Constance Shellbert raised her right hand. She murmured the prayer of banishment. Light formed in the palm of her hand. Her god split the demon confronting her. She stepped back from the collapsing pile of ash.

She wasn't making any headway. She had killed a small platoon of demons so far but she couldn't advance down the street toward the center of their attack.

On the other hand, they couldn't get into the small fort she had created out of the row house she had taken shelter in. Every time the demons tried to get in, she banished them.

Constance needed to move out of her position to somewhere safer. She couldn't keep drawing on Mogin Farn, her god, to help her. Eventually she was going to draw too much of his power into her and she would meet him in person.

She didn't want to be in that embarrassing position.

Why did the demons want to get into her house so much? If she knew that, she could destroy whatever they wanted so they would have to move on. She doubted they wanted to kill her that much to justify their losses.

She walked the house, looking through the shutters. The demons were massing outside of the range of her prayer. What could she do? Could she banish all of them if they came closer?

She thought she could, but she would have to wait until they were practically breaking into the house before she started the prayer. She paused at a man in a coat walking down the street. He waved at the demons as he passed in front of her window.

The demons seemed astonished that someone not wearing armor was treating them so casually. She knew she felt the same. Was he their controlling summoner? Then the demons charged the stranger. That answered that question.

The stranger killed the demons with his bare hands. She had never seen anything like it. He stood there and let them come at him. Then he was surrounded by an ever expanding cloud of ash. She thought she heard screaming. She doubted it was the stranger.

She decided to add to the chaos by invoking the prayer of banishment. She slipped out of the house, looking for any demons who might be close to her. She raised her hand and said the prayer. Glowing light took a small bite out of the crowd of dark monsters.

Constance frowned as the demons noticed her. She invoked the prayer again as she retreated back to her house. Coming out had been a mistake. She reached the threshold of her door when a demon loomed out of nowhere. She looked up at the maw full of teeth. It resembled an open flower of some kind. She knew this was the end.

The stranger appeared, scything an arm against the demon's four legs. It fell back out of Constance's way. A crunch heralded a broken skull and a spreading cloud of ash drifting to the ground. The stranger smiled at her as he turned to go back to killing demons with his hands.

“I think you should stay out of the way,” said the demon killer. “When the street is clear, you should probably hook up with some knights and other clerics and fall back out of the way.”

“I can't,” said Constance. “The demons want this house for some reason. There's nobody else here but me. And I have killed more than a few before you showed up.”

“You think they want this house more than they want to kill you?,” asked the stranger.

“Yes, but I don't know why,” said Constance. She raised her hand as the demons tried to regroup on the other side of the street. There wasn't as many as there had been before the stranger had went to work. He had cut a huge swathe in their numbers in the time he had been among them.

The ash on the street didn't provide a number for the slain invaders.

“Let me grab one and ask him what's up,” said the stranger. “I'll be right back.”

“Are you serious?,” asked Constance.

“Go inside and wait,” said the stranger. He pointed at the house. “Anything trying to get in the back, do your thing.”

Constance went inside. She closed the door and looked out the window. She saw the stranger walk toward the crowd. Some rushed to meet him. Some held station. A few in the back broke and ran.

She didn't blame them. She would have ran in the face of certain doom herself.

The fighter grabbed the nearest demon and dragged it from the pack. He pulled the demon to the house and broke its legs so it couldn't run. Then he started back to the crowd.

They rushed him in a mass of limbs and teeth. He punched through them as they pushed him back. He gave up ground grudgingly, cutting a demon down for every inch he had to retreat. Then he snapped a wrist and a sword appeared in his hand. He stopped retreating then and cut the demons down until they stopped fighting and ran from him. He didn't bother to chase them. He already had what he wanted.

He dropped the sword as he walked back to his captive. The demon glared at him. He stepped on a mangled leg, and applied pressure. That got him a howl and demand to stop.

“The nice cleric inside says you're being particularly aggressive about getting into this house,” said the fighter. “You want to say why?”

“I only know what I've been told,” said the demon. “And we were told to take the house and hold it until further notice.”

“And the cleric blocked the plan,” said the fighter. “Are more of your army on the way now that you've failed?”

“I don't know,” said the demon.

“I think you've been truthful with me so I'm going to let you go,” said the fighter. “Let me help you.”

He grabbed the demon by one of its mangled legs. He spun in place. He released his grip when he felt the demon would sail over the buildings on the other side of the street. The monster howled as it flew through the air.

“What was that about?,” asked Constance. She stood in the doorway.

“The demons have been commanded to hold your house,” said the fighter. “I expect it's some kind of positioning for a sneak attack of some kind. As long as you hold the house, they can't do the sneak attack.”

“I won't be able to hold it for long,” said Constance. “I've been banishing them almost constantly before you arrived to clear the rabble away. That was impressive. I've never seen anything like it.”

“It was too showy,” said the fighter. “I had hoped to draw things away from the regular forces here in the city. I don't think it's working as well as I thought it would. I'll have to think about something else I can do.”

“What about the house?,” asked Constance. “I need help defending it.”

“You need someone other than me,” said the fighter. “Too bad you don't know the holy word.”

“What holy word?,” asked Constance.

The fighter said something strange to her ear. She repeated it. Power surged through her. Her god seemed to almost be touching her.

“Anytime you say your prayer of banishment, add that word to the end,” said the fighter. “That will help you until help arrives from other parts of the city.”

“What makes you think help will arrive from the other clerics?,” asked Constance.

“The more demons I kill, the less pressure is being applied to any other defensive front,” said the fighter. “Once I get to the source, the demons will retreat to try to stop me from closing things down.”

“And until that happens, I have to hold on by myself,” said Constance. “I don't like that at all.”

“The god of knowledge is your mentor,” said the fighter. He pointed at the holy symbol woven in her tunic. “You can handle it. Go inside and wait for things to clear.”

He started walking down the street.