At dawn Nova strapped the helmet provided by the temple to her chin. Goblins, slimes and trolls started attacking in waves after the first watch st night. Her ill fitting gambeson kept her warm from the morning chill. Nova gripped a bill a little too tightly with both her hands.

  She was waiting with a group of adventurers led by Beornia.“You ready?” Beornia asked Nova in concern.She looked galnt in her mail hauberk and helmet that protected her face reminiscent of a viking’s. What’s a viking? Nova couldn’t remember. Nova gave Beornia a confused look then shook her head.“Can’t wait,” Nova responded, ready to get this over with.“Let's go!” Beornia pushed the postern open.

  They descended five steps down a short stone stair. Into the rocks just outside the postern. The rocks provided them cover as they snuck toward the pteau full of goblins.“Do it!” Beornia commanded.Nova’s body was instantly covered in bruises and cuts. As her body healed she unched a volley of holy javelins into the horde of goblins. She kept on unching javelins until the whole horde rushed toward them.

  “That’s enough back to the rocks!” Beornia ordered. As she guarded their retreat. Beornia bashed a goblin that got too close with her kite shield while she stabbed another with her spear. Her spear’s tip glowed with holy magic. Beornia had blessed all of the adventurers weapons before the goblins got close.

  Nova scaled up the rocks getting into a defensive position. She swung her bill down on the goblins that tried to scale the rocks. Missiles descended from the wall, preventing the goblins from cutting off the retreat of the band of brave adventurers.They just had to hold out a little longer. They waited for Juniper to signal the retreat.

  A group of trolls nearly ten feet tall and very thick approached their position. “Take down the trolls!” Beornia ordered.Nova let out a cry of pain as she summoned more javelins. She propelled them to the nearest troll.

  The troll reacted quickly, blocking his body and face with his arms. The javelins mostly hit his well positioned arms. They exploded sapping the troll from all its cursed energy. The dead troll fell backward onto the troll behind him. With a little difficulty the troll pushed his dead comrade away.

  “I won’t be able to take them all!” Nova yelled to Beornia.“Retreat!” Beornia ordered not waiting for the beted signal.Nova summoned a wall of holy shields to cover their retreat. The goblins threw themselves on her shields dying once they hit them.

  Suddenly a strong wind blew through, nearly knocking some of the goblins over. The pursuit stopped.“To the ram stupid monsters!” a voice carried by the wind said.

  Sapphire pov,Their target, the battering ram at the gate, was covered in slimes for protection against fire. It consisted of a wooden frame with a log hanging from the center beam. The goblins rhythmically pulled it back and let go. The log would crash into the bag of dirt that the defenders had lowered to cushion the blow. Their most dangerous enemies, the trolls, were standing close to the ram. Many of them had arrows impaled into their skin.As pnned all the monsters left the ram to go to the other-side of the wall. The town militia hiding in the rocks with Sapphire and Juniper charged forward. Sapphire chased after them with Juniper on her heels. When they reached the ram Juniper closed their eyes, as they prepared the Sanctuary spell. The spell is a much smaller form of High Purification. It spreads holy magic thickly over meters rather than kilometers.

  Sapphire stayed alert. Each moment felt like an eternity. How long does it take to cast this spell? I guess I should be happy that Juniper can do it solo. She nervously looked between the ram and the distracted monsters. I hope the spell can actually purify the slime goop. Sapphire kept her doubts to herself not wanting to distract Juniper.Finally a warm golden light enveloped Sapphire. They finally finished. This will be my first actual use of fire magic! She thought excitedly as she skipped toward the ram that was no longer covered in slime goop. Some of the militia dumped buckets of pitch on the ram. “Here they come! Shield wall,” yelled one of the militia.Sapphire looked behind her. The goblins were running full speed toward them followed by the trolls. A fell wind crashed against the golden light dissipating, but the light dimmed a bit as well. Sapphire looked up in the sky. A wind demon was hovering with bat-like wings sending gusts of wind into the sanctuary. “If you wait any longer I will have to distract the demon!” Juniper said to Sapphire with a suggestive pose.

  Sapphire closed her eyes. She tapped into her well of inner power. She imagined fireballs shooting out of her hands. The ethereal power coursed down her arms into her hands, expressing itself as fmes. This happened multiple times until Sapphire felt tired. She opened her eyes. The ram in front of her had become a burning heap. Suddenly a cold wind bit into her, as the sanctuary spell failed.

  Juniper threw Sapphire over their shoulder. They ran full speed toward the postern. The town militia also ran. The goblins being faster cut them down one by one. If only I was faster and not as useless maybe we would have all gotten out safely. Before they turned the corner of the wall. The wind fanned Sapphire’s fire onto the portcullis, Burning it to its iron frame.

  Once safely in the walls Sapphire climbed the gatehouse stairs to see If what they did was worth it. The trolls lined up outside. The first one in line charged at the gate thrusting its shoulder into the portcullis bending the iron. One of the men poured a kettle of pitch onto the troll. Seeing an opportunity, Sapphire cast a fireball at the pitch-covered fleeing troll. It went up in fmes colpsing to the ground.

  The demon knocked over the second charging troll with a heavy gust of wind. A bunch of slimes jumped on the trolls heads making a kettle helm for each of them. The second troll charged into the portcullis. The pitch that was poured on it was eaten by the slimes.

  Nova pov,

  The captain of the town militia stormed into the fertility wing of the temple. He angrily approached Nova and Beornia.“You didn’t lose a single man!” He yelled at them. “The disposable adventurers should have distracted the enemy for longer! Why didn’t you wait for the agreed signal!” The captain continued his angry tirade.“Before we had completely retreated. They had already caught on to our pn,” Nova responded with matching anger.“We traded ten men for their only battering ram. Now they have trolls breaking their arms on our gate,” Beornia responded annoyed.Before the captain could respond Sapphire approached them, having finished with a client.“Since you are here sir maybe you can destress a little,” Sapphire suggested with a sultry voice.“You are like half animal,” The captain responded aghast at her proposal. He instead pulled a random human woman into one of the rooms.“He sounds very hateful. Why aren’t you upset?” Nova asked Sapphire.

  “I’m used to it. I deal with worse than him on the daily. A lot of humans I service want me to act like a dog, they pull my tail, or py roughly with my ears. Turning me down rudely is preferable when it comes to men like him,” Sapphire responded, her ears still down on her head.“Come here, you deserve better,” Nova said as she pulled Sapphire into her p, and petted her hair.

  Sapphire rested her head on Nova’s chest. Her hair is so soft I could pet it forever. For the first time the succubus felt a nearly overwhelming need to make the wolf-kin her consort. Maybe there is another way to fill my companions with my power? One that doesn’t entirely gross me out. Or leave a huge crater. “You worked really hard today,” Nova told the wolf-girl, as the tter resisted sleep. “Go to sleep,” Nova gave Sapphire a kiss on her forehead. The wolf-girl cutely fell asleep.