It only took twenty minutes before the cracks started to show.

  Kaius moved like a whirlwind, surrounded by a heaving carpet of fur, scale and carapace. His hand slipped from his hilt, the burning light of Stormlash surrounding his hand as thunder cracked through the Frontier.

  Three beasts fell smoking; and hundreds more were ready and waiting to take their place.

  The crush fell back in. A Father’s Gift proved the potency that had come with its ascension to Heroic. Kaius cut, cleaving through a beast. He cut again. Then again. Forced to continuously move to keep pace with the Pegleg, he flowed from stance to stance.

  A high guard caught a goat-like creature that leapt with its horn lowered. Kaius caught it with the edge of his blade, cutting deep as blood fell like rain. Slamming the creature to the earth, he spun through his hips — transitioning into a wide swipe that cut a devastating path through the legs of the beasts in front of him.

  Their pained screams were silenced as they were trampled by an endless stampede of claws, hooves, and insectile limbs.

  It wasn’t enough, more surged around him — heading straight for the Pegleg. Kaius grit his teeth, redoubling his pace as beast after beast fell. He was swift and strong — nothing required more than two strikes at most to down. There were just so damned many of them.

  Even Porkchop was struggling. As large as he was, he could use his simple power and bulk to crush many of the beasts under foot — and bowl them over with continuous uses of his charge skill. Shardwall after Shardwall ripped through the crowd — opening just enough space for the two of them to move. Yet there were always more waiting to fill the gaps.

  They couldn’t let the creatures reach the landyacht. It had happened twice already, and both times had almost been disastrous.

  The first time, beasts had leapt onto their landyachts top deck — nearly killing a hunter before Kenva had gutted the creature with her knife. They’d sent the remaining archers below deck after that.

  Worse had been the second time. Only five minutes before, when more scattered groups running ahead of the main army had converged on their position. He and Porkchop had been too far from the landyacht — beasts had swept past them with almost casual ease. They might have been strong, but they couldn’t be everywhere.

  A rampaging herbivorous creature with a head that was more horn than anything else had charged the landyacht — headbutting one of its legs. Kaius remembered the sickening crack. Even if the limb was only slightly dented, it was a reminder that their vessel was not unbreakable.

  Without it, every survivor would die.

  They had to hold on — Ophelia would already be on her way back from Deadacre, ready to ferry another group to safety. One more after that, and their charges would be safe.

  He just had to beat the creatures back until then. The knowledge they’d already evacuated half of the survivors spurred him on.

  Kaius stared down the teeming mass of beasts that surged towards him. He was alone — with their man power spread thin, Porkchop was needed to defend the other side of the landyacht. Each beast was weak — he could kill them just fine, and his armour was tough enough that any injuries he’d suffered healed quickly.

  As long as he didn’t drown in the crush, he’d be fine.

  What he needed was speed. His spells worked, but they were limited — needed to strike the beasts in critical moments whenever they broke through his and Porkchop’s defense.

  Largely reliant on his blade, Kaius felt the sting of his specialisation. Blast the gods’, and their insistence that he constantly feel his weakness against hordes. Give him a hundred more levels, and enough mana that he could make the stars fall like rain, and a trifling army like this would matter little.

  Alas, he was not Gold — he’d have to rely on his oldest and most faithful companion: his skill with the blade.

  As the layered calls of beasts surrounded him, Kaius stoked his Bloodsong. Raising his blade into an aggressive high guard, he kicked forward, charging to meet the approaching horde. Mana burst from his feet as he cast Slip Step. He didn’t care that it might help him avoid a blow or two, what he needed now was speed.

  It had been nearly two hundred levels since he had first gained Aelina; every spell cast from the glyph was nigh-unrecognisable in its potency. Kaius flashed across the battle line like a ghost, the world warping as he dipped into the strange spatial dimension his spell used to fuel his movement. Space contracted, and he cleaved horizontally.

  Rabid snarls turned to screams of agony as A Father’s Gift spilt the blood of dozens. It wasn’t enough. More beasts surged, every fallen replaced by another.

  His dash had taken him far from the Pegleg, and the horde raced in — uncaring of the losses as Ianmus and Kenva tore into their ranks with arrow and spell.

  One of Kenva’s arrows shattered into a hail of deadly shrapnel, breaking the charge. Atop Ianmus’s staff, his Keyseal of the Rising Dawn pulsed. An overwhelming burst of mana rippled outwards, heralding the arrival of a Preeminent Halo.

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  The second tier spell shot into the massed beasts — incinerating them in a blink.

  Kaius capitalised on the opportunity, dashing back into the gap. More beasts fell in his wake. They just didn’t bloody stop. He grit his teeth, frustration building as beasts slipped past him — throwing themselves at the armoured landyacht.

  Most were cut down before they made it, but not all. Dents lined its sides, and blood washed its deck as the Tyrant’s army desperately tried to reach the mage and archer that stood atop it.

  It wasn’t just him. Porkchop was struggling too.

  Even with his focus on his own battle, Kaius could feel his brother’s building frustration as he struggled to hold back the rising tide. Even with his Warden’s Challenge, there were simply so damn many of the beasts that Porkchop couldn’t affect all of them with his skill.

  “This isn’t working,” Kaius said, leaping high to amputate the front legs of a stag that bounded for the Pegleg.

  He scowled — he’d been aiming to take off its head. Damned prosthetic kept throwing him off.

  To his right, he heard a bellowing roar full of an anger untainted by the madness that had infected the Tyrant’s forces. The beasts’ battleline collapsed as a titan of orichalcum charged into their midst — waves of point spikes erupting from the ground to savage the soft bellies of Porkchop’s foes.

  “I know. We need better cohesion — we’re barely keeping them off us,” Porkchop replied.

  Kaius didn’t bother to reply, flowing from stance to stance as he hacked at every beast available.

  A jaw closed around his elbow, yanking him to the side. Kaius stumbled — his prosthetic not giving him enough feedback to correct in time. Some sort of bear — its jaw coated in jagged spikes of stone. Empowered or not, it struggled with his armour.

  Growling, Kaius rolled with the motion and ripped his arm free. Stone teeth squealed against metal. A Hateful Nail ripped through the creature's head.

  Porkchop was right — they weren’t fighting to their strengths. Their ability to fight with unparalleled coordination was their greatest advantage, especially against a force as maddened as this.

  Kaius threw himself deep into the clutches of his bond, senses blurring until it was hard to tell who saw what. In an instant, he saw himself towering over the battlefield, surrounded by a carpet of lesser creatures.

  Through Porkchop’s eyes, he gained the perspective he needed. For all the numbers of their current opponents were oppressive, it was going to get worse. They were fighting a war band — but creatures were streaming towards them from every direction.

  The beasts running ahead of the army might have been spread out over leagues, but there were still thousands.

  It made it clear the only reason there were survivors at all was because the creatures had been toying with them.

  Kaius made the call immediately. They were never going to stop the beasts from reaching the pegleg. Their only hope was to give some ground, and focus their efforts on defending its legs.

  Entrenched so deeply in the connection that bound their souls, Kaius didn’t need to explain his judgement to Porkchop.

  They simply moved as one.

  Mana flooded Kaius’s sword as a screaming wire of arcane energy coated its edge. Mystic’s Rend detonated again and again as he moved like a dervish — blowing through the enemy ranks to make momentary room. Four Stormlashes followed, arcing lightning downing a dozen more beasts.

  Porkchop acted similarly — swelling with the power of Gladespirit as he sent the shattered bodies of monsters flying through the air.

  “Get ready! I’m joining you on deck,” he called up to his back line.

  Their response came in the form of a sudden explosion of might. Kenva fired Shattering Rain again and again — further weakening the forces that he and Porkchop had scattered. Into that confusion, Ianmus released lance after lance. Boiling solar fury punched through the beasts, crippling multiple with each spell.

  For a moment, the battlefield hung still — then he and Porkchop moved in unison.

  Kaius kicked off the ground, sailing through the air to touch down on the blood-slickened deck of the Pegleg. On the ground, Porkchop surged between the landyacht’s legs — securing himself as an anchor beneath its hull.

  It was a tight fit. There was no way that he’d be able to rear up, but it positioned him perfectly to defend the landyacht’s more delicate spider limbs than anywhere else.

  With their blitz finished, their brief reprieve from the constant slaughter ended.

  Kaius positioned himself at the edge of the Pegleg’s deck — ready to defend both his backline and the landyacht itself.

  The teeming horde raced in.

  Far from the frontlines of the battle, Kaius spied movement. A jumping spider. His eyes narrowed as the arachnid shot into the air. A Moment of Flow cut an arcing line through its trajectory.

  He had but a bare moment before it would land behind Ianmus.

  Kicking off the deck, he met the beast mid air — slicing it in two with a quick slash.

  Ichor fell in a wave, coating the deck. It was only the beginning. Having given up on preventing the beasts from reaching their landyacht, more and more creatures clambered up the sides.

  Visible as they were, Kaius, Ianmus, and Kenva may as well have covered themselves in bait.

  Forced into constant action, he worked with his team to beat back the boarders. In minutes, the steely hull of the Pegleg was painted with a new coat of bright carmine as entrails and bodies tumbled from its edge.

  Below them, Porkchop was a ball of fury, smashing away any beasts that attempted to batter their landyacht’s legs.

  He couldn’t be everywhere; Kaius was forced to help frequently, venting precious spells as the creatures did their best to tear into ancient imperial steel.

  It was a restless endeavour of constant slaughter, but they were holding. For now.

  It would have to be enough. Ophelia would rejoin them soon, and more survivors would make their way to safety.

  He could hear their panicked screams every time a beast slammed into the side of the landyacht. They were terrified.

  Kaius grit his teeth. He wouldn’t let them die.