Lev felt a power surge coming from his glaive. Its blade lit up in a purplish hue as it pulsated its energy.

Two more are approaching from the left flank. Make haste Lev.

Lev looked at the remainder of his scouting party. It didn’t take long for him to realize how hopeless the situation had become. They’d killed a few of the monstrosities that attacked them, but this obviously hadn't been enough to guarantee safe passage ahead of them.

He ran towards the left flank, anticipating another charge from the creatures.

“Lev, you’re finally here!”, a familiar voice called out. It was Rapha, and next to her were her shield-maidens.

“What are you doing in the left flank? Didn’t I assign you to guard the rear and support the other shaman?” Lev said, his breath still catching up with him.

“We couldn’t support them for long, you’ve seen it yourself. They were too much for us to handle. Besides that, most of the shamans had already fled the scene before we could provide any meaningful resistance,” Rapha said in a soft tone, subconsciously pleading for Lev to accept it.

But before Lev could accept her explanation, one of her shieldmaidens interrupted him.

“Sir, with all due respect. When we saw how much the flanks were struggling in keeping those vile beasts away from our support line, the only choice we had left was to support the crossbowmen who were rapidly building up casualties.” the shieldmaiden paused, her face had a look of determination. Rapha expected Lev to scold at her for her disobedience during a vital moment in battle, but to her surprise, Lev only nodded.

“I know. More importantly, how many casualties did we take?”, Lev inquired, causing Rapha to get out of her stupor.

“We lost about four men in the flank, and I think we lost another six shamans after they broke through our defensive lines,” Rapha said with her eyes fixated on the bloodied ground below her. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder and lifted her head.

“We’ll manage,” Lev affirmed her.

“A-actually sir, if I may. I’ve recounted the casualties and I’m pretty sure we total at around twelve dead so far. If I had to guess, we have sixteen injured goblins from the frontline being treated right now.”

“Good, let’s regroup and see what options are left. At least we captured some of the masked people.” Lev told the shieldmaiden with a nod.

I’m sure we can find another route through this hellscape. I won’t let our struggles go in vain.

Raban and Grasha approached Lev, bruises covering their bodies. Raban had a bloody cloth wrapped around his shoulder and Grasha’s horn was broken.

Lev motioned to the shieldmaiden to go get some healers leaving only Lev and Rapha to meet the two.

“How many did we lose?” Once the deka and the goblin arrived, Lev asked.

“Only three.” With a heavy breath, Raban replied.

Grasha lied down on the ground, his knees giving in from the fatigue, and grabbed his waterskin. He took a swig of it and then said.“It could have been more if we didn’t arrive in time. What the heck were those things?”

“We don’t know.” Shaking her head, Rapha replied.

“We need to get out of here. It’s too dangerous.” Raban advised,

Grasha turned to Raban. “And how will we do so? The things won’t let us leave easily.”

Lev lowered his head, his left foot kept tapping on the ground as he tried to think of a solution to their predicament. Suddenly his ears twitched as he heard the cursing of a certain creature.

“Leig leam falbh thu muc damnaichte.” An elderly masked creature, thrashing against his captors, yelled as Volker along with two soldiers tied him up.

Looking at the scene, Lev’s eyes widened.

“I think I have an idea.” With a grin he said.

“I hope it’s a good one.” Grasha grumbled, his arms crossed.

“Have I ever failed?” Lev asked.

“Well, there was that one time when you ordered us to build that structure of yours near a-” Scratching his head, Grasha almost replied.

“In battle, I mean.” Lev interrupted. Not wanting to remember that disaster.

Grasha shrugged. “Nope. Not yet.”

Lev grinned. “Then let’s get Volker and Orva. We should also bring along some of our new masked friends.”