso of the malformed Chaos-spawn. The thick hammer head pierced through the air, striking flesh with a thud.

Nothing.

As the hammer met the wet guts of the Daemon, it simply stopped. He might as well have struck an anvil from all the daemon responded. Swallowing nervously, Gardinal looked up at the beast above him. Snarling down at him, its wolf-like grin grew hungrily, a macabre visage in the dim light.

Pain shot through Gardinal as a clawed hand slashed across his torso. Rending metal plate and cloth alike, hot pain coursed across his chest. The force knocked Gardinal from his feet, skittering across the waterlogged floor.

Eventually Gardinal came to a painful stop as his back met another stone pillar. Looking up he spotted the daemon lunging. Gardinal rolled, out of the way. Looking up, he saw deep claw marks through the stone column where his head had been a heartbeat before.

Gasping for breath Gardinal tried to move again, but he was too slow. The beast pounced with an inhuman speed, blocking him in beneath its unnaturally long arms. A slash to left skimming his cheek, an attempted grab at his throat pushing him right.

He was pinned.

Lifting his shield frantically, Gardinal held it between him and sure death. Taking blow after blow as the daemon threw himself against the bulwark that was Gardinal’s defense. It was slow going —and Gardinal could feel light being pulled from him by the shield— but as the beast beat itself against him Gardinal found himself slowly able to rise.

Then the attacks stopped for a moment.

Glancing over the shield, Gardinal eyed one of its claws. Or what was left of it, a burnt stump at the end of the monster’s pole-like arms. Glancing down at the front of his shield, the glowing tree on it pulling divine light from him even now, Gardinal saw slick, glowing blood singeing away as water droplets in a hot pan.

Understanding rushed over Gardinal. It was obvious, and he felt like a fool for not thinking of it earlier. The daemons were weak to the Mother’s Light. Likely the whole Pantheon’s, but Gardinal was no Ferenic priest with Light made for war.

His moment of realization was ruined as a pained shout from nearby tore his attention. Spinning, he saw it. A chaos-hound biting down at the Prophetess, pinning her beneath its muscular humanlike arms as its blade-sharp teeth ripped into her shoulder.

Gardinal was above the beast - already knocked off Her Radiance - slamming the sharp edge of his glowing shield into its skull repeatedly before he realized what he was doing. Glowing, too cool blood covered his face as he raised it again and again, crushing the beast’s skull into the waterlogged stone. He beat it down repeatedly; Light being pulled from him into his shield as he did so. He fell to his knee’s as he struck over and over again, beating metal rim against twisted flesh until the monster stopped spasming from the blows.

With laboured breathes, Gardinal turned to Her Radiance. She lay half covered in water with a shoulder that resembled some of the worst wounds he had seen in the war. Eyes wide in fear, she stared at the Chaos around them. Her face more taken with grief than pain as she her eyes lingered on the dead bodies in the room. She needed to get out of here, now.

Trying to rise, Gardinal felt his legs buckle beneath him. He fell to the water with a curse, as a wave of exhaustion flooded over him. Gardinal shot a glare at his shield, it had drawn too much from him. What blasted use was the thing if he was spent after a single daemon?

The thought was cut short as another of the twisted hounds struck him. This one with seven eyes, it latched its maw onto his hammer arm, jerking him back and forth with sharp motions. His hammer flew away, and Gardinal tried to fight back. His body moved sluggishly though, lifting his shield and pressing it into the beast. He could smell it, the stench of fetid flesh burning as more Light was pulled from his soul. Gardinal pressed harder, pushing every ounce of energy he yet had within into his shield, seeing plumes of smoke rising up from the other side.

The beast hissed as it finally pulled away. Half of it’s face had been burned away, the other half oozed puss and blood. Gardinal could feel his body failing him, if he was going to kill the monster, it had to be now.

Reaching down, Gardinal tried to lift his hammer but found that his hand would not obey him any longer. His bone was bare beneath ragged strands of flesh, the hounds jagged teeth having ripped it to shreds. Gardinal cursed in frustration.

Glancing around, he began to see the situation for what it was. Helpless. He watched as the boy Kriss struck out valiantly against the four hounds that had cornered him, blood dripping through his leather doublet where they had gotten a lucky bite or claw. Gardinal winced as Vallerian took a swipe to the leg, ripping open his thigh and sending the man to his knees. Then Gardinal looked back to the entrance and saw the large daemon steadying itself again and looking to Her Radiance once more. The remaining hound-like beasts circling him and her.

Helpless.