Emily ground her teeth as she glanced around at the encirclement of creatures. There were far more beasts here than people easily outnumbering them two to one. Running at this stage would only prove futile as there wasn’t anywhere to retreat, so the only option was to fight.

  Kael seemed to come to the same conclusion because he began shouting orders.

  “Form a perimeter around our mounts, we can’t afford to lose any of them! Remember they can’t see well in the light, so get more of our torches going!”

  Emily Watched the venomtails approach with disgust, their carapaces clicking together as they approached.

  “Why is it always weird, nightmare creatures? Can’t we get some cute carnivorous bunnies or something?” Emily moaned as they closed in.

  Alex hopped down from his mount and sent towards the center as he drew his blade.

  “Emily not now, fill the ranks!” he shouted.

  Emily snorted and slid down the side of Cupcake to join the formation. Beside her, Dunham dropped down too and moved in beside her with a nod. Even Cupcake took up a large space, as she refused to go to the center with the other mounts.

  The venomtails were closing the distance in no time at all, and as they did so, the Wandering Fangs completed their protective perimeter, spreading out to cover as much space as possible.

  Kael was shouting orders but Emily’s focus had turned to the incoming wave of scorpions. Their numbers were more than she had first anticipated, as more were digging their way out of the soft sands.

  If Emily had to guess, they were now outnumbered about three to one, which meant that if she wanted to make a difference she would need to kill as many as possible to give someone else a chance.

  Taking a breath Emily noticed Ashe pulling two handfuls of coin out of her pouches, which then began to hover in the air around her.

  Emily smiled as she began to create her own spears pouring two lives worth in each one. By the time she was done twelve spears floated around, but she didn’t release them yet.

  All sorts of ranged attacks were released at Kael's command, mowing down dozens of creatures, but no sooner had they fallen than the wave rose to fill their ranks.

  Emily waited until they were within the range of Life Conduit and released her deadly projectiles two by two.

  The speares snaked through the air at impossible-to-predict trajectories and reaped the lives of venomtails. Emily carefully controlled each one and of the dozen she sent, eleven were confirmed kills. The sound of shells crunching under the weight of her attacks.

  The corpses hadn’t even come to a complete stop when more scorpions trampled over their brethren, some even began to feast on their own.

  Now that they were closer Emily could see why no one had noticed them sooner, their exoskeleton was a light orange which camouflaged perfectly with the sands.

  The light from the torches flickered in their soulless black eyes and off their narrow pinchers.

  Their bodies were flat plates of chitin that held their masses together, and a long, fat tail extended behind them.

  The courses disappeared behind the wall of fresh bodies and soon their two lines met. They were lucky the creatures didn’t attempt to bulldoze them because they certainly had the mass. Alex moved to engage with Ashe at his back while Emily watched the next closest scorpion approach her.

  She was just about to block with a blood dome when Dunham moved into its path.

  Seeing this, the creature plunged its tail down at him with unnerving precision, but the heavily armored man was ready. When the deadly stab arrived, he raised his shield and deflected the strike to the side. Using the creature's momentum against it, Dunham smashed his shield into the extended tail and brought his sword down.

  The blade found the gap in the creature's chitin and sheered through its tail. The creature recoiled in pain and let out a high-pitched screech.

  Emily laughed and created a crescent which she used to finish off the scorpion with a slash through the front of its head.

  Emily immediately noticed that the blade had only sunk about halfway through the thing's skull, which in this case killed it but she adjusted her strategy on the fly.

  Slashing attacks would clearly be less effective against these things, but the spears had worked perfectly so she created a few more now.

  Dunham on the other hand had already moved back to his position to block another venomtail and Emily had to deal with her one.

  Cupcake's large form here was a downside because, in the eyes of the venomtails, she was better eating.

  This caused parts of the swarm to break off and go after her, meaning she was fighting four or five at any one given time.

  However, Cupcake relished the challenge. She used her speed and dexterity to completely outmaneuver the venomtails and rip into them when the opportunity allowed it. They were fast on their feet, able to pivot at a moment's notice, but they couldn't pin down the wily old wolf.

  Emily turned to her next enemy just in time to see a tail stabbing at her abdomen. Hissing she dropped into the sand and rolled, narrowly escaping the appendage as thick as her torso.

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  The venom tail pulled back in an attempt to strike again, but taking a page from Dunham's book Emily slathered the tail in her blood, and like a piton being buried in stone she sent the blood deep into the sands.

  This kept it from retrieving its tail no matter how it pulled, it was not able to wriggle free and draw its weapon back again.

  Sadly, that didn’t mean it was out of options. The venomtail had two sharp claws, which it lunged with now.

  Emily rolled out of the way of the first one but the second scooped her up out of the sands and clamped around her chest.

  Without thinking Emily extended her gown and pushed Tested Flesh to their limits so that when the crushing force came, all it did was break her sternum and collarbones, instead of sheer her in half.

  Emily didn’t even have the breath to scream as it was forcefully squeezed from her lungs, but she did have a clear shot at its head.

  The venomtail screeched in victory just in time for her to shove her arm in its face a stab a spear of blood straight through one of its many eyes.

  The battle cry was cut short as it dropped into the sands dead. Emily got pulled forward with the collapsing beast as its pincher refused to release her.

  Emily struggled against the crushing claw but quickly realized her physical strength was not enough to get this thing off her. Ruby Guardian was already trying to help but without getting this thing off it couldn’t do its job.

  she needed to use her blood to separate the appendage, but then another scorpion climbed over its brethren's corpse, its dark eyes transfixed on the trapped morsel.

  The jostling sent spasms of pain through Emily’s body which disrupted her concentration further.

  Dunham was close but he didn’t have any room to maneuver over to her.

  Emily was dimly aware of the shout of battle around her, of the clang of steel on the chiton. People fought all around them, but she could see that only their strongest fighters could handle these things alone.

  To make matters worse the sands around them were still littered with venomtails, they’d just beaten back the second wave but the third was coming.

  What Emily wouldn’t give for a little napalm right about now.

  At this point, the scorpion looming over her struck.

  Emily raised a hand to block with a Vital Shell, but it turned out to be unnecessary.

  Alex and Ashe arrived nearby. Alex bisected the creature's tail and then landed on top of the thing. It screached and tried to shack him off but he stabbed his artifact blade into the shell and cut it from the base of its tail to its head.

  Emily was then dimly aware that the crushing around her chest was lessening. When she looked down, she saw several coins had lodged themselves into the claw and were prying it open.

  “Emily! Are you okay?!” Ashe called as she caught her.

  Emily drew in a gasping breath, nodding her head, she could already feel her vitality fixing the broken bones.

  “I’m good, thanks for the -save.” Emily coughed.

  Ashe turned to send her coins ahead, plunging the small projectiles into the creature's eyes and tearing their brains apart.

  “We need to do something, there's too many of them, and the others can’t cope” Ashe growled as she retrieved her brain-covered coins.

  Emily pursed her lips and glanced at Ashe, an idea beginning to take shape.

  “Buy me thirty seconds I have an idea,” Emily said before moving forward, trusting Ashe to watch over her.

  Move towards the corpse she stopped at the frontline.

  "Alex! I need a ward that creates a lot of light and protects against it!"

  Alex turned to her with a confused expression, but something in her face must have given it away, because understanding suddenly dawned on him. He closed the space between them, drawing two runes on the flat side of his weapon like he usually did. Only when he got there did he turn it toward Emily so she could see them better.

  Emily stared at the runes as Blood formed in her right hand, molding itself to match them. Scarlet Sister weighed in, and the ward shifted.

  As soon as she finished, Emily formed a second ward in her left hand and flooded both with an enormous wave of source.

  She wanted to say something flashy, but maintaining two massive wards took all her focus. A self-satisfied grunt would have to do.

  The two wards drifted up as she overlaid them, though she kept them separate—there was no telling what might happen if they collided.

  The ward in her left hand was a simple one, but it was one she’d been meaning to learn for a while. A spell that created a ball of light normally used as a torch. This time, she was pushing it far beyond its normal limits.

  The surrounding night was suddenly graced with an early sunrise. The ward flickered at first, then bloomed into a white sun above her hand.

  This type of ward was like fire—once started, it couldn't be stopped. Fire consumed whatever it touched, beyond control. This ward was no different.

  Kael had said they were weak to light, but just because she created it didn’t mean she was safe from its effects.

  The sphere of light expanded, its glow intensifying by the second until the shadows around them began to stretch and warp.

  Emily pushed the spell harder and sent it higher causing its light to bathe the entire area in a brilliant glow. The sudden change in their surroundings sent the venomtails into a state of disarray and fear. The same thing would have happened to them if it weren't for the second ward activating. A screen of shadows rose from the dunes and fought back the light bearing down directly overhead. Emily extended the ward to cover as much of their formation as she dared, but it was a balancing act. Too much source in the one spell and she would overwhelm their protections, too much in the other and the shadows would extend to the venomtails, making this whole endeavor pointless.

  The creature's reactions were exactly as she had hoped, the moment the light became too much, they began to scatter, directionlessly searching for safety.

  Shouts went up as chaotic battle went on around her as some of the creatures tried to feel into their shadow.

  Emily kept the spells going until she heard things quiet down and a pair of footsteps approached. When she looked up to see Kael’s amused face greeting her. He was covered in scorpion blood and guts but he seemed in good spirits.

  “If you keep this up I might miss you when you leave. Nice work either way, but you’re going to have to keep that up for a while, can you manage?”

  Emily looked up at the two wards and frowned.

  "Yes, for a while still, but why? Haven't they already fled?"

  Kael nodded, glancing around at his men.

  "They have, but we can’t rest near a nest like this. I’m going to have everyone gather what they can from the corpses, then we’ll ride a while longer," he said.

  Emily pressed her lips together and refocused on the wards, but when she glanced back, Kael was already in the distance. She kicked herself, she should have asked for something in return for keeping them up.

  Alex had not left her side since she’d managed to pull off the spells, and Cupcake sat quietly with Ashe resting on her

  Dunham came to see what was going on, but he didn’t interfere with her concentration. Alex, on the other hand, got that same distant look he had on his face when they first met the man.

  He seemed to be trying to recall something but was unable to.

  Emily lowered her voice and nudged him.

  “Do you know him from…somewhere?” she asked, hoping he got her meaning.

  Alex shook his head.

  “I don’t recognize his name, but my title recognizes him.”

  Emily frowned at Dunham, who was cleaning his armor of scorpion guts. He was indeed great in a fight; she’d seen him take down five of his own, but something wasn’t adding up here.

  Could he be someone Alex knew from before? She had confirmed his name was Dunham unless he could fool her skills. Emily stared at the man until he looked up at her, after which she glanced away. Whatever the reason, it wasn't too important right now. At the moment, Emily needed to maintain the wards. From the looks of things, the venomtails were still out there, scuttling in the shadows waiting for a chance to swarm them again.

  Blood points: 523