Doomed Guard

As the Doomguard prepares its attack, Michael Blinks forwards and stabs Derflinger into the unarmoured part of its wrist, causing its sword to fly out in a random direction, accidentally killing two groups of imps as a result.

Michael pulls Deflinger out but is forced to punch out at the huge clawed fist heading his way, he manages to throw Derflinger directly upwards as he was blown away from the attack, his body literally tumbling through three imps and a beast-like demon before finally halting.

Luckily, the Doomguard is unable to follow as Darth appears from a shadow in the crook of its neck, grabbing Derflinger and bringing it down, stabbing the blade into its vital arteries.

"AAARRGHHKK!" the Doomguard screams out as its blood sprays out in a similar manner to a firehose. It clutches its throat but drops to a knee when Darth pulls the blade free, unblocking the wound.

Michael tries to get up from where he'd landed but grimaces as his leg folds as he tries to stand on it. Both bones in it were completely shattered. Gritting his teeth, he bites into his hand and casts [Dark Pact] while downing a Health potion.

Before the spell goes off an imp appears behind him and attempts to claw his neck to shred, only for a large spike of ice to imbed itself into the creature's head, courtesy of Umnii.

*SKOOOSH!*

Dark Pact explodes outwards, turning any nearby demons into a meaty soup. Once done, Michael steps out of the black mist and grabs the offered Derflinger from Darth. "Keep focussing on the spell casters." he says, tossing his ebony dagger to the shadow Familiar which vanishes to perform a massacre of its own.

"Michael! We must go! The golems will not last!" Irarus shouts as he fights. Michael looks around and sees what the Draenei means, the demons had circled the golems and were having them each chase a single imp while the others blasted them with spells.

Despite how powerful the golems were, they lacked the intelligence to avoid such tactics, and would only last a few more minutes under the bombardment. Even worse, the group was only halfway to the library, meaning they'd be completely surrounded once their distractions fell.

"LET'S GO!" Michael shouts, rejoining the groups and continuing to cleave a path with renewed vigour, blasting Laguna Blades willy nilly while constantly sucking on vials of mana potions to keep himself topped up.

"We won't last!" Umnii anxiously says while being barely able to hold up her staff, a large claw mark on her arm allowing blue blood to drip from it.

"WE CAN MAKE IT!" Iraru bellows, unwilling to let them fail when they were so close.

Lyham bites his tongue to hold back his own thoughts, his spear half-melted and completely covered in green demon blood and his arms almost entirely covered in heavy burns.

The group is only two hundred meters away from the library when the golems finally fall, each exploding into green flames as their magic gives out.

"W-we're doomed!" Leyham screams, dropping to a knee as all the demons turn to face the group.

"NO! KEEP FIGHTING!" Irarus roars, raising his war hammer and causing golden light to explode outwards, burning any nearby demons while healing the group's wounds. This doesn't help Leyham recover his courage however, the Draenei is unable to push himself from the floor as imps charge him.

Blue blood flies into the air as the unfortunate Draenei is torn to pieces. The demons devour him as he screams out in horrifying agony. Umnii covers her mouth in shock, forcing Michael and Irarus to fend off the demons attempting to do the same to her. One demon even charges them with Lyham's own spear...

*CRAAASH!*

Fortunately, it didn't seem like the group was entirely alone. The shudder from the direction of the library has everyone turn to face it, allowing them to see the large robotic-looking golems beginning to engage the demons.

The constructs didn't look to have people inside them, despite how agile and human their movements were. They were large armoured figures with white and gold colouring that accented the large blue gems embedded into them. Each arm was like tower shields, their bodies surrounded by a magical barrier that seemingly prevented any spells from actually harming them.

"THE VIGILANTS! IT'S THE VIGILANTS!" Khaam shouts in relief as the reinforcements tear through the demon army like emotionless super soldiers.

"GO! GO! GO!" Irarus shouts as he throws Umnii over his shoulder and charges towards the Library, the distraction proving enough to allow the group some reprieve. Michael keeps slashing his way through. The demon's claws, teeth, and blades aren't able to breach his ebony scale mail, but that doesn't stop the bruises forming under it.

Fortunately, after a mad dash for the doors, the group sprints past the Vigilant robot-things and up the stairs leading to the restricted parts of the library. Most of the lower floors had already been terribly damaged, with the stone books shelves all being half-melted, and their contents burned. But the higher they got up the structure, the better things looked.

Soon they reached the top floor, but Michael was randomly snatched from the group by another Vigilant, the robot holding him tightly as its lifeless mask looks him over...

"Wait stop! Michael's fine! He's not one of them!" Umnii exclaims.

The Vigilant doesn't even glance at her, instead just continuing to stare, contemplating if it should just crush Michael.

"Let him down! He's no threat to us!" a woman orders from a nearby doorway where a pale blue-skinned Draenei walks out dressed in tame yet colourful robes. Her glowing blue eyes went over the group before resting on Michael.

The Vigilant places him on the floor and walks off, down the stairs to patrol the lower sections and remove any intruding demons.

"Ennura?" Umnii asks, her voice sounding hopeful.