CHAPTER 105: FIVE MINUTES, THEN WE FLEE

Stahl felt a hefty hand grabbing at her shoulder, pulling her back a step right before the crumbling earth dropped her into a trench. The she-wolf turned to see the orc chief had saved her once more, though Crag was not smiling anymore. The chief spoke gruffly.

"We need to push towards the center. If they split us in two now, we are finished."

Dally yelled back nearby, in a tone laced with exasperation.

"Oh, sure, ’cause we still have a shot against the FUCKING EARTHWYRM ITSELF, right Crag? We need to call this loss for what it is and get our people as far away from this place as possible before we ALL become demon shit."

Stahl spoke up, knowing her opinion would probably matter little to either skilled ally but feeling the need to keep hope alive for her comrade. The husky had grown on her through the battle.

"We have a chance still... Aster has a way. We just have to wait for the right time."

Dally snapped back at the wolf.

"Oh? And when exactly is this right time, Aschefell?"

Stahl sighed a bit before she answered.

"I can’t say for sure when it will happen, but we have to keep fighting. Mollis still has a lot of firepower to use, too, so we aren’t without hope, but we need to do as the chief says and push to reinforce our center to keep that hope. We need you too, Dally."

The husky groaned loudly in protest but finally nodded, yielding to the majority vote. The three started carving their way through the denser fiends with what was left of their battalion, moving at a slower pace than they were hoping to, but seemingly with enough time to hold the line...

That is, until Stahl felt another rumble beneath her paws.

The Earthwyrm resurfaced briefly, immediately aiming down the center of the walls. The demon reared back, and leaned forward, opening its mouth as it shot forth another blast of flesh stripping sand at impossible speed, leaving a cloud of dust to rise above the screaming voices of the warriors just a short ways from the wolf.

The Earthwyrm had partially carved a line down the center of their forces with a single strike and dove back down immediately, taking with it the bodies of the closest victims. It took maybe five seconds for the attack to be carried out before the monster retreated back out of sight.

Stahl saw the orc chief advance regardless, hoping to alleviate the holes in their army. The wolf followed, as did the husky, although mumbling a string of curses under his breath.

After barely holding the center together long enough for the army to tighten up and regroup a bit, Stahl saw another row of larger stone spikes form around the left side to offer a bit of reprieve from the dense numbers, and knew Mollis had made it off the pillar.

If she was using magic like that, the prince was definitely with her to recharge. The she-wolf could only pray her mate was with them still. About half of the fiends had fallen, but the allied forces had lost around half of their formation as well. Stahl saw another ice formation pop up nearby from Dally and made a suggestion to the orc chief nearby.

"If we get Dally and Mollis near each other, we can play off their defenses even still. The prince can give Dally some power also, because I know he has to be running low." Stahl nodded towards the panting husky, and the chief concurred.

"Get him over there, I’ll stay and help build up our forces around you. Good luck."

Stahl nodded swiftly and cut her way over to the husky, telling him the plan. The pair fought their way closer towards the prince’s formation, and Stahl was admittedly relieved when the hulking brown bull came into her sight.

As they neared, Stahl called out to her captain and her prince. As Dally went to the prince for some more power, Stahl caught up the situation with her captain and the rabbit as she looked around and asked the question burning at her mind.

"Where is Aster?"

Mollis gave her a sodden look briefly before she continued her chanting, striking down groups of fiends with her more powerful spells. Captain Rix answered him.

"THE TIGER IS GRABBING HIM, THEY WILL BE HERE SOON. HOLD THE DAMN LINE UNTIL THEY ARE!"

The bull cleaved apart a fiend just as Stahl carved into her own. A moment later, and a large wave of electricity surged across their portion of the battlefield, temporarily stunning the fiends and letting the warriors have a moment to shift as they needed.

Dally retook his place beside the wolf with a smile, looking refreshed as he spoke with a little less hopelessness in his tone.

"That bloodskill really is incredible... That was even stronger than it usually is."

Stahl smiled, feeling they maybe still stood a chance after all. The wolf felt a familiar rumble under her paws again and braced herself for impact.

The Earthwyrm resurfaced, aiming directly at the husky, the bull, and the wolf as it reared back suddenly, and launched a powerful blast of sand towards the three. They jumped out of range quickly, but the Earthwyrm turned its head as its blast spewed forth, following the bull this time.

Mollis made a wall of stone raise to cover the beast within seconds, giving the much needed cover from such a terrible death. It had been just enough to spare the bull, but the Captain quickly had to leap out of the way once again when the demon dove towards him, returning below the surface without pause.

Captain Rix tried to turn and drive his axe into the monster but felt it bounce off easily with a ringing sound as the demon made its descent unscathed and unhindered in the slightest amount. The bull quickly shouted.

"WE HAVE NO WAY TO EVEN PIERCE IT, WE ARE WASTING OUR TIME AND OUR FORCES HERE MOLLIS! NOT EVEN YOU CAN BRING THAT THING DOWN!"

The rabbit was panting heavily, never having used so much magic in a single day. She wasn’t usually the only real mage in a battle of this size either though... Still, she didn’t want to give up.

Mollis felt a tender hand on her shoulder, and felt the prince give her another hefty sum of power, steadying the rabbit’s breathing just enough for her to respond.

"Captain... We can do this... We only have to wait for Aster. He can hold it still."

The bull looked over his shoulder at the rabbit, and furrowed his brow a bit. The captain didn’t think Mollis had a spell strong enough for the job, but he trusted his comrade. The bovine groaned loudly before shouting his answer stoutly.

"YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES, IF THE BOY IS NOT HERE BY THEN, WE FLEE."

Mollis nodded, already chanting as she shifted her arms around a bit. An enormous blob of water formed over a large portion of the swarming fiends, and the rabbit dropped it on them suddenly, sweeping a great many into the trenches and slowing them in the mud.

Dally rushed forward, and shouted the end of his own incantation as he drove the tip of his rapier into the wet earth below. The watery mud reacted violently, and row upon row of spiky, frozen sands speared up violently along the trenches, blocking off another good portion of the battlefield, killing the fiends trapped inside, and giving the defending army the upper hand against the smaller fiends once more.

They were holding, albeit barely.

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