I’ll get the wyvern, Cuby said, and I glanced back to see it swooping through the snow toward me, the primeval part of my brain causing me to freeze at the sight of an approaching giant lizard with wings.

But I shook myself out of it a moment later. I might have taken damage, but both these monsters were manageable: the goats could be countered with trees and the wyverns… well, I had a feeling that the wyvern couldn’t do anything if it had Cuby on its back.

Meanwhile I was charging up a Fragmented Supercharged Hardlight Construct, safe in the assumption that whatever happened, it would come in handy—maybe if I could get one of the wyverns to dive at me….

Just as I expected, the newly approaching wyvern spat its fire at me, and this time I avoided it with my Moment of Mastery, dropping to a lower tree branch as the fire roared over me, thankful that these things didn’t have the Precision to match their—good God, I thought, doing the math in my head as I looked at the 10% of its Hit Points that I’d gouged out with a normal Implosive Missile. That thing had 3500 Hit Points.

And somewhere in the sky above us was a second one, and potentially a second rider.

Cuby leapt from her tree into the air, then glided onto the wyvern’s back as it swooped in to grab me with its talons, landing in the saddle and then starting to attack it with unrestrained downward stabbing—which reminded me that Haste would cooldown soon.

The talons reached for me, but my Evasive Insights made me too hard to hit: I spun around the trunk of the tree and heard a crash of branches and the crack of wood as the wyvern’s talons ripped away half the evergreen’s crown.

The tree began to tilt, and I realized that the wyvern had finished what the goats had begun just in time to leap away and into a neighboring pine. As I threw another missile at the goats below, I saw the wyvern that Cuby had boarded flare its wings to slow its flight, then twist and thrash in the air, its Hit Points dropping gradually while it wondered what to do, helpless to deal with the rogue on its back.

Then the second wyvern came into view, diving toward the first—and the demons all changed their behaviors at once. Cuby’s wyvern stopped thrashing and began to beat its wings, rising above the treeline. The goats turned, ignoring my missiles as they faced inward—toward Cuby. The second wyvern, a rider clearly visible on its back, swooped in alongside the first—and its rider let out an inhuman roar before whipping Cuby with what looked like a chain, knocking her clear from the saddle to fall to the ground almost 30 meters below, shattering her Mana Shield and dropping her from full to just over 50% from fall damage—where she lay on her back, unmoving.

Then the goats, who had been waiting for this, charged.

Cuby! I shouted, throwing her my Rousing Command and then waiting to see if she needed a Boon of Mercy or for me to loose my Hardlight Construct.

But Cuby rolled to her feet just as a hulking figure—the rider of the second wyvern—dropped from the sky to plunge a sword into the ground where she’d just lay. Then she used her grappling gun to spring into a nearby tree just as the ramthorns would have reached her.

And I looked at our newest arrival, the enemy who had doubtless just taken control of all the lesser, corrupted demons around us:

Morthoth — Level 11

It was a grotesquely muscular four-armed man almost eight feet tall, its eyes two gouts of fire that burned in the sockets of a face with skin so taut that it seemed almost like a skull. It wielded a sword in one arm, a shield in another, a chain in the third, and a ball of deep red flame in the fourth.

The Morthoth screamed, and the wyverns and goats screamed with it, all of them creating a hellish cacophony as the demons on the ground turned toward me and the damaged wyvern began to circle round to attack. As this happened, I shot another missile at the lowest-health goat, finally dropping it dead.

One more! Cuby said, and I realized that she meant she’d level up. The last ramthorn was full—but the wyvern she’d been attacking was at 30%.

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The Morthoth barked a word, and I realized that its howling had been some kind of spellcasting as it, both wyverns, and the ramthorn below were all wreathed in ghostly red flames. Its wyvern, plunging toward me, spat another glob of greenish flame toward me. Then the Morthoth made a Mighty Leap of its own, straight into my tree, where it raised its sword—

Nope, I thought, into the box. And I encased it in a hardlight shell that was anchored to the trunk of the tree—one which had a little protrusion meant to catch the oncoming ball of fire that had been spat by the wyvern.

Relying on the Morthorth to be casting spells of level 11, I cast a Fragmented Devour Magic, confident that even my non-Supercharged version was enough to eat its buff three times over: then I waited a moment—the wyvern was diving toward me, the goat was ramming the base of the tree, and the Morthoth was raging against the walls of his hardlight prison.

Then, just as the wyvern reached me, I loosed the Devour Magic, wiping the ghostly flames from all three of them before I used a Mighty Leap to jump onto the diving wyvern’s back, slamming into the saddle and struggling to clutch at it and keep myself from sliding off.

But the wyvern was no longer acting on its own instincts. Almost as soon as I was on its back, it began to roll in the air. At first I grabbed the lip of the saddle, thinking that it was trying to throw me off—but as it plummeted past the tree and toward the ground I realized that it was flipping onto its back: it wanted to bury me beneath it.

If I hadn’t had so much Strength and Agility, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to pitch myself away from it and hit the ground rolling. As it was, I landed mere feet away from where the wyvern crashed to the ground a moment later, scrambling to my feet in time to see the morthoth shatter the hardlight cage and leap down from the tree.

I’d grabbed 250 points of absorption with my devour magic, and I began to cast a Fragmented Supercharged Haste as I faced the ramthorn and its demon commander, the crashed wyvern thrashing beside me as it attempted to get up. My plan was to hope that my shield would take the brunt of their next charge—but Cuby had a better plan. A concussive grenade exploded as they turned to face me, momentarily knocking them back.

The first, low-health wyvern landed beside me, looking to fight me on the ground—and Cuby glided in a moment later to land on its back and start stabbing. But no sooner had she touched it than it immediately and laboriously rolled over in the snow, another attempt to crush one of us, doubtless commanded by the morthoth.

But Cuby simply did a handspring over its massive, rolling body, ending the motion next to its head while it thrashed in the snow, then triggered her Flurry of Steel and laid into it while all the other demons were focused on me.

My Haste had finished, and I’d instantly started casting an Fragmented Supercharged Psychic Parasite, desperate to stack as much Defense Rating against this thing as I could.

And as I did this, I turned and ran. My movement speed was increased by 134%—I could easily outrun the ramthorn, and the morthoth. I heard its scream of frustration, and I turned and angled back toward the combat, keeping it in my peripheral. It used its Mighty Leap a moment later—but I was too damn fast: it tried to land where I was going to be but I simply turned inward and moved out of the way while he was still in the air. He landed, and I hit him with the Psychic Parasite before turning to face the morthoth, the ramthorn, and the wyvern, which had finally righted itself and was now ready to fight once more.

I stopped and started casting a Fragmented Supercharged Unnatural Terror—the minor demons had a psychic weakness, though I hadn’t had the time to read the morthoth’s demonology entry. The morthoth lashed at me with its chain, but I dodged easily, seeing its own attack in my mind’s eye. The ramthorn finally reached me with its protracted charge, but I spun out of the way like a bullfighter, safe under the defense buff of my Haste plus my Evasive Insights.

A level 12 Cuby soared overhead, landing on the back of the full-health wyvern. It rolled; she rolled, and suddenly she was on the ground attacking its thrashing form. I realized with a flash of insight that Cuby’s kit made her excellent for taking these creatures down—if it rose and tried to go toe to toe with her, she’d just leave.

But could she solo it? Probably not: it had too many Hit Points.

I finished storing an Unnatural Terror with 7 seconds remaining on the Psychic Parasite that was helping me tank the Morthoth, and in the same moment my Haste buff wore off.

I faced them both down alone, my Hit Points at half and my Mana Shield at 250.

I didn’t just have to survive: I had to win, and faster than it would take the wyvern to kill Cuby.

This, I thought, glancing up at the intimidating figure of the mountain itself, rising into gray clouds above. This was a good idea.