‘I’m coming with you,’ Val shouted over the clashes and screams of battle. ‘If you’re killing her, I’m coming with you.’

‘Me too,’ Lore agreed. ‘You’ll need someone who can take damage. And…’ He looked to Corminar.

And then something surprising happened. Of all the people in the world, it was Elandor, head of the Red Thorn in the Gentle Tundras, who did something noble. He stepped forward. ‘You will require a fourth if you are to commandeer a ship, and you will need a ranger. And Sunalor needs the Hero of Iranir here. I will go with you.’

Val and I made a meaningful sort of eye contact—Do we have any other choice?—and then nodded.

‘Corminar Cladenor?’ Elandor said, looking into the ranger’s eyes. I expected him to reiterate the terms of the deal, to remind him—and the rest of the Slayers, by extension—what he owed. But instead, he said only, ‘Win.’

Corminar responded with a nod, and then, as the four of us departed to take down the enemy general, he returned to giving orders. To saving his home city. Seralin, Relaar’s lieutenant pushed passed us to speak with him. ‘Cladenor,’ I just about heard him saying as we began to weave our way along the wall. ‘There is something else you should know…’

The four of us—including an honorary Slayer I’d never expected to have on our side, in Elandor—pushed through the elves desperately trying to defend their home, shifting away from the gate, where the enemy was concentrating their advance. The further along the inner wall we travelled, the more sparse the enemy legions grew, until we were halfway between one gate and the next. There were still plenty of soldiers in our way, but now that this side of the inner city was practically surrounded, it was our only option to get to Niamh before she could deal any more damage.

Getting past this sparser coverage of soldiers was going to be down to me.

‘Everyone ready?’ I asked.

‘I could never be prepared for this,’ Elandor said. ‘The defence of my city. The massacring of a people I could never truly leave behind. The—’

‘He means “are you ready to fall through a portal”,’ Lore informed him.

Without waiting for the elf’s response, I opened one between the four of us, and we fell onto the cobbled streets in the distance. The charging soldiers immediately closed upon us, and Lore bashed one away with the swing of his huge right arm before I could open another portal. We fell through it, the typically stoic Elandor stifling a yelp, and spilled out down the road, towards the rear of the invasion force. One of our attackers fell through with us, and Val leaped towards her to imbue lightning magicks into the soldier’s uniform. If the Goldmarch invader had an hope of surviving the attack, it was put to bed by Elandor loosing an arrow into her head.

‘You know,’ Elandor murmured to me. ‘I do sometimes regret my Worldbending ability selections, particularly having overlooked portals in favour of pocket worlds. If I were to do it all again…’

I suppressed the urge to agree that although I wished he hadn’t picked pocket world abilities and stolen Lore’s sheep, we wouldn’t be here to save Sunalor if he hadn’t. Instead, I concentrated on opening the next portals—to the harbour walls—before the sparser nearby soldiers could deal us any damage. We spilled out atop the wall, all enemy soldiers having now long-since passed this point, and turned our attentions to the distance.

‘Where is she?’ Lore asked, his eyes scanning the ships in the Sea of Roots. ‘Where’s Niamh?’

‘I’m gonna guess… there,’ I replied, pointing to the big one. For all of Niamh’s strategic know-how, and her ability to anticipate or react quickly to changing enemy tactics, she’d failed on this account. She’d built herself a flagship, one that easily identified her location. If she’d ever expected a splinter force to tear off from the defence of Sunlar and bring the fight to her, then she had considered a smaller threat than ensuring she projected strength. I almost felt patronised.

‘Worldbender,’ Elandor ordered, ‘summon one of your portals to allow us access to—’

‘Styk,’ I corrected him.

‘Clarify?’

‘My name is “Styk”, not “Worldbender”.’

The regional leader of the Red Thorn blinked at me. ‘Is now the correct time for such assertions?’

‘Say Styk.’

‘Styk, summon one of your portals to allow us access to the nearest ship. Once aboard, we should—’

I opened a portal in front of me. ‘Yep,’ I said, ‘I know. I just wanted to hear you say it. Cos once all this is done, I’m thinking there’s a whole continent who are gonna consider us heroes; I’d like for them to know our names.’

Val cast a quick glare at me, but said nothing, and we stepped towards through the portal. We spilled out into the air above the ship, landing clumsily on the deck. I’d opened the portal a little too high in the air—that was the danger with creating portals at a distance; my accuracy at range wasn’t great—and the shock of hitting the wood made pain flash through my ankles. As Lore and Elandor spilled through the portal, I considered asking Val for a quick heal, but then I spotted that the ship wasn’t empty.

Two soldiers, still blinking with surprise, stumbled out of the main cabin into the low light of the evening sun. ‘Err…’ one of them said, and then grabbed her sword while her colleague sent a fireball in Val’s direction, knocking the witch from her feet.

As the soldier with a sword braced to meet the blade of the charging Lore, the mage turned to me, loosing a fireball. I opened a portal above her, and I activated Ash Husk as I fell through it. My skin rippled and changed into ash, limiting the damage any fire magicks could do to me—and had the added benefit of it being nice to get to use this fairly niche ability for once. I took a fireball to the arm, spinning me in the air, and I capitalised on this by shifting from using Stab to using Knifestorm. My dagger caught the woman a few times, but she was armoured enough that it didn’t kill her.

I landed on the wooden deck and shifted back to my feet, but in doing so I gave the enemy enough time to swing her sword. I moved to open a portal beneath me, to remove me from harm’s way, but I knew I was going to be a split-second too late—the enemy was about to deal decent damage.

But mid-swing, an arrow buried itself in the side of her head, and she fell to the floor, loosing her grasp on the sword.

Looking behind her, I saw Elandor, bow in hand. He nodded.

‘Thanks, Elandor.’

‘You are welcome, worldbender.’ So he hadn’t quite learned my name just yet.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

A blast of air from Val made the other Goldmarch soldier stumble, and this was enough for Lore to break their block. Within seconds, we’d seized control of the ship. I supposed Niamh hadn’t exactly been planning for anyone to attempt this; the two remaining soldiers were maybe there only to bring the ship into the harbour once the battle was over.

We set about turning the capstan to raise the anchor, fully conscious that time was of the essence. Only once the sails were down and we were moving steadily towards the flagship did I take a moment for myself, in the middle of all this madness.

Some notifications had piled up.

14x Soldiers of the Golden Empire defeated!

Worldbending — +7,650xp

Worldbending increased to level 46!

Base Points gained — +2 INT, +2 Free Points (INT/WIS/CHA)

I marvelled at how few experience points I’d received for fourteen soldiers defeated. Though, I supposed, in all cases I'd only contributed to their deaths, and not been the one to deal the most damage. There had been plenty of arrows flying around, not to mention the Master of Alteration's void magicks, all of which had split the experience many ways. And of course, it was silly to be worrying about experience right now—both when there was a battle raging and when I was about to get a ton of it from taking down a Player. And I’d get more points to invest into the Sisyphus Artifact too, boosting my experience gain from here on.

At least, if Val let me deal the final damage.

I turned to her, opening my mouth to remind her of the reasons I needed to be the one to kill Niamh, not her—but I hesitated when I saw her shaking. ‘Are you OK?’

‘I’m fine.’

‘It’s OK if you’re a little scared. I mean, it’s a Player, after all, and she is the one who—’

‘I’m not afraid.’ Val turned to me then, and when I saw her eyes I realised she wasn’t lying. Those deep brown eyes weren’t fearful, they were burning with a red hot anger. ‘I want this done, Styk. I want this over. I’ve carried this with me for too long. But now, I’m going to get revenge on the woman who ruined my life.’

I said nothing, leaving it at that. Val wasn’t in the state of mind to be reminded of the power of the artifact, and saying anything now might only make her less likely to allow me the final blow. So instead we became silent, and we trained our eyes on the flagship that we were rapidly approaching.

The enemy was so close, and yet still out of reach, and all we could do was wait for the inevitable. Lore and Elandor joined us at our side, and together—a team even more ragtag than the last—we thought about ending the life of another Player.

Soon, we were close.

‘So, any thoughts on what we do next?’ I asked. ‘Anyone got a plan?’

Elandor blinked at me. ‘There is no plan?’ he asked.

I shrugged. ‘I dunno, portal in, kill her… how hard can it be?’

‘Incredibly difficult, worldbender. It could be incredibly difficult.’

‘We’ve done it before,’ Lore said.

‘You would not believe how little confidence that instils in me, shepherd.’

‘Listen,’ Val said, cutting through the bickering, and not a part of it, for once. ‘I know her. I know what she’s about. We can do this, but we’ve got to be careful. She’s got a broad range of abilities; that’s part of why her level is so high. Enchantment, sure, but also Stealth, Illusion, even a bit of Archery. She’s gonna hit us with all kinds of stuff, and we’re not going to know what’s coming next. Watch out for attacks, watch out for traps. Watch out for anything.’

‘The advice to “watch out” does not a plan make.’

‘We’ll use the element of surprise,’ I said. ‘We’ll spring everything we have on her before she even knows we’re there. Even someone as strong as her couldn’t hope to survive that.’ I turned to Val. ‘What’s her health situation like?’

The witch shrugged. ‘She’s put most of her points into Intelligence and Dexterity rather than Vitality, as far as I could tell. Though, that might have changed. She’s a fragile but powerful weapon—don’t let her hit you, but if we can deal lots of damage fast, then… Yeah, we might have a shot.’

‘And as a backup plan?’ Lore asked.

I nodded to him. ‘The usual. You at the fore, taking the damage. Val behind you, healing, keeping you strong. Elandor and I dealing damage at range.’

‘And if not,’ Val said, her eyes glazing over some as she thought of times long past. ‘I do have one other trick up my sleeve. Something that got me out of trouble last time.’

I looked at her, and shook my head. If she did that, then we’d never survive. Not on a ship. We’d have nowhere to run from it. ‘No. Not that. We’d die.’

‘But if we’re dying anyway… You want to be a hero, Styk. What’s more heroic than dying for a cause?’

‘None of us are dying. Not today.’ I thought of the rest of the Council, and their mysterious scheme that could only spell trouble for the rest of the poor souls in this world. ‘We still have so much work to do.’

Elandor raised his hand, index finger pointing upwards. ‘If I may ask… Your initial plan hinges upon us retaining the element of surprise. Do you not think that a vessel sailing straight towards the Player’s flagship might alert her to our presence?’

‘Sure, but I have a plan for that. Something to distraction.’

‘Yeah?’ Lore asked, his eyes lighting up.

‘I’m gonna portal us aboard,’ I said. ‘And then, this ship is going to ram them.’

"Styk"

Level 16 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 44

Intelligence — 162

Dexterity — 101

Strength — 73

Wisdom — 57

Charisma — 33

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 46

Knifework — Level 36

Stealth — Level 19

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.

Silence III — Create a bubble of 20 yard radius in which sound is eradicated. Uses mana to cast, zero mana to maintain. You may only have one bubble active at any one time.

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%