Kadin flinched, he couldn’t help it, his eyes closed and his head jerked slightly away. He felt the blade as it landed on his neck.. but then nothing no ripping of his head being removed no rush of air as his head fell. Just the press of the blade along his neck just light enough to draw no blood. He then heard a gruff voice for from just above and behind him

“Bad Assed! You took that like a man K … shame about the flinch.”

He opened his eyes to see the demon in front of him hand still holding its sword, and after a second trying to jerk its blade away. He followed the length of the blade to see it being neatly held in two fingers, by what was a huge man or a small giant. he was wearing gleaming mithril armour that shined like liquid silver over his barrel chest were little decorative works that held different coloured gemstones about the size of a thumb nail, overlapping plates covered his stomach , before a flared out chain linked skirt. With matching leg guards and bracers. His helmet was like a silver bell with the front cut out to show his face. A grizzled red main of hair and matching beard, but Kadin could see he was smiling and have an amused glint in his sky blue eyes. It was a guild leader: Combat. With little more than a flick of his hand he threw the blade back away from Kadins neck, the sword with the demon still attached flew up and away from them to eventually crash into the big red skinned minotaur. He then turned to Kadin smiling broadly showing his gleaming white teeth in that unkempt red mane and spoke

“So you’re the reason! Little Susie been getting all worked up – and your what trying to keep all the fun here for yourself?”

Kadins mind was still struggling to process what was happening and all he got out was

“Susie?”

For a second Combats smile faltered, and Kadin could see what looked like ..fear… maybe?? But then the big smile returned and he gestured back towards the barrier and said

“errm, guild leader Sorcery.. don’t tell her I called her Susie.”

Kadin looked back and saw two other figures on the other side of the boundary one in a red traveling cloak and the other in a black one – but still a bit too far away to look like anything more than a blur.

“Anyway kiddo – you get across that barrier, she has a plan… I’m gonna go see how tough demons really are!” with that and a mad laugh Combat leapt passed Kadin towards the two closest demons, the minotaur just fired another ballista. Kadin watched in awe as Combat charged forwards, he didn’t even try to dodge he ran straight at it and amazingly when the bolt got within about a foot of him it just shattered .. it did look like it hit anything it just broke. Combat still laughing as he got to them he swung a massive back hand at the demon who almost killed Kadin and smacked him straight up into the air .. Kadin couldn’t see if he even came back down. Before he reached the Minotaur there was a shifting blur and two more of the lith speed demons appeared blades already thrusting forwards to stab Combat in his exposed face, the first blade he just punched out of the way and as he hit it the demon forged almost ‘indestructible’ blade shattered. He barrelled past them not slowing until he got to the minotaur who had by now dropped its bow in favour of a giant two headed axe. The minotaur was even bigger than Combat and even as it swung its axe Combat moved to dodge under it. But he crouched low and had grabbed the minotaur’s leg. Kadin watched in bemused disbelieve as Combat swung the minotaur like a club hitting both of the other demons who were closing in behind him. It was then Kadin heard another voice.

“Other side of the barrier, Go!” the figure in black. Guild leader Stealth. He was little more than an indistinct hazy cloud, hovering a few feet in the air, Kadin caught a light glint from within as a small vial seemed to appear then fall into Kadin lap, before shooting off towards the encroaching army.

Kadins Shard cyclone was still in full swing, and with the increased magical essence it was now hundreds of feet across and much more powerful than when he cast it last. But Combat having finished his fight was taking massive lopping strides side to side as he approached the army to the right side of the cyclone. Stealth still little more than a cloud was heading to the left side of the cyclone. A forwards party that was closing in on him a few second before were now firing magic blast, bolts and arrows at it. Stealth didn’t even slow down, as the cloud passed the party, of seven or eight all collapsed to the ground missing their heads.

Kadin tried to stand, and failed, the pain in his left shoulder screaming at him and the general exhaustion of the last few day were clouding his mind, he felt unconsciousness pull at him, one of the cuts on his leg was still bleeding profusely, and he knew he was on the verge of passing out. When his sluggish mind focused on the vial, a small potion filled a cloudy purple liquid, it looked like it was also filled with glitter. Sparkling and shining like thousands of little stars through the whole thing. A rejuvenation potion. A potion that had the benefits of a health, stamina and mana potion all in one. Similar to the stamina potion this one will spoil in just a few hours ‘How could he even have that?’ he thought to himself. Even as he was looking at it the little sparkling glitter points were seeming to dim and a few get extinguished, seeing this spurred him to motion, he pulled off the wax sealed little stopper and took it in a single gulp.

Kadin felt warmth fill him from his core, right down to the tips of his fingers and toes. He felt strength return to his bone weary muscles and his head which felt as if it was stuffed with cotton wool cleared, things seemed sharper, his mind came in focus – the blurriness at the edges of his vision that were pulling him into unconsciousness was gone. He pushed himself to his feet, where his body didn’t scream at him in protest. He felt great.

He had the fleeting thought of heading back into the fight to help the guild leaders, but remembering that Sorcery had a plan he turned and made for the blurry red form on the other side of the barrier.