Laurel’s eyes stung from the smoke as she tried to make out how the battle was going. The satyr raid had caught them completely by surprise and by the time the militia could gather half the town was already on fire. She’d done her best to organise the defence by barricading the town square with upturned wagons, tables and chairs. But it was too little too late.

  If it hadn’t been for Turial and Turiel the defences would’ve already failed. Her two hybrid bodyguards were everywhere, every time a breech occurred one of them would cut his way trough the satyrs with a flaming sword until the breech could be closed by the clumsy militia. For a while it had looked like they might win the battle, then a giant satyr with grey fur had joined the fray. The creature had used its magic to maim Turiel and the hybrid was now missing an arm, the only thing which had saved him from bleeding out was that he had cauterised the wound with his own flaming sword spell. As for Turial, he been sent flying into one of the burning houses and had never returned.

  All that was standing between the civilians, and the grey furred satyr was a thinning line of milita wielding pitchforks and wooden spears. Laurel was no military genius, but she knew that was soon as the gravely wounded Turiel fell it would all be over. Already many of the satyrs had broken away to feast on the burned bodies of townspeople. This fight was over and both sides knew it. Laurel felt bitter resentment building in her chest as she thought of their new supposed protector, Milo the champion. The man had promised to return with soldiers, but even if he kept his word, he would be too late.

  Turiel roared and Laurel watched as he once again tried to bring down the satyr leader. The monster seemed to be enjoying itself as it played with their valiant defender. After a while it grew bored and Turiel was knocked away, Laurel waited for their champion to rise but Turiel remained still, either unconscious or dead.

  The civilians gathered around her started crying as they finally gave up. Laurel drew her dagger and was trying to decide between killing herself or trying to kill a satyr when a satyr suddenly went flying above the barricade. The satyr leader followed the trajectory of the flying satyr and then whirled around. The creature barked something and then abandoned its assault. Immediately what little remained of the militia plugged the breech.

  Laurel approached the barricade and despite Jack the guard captain pulling at her sleeve she climbed up to get a better look. What she saw filled her chest with hope. There at the end of the street was a new force of monsters as well as men and women with pale red eyes, the force was led by a giant in strange black stony armour. The giant looked monstrous and yet it was killing satyrs with every slash of its black sword.

  The satyr leader roared a challenge and both forces drew back. Laurel watched as the black giant walked forward to meet the grey furred satyr. Once they were a few meters away they both charged. The giant fought with blinding speed and elegance and even laurel who knew next to nothing about swordsmanship was impressed by his fluid movement. The satyr was no match for him, or at least that was how it seemed until magic suddenly erupted from its body, sending the giant flying into a burning building.

  Laurel’s hope suddenly vanished as the grey satyr roared its victory. But for some reason none of the people who had come with the black giant seemed that concerned. A few seconds later the giant came walking trough the fire as if he couldn’t feel it. Then he lunged and started slashing at the grey satyr with such speed that its entire body was soon covered in wounds. Realising that it had lost the creature roared and its army tried to break up the duel, but the black giant was unmovable. Every satyr that tried to strike him was cut down within moments of getting in range. The grey satyr was trying to crawl away, but the black giant refused to give up on its prey. Finally, it kicked one of the fallen spears a satyr had tried to run him trough with and threw it at the grey satyr. A cheer went up from the black giant’s army as well as Willowford’s militia. The grey satyr might be tough, but it hadn’t survived a spear trough its neck.

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  Once again the black giants army surged forward and the satyr were now caught between Willowford’s barrickades and the army. As she watched, the black giants shell vanished and revealed the man beneath. Laurel cheered with the rest as Milo Harper raised his hands in victory.

  Milo could barely keep his sword aloft as he watched his forces butcher what remained of the main satyr force. Despite his new amulet the metamorphosis spell had drained him completely dry as he had fought his way into the town and then duelled the leader. By the time he finally finished the creature off both his body and mind had been exhausted.

  Haldor took up position next to him.

  “It’s done, our forces are cleaning up what remains. Ivy and her shadow stalkers will track down those who flee. With your permission I will send our elementalists to heal what remains of Willowford’s population.”

  Milo had seen Laurel atop the barricade, but he had no idea how many still remained alive. But Haldor probably did.

  “How many did they lose?”

  Haldor sounded impressed when he answered.

  “If the report I got from Ivy is accurate then they’ve lost about a third of their population. Which considering the force they were up against I consider a miracle.”

  “And our army?”

  “About 43 demons and 11 hybrids, but as you know our force is larger than when we started thanks to that crown on your head.”

  It had been a close thing in the beginning when they’d encountered the satyr rearguard which had been nearly a thousand strong. A significant portion had been archers and only their elementalists had kept his force from being wiped out in the initial charge. Milo still remembered the static walls of fire the elementalist had conjured above their army as it charged. The fighting that followed had been vicious and savage, but Haldor’s prediction had proven accurate. Every time one of his warriors went down, he would simply summon two more to take his or her place.

  If it hadn’t been for the time limit imposed on them by the Milita’s desperate last stand they probably could’ve gotten away with half the losses. But once Ivy had returned with news that a significant portion of Willowford’s populace was alive and holding Milo had overridden Haldor and ordered a breakthrough charge. He'd led the effort himself after casting the metamorphosis spell.

  Milo waited for the last of the satyrs to be cut down before walking over to the barricade which was already being dismantled. Once he entered the square, he was greeted by wild cheering despite the losses the townspeople had suffered. Laurel herself was kneeling above a pair of unmoving bodies. Milo approached and recognised Turiel and Turial, they were both dead. When she looked up at him her face was filled with tears but there was no anger or blame there.

  “Thank you for saving us.”

  Milo nodded at the dead twins.

  “How’d they die?”

  Laurel wiped her eyes and stood back up.

  “They’re the only reason we held long enough to be rescued, they went down fighting that grey furred monster you killed, it knew magic.”

  The burst of magic which had thrown him into a nearby building had certainly surprised him even if the damage it had done was minimal thanks to the rock-hard exoskeleton which surrounded him. Speaking of which, one of the townspeople had already taken it upon himself to cut off the grey furred satyr’s head and was parading it around on a spear. He was watching the man parade around when Ivy returned to his side in a pop of shadow magic.

  Her leather armour had been liberally splashed with blood in places but as far as he could tell none of it was her own. Since Haldor was busy directing his forces to put out the fires Milo took it upon himself to play the role of general.

  “Report.”

  “We followed a small group of fleeing satyrs back into the woods, there are thousands more of them.”

  Milo cursed and was about to call for Haldor when Ivy cut him off.

  “They’re not warriors, from what I could tell most of these satyrs are smaller and thinner than the ones we fought here, there are also children. I believe this group mainly consists of their females and offspring.”

  She was watching him closely now, and he had a feeling she expected him to announce that women and children were noncombatants. If that was what she expected she was in for a surprise.

  “These monsters are anathema to civilisation, it doesn’t matter that they are children, a monster is a monster. We will not dishonour Willowford’s fallen by letting these creatures escape so they can recover and do this all again in a few years. This ends now.”

  Ivy’s face drew into a smile and Laurel looked at him with true respect. There was not a hint of pity in either woman for the satyr race.

  Within half an hour their entire army, now 300 strong was pouring trough the woods cutting down every satyr in their path. By the time the sun went down the woods were quiet, and the ground was soaked with satyr blood.