The guards, Thor the blacksmith, Chris, and Amelia were jogging toward the temple. Halfway to the temple, they came across three more imps. Chris sent a holy orb flying at one of them. Only two left.
Together they made quick work of the two remaining imps. "It has been many moons since my hammer saw this much action", Thor said with a grin on his face.
The guards nodded and one of them said, "The village has not been attacked by anything more than the occasional animal since I joined the guard. Ten winters have come and gone since then. I am happy to see that I can still hold my ground."
"It gladdens me to hear you in such high spirits, but we must hurry onward to the temple. I fear it may soon be reduced to rubble.", Amelia says and increases her pace.
The rest of the group increased their speed to match. Soon they were met with a horrendous sight. One side of the temple has a large hole in it and the ground all around is scorched pitch-black. And yet, that is not the worst of it. They can see a giant imp inside the Temple, close to the hole in the wall.
"That demon must be three meters tall, a meter wide and the long whip it is lashing around is on fire! How can we defeat such a monster?", Chris says to the others.
"Chris, Thor, and my valiant guards, please hold off the imps while I muster enough energy to destroy the imp commander. That is our only hope."
The demons were already fighting several priests inside and the priests were having a really bad day. Without help, soon they would all be dead.
Chris thought of a plan and told the others to form a defensive position just outside of the Temple. "I will shoot the Demon with holy orbs to try and weaken it. Be ready for it to come at us once I have fired off the first one."
Chris sent forth a holy orb, but it was blocked by one of the smaller imps. This caused the imp commander to shift his focus onto Chris. The huge demon charged out of the temple but just as it came out through the large hole, it was stabbed by both of the guards wielding spears. Unfortunately, this didn't stop the demon for long. He broke off the spears and started charging at Chris again, with two half spears sticking out of his legs.
In a hurry, Chris sends forth another holy orb and it connects with the demon's face. The demon is knocked back, but shortly after it regains a steady stance. The demon sends his fiery whip flying out at Chris. Luckily, Chris manages to dodge just before it hits him.
More imps are joining the fight. Thor and the four guards are locked in battle. Chris is left on his own against the huge imp commander. He quickly looked back toward Amelia, who is still fully focused on her channeling.
Chris quickly channels power into both of his hands and sends forth two holy orbs. Both orbs hit the demon's left leg and the demon fall to his knee. Right at this moment, a huge holy orb comes flying past Chris and hits the demon right in the chest. The demon explodes on contact with the massive energy.
Amelia managed to slay the imp commander with a huge mass of energy, but Chris had done a good job of giving her the time to do so.
The battle was not quite over yet, but after slaying, the great demon Chris' confidence had renewed. He quickly sends forth two more holy orbs and two imps fall momentarily. This is enough to give Thor and the guards the upper hand and the last three imps are soon defeated as well.
Chris goes to check on Amelia. "Lady Amelia, are you okay?"
"Yes, I am just drained of energy from all my channeling. I will recover with a day's rest, but I wonder how you can still be standing after channeling energy for so many holy orbs?", Amelia answers with a look of astonishment.
Chris looks at her with a big grin on his face, "Actually, I feel more powerful than ever. The magic feels natural, almost intuitive and it gives me the greatest feeling of power that I have ever felt in my entire life."
After checking on each other, Chris and Amelia go to check on Thor, the guards, the priests, and the temple. Thor and the guards somehow managed to come out of this without so much as a scratch. Sure their muscles would ache tomorrow, with the possible exception of Thor that is, but no injuries to speak of.
The priests on the other hand were in much worse condition. Amelia told Chris that there had been 5 priests, 20 initiates or priests in learning, and 8 servants. 5 initiates and 2 servants were already dead and more of them were in bad condition.
The temple had also been damaged, but it wasn't more than it could be fixed in a few weeks and nothing too important had been destroyed.
Now that they had gotten a grasp on the situation they decided to focus their efforts on helping as much as they can. The guards started helping the priests with the injured. Thor immediately began on a temporary repair of the wall. Chris offered to carry Amelia to her room.
Chris gently put Amelia down on her bed and she closed her eyes to get some rest. Her room was a bit larger and nicer than his, but it was still rather spartan. The only thing luxurious about it was the large comfy bed.
Amelia looked so fragile lying there on the bed. A far cry from the fierce woman who had hit and threatened him with a large branch. It felt like ages since then and it had only been a few days. Chris sat on a stool next to her bed and admired her beauty even in this state. Her hair had been tussled during the fighting and was a lot messier than it usually was, but somehow it was even cuter this way.
Amelia opened her eyes and caught Chris staring at her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Chris tried to think of a way out of this embarrassing situation and deflected her question with another that he had thought of earlier in the village. "Everyone else seems to be human around here. Are elves very rare and where is your family?"
Suddenly Amelia's eyes began to fill with tears. She lets a few tears run down her cheeks before she wipes them away. "This day has been very tough for me. You see, my parents died in an attack similar to this one. I only managed to survive because the Goddess saved me."
She gathered her strength and spoke again, "My family has long taken care of the Shrine in the forest and we were the ones who commissioned and oversaw the construction of the Temple as well. Then roughly seventy years ago, when I was still young, the temple was attacked by demons."
She continued, "I do not know if elves are rare, but they seem to be around these parts. My parents always spoke of a distant land with entire elven cities, but I was born here in the temple and have never seen any elves other than my parents."
Chris felt sorry for asking questions that were clearly very tough on her, especially in her current state. "I'm sorry Amelia. I didn't mean to burden you with these questions. I will leave you to rest."
Just as Chris was starting to get up, Amelia takes his arm and says "Please stay with me. Even though we have just met, I feel safe around you."
Chris gives Amelia a warm smile. "Then I will stay."
Once Amelia had drifted off to sleep, Chris looked around for a pillow and some blankets and made himself as comfortable as possible on the floor next to Amelia's bed. Before Chris drifted off to sleep he came to think of what Amelia had said about being young seventy years ago. How old was she really? She looked to be in her twenties.