Huskar's teeth already hurt from gritting them all the time. He passed first tower on the middle road but no hero was to be seen. The tower was okay, so he ventured on to the bottom road. He went through the woods to be able to use the shadows as cover, rather than running through the stream.
When he heard fighting in front of him he slowed his pace to be able to assess the situation before engaging. When he had a clear view onto the road he stopped, still hidden by the shadows of the trees. Three enemy heroes were lined up against three allied ones. One of the enemies was the man in the flying device. Another was something like a stone golem, but he seemed rather small for such a creature. The third was similar to a human man, but looked as if he belonged into the forests more than onto the road he was walking at the moment. He had a wooden staff in one hand, so he must be some kind of mage.
The Lord of Avernus saw him waiting and called for the other two to attack while he was already charging forward, some kind of sphere surrounding his body. The man in the flying device placed his missile and the stone golem focused on the Lord of Avernus, going directly for him. The forest mage enchanted trees from the forest, which joined the fight together with him. They ignored the two fighting tanks, the Lord of Avernus and the golem, but went around them for the Pugna, surely because he was the one who was easiest to kill. The missile started flying and Huskar saw it was heading towards the Shadow Fiend, while the man attacked the Lord of Avernus as well. Huskar, still a little weary because of how the Phantom Assassin had treated him, didn't jump in but ran out of the trees, using his burning spear to hit first the man on the flying device and second the golem, making them burn in the progress. Then he switched to the man again. The golem let an avalanche of rocks lose that stunned the Lord of Avernus but didn't reach far enough to hit Huskar, who ignored what was happening at his back, convinced that the Pugna and the Shadow Fiend could hold out against the nature man.
The sphere around the Lord burst, dealing damage to the enemies around him.
The golem had some kind of protection, maybe on his skin, that caused the attacker to be sometimes mini-stunned. The first time it happened Huskar was a little confused but if they wanted to kill the golem he had to keep going and just ignore it.
The flying man seemed not to be very happy about how the fight unravelled because he turned around and headed away. Now or never, Huskar thought, taking a deep breath and leaping through the air, landing on the back of the retreating man, doing enough damage to almost kill him. Since his attack speed was heightened through his loss of life, he only needed a few more hits, one with a burning spear that ensured, even when the man reached the safety of his tower where Huskar definitely wouldn't follow him, he would burn and die, and Huskar got the kill. Grinning widely when the man died, his device crashing onto the ground, he turned towards the others, seeing the other three were all going for the golem, the Lord of Avernus cutting through his body with his blade, making him crumble into a pile of rocks on the ground. He joined them, still grinning. The Pugna was the one with the most injuries and he cast his heal on him. "Thanks." The skeleton nodded in his direction. Wow, that was the first time in this war someone had thanked him for his heal. "The third enemy hero?" he asked.
"Got away. He's able to teleport. When he saw you appearing, he popped out."
"It was a good fight nonetheless. I'm back to middle." The Shadow Fiend said and left. Huskar bought a Helm of Iron Will at the neutral merchant, who was standing on the side of the road, making his items available for both towns. The Helm gave him bonus armour and was a part of the Armlet of Mordiggian he wanted to purchase next.
They used the time no enemy hero was on the road to help their soldiers push forward and attack the enemy tower. They got a few hits on the building before heading back.
Since the two had no problems so far on the bottom road, Huskar decided to leave again. He turned into the woods, to kill some beasts. Those beasts were a good way to get money, because the killing blows on them gave extra money, just like the killing blow on enemy soldiers and heroes. By killing them he would also gain experience, so he now roamed through the trees, looking for animals he could kill. He ventured in the direction of the middle road to maybe be able to get a hero kill together with the Shadow Fiend when he arrived at first tower there.
He had just killed a bunch of beasts and had finished, finally, his Power Treads (an upgrade for his boots), when the Phantom Assassin appeared behind him. He only saw a blur on the edge of his field of vision and turned around, his spear held high, ready to attack. Then he registered the frame of the slender woman, all in dark colours, standing in front of him as an ally and lowered his weapon. "What are you doing here?" her voice was low and controlled though Huskar had the feint impression she was angry. He shrugged. "I'm farming. And I helped at the bottom road. Now I'm on my way to the middle road."
"Don't you think you should come back to your road?"
"No, I don't think so. Why, have you died when you were alone up there?"
The Assassin stepped into his personal space then, her gaze boring into his. She was rather tall and he didn't have to look down at her. Her voice, when she talked again, had gotten even lower and held a dangerous undertone. "Yes, I died. Because you were not where your place is. You could do something useful for a start. Now come." She turned around, really believing he would follow her. Hell, she was arrogant. When he didn't follow she looked back, her anger now clearly visible on her beautiful face. "What is your problem?" she hissed.
A shiver went through Huskar and he smiled, though it probably looked more like he was baring his teeth. He wondered briefly how many men she had stared into obedience with that look of hers. "My problem is you. You are an arrogant bitch, who has never learned to say thank you, always believing everybody else is in the wrong. That's why I won't go to the top road with you."
Before he could even blink, she had jumped in front of him and had grabbed one tusk of his bone helmet with a hand, bringing their faces so close together, he could see that she had the tiniest freckles on the dark, slightly blue skin of her nose. "Do I look as if I care for your feelings?" She spat the last word, as if it was something downright repugnant. Her eyes were hard and cold, like stones, and he believed fully that she didn't care for feelings, not only those of others but her own as well. He wanted to get mad at her for treating him like that and for grabbing his helmet, but he was distracted by the tiny spots on her skin, his gaze following how they spread from her nose over her cheeks and disappeared under the metal of her helmet at the sides of her head. They were a chaotic mass of points, some smaller and some bigger, no pattern recognizable. Totally forgotten what they had been talking about, he murmured: "Do you know you have the cutest freckles I have ever seen?"
When she didn't react, he raised his eyes to hers and, seeing her shell shocked expression, he grinned. To be able to get her speechless with such a little statement… He stared at her for a few moments, totally enjoying that he had been able to stun her into silence.
"Okay," he said, his grin vanishing. "Let's make a deal: you stop being such a bitch and I help you at the top road again." When her face returned to her normal, arrogant expression, she started to say, "I'm not a …" But Huskar interrupted her. "You don't have that much of a choice. Since you can't force me to follow you I am rather forthcoming here." He lowered his head a little more, their noses now almost touching, his voice rumbling in his chest. "You have insulted me repeatedly and I don't answer well to that kind of behaviour. Either you at least try to be nice to me or you keep fighting alone. And if you stop acting like a bitch, I will quit calling you one."
To give her credit she didn't back away or show fear though he had to look frightening. She released the tusk that protruded from his helmet, her face closing up even more, making it an unreadable mask. "I don't care how you call me and I sure won't change my behaviour because you have so tender feelings." Then she turned around and, with a slight blur to her form, vanished between the trees. Huskar let out an irritated sigh. So she was not only arrogant but stubborn and unreasonable as well. He shook his head and resumed his way to the middle road. He had to do something about the top road now, since it seemed the Phantom Assassin wouldn't go back there.
On the middle road he helped the Shadow Fiend to push their soldiers forward, but the man on the flying device didn't make it that easy. Huskar had his jump ready but as long as the man was under his tower he wouldn't initiate anything. "Maybe we could check on the top road?" he asked the Fiend, since they weren't able to do anything productive here.
Together they headed top through the stream. The Shadow Fiend was a dark presence at his side, big, with spikes on his shoulders and a deep glow coming from inside of him. He really looked like the demon he was, dangerous and deadly.
Their first tower was down, the soldiers fighting near second tower and the enemy heroes nowhere in sight. That could only mean they had gathered on one of the other roads. They decided to kill the enemy soldiers until they were at the neutral merchants shop at the top road, to buy a Scroll and port to first tower at the bottom road. Since their allies were all there somewhere, it was the safest option.
They activated the Scroll of Town Portal and waited to appear at the bottom road. They were prepared to engage into an ongoing battle.
Huskar took only a second to get a picture of the situation unfolding around him. Four enemy heroes in front of him, two allies behind him. The Shadow Fiend porting in. The Phantom Assassin wasn't present, just like the forest man from the enemies. So it was four against four. Some enemy soldiers were attacking the tower, no allied soldiers in sight. The next wave had to be farther behind. He wondered briefly, if the Lord of Avernus and the Pugna had a plan but he wasn't able to ask because the enemy engaged. The golem took the rhino and hurled him through the air, so that he landed between them. He immediately started to attack them, hitting on the Lord of Avernus, simply because he stood next to him. He did cleave damage though and he cast something that pulled them all together on front of the rhino, stunning them in the progress. Next the man on the flying device placed his missile and the gargoyle neared together with the golem. Technically they had their tower as help, but practically it didn't do enough damage to repel the enemy heroes while he and his allies were all four injured now.
The only good thing about the rhino attacking the Lord of Avernus was that, when his health reached a specific threshold, an ability of his was triggered, which gave him back health for the next incoming attacks instead of draining it. Huskar decided he wouldn't go for the rhino but focus on the flying man again, since he had been a rather easy kill. He crouched and jumped, hitting the man full on. He immediately began throwing his spear at him, somewhere in between a few burning ones to make more damage. It was working so far but then the gargoyle helped the man. Huskar activated his healing and kept attacking the man, which was even easier now that the gargoyle drained his health and thus raised his attack speed. Since the golem didn't go for him he assumed the other three must be fighting against him. The flying man retreated, but too late. Huskar got a good shot with a burning spear and though the man was now outside of his attack range he was burning and the fire gave him the rest. With a crushing sound, the flying device crashed on the ground and broke into several parts, the man sitting in it already dead but burning.
The gargoyle was still attacking him and since he had totally ignored him until now he had still his full health whereas Huskar was near to death. He considered briefly if it was reasonable to return his attacks but decided not to go for it but retreat instead. Not that he had a very good chance to escape, especially since the gargoyle had to familiars to support him and the three of them did much damage. Then the gargoyle cast something that drained all remaining health from him.
Damn it, the gargoyle was a strong opponent. Huskar would have to pay more attention to it the next time he fought.