At least Rory could see behind the Djinn. The situation was just as he had feared it was going to be.

The sewer entrance they had taken such pains to block up and prevent any monsters from coming out of had been broken open. It looked they had detonated the whole area. Debris circled the tunnel opening in a wide radius, the entrance itself ringed by black fire. Several Revenants were standing around, waiting as more and more climbed out of the hole.

There was no sign of Rory’s Frozen Lightning. He dragged in a sharp breath. Those flames… it looked as though the Djinn had arrived to melt away his Frozen Lightning traps with their Abyssal Inferno.

“What?” the Djinn asked. He looked down at himself, inspecting the dark, feathery robe that covered most of his body besides his clawed feet. “Am I not attractive enough to hold your attention? Or are desiccated bodies in rusty armour more the kind of thing you go for?”

“You’re only going to get one warning, Djinn,” Viv said. “We’re here to stop you and your plans.”

The Djinn laughed. It sounded strange coming from the leonine mouth, like a roar constantly interrupted by coughs. “You don’t have to announce your intentions. It’s written plainly enough on your faces. But pray tell me how are you not dead yet. You should have succumbed to the poison already.”

Rory smiled. “We’ve dealt enough with your poison.” He was ever so thankful for Vern and his potions. “We’ve got countermeasures in place you won’t be able to do anything about.”

The first frown of the meeting appeared on the Djinn’s brow. No, not just any Djinn. The last one they had faced directly at the grocery store had been an Ifrit, according to the Sigil of Knowledge. A Djinn that had been corrupted by the very flames it used.

“It seems that I will have to get rid of you the old-fashioned way, then,” the Ifrit said.

Black fires blazed in both of its hands. They leapt up high into the air, blue sparks glinting and sparking inside. Then the twin fireballs slammed towards Rory’s group.

He shouted out, summoning his blizzard immediately. Long use and practice made Rory’s thoughts sharp and immediate. He focused the blizzard’s preservation on his group and the target of its destruction on the dark fireballs. Just for surety, he summoned an icy barricade before them.

The Djinn’s fireballs crashed into the blue-white walls, splattering to nothing. They’d been weakened by Rory’s storm, so their impact did little damage.

With the Djinn out of flames for the time being, Viv found her opportunity to attack. She summoned her red lightning and launched a veritable thunderstorm blistering around the Ifrit, trapping him in a crimson cage.

The Djinn burst into flames entirely. All the feathers on his cloak caught fire simultaneously, flickering out like tongues of a hundred snakes to lash at the cage of lightning. Just as with Rory’s Frozen Lightning, the black fires ate away the electricity in moments. He was free fast enough to dodge Viv’s subsequent crimson blast and the javelin that Trish threw as well.

His movement was too fast. The Djinn zipped around in the air. His intentions were clear enough. For one, he didn’t want to get caught by Viv’s lighting trap again or let either her or Trish hit him easily. For another, his wild and erratic motion was catching the eye of the Revenants nearby.

One of whom had crawled in far too close.

The monster Viv had blasted moments ago now charged into their midst. There was no immediate danger. Even as Viv focused on the Djinn, Trish stopped the Revenant’s blade with her summoned, reinforced shield.

Rory blinked. The shield looked like it was made of steel, but it actually bent a little, rubberlike, to absorb the blow’s impact. That combination of steel and rubber seemed to be working.

Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the Revenant’s ability. His powerful aura washed out over them, trying to slow down time, but Rory was ready. He activated his Weaving, sending out a storm of white light acting as quickly as it could to absorb the aura and turn it into a Sigil. If it could act fast enough to stop lightning, this was nothing.

He was proven right. The aura started flickering away, leaving a Sigil of Temporal Burn in his hand.

Both the Revenant and Trish were surprised at the turn of events, but it was Trish who recovered faster. She yelled, then slammed into the monsters with a flurry of blows from her reinforced axe. The Revenant fell back under her assault.

More red lightning flashed, but none of the bolts made contact with the Djinn. He laughed at their attempts.

“You are quite feisty,” the Djinn said, continuing to move in his wild pattern. “You need to fall before you start causing problems.”

More dark flames burgeoned over his body. He was preparing a heavy attack.

When the flames finally flashed down towards them, Viv shot the blast with her red lightning. The resultant explosion slammed them down to the ground, though Rory was grateful that they were spared the dark fire’s burning wrath, at least.

Rory turned to Ned as he got to his feet, speaking quickly. “With him flying around like that, you might be our only hope to stopping him.”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,” Ned said.

“Not at a distance. You’ll have to get straight up in his face and stop him in his tracks.”

“Just the thing I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do.” He sighed. “But yeah. I’ll do it.”

Rory nodded. His blizzard was still active, but he definitely couldn’t focus it on their flying enemy. Instead, he focused its destruction on the Revenant, where Trish was making short work of it and its preservation on the area around them to keep them intact.

“I’ll have to warn the others,” he said. “Get some distance and get the word out. I’ll leave the rest to you guys.”

Ned nodded. “I’ll get on it.”

As he left to join the fight, Rory started looking around for a good spot to call the others without being attacked. The Djinn was about to launch another enormous volley of his Abyssal Inferno, and while Viv looked ready to counter it, Ned shot up to distract their opponent. Rory had no more time to pay attention to them. He’d have to trust them to survive.

“Hello!” he yelled into the walky-talky after he’d found himself some space. It had sounded like they had received his call. “Can you guys hear me?”

“What’s going on?” Dez asked. The way he talked, he must have heard the fighting through his walky-talky. “Are you guys in a fight?”

Rory quickly explained their predicament with the Djinn. “We’re handling things, but I wanted to warn you guys so you didn’t come in unprepared.”

“You sure you don’t need help?”

“We’re fine. Just take care of your end. There are lots of Revenants here. You’ll have your hands full as soon as you get here.”

“Oh, we have it full already. These monsters are Revenants.”

“What?”

Dez described how the minsters had turned from looking like their regular forms to undead versions that were hammering into them with the unceasing efforts of the lifeless. They now needed greater time to push through the mass of monsters. “Things are crazy here, man.”

“Yeah, I hear you.” Rory suppressed a shiver as a jolt of cold from his blizzard got to him. “But you guys can do it. I have faith. Just stay careful. There was at least another Djinn from the fight with the Homeworlders, so that one might be headed in your direction.”

There was a moment’s silence. “What if it’s not?”

He didn’t say the rest, but Rory got the implication well enough. “We’ll deal with him if he comes here.”

“Alright. Good luck, Rory.”

“You too, Dez.”

They cut off the call.

“You can turn off the storm for now,” Viv said.

Rory turned off his Barricading Blizzard and checked the battle.

Trish had finished dealing with her Revenant, who was now a pile of broken armour and bones on the ground. The Djinn had fallen back far away too, a hooded expression on his face. It seemed Ned’s counter-flying had stopped his motion, so for now, he was keeping his distance, dark flames ready to beat back anything they threw at him from range.

“Having trouble?” Rory asked as he walked back up to Viv.

She sniffed. “Bastard won’t fight anymore now he knows he can’t win.”

“Then we don’t have to wait for anything, right? Let’s get those Revenants.”

“What’s he waiting for, though? Because I’m sure he’s up to something.”

“Maybe he’s trying to come up with a plan,” Trish said. “Which is why we should rush in and take him out before he pulls some new trick.”

“The Revenants,” Rory reminded them. “That’s our main goal here. We’re going to have to block up those holes.”

“So, let’s proceed with that, then,” Viv said. “Strange they haven’t attacked us to support the Djinn yet.”

Trish frowned at the undead monsters in the distance. “Could be they’re trying to stay away from all the fire.”

“Could be.”

Keeping the Djinn in their line of sight, they started to climb down from their position to get to the Revenants. It wasn’t going to be easy to confront all of the monsters together, so Rory and the others decided to only tackle the fringe elements before the others arrived. He was hoping Dez’s group wouldn’t suffer too many difficulties if the other Djinn had confronted them.

The Djinn kept an eerie eye on them all the while. Rory let the others watch the lion-headed Ifrit while he focused on the Revenants ahead. He stepped along the edge of the little canal to get in range. It was better if he got away some Frozen Lightning to trap their adversaries.

“They spotted us,” Trish warned.

The Revenants had indeed seen them. Well, the first few who were keeping a watch on the canal approach. They didn’t warn the others though. Instead, they drew their swords and came at Rory’s group together. The other Revenants continued to focus on the tunnel opening, pulling out more of the monsters as they squeezed out.

Rory glanced once at the motionless Djinn, then focused on the monsters just head. He stabbed his Staff of Deadly Winter forward, blasting out a couple of bolts of Frozen Lightning.

Unfortunately, while they were far enough away from the Revenants to not be affected by their burgeoning brown auras, Rory’s attacks were. The bolts slowed to a crawl as soon as they entered the aura’s area of influence.

There was an easy way to counteract it though. He used his Weaving again, throwing the storm of white lines at the Revenant’s combined auras to dissolve them to Sigils.

“They’re coming,” Trish warned.

The Revenants had charged. They ducked under the still-slow Frozen Lightning bolts and rushed through the storm of Weaving’s white lines as though aware they weren’t going to be affected. Rory stiffened. He—

“Fire!”

Viv’s shout rang in his ears. Rory twisted to face the Djinn, but the monster was still motionless. It was the tiny grin on his leonine face that alerted Rory that he was looking in the Wrong direction.

Before he could correct his mistake, he was pulled to the ground. He slammed onto the hard surface as a wash of dark flames burst over their backs, throwing a blistering array of heat over them. The water steamed, the ground scorched, and Rory found himself grunting out in pain as his back lanced with a thousand burning needles of agony.

But he was alive. That was what mattered. Groaning against the pain, he turned around to check the others’ condition.

Viv was fine enough to be moving nearby. She looked less hurt than he was, though her shoulder sported a nasty wound. The others weren’t so good. Ned had fallen into the water, splashing around in an attempt to get the dark flames off him. Nearer at hand, Trish was wholly unconscious, sporting several burn wounds and bleeding profusely.

Loud laughter sounded just over them, coming from the same direction they had approached from. “How silly these mortals are.” That voice. Rory swallowed. It had to be the other Djinn. “So complacent. Did you truly think you were safe here?”

“No,” Rory breathed. He wasn’t letting anyone else die. They’d deal with the Djinn in time, but first he needed to make sure the others were all right.

Despite his body’s disinclination, Rory forced himself to a more upright position before throwing out his Barricading Blizzard again. He focused its preserving effect on the Ned specifically, trying to force his fires to go out.

“Ned,” he said. “Come out of the water. Now.”

Ned hurried closer, even as he struggled in the water. But the blizzard was working its magic on him well. It doused the black flames on him, leaving livid wounds that soon frosted over with preserving ice.

Rory pulled the poor guy to the bank as soon as he was cold enough. He was half-frozen and rigid as an iron rod.

“Seems you failed to finish them all, Abscond,” the lion-headed Ifrit said. “You losing your touch?”

The other one laughed. “At least I wasn’t forced off by a bunch of primitives like you.”

“Why don’t you try taking them honourably then?”

“We don’t have that kind of time to waste, Fumigate.”

“Truly? Why I would have—wait, what’s that?”

Rory, who had been trying to lie low with the rest of them, cheered as a black fireball sailed in and struck Abscond’s back. He uttered a roaring bleat as he was flung off his perch to strike the water with a hissing splash.

“Two can play the backstabbing game,” Dez said as he charged in.

Rory smiled at his arrival. Their reinforcements were finally here.