Ascending three levels using stairs differed greatly from climbing the thing.

Yes, he had 24 levels in Rock Climbing — and every inch up, he felt like he was gaining valuable experience. But he had underestimated how hard this was going to be.

For one thing, he had already climbed today, and those muscles were fatigued. For another, it was dark. No one put lights on the outside walls to keep dragons from blundering into it.

Arthur climbed upward, bit by bit.

New Skill Level: Rock Climbing (Adrenaline Activities Class)

Level 25

New Skill Level: Rock Climbing (Adrenaline Activities Class)

Level 26

Each new skill level provided a slight boost, and a bit of hard earned wisdom. But the wind grew fiercer the higher he went, and it chilled him right through. By the time he neared the fifth level, he could barely feel the tips of his fingers.

Finally, with the last of his strength, he made one final push to a window on the fifth floor. It was small and round, barely large enough to fit his shoulders.

It didn’t matter, anyway.

He nearly yelled aloud in frustration when he found no latch or anything. Didn’t these people open their windows to let in air? Apparently not, as this window seemed to be glued in place.

The next moment he realized he was being an idiot. Accessing his Phase In, Phase Out card, he simply moved through the wall.

He landed on his back in a dimly lit room. Arthur lay like that for a moment, catching his breath and listening carefully in the gloom.

There were no sounds of breathing or snoring. Thankfully, no outcries to his sudden appearance either. The only light came from around a badly fitted door about two arm-spans away. Slowly, as his eyes became adjusted, he picked out signs of another empty bedroom. He wondered if the person who lived here was sleeping it off a few levels below.

Most importantly, there were no alarms, no sounds of people urgently rushing through the corridors looking for a rogue Legendary. All was quiet.

Sitting up, Arthur checked the Call of the Heart to get directions. The closer he was, the more details he would receive.

He stared at the map in disbelief.

The card now showed itself on the bottom level — actually, one level below the ground. Apparently, this hive had sub-levels. Was it in someone’s heart deck after all? Was he going to have to kill to allow Brixaby to become a Mythic along with him?

But… the little red dot that designated the card was completely unmoving. It seemed to him that if it were in someone’s heart deck that there would be some movement, even if it was shifting back and forth in the same room. There was nothing.

Irritated, he got to his feet and paced back and forth in the cell-like room, watching the red icon with his mind’s eye. It stayed unmoving. Just as static as if someone had placed the card there.

“What’s going on?” he grumbled.

Suddenly, alarm bells rang out. They seemed to come from every direction, vibrating off the walls and echoing around and around.

Arthur whirled to the door. His first thought was that the man he’d last run into had reported meeting an unknown Legendary after all.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

But… no. After his first flash of panic, he realized he knew the tone of those bells. They were the same in Wolf Moon. This alarm wasn’t about him.

This was a call to muster for an eruption.

Arthur went to the door and cracked it open in time to see Blood Moon hive riders staggering out of their own bedrooms.

For a moment, he thought they were hung over as well. But when one woman turned in his direction, he saw she had the same hollow-cheeked look as the man before. Her skin had a waxy color, and her dull gray hair was thin, as if she were losing patches. Her movements were not dazed and stumbling, but stiff as if her joints were protesting.

Everyone else who came into the hallway was the same. Sick and grim, with not an ounce of extra fat.

Arthur ducked back into his room, not wanting to be caught spying. That was when he found there was no lock on the door.

Were these people not given basic privacy?

Curious about how the rest of the hive managed themselves, he went to the round window to look out. It wasn’t easy as the glass was thick and cheap, which warped the light. But he could see that the entire crater complex was now as bright as if he were looking down at noonday, though there were no visible light sources anywhere.

It starkly highlighted the differences in how the hives approached eruption muster.

At Wolf Moon, some dragon riders formed into loosely organized wings. Specifically, the Lobos who handled the civilian rescues. But aside from classes of young dragons who were in training and the retinues, which were directly overseen by the Legendaries, and occasional groups of friends or like-minded individuals who had complimentary cards… Wolf Moon fought scourglings in solos and pairs. All of whom would race to the portal the moment their riders were ready.

The kindest would say it was to stem the flow of the earliest eruption scourgelings. Sometimes an emergency call to the hives didn’t go out until the eruption had been in progress for some time, and stemming the first lines of scourglings would save the most people.

The truth was, the earliest scourglings were some of the easiest to kill. They had already been battling people defending their homes, had yet to establish a foothold, and for some reason seemed to be the weakest of the scourgling waves. That made them an excellent source of card shards.

But Arthur couldn’t spot any portals above. Nor was anyone racing through the sky to reach one that might be out of his field of view.

Instead, every single dragon and their riders were gathered in separate, well-organized groups. They were spaced with precision to give each dragon proper clearance to leap into the sky. He didn’t see a solo dragon or rider in sight.

At this distance, he could only guess which dragons were of Common rank. None of them were acting sickly, not like the riders. Was he in some sort of quarantine level?

But now that he was looking closely, he saw that the dragons were unusual in their own way. They had a strange, predatory look about them. Several weaved their heads back and forth in a snake-like fashion, flared their wings, and bit at one another when they thought their neighbor stood too close.

From the rider’s body language, no one thought this was strange.

Back in the free hives, dragons were more or less treated like people. Many had even picked up crafts and had respectable careers.

Arthur had let himself forget that in his kingdom, the dragons were taken care of, coddled, but treated more like intelligent animals and not people. He had never seen so many be vicious and animalistic to one another.

The ringing alarm bells suddenly cut off, but in its place, Arthur heard the slamming of doors back in the corridor.

Arthur went to the door to peek out. Guards decked out in the scarlet of Blood Moon Hive were on this level.

As Arthur watched through his cracked door, one opened up a bedroom entryway that was at the end of the tunnel, and a Common rider was pulled out. It looked like the man could barely stand. He just stood there, swaying, as he was berated for dereliction of duty.

He was pushed down the hall, even though he wore only a simple shirt and sleeping shorts and was in no way ready for battle. Then the cluster of guards headed to the next door down the tunnel.

They weren’t far away. There was nowhere to hide in this small room. Arthur had little choice.

He went back to the window, and, activating his Phase In, Phase Out, slid through the wall. He tried to judge carefully to make sure he did not appear back out in open air, but the wall of blackness on the other side startled him. He misjudged slightly. The moment he phased back into existence, he started to fall. Twisting around, he blindly caught himself on the window ledge.

He wasn’t prepared for the absolute blackness all around him. He couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. It was as if all light—moonlight, starlight, maybe even torchlights from outside—had been collected and brought to the ground. That must have been how they lit everything up.

The only thing he could see was the ground. How was he to climb up or down?

Arthur was washed over by sudden vertigo. He closed his eyes, teeth chattering from the wind. He would have to climb by feel, but his cooling fingers already felt numbed… if he fell, would he even know it until he reached the lit up ground?

Ah, there you are.

That was Brixaby’s voice, right in his head.

“Brix?” His voice came out as a squeak. He looked around wildly, more freaked out than he wanted to let on. But he couldn’t see anything. Not even a shape in the night. Brixaby had to be within line of sight or know exactly where someone was in order to speak into their mind. But how could he see?

The buzz of dragon wings was briefly above him, passing over, then arcing down.

“Drop,” Brixaby commanded.

Arthur shut his eyes and let go of the windowsill.