All six of us were silent as we regrouped in the small village’s main building, each of us rattled by the stress of the fight before. When a monster could kill you simply by touching you, then you couldn’t let your guard down even for a moment. Not that I much wanted to let my guard down and get stabbed with a sword or whatever, either.

We stood around the remains of the corrupted bird that Corminar had shot down with his flaming arrows. The one that I had thrown into the flames was now completely disintegrated, while the third was buried beneath a mound of sand taller than the building itself. This one, then, remained the most visible, and acted as a reminder of the danger we’d just faced.

‘They survived it,’ Lore said, echoing the thought that was going through my mind in that same moment. ‘They survived the corruption.’

‘I’m gonna take it that’s not normal?’ the other worldbender asked.

I shook my head. ‘No. Only the strongest people usually survive. And even then… it’s only the body that survives. Not the mind. Not the soul.’

Lore nodded thoughtfully.

‘I suppose this does not bode well for the future?’ Corminar asked, though the question was rhetorical. ‘If there is a malae infestation out in these western lands, and those corrupted survive long enough to spread this disease further…’

‘Then it’s only a matter of time before the Beached Armada falls,’ Ama muttered, her eyes remaining on the creature, drifting towards the remains of its head.

Lore looked up at Corminar at this. ‘I won’t watch my home fall,’ he said.

The elf nodded a single nod; he understood this sentiment very, very well, after the events of the past few months.

‘Carle, look at this,’ Ama said, pointing down at what remained of the creature’s beak.

The warrior crouched, and for a moment I thought he was going to touch it.

‘Careful,’ I said.

Carle nodded up at me, confirming his understanding, and then removed a pair of small half moon spectacles from his pocket and placed them gently atop his nose. To look at him now, I wondered how I ever thought Lore and him were similar—they were just muscular and had trained up in “hitting things” skills; that’s where the similarities ended.

‘The beak?’ he asked Ama.

The metal mage nodded. ‘The scars indicate to me a higher density of corruption. Could this mean this was where the mala latched on?’

Carle paused for a moment before replying. ‘No.’

‘No?’

‘No, I hypothesise that mala didn’t latch on at all. I think these vultures might have been eating them—or trying to.’ He looked up at me. ‘Could this be how lowly beasts survived the corruption?’

I shrugged. ‘I’m no doctor.’

Carle looked next at Lore, who held out his hands, palms up, to express that he also had no bloody idea.

‘We can know only one thing for sure,’ Corminar said. ‘If we are to stop this corruption, we must act fast. I will not see another land fall to evil.’

I nodded. ‘Gather your stuff. Fill your flasks. It’s time to move.’

* * *

We traversed west, using the last of my Needlework supplies to create makeshift hats that held off the worst of the sun’s rays. We were heading for the next water well, as both Lore and Raelas agreed that there was our best bet—the vultures would usually have a water source to return to after feasting, and this was the nearest one. If they’d come from anywhere, it was there. And besides, even if this turned out to have been a faulty guess, we’d still be able to replenish the water in our rapidly diminishing flasks.

While we walked, we kept talking to a minimum due to the heat—with the exception of Lore who seemed still used to this discomfort from growing up around here. Even Raelas seemed not after my attention, which was fine by me, as it gave me a moment to circle back around on the ability selection I’d received from our fight with the corrupted birds.

Ability selection unlocked

Select an ability from the list below:

Option 1: Dual Wield (Knifework) — Passive. You can now use a dagger in each hand with equal ability. Ability level is copied from dominant hand to non-dominant hand.

Two knives! It was hard to go too far wrong with that, I thought. Double the damage, surely? But then I thought it through. For a start, I only had one dagger at the moment, except that part was at least easily rectified at the next weaponsmith. There was a larger problem, however. If I had a dagger in each hand, it was going to be harder to use my portals.

I could open portals without gesturing, but they tended to not end up quite where I wanted them. And precision was key with portals—opening them a foot to the left of where I really needed it could be make or break.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I kept this option in the runnings, but moved on to the next of the three options.

Option 2: Execution III (Knifework) — Upgrade to Execution II. Attack a target while undetected for +300% damage.

It may have been a little less exciting than the first option, but I’d learned my lesson on upgrades—depth of ability, assuming you picked well, was usually better than breadth. I could almost hear Val nattering in my ear, telling me to upgrade this ability cos I used it so often.

And she—or my imagined version of her—was right. An extra half damage again, up from +200% to +300%, was a substantial increase, particularly when combined with my bonus to damage from my Stealth passives. I really had to give this one proper consideration.

But there was still one more option.

Option 3: Mana-Fuelled II (Knifework) — Upgrade to Mana-Fuelled. Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities. When mana is used, cost is reduced by 20%.

This was another upgrade, and pretty inconveniently it was another upgrade to an ability I used regularly. I’d not invested too many of my free points in Dexterity, and so my stamina reserves were pretty pitiful. This didn’t matter, because I had put loads of points into Intelligence, and therefore had plenty of mana. At least, usually I did. I had run out when fighting that particularly long battle in Sunalor, and then against Niamh. If I could reduce my “stamina” costs by 20%, then maybe that went a long way…

In the end, after much consideration, I decided that there was a clear winner this time around, and I made my selection

Ability upgraded — Execution III

Execution III (Knifework) — Attack a target while undetected for +300% damage.

Yes, I decided once I was locked in to my choice, this is the right decision.

We continued onwards, following the stony merchant road across the dunes, the sun beating down on us. I swigged from my flask, finding it drinking quicker than I would have liked, and based on the filthy look Corminar gave his own flask, he was running into the same issue.

In the distance, I saw the mountains that I knew stood tall in the centre of the Beached Armada, their peaks white with snow even in this hot environment. I’d have done anything to be lying in some snow right about then. Not even snow, I’d take sleet. Or a shallow puddle, even.

‘Just ahead!’ Raelas, at the front of the pack, shouted—it was as though the Architects had heard my prayer.

The oasis stretched in front of us, palm trees and lush green grass spreading irregularly around it, birds—none of them corrupted—sitting at the side of the pool, lapping up the refreshing water.

I would have run to join them, to charge into the water, if I hadn’t thought it was properly inappropriate to contaminate a water source with my sweat and dirt. But there was another reason I didn’t, too; three dozen people huddled around it, far too many of them nursing fresh wounds. And these weren’t the usual sort of wounds either—not slashes from swords or burn marks from fireballs—these were whole limbs, cut clean through. Almost as if they’d intended to cut them off.

So we approached slowly, and I wasn’t the only one of us that made sure their weapon was easily accessible.

‘Hold!’ one of them shouted. They were an older tiefling man, skin leathery from the sun, his eyes red not just in the iris, where we might have expected it.

I came to a stop, and so did the rest of my party behind me. ‘We don’t want any trouble,’ I said. ‘We want water, and…’ I gestured to some of their injured. ‘And to help, where we can.’

‘Speak for your—’ Ama started, but was cut off by Raelas coughing pointedly.

‘What’s happened here?’ I asked, in part to bring the man’s attention off Ama and back to me.

The man stared back at me with red, empty eyes. ‘Malae,’ he said.

"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 III — Attack a target while undetected for +300% 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%