Val would need time to summon the bogspawn; this I knew.

I also knew that Niamh wouldn’t freely give time to us, so it was going to be up to someone else to buy Val this time. I looked with regret at Lore and Elandor, both unconscious on the deck of the sinking ship—if they were still with us, this would have been so much easier.

So there was only one thing for it: it was time for an all-out attack. With one eye on my mana reserves—and grateful for one of Corminar’s mana potions still in my pocket—I opened a portal next to me and dropped through it, coming out behind Niamh for just long enough to get a quick stab in. As she turned, enraged, I stepped back through another portal and came out behind her again, once again able to land a stab before she could meet me with her enchanted bow.

Niamh, scowling, quickly drew a bow and fire an arrow towards me. Or, at least, towards the spot where I would have been if I hadn’t just disappeared through a portal. Out of the corner of my eyes, I’d seen Val’s hands and eyes begin to glow in that bright green that said she was working on a powerful ritual—she was already at work, I just needed to survive long enough for her to see it through.

I reappeared from a portal above Niamh, mixing it up a bit, and just like I had with the pyroknight, I used gravity to improve the damage dealt by a stab of my blade. But this woman was far stronger than that Player had ever been, and it was going to take a lot more than that to bring her down.

I landed on her shoulder, and it felt stronger than it looked, hitting me hard in the chest and sending me spinning to the deck. I wasted no time in looking back at Niamh, knowing that she would easily hit me if I stayed still too long, and I opened a portal in the root-bound wooden deck. I fell through back to behind Niamh, where I brought my knife arm around to—

Without looking back, the Player caught my wrist in mid-air. Her hand was tight around me. Strong. I couldn’t break free, not easily. Not by myself.

‘Enough, now,’ Niamh said. ‘It’s time for this to be over.’

‘Agreed,’ Val replied, and streams of crackling green energy poured forth from her hands. Niamh turned and saw this, and moments later she recognised for what it was—for something she’d seen already, all those years ago.

And now I was seeing it for the first time, too. The streams of green Witchcraft magicks didn’t form the bogspawn itself, but seemed to grab a hold of the very edge of reality—in a way not unlike I’d seen in the witchfinder villages. Those glowing green arcs tore the borders of this world open, and through this tear, I saw… nothing. The void. Not darkness, but the absence of reality.

And, from out there, in the nothingness, a paw grabbed at the edge of reality. The paw looked like that of a large cat, but when the head appeared, it looked like anything but. It had the antlers of a stag atop a long, leathery face. The lion-like paws tore away at the entrance into reality that Val had created for it, revealing the rest of its form. It stood on four long legs, its large body seeming to be made of rotting flesh—any number of beasts stitched together like some lunatic’s attempt at replicating the Architects’ act of creation. When it stepped forth, into our world, I half-expected flies to buzz around it, but of course there was nothing. I got the sense that even had flies been interested in its rotting flesh, the creature would have struck such fear into them that they would have flown away.

That was precisely what I wanted to do right now, presented by this foul creature, but I forced myself to stand my ground.

Finally, Niamh released my wrist—she’d realised that there were greater dangers around now—and I staggered backwards, putting as much space between myself and the enemy as possible.

The bogspawn surveyed those surrounding it. It looked first at Val, then at me, and then at Niamh. I knew that there was only a one in three chance that it would pounce on the Player first, that it would kill her before either of us, and I didn’t much love those chances.

But it was all we had, now.

All three of us, the Player included, remained still and quiet as the beast considered each of us—not wanting to do anything to make the bogspawn choose us over the others. Then, the bogspawn stopped surveying us, and it concentrated its attention on none other than the Player.

‘I’ve escaped you once before…’ Niamh growled to the creature.

We’d done it. We’d won. We’d lucked out. I resisted the urge to jump with joy, to cheer, to—

The bogspawn snapped its head to me. Then, it turned.

As soon as it pounced, I ran. I sprinted, without really knowing where my feet were taking me, down the stairs to the lower decks of Niamh’s flagship. I could hear the heavy footsteps of the bogspawn chasing after me, making the wood shake with every step. When it grew too close to bear, I flicked a portal open ahead of me and slipped out of range of its long antlers and sharp teeth.

I collided with the wall of the ship as I tumbled out the other side, and put my hands against it to steady myself. While I had increased the distance between myself at the horrific monster, the bogspawn was fast, and it was only a matter of time before it found me once more. I sprinted onwards, but found myself delayed by the rising water levels. This ship was well and truly sinking, and it was only a matter of time until we were all in the water. Would the bogspawn do so well in that scenario? And would I live long enough to find out?

I moved to open another portal as the bogspawn drew closer, hoping to buy myself some time to figure out how we might still use the creature’s appearance to our advantage, but I caught sight of my mana reserves as I did so. After all this fighting, they were nearly empty. I pulled the glass vial filled with mana potion from my pocket, and I yanked the cork free in a hurry.

But the bogspawn was too near, and I had to suddenly open a portal beneath me to escape its swiping paw. As I fell through the portal, the bogspawn’s claws caught my hand… and as they sliced through my flesh, I dropped the potion.

Falling out the other side of the portal, closing it behind me, I reached out to catch the potion in mid-air, but it was out of reach. It smashed upon the hard wooden deck.

‘Val!’ I shouted across the top deck. ‘I’m almost out! I’m almost out of mana!’

The witch nodded as she faced down Niamh—the latter still willing to fight despite the presence of an admittedly distracted bogspawn on the ship. Maybe that was precisely why she wanted to fight then; she could take Val down before focussing on the bogspawn and me. ‘Then we need to end this. Now.’

‘Well, yeah. Any ideas?’ It really, really wasn’t looking good.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

‘How many portals?’ the witch cried back, blasting Niamh with air.

‘Maybe two? Three? Depends how long I keep them open. Why, what are you thinking?’

‘I don’t know yet. I—’ Val stopped mid-sentence, and both Niamh and I immediately knew why.

We followed Val’s gaze to the stairs, where the bogspawn had appeared once more. I turned back to the witch. ‘Val! Any ideas? What are you thinking?’ I repeated.

But Val looked pale. She shook her head. ‘I don’t know! I… I…’

I looked back to the bogspawn, who looked around ready to pounce once more, but as I skimmed over the deck, I saw something.

Elandor.

Elandor was still alive, if unconscious, laying on the wooden deck. And maybe, just maybe, he held the key to evening out the odds. If what I suspected about my Pocket Worlds ability was true, then…

I shook my head. It didn’t matter. We were out of other options; it was time to try something else.

As the bogspawn pounced towards me, I charged at it—an action that both the monster and I seemed genuinely surprised by. The monster bounded, and I slipped to the ground, opening a portal above me that the bogspawn had no choice but to slide through—landing it next to Niamh. But it had its eye on its prize already, and it turned back to me.

Meanwhile, I slid to Elandor’s side, and I grabbed his head with both hands. ‘Let’s hope this works…’ I activated my Pocket Worlds ability, hoping against all hope that “Open and access pocket dimensions” really did mean those that I hadn’t created. I put almost all my remaining mana into this attempt, saving only the tiniest amount, doing everything I could to make sure that this worked.

And… it did.

As the first of the sheep fell through the pocket world’s exit portal, I thanked the Architects that Lore wasn’t awake to see this. Two dozen sheep fell, bleating, from the portal to the pocket portal, landing in a huge pile… on top of Niamh.

Suddenly, the bogspawn’s choice of prey needed to be reassessed

It looked from me to the pile of sheep—with a Player buried, shouting, beneath them—and it reconsidered. And this time, it was an easy decision to make.

The bogspawn pounced into the pile of sheep, tearing their flesh apart with its wide, toothy mouth… but making no distinction between sheep flesh and human flesh. Blood splattered the deck, beginning too to pool beneath the dying sheep, trickling across the roots and the wooden planks.

With so little mana remaining, all I could do was stand and stare at the chaos before me, apologising to Lore a hundred times over in my head for what I’d had to do. It really had been the only way.

And then, from the pile, a human shape staggered out.

When she emerged from the madness, Niamh was covered in blood—both hers and the sheeps’—and was down one arm. Instead of concentrating her traps on her wound, she spat towards me, ‘I’ll deal with you next,’ and then turned her attention back to the monster.

She approached it while it was busying itself with a sheep, and she reached her remaining arm forward. Niamh weaved a sigil into life in the air before her, this one glowing blue with Sorcery magicks, and when she was done, she pressed her hand into the bogspawn’s rotten side, and the sigil attached itself to the creature’s flesh.

From the look of it, this had taken most of Niamh’s remaining mana to craft—it was no simpler magick—and her legs shook beneath her as she stumbled backwards, away from the monster. The sigil began to grow brighter and brighter, glowing into life.

But just before it could activate, the bogspawn whipped its head up to face the Player. It looked from Niamh to the symbol on its chest, and then it understood—on some primal level—what was about to happen. It pounced at Niamh at the same moment that the sigil activated.

‘No, no, no!’ Niamh shouted.

And then the bogspawn exploded.

Niamh was caught in the centre of the blast, and was blown to the floor. Even Val and I, at some distance, suffered some major damage, and I had to put my weight on the witch as she gave me a quick Healing boost to keep me conscious. A shrill noise rang through my ears from the explosion, and I chewed my jaw on the empty air to try to get my hearing back.

When the dust finally settled, the bogspawn was gone—but Niamh, still, was not. I checked my notifications—surely that had been enough to kill the Player, surely she was not still with us—but I only had those for the Knights of the Realm.

Niamh was still alive, for now. If deathly injured.

Val and I took a moment to regather control of our breathing, the battle now finally over, before we strolled over to Niamh’s body.

The Player looked up at us as she tried to reach towards her wound, the yellow-white light of Healing magicks flickering in and out of existence—she was too weak.

‘No,’ Val said, her voice gentle. ‘Don’t bother. It’s over now.’

"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%