Wisps of essence rose from Dylan as he strode into the dungeon node chamber. The juggernaut charged closer, its nine flailing legs carrying its giant body forward in a mad scramble. Its body was covered in patchy bits of fur and scabs, reminding Hump of a colossal rat. A long neck extended from its torso, stretching upward like an eel. Its eyes were small and pale white, while its jaws were massive, a row of small, razor teeth within that dripped with green sludge.

The druid appeared relaxed as he faced it. In his right hand, he loosely gripped his quarterstaff at its centre. With every passing moment, the power of Krioc surrounding him grew thicker, until it surged from him in an ethereal aura of green. Hump’s soul swelled in its presence, bursting with energy and confidence. His heart hammered, and a wildness came over him that urged him to race forward, but he resisted. His eyes fixed on Dylan and the divine magic manifesting around him. Hump was lost in it.

Grass sprouted from Dylan’s footsteps, spreading quickly until a path of spectral green blades coated the tunnel floor. They grew taller, reaching up to his knees, swaying in the wind of his blessings. Flowers bloomed amongst them—beautiful reds, blues, whites, yellows—and saplings sprouted, climbing quickly until they reached the roof of the tunnel. The trunks thickened, canopies forming overhead. Soon, they were standing in a serene forest glade, formed purely from magic.

The sensation in Hump’s soul became stronger, as if essence pumped directly from the air into him, reinvigorating him and making him feel stronger.

As Dylan stepped into the dungeon node chamber, the glade expanded with him, grass surging forward like a wave, fighting the mushroom grotto within for space.

“Aspect of the Guardian,” he said.

The astral form of a tree-like creature appeared over him. It was hunched forward, its arms outstretched at either side, mouth agape and roaring, revealing the green essence within.

Dylan’s body changed, becoming ten feet tall. His skin thickened and hardened, turning brown and taking on the texture of ancient bark. His limbs elongated, his hands and feet expanding into colossal clubs. Other blessings layered on top of it. Nature’s Spring enhancing all of them, while a shield blessing of sorts enveloped him in a thick layer of essence.

He fell into a combat stance, flourishing his quarterstaff, channelling his Growth blessing until the weapon became as thick and long as a tree.

The juggernaut was nearer now. Behind it, imps cheered and shouted war cries from the shelter of the mushroom grotto, while hellhounds passed around them as shadows. Bloodhorrors formed an organised line of greatswords, ready for battle. They stamped their feet, drumming a beat of war as they watched. All of the demons appeared excited, their red eyes smouldering with delight. Clearly, they didn’t expect much of a fight.

Even as the juggernaut entered Dylan’s domain of manifested grass and trees, the druid still waited. He simply watched, entirely open to attack. Even in his enlarged tree-form, the juggernaut was half his size again.

When it was well into his domain, Dylan raised his free hand in an upward thrust. Grasping Vines erupted from the ground and trees from all around his domain, dozens of them lashing at the creature, wrapping around its limbs and torso, crushing it tight and binding it in place.

Dylan burst forward, raising his staff high overhead to slam down on the juggernaut’s skull. Before he could, the creature tore free of its bindings in a frenzy, breaking out enough to avoid a direct hit. Instead, Dylan’s staff connected with its shoulder and sent the giant creature flying back.

It stumbled to its feet, snarling fiercely. The beat of demon feet and war cries went silent—so quiet, one could have heard a pin drop. The juggernaut paused, staring at Dylan on its nine legs, teeth bared. It still lived, but the druid had done his job. The entrance to the chamber was clear.

More vines rose from the ground, snapping at its hindquarters, but it was too clumsy on its many legs to escape, quickly becoming tangled in the mess. Dylan charged it, slamming his staff down again and again. The creature roared, striking out with its arm, but it was already on the losing end of that battle.

Hump turned his attention to the other demons. This was just the beginning of the battle, there was still plenty of killing to do.

“Activate blessings!” Bud roared, his own Heart of Frostfire expanding around him in an icy glow. The rest of the Chosen in his company did the same, creating an aura of different colours that encompassed the entire group, granting even the basic soldiers the power of divine blessings.

Bud raised his sword overhead. “Advance!”

“Stay back with Celaine,” Hump commanded Nisha, leaving no room for disagreement. He turned to Celaine. “Nisha’s with you.”

“I’ll take care of her,” she said.

Bud led the way forward at a quick step, Hump marched with him, along with Henrietta, Emilia, Joric, and Rufus at his side, the infantry just behind. Celaine remained a few lines back with Nisha, amongst the archers and other Chosen.

Then the frenzied voice of the demon leader came from behind them. “Stop standing there, fools! Attack! Attack!”

Hump’s eyes roamed the mushroom grotto for the source of the voice, but it was so thick with flora, some as tall and large as trees, that he couldn’t find it. The imps attempted to throw their spells again, but they collapsed in their clawed hands, the pulsing intent of Hump’s Titan’s Wrath still active. Bloodhorrors hammered at the obsidian crystal with their greatswords, they combined efforts finally bringing about its destruction.

By that point, Bud’s company had already reached the end of the tunnel. They stepped into the chamber. Bloodhorrors and fellspawn rushed in from the front. Hellhounds started to circle around through the mushrooms to get at the company’s flanks, but Dylan’s major blessing protected them with a line of trees and divine essence. Finally able to use their spells, the imps barraged them with fireballs.

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A shield of ice formed in the air. Light enveloped them. Soldiers stepped forward, metal shields at the ready for what made it past, enhanced by blessings. The imps spells broke against them and dissipated into nothing, lacking the power to penetrate the defensive layers.

“Emilia, Beatrix, take out the imps,” Bud commanded. “Celaine, kill the juggernaut with Dylan. Heavy Infantry, Light Infantry, form a wall with me. They’re coming.”

Emilia coiled like a spring. Red essence pulsed beneath her skin, growing brighter, and then she erupted forward. She crossed the distance in a flash of red, appearing amongst the imps in the mushrooms even faster than Celaine could. There, she was a whirlwind of steel. No demon could resist the sting of her blade.

“Archers!” Beatrix shouted.

Strings buzzed as a volley hissed ahead. Where the arrows found their marks, imps fell squealing and crying. Before the bodies hit the ground the archers reached for their next arrow—this was hardly their first fight. They knew what they were doing and were good at it. Hump spotted Celaine’s shadowy arrows and Power Shot amongst them, laying into the juggernaut as Dylan hammered away at it.

While others fended off the enemy attacks, Hump took out his spellbook, the pages whirling as he infused it with essence, relying on the Combat Formations to enhance his spellcasting. His staff exploded with tendrils of light. Bronze swept forward, surging through the earth in a flood. He heaved his staff upward, feeling the weight of the ground resist him.

“Stonewall.”

A wall of rock erupted from the earth along the left side of the mushrooms, blocking off a dozen imps. Combined with Dylan’s trees, the enemy were funnelled in through a small area at the front and right side of them, compressing their wide formation and disrupting their attack.

Infantry met infantry in a clash of steel and flesh. The bloodhorrors and fellspawn relied on brutish strength and weight of bodies, but it was ineffective against the sharp steel of the Blackthorne company. What spells reached them from the imps at the rear were resisted by the aura of blessings that hung over the company.

A bloodhorror rushed in close, face ugly and twisted. Red skin scaley and dry, mouth snarling to reveal small, pointed teeth. Its greatsword was black as coal.

Hump raised his staff, concentrating his essence. “Focused Beam.”

A thin ray of blue shot forward, piercing the creature through the chest and sending it to the ground, dead in an instant. Beams of Frostfire exploded from the wands of Kat and Rianne at Hump’s side, as the two Sorcerers of Kelisia swept their weapons over the flora, freezing mushrooms and demons alike.

An arrow of flame went whizzing over Hump’s head, crashing into the ground behind him with a sharp bang. Hump spotted a few imps getting around the left side of the wall he’d created, trying to attack at their flank.

With a thought, he gathered up the loose stone in the area, drawing it to his staff as his spellbook turned to the Rock Missiles spell. The stones gleamed with bronze essence as he sent them flying at the handful of imps.

Before they struck, pain flared in his head, sharp and agonising. He dropped to his knees, closing his eyes and pressing his left forearm to it, trying to remove the pain.

He heard something call his name but it was distant, then the sounds and smells of battle were gone entirely.

“Die wizard!” he heard in his head, an enemy intent on invading his own mind.

That was all Hump needed. He latched onto it, throwing his intent and will against the invader.

“Begone!” Hump roared, manifesting his soul and letting loose all his strength. The invader was thrown from his mind screaming from the sudden force.

As Hump came to, he scrambled for his staff and stumbled back to his feet. A blade swung at him, but one of the soldiers was there, slamming into the side of the bloodhorror with his shield and ramming it off its feet. The man plunged his sword into the creature’s throat.

“Thanks,” Hump said.

The man gave him a smile and then was back to fighting.

Hump heard screaming and turned to find Kat and Rianne on the ground, clutching their heads in agony. An agony he recognised, but clearly they’d not had the strength to fight it off. Activating Spirit Sight, Hump saw violent pink essence flaring from their heads, and streaking through the chamber. He followed it back to the source, far back amongst the mushrooms and behind the demon lines. At first, Hump saw nothing but mushrooms, but then one of the giant fungi shifted, slowly floating toward them.

It was no fungi.

A tendril rose and fell, then another, moving like strange legs and dragging the creature out of the shadow. It entered the clearing where they fought, towering over everything, almost as large as a building.

Hump gazed up at a giant balloon of a creature. It floated about two feett off the ground, its body a single mass of flesh, like five deformed heads pressed together, each with their own eyes and jaws. At the centre was a single large eye and a mouth far bigger than any of the others. Its flesh was pale yellow and lumpy, covered in horrific bulging growths that were cracked and seeped blood and pus. The fluid streaked down its body, gathering at the mangled fleshy base where it dripped to the ground.

Where the drips landed, the ground hissed and brown fumes rose into the air. The stench of rot and decay struck Hump all the way down his throat, making him gag. A single larger eye stared at him, its skin split beneath it, and a mouth as long as his arm appeared, smiling at him painfully.

It had no limbs. Instead, six chains wrapped around its body, tethering it to the ground. Each of the chains had a large spike on the end that lodged in the earth, keeping it from floating away. The chains moved like limbs, rising into the air two at a time before piercing back down, like some strange insect.

“Gods help us,” a soldier cried. “Mind Eater!”

Shouts went up amongst the men, filled with fear.

“It’s targeting spellcasters!” Hump shouted. Kat and Rianne were still on the ground screaming. “Gideon! I need help here.”

The war priest rushed over, the blessings of Lady Light already pouring from him.

Hump stood ahead of him and levelled his staff at the creature. “Molten Stone.”

The fiery stone blasted the creature square in what would have been its cheek. Flesh hissed. The creature shook and fell back, a gaping wound in its flesh. Its mouths screamed in pain and anger as all eleven eyes turned on Hump. The central mouth tightened its lips and spat.

A globule of green shot at him, fast as an arrow. Hump raised his Shield just in time. Acid exploded over his barrier, fuming as it tore into his barrier. Essence drained from his fast. Backing away, Hump dropped his spell and let the fluid hit the ground where it continued to boil. This wasn’t something he could defend against easily.

Ahead of him, the frontline backed away from the encroaching creature. The stench of rot and acrid fumes filled the air, a trail of acidic bile left in its wake.

“Steady!” Bud roared, from the front, holding his ground. “The gods are here with you men, as are their Chosen. Fight with us!”

Fight? Hump stared up at the building-sized creature. How were they meant to fight this? That thing had just eaten a Tier 4 spell like it was nothing.

“Have no fear!” Gideon shouted, his aura radiating.

Hump felt his own confidence bolstered. He sensed a frightened Nisha behind him and glanced back to see her behind Celaine at the tunnel entrance. He urged her to remain there where it was safe. To the left, the juggernaut lay dead, Dylan joining the front line of the battle.

They were winning. The demons were faltering. If they could kill the mind eater, it would break them. Would White Flame kill it? He’d never tried to spell on such a large target, and he’d need to get closer than he felt comfortable.

If Tier 4 magic wasn’t enough, Hump would need to do better. For that to work, he’d need to find a way to get its floating body on the ground.

“Dylan,” Hump shouted, calling the druid to him. “I’m going to need your vines.”