William finally let go of Karlach, then lowered the shield that had been emanating from the Hellhand Prototype, and finally, he raised his own blade in response.
The Mane Demons, who were somehow able to slip past the wards or simply stepped over the slowly dissipating corpses of their fallen comrades, were rapidly closing in, their weapons dragging heavily behind them and their claws making a clicking sound against the rough, cold, and rocky ground beneath their feet.
William raised the Hellhand Prototype once more this time gesturing towards the nearest Mane Demon with a finger that began to glow with an intense light.
"FIRE BEAM!"
A concentrated beam of light condensed into a razor-sharp point at the tip of his finger, and with a sudden, explosive burst, it shot off directly towards the Mane Demon, much like the character Truck-Kun in a manga, ready to ram right into the unsuspecting hero.
CRAKOOM!
The beam, striking the corrupted humanoid demon right in the chest, the very place where its heart would be, punched through its chest with considerable force.
As the beam penetrated further, it began to push against the flesh on its back.
PUCHI!
A wave of fleshy material erupted from its back, showering the surrounding area with a viscous, dark, and demonic essence.
This viscous substance covered the demons just standing behind it in a thick layer of gore.
Karlach surged forward, axe held aloft with a burning red-orange fire blazing across its blade, and she swung the weapon directly at the Mane Demon who William had just struck with his fire spell.
With a roar that echoed through the night, the Mane Demon's body was split in two, severing it at the approximate point where its waist would be.
As it was cut, the red-orange flames that consumed it engulfed the severed halves, consuming them entirely.
FWOOSH
A beam of thunder magic swept past Karlach and struck another line of demons down as they neared her and she looked back to see one of the barrels of the turrets smoking and let out a smile.
Knowing that Lenore had her back Karlach smiled and turned around before letting out a primal roar, activating her barbarian rage and causing the heat around her to visibly warp the air in her proximity.
"AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHH!"
With a mighty roar, her feet dug deep into the cold ground, and she launched herself forward with enough force to send a crack rippling through the very stone she was standing upon.
Karlach moved with an incredible speed, her body a blur of motion as she crashed directly into the midst of the Mane Demons.
With a swift and powerful arc, she swung her axe in a circular motion, striking down all of the demons within its path.
Some were instantly killed, while others were knocked back, sending them sprawling.
A demonic claw, poised for a devastating strike from behind Karlach, was about to make contact when a shield materialized in its way.
As the sound of the claw sinking into steel echoed through the air, Karlach spun around to face her attacker, revealing Minthara, who stood directly behind her, her shield raised in a defensive posture.
"Begone demon, the only person allowed to kill this red bitch is me!"
Minthara smirked before she adjusted her shield, allowing the demons claws to move downward as she brought the Widower up to meet it and with a ring of steel against demonic flesh and bone she severed the creatures arm with a single swing.
Karlach and Minthara moved without a word, instinct and experience snapping into place as they shifted until their backs met.
Steel and flame.
Faith and fury.
Two warriors standing against a tide that did not know how to stop.
The Manes closed in around them, snarling and clawing, their twisted forms circling like starving beasts eager to tear them apart from every angle at once.
Karlach grinned, heat rolling off her in visible waves.
"Come on then!"
A Mane lunged from her right, its jagged claws reaching for her throat.
Karlach didn't retreat.
She stepped into it.
Her axe came down in a brutal diagonal arc...
CHUNK!
The blade bit deep into the demon's shoulder, cleaving straight through bone and sinew.
Its arm tore free in a spray of blackened blood before the rest of its body even realized what had happened.
Without missing a beat, Karlach pivoted.
Her boot slammed into the demon's chest with explosive force...
THUD!
The corpse was launched backward, crashing into two more Manes behind it and sending them sprawling in a tangle of limbs and shrieking rage.
Behind her, Minthara was already moving.
Another Mane came at her head-on, its claws descending in a savage overhead strike.
She met it with perfect timing.
CLANG!
Her shield snapped up, catching the blow and halting it cold.
The force rang through the metal, but her stance didn't break.
"Pathetic."
With a sharp twist of her arm, she angled the shield just enough to deflect the demon's claws off to the side.
That single opening was all she needed.
The Widower rose in a clean, precise arc...
SHNK!
The blade passed through the demon's neck as though it were cutting through water.
For a split second, nothing happened.
Then the head slid free.
The body collapsed.
And from the severed stump, a sickly green smoke began to hiss and curl into the air as the necrotic enchantment took hold, devouring what little life still clung to the flesh.
The corpse fell backward, twitching as it hit the ground.
Karlach barked out a laugh.
"Oh, I like that one!"
"Focus," Minthara replied coolly, already turning as another shadow lunged from the edge of her vision.
More Manes pressed in.
Too many.
Claws scraped.
Teeth gnashed.
The circle tightened.
Karlach rolled her shoulders, flames flaring brighter along her axe as the air around her warped with heat.
Minthara adjusted her footing, shield raised, blade angled low and ready.
Back to back.
Unyielding.
Waiting for the next wave to break against them.
The circle tightened.
Claws reached.
Teeth snapped.
The next wave was already breaking...
And then the air itself folded.
A sharp pulse of arcane energy rippled outward as space bent like glass under pressure, and in a flicker of silvery distortion, William stepped through reality itself.
He appeared between Karlach and Minthara in an instant.
A Mane Demon's blade was already descending toward Minthara's exposed flank...
CLANG!
William's arm snapped up.
The Hellhand Prototype caught the strike mid-swing, metal grinding against metal as sparks burst outward from the impact.
The force of it drove slightly into his stance, but he didn't give an inch.
His eyes burned.
Not with light.
With fury.
The gauntlet responded.
Flames began to crawl across the surface of the Hellhand Prototype, at first like ember, then like a furnace roaring to life.
Heat radiated outward in violent waves as the metal itself glowed, veins of molten orange spreading across its structure.
The Mane Demon snarled, trying to wrench its weapon free...
It didn't get the chance.
William's voice came low.
Cold.
"Burn."
The infernal energy erupted.
Flames surged from the gauntlet in a violent burst as he unleashed Hellish Rebuke, the fire not merely striking the demon, but clinging to it, devouring it.
The weapon in the demon's grasp began to glow red-hot.
Then white.
Then it warped
The metal softened, sagging, melting in its grip as the heat became unbearable.
William surged forward through the flames.
His hand shot up...
And clamped onto the demon's face.
The fire followed.
The Mane Demon let out a shrieking, unholy scream as the infernal heat engulfed its head.
Its body thrashed wildly, claws swinging blindly through the air in desperate, chaotic arcs...
But it couldn't see.
Its eyeballs liquefied within their sockets, bursting into molten ruin as the flames consumed them.
It clawed at nothing.
Struck at empty air.
Missed everything.
William didn't move.
Didn't flinch.
Didn't hesitate.
With his other hand, he raised Phalar Aluve.
The elven blade gleamed coldly against the inferno.
Then...
SHNK!
One clean strike.
The blade passed through the demon's neck with lethal precision.
The screaming stopped instantly.
The body went slack.
William released it, and the headless corpse collapsed to the ground in a smoking heap at his feet.
FWOOSH.
FWOOSH.
Two more beams of condensed lightning magic struck a couple of Mane Demons, one of which collapsed on top of a Quasit Demon and crushed it with a sickening crunch.
The unnatural storm above them erupted once more, with corrupted lightning intensifying to a critical point before slamming down directly upon one of the turrets.
The impact resulted in nothing but a smoldering heap of metal and a trail of destroyed magical circuitry in its wake.
The Drider grinned maliciously as he began channeling another spell while using the staff in his hand as a medium.
A ball of fire, which initially seemed to be no larger than a baseball, began to form over the top of the staff.
However, it quickly started expanding at an increasingly noticeable rate, eventually reaching a size that made it appear to be roughly the same size as a large ogre.
"In the name of the dark goddess Lolth, burn!"
The Drider snarled before lowering his staff towards the trio defending themselves from the small army of Mane Demons, the now massive fireball hurling towards the direction of William, Karlach, and Minthara as they performed the danse macabre against the surrounding demons.
The air shifted.
Not subtly.
Not quietly.
William felt it before he saw it.
A pressure.
A swelling heat.
The kind that didn't belong to a battlefield already drenched in flame and lightning.
This was something heavier… focused and deliberate.
His head snapped upward.
There it was.
A roaring sphere of fire, massive and hungry, tearing through the air straight toward them, its surface churning like a miniature sun, casting wild, flickering light across the battlefield.
Too close.
Too fast.
No time.
"Karlach..!"
But even as he started the warning, he already knew.
They wouldn't make it out of the blast radius.
So he didn't move away.
He moved forward.
William surged ahead of them, planting himself directly in the path of the incoming inferno.
His jaw clenched, eyes narrowing as heat began to lash against his skin even before impact.
Then...
His wings unfurled.
They burst outward in a wide, sweeping motion, leathery and immense, snapping open like a shield forged from living shadow and sinew.
He drew them inward, folding them tightly around himself, bracing before taking the hit.
BOOOOOOM!
The fireball collided with him in a cataclysmic explosion.
Flame swallowed everything.
A roaring storm of fire and pressure erupted outward from the point of impact, the blast wave tearing across the battlefield like a violent tide.
Karlach was thrown sideways, her body skidding across the ground as embers scattered in her wake.
Minthara was sent tumbling in the opposite direction, her shield barely raised in time as the shockwave ripped her off her feet.
Around them, the surrounding Manes were blasted backward in droves, their twisted bodies flung through the air like broken dolls as the explosion carved a temporary void into the horde.
At the center of it all...
William was launched.
His wings, scorched and smoking, were forced open by the sheer violence of the blast as his body was hurled backward through the air.
He hit the ground hard.
Once.
Twice.
Then slammed against the stone near the base of the arcane tower with a sickening impact.
The flames died.
Smoke lingered.
Ash drifted through the air like black snow.
For a moment nothing moved.
Karlach groaned as she pushed herself up onto one knee, shaking off the disorientation, her eyes immediately searching.
"William—?!"
Minthara rose more slowly, her breath tight, armor scorched in places as she steadied herself and turned toward the tower.
The battlefield had fallen into a strange, unnatural lull.
Even the demons hesitated.
The force of the blast had scattered them, broken their momentum, leaving a wide, smoldering gap where the explosion had struck.
And in the shadow of the tower…
William lay still.
His wings, though only partially unfurled, were now charred and blackened, their surface surfaces bearing the marks of intense heat.
Faint trails of smoke rose slowly from the damaged membranous surfaces, drifting upwards into the air.
His chest rose up in a shallow, uneven motion, and the exposed areas of his skin were marred by the angry burns that covered it.
Red and purple welts snaked across his face and torso, while his wings, normally vibrant and strong, hung loosely and seemed to ache.
He didn't move.
Didn't speak.
Didn't rise.
For a brief, fragile moment...
The battle held its breath.