Surrounded

"Uh, sarge?" asked Fate, speaking the first words he'd said in hours. He felt the hoarseness of his voice and suddenly remembered that he hadn't had anything to drink in almost a day. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Is this part of the plan?"

"No," growled the sergeant.

The imps crept closer and closer, goat-faced smirks coating their faces as they seemed to realize the hopeless situation of the Guard. From a different tunnel than the one the Guard had entered through, another wave of imps poured in, having been drawn in by the sounds of their brothers' distress. The sergeant cursed as he noticed a particular imp among them.

"Dammit, I was right. They have a shaman. Gus, drop the bubble."

Gus nodded as the air stopped shimmering, the imp the sergeant had spotted pushing its way through the crowd of its brothers. This imp was taller than the others; while its brethren were anywhere from six to eight feet tall, this one was easily ten. Its horn jutted out of its forehead and curled around its temples like a ram's, the keratin cracked and chipped in places.

Unlike its brothers, it was fully clothed. Long, golden robes with glowing blue embroidery covered its yellow skin, its red goat eyes bearing down on the humans with the same callous disregard a man would give an ant. Dangling from its pointed ears and long, bony fingers were various pieces of jewelry that glowed softly, hinting at enchantments.

When it spoke, its voice sounded like someone was banging two rocks together, its forked tongue moving clumsily in its mouth as it used the Ziob language. "What reason do six of your Empress' fabled warriors have to barge uninvited to our home, humans?"

The sergeant straightened, staring back into the shaman's eyes with the same contempt the imp projected. "You and your tribe have been sentenced to death, by the authority of the Empress."

"On what grounds? Do not tell me she would have us exterminated just for existing?"

"Your kind is nothing but human-eating scum, foul imp. You derive pleasure only from the suffering of our species."

"Other imps, perhaps, but not me. Unlike my… intelligently-disinclined brethren, I seek only knowledge of how to increase my power. I have made sure that all humans that must fall under our pitchforks die humanely and with minimal pain. While I cannot change our need for human flesh, at least not yet, I have strived to make our dietary needs humane."

"Your tribe is still responsible for the deaths of dozens of humans, shaman. And I saw your little 'display' at the entrance."

"Again, all culled with empathy and sorrow. And while tragic, the totem is required to scare off murderous humans. What would you have us do, eat our goat mothers? A few of your cows? We couldn't even if we wanted to; anything other than human flesh is poison to us. And if we switched our aim from your kind to your livestock, you would descend upon us with the same judgmental wrath.

"BUT… I am close to a Spell. A Spell that can remove our need for human flesh to survive, to make it as poisonous to us as beef is, while also allowing us to eat your human foods. When this Spell is complete, I shall convene with one of your Health Mages to work the Spell, and our two species will never have to war over survival again."

"That sounds far-fetched," Fate chimed.

"Ah, but that's the glory of Spells. I estimate I only need two more months to complete it. It's a shame the six of you won't be here to see it. Letting you live will cause my brethren to revolt, undoing my hundreds of years of work." The shaman thrust his hands forward, a surge of Mana gushing out and washing over the humans. Fate, like the rest of his allies, threw up a Mana barrier on instinct, blocking the Mana before it could harm them.

Or at least, that was the intent.

One by one, their barriers shattered, until only the sergeant's was still up. Fate spotted a vein pulse on the man's forehead as the soldier decimated what was left of the Mana. Judging by his reddened face, he wouldn't be able to do that again more than two or three times.

"Ah, you are surprisingly strong for an Adept! Very well, if my Imp's Fingers cannot harm you, then perhaps my Fragile Mind Spell can."

Before the sergeant could even reject the absurd notion of an Imp capable of casting spells, another wave of Mana was on its way. This one slithered right through the man's barrier, slipping past him and converging on Fate. Fate saw it coming out of the corner of his eye, rolling away and into the mob of imps around him.

The Mana soared past his head and vanished from sight as he dodged a thrust of an imp's pitchfork. He spun around and lopped the attacker's head off before parrying another pitchfork, this imp soon suffering the same fate.

"Never touched a sword, my ass," the sergeant grumbled. "All right, you sorry bastards! Come get some!"

Stepping forward, he broke the Guards' encirclement and decapitated an imp with his sword, slapping a chain away with the flat of his blade before skewering one imp and running another through with his blade. As he tossed the dying imp off of his blade and into the approaching crowd, the Guards to his back joined the fray.

Two of them, Bregg and Gus, swung their swords with righteous fury, cleverly using their Skills in tandem to distract and disorient the imps. Bregg used bright flashes of light while Gus generated ridiculously loud sounds right next to the ears of imps, their cooperation leaving the creatures blind and deaf, swinging their chains and pitchforks wildly.

Several of them cut down their own brothers in the confusion, only to be put down by enraged imps or the blades of the Guard. Higgs and Brent, meanwhile, were veritable storms, reaping the lives of the imps as if they were weeds to be uprooted.

All around the cavern, vines would burst from the ground, ensnaring the imps in a tangle of plant matter, or trees would sprout, hindering the imps' advances and impaling them with thorns. Stones flew from Higgs' fingers and knees, peppering the imps and destroying their eyes and throats, only for the expelled stone to be replaced by the rock below his feet.

And Fate…