The banging on the gate could be easily heard long before the gate became visible in the fog. What was left of the town militia had formed a shieldwall bracing the gate. The adventurers were patrolling behind the shieldwall killing monsters that had spawned inside the town. The gate was already splintering.

  “It won’t hold for long,” Juniper noted.“Sapphire and Juniper secure some provisions from the temple. When that gate comes down we will have to leave town. Don’t forget a weapon for Nova,” Beornia ordered.Before Juniper left he infused the heads of the spears that the town militia were grasping with holy magic.

  “Save your strength. The cursed wilds are harsh,” Beornia advised Nova.

  Suddenly a dire wolf appeared out of the fog. It had gray fur, and red eyes. The dire wolf howled a red mist, came out of its body, forming several wolves that looked exactly like it.

  Beornia’s sword shone with a golden light. The wolves ran back and forth to hide their original body. They spread out in a semi circle around Beornia and Nova.

  Beornia handed Nova her spear. A wolf on the right side was the first to leap forward. Quickly followed by one on the left. Beornia sshed her sword into the one on the right. It immediately turned into a red mist. She deflected the one on her left with her shield. Two more took the opportunity to jump holy chains bound one and the other was dispatched with her sword. Nova quickly stabbed the bound wolf with her spear.

  The dire wolf snarled before running back into the fog.“It will prowl the area looking for easier prey,” Beornia said as she stabbed the remaining conjured wolf. “How bad would it be if people knew I could tame monsters?” Nova whispered to Beornia. The slime felt cool on her back. While she could feel her own warmth from the slime perspective as well. Nova found the dual sensation to be disconcerting. The slime could change its size with ease; the fluid inside it got thicker the more condensed the slime became.“You wouldn’t be left alone,” Beornia responded unsure.

  “Let me enlighten you about this topic,” Echo kindly offered, “anyone with cursed magic can tame monsters. Mainly demons, but a few other people have contracted curses that affect their magic. The people that have openly tamed monsters around humans or high elves often met grisly ends,” Echo expined.Nova resolved herself to keep the slime hidden as much as possible. “You could wear your slime like armor under your clothes,” Beornia suggested, as her green eyes brightened.

  Nova put up the hood on her cloak to hide her head. She stretched the slime around her body despite the discomfort it caused her. The cool goopiness of the slime felt very icky spreading across her body, Making Nova shiver all over. Nope nope nope, I need underclothes if I do this. I could maybe use it as a shield, but how can I hide its nature? Nova let her slime self cling between her cloak and tunic, providing protection to her back. Why didn’t I do that sooner? Nova thought. She was relieved to no longer feel the coolness on her back. The slime also helped insute the cloak, protecting her from the cold of the cursed night.

  A loud crash overwhelmed Nova’s ears. The gate behind her had a hole as big as her head in it. The stone that made the hole crashed into the ground beside her. Beornia grabbed Nova’s hand. She led her to the side of the gate.“Trolls must be pitching rocks at the gate!” Beornia decred.The padin rushed up the stairs to the parapet. Nova quickly followed behind her.“Wait let me bless your arrows, so that you can take down the trolls,” Beornia said to a group of archers on the wall.

  A golden light came out of Beornia's hands enveloping the arrow heads.The first volley of arrows hit the trolls that were slinging rocks at the gate. The trolls bellowed in pain as the holy magic hurt them. The arrows bounced off their hard skin. The second volley got knocked out of the sky by a strong gust of wind. The archers looked discouraged as they loosed a third volley; they stopped shooting when that too was knocked out of the sky by a strong gust of wind. “Look the trolls have stopped slinging stones at the gate, keep it up,” Beornia encouraged the archers.

  The trolls put stones in their massive slings. They spun them over their heads, and released the stones. A volley of stones descended upon the archers Beornia tried to get in front of the archers to block a stone as big as her head with her shield, But Nova wrapped her arms and her slime empowered cloak around the padin, pulling her out of harm's way.

  “Are you trying to get squished like a bug?” Nova asked, upset.Beornia gave Nova a withering gre.“You could do better by healing those hit by the boulders,” Nova continued.Beornia’s expression rexed a bit. “Healing with holy magic is inefficient against physical injuries. I would have to maintain the spell until their body naturally heals.”“You are worth more than a hundred of these people. You would throw your life away to save one maybe two,” Nova saidThe people on the wall gred at Nova.“You have guts young dy. Priests are equal to everyone. All of us have useful skills,” A wizened old man said, as he clutched his sword tightly.

  The old man looked like he was one foot in the grave. He wore an old mail hauberk, an iron skullcap and a round shield with a boss in the middle. The shield had faded red and white paint, and looked well worn.“I was talking about her usefulness in the situation we are in,” Nova defended herself.The old man sighed. “That doesn’t make your statement much better. We will survive together!” he said, as he plunged his sword into a goblin that tried to get on to the battlements. The people around him cheered. They went about their fighting with renewed vigor.

  “So you want to do the work of one hundred men! Push down those dders that keep coming up,” The old man ordered Nova and Beornia while pointing toward a pile of two pronged pitchforks.“Do as I do,” Beornia told Nova.Nova copied Beornia as the tter picked up a pitchfork. She braced it against one of the goblin dders.“On three we push,” Beornia instructed.Nova nodded in understanding. They pushed the dder together when Beornia gave the signal. The dder that had a few goblins climbing on it fell backward into the horde of goblins. There were a ton of dders at the wall. The goblins threw themselves at the defenders with no regard for their own lives. The defenders desperately dropped rocks on the goblins' heads, as they ascended the dders. The fog got so thick they could no longer see the ground.

  A horn sounded,“You two with us!” The old man ordered Nova and Beornia to follow him, as he led a group of retired adventurers toward the horn sound.“She upset Alderic, he is going to work them to death,” the retired adventurers muttered amongst themselves.Nova only followed without compint because she was curious about what the horn meant.

  Soon out of the fog a growing group of goblins had obtained a foothold on the wall. The woman that was blowing the horn got cut down by goblins along with most of the defenders in the area. With a war cry, Alderic charged at the goblins and his group of seven retired adventurers charged with him yelling their own war cries; five of the seven were elderly women. All of them were well equipped like Alderic was.

  One man was a padin of the Maiden Goddess; he blessed everyone’s weapons before they reached the goblins. He wielded a spear and a shield like Alderic’s. He charged right into the thick of it, a woman with a two handed ax cleaved through the goblins in a frenzy right next to him. Another woman armed with a repeater crossbow shot ten arrows in six seconds hitting a different goblin with each arrow. She had a normal crossbow strapped to her back and a sword hanging from her side.

  Beornia joined the fray as well she intercepted goblins that got too close to the woman with a crossbow, and another woman that was conjuring ice arrows to impale the goblins with. Nova followed Beornia’s example. She kept goblins from overwhelming the backline. Although she had little experience wielding the spear. The goblins were simirly unskilled.

  I’m probably older than most of these goblins and I'm hardly a week old. Nova reflected as she easily skewered another goblin. Turning her spear into a goblin kebab. She kicked the three goblins off of her spear. They really are relentless.

  “Nova behind you!” Echo yelled.Nova swiftly turned around and she pushed back a group of goblins that were really close with the shaft of her spear. The goblins had gained another foothold on the wall behind them.“Beornia!” Nova yelled. Beornia and the two women she was protecting turned around to face Nova. Beornia immediately charged at the goblins. The ice mage summoned ice under the group of goblins on the wall. All the goblins that had recently got on the wall slipped on the ice. They were easily killed by the defenders.

  By the time Nova turned back around. Alderic and his company had pushed the dders off of the wall. At that moment The dire wolf howled again.“We have to go deal with an old friend,” Beornia excused herself and Nova from Alderic and his company.“You did surprisingly well, priestess,” Alderic begrudgingly said to Nova before she left. She just gave him a weak smile, turned around, and left.