Michael gave a heavily condensed account of his travels so far with the occasional aside by Ollie and as they spoke they noticed more and more of the village militia members walking a bit quicker so that they could hear more of the story. Even Laird, who was primarily focused on the road and making a pointed effort to ignore them, still slowed his horse down a bit more so that he would be able to hear it properly.

"So you claim to have been sent here by the divine? To bring the gods back to Hume?"

"Yes. I do," replied Michael. "It's the only way to save it."

Hu shook his head. "I suppose if I could heal like you can I might let it get to my head too."

Michael shrugged. He was certain he'd be able to demonstrate his closeness with the gods more thoroughly soon enough. Examples would have more value than words. While Hu, Laird, and their Squires were uninterested, the militia members were curious and Michael fielded a number of questions about the gods until he sensed that they were getting particularly close to a nearby rift.

"I think we're less than a mile away from it now," he said to Laird before turning to the others. "If you really want to see what the gods can do, just watch."

"Are you volunteering to take point?" asked Hu.

"I am."

He nodded. "First off, Squires go and scout in the direction Michael indicated. Just get an idea of threats and numbers and turn back. Don't put yourselves at risk. Bran? Take the cart back behind those rocks over there and tie it off. Everyone else be ready to move and move quickly. Jawn, Rell, keep a close watch on our rear."

There were nods and everyone began to follow Hu's orders quickly. They weren't disciplined exactly, but they were experienced and used to working with one another. That was as if not more important. Ollie approached Michael adjusting his hat as he did so.

"You know, hearing our story told like that makes it feel all the crazier that we've made it this far."

Michael laughed. "I had the same thought while I was telling it. I don't think most of them believed it."

Ollie shrugged. "They will when your sword starts glowing and I begin juggling fireballs."

"True enough."

It wasn't much longer before the squires returned. They'd ridden their horses at least part of the way from what Michael could tell.

"We counted nearly thirty of them," said Squire Bawn. "Twenty horned men and ten of the lizards."

"The portal?" asked Laird.

"Not steady, flickering, expanding and contracting. We don't think they have any of the lizards holding it open."

"What were they doing?" asked Hu.

"They seemed to be… I don't know, exploring? I saw some of them making marks on thin stones and a few of the horned men seemed to have just arrived back at the portal."

Laird nodded, absorbing the information. "The horned men again. With their pet mages too." He looked at Bawn again. "What was the terrain like?" he asked.

"Long and flat," replied Bawn with a smile.

Laird's own face nearly cracked into a smile as well, but he managed to hold onto his frown. "Good, that gives us a chance even with these numbers." He turned to the others.

"I know the enemy numbers seem intimidating, but we are of Hume. We are survivors, and we have all faced greater odds than this before."

"We also have advantages we didn't have yesterday," said Hu, gesturing toward Michael and Ollie.

Laird frowned at that, but pushed on. "Hu, Myself and squires Bawn and Clyde will attack the rift monsters while on our mounts. After we ride through them, the mage will send a spell at their lizard men, then the rest of you shall charge. We will then turn for a second charge to meet them at the same time as you do. Is that all understood?"

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There was a general consensus from everyone and they all began to move into position. They got about halfway to the target, where the rift could be seen, but the horned men were only shifting shadows. The horsemen left the rest of them so that they could strike at the enemy from the side. They began moving forward after hearing a subtle bird sound that Michael was unfamiliar with, but the villagers recognized as the signal. They all began to move forward to close the rest of the gap and Michael got a better look at the enemy.

It was as Bawn had said, the horned men and the smaller lizard folk. It was a large number, but they seemed to have the element of surprise on their side this time.

Ollie began to spin up his magicka channels, and started to mutter under his breath as he prepared a fireball in each hand. Michael drew his mace and straightened his shield before putting his faceplate down.

All was peaceful, and then the knights and their squires slammed into the horned men at full speed. Lances impaled them, horses trampled them, and before they could fight back the horsemen were already gone to the other side and circling around.

As the rift monsters began to turn around to ready for the next run Michael, Ollie, and the militia all charged forward. Ollie threw his fireballs at the row of lizards that was preparing a spell. The first one exploded in their midst, incinerating several of them instantly and throwing others to the side, but the second one was diverted by a number of the lizardfold that managed to put up a shield spell just before it hit them. They still lost a few as a few of the flames broke through, but several survived.

Michael moved forward with a roar and his mace became wrapped in holy flame. The horned men that had been moving to meet his charge hesitated as they saw the flames and one of them screamed out "Aur-ma!" before Michael reached the first of them. He tried to block Michael's strike with a thick shield, but it dented as Michael hit it and the Horned man lost his footing, letting Michael strike his chin on the upswing, snapping his neck even as his body was immolated by holy flame.

Another of them threw a spear at him, but he summoned a barrier before it could reach him, and it shattered. He changed his mace to a sword to give himself additional reach and he carved through the side of one of them that had tried to move past him into the militia behind him.

When he got close enough to the rift, he began to wrap his will around it as he always had and began to quickly close it. It resisted, as they always did, and the horned men turned their attention to him to try and stop him, but things were different. His concentration was greater than it had been, his strength was increased by his new deed, and his increased ability with barrier spells meant that they were barely a distraction. Some of them even fled into the rift, followed by a bolt of lightning flung from Ollie.

Before it had fully closed, three more horned men came out of it, arriving just before Michael finished clenching his will and sealed it.

These three were different, Michael could see that immediately. They were larger, and instead of the interlaced plates of metal forged into armor that he'd seen before, they were wearing hunks of shiny black material that absorbed the light as it hit them.

Before Michael could charge them, the knights and squires again arrived, aiming their lances at the new enemies, but as they struck with them their lances shattered and their horses smashed against them, throwing them into the air.

One of the horned men raised a wicked looking black blade that seemed to be made of the same material as their armor, and tore Clyde from his horse, slamming his sword through the young man's stomach. Another attempted to slash at Hu, but he managed to slide off his horse to dodge and draw his blade. Bawn somehow managed to get some distance with his mount, but Laird actually leapt off his horse and landed smoothly with his sword drawn as the third of the horned men cut his horse down.

Michael roared as he surged toward the one that had run the young squire Clyde through. He began healing him, glad to see that the young man hadn't died instantly, and smashed his sword into the armored horned man's side. His blade was slowed by it, but still managed to cut several inches into his side.

Surprised that his sword hadn't cut through as smoothly as it had in the past, he was barely able to block a swordstrike, raising his shield just in time.

Ollie threw a spell, and it pushed the horned man back letting Michael slide his blade through a slat in where his armor sat on his chin. The horned man's body went limp as it caught fire and Michael moved to the others. He could see the back of one of the horned men and saw that stretched horrifically across the back of his black armor was one of the lizardmen. His eyes were gone, and he seemed to have a number of organic tubes running beneath his skin and into the armor in which he was entombed. In spite of the state he was in, his mouth was constantly moving and Michael could feel magicka flowing off of him.

He created a series of barriers, shifting his sword into a mace as he climbed each of the barriers like steps on a staircase and leapt for the back of the horned man's head while he was distracted by Hu.

Michael slammed the mace down with such force that holy flame seemed to actually explode against the back of its skull and golden flames flew from his eyes and his mouth as he fell dead. Michael rolled and went to fight the last one only to see Laird missing an arm and half of his face kneeled down over its smoldering corpse, Ollie turning from flinging that fireball to shoot more lightning at the few horned men that remained.

Michael quickly found Laird's arm and healed him even as he assessed the situation. The villagers were finishing off the last of the horned men with the help of squire Bawn, and Ollie's spellwork. It looked like, in spite of the surprises the rift had sent out, they hadn't lost a single person.

"Praise the divine," Michael muttered under his breath.