He needed a better way to hold them off.
Fei would run out of power soon, and Sen was burning too much power too quickly.
If the demons broke through in two places at once, or they overwheld soone, this invasion would beco a disaster quickly.
Given August worried about a nasty surprise coming later, he wanted to hold off on using the binding stone’s power for as long as possible.
With a flick of his wrist, he propelled himself toward Fei with a gust of wind.
His landing was rough, and he tumbled across the rough, broken ground.
A jet of blue fire crashed over him.
Fei scread, "August!"
He waved off her concern.
The fire clung to him and felt tingly, but didn’t harm him.
"Gem abilities like yours can’t hurt their own Bastion. Calm down," he said.
Fei stared at August in shock, the flas dying down around her body.
Behind her, the demons saw an opening and charged forward.
Clicking his tongue, August darted forward.
His sword shined and blew apart several demons with a gale thrust.
Fei turned and lted several others, then pulled August behind her.
"It’s dangerous," she said.
Her flas pushed the demons away.
"Why are you out here?"
August gave her a look, but held his tongue.
He was her Bastion, not a random soldier.
Did she think he was going to collapse because a re demon got a single hit in?
Instead, he said, "I want to pull back and try sothing else."
He cast a supercharged fourth rank spell, but held onto it.
"But I’m doing fine," Fei protested.
Demonic screeching cut off whatever else Fei was going to say.
She threw an annoyed look at the intruders, before panic erged on her face.
The approaching horde was larger than before and had spread out while the pair had been distracted.
August swung his sword at the ground between himself and the charging demons.
Thunder rang out, and the ground shuddered.
A chasm burst into existence.
White light blinded August as the chasm reached down to whatever lay beneath this world.
The demons tried to halt their charge, but their montum was too great.
Dozens of demons fell into the chasm.
The light prevented August from seeing what happened to them.
From experience, he knew that he wouldn’t see them again.
"Let’s go," August said, grabbing Fei’s hand.
She stared at him in shock and followed behind him for a few steps.
The ground shook again, and the chasm began to close.
Demons scread as they were crushed between the walls of earth.
August and Fei didn’t watch.
By the ti they leaped on top of the wall and rejoined Sen, the demons had already forgotten what had happened.
Not forgotten, August reminded himself.
The demons who saw the chasm were probably dead.
Almost every one of the hundreds of beasts charging the wall was a newly spawned demon.
The portal had spat them all forth in the ti it took for the chasm to swallow the hundreds of their brethren.
"Fei, stay still for a second," August said.
He placed a finger against her sapphire and pushed power into it from the binding stone.
Fei’s entire body twitched in shock.
She stared at August with wide eyes as he topped her up.
When he withdrew his finger, her tongue lolled out of her mouth and her eyes had glazed over.
She moaned softly.
"Couldn’t you at least wait until after the battle to stick it in her and fill her up?" Sen said with a smirk.
"She was almost empty," August said, ignoring the innuendo.
"I’m sure she was. After all, you were busy filling up earlier." Sen rubbed her belly.
"Do you have to be so lewd?" August said.
Fei blinked and ca to her senses.
She placed a finger against her sapphire.
A satisfied sigh escaped her lips.
"Does the real thing feel that good?" she asked Sen.
Sen glared at Fei.
"Why are you asking ?"
Fei tilted her head to one side.
Then grinned.
"Oh, right. You don’t have a gem. Heh."
That had to be on purpose, August thought.
He decided to intervene before they began to fight each other, instead of the demonic horde that was closing in on the palisade.
"Focus," he said.
"I want the two of you to follow so specific orders. If we pull this off, hopefully the demons will pull back for this wave."
August hid a frown.
Given how long it had been since the start of the invasion, he suspected that the second wave of demons had already attacked.
The amount of demons they had killed was far too high for a single wave, but there hadn’t been a noticeable gap in the assault.
"I’m going to deal with the left flank. Sen, I want you to hit anything in the center with rapid-fire spells. Force them to charge up one side of the valley," he ordered.
"Fei, tell the officers to bombard the left flank as well."
"Won’t that an they’ll overwhelm the wall on the right side?" Sen asked.
"That’s what I want," August said.
"Fei, once you give out the orders, gather all the hoplites you can and stand behind the wall on the right-hand side. Once the demons break through, crush them."
Fei grinned.
"Oooh. I think I get it."
"Well, I don’t," Sen complained.
August ruffled her hair and had his hand batted away for his efforts.
"Let’s go," he said.
By the ti he made it to the left side of the wall, the catapult fire fell exclusively on this side.
The demonic advance looked noticeably lopsided.
Sen’s constant flow of fireballs and flas split the enemy down the center.
Fei stood in position behind the wall.
Everything looked good so far.
A pentagon appeared over August’s wrists, like a pair of shackles.
He held his hands together in front of him, palms crossed.
The pentagon glowed blue and slowly spun in a circle.
This was the most powerful spell August knew how to cast without relying on the binding stone.
He still wanted to save as much of the binding stone’s power for later as possible.
But right now, he needed more raw power than he could get with third and fourth rank spells.
Even supercharged spells weren’t enough.
This fifth rank spell did sothing special.
The demons either didn’t see August’s spell or didn’t care.
Boulders and bolts rained down on them.
They nearly made it to the wall.
August heard Sen shouting at him over the din of the battle.
The pentagon flared in his hands.
August pressed it against the wall.
The palisade glowed.
This entire half of the wall emitted an eerie blue light.
A trickling sound crept into August’s ears.
Water fell from between the gaps in the logs that comprised the wall, at first slowly, then in a trendous rush.
Within seconds, the demons found themselves fighting waist high water rushing forward from the wall.
They bellowed in surprise and waded through it.
But the water continued to rise.
And it began to glow, like the wall behind it.
Soon the demons at the front were picked up by the waves and pushed back, over the heads of those behind them.
Waves and the bodies of other demons crashed into the back ranks.
The entire charge halted.
Weapons lowered.
The demons stared at the tidal wave of water and bodies crashing down the valley.
Foam frothed atop the waves, carrying countless corpses in it.
The foam was blood red.
The waves shimred with a magical blue glow.
Demons scread as the water touched them.
The waves ate at their flesh and warped their armor.
They tried to flee.
But cliffs stood on one side, and a wall of fire raged on the other.
There was no way out.
The tidal wave swept down the valley.
August didn’t know how many demons he had killed.
A lot.
He felt drained.
Finally, he let go of the spell and the wall stopped glowing.
The water lost its eerie appearance a mont later and instead turned blood red from all the demons it had killed.
A boom rose from his right.
August looked over to see that his plan had played out as expected.
The demons crashed into the palisade and knocked down a large section of it.
Dust blocked most of his view, but he saw demons vanishing into the cloud.
Not that he needed to see the action.
The bestial screams and shouts told the story.
Slowly, the demons stopped charging into the cloud.
They stood in place, looking lost and confused.
Sen moved her wall of fire closer to them.
The demons began to move forward again.
Then Fei burst through the palisade.
Her blue flas flickered forward, and dozens of demons lted.
The hoplites bounded past her, their spears punching through heads and chests.
Their shields shattered horns and broke arms.
Within a minute, the demonic charge beca a full-blown retreat.
Fei cut down many of them, but didn’t pursue too far.
Hundreds upon hundreds of demons awaited her in the clearing around the portal.
They stood out of range of the catapults and Sen’s magic.
Their weapons were raised, and they hungered for her to co too close, so they could surround her.
Fei pulled back.
She waved to August from beside Sen.
August gave her a tired wave back, still stumbling back along the wall.
"You look like you need a nap," Sen said.
Fei’s ears pricked up.
"I’ll be fine," August said.
"I used too much power. If I have to, I’ll top up from the binding stone."
"Why not do it now?" Fei asked, tilting her head to one side.
The answer ca in the form of a scout, who ran up to the gatehouse from behind.
He saluted and ca to a stop.
"Bastion!" the scout yelled.
"I’m back from the other side of Gharrick Pass."
"The other side?" Fei asked, confused.
"Yes, Champion," the scout answered.
"Kuda sent two of us out to Lady Nair’s tower when we couldn’t contact her."
"Report, soldier," August ordered.
He had a bad feeling about this.
"Yes, sir." The scout paused.
"Lady Nair’s tower is under attack by the Amica Federation. They have an entire army there. She’s surrounded, sir. The pass is cut off."
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