The billowing cloud had nearly reached the arch leading into the Kato ward. Crusader drew in a breath and lowered her sword to her side, grip tightening. Fmes erupted in her palm and spread up her arm and down the length of her bde. An inferno of gold wreathing her. She tilted her head up as the aches eased, her jaw set tightly. Alphonse fluttered into the air and darted towards safety, his wings restored enough to move. To Crusader’s right, a nine-foot tall Harbiook a fighting stance, her hammer at the ready. Her blonde hair was a tousled mess and her blue eyes were bzing bright with power and fury. To her left, BLF stretched his bad flexed his arms, his cw-guards gleaming in the sunlight beating down on them. His scales grew thicker as he stretched his jaw in preparation, his dagger-like fangs bared.

  Static filled the air.

  Spiked pilrs of shimmering crystal appeared on the ground, spreading out like weeds in the area in front of them. Ice spread along the ground and illusory snow began to fall from the sky. Crusader popped her ned frowned as a pang of residual pain burned in her core. She grit her teeth as the clouds parted.

  CROOAAAHHKKKKK!

  Eyes, wild and spread in mind-shattering mania bulged out of a vaguely human face, a mouth hanging opeh them filled with curved and poieeth. Its nose was twisted and broken. It let out an inhuman howl from the very depths of its throat, a groan and croak in one. Massive taloned haended as its torso twisted and writhed atop what looked like a ten foot loipede. A hundred long yellowed legs scrambling across the ground in a frantic dash to sh out at prey.

  Crusader’s nostrils fred, determination and fury pushing back against the icy terror that tried to worm its her spine.

  More came.

  A writhing horde of nightmarish half humanoid half tipedes that shrieked and groaheir insane eyes fixed orio standing in their way. Crusader didn’t hesitate. She charged, pnting her first step and starting her push towards a new momentum for her ability. A shout rose up ihroat that turned into a roar of challenge. Harbinger moved i and BLF leaped forward, his powerful arms stretg towards his arget. For a moment, the world felt still for Crusader as she crossed the distahewo sides collided.

  A brutal uppercut sshed up and along the torso of the mohat threw its body ba a horrible groan of pain. Its yellow legs snapping out to catch her. She brought her on back down and knocked back the strikes with a follow-up stroke. The creature whipped its torso back, trying to curl around her. She snapped her free hand out and brought a fist into its face, bone crag beh her armored knuckles. Another one of the horrors slid across the ground tht before colliding face first inter’s hammer while BLF nded on another’s chest and jabbed his bded fists down into its throat and chest over and over.

  Faster! Crusader demanded of herself, grabbing the beast by the fad pulling with all her might to sm it down at the ground. It collided with pavement with a wet ch, its disturbing lower half twitg spasmodically befoing abruptly still. She stepped over it, teeth bared as another came charging at her. Its nightmare scream eg in her ears. She pushed it off, fmes coiling around her on and bursting out from her body in a wave. Fmes caught on friends and foe alike as she dove into a clockwise spin, throwing her weight into a strike that bisected the monster’s head.

  Aep. One of them got in close enough to bite her arm. She kicked it off, ign the pain that spread with the clearly acidiom. Her fmes would take care of it. She drove her on up and into its chest where its heart likely was, twisting and pulling out before pushing past. A bang rang out as one of the things was sent hurtling away by Harbinger’s swing, her rade leaving a path of crushed bodies behind her in her fury. Crusader only gave her friends cursory looks white fog on the fight to keep track of their locations amidst the mass of bodies. BLF was in the process of literally biting one of their heads off, his body growing slightly in bulk as he ed. His powerful arms growing rger, his swings stretg longer.

  O at a time, one swing at a time. Step. Step. Step. Step. Even as they frantically tried to get to her, they could only mindlessly slip and stumble on the id around the illusory pilrs. Their momentum was broken by Snow’s trol of the field. Crusader felt her internal energy cyg faster, there weren't any breaks in the bat here, no misdires, no moments to lose what she’d built. Pure battle. Her eyes glowed as she pushed all of her will into her form. Another down. Another. She threw off another bite, pummeled another skull, cut another chest open.

  She was focused, almost mindlessly so. She wasn’t sure if it was her fury over their clear loss to Rivet or everything else, but she felt her instincts scream up to meet the challenge. Her mouth opened and she released a sonorous cry of an enormous bird of prey, gold fmes streaking out in a stream and p into the wound she’d made. The ied monster colpsed as another rushed forward to take its pce. She saw more ing in from behind, and endless wave. Her lips parted in a roar as terror and were thrown aside for ohing and ohing alone.

  “FIRST MARCH OF THE CRUSADER!” she bellowed, her step causing the ground to shake slightly. Rivet had stopped her st time, but these things weren’t smart enough to know. She grabbed her on with both hands and swung, an arc of golden fme leaping from her sword as a swing that would have normally wounded or killed with the right positioning cut one of the creatures in half. The fmes spread from the point of impact, shrieks of pain and fury rising up in her ears. She took aep and bisected another from waist to , stepping through the body and swinging again. Again. Faster! Again. FASTER!

  She heard statieone’s voice. KEEP GOING! She fumed, putting it aside.

  She was about to cleave through another when something ed around her leg. She jerked to a stop and looked down. One of the ones she’d thought she’d cut down had grabbed her. It yanked hard and she ulled bodily into the air. Upside down. Her fury cleared for a moment and her eyes took in the mass of writhing bodies trying to surround her and her friends. There were already so many. Her heart leaped into her throat as she whipped her head towards the face of the creature holding her aloft. She s it and moved to swing only for one of its yellowed legs to snap out to block it.

  “Damn it!”

  A crash sounded nearby and she met Harbinger’s gaze, her friend was too far away to assist. Static filled the air and the creature let out a shriek of pain, clutg at its head and throwing it about in a wild panic. It let go of Crusader who fell to the ground in a heap. She tried to stand but a wave of exhaustion washed over her, a dull ache, worse than any she’d felt before. How long did I keep First March going? She wondered breathlessly as she tried to rise. The monster above her tossed its head about, whatever Snow was doing to it was more than a little painful. Her muscles gave out, Shit!

  The monster lowered its arms, maddened eyes bloodshot as it looked down at her with unmasked hatred.

  THOP!

  The sound startled Crusader. She blinked as a bething appeared on the side of the creature’s head. Its eyes went vapid and it swayed before falling to its side.

  THOP! THOP! THOP!

  Three more of the things dropped as they charged towards the exhausted hero. Her eyes went wide as she reized them, up close, there was no mistaking those bck shafts and fletgs. That was when a snickering ugh rang out and she drew up enough strength to shout into her , “Snow! We need shade! Make it dark!”

  The obsg snowfall ceased to be with a rush of static, the pilrs evaporating as well. Light began to dim as it was bent away from where they were, the world being twilight. An instant ter a shape out of dreams and nightmares rose amidst the rgest cluster of the creatures. It had a rouhat was matte bck, a big smile on its face with two white dots for eyes. It had a hammer in its hands, cartoonishly rge even by its titanic standards. It snickered and ughed, sweeping its on through the gathered horde and crushing bodies like bugs against a windshield.

  A shape nded o her and she ulled to her feet. She turned, wide eyed, ahe gray eyes of Bandit. His messy bck hair even messier with sweat. His dark eyes were more hollow, his expression grim. “ you keep going?” He asked quickly.

  “Just o recover a moment,” she panted, “Thanks for the save.”

  “Don’t get swept up in it,” he said sharply, “Manage your power use. Overdo it and you’re as good as dead.”

  She nodded, cowed slightly a out a shaky breath. “Right.”

  He patted her shoulder and cracked a grin, “Looks like your team p could use a rariker,” he said after giving her a moment to mull over her mistake. “Team up?”

  She k doicked up her sword, “Absolutely,” she said and reached up to tap her again, “Snow?” She called, gng at her friends. They were holding out much better than she had in her fury. BLF was ing as much as he could to keep his energy levels up and Harbinger was focused on avoiding blows rather than tanking them.

  “You good now?” Snow asked through the , her voice terse.

  “Yeah,” she said, “Sorry.”

  “Just gd you’re okay. That Bandit?”

  “Yeah, add him to the whitelist for your illusions, we’re teaming up,” She said quickly, I’m gonna catch my breath while Inky keeps them busy,” she said and gowards the massive cartoon character who was swinging it’s hammer around with merry abandon, occasionally snatg one unlucky monster up and biting it in half before tossing its remains over its shoulder. Inky liquid spread out on the ground around it, occasionally dragging monsters ihat vanished without returning.

  “On it, be safe,” Snow said and cut the e. Crusader caught her breath a out a heavy sigh, setting her shoulders again and looking towards the seemingly endless horde. It was like every single monster in the dungeon had been released at once which, she realized, was exactly what they were dealing with.

  “You’re illusionist is good, Snht?” Bandit said as he gnced her way. She nodded and he gave her an assessing look. “I saw a good deal before I got close enough,” he said, “Looks like that move of yours depends on taking steps. Something you get swept up in?.”

  She nodded.

  “Why not take reverse steps and keep your momentum?” He asked quickly, turning to snap an arrow at an ining creature. It dropped as the arrow punctured a hole in its head. She bli him and he gave her a hard look, “You aren’t a forward striker. That power of yours heals and supports your allies. You’re a ro a river. Don’t move around so muow get your head in the game!”

  With that he started taking darting steps backwards to get some distance, he turned sharply and threw one hand out, a ribbon of bck metal snapping out from his wrist that tched onto a distant roof. He uowards his destination as she turo look back at the horde and took a deep breath. “Couldn’t hurt to try,” she said and reached up to tap her , “New formatio close to me and stay in range of my aura,” she said and raised her sword in front of her as more of them began to slip past Inky who was getting overwhelmed. He melted into a puddle and darted away, taking a few of them with him.

  She filled her lungs a out a shout of challenge, “E AT ME!” she roared, gold fmes washing out around her in a circur wave aing the ground abze. A corpse of a monster flew past her face as Harbinger charged into the pool fmes, chest heaving as her wound covered body began to slowly heal. BLF arrived , his face soaked in blood and his weary eyes filling with vigor when he reached her. She smiled at the two of them before looking back at the monsters with a savage grin.

  “Don’t stop until it's done, heroes.”

  –

  The st of the human ssh tipede taur things dropped beh Crusader’s bde and she fell to a khe bzing pool arouuttering and nearly going out. A big hand caught her arm and pulled her to her feet. She smiled up at Harbinger before looking out over the field of age. Hundreds of bodies y strewn about, twisted and brokeh the bined wrath of the heroes. Many peppered with Bandit’s bck arrows. BLF stepped over a pair of bodies and stopped o her and raised an arm with a weary grin. She cpped her fainst his. “Good wuys.”

  “Not bad at all,” Bandit said from behind them, walking forward with Snow in tow. He tilted his head, “Still some refining to do but this was a far better test than a dungeon run.”

  Crusader barked out a tired ugh, “I don’t think the test is over.”

  His expression turned hard, “That’s right, I’m afraid. Catch your breath while you . Today you guys are going to prove without a doubt the kind of heroes you are.”

  –

  Handmaiden stood atop the crumbled building, looking down from her vaowards the crater that had formed from the initial bst. Her lips thinned into a line as she watched more of the nightmarish ihings pour out of the broken portal that had been hidden underground. She shifted her gaze from the portal to the thing coiled around it. A massive tipede, easily wider than two school busses side by side. Two hundred, maybe three hundred feet long and its carapace decorated with corpses half submerged into the armored chitin leaving heads and limbs poking out at disturbing angles.

  She frowned as her gaze settled on the face of the creature. It wasn’t a ‘taur’ like the others. Instead, where an is head should be within a sheath of chitinous armor, a rge human head was visible. Massive. With its mouth opened in agony and despair.

  She khat face.

  Her heart sank as mister Takehara’s lifeless, agonized gaze turo look in her dire.