“This…” My thoughts raced as the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. The thing that had me on my knees with a simple stare… was potentially on earth? The pressure I’d been carrying suddenly felt dizzying. How could we contend against something like that?

  “Are you okay?” Jessica’s hand came down on my shoulder, hard enough to take me from my thoughts.

  “Yeah, just thinking about what's gonna happen.” My hands were cold and clammy, even a bit purplish. I could only imagine how white my face looked right now. The worry was probably written all over it.

  Her arm wrapped around mine, just above the elbow and pulled me tight. “We’ll take it as it comes, just as before.” And even though I knew things could be terrifyingly bad, the gesture somehow calmed me just enough to think a bit more clearly.

  “I hope.” I mumbled out, my eyes occasionally glancing at that swirling red miasma in the distance. Maybe it was a mind attack… Surely something that strong wasn’t our upcoming opponent?

  “What’s the plan then?” Marcus asked. He wasn’t one to beat around the bush, which was intimidating, but also relieving at times. He cut right through the bullshit. Every group needed someone like that, and even better if it was a trait for a tank.

  “The marker shows on the map,” Lucas said. “It’s not in that direction, so it must be a forward camp of some sort.” He indicated that we weren’t walking directly towards the demonic city.

  “Things have changed though…” Evee said. She was the newly arrived gunslinger. “It doesn’t seem as safe as before.” Everyone took a moment to contemplate her words, which could have several meanings.

  “What do you mean?” Jessica asked.

  “Well… maybe they’re too strong for us.” She said, “Or what if they cause more stuff to come from that thing?” She pointed at the demonic city.

  “I guess it’s possible that could happen,” I said. “We can always take a vote if you want.” I was reminding everyone. While my group had set the rules, it wasn’t like we had to be dictators about this. Mutual understanding would go a long way to building bonds that were strong enough to risk our lives for.

  “Make it clear what we’re voting for.” Marcus said.

  “Alright,” I said, “a yes vote means we continue forward and visit this potential forward camp.” I paused. “A no vote would mean we postpone the quest and visit this forward camp another time, retreating for now. We’ll do it by raise of hand, sound good?”

  There were no objections, and so I said, “Raise your hand for ‘yes’.” And then took note of the votes. Even though I could just count the no’s through that, I still had them raise their hands. “Raise for ‘no’.”

  There were 16 of us in total, 9 being from the original party. I almost expected it to be a runaway vote for yes, and to continue our quest. But it was actually 9-7 in favor of leaving. The first person to vote ‘no’ was Maria. She was a scaredy cat through and through, and it wasn’t that unexpected. The second person, however, surprised me: Thomas.

  He shrugged it off, “I have a bad feeling about it.” He didn’t have Sixth Sense, but I accepted his explanation, sometimes it was best to follow your intuition.

  “It’s settled then,” I said. “We’ll retreat for now and come up with a better plan.” That plan was quickly decided, almost before we even got home.

  Jessica would travel with Evee and the two would go on a sort of reconnaissance mission together. They would figure out what the boss looked like, what our enemies looked like, and what was our best course of action.

  Eventually, through enough nagging, we managed to have Lucas go with them. It felt safer that way, as he was quick to come up with plans on the fly. All three wore light armor and were nimble, it would be hard for any foe to keep them unless they fully walked into a trap.

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  “Keep your distance and take your time,” I said to Jessica. We weren’t in a rush, for now.

  In two days they’d gathered some information, but not nearly enough to warrant making a move. It was a demon camp, and as far as they could tell, the boss we needed to dispatch was a greater demon of some kind.

  It was a different color from the ones we’d fought: taller, stronger looking. Even more significant was that it could shape shift. If not for Jessica’s ability to sense enemies, we wouldn’t have known this, but it could assume a more cunning humanoid shape. Whether it had the ability to speak or converse with us was another story, though.

  It was a small squadron of demons, and on the third day with no reinforcements, or any sign of movement, we assumed we knew all we needed. Thirty lesser demons, and the singular greater demon. What military rank or how deep the strength it possessed wasn’t known.

  We met in our main abode—our home—to discuss the best course of action. “Why don’t we just group ‘em all up and grind ‘em to pieces?” Alan suggested. His ideas lacked a bit of the finesse and caution we needed for a task like this, though.

  “Sounds like a good way to die,” Marcus scoffed, “let’s be more thoughtful about it.”

  “Even I think that’s a bit too gung-ho,” I said, “I’d prefer something more like our gnoll encounters.” In the dungeon we had used commotion and noise to lure out unsuspecting enemies. Whether this would work on something potentially more intelligent was yet to be seen.

  “We have a lot of kiting potential.” Anna said. “With five tanks and plenty of range we can take our time and slowly split them up.”

  “We could try to pull from the fringes of their camp, and have tanks pick up any spare ads that may come?” Lucas suggested.

  “Let’s talk about the bad stuff.” Maria said.

  “Who will call the retreat if we need to?” Bethany asked after Maria had given a good window to discuss this point, “We should have one person take charge.”

  “Lucas should do that,” Thomas offered, and everyone in our party agreed. Bethany, Nicole and Rebekah didn’t have a problem with his nomination, but I could see Marcus was hesitant. They’d never seen a demon, nor seen us fight.

  “I won’t allow for anyone to be in unnecessary danger,” Lucas calmed his worries. “If things get dicey, we get out, no questions asked.”

  I agreed, “Dying for a quest will help no one. In fact, our group will hold the rear if a retreat is needed.”

  “Jessica will be making the pulls,” Lucas looked across to her for confirmation, “Are you up for it?” That also put her in the riskiest position. Our group were taking the majority of the risk.

  “I think I have a decent grasp on their movement and tendencies.” She looked at Evee, as if wondering Evee wanted to join with Jessica on the pulls.

  Evee shook her head. “I’m not a good puller. I’m not exactly quiet.” She jiggled a pistol on her side. That was a fair point, a gunshot might even pull the whole camp at once.

  We spent the better part of another hour hammering out the details of our quest. Safety was first and foremost. We’d approach from the south-west, which would give us the best chance to reach the road in case of a retreat. From there we could reach our abode in just seven minutes of heavy sprinting.

  We knew that, because Jessica hauled Richard over there and made him run. He wore heavy armor, and was on the bulky side, so his time was good as a below-average estimate on our retreat.

  At most we would take five enemies at once, and once pulled we’d go as close to the road as we could. Fighting near the camp was not advised in case we aggroed additional mobs. We didn’t know how they would react when pulled, so Lucas would have to do some shot calling on the fly.

  In the case of multiple enemies, our group would take the majority of enemies, and allow the second conjoined group the freedom of fighting without worry of being overrun. In the case of retreat, Anna, Maria and Jessica had already worked something out with their CC, adding Rebekah and my undead squad to the mix as meat shields.

  The greater demon would be engaged by us once all enemies were defeated. In the case of adds being involved, the second group would pick them up. We would fight the boss away from the newcomers, as I felt more confident in our party taking it on with flexibility in our tactics, and it would hurt my heart to see one of them die from a mistake in our calls.

  They could join if we deemed it safe, but I leaned away from that idea. Still, it was decided and I wouldn’t go against it. If Lucas judged it to be safe, then we would go with that call, and the second group agreed.

  All in all, the basic idea of our structure and battle plan was formed. We would set off first thing in the morning when the fog was thickest. Only then would we have the best shot at surprising our enemy.

  That night was surprisingly peaceful despite the approaching battle call. Had I learned to thrive in the chaos, the danger? It was hard to think about the morning with Jessica in my arms, and I couldn’t remember the time when I fell asleep.

  I remembered waking, though, to Jessica’s slightly panicked voice.

  “Enemies,” she said. “I think we’re being ambushed.”