The Hamatula or Barbed devils stand just shorter than a human male though their stubby legs leaves the torso to be a majority of their body. This body is covered in the barbs that give it it’s nickname, each of which is covered in a toxin that thins the blood.

They fill the role of pure fodder in the infernal army, they are expected to be decimated when brought to the field of battle and fight in a suicidal style of unarmed combat regardless of who or what they are sent against. - Common Monsters

Raegaz

According to the ‘lies’ of the goblin scouts, the horseless chariots travel swiftly along the black rock roads. As such I and my army now stands in the middle of this strange road made of a single impossibly large rock.

Another horn begins to sound before it is cut off, the bearer must have died. No problem the goblins reproduce faster than anything other than rats and kobolds.

I look over the squads of hobgoblins in block formation, all is ready to have them stop these horseless chariots. Dusk has come and so the advantage will be ours if these are manlings.

A flash of light down the road made of a single stone are all I need to see to tell that whatever these horseless chariots are, they will be here in minutes.

Abagail

The sky dims as the car's engine makes a noise I have never heard before and then dies. Scraping and grinding metal from somewhere within the engine.

The car Bryan is now driving keeps moving forward for a short few seconds before turning around and stopping next to ours.

The is a look of confusion on Kathrine’s face, “I can’t have run out of gas, the tank was just filled” she says with the same confusion that is on her face as is in her voice.

“There is probably a oil and gas leak” one of Adrian’s twin brothers answer the not quite question.

“Broken or gas?” Adrian asks as he steps out of the passenger side of the other car.

“Broken” answers the same twin before his mother can.

Adrian frowns and the look down the road following it to the horizon, a feat I cannot do. The frown deepens, not from being unable to see, but from whatever it is that he can see.

“Is everyone ready for combat?” he asks.

“Why” I question and am subsequently answered by the only other person who can apparently see so far on a cloudy night, Kythia.

“There is a line of soldiers down the road, they smell of goblinoids so probably an orc and hobgoblin force leading the goblin packs we have been running across.”

Adrian and the elven twins nod in agreement. Their senses are keener than mine or Bryan’s though I don’t get why Adrian’s have gotten so much better.

“I don’t think your mom or brothers are ready for something like that. Otherwise everyone is rested enough and haven’t spent any mana.” reports Bryan.

I never told him if I was ready or not, but even so he is right. I have not spent any mana today and I suppose he would know if any in the other car did.

“My little brothers should be fine, they are better at magic than me anyways.”

“We shouldn’t be getting into fights and why have you been killing everything that we have driven by?” Kathrine interjects but before she can continue is interrupted by her son.

“They would have done the same to us. Those were goblins, they just want to kill and eat.”

“How can you be sure of that?”

“That is what those monsters did at school.” I answer for Adrian. I may not like every decision that gets made but every dead goblin, orc or other monster makes the world a better place.

Turning to his brothers Adrian speaks, already assigning positions for the coming battle. “Stay in the middle guarding mom and Abagail. Support everyone else with ranged magic.”

Before they can even respond he turns from them and continues to give directions, “Abagail, do what you can and stay put of melee.”

With a flip of his wrist a worn rifle, one of the lower calibers, is in his hand for me to grab. I thought all of the weapons were broken fighting the demon; apparently he had another in that weird magic storage.

He let’s go of the rifle as soon as I touch it and I miss his exact instructions for the trio, but Lysan moves close to me while Talia and Kythia move to either side of Adrian.

Bryan moves to the rear of their front triangle, probably to deal with when we end up flanked as we always do from our small number.

There is nothing for any of us to do now but move forward, even Kathrine knows it. I can see the same unease on her face as I once had. Everything around us is clear from the headlights of the cars.

I can see Adrian muttering something about weather but nothing happens as he seemed to glare at the clouds above us.

Soon enough we are walking down hill towards the supposed line of soldiers. We do not get very far before Adrian runs ahead to engage the enemy that only now can I see the glints from their reflective eyes in the dark. A glint sharper than the elven twins but dimmer than Kythia’s or Adrian’s.

A pistol appears in his hands and all too soon do I hear it go off, followed by a grunt like scream of pain and the surprised yelling of monsters in their guttural tongue.

A flash of lightning from Adrian’s off hand, the left. It reveals for the briefest instant the dozens of uniformed humanoids than stand before us. I feel the doubt of having the stamina or bullets to defeat such a group. Certainly not with just a .22 rifle, I’ve shot orcs and hobgoblins before they can take several such rounds before it phases them.

This doubt fades from my mind as the echoes of the thunder of lightning and gunfire resonates with the music of mana that buzzes in the back of my mind.

Somehow, I begin to sing the part of the song in the mana that I want, Courage and Hope. I do not know the words but they flow from my lips, my voice echoing off of walls that do not exist and taking on a grace to it that I do not possess.

I wish I could remember what it is that I am singing, Bryan asked me about it but I couldn’t explain it any more than he could his paladin magic to me.

Emotion given presence is all I can relate it to, I know what part of the song that is in my mind does this but I don’t know why. A trickle of my own mana drains slowly away as everyone starts to see the situation as one we could handle.

I smile after a breath in a short second between producing the sounds that invoke my magic. I have to keep singing to extend the duration of this magic but one thing I can do is slip in more traditional magic in between verses but I need to keep enough mana to maintain the song for however long this battle will be.