Snik stepped back and exhaled a shuddering breath. Her petrifying baton had worked, somehow. Their mark, Wip, now lay stiff as a board. Still, she couldn’t rest just yet. Snik had survived all these years by being cautious, and there was no better time for caution than after this.

She tiptoed closer and poked Wip gingerly with her baton again. The studs on Wip’s collar flickered, but other than that, his body was rock solid. Snik bolted back, keeping a good twenty metres between herself and Wip. And for good reason.

This part of the fourth floor was no longer jungle, but a patch of black stone. Monster corpses littered the clearing. They were so busted up that Snik was sure their crystals were destroyed. Hunks of twisted and demented aftos were scattered around Wip. Over fifty metres away, once the clearing faded into sparse jungle, trees were still burning. This wasn’t something a level five could do.

Snik pulled out a whistle from a pocket. She fed some enma into it, then blew. Her message, delivered through timed pauses and pitch fluctuations, and only audible to her recipient, was short yet informative enough to make it clear how anxious she was.

Get here now, you grupp!

After several minutes of pacing and keeping watch over Wip’s petrified body, she finally saw her party emerging from the burnt edge of the undergrowth.

“About bloody time!” she shouted.

Snik knew she should have been quieter so as not to alert any monsters. A fog might have been able to cover her movements against monsters that relied on enma sensing to hunt, such as the lashing trees, but the hooting monkilyxes would come charging whenever they heard or saw something too human. Given the circumstances, though, she felt she had every right to voice her frustrations.

“What in Gul happened here?” Lofer said.

“Looks like a bomb went off,” Saba said.

Ford whistled in awe at the carnage.

“It wasn’t a bomb,” Snik cried. She thrust a finger at Wip. “It was him. He overcharged every single afto he had. There was so much power coming from those aftos that I couldn’t even see out my scanner. If I’d got any closer, I’d have been turned to mush. He needs to be killed. Now!”

Lofer approached her with a lazy grin. “Hey, relax. He’s petrified, right?”

Snik faced the unconscious boy and her scanner passively reacted to the residual oxon, energy emitted from monster cores, coming off him. Dark spots rapidly flickered over and around his body, covering him like a swarm of flies. These indicated the various curses that had planted themselves in his body. Between the chaos on her screen, she could make out spots of deep blue, the tell-tale sign that her baton’s effect was working. By all logic, Wip shouldn’t have even been alive.

“Yeah, he should be out for an hour,” Snik said. “But you still need to shoot him. I’m not going near him until those curses get popped. They’ll probably kill me if he passes them on. And I’m not killing him because all my weapons are close quarters. Who knows what’d happen once those curses are forcefully released? He’ll probably blow up!”

“Hey, it’ll be alright.” Lofer rested his hands on Snik’s arms and pressed his forehead to hers. “Look, we’ll just grab the collar, you’ll quickly break his bind, and we’ll get out of here. Let’s not waste our time trying to break the binds of a dead man.”

He nodded at Ford. The support rolled his eyes and grumbled about always having to do the clean up.

Snik sighed, finally feeling the tension come off her shoulders. She leaned in and let Lofer embrace her. “I told you this was a bad idea. He attracted half the damned floor with those explosions and he still lived. We were lucky I came to check.”

“You worry too much, babe.”

“You’re way too relaxed.” She rested her head against Lofer’s chest.

“You both make me sick,” Saba said. The tank adjusted the shield mounted on her shoulders into a more comfortable position then went to salvage crystals from the nearest intact monster’s corpse.

“If anyone cares,” Ford called out while he kneeled beside Wip’s body, “his aftos are all busted, except for this one. Looks crap, though.” He raised Wip’s arm using a rod to show a blue lump of metal in his petrified hand.

“Nobody cares,” Lofer replied. He pried Snik off him, leaving her longing to be back in his arms. “How much do you think we’ll get for that collar?” Lofer asked.

Snik shrugged. “I’ve got no idea what it does, but I think the Cartel’s got a few good forgers who can nut it out—”

A thunderous crash cut her short. Snik and Lofer whipped around then froze in disbelief.

Spikes made of ice emerged from the floor, rising to the false blue sky like an enormous fern. A trickle of blood ran down one of the spikes. They looked up and there was Ford, impaled through the gut, suspended at least ten metres off the floor.

Electricity ran up the ice spikes, flashing a deep and unnatural crimson. With another resounding boom, the spikes shattered into nothing. Ford’s body crashed to the floor with a sickening thud.

From where the ice had originated, a black cloud shifted in Snik’s scanner. Slowly, the cloud cleared, and Snik’s heart almost stopped.

Their mark, Wip, was standing. His clothes hung off him in tatters. His face and bare chest were plastered with curse-made frost, and it was fading. As it did, Snik could see that it wasn’t just his face that was busted up: hundreds of scars slashed his entire body like a circuit board. Red electricity coursed all over him. Every second or two it built up on his extremities and snapped in the air around him.

Wip wasn’t looking at them, however. He was staring at his own hands. Earlier, he’d carried himself with a quirky, smooth confidence. Now, his movements were jittery, his hands and arms jolting every now and then, like his body didn’t know what to do with its energy and just used it at random.

Lofer, unperturbed, only click his tongue in frustration. “Looks like you were right, babe. That collar must be expensive.”

He made to draw his gun. Snik grabbed at his sleeve. “Wait, let me scan him first.”

On the display of Snik’s scanner, a blood red corona surrounded the boy. She shakily flowed some enma into the device and the display filled with information.

LEVEL [9]

LEVEL [16]

LEVEL [20]

“H-his level is going up,” Snik cried. “It’s going up, Lofer!”

The striker clicked his tongue. “He was probably using some enma technique to hide his level. Don’t matter.” He called out, “Saba, get back into position.”

Off to their side, the tank wasn’t listening. Her eyes were fixed on Ford’s twitching body.

“Please, Lofer!” Snik tugged on her partner’s sleeve. “We need to get out of here.”

“Just relax,” Lofer sighed. “Always gotta be the smart one around here.”

Lofer stepped forward with a grin. Snik clawed for his coat but her hand came up short. Her heart was pounding. She bounced on the spot, her legs begging to flee, but she forced herself to stay. She couldn’t run so long as Lofer was there.

“Alright, you’ve made your point,” Lofer said to Wip. He spoke with an air of sarcasm in his voice that Snik knew for overconfidence. “So, your collar lets you resist the effects of aftos. Explains why you can use so many broken ones.”

“No, that’s not it!” Snik cried.

Lofer raised a hand to silence her. “But look around. You’ve got no more aftos. All those levels are useless. All you’ve got left is your enma and, high level or not, that’s trash for combat. Way too slow.”

Lofer’s hand shifted towards his gun. He was a fast draw and his weapon was high level. Snik couldn’t figure out why he was delaying. Did he seriously think he could get that collar in this situation?

Wip’s eyes met Lofer’s and held for a few endless seconds. Then they shifted to Ford’s twitching body. Blood was pooling around the support. His fingers scraped against the dark stone floor. He was still alive, Snik realised. The thought made her stomach churn.

Lofer came to the same conclusion as Snik. He drew his gun and fired. There was no sound, no light, no sign that he’d fired. However, a new hole had been put into the dying support, right through his skull. Ford stopped twitching. Snik’s eyes darted between Lofer and the support’s dead body. She couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing.

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“Woops,” Lofer said, sarcasm dripping in his voice. “Guess you’ve got nothing left to use, unless you’ve got some trick for unbinding an afto from a dead man in a split second. That stuff sticks real nasty once the soul is gone. Even takes Snik here a full day to unbind one, and she’s one of the best. So, why don’t you hand the collar over and we’ll call it even. You took something of mine,” he gestured at Ford’s body, “and I’ll take something of yours.”

Snik was frozen to the spot, too shocked to move. Sure, Ford wasn’t the first party member they’d killed. For others, it had been justified. They’d been a nuisance, or threatened to sell them out, or were hoarding too much of the loot for themselves. But Ford? He’d been with them since the beginning. She, Ford, and Lofer had been friends since their childhood, when all they had was each other and a sheet of tin to hide under when it rained!

Saba’s reaction was far more explosive. The tank ripped her shield off her back, held it before her, and roared. She charged at Wip, her face twisted with rage.

“Hey, I told you to get back, moron!” Lofer yelled.

Saba wasn’t listening. Her shield ignited. Flames spewed sideways and above her, forming a wall that reached out five, ten, fifteen metres in length. Snik dived back as the flames stretched out for her, barely avoiding them. Saba drew closer and closer to Wip. The flamed threatened to engulf him. However, the boy didn’t move.

Then the entire display of Snik’s scanner flashed crimson. A heart pounding boom rocked the dungeon.

Her display cleared up and she watched Saba fly back through the air, engulfed in red electricity. The tank crashed through several trees in quick succession before coming to a halt, far out of sight. The only reason Snik knew she had survived the landing was because she still registered on the scanner.

LEVEL [28] (122 METRES)

Snik swallowed then turned to the boy. His leg was poised in the air from when he’d kicked her. Electricity crackled and lanced between his bare foot and Saba’s position: enma so dense it caused her scanner’s screen to flash violently. Slowly, as though completing a training drill, Wip lowered his leg, then settled onto the balls of his feet. Snik’s scanner showed a new reading next to Wip:

ENMA SPIKE, LEVEL [87]

To Snik’s horror, a snicker escaped the boy. Wip’s face split into a twisted smile. Then his whole body quivered with laughter. He tipped his head back and let out a series of high-pitched wheezes.

“You know, he really didn’t want to use it,” Wip said. The playful quirk in his voice had been replaced by something too whimsical for the moment. “But you guys wanted so badly to see what my collar does.”

Wip gripped one of his collar’s stray links and tugged on it. The dull glow on the collar’s studs had gone out. Wip bared his half-missing teeth at Lofer. His scarred face was twisted in manic excitement.

“Well, this is it. He turns off the collar, and I get out. You better not regret it!” he sang.

Wip’s crimson eyes flashed. There was madness in those eyes, ecstasy in the face of death. Snik’s breath came rapidly. It felt like the jaws of a mangy beast were poised around her body, and they could snap shut at any moment.

A notification on her scanner brought Snik out of her thoughts.

LEVEL [99+]

“H-He’s—” Snik stuttered. “Lofer, he’s hit the level cap. My scanner can’t pick it up anymore! We need to get out of here.”

“Shut up!” Lofer hissed. “I’m thinking.”

Wip didn’t wait for him. In a blink, he was skidding to a halt in front of Lofer. A rush of air from his wake swept Snik, causing her to stumble back. Lofer was ready for Wip. He flicked his gun and fired. The air rippled in front of its barrel. Wip was launched back by an unseen force and flipped through the air.

“Hit!” Wip shouted.

Realising Wip had absorbed the shot, Lofer fired again and hit him mid-air.

“Hit!”

A third shot landed.

“Hit!”

Then a fourth.

“Hit!”

Lofer was juggling Wip, not offering the boy a chance to land and get his footing.

For a moment, Snik thought they were going to win. However, before the fifth shot fired, Wip twisted. In her scanner, she could see a dark bolt, originating from Lofer’s gun, graze Wip’s shoulder and bounce off. The sixth shot missed entirely and Wip fell to the ground.

He landed on all fours. He looked up at them, his face split with a vicious grin. “Miss.”

Snik pulled out her baton. She knew there was no chance she was going to hit the boy if he moved as fast as before, but she had to do something.

“Hide me!” Lofer growled.

Snik stared at him incredulously. “But I can only use the stealth unit on one person. What am I going to do? I’m the scout!”

“You spent kin! Do it!”

Her hands shaking, Snik ripped out the small box from the inside of her cloak and clipped it onto Lofer’s jacket. It took a few attempts because Lofer kept moving to fire at Wip. Every shot was missing; the boy was weaving side to side as he approached, wearing that twisted smile of his.

Just as Wip was about to close in, Snik secured the stealth device to Lofer’s jacket and pumped her enma into the activation device on her wrist. Lofer vanished, and Snik leapt back. At that same moment, Wip zoomed in and threw a fist where Lofer’s head had been. Iridescent hexagons materialised in the air where Wip grazed the projected barrier of Lofer’s armour.

Red electricity shot out from Wip’s fist. Where he struck, the air exploded. Snik was sent tumbling head over heel by the air pressure alone. Even as she was getting knocked around, she did everything she could to keep pushing enma into the stealth device. She couldn’t let Lofer get hurt.

Snik scraped to a stop. Her whole body was aching. She pried herself up to see Wip dancing around. He was throwing fists as he moved. With each strike came another blast of lightning accompanied by an explosion. Sometimes they’d graze Lofer’s armour and the projected barrier flashed. She hoped it would hold out—Lofer’s armour was strong enough to take a point blank round from level thirty railgun, but even so…

Snik didn’t know what to do. Her scanner had fallen off her head so she couldn’t see Lofer. Her baton had gone missing. She felt naked without them. She was keeping the stealth device working but at this rate, it was only a matter of time.

Then the worst happened. Wip ducked and thrust an arm upward, fingers hooked like claws. Lofer’s amour activated and blocked the attack. But then Wip’s hand burst with electricity and went straight through. Wip’s hand gripped around Lofer’s face.

“Upsy-daisy!” Wip screeched.

With one hand, Wip raised Lofer into the air by his head, then slammed him straight into the ground. The force of the crash sent shockwaves through the dungeon.

Lofer’s projected armour field flickered in one last feeble attempt to protect him, then it died completely. The more sensitive stealth device also failed. Snik’s arm went numb as the feedback sent a curse into her through the wrist device.

Grunting, Snik pushed the sensation aside and focused on the fight. Lofer was visible now. He lay with his head pressed to the stone, bloody, and eyes rolling in their sockets from pain. His gun had scattered behind him.

Wip was crouched over Lofer with one hand pressed to his neck. Now that he’d stopped moving, Snik realised in horror that, aside from the scars, Wip was completely unscathed. She’d figured that at least a few of those shots would have hurt him. It was a level fourteen afto, and most of those hits were clean. It defied all reason! All he had was his enma, and enma alone simply couldn’t deflect blows from a strong afto.

The only explanation was that he was a monster.

Wip’s smile was gone. He stared blankly at Lofer. “Well, I’m bored now.” Then he raised a fist, preparing to land the killing blow.

“No!” Snik cried. She got onto her knees and pressed her head to the floor, showing the highest respect in the old ways. She didn’t think a monster would listen, but there was nothing else she could do. “Please, spare us. We made a mistake. It won’t happen again.”

Snik risked a glance up. To her utter shock, Wip had paused, fist still held high. He slowly turned to face Snik. When Wip’s crimson eyes met hers, Snik held her breath. There was no malice in his eyes, no bloodlust in his smile. He seemed genuinely confused, and that was somehow the most terrifying thing she’d ever seen.

“But that’s boring,” Wip said. Electricity crackled around him.

“Wait! Please!” Snik begged.

Tears stained her eyes. She felt so small, so helpless. Alone. She had to stop it. She couldn’t go back to being that helpless child, huddled under a cardboard box, waiting for someone to save her. She couldn’t.

With single jolting of her soul, Snik tore her connection with all of her aftos: her scanner, her baton, some small defensive charms, and a knife she kept for emergencies. Each of the items she still had on her, she removed them from her body and placed them before her. Snik pressed her head to the floor again. Then she prayed that her words would reach this monster.

“Please, take our money,” she said. “Take our aftos. Take everything. Just don’t kill us. They’re all I have.”

“I’ll kill you!”

Snik looked up to see Saba charging across the dark stone clearing, her armour scratched up and smeared with her own blood. She leapt at Wip and wrapped her arms around him, locking him in a bear hug. With a heave, she lifted Wip off of Lofer.

“Get out of there, Lofer,” Saba bellowed. “I’m going to activate my armour’s spikes. Move if you don’t want to get stabbed.”

Lofer had come to. Lofer shuffled backwards and snatched up his gun from the floor, grunting and heaving from the struggle. He aimed his gun at Wip’s chest. Snik realised in horror that Saba’s heart was right behind the spot where Lofer aimed. Snik didn’t have time cry out. She could only watch as Lofer pulled the trigger.

Red electricity burst from Wip’s chest. Seconds passed, and Snik saw no blood. She let out a sigh. In a way, she was relieved that Wip wasn’t dead.

“What in Gul are you doing?” Saba howled. “That could have killed me.”

“Oh, I like this,” Wip said. He placed his hands on Saba’s vambraces. “Really matches the screaming in my ears.”

Red electricity coursed along the bloodstained armour. With a sickening ssshink, spikes burst out Saba’s back. The tank’s jaw went slack and she let out a strangled gasp. Her grip on Wip loosened and the monstrous boy dropped onto his knees. He was wheezing with laughter.

It took Snik a moment to realise that there was blood staining the spikes. Saba’s blood. Wip had taken control of Saba’s armour and, somehow, he’d used the afto’s spikes against her. That should not have been possible. She was bonded to it. Interfering with and manipulating a bonded afto required an effort akin to moving a mountain! And yet, Snik was certain her eyes weren’t deceiving her.

The tank fell. Her armour clattered against the dark stone. Another one of Snik’s companions were taken from her.

“Snik, do something!” Lofer cried. He fired, but Wip dodged to the side. “Get your baton. Hit him. Stop being so damned useless!”

Her body hurt. Lofer’s words hurt. He’d killed Ford. He’d killed Ford! Her tears wouldn’t stop running. She was alone, scared. She was going to die.

She ran.

She didn’t look back, not when she heard Lofer’s screams, not when she heard a mighty boom that rocked the entire dungeon. She struggled to breath through her sobbing. Her numb arm dangled behind her. She tripped again and again on the undergrowth. Yet she kept running, because it was all she could do. She was alone now.

It had been a long time since she’d prayed to the gods, but in that endless, breathless flight, she prayed. She begged them not to let that monster kill her.

The gods listened.

A vine caught her leg and yanked her into the air. In her desperation, she’d forgot to make a fog so the vines had no trouble finding her. Too late now.

She thrashed and kicked, but then another vine grabbed her arms, then another coiled around her body. She had mere seconds to break them before they’d bind her movements completely. She searched her hip for her knife, only remembering then that she’d abandoned everything she had to that monster. Within seconds, she was bound tight, whimpering, begging the gods to forgive her.

A black-furred creature with eight arms emerged from the jungle. A monkilyx. It stared at her with a creepy, O-shaped mouth.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. She could taste the salt of her own tears. “Please, don’t kill me.”

Of course, it didn’t listen. Monsters don’t fear, or cry, or laugh, or forgive. Monsters kill, because they’re monsters.