"Holy shit!" Dorrian exclaimed when my group appeared on the bulwarks beside him. "One of the guards had a spyglass, so we were able to watch you guys set traps before engaging the hoard. What the hell were you thinking, Helix?"

I chuckled. "I wanted to take their leader out. The asshole was dumb enough to approach us while leaving his army behind him, so I saw an opportunity."

He sighed as the sounds of bows twanging could be heard. "I guess I can't argue with that...I have a feeling our enemy's going to haul ass over here now."

Luna giggled nefariously. "Oh, they'll regret doing that."

After that, we fell silent. Ten minutes later, deafening explosions could be heard.

"May I see the spyglass?" I asked.

A guard handed me the baby telescope, and I peered through it to see just what had happened. What I saw was pure carnage: the hoard had reached the first line of traps, and they set most of them off. miniature craters were left where Nova's explosives had been tripped, and the writhing bodies of burning demons could be spotted as they tried in vain to extinguish the flames that had enveloped them.

"Well, these idiots aren't the brightest cookies." I mused. "When they trip the second line, we'll leave Klausiin and engage our enemy."

Dorrian nodded. "Should we start raining down pain on these fools?"

I nodded. "Aye. Anyone with a ranged weapon, start shooting as if your life depended on it."

And so while the hoard stubbornly continued to march toward the settlement, we started to open up on them. Arrows, ethridial bolts, and whatever projectile Luna and I could think of was sent hurling toward our enemies. When they hit the second line of traps, I motioned for Nova, Dorrian, Ben, and Luna to follow me.

"We'll rendezvous with Ana and the guards by the gate." I told them as my pack of wolves appeared around me again. "By now, the hoard should be crippled. However, I ask that you still watch yourselves when we leave Klausiin."

They nodded, and we hurried down the bulwarks and ran toward the front gate.

"Is it time to kick some demon ass?" Analise asked me when we reached her. "I've heard screams for about the past thirty minutes, and I'm just dying to sink my knives into something."

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, it's time to kick some demon ass. I still ask that you don't go too overboard."

She laughed. "Me? Going overboard? There's no such thing!"

I sighed. "Let's finish this."

So with my team gathered around me while the guard's who didn't have ranged weapons formed up behind us.

"Ready?" I prompted my team.

"I was born ready, fool." Analise countered.

I sighed. "Let's go then. If the need arises, we'll fall back into the village and funnel our enemies through the main gate. For now, let's see what we're dealing with."

My team nodded in understanding, and we left the safety of the town. Bolts of ethridium along with arrows still sailed from the bulwarks as we approached the remainder of the hoard. Upon a quick inspection, I could tell the traps did a spectacular job.

"Damn..." Ben murmured. "By the looks of it, our efforts eliminated roughly half of the hoard."

"Now let's take out the other half." I replied. "Nova, Ben, Dorrian, Luna and I will continue tearing our enemies apart from afar-let them come to us. When they get closer, we'll charge."

And with that, we got to work. I sent my pack of spectral wolves out, and they slowed the hoard's advance a little as I worked with Luna to throw sawblades, homing lances, and whatever we could devise at our enemies. When they got closer, I looked at Dorrian and grinned.

"Charge!" I cried out.

Dorrian, Ben, and Nova continued to hang back as everyone else hauled ass over to our enemies. With Luna by my side, we faced our foes as they met us in the middle. I hacked my enemies apart while Luna rained down righteous fury on the demons that got too close. The guards Analise and I had whipped into shape proved their valor as they charged into battle and engaged our enemies. I had to suppress a cringe when I heard several of them cry out in pain, so I distracted myself by cutting into a daedric warrior that had tried to square down with me. After I cut this fucker down, I realized something: our enemies appeared to be dazed and disoriented. They were still formidable opponents, but they seemed to be...Confused?

"You took out their leader." Luna mused to herself. "That crazy rush forward may have just saved our asses..."

I huffed out a chuckle. "Well, at least that's working in our favor..."

What resulted next was utter carnage: Homing projectiles, spikes, saw-blades, different types of fire, and much more were hurled at our foes.

For the few demons that survived the barrage, I swiftly mowed them down with my sword. Parry thrust, stab, slash, parry...These things weren't tough at all to kill. Granted, I still had to be on my guard, but Stanford's training helped me tear my enemies apart with relative ease.

Analise had ran off during our initial charge, tearing into her enemies and leaving minced meat in her wake. Now, she joined Ben, Dorrian, and Nova to give them some backup. The backline had started to be overwhelmed by a particularly large group of demon warriors before the psychopathic blood elf showed up to help them.

Yeah...those warriors were doomed the instant they gazed upon Analise Salazar: The crimson menace. She was a true terror to behold: The blood of her enemies covered her from head to toe, and her knives were mere flashes of light as she slashed at throats and cut off body parts before moving on to another enemy. She even jumped onto the back of a larger demon and tore into the back of its neck, not stopping until she brought the thing down. All while this was happening, Ana was laughing maniacally. She was simply too fast for these poor blokes to follow, and she showed them no mercy.

A demon tried to get at Dorrian, only for a knife to embed itself into the creature's eye socket. The demon screamed, only for Ana to nimbly tackle it to the ground and slash its throat. She removed her knife from the dying warrior's face, and she kissed the stunned ranger on the cheek.

"Keep an eye out for stragglers, dummy." She began quietly, flashing him a mischievous smile, "I can't be everywhere at once, y'know?"

He laughed nervously, "R-Right. I owe you one Ana."

"Think nothing of it." She replied, only to scowl. "Demon behind you!"

Dorrian rounded on his foe and cut it down with one of his knives.

"Thanks, again!" He shouted with a grin.

I chuckled, then caught sight of a group of demons attempting to organize their numbers to stage an assault on our left flank, which was crumbling. I paused for a moment, focusing as I created a small ball of energy in my hands. When I was sure it would work, I threw the orb of energy over-hand at the group and whistled as severed limbs flew everywhere. The guards who were attempting to reinforce our left flank cheered as our enemies were reduced to a bloody pulp.

Luna looked at me in bewilderment, "Are you serious? Explosions?"

I nodded. "Yep, it's a subcategory of offensive imagery magic."

Luna grinned, then mirrored the spell I used and blew another group of warriors to shit.

"Wow!" She exclaimed as she dodged out of the way of flying body parts, "I wasn't expecting that to work..."

At this point in the skirmish, my pack of wolves were picking off the remaining few groups of demons.

"Well," I began, turning to regard Luna. "Looks like we survi-."

I saw a demon behind Luna preparing to stab her in the back.

"Fuck! Luna!" I shouted, shoving her out of the way and slaughtering the damn thing before it hurt her. While I did take it down, its sword still punched through my armor and embedded itself in my abdomen.

I stumbled, dropping my sword and staff as Luna appeared by my side. Gingerly, she removed the sword that was in my abdomen and lowered me to the ground. She worked as fast as she could to stop the bleeding. With a growl, she quickly removed the breastplate of my armor and threw it off to the side. Her face went pale when she saw that my shirt was covered in blood.

"Dorrian! Ana! Anyone, I need backup over here!"

Dorrian came running over, "What's up-oh fuck, don't tell me that's Helix."

Luna sighed, "It is. He was an idiot and stepped into the path of a demon that would've stabbed me, and now I have to heal him. I need you to watch my back while I patch him up."

Dorrian smiled, "I'm your man."

After she finished that thought, she focused on patching my wound up. I felt light-headed, but I gotta say, Luna's healing capabilities far exceed my own. Her skills put most clerics to shame.

When she finished healing me, she leaned back and sighed deeply while I laid on my back, contemplating my life's decisions. When I forced myself to sit up, I barely had time to register anything before Luna embraced me.

"Don't...Don't do that again," She whispered, anguish apparent in her voice.

I was about to reply when my dear friend Dorrian interjected: "You okay Helix?"

I sighed, "Yeah, I'm fine-and before any of you ask, yes, I am still alive."

I looked at Luna and smiled before kissing her on the cheek, "I really need to work on not getting hurt. I owe you for way too many close calls."

She smiled, "I-I really don't mind..."

Well, the battle was more or less over. While we survived, I couldn't help but notice the heavy silence that had settled around us. My pack of wolves were cleaning each other up, Dorrian was counting the remaining arrows in his quiver, Ana was cleaning one of her knives, and Ben was knelt before someone laying on the ground. Several guards were also clustered around the veteran ranger, and they watched his back as he continued to kneel before...

Oh shit...

Nova.

I pushed myself to my feet and ran over to her. Shoving everyone out of the way, I took note of Nova's injuries: She had sustained a diagonal laceration across her abdomen and a stab wound to her stomach.

"Sorry...bro..." She whispered, cringing in pain, "I was...struck down. The bastards got me good..."

"No, no, no..." I mumbled, "Fuck..."

After Luna hurried over, we knelt before Nova and patched her up as much as we could manage. When we were finished, I looked up to see that Ben, Ana, and Dorrian had hurried over to join us.

"Anyone else hurt?" I called in a broken voice.

"Just minor wounds," Ben replied, "Nothing serious."

"Yeah," Ana chimed in, "At least, as far as I'm concerned."

"What about you lot?" I continued, regarding the guards closest to me. "If you can, mobilize your numbers so I can see who needs healing."

"There's another group that should be heading over in a few moments." a veteran guard chimed in. "I believe there's ten men in this group."

There were fifteen guards interspersed amongst my team, so about twenty five of the original fifty guards survived this skirmish. I've had worse mortality rates in prior campaigns, but still...The people who died today won't be leaving my thoughts anytime soon.

I sighed, only to realize with a sinking feeling that Luna and I were out of reserves. We wouldn't be able to heal any other wounds: the clerics would have to do that if anyone else was injured.

"We're going to have to make it back to Klausiin before we're all down for the count," I informed everyone. "I know you're tired-trust me, I am too, but we can't fall on our rears and call it a day out here: we have to get Nova to a cleric so she can be fully healed."

Dorrian nodded, "Lead the way."

I picked up Nova and realized that one of her hand cannons was little more than scrap metal

She grinned tiredly. "Who...knew? Mine didn't...blow up this time."

I chuckled softly, "Save your energy, sis. You'll be feeling better in no time at all."

I had taken a few steps forward before I staggered and swore quietly as I almost fell backward.

Dorrian offered to carry her for me: "I'll be careful."

"Thanks Dorrian," I breathed as I handed Nova to him, only to black out right then and there. (If you can't tell, I'm special: I have the unfortunate habit of pushing myself past my limits cause why not?)

I came to with a groan. I vaguely realized two things: one, Luna was carrying my dumb ass and two, my pack of wolves were still following along.

Luna looked at me in concern, "Are you okay, Helix?"

"I feel fantastic..." I mumbled.

"You concern me sometimes," she replied, chuckling softly.

"I have a habit of doing that," I began as I looked at my pack of wolves.

I dismissed them so no one would flip their shit if they crashed into one of my furry friends. Luna looked as if she were about to make an inquiry, but decided against it.

The walk back to the village was grueling: judging by Luna's ragged breathing and how her movements steadily grew more sluggish, I was afraid she was going to pass out.

"Put me down." I told her softly.

"You're injured," She pointed out, "I don't want to see you pass out again and potentially give yourself a concussion."

"And you're pushing yourself too hard," I countered, "I don't want you to faint because of me, so please put me down."

With a sigh, she set me down on the ground, and I pushed myself to my feet quickly. (Turns out siphoning your reserves to other people was an extremely bad idea.) I wobbled on my feet and forced myself to remain standing.

I walked beside Luna, only to feel her lean heavily against me.

"Shit," I hissed, looping her arm around my neck. "Stay with me, Luna."

We had gotten close to the village, but not close enough for the guards to hear us.

Dorrian fell to one knee, "Damn, that was more...*Argh!* taxing than I thought it was going to be...I'm...down for the count. Sorry Helix..." He softly set Nova on the ground, then blacked out.

"I'm gonna...Sit by you..." Analise breathed as she hit the dirt beside Dorrian.

Ben didn't seem any better: he wobbled on his feet before lowering himself to the ground. "Sorry..." He murmured.

"Can anyone run ahead and grab the clerics for me?" I asked the remaining groups of guards.

"I can." A young man chimed in. "I'm not too roughed up, so it shouldn't take me long to grab the clerics."

"Go then." I told him. "Make haste."

As the young guard hurried off, I helped Luna sit down so she wouldn't fall over.

"...Ow." I hissed as I sat beside her. "Maybe sharing my reserves with everyone wasn't the brightest idea..."

Luna huffed out a chuckle. "We survived though, didn't we?"

With an almost-overwhelmingly powerful sense of horror, I remembered a lesson Virrius had taught me about a year ago regarding the act of sharing reserves amongst a group of people: "Magic-sharing is quite a useful skill, but beware its consequences. If you use enough of your reserves to, say, kill a human being, but it is shared evenly among a group of people, that group won't die. However, they will most certainly be incapacitated from exhaustion."

I mentioned this to Luna, who sighed.

"What's done has been done." she murmured. "Right now, we have to make sure everyone's taken care of."

I nodded and watched the remaining guards as they too sat down. Some attempted to bandage up their wounds while others mourned their fallen comrades.

We spent about ten minutes sitting down before I caught sight of a small group of clerics hurrying toward us. Luna had fallen asleep several minutes ago, and I was on the verge of blacking out as the women clothed in white robes continued to approach us.

When the first of the healers reached my group, one of them knelt before me.

"Take...Care of my team." I managed to get out before I slipped into unconsciousness.