I managed to cast Charm of Gliding as I fell, but the harpoon that had impaled me had sent me spinning onto my side so that the conjured web-wings did barely anything at all to slow my descent.

In my mind, I saw it all playing out in a panic—the warrior would drag me back as soon as we both hit the ground, the shifter would charge me and hit with a slow or a stun or something, and then Haroshi and his crew would converge on me with the same aggressive intensity that one found in an ad for Brazzers—in short, I was fucked.

But just before I hit the ground, a second object impaled me through the abdomen, dealing damage—Cuby’s grappling gun. I smashed painfully into the craggy ground, disoriented.

Cuby and the warrior must have landed a moment later, because I felt both the chain and cable stretching out from my body grow taut as they tried to pull me in two directions. It was an odd, grotesque sensation, having huge pieces of metal painfully jutting into my body. I could feel them moving around in me, pushing against my insides—I felt my intestines squirm and shuddered as I tried to fight the forces tearing me in two directions and scrambled to my feet.

A moment later, the chain and harpoon dematerialized—and a moment after that, Cuby’s cable and grapnel did, too. I scrambled to my feet, my Hit Points just over 70%—and then saw a massive shape suddenly smash into my chest, bowling me over and sending me back to the hard mountainside beneath me. The gorilla-like shifter had reached me, slamming me to the ground with a blow from one massive, clawed hand.

From my place on the ground, I saw the warrior arrive, striking me with a glaive and taking away even more of my HP. I used Rousing Command, removing the rest of the knockdown’s duration and springing to my feet with one quick motion—and saw Haroshi arrive to join his comrades, expression livid with rage.

But just as he arrived, the ground behind him and his comrades exploded with an eardrum-pounding sound. Cuby had thrown another concussive grenade—somehow. Haroshi and his two comrades were knocked to the ground, the warrior taking a tumble down the mountainside, and I staggered in place, just out of range of the grenade.

Then I gained enough control of myself to Mighty Leap off the side of the mountain and into the night, casting Charm of Gliding to run parallel to the slope as I flew away.

How did you do that? I asked Cuby, speaking of the grenade-grapple-grenade combo that she’d pulled off in the space of a few moments.

Flurry! She said. I’m above you; Haroshi is following and the shifter is too.

For a moment I thought that she might mean the shifter had turned into some kind of flying creature, but then I saw them: running along the slope to my right, the uneven and treacherous ground no obstacle to them as they pulled ahead of me, clearly benefiting from some kind of speed boost. My mind flashed back to Oromar’s Bastion, when a shifter had pulled me from the air to pin me to the ground below—and the ground was currently far, far below.

Once they had their jump again, I was toast.

I have to pull away.

Sorry! said Cuby. He’s too far ahead to bomb! There’s two chasing you on the ground, too, but they’re falling behind.

She said this as I pulled away from the slope to get out of range of the shifter, and I dove a little, following the slope of the mountain and picking up speed as I headed toward the wooded valley below.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I equipped my grapple gun again as I flew away from the mountain. I expected I would need it soon; the trees were coming up to meet me.

Somehow I think that shifter might catch me in the forest, I said.

But the others won’t, said Cuby. If we pull far enough ahead, and it’s only the shifter, it won’t matter that they’ve caught you. Plus—

She cut off, and I had to wonder what had happened as I swooped in below the treeline, touched down, then immediately used my grappling gun to pull myself into the crown a tree ahead of me, catching its boughs in a flurry of whipping branches and needles and then springing away from it with a Mighty Leap that snapped the branch below me before casting another Charm of Gliding.

Hah! Cuby said in my mind. Keep going, but I think we’re safe. I’ll know in a second.

Thankfully the mountain valley wasn’t thick with many trees, but instead sparse evergreens growing out of needle-strewn soil with little underbrush. Still, I made an enormous amount of noise as I sprinted through the forest, my feet cracking dry branches as I kicked out needles behind me.

A dark shape passed overhead of me, and I looked up to see the last of the wyverns:

Burning Spirefiend Matriarch – Level 13

Its attention wasn’t focused on me, thankfully—it was the highest level monster I’d seen. A perfect addition to the chaos of Haroshi’s camp. I used another Mighty Leap as soon as it cooled down, gliding again to hopefully gain more distance, hit the ground running….

I think you’re okay, said Cuby. Haroshi called them off.

I wonder why, I said dryly, still running through the forest as I thought of the level 13. I kept on for a while, using Mighty Leap whenever I could to gain some extra distance. Cuby landed near me once she’d shed all her altitude, then we traveled until we’d reached the other end of the valley, climbed a slope opposite Haroshi’s camp, and turned to admire our handiwork.

The spirefiend was still alive when we turned, and the sound of the baby’s cry was still playing full-force. The demon had landed and was fighting—and as we watched, a massive bloom of fire seemed to envelop the small camp.

“How lovely!” Cuby said, taking a seat on a jutting stone.

I sighed and sat next to her, taking deep breaths to slow my thundering heart. It wasn’t long before we heard the dying cry of the wyvern—followed by the repeating sound of my illusion. “I didn’t know the shifters could jump that high,” I said. “And I didn’t think of putting a warrior on their back. Most of all, it didn’t seem like Haroshi had noticed us—let alone come up with a plan to pull me down.”

Cuby shrugged. “It was always a risk, but you’re right. They caught onto us as fast as I can imagine—say, you think they planned on how to pull you down before you even appeared? He’ll know we’ve got glide—we basically used it to be all over the place back in town.”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “You’re probably right. It’s all well and good for me to come up with plans like this—but I underestimated him. I didn’t put myself in his shoes and think on what he’d do to plan against our potential attack.”

“It’s my fault, too. I think I keep insisting he’s stupid… just because I want him to be,” said Cuby. She paused a moment, then added: “And shifters have a one-time boost to Might, if you’re wondering. He probably just used a Mighty Leap with an over 100% bonus to effect to get that high.”

“Ah.”

I brought up a pane for my own Make Camp ability:

Fixed Ability - Make Camp

Use Time: 30 Seconds

Cooldown: 12 Hours

Duration: 12 Hours

You designate a small zone as your camp. Your camp is not a safe zone, but you and your allies’ Adventuring Clock will run up, not down, while you are inside it. You must cancel your current camp in order to begin the cooldown on this ability.

“It doesn’t say whether breaking the tent destroys the camp,” I said. “I hate to say it, but I think we should double back and check on them, at least in a little while, to see if they’ve moved on or not. If they haven’t, they’ll be heading to town.”

“All right,” said Cuby. Then she stood. “In the meantime—let’s go kill things!”