We fled back into the village’s main building—a communal marketplace, of sorts—and each dived behind the cover of a nearby item of furniture. The architectural style meant that the building was open to the elements on two of its sides—and from the looks of it, these were closed up only by thick sheets of fabric which were currently rolled up at the top. This design choice meant that the “vultures” had no problem swooping into the building after their would-be prey: us.

Keeping behind the cover and out of sight, I didn’t get a proper chance to look at them, so I shouted across the building to Corminar. ‘What are they?’

‘Vultures!’ he shouted back.

‘What? I thought Lore just said—’ But I didn’t get a chance to finish that sentence because at that moment, one of the birds soared into the building, shrieking. I got a more of a look at it as it swooped overhead. It was a vulture, sure, but there was more at play here. Its body was black, its skin beginning to rot, and a strange ooze was dripping from its wings.

I’d see this before. And so had Lore.

‘They’ve been touched!’ the barbarian shouted across the room. ‘They’ve been touched by Malae!’

‘At least we know we’re on the right track…’ Ama grumbled at my side as she hid behind the same unit.

The bird fluttered to the ground at the far edge of the building, then tilted its head as it looked around. Its dark eyes landed on Raelas.

‘Corminar! Fire!’ I shouted, as I looked around desperately for anything to use as a weapon. A market stall at Lore’s side caught my eye—a stall that had once sold lanterns, many of them upturned. And some of them were oil lanterns.

‘Lore—’ My shout was drowned out by the second of the corrupted vultures swooping into the building, again shrieking as it did so. The first turned slowly around to face Raelas, who scrambled backwards into the wall.

As the vulture began to charge at her, its wings raised and its beak low, I whipped a portal over its head and dropped the unit Ama and I were hiding behind into its long neck.

Raelas nodded her thanks and ran for the exit, only to find the third and last vulture circling above, ready to pick out whoever left. She opened a portal beneath herself as it swooped down for her, and disappeared from sight.

Meanwhile, Ama and I were now exposed, so I opened another portal to drop us at the side of Corminar—who I had a very important question to ask. ‘How many?’

‘Three vultures,’ he replied.

‘No. How many fire potions. You knew we were after Malae, so I assume you did make some fire potions?’

‘...One.’

‘One?’ I repeated, aghast.

‘My supplies are lacking.’

I shook my head, sighing. Corminar clearly wanted to say something about this reaction but he didn’t, correctly recognising that there were more important things going on right now. ‘Give it,’ I said, holding out my upturned hand.

Corminar glared, but handed over the small vial, burning red and hot. ‘Use it well,’ he said. ‘I assume you have a plan?’

I did, but I wasn’t going to waste time explaining myself. I turned to Ama. ‘You, Carle and Corminar keep them busy, OK? And don’t let them touch you!’

I didn’t give the woman time to argue, and I disappeared down through a new portal that spilled me out at Lore’s side.

‘You’re really getting the hang of portals,’ he said. He stood with his Bane Sword raised, his eyes on the closest of the corrupted vultures. Lore was experienced enough with Malae corruption to know not to charge it like he normally would; here, patience was a virtue. And so was fire.

‘Thanks.’ I reached onto the market stand and began shaking the oil lanterns, listening for the sound of liquid sloshing around. Finally, I found not one but two with oil already filled. ‘Lob this at the wall,’ I said.

Lore did so without a second thought, and he did so with enough power to smash the admittedly flimsy glass in the centre of the lantern. The oil within began to seep out onto the floor.

‘Feed the flames!’ I cried to him, then lobbed Corminar’s single fire potion onto the oil, where it too smashed. The flames took immediately, setting the clay wall and floor ablaze. But it would die out soon without flammables thrown onto it. ‘Now!’ I shouted, reiterating the urgency.

I ripped open the top of the other lantern as Lore charged over to a chair and threw the cushions onto the new fire. Ahead of me, I saw a corrupted bird fixing its gaze on Carle and beginning to move towards him. I had to act fast.

Taking my dagger from its sheath, I dipped it into the oil and then dropped it, clattering to the hard stone floor. I looked from enemy to Carle to Corminar to flames, and I came up with a quick strategy—one that made having Enhanced Portals absolutely critical.

I leaped through the air, and as I did so, I opened two pairs of portals. One, I opened under my knife, dropping it into the flames, and the other I opened in front of me. This one spilled me back out next to Ama and Corminar, and I pushed the oil lantern in the latter’s direction.

‘Hello again,’ Ama said.

‘Dip your arrows,’ I told Corminar, and then whipped myself around to close one portal and open another, dropping the now flaming oil-dipped dagger back into the air in front of me. I activated Ash Husk as it fell, knowing it was going to be hot and wanted to reduce any resulting damage, and I snatched it from the air.

As Corminar pulled his arrows back out, I held my flaming blade next to them, and they caught alight. But this oil wouldn’t last long.

‘Carle!’ I shouted, pointing to the large muscular gentleman as he swung an axe to try to ward off the advancing creature of darkness.

Corminar shot a flaming arrow into the vulture’s side, and its flesh fizzled and warped at the flame’s touch. The monster immediately became more interested in Corminar than Carle, and it turned to charge at the ranger.

But Corminar was quick, and he used the bow Elandor had left to him to loose arrow after arrow after arrow, each one burning away more of the monster’s form. By the time it reached him, it was already disintegrating on the ground.

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I didn’t hang around to watch, mostly because another of the creatures was in that moment swooping down towards me. I ran away from Ama and Corminar just enough to prevent them from being touched by the monster’s corrupted wing, and then I opened a portal to drop me out of the enemy’s path.

I stumbled back to my feet at the side of the building, just in time to see a circle of glowing purple magicks fizzling into life near the centre of the ceiling. Raelas was still alive, then, and using her Worldbending abilities to her advantage. With a squawk, a vulture emerged from the portal and flew fast into the interior wall, hitting it hard.

‘Having fun out there?’ I shouted to Raelas.

‘Yes!’

It was all well and good, but now there were two enemies inside in this small space once more. The other vulture looked around to see where I’d gone, and its head stopped tilting when it spotted me. It hopped up into the air and began to swoop at me once more, but this time I was ready for it.

I raised my hands in front of me, forcing myself to wait until the last possible moment before I activated the portals. I lobbed my flaming knife with one hand to distract the enemy—barely catching it; I really missed my Throwing Knives ability right about now—but it still enough. The creature squawked its alarm, and in that same second, I opened a portal between us. It disappeared through it and emerged from its partner. Landing right into the fire.

Lore—who had been feeding the flames still—looked around in alarm, because the monster had almost touched him.

I bit my lip. ‘Sorry!’ I shouted.

Ignoring the notifications that were piling up, I turned my attention to the third and last of the enemies. The bird had its eyes fixed on me.

‘Corminar?’ I asked.

‘Alas, my fires are extinguished.’

‘Alright,’ I cried back, and then focused my attention on repeating my last strategy. The flames on my dagger, too, had gone out, so I couldn’t rely on a flaming throwing knife to distract it. I’d need to time this perfectly.

The bird swooped towards me.

I raised my hands.

This one was the largest of the three, with the greatest wingspan. Just one wrong move, and one of those corrupted feathers could touch me. My life would be over.

It grew closer, and my eyes remained on those wings.

I opened the portals before I really knew I’d done so, and the vulture swooped to one side. The enemy caught the edge of the portal with one of its wings, sending it spinning through the air towards me. I had to dive to one side just to avoid its touch, and I found myself back out in the afternoon sun. As the vulture batted its wings to get back to its feet, I turned around to face it once more

The enemy monster knew my strategy, but as they say, there’s more than one way to slice up a rockrat.

Again, I’d need two sets of portals for this to work. At least. I could only hope that Raelas understood what I was doing. I let the vulture swoop at me once more, and then I opened another portal—this time beneath my feet, knowing that there was no certainly the void monster would go through it. I stumbled out against the outside wall of the building, and I shouted out to get its attention once more.

‘Over here, you big idiot!’

Maybe Val was right, and I really did need to work on my insults.

Still, it did the job—I don’t think the vulture spoke the common tongue anyway—and the monster turned back towards me. From on top of the sand dune where I’d disappeared, it swooped at me once more.

This time, I really did wait until the last moment.

I crouched as it approached, flinging one arm in front of my face to protect it—even though corruption was corruption, no matter where it touched—and I opened a portal beneath me to fall through. As I plummeted, the vulture collided with the wall—hard.

I span out onto the side of a sand dune, and I didn’t waste the half-second it would have taken to stand up. I opened one pair of portals, then another—both positioned against the side of the dune to send tonnes of sand pouring onto the spot where the vulture had dropped to the ground.

Another portal, doing the same, announced Raelas’s presence, and her understanding of my strategy.

At first, the Malae-touched bird tried to fight it, beating its large wings to pull itself away from the ground. But the amount of sand coming was just too great. It couldn’t fight it.

It could only be buried.

3x Level ? corrupted vultures defeated!

Worldbending — +4,200xp

Worldbending increased to level 53!

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

Knifework — +1,450xp

Knifework increased to level 40!

Base Points Gained — +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 Free Points (VIT/DEX/STR)

Ability selection unlocked

Select an ability from the list below…

…

I breathed a sigh of relief. It was over. For now, at least; I knew there was only more Malae in our future, if we were going to find the Player responsible for trading in them. That was a problem for later, though. Right now, I had an ability to select.

"Styk"

Level 18 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 50

Intelligence — 198

Dexterity — 112

Strength — 77

Wisdom — 70

Charisma — 43

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 53

Knifework — Level 40

Stealth — Level 22

Identification — Level 18

Needlework — Level 16

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].

Enhanced Portals — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Support up to two pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.

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 III — Passive. 200% 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].

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

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +1,400%