"Hit them low," screamed Ivy, not bothering to look back over her shoulder. The Siegebreakers were tight on her heels, and she could hear thuds and screams as they overran any leftover orcs still littering the walkway. She raced along the top of the wall-head down, braid swinging, fists tight, forehead lined, and eyes narrowed-as she tried to turn herself into an one-woman battering ram. Nothing like flying into a fight with an empty scabbard, she thought.
Ivy barreled into the magelord and the orc, breaking the two apart. A joyously barking Wiggles dashed through her feet. Ivy teetered. Sanval grabbed her waist and steadied her upright as he twisted her out of danger and skewered one of Fottergrim's startled hobgoblin bodyguards. Ivy leaned around him and caught an answering slash of a sword on her forearm armor.
"Thank you," said Sanval, following her earlier advice and dropping low to slash at the knees of another bodyguard who was trying to scramble out of their way.
"It was nothing," panted Ivy, hoping that the blow had only bruised her arm and not broken anything. "Where did the dog go?"
Ahead of them, Wiggles zigzagged around a raging Fottergrim, heading straight for Archlis. The little white dog bit the magelord, hard, and her sharp white teeth cut through his suede boots. Like the dread before him, the magelord had obviously not placed a protection against small white dogs among his many clanking, clinking charms. Archlis screamed and tried to hop away, clinging to the Moaning Diamond, then doubled over to slap at the dog with his other hand. The edge of the Ankh hit the rock wall, and he lost his hold on it and dropped it. Wiggles dashed off, scampering toward Mumchance. Fottergrim picked up the magelord's Ankh and retreated up the walkway. The big orc shook it as if he expected it to launch a fireball directly at Archlis. Nothing happened, much to his surprise.
"You fool," screamed Archlis. "I could have made you a king!"
"Traitor! Human!" the orc screamed insults back at him.
With another cry of rage, Archlis glared at Fottergrim, raised his hand, and twisted a rusted iron ring on his finger. The bony magelord transformed into an enormous hairy demon, so unlike his narrow-shouldered, skeletal self that for the blink of a moment, no one understood what had happened. Then they all stopped whatever they were doing and stared. The transformed Archlis was so huge that his furry shoulders and giant boar-tusked head broke through the charred, soggy wooden roof above him. Bits of timber rained down on both sides of the wall. Orcs unfortunate enough to be standing near Archlis were pushed over the edge of the wall by his sheer bulk.
"What is it?" Ivy asked, staring up at monster.
"Huge and ugly," Zuzzara called. It was certainly that-a beast three times the height of the magelord, covered in fat, muscle and scruffy fur, with taloned fingers that hung on apelike arms, and hands that almost touched the ground. Its ears were wide and notched, its face a scrunched up horror, its body an expanded grotesque imitation of an ape. On its shoulders were black feathery wings, completely out of proportion, appearing much too small to lift that enormous weight.
Kid called softly, "It is a nalfeshnee, my dear, a demon from the Abyss."
"Thanks for the lesson," said Ivy. "How do we kill it?"
"We may not have to, my dear," said Kid, pulling her back from the crumbling edge of the wall. "Wait and watch."
"Hey, sister, why don't you have a ring like that?" shouted Zuzzara over the screams of crushed orcs, caught between the nalfeshnee's bulk and the stone walkway.
"And turn myself into something that hideous? Never!" yelled Gunderal.
Ivy stuck out her foot and tripped up a fleeing hobgoblin who tried to dash past her. It threw out its arms to maintain its balance, and its halberd-with its axelike head and long handle-cartwheeled into the air. Stretching out a long arm, Ivy caught the halberd, then spun away and let the hobgoblin rush past. The hobgoblin paused for half a step, glanced back at the giant demon, shook his shield at Ivy, but continued running.
"Look at the magelord," crowed Kid. "He went too large. The nalfeshnee cannot fight on top of this wobbling wall."
"Kid is right," Mumchance shouted. "Look at that wall. It is cracking."
Bits of the stone crenellations snapped off as Archlis tried to steady himself. The sheer size of his backside, in the beast's form, forced the stones off the wall, following the roof timbers and squashed bodies to the ground below.
"We need to get out of here now," commanded Ivy.
Sanval thrust with his sword at an attacking orc. With one swift move, he skewered the creature. It doubled up, its weapons flying out of its hands. Sanval pivoted, the orc still caught on his blade's point. When he twisted his wrists to free the blade, he managed to fling the orc off the wall. While he wiped the blade clean on a fallen orc, he said, "I knew following you would get us out of the ruins. I know you will find a way out now."
"Thanks," shouted Ivy, touched by his confidence in her abilities. She ducked under the blow of another pig-snouted fighter, using her stolen halberd to ram the surprised orc between the legs and send it sprawling. Stepping hard on the orc's stomach once it was prone, she retrieved the halberd and jumped to Sanval's side. "All part of the job, rescuing our friends!"
"I thought you did not believe in heroics." Sanval slicked his tumbled curls out of his eyes as he skewered another orc one-handed.
"I lied," Ivy admitted. "Heroics are fine." She grinned at Sanval as she reached around him to smack the backside of a startled archer who had wandered into this section of the wall seeking his friends. The barbarian fled with a yell for reinforcements.
"Watch out!" Sanval dived past Ivy, ramming another screaming orc over the wall before the trooper could brain Gunderal with his warhammer. The pretty wizard gave Sanval a sparkling smile as she ducked around her big sister to help trip up two orcs attacking Zuzzara.
Swinging his blade at another orc, Sanval sliced it below the knees. The creature lost its balance and toppled into space. Sanval and Ivy pivoted around each other to strike more attacking orcs.
"Ask me what mercenaries and red-roof girls have in common," she said, reaching past him with her stolen halberd to crack an orc across the side of his head.
"Nothing at all," Sanval exclaimed, glancing at her with a most peculiar smile that lit up his dark eyes. He jabbed away at an oncoming hobgoblin.
"Do too," she laughed. "Both always figuring out every move. Both more fun than an entire room full of proper Procampur ladies. Don't for a moment think that I did not have a plan in my back pocket for everything that happened in the ruins."
"There goes Archlis," Zuzzara said, pointing with her shovel. She gave a formidable whack on the top of the head to a poor little goblin sneaking around them, obviously a stray still seeking an escape route off the creaking, groaning wall. Fottergrim had retreated even farther back, so he stood in the doorway of the farthest watchtower, screaming some type of order over his shoulders.
"Look! He really can fly!" said Gunderal.
Incredibly for a creature of its bulk, the tiny wings lifted the demon Archlis off the wall. His feet hung no more than a half a man's height above the surface. As he lifted off the wall, Norimgic and Osteroric took one look at the orcs bearing down on them and then leaped after Archlis, each grabbing a long arm. Archlis gave a roar and shook his hands, but the screaming bugbears held tight. Bobbing and weaving, Archlis began a ponderous flight off the wall. The bugbears dangled off his arms, both paddling their big flat feet like swimmers, as though hoping to keep themselves afloat.
"It would appear that flight is a good choice, with perhaps a touch of magic?" Kid tugged at her waist, and Ivy realized that rather than pulling her out of the way, he was trying to get her attention by dragging the red magic belt out from where it was tucked down behind her weapons belt.