The demons swarmed endlessly, and the humans barely kept them at bay. Most were too greedy and simpleminded to ignore the feast of souls before them, but many were not.

  The stronger and more cunning ones stayed back, allowing the fools among their ilk to weaken the humans. Biding their time.

  Allowing this boded poorly for the militia’s survival, but that was not the group’s concern. Buying time was to their benefit as well. They too stood back and let the stalemate continue.

  As such, there was little for Banda to do. He stepped in to kill any demons too powerful for the militia to handle and guarded Eres from ambushes, but such instances were limited. He had recovered his aura. Now all that was left was to wait.

  Clamor surged from a spot on the formations to the side. An 8 foot tall humanoid with long sinewy blades for hands collapsed the lines with a mad flurry of slashes that cut through flesh and steel alike.

  A Glaxn, Eres had called the one before. Banda flung a runestone and shattered its skull, but another demon took its place.

  It was shorter with murky green skin with a face like a lizard, all but its pale white chest covered in bony spikes and thorns. It’s bristle fanged mouth twisted in a sneer, and the spikes on its body shot out, skewering a dozen unfortunate humans.

  Banda threw a stone but it merely broke against the demon’s hard skin. The Girik regained its footing after the impact and charged towards Banda without fear. And Banda charged with it.

  The girik sneered wider and readied its spikes again, but Banda’s speed suddenly increased. He grabbed the demon’s arm and twisted it around before it could halt its ability, and its own spikes impaled its mouth and chest.

  Banda kicked the spasming demon back into the horde to die elsewhere, and glanced around. The humans were starting to wane as their vigor fell and their fear rose.

  “Fight!” Scar roared out to rally them.

  “Why don’t you fight?!” An injured human he did not recognized screamed back. “We’re being slaughtered! While you stand back and-”

  Scar beheaded the dissident without hesitation. The lines continued to hold but the atmosphere seemed to sink even lower.

  “All who enter the House of Tiamat are gifted the greatest torment.” Eres spoke grandly enough for her voice to carry through the lines. “Agony and misery will become you. Your days will be drowned in unbearable torture. Devoured from heel to crown over and over until you beg for death. But the Abyss will only smile back. All who enter the House of Tiamat can never leave.”

  The famous words most had heard at least once before lingered in their ears and a chill rang through their spines.

  Scar glanced around. “You hear that?! Fight, if you don’t want to suffer for eternity! Fight!”

  Banda returned to the Eres’ side and Scar followed right after. “Not much longer now. We should ready to leave.”

  “This herd won’t last long without us.” Eres said as she turned to Banda. “Sneak out and kill those things hiding in the shadows.”

  Banda frowned. One or two of the stronger demons weren’t too much of a threat, but many at once was too great a risk.

  Eres glared more assertively at him. “The ones staying back are too intelligent. They’ll push the attack the moment we leave. Then we’ll have to face the scourge by ourselves for the rest of the night. At the very least, we need them to hold out until we kill Otto.”

  A scowl remained on Banda’s face but he slipped away. It frustrated him but her words made sense.

  The fray was too thick and there were too many watchful eyes to slip out undetected, so Banda did not even try. He darted out in rapid bursts and lunged into the alleyways he could feel creatures hiding behind.

  The first he encountered was a beautiful woman in revealing silk clothes. She had red skin with leathery wings on her back, small horns atop her head and a long barbed tail. The succubus turned her alluring black eyes with glowing yellow pupils to him, and Banda destroyed its head. The demon had tried to use some kind of magic on his mind, but he did not give it enough time to work.

  He rounded the corner to find a vrock uncontrollably gorging itself on the scattered remains of humans. It did not even turn to face Banda until the first stone struck its face, and the second landed before it could regain its senses.

  A few more succubi, vrocks, and brogas met their end at his hands before he came across a new enemy, surrounded by a ring of low-grade demons.

  It was a small and scrawny humanoid with sickly gray skin. Its skull was swollen five times too large, with the outline of its pulsing brain clearly visible.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Banda hurled a stone, but several dretches jumped in its path just before he had moved to take the blow. The Saggur turned its eyes to Banda with a mocking smile, and two glaxns charged out towards him.

  Banda dodged and slipped the slashing blade hands, their sharpness too great for him to block. He searched for an opening on either, but found only the need for a steady retreat.

  The glaxns fought better than the ones he had seen before. Too much better. Banda thought about clawing the barbato is half with a lunging maul, and the demon shielded itself to confirm his suspicions.

  The saggur could hear his thoughts. That explained how it prevented his stone before. Banda still his mind and suppressed his thoughts, forcing his body to move on nothing more than base instinct.

  The glaxns became sloppier, less effective against him. They lunged recklessly and Banda took their heads. The saggur directed his inferior pawns to pile into a mound before him, but the hail of rocks he expected did not come.

  Banda appeared behind it in a blur and smashed apart its skull. He made short work of the low-grade dregs freed from the saggur’s control, but his mind was elsewhere.

  The way this demon had read his movements was far too similar to how that aura beast had moved. Shamura could read minds.

  Banda was not certain of this, but the feeling in his gut told him that was right. A distressing realization, but he had not time to contemplate. The powerful threats had been cleared away by the look of things, so he rushed back over through the frontlines to rejoin the others.

  Eres gave a look of approval to Scar, and he turned to the militia. “Listen! We’ve discovered the core of this scourge! The four of us will destroy it, and force the demons back to the Abyss! Stay together and fight if you want to live!”

  The four left immediately towards the north manor, with little care as to how many believed Scar’s claim fully. The words were merely to prevent a rout out of ignorant panic for long enough until the militia realized they did not have the luxury of doing anything other than continue as they were.

  It was all to buy enough time to kill Otto, for he was more dangerous to them than this descent of hell.

  They stealthily cut their to the manor in mere moments and quietly took cover within a dark alley. Demons had gathered en masse, stalked outside the walls of the ward as they taunted whoever was within.

  Banda waited and watched, along with the others. They had no intention of killing the demons. Not only would that attract others, but this way they could use the abyssal spawn as their own patrol to detect Otto as he tries to flee. And more hopefully ambush him while he as he is under attack.

  The four readied their nerves as the last minute approached.

  “Humans are hiding around you!” Otto’s voice sounded out again. “Humans with special souls!”

  Tension struck each of their faces. There was little response from the demons, most seemed to think Otto was lying to deceive them. But only at first. A few were stupid and greedy enough to start looking, and even more were bothered at the thought of another claiming the prize.

  The four of them sunk back further in the alley as demons started to wander closer. Though the spawn were unorganized in their search, soon they were forced to enter a building through a window at Scar’s gesture.

  They swiftly and silently closed the windows and doors, and found strategic corners of the house to hold. Each of them stayed perfectly still, and even held their breath as demons scoured past.

  Something bumped against the wooden door, and then a second and a third time before finally knocking it open. The vargoll caught sight of them with its giant eye, but Banda silently ripped it apart before it could scream. He glanced outside as he quietly closed the door back with a finger.

  “F-found!” Banda snapped his head towards the source of the voice. The vile sludge of a creature that was a lemure had found its way through a hole at the bottom of the door on the other side.

  It failed an attempt at a laugh as it quivered in slow-witted glee. “F-fou-”

  A vrock smashed the door apart, destroying the lemure along with it. It screeched horribly at them and Banda crushed it skull with a runestone.

  The giant Avatar manifested behind Eres as it spun its arms, destroying the house in an instant. A hail of debris killed the weaker demons that had drawn too close and knocked the rest away.

  “Kill the dregs!” Eres shouted, as she led the charge to the manor.

  Her avatar cleaved its spear through a dozen low-grade demons that signalled the start of the slaughter. Banda joined in, but took care not to stray too far from her.

  He did not need to ask why. As their cover was blown, the crowd of demons had become more dangerous than useful. It was was better to just wipe them out. At least the lesser demons that swarmed. He made note of the smarter ones standing back but did not pursue them. They could still be used.

  Another wave of demons was turned to ash, and Banda lept atop the avatar’s head. His eyes locked on the manor and his body lowered into the crouch of a beast.

  Finally a dull drone sounded out. The ward fractured like glass, and Otto burst out in the other direction.

  Banda’s form turned monstrous and he burst off the avatar with a sonic boom powerful enough to knock its head back. He hit the ground in stride and blitzed towards Otto, ignoring all else in his path.

  He drew close in the blink of an eye, his sharp claws turning to iron. And Otto smiled back with mocking eyes. The phantom form of a wolf enveloped him.

  Banda barely had enough time to twist his head away with the warning of his instincts. A crimson blade seared just shy of his face. He spun himself away as he whipped a runestone at Otto’s head.

  Otto held his sword in front of him, supporting it with the other. He blocked the metal clump with the flat of his blade, and let the impact knock him back just as an axe twirled past.

  He kicked off the ground to dodge a giant spear that pierced into the dirt like an arrow from heaven. But the flaming cloth snaked through the air towards him as a stone and axe sailed ahead.

  Off balance and outnumbered, Otto smiled lazily. He angled his scimitar to slide the stone into the axe and spiked a black pellet into the ground before the cloth reached him.

  Thick smoke exploded over the region, and Banda turned his head to the figure emerging from the black cloud in the direction of Ubin. He whipped a runestone faster than he ever had before and the figure’s head shattered completely.

  But as the tendrils of smoke subsided, the image of a headless dretch became clear just before it crumbled to ash.

  Eres swiped a gust of wind at the smokescreen with her shield to blow it away, but it was too late. Otto was gone.