The plan was simple. Dangerously, perhaps stupidly simple, but what choice did they have? Their chief is gone and they are trying to fight a Fendish monster.

And in a way, they were lucky. The monster they were fighting isn't the singular one and maybe that would help them. The only thing that's giving them to courage to even try was the fact that they now had some relic and the disappearance of their chief.

A dangerous and desperate plan. That's all they have.

The masters would attack the Hive Fiend's perimeter, making as much noise and causing as much damage as possible. They would draw the colony's attention, pull its defenders toward them, create a gap in the coverage around the core.

And Drakira, invisible and silent, would slip through that gap and destroy the core from within.

"This is insane," Brakthar said as they prepared. "We're going to die."

"Probably," Karathra agreed. "But we're going to die accomplishing our mission. That's more than most people get."

"That's supposed to make me feel better?"

Karathra clapped him on the shoulder. "It's supposed to make you fight harder. Now get ready. We move in two minutes."

She looked at her team. Zargoth and Rukar were wounded but determined. Ashclaw was checking his weapons with methodical precision. Hrothgar was practically vibrating with eagerness, his blood-seeking armor already beginning to glow. And Brakthar, despite his complaints, was steady.

They were ready.

Lady Pelica stood apart from the group, her expression unreadable. She hadn't committed to the fight, hadn't promised to help. But she hadn't left either. Karathra decided that was good enough.

"Drakira," she called. "How are you feeling?"

She pulled the Veil of the Unseen around her shoulders. Already her form was beginning to blur at the edges. "Ready. I'll wait for your signal. Once you've drawn their attention, I go."

"Don't hesitate. Don't look back. Just reach the core and destroy it."

She hesitated once again. "What if I can't? What if it's too heavily defended?"

Karathra met her eyes. "Then you try anyway. And if you fail, we'll know you gave everything you had. But have you forgotten? If Chief was here, he would call us fools and ask us to pray."

Drakira nodded slowly. Then, to Karathra's surprise, she smiled. "You've changed, you know. Since the Chief fell. You've become what we needed."

"I'm just doing what he would do."

"No. You're doing what you would do. And it's enough I guess, he did say you are the second in command so it's not that surprising.

Before Karathra could respond, Drakira activated the Veil fully and vanished.

Karathra turned to face the valley. Below, the Hive Fiend waited, its countless bodies swaying in their endless dance. She raised her axe.

"FOR STRONGHIDE! FOR THE CHIEF! FOR UNCHANGING WARTH!"

The masters roared in response, and they charged. But before they too more than quickly few step, and unknown to them, the air around them changed and a reddish silver light briefly covered them.

The descent into the valley was chaos from the first moment. The organic surface was slippery, treacherous, and it reacted to their presence like a living thing, which, Karathra realized, it was. Tendrils erupted from the ground, trying to trip them. Flesh pus burst, spraying acidic fluid. The valley itself was fighting back.

They pushed through.

Karathra's axe carved a path, her enhanced strength allowing her to power through obstacles that would have stopped lesser warriors. Beside her, Hrothgar was a whirlwind of destruction, his blood-seeking armor driving him to ever-greater heights of violence as the first creatures fell before his blade.

The blood searching relic proved its here. The very air seem on edge as their bloodlust leaked through. Their strength doubled and their speed made them like flickering shadows.

The Hive Fiend's defenders responded.

They came in waves, separating from the central mass and converging on the intruders. Most were roughly humanoid, twisted mockeries. Others were bestial, four-legged horrors with too many teeth, serpentine things that coiled and struck, crawling nightmares that defied description.

"Hold formation!" Karathra shouted. "Don't let them surround us!"

Ashclaw fought with precision, every strike calculated to disable or kill.

Brakthar used the Drowning defensively, he carried a small barrel on his back that continue to splash him with water, pulling wounded allies into the water dimension for brief moments of rest before releasing them to fight again.

Zargoth and Rukar, despite their injuries, held the flanks with grim determination.

And Lady Pelica watched.

Karathra caught glimpses of her between the chaos of combat. The enchanter stood at the edge of the fighting, untouched by the creatures that swarmed around her. It was as if they couldn't see her, couldn't perceive her as a threat worth addressing.

'...What is she waiting for? What does she want to see?...'

There was no time to wonder. A creature lunged at her, all claws and teeth, and Karathra cut it down. Another took its place. And another. The tide of flesh was endless.

"We're getting pushed back!" Ashclaw shouted.

He was right. Despite their ferocity, the masters were being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Every creature they killed was replaced by two more. The Hive Fiend had thousands of bodies to throw at them, and it was using them without hesitation.

"Fall back to the ridge!" Karathra ordered. "Defensive position! Buy Drakira time!"

They retreated fighting, leaving a trail of corpses behind them. The creatures pursued, an endless tide of corrupted flesh, but the masters were faster. They reached the ridge and formed a line, using the terrain to channel the attackers into a narrow front.

It helped. Sort of. The creatures couldn't surround them anymore, couldn't use their numbers to full advantage. But they kept coming, kept attacking, kept dying and being replaced.

"How long?" Brakthar gasped. He was bleeding from a dozen wounds. "How long do we hold?"

Karathra didn't know. Drakira had been gone for... five minutes? Ten? Time was impossible to track in the chaos of combat.

"Until it's done," she said. "We hold until it's done."

She raised her axe and kept fighting.

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