The clash of metal, the hum of activated runes, the scrape of heavy supply crates being dragged across the ground.
The demon hunters who had just crossed over from reality through the stable passage and had yet to experience battle in Purgatory were still somewhat dazed. But one shout from the veterans was enough to get them moving at once.
Benny walked to the front and sniffed the air.
"The smell of Corroders." He frowned. "And something else... a deeper stench. This way."
Without waiting for a response, he started walking.
Sam made a hand signal, and fifty people flowed like a silent gray stream into the warped landscape beyond the camp.
Dean led the rest of the group, watched them disappear, spat, and grabbed a heavy bone blade that had just been shipped over from the human world. It had been polished from the entire spine of some large Purgatory creature and was twice as thick as his previous one.
He walked to the fortifications around the outpost and tapped the newly embedded rune plate with the tip of his blade.
"Does it light up?" he asked.
The young demon hunter in charge of installation wiped away his sweat. "It'll light up once it's connected to power, but turning it on now would consume too much."
"Turn it on now!" Dean cut him off. "If you wait until you can see the monsters, it'll be too late. All outer runes, thirty percent power, keep them lit. If the energy runs out, I'll take responsibility!"
The order was passed down.
A few minutes later, the holy-light runes atop the outermost ring of fortifications lit up one by one. They were not particularly dazzling, but against Purgatory's eternal dark-red backdrop, they looked like a ring of stubborn, warm campfires.
Some low-level