Twisted by cursed magic, perfected by Anassa’s sorceries in the ages leading up to the Great War. The beastmen are a vermin that should have never existed. Not a natural race of Arda but a struct, the most they be likeo a pgue of our making. A disease that has spiralled and evolved out of trol in respoo our medies.

  It will be a day of celebratiohey are finally made extinct.

  - Excerpt from the secrets texts in the White Pantheon’s closed library. Written by Goddess Maisara, Of Order: ‘Doting the Inhabitants of Arda’.

  Logar snarled as his eyes once again readjusted to the darkness of night. Fer had entered in an ho, he had id still behind a piece of hard-wood pulled out the ground by the darkfurs sihen. The two packs causing chaos had pulled back, they were only there to buy time anyway. Fer had assumed a loss-ratio of sixty pert for them two, Logar had put it as high as eighty. Traius had said none of them would return.

  But they did. Battered, burned, pierced by shards of ice or stones or trees pulled from the ground, but they came. Out of ammunitioen and blooded, but with wet swords and axes dripping with crimson, they came. They had dropped fourty each, the first pack that had nded o the Floroman had seventeeurn, the sed had twelve. They had to face pyromancers, most of these members had been bitten by fire. It would be a good thing to show to the herd bae: plenty of pride in that.

  And so Logar readjusted his rifle as he leahe sights had been raised so that his wolf-jaw would not get into the way, the trigger guard had been removed so that his thick fingers could press it and a device had been fitted onto the front. It didn’t silehe sound, it merely a away from the rifle so that he would not return deaf.

  Traius saw the first wave first. Six mages h in the air as they scouted what the pack was doing. He gave a raw, turned his mae and sprayed into the air before anyone could react. O up a shield, five fell to the ground. The witch holding the shield wobbled as she caught bullet and bullet in grasps of air. Logar turned and alighe sights to her head.

  He pulled the trigger as the rifle released a deafening boom. The womaed to te, only her eyes catg sight of the wolf-man ohe bullet had left the barrel. She mao move one finger before it pierced her head. Traius burst of firepower tore into her for a sed before she too fell. Logar she air as he sigo the minotaur. The bull-man shrugged as he took up position at the rear of the pack, close to the door of the Divine Library.

  Fer had talked about how mages were near-unstoppable, how a shield had to be overwhelmed with catapult fire in the past. How they would mow down horse and man with merely finger snaps. Logar had expected to step into a boiling cauldron and he had found himself in merely a warm bath with annoying flies cirg him. He simply did not uand how they fell so easily. Even the Sect-Members of Great Guguo would be mgressive in a hunt, these people merely acted out bat. He smiled to himself, yes, those were the words: These people did not fight, they merely pyed at fighting.

  Darkfurs were anizing the returning pack members to serve as scouts. A few of the beastmen handed off their sidearms, several of the er wolf-men had brought two rifles each, and then a third strapped to their back. Logar had merely thought it funny back then but now he would report to Fer. Side-arms were needed.

  A minute passed of barking and orders and howling with rage into the air. Fire raged in the distahe woods that had bee alight raged close to the pack of Beastmen. A high-pitched whistle from a nearby wolf-man indicated oppos. Lled his scope as he looked dowh.

  Eighteen of them, all in colourful robes fully coloured. With staff and wand were marg down the corridor. All the gemstones on them were glowing as if in respoo the glittering red eyes of the beastmen. Logar heard it before he saw it, the howling winds cast by aeromao safeguard the mages from the hail of metal. “WEST! PREY!” He barked a off a shot.

  It got caught in the air. Traius and the over minotaurs ged dires. Hooves in the ground to at for recoil, eae the heavy beat of a drum. And then they opened fire. Bullets flew ar’s head as the mages stopped moving. One of the aeromancer’s raised their staves, the white gemstones glowing brighter. “DARKFURS! OVERWHELM!” Logar shouted.

  Two of the beastmen magis stepped forwards. Twisted by sorcery, a species that had beeed in the Great War to give the herds the strength o ter magis. Their brokeh spilled out of their bck maws as they started to t spells. One unleashed a red bst of sorcery, the over called forth the grass. The wall in front of Logar expanded forwards with the speed of lightning, it rode the ground like a prang dolphin, disappeared into the path and then reappearing in a burst of cobblestone as it tore forwards.

  The bst of sorcery forced the mages back. A brown-robed geomancer smashed his staff into the ground and pulled up a wall of rocks to safeguard his rades. The rock cracked uhe fires of red sorcery, the path lit up, the grass setting alight as more of the darkfurs poured their power into that devil’s beam. And then the rag vines burst out of the ground. They ehat rock like needles pierg cloth.

  A craed. Another. A third. A fourth. The rock ripped apart as a hydromancer unched a spike of ito the mages. Munfire came from the East. The minotaurs turo suppress the new enemies as cobblestone nded around the mages like rain. Oo the lead aeromancer on the head and Logar found the opening again. He licked his lips as the shield cracked and pulled the trigger.

  One shot, like a wolf’s bite to the jugur, and the mage fell, blood flowing in ar his head as the man colpsed to the ground. The beastmen did not need an order. Two dozen wolf-men fired into the team of mages. One man mao raise a wall of rocks that was quickly swept aside by the whipping vihe devil’s beam of red sorcery swept through them, simply removing skin and bone from existence as it tore through the men with fires as hot as the sun.

  And the team of mages fell. Logar turo the other side. Five minotaurs were close to overwhelming a small paages. Merely three, their blue barriers shoh pure magic as they waved their staffs, searg madly for a ce at a terattack.

  That ever came. Each bullet came an inch closer as their magics were expended. With the fire-rate of five mae guns, that came quickly. Blue energy cracked and faded, and then tore apart. The barrier blinked for a single instant, but a single instant was enough.

  A bullet tore into one man, he fell. The womao him took a step back as she cowered to him, and then she died. The final of the trio turo free and his back ened by bullet holes. And so the sileurwo minutes of respite for the beastmen to catch their and reload.

  The fire besides the beastmen opened up as Logar was unched into the air by the ground hurling the beastmen aside. Two of the minotaurs fell, one ierced in the shoulder by a massive k of ice. A snake of water tore into the beastmen in the front. The darkfurs took up formation as bestial sorceries started to bat human magics.

  A vine caught a fireball, a bst of red wiped a bde of air heading towards Logar. A wave of dark noxious air tore into vihat ripped from the burning woods and into the pack. Logar turned, roared, clicked to full auto and sprayed whatever his gun had left into the forest. A man screamed out. A ball of light came.

  A bright light shone from within the woods as the magis’ glowing catalysts revealed them through the fmes. Pyromancers were holding the fire back. A minotaur stepped forwards, blood streaming from his chest where he had been peppered and cut by the exploding pathway. He hefted his fmethrower towards a red-robed pyromancer and pulled the trigger.

  The man in red raised his wand, the jelly that made up napalm was cooled, the fire went out. Logar fired into a blue-robed witch five feet in the air, spheres of water cirg around her. Her robe discoloured with purple as he dropped yet anazine ahe hungry gun, she fell to the ground, not even a scream esg her lips.

  More pyromancers stepped forwards towards the bull-man spraying fire. They raised their wands as the bullman roared. Logar saw him squeeze the trigger and grin as the fire reflected off his eyes. The bull-man took a step forwards, heavy hoof crag cobbling and severing a green snake of vihat tried to down him. He kept spraying, mid-way through the arc, the jelly would simply be put out to nd and spsh over the mages.

  Logar raised his gun, calmed his bloodlust with a breath and switi-automatice again. He aimed at the closest pyromancer. A bullet to the head downed him. Then the . The third fell. Fire roared as the minotaur clicked.

  The fme thrower was out. The bullma out a furious howl and tossed the pieetal forwards. Something clicked, something made a spark, and twenty mages covered in the jelly set alight. Logar licked his lips as he listeo their screams and the smell the burning flush. It was tinged with that ugly smell of napalm, but it would have still made a fine meal.

  The mages fell as their muscle and skied off them. A pyromaried to put himself out but it wasn’t fire burning him, it was the liquid jelly that had coated him. His hands blinked with fmes, he put them out, they set alight again, a them out. Eventually he fell to his knees. Logar checked his belt with his hand, he had brought as many magazines as he could stuff into the vest around him, in pces where they should go and tied on by strings and tape to pces they shouldn’t. Three left.

  “COVER THE LIBRARY!” Logar shouted. “HOLD THE DOOR! CLOSE THE CIRCLE!” He looked around. That offensive had left a good quarter of the ba the ground. One bullman had fallen, his head caved in by a nce of rock, Traius was bleeding from every limb, although he still stood and moved easily. One darkfur had fallen, cut in half by a bde of air. That was a bad loss.

  With Anassa though, they could replenish numbers. With Anassa and Fer freed, it would be safe. “PREPARE BARRIERS!” Logar shouted as he kicked a bench from the ground and k over. It would be a fine firing position. “SPREAD POISON! BUY TIME!”

  The pack roared in answer as the rest of the minotaurs dug in. One darkfur pulled a rotting tree out of the ground for men to shoot from as Logar kept shouting orders. “BUY TIME FOR PACKMASTER!”

  With Fer and Anassa, they may get out of this yet.

  Logar looked into the air as he a swarm of magis in the distance. A hundred or so, moving in formation. They had brought the students too to act as support. A blue bubble rippled around them as if they were in a giant opaque whale. “PREPARE FOR BAT! HOLD FOR PACKMASTER AND GODDESS ANASSA!” Logar shouted as he readied his rifle and prepared for the spilling of blood.

  He just hoped it wouldn’t be his.