“Fine! Everyone choose now! Hands up if we try to help the other adventurers or keep them down if we push through and defend inside the streets.”

Diagon’s hand went up immediately, and then he turned around, noticing that no one else wanted to raise theirs. Even the two people from his own party kept their hands down. Diagon growled, frustrated at no one voting with him.

“Let it go, Diagon,” the dwarf healer from his group said. “We need to focus–”

“No!” Diagon shouted, cutting off his friend. “I’m going to help, even if the rest of you won’t!”

His team's shocked look told everyone Diagon had just left his party as the mage ran toward the massive pack of ogres.

“Seth?”

Max sighed and said, “We can’t. We need to move. Chasing him would get all of us killed. Let’s go while we can.”

It took a moment, and as Max’s group pushed past everyone, the footsteps behind them were the only sound anyone made for the next few minutes.

“Mages, burn that one! Archers, focus on the two on the right!”

Max smiled as Tanila barked out orders. The archers were on top of the roofs of the buildings on the street, and they were raining arrows down on all the ogres that continued to press into the city.

Over a quarter mile of streets had been given up as they fell back, continually killing the ogres that crashed through the city. A few houses had been knocked down, cutting off part of a street, as Max took any opportunities that came, slamming the ogres he crippled into the buildings and letting the rubble create choke points.

“How long?” Fowl shouted as he tanked two ogres, waiting for Asher to help while Max continued to assist Nuala.

“Three minutes! Be ready!”

Grunts of acknowledgments came from everyone, trusting in the healers and mages who would do everything in their power to keep everyone alive.

An explosion shook one of the roofs when a shaman behind six ogres sent a fireball at the archers.

A scream came, and Max looked at the wreckage, seeing one of the archers on fire and falling toward the ground.

An air shield appeared under the archer, and he rolled off, thudding into the street.

“We got him!” one of the healers shouted, and Max focused back on the ogres pressing them.

How many have we killed? A hundred?

Everywhere in the street were ogres they had killed or immobilized. The shamans had healed the ones who weren’t crippled. Occasionally, Max’s group destroyed houses, burying their enemies to help stem the flow of the shamans.

A cry jolted Max from his thoughts. Nuala was being assaulted by two of the higher-tier ogres. Even though she had gained a few levels, it wasn’t enough to make that fight one she could handle alone.

Groaning, Max hacked at the ogre he was facing. Unleashing a combo of four different moves with his halberd finally resulted in cutting the hand off of the elite ogre. Losing its sword, the creature roared, but Max ignored it, moving to end the fight. Bringing his halberd around, he swung the blade at the ogre’s chest, letting it block the strike with its shield, and then drove the metal weight on the end into its knee, shattering the joint and sending the creature tumbling to the left.

As it fell, Max twisted and turned, his sonar skill reading every movement of the ogre.

Max swung his weapon, removing its head in a single strike.

With his target down, Max moved quickly, knowing he only had a moment to help before another ogre would replace the one he had just killed.

“Stonewall!”

Before he had finished shouting his request, Tanila already had a wall rising up, providing a ramp for Max to run up. He came from behind, removing the head of the higher-tier ogre on his right. Jumping from the stone ramp, Max slashed down and cut through the elbow joint of the ogre’s shield arm. Rolling a moment as he landed, Max lashed out with his halberd and drove the tip through the back of the ogre’s knee, sending it crashing to the ground.

“Fall back!”

His sonar was filled with the movement of four ogres moving toward them.

“Destroy those buildings!” Tanila shouted.

Fireballs flew from the mages, who spent precious mana on their attack spells. The houses erupted in fire, and the walls began to crumble. They crashed down into the street on both sides, landing on the ogres too close to dodge the debris.

Max ran to where Fowl and Asher were, helping by removing an ogre’s leg below the knee.

Archers sent two arrows, the green glow of skills visible for just a moment, impaling the face of the second ogre Fowl was tanking.Stolen story; please report.

“Run!”

Everyone turned, racing down the street as the buildings behind them continued to crash onto the paved stones.

“Less than one hundred arrows left!”

Max looked at Huethea and saw the elf firing an arrow at the ogres approaching their new defensive position.

“What then?!”

After firing off another arrow, she turned, and Max saw her shrug. “We have to pull back to the walls! We’re useless in these tight quarters without arrows!”

“We have less than thirty percent mana left!” Tanila announced as Max turned to look at her.

“Elf tits,” Max muttered, ignoring the snort from Nuala. “Three minutes! After that, we fall back all the way!”

Turning to face the horde that stretched as far as the eye could see, Max spotted an ogre off in the distance and cursed.

“Huethea! Tell me that isn’t another one!”

“It is! Fifty ogres deep, but it's pushing through! There’s a second one further back also!”

“FALL BACK! Burn those buildings down!”

Max spun and saw everyone looking at him.

“We can’t risk it! Now! Save ten percent mages! We need to run!”

Max saw people dashing toward the city walls and the guards trying to assist those carrying their belongings as they made their way to safety.

Everyone was on the ground, running as a pack. Behind them, over a quarter of a mile away, was an army of ogres that had pushed past their attempts to slow them down.

“They won’t make the walls,” Fowl stated between breaths.

Max nodded, looking at his friend, sweat running down his face. Fowl and Nuala had taken their helmets off, enjoying a chance to breathe a little easier as they fled.

“We can’t win… but if we don’t defend the people…” Tanila said as she ran next to Max. “How many will die?”

“The guards can’t help either,” Nuala said. “They aren’t able to deal with this kind of battle.”

“How much time do we need to give them?”

Everyone looked at the walls, still almost three-quarters of a mile away, and the throng of people trying to reach the city.

“Not enough,” Owen answered. “We need to send someone to tell them to drop everything and run. Perhaps a few guards can assist, but we don’t have the mana to heal them. The question is, are we willing to die to let them live?”

“Isn’t that what we signed up for?” Nuala replied.

“Osonia, go and tell the guards we will try to buy time. We will fight as long as we can.”

Max’s order was met with a few grunts and nods since no one wanted to hide behind the walls while watching the people trusting them to stop this outbreak be cut down.

Osonia handed her arrows to Huethea and took off running. Max watched as she covered the ground far faster than the pace the whole group was moving.

“Ok, give me ideas. How can we buy the most time? We got no mana, limited arrows, and an army of ogres, with ones that almost killed us all mixed in.”

The shifting of feet and awkward expressions told the truth everyone knew. This was suicide, and all they could do was last as long as possible.

“Surely, they are going to clear the dungeon soon,” Huethea said. “It’s been over three hours.”

“I pray for that every minute that passes,” Batrire replied. “We can hope, but there is no guarantee. If ours is this bad, I can only imagine how the other three are and how hard those dungeons might be.”

Max ignored the conversation as he considered the street they were on. “What street is this? Is it a main one?”

“What?” Fowl asked, hearing Max’s random question. “Main street?”

“Yes! Is this a main street or a side street?”

Everyone looked around, and Huethea knew what Max was wondering. She took off running down a side street.

“Stay here!” Max yelled as he ran down the same street as Huethea but in the other direction.

Not caring who saw how fast he ran, Max reached the end of the block and turned, swearing the second he saw what he feared.

Loud roars rang out, and less than a hundred yards away, ogres were coming down the street.

Spinning around, Max raced back, looking at Huethea, who was also returning.

“Ogres!” she shouted as they raced back to the others. “Not far at all!”

“We need to run!” Max shouted as they both arrived at the same time. “We’re about to be pinched on both sides!”

Everyone ran toward the people who had started running, leaving items lying all over the ground.

“GO!” Max shouted again as he reached the throng of people.

“There are too many!” a Sergeant shouted back. “They will trample each other if we push them harder!”

“Seth!” Tanila’s cry brought him back to the problem at hand.

The ogres came, seven wide, and only a half dozen rows were between them and one of the ogres they all feared. Its shoulders and head rose above the waves of snarling faces. From the side streets, they saw more ogres coming toward them and the people they were trying to defend.

“Fan out! Prepare to hold! Save your bow skills for the big boss!”

Max tightened his hands around the shaft of his weapon.

Inside Max’s mind was an itch, begging him to let his will go and surrender everything to the voice in his head.

“We can’t win.”

Glancing at Nuala, who stood beside him, he saw her shaking. Fear had them all in its clutches, and facing death was hard when one knew they could flee and live. All it would cost was their promise to defend the weak.

“Remember why we fight! Remember our promise!” Max shouted.

It took a moment, but he saw Nuala stand a little straighter, her shield and weapon no longer shaking as they had a moment ago.

Sounds of battle rang out from the streets on the other sides of the buildings. No one was behind him that they could see, but everyone was certain about the noise coming from nearby.

“Huethea, get on the roof! Tell us what you see!” Max yelled as he ran to a building and stored his weapon, holding his hands out as he bent down.

The female elf ran toward him, putting her bow away, and jumped into his hands. Sending her soaring through the air, Max launched her up and onto the two-story building. She darted off over the roof, and Max brought his weapon back out, moving to his spot near Nuala.

“It’s the factions! They're coming!”

A sigh of relief came from everyone as they heard the words they had anxiously waited for.

Appearing on the roof and looking down at them, Max saw a smile on the elf’s face that ran from ear to ear.

“They are clearing this street next to us!”

Grinning, Max pointed at the ogres who had just come from the side streets and were approaching them.

“Let’s do this!” he shouted as he ran toward them, his halberd poised to attack.

Everyone with him cheered as they ran to meet the enemy, knowing help had arrived. They just needed to hold on a little longer.