They made their plan quickly and easily. The rogue, who only named herself as Huntress, would circle to the boulders directly across from the cave mouth. She would use her bow and her cinder bow sigil to snipe into the cave. She was confident of downing at least one or two of the cultists before they could emerge and rush her, at which point Cutter and Lita could step in, ambush from the side. Huntress could then continue to provide archer support.

  Cutter said, “Sounds tight. What are we dealing with here?”

  She said, “Two goblins, one’s a clay assassin band, the other’s a stone adept. An ogre, clay barbarian, a bufo, clay craftsman, a leprechaun, clay craftsman, and a stone leohom fighter. He’s the biggest concern, the adept too maybe. The leohom seems to be the leader. Bit of an accent, so I think he might have come from afar to start the group. But there’s something else in there, making groaning sounds, so they’ve got a pet of some kind.”

  Cutter said, “What about the babies?”

  She sounded exhausted. “The what?”

  “Spinner said they were murdering babies.”

  Genuine dismay filled her voice. “Oh… no… that’s awful. I didn’t see or hear anything like that… oh… maybe we’re too late.”

  “Why did you come out to kill them if you didn’t know about the baby murder?”

  She said, “Uh… 20 gold a head?”

  Cutter blinked a few times, then smiled. “Nice. I like you. Let’s go kill them. Oh wait, what’s a leohom? Like, if my Latin is up to anything, which it’s not, that sounds like lion… man?”

  She said, “Nailed it. Big as you, all hairy and toothy and claws. You’ll be fine.”

  Cutter puffed his chest. “You bet, babe.”

  She just grunted and drifted away.

  Cutter leaned close to Lita. “Man, she fucking digs me.”

  Lita said, “Bruh… that’s not exactly the vibe I was getting…”

  “Gonna bang her. Gonna make that armor rattle, if you get my drift.”

  “Dude, you started by saying you were going to bang her. There’s no drift to get. That’s like totally obvious. Didn’t you say you have a wife?”

  “Duh, in my non-dream life! I would never, I mean ever, cheat on my wife. But buddy, this is a dream, and in the absence of my usual co-star, Anissa, the Huntress here will make a fine stand-in.”

  Lita said, “Can I… not be around when you try?”

  The air whizzed as an arrow loosed. A scream erupted from the cavern. Shouts and roars followed. Another whizz, another scream. The shuffling of feet, whizzing, screaming.

  Cutter hissed, “Shit… if she kills them all on her own, do you think the deal’s off?”

  A booming roar echoed from the cave mouth and suddenly there was a huge shape bounding across the space towards the boulder Huntress was crouched behind.

  The creature was composed entirely of bones. It was the skeletal remains of something else. Whatever it had been before was as large as a horse, with a low powerful body and an oversized round head with a truly gaping maw. There was no tail at the end of the squat body.

  “Cuuuuuttteeeer!” Huntress’s voice was loud and urgent.

  “Oh shit, that’s our cue!”

  As they raced forward from cover, Lita snapped, “Our cue was it showing up!”

  An arrow glanced off the skull of the beast. It staggered but didn’t stop. Lita got to it first, buzzsawing into its side. The stone axes sparked on the hard bone, chips of both tumbling through the air. The creature leapt back, agile, catlike. It roared an animal roar and swiped at Lita.

  Lita’s dodge sigil glowed and he floated back, still spinning. He had been learning.

  Cutter clutched his sword, thought about his berserker sigil, but decided manic rage might not be best called for against a creature of unknown power. He did see that the skeletal beast only bore an iron band, every socket empty of sigils, but its size and strength made him unlikely to overestimate the significance of that absence.

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  He danced in, sword sigil glowing for the first time, and cut at the creature. His blade just bounced off, sending a chip of bone flying.

  Huntress’s voice bellowed, “Not the sword against bone! Now’s the time for your axe, dummy!”

  Cutter wasted no time. He dropped the sword through one of the loops of his belt and pulled his axe free.

  At the same moment, the throng of cultists emerged from the cave. The leohom was at the lead, huge figure, as big as Cutter, barrel-chested and boulder-shouldered. It wore leather armor with steel pauldrons and held a short glaive. The rest charged behind it, the goblin assassin bearing an arrow in its shoulder. The alleged leprechaun was nowhere to be seen.

  Cutter glanced to Huntress. “You wasted a shot on the fucking leprechaun?”

  Her only answer was a shrug.

  The beast swung a huge paw and snapped its jaws. Cutter used dodge, whirling back. The leohom came at him and he had to backpedal, dodge not ready. Lita buzzed past them both, meeting the charge of the throng. The bodies scattered before his buzzsaw attack.

  The leohom growled, a true animal sound, and swung again. Cutter used dodge this time, whirling away. An arrow sparked from the creature’s pauldrons and it weaved to the side. The skeleton jaws lashed forward for Cutter and he twisted, stepping forward and aside, letting the jaws snap past him. He swung with the axe, his cinder strength sigil flaring. The axe struck the side of the skull and a portion exploded in dust and fragments, leaving a palm-sized hole.

  “Nice.”

  An arrow whizzed toward the adept but glanced off a field that appeared when the arrow neared.

  Huntress screamed, “Kill the adept! He’s animating it!”

  Cutter spared a glance for the robed goblin. A lot of its sigils did seem to have skulls and bones on them.

  Cutter shrugged, and charged. The leohom moved to pursue, weaving slightly as an arrow whizzed. The bone monster charged.

  The goblin adept’s eyes went wide at the sight of the charging human fighter and it immediately scrambled away.

  “Get back here, you little shit!”

  Blood geysered as Lita chewed into the bufo. The large bulbous form of the toad-person was composed of oh so much yielding flesh, the meat liquefied as the spinning tomahawks slashed into it dozens of times per second. It howled a gurgling, bubbling howl.

  Impulsively, Cutter hurled his axe at the fleet-footed adept.

  Lita shouted, “Dude, nooo!”

  The axe went wide of the adept, but it glanced off the field around it. The field flickered for a moment and an arrow passed right through, though it was wide of its target.

  Cutter shot a glance back at Huntress, trying to communicate the significance, but he couldn’t spare more than the barest instant of attention. His sword was in his hand and he parried a blow from the leohom.

  The beast growled, “I’ll gut you!”

  Then it was knocked aside by the charging bone monster. Cutter barely scrambled back in time to avoid the snapping jaws.

  He kicked out, strength sigil flaring, and his booted foot smacked the huge head back.

  “Cinder strength… nice…”

  He whirled on the adept. The goblin had its back pressed against the wall of the cavern. Panic and terror filled its eyes. He didn’t have time to absorb his surroundings. There was an impression of cult shit, bone idols, cauldrons, black candles. No dead babies. That was pretty good. I didn’t want to have to describe the dead babies.

  The adept had a slender wand in its hand, the tip glowing as it swirled in a pattern in the air.

  “Oh no! You’re not gonna adabra cadabra me!”

  The bone beast reared up, right behind him. The leohom was quickly circling. Cutter was surrounded on all sides and felt the need to act.

  Cutter leapt at the adept. His sword screamed down, sigils blasting light on his wrist like a Christmas tree. He felt the resistance, the kinetic deflection of the goblin’s field. His sword bounced away, but the field flickered off. Then there was an arrow in its eye and it was slumping down, blood drooling from the wound.

  Cutter spun. He turned in time to be knocked aside by an avalanche of bones.

  “No! Not like this!” he shrieked.

  But no jaws closed, no claws swiped. He was bowled over by the collapsed remains of the bone monster. It had failed when the master died.

  Cutter jumped back to his feet, sparks flaring in the darkness of the cavern as he deflected a swipe from the leohom’s glaive.

  He flashed his teeth at the creature. “I’m dying to have a go at you, buddy. One on one. And… Ho! Ho! Ho! … now I’ve got a sword!”

  The beast faltered for a moment. Its voice was deep and bestial. “Is that… is that a reference to something…”

  “Fuck it.” Cutter charged. The leohom staggered back from the assault, glaive flashing in defence. Cutter had the momentum as steel clashed on steel. He could feel his opponent struggling to keep his feet. He had enough awareness to know that the ogre was dying, Lita buzzing into its guts as it clawed at an arrow in its shoulder.

  The maths flashed in his mind as his sword battered at the leohom’s weapon. Adept—dead, leprechaun dead, ogre dead, bufo dead…

  “Shit, where’s the…”

  Winking out of invisibility, the goblin assassin appeared at the same moment its glowing green dagger lanced through his ribs.

  “Fuuuuck!”

  The leohom wasted not a moment. Its scrabbling retreat became a feral charge. Cutter punched at the goblin, connecting, though poorly. It still staggered back, face wrecked by the power of his cinder strength. He flailed with his sword, deflecting a blow from the leohom blade. A moment later, a clawed hand descended, searing pain blooming on his face, a curtain of blood blinding him.

  Had he brought potions? He had meant to… but he had given one to Norris and he had been in such a hurry in Medley…

  The assassin struck him again, the green blade taking him in the lower abdomen, pain flaring. He felt a weakness flow through him, a vague nausea. Through his bloody eyes he saw enough movement to parry the leohom’s next attack, but not the booted kick.

  His vision was darkening, becoming a corridor. The blood washed over his face, stinging his eyes, blurring his vision.

  Blindly he held his sword in front of him, twitching with his left forearm to wipe the blood from his face.

  The beast stood over him, its teeth bared in savageness.

  Then blackness crowded in from the edges of his vision, whistling deafening him, and everything went black.