Alexander Quin formed a triangle with the two clerics of Avri Noll. They had scattered ash all around them and the demons still kept coming. It had been a long time since he had been tired of cutting enemies down, but he was approaching the point where he could barely lift his sword to defend himself.

The clerics still seemed fresh and moved like they could fight into the day. He marveled at that. Maybe he should have trained with Noll's clerics when he was younger.

A rain of arrows fell out of the sky. Alexander stepped back. He didn't want to be impaled by the missiles. Demons took the impacts with small grunts of pain. Only a few went up from death blows.

“We need to get out of this pile,” said Alexander. “We don't want to be shot by our side.”

“I agree,” said Forty Two. “My lady?”

“Follow me,” said Hundred to One. “I will cut us a path.”

She gathered power in the blade of her sword. It glowed as she began to chant. Then she swung the sword. A glowing blade of silver sliced through anything in its way as she completed the movement of her arms. A cloud of ash drifted behind the swing.

“That was great,” said Forty Two. “I could never equal something like that.”

“Less talk and more moving,” said Alexander. He dialed up his speed to counter the demons still trying to bear him to the ground. “There's another flight of arrows coming in.”

“Switch with me,” said Forty Two. “I can handle that.”

Alexander backed up, blocking the demons trying to take advantage. Forty Two came around him. The cleric sliced off the arm of the closest demon as he forced himself into position.

His sword moved only the amount of distance it needed to counter the demons. He only stepped back when he couldn't cut an opponent down with one blow. The arrows came down in the tangle. His blade redirected any that came within arm reach back into the demons. Some of those stray shots dropped an enemy to its knees, or killed it if he was really lucky.

Alexander couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't remember a time when a man could do something like that.

The demons paused, realizing they were caught between two forces. Some turned to rush the Guard barracks. The rest concentrated their ire on the three fighters holding them off.

“You should run,” said Forty Two. “Only the sting of steel awaits you this way.”

The Guard archers fired into the charging demons. Their commander ordered the gates closed and a steady retreat from the monsters. Some of the demons went down from a lucky arrow to the eye. That didn't stop the rest.

The gates slammed in their hideous faces. They crashed into it, trying to break the wooden barrier down. Archers on top of the wall above the gate fired down into their enemies. The demons started climbing to reach them.

The archers fired until their commander ordered them off the wall. They would have to rely on pikes and swords to deal with the demons when they entered the courtyard.

Forty Two blocked all comers as they tried to push past him. He barely attacked unless he had a guaranteed fatal blow. His defense kept the demons trying to circle around the group to get at the other two swordspeople.

Alexander beat down a blow aimed to rip him open as he glanced at the barracks. The guards were going to die unless they did something spectacular to change things around.

He couldn't count on the clerics to expend themselves in the effort. They had already did a lot just keeping this horde chasing them instead of going after the barracks. It was time he exerted himself before he got too weak to do anything at all.

He called on his mastery of time. Everything froze in place around him. He only had a minute to do what he needed to do. He sliced every demon within range in the vitals as fast as he could. He worked himself through the crowd of opponents until he was on the other side.

A trailing cloud of ash blew up behind him when his minute ran out. He glanced at the open path he had carved through the mass. It wasn't as big as Hundred to One's killing stroke, but he had killed a small percentage of his enemies.

Forty Two saw the gap and followed, slicing left and right as he made his way through the creatures trying to block him.

Hundred to One followed him. Her sword stabbed out but she concentrated more on moving quickly than trying to kill any of the demons.

When she was clear of the crowd, she turned and flung the minor storm of swords into them. Clouds of ash drifted down to the ground, but more demons were joining their army.

Alexander stabbed a demon in the back as it tried to climb after its comrades. He looked up. Most of them had reached the ramparts and were dropping inside the wall.

They couldn't save the guards now. The watchmen would have to save themselves. He shook his head as he considered what he could do next.

“Don't worry,” said Forty Two. “We have them where we want them.”

“Some of them got inside,” said Alexander. “There's no way to protect them while we're stuck out here.”

“We have a larger problem,” said Hundred to One. “Reinforcements have arrived for the demons. This might be our own last stand.”

“It was a pleasure to fight with you,” said Forty Two. “You're definitely a queen of the blade.”

“You are too kind,” said Hundred to One. “This has been an invigorating experience for me.”

“I think we should do a run,” said Alexander. He heard the sounds of combat inside the walls of the barracks. The Guard would have to stand on their own. “See if we can lure them into a chase instead of trying to stand up to them. They're wearing us down while we're not really doing anything to them.”

“We're wearing them down, but not as fast as we would like,” said Hundred to One. “We're going to lose this battle unless we change things to be more in our favor.”

“Follow me,” said Alexander. “We'll try to lure them into ambushes while we're leading them away from the barracks. We can't stop them from killing any survivors now. There's too many of them.”

“Go ahead,” said Hundred to One. “We'll be right behind you. If we can kill all of these demons, we'll be listed on the wall of heroes.”

“I'll be glad to be alive,” said Alexander.

“There's no glory in just being alive,” said Forty Two. “You can only get glory by challenging the odds of survival.”

“If you say so,” said Alexander. He started jogging away from the battlefield. The demons started surging after him.

The clerics of Avri Noll vanished as the demons concentrated on the one fighter that had held them for so long. His head would be on a pike for them.

Alexander ran into an alley to create a bottleneck. He wanted them to be compressed so he didn't have to fight all of them at the same time. He frowned at the missing clerics. He couldn't do anything about that now when he had to be ready to fight for his life.

He doubted the masked fighters had gone far. They seemed to want the glory of defeating the army of an enemy with just the two of them. He doubted they had walked away from that.

On the other hand, he had to concentrate on defending himself. He had fought demons for minutes at a time. They were pushing him to the end of his endurance. He needed to do the best he could before their numbers brought him down.

He turned and stabbed a demon that had almost overtaken him. The thing looked surprised. He pulled out his sword and chopped into the monster before it could recover.

“What do you demons think you're doing?,” he asked. “Neil Skaren will never give you what you want.”

“He's already given us what we want,” said one of the demons. “This is our world now.”

“Not yet,” said Alexander.