After everything else he had done, I knew that he could do more. Had he been wounded? Was he out of Vigor? Was he holding back for some reason?
Regardless of the cause, Tahlis was right; Ganyir needed help. He was on the verge of being overrun by the demons. I sank into the ground once more and used the Hidden Burrow to travel to him.
I still wasn’t as accurate as I would have liked to be with the Burrow, so instead of appearing right beside Ganyir, I emerged amid the demons in front of him.
At least the move caught the horned enemies by surprise. As they turned to me, I ran one through with the trident and cut another down with the sword, while Ganyir used their distraction to grab two by the heads and smash them into one another. As the bodies dropped, I stepped over them and joined him.
If the Lord of Gonki had been injured, he wasn’t showing it. Rather than revealing pain or exhaustion, his face was alight with excitement.
“Watch out!” he bellowed, then swung past me. His fist collided with the face of an oncoming demon, ripped away its jaw, and sent it flying into the one behind it.
I brought my weapons to bear on the stream of creatures rushing at us. I darted and thrust with the Depthless Dream, creating a space around us where no demon could safely tread. When one of the more adventurous hellions advanced, I ran it through with my sword or Ganyir smashed it with his armored fists.
Ganyir laughed and grinned. “I’ve never felt so alive. Thank you for finally waking me up, for giving me the fire to take my city back.”
“It’s part of the Swordslinger’s Path,” I said. “To inspire as well as to fight.”
“Then you make a damn good Swordslinger,” Ganyir said.
A demon slashed at him with its claws. He caught it by the arm and twisted. There was a sharp crack as bone burst through the creature’s skin. It snapped at Ganyir with its teeth, and he took the opportunity to grab it by the head. With the creature’s arm still in his other hand, he slammed the two together, driving the shard of protruding bone into its eye.
“Why don’t you use your earth techniques against them?” I asked. “I’ve seen how much power you have and what sort of techniques you can unleash. You could wreak havoc on this lot.”
As a demon charged at him, Ganyir grabbed it by the throat. He flung it to me, and I sliced it in half. The pieces flopped into the mud, oozing thick, black blood.
“If I did that, I’d wreak havoc on my own palace too,” Ganyir said. “I don’t want to level my city, lad. I need somewhere to put my people!”
There was a clang as the palace doors burst open again. A fresh wave of demons spewed forth, their faces hideous and snarling in bestial fury, their bodies covered with mismatched fur and scales. Clawed hands raked the air as they rushed howling at us.
“We have to change things,” Ganyir said as the first of the demons reached us. He grabbed its flailing arms and twisted it around to fling it into the mud, then stamped on its head. “We’ll never get inside if they keep summoning more.”
“I could fight my way in and tackle them,” I volunteered. “What should I be looking for? Will it be a group of priests, Augmenters, some sort of magical portal. . . ?”
A pair of demons rushed at me carrying clubs covered in barbed and rusted spikes. One of them screeched as it swung its weapon. I ducked beneath the blow and cut the monster off at the ankles with the Sundered Heart. As it fell, the other one stepped over it and swung its weapon high to bring a crushing blow down on my head. But before it could make the attack. I thrust the Depthless Dream up through its groin and into its abdomen. I twisted the trident, the demon grunted, and it fell, bleeding and twitching, across its companion.
“Saruqin will be behind this,” Ganyir said. “Get to him. and the demons will stop coming. It’s our chance to win this battle as well as the war.”
He stamped on one of the demons I’d brought down, finishing it off with a surge of earth through his armored boot.
“Are you coming with me?” I asked.
Ganyir glanced at the Pathless who stood behind us, fending off more demonic attacks. He shook his head.
“My people need my leadership if they’re to survive this. Lone assaults are for legendary heroes, not lords with the burdens of a clan on their shoulders. Go find Saruqin and hold to the mantle of the Swordslinger.”
The demons were still advancing but I didn’t wait for them to come to us. I charged headlong at them, swinging my weapons as I went. I ducked beneath the lunging arms of one demon, straightened, and flung it back behind me for Ganyir to deal with. Another ran at me, and I slammed into it with my shoulder. The impact jarred my arm and nearly shook the Sundered Heart from my hand, but it hit the demon even worse, and it went sprawling on the ground. I strode over it, stamping on its chest as I went past.
I darted between the advancing demons, slicing and stabbing whenever I had a chance but not slowing to finish them off. If one blocked my way, I cut it down or took a sidestep to get past, but always my focus was on the palace doors and getting to them.
I reached the edge of the mud-slicked square, still fighting against the tide of onrushing foes. If they had all chosen to stop and fight
