Spears and fireballs flew toward them at the same time. Had they not been on the lookout for an ambush, they wouldn’t have been ready for it. Michael blocked one spear with his shield and another that was aimed at his mount with a barrier. The fireball seemed to vanish, then reappear behind them exploding as Ollie diverted it with a portal spell. Laird was taken in the shoulder and stomach, but Blake managed to move her horse into dodging the spear aimed at her and Lance deflected one with his lance.

  Michael leapt from his horse to catch Laird as he fell from his saddle and began healing him even as he tore the spears out of his body. As he did so, ten horned men charged the others.

  Blake moved her horse into a charge to meet them, and managed to skewer one with her lance before swinging it back around and drawing her sword. Lance wasn’t able to get his horse into a gallop in time, and was forced into the defensive as the enemy surged toward him. He managed to skewer one horned man through the shoulder with his lance, before he drew his silver hilted sword and carved through the horned head of another before it could kill his horse.

  Ollie threw a series of cutting spells at the horned man that was charging his legs, causing him to fall, then he threw a hastily constructed fireball into the woods where it exploded against a barrier spell. With the enemy mages located Ollie leapt from his saddle and flew quickly toward where they were preparing another spell.

  Laird and Michael joined the fray at that moment. Michael drew Ruin and had the head of the mace burst into holy flame as he charged into the nearest horned man.

  The creature’s eyes widened as Michael approached and it sent a wild strike from its cleaver-like sword at Michael who batted it aside with his shield before slamming his mace into the chest of the beast caving in its chest and causing it to burst into holy flame.

  The sight of the flame caused the horned men to hesitate for a moment, a few of them letting out the now familiar cries of “Aur-Ma!”

  Laird took advantage of the distraction, quickly remounting his horse and putting it into a full gallop in a fluid motion. With his sword drawn he cut to the right, then the left as he passed, dropping two of them as his steed thundered forward.

  Ollie managed to break through the barrier created by four of the lizardfolk and he struck them with a bolt of lightning from his staff which bounced between them quickly, throwing their bodies to the side and leaving them a singed ruin.

  Two of the horned men tried to break and make a run in the direction of the rift, but Blake and Lance swiftly ran them down and killed them before they could make it too far.

  With the ambush thwarted, Michael took a moment to heal everyone. Ollie had taken some mild burns to his hand, Blake’s horse had a bad cut to its flank, and Lance’s foot had taken a spear strike. Once they were all back at one hundred percent Michael climbed back onto the saddle of his horse.

  “I’d say having us go for the rift was the right call,” said Ollie with a smile.

  “Yes, if they’re attacking even us well-armed travelers on the road then it’s our duty to remove them,” said Laird.

  Blake pulled her horse beside them. “If they’re this bold it means they’ve been doing this for a while without issue,” she perfectly aimed a loogie at a corpse a few feet away and it landed in the center of its head. “The faster we kill these bastards the better.”

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  “Agreed,” said Lance, “Let’s move on them quickly. They’re probably expecting their ambushers to return. Let’s give them a surprise as bad as the one they just gave us.”

  The dread in Michael’s gut grew as they got closer and began to move off the road they’d been on. The edges of the rift could actually be seen just over the crest of a small hill. Otherwise the rift had almost no cover and anything approaching it would be seen well before it reached them. Lance was able to get a better look using some kind of magnification spell that he’d shown once before when they were trying to capture the geologist Francesca.

  “They have some barricades around the rift, but I see only eight horned men and no lizards. It looks like the majority of them were part of the ambush.” He dismissed his spell and looked thoughtful for a moment. “Ollie, did I see you fly earlier?” he asked.

  “Yep,” he replied simply.

  “Can you get up high enough that they won’t notice you?”

  “Kind of depends on if they look up, doesn’t it?”

  Lance chuckled, but Laird gave Ollie a glare.

  “I want you to tie your horse off here and fly over with a fireball ready to drop right on top of them. We’re going to ride up at the same time and draw their attention. You let it loose before we reach, and in the confusion we can cut them down.” He looked at the rest of them. “Any of you disagree?”

  They shook their heads.

  “Alright, then let’s go.”

  They all remounted their horses except for Ollie who walked a bit further from the rest of them before flying into the sky and then beginning to move toward the rift.

  With him on the approach they all began to bring their horses over to prepare for their charge, finding the best route they could before they dug their heels in and their mounts launched forward.

  Michael constructed a magical barrier in front of himself and his mount as it began to gallop. The horned men noticed them when they were nearly halfway to the angry red tear in reality, and one of them ran back into it as the others took their places behind the barricades.

  When they were roughly three-quarters of the way to them, ten or so reinforcements ran from the rift to take places behind the barricades. That was when Ollie threw his fireballs down at them.

  They both landed in the center of the two tightest clusters of horned men, lighting their hair and flesh on fire and shattering a number of barricades immediately. Most of them broke, but a few kept their discipline with one of them running back through the rift.

  Michael was in the lead, the barrier in front of his mount causing a number of spears to shatter as they reached them. His sword lit with holy fire as he reached the first barrier and his sword cut through one of the horned men as if he wasn’t even there. He tried to get his horse to continue forward and get closer to the rift, but he was cut off and found himself unable to control it well enough to redirect himself. Instead he leapt from the saddle, watching as Lance, Blake and Laird tore through the horned men on horseback.

  One of the horned men tried to meet him as he landed and Michael caught a spearstrike on his shield, deflecting with enough force to throw the horned man off balance before he ran him through with his sword. Another tried to swing a cleaver at his legs, but Michael raised his foot and stomped on the sword, arresting its movement. He swung Rend, shifting it to Ruin as he did so and smashed the horned man’s face in.

  Two of them began to charge him at once and he rushed forward to meet them feeling the increased speed he’d been granted as well as all of the boosts from his other deeds. When he’d first fought the horned men he’d known they were much stronger than the average man, but he’d had the drop on them. Now they seemed… weak to him. He smashed one in the face with the edge of his shield, tripping the other with a barrier spell at its shins before driving Rend through the back of his skull as he moved toward the rift.

  He reached his will toward the rift as a spearstrike shattered before it could hit him, broken by the Protection he received from the gods. He constricted the rift, pushing past its usual pushback with ease, though three of the silver-winged harpies did manage to break out and take to the sky in Ollie’s direction. He clenched his will and the rift sealed completely. Closing it had taken less than a minute. It was the fastest he’d ever done it.

  The remaining creatures from the rift seemed baffled by it, staring in hopelessness as they looked at the spot where the rift once was even as the knights cut them down on their horses. Michael moved toward the nearest of them.

  “Aur-ma,” it said in horror as he approached.

  Michael cut it down.