There were only ten Brothers of the Shadow left in our… custody, sort of. We didn’t know if the others had survived. We’d seen them run away, vanishing between the many black trees of Lemnos Woods. But we’d also spotted the Shills—as Amelia had chosen to refer to these monstrous flesh-eating abominations—as they scattered outward as well, sniffing down their trails.

These creatures were also doing an excellent job of keeping us apart across the battlefield. Whenever I tried to teleport myself next to others in my crew, I found Shills teleporting along with me. It hadn’t taken long for me and Riza to understand that, once they caught our scent, these fiends were able to teleport along with us—across short distances, for sure. We didn’t know about longer ones.

Herakles carried severe wounds on his arms and torso, and it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to protect himself against the Shills’ increased attacks. As soon as they spotted any kind of physical weakness, these bastards intensified their offensive.

“Riza, stay with Herakles!” I shouted, still stuck by the surviving group of Cerixians. I was having a hard time myself, keeping the Shills away from the Brothers, but Eira and Inalia managed to help me out a little—albeit from fifty yards away. The monsters kept them at bay, snapping their fangs at them whenever they tried to get more involved. However, forcing them to stay in one place didn’t mean they couldn’t use their fire and water abilities, which came in handy with my efforts to protect the remaining Brothers.

Inalia’s fireballs and Eira’s sharp ice projectiles were efficient enough to cripple the Shills that tried to snatch any of the Brothers in my temporary care. They also gave me the seconds I needed to finish the job and kill them. Unfortunately, more Shills continued to emerge from the collapsed tunnel system beneath.

This was never-ending and tiresome, to say the least.

“I don’t know how much longer we can keep up like this!” Varga warned, practically wedged between two Shills.

Eva slipped through with her sword, splitting one of them into perfect halves, then whispered a spell into the palm of her hand. She used it to slap the other Shill on the forehead. The creature froze for a minute, its many beady eyes wide open. A few seconds later, it collapsed, hemorrhaging all over the hard, frozen ground.

Varga stared at her in disbelief for a split second, and she shrugged in return. “What? Druids have badass magic, too. You just need to know where to look in Draven’s Druid Archives.”

“I need to learn that!” Varga replied, then found himself fighting off four more Shills.

“You’d need to be a Druid to pull it off,” Eva shot back, equally occupied with additional creatures. No matter how hard we fought or how many of them we took down, the Shills continued to outnumber us, at least ten to one.

“Guys, they’re not letting us get in on the physical fight because they don’t want to hurt us, right?” Inalia asked from the edge of our increasingly bloody scene.

“That’s the general opinion, yes!” Amelia replied, back to back with Raphael as they continued to kill every Shill that tried to get too close. They’d learned to work amazingly well together. Their moves were swift and fluid, in perfect sync with one another. Had it not been for this endless Shill nightmare, I would’ve taken a moment to simply admire them. They were poetry in motion.

“They keep snarling and growling when I use my fire, but still, they won’t eat me or Eira!” Inalia said. “What if I just get involved anyway? What if Eira and I just go in and help each of you guys out? We’re practically useless from the sidelines like this.”

“Oh, I know what you mean. I could really use some of your fire power right about now,” Raphael snapped, too far from her, compared to me, to benefit from her elemental assistance, then rammed his sword through one Shill’s head.

“I’d advise against it,” Amelia replied, blocking another Shill’s clawed attacks. The creature was worryingly fast, but Amelia was able to keep up with it—at least for the time being. All our movements had gotten slightly sluggish. Constant combat could do that to anyone, even trained supernaturals such as ourselves. “They’re snarling because they don’t like you using your powers against them, and they’re holding you back as a warning to not get involved more than you already are… That’s what I’m thinking… at least!” she added between blocked hits. “Thing is… the Hermessi don’t really need you. They could let Cerix freeze on its own. They’d probably… be better off with the planet dying now than later, when they complete the ritual… so, if you try to get more involved right now, Inalia… the Shills might do a lot more than snarl at you.”

“She’s got a point,” Eira said to Inalia.

Before I could offer my opinion, which resembled Amelia’s for the most part, something hard knocked me down. A Shill had just tackled me, and its ridiculously long fangs were snapping so close to my neck that I could feel the air move and tickle my skin whenever they missed.

Inalia gasped. Fire swallowed the Shill whole. Drawing another breath, I managed to kick it off me. The creature flailed and roared as the flames ate away at its short black fur and the leathery skin beneath, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough to keep it down for good. Two more jumped at me just as I drove my sword through the burning one’s head.

I was getting tired.

Worst of all, I was starting to think I might not make it out of here alive. We were going around in circles here, and there wasn’t a way in sight to end this. Not one that didn’t involve one or more, if not all of us, dying.