The captain’s frown was a dead giveaway of his uneasiness.

“This is definitely not good.” The infernal siblings said at the same time, looking at each other.

“You must send out your scouts and speed up taking back the city.” Osmond shared his opinion on the dreary matter.

“We would if we could,” the captain grumbled. “But we’re already stretched as thin as it is. The people are starving and our Landwaker tree has been greatly harmed by an outlander several days ago. Since most of our spellcasters were drafted into the war early on along with the more experienced clerics, we have no means to defend against both the fallen and the threat of a demon army at the same time.”

“What about those mercenaries from yesterday?” the young spell weaver asked. “They’re all tier two shardwakers, weren’t they?”

“What,” the man almost choked. “If we had an entire warband of second tier warriors, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. Their leader, Zareef is indeed a second tier spellcaster, but they only have one other in their entire group.” The captain sighed as he kept on staring at the map that had dozens of small skulls doodled on it.

“Still; Zareef and his men won’t lift a finger without expecting a hefty sum of coins in return.”

“This is bullshit,” Cruz scoffed. “Their equipment is…”

“Is where all their coins went,” the soldier sighed, as if understanding the wood elf’s anger. “Zareef managed to commission that fancy staff of his from the local enchanter just before the war broke out. It cost him the price of an estate from what I heard. As for the others; they were already kitted out when they arrived.”

“Even if they have only two second tier members,” Letty spoke up suddenly. “Shouldn’t they help retaking the town with an equipment like that? That’s like… like army grade stuff. They should be able to take out the demons and the fallen easily, if they work together with your men.”

“Perhaps they could,” Fletcher sighed even deeper. “But the mercenaries only agreed to hold the walls for a price and they won’t do anything else to aid us in retaking East Fork.”

“Figures,” Valerie scoffed as she looked at the map. “They’re mercenaries, not idiots. If the city gets retaken too fast, that will cut into their profit.”

“Let’s just hope they are too lazy to care about anyone else who leaves the inner city. We don’t need any more trouble than what we already got on our hands.” Osmond stated while the rest of the group nodded in agreement.

“Which outer gate is in the same direction as the spell weavers’ guild?” Regis turned their conversation towards the more important part, seeing that the map didn’t point out the guild’s general position.

“The guild, why?” The soldier asked back with his eyebrows rising.

“I have a gateway talisman and if the guild’s portal is undamaged, we might be able to call for some additional reinforcements from Hunor.”

“Oh, it’s the north-east gate over here.” he pointed at a large square on the map. “If you want the shortest path, then you’ll have to go through the gates over here, then use this road. Take a right and soon a left before following the alleyway towards the guild’s building. It’s on the middle of the Scholar’s Square and has a large tower, so you shouldn’t miss it.”

“Are there any spellcasters left in there whom we could ask for help?” Letty questioned the captain, earning a firm head shake from the man.

“As I said before, all of the older and more experienced alchemists, enchanters and spellcasters have been drafted into the war along with their most promising apprentices. The ones that were left behind in elder Jonah’s care are far too young and weak to be of use in a battle.” Fletcher explained in a tired tone.

“They were given miscellaneous chores, so that they could help the refugees and our soldiers in any way possible. The guild itself has been locked down by master Qadir before he left, but the gateway you’re talking about should be in an open alcove on the right side of the building, if I remember correctly.”

“Let’s hope it still works.” The young spell weaver ended the conversation as he turned around to head for the door.”

“Um, Regis,” Amanda called out after him. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“She’s talking about the food.” Sophie pointed out to the dark elf when he just stared back at the blacksmith with the puzzled expression.

“Food? Are you asking if you will be given anything to eat?” the man questioned, letting out a defeated sigh after receiving a unified nod from everyone. “Our reserves are almost completely gone and the Landwaker grows less and less fruit due to the damage that was done to it by another foolish outlander.”

“Letty,” Quentin turned towards the young wood elf. “Do you have any spells that could help mend the tree?”

“I do,” she nodded. “But I don’t know no how effective it will be, since we’re talking about a magic tree and not some ordinary one.”

“There’s no harm in trying to help,” the wannabe paladin reassured her. “Helping that tree would greatly benefit everyone.”

“It should also make the people around here less hostile towards us.” Cruz added in a matter of fact tone as she headed towards the door as well.

“Well captain,” Regis turned his attention towards the soldier that was staring at them confused. “Would you give a chance to our budding druid to try and heal your Landwaker tree?”

“Well… I mean, it’s not my decision to make, but if elder Jonah agrees, then she’s most welcome to try.”

“Alright, I think we have and agreement then. Well head out to close that gate of yours while you keep Letty safe and make sure she gets to talk with your elder regarding the matter of the tree.”

“But what if you need me out there?” The wood-elf girl tried to protest, but her sister just simply patted her on the back.

“Don’t worry, we got this. I won’t let these idiots bite off more than they can chew.”

“Like you’re the one to talk.” Osmond shook his head as everyone but Letty and the captain left the guard tower.

As their conversation ended, golden words flared into life in the air in front of Regis’ eyes.

{The town of East Fork has been overrun by the fallen. Those that survived are desperate and starving, hope waning day by day. The local guards are planning to re-take the city from the undead, but the outer gates of the town must be closed first to prevent more of the fallen to get inside. Danger and opportunities lay ahead, fortune and treasures ready to be seized by those capable. You have until sundown to close the northeastern gate, or risk more enemy reaching East Fork.}

‘The Heart sure has a flair for dramatics.’ Regis thought as he read the message while walking. Once they were far enough from the wall to not be heard, Sophie couldn’t help, but question the things that happened.“Are you sure that leaving Letty there was a good idea?”

“I really hope so,” Osmond answered near immediately. “Her druidic magic is pretty much useless in the middle of a city. This way at least she’ll be protected by that guy and she might even be able to heal that Landwaker tree.”

“That guy,” Amanda mumbled. “We didn’t even ask his actual name.”

“He didn’t ask ours either.” Khan shrugged as he waded through the awakening crowd of refugees.

“Still, we should have asked his name. If nothing else it, would have been good to know in case we have to talk to someone and mention him.”

“We know that he’s called Fletcher,” Fabian sighed. “So that should be enough for now. Let’s just concentrate on the things we can still manage.”

“Yeah, I really hope we can find some food along the way because these guys won’t give us shit for sure.” Amanda grumbled.

“The spell weavers’ guild sounds to be a bust as well,” Valerie added as she fiddled with her whip. “That captain guy said that it has been locked down by some master spellcaster before he left to join the war effort.”

“We’ll see when we get there. If nothing else, at least the gateway should be available for us.”

“For what little that good that does,” Khan scoffed. “Even if we can go back through that portal thingy, aren’t those crazy dark elves still there, waiting for us, armed to the teeth?”

“It’s more likely that they’re already on their way here.” Fabian stated as the north-east gate of the inner town came into view.”

“Just another reason for us to hurry up and get the fuck out of this hellhole.” Cruz spat on the ground, nearly hitting a refugee’s shoes.

“Alright, enough morning grumbling,” Quentin calmed them down. “The sun is rising and we have a job to do.”

“Look at you go handsome,” Valerie chuckled. “But you are right; it’s hard time we got things done.”

“Agreed.” The rest of the group said as one as they finally reached the north east gate of the inner town. As soon as they got near, a familiar reaction greeted them from the guards

“Halt!” The soldiers raised their voice while reaching for their weapons.

“Easy there fellas,” Khan called out to the men. “Your captain sent us out on a mission.”

“Captain?” they asked. “What captain?”

“The man at the other gate with the scruffy beard and the small scar on the right side of this eyebrow. Fletcher or what’s his name.”

“Show some respect when you’re talking about captain Hyord!”

“I meant no disrespect,” Khan sighed. “It’s just that he didn’t introduce himself during our short conversation, so we only know him as Fletcher.”

“Anyway,” Regis brought the guards’ attention to himself. “He explained the current situation of East Fork and asked us to try and close the north-eastern gate if possible while culling as much of the fallen as we can.”

The guards looked at each other with a sarcastic smirk after eyeing up the outlander warband.

“Well, if the captain asked you to go outside and get yourself killed, who are we to stop you? Open the gates!” The soldier yelled and the heavily reinforced city gates opened with an audible creak.

The group left the safety of the inner town with a less than friendly expression plastered on their faces. As the gate closed behind them, a set of grumbles and curses followed the gate’s creaking.

“I really want to punch those sons of bitches in the face!” Cruz cursed as she swung her staff over her shoulder.

“Yeah, they’re a really friendly bunch, aren’t they?”

“First, we should get what we came here for done.” The dark elf shook his head as he looked towards the incoming fallen in the near distance.

Several undead soldiers shambled about not far ahead of them on the grey cobblestone street. Most of them seemed to be well-armed with barely any damage to be seen on their bodies. The swordsmen held wide bladed bronze swords with two of the enemies even having iron weapons. An archer held a bow similar to Sophie’s new acquisition and the tall fellow with the two handed axe was the obvious definition of a barbarian.

“Wow, they really do start out heavy from the get go.” Valerie whistled at the incoming attackers.

“Shields up everyone!” Regis reminded them before casting his arcana shield.

The warband moved out to to meet their opponents halfway, an arrow from Sophie taking out the hostile archer as soon as it came into range. Spells were flung at the stronger opponents in hopes of weakening or even crippling them, two of the swordsmen falling on the ground before they even reached into melee range. Fabien had to side-step in order to dodge the large axe of the berserker before casting a small lightning bolt straight at its head. Quentin blocked a sword with his upgraded shield, answering it in kind with his own blade while Valerie unfurled her whip, only to burst another undead skull into flames with the precise strike. Osmond tried his best to get used to the rapier form of his cane with Cruz protecting him from any excess enemies that would come towards him. Regis willed his staff to grow a blade at its end and swung it at the iron weapon wielding swordsman, using his steadily developing combat skills and mobility to their utmost. The fight seemed to be fast paced, ending in barely over two minutes, but the consequence of the hasty battle was a group out of breath. “Well that was fun,” Khan gave out strained laugh as he wiped off the black blood from his weapons after gathering whatever Amaranth he could from his fallen enemies. “We’ll be levelling up like crazy at this rate.”

“We’ll be dying like crazy at this rate!” Cruz corrected the warrior’s words as she looked into the distance where she could see several other fallen shambling about.

“Let’s just follow the road that Hyord guy showed us on the map and maybe we can avoid the larger groups.” Quentin said as he patted down on his opponent’s pockets for anything of value.

“I see you’re settling in to the pragmatic lifestyle quite fast.” Fabien goaded the wannabe paladin, seeing the man take a few coins along with a somewhat damaged iron dagger.

“I’m not a cop any more,” Quentin answered in a monotone way. “We need everything we can make use of, so I’ll take what I can get.”

“That’s true,” Amanda nodded as she picked up the heavy bronze axe of the fallen berserker. “But we won’t be able to bring everything along with us. There’s just too much stuff to gain from these fights.”

“We could just stash them in small cashes along the way, so that we could retrieve them later on.” Khan pointed out as he pocketed a few bronze coins.“We could,” Valerie agreed. “But first, let’s recycle the corpses and get our pays in the meantime.”

“Every shard counts.” Her brother added.

“Every shard counts.” Regis agreed with the sentiment as he pricked his finger, initiating the corpse sacrifice on the four undead he felled.