"Kid...you alive over there?" Eclipse said from her place on the group where she was collapsed from her skill's penalty.

"mmm....." was the only response she received, but it was good enough.

Kyrain was sitting on the ground as blood dripped from his nose as he just sat there in a daze listening to the flames spread from body to body below.

Eclipse looked up as she heard shouting in the distance and two figures came flying in from through the smoke from the bodies.

A man stepped forward and held out the ID of a Tier 5.

"My name is Caliber; we need to move you guys asap. The hive is still active and though, they are not moving presently, they are amassing by the entrances again." He said as he scooped both Eclipse and barely conscious Kyrain up and flew off. As he left another man drifted in, blue and white electricity arching off of him. As soon as he touched down, he closed his eyes and touched the metal container. The air around him became so charged with electricity, you can hear it humming, then the flames began to accelerate as he used the bodies as a means of conducting the electricity as far as he needed to.

We watched as the current went from body to body, underground, and even into the water. He pushed even harder and the bodies of the thousands upon thousands of thralls seized up, began smoking, then caught fire throughout the hive underground. The water in the port glowed blue and water droplets began to rise from the water with the sheer amount of electromagnetic energy being generated by the massive current going through the area.

After a few minutes, he cut the power and floated over the burning corpses now assured everything was truly dead and landed next to the now unconscious man and the famous Eclipse, who had now managed to sit upright and was becoming more of herself.

She was disassembling her rifle and putting it into the case that Caliber went back to get and had just started explaining what happened.

"Sir, we were sent here to clear out what seemed to be a small group of thralls, which was a great mission for a new hunter, I was set up at a distance with this beast ready to level anything that came through and even the little threat these things, posed to each of us. I think I was the only one to really be injured by them anything and it was but mere scratches." Eclipse said.

Caliber had a tablet out and was reading over the field record of Eclipse.

"I didn't think you had access to sun powers this time of night though?" Caliber said.

"I don't. That was all him." She said pointing her scope at Kyrain who was passed out on his side.

"Do we know what is wrong with him and why he was nearly catatonic what we arrived?" Surge, the one who electrocuted the hive asked.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Eclipse paused and thought for a moment. "I'm honestly not sure. If I were to guess, I'd say some sort of severe backlash. I've never seen him open a rift that big or that far away." She said, though more thinking out loud.

"It is all that makes sense, we will need him to wake up in order to get more information about his health." Caliber said picking the tier 1 back up and heading back.

- Hours later -

Kyrain awoke, and immediately regretted it. His head was pounding and not just your standard headache, but the throbbing behind the eyes. He tried to roll over and go back to sleep, but a voice pierced the silence.

"Can you not sleep anymore? I'd like to go back home for a bit" He slowly opened his eyes to see Nyx lounging in a recliner appearing to watch TV.

He looked around the area and saw that he was in a sort of hotel room. Nyx pulled out her phone and sent a text before speaking. "Eclipse is going to be waiting for you down below. Turns out you guys had much more fun than Phoenix and I did. Sure, we killed a couple thrall, but nothing like the hoard you had fun with." Nyx said looking at him with an amused look.

Kyrain touched his face, making sure his mask was on before slowly getting to his feet. He pushed with his hand to open a rift, but nothing happened save the same warning he barely imagined seeing before he passed out.

Warning!

You have overtaxed your spirit opening a rift beyond your range.

Your access has been cut off for the next 48 hours until it can heal.

Time remaining: 15 hours 16 minutes

He looked back at Nyx who was watching the TV again. "We don't get to head back home using one of my rifts for the next 15 hours Nyx." He said.

Nyx turned quickly, "Wait! Why?! I want to get a shower and fresh change of clothes on." She said grumpily.

Kyrain let out a sigh and a nod of commiseration. "Turns out I, as the system calls it, "overtaxed my spirit." He said.

Her eyes went wide. "Thats actually pretty bad. It means you almost died doing something well beyond your control. How long was your backlash period?" She asked with a lot of concern on her face.

"48 hours." He replied.

She sat up and brought her knees closer to her chest laying her head sideways looking at him.

"One of the worst I've ever seen is week-long. Any longer than that and your path ends up crippled or you die." She said.

Kyrain nodded slowly, head aching like crazy then left the room. He took the elevator down to the bottom floor and went into the conference room the concierge directed him to when he asked.

"Welcome back sleepy head. You were out for a while." Eclipse said, sliding a few sheets of paper toward him at the conference table.

"Did the system give you any indication what happened to you or was it standard exhaustion?" She asked

Kyrain sat down across from Eclipse. "The system said I "overtaxed my spirit" ma'am." He answered pulling the papers closer to him.

"Well, depending on the time you are locked out of your path, you will have time to write your official report. Everything that happened in detail no matter how small the details. Do not embellish or lie on these, if you make a mistake; one line through, initial, then write what you meant. Got it?" She explained.

"Yes ma'am" Kyrain said starting to get into the miserable work of writing.

- Meanwhile at the port -

"My Lord, one of the hives was not only discovered, but completely wiped out." A woman said coldly lacking any sort of emotion normally associated with perceived failure.

"It is fine Myra; it was to be expected that the guilds or even their hunters would catch on and even find some of the things we have planned. Stay the course. We continue running the distractions, until we are truly ready to make our moves. Have the other brides, accelerate the thrall hives. The more the merrier." He replied.

"Yes my Lord." She said as the call went dead.