Sebastian set Sarah down as gently as he could manage while desperately trying to catch his breath. He had made it to the rally point, but only barely. One of the nearby guardsmen came over and started checking over Sarah, only to determine that she was uninjured, the blood smeared all over her was from a guard that had been near her on the wall. She told them that the man had been struck by one of the rocks, then shuddered and went silent again. Sebastian winced, partly in sympathy, but mostly because he suddenly realized that he had twisted his ankle in their landing, then ran on his twisted ankle through the town and all the way into the mouth of the pass while carrying Sarah.

He sat with an audible thump onto the ground, his ankle had started to swell and he doubted he could put any weight on it without collapsing. Which wasn’t good, since they were currently fleeing from a horde of abominations. He spotted Owdel approaching and the first thing he noticed was that the old mage had been hit by an arrow at some point, and it was protruding from his shoulder still. He also looked, wild? Crazed? He watched in astonishment as Owdel suddenly seemed to realize that he had an arrow in him and casually grabbed hold of it, pulled it out, then placed his hand against the wound, cauterizing the wound with a quick one-word chant.

Owdel raised his voice loud enough for all the remaining guardsmen to hear, “Men! Just before the battle I received word from the tower in Clearlake! Our friends and family are safe! If we must die this day, we shall die knowing we saved our kin from this scourge!” He walked right up to Sebastian, and quietly continued, “Unfortunately there was bad news as well, the vermin are coming from the mountains. On both sides of the mountains. Refugees have been pouring into Clearlake with reports of attacks by groups of Twisted. So far nothing like this though, and the kingdom has chosen to let them smash themselves against Clearlake’s walls. Which basically means we are completely fucked. The beasts are on both sides of the pass, and likely inside the pass as well. It’s as if the northern mountains are a bloody giant anthill and something kicked the bloody crap out of them.” He spat on the ground to emphasize his point.

“Kyle, Northwood has fallen. I will attempt to collapse the cliffs here and close the pass into town. I ask that you do everything in your power to get this young man and my apprentice safely to Clearlake should I fall. Go now, if this doesn’t work you will need as much of a head start as you can get.”

Sebastian started at the sound of a gauntlet smashing against a breastplate in salute, and only just then realized that Owel hadn’t gone totally insane and had been talking to the guard captain that had been standing behind him unnoticed. Owdel returned the man’s salute, then turned to face the narrow pass into town and the south gate, which had just started to shudder from an assault coming from inside the town, it seemed that the horde either didn’t know how to open the gate or they were in such a frenzy that they didn’t even bother to try and work it out.

Kyle began barking orders at the remaining guards, and bent to grab hold of Sebastian’s arm. He was hauled to his feet and had his arm thrown around the man’s shoulder before his exhausted brain even managed to finish processing what Owdel had just said. He started to struggle against the captain’s grip on him when he realized that Owdel intended to sacrifice himself to close the pass and give them a chance at escaping. As Kyle dragged him away from the mouth of the pass, he watched as Owdel began to chant, arcane words pouring from him and filling the air around him with power. The old mage started to stroll casually towards the back gate while he chanted, the air around him starting to swirl and glow in Sebastian’s enchanted vision. The ground around him began to ripple with his every step, as though it were water.

A booming smash echoed through the pass, heralding the destruction of the southern gate. Owdel didn’t show any signs of caring though, he simply continued his chant. Sebastian was awed by the sheer amount of power the man was putting into the spell, the brilliant haze of mana pouring from him was starting to obscure Sebastian’s sight, when Owdel’s chant suddenly intensified, he had made it into the narrowest part of the pass and stopped walking. The world seemed to go silent as the chant ended, and Sebastian watched the swirling mass of mana surrounding the old mage plummet into the ground in front of him.

The ripples flowed away from Owdel’s feet and towards the Twisted pouring into the pass, and Owdel collapsed onto the ground. Sebastian didn’t know who had screamed when the old man fell, him or Sarah, but he knew he heard a scream. The captain stopped trying to drag Sebastian away, with the pass open, and as close as they were, they had no chance of getting away. He barked an order and the guardsmen formed a tight circle around Sebastian and Sarah, except for two that sprinted up the pass to try and rescue Owdel. They were most of the way to the mage when the ground shook and they both started to stumble. A massive molten fist of earth erupted from the ground in front of Owdel and slammed into one of the cliff faces, it seemed to grab hold and pull, and more molten rock flowed out of the ground in front of them.

Sebastian’s mouth gaped open as the vaguely man shaped lava monster turned and faced the Twisted with a roar that sounded more like a rockslide than anything else. The guards had recovered, and started desperately dragging Owdel away from the thing, and out of the pass. It began smashing its huge fists into the sides of the cliffs, slinging molten rock in every direction with each blow. Sebastian felt hope flare up in his chest at the sight, but it started to fade as he realized that the cliffs were showing no signs of caving, and the elemental was hemorrhaging mana at an appalling rate. It wasn’t going to be enough. The molten rock might keep the horde at bay briefly, but without blocking the pass completely, they would still catch them in short order.

His vision pulsed. A spike of pain erupted in the back of his head, then the world pulsed again. Something suddenly seemed to take control of him, and he pulled out the iron sphere, touching it with his bare hand for the first time since he had woken up after his change, and the world seemed to pulse again. He stared at it for a second that seemed like an eternity, lost in the intricate weave of impossible enchantment that shifted and flowed as though alive. Is it alive? Did I really create it? Or was it born, and I just happened to be there when it happened? The moment ended, and his thoughts were shattered when another burst of mana pulsed through him and without knowing why, he threw the ball towards the elemental, that burst of mana flooding into his palm and exploding outwards, launching the ball farther and faster than he should have been able to throw it.

He watched with rapt attention as it shot across the pass and slammed into the back of the elemental, which suddenly swelled in size and redoubled its efforts to collapse the cliffs, with blows that sent tremors through the ground that they could feel from where they were. An ominous rumble started and everyone watched in awe as the cliffs started to fall, and the elemental stopped assaulting the cliff, turning to face the oncoming horde and launching itself into them with another rumbling roar.

Dust and rubble obscured their view, only the sound of screams and roars, and the tremors that followed the colossus’s massive blows told them what was happening on the other side of the still forming wall of rock. The others started to turn away, suddenly hopeful that they could escape now, but Sebastian’s gaze was glued to the brilliant glow of mana shining from the other side of the rockfall. He could feel the elemental now. He felt almost like he was in both places at once, and didn’t even notice when Kyle picked him back up and they began to retreat into the pass again, guardsmen carrying him and Owdel, while Sarah seemed to have recovered enough to follow along on her own.

Sebastian stayed fixated on the elemental until it faded out. As the glow dimmed and went out, he convulsed as another pulse shot through him, vaguely hearing Kyle shouting as the last of his mana exploded out of him. He didn’t feel himself hit the ground as he was dropped, he didn’t know where he was anymore, he wasn’t even sure who he was anymore. All he knew for certain was pain and exhaustion, they washed through him in ever growing waves as his vision faded out and darkness swallowed him.