Chapter Two

3 Hours Later...

Buffy watched from her perch in the trees with the binoculars and smiled as she saw the demons in the front ranks start to break and run as they saw the first 'gift' they'd left them. Guess they didn't like finding the heads of their comrades on stakes, hehehehehe! Buffy thought grimly. The larger demons yelled, whipped and finally got order back after killing several of the smaller demons.

Buffy saw the 'dragons' halt outside the forest along with the Rock Trolls, while the black demons broke up and started searching through the settlement. The sound of breaking doors was clear to her, and Buffy counted 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

A second later multiple explosions ripped through the settlement followed by high-pitched screams and bellows. The explosions destroyed the remaining buildings that were left standing and Buffy signaled a thumbs up down to Tof, who was below to begin Phase 2.

"DRAW! FIRE!" Buffy heard Faith's voice and 100 arrows arced up into the air from the forest and towards black demons that had pulled back to a 'safe' distance. Buffy grinned coldly as she saw a good amount of hits from the arrows.

"DRAW! FIRE!" Came Faith's voice once again and the black demons backed up further from the settlement while the dragons and Rock Trolls just ignored any of the arrows that hit them as the arrows shattered on impact.

"That's right, you keep backing up. Right to where we want you!" Buffy murmured.

"DRAW! AIM!..." Faith's voice once more echoed and the demons broke this time running to get out of range of the arrows.

Buffy watched and just as the demons bunched up Buffy detonated all the remaining claymores they had at once. In a thunder of flame, smoke and screams Buffy's vision was blocked, but when the smoke cleared a minute later every demon within a 50-yard radius was dead. The explosions leaving only small pieces of the dead and every other demon outside the kill zone in shock at the complete and utter destruction of their comrades in the blink of an eye. With that what order was left in this part of the army disintegrated as they fled in all directions for their lives, throwing their weapons and armour away as they ran.

A great cheer went up from everyone inside the forest as they saw the first part of the demon army break and run.

The dragons seemed to wander around, now that their handlers were gone and wondering what they were supposed to do. Hungry and free they started looking for food when they saw the Rock Trolls...

Jumping from branch to branch down the tree Buffy landed at the bottom and walked over to Willow, "Now it's your turn Will." Buffy said as the reserves of the demon army were being sent forward. Buffy fought the urge to kiss Willow right there and instead clasped her hands behind her back, never knowing that Willow was fighting the same urge to kiss her.

Willow looked out and saw that 3 of the dragons were dead, killed by the Rock Trolls, but all of the Rock Trolls were either dead or had fled, as the remaining 2 dragons fought over the rights to the spoils.

Willow fell back, exhausted. "It's not going to work Buffy, we can't hold them back any longer. We hurt them, but there's something back there countering our spells and we can't face it and hold the lesser demons off at the same time."

"That's okay Will, we'll take it from here." Buffy said confidently walking close to the fighting and into her command post. Using hand signals, Buffy passed the message it was the Slayers turn now. Buffy had thought about putting the 1st (and herself) in the center of the line, but after Willow's talk with her Buffy had started to wonder if maybe Willow might be right. So it was the 2nd that held the front instead. Buffy signaled a runner and Buffy recognized the red-haired girl that ran over. "Charlie, tell Willow when we engage the black demons, it'll be up to her to take out the demon spell casters. Okay?"

"Yes Miss Buffy." Charlie said before dashing off.

Buffy watched as the first wave of demons hit her line, but the 2nd held firm, throwing them back with heavy losses. That'll just be them testing us, see if we've got any holes they can exploit. Then they'll open it up and start pulling out the bigger guns because they'll have figured out that we're a lot smaller than they are. Pacing back and forth from behind, Buffy watched as Faith and Rainne threw back the next 4 attacks as every instinct screamed at her to run up there to the front. Steeling herself against the urge Buffy paced even faster, but stayed back, finally Buffy saw the 2nd begin to bend in under the sheer numbers and a second group of 4 Rock Trolls pushed Faith and the 2nd back.

Buffy knew Faith was losing a lot of good people under the dual attack of fighting both the demons and the magic attacks, but it was all in Willow's and Aiesha's hands now. If they didn't find and neutralize the demon spellcasters, then everything was lost.

Buffy had been awake for the last 16 hours straight, at first running the battle from behind and then as they were pushed back leading the charges to give the 2nd time to reorganize or pull back. Seeing a lull as the demons pulled back 'again' and regrouped, Buffy sat down on the ground, her back up against a tree. Within moments Buffy was asleep, her sword resting across her legs and her head drooping down.

"HUH!" Buffy said startled as she woke to the touch of someone's hand on her shoulder. "Will? What's up?" Buffy asked as she fought to clear the cobwebs in her head out.

"We've got them. The next time they open up we'll be able to get them." Willow said proudly of her Coven who'd worked tirelessly and frantically, driven by the screams of the dead and dying Slayers.

"Good," Buffy said as she splashed poured some water over her head and felt the cold water clear her head up. "Good, good. Get ready then," Buffy saw Willow turn to leave. "Will, good job..."

"Thank me after we get through this and we'll call it even," Willow said before leaving.

The attack happened without any warning this time and Buffy saw the remnants of the 2nd and 3rd buckle and bend under the sudden and heavy assault. The demons had lost all of their Rock Trolls and the one Dragon they'd convinced to go into the forest had gone berserk, killing more demons than Slayers as it fought its way out of the forest. But even now the demons still had the numbers...

Quickly Buffy had Sachiko ready the 1st to move up when two things happened; the first thing Buffy saw were several magical explosions from behind the demon lines out of the forest and then Buffy saw Faith go down under a swarm of demons. Charging alone towards the front Buffy drew her katana, cutting the arm off a demon about to stab a Slayer from behind. Buffy became a whirlwind of death as she fought to get to where she last saw Faith.

Buffy had fought her way through all the demons who'd been in her way to Faith and came face to face with a red scaled demon over 8' feet tall, carrying a whip in one hand and a large sword in the other. "Get out of my way tubby!" Buffy snarled. The demon's only response was to bellow and roar before the whip slashed at her face and Buffy easily sidestepped it. With another roar Buffy saw the demon close with her, bringing it's giant sword straight down towards her. Not bothering to block it, Buffy slid to the side, avoiding it even as her sword licked out and cut through the heavy scale deep into its side before slicing up the back of the demon's arm. Soon enough Buffy found that this one wasn't as dumb as his smaller cousins and quickly enough the demon learned to stop using overpowering attacks. Instead it used the whip to keep her off-balance and the sword to attack her when she was avoiding the whip. But Buffy was a faster learner than scaly here and she'd figured out the demons plan by the second attack.

Breathing heavily Buffy backed off to give herself some breathing room, the two of them had been going at this for a while and as badly as she'd cut the demon up, she herself was covered in whip cuts and a lucky blow that almost gutted her and instead gave her a long gash over her stomach up to her rib cage.

Determined to change the odds Buffy closed with the demon and as it snapped the whip towards her Buffy brought her katana up in front of her, letting the whip wrap itself around the blade. Shifting her grip on the pommel and as she expected, the demon pulled back hard on the whip. Letting go, the sword flew toward the demon...blade first.

With a loud bellow of pain the katana sank to the hilt in the demon's chest and Buffy leapt up with both feet into the demon's chest, knocking it onto its back. Staying on top Buffy pulled the katana free and brought it down on the arm holding the whip with all her strength, severing the arm at the elbow. Bringing her blade back to finish the demon Buffy heard Faith yell off to her left and hesitated. Unfortunately the demon used that split second to catch Buffy on the side of her head with the flat of its sword that sent her flying through the woods to land 50' feet away.

Stunned, Buffy fought to get to her feet and wobbled as she stood up but there just 10 feet away Buffy saw the most beautiful sight in the world. A really pissed-off Faith wielding a spiked mace in one hand and a sword in the other as she waded through a knot of demons, blood and limbs flying everywhere.

The unsteadiness Buffy felt from that hit from the demon finally passed and Buffy fought her way next to Faith. With a quick grin the two Slayers moved and fought in a perfect dance of death to everything that crossed their path and didn't run away fast enough.

During some particularly heavy fighting Buffy found herself once again separated from Faith and standing alone next to a large tree. The fighting hadn't quite completely ended everywhere as Buffy could still hear some fighting going on, so much as nothing wanted to face her. Looking around Buffy saw the ground was covered with the bodies of the demons they'd killed and all too many of her sister Slayers. Leaning heavily against the tree, Buffy felt her strength slipping away as everything turned grey and the ground came rushing up towards her face, the last thing she heard was the sound of horns in the distance…

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Sachiko found Buffy lying face down in a heap on the forest floor and flipped her over. A quick glance told her nothing as Buffy was so covered by blood and gore it was hard to tell what might be hers. "AIESHA!!" Sachiko yelled and a minute later Aiesha was by Buffy's side.

"Sweet Goddess!" Aiesha swore as she saw pulled Buffy's clothes off and saw the numerous wounds on her body. Quickly Aiesha had her pouch opened and was taking out what she needed.

Sachiko saw Yi-min walk over covered in blood and guided her away, More demons? Sachiko asked in Cantonese.

I'm not sure. We're only getting glimpses, but they have bows and they're making pincushions out of the black demons. What do you want to do?

Have everyone pull back, gather up all the wounded. But don't do anything to these newcomers, whoever they are let's let them focus on the demons and not us. Sachiko said and saw Yi-min nod before leaving back towards the front.

Sachiko turned her attention back to Aiesha who was working still on Buffy. "Can't you do any magick spells and heal her?" Sachiko asked, worried.

"Too drained, along with all the others. Tracking those spellcasters down and taking them out took a lot out of everyone. So healing is back to the good old days of bandages and sewing." Aiesha replied, never taking her eyes off of her work as she sewed one cut up.

"Oh," Sachiko said before leaning down and picking up Buffy's sword and sheath. "Do whatever you can Aiesha," Sachiko said before walking away and saying a small prayer while leaving the Witch to her work.

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Faith heard a light sound behind her and turned to see a cloaked figure in green and brown. He started speaking in a lyrical language Faith couldn't make heads or tails of. "Wha??" Faith said putting her hand on the pommel of her sword and raising her other hand to signal the other Slayers to stop.

The stranger continued to speak in the same flowing tongue, but Faith had the feeling that these weren't the bad guys. Signaling, a runner ran over to her. "Go get Willow and bring her here." Faith told the young boy who took of in a dash of speed.

A few minutes later Faith saw a tired Willow walking over and make a wide circle around the stranger and over to Faith's side.

"So who's this?" Willow asked, seeing the stranger was dressed all in browns and greens that would let them blend into the forest easily. But his face was completely covered by a large hood he was wearing.

"That's what I want you to find out. Do you have a language spell or something you would whip up for us? I'd like to know what this guy has been gabbling about for the last hour."

"Maybe, give me a few minutes and we'll see." Willow replied.

Faith watched as Willow walked in front of her and their 'guest' and made some strange gestures, but it was the Power she could sense being called up that made her hair stand on end. When it was done Faith could hear the man speaking.

"...and we wish to know who it is that has put their lives in jeopardy to save our women and children from the Urk's."

"Urk's?" Faith asked. "What's an Urk?"

"The demons we were fighting, Faith. They aren't and they're called Urk's." Willow answered.

"Lord Phaerhuinë has requested you to come to him so that he might see the leader of the warriors who risked so much for those they didn't know."

"And who are you?" Faith asked abruptly, not quite willing to trust too easily after their flight here.

Bowing, "I am Galengaladh, son of Glandelah. I will be your escort to Lord Phaerhuinë."

Seeing no other options, Buffy was out cold for at least a day and the rest of the Slayers could use the time to regroup and pull out of here while this 'meeting' was going on Faith nodded. "Okay Galengaladh, take me to your leader," Faith chuckled a bit at that last.

Continued in Chapter 3