Only now that Vol had returned did they begin to reestablish a certain degree of breathing room. They defeated the last of the Ironbane elites, and then began to swat and the pressing throng of infantry around them, buying the space that they needed to re-establish their ranks.
"We're thin towards the back," Vale told them, her sword flaming from Penelope's purple fire. "They've noticed the weakness of the villagers, and they've taken advantage of it."
The mound of villager corpses pointed to that fact rather eloquently. There must have been five hundred of them there, perhaps even more. It was a veritable slaughter. Against the likes of the arrows, those shieldless men and women had stood little chance.
