“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Jace spun around. Kinfild marched out of the inn, his robes fluttered and his walking stick thudding against the ground.

Jace pointed to the hills, where the shadows had slithered across the land. They had disappeared again. “They were just—”

“Closer,” said Kinfild. “Look closer.”

The beast Jace had seen earlier stopped on a nearby hill. It was a bear with patchy fur and enormous antlers. Strands of tar-soaked velvet hung from the antlers, and shards of bone stuck straight out of one of its legs. It craned its neck upwards and bellowed. That was the same distant noise he had heard moments ago rolled through the Candleshire.

“Darklings,” Kinfild breathed.

Great. Just gr—

Wait.

Jace scrunched his eyebrows. “But you said they would stay in the forest, even at night.” The antlered bear roamed past the first house, followed now by a trio of other hybrid, decaying monsters.

“They always have, up ‘til now.” Kinfild pressed his walking stick down. “Get to safety,” he commanded. “Get back inside.”

“What about you?”

“This is most unusual,” Kinfild stated. “I need to know more. I will deal with one, search for tampering, and then follow you.”

“You—”

“Look carefully,” the Wielder instructed. “Compare its rating to mine and judge the danger for yourself.”

Jace looked closely at the darklings, but he must have been too far away—no glowing tag appeared above its head. He wished he had paid more attention when the beast had ambushed them in the forest, so he could have something to compare with. But it had been an ambush, and he hadn’t thought to check the ram-wolf’s rating.

“I’ll keep my distance,” he said. “But don’t die. I need a guide.”

He sprinted back towards the inn, but rather than disappearing inside or cowering, he took shelter behind one of the supply crates scattered across the garden. If he got Aes for killing darklings, he wasn’t passing up that opportunity. He laid his stolen plasma rifle atop the crate and flicked the safety catch off.

The darklings prowled closer. They encircled Kinfild, the easiest, most obvious target. Their teeth gnashed, and they snarled. Kinfild just watched.

“Jace!” a voice hissed behind him. He glanced over his shoulder. The inn’s door was open, and through the swirling smoke, he spotted Lessa. She asked, “That is your name, right? Jace?”

He looked forward again. The monsters were more important. The bear with antlers led the pack, sniffing and snorting instead of screeching. Jace lined it up in the sights of his rifle and prepared to fire.

“Get inside, Jace,” Lessa whispered.

“But Kinfild—”

“He’s many things, but not suicidal,” she said. “He wouldn’t stay out there if he didn’t think he’d make it back. You, though? I don’t want to clean your guts out of the garden before the end of my last shift here.”

Jace raised his eyebrows, but he kept on target.

Kinfild stretched his walking stick out, and, holding it like a staff, backed away. The darklings didn’t let him.

“Besides, we don’t get visitors often—especially ones that aren’t a crusty old wizard,” Lessa continued, her voice calm. “It’d be a shame if you died right here.”

Jace stared right at the decaying bear. A golden tag appeared above its head. [Level 5 Darkling].

The bear’s demeanor changed on a dime. It dipped its head and growled. Jace didn’t wait to see what would happen when it finally charged. He targeted the beast’s eye and fired. His plasma blast flew almost true, but instead of hitting the eye, it struck the side of the beast’s neck. The bear shrieked and fell to the side.

Lessa tried, “Jace, don’t—”

It was too late. Jace stepped out from behind the crate for a better angle. He fired two more shots as fast as he could—one struck the ground below the beast’s foot, and the other grazed its chest.

It still wasn’t dead. The plasma rifle might have been effective against humans, but these were undead monsters. The bayonet had worked much better before.

“Oh, I better not be thinking of this…” he muttered.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

He was thinking of it. He needed that Aes bounty. And if he didn’t do anything, Kinfild, his only guide to this world, was at risk. He didn’t know how exactly the ratings stacked up against each other, and he didn’t want to find out.

He charged out of cover, leading with the bayonet. He bowled into the bear, driving the vibrating bayonet into its flank. The beast writhed and swiped at him with its enormous claws. Jace rolled away just in time. It turned on him immediately. Its jaws snapped, teeth brushing just past his forehead.

Before the bear could gore him with its antlers, Kinfild struck it in the side of its head with his walking stick, diverting its jaws.

“Jace Baldwin!” Kinfild scolded. “I told you to—”

The bear didn’t give them another moment to argue. It swiped at them. Jace impaled its paw with his bayonet. As it screeched, he ripped his weapon free. A second later, he drove it into the bear’s chest and fired one last shot.

The bear collapsed. It decayed into black dust and ash. The seed in Jace’s gut heated up, and more golden swirled into him—flowing into his chest then down into his core.

There was no time to use the Reader to check what had changed, if anything. He stepped back and held his rifle like a spear. The three other beasts circled. They were all horrible, mutated hybrids with ugly faces, scars, and open wounds that bled tar. One was a ram-wolf, like what had ambushed them in the forest. The other two were large leopards with goat horns. Level six, five, and seven respectively.

“And now we’re surrounded,” Kinfild muttered. “Was this part of your plan?”

Jace didn’t respond.

“In case you were wondering, you have just put yourself in great danger,” Kinfild said. “Alone, I am at the Third Stage of Soul-Circle Opening. They don’t stand a chance against me, but now I must worry about you, too.”

“I don’t know what that means!” Jace hissed back. “But I wasn’t going to let an old man fend off a bunch of wild animals on his own, Wielder or not.” He pulled the bolt of his rifle back, ejecting a steaming casing, then pushed it back in.

“Has that thing done you any good before?” Kinfild snapped. “It’s an old model, and those shells barely have any plasma-aspect Aes in them.”

“It’s done more than your walking stick,” Jace grumbled.

“It’s called a staff.”

One of the goat-leopards pounced. It swiped at Jace’s shoulder, but he jabbed his bayonet forwards and impaled the beast’s neck. The creature’s reach was longer. Its claws raked Jace’s shoulder. They tore through his jacket and sliced through the flesh beneath. Its strength alone was enough to send him staggering to the side, but he didn’t let go. He pushed the bayonet in further.

This was the level five beast, the weakest of the bunch. Gritting his teeth, Jace pushed the beast’s corpse to the side. Again, it disintegrated, and a heat welled up in his gut.

“Well, if you’re here now, you’d best practice your technique cards,” Kinfild said nonchalantly. “I don’t see you escaping this any other way, and certainly not in one piece.”

The ram-wolf lowered its horns and charged. Before it reached Jace, Kinfild reached out with his staff and tripped it. He barely put in any effort, and the entire movement had been a blur.

Jace ripped his rifle and bayonet free from the decaying corpse and turned to impale the next beast, but the second goat-leopard lunged towards him. It raked his back with its claws. He stumbled forwards and turned around, ready to bring his plasma rifle to bear, when the leopard jumped. Its paws pressed against his shoulders and pushed him to the ground. Every second, its claws dug deeper into his skin.

He pushed upwards with his rifle, trying to jab the darkling in the ribs with the barrel or the stock or anything he could use to drive it away. Kinfild swung his staff back and forth, keeping a wolf at bay, but he was busy.

“You should have accumulated enough Aes to trigger your technique card again,” said Kinfild, painfully calm. “This will take a little more than just breathing, but proper control of your Aes…”

Now was not the time for a lesson in magic. Jace wedged one side of his rifle upward, and he almost had the bayonet in position to stab with. Just a little more! Just a little bit—

The leopard lifted one paw. Its claws flashed in the night, and the tips glistened. Instead of stabbing the creature, Jace blocked the incoming swipe with the barrel of his rifle. With a burst of sparks, the claws glanced off. They left a deep gash in the metal.

Kinfild continued his instructions, still so calm that Jace could barely stand it. “Breathe deeply and rhythmically—try five seconds at a time, in and out. Concentrate on the technique card, and feed it a touch of the Aes…”

The leopard slashed again. Jace blocked again. He didn’t have time or the will to control his breathing.

“When the technique card manifests in the air, grab it and crush it in your hand!”

For a third time, the leopard slashed. Jace tried to deflect it, but the beast’s claws sliced clean through the metal barrel, cleaving the weapon in half. He wrenched his head and neck to the side just in time.

But now, he had a hand free. He jabbed the jagged half of the rifle up into the goat-leopard’s throat with his left arm. The beast yowled, so loud and high-pitched that Jace wanted to clutch his ears. Still, it didn’t let him go, and it didn’t die.

“Jace!” Kinfild snapped. “You are a worldjumper. Use your abilities. Your technique card will turn you into a projectile! You will shoot through hyperspace.”

Jace wrenched his body to the side to avoid the clamping jaws of the goat-leopard, then pushed the ragged half of his rifle deeper into the beast’s throat. It hadn’t broken through flesh yet, but it was holding the creature away.

He clenched his eyes shut for a moment, and he tried to ignore the stinging pain in his limbs and back.

Breathe in…breathe in, for five seconds…and out. Out for five. Slowly.

His mind drifted to his core again, to the seed wrapped in glowing light and gold particles, but there were also small, invisible pathways snaking away from it. Flowing channels of light coursed through his body, out through his limbs and to the tips of his fingers, then down to his feet.

He clenched his fists tighter and opened his eyes. Everything felt unstable, like his magic rested on the edge of a knife, and any wrong movement could make it falter. He yelled, and blue light shimmered beneath his fingertips.

At the last second, he sent a tendril of Aes searing into his core. The technique card snapped into existence in front of him. He snatched it out of the air and crushed it in his fingers. It guided his Aes in a circuit-like pattern, sending it swirling around his body in complex patterns that his mind could barely comprehend.

The leopard leapt back, frightened. But it was too late. Jace sprang to his feet.

The card triggered while he was staring straight at the darkling, and Jace flashed through hyperspace.