Bears and wolves were attacking the army in the flank, and there were a good number of them. I could hear Howling Wind Wolves and smell charred flesh and metal where the Flameclaw Grizzlies were attacking.
We were holding our own, but in the long run we had no chance. For all our power, we were only five.
“Back to the mansion!” I yelled again, and Astrid heard me with her werewolf ears over the din. With a guttural roar she changed course, charging toward me and Selena. We were using our rifle-butts as melee weapons now, fighting off a storm of clutching hands, snapping mouths, and whirring blades as the humanoid cyborgs closed in around us.
Up close, the cyborgs looked a lot like zombies. They were dead, I saw, half-rotten corpses held up by the mechanical apparatus that surrounded them. Their jaws hung slack except to snap at us, biting, but their eyes had been replaced with robotic lenses that glowed with dull, calculating intelligence.
Some had been modified to have whirring cutting blades like circular saws where their hands should have been. Others had arrays of big knives, or whirling chainsaw blades, or clacking cutters like giant, mechanized scissors. Every one of them seemed to be slightly different, each taken from its own, unique nightmare.
Selena screamed as a rat sank its teeth into her leg, and a cyborg grabbed at her face with his rotting hands. I whirled, roaring in anger. My rage at seeing Selena’s blood gave me strength, and I shot the cyborg in the face then smashed the rat’s head in with my rifle butt.
A blast of Force Barrier shoved the circle away from us, clearing space and buying us a moment. Selena was white-faced as she collapsed into my arms.
Then Astrid smashed through the crowd to us. Her werewolf form was massive now in the midst of her battle-fury, and I was sure glad she was on my side. She was enormous, a horrifying nightmare creature of teeth, claws, and black armored fur.
“Get Selena out of here!” I yelled, and she hefted Selena up onto her shoulders as if she’d weighed no more than a child.
I looked around and saw Belinda and Amanda fighting on top of a heap of fallen Cyborgs.
“Right, you zombie fuckers,” I growled. “Time to taste a bit of my magic.”
I drew on my summoning strands and Frostbreath Cougars leaped out of portals to crash into the cyborgs. They fought the rats, blasting them with freezing magic and tearing at them with their claws, but there were so many enemies that they couldn’t prevail for long.
Firing my gun, I charged toward Belinda and Amanda. Amanda saw me coming and yelled to Belinda. Belinda took one look at me, then transformed into a black cloud of psychic power. She spread out, flooding the zombies around her, and as she passed over them their flesh shivered and vanished, leaving only their cybernetic bits. The machine parts crashed to the ground, useless without whatever animating life force still remained to the zombie flesh.
Summoning a group of Magma Apes, I continued my charge, reaching the top of the pile of broken cyborgs even as Belinda reappeared in her regular form. Astrid, who had successfully deposited Selena on the steps of the mansion, came roaring back down into the press.
The wild creatures were still holding up a big mass of the Technomancer’s army on the mansion’s left, but they were being pushed back.
It was time to make for the mansion.
As soon as Astrid reached us, we charged back toward the mansion. Astrid went ahead, with Amanda behind her. Belinda transformed again and destroyed cyborgs left and right with waves of flesh-eating black smoke, and I held the rear, blasting off rounds of Storm Sphere and summoning monsters as quickly as the cyborgs could knock them down.
When the enemy got too close, I would hurl them back with Force Barrier, but I was getting dangerously close to the bottom of my mana pool. If I’d had more time to prepare, I’d have got myself some mana potions before engaging in the fight, but the adventurers’ arrival had meant that I’d had to act quickly.
The adventurers. I’d almost forgotten about them.
As we gained the steps and ran up them, taking up firing positions at the top, I reached out to Kyrine.
“Kyrine, we’ll need to move the portal dungeon from its place on the front door, otherwise we won’t be able to get in. Can we do that without compromising the integrity of the dungeon?”
“It’s dangerous, but we’ll have to try,” came the response. She sounded tired.
There was a rumbling sound, and then Kyrine spoke again. “I’ve done it. You’re clear to come in. I placed the dungeon on the kitchen door instead. They’re still fighting, but they’ve reached the boss level now. If they try to leave, they’ll come out into the mansion.”
If I could avoid that happening I would, but right now there were more important things to think about.
Down at the gate, the last of the Technomancer’s forces had gained access to the grounds, and as I watched Kyrine slammed the gates closed behind them. The last troops to come in were a unit of twenty guys in flame-proof suits, wielding flamethrowers. They marched up the drive in lockstep, blasting flames up at the trees. Each one burst into roaring infernos when they were touched.
Digging deep to get the last of my strength, I summoned a full complement of monsters, mixing Cobras, Cougars, Apes, and Flora Whelps in a mob that held up the vanguard of the Technomancer’s army. That would buy us time to get back into the mansion.
“Open the doors!” I shouted, and they swung back. We ran back into the
