My heart stopped cold as my companion’s words settled in. The adrenaline abated and I felt a shudder run over my body.

The World-Eater is moving.

“We’ve done too little,” Alator spat, eyes cruel. “Your growth is not fast enough.”

Bzz.

// SYS : You gained 21 XP for defeating the first Voracious Chiroptera and 10 XP when Alator defeated the second. You now have 114 and need 115 total for the next Level. //

One off, really? Couldn’t have rounded up? . . .

// SYS : The lion’s share is given to the one who struck the final blow. //

Fine. . . . Is he right? Am I still too weak?

// SYS : Your growth is the fastest I’ve witnessed of anyone in any New World. But yes, he is correct. As a Warrior of the Gods, much more is needed from you. //

I looked down to my fists gripping the thick, wooden pole of my spear. They trembled for a moment and I clenched them tight, white-knuckled, then looked back up to Alator. For a sluggish, mind-blanked second, all warrior instincts left me and all I could do was mutter:

“What should we do?”

“We need to move — now. The whole city is shaking, and it won’t hold forever. These frail, precarious vines — pitiful peacetime cities like this will be the first to succumb. Ith-Korr’s fall will be devastating. If we can’t make it out in time, we at least need to be low enough that we’ll survive the leap.”

He gestured over to the sprawl of deep green jungle beneath us. The broken fiend gurgled blood behind him and struggled up to its feet, a mixture of alien rage and very familiar pain. Alator turned to it and began to step towards it.

Behind me, Lenya struggled to her feet, a hand on the fence banister, and took to my side. She mumbled an incantation under her breath. An energy pumped through the air and the wind caught up and pulled past me towards her as she reached for something arcane. Then like a lifted shroud, my worries dissipated somewhat, or at least were replaced by a call to action.

A soft moan left her chest as she slumped standing again, the magical effort taxing her.

“I-I can . . .” she started, then trailed off, cleared her throat and started again with trembling words. “If we jump, I think I could keep us safe.”

I turned to her. Her mouth was pulled back in no confidence and a tear broke from her grey eyes.

“You think? I don’t fancy crawling around that jungle with broken ankles,” I said. Whatever magic she had performed seemed to lay underneath my heart, keeping me aloft.

Her eyes wavered, she swallowed and redoubled her effort, and her voice steadied.

“I can do it.”

I nodded and turned back to Alator. He had made to the half-dead fiend and with a FLASH of gold, caved in its inhuman face with one savage movement of his right fist. Then he returned to us.

“Let’s head down.”

He turned to leave, but I stamped the butt of my spear into the ground. Even over the clamour of the city, it resounded through the tier.

“We’re not running from this. People are dying. Let’s clean up.”

His long, sharp teeth flashed like a wolf’s fangs and he rolled his shoulders, the skin rippling and pulling taut over broadening muscles. Despite the camaraderie, I flinched a moment and moved the spear. Then his red tongue licked out of his mouth and his face split in an awful, ugly smile — the same I’m sure I wore whenever racing towards my own doom.

“I’ll follow your lead, Talbot.”

Immediately we set off running through a narrow street towards a loud discordance of shouts and the beating of wings. The frail green glow passed us as strobe lights and the purple corpse-light of the portals in the sky above lit everything like a macabre nightclub.

We tore around a corner and came upon another wider courtyard area to find a group of people, huddled together and crouched, being beset by another three of the flying bat-like World-Eater demon fiends. The area was scattered with hoarded debris, much like the between-tier below us.

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“On me!” I roared, and lifted my spear to the air, and with the other hand touched the Analysis Card in my pouch.

Fiend :

Voracious Chiroptera A, Level 2

Stats :

Str 6, Dex 9, Con 4, Mnd 2

Attacks :

Needle Bite, Talon Slash, Wing Spike

Loot :

Void Claw, Void Patagium

Weakness :

Clumsy on uneven ground

XP :

21

Fiend :

Voracious Chiroptera B, Level 2

Weakness :

Sensitive chest

Fiend :

Voracious Chiroptera C, Level 2

Weakness :

Blinded by sparks

Loathe to tarry, and furious at my own incompetence, I popped off [Battle Tactics] and [Battle Tactics: Metavision] together as soon as I had sight of their Weaknesses, and while running, called to my companions beside me:

“Lenya, we need your sparks again — aim for a yard or so in front of the one on the right. Alator, get one good punch centre mass to the one in the middle and it’ll crumple. I’ll take the left.”

They both nodded back to me. Lenya immediately halted in her approach and raised her staff to point at Voracious Chiroptera C, and began her incantations. I felt the pull of energy towards her again as the air began to warm and her hand glowed, but from my recollection of the last time she had performed this feat, and from the Skills drawing my eyes perfect and wide, I knew it would take her a little while — I didn’t have time to wait for the result.

The fiends had seen our approach, but their distended mouths simply hissed and they continued to advance on the huddling group of jungle-folk, all wrapped up in each other’s arms, fearful, tearful.

Before the first reached, I skidded to one sandalled foot and brought my spear back and over my shoulder, and with a grunt and a quick reach deep into the stream of my inner power for the small cold steel blue light, sent the fire of [Weapon Mastery] through my arm. I hurled the spear like a dart at Voracious Chiroptera A.

Its high Dexterity was enough to react and spin away from the weapon, and it soared past it and with a THUD the spearhead embedded itself into the splintering shambles of wood that made up one of the residential shanties. With a dark hiss its attention was drawn — that was all I was after.

I set off again and with exaggerated leaps, made look as if I would meet the creature in melee. It took the bait and dropped to the ground and with clawed limbs pelted towards me.

The other two were drawn by the danger as well and left the cowering mass behind, widening their mouths past any expected jaw-breaking point and let out an awful undulating screech, then took off towards us as well.

One of the jungle-folk peered her head up and immediately grabbed another next to her — a small child — and set off at a sprint away from the area. The others followed. Complication gone. Everyone’s safe.

That moment, I heard Lenya’s fine, clear voice call, “[Flicker : Spark].” Two of the broad wooden planks lit up red as sparks erupted from the ground and sprayed in all directions. The fiend she was aiming at stopped dead in its tracks as the embers jumped into the air towards it and its eyes shut hard.

Alator then reached his mark. A wild cry and lunge sent talons raking down, but my companion was beside them, and with a — frankly — beautiful pirouette, he emptied his lungs in a shout, brought his torso violently about, and landed a clean haymaker into the fiend’s chest. Its whole torso cracked inwards and metallic bones bent under the impact. It was flung backwards and lay still.

Focusing on my own, feeling the Skills I had drawn on leave me, I held onto the battleground knowledge that [Battle Tactics : Metavision] had imprinted onto my mind, and stopped on a dime and leapt three yards to the left, against one of the houses, putting a mess of broken iron and the ribs of barrels between us.

It reached the debris at speed and the first step into the pile had it slide and skid, completely off-balance. I drew the Frostwaith Claw and leapt on top of it, beating aside its panicked and clumsy strikes, and plunged the cold, near-transparent six inches into its head, then brought a hand back and with an open palm pushed it into its skull, leaving the claw flush with the skin. It rambled and roiled with death throes.

I took off it and went to retrieve the spear, then turned back towards the rest of the fight. Alator was advancing on the final foe, which was thrashing its talons about blindly. He dodged one strike and made to close the distance.

“No! It’s mine!” I roared over, blood pumping FIRE.

My companion’s eyes flashed fast fury and hate, but he controlled himself and took a step backwards. The blinded fiend reacted to my voice and turned towards me. I closed the distance and at the furthest extent of my spear, with a great effort of Strength and Dexterity both, I thrust the spearhead deep into its chest. The bronze screeched between metal ribs and it fell limp.

The familiar fatigue reared its ugly head and had me sway, my vision spotted. Blinking, I shook my head, and bellowed out a battle cry for any other monsters that might hear.

// SYS : You gained 21 XP for defeating Voracious Chiroptera A and 10 XP for defeating Voracious Chiroptera C. You now have 145 and need 115 total for the next Level. //

SPEED. DEX.

// SYS : Congratulations and welcome to Level 8. Your Dexterity Stat is now 9. You have 30 XP remaining and need 122 total for the next Level. //