My mouth was dry as I hit the ground, pacing slowly down the road with my trident in hand. I made each motion deliberately slow in an attempt to conceal my speed.

This must be the warlord. Carlton.

Fuck, I did not not want to duel this guy.

Byron had tried to calculate it at one point. Our best guess was that Carlton had controlled fifteen Points Siphons for about nine days. If he’d taken all the points they gave, he could have over 2 million Points, which would give him… fourteen, maybe fifteen abilities. Of course, we knew he’d shared the points with lieutenants, and with each ability costing about double what the previous one did, there were some pretty serious diminishing returns. But even if he’d only kept a quarter of the points to himself, he’d still have thirteen abilities.

Six more than me.

His synergy shouldn’t be overwhelming, I told myself. We’d spoken with locals, and we knew some of his abilities and… well, if this had been a game, I would have said he had a “PvP build.” We knew he had an ability to increase gravity in an area, which made it hard to aim missile attacks at him from afar, Healing Touch, a pool of darkness, and another that restrained a person. He also had the ability to make sonic attacks and project sound, probably as a direct counter to one of the opposing faction leaders who’d taken a Biological Augment for enhanced hearing. Someone on his side had an illusion ability, but we hadn’t been sure that it was him. Infrared vision made me think it was, though - the “him” we saw didn’t have any heat to it, and there was a spot to his left where no one was visible that glowed with human body heat.

As a toolset, Carlton's abilities worked well together, but I doubted they synergized in the alien system. Even better, several of his abilities - the pool of darkness and the illusion ability in particular - were directly countered by my infrared vision.

He still had seven or eight abilities we weren’t certain of: as many as I had total. I would never have chosen to fight him, but I couldn’t let him kill Kurt.

Carlton was glaring at me, but the mist had started ebbing away. He released Kurt, who quickly retreated to put his back against the wall of a nearby building. I wasn’t sure why he wasn’t going back to the truck, but I didn’t want to display my worry by asking about it.

“‘Not worth his time.’ More like he hopes you’ll tire me out! Hah. As if. You want to die? No problem for me.”

Even as his illusory double spoke, the heat spot I assumed was Carlton began moving toward me. I waited until he got close and lunged, my trident aimed at his center of mass.

A Force Shield appeared. It shattered under my blow, but stole the energy from my strike. A grunt let me know that I’d hit, but the weapon slid to the side, skating off rather than piercing.

Carlton quickly retreated, putting space between us. I turned to face him - he knew I could see him now - but advanced cautiously, not rushing after him.

“Hah! Is that how Carlton wins his fights? Gas and invisible sneak attacks? He’s probably gonna need to call in help if you can see him, Vince! Pathetic.” Kurt catcalled from his spot near the wall.

Ah. That was why he stayed.

I felt a burst of gratitude. Fighting Carlton would be rough enough, but fighting him and his minions would go from “terrifying” to “impossible.” Kurt’s mockery ensured that he couldn’t call them in without looking weak.

“You understand nothing.”

The words were too loud for a human to have said them. They echoed from every direction, reverberating like something from a movie. As he spoke, I was plunged into darkness.

It was clearly meant to intimidate, but if anything, the words had the opposite effect on me.

That’s one more ability I know about. One more surprise he can’t kill me with.

His Force Shield had been stronger than Davi’s… but I’d still broken it. It was powerful. Not unbeatable.

The glow of his body heat was visible through the darkness, but nothing else. The air tasted funny.

The pink cloud. I need to get out of here.

Something at shin height tripped me as I sprinted toward the edge, but I turned the fall into a roll.

The pavement was clear a second ago. Another Force Shield? Did he put them everywhere? Can he see me?

I got back to my feet, but only momentarily. The moment I emerged from the darkness, I was hit by an eardrum-shattering blast of sound. I lost my balance, and my trident too as it caught against the ground and was torn from my grip.

Rolling onto my back was instinctual, as was bringing up an arm to block when I saw something moving toward me. A blade bit deeply into my arm, only stopping when it rammed the side of my reinforced bones.

The shock of pain made me start thinking again.

Gotta stop breathing this poison. Gotta get my ears back in shape.

But his blade’s in my arm: he’s close.

I yanked my arm aside and threw myself at the place I knew he had to be. My shoulder rammed his legs, and then he was on the ground with me. He dropped his sword as he fell, and the weapon became visible as it clattered away.

I used a Healing Touch on myself and felt my thoughts clear.

What the hell, Vince? Grappling someone with maybe twice as many abilities as you?

It wasn’t my smartest move, but… somehow… it seemed to be working.

I’m… stronger?

I wasn’t the only one to realize that I had the upper hand in a wrestling match. I went for a chokehold and had almost succeeded when another blast of sound hit me, breaking my recently-repaired eardrums once again. While I was wincing in pain, he headbutted me with a ridiculous amount of force, flinging me backward.

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Ability-boosted. Powerful Blow?

When I hit the ground, he used yet another ability - the same one he’d used on Kurt - locking my limbs in place.

Or trying to.

I could feel the ability around me, pushing on me from every side, but it wasn’t the inviolable clear casing the aliens used to immobilize us. This was just… force.

A lot of force, but still force.

I had plenty of force of my own.

It slowed me down, but I could still move, healing myself once more and rising to my feet, reclaiming my trident as I did.

The sword blurred as Carlton lifted it from the ground. Infrared vision let me tell where he was, but I couldn’t make out his features. I still knew when he turned back to me because he froze upon seeing me standing. “No.”

“Yes,” I said. “We’re not a group you can push around. Still sure you don’t want to let us go?”

He stayed frozen for a moment, seeming to consider my suggestion.

For a minute, I thought he was going to go for it. But then he lifted an arm toward me and spoke two words: “Chosen World.”

Instantly, the street, Carlton, Frank, my friends, and all the bystanders were wiped away. Instead I was… underwater? And upside down? My surroundings were perfectly silent, all smells vanished, and my heat vision showed nothing.

Nothing at all.

I froze for the barest moment, then realized my mistake. All his abilities seemed to be about setting his opponent up for sneak attacks. He could charge me straight on, but he won’t. With where he was, with his speed… he should be coming for my back… Now!

I whirled, and this time no Force Shield slowed my trident. The tines sunk into his side as his sword pierced my shoulder. The impact made me gasp, and I inhaled some water. Instinctively, I tried to cough it back up but… something was off.

As I was processing this, I was already moving, pulling myself inside the reach of his sword.

The barbed tips of the trident would have done a lot of damage if I’d yanked it back out, but what I needed more than anything was to know where this fucker was.

Weapons were no good if I stayed too close for them to matter, and that was something I needed to do anyway.

My senses are lying to me. I was certain of it. No way he could move me to another world that fast if even the aliens can’t do it instantly. And there’s no way he could create this much water. He has a lot of abilities, but none of them are that strong. It’s not real.

I forced myself to take a deep breath as I grabbed the collar of his jacket with one hand. I still couldn’t see him, but now I knew where he was. Breathing water felt terrible, and made me want to cough, but I could tell my body wasn't acting short of oxygen.

I’ve got you now, fucker, I thought. I punched up, and was gratified to feel my knuckles sink into his windpipe. I might not be able to see him, but that hardly mattered at this range.

He used his restraint ability on me. This slowed down my movements, so I didn’t try for another punch. Instead, I moved in even closer, wrapping my arms and legs around his torso as I pulled a dagger from a sheath at my waist.

He should have dropped his sword immediately, but he didn’t, awkwardly slashing and slicing at the backs of my ass and legs: painful, but not life-threatening. Even with Powerful Blow enhancing his attacks, I was sure I was doing more damage as I methodically shoved my dagger into his back.

I could heal myself, and reports had told me he could as well… but I had hardly used abilities, and I was inflicting lethal wound after lethal wound while he was doing superficial damage.

The poison cloud he conjured up was the biggest problem. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it. Even with Healing Touch, I was getting woozy and ill… but he was slowing down too, either from ability overuse, blood loss, or lack of oxygen.

He can’t last much longer, I thought. Even if he isn’t being bothered by his own poison, I’ve hit him with over a dozen lethal attacks.

As the desperate thought echoed through my mind, the water around us vanished. Gravity reasserted itself: I no longer felt like I was upside down. Most importantly, I could finally see him, slumped over in my arms.

The crowd on the outskirts of the street could see it too. I heard people cheering Carlton’s name and yelling “get him!” as if he was still alive.

Illusion, I thought dully. One more trick.

I let him fall, the circlet coming loose from his head and rolling away as he hit the ground. The body had felt real. Seemed real.

Gotta be ready for an attack, I thought.

I stood with my knife out. I should have picked up my trident, but I was worried I’d show my unsteadiness if I moved.

Seconds ticked by, and the cloud of poison around me faded. The cheers of the crowd began to peter out as no sneak attack emerged. The tenor of the shouts started to get concerned. Disbelieving.

“No way. He used his specialty!”

“Stop showboating, chief! Finish him!”

Did I really win? Hope so. I don’t… have much left in me. It’s hard… to think. What now? I don’t know. I can’t fight them all. Even if I was fresh, I couldn’t.

Fortunately, I wasn’t alone.

Kurt walked over from where he’d been leaning up against a building. He bent down to pick up the metallic circle that had fallen off Carlton’s head, turning it over in his hands. “What the hell is this? It looks like a ruler crown, but I can touch it? Did he fake earning one? Seems like he faked everything… including how strong he was.”

One of the bystanders snapped back with anger that slowly faded as they spoke. “No! It’s real. He… Oh, shit. Oh, shit. He’s really dead!”

“Yeah, whatever. Your leader’s dead, and you haven’t even seen ours. Your king was offed by a pawn,” Kurt said. He turned his back to the crowd disdainfully and passed me the crown he’d picked up. “Can you believe this? Weird thing to do.”

I sneezed as a small puddle of grime forced its way out of my sinuses. Suddenly my thinking was clearer. Cleanse, I realized. Kurt Cleansed me. I was healing the damage, but the poison was still in there.

Kurt grabbed my trident and clapped his other hand around my shoulders. It probably looked to the observers like he was resting his arm on me, but alien-enhanced strength made a lot of impossible things possible. Supporting someone’s weight even with a truly awkward grip? Even John could carry me around easily. It wasn’t hard for Kurt to take the burden of most of my weight, leaving me only the job of putting one foot in front of another.

He glared at the people around us. “We never wanted to fight, but if anyone else wants to throw down, they can go ahead and step up. If not? You’ve got until we get back in the truck to get the hell out of our way.”

John and Byron reached down to pull us inside. I felt more healing course through my body as John’s fingers closed on mine, fixing problems I’d been too tired to address.

Davi hit the gas and Frank rolled forward.

The people surrounding us parted.