After finishing his consumption of the portal, Terry stood 15 feet tall, astral energy visibly emanating from his musculature. His claws dug deep grooves in the ground as he leapt at one of the five remaining shamblers. It lashed at him even as he picked it up by the torso, grabbed one of its legs, and ripped it in half.

The expenditure of strength shrank him down a foot, still taller than the next shambler that he struck with the two halves of the first.

Elly and her crew worked outward from Zeff's turret, using well honed tactics to keep the swarming steelbeaks and rat-moles at bay as three of the other crew switched between firing the turret as their magic ran out. Nate fought alongside Fuzzball, healing when and where he was able, summoning his bow each time he ran out of arrows.

The field became slick with blood and riddled with corpses of monsters. Nate had to optimize his maneuverability to traverse without tripping or slipping. The shambler that lost its leg had since grown it back using mass from other parts of itself, growing visibly less dense as it did so.

“Turret bros? Names?” The three mothkin gunners identified themselves as Galad, Umberto, and Nicholas. “Focus on severing limbs from the shamblers. It seems to weaken the whole. That's what she said.”

“That's what who said? Elly?”

“I said nothing of the sort,” she protested as her blade hand neatly severed the leg off one of the shamblers.

“Just do it!” Nate said, unable to keep a grunt from his voice as he dove out of the way of a shambler fist.

The shambler stepped forward in a lunge with its other fist. Nate gripped his bow with both hands and pushed up in an attempt to block the strike, only to feel its dead weight nearly knock him to the ground.

“Thank you!” he said as he stepped through another portal to a point at the edge of his shortbow's range. He restocked his quiver and loosed more arrows, causing as much chaos as possible.

Ellisandra took advantage of the chaos, rushing in and chopping a heavy blow to finish severing a shambler's swinging arm before it smashed into her. As it fell, thick vines shot through the ground and arched over Umberto and the turret, suddenly constricting and crushing them into the ground. A cry of pain cut off short as blood and mechanical fluid covered the crushing vines.

Nate could feel the pain and rage from Ellisandra and the rest of her crew, especially Zeff, but he couldn't tell if it was from the chat or his new aura sense. The rage set the final push in motion, and the cacophony of battle soon changed to the silence of sorrow.

A wave of nausea hit Nate hard, and he emptied his stomach onto the ground. Panic threatened to overtake him. He'd never seen anyone die before, and certainly never so graphically. He'd killed monster after monster and didn't think anything of it.

This was different.

Fuzzball and Terry moved to stand next to Nate to give the crew space. Terry's overabundance of astral magic had since dissipated, returning him to his usual height, and Nate gave both of them a hug. All were covered in monster blood, mud, and exhaustion.

“I'm glad you're both okay,” Nate said, spitting bile.

“Me too. I'd thought maybe with them showing up we'd be okay.”

“Honestly,” Nate sighed, “without their help, we wouldn't have been.”

Through the chat, Ellisandra spoke, her voice trembling with barely contained grief and rage, “Do you have a companion who's a wolf chimeran?”

Nate looked around, spotting the chimeran near where the manifestation portal appeared. With a single leap, Skelwulf landed in the center of the field among the monstrous corpses.

“I'll take care of it.” Nate, Fuzzball, and Terry approached. “We're a little busy right now, friend. Could you-”

“Which one of you activated the podium?” Skelwulf interrupted.

Nate was glad at this instance that it was still in town and not around his neck. “Podium? Like for giving speeches?”

Nate felt an aura stronger than anything prior push against his own, tightening around him. Fuzzball locked up as well. Terry stood nonplussed.

“I don't have time for games, Nate.”

Nate hadn't told him his name. Perhaps an aura ability?

Skelwulf suddenly appeared next to Terry, his clawed hand swung across his neck. Terry's head rolled in front of Nate before dissolving into motes of light that flew into Nate.

The sudden disconnect stunned Nate before the grief rushed in. He hadn't known Terry for long, but losing a familiar hurt to the core. His scream mirrored that of Umberto's crew and rage flooded his aura. He pushed back against the oppressive aura, his emotions strengthening his own.

It was like trying to cut a hole through a wall by splashing a bucket of water on it.

“What are you?” Nate managed to squeeze out.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Adept,” Fuzzball said, his eyes flooded with fear and memory. “He's an Adept.”

Zeff and Ellisandra saw the commotion and felt the chat function end as Nate's aura was suppressed. Then they heard Fuzzball's words.

Ellisandra picked up Umberto's body. “We need to leave, now.”

Zeff looked between them, “Nate's my friend.”

“Nothing we can do for him. If we tried to step in, we'd only get ourselves killed. We regroup with the captain.”

Skelwulf stepped very close to Nate, strong breaths tousling his red hair. “Where is the podium?”

Nate only glared at him. Then a small object appeared on his HUD right beneath his stat bars. It looked like a digital alarm clock with hours, minutes, and seconds. It started at 24 hours and was dropping. Then a pop up appeared.

Quest: Distraction Action.

Objective: Distract Skelwulf until help arrives.

Reward: 5 Unenchanted Essence Stones. Type: Ingredient. Weight: 1 lb. Value: 100 gold pieces. An essence stone with no active enchantment. For use in Enchantment recipes.

Accept? Yes No.

Nate mentally accepted the quest and focused on the timer. As he did so, he felt his connection to Terry coalesce.

“Did you not hear me?” Skelwulf growled.

“I heard you,” Nate answered. “It's in town.” He mentally sorted his plethora of messages to any concerning Terry.

Terry has absorbed astral energy. His stats have increased. This message was repeated several times.

Terry's stats are at the maximum possible at your given rank. All additional consumed energy is returned to the astral plane.

Terry has expended excess energy and has returned to normal stats.

Your familiar has died. As it is bound to you, it will respawn in 24 hours. Timer set.

Nate involuntarily sighed with relief. Terry wasn't fully dead! Happiness flooded him and he channeled it into his distraction.

“Sorry, friend. I was temporarily struck with sadness because you killed my familiar. Not very nice of you.”

“Where in town?”

“Before I answer,” Nate looked over to see the Zeff and the others were actively retreating, “do you mind if I loot all of these monsters?”

That surprised Skelwulf, “You have a looting power?” Nate nodded. Skelwulf's smile sent a shiver down Nate's spine. Fuzzball was staring at Nate as though he'd seen a ghost.

“My master will be pleased. By all means.” He released Nate and Fuzzball from his aura. Nate slowly navigated through the field, looting each monster individually, waiting for the motes of light to dissipate before moving on to the next. He re-established the party chat.

His words were sent mentally so Skelwulf couldn't hear. “Zeff, I can feel you're on the edge of my range. I'm going to distract this guy until help arrives.”

“By looting each creature individually?” Fuzzball asked, incredulous.

“Sorry about Terry,” Zeff said.

“He'll be back soon. I'm sorry about Umberto.”

“Me too. We'll go to Captain Luma and see if there's anything we can do.”

“Okay, thanks. Be safe out there.”

“You, too.”

“Fuzzball, did I see some memories return to you back there?”

There was a pause. “Yes,” he finally said. “My master was an Adept ranked alchemist. I remember a similarly strong aura.”

Nate continued the looting process as they talked. The name wasn't there yet, but the fact that Fuzzball got even a little of his memories back was great news.

The sun was beginning to drop as dusk settled over them. Skelwulf pulled an orb from his pocket while watching Nate work, relaying a message to someone.

There were so many creatures that night fell before he had finished his slow trek through. Skelwulf stoically watched. Fuzzball helped by bringing monster bodies to Nate.

“Are you hungry?” Nate asked. He had eighteen hours before Terry was back and who knows how long before help arrived.

“Always,” Skelwulf said.

Nate plastered on a grin, “Well, then, I just got a shitload of rat-mole and steelbeak meat and some vines from the shamblers that might be edible? How do you like your steak?”

The Gronwood Cantina windows shed light into the night as Nate worked the Interface Podium kitchen he'd set up like a hibachi grill.

Cotates, ramps, some blue peppers Fuzzball had called blue bells, and strips of meat sizzled as Nate put on a show for Skelwulf. His worry was on a constant uptick, threatening to disperse his calm.

“I had a job once working at this Japanese hibachi place and they taught me the tricks. If I had any eggs I could do some crazy stuff.” Nate prattled on, telling of things that Skelwulf neither knew nor cared to know.

But it smelled more amazing than anything he'd ever smelled, so he listened silently in anticipation.

Nate took on a serious tone as he plated up their food, stowing some away into his inventory. “Do you mind if I ask you something?”

Skelwulf said nothing before grabbing a fork in his non-claw hand and taking his first bite. He nearly fell over. The combination of flavors was astounding. Perhaps his first ever genuine smile crossed his face. “This is incredible!”

“Thank you,” Nate said graciously.

The chimeran took several more bites before, “You have earned three questions from this meal.”

“I'm glad you like it. As terrifying as it is, you were sent here by someone else. Likely someone strong enough to give you commands.” Skelwulf slowly chewed another bite without acknowledgement. “You're an Adept, according to Fuzzball here, and based on the strength of your aura I can believe it. That means that whoever sent you is strong enough to force you to do it, an Expert or Master ranked individual.”

Fuzzball nearly dropped his fork.

“Which brings me to my first question. Did the person who sent you give you all of the scars I can see peeking out from your suit?”

Skelwulf finished his bite, “Not all of them.”

“Which implies some, which means your boss is likely not the friendliest guy.” Skelwulf couldn't hold back a snort.

Nate ran with it. The longer he pushed, the less time before help arrived. “Based on your scarring you've seen terrible things. Perhaps even done terrible things, no doubt, in service to whoever pushed you my way.”

Skelwulf, who had not given his lot much thought, found himself nodding despite not having been asked any question.

“I figured. Some scars go deeper than skin. Second question. If you were freed from your servitude, what would you want to do with the rest of your life?”

Pain racked through Skelwulf as he thought of his freedom.