Ice spread out over the clearing, some spikes jutting out. Sunie’s ice field had slowed the Grimdar advance. Bright flashes from arrows and Abilities starting to fade away, as were the varied sounds. Different kinds of energy made different sounds.

  I stood next to Mason and the remains of the palisade wall facing the pond. Some of the logs had been cleaved in half, a couple turned into ash. The Grimdar had made a big push, at both sides, and even around the back. We held it off, just barely, but had taken some wounded. The palisade was destroyed and one of the portable walls was out of commission. Another push like that and we’d be in trouble.

  Grimdar bodies floated in the small pond, bobbing up and down in the current and as the fish in the pond had some dinner. The few healers we had were taking care of the wounded, the ones they could anyways. The healers were limited and didn’t want to push them to use all their Spirit now. We’d need them.

  “That was not fun,” Mason grunted, the head of his hammer on the ground as he leaned against it.

  “Nope,” I agreed.

  We had made it a little harder on ourselves. None of the Solace defenders had gone all out. We conserved as much as we could. The Grimdar were going all out. It was a good sign that this small amount of us, not pushing, could hold them off. If they came at us again like they just had, we would have to go out.

  I felt a gathering of Arcanum coming from behind. We both turned, seeing a small bit of light appear in the portal. It started growing.

  It was looking like we wouldn’t have to withstand another assault.

  The light grew until it filled the entire blackness that was the Dungeon portal. Tracy came out, staying half in the portal, bow in hand, arrow nocked and the tip glowing. She held herself tense, eyes searching, ready to attack. She immediately relaxed on seeing that we still held the opening.

  Nodding to me, she ducked back in. Tracy stepped fully out, followed by the rest of the party. They looked pretty worse for wear. Lots of rips in the armor and cloaks, dried blood covering their bodies. Gary was leaning heavily on Nathan. The whole group almost immediately sat down. I’d seen them come out of a Dungeon before looking beat up, but nothing like this. Helping Gary to sit, Nathan walked over to me.

  “That sucked hard,” he said.

  “It is a tough Dungeon,” Mason agreed.

  “You gave us the rundown and we were prepared, but it was still pretty tough and trying to blitz through it…,” Nathan shook his head. “We didn’t grab as many Resources as normally would but got some and the Dungeon is cleared. No surge.”

  “Awesome,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder. “Beer’s on me when we get back to the ship.”

  “You owe us far more than a beer,” Nathan grunted. He looked around at the portable walls, the cracks in the giant boulder and the floating bodies. “Looks like you’ve had just as good a time.”

  “It was loads of fun,” I said. “Rest up as best you can. We need to head out really soon.”

  “What’s the plan for getting out of here?” Nathan asked.

  “You and Mason get to flip coins to see whose on point,” I said.

  The two looked at each other in confusion, Nathan an inch or two bigger and broader, and then both looked at me and from their expressions I could tell neither really wanted to know why.

  ***

  “Everyone ready?” Parker called out.

  He got a bunch of positive answers, no negative answers. The whole group, with the exception of me, Mason, who had won the coin toss, Sunie and Tracy, were in a wedge formation with Nathan at the head. Parker was in the middle with the healers. He had wanted to be at Nathan’s right side, but I’d pulled rank and ordered him in the middle. He was the military commander of this operation, he had to be protected. Nathan stood at where one of the gatling cannons had been. All three were back in the inventories, along with the portable walls. No Grimdar could be seen. It was now or never.

  “Advance Team,” Parker said. “GO!”

  Mason, Sunie, Tracy and I ran out from the group, heading for the trees.

  “Good hunting,” I said to the others as we hit the treeline.

  “You as well,” Sunie said, leading Mason to the right side of the trail.

  I led Tracy to the left.

  “Remember,” I told her, looking into the depths of the forest. I couldn’t see any movement, but I knew they were there. Already I could hear the sounds of fighting along the trail as Sunie and Mason encountered their fist Grimdar. “Out of the fight, don’t worry about killing. Just cripple or disable and move on.”

  “I got it,” she said, stepping into the treeline and disappearing as she Activated one of her Stealth Abilities. “You remember that too.”

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  I chuckled and ran into the woods.

  “GO!,” Parker, shouted from behind, ordering the rest of the group forward.

  I glanced back, seeing Nathan hit the trail, the wedge spreading out behind him. It lost the wedge shape as the trail was a little narrow. More of a long line, but that was fine. Gary and a couple of the soldiers brought up the rear, grabbing the walls and stuffing them into the inventories, casters spread out in the middle.

  Didn’t take long to find my first Grimdar. He was facing away from me, making his way quickly through the woods, hoping to come up at the rear of the line. I put on a burst of speed, slamming into his backside, my first and a force katar, my new and modified version of the force lance, leading. The point slammed into the back of his neck, exploding out the front. He was pretty much dead before he hit the ground. I didn’t bother stopping to collect the Essence.

  No time. There were more Grimdar to kill.

  I could hear the enemy rushing through the forest, heading for the trail. I slowed my pace, not wanting to get too far ahead, but wanting to draw as many of the Grimdar from the trail and the soldiers as I could. I made a lot of noise. My Abilities weren’t flashy, not a lot of bright lights, but I did the best I could.

  Streaks of light shot through the trees, disappearing and reappearing as large trunks got in the way. Grimdar screamed and grunted in pain. Two rushed at me. I shot out Force Lances, right at the knees, changing the lance shape to more of a ram. Bones shattered, the two Grimdar falling to the ground. I launched a couple more lances, points sharp again, right into their shoulders. Not enough to kill them, or keep them down for that long, but we didn’t need them down that long. Bonus points if it did kill them and I thought about launching lances at their heads, but three Grimdar charged at me.

  I waved at them, maybe giving them the one-finger salute, and ran into the woods, slightly away from the trail. They followed, but I could hear more heading for the trail. I sent a Sonic Blast at the three, knocking them down. I shifted my angle, heading back toward the trail, hearing the three behind me starting to get up.

  Two Grimdar had their backs to me and got Force Lances right in the neck. They fell forward, but not fast enough as I slammed into them, sending the two dead Grimdar to the sides. They’d been in my way. I could see the break in the trees ahead that was the trail, lots of bright flashes of light, sounds of explosions and grunts of pain.

  The line kept moving, it wasn’t stopped. That was a good thing. They kept moving, closing the distance to the hill.

  I pulled a bo staff from my inventory. I wasn’t sure the correct term for the weapon. It had two curving spikes at the ends, made of dark iron, and the wood was a thing called Yew. Very strong stuff. The shaft was pretty close to unbreakable, but it had a lot of bend and give to it. I was sure there was a special name for a bladed staff like it, but I didn’t know, so it was a bo staff.

  Five Grimdar were ahead of me, a couple of them turning at my very noisy approach. I charged at them, the staff glowing with force and kinetic energy.

  ***

  I held the rear of the line, Mason on one side, Gary on the other. Sunie was up the trail a bit, along with Tracy, firing over our heads. Grimdar swarmed at us, but not that many. We’d done a pretty good job thinning the numbers in the forest out. I could see a bodies lining both sides of the trail, a testament to how well Nathan, Parker and the soldiers had done fighting their way to the hill.

  The trail up the hill snaked along the slope, wide enough for three or four side by side, it still spread out forces out along the length. The melee fighters were at the front, fighting their way up, the bodies of Grimdar falling down around us from up above.

  They were able to switch people out of the frontline, getting somewhat fresh fighting arms in the front. None of us were truly fresh. We were all tired, all exhausted and hurt. Our Cores were getting pretty close to drained.

  I hadn’t needed to use an Arcanum potion yet, but I knew others had. They’d all be dealing with potion cooldown and overload when this was all over. But we did what he had to do.

  Luckily there weren’t that many up at the top of the hill. I’m sure they were swarming the other side, trying to reach the top, but the second part of our break-out plan had arrived.

  Captain Nichols had flown the Phoenix’s Feather over the stone henge, not the stone henge, that one didn’t exist anymore, at least I didn’t think so, but the stone markers at the top of the hill. The ship had bombarded the top of the hill, killing the Grimdar, making two passes before dropping off a load of soldiers with some heavy artillery.

  “Sorry about the stonehenge up top,” I told Mason as we watched the explosions from the ship’s cannons.

  “Wasn’t that in Great Britain?” He’d asked, and then we’d gone back to fighting.

  The heavy artillery, more Gatling Arcane Cannons, were pointing down the outside slope, keeping the Grimdar from running up the hill. A couple of the soldiers were peppering the Grimdar on the trail in the back, trapping them between us coming up and them up top preventing the Grimdar from retreating.

  That was good and bad.

  Good because it kept the numbers dwindling, but bad because those Grimdar knew there was no escape and they just kept coming, thinking the only way to stay alive was to break through our ranks. It was a good plan.

  It just wasn’t working out for them.

  “I think that’s the last of them,” Sunie said from behind me.

  “I don’t see anymore,” Tracy agreed.

  She was higher up the trail. I glanced that way, seeing her turn and start firing arrows up the slope. Because of the switchback nature of the trail, and the slope, she had a decent angle at the Grimdar pressing down on Nathan and the soldiers. I could see flashes of light from above.

  I scanned the skies for the Phoenix’s Feather but couldn’t see it. Captain Nichols would be far enough back where the Grimdar anti-airship cannons couldn’t reach her, but close enough to watch the hill.

  Getting up to the top of the hill wasn’t the problem. Getting off was going to be.