Lord Siphas found himself in between the walls, fighting on the ground. Each Section in the tall walls above was matched with a shorter wall in between the Walls, creating a series of Baileys.

Should the enemy breach the wall, they would he forced to fight in the Baileys and overwhelm them before they could attack the gate or attempt to breach the inner wall.

The Bailey walls were only five meters tall and only two meters thick, but they created a cage to trap the Attackers while providing a platform for archers and Mages to pick off the enemy even as they flooded in and clashed against the Defenders.

The massive Inner and Outer Walls cast the Baileys in nigh perpetual darkness, only having an hour or so of direct sunlight during midday. Light enough remained to see, but not clearly, nor in detail.

Explosions of Magic and sparks of metal against metal briefly illuminated the hell the Baileys became.

Elliot leaned back, out of the swing of a Devil's sword. One of his bodyguards stepped forward, thrusting the point of his halberd into the Demon's chest.

"Archers!" Elliot shouted. He pointed his sword towards the breach, where a constant stream of Demons stepped through the hole in the wall and over the pile of rubble two at a time.

The Archers responded, turning from the Demons already in the Bailey towards the small breach.

The flow slowed, but they kept coming, crawling over their own dead to advance.

Shields took so many arrows they fell apart, leaving their users vulnerable.

Yet still they flowed through like a flood.

Elliot parried a heavy axe to the side and pierced the liver of an Argalon, stepping past it even as it toppled to the ground.

With his free hand, he sent a powerful blast of wind to send two Devils flying backward.

His bodyguards, dressed in the elegant armor of their Master's House, cut down anything that got in their way as they followed their Master.

All around them, the battle continued. There were no battlelines. There were no strategies. There was only those that lived and those that didn't. The archers atop the bailey walls loosed their arrows at will, helping to stem the flow as well as aid their comrades.

Mages attempted to use their magic, but struggled to cast their spells without their comrades getting caught up in them as well as the enemy.

The Devils and Argalon fought like the Monsters Humans thought them to be. Tearing through any Human they could, blood flew and spilled, leaving broken bodies behind as they gradually advanced.

The situation only became worse when some Demon Archers and Mages made it through and began targeting the Human Archers.

Elliot cut down a Devil, only for another to swing its sword at his head. He leaned back as far as he could, earning a deep cut to the forehead, but keeping his head.

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His balance off, he slipped in the slick mud, falling on his back.

The Demon stepped forward with a grin on its face. It did not hesitate or pause as it quickly thrust towards his heart.

Yet before the tip could pierce his Chainmail, a large object slammed into the Devil, crushing it into paste while sending blood and mud flying.

Elliot covered his eyes.

When he lowered his arm, he saw the object was in fact a creature. A creature of bone.

It stood up, slowly, without the rush of the war that waged around it.

It looked at Elliot with empty eye sockets, yet he could swear it was looking at his soul.

Yet instead of jumping at him with its claws, it looked up at the sky and howled.

A sound that promised blood.

Elliot followed its movements, and saw dozens of similar creatures crawling down the halfway down the inside of the Outer wall before jumping off and crushing Demons beneath them.

The battle paused for a moment as everyone noticed these Monsters amongst them.

The Demons stepped back in fear, but that only served as the trigger.

The Skeletal Werewolves dove for the nearest Devil or Argalon, tearing into them with their claws and teeth.

At the same moment, Magic flew over the Humans' heads, aimed at the breech and the Demons that crowded around it.

Elliot stumbled to his feet, even as his head bled, he lifted his sword over his head, "For Onigas! For Mankind!"

The Humans roared their defiance and charged forward.

Elliot just hoped it would be enough.

* * * * *

It was not.

Just two hours later, Elliot had been forced to sound the retreat from two bailees. He had no idea how many bailees had been lost on the other side of the first.

The Werewolves had proved a valuable ally, but they too gradually fell, even as they did surrounded by Demon dead.

The Mages from the Inner Wall did what they could but had to prioritize the battle atop the Walls.

Each Bailey brought with it a fresh unit of Human Defenders, but the Demons never ended.

Elliot stood at the back, exhausted, wounded, and with only two of his Bodyguards remaining out of the original ten that had followed him to the frontlines.

They were just as exhausted and injured, their armor chinked, broken, and dripping.

Elliot watched the battle wage, knowing they would have to abandon yet another bailey.

"Sir," One of the Bodyguards gasped out, "We can't go on like this. Even if we stand here, you will gradually bleed out."

"I can't just leave. How would that look to the soldiers? It would demoralize them even more than the battle."

"How badly would their morale plummet seeing their Lord drop dead from bloodloss? Sir, you need a Healer, and I swore to the Lady that I would protect your life with my own. If you will not go to a Healer willingly, I will uphold my oath, even if it means dragging you there myself." The man groaned, holding his side even as blood seeped through his fingers.

The other man spoke up, "Besides, if you died on our watch, Lukas would piss on our graves."

Elliot couldn't help but chuckle, wishing the giant man was with him, but feeling better that he had sent him with his wife and daughter to ensure their safety in the new and strange city.

The Lord knew his man was correct. He was injured. A volley of Demon arrows had caught them unaware, reaping the lives of two of his bodyguards and catching Elliot in the side. It was an injury that would take a few hours to kill him, most likely from blood loss, but Elliot had not had the luxury of moving slowly and carefully.

The originally small wound had only grown. Flesh tearing with each quick movement and blood flowing out freely.

Elliot suspected that he only had a little bit of time before his balance was impacted by blood loss. And only an hour before his vision was impaired.

He knew he needed to be treated, and only a Healer would have the ability to treat him well enough for him to get back into the fray as soon as possible.

Gods above knew just how few they had, especially with the Demons targeting them at every opportunity.

Elliot pushed himself off the wall with a grunt of pain and a fresh pulse of blood.

He was interrupted by an explosion that rocked the ground. An explosion that was just behind him, creating a sound that was all too familiar to him.

A breach, a large one.

"Looks like we are going to be a bit delayed for our Healer Appointment."

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