I licked my lips, feeling my breath on my face inside the helmet as the guards fired on the second wave of monsters. They didn’t even exist at this point as my eyes were fully glued to the gigantic siege monster.

  "I know what you're going to say," Roq said. "But I have to say it anyway. We NEED to kill that monster. Like, kill it so dead, that even the hive mind won’t want it back"

  The Rootwrought Juggernaut stomped across the killing field surrounding Sentinel station, and it shrugged anything the guards and adventurers threw at it. Projectile-wise at least. The monster seemed about as annoyed at the attacks as if they were mosquito bites.

  “Oh, let me guess. Maybe it'll get you your breakthrough, right? Is that it? Not that I’d say no, mind you, if this was a less dangerous situation, but going out there? Come on, even you have to know that’s suicide.”

  "Not only my breakthrough, but!" Roq exclaimed. “Well, yes, finally getting my breakthrough would be definitely nice. Good. Great, actually. But think about what would happen if it didn’t lead to my breakthrough. Imagine the power YOU would get when we kill it. Think about it, Ash! A monster that size? The experience alone would be worth it! Hell, I’m pretty sure it would give you a level or two on its own!"

  The experience such a kill would grant me through Roq was truly mind boggling. If he was right, of course. How many mind gems worth? Two? Four? Ten? Fifty if it had a class or soul gem inside? The temptation was undeniable. But I shook my head.

  "It would be insane to try and kill that thing, Roq. Complete and utter madness. And do let me remind you, that if we died down there, a monster would take you from me only to leave you in its lair for all eternity. Do you want to risk it?"

  He was quiet for a long moment, which only made sense considering the gravity of what he had suggested.

  "I don't care about any other monster out there," Roq insisted. "Just get the last hit on that beautiful monstrosity, and I won't ask you for anything else for like..." he paused dramatically, "A day or something!"

  "A day? What are you even--look, it's too dangerous, so shut it, buddy. I’m not suicidal.”

  The now-familiar snapping sound of ballista bolts loosing echoed out from the front side of Sentinel Station, and two massive bolts flew straight at the siege monster, one right after the other. Both bolts struck the creature square in the chest, piercing its plating, but no blood whatsoever gushed out from the wounds. It more resembled like stabbing a thick thornbush with a spear – there was damage, certainly, but it seemed minor at best. The monster never even seemed to notice it.

  What remained of the first wave finally reached the wall beneath us. I leaned over to see dozens of creatures – Shardfangs, Rotmasks, Steel Scuttlers – clawing ineffectively at the steelhusk-reinforced palisade, their attacks barely even scratching it.

  "You worthless piles of walking compost!" Roq screamed and I winced. “Useless distractions! Fodder! Pathetic sacrifices to waste our precious defenses!"

  And he was right. The first wave had accomplished exactly what the Hive Mind intended – put our spells on cooldown, drain our resources, and use up precious ammunition. They were never meant to breach the walls.

  No, that was where the big ones came in.

  The second wave was already halfway to the wall, arrows and the occasional spell lancing out from the station, killing several monsters at best. A Saprotic Lurker collapsed as three arrows pierced its head. A Bonepicker tumbled forward, its spine shattered by a well-placed bolt. A Shimmerscale cartwheeled through the air as it stepped on a Fire Trap. A Ruptureborn dug a furrow in the ground, an arrow sticking out of its head.

  "I wish there was something I could do," I muttered, watching the slaughter unfold before us.

  "There IS something you can do!" Roq exclaimed. “Jump down and slay them all! Re-baptize me in blood and guts! Be the Hammerlord you are supposed to be, damn it! Show some guts! I mean figuratively, not like…you know, rip your stomach open and show them your guts."

  "I know, Roq. What I meant was to thin out their ranks before they arrive at the wall. I’m not jumping down.”

  "Oh! Well, you could throw a few rocks?” Roq suggested. "Just don't throw the wrong Roq! Haha! I’m loving this more and more every day. Speaking to you really broadens the horizon."

  I felt sick to the stomach as the Bonepickers, Shimmerscales, and Ruptureborn reached the base of the wall and began climbing on top of each other as they were unable to scale the slick vertical surface. Around me, the defenders tried to pick them off with arrows, bolts, and rocks. Some even attacked with oversized spears.

  Those quickly had to retreat as anyone who leaned over was targeted by the Saprotic Lurkers. The ogre-sized slugs began spitting balls of acidic bile. One struck a guard standing near me square in the face. The man screamed and dropped his crossbow, fingers prying at the acid, but it burnt through so quickly that the flesh on his hands just disappeared before my eyes, leaving only bone behind. He stumbled backward, losing his footing and tumbling down from the wall.

  "Keep that acidic bile away from me!" Roq demanded. "It can't be good for my perfect finish. I'll stick to my blueberry pie facials, thank you very much. Oh…my…lewdness. That is so naughty. And milk…what could we say about being dipped in milk?"

  “Wonder if this is the type of monster that gave Edwin his scar,”I said, ignoring his idiocy in the face of such danger.

  I took a deep breath and readied myself as the monsters started getting halfway up the wall, climbing ever further and crushing each other under their claws and weight. The first Shimmerscale crested the wall, popping up directly in front of me. I swung Roq at its triangular head, crushing it with little effort. The monster fell back over the wall, dead before it even reached the ground. But not everyone had a soul weapon designed to crush monsters popping their heads up like playing whack-a-mole, and the guards around me were struggling to stop the monsters from climbing the wall.

  “Oh, good. They are saving them for us!”

  “Don’t be crass.”

  Another Shimmerscale pulled itself up to my left, blocking the guard’s strike. I rushed over and smashed its head in, then pushed it back away from the wall.

  “Help him,” I said, nodding past him to the next guard. “I’ve got this stretch here.”

  A Ruptureborn followed to my right, its scythe-like claws pulling itself up on the wall. The moment it had a foothold, one of the scythes swept right for me. I caught it on my shield, before striking its neck, nearly severing its head.

  Not two steps further, a Bonepicker cut a guard’s arm off at the elbow, but before it could finish the kill I drove Roq through its side with enough force to send it flying off the wall.

  "Blergh! That one tasted like old leather and spoiled meat," Roq commented. "The Shimmerscales are much better – like fish wrapped in metal foil. And the Ruptureborn? Pure muscle tissue with a hint of something spicy. Not bad, actually! Too bad I don’t have the time to properly enjoy it all,"

  “Healer!” a guard shouted, grabbing the wounded man by the back of his armor and hauling him towards the elevator.

  I hoped Eryn and Knut had gotten back to Dawnwatch safely, but there was no way for me to check on them now. I had to trust in them and that the rest of the adventurers and guards would arrive soon.

  Two more guards cried out almost in unison as more acidic bile hung from their shoulder and arm. A Bonepicker climbed onto the walkway and lunged at me. I sidestepped and brought the hammer down, letting Roq’s magic do the work. The crunching sound as my weapon connected to the monster mid-lunge was, as Roq would put it, delicious. Despite the little power behind my strike, Roq hit it hard enough to crack its spine, sending it crashing to the walkway. I finished it with a quick tap to the head.

  “Shield right!”

  I didn’t even bother looking and brought the shield up, trusting Roq fully, and a ball of bile splashed me a heartbeat later. The acid slid down the shield, either through luck, or maybe Pa had done something special to the shield, but whatever it was, I appreciated it greatly. I was a sitting duck without my shield.

  I looked down and searched for the slug, but my eyes were immediately drawn to the Siege monster as it stomped through the killing ground unopposed, with nearly all the defenders engaged on the walls. The monster headed straight for the gate, and there wasn’t a single powerful adventurer nearby.

  A Ruptureborn crested the wall and made to leap at me.

  Roq warned me again and I swept my hammer sideways, connecting with its chest, breaking ribs, and sending it tumbling back down.

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  “So, umm…just because I know how much it would annoy you if these people died... you might want to clear the right side again.”

  I turned to see the guards fighting for dear life, and about to be overrun by a Bonepicker and four Ruptureborn. One guard lay dying, his throat slashed. Another was seized and thrown from the wall into the mass of monsters on the other side of the wall. He barely managed to cry out as monsters swarmed over him, ripping him to pieces. Three spear-wielding guards stood further along the wall, trying to hold the monsters back but they weren’t having a lot of luck.

  Two Ruptureborn went for them while the two others went for me. I braced my shield and pulled Roq back. The first came into striking range.“Armor Break.”

  Nothing happened.

  “Roq? What is--”

  "AAAAGH! The pain! Make it stop!" he cried, startling me.

  The sound stabbed through my mind and I stumbled. The Bonepicker struck, hooking its claw on my helmet and pulling me past it, sending me stumbling to the floor.

  "Portal-pissing, rift-rotted bastards!" Roq cursed in my mind, his voice strained as if locked in a mental arm-wrestling contest.

  “Impale!”

  Trapped between four monsters, and lying flat on the floor, my cloak’s ability did what it was supposed to do. I felt the heavy thuds slamming into my back as the steelhusk spikes shot outward.

  The wet sound of three impacts reverberated around me as I tried to push myself back up. The spikes withdrew a moment later, and I found two of the Ruptureborn were gone, while the Bonepicker was staggering toward me with a hole in its chest.

  “Skull-stacked monster balls!”

  I pushed back up and raised my hammer in the same movement, then brought it down on the monster’s head, cracking its skull. A cheering sound came from behind me. I looked around quickly and found the other guards had killed the last monster. “Thank you, adventurer,” one of them said and nodded.

  “Anytime,” I shot back, distracted by Roq’s continued cursing in my head.

  "What in the rotten rift is going on, Roq?"

  "That... that... THING is in my head!" he snarled, his voice distorted with rage and pain.

  I looked around frantically. The walkway was now clear for over fifteenfeet in both directions. Further to my left, towards the gate, two guards were fighting a Ruptureborn, using their spears to keep it at bay. To my right, two of the three guards were running to help another guard fight several Shimmerscales that had just appeared on the top of the wall.

  With no monsters actively trying to kill me, I swiped Roq into my spatial storage.

  A blissful second of mental silence followed, and I glanced toward the siege monster. It was close enough to see more details. It had a fungal mesh beneath bark-like armor plates, and within that, slithering trees, like muscle.

  Then I swiped Roq back out again as I went to help the guards on my right kill the Shimmerscales.

  "What's going on, Roq?" I asked as I fought.

  "Thank you for helping," he gasped. "I was – or am – under mental assault. I think it's the Hive Mind. It's trying to break into my consciousness, and I can't use my abilities!"

  The guards and I finished off the monsters, with them pushing the monsters toward me, and me crushing them like the bugs they were.

  "When you swiped me into storage, it stopped," Roq continued. “I was hidden there somehow. The Hive Mind couldn’t find me, yet I could still feel that it actively searched for me. It was creepy..”

  The guards nodded their thanks to me. Again.

  "Stay alive," I said, and returned to my previous position on the wall, crushing the skull of one monster on the way as it tried to crest the wall.

  “So can we use your skills now?"

  "I don't think so," he replied. "It might be that trying to use my skills allowed the Hive Mind to pinpoint me specifically."

  Further ahead, the siege monster reached the gate and stopped right in front of it. Then it started rooting itself into place, slamming down thick legs like tree trunks into the ground, from which thick vines growed and dug into the soil."Damn, that thing really is big."

  A deep groan rumbled from somewhere inside it as more roots, thick as my leg, shot down from its lower body. They bored into the ground with wet, crunching sounds, anchoring it further into place.

  "A living battering ram. I like it. Or, I'll like devouring it. I might throw up after, but that's fine. It'll be worth it."

  My stomach dropped.

  I thought back to when we had left for the Twisted Titan the first time, and Garret had kissed the gate. I wouldn’t mind a bit of his luck right about now.

  The two guards between me and the gate had defeated the Ruptureborn and now picked up crossbows, loosing bolts at the siege monster. Their projectiles did absolutely nothing to harm it.

  "Maybe we should burn it," Roq suggested. "It's a wood-ish monster, after all. Fire tends to work wonders on things that can burn."

  "I know, but that should be too obvious, no? Actually, never mind. Good idea.”

  “Everyone!” I yelled. “Use fire arrows!" I called to the men. “Try to shoot as deep inside the monster as you can! Burn it up from within!”

  The guards and a few adventurers to my sides began preparing rags for their bolts, while others still kept their spears, maces, swords, shields, and hammers up, blocking monsters and knocking them off the wall. Just beyond the guards, a Bonepicker had climbed one of the steelhusk trees used as anchors for the wall. It pounced on the single mage who was stationed there, the man desperately trying to fend it off with his staff, but his spells had to be on cooldown. Two guards stabbed the monsters, bashed its head in, and tried to push it off the mage, but the monster ignored them totally, throwing its life away to kill the spellcaster.

  The ballista crews were frantically working to reload their massive weapon.

  "I miss Wade," Roq said. "He was quite good with those things."

  “Me too. I’d love a few exploding bolts into that siege monster right about now.”

  I looked down at the wall's base and felt my stomach drop.

  There had to be over a hundred monsters from the first wave now gathered around the siege monster as it finished rooting itself into the ground.

  If it succeeded in breaching the gates, Sentinel Station would be lost. We couldn’t hold off that many, not once they got inside, and we’d have to retreat to First Steel. No, we probably wouldn’t even get the chance to.

  “We’ve got reinforcements!" Roq said. “So kill more, faster, before they steal all the experience! I see Edwin and his party. And there's Shay's party, and Richard's too!"

  “Thank the bells,” I gasped as a wave of relief flooded over me. Why had it taken them so long, anyway? “And don’t worry. There are plenty of monsters to go around.”

  "Fine," Roq agreed begrudgingly. “As long as we get the killing blow on the siege monster, I am happy to share the others.”

  “We’ll leave that one for the higher level adventurers. How’s your… head, anyway?"

  "It feels... how to even describe it?" Roq said. "Like Knut's mother is standing on it.”

  "Why Knut's mother?"

  "Have you seen the size of Knut?" Roq retorted. "Now imagine big his mother would be!"

  "Be serious, Roq.”

  "I can't be serious! I'm rift-rotting scared!" Roq snapped. “This is how I deal with emotion, alright! This and pie! And as far as I can tell, THERE IS NO PIE!”

  I killed another Ruptureborn as it scaled the wall and tried to get at me. More bile acid flew upward, and one of the blobs narrowly missed me.

  “Alright, fine, of course you can joke. Just as long as you tell me what's going on."

  "I'm trying to distract myself so I don't feel the pressure of the Hive Mind,” Roq admitted.

  "Why? Is it that bad?"

  "What if it succeeds in whatever it’s trying to do and I lose myself?" The vulnerability in his voice surprised me. "What if it takes me over?"

  "I promise to store you in my spatial inventory if you start screaming or if I feel anything weird happening," I assured him. “I got you.”

  “What if I’m not the same hammer when you pull me back out?”

  “That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

  “Ha. Ha, and a very big, ha!”

  “Come on, Roq. Feel it. We need to understand what we're dealing with and get your skills back at least. I can’t do crap against that big thing if you can’t focus.”

  "Fine," Roq agreed reluctantly. “I will…do my best.”

  Down below, Edwin arrived at the gate just as the siege monster struck it for the first time. The impact was devastating – not fast, but incredibly powerful, like forging with a maul. The entire gate shook, and the steelhusk groaned.

  Edwin immediately began barking orders, looking up and spotting me on the wall. He gave me a quick nod of acknowledgment before turning to his party.

  "Isaac, Rowan – defend the left side of the wall! Ming, join Ash. Alex, heal the wounded!"

  One of the guards loosing fire bolts at the siege monster cried out as a Shimmerscale appeared behind him and cut his arm off. I rushed over and killed the monster before it could finish the man off. Arms could be set again, though the man would be out of action for a while, but death was permanent.

  Edwin, Ming, and Alex arrived on the wall via the elevator, and Alex moved to help the wounded guard while Edwin cursed at the sight of the siege monster below.

  "What can we do? Open the gate and funnel them through? Kill them as they come in?" I yelled, my voice laced with a bit of panic and a lot of urgency.“You stay there and hold the wall," he shot back. “I got this.”

  "And you?"

  "I'm going to deal with that thing out there." Edwin pulled out and donned a fully enclosed helmet. Armored completely from head-to-toe, he drew his flaming sword and swiped his shield out of storage. “Reserve your spells,” he told Ming, before running up to the top of the wall, giving us one last look, and jumping over the palisade. I leaned over to see him landing as gracefully as possible in full plate armor, and he charged for the siege monster, his flaming sword splitting monsters in two as he tried to get at them.

  The monsters that had gathered around the siege monsters threw themselves at him, but Edwin was no slouch or a low-level adventurer with thoughts of grandeur. “Expand!” he shouted, and his shield suddenly grew to the size of a door, taller, and way wider than him. Yet he moved it as if it weighed no more than a normal shield.

  “I love it when he uses that ability,” Ming said, fingers drumming on her staff. With Edwin on the ground, the pressure on the wall around us already lessened considerably.

  “How long does it last?” I asked, watching him knock monsters aside like toys as he pushed for the siege monster.

  “Hopefully long enough,” Alex said, stepping up next to her. “Guardian!” Alex said, casting a spell, and a silver glow surrounded Edwin.

  "Jump down and join the fight!" Roq urged me. "This is our chance!"

  "We'll die if we go down there. We can't even use your skills right now."

  "Fine," Roq grumbled. Then, his voice suddenly strained. “Here’s that bastard again! Trying to squeeze into my mind again, as if there’s any space left in there with how awesome I already am!”

  “Scream if you want a trip to the spatial.”

  I watched Edwin carve through the monsters as Roq struggled in my mind, fighting against the hive mind’s invasion.

  Then, unexpectedly, Roq laughed in a manic way.

  “Are you alright?"

  “Head right! Run along the wall!” Roq snapped. "Now!"

  I trusted him implicitly, running away from Alex and Ming without hesitation.

  "Strike left!" Roq suddenly commanded.

  I did as he said, and connected with a Shimmerscale just as it poked its head over the wall. The creature's skull shattered under the impact and it dropped dead.

  “By the bells, what was that?" I asked, staring at my hammer.

  "The Hive Mind is trying to take over my mind," he explained, his voice strained but excited. “But it has already taken over several of these monsters! When it pushes against my mind I can hear some of the commands, Ash! I know where some of the monsters are and what they're doing!"