Alex got his wish.

He and Claire arrived at the portal back to Valley Ford a short walk through the Mirrorlands later. Just like the first time they’d gone through the outskirts of the city, there were almost no monsters present and their trip went entirely without interruption.

And no sooner than Alex pried the portal open did a black sheen flash across its surface. It looked like their trip back to Earth wasn’t going to be quite as smooth as the one over to the Mirrorlands.

Princess and Spark were already present by Alex’s side, but he summoned Glint with a thought as he scanned their surroundings in search for the Riftwarped Monster that opening the portal had called.

Glass rang and shattered as Glint’s razor thin claws ripped through the air. He emerged from within the cracks in reality in a smooth, seamless motion. The monster was a Shardwalker no longer.

Claire let out a startled curse. “What the bleedin’ hell happened? That’s meant to be Glint?”

“He evolved. Glint is a Glasmir now,” Alex replied, spotting a dull pink line splitting through the air on the ground a dozen feet away from them. “And no, I don’t know what that actually means. We’re about to find out.”

“He looks downright evil,” Claire said with a shudder. “You’re completely certain that he’s on our side? The previous Glint was kind of cute, in an ugly gopher kind of way. Now he looks like something that you’d see behind you when you’re walking home at night.”

“Dhampirs think about things like that?” Alex blinked in surprise. “I kind of figured you guys were the things in the night.”

“There’s always something bigger.”

Energy crackled as the pink portal yawned open. Murky energy swirled within its depths, and Alex sent all of his monsters their commands for the fight. He wanted to see what the newly evolved Glint was capable of, but he wasn’t about to commit to anything until he saw what they were up against.

There was a creaking groan, like the sound of an ancient tree ripping itself up from the ground. A knotted grey root emerged from the portal and drove into the ground, cracking the cobbled stone. Another root followed after it, and the portal bulged as a bark-covered monster pushed its way into the Mirrorlands.

It was something in between a tree and a man, standing just over ten feet tall. Its thick trunk had long, barren branches with almost fingerlike endings jutting out of its body like arms. Two vertical cracks that Alex suspected to be its eyes burned at the top of the trunk with purple-pink rift energy.

Below them was a large, horizontal rip through the center of the tree’s body. A circle of jagged teeth ringed the inside of the hole. He had absolutely no idea what use a tree had for teeth, but it seemed nobody had told the monster that.

Riftwarped Treant (Initiate 6)

A creaking groan emerged from the monster’s mouth. The many roots twisting at its base like the tentacles of an octopus shot forward and dug into the ground as the Treant launched itself toward Alex and Claire.

Princess threw herself forward and slammed into the Treant. A loud crash echoed through the Mirorrlands as the large monsters drove into each other. The Treant’s fingers raked through Princess’ body, passing easily through her viscous form.

The Dredge did nothing to hinder the other monster from attacking her. Instead, she pressed closer, wrapping herself around the tree and binding down as many limbs as she could — but it was a losing battle.

There were too many branches to constrain, and the rapid attacks were tearing through Princess’ body as fast as she could rebuild herself. The Dredge was great at tanking large, powerful attacks that didn’t destroy her mask, but a ton of fast ones were a great way to waste her energy.

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Alex was pretty sure Princess could have handled the Treant herself if he used Rift Flood on her — but Princess wasn’t the monster he really wanted to see the capabilities of right now. The Treant was perfect to test just how much stronger Glint had gotten.

He sent a mental command to both of his other monsters. Princess shoved the Treant back, patches of black goop splattering across the ground as she ripped the other monster’s limbs free of herself, then lurched backward.

The Treant drove its roots into the ground to maintain its balance. Roots slammed into the ground and ripped large chunks of it free as the monster charged toward them.

Princess and Spark both distanced themselves, setting up alongside Alex. This was Glint’s show. The other monsters could wait at the sidelines in case the Treant turned out more powerful than he expected.

“Go,” Alex said.

Glint flowed forward. He slipped past roots as they shot up from around the Treant, and the wing on his back snapped out as the other monster extended its spindly branches to reach for him.

There was a shearing thunk. Glint moved past the Treant as if there had been nothing in his path. The tree monster’s arm thudded to the ground as Glint turned back toward it, his wing wrapping back around himself.

A grating shriek of fury slipped from the Riftwarped Treant. Twisting purplish-red streams of magic roiled off its bark and small portals snapped open throughout the air. Its roots shot into them.

More portals opened around Glint. The roots shot out, reaching to entangle him from every direction in a blindingly fast attack.

Before Alex could even send a modified command to his monster, the Glasmir moved on his own volition. The wing on Glint’s back snapped out once again with a shrill, ringing note. Segments of mirrored glass slid against each other and re-connected.

Alex’s eyes widened.

Glint’s wing was changing. It turned long and thin, becoming a bladed whip attached to his shoulder.

And even as it unfurled, the whip streaked through the air in a blur. Light from the Treant’s magic reflected off the rushing mirrors and danced across the ground. The other monster had absolutely nowhere to run. All of its limbs were already caught shooting through portals in an attempt to grab Glint.

The only thing it could do was try to reach Glint before the whip reached it.

And try it did.

Roots sliced out from portals and toward Glint one after the other. They slammed into the ground with enough force to shake it slightly. The Glasmir let each one slip by him like it was nothing more than a passing gust of wind.

Glint moved like a reflection passing through a wavy lake. By the time an attack was moving toward him, he was already somewhere else.

Within a second, every single one of the Treat’s roots had missed and buried themselves in the ground behind Glint, who had emerged from the tangle without so much as a scratch on his slender body — and then it was his turn.

There was a loud crack as his whip connected with the Treant’s body. The long, silver blade slithered back to Glint, snapping back into place on his shoulder and forming back into a wing.

A large chunk of the monster’s trunk split and fell away. It let out a roar of fury. Glint slipped into motion once more and the two monsters launched themselves at each other.

They collided with a crash. The air rang and the ground shook as the monsters spun around each other. Alex could barely even track the fight with his eyes. It wasn’t even because they were fast — it was something about the way Glint moved and the mirrored glass that made up the wing-whip.

The light flashing off Glint made tracking his motions nauseating. Alex could barely track him for more than a few moments before he found his eyes instinctively shifting off.

“He’s like an ambush predator creating his own distractions,” Claire muttered. “It’s a type of camouflage. That’s fascinating.”

It was more than fascinating. It was effective.

Even though Glint was an Initiate 1 matched up against an Initiate 6, the Treant was losing ground. Now that he was close range, he kept his wing as a flowing silver river at his back, protecting himself from attacks while he used his razor sharp claws offensively.

The Treant’s body creaked as its mouth opened wide. Rift Energy burned within the tree’s depths as it charged an attack. Glint vaulted back an instant before jagged roots exploded out from the creature’s mouth, carving through the air where he’d been like a flood of worms.

The roots raced across the ground, forcing Glint to retreat in a blur as they reached for him. He tried to get around the flow of magic, the Treant poured magic into the attack like there was no tomorrow. More and more roots emerged until a sea of them covered the ground around it and chased after Glint.

It didn’t matter how fast Glint was if he couldn’t actually get close enough to the Treant to finish it off. Glint had put up an incredible showing thus far, but this was his limit against a Riftwarped monster 5 levels above him.

At least — it was his limit as he was now.

Let’s see what you can do when you’re jumped up with a little extra energy.

Alex extended his magic toward the Glasmir.

Then he activated Rift Flood.