Xavier landed on the ground in a crouch, the dead Infected Stag nearby, the dark oozing substance still flooding out of it, crawling across the ground toward him with a life of its own. It wasn’t crawling very fast, but Xavier found he had to take a few steps backward lest it reach him.

He didn’t want more of whatever that was trying to infect him.

He tried to use Identify on the substance, but his skill simply wasn’t strong enough.

I really need to do something about that.

The instant the stuff had seeped into his skin, he’d felt an influence pushing at his mind. Xavier resisted the influence. He had tremendous mental fortitude given how many attributes he’d sunk into Willpower to help strengthen his Willpower Infusion spell.

Still, whatever this force was, it was insidious. He could feel it breaking down whatever defences he had built up.

This feels like a boss all by itself…

He looked up at the Dark Mountains, with its trees and other flora completely devoid of colour, even the leaves a dull grey or black…

That’s when things became clear—the whole of the Dark Mountains had been infected by whatever this was.

That beast—the Infected Stag—had been Level 210. The beasts in this place, even those around that level, had been far tougher than this one. He knew his melee attacks were growing in power, but that… it seemed almost like its head was softer, more pliable…

Like it wanted to burst—wanted to spread.

That can’t be good.

Xavier had received a few ranks during the fight. He split his mind, dedicating one part to look at those, while the other part fought against the mental attack.

And, looking at his skin, seeing the dark marks the oozing substance had left, and feeling the stinging pain it caused, he noticed his health was starting to slowly tick down.

Your health is at 99%.

It’s not going down fast… not yet.

He had gained ten ranks in his new spell, Hover Dodge, bringing it to Rank 11. Not a tremendous feat, considering it had only been Rank 1. He’d also gained a single rank in Evasion. He hadn’t gained a rank in Heavy Telekinesis or Physical Damage, however.

Maybe this beast wasn’t powerful enough to warrant that…

At the rate his health was dipping, Xavier had enough health potions to cover the damage he was taking. At least for now, if it didn’t speed up…

It wasn’t a health potion that he summoned to his hand, however. It was a Cure Affliction Potion. He didn’t have many of these—maybe ten. He’d never felt like he’d had a use for them. Still, Siobhan had insisted he stock them into his Storage Ring.

It had been easier to simply do it, rather than argue.

He ripped the cork off with his teeth and downed the potion. It tasted strange. Like… toffee? The purple substance slid down his throat and gave him a warm feeling in his stomach.

The mental intrusion, however, didn’t stop, and now a pain was starting to blossom inside his head. The mark on his hand where the oozing substance had seeped into his skin hadn’t disappeared, either.

If anything, it had gotten bigger.

“This is bad,” he muttered.

Your health is at 97%.

He took a step toward the corpse of the Infected Stag, then stopped. Blinked. Looked down. He’d been moving closer to the strange substance on the ground.

Why had Xavier stepped toward the corpse? He didn’t want to touch that thing—didn’t want to put it in his Storage Ring like he might other corpses. He had thought to step toward it, but as he examined his own thoughts he couldn’t figure out where the thought had originated…

The infection.

His mental block wasn’t fully preventing it from influencing his mind.

“This is very bad.”

The black substance continued to make its way toward him, but now Xavier had an urge to move toward it. His mental barrier should have been strong enough to resist, but it was like… like the attack was coming from a thousand different places in his mind.

Each drop of the substance is its own attack…

Which meant if he touched that stuff again, the mental attack would only get stronger—or at least, more numerous.

He could easily block each of the instances of the attack, but when it was coming from so many directions…

He shook his head. Instead of stepping away from the dark substance, he was standing still as it crept toward him. He was fighting the control, but he wasn’t fighting it enough.

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Xavier forced himself to take a step backward. Forced himself to move. But he hadn’t gotten very far. Whatever this thing was, the substance was alive.

Hooves sounded nearby. And there were other noises. The snap of a twig. Wings cutting through the air.

Xavier spotted a beast heading toward him. Another Infected Stag, this one larger than the last.

It’s calling the other beasts it controls toward me.

And they were coming from every direction.

Xavier finally gained control of his body. He took a few swift steps backward, making sure the substance on the ground was far enough away, then he used Time Alteration.

The time bubble came up instantly. The stag he saw barrelling toward him in the distance stopped. Everything around him was frozen. The substance on the ground ceased its crawl toward his feet.

Xavier took a breath. The only problem was, he was still being infected. Whatever was assaulting his mind hadn’t gone anywhere.

He dropped his head forward. Now that there were no threats around him, he shut his eyes and concentrated the full strength of his mind against the foe that was trying to take control of it.

It felt weaker, now. More feeble. He squashed more of the mental attempts even as he found himself coming into stronger control of his mind. When there was only a single intrusion, he stopped fighting it.

It’s weaker…

A moment ago, before throwing up the time bubble, Xavier had theorised this thing was connected. A single entity. How else would it have been able to call on its friends so quickly? Opening his eyes, he spotted another beast, in the air. It was dark, here, but his night vision was strong enough to see that it was some sort of giant owl.

There were other beasts around him, out of sight, heading his way, he was sure.

He breathed deeply, in and out, closed his eyes once more, and wondered if air was trapped in the bubble of time, and if he would run out if he stayed within it long enough—but that wasn’t his main concern.

If the ooze is connected, that means I’ve cut it off from… the rest of itself, when I cast Time Alteration. That’s why it became so much easier to fight.

Xavier wasn’t sure if it was a conscious entity, or some sort of virus, but he had an idea. As he had left one single drop of the ooze within him, pressing up against his mental barrier but unable to push past it, he focused on it.

Xavier wasn’t sure if what he was about to attempt would work, but he figured there was no harm in trying.

He cast Willpower Infusion on the drop of ooze. Instantly, he felt its own mental defence snap up. At first, it seemed as though it would be immeasurably powerful—but it was… weak. Just a drop.

Mist didn’t flow from Xavier’s Midnight Scythe. It didn’t have to. The entity that he was facing was inside of him.

He felt himself take over the drop of ooze. He split his mind, like he sometimes did, and pushed that part of his consciousness into the entity.

Xavier felt his mind try to expand outward. As though there were infinite nodes that he could tap into around here. Infinite nodes that he would be able to access, flow into, control.

But every one of those nodes was cut off, inaccessible.

At least, they would be, until he dropped the Time Alteration spell.

Now that Xavier was no longer fighting the entity, he paced around the circumference of the time bubble, stabbing the butt of his scythe-staff into the ground every few steps, trying to think of what he should do next.

When he had defeated the entity, the black substance on his hand had disappeared. All but a single pinprick—the drop of ooze he was controlling. Though cooldowns didn’t move forward when he froze time, apparently his health still regenerated. It was ticking back up to one hundred percent and would be there soon.

Xavier didn’t think fighting these enemies with melee attacks would be the smartest way to go, even if he was trying to develop his newfound ones. The ooze would simply hit him. But if he were to be controlling the ooze…

I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to. It might be too powerful, once it’s reconnected.

Xavier paused his pacing and looked over at the stag. He could only cast so many spells while inside the bubble.

Spirit Break!

The spell launched out but was stopped short when it reached the bubble.

He turned his attention toward the dark owl swooping down toward him. There was a half-moon dangling in the sky behind it, giving its grey feathers a silver sheen.

Soul Shatter!

Xavier turned back to the Infected Stag he’d just cast Spirit Break on and cast Core Burn onto it for good measure.

Even with Farscope and strong eyesight, he couldn’t see the other enemies nearby.

Though he knew they would be on their way.

If Soul Strike becomes necessary, then I shall use it. But only then.

That was one thing he found interesting about the infected beasts—they still had their souls. He had reaped a soul from the stag the moment it had died, and he wouldn’t have bothered using Soul Shatter on the owl if it didn’t have a soul as well.

Xavier released a long exhale, then he shut his Time Alteration spell down. The bubble around him disappeared. The ooze on the ground continued to crawl forward once more. The larger Infected Stag headed his way in leaping bounds. The owl swooped down. And other noises could be heard—that strange, strangled gurgling, like he’d heard from the first stag.

Only this time it sounded more like a growl.

Infected wolven—coming from behind me.

His spells impacted the enemies. The large Infected Stag staggered as Spirit Break and Core Burn slammed into it. It appeared to lack any mental defences, as Core Burn broke through and started doing its work the instant it hit.

Still, the Infected Stag caught itself and kept running—somehow ignoring the intense pain it must have been in. But that run wasn’t as swift as it had been before. It was faltering, fading fast.

The dark owl’s soul shattered, shards falling to hit the stag and impact other beasts that had made their presence known. The Infected Stag fell limp to the ground. It shuddered, died.

Xavier was impressed by the large area the Soul Shatter spell impacted, but it hadn’t been enough to take down the owl.

And more beasts were coming. He didn’t know how many.

Felicia could have warned me about this! This isn’t even a part of a Hunt Quest!

She must have known creatures like this were here in the Dark Mountains…

It was now or never. He had to act. He might be able to kill these things, but not fast enough.

Once again, Xavier leapt. Though he was surrounded, only a single one of those attackers was airborne. While in his leap, the owl shifted direction and came for him. Xavier would use Hover Dodge—for the spell’s cooldown was short—but even as he was moving through the air, the part of his mind controlling the drop of ooze stretched itself.

Now that the time bubble had dropped, the drop of ooze connected back to its brethren—or other parts of itself. Xavier hadn’t decided exactly how it worked. Some sort of networked, hivemind consciousness, he supposed. Perhaps each drop of ooze was that of another neuron firing in some giant dark brain.

Xavier felt his awareness expand. The larger part of the strange, dark entity did not fight his control—it did not see his control, for he had come at it from within.

Now who’s insidious.

Xavier could suddenly see from dozens, hundreds, thousands of perspectives at once. He could feel that his control over the entity was weak, tenuous. If it discovered him, it could shrug off his control in an instant for all he knew.

But his control kept spreading and spreading. He could feel it—soon, he would be able to influence the dark entity.

Soon, he would be the one in control of these infected beasts.

That was when his mind zeroed in on something. A woman, surrounded by dark beasts. Dozens of them, half of them dead around her. The dark, oozing substance crawled across her pale skin, reaching for her eyes, her mouth, her nose. There was no sign of her party, for she was alone.

The woman cried out in pain.

Another Denizen, soloing the floor.

It was the one he’d been looking for, and if he didn’t do something fast, she was going to die.