In the safe zone Huskar took a deep breath and tried to calm down. His heart was still beating way too fast. Without a word Mortred positioned herself next to him and together they waited until they were fully healed. Her presence seemed to ease Huskar. It had been a shock for him to see her this heavily injured, but of course that could happen. They fought in a war here and it was absolutely normal to take damage or to die. Even in the world outside of this town wars Huskar was sure she had been injured more than once. That was who she was, though she probably, in the real world even more so, tried to remain in the shadows and only attack from behind, killing the victim without ever being seen and never searching an open confrontation. But that wouldn't avert a fight from time to time and a fight always meant injuries.

It wasn't even the first time he had seen her injured, he had saved her often enough now from near death, but it was the first time since their relationship had changed and they no longer hated each other.

What he still admired about that battle was how absolutely cool she had been throughout it, even when she had been nearly dead or when she had been surrounded by four enemy heroes all focused on killing her. She had not panicked once and in the end she had survived. She was one hell of a rational fighter, always focused and precise. Damn, but he was impressed.

He snuck a glance at her from the side and their gazes collided. They stared at each other until the Shadow Fiend disrupted them.

"That's a fucking joke, right? We are in a war and you are making lovey-dovey eyes at each other?" He growled low in his throat. "No wonder we lost that battle. Maybe you should concentrate on fighting instead looking at each other all the time." Then he headed out, muttering something like "fucking noobs".

Huskar scowled at the leaving demon. He was absolutely exaggerating things, wasn't he? As if they were falling in love with each other… How absurd. He glanced at Mortred again but her face was without any emotion. When she looked at him her eyes were cold and expressionless and Huskar's scowl deepened. He liked her smiling and blushing and frowning and not that blank look she was giving him now. Damn that demon and his words. Would she back away from him now to prove him wrong?

But then she leaned a little towards him and whispered:" I think we really have to concentrate a little more during the fights. Maybe we can delay the making lovey-dovey eyes until later." Then she winked at him and a smile flitted over her features before she altered them into blankness again. Huskar was momentarily speechless. Not only did she not care what the Shadow Fiend had said (which wasn't that big of a surprise), but she didn't deny his words. As if she thought they were true. Were they true? Their relationship had changed, but into that?

The Phantom Assassin went to follow the Shadow Fiend but when Huskar didn't join her directly she stopped at the entrance to the safe zone, her eyebrows raised. "You coming?"

With a grin on his face he followed her. She was really adorable and her I-don't-care-what-others-think attitude was kind of cool. He had been holding back, shoving every feeling of attraction away.

Because, let's face it, she was an assassin, the phantom assassin with a name, and what suicidal male would ever dare make a pass at her? But he steadily got the impression that she wouldn't mind him making a pass at her. But first things first. They had to wage a war and Huskar was absolutely going for a win.

The Shadow Fiend, the Pugna and the Lord of Avernus had already gathered at the entrance to the town at the bottom road when the Phantom Assassin joined them. So they would go for second tower on this road. Together they headed out but met the first wave of enemy soldiers just at their second tower. For the five of them those few soldiers posed no problem and they made good progress.

When they didn't encounter the enemy heroes, they bought Scrolls of Town Portal at the shop of the merchant on the side of the road to be able to get back quickly. Because it was possible the enemy heroes were trying to destroy one of their towers on another road while they were on the bottom road. They passed the ruins of first tower from the enemies and ventured on. The Shadow Fiend started scouting again but it seemed no one was near. They got the tower down pretty quickly, the Lord of Avernus always being at the front and the Pugna at the back with Huskar.

Unease settled over Huskar with the continued absence of the enemy heroes. That could only mean that they were currently going for their town. And the Phantom Assassin was thinking the same. "I will port into town. Two should stay here and destroy as much as they can and two should come with me." With that she ported out. Huskar followed her without hesitation because by no means would he let her alone. The Pugna and the Lord of Avernus exchanged a quick glance after which the skeleton ported as well.

They arrived all three at the two towers in front of the heart and, like they had suspected, the enemy heroes were currently destroying their barracks just behind third tower, which had already fallen earlier. At their arrival they looked up and the man on the flying device and the nature man backed away a little.

Without warning the Phantom Assassin hurled her dagger at the rhino, hitting the beast fully in the chest. She immediately followed her weapon, activating her magic immunity and attacking the rhino with precise and fast hits. The Pugna stayed where he was but began casting one spell after the other, nearly all leaving a feint green glow over the battle. From where he was standing he didn't have to be afraid of the druid attacking him from the back and he could, maybe for the first time, fully concentrate on what was going on in front of him. And the difference was apparent in the results.

Even before Huskar could charge in, the rhino was injured so badly that he retreated, trying to get away from the Assassin. But the woman was merciless in her pursuit of a victim and while she followed the rhino, Huskar decided to cover her back by going for the golem and the gargoyle. He jumped at the golem, who had been about to follow the Assassin, but switched his focus onto him now. The gargoyle seemed undecided for a second but went for Huskar as well. Together those two did a lot of damage and Huskar wasn't sure, even with the help from the Pugna and his Armlet, if he was strong enough. When the falling bombs started around them, he immediately turned away and tried to get out of the circle that marked the place where the bombs would hit.

It was close and Huskar retreated into the safe zone to regenerate before going into battle again. He didn't really want to leave the other two alone there but he was of no use in the state he was in. Fully healed he could charge in again and so he waited impatiently for the power of the safe zone to heal him.

Just when he rounded the heart he saw Mortred, heavily injured, being followed by three enemy heroes. She must have waited just for this opportunity because she directly jumped at his side, away from the enemies. Huskar snarled at them and lowered his body to leap at the nearest one, the golem. The golem, the gargoyle and the druid were already injured and Huskar was optimistic to get at least one of them and survive long enough for the Assassin to kill the remaining two. He activated the Armlet of Mordiggian while he was in the air and hit the back of the already retreating golem. He turned towards Huskar, though, and the others, now joined by the man on the flying device, started to attack him as well. They even had still enough mana to cast a few of their spells. But they had all forgotten about the Pugna, who appeared behind Huskar, doing some spells as well and then, because Huskar had turned away from the enemy heroes, he used this item, that could shove someone forward on him to get him out of immediate danger.

Huskar was confused for a second because he definitely hadn't expected to be plucked out of the fight like that, but it must have saved his life.

A dagger flew past him and killed the golem, the blade buried somewhere around the place where a human would have his heart. He should have expected the Phantom Assassin to appear again and should have backed away when he still had the chance to survive. Now the odds were even again, the three of them facing three enemy heroes and since they had the Assassin with them and the enemies were injured, Huskar didn't doubt that they would kill all three. And though he was injured as well, he started to attack them again while Mortred ran past him in a dark blur. It didn't take long, but in the end the nature man was able to get away. The Pugna didn't have any more of this dust to make him visible when he used his invisibility. And since he could teleport away, they didn't search for him. Instead they saved their last building at the entrance of the town and killed the enemy soldiers.

When they started to follow the road in the direction of the enemy town, the Phantom Assassin eyed him up. "You should regenerate fully before we go up there. You look a little… ruffled."

Maybe she was right, but this could well be their last offensive. He would definitely be in the enemy town when their heart fell. He could get back a little of his health by attacking the enemy soldiers, since he had life steal from his Helm of Dominator.

"It's okay, let's keep going."