A hazy sheen was all. A shifting and roiling sheen of jagged edges was all. My body tumbled freely through an empty space, beset on all sides by sharp winds and some unknown debris, scratching my arms, my bare legs. The frozen pain in my shoulder and hand turned into discomfort turned into vacancy. Then everything began to fade. Before utter darkness, I saw again that colossal shape, that Something which I now knew to be the World-Eater: black bones and awful, purple fangs, sky-darkening bat wings, and jaw agape in insatiable hunger. . . .

Then a faint voice, wordless and so far away, echoed through the edges of my reality.

That's familiar. . . . Oh, but it’s so distant. . . . Too far to help — too far away for me to care. Movement, getting closer? My companion is running to me, but that doesn't matter. . . . I’ve taken on too much venom. . . .

Then even the dark beast and the moving shadow of my companion faded; the last proof of my living, breathing body, drifted away from me. . . .

THUD. An extreme pressure on my chest, a pounding through the stillness.

My own heart?

Something that had been still suddenly moved and I lurched.

THUD. Another hard hit on my sternum. With that pain and effort, my body materialised in the void. I felt the pain in my shoulder and hand again, and an immense throbbing all over.

THUD. My eyes shot open. Alator knelt beside me. He raised another fist. His eyes were golden-flashing, his teeth bared in a panicked grimace. A single tear welled in his eye.

“Tr — Talbot!” he yelled.

An agonising rush caught my throat as my lungs filled with cold air. I sat bolt upright as his fist crashed down again, missing me by an inch. My lungs were fit to burst but an exhale wouldn’t come — something heavy and frozen.

Searing pain from every muscle welcomed me back to the land of the living.

“Talbot!” Alator grasped my shoulders then reached behind me and bashed me on the back. I lurched and my throat contorted and expanded, then as a scream of terror passed through my psyche, a glut of blue-black ichor spilled from my mouth onto my lap. It scalded my bare thighs and dripped to the floor, where it lay steaming.

Another agonising cold breath filled my lungs, then out, and in and out, and the pain relented. Trembling, bleary-eyed, I glanced around. The carcass of the serpent lay at my feet, its long, twisted body covered in scratches and missing scales; its jaw a broken mess, fallen back and wrapped backwards over itself, its blue forked tongue lying limp in its mouth.

I pushed myself away from it by reflex, and found the Bronze Spear and held it to my body.

“How are you feeling?”

My head throbbed fierce, my right shoulder and my left palm were still sending shooting pains through me which had me wince with every heartbeat.

“I’ve been better,” I grinned with a flinch.

“Can you walk?”

“I don’t know.”

“Get up. We have to move.”

With my spear in my hand, I pushed my fists into the snow and struggled to raise myself up to standing — I fell a step backwards but caught myself.

“More coming?” I asked.

“Worse than that snake — you are not ready.”

My slow-chugging mind managed to click into place.

SYS, if he slays the fiends near to me, do I get Experience?

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

// SYS : XP is only awarded for an assist once you have attacked, or been attacked by, the enemy. //

Ah well.

“Let’s get going.”

He ducked under and looped my arm over his shoulder, and then half-carried, half-dragged me forwards, back to the sunspot. I moved as fast as I could, but at several points my legs entirely gave way like jelly underneath me and Alator had to bring his hand around to hold me entirely up while I found my balance again.

Something was gaining on us. Almost imperceptibly, there were steady tamps of pressed snow and pine needles, growing closer and closer.

“A little more, Talbot — we need a little more from you, now. Focus forwards.”

I nodded, and reached deep within. In my mind, I stood mired in a thick hazy gloop; where the gentle stream and points of light, which represented my Skills, had been, there was instead an unmoving slosh of blue-black gunk, the same colour as the venom that still coursed through me from the Snowdrift Serpent’s fangs.

As my vision entirely clouded, and the last of my strength began to leave me, I forced myself down into that psychic mire, felt around under the frozen surface, and managed to grasp ahold of something entirely blindly: [Vigour]. The effect was much weaker than usual, and came on slowly, but it sent dull-licking fire through my blood and I managed to pull myself up and make the rest of the short journey at a stunted jog.

“By my wager, we’ll be safe here for a time,” Alator said upon the daylit briar. His voice wasn’t entirely certain, but he gave a glance to my wounds and must have made a calculated guess that we wouldn’t be able to out-run them, regardless.

There was movement in the briar and the pine needles, and a shock of snow lifted to the air as a fiend skid to a heavy stop by the side of the sunspot. On broad, weighty paws, a six-legged feline creature scowled at us, baring fangs and watching with bright blue eyes from the tree line. Its coat was mottled to be the perfect image of the snow-covered pine trunks, and its long, thin, semi-transparent claws glinted dully like carbon fibre before they retracted. Then as it moved forwards, I saw an illusory, or else spectral, wisp of an echo move alongside it, so that its exact movement was mirrored confusingly for a moment.

It reached a paw out, but as the sun — even filtered as it was through the snow-clouds — touched it, the spectral double following after it dissipated, and further, smoke drifted from the fur, and it hissed and brought its paw back. It retreated from the edge a few yards and began to prowl this way and that, its thick, tall haunches bobbing up and down. The sharp features of its face were locked in a constant snarl and growl.

Analysis Card.

Fiend :

Frostwraith Lurker, Level 14

Stats :

Str 8, Dex 18, Con 13, Mnd 3

Attacks :

Crushing Bite, Feast, Spectral Claw

Loot :

Frostwaith Claw, Snowdrift Pelt

Weakness :

Sunlight, and hesitant to act first

XP :

99

Ninety-nine Experience! And all I’d have to do was nick it for half?

// SYS : Talbot, this is your sponsor talking. Be cautious. //

I sat for a few minutes, got my breath back, and waited until just the first hint of clarity returned to my inner stream of power. That should be enough. I made sure Alator was nearby, between me and the massive cat, and I rose and levelled my spear at the thing.

One more can't hurt, eh?

Standing, I brought the spear back, reached for [Weapon Mastery], and with every ounce of my improved Strength, I grunted and hurled the weapon like a javelin. Alator heard the effort and span just as the spear passed two feet from him, reflexively he reached out a hand to catch it but was a moment too late.

It flew steady and true. I was impressed with myself, but due to my exhaustion, or the low Level of the Skill, it only grazed the beast — struck along one of its slick, arched shoulders. The scratch it left was minute and surface-level — I hoped it’d be enough.

The fiend howled rage and dove through the briar into the sun. Its pelt immediately erupted in black smoke, filling the air with the stink of burning hair. It screeched pain and thrashed its head around but kept a terrifying and startling pace towards us.

Alator reacted immediately, walking fully in-between me and the beast. I fell back on my arse onto the boulder, the pump from the Skill left me, and utter exhaustion overtook me — I erupted into a fit of coughs and choked breath. The needle-like wounds through the muscles and sinews in my shoulder and hand burnt cold and I swayed, my eyes heavy-lidded, barely held onto consciousness.

All six of its powerful legs rippled muscle as it bound manically towards us, and Alator widened his arms out to the side like a yokozuna sumo wrestler ready to receive an apprentice rikishi’s initial rush.

With a final yowl, eyes like blue flame and with smoke tumbling off its body like it was fresh out of hell, the beast extended its claws and made the last ten yard leap in one bound.