“Aerion! Aerion, listen to me. You’ve gotta… Aw, shit.”

Aerion wasn’t listening. She happily continued to hack away at our foes, oblivious to my words. To extreme effect, I had to add.

Her new strength was absolutely monstrous, allowing her to cleave through the ice warriors with a single swing of Aurora. She wasn’t even using my sword… With it, she’d be an unstoppable machine.

Until her timer expired, of course. It didn’t matter how many of these things we killed, there’d be ten more to take their place. They were endless, and there was only one shot we had at survival.

This, however, was neither the time nor the place for coddling, so I went with the most daring, desperate plan I had… I tackled Aerion.

My elven friend, needless to say, did not like this. Not one bit.

Before I even realized it, I was sailing through the air, having been forcibly thrown off Aerion. I didn’t even notice when she threw me. Only that she had, and that it hurt like a motherfucker.

I did succeed at one thing, though. I now had Aerion’s undivided attention.

The way she looked at me, with cold, dead eyes, almost made me hesitate. Almost. I barely managed to avoid her incoming strike—apparently, she now saw me as an enemy.

At least that meant I could get close, which was a start. The only way she’d listen was if I forced her to. And that meant getting through the haze of [Reave]. To the real Aerion who lurked beneath.

Instead of dodging her next blow, I rushed up to her, tackling her again. We both hit the ground, and this time, I bound her arms behind her back as I used my own weight to keep her planted firmly on the ground.

Her awkward position hampered her ability to muscle me away, and despite several fierce jolts, I managed to hang on. Even augmented as she was, she still couldn’t escape the laws of physics. Not at her level, anyway.

“Aerion!” I shouted into her ear. “Listen to me. I know you’re in there, somewhere. I know all you want is to kill, kill, and kill some more. But you’ve got to focus on the wall.”

I knew that using normal logic on her in this state would be worthless. I had to speak to the Berserker and the elf that was my friend. If there was any chance of making this work, I had to appeal to both.

“Break through that wall, and you’ll find an army,” I said. “You can fight to your heart’s content. You can fight more enemies. A lot more! You understand?”

Aerion said nothing, only glaring at me with those same eyes. Except now, there seemed to be some modicum of sanity behind them.

Almost imperceptibly, she nodded.

“Okay. I’m going to—guh!”

The second I let off the pressure, Aerion flung me aside like I was some toy. I hit the nearest wall hard, and for the next several seconds, every shred of my consciousness became consumed with the simple act of forcing air into my seized lungs.

The craziest part? I didn’t even think she meant to attack. Just that with her ridiculous strength, instead of a light shove, I went hurtling away.

By the time I got to my feet, Aerion was gone. I immediately looked at the zombies, sure that she’d rejoined the fight.

My stomach dropped when I saw Richard, alone, clumsily swinging my sword to fend off the zombies. He was just barely holding on… Which was actually an impressive feat, given his specs. Still, he wouldn’t last much longer.

That was a problem. But maybe it wasn’t as big of a problem as I’d thought.

Because Aerion had returned to the wall, and the loud Crack that pierced the air a moment later indicated she’d succeeded. She’d broken through.

“Richard!” I roared. The elf didn’t hear me, so I rushed up beside him, smashing my fist into a zombie that was readying to swing its sword at him. “Richard! Great work, buddy, but we gotta hustle. Through the gap in the wall. Now!”

“Oh! Oh, right! About bloody time!”

Richard bolted, diving for the hole, and I followed right behind. Aerion had already disappeared to the other side, so I was the last one through.

All I had to do was defend myself until Richard was through, and then we’d be home free.

The problem was, the gap in the wall wasn’t large. It was a jagged hole a couple of feet in diameter, and about three feet high. An awkward position made even more awkward by a clumsy elf.

“Uh, Richard? Any day now…”

“I’m trying!” came his desperate reply.

I dodged an ice arrow fired from the throng of ice zombies, right before swinging my Steel Mace into the nearest monster’s jaw, shattering it. Its newly ranked-up [Bleed] was certainly showing its stuff. The blows required less effort, and even slight hits caused liquid to rush out of their body.

Of course, with their bodies being made of ice, the liquid was water, but it seemed to function just the same as blood for my enemies. Those who lost enough crumpled on the spot. In fact, [Bleed] had leveled up again at some point during the fighting, from E - 0 to E - 1.

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

Every second that passed pushed me back bit by bit, until my back was against the hole that Richard was trying to squeeze through.

I twisted to avoid a downward chop, before deflecting a thrust with my mace, sending it off-course. The war hammer, though, I couldn’t avoid, and my battered body was slammed against the wall.

Once more, the air was forced out of my lungs, and this time, three different blades were on a course to sink into me before I recovered.

This was it. I had nowhere to run. I was surrounded by enemies, and I could barely even move my body.

Then Richard spoke the magic words.

“Alright, I’m through!”

“Music to my fucking ears—!?”

Imagine my surprise when a pair of arms didn’t just pull, but flung me through the hole. Not a half-second before a sword, a battleax, and a war hammer all slammed into the spot I’d just occupied.

“Richard? When did you get so—oh.”

It wasn’t Richard who’d pulled me through, but Aerion. She gave me one cursory glance with those ice-cold eyes, before smashing her sword into the broken wall, causing the whole thing to come crashing down, filling the void she’d just created. Then she was gone. Laying into the army of monsters that surrounded our buddy Eskil.

The space on this side was no less chaotic than where we’d just come from, even though the passage was a good deal wider. That should have given everyone more space… If it wasn’t filled with what had to be hundreds of these ice monsters.

Luckily, they all seemed hellbent on attacking Eskil, leaving Richard and me alone for now.

“Reckon she just saved your life, friend,” Richard said. “Better send some flowers later.”

“Yeah,” I said, heaving as I found my feet. “I think you’re right. Stay sharp, though. Those guys on the other side might follow us… through?”

With the collapsed wall, I could see the zombies, just a few feet away. Except, they made no motion to attack, or even try to clamber over the debris.

“Why are they just standing there?” I said to no one in particular. “It’d be so easy for them to follow…”

A stray ice arrow answered my question—crossfire from the raging battle outside. It sailed through the air and impacted the broken wall before falling to the ground.

Or rather, it impacted the invisible shield that formed the roof of this maze.

“Curious,” Richard said, handing me back my sword. “Thanks for the sword. Powerful weapon that… Even if it doesn’t make you invincible.”

My eyes widened, but Richard just clapped me on the shoulder and gave me a sad smile. “Maybe try trusting me a bit more next time, yeah?”

I nodded. “I will. Sorry.” I should’ve known better than to lie to him. I'd acted in desperation, but that was no excuse. I swore then and there I’d make it up to him.

“The barrier’s back in place, then,” Richard said, looking up. “No wonder they aren’t allowed through.”

While that made some sense, I had to wonder why these ice zombies were restricted by the same barrier that we were. They could phase in and out of walls… Why couldn’t they bypass the barrier to attack?

I didn’t know, but for now, that was one less thing to worry about. Because we definitely had enough on our plate already.

“We need to link up with Eskil,” I said, eyeing the mob of ice warriors. There were so many that I couldn’t even see Eskil at the center, despite his stature.

“Looks like our friend’s carving us a path,” Richard said, pointing to Aerion, who was ruthlessly hacking a path through.

“Yeah. Come on. Let’s go help her out.”

----------------------------------------

As it turned out, Aerion didn’t need much help. In fact, I felt like I only got in the way. I couldn’t kill the monsters nearly as quickly, and things got messy whenever I tried to get close. Her fighting style with [Reave] could be described as wild. Richard, though, was in his element, shattering hearts left and right.

Moments later, we’d broken through, arriving at the epicenter of the mayhem, where Eskil was currently swinging his oversized ax. If Aerion was like a blade of wind, ripping through our enemies, Eskil was like a gale-force hurricane. Each sweep of his ax cut down ten zombies… Which made any attempt to get close to the man lethal.

“Eskil!” I roared. “Eskil Magnusson!”

For a moment, I worried that he, too, was under the influence of some Berserker state like Aerion, but that fear proved unfounded. I had to hand it to the guy, he knew how to fight.

Faking an injury, he drew his enemies closer, before unleashing a devastating sweeping attack that decapitated all the ice soldiers nearby. Only then did Eskil glance at our group.

I was about to call out to him when I realized it wasn’t me he was looking at.

It was Aerion, and when he saw her dance around the perimeter he’d created, shattering and decapitating zombies one after another, his eyes grew wide.

“Eskil,” I said, trying to get his attention. “We’re here to help. Let’s work together to defeat this dungeon… Aaand he’s not even listening, is he?”

It was like I didn’t exist.

Eskil was fixated purely on Aerion.

“Woman!” Eskil roared, his deep voice rumbling through the passage. “Woman! Hear me!”

Perhaps sensing that Eskil was not one to be taken lightly, Aerion turned to face the giant with the same dead eyes she’d given me.

“Oh. Oh shit,” I muttered, sensing where this was headed. We had a battle junkie Viking alpha male. We had Aerion, possessed by [Reave]. There was only one conclusion that could be drawn from this. “Richard, this could get ugly. We need to stop them from fighting at all costs.”

“A little busy here,” Richard muttered, face screwed up in concentration. “With those two no longer fighting, it’s about all I can manage to keep those buggers off.”

I looked at the mob of zombies. Sure enough, none of them were attacking. Some were clutching their hearts. Others had fallen to the ground, while some were marching forward despite the obvious pain.

I glanced back at Richard, whose face was covered in sweat. “Is it just me? Or have you gotten better at this?”

Richard wheezed out something halfway between a cough and a laugh, and I knew his timer was ticking. So was Aerion’s, for that matter.

Whatever was about to go down, I needed to stop it pronto, or we were going to have a massive problem on our hands.

“Eskil. We have to—!?”

I stopped dead in my tracks, unable to believe what I was seeing.

Eskil Magnusson, invincible battle-crazed Viking, had just driven his ax into the ice and fallen to his knees.

“Beautiful skjaldmær! My Shield Maiden! Under the all-seeing eye of Odin… Marry me!”

In response, Aerion, my dear friend, ran out of Essence and fainted.