The Bloodmage flinched away from the daggers, and the Daemon pulled with him, leaning dangerously backwards. And then, inexplicably, the creature began to rise up off the ground. The Prince couldn’t believe his eyes—Tomaz had managed to situate himself directly beneath the Daemon and was lifting it into the air.
“LEAH!” the Prince yelled as loudly as he could, pushing his way toward the girl but succeeding in moving barely half a foot in the dense crowd of waiting Kindred soldiers. Leah, daggers flying back toward her as she pulled them with her mind, turned.
“YOU CAN KILL THE BLOODMAGE NOW!”
Without a second’s hesitation, she turned and threw. The daggers flew like steel arrows at the Bloodmage whose Daemon Tomaz had lifted. One pierced its neck, and the other shattered the medallion hanging around its chest.
An enormous explosion rocked the crowd as condensed rock and wood flew in every direction. The Prince was pushed back so violently that he fell to the ground, along with half of the Kindred soldiers surrounding him. A large boulder, smoking as if it had been blown there by Black Powder, landed not four feet in front of him, crushing an unfortunate Kindred soldier.
The Prince frantically pulled himself back to his feet and saw that the blast had been so powerful that the second Daemon had been lifted off its feet and thrown through a nearby building. There was nothing left of the first Daemon but debris.
The Rangers and Rogues were the first to rise, and they converged on the second Daemon’s Bloodmage, pulling it off the Daemon. The Daemon rolled away, crushing Kindred beneath its enormous rocky bulk, and the last sight the Prince saw was of Davydd pulling his valerium sword from the Bloodmage, ashining medallion hanging from his clenched fist, and running off after the monstrous form with a squadron of Rangers close behind him.
As the dust from the Daemon settled to the ground, Tomaz was revealed standing with half of his armor hanging off in twisted scraps. He was panting heavily and covered in bleeding cuts from where sharp bits of rock and wood had sliced his skin. A brief moment passed as both armies seemed to catch their breath, and then the Prince realized that the way was now clear for the rest of the army to make its way through the broken gate.
“TOMAZ!” he shouted.
He drew back the giant’s massive sword, took a step forward, and with a great heaving convulsion threw it with a two-handed swing. It arced end-over-end, and Tomaz caught it by the hilt. He spun and crouched low, just as the first line of Imperial soldiers flooded through the gap in the wall. The sword rose, a shining beacon of Kindred defiance, and came down in a ferocious swing that cleaved the first three Imperials clean in half, armor and all.
There was a thundering roar, and two more Daemons pushed through the gate with another flood of Imperial soldiers directly behind them. The Kindred rushed forward as well, cries of defiance ringing from every throat, and the battle began in earnest.
Time moved in jerky, half-seen flashes: the Prince found himself at the front of the Kindred attack, once more fighting beside Leah and Tomaz, his valerium sword swinging like a white flame through everything that stood in his path. The sword swung and hung frozen in air, and then came down and struck with blinding speed. The sword swung again and took a second man, and time sped up as the lives were added to the Prince and his movements became easier, the valerium sword suddenly no heavier than a child’s practice blade; time slowed again as he ducked behind Tomaz’s back, his eyes catching sight of another Imperial soldier; with a snarl of anger, the Prince brought his sword up with all his strength and unseamed the man from stomach to chin.
But despite their best efforts, the Kindred were pushed backward inch by inch. The next two Daemons, swinging their maces back and forth and wiping out broad swaths of Kindred soldiers, were an unstoppable force. Soon the Prince found himself backed into a side road off of the main courtyard in front of the gate, still fighting alongside Leah and Tomaz, but unable to advance as the Kindred were forced farther and farther backwards by the deadly spiked metal club of an advancing Daemon. Tomaz tried once more to roll forward and get under the Daemon but was nearly scalped as the Bloodmage riding the monster anticipated the move and commanded the Daemon to bring the butt of the mace down in a quick slicing motion. The Prince did his best to make his way past the thing’s guard and cut it with his valerium blade, but as soon as he was near enough to do damage, the Imperial soldiers drove him back.
Soon they were completely off the main road, and the superiorly armed Imperial army was engaging with the main body of Kindred as the second Daemon forced more of the splintered force off in the other direction.
“Shadows and fire—what do we do now?!” Leah cried in frustration.
“I don’t know!” the Prince called back, cutting down a man who had forced his way forward, but leaving him alive.
As if in response, there was a resounding crash, and the wall of a nearby house exploded outward. The Prince jumped and rolled away, springing back to his feet and turning to confront this new threat. His eyes rose and fear took hold of his heart as he beheld the final Earth Daemon, the dark figure of a Bloodmage on its back, with the shining medallion hanging around its neck—it must have made its way through the mangled gate while they had been busy dealing with the other two.
The Daemon took a step forward into the light of a nearby torch and the Prince froze. The red-and-white soldiers charged forward, headed by the first Daemon and Bloodmage who could smell victory, and the Kindred around thePrince all settled into defensive stances, faces grim but still set with determination.
The Prince, however, remained motionless, his sword forgotten. He had just realized something that should have been impossible: it wasn’t a Bloodmage riding the Daemon.
It was Davydd Goldwyn.
The mace descended and veered at the last second. The Kindred watched in shock and amazement as it struck the first Daemon full in the face and knocked it completely off of its feet and onto its back. Immediately, Davydd’s Daemon stepped forward and brought the mace down on the Bloodmage, killing him and causing a second explosion of rock and flying splinters that carved a broad swath out of the Imperial soldiers, who had no idea what had hit them.
The Daemon’s arm rose again, and the Prince and the Kindred charged forward, joining in the battle. The Imperial soldiers stood strong for about half a second, and then Davydd’s Daemon leaned forward, opened its rock-and-moss covered mouth, and let out a bellow loud enough to shake the walls of the houses around them. It swung its mace one more time, and then the Imperial soldiers turned and ran for their lives back up the boulevard.
As they gave chase, making their way back to the wall, the Prince ran up to Davydd.
“How… how?!”
“Does it look like I know?!” the red-eyed man roared back with a roguish smile that showed quite clearly he was having the time of his life. “I just point and hope it goes that way!”
Doing exactly that, theeshendaipointed toward the crowd of Imperial soldiers surrounding the final Daemon and the monster charged. As it lumbered away, the Prince noticed the medallion of the dead Bloodmage swinging around Davydd’s neck.
The Prince let out a fierce shout that was taken up by the Kindred around him, and they ran after the red-eyed Ranger.
The Kindred were now able to engage the Imperial army directly, and it soon became clear that while the Imperials were better armed, better organized, and all around the more efficient soldiers, it was the Kindred who were unstoppable. Arrows were being continuously fired into the group, finding weak points in the red-and-white armor, and forced as they were to concentrate their attack through the bottleneck of the gate, the Army of Roarke was unable to bring their superior numbers to bear.
Davydd’s Daemon, backed now by the full might of the Kindred army, felled the final Daemon and threw it bodily over the wall. A cheer went up from the Kindred, and their attack redoubled, the Imperial army forced all the way back through the gates.
“Drive them from the city!” Davydd shouted; he disappeared through the gate on the shoulders of the massive beast of rock and wood, and the Kindred followed, attacking the fleeing Imperials. The Prince, swept up in the moment, followed them through the gate on the heels of Davydd’s Daemon.
