“Tiberius, howl!” Theo yelled, readying his staff.

Beside him, Tiberius crouched and bared his teeth, sucking in a deep breath. Then, as he opened his mouth, all the sound in the room seemed to vanish, replaced by his howl. It shook across the room in a visible cone, ripples of air that struck the approaching finfolk. Some flew backwards, struck by a wall of force. Others covered their ears — well, whatever passed for fish ears — and dropped their weapons.

Theo moved quickly. He summoned mana to his staff, sending a spray of thorns in a wide cone. The thorns struck several of the remaining finfolk, piercing flesh. One dropped from the poison — others appeared sluggish, but kept limping towards him. Still others seemed totally unaffected. They charged him, spears and scimitars flashing. He parried two blows with his staff, then swept the legs out from one of the attackers. Tiberius lept on him, tearing out his throat.

You have defeated: Eel Finfolk (Lesser). You have absorbed some of this creature’s universal power.

You did not gain enough experience from this battle to activate the Path of Evolution ability.

Huh. Must be because I shared it with Tiberius? He thought. Do the kills compound? Or am I going to need to solo my opponents in order to get their abilities?

He pushed the thought away as another finfolk charged. This one had an eel’s head as well, moving eerily on its long neck. He stabbed at the creature’s head with the butt of his staff, but its neck snaked away, causing Theo to lose his balance. The eel finfolk slashed at his arm with a dagger, sending hot blood spraying across the stone. He yelped, then struggled to right his staff, but the finfolk had already lifted its dagger to strike.

A flaming arrow passed through the eel’s head, leaving a pen-sized hole in its forehead. Greenish-black blood dripped down its face like tears, and it looked confused for a moment before collapsing, twitching, on the ground.

“Thank you Alice,” Theo grumbled.

Alice appeared beside him, hair still sticking out at odd angles from the electrocution. “This isn’t a competition, but if it were, I’d be winning,” she said.

Theo frowned. He wasn’t ready to make a game of it just yet. But then again, he supposed that’s what it was supposed to be: just a game. Should he embrace it? Or keep mourning everything he killed? What was real, anyway?

He didn’t have time to consider these questions, because something bright blue flashed at the edges of his vision.

“Move!” He shouted, and tackled Alice to the side. But he couldn’t outrun lightning. The bolt flashed, and he felt white heat wash over him…

But he was unharmed. He lay on the floor, on top of Alice, and looked up. Blake stood above them, with his mana shield raised. It smoked and cracked, falling away into burnt dust. But the lightning from Kal’ech’s staff stopped in its tracks. Blake stood panting, hands outstretched, sweat beading on his forehead. The beads of it washed away some of the black soot stuck to his face.

Kal’ech screeched again, and more finfolk rose from the depths.

“We need a plan,” Blake said, drawing his sword, “we can’t keep fighting off waves of monsters. We need to take him out.”

“Use your Void spell,” Theo said, “can you hit him from here?”

Blake nodded. “I can try, but it will take me a while to charge it.”

“Alice, Tiberius, and I will guard you. Just don’t miss,” Theo said. He stood, extending a hand to Alice, and they fell into formation around Blake. The finfolk charged again, senseless in their attacks. Theo parried easily, cracking the first one’s skull with his staff. The next fell in a spray of thorns, and a third to Alice’s arrow. She felled two more with knives, and Tiberius finished off the wounded.

You have defeated: Seabass Finfolk (Lesser). You have absorbed some of this creature’s universal power.

You did not gain enough experience from this battle to activate the Path of Evolution ability.

You have defeated: Anglerfish Finfolk (Lesser). You have absorbed some of this creature’s universal power.

You did not gain enough experience from this battle to activate the Path of Evolution ability.

Still no Path of Evolution ability, and he had soloed two of them. He wondered if the experience gained from each kill lessened because he was leveling slowly, or because he was killing a lot of the same thing. He guessed it made sense if he gained more skills from the first of a species he’d killed — some kind of novelty bonus. He couldn’t say for certain.

Theo looked up at Kal’ech, still hovering above his coffin. Sarcophagus. Whatever. He saw the runes on the sides of Kal’ech’s staff illuminate, felt the charge of mana in the air like a coming storm.

“Blake, hurry it up, he’s getting ready to go zap-zap!” Alice said, throwing another knife.

Theo turned to her. “Go zap-zap?”

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She scowled. “Shut up, you know what I mean,” she said.

“I’m trying!” Blake said, “I need more time!”

Theo turned around — this time, the black hole between Blake’s hands was the size of a grapefruit, sucking in the air around it and making Blake’s eyes shine with purple light. It seemed that the area around Blake was cloaked in shadow, like all the light in the room was being sucked into the void spell.

Then, grunting, limbs shaking, Blake thrust out his hands, sending the void spell across the room like a comet. It soared about Theo’s head, and he felt it tugging at him, briefly stealing all the air out of the room. It flew up at Kal’ech, warping the light around it.

Theo’s breath caught as the orb soared right at Kal’ech’s chest…

And he extended a hand… and caught it. As easily as a baseball. He examined it, ignoring the light and air that rushed into it. Then he reared his arm back and sent the void orb flying back at them.

“Oh shit,” Theo said, “run!”

He sprinted to the side, diving just as the void orb collided with the stone. A huge crunch echoed through the hall as stone ripped from its foundation, sucked into the orb and ground to dust. Finfolk warriors screamed as they floated towards the orb, unable to resist its power. Two of them disappeared completely into the void, and others were struck by stone shrapnel.

That’s one hell of a powerful spell, Theo thought, and that’s a standard wizard spell? Something felt off to him. The spell seemed… divine, almost. A gift from a divinity, perhaps? He thought of Tezzet, Blake’s patron, who’d gifted him the Contraption Cantrip. From that god — what had he called him — the God of Spontaneous Invention? That didn’t seem the likely source of a void spell, or dimensional magic at all.

He stood, wiping stone dust from his scale armor. His gills burned with it, and he knew he’d need to return to the water soon. Unable to resist any longer, he reached into the nearby pool and splashed some water on his gills, feeling the cool relief of it. It still felt like he was holding his breath, but at least it didn’t burn.

He moved over the rubble, calling out for Blake and Alice. Stone dust hung in the air, obscuring the room. In the distance, he could see Kal’ech’s staff crackling with gathering lightning. He found Blake splayed on the floor, struggling to get to his feet. Alice was already there, helping him, while Tiberius went around finishing off those finfolk wounded in the blast. There was something… more vicious, about his dog since the transformation. Since he’d become a dire wolf, killing and battle seemed like second nature. He didn’t look as Tiberius pounced on another dying finfolk, ripping off its head.

Congratulations! Your animal companion has leveled up. See your companion menu for more details.

The message flashed, but Theo was focused on Blake. He was shivering and pale. “That’s it,” he said, “I used all my mana. Every last drop. I can’t cast. I think it’ll kill me if I try.”

“That’s okay. You did your best. We couldn’t know that he’d be able to redirect the spell,” Theo said.

“That was the best I’ve got, Theo. How can we beat this guy?” Blake asked. He seemed ill, barely slurring the words out. He must have overcast, or something. He reached into his inventory and summoned some potions: stamina and health were all that remained.

“Take these,” he said, handing them to Blake. “We can’t outcast him. He’s clearly got us beat on that front. But if he were indestructible, I’d bet he wouldn’t need a dungeon full of traps, guards, and a freaking pyramid to protect him. I’d bet he’s a glass cannon.”

“What’s that?” Alice asked.

“It’s a video game term,” Blake said, “a caster who’s powerful offensively, but can’t take a hit. A lot of wizards are like that.”

“Can you two distract him?” Theo said, “I bet I can sneak up on him and take him out from behind.”

“I’m the better sneaker,” Alice said, “traditionally speaking.”

“I can swim sneaky,” Theo said, “trust me. Evolution perk.”

Alice looked at him. “Trust given,” she said, “Blake and I will charge the pyramid from the front. You go around back. Blake, you ready?”

Blake wiped his lips, then retracted both empty bottles into his inventory. They swirled away like mist. “As I’ll ever be. Good luck, Theo.”

Another lightning bolt soared across the room and struck the ground nearby, sending a shockwave of dust past them. The rock-dust began to clear, revealing their location to Kal’ech. He opened his mouth to screech again, to summon more warriors from the depths, but Alice launched a burning arrow at him. He blocked it with his staff, but it sliced the scales along his neck, sending black blood down his dark green robes. He raised his staff to send another bolt of lightning.

“Go, Theo! We’ll distract him, Blake said. He drew his sword and charged the pyramid, beginning the long climb up its steps. Alice followed, but a trickle of water began to move across the pyramid, cascading from one step to the next. Soon, each step was a veritable waterfall, and Blake and Alice were fighting against the current. Kal’ech raised a hand, and a wave swept from the top of the pyramid, racing towards the bottom. It crashed into Blake and Alice, sending them tumbling back to the beginning.

Just hold on, Theo thought. He turned to Tiberius and commanded him to join the assault, and Tiberius raced up the pyramid as well, leaping over the next wave as it crashed down. Then Theo ran to the side and dove into the black water of the pool that surrounded the pyramid. The water enveloped him in a cold sheath, and he plunged downward into the blackness, water filling his gills and making it feel like he’d just taken a deep breath.

Above the water, the battle still raged, and he could hear and see flashes of magic and the thunder of crashing waves. He took a moment to adjust to the water, breathing it in and out, and then propelled himself forward with a kick.

Silent Swim Skill Activated!

Swimming (Expert) Skill Activated!

He moved through the water, feeling the stolen skills aid him. He summoned sparks to his hands to illuminate the path before him, having retreated his staff into his inventory in order to use both hands to carve his way through the water. The sparks illuminated deep, black water, filled with ruined stone and the egg sacs of Kal’ech’s finfolk. He could see them stirring within, but not waking; he swam as silently as he could between the sleeping monsters.

Finally, he came to the back of the pyramid, and surfaced only his eyes. He could see the back of Kal’ech’s body, and his sarcophagus. Water had begun to swirl around him in torrents and eddies, and he unleashed another bolt of lightning from his staff. Theo heard Tiberius howl, sending a ripple of pure sonic force at Kal’ech, who turned it aside with a hand.

Theo gripped the dead finfolk’s bone-blade in his hand. He’d taken it off a corpse just before, guessing that a spell or a staff wouldn’t be enough. He didn’t know much about how to use a knife, but there wasn’t much to know, right? A slit throat was a slit throat.

He slid silently from the water and onto the back of the pyramid, knife gripped in his teeth. It tasted gritty and porous, like all bone, and had a distinct fishy flavor. Theo didn’t want to know what — or who — the knife had been used on before.

Water cascaded down the backside of the pyramid as well, but Theo’s silent swim skill helped him move upwards through the water without making a splash. The streams slid off the scale of his armor, making no more noise than the gentle hiss of a stream.

On the other side of the pyramid, he heard the battle rage, heard Blake and Alice shouting. How much longer would they be able to stall?

He reached the top of pyramid, crouched behind the sarcophagus. He was only a few feet away from Kal’ech now, enough to see the slimy black scales on the back of his neck. He took the blade from between his teeth, and as Kal’ech began to charge his staff again, leapt from the ground onto the sarcophagus, launching himself at Kal’echs back.

A single scaled hand caught his throat.