Before Talia returned, another force came to the Keep, led by King Luther. There were now forces of many species surrounding the keep. Luther made his way up to Layla and Kurt and several men were talking as well.

He had enough men to surround it himself without them. The attack must have happened so suddenly that they weren't prepared enough at the outset.

The King garnered attention from the goblins and Minotaurs around. Them. The rest of the Valentine clan were a bit on edge. This was the first time most of them had ever encountered a goblin or a Minotaur. Working together would be difficult.

King Luther wasn't putting out a look that he was particularly bothered by any of them. He would have been most informed about what Kurt had at his disposal.

"So the situation is you waiting on us?" Luther said.

"Yes," said Kurt, "and may I introduce Princess Layla?" The King nodded towards her.

"I wish it were under better circumstances," said Luther.

"Douglas, why are you here?" Luther said.

"Well Sir Kurt had protected my land and I came to reinforce him to take the gateway. We didn't know who was even alive, and unfortunately, we're still a little in the dark. They may be in the dungeon."

"I saw that sword in the sky and thought it was Theodor."

"It was in two directions," Kurt said. "We are waiting for Talia to return as well."

"You went in there, someone said what did you see?"

Kurt explained what was waiting for them from what he could tell anyway. Around then Harvey started to come running toward them in the distance. With Talia on his back. There were likely more than what he saw as well. Since he only jumped in and then immediately jumped out. And fell in the process.

"What the hell is that?" Luther's shocked face was finally on display. His manner before seemed to always be poised, until you see a towering four-headed monster before you.

"Oh, that's just Harvey."

They all got together to discuss the options now that it seemed everyone was here.

"Buying the gate will be the best, we can repair that quicker," said Luther. "But what do we do after that is the question."

"The way I see it," said Talia, "we have to split them up. We are still ending up bottlenecked at the gate."

"We should be able to lure a few out," said Tom. "Take a small force then feign a retreat."

"I think we can entice them from the inside too," said Kurt. "Harvey and I can make it inside."

"I'm coming too," said Talia, "they are weak toward my swords"

"That's good to hear again," said Luther, as a glowing spear seemingly made out of light materialized at his side. "That means I should lead the first force and pull them back into the trap. We should time it so you move after the initial attack and use the west wall as your entry side. And try not to damage the wall much."

"I think you should bring Maliki with you," said Layla. "He can put a big fire in there in a place that won't destroy everything. He could bring several torches as well. That should help close the gap."

"We want to make sure the courtyard is cleared but we have to keep an eye out for anyone actually inside," said Kurt, "these beings are dangerous, they are not all human-shaped either."

Everyone started to move to their places. Hopefully, the golems weren't that smart. It was likely too as they may just be left by someone, without their personal control the golems should not have much intellect. But they could be violent and rampaging. Luther was taking position near the front gate. He was on a horse and his spear turned into more of a lance. His Calvary was next to him ready to go as well.

"So Harvey grew a bit since I last saw him," said Talia.

"Yeah, a bit."

"Harvey has an idea."

"Ohh and what's that?"

"Harvey makes many Harveys that way they can't figure out which one is coming"

They heard the explosion at the gate where the battle began. After Harvey split into several illusions of himself while they remained on the real one. From the outside, it would look like a dozen hydras were scaling the walls. They had waited a minute before coming hoping to get them paying attention to the gate on the inside.

Harvey was carefully scaling up the walls trying not to leave too many true marks on it. Once at the top, he was able to jump to the courtyard. Other illusions came down or stayed on top of the walls. The courtyard was in disarray.

The shadow creatures were mostly focused on the gate but now they were confused about which direction to attack they were pinched, and it seemed some had been baited to come through the front gate as well.

There were several man-shaped ones with large swords. As well as what looked like a massive praying mantis with a rhinoceros one to round it out. It was still going to be a tough battle for them.

Talia had three swords made of light swirling around her as she dropped down from Harvey's back. She was ready. Her dress was ripped and dirty already from a battle, and her face had sweat beaming off her. Like a battle princess had jumped down to the ground, the light of the swirling sword made her stand out.

"So about those fires?" said Kurt to Maliki.

"I have something special for that, Sir Kurt."

"Special?"

Maliki erupted into flames, his whole body encompassed. The boatman looked more like a fire golem than a physical being. His hours on his long goat head seemed to breathe an intensity. Some of the shadow creatures' bodies started to flicker a bit more and less dark.

Kurt unceremoniously drew his sword. It's not always about the entrance he told himself.

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