Powered by mana, stamina, and every scrap of strength in his body, the rock erupted from Nick’s hand with explosive speed. It was soaring so fast that it tore the air in passing, unleashing a rippling roar.
The turbocharged stone went screaming across the battlefield, streaking toward the king like a meteor descending from the heavens... just as the beast’s weight came down.
The jagged lump of granite hit the rugged reptile in the side of its beak with the force of a cannonball. An incredible crack rang out across the clearing, cutting through the clamor like a blade.
Nick’s ruined arm hung limp at his side. But he shut out the pain and blinked away his tears, desperate to find out if his efforts had been enough.
What he witnessed over the next three seconds rekindled the light of hope within the guarded hearth of his heart.
The king’s beak shattered beneath the incredible blow. The force was so intense that it arrested its momentum, throwing its head up to point at the sky as blood fell to the ground like rain.
The attack had only delayed the multi-ton behemoth’s descent by a trio of heartbeats. But that was all the time his team needed to arrive on scene.
As the beast’s body came crashing back down, Sophia and Veronica appeared in front of it. Just before they arrived at Kenji’s side, the one-armed man reached back and attached his shield to a strap running below his shoulders.
When it touched the leather strip, the huge shield shrank to one tenth its prior size, hanging from the line like a child’s toy. He reached out to recover his spear, as the women darted in and dragged his body out of the way.
Heart hammering in his chest, adrenaline singing in his veins, Nick watched as the king toppled to the earth, falling short of crushing Kenji by a couple of feet. The grievously wounded strategist didn’t even look, he just calmly reached back and attached his spear to his strap. The long weapon shrank just like the shield, clearly the sign of a powerful magic item at work.
Veronica took out a cord to bind the stump tight, stemming the flow of blood. Then she helped Sophia carry Kenji away from the dazed reptile.
From somewhere nearby, he heard Devin whistle and then say, “Damn, Nick. That was one hell of a pitch.”
Nick right arm dangled uselessly at his side, so he put his sword into his pack and started running. He was out of mana and unable to fight. Just thinking about it made his shattered bones ache. Not that they needed much encouragement on that front.
But there was one last thing that he could do to help. He still had his elixir, and Kenji needed it even more than Nick did. It was amazing that he was still conscious after losing so much blood.
As Nick ran toward Kenji’s side, a battered and charred Devin went in for the kill. The river king lay motionless, stunned from the shockwave reverberating through its brain. Its neck was exposed, its posture unguarded.
Nick wasn’t sure if the powerful creature was unconscious or just critically wounded. But in the end, it didn’t really matter. Devin wasn’t taking any chances.
The man had shifted his axe into its two-handed version, drawing the weapon up and over his head as he arrived in front of the beast. He gathered his strength and swung down hard, with the weight of his body and the force of his charge behind it.
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The massive axe came down onto the river king’s neck, the same spot that had been weakened by Veronica’s acid and shredded by her claws.
The beast’s eyes snapped open, unable to focus. Before it could recover, Devin’s great axe landed on target, releasing a bright burst of flame as it exploded on contact.
This time, instead of deflecting, the heavy blade parted scale and kept right on going. It sheared through muscle and sinew, vertebrae and spine, before erupting out the other side in a spectacular geyser of gore.
It left the king’s head hanging by a thread, claiming its life in the process.
At this point, Nick arrived at Kenji’s side. He used his left hand to reach for his flask, popping the cap with his thumb. He poured the concoction into Kenji’s mouth, bringing the man back from the edge of unconsciousness. “Thanks Nick. I really needed that.”
A bare second later, Nick felt an incredible surge of disorientation, while heat ran rampant below his heart. I must have just leveled.
He fought to remain upright, as his team began running toward the tower. With the king out of the picture, it was time to get the hell out of there as quickly as they could. The stamina he’d gained from leveling gave him just enough energy for one last burst of motion.
That was the moment when the shadow hunt stormed into the clearing.
Arriving just ahead of the endless tide of mist, the four great hounds bounded into the open space. A host of redfang hunters flew beside their immense, muscular bodies.
Although most of team Earth had entered the tower by this point, there wasn’t anything else that Nick’s party could do. The hounds fell upon the stragglers with wild abandon, tearing into the fleeing women and men like wet tissue paper.
Nick watched on in horror as one of the beasts snatched up a man and flung him high into the air, catching him between its jaws on the way back down. There was a sickening crunch before his screams cut off and his body went sliding into the creature’s throat.
The other hounds had found their own prey, and a heartbeat later, the redfangs unleashed their might. Hundreds of razored plumes went streaking into the crowd, killing several people outright and wounding dozens more.
But none of that carnage held a candle to the pandemonium that ensued when the lord of the hunt rode into the clearing.
Mounted atop a skeletal stag that was half again the size of the hounds, the lord of the hunt was visible for the first time. It was impossible to discern his true form, because every inch of his body was covered in jet black plates of iron. His face was concealed beneath a heavy helmet sporting wicked crimson antlers.
Even at a glance, Nick knew.
This was a being far more powerful than any he’d seen before. An entity stronger than the rest of the hunt combined. He could slaughter everyone within minutes if given the chance.
The good news was that there were only a few members of team Earth still outside the tower. While far too many had fallen, most of them had made it to safety in the end.
But that welcome development didn’t do Nick any good right now. Fewer people outside meant that there were less targets to choose from, and his team was closer to the lord than anyone else.
As if following along with Nick’s train of thought, the lord of the shadow hunt turned to face him, sending a tsunami of adrenaline flowing into his veins. The iron-clad giant’s mount came to a stop. He reached back over one shoulder to unsheathe a great onyx spear, the same kind that had been driven into the shell of the river king.
“Disperse,” Nick yelled. “He’s going to throw…”
That was as far as he got before the lord took aim and hurled his weapon. It shot forth like greased lightning, streaking to where the final stragglers were rounding the side of the tower, desperately searching for an unclaimed entrance.
Nick’s team leapt aside at the last possible moment, the spear passing by so close that he could have reached out and touched it. The weapon carved its way through three unlucky people before slamming into the side of the tower with an impact that rattled his teeth in his jaw.
Dodging scraps of shrapnel the length of his body, he rejoined his team and kept right on running.
Meanwhile the king reached back and took out another spear. Just before the titan let loose his throw, the blackmist washed over Nick, stealing the light of the world from his eyes at the worst possible moment.