The carpet sped over the Bokyaku river by moonlight. The far side of the river seemed empty but as they reached the middle of the lake, hellfire flared into sight as a wall of it rose to block their way. Damarys gripped the carpet tightly as Zeter swerved to avoid running into it. She wished Ketty could have given them a flying carpet that could fly higher up, but then again, the higher they flew, the more dangerous it would be if they fall off. The wall of hellfire wasn’t terribly long but it moved along the shore as Zeter flew, maintaining its obstruction. The carpet was lighter now, though, with only Zeter and Damarys on it and they were able to eventually get ahead skirt around the wall of hellfire and reach the shore.

Shrieking fiends were already charging at them and getting ready to defend their stronghold. Arrows streaked from her bow as Damarys fired at the fiends, picking off the nearest ones before turning her attention to the larger, more threatening fiends. Zeter got a few spells off, coating a number of the fiends in a sticky goo that kept them from being able to fly, but most of his attention was on flying the carpet.

“I can see a lot of other fiends back there,” Zeter called out. “Looks like they’re being held back, either to guard the master rune or because they can’t resist the controlling runes Kasyn’s already repaired.”

“Let’s hope it’s the latter,” Damarys replied as she fired her bow again, catching a fiend in the forehead and turning it to dust.

They were racing along the shoreline still, heading towards the city wall that separated Ichiba Wa from Chikara Wa. The master rune, they knew from Kasyn’s fiend, was on the Tower of Light’s chapel, several miles to the south and much closer to Lake Shibo. By keeping the river on one side, of them, they could keep the fiends from surrounding them which in turn made defending themselves easier.

Not that it was easy.

Zeter had his barrier spells up and several times hellfire exploded on the barrier, raining down around them. With each impact, Zeter grunted and sweat rolled down his face. When they reached the city wall, Zeter tuned the carpet, replacing the river with the wall to keep the fiends from being able to surround them. Though now the fiends were in front of them, rather than on their side. Punching through would be difficult, to say the least.

Zeter stopped the carpet just long enough for him to cast a spell, blasting a shock wave out in front of them and scattering the lesser fiends and staggering the rest. It was enough of an opening for them to shoot through the mass of bodies and begin speeding towards the chapel. A moment later, the fiends were recovered and back in pursuit.

“Almost out of arrows,” Damarys called out over the noise of the rushing wind and howling fiends.

Zeter nodded and held out his hand. As she fired her last arrow, she placed her quiver into his outstretched hand. He lifted it up and held it out towards the direction they’d come. A moment later, the fiends in the back of the pursuing mob began to cry out as arrows struck them from behind. The arrows that did make it through returned to the quiver and were ready to be fired once again. It wasn’t a full quiver by any means, but even a partial refilling was worth a lot in their current situation.

The number of fiends was dropping as Damarys and Zeter struck out at them, refilling her quiver as often as was needed. Each time, her quiver was a little less full than the time before as arrows broke, or were lodged too deeply into a fiend to be recalled, but so too were the number of fiends diminished each time.

“I’m going to focus on the barrier for a little,” Zeter called out as they reached what Damarys thought was the midway point towards the chapel. “Gotta conserve my strength. Maybe summon your arrows once more.”

“No point,” Damarys called back. “There were only five good ones last time.”

They knew from the outset that this would be a mad dash across the eastern side of Ichiba Wa with little hope of actually reaching the chapel. Their only hope was that they could last long enough, draw enough attention and do enough damage along the way that Kasyn would have a chance at completing his part of the plan.

Fire erupted in front of them and this time Zeter didn’t swerve fast enough. They burst through the wall of fire and for better or worse the carpet took the brunt of it, catching fire and burning away beneath them. With a shout, they came crashing down to the ground. Damarys rolled and came up with her last arrow and fired it through the chest of the first fiend she saw. It turned to dust before more hellfire exploded above them.

Zeter’s barrier saved them but only just. He was panting as the fiends spread out around and above them. Without the carpet giving them speed, there was no way to stay ahead of the mob. More fiends were arriving now, coming from the direction of the chapel, reinforcing the dwindling forces that had been set up to guard the river.

“Get up against the wall,” Zeter panted.

He threw an orb of goo at the fiends in the air and caught a few of them but most just flew out of the way, cackling.

“Drink of water?” Damarys offered Zeter the canteen.

“Thanks,” he gulped down a couple mouthfuls of water before handing it back.

“Looks like this is where we stand our ground,” Damarys said, pulling a second quiver of arrows from her pack. These ones glowed faintly in the dark night.

“Agreed,” Zeter said as he doubled up his barriers. “I’m going to be over channeling soon. Catch me if I fall.”

The night flashed with daylight as Damarys loosed the first arrow, blessed by Kasyn. It struck the fiend she’d been aiming at and exploded, taking several other fiends with it. At the same time, Zeter cast a spell that dragged all the smaller fiends into one central location, which Damarys immediately fired another arrow into, blasting them all into dust.

It didn’t take a genius to see what they were doing and the fiends spread out as quickly as they could to avoid either Zeter’s gravity spell or Damarys’ explosive arrows. It meant the fiends couldn’t concentrate their fire as much, but also meant Damarys and Zeter’s attacks weren’t as effective either.

Zeter double cast his gravity spell, pulling fiends in from two directions and allowing Damarys to blast them with an arrow but doing so was even more taxing on him. Blood began to run down his eyes and nose. The fiends began to fall back out of range of Damarys and Zeter’s attacks.

“Can’t do that again,” he grunted. “How many arrows do you have left?”

“Seven,” Damarys replied.

Kasyn had only been able to bless ten of them, after all. A paltry number of arrows in most situations but they were powerful enough to make even the more powerful fiends think twice before rushing in to attack. Fortunately, her bow had a longer range than the fiends magic and none of them was over eager to be the first to cross into her range.

“How long before they just rush us?” Damarys asked.

“A while, I hope.”

Zeter sat down on the ground and leaned his head against the wall. His eyes remained open, however, as he watched the fiends carefully to make sure they weren’t caught by surprise. He never let the barrier drop and the shimmered around them as proof of its continued existence.

“You doing okay?” Damarys asked while Zeter wiped his face clean.

The blood had stopped flowing but his hands were shaky and his face was pale.

“I’ll be alright, just conserving my strength,” he replied. “Got any more water?”

She handed him the canteen and he drank the rest of it.

A fiend leapt forward, taking advantage of Damarys’ and Zeter’s conversation to try and close the distance and get in an attack. It was halfway to them when Damarys’ arrow struck it and turned it to dust in a blinding flash. As the glare of the light faded, Damarys saw more fiends rushing forward. They’d used the momentary blindness caused by the exploding arrow to mask the beginning of their own assault. Zeter leapt back to his feet and fired off spells to slow them down while also bolstering his shield while Damarys fired her arrows as carefully as she could, trying to catch as many of the fiends in each blast as possible.

Five arrows left.

Four.

Three.

The fiends retreated. Zeter fell to his knees and threw up onto the ground. His barrier wavered but didn’t fall. All around them the ground was scorched by hellfire but they were unharmed. Damarys counted only fifteen remaining fiends. If she could get them close enough together, she could take them out, but they were all staying well apart and watching Damarys and Zeter, waiting for any moment of distraction or weakness they could exploit.

“If I pass out,” Zeter panted, “the barrier will drop and they’ll attack.”

Damarys had been thinking the same thing and she suspected the fiends were as well. From the looks of it, it was only a matter of time before Zeter lost consciousness since even just maintaining the barrier now was becoming too much for him.

“How long do you think it’s been?” he asked, closing his eyes and steadying his breathing.

“Since we crossed the river? Maybe five minutes.”

“You think that’s enough time?”

“Depends on how many fiends we were able to draw away from the chapel.”

“You’re supposed to say it was enough and that everything’s going to be okay,” Zeter chuckled weakly. “That’s how it works. I ask you if we did enough…and you say it was enough.”

He was trying to prop himself up against the wall but he was too weak to sit up on his own so Damarys helped him.

“It was enough,” she told him and a faint smile flickered on his lips.

“Good,” he sighed and his head slumped down to his chest as the barrier flickered and went out.

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