From Alator’s stance, I imagined an incoming clash of body-on-body — clearly that was the impression he wanted to give. The Lurker must have thought that as well, as it raised four of its six legs, four-inch scimitar-like claws extended, and made to catch him in a bear-hug and rake his back apart.

But a SPLIT second before impact, there was a flash of yellow-gold and a heat picked up in the cool pine forest clearing. The next moment Alator of the Solar Wheel stood with a spun torso and muscles at full tension, body a perfect image of a disc-thrower, and the fiend was sprawled on the floor, one side of its face smashed in.

Any sweat on Alator’s body turned to steam as his eyes flashed once, twice, three more times as he immediately closed the distance and landed consecutive blows to the beast with his right fist. The punches left welts in its fur and I heard the cracking and crunching of bone.

But the thing was awesome in its relentlessness — it twisted its body down almost flat to avoid Alator’s last incoming attack and span itself round in an instant as only a cat can do. On its back, its six legs all reached out far and LASHED out.

Each slash left behind a spectral echo like a mirage that followed it, or like when you accidentally set your mouse cursor to have a trail. And every movement caused more black smoke to flow from the burning fur as the filtered light of the sun burnt into its wraith-like coat.

Alator guarded himself and leapt backwards, but not before the beast opened two sets of thin claw-marks along his forearms.

Growling, Alator landed with a skid and immediately kicked off again, undeterred by the creature’s glass-clawed defence. Clearly he had great confidence in his abilities, or else his rage was quickly surpassing his ability to think straight.

At a sprinter’s pace, his arms and legs cutting through the air, Alator then threw himself to the ground and slid beneath the creature’s thrashing legs. Right up close, he threw an arm around both sides of the creature’s neck, manoeuvred himself underneath its belly, and squeezed.

PANIC overcame the creature’s eyes. It jumped and thrashed and tried to buck, to no avail, then it launched itself into the air and came down HARD on Alator’s back. A grunt and a wince, but he remained with gritted teeth and wild eyes in full contact.

The thing spun around again and started to tire, its muzzle, a few moments before blue and angled, was a red-purple, half-broken mess. Its breath was strained. Wheezing, it fell around in final throes. Then Alator’s bare feet found purchase on the ground, he wrenched backwards almost to a wrestler’s bridge and CRUNCH — the thing’s neck broke at an awful angle.

He dropped the beast and stepped back from it, checked the light wounds on his forearms, and then turned to me, seething.

“Talbot, why?” his voice was dark and tinged with something berserk.

“Experience,” I gasped, my throat hoarse from the coughing fit. Barely able to sit up straight, I shied away from him.

Alator through glinting eyes stared at me incredulously. The Frostwaith Lurker twitched on the ground, and my companion raised and dropped a bare foot, stamping it through the fiend’s skull to the floor, only a dark red mess remained.

His leg soaked in the creature’s gore, he stamped over the briar towards me. To my surprise, he sat down heavily beside me and licked a thin line of his own blood from his elbow.

“Well, it’s only a little, but we’ve now both spilled blood in battle together.” He leant over and punched me hard in my good shoulder — what was my good shoulder. Cringing and holding it, I split a laugh.

“Blood-brothers?” I asked.

His eyes darkened and though his smile didn’t drop, I saw it become more forced.

“Aye, something like that.”

With a small movement of his ankles and toes, he jumped up onto his feet.

“Rest. You need a few hours, at least. I heard from the grey-tongued speakers in Ur-Kadesh that it is unwise to travel over Korgoth’s corpse after sundown, but I fear we may have no choice — you have left us with no choice.”

Now, in the aftermath, with all the excitement settled and the powdery snow spotted with red like strewn strawberries, the pain came on properly. That mingled with Alator’s faint disappointment.

I smiled uneasily, and checked in with SYS.

// SYS : You gained 69 XP for defeating the Snowdrift Serpent, and you gained 49 XP when Alator defeated the Frostwraith Lurker. You now have 187 and need 82 total for the next Level. //

Level 3! Here I come! While my heart is set on Strength . . . and eventually getting that greatsword . . . I think stamina is more important while we are journeying: Dexterity, it is!

// SYS : Congratulations and welcome to Level 3. Your Dexterity Stat has increased to 7. You have 105 XP remaining and need 88 total for the next Level. //

Come on! Testing death at every turn is definitely the way to go in Barbican! Level 4! STRENGTH!

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// SYS : Congratulations and welcome to Level 4. Your Strength Stat has increased to 10. You have 15 and need 95 total for the next Level. //

Levelling is pretty linear, huh?

// SYS : Of all the New Worlds, it is indeed the quickest to level in Barbican — what has taken you only two days might have taken someone in Chevalier Monde or Mirai No Sekai months to achieve, even with the boon I bestowed upon you. It also has the highest rate of player death of any New World. And while the fiends around Ur-Kadesh might not be the most daunting of all Barbican, they are known to be particularly aggressive. //

Again, biiig thanks for sending me here. You knew at the time that I didn’t really choose Ur-Kadesh, didn’t you?

// SYS : I simply trusted in your ability, O great Chosen One. //

Annoying. Are all the other Systems as sarcastic as you?

// SYS : No, but none of the others have ever granted an Analysis Card, so . . . you know, swings and roundabouts. //

Irritating.

I drew the Windbloom Herbs from my pouch and held them in my hand — the pale green stems were light as air, but bent in a few places, and the long white petals had been bruised.

How do I use this?

// SYS : You didn’t think to ask, O Chosen One? //

Infuriating.

Scrunching them up in my palm, a clear fluid was released from the stems. I shrugged and shoved them into my mouth, chewing them up. Tasted sickly sweet like a cross between meadowsweet and elderflower. Upon swallowing, I felt the pain subside slightly from my shoulder and palm. I scrunched up my Linothorax towards my neck and watched as the deep, harrowing hole that the serpent had left in my flesh stopped glistening wet and closed up a little.

// SYS : Lucky guess. //

After an hour or so, I reached for the stream of power within me and found it once again clear and steadily-running — the points of light beneath the water glinting invitingly, and rose to my feet.

Going to the feline fiend’s carcass, I collected a Frostwaith Claw. Still not confident enough to try to skin it, especially something this size, and with six legs, so I just left the rest. With Alator at my side, we passed back through the forest to where the serpent had set up the ambush by the wounded human-like-faced warg, and harvested a Snowdrift Fang and a Frost Venom Gland (with great care and unwilling assistance from SYS) from the former and a Broken Fang from the latter (with my neck tensed in a grimace).

Item :

Frostwaith Claw

Rarity :

Rare

Description :

Near-transparent and cold to the touch

Effect :

With [Crafting], it can imbue the power of spectral cold

Item :

Snowdrift Fang

Rarity :

Rare

Description :

Long, thin, razor-sharp fang, tough as steel

Item :

Frost Venom Gland

Rarity :

Common

Description :

Blue-black sac filled with cold-infused venom

Effect :

With [Herbalism], it can cause cardiac arrest

Why can’t I see the effect of the Snowdrift Fang?

// SYS : Many items do not have a specific effect, either magical or prescribed. To this point, however, the item is what it is — with ingenuity, it may have many uses other than those prescribed. //

“Onwards to Akhur'shet!”

As Alator said, we did not stop as day became twilight and then the dim cloud-covered light of the suns fully disappeared behind the eastern horizon, leaving a truly dark way.

There was still a twinge of pain every time I used my left hand or moved my right arm, so carrying my spear in either was difficult, but after a while I was forced to accept it and found I could still move both quite comfortably.

Assuming we find the edge of the forest soon and can find shelter to rest a while, it’s better to use Skills in order to level them up, right, SYS?

// SYS : That’s correct. As you might guess, each Level is harder to achieve than the preceding; while you could level [Vigour] to Level 2 by sprinting and leaping for a few hours a day, higher Levels will require stunts considerably more death-defying. //

I was struck by an image of farming high Levels of [Vigour] by BASE jumping.

// SYS : Skills also have to be used appropriately in order to level them, however. Lying in bed and consistently drawing on your Skills before sleep, for example, won’t improve them much — and all the created energy flowing through you would definitely cause insomnia, or else trigger a heart attack. //

A little terrifying. Noted.