“Charge!” Ganyir bellowed. “For Gonki!”
“For Gonki!” the Pathless shouted as they ran after him and followed the golem through the gates.
I was already ahead of them, my every step twice as long as theirs. The archers took a few half-hearted shots at us from the walls, and one of the Pathless stumbled aside with an arrow protruding from his shoulder, but within moments, the rest of us were through the walls and into the city.
In the streets beyond the walls, clan guards were rushing from every adjoining street to stop us. These were the men and women who had committed themselves to the Unswerving Shadows and the Straight Path, ready to kill and to die for it. They attacked with savage ferocity, neither offering nor asking for any quarter. Weapons flashed in the sunlight and crashed against each other. Together with the war cries of the warriors and the screams of the injured, they filled the air with a terrible cacophony.
An enemy guard lunged at me with a vicious-looking spear, its blade barbed and its shaft spiked. I parried with the Sundered Heart Sword, then counter-attacked, slicing through his arm. He howled and swung the spear at me one-handed. I dodged, brought my blade up, and cut him down.
To my right, Kegohr closed his eyes and let out a deep, rumbling growl. His body glowed as the Spirit of the Wildfire flowed through him, lending him extra strength and fury. He took a running jump and hurtled through the air to land on the golem’s back.
Hanging from the rocky crags of the golem with one hand, Kegohr swung his mace with the other. Granted the advantage of height by hanging from the golem and extra strength from the Wildfire, his blows hit the guards like a wrecking ball. Bodies went flying as the golem strode through the approaching defenders, Kegohr laying waste to left and right.
Two more guards came running at me, maces raised high. I channeled mud Vigor and sent it down through the ground. The street in front of them turned into a Mud Entrapment, and they stumbled straight into the mire in their eagerness to attack.
One of the guards was more agile than the other. He managed to keep moving through the mud by wrenching each foot clear in turn and making large strides to minimize his contact with the mud. I waited for him at the edge of the Entrapment, and as he got near, his demeanor changed. He stopped his slow, careful steps and instead, started pushing forward through the morass, his weapon raised.
I needed to save my Vigor for the demons, cultists, and finally Saruqin, so I focused on avoiding any more martial techniques or arcane arts. I waited until he was almost at the edge of my trap, then swung the Sundered Heart. He parried with his mace, but without being able to move his feet and adjust his balance, the weapon was unwieldy. His weight shifted and struggled to bring the mace back around. I took the opportunity to lunge at his body, and he swung his weapon hastily to block me. Overcompensating against my feint, he brought his mace all the way down into the mud with a sticky squelch. As he struggled to free it, I stabbed at him again, and this time, there was nothing to stop me. He flopped over, blood running from his throat.
The other guard had panicked when he found himself sinking in the mud. The more he flailed around, the more trapped he became. I stalked around the entrapment to get close to him. Seeing me coming, he reached behind him with the one hand that was clear of the mud. He drew a knife and pulled it back, ready to throw at me, but I was quicker on the draw. I blasted him in the face with a small Untamed Torch that only used a little Vigor, and he slumped fully into the ooze, mud coating the blackened and smoking remains of his head.
The Pathless advanced slowly but steadily up the street, their war drums beating. At their head was Ganyir, clearing the way for his followers. Each time a fresh wave of guards came, he stooped and punched the street with his gauntleted fist, launching a Ground Strike. The earth rippled in front of him, and a wave of power shot forth, knocking the enemies over and crushing some against the walls of nearby buildings. Afterward, the Pathless advanced, finishing off the most vulnerable enemies and forcing the others to retreat.
To my other side, the fighting was more chaotic and even more destructive. My companions and the initiates each fought with their own distinct style, sometimes individually and sometimes in groups. They tackled bands of guards who came running from the walls and others that tried to outflank us through side streets. Magic flew, and weapons flashed.
Through it all, Tahlis kept appearing and disappearing amid Sandstorms. He popped out of the ground in a cloud of sand, stabbed and sliced at enemies with his spear, then vanished before they could retaliate, only to reappear in a different part of the battlefield. Enemy guards looked around for him with growing terror, opening themselves up to other attacks. So far, the battle was going our way.
Following the lead set by Ganyir and the golem, we advanced down the main street from the gate to the square in the heart of the city. We didn’t wait to finish off the guards that came at us from the sides or behind, just fended them off and kept advancing. As Ganyir had said, we needed to focus on chopping the head off this brutal beast.
At last, we reached the square. Here, we could spread out and make the most of our individual skills. But the space would also make it easier for Saruqin to bring his numbers to bear. We had to keep pressing on before
