I released a rain of five Pinpoint Boneshards at the spriggan, who immediately released a spray of thorns up at me, her Briarthreads flickering out to knock the bone shards off course. As she did, I teleported behind her, casting Transport Item to teleport the bones out of the way of her attack, resetting them to whip around me instead.

In the same moment, Dusk leapt forwards, striking the eel with a shockwave and sending it scattering backwards, flying off of the spriggan’s arm.

Their battle moved deeper into the forest in one direction, clearly indicating that Dusk was confident that she could handle the eel.

I just hoped that she was right.

I didn’t have time to keep focusing on this, though, not if I wanted to keep the spriggan distracted.

I teleported to the side of another attack, this one a spray of thorns and briars all mixed together, and the spriggan turned, continuing to aim the spray at me. I teleported behind it and released my bones in a point blank attack that bounced off the hard wood that made up the body of the creature, but did make it stumble some.

That was enough. With her stumble, with her thorns and briars aimed elsewhere, with her attention drawn off, I was able to slap her back.

And place one alchemy bomb on her, before teleporting to the side and sweeping out with a crescent arc of Blademoss.

I might have given up my domain weapon for more staying power, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t still utilize a trump card.

The third gate plant struck the spriggan, its blades of force digging into her, and more importantly, shattering the vial. A fireball the size of at least two decently large watermelons erupted across the sprigan’s back, and I heard her let out a shriek of pain.

I paused for a second, warring with myself over if I should throw my second and only other alchemy bomb, but beforre I could decide, the spriggan chose for me. She leapt at me with an enhanced speed that had to come from a spell, and I teleported behind her.

Unfortunately, she must have been getting wise to that trick, as the moment my feet touched the grass where she’d been, they immediately surged up my legs, grabbing at me.

I began to harvest the grass, draining it away. It had to be a temporary extension, like when I attacked with blademoss, so I had to be able to absorb and break it down… Even if it was enforced with the density of a fourth gate mage’s power.

Then a woman appeared in the clearing. She was tiny, six inches shorter than me, so she had to be below hive feet, but she was swinging an absolute meteor of a hammer that crackled with electrical power at the spriggan…

And then she kept swinging, moving past the spriggan before letting go of the hammer and letting it fly through the air, right at me.

I cursed and managed to drain off the last of the grass’ power just in time to teleport forwards, staring the woman in the face.

“What in the name of all the primes are you doing?” I asked.

“Malachi Ro–” before she could finish my middle name, the spriggan released a giant root at the pair of us, and I teleported upwards, hanging in the air with Immovable Lock. The muscular woman thrust her hand out and a bolt of lightning, crackling with massive power, struck the root, burning it apart.

She looked right up at me and shot up into the air, a current of wind lifting her up.

“Malachi Roth Baker?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said, overcharging my Briarthreads and Pinpoint Boneshard both, while preparing a pair of Fungal Locks in the same manner.

“Good,” she said, then moved her hand. I teleported behind her and off to the left, leaving an afterimage behind me, and the air where I’d been standing was suddenly filled with more needles, as well as a bolt of lightning.

I teleported down to the ground, my brain running on overdrive as I slashed out at the spriggan to release a Fungal Lock, then teleported down the cliff and dove inside the cave to dodge another lightning bolt.

She had to be running low on those. Lightning Bolt was a third gate spell, and she was tossing it around like it was nothing. Even if she’d taken enough pills to ruin her future, she shouldn’t have many more in the tank…

Unless she had a legacy that let her, or something else, which was always possible.

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I felt the connection to the Fungal Locks end as the spriggan burst free, and I heard the woman curse.

The woman. Why would she attack me? There had to be a reason, but why?

The obvious reason was that she’d been paid to do it, but I couldn’t think of why. Was it more of Orykson’s plot, like him trying to get me to maim Mallory?

Maybe.

Then it clicked where I’d seen her before – the carnival of color. When I’d been competing with Kene, she’d been there too, and had attacked me with the same giant hammer, but had been pulled out by the ref.

Kene appeared next to me, giving me a wild eyed look.

“What’s going on?” they asked.

“I’m not entirely sure,” I admitted as they released their golden light and fire runes over me.

Before I could thank them, or even say more than that, the woman was in the cave, panting. She pointed at me, and I teleported behind her.

Right into the spriggan’s spray of needles. They were slowed by my aura pin, most of them were knocked aside by my overcharged Briarthreads, and my suit dampened the ones that made it past further, but the attack still left three tiny, but deep and bloody stabs in my body before they dissolved back into energy in the environment.

Kene and the woman were shouting at one another, and that caught my attention. I bounded forwards, bringing my Pinpoint Boneshards down at the woman’s back.

She wasn’t going to be allowed to hurt Kene.

The shards struck her, and though they left long, scoring wounds, they didn’t dig deep at all. Judging by the fact that her wounds were already scabbing overr, I was guessing she’d used a full gate spell to reinforce every aspect of her body – that would explain the hammer too.

I had to zip to the top of the cliff to dodge another massive root attack from the spriggan, and then teleported back down and behind it, throwing the alchemy bomb into her back.

As the fire erupted, I shouted ‘nose!’ and hoped that Kene would understand, but they were distracted.

green light flowed from Kene’s hands, snaking to me as I teleported into the air above the woman and threw down another potion, while empowering a bit of ungated mana.

My sense of smell vanished, just in time for one of the stink bombs that Dusk had prepared to explode into a cloud of noxious gas.

It didn’t seem to bother the spriggan, who was happy to take the moment to release a root, Briarthreads, and a spray of needles all at the woman and Kene. Kene’s bracelet glowed, and they teleported out of the way, though they immediately threw up afterwards.

The woman was not so lucky. She was immediately struck with the full force of all three attacks, and was still sickened by the stink bomb.

She flew back into the darkness, her hammer falling out of her hands, and there was a loud and meaty crunch.

Before I could even process that she might be dead, an eel made of mud exploded into the air, slamming into Kene. A moment later, Dusk erupted out of the forest next to it, blowing it off Kene with her shockwave, and the Spriggan released attacks at me.

I teleported out of the way, and I felt a powerful wrenching in my spirit as Foxstep shifted from mastered to ingrained. It was… doing something. Not some simple increase in efficiency or power, something else, but I couldn’t tell what, and now wasn’t the time to experiment.

Then a lightning bolt exploded out of the cave at the spriggan, but the tiny, inane part of my mind wondered why Foxstep had taken so long to move to ingrained. I used it all the time.

The lightning caught everyone off guard – except for the eel and Dusk, who almost seemed to be engaged in a boxing match of some kind, trading bursts of mud and shockwaves back and forth.

The spriggan was blown backwards as the woman marched out of the cave, tossing a vial to the side.

“I only had one arcanist level healing potion,” she growled, almost to herself, as she picked up her hammer, lightning began to crackle along its shaft and head, though I thought this was a lower gate spell. “I’m gonna make you pay for that.”

She exploded forwards, using some sort of movement spell that enhanced her legs. The spriggan cast a spell that changed the grass and roots around her, causing them to bend and release bursts of energy to enhance her own movement.

The pair skipped across the clearing for a moment, then the woman brought her hammer down at Dusk, cackling like a maniac. I teleported, zipping across the entire clearing, Briarthreads bursting off of me as I crossed my arms in an x shape, dropping my staff to take the blow myself.

The force of the strike, even slowed by all of my defenses, was enough to cause an explosive pain in my arms, and I was pretty sure that my left forearm, which had been the one on top, was shattered.

“Predictable!” the woman crowed, even as she took attacks to her back.

The eel used the opportunity to strike at my back, and I was thrown forwards at the woman, who seemed surprised by this. Dusk let out a cry and unleashed an explosion of light over the entire battlefield.

I heard a grunt of pain as the woman was shoved away from me, and when my vision returned, Dusk had released her thousand hands spell and her shockwave spell at the woman. Kene was next to me, green and gold light flowing into my arm.

“Broken,” they said. “Don’t you dare put any weight on it.

They pressed my staff into my right hand, and I nodded. Dusk, Kene, and I all retreated back towards the caves, while the spriggan and eel released spellfire down at the pinned woman.

It seemed she had at least a few more good tricks left, though. A massive orb of wind erupted out around her, and she floated into the air, the orb shoving away the attacks of the spriggan and eel.

She hung there, panting, and then the sphere collapsed, condensing into a tiny ball. She fell, and the momentum of her fall empowered her hammer further, as it slammed into the mud eel. The orb expanded again, and the eel exploded, its body dissolving into magic.

Then her legacy activated, because that was the only explanation that made even a modicum of sense to me.

The magic that had composed the body of the elemental eel – probably made of telluric and lunar mana, not that it mattered any more – condensed, turning into a vibrant red aura that swirled towards the woman. It grew denser, turning orange, then yellow, until it was a single spinning yellow spot, only the size of a grape.

The yellow magic sunk into the woman’s chest, and for just a moment, she blazed with mana, her third gate power refilling, then overflowing, growing from the power of the snake’s death.

She held out her hands as she floated into the air, pointing one at the spriggan… and the other hand at me.