The blade descended like a guillotine of black iron.

  Time seemed to warp for Josh, stretching into an agonising slow motion. From his vantage point on the tower, fifty feet above the slaughter, he could see the geometry of death perfectly. The Dragon-Winged Sentinel, a nightmare of muscle and obsidian plate, was driving its serrated greatsword down with enough force to cleave a boulder in two. Bun was off-balance, her glaive held low from her charge, her neck exposed.

  "BUN!" The scream tore from Josh’s throat, raw and desperate.

  But the rabbit-folk tank hadn't survived for so long by luck alone.

  In the fraction of a second before the steel bit into her flesh, Bun dropped. She didn't dodge; she bent her knees, dropping into a squat so deep her haunches touched her heels. She twisted the haft of her glaive, bringing the reinforced steel shaft up in a jarring, desperate block.

  CLANG.

  The sound was deafening, a bell-toll of pure kinetic force that rang out even over the roar of the siege. Sparks showered down like fireworks. The Sentinel’s sword slammed into the glaive, inches from Bun’s ear. The impact drove her feet into the cobblestones, cracking the rock, but the block held.

  She roared, a guttural sound of effort, and shoved upward, deflecting the blade to the side. It carved a deep gouge in the stone where she had been standing a heartbeat before.

  Ten yards away, Bean was dancing on the edge of a razor.

  The second Sentinel, the one blocking the path to the portal, lunged. Its wings snapped out, creating a gust of wind that kicked up grit and ash, trying to blind the rogue. Bean didn't blink. She threw herself into a roll, passing under the creature's sweeping claw. The obsidian talons missed her leather jerkin by a hair's breadth.

  She came up in a crouch, stabbing her daggers into the chinks of the Sentinel's leg armour, but the plate was too thick. Her blades sparked and skittered off. She backflipped away as the creature’s tail whipped around like a mace, the bony protrusions smashing a kobold grunt that had gotten too close into red paste.

  "I can't get a clean shot!" Perberos shouted from the tower, his bow drawn but wavering. "They're moving too fast!"

  "Take the wing!" Josh ordered, gripping the parapet. "Ground them!"

  Perberos exhaled, his eyes narrowing to slits. He tracked the Sentinel attacking Bun. It was raising its sword for a second strike, a killing blow while Bun was still recovering her balance.

  Twang.

  The arrow flew. It wasn't aimed at the head or the heart. It struck the membranous joint of the Sentinel’s right wing, just where it connected to the shoulder blade. The broadhead arrow punched through the leathery skin and lodged in the bone.

  The Sentinel shrieked, a sound like tearing metal. The limb spasmed, the wing faltering, throwing the creature off balance. Its sword swing went wide, carving harmlessly through the air.

  "Volley!" the lead ranger commanded.

  Six more arrows rained down. Three shattered against the Sentinel’s obsidian chest plate, but three found purchase: one in the thigh, one in the neck gap, and one punching through the other wing.

  The monster staggered, dropping to one knee.

  Bun saw her opening.

  She didn't just stand up; she exploded upward. She leveraged the momentum of her recovery, spinning her massive body like a top. Her glaive became a blur of steel.

  "Hah!" Bun shouted, channelling all her skills and all of her strength.

  The blade caught the kneeling Sentinel at the waist, finding the gap between the breastplate and the tassets. It bit deep. With a roar of exertion, Bun twisted her hips and drove the blade through.

  There was a wet, tearing sound, followed by a sickening crunch. The Sentinel fell apart, its upper torso sliding off its legs in a fountain of black ichor.

  Bun stood panting, blood dripping from her nose where the shockwave of the block had ruptured a vessel. She spun around, looking for Bean.

  "Bean! Move!"

  But Bean was pinned.

  The second Sentinel had backed her against the edge of the kill zone. Behind her, the main horde of kobolds was surging forward, sensing blood. Bean parried a sword strike from a kobold warrior, her dagger ringing, but she was too slow to stop the counter-thrust.

  A rusted blade sliced across her upper arm, cutting through the leather and biting into the muscle.

  Bean hissed, stumbling back. She lashed out with her off-hand dagger, burying it in the warrior's eye, but the damage was done. Her arm hung uselessly at her side, blood soaking her sleeve.

  She took a step back. Then another.

  Her heel hit a corpse. She glanced behind her.

  The horde was endless. Hundreds of red, snarling faces. Thousands of teeth. And in front of her, the Dragon-Winged Sentinel was laughing, a deep, reptilian rumble, as it prepared to crush her.

  She was trapped. Bun was too far away to help. The portal was blocked.

  Bean’s face changed. The fear vanished, replaced by a cold, hard acceptance. She looked at the Sentinel, then at the horde. She tightened her grip on her remaining dagger.

  "Come on then," she whispered, her voice trembling but defiant. "Let's see how many I can take with me."

  She lowered her centre of gravity. She wasn't going to try and run. She was going to charge. A suicide run to buy Bun time to escape.

  "NO!" Josh screamed, seeing the shift in her stance. "BEAN, DON'T!"

  She tensed her legs, ready to spring.

  Above her, on the tower, Brett’s eyes rolled back in his head.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  "Immolate," the mage whispered.

  It wasn't a spell from a book. It was raw, unfiltered mana being ripped from his core and shoved through the conduit of the ruby focus gem clutched in his palm. He didn't aim at a target. He aimed at the space around the rogue.

  "IMMOLATE!" Brett shrieked.

  WHOOSH.

  It wasn't a fireball. It was an eruption.

  A wall of white-hot flame exploded into existence directly in front of Bean. The shockwave threw her backward, knocking her off her feet and sending her skidding across the cobblestones towards Bun.

  The kobolds that had been about to swarm her didn't just burn; they were vaporised. The heat was so intense that the stone floor cracked and melted.

  But the fire didn't stop there. Brett swept his hands in a wide arc, his movements jerky and spasmodic, the gem in his palm glowing like a dying star. The wall of fire chased his aim, curving, bending, extending.

  Within seconds, a ring of towering fire, ten feet high, had encircled the centre of the kill zone. It cut off the horde. It cut off the rest of the courtyard.

  Inside the ring, there were only three things: Bun, Bean, and the remaining Sentinel.

  It was a gladiatorial arena made of heat and smoke.

  On the tower, the rangers stopped shooting for a heartbeat, staring slack-jawed at the inferno. To them, this was high-level wizardry, something out of legends or Guild tales, not the work of a soot-stained adventurer standing next to them. One ranger made a holy sign against evil, his eyes wide with a mixture of terror and awe.

  "Run!" Josh screamed, leaning over the parapet, the heat washing over his face even at this height. "Get to the portal! Now!"

  Bean scrambled to her feet, clutching her bleeding arm. She looked at the wall of fire, eyes wide, then at Bun.

  Bun was already moving. She charged the Sentinel, which was trapped in the ring with them, confused by the sudden inferno.

  "Move, Bean!" Bun yelled, engaging the beast.

  The Sentinel roared, swinging its massive claw at the warrior. Bun caught the blow on her glaive, grunting as the force drove her back. Her armour screeched as claws raked across her pauldron, leaving deep furrows in the steel, before gripping the front of her armour tightly.

  "Go!" Bun shouted, struggling to hold the beast in place.

  Bean didn't argue. She didn't try to be a hero. She became a shadow.

  She sprinted. Not away from the beast, but towards it.

  As the Sentinel pushed against Bun, lifting the tank off her feet, Bean slid. She went low, sliding between the monster's legs like a baseball player stealing home. As she passed underneath, she slashed upward with her good arm.

  The dagger severed the thick tendon at the back of the Sentinel's heel.

  The monster howled, its leg buckling. It dropped Bun, stumbling to the side.

  "Now!" Bean yelled, scrambling up behind the beast.

  Bun recovered instantly. She slammed the butt of her glaive into the Sentinel’s face, stunning it for a microsecond, then turned and ran.

  They were running for the portal. The fire ring was holding the horde back, but the flames were flickering, pulsing with Brett’s failing strength.

  "Don't let it drop, Brett!" Josh urged, glancing at his friend.

  Brett was on his knees, blood trickling from his nose. His hands were blackened, the skin blistering from the heat of his own magic. "I... I've got it..." he wheezed, his fingers cramping around the focus gem.

  Inside the ring, the Sentinel recovered. It was crippled, limping, but it still had use of one of its wings. It flapped it once, launching itself forward, jaws snapping.

  "It's catching them!" Bhel shouted.

  Bun and Bean were ten feet from the portal. Five feet.

  The Sentinel lunged. It didn't try to bite; it threw its entire massive body forward in a tackle, its serrated greatsword thrusting out like a spear to skewer Bun before she could escape.

  "Jump!" Bun screamed.

  She stopped. She turned. She planted her feet at the very edge of the void.

  Bean dove past her, tumbling into the blackness of the portal.

  Bun stood alone on the threshold. The Sentinel slammed into her.

  The impact should have broken her. But Bun was tougher than most, and had a skill for just a moment like this. She glowed with a golden light, becoming as solid as the mountain itself.

  The Sentinel hit her and stopped dead.

  But the blade didn't.

  With a sickening crunch of metal shearing metal, the greatsword found a gap in her plating, sliding between the breastplate and the faulds. It punched through the chainmail and buried itself deep in her side, grating against bone.

  Bun gritted her teeth, blood spraying from her mouth. She didn't look at the steel protruding from her body. She tightened her grip on her glaive, refusing to drop it even as pain blinded her.

  "Not today," she snarled, blood bubbling between her teeth.

  She planted her back foot and unleashed a piston-like kick, driving her sabaton into the Sentinel’s chest with the force of a battering ram.

  The impact lifted the monster off its feet. It flew backward, and as it went, it dragged the serrated greatsword out of Bun’s body. The blade ripped free in a spray of crimson, the metal screeching against her ribs. Bun screamed, her hand clapping over the wound, but she didn't collapse.

  She stepped backward. The Sentinel lunged again, its claws inches from her face.

  Bun fell back into the void, winking at Josh as she was swallowed by the portal.

  The portal rippled.

  They were gone.

  "Drop it!" Josh shouted.

  Brett’s hands fell. The focus gem slipped from his fingers, clattering to the stone floor. He collapsed forward, his face hitting the stone. The ring of fire instantly vanished, winking out of existence.

  The horde, released from the heat, surged forward with a roar of frustration, swarming the confused and injured Sentinel. In their blind fury, the kobolds attacked their own elite, tearing at it in a frenzy of misplaced aggression.

  Josh dropped to his knees beside Brett. He turned the mage over. Brett’s eyes were open but unseeing, the whites bloodshot. His breath was shallow and ragged.

  "Mana exhaustion." One of the elves diagnosed, checking his pulse. It was thready. "He burned everything."

  "Is he alive?" Bhel asked, looming over them.

  "Barely," Josh said, popping the cork on a health potion. He carefully tilted Brett’s head back and trickled the red liquid into his mouth. "Swallow, buddy. Come on."

  Brett coughed, spluttering, but swallowed. Some colour returned to his cheeks, but he didn't wake up.

  "He needs rest," the ranger said, looking up at Josh. "Real rest. Not a nap on a stone floor."

  "We can't move him," Perberos said, looking over the wall. "Not yet."

  Josh looked down. The Sentinel was being ripped apart by the horde, but the kobolds were already turning their eyes back to the tower. The flow of monsters from the portal hadn't stopped.

  "Are they safe?" Bhel asked, looking at the black void. "The rabbit and the rogue?"

  "They're inside," Josh said, wiping sweat from his eyes. "Injured, but inside. Butler will heal them if they can find a safe room."

  He looked at the portal again.

  The surface was calm, an inky black mirror reflecting the carnage of the siege. But as Josh watched, the colour shifted. It wasn't the light-drinking void black of an hour ago; it was a distinct, swirling grey now.

  "Look," Josh whispered, pointing a shaking finger. "Grey."

  Bhel squinted. "Aye. Lighter than before."

  "They banked their run," Josh said, a fierce hope blooming in his chest. "Bun and Bean... they just vented a massive chunk of the pressure. It's working."

  "Targets!" a ranger shouted, shaking off his awe at the mage's display. "The Sentinel is down! The mob is regrouping!"

  "Perberos," Josh said, standing up and drawing his sword, his legs trembling with fatigue. "Clear the trash. Bhel, watch the door. I'll guard here."

  Perberos nodded. He stepped to the edge, drawing his bow. His movements were slower now, less fluid. He was tired. They were all tired.

  He loosed an arrow. A kobold fell.

  He loosed another. Another fell.

  It was like trying to empty a lake with a spoon.

  Josh looked at the horizon. The moon was higher now. Dawn was still hours away.

  "Just hold," Josh whispered to himself, standing over his unconscious friend. "Just hold."

  Thanks for reading!

  If you enjoyed the chapter, please consider dropping a Follow or Favourite so you don't miss the next update.

  And if you have a moment, leaving a Rating helps the story climb the rankings and reach new readers (and gives me a pretty good dopamine hit)!

  Thanks again and see you in the next one!