When I was done, the army stood watching me.
“This is the Swordslinger,” Ganyir said. “He carries two spirit weapons and wields many elements. With him on our side, Saruqin and the Unswerving Shadows are destined to fall.”
“They have demons, my lord,” Rendar said.
“And we will send them back to the hells they came from,” Ganyir countered, far more confident than I’d ever seen him.
A sound emerged from the palace. An unearthly shriek like a beast dying in the night. It came from one throat at first but then grew to dozens, even hundreds. Their chorus resounded from the windows of the palace and out across the city.
The palace doors swung open with an almighty clang. A horde of demons swarmed out, their bodies black and red, covered in patches of fur and scales. Horns rose from their foreheads, and their eyes glowed with a terrible red light. Some held weapons, spiked and vicious things, tarnished and rusted from centuries of abuse. Others were bare-handed but far from defenseless, their claws long and sharp, their exposed teeth jagged. They came swarming down the palace steps.
I stepped back toward the rest of the army. The demons kept coming, howling and screeching as they hit the barricade and flowed across it with wild leaps.
“Hold your ground!” Ganyir bellowed. “Get ready!”
The demons reached the foremost wing of our army, where some of the newly acquired soldiers stood. The hideous beasts charged straight at them, indifferent to their weapons. One ran onto a spear and kept moving, dragging itself down the shaft until it could reach the soldier and massacre his face with its talons. Another laughed maniacally as a sword sliced across its arm, then sprung onto its attacker and tore his throat open with its bare teeth.
A wave of panic rippled through the soldiers. Some backed slowly away, trying to fend of the indestructible demons, while others turned and fled. The demons leaped onto the backs of the terrified soldiers and ripped them limb from limb.
As suddenly as it had appeared, our new army began to collapse.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The demons ripped into the soldiers. Blood flew as they tore through the ranks, gouging flesh and tearing off limbs. Some attacked with their ancient and rust-encrusted weapons, but most attacked with a bare-handed ferocity, using claws and teeth to destroy living bodies.
The soldiers tried to fight back. Maces, clubs, and spears swung through the air to batter at the demons. But while they could sometimes hold the beasts back, the soldiers could do them no real harm. Weapons bounced uselessly off the creatures’ hides. When they did penetrate, the wounds healed almost immediately, black blood crusting over, then vanishing from sight.
If the soldiers couldn’t hurt the demons, then I had to find some way to get them clear. We needed a technique to force the enemies back or somehow move them away. And fortunately, the past week had given me the power I needed.
“Steadfast Horn!” I shouted. “To me!”
Drek, Elorinelle, and Onvar came running. They lined up beside me, facing the demons.
“We gonna smash them?” Drek slapped his club against the palm of his hand.
“Not like that,” I said, raising my voice to be heard over the savage shrieks. “We’re going to use Augmenting.”
I quickly explained my plan, then joined the initiates in a line facing the horned throng. We each sank to one knee and raised a fist.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Ready,” the initiates replied.
“Now!”
We slammed our fists into the ground and unleashed our Vigor. Four Ground Strikes launched as one, an undulating wave that tore through the cobbles and paving stones of the market square. The ripple of earth power hit the lesser demons like a stone tsunami. Some were hurled into the air, flung against the walls of buildings or back across the barricade. A few were flattened when two Ground Strikes met in the middle. The rest were knocked from their feet and in a massed tangle of limbs.
A few of the soldiers were caught in the magical attack and knocked back into their own ranks. The others helped them to their feet and pulled back, away from the recovering demons.
Except that some of the demons weren’t recovering. They lay twitching and broken, limbs twisted at terrible angles, parts of their bodies crushed between Vigor-infused rocks.
I fired a small Burning Wheel into their masses, and it tore through them. It didn’t do a lot of damage, but I’d only used a little Vigor, mostly to test my theory.
Steel hadn’t hurt the demons, but apparently Augmenting could.
I grinned and turned to my allies. “Augmenters, quick! Focus all your efforts on martial techniques.”
Vesma and Kegohr ran over, hands raised and fire forming between them. As the first of the demons got back to their feet, my fellow fire Augmenters launched a pair of Untamed Torches. The blasts of flame blazed through the air and rippled through the demons. But when the spells were gone, the enemies were still standing, unburned and unbroken.
“Is it only earth that works?” Vesma glared at the lack of destruction.
“Maybe it’s about magnitude,” I said. “Try again, and I’ll give it an extra twist.”
Vesma and Kegohr summoned the Untamed Torch again. As the fire flashed from their hands, I added Flame Empowerment, increasing the size and intensity of the blazes.
This time, the demons shrieked as the flames hit them. Those caught directly by the flames melted and collapsed, the remains of their bodies dissolving as fire crept along them. Others backed away from the sight, hissing and snarling.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Kegohr said. “Let’s get these as hot as we can.”
He summoned fire again, this time focusing it down into something more intense. I still wanted to save my Vigor for Saruqin and his cultists, so I put my efforts into Flame Empowerment since it didn’t consume as much resources to enhance someone else’s techniques.
At the barricade, more demons were streaming over, howling and cackling like they’d just been freed from a mental asylum. Mahrai sent her golem out to meet
