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Nicole was in bad shape. Her armor was gouged, torn, and covered with blood…a lot of it her own. She was battered and exhausted, barely even able to stand on her own much less continue fighting. Since she was jatta, this said a great deal about just what she’d gone through since the daemons overran the town. And unfortunately, she was in much better condition than the other two in her triad.

Rebecca, the kaern of her group, was missing an eye and most of one arm. Lindrell assured us that Rebecca would survive, and that with a little extra jatta energy, she’d be fully healed and back to normal within two weeks. However, Constance…their notru and triad leader, hadn’t been so lucky. She hadn’t been able to walk away from the fight at all.

When we’d arrived at the meeting place, Dahan and her triad had been there waiting, along with Nicole and Rebecca. So far, the third triad that we’d brought with us had yet to return so we were preparing to go look for them as well. But at the moment, we were listening to Nicole’s story and finding out exactly what we were up against.

“The daemon was big…and strong,” Nicole told us all, her voice weak and filled with exhaustion. “But we were holding our own…until the daemonite showed up and summoned more daemons…”

“The big one got Constance,” Rebecca added with a wince of pain. “The beast bit her head clean off…”

Lindrell nodded at that, and without saying a word, she put her hand on Rebecca’s shoulder and gave her another charge of jatta energy. I knew that Lindrell couldn’t afford to give too much of it, not when she’d already been through the ringer as well and we still had more daemons to fight, but any little bit would help. Lei, who was much fresher to the fight, gave Lindrell a warning look before sharing a little of her own energy with Rebecca as well.

“So, the daemonite you saw was a summoner,” Gretchen mused, looking to Rebecca and Nicole.

“The bastard got away,” Nicole spat out bitterly. “It was all we could do to finish that big one… If it hadn’t been for the reinforcements arriving when they did…” She gave a grateful look to Dahan.

“We saw three of them at one time,” Shannon added grimly. “We saw one summon a few daemons, but none of them confronted us directly so we couldn’t be certain what the other two are capable of.”

“Excuse me,” Debbie Martin asked, looking around at all the armored Val Kyr who’d gathered in the middle of town. “But what the bloody hell is going on?”

Debbie looked angry and afraid, but she showed no signs of running away. I couldn’t help but being impressed by that because the first time I saw a daemon, I’d run screaming like a little girl. In fact, a part of me still wanted to do that. That tingle of fear just made me grab the hilt of my sword more tightly. This time, I wasn’t going to let those things tear me to piece, or at least, I’d go down fighting. I just REALLY hoped it didn’t come to that.

“Daemons exist,” Lei answered Debbie with a grim expression.

“I’ve got that part,” Debbie responded with a snort. “But what are these daemonites you keep talking about?”

There was a moment of silence before Nadia answered. “They’re humans who work with daemons…who can communicate with them. Usually, they start off trying to use daemons as weapons…but it messes with their heads. Most of the daemonites I’ve seen eventually start to sympathize with daemons more than humans…and they help them do things like this.”

“It’s the nature of their magic,” Lindrell added grimly. “Every daemonite can get into daemon heads…can hear their thoughts to one degree or another. Eventually, the daemons get into their heads as well.”

“And what do those bloody buggers want?” Debbie demanded.

“To daemons, Earth is the promised land,” Nicole said, snorting bitterly. “Plenty of room to spread out and an all you can eat buffet…”

“Our job it so stop them,” Lindrell stated, using a rag that she’d found somewhere to wipe daemon blood off her axe.

Debbie stood there, silently staring off down the street with an angry look on her face. I could feel the terror radiating off her, but it seemed to take second place to the fierce determination. These daemons had killed her friends and neighbors, and it was clear that she wanted revenge.

“Our last triad hasn’t returned from their search,” Gretchen announced, looking around the room. “I don’t think it’s wise to separate our forces again at this time. I recommend we stay close for daemon extermination and keep watch for them in the process.”

“Agreed,” Dahan responded while Lindrell nodded her own agreement.

“I’m in no condition to fight at the moment,” Nicole reluctantly admitted, her eyes going to Rebecca who was in even worse shape.

“What of your triad?” Gretchen asked Lindrell.

Lindrell looked to Shannon and Julie, both of whom were obviously bruised and exhausted but otherwise all right. Then she looked to me before nodding. “We could use a rest, but we’re capable of continuing.”

Suddenly, Gretchen scowled and looked around while Shannon did the same thing. “We don’t need to go hunting the daemonites,” Shannon stated. “They’re coming to us.”

“We’re surrounded by daemons,” Gretchen added.

Almost as if waiting for that introduction, minor daemons began to appear, crawling out of buildings and into the streets. Unfortunately, they weren’t alone as several of the larger daemons began to appear from down the street as well. But in spite of the daemons, Shannon and Gretchen both looked towards the roof of a nearby building, and a moment later, I saw why.

There humans stepped into view, all of them wearing the red cloaks that marked them as daemonites. One was tall and skinny, an old man with dark skin. The second man had a stocky and somewhat overweight build, and appeared to be in his thirties. The last was a young woman with short hair and several piercings on her face.

“The tall one,” Nicole said with a grimace. “He’s the summoner…”

“The same three,” Julie spat out angrily. “The same ones we saw before…”

I stared up at the daemonites, who seemed to just be staring down at us and enjoying the fact that we were surrounded by nearly two dozen daemons, all of which were slowly moving closer. I clenched my sword tightly, trying to look as calm and in control as the more experienced Val Kyr. The truth was, I was terrified and felt like I was going to shit myself.

“Are they all summoners?” I asked, thinking that this would explain why there were so many daemons since summoners could temporarily pull daemons to Earth.

“No,” Lindrell responded grimly, slowly looking around at the approaching daemons. “There are too many daemons for even three summoners to call at once…”

I gulped at that, realizing that this meant the situation was even worse than we’d thought. If there were too many daemons for three summoners, then that meant the daemonites either had access to an anchor of their own…or one of them was a ripper. A ripper was the rarest of the daemonite pillars, and Lindrell had told me that the Val Kyr killed every ripper they came across as soon as possible because they were the most dangerous of all daemonites. Rippers could tear open portals between Earth and the Twilight Realm, letting large numbers of daemons through…permanently.

“The daemonites cannot be allowed to escape,” Dahan stated firmly.

With those words, Gretchen and I both raised our bows and shot at the daemonites. However, before the arrows hit, the stocky daemonite suddenly puked, projecting a green spray through the air. As our arrows passed through the green mist, they smoked and broke apart, hitting the side of the building in pieces. Gretchen just snarled and fired two more arrows in rapid succession, both of them right at the female daemonite, who jumped back and out of sight.

“Sheisse,” Gretchen exclaimed furiously. “He’s a channeler…”

“So, she’s likely the ripper,” Lindrell finished in a cold tone. What she didn’t need to say was that this made her an important target, though not quite as an immediate a threat as the other two.

I’d already seen a summoner in action and still had the nightmares to remember him by. Though a ripper could also bring in reinforcements, she wouldn’t be able to do it quite as directly. And then there was the third member, who was the real wildcard of their group. From what Lindrell had told me, channelers were permanently bonded to a specific daemon, and they could tap into that daemon’s powers and abilities at any time…with the most powerful ones even being able to transform into that daemon.”

Unfortunately, as dangerous as the three daemonites were, we were still surrounded by rapidly approaching daemons. We didn’t wait for them to draw first blood as Gretchen snapped around and fired an arrow right through the eye of a large ratlike daemon. An instant later, everything exploded into chaos the daemons all rushed us at once and everyone else joined in the fighting.

Nicole and Rebecca weren’t in any shape for more fighting, so they crouched down out of the way while Debbie joined them. The local woman had a grim look on her face as she took aim and shot a small daemon, blowing it’s head most of the way off. I could see the grim satisfaction in that death, though she held off on shooting again until another small daemon got too close.

Lindrell and Lei both charged at the largest daemon, some kind stocky thing that was about the size of an elephant and was covered with a mixture of slimy scales and patches of hair. Hammer and axe drove into the daemon at the same time, but neither woman used their special essence tricks. I knew that Lei had already used up her essence this morning during her sparring with me, and I assumed that Lindrell had probably used hers up against the other daemons she’d been fighting.

Gretchen stood back and continued shooting smaller daemons with her arrows, carefully aiming so that she only used one per daemon. The ones who were tough enough to survive an arrow through the head were quickly dispatched by one of the others. I joined Gretchen in shooting at daemons, and when she ran out of arrows, I gave half of mine to her so she could continue.

Nadia held out her hands and formed a mass of essence between her hands until it suddenly burst into flame, then she sent the flaming ball of essence through the air and hit the large daemon that Lindrell and Lei were attacking. It was an impressive looking attack, and something that I might have imagined Gandalf or Harry Dresden doing. However, I knew that this kind of flashy move used up a lot of essence and wasn’t very efficient. Obviously, Nadia was trying to show off a bit for Debbie…and probably Julie and me too.

Julie used her spear to impale one of the smaller daemons that had survived Gretchen’s shot, then she went to help Lei and Lindrell. She stabbed her spear into the ground and stone spikes rose up from around the daemon and began closing in, almost like a pair of massive jaws. That was enough to hold the creature in place long enough for Lindrell to drive her axe deep into its head and kill it.

I looked up towards where the daemonites were waiting and took the opportunity to ready another shot, but they were all staying back, giving me only glimpses of them as they peeked at the fight. I didn’t have a clear enough shot to waste an arrow at the moment, though I was really tempted to try anyway.

Then as I watched, the summoner stepped forward and the air in front of him blurred for a moment. Suddenly, a new daemon appeared, something that looked like a little like a squid with wings. I had a clear shot at the squid and could have taken it down immediately, however, I also had a momentarily clear shot at the daemonite. I took the shot and the summoner was sent flying back with an arrow through him. I simultaneously felt excited to have hit him…and horrified for the same reason. I’d just killed a person.

“Look out,” Shannon suddenly cried out, a moment before she hit me, knocking me to the side right before something shot through where I’d been standing.

“What the hell…?” I exclaimed, getting back to my feet and seeing several small black and oily blobs bouncing around. One of them suddenly launched itself at me, but this time I saw it coming and stepped out of the way before it hit. “What the hell is that thing?”

“Something you don’t want to get hit by,” Shannon answered with a sneer. “They don’t have any teeth or claws, but their slime is highly toxic. If any gets on your armor, it will slowly eat through it…”

“Gotcha,” I responded, imagining what something like that could do to skin.

Shannon snapped around and used her sword to slice through several blobs, jumping back to avoid getting hit the slime. Nadia joined in, sending a wave of ground at the creatures to throw them back before several others jumped at the creatures and quickly killed them.

“Incoming from the south,” Shannon yelled out while Gretchen called out a similar warning.

I looked in the direction that Shannon had indicated and gulped, seeing two more of the larger daemons charging towards us. I recognized one as a manticore while the other looked something like a sea urchin with tentacles on the underside. I grimaced, then shot the manticore with my last arrow, catching it in the neck and seeming to piss it off. I muttered some profanities and drew my sword, knowing that I’d have to get closer to these things to fight now.

“Watch for the tail,” Lindrell yelled a warning, obviously referring to the manticore since the other daemon didn’t have a tail.

“The daemonites are up to something,” someone called out, though I couldn’t tell who it was.

“Follow my lead,” Nadia told Julie as she used her essence to move the ground, creating a wall between us and the two large daemonites. Julie joined her, raising the ground in another area, blocking off most of the street and leaving the daemonites only two options if they wanted to reach us. They either had to go over the wall or through the opening that had been left…an opening that was only large enough for one of them to come through at a time. “Herd them to where we want them…”

When the manticore started through the opening, Julie and Nadia caused the wall to close in from both sides, catching the manticore in between and pinning it in place. With the manticore trapped, four Val Kyr charged the creature at once. Lindrell swung her axe at the monster’s neck while Lei simultaneously smashed her hammer down on its head, killing it in mere seconds.

One of the rabbit shaped daemons leapt high into the air and was coming down straight towards Lindrell’s back. I jumped at the daemon, slicing it in mid-air and knocking it aside. The creature hit the ground, cut nearly in two. I shuddered at the black daemon blood which now splattered my armor and cheek, feeling more than a little disgusted.

“This isn’t like a video game,” I whispered, feeling overwhelmed and suddenly realizing that I was in way over my head. I was holding up all right so far, but that was because I was surrounded by nearly a dozen other Val Kyr…and an Aussie with a shotgun.

Just then, there was a loud roaring, drawing my attention back to the building where the daemonites had been watching us. My eyes widened as I saw the channeler, who was starting to change. He tossed his cloak aside, revealing his body which was misshapen and growing. His skin turned gray and sickly while his clothes split and tore. I was both horrified and mesmerized at the sight, unable to turn my eyes away. The daemonite was transforming into a daemon.

“I don’t think that’s a good thing,” Julie commented, echoing my thoughts.

“No, it isn’t,” Lindrell stated, covered from head to toe with daemon blood. She looked like she’d stepped right out of a horror movie, though that was appropriate since I felt like I was standing in the middle of a horror movie.

“Die you fucking bimbos,” the daemonite girl cackled from the rooftop, actually laughing and acting as though she was having a great time. “You fucking whores are toast now…”

The daemonite channeler was no longer remotely recognizable as human, and the large twisted form, toppled from the building, still changing as he fell. He hit the ground hard but didn’t seem the least bit bothered from the impact. Then the changes seemed to finish and I got a good look at the monster he’d become. The daemonite’s body was a sick looking mixture of warty gray skin and slick black scales, all of which radiated an aura of pure wrongness. His torso was built somewhat like a bulldog, with powerful chest muscles and short clawed front legs, but one look at its hideous and massively jawed head, and I was instantly reminded of the rancor from Return of the Jedi. From mid-torso back, the entire body was that of a massive snake.

“Look out,” Shannon yelled, grabbing Julie and one of the other Val Kyr and yanking them back even further.

I’d been so busy staring at the daemonite that I hadn’t really been paying attention with my full abilities. As a result, I wasn’t prepared when he threw his head up into the air and spewed a nasty green liquid up into the air, the same green vomit he’d used earlier to destroy the arrows.

Thanks to Shannon’s warning, nearly everyone was already starting to move away, though Nadia was using the ground to form a stone umbrella to protect herself, Rebecca, Nicole, and Debbie. Green droplets rained down on us, and I dove out of range, only getting a couple drops on my armor. My armor sizzled and melted slightly where I’d been hit, making me thankful that it hadn’t hit my skin. However, from the scream of pain, not everyone was that lucky.

While we were scattered and avoiding the spray, the daemonite suddenly charged forward, grabbing a woman from Dahan’s triad on its jaws and biting. There was a sick sound and a scream that was abruptly cut off. The daemonite casually dropped her to the ground and then made a show of stepping on her body.

I stared in horror and anger, realizing that the daemonite was intentionally taunting us. As Lindrell had told me during training, the true danger of channelers wasn’t just that they had all the powers of a daemon at their disposal…but that they could use them with the intelligence and strategy of a human.

This daemonite had suddenly become our primary target, and most of us were glaring at him with vengeance in our hearts. I hadn’t even known the woman’s name, but she deserved much better than that. I was terrified, but also pissed off.

In spite of the fact that the daemonite channeler had just demonstrated himself to be a huge threat, he wasn’t the only one. There were still other daemons present, even if most of them were minor daemons and not in quite the same league. And of course, we still had to deal with the walking sea urchin, but that one was currently separated from us by the wall that Julie and Nadia had created.

Almost as one, all the jatta attacked the daemonite, including Nicole who seemed to have recovered enough to continue fighting. The daemonite swung his massive tail around, smacking the rushing Val Kyr and sending them flying backwards. He roared, then suddenly lunged to the side, trying to get Shannon, who saw it coming and leapt out of the way. She snapped around and sliced her sword down on the creature, catching it on the shoulder, though this didn’t seem to bother him.

“Kill the fucking bitches,” the female daemonite screamed from the rooftop. “Teach them not to persecute us and murder our friends…”

I snarled at that, wishing I still had some arrows left. Her ‘friends’ had just slaughtered an entire town, so even though I’d probably feel guilty for putting an arrow in her, I’d be happy to do so anyway.

“You monsters killed Bob,” Debbie yelled, shooting a small daemon. “You killed Sue and Gina…” The local woman seemed to have lost her fear because at the moment, all I saw was anger and determination. It was an expression that matched what most of the Val Kyr wore, and it suddenly struck me that she would probably make a good recruit. She tried another shot but was out of shells, so she began using her shotgun as a club and began beating the daemon to death.

I stabbed a smaller daemon with my sword, then realized that there weren’t very many of the small ones left. They’d stopped coming in swarms like they had been, much to my relief. I looked over at Julie, who drove her spear through a small daemon, then gave me an exhausted look before she quickly covered it up with a forced smile.

“This is a real Leroy Jenkins moment,” Julie joked weakly.

Suddenly, Nadia cried out in pain, and when I looked at her, I was horrified to see the flying squid had grabbed hold of her and was biting her head, or at least I assumed it was since its main body enveloped her head almost entirely. She desperately grabbed at the tentacles, trying to pull them free, but they were firmly wrapped around her neck, shoulders, and arms.

I started rushing to Nadia’s side, but Nicole cried, “Look out,” and dove at her. An instant later, I realized why as the daemonite had decided to take advantage of Nadia’s distraction. It turned towards her and puked a nasty green spray, catching both women in it even as Nicole tried getting them out of the way. Nicole screamed in agony.

Gretchen let out a vicious stream of profanity, or at least I assumed it was profanity since it was all in German. She rushed to their sides, as did Lei, who immediately hit both Val Kyr with a surge of extra jatta. All I could do was stand frozen, staring in horror as Nicole and Nadia writhed in agony, with their armor sizzling and melting…along with exposed flesh.

“DIE!” Lindrell screamed in rage, slamming her axe into the daemonite as hard as she could, though he turned fast enough that she only glanced him. He suddenly turned again, snapping at her with his vicious jaws and catching her arm. She screamed again, this time in pain. With my sharpened senses, I heard her bones snap.

“Notru,” Dahan yelled out. “Contain him…”

Every second I watched this daemonite, I grew even more terrified of him and what he could do. However, he had Lindrell’s arm clutched firmly in his jaws, and as he shook his head, he was shattering it even worse, to the point where I thought he’d tear the arm right of her socket. I barely thought about it as I pushed every ounce of essence I could spare into my sword, causing it to burn with ghostly blue flames.

“No,” I gasped, the word escaping my lips without my consciously saying it. Lindrell had saved me from those daemons at school, she’d saved my life when there was no way I should have survived, and she’d been my teacher and friend ever since. There was no way I was going to let that thing eat her. NONE.

I charged at the daemonite, slashing my sword down across his face. He howled in pain, releasing Lindrell in the process. Someone grabbed her and pulled her back while I jumped to the side as the daemonite tried to bite me. It backed up, revealing a line of blue flames on his face where I’d cut him, still burning away. He tried grabbing at his face with his claws, perhaps trying to put the flames out, but his stubby legs couldn’t quite reach.

Though I was scared, I was also pissed off and determined to hurt this thing. This daemonite was a monster…a true monster…even more than the daemons themselves. This one had been a human, yet he’d knowingly fed an entire town to the daemons. I wanted to see him hurt. I wanted to see him pay.

I charged at the daemonite again, though I wasn’t the only one. He was about to snap at me when Lei hit him from the other side. This gave me the opportunity to try slicing him again, but he lunged forward, leaving me in place, though I continued slicing at him, leaving a long, though not very deep gouge that must have been at least six feet long. And it was still burning.

The daemon howled and dropped to the ground, rolling on his side as he tried to put the flames out. I was stunned since my cut wasn’t very deep, but it appeared that the ghost flames were doing more than the cut itself.

There was a flash of purple light as someone else unleased their special essence attack, though I didn’t see who it was or what the effect was. However, that was followed up with nearly everyone who was capable joining in the attack.

“I’m trying to hold him,” Julie called out, making me realize that the daemonite was starting to sink into the ground, as though it had turned into quicksand. However, the soft patch of ground wasn’t large enough to swallow the entire daemonite. Enough of his body was still outside the area that he was able to keep pulling himself out of it, or at least he was trying. That effort was slowing him down and keeping him distracted.

I snarled and charged at the monster again, this time driving my sword straight into his side as deeply as I could. He howled in pain and tried to roll away, then swept his massive tail along the ground, hitting several Val Kyr with it. He snapped his tail again, and though I saw it coming, a smaller daemon lunged at me at the same time and kept me from moving fast enough. The tail hit me with a painful crack and sent me flying back.

“Michelle,” Julie cried out, giving me a worried look but remaining where she was, glaring at the daemonite and keeping her focus on the ground beneath him.

My sword was still embedded in the daemonite, burning him from the inside out, though I knew the flames were just about at their end. After all, I’d only had a limited amount of essence charged into the sword and it had pretty much run out. The daemonite howled in pain and desperately tried to fight off the Val Kyr, without much luck. He shifted his head and I could tell her was preparing to spew out more of that acid vomit, but a wall of stone rose up from the ground in front of him just as he released it, keeping anyone from being hurt.

I started to get back to my feet and winced from the sharp pain in my side, which made me suspect that I might have broken some ribs. However, I was used to getting banged up and hurt while training, so I did my best to ignore the pain.

“You will die,” Lei cried out, bringing her hammer down on the daemon’s head as hard as she could. There was a loud cracking sound and the creature dropped, leaving him open for several Val Kyr to strike him at once and ensure he was dead.

I staggered towards Lindrell to check on her, but she was already sitting up, holding her shattered arm with her good hand while glaring at the dead daemonite with an expression of grim satisfaction. I just let out a sigh of relief, thankful that she was all right. Sure, she’d been pretty banged up, but as a jatta, I knew that her arm would probably be good as new by tomorrow.

Suddenly, the last daemonite screamed out, “BOBBY…” She glared down at us from the roof of the building, her expression filled with hate. “You bitches killed Bobby…”

“Get her,” Dahan commanded grimly. Two women immediately rushed into the building to find their way up to the roof.

“The boss was right,” the young woman snarled furiously. “You cunts are fucking evil… You killed Bobby… You murdered our friends just because they want to be free…”

I stared up at the daemonite, stunned that she’d call the Val Kyr evil when she and her daemon ‘friends’ had slaughtered an entire town. Lindrell told me that daemonites had a psychic link to daemons, and that it skewed their perspectives, but I hadn’t realized just right she’d been until now.

“She’s nuts,” I blurted out, though no one responded.

“The boss was right,” the daemonite spat out. “You’re all gonna pay for this…”

And with that, the daemonite tore her hand down through the air, as though she was trying to claw something that wasn’t there. The air suddenly ripped and tore, creating gash in space itself. She spat out at us, then stepped through the tear that she’d ripped open and vanished, with the hole closing behind her.

“The ripper escaped,” Gretchen snarled angrily. “The one we needed to stop the most…”

“Too late to worry about her now,” Shannon stated. “We have other priorities to deal with now…”

With that, I followed her gaze to where Nicole was kneeling on the ground, her armor largely destroyed by the acid vomit…along with half her face which had been burned off. The sight was so horrific that I nearly emptied my stomach at the sight of my friend, who was cowering in pain while Gretchen knelt down beside her to try helping.

Nicole was my friend, and I wanted to help her, but I had no idea how I could possibly do that. She was jatta, which meant that she’d heal from this, but for now she was in a lot of pain. I clenched my fists tightly, thankful that at least we’d taken out the monster who did that to her.

“Nadia,” I whispered a moment later, staggering towards the other woman who was motionless on the ground. The winged squid had been pulled away and killed, revealing a gaping hole in Nicole’s head where the daemon had been chewing.

“She’s dead,” Lei stated, her voice filled with anger and grief.

I hadn’t even really known Nadia before today, but tears were already pouring down my cheeks. I stood there for a moment, suddenly feeling drained and tired, though it was more emotional than physical. I just wanted to collapse to the ground and cry over all the people who’d been killed.

“Bloody bastards,” Debbie gasped, drawing my attention to her.

The local woman was on the ground, her body spread out in a puddle of blood. Her side was torn open, not as badly as mine had been the first time I’d encountered a daemon, but still bad enough. She was gasping for breath and obviously in a lot of pain.

“Can you heal her?” I pleaded aloud, looking from one jatta to another. Unlike Lindrell and Nicole, Debbie wasn’t jatta…she wouldn’t heal on her own.

Lindrell and Nicole were both in bad shape, and admittedly, they probably needed all their jatta energy just to heal themselves. However, Lei seemed unharmed, other than bruises. Lei stared down at Debbie and then crouched down beside her, but to my surprise, she made no move to give her any jatta energy.

“We got them,” Lei quietly told the dying woman. “We got all the monsters…” Of course, that was actually a bit of a lie since the ripper had escaped and there were still a few daemons wandering around, but this was obviously meant to comfort Debbie.

“Good,” Debbie whispered, closing her eyes for the last time.

Julie came over, and without saying a word, she grabbed me in a hug. We were both filthy, covered with blood and other things I didn’t want to think about, but at the moment, I didn’t care. I just hugged Julie tightly.

This had been my first battle as a Val Kyr, and I was sure that I’d put up a good enough showing to prove I could hold my own. But in spite of that…in spite of the fact that we’d killed two daemonites and chased off the last, this didn’t feel like a victory. Not in the least.