With the shattered remnants of the warehouse secure, Verdan knew that now was the moment to prepare.

  Whatever they could do to make this place defensible had to happen now. Once the next wave of Cyth arrived, he seriously doubted there would be any more time to rest.

  The problem, though, was what to do.

  “Verdan?” Gwen called out from behind him and Verdan glanced back to see the Witch pointing back at the stairwell they’d come out from.

  Glancing that way, Verdan saw a Sorcerer lead a handful of Sect retainers up out of the tunnel and head toward Ada for orders.

  What mattered, though, was the pair of Brecan standing next to it, staring right back at him.

  The Brecan were a race of peaceful four-armed humanoids with rock-like skin and a powerful tie to earth magic. The shortest one that Verdan had ever met was seven feet tall and half again as broad as Cullan.

  Like all Brecan, the pair before him had squat heads with pronounced jaws, but had no mouths and their eyes had a crystalline look to them.

  These two both had blue crystals for their eyes, and looked similar enough that they might have been related. If that was even a thing for Brecan, Verdan didn’t know.

  The Fwyn partnered with the Brecan for many things, so Verdan usually communicated through them. The Brecan were just too far removed from humans for Verdan to really understand them.

  Realising that he was just standing there, Verdan cleared his throat. “Hello, are you here because of my request for help?”

  One of the Brecan nodded slightly, its unblinking and unfathomable gaze boring into Verdan. It was no wonder that some people couldn’t handle dealing with the odd creatures.

  “Okay, thank you for coming. We are going to be defending this place against the Cyth. Anything you can do to reinforce it, make it more defensible or otherwise help us would be welcomed.” Verdan made sure to keep his expression welcoming.

  The Brecan were pacifists through and through. The best way to deal with them was to keep everything on an even keel.

  If they became worried about the Cyth, or about danger in general, they would likely flee.

  The Brecan nodded again before turning to share a look with his companion. Distantly, Verdan could feel the Aether rippling as the two creatures conversed.

  Unfortunately, he lacked the ability to do anything more than call for help, so he had no idea what they were saying.

  Thankfully, the Brecan were experts at this sort of thing, and neither needed nor wanted any feedback from him on how to do such a straightforward request.

  Building something that would be suitable for other races was one thing, but solid walls and fortifications played to the Brecan’s strengths.

  The closer of the two immediately turned and moved toward a large pile of rubble with great ponderous steps, one hand coming up as its Aether surged and the rubble began to break down.

  Anything made of wood or metal tumbled aside as the stone was broken up and reformed into huge blocks. One by one, the Brecan picked them up and stacked them to the side.

  As it worked, its companion moved to the rear of the warehouse and began to do the same to two smaller piles.

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  At first, Verdan was confused why they were going about it this way, but he quickly realised that the tunnels were the issue. The Brecan couldn’t draw out too much of the stone from the ground below them without weakening the tunnels and potentially causing a collapse.

  While they could potentially conjure the stone from raw Aether, it would break down over time without Aether infusions.

  Aether-conjured material was never quite as resistant to corruption either, so the resulting walls would be weaker to the Cyth.

  Unfortunately, doing things this way meant that the slow-moving Brecan were now a limiting factor. They didn’t have long to prepare for the next attack, and at this rate, all they’d have to show would be piles of stone blocks.

  “Garreg macha challyn,” Verdan said, focusing his intent as he drew up the stone and formed a man-sized construct in the shape of a hand.

  Walls and fortifications might be a problem, but a few spells wouldn’t change the integrity of the earth enough to matter.

  Directing the hand, Verdan had it move the stone blocks for the Brecan, allowing him to focus elsewhere.

  With the Brecan’s full focus on creating the blocks, the rubble was swiftly broken down, and the blocks moved over to the closest wall.

  Verdan’s conjured hand would place the blocks while the Brecan merged them into the wall, while also reinforcing and repairing much of the damage.

  “Come on, people, don’t just stand around,” Cullan called out as he jogged to the rear of the warehouse to help the other Brecan.

  A dozen nearby Sect retainers and guards joined in, along with a pair of Sorcerers. Together, they quickly got the stone blocks into position.

  As more people joined in, they started simply putting rubble next to the walls, with the Brecan shifting their focus from making blocks to merging the rubble directly into the wall.

  Rapid progress was made, and in no time the walls around the rear of the building were rebuilt and reinforced.

  The front, however, was still a broken mess, and was also where the fighting would be heaviest. Even now, the first Cyth were arriving and charging in to engage the defenders.

  Dozens were arriving each moment, and the flood of monstrous foes was only building.

  For now, though, the defenders were standing tall and holding them back. The little that remained of the warehouse’s front wall was used to its fullest to anchor their defensive lines.

  Fire, lightning and howling winds ripped into the Cyth as they threw themselves at the humans, uncaring of death or injury.

  Verdan sent his construct forward, using its natural durability to provide cover and protection to the people around it.

  The Cyth would break it down slowly, but not quickly enough to save themselves.

  A bright flash of abyssal energy cut through the air as a Cyth Bayne arrived and used a lesser version of the beam attack that had killed Elder Dun.

  Hedda cursed and shifted her focus from cursing the attackers, stopping the next attack from landing at all.

  A heartbeat later, the storm overhead spoke its fury, with lightning crashing down to immolate the enemy spellcaster.

  Through it all, Verdan was maintaining a steady deluge of fireballs into the Cyth ranks, breaking them apart and killing dozens.

  Unlike when they broke the last Cyth Host, though, their defences here weren’t strong enough.

  Thankfully, the Brecan hadn’t left and were now working on creating a fortification in the middle of the warehouse.

  Once done, it would form two raised platforms with a gap in the centre. The Cyth would be funnelled to the centre, where the numbers advantage would mean little.

  Some would claim the outside, of course, but that would be manageable.

  Verdan kept his conjured hand feeding the Brecan rubble to help their building process, but Cullan and the other volunteers rushed to join the fray.

  For a few moments, things seemed to be going well. The Cyth weren’t able to break through, and though they were taking casualties, the stream of reinforcements was more than enough to replace them.

  Then the Cyth Dregg arrived.

  Five of the hulking brutes rounded the corner at a run, and behind them came a thick mass of Cyth Laisera.

  Cyth Laisera were old Cyth Lai that had grown strong and corrupt, with armour made of Wyrchwood and weapons dripping in abyssal energy.

  This was a strike force intended to smash their lines, and unless they acted fast, it would do just that.

  Lifting his staff to conjure a spell, Verdan froze as he saw a trio of Cyth Bayne emerge from hiding places in the buildings opposite the warehouse, alongside a mass of Cyth Lai.

  Movement out of the corner of Verdan’s eye drew his gaze up to where a dozen Wyrchwrought were climbing stealthily down the side walls of the building from the broken roof.

  This was no mass of uncoordinated Cyth, intent on killing them all. No, this was a directed assault, one with a keen mind behind it that had brought together each part of the assault at just the right time.

  There was only one creature that could give a Host this kind of tactical control. A Cyth Scerrd.