The next day, we woke up and ate breakfast. The chefs in the stronghold said it was the least they could do for us when we thanked them for the legendary food they had whipped up for us. After we finished eating, we went to talk to Nova's parents before we left the mountain city.

When we were done speaking to them, we piled into our carriage to travel toward the village Richard told me would be the hoard's next target. He explained to me that the village, named Klausiin, had sent him a report two days ago detailing a major battle that had occurred between the hoard and the village guard. Richard informed me that while Klausiin did survive this first assault, it had still sustained heavy losses. He warned me to be prepared for anything upon arrival in Klausiin before we bade him farewell.

Nova had tagged along even though her mother didn't want her to.

"Sorry mom," She had said, "I have a team to watch out for. I'm not going to hide in Volhime while my friends risk their lives to protect us. Forgive me, but I'd rather help them out."

As we rattled down a gravel road, I looked at the faces of my team members as they sat around me. No one really showed it, but I could tell everyone was nervous: Luna had her head on my shoulder, ears twitching and tail swishing slightly. Dorrian was counting the arrows in his quiver even though he had already done that three times this morning. Analise was sharpening her knives to a razor point even though, again, she already did that this morning. After she finished working on her knives, she moved on to sharpening her scimitar. Ben sat perfectly still, breathing deeply. Nova was working on her hand cannon while Pip hovered around her.

I pulled out my flute and started playing a song: I tried to play a bright, cheerful tune, but I ended up cracking a few notes the first few times I tried to play. Finally, I was able to nail it without failing miserably. Even with my mess ups, I could tell my efforts had brightened the mood in the carriage.

Dorrian finished counting the arrows in his quiver and sighed, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth: "Thanks Helix. It's amazing what music can do to lighten the mood."

"Aye," Luna agreed.

Ana chuckled, sheathing her scimitar and cracking her knuckles, "Even if you crack notes."

"Hey, it was an accident," I retorted, then I continued to play without cracking any other notes.

One hour later, we stopped before the village of Klausiin. I poked my head out of a window set into one of the carriage doors and could instantly tell it had already been attacked. This village was lucky enough to have a wall surrounding it due to the fact that it was beaten up: holes were scored in the stone of the wall while scorch marks and blood splatters were also visible. (It's like Dante paid this town a visit.)

We drove through the main gate and got out of our carriage. I then watched as the chief of the Klausiin approached us. He was surrounded by a group of men that looked to be guards and a few beaten up golems. Beyond the main gate, the village itself looked fairly untouched. I guess the wall absorbed most of the first assault. The buildings around us were primarily made out of wood with thatched roofs. There were a few stone buildings, but they weren't plentiful.

The chief almost broke down when he saw us. "Thank the gods!" He cried, "Richard sent help!"

"How many of your garrison remain?" I asked as we followed the chief into the town.

"About half of the garrison are still alive. Thankfully, most of the golems are still operational, but our supply of ethridium is running out," The chief replied nervously.

Shit, this is bad...

"How much is 'half,' exactly?" I prompted him.

"...Fifty men, give or take?"

I nodded and looked at my team. "Alright, while this isn't exactly the best situation we've been in, we still have a fair amount to work with. I trust all of you to do what needs to be done-I'm not your mother, so I'm going to refrain from boring you with orders. Go where you're needed and get things done, my people!"

"Aye sir!" My team replied. As my team broke rank, I watched as Dorrian and Ben hurried over to the ramparts of Klausiin where a handful of archers were stationed. Nova vanished like a fleeting thought, so yeah...Not entirely sure where she went. Analise stalked over to a bunch of guards that were lazily doing their exercises, and she showed them what was on her mind.

"Get up you bums!" she snapped like a whip. "Where's the rest of your friends, eh? We're gonna have a little training bout."

I chuckled to myself and watched as Luna hurried over to a building with several gurneys out in front of it. Judging by the sheer amount of women in blue robes that hurried into and out of it, I'm guessing Luna just entered the infirmary of Klausiin.

The chief looked at me in relief, "Thank you so much."

I nodded, "I have no idea when the hoard will strike again. The best we can do is prepare for anything."

"So what are you going to do?" The chief asked.

"I have to talk to someone real quick."

"Oh, okay," He replied in mild confusion.

After the chief left, I talked to my mother, "Hey mom, can you give me an idea as to what my team and I should expect to be up against when this hoard shows up?"

Silence, then: "I can't be for sure, but I can tell you that there will be no low-class demons in this hoard. You'll most likely be sparring with mid to high-class daedric warriors. Oh-Oh no...I fear a demon lord may be leading this attack..."

My heart stopped for the slightest of moments, "Oh shit, a demon lord? Please tell me you're wrong."

My necklace sighed, "That's the thing: I don't know son. I hate to leave you all in the dark, but I can only give you an idea as to what you'll be fighting. I can only sense the auras of your attackers, and I am fearful."

I nodded and felt my throat bob, "Alright, thanks for trying at least, mom. The best plan right now is to prepare for the worst."

"Have faith in your abilities son. I know you'll prevail."

I smiled and walked over to the building that was serving as an infirmary for wounded guards: "Thanks mom."

After I finished talking to my mother, I went to help Luna heal the men that were seriously injured. Together, we were able to heal everyone with life-threatening wounds first, then finished things up with people that only had minor injuries. There was one man left to heal: he had sustained an injury to his neck, and the clerics around us voiced their worries as I looked at the injured guard: "It's no use. We've spent four hours sustaining him while trying to heal his wound. He'll most certainly die."

"Not on my watch," I muttered under my breath. I walked over to his cot and looked at the wound: a large gash across the left side of his neck. Even though it was bandaged up, the bandages were stained crimson. I grimaced: "Luna, give me your hand."

She held my left hand, and I placed my other hand over the wound and closed my eyes. Drawing off of Luna's reserves as well as my own, I patched up the grisly wound. After a few moments of tense silence, the guard started awake with a ragged cry. After the clerics removed the bandages around his neck, they were shocked to find that the large-ass gash was little more than light scar tissue now.

I swayed and felt extremely ill, "Oh, oh my..."

Luna helped me sit down on a vacant cot that was nearby: "Are you okay, Hel?"

"Yeah, yeah. I pushed myself too far. I wasn't expecting that to take as much of my reserves as it did."

Luna chuckled, "Well, you closed a man's severed carotid artery. That would take a fair amount of magic to repair."

I grinned, "True."

The clerics were speechless.

"How? How did you do that?" One of them demanded, "He was so close to death..."

I winked at the cleric, "Never underestimate the power of an imagist. We can do some crazy shit when we put our minds to it."

With a little help from Luna, I regained enough of my reserves to stand up. Well, at the cost of Luna leaning heavily against me.

"I hate to be redundant, but are you okay?" I asked her.

Luna nodded, "Yeah, just a little tired. That's all."

"Well, have a little bit of your reserves back," I replied, siphoning off enough to make sure she wouldn't pass out on me.

She smiled, "Thanks."

I grinned, and we slowly made our way out of the infirmary and headed outside.

For the rest of the day, Luna and I regained our strength. Thankfully, there was no attack, but the village was still on high alert. I told the chief to get the women and children out of Klausiin so they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire of this conflict. He agreed to that proposition, and he sent the people who couldn't defend themselves to Volhime so they would be out of harm's way.

"They'll be safer away from here," I had said.

Now, about five hours after we arrived, my team and I sat around a table in the small local tavern. The barkeep had stayed: he said that if he goes, the tavern goes as well.

"So how have your days' been?" I asked my friends.

Ana grinned, "Well, the group of guards I drilled today seem more ready to fuck up a hoard of demons than they were this morning. Honestly, I'm glad I got them riled up: They were dragging their feet when I first started the lesson."

I grinned, looking at the two rangers as they quietly talked to each other, "What about you two? Anything happen on the walls?"

"Eh?" Dorrian began, "Oh, thankfully nothing interesting really happened on the wall. Well, other than one archer getting an arrow to the foot, that is."

I rose an eyebrow, "Dorrian...why do I have the feeling you were the one that shot this guy in the foot?"

He laughed evilly, "Oh, because I was. The asshole mocked my cloak, so I shot him in the foot."

"And why didn't you stop him?" I asked Ben, who shrugged in indifference.

"No one mocks the cloak of a king's ranger," He replied, "No one."

"How about you, Nova?" I asked the mechaneer as she chowed down on a bowl of stew. "You kind of vanished without a trace when we broke ranks, so what did you do today?"

"Eh? Oh, I went to take an inventory of the ethridium supply in this village." She explained, setting her fork down so she wouldn't be tempted to continue eating. "I found a lot more than I thought I would. With the supply we have right now, I could fashion some improvised explosives to sully the day of our foes, or we can use it for other things," She added as Luna gave her a bewildered look.

"Well, we survived today," I declared, "It was long, and boy was it exhausting, but at least we're still alive and in one piece."

"Hear-hear!" Came the reply.

A little bit of alcohol was passed around that evening to celebrate the minor victory of not dying. It wasn't a ludicrous amount, but it was still enough to make us say and do dumb shit. (Yay, I guess...)

That night is still fuzzy to me. Even now, I only remember bits and pieces of it. For one, I know that Dorrian tried to shoot me in the ass with an arrow. And then-oh yeah, Luna kissed me on the cheek. I passed out after that. When I came to, I heard someone laugh their ass off.

"Oh my god! This is so rich!" Analise cackled. "Bro, why the hell did you pass out?"

"Shut up Ana!" Luna snapped. "Stop making such a big deal out of this!"

"You can't stop me, kitten! You're not my mom!"

"No, but you shouldn't give her a hard time, Ana." Dorrian chimed in.

"Shut the hell up, little man!"

After that, I saw metal flash past my eyes as Analise hurled a knife at my vertically-inclined friend. I also remember seeing Ben sitting in the corner laughing. After that, I blacked out once again.