The five members of the Slayers lay across the crest of the hill, using the cover of one of the few bushes not deemed worth tearing down.

‘This not good,’ Arzak said for maybe the fifth time.

‘No,’ Val murmured back. ‘No, not good at all. It doesn’t seem like… a perfect plan, though, does it? If Yua can create an alliance of all the Tundran factions, then surely they can hold off a sea force?’

‘The food imports,’ I reminded her.

‘Still, though. We can just increase the purchases coming in from elsewhere?’

‘What, from the Goldmarch?’ I retorted. ‘I’m sure Queen Amira will be happy to oblige.’

Val stuck her tongue out at my sarcasm.

‘You will have to eat orcish food. Nice produce grow in snow. Trust me. You will like,’ Arzak said. ‘Lots of weltroot.’

I didn’t much want to find out what something called “weltroot” tasted like, so I turned my attention back to the new shipyards and figuring out what to do about them. ‘I think this is it. We’ve got to go in and kill her, before she really gets going.’

‘You think she’s in there?’ Lore asked.

‘I think it’s our best bet, sure. If she’s launching a new attack on the Tundras, where better than from a new base that nobody knows exists?’

Val nodded. ‘And if she’s smart—and she is, trust me—she won’t want to be at the front line. So she won’t be on one of those ships unless she absolutely has to be.’

‘I had hoped to have a sufficient bow before we faced her, however if this is what needs to happen…’ Corminar grumbled, ‘then happen it shall. We will need disguises.’ Before Val could pipe up, he clarified, ‘And not only Val; we all must be able to walk into Niamh’s office without a soldier taking notice.’

‘We get uniforms,’ Arzak agreed.

‘You thought about what happens once we start fighting?’ Lore asked. ‘Cos all these soldiers down there are gonna come running.’

‘We—’ Val started, but she didn’t get to finish that sentence because suddenly war drums erupted from around the shipyards—a great, thundering, echoing noise that I could feel in my bones.

We turned our attention back to the shipyards to see that this sound was announcing the departure of the fleet—they were already putting the next stage of the plan into motion. Those vessels in the shipyards that had been completed rolled one by one into the sea on long round wooden rollers, crashing into the water with an almighty splash. And those in the fleet that were already at sea—the vast majority of them—began to turn in the distance, pointing east.

‘We’re too late?’ Lore wondered aloud.

But Val shook her head. ‘It makes no odds. We move now, we kill Niamh, and they’ll have nobody capable of strategy. At least, nobody capable of it on her level. It doesn’t change the plan.’ There was a shakiness to her voice that was subtle enough that only I—and from the furrowed brow, Arzak—noticed, and I squeezed her hand.

‘It’s gonna be over soon,’ I said.

She looked back at me and smiled a sad smile—once that said she wasn’t quite convinced. And she was right, of course. If we killed Niamh, then the woman who’d ruined Val’s life would be gone, but she still had to deal with the fallout. She still wouldn’t have a family. People the world over would still see witches dead and think that justice had been served.

The five of us turned our attention back to the shipyards once more.

‘Are you ready?’ Val asked.

‘Never am.’

She nodded, but still we began to sneak down the hill, to do battle with a Player once again.

* * *

At the perimeter of the encampment, we used all our collective stealth experience to keep out of sight through the advanced and elaborate strategy of hiding behind a wall.

‘How many?’ Val asked Corminar, who had somehow ended up with the responsibility of subtly poking his head around the corner.

‘Only a small guard presence,’ the elf replied. ‘I am forced to assume that the majority of the Goldmarch army is aboard the ships.’

‘Could we fight our way through, then?’ Lore asked.

‘There are still too many for that to be a valid strategy.’

‘Hmm,’ Arzak said, and everyone but Corminar turned to face her.

‘What is it?’ Val asked.

‘You not feel we always doing this? Sneaking into places, taking disguises? Must be better way of doing these things.’

‘If you have a better idea, we’re all ears.’

Arzak held her hands up in protest. ‘No better idea, just thinking aloud.’

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‘I have it,’ Corminar said.

‘An idea?’

‘No, the location of the barracks. It is across the courtyard to our left; I saw the same man enter without uniform and exit with. Styk, would you care to do the honours?’

I shuffled over to his side. ‘Just tell me when.’ I poked my head around the corner of the wall underneath where Corminar was peering around, very conscious that if anyone spotted us, it would look ridiculous.

‘Prepare yourself,’ Corminar said, where anyone else would have instead opted for “Get ready”.

I raised one hand towards the side of the barracks closest to us, and lowered the other to point at the floor at my feet. Arzak, Val and Lore shuffled closer.

‘And…’ the elf started, and then a soldier suddenly came around a corner, who would see us if we were to open the portal in that moment. ‘Hold!’

‘You know I can see, right?’ I asked.

Corminar ignored me, ‘And… now!’

At his prompting, I opened the pair of portals, and the five of us tumbled through, landing on the hard dirt at the outside of the barracks. I immediately whipped my hands backwards to the barracks’s wall, and again portalled us inside—this time, flying blindly.

Last time we’d portalled our way into a barracks, we’d managed to avoid detection, at least initially. It was only Val’s poor acting skills that had given the game away, forcing Arzak and I to jump out of the wardrobe we’d been hiding in to help.

This time, we again tumbled out of a portal into the right room, but unlike last time, we did so in front of eight Goldmarch soldiers.

Lore raised a hand in greeting. ‘...Hi?’ he said, a toothy grin on his face. But it wasn’t enough to disarm this particular bunch.

One of the soldiers looked to the exit.

‘Arzak!’ I shouted. ‘Door!’

She nodded, and I opened a portal beneath her—one that dropped her in front of the only exit to the room, and she slammed the door closed behind her. If we were about to fight, then we didn’t want any reinforcements heading this way. We could only hope that nobody would overhear us, and not for the first time I regretted never picking Silence as a Worldbending ability, when I’d been given the option. I made a mental note.

‘Soldiers…’ a woman in the middle of the room said, her “gold” armour tinted by light blue magicks emanating from her hands. ‘Attack!’

There were enough people in this room that I didn’t quite follow what happened next. All I know is that the soldiers nearest Lore and Arzak fell quickly, their builds being perfect for this kind of close quarters combat. Corminar and Val, however, seemed more hemmed in, and I joined them at their side, figuring three people who didn’t like close quarters fighting was better than two.

Val twisted to one side to avoid an arcing greatsword, then ducked under it to knock the sword’s owner in the stomach. But she didn’t rely on bare-handed attacks alone, and she used her recently acquired lightning powers to drop the soldier to the ground.

Corminar, meanwhile, released arrow after arrow into the approaching soldiers, though at this range it was only a matter of time before the injured enemies overwhelmed him.

I jumped to support, portalling myself around the room and using the broken line of sight to quickly activate my Stealth Attack and Execution abilities on various targets, ignoring the experience point notifications as I did so. I didn’t always take an enemy down in one hit—in fact, more often than not, I didn’t—but it was enough to slow the soldiers down, and thin them out some. Between my stabs, Corminar’s arrows, and Val dealing magick damage, we weren’t a half-bad team, even in this environment.

I’d thought the tide was turning, when the woman in the centre of the room—who so far hadn’t attacked anyone—whipped her glowing arms out to her side. Echoes of the weapons of the fallen soldiers, formed of ghostly, light-blue magicks, floated into the air.

‘And what in Alterra is…’ I started, but my question was soon answered.

After only a second of hesitation, the conjured weapons began flying towards all members of the Slayers at once.

We hadn’t turned the tide at all. In fact, the fight had only just begun.

"Styk"

Level 15 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 40

Intelligence — 147

Dexterity — 89

Strength — 70

Wisdom — 55

Charisma — 33

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 41

Knifework — Level 35

Stealth — Level 17

Needlework — Level 12

Identification — Level 11

Abilities:

Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.

Execution II — Attack a target while undetected for +200% damage.

Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.

Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.

Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Local Portal II — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a ten yard radius. Uses mana/second.

Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.

Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.

Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.

Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.

Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.

Stealth Attack II — Passive. 80% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].

Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].

Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +900%