“Do any of you recognize me, or know who I am?” The newcomer asked in an old accent they could almost place.

“No, should we?” Sierra shouted, after looking at each of them. None of them had any idea who this man was.

“Perhaps not, but I wanted to check. Is it true the Tuatha Dé Danann has returned to Earth along with all the other gods?”

She carefully nodded. “It is. Do you know them?”

“Know them?” He laughed scornfully. “I preceded them! They took my island from me and sicced my own grandson on me! I am Balor of the Fomorians and after I complete my deal with that crazy High God, I will enact my revenge.”

“What did Dantanian want you to do to us?” Alli asked, trying to keep an eye on both Balor and the gargoyle. She didn’t succeed. In the end, she had to trust that Inara would watch one of them.

More of the dark monsters had begun to trickle out of the trees and were lining up behind the gargoyle. They were fully surrounded, with no way out.

“He left it mostly up to me, but the most basic request was to separate your little party. From there, I could do whatever I wanted to you. Kill you, eat you, hold you captive for a while and then let you go. He didn’t seem to care.” Balor scratched at the ruff of his neck, as his voice grew strained.

“And what are you going to do with us?” Beth asked, her voice trembling at the sheer number of monsters around them.

“I… haven’t decided yet. My companion over there would have me kill you, and while I’m not against the idea. It just seems rather wasteful to get rid of the first live visitors we’ve had in so long. Using you for battle practice at the very least would be more interesting. Then everyone gets a fresh meal at the end as well.”

The girls blanched at the thought.

“What do you care what happens to your body at that point? You’ll be dead. It’ll no longer be you, but a useless sack of meat and bones.” The gargoyle piped in from behind, licking his lips.

“Could you maybe not eat us?” Alli requested.

“No, pretty much any option that ends with your death has that as the ending.” Balor stared at them with his remaining eye.

Each of them was quick to look away as a feeling of terror welled up inside them. There was something wrong with that eye.

Balor walked closer, stopping when he was the same distance from them as the gargoyle.

“Why are you helping him? Surely you can leave this place on your own?” Kate asked after working up enough spit to wet her dry mouth.

“Silly child, we are not trapped here. The only reason we hadn’t left was because there was no reason to before this. Now we have been given one. No, I am helping him because he presented me with an interesting proposition.”

“And what… No, never mind, I guess it doesn’t really matter.” Sierra ran a hand through her hair and leaned against Alli. “Well, I admit to not knowing anything about the Fomorians, but would you have described yourself as an honorable race when it came to warfare?”

A great noise erupted around them, sending chills down their respective spines. It took them several long moments to realize that they were being laughed at.

“There is nothing honorable about warfare, little one,” Balor said once he had stopped laughing. The strain in his voice had become more pronounced, and he was now holding his throat firmly. “Why do you ask?”

“I have no weapon. If you intend to kill us, it just doesn’t seem sporting to attack an unarmed person is all.” Sierra was stalling for time by this point.

There was nothing more they could do. They didn’t have the slimmest chance of defeating this many monsters and what was apparently either a fallen god or something close to it.

By herself, Alli could take on a lot of these monsters, except they didn’t know how tough they were yet. That was not including the presence of the gargoyle or Balor. Just the monsters they might have been able to handle. The presence of the other two changed the equation entirely.

There was a loud snort from the gargoyle at their back. “You’re right, it doesn’t seem sporting, but whoever said this would be fair. There are rocks around here somewhere use those, or your fists, maybe even your teeth. Fight like the barbarians your people are.”

“I think your view of us is more than a little bit outdated!” She ground out. “We moved past sticks and stones ages ago, which I’m sure you know.”

Balor laughed. “She’s got you there, Oddom. However, he is also right. I tell you what for this first round. Oddom and I won’t participate. We’ll just spectate and enjoy the fun. Assuming you survive, then you can fight us. Does that ease your worries some?”

It did, yes. It also made them wonder what his endgame was. Why was he being so accommodating to them when he obviously had the power to easily eliminate them?

Alli’s eyes narrowed a fraction as they noticed how tightly he was gripping his throat. There was even a hint of a dark liquid around the edges of his fingers that looked suspiciously like blood. Balor, it seemed was already injured. All of this talking was exacerbating the wound.

Was it pure hubris on his part that was making him converse with them?

If it was, then maybe they could use that against him again when they beat all these monsters.

“Fine, we accept.” Alli agreed for the group. “Are these the monsters we’ll be fighting?”

“They are. All of them, all at once.” Balor grinned and waved the gargoyle over. “Have fun.”

Oddom jumped into the air and flew over them to reach his master’s side in a moment.

“What was that about?” Sierra hissed. “Don’t you think you should have discussed it with us before agreeing to the fight so readily?”

Alli shook her shaggy head. “No, I really don’t. He wasn’t going to let us continue talking for much longer. Besides, if you can, carefully look at the way he is holding his neck. He’s injured. I think that’s why he doesn’t want to fight with them. This is our best chance to survive.” She made sure to project her thoughts to only the party and no one else.

“Well, I still don’t have a weapon,” Sierra muttered, finding the argument suddenly taken out of her.

“There are rocks,” Kate grinned. “Sorry, I got nothing more for you. All my spare weapons are in my inventory, and Beth only has the one-gun Charles changed for her.”

“I know. I’m just being a whiny brat right now.” She sighed and straightened. “I’ll do what I can to not hold you all back. That’s the best I can promise at the moment.”

Balor and Oddom moved back through the crushing crowd of increasingly rowdy monsters. Only once they were well out of the circle did the dark beings scramble forward and begin their attack.

“Inara, how about you and I open this party up?” Alli growled, crouching low.

The quillcat’s tail snapped forward, flinging half a dozen quills into the approaching horde of hundreds.

Alli, meanwhile, was using the shadows. Some people thought darkness and shadows were different, but to her, they were just different sides of the same coin. It may be slightly harder to use the darkness in this realm, but it wasn’t impossible.

Spikes made of hardened shadow shot up by the dozen, indiscriminately targeting the mass before them. There was little need to aim when there were so many willing subjects. So, so, many of them. It was a little daunting.

Every few seconds, a new wave of shadow spikes would shoot out from the ground, injuring more of the dark monsters. Even as they drew closer, it was impossible to identify their features beyond utter faceless darkness.

Glancing at her companions, Alli knew she wouldn’t be able to fight using her normal methods with them. She liked using the shadow spikes. They were precise, versatile, and quick. Perfect for when she was moving around the battlefield with Kira and Charles at her back.

Two people she didn’t have right now. She couldn’t move around and was instead locked in place.

She needed to use her other spells and abilities, but the only other spell she knew how to use was ‘Corrosive Shadow’. The entire idea was to not get up close and personal with them all at the moment, which is how she had always used that spell.

As for her abilities, well, supposedly she could learn anything in her class. However, the gods had forgotten to give her a list of what they were. In the meantime, it helped with her fine control of the shadows as a passive, which was nice, but she needed something more right now.

Beside her, Beth began to fire her gun, bullets made of fire rocketing out of the barrel as she took careful aim. She didn’t have the stats that would allow her to fire indiscriminately.

Next to her, Kate had frozen a ring of the ground around them, creating a layer of ice.

Seeing the ice gave Alli an idea, and she used the darkness of the space around them to coat the ice with a layer of corrosive shadows. Her paw was connected to the shadow holding it all in place.

In a world like this, she needed to expand her thinking. Everything was in darkness and therefore in shadow. She didn’t need to move at all to affect the shadows, she could simply affect everything that was in reach.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than before.