Metal squealed and screeched and thumped as sharp claws and blunt limbs struck at our wall constantly. The swift victory we had experienced was overshadowed by the dire position we found ourselves in. The space we allowed our foes to occupy was small, but could still fit six or seven demons shoulder to shoulder.

  “I don’t know how much longer we can hold this!” Marcus growled through gritted teeth. Bruce, the rogue from his group took that comment as a moment to catch his breath, bracing his back against Marcus and providing some relief for the tank.

  I swapped my focus to the demon in front of Marcus and channeled Decay near its neck and shoulder. In just a second the earthy brown skin that was vibrant and full of life grayed and wrinkled. “Anna!” I yelled.

  A brush of cold air raced over us as a line of ice as thin as wire raced through the air. It sliced into that decaying flesh like a hot knife through butter and exploded out the other side, toppling the demon’s head clean off.

  Another down, and yet… the mass of remaining demons rampaged closely behind. A new demon came forward to replace it as if nothing had happened. The weight of their push doubled the front forces’ efforts. Not that the seven or so demons that faced us needed any help—their strength was overpowering, and outside of Alan and Richard, none of our tanks could stand toe to toe with one and avoid being pushed back.

  We had lost half a dozen feet already, and had been pinched tighter in between the abodes. Our space to maneuver was near gone, even more so now that my skeletons were positioned behind the tanks to brace them. Fortunately, my mages were able to pelt spells above our makeshift shield wall, for what little good it seemed to do.

  Our melee classes were having the roughest time, forced to squeeze in against each other. The required effort to strike was horrendous, and the returns equally so. The demons’ carapaces were incredibly resistant to melee attacks. Even Alan had opted to use the Rend special ability of his sword as his main source of damage.

  Our ranged classes had a better time of it, every few seconds felling another demon. Still, we were being pushed back faster than we were eliminating them. Our tanks ‘health dwindled to around eighty percent as Ryan and Rebekah spammed heals, constantly replenishing their HP at the cost of their MP, which was around thirty percent.

  Thomas was saving MP for the boss, whom still hadn’t moved. It watched coldly from a distance, seemingly uninterested. The negative aura radiating from the demon lord was smothering.

  “We’re winning!” Alan roared, which helped to offset a bit of that morale-sucking atmosphere their boss was emitting. Everyone was slowly coming into the role they needed to fulfill.

  Evee had already accustomed herself to working with Anna, Jessica and Maria. As the only real ranged amongst the other groups, she learned fast. The sturdy defenses proved difficult for her as well, and so she began to abuse the status effects the others provided.

  Anna’s Frost made the demons’ hide brittle, and bullets would often shatter and deal even more devastating damage to those places than unaffected regions. Anna’s Blizzard was the biggest factor as to why we hadn’t been completely over-run as of yet, too.

  But Evee especially liked the effects of Jessica’s Godless Arrow. The resulting explosion of gore often left plenty of squishy and exposed parts of flesh, which her bullets did amazing work at penetrating. My Decay also worked in a similar way, and she learned most of this by watching Maria in action.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Maria herself didn’t have much penetrating power either, but once there was an opening, it wasn’t uncommon to see a Demon blasted into a dozen different pieces. By now most of us were covered in a layer of grime, and whether it was blood or a mixture of dirt and earth, I really didn’t want to know. Still, Maria had become amazing at picking out the weak spots.

  Jessica was wreaking the most havoc amongst the Demons, and any that did not die to a single Godless Arrow to the head, Evee followed up with an Explosive Shot. I could see the toll it was taking on Jessica though. Her face drenched in sweat and was pale in the dim lighting. Godless Arrow expended a massive amount of MP. The time between her shots dwindled.

  “Do you need a mana potion?” I asked her.

  Jessica pulled one from her inventory immediately and wiped her forehead, “I have a few left.” She smiled and then quickly chugged it back. I couldn’t tell her to take it easy now. The faster we dispatched the yard trash, the more we could save for the boss.

  Seeing her go all out, made me realize I couldn’t be half-assed either. Spikey #1 and #2 received a summons as well as my two reincarnations, which also happened to be demons. Keeping them in the back wasn’t an option anymore.

  “You two be extra cautious,” I yelled at Mark and Glenn. They were holding up the rear, and as of yet nothing had tried to wrap around our line of tanks. The demons were simply rushing us as if mindless. They didn’t care for their fallen comrades.

  We were winning, and if the battle continued in this fashion we would win. My skeletons that were bracing the tanks separated and I sent them out like a swarm. They dogpiled a demon Bethany was tanking and with my Decay as help, dispatched it in a few seconds.

  I don’t think my skill could even be called Decay anymore. It had evolved in someway, and I had no chance to check right now, but it seemed incredibly powerful. It was past the point of being as simple as a Decay. Our enemies were withering rapidly, and that skill seemed to completely decimate their physical defense.

  This was how I was meant to ‘play’. Sure, I was useful in group battles, but my specialty was via power in numbers. If I focused all of my summoned undead on a single demon, I could kill it just as fast, or faster than Jessica, and more efficiently.

  The oppressive onslaught against us started to recede as more and more demons perished. The next demon to step up arrived after we had regained some ground, and with this momentum our melee started to go on the offense.

  Lucas and Bruce began to move together, doubling their efforts by joining my undead. They were a swarm of death rushing back and forth on the battlefield, and any demon they surrounded fell just seconds later.

  “KEEP IT UP!” Lucas yelled. He pulled his blade from the underarm of a demon and flicked the blood into the dirt. He rushed towards another and along with Spikey #1 and Spikey #2, cut the legs clean off at the knees. Bruce then brought his weapon straight down onto the back of its unprotected skull.

  We had torn the battle wide open. The amount of demons was at least half the initial figure, maybe even close to a third by now. Everyone was adapting fast, quickly forming into the role we needed to survive. We were trading our resources for the demons lives, and no one was unhappy with that trade—anything we could trade instead of our lives was good.

  “Stay close!” Marcus yelled at everyone. No one wanted to slip up in the last minutes, so we didn’t break formation. We kept our flanks safe between the abodes.

  “Use your potions!” I yelled at everyone. There was no reason to be greedy now. “Alan are you ready?” I asked. The boss hadn’t moved, but surely it would come soon. We were slaughtering the demons like cattle now.

  There must have only been seven or eight left. Our wall was impenetrable, and Alan was ready. So why did I feel so uneasy? My eyes remained glued to the boss: it was never this simple.

  The remaining demons stopped fighting mindlessly and even backed away. Things seemed to pause, but for no good reason other than our slaughter. Had we won? “Don’t let your guard down.” I growled.

  And no one did let their guard down, but it didn’t seem to matter. It was like a bolt of lightning, something so inconceivably fast that it wasn’t avoidable, at least not the first time we saw it.

  A pillar of red jutted from the ground and stabbed through Ryan’s torso. He didn’t move, but instead was impaled in place and then lifted a foot into the air as the spike tore him apart from within. “Huh… What?” was all he could muster. The attack so sudden, so shocking, that he hadn’t even felt the pain, if he could even feel it.

  There was no second muttering. The spike disappearing as if it had teleported. His body fell limply as we all looked on in horror. I recognized what it was now, that protruding spike—It was blood. The puddle of blood we were standing in had formed into a spear.

  All these dead demons… their reckless abandon. “We might have been played…” I said.