Peering down a side street, Karl was able to see half a dozen skirmishes happening. Goblins and demons fought tribesfolk in the street; bodies lay scattered about, all non-human thankfully, although one guy was sitting back, blood trailing down one arm.

Without hesitation, Karl and the others ran forward. Those with bows stayed back a distance and began firing at the enemies; Aryna stayed with them to guard their backs. In a moment, before Karl had reached the fray, two goblins and a demon dropped to the cobbled stone. The rest were too close to their targets to fire upon. Dell ran past the first pair and on to the next. The demon there broke his concentration to look at Dell, and Nichole caught him from behind, stabbing her blade into his lower back. He dropped his sword, and the one had had been fighting stabbed into his neck.

Without stopping to see whom it was Nichole had just helped, Karl ran on to the third pair. A goblin was sparring against a girl Karl had not yet met. By now those of the tribe were aware of the sudden appearance of the new-comers, so when Karl reached his target and swung his longsword, the goblin raised his own to block before twisting back to the girl. He slashed down, but her lateral swipe knocked his sword to the side. The goblin used the momentum to bring his blade about and swung at her again, but lost some of the power behind his swing when he dodged Karl's thrust.

The goblin spun toward Karl and began a quick barrage of attacks, but Karl was able to keep his sword centered and parried every blow. The goblin side-stepped a thrust from behind him and placed Karl and the girl in front of him, forming a triangle between them. He took a step forward to begin a new angle of attack, and Karl prepared his blade to block, but a small knife appeared suddenly from the goblin's thigh. He stumbled, and the girl moved quickly to finish him off. Her blade crossed the goblin's middle, and he fell to the street. Karl reached down and plucked the knife from the body and held it out for Jyaq as he stepped up. Their eyes met. Karl could see the seriousness displayed on Jyaq's face. Jyaq nodded to Karl and took the knife.

As those with the bows ran up to join the group, Karl took a quick survey of the area. Nearly two dozen goblins and demons lay about, scattered among and around the group of now eighteen tribesfolk. Only one was injured, bleeding from a gash on his shoulder; the rest were as yet unharmed.

Dell quickly took charge. "Everyone good?"

"Galii was cut," one said, "but we're okay otherwise."

Dell nodded. "Then let's move." The group took off up the street, opposite the way Karl's group had come. Two blocks down and they emerged onto a more gruesome scene than the last.

The fight here was much larger than the last. Eighteen exited the alley onto more than two hundred engaged in battle. From what Karl could see, more than fifty from the tribe were standing off against three times as many non-humans. For having smaller numbers, the tribe was certainly doing well holding its own. Many from the tribe were facing off against three or four opponents and still standing strong.

From what he could see they were doing well; goblins and demons and whatever other races present were falling quickly. The tribe was a force to be reckoned with, making progress slowly but surely. Bodies lay about, sometimes two or three high, and the body count was only rising. As Karl took in the scene, in the split-second before his emergence and his rush to help, he saw it.

A body.

A human body.

His heart sank. The thought had not occurred to him that some of them might not survive, that he could possibly lose someone he knew.

It occurred to him now.

The tribe had seen battles before, had felt loss before. But that was all before Karl had known them. Cameron had even said they had gone months without loss, but this would no longer be the case after tonight. Karl was not sure he would be able to handle the thought of a battle where anyone he knew would not make it, where even he might see his demise.

It was all too much.

Karl lead the charge toward the battle. It was all he could do to not run away. Death in this way scared him. But he would never abandon his friends, not while there was hope of survival.

Even if there was not.

The tribe was family. They were now his family, too.

An arrow blew past Karl's head, landing in the back of a goblin at the edge of the fighting. He dropped and Karl jumped over the body toward the nearest demon. Before the demon could react, Karl had slashed his blade back and forth thrice across the demon's body. The demon dropped, and two more turned to meet Karl.

The first was slow and Karl cut down across its chest before it could react. He brought his sword up to meet the blade of the other as it came across toward Karl's head. The force of the blow gave Karl enough momentum to circle his sword around his body and into a downward diagonal cut. The demon was ready and met Karl's swing with ease, the blades met between them. Karl pulled back and swung again, but the demon was too fast, spinning away.

Karl was not deterred and again swung his sword toward the demon, but his blade only connected with that of his opponent.

"You are well trained," said the demon, "for a child." Then he began a barrage of attacks and thrusts that forced Karl to step back. He countered all of them, but was beginning to lose his breathe. He took another step back and his heel felt something solid. A quick glance showed a body right behind him. The demon was trying to trip him! Fear and rage began to set in, but Karl made himself to remember his lessons, both in the fire dance and those from Fae.

Karl took a deep breath, as slow and deep as he could manage under the circumstances, and focused on the eyes of the demon. Karl took a second breath, then countered a blow, bringing his blade about into a mid-level thrust. The demon took a step back, allowing Karl to inch forward. The Karl let up, and the demon attempted another barrage, trying to force Karl back over the body. Karl took that step back, then just as the demon moved for another blow, Karl ducked backward, tucked and rolled over the body. The demon, not expecting the move, lost his balance and stumbled just as Karl rose to his feet. He rose quickly and stabbed upward into his opponent, his blade sliding through the abdomen of the demon.

The demon's mouth opened, filled with blood, and the light departed from his eyes. Karl retrieved his sword and moved to the next target.

A few feet to his right a goblin sparred with one from the tribe. Karl ran his blade into its back and pushed it aside. Karl and the tribesman exchanged quick nods then turned away.

Maybe ten feet away, Karl noticed Li expertly fending off three opponents, two goblins and what could have been an elf. Knowing the history, Karl presumed it to be a vampyr. Three bounds and Karl was side by side with Li. Without a word, Li adjusted his attack style to accommodate for Karl's presence. On the left, Karl attacked the vampyr, raising his sword to his left and swinging down and right. The vampyr raised his own sword and caught Karl's mid-swing, then tried to reverse his angle, coming at Karl from the other side.

Karl pulled his sword to the right and countered the vampyr's swing, before swinging further to his right to fill in the gap Li had left when he attacked the far right goblin. The one in the middle tried to swing at Karl, but Karl blocked before turning again to the vampyr. He swung mid-level, but the vampyr knocked Karl's blade upward. Karl did not fight it, but let the blade finish its arc, pulling it down hard. The hilt connected with the vampyr's shoulder, and the vampyr dropped, dazed but not dead.

The vampyr momentarily incapacitated, Karl put his full attention to the goblin on his left, allowing Li to look after the other. Karl swung right, left, right, down, but each time was met with the ringing impact of metal on metal. He pulled his blade up, and the goblin met him in the middle.

The pair circled around, a flurry of swings and thrusts, their blades arcing about them like silver halos. Karl attacked, moving forward, left, up, left, right. The goblin deflected and countered, then took up the offensive. He came at Karl, a whirlwind of metal. Right, left, right, up, left, left, down. Karl met each move with ease, then again took his own attack, swinging left, down, up, right, right.

Then he dropped his blade point to the dirt and spun, throwing his sword hand over and around his head. Facing away from the goblin, Karl raised his other hand to the hilt. As he finished the spin, Karl swung with all the power of the spin. The blade knocked that of the goblin to the side and imbedded itself into the goblin's shoulder. The goblin was thrown to the side, and Karl moved to finish him off.

He remembered the vampyr and turned, ready for an attack, but it lay on its side, blood spurting from a hole in its chest.

"Karl!" he heard someone scream. He looked up to see Emily standing there, an arrow nocked and drawn, and pointing at him! "Duck!" she yelled.