Lar’s Royal Guards positioned themselves with well-practised ease. Sword- and axe-wielders formed a broad line blocking off the progress of the approaching demons; archers moved up behind them to fire over their comrades and bombard their enemies. The Queen’s location, in a central position on the front line, enabled her to call commands to all parts of her group.

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Now only eighty yards away, the Northerner footmen closed in like a raging flood of flesh and razor-edged metal...

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“Archers!” roared Lar. “Hit them hard!”

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Three hundred shafts whistled through the air over the bladesmen to meet the nearest demons. Expressions on hideous, down-horned heads changed from snarls to pain-filled gasps. Bodies twisted and contorted under impact before collapsing amid showers of froth-blood...

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The Queen didn’t need to order a second volley – as soon as the archers had loaded and redrawn their bows, more arrows were hurtling through the air...

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Fifty yards distant, the new front line of the demon chargers exploded with injuries and spilling blood. Lar heard a resounding crack when an arrow split a demon’s skull; her eyes caught sight of an enemy warrior hit by more than a dozen steel-headed shafts – for a moment this struck form resembled some kind of uncanny tree, then, twitching wildly,  it dropped to the ground and was over-run...

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Thirty yards. The angle of the Humans’ arrows cast most of them beyond the foremost demons. Now the slaughter they unleashed was only glimpsed as shapes dropping inside the surging crowd, or brief jets of blue blood from severed arteries.

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Ten yards. The sound of cast arrows was hidden by the closeness of rushing demon flesh and the swooping of their lethal weapons...

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Lar bellowed, brandishing her own sword: “Let’s cut these vermin down to size!”

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In spite of the would-be protectors around the Queen – all intent on ensuring her safety – the woman’s lithe, armoured form was the first to send her sword at the Northerners when the two forces clashed. Her blade expertly performed a loop, first arcing down to hack through the forelegs of her chosen target and then whirling around to slice off that monster’s head while it fell. A savage kick sent the butchered corpse into the Northerner behind – the crashing impact knocked the demon back and prevented it from attacking. In contrast to the broad motion of her previous swordplay, Lar nimbly shifted forward, thrust her weapon and stabbed its tip into the second demon’s gullet... The creature staggered, dropping its scythe and clutching its gushing wound...

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Davin, on Lar’s right, was less seasoned than many of his comrades – but closeness to the Queen bolstered his strength and prowess. His first swing struck a tendril-hand clenching the haft of a scythe. Worming fingers were severed by his keen edge and the demon’s weapon smashed against its own face. The blow made the Northerner blink and by the time its eyes opened again, Davin had ripped a deep gouge across its throat...

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He turned upon seeing a rush of movement on his right, but could not avoid the hulking form that dropped towards him – a Northerner’s sagging corpse. The weight of the body knocked him to his knees, just as a scythe swept from the left for his neck. Davin’s fall saved him and the arcing blade missed his head by less than an inch. Amazed at his luck, the man reacted from a crouch – slashing his sword through his new opponent’s forelegs. He rose up fast and beheaded the crumpling thing… Another enemy was already in range and lashing out its scythe...

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Of the thirteen hundred demons which had rushed from the Garrison towards Lar’s Royal Guards, arrows had slain perhaps six hundred before the close-quarter fighting started. The bloody blades of the Queen’s front lines of warriors vanquished the rest in a matter of minutes, disintegrating the greater force into splinters of surviving enemies, then surrounding and annihilating these mercilessly.

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Lar wiped at what she thought was sweat saturating her face. A look at her steel-gloved hand found the liquid to be a mixture of Human and demon blood. She failed to consider that the crimson might be her own, for pumping adrenaline prevented her feeling any of the half-dozen minor wounds she had suffered.

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An animalistic snarl escaped her lips and vicious satisfaction lit her eyes. She shifted her attention from the body-strewn area close-by to the northern defences.

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The Garrison was lost under an ever-moving shroud of crawling Northerners – using the building to penetrate the Humans’ perimeter, climbing to enter the south-face windows or laying siege to the windows of the Garrison’s other sides. On the steps of the Garrison – where, days ago, Lar and Pec had met Captain Gharl before his death on Deshnere Plain – another group of demon footmen were assembling, in order to send a second wave of attack at Lar’s legion.

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“Archers,” she snapped. “Target those curs in front of the Garrison. Make them bleed for me.”

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Either side of the Garrison, the demons had eagerly expanded their invasion of the barricades. In response to Lar’s orders, all the Human forces further away were fighting a retreat to positions alongside her Royal Guards. Numerous lengths of barricade and several buildings had already been abandoned to the demon hordes. A rough line of battered and bleeding fighters was establishing itself as the new northern side of the Humans’ perimeter. This line wouldn’t have the advantage of barricades, but nor would it suffer the disadvantage of the Garrison...

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All the catapults and launchers close to the Palace were now manned and firing. Fiery streaks of light coursed over Lar’s warriors to come down as tons of burning rubble, each load hammering dozens of invaders into a blazing crater... The demons’ response was the one Lar expected – for the monsters on the Garrison’s roof had had enough time to move and prepare a few of the weapons they had liberated. Two fire-lit masses of rock were cast from the roof together and passed right over the new northern perimeter to crash against the Palace itself...

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“It won’t be long until their targeting improves,” Davin rasped, “and they’ll have those catapults raining right down on us.”

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Lar nodded bitterly. “It’s a perfect site for bombarding enemies – that’s why we chose it.”

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“Do you think there’s anyone left alive in the Garrison now?” the man asked next.

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“Definitely,” she answered him, “or the demons wouldn’t still be attacking it.”

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“May the Gods help our people in there.”

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“I hope they do... because we surely can’t.”

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