All of us took a semi-unconscious step back, our base instincts driving us to put as much space between us and the corrupted man as possible. But it wouldn’t be enough. If this corruption played by the same rules as all the malae-created corruption we’d faced down in the past, then we absolutely could not let him—it?—touch us.

‘Out!’ I shouted.

Lore, Ama and Carle, who were closest to the door, bombed outside. At the same moment, I opened a portal. Corminar, having been around me long enough, knew that it was coming, and jumped through immediately. But Raelas took another half-second to realise, so I grabbed her by the arm and yanked her throw, allowing the portal to close behind me just as the monster reached out for us.

The portal snapped shut, and—

No, I realised, it hadn’t. The creature’s fingertips were already across the portal’s threshold, and it pushed itself into the faint purple magicks. Fingertips became hand, which became arm, which became snarling body. Alenna hadn’t been kidding; this monster had brains. It really was a level up on the malae we’d battled before, not that they were unintelligent by any means.

The creature snarled as it pushed itself through the portal, stumbling to the ground in the courtyard, and it hissed something that I almost thought was a word. Missed? Must?

‘Plan, Styk?’ Raelas asked.

‘Same as always: kill it with fire.’ I looked to Lore, and on this signal he charged to the front of the group, Carle following close at his side, both of them wielding flaming torches.

The monster recoiled at the sight of fire, snarling, but it wasn’t warded off. Not that we wanted to ward it off; if it ran, then it could hurt more people before we could put it down.

‘Ama,’ I shouted, glancing to the metal mage then nodding to the one alleyway leading out of the courtyard, ‘take the exit. Make sure it doesn’t escape.’

The woman nodded, and did immediately as commanded. Whatever Raelas had said to her about following orders had worked.

Lore and Carle pressed forward with their torches, pushing the creature back into the corner of the courtyard, keeping it hemmed in. But I wasn’t under any illusions that it would be this easy; already I could see those black eyes darting around, searching for a way to fight back.

Corminar hurried to the side of the two large men, then raised a cloth-bound arrowhead to Lore’s torch, setting it alight. In a flash, he nocked the now-flaming arrow and shot it at the monster’s chest. As fire met corruption, its flesh sizzled like food in a frying pan, and the creature squealed with pain.

When the sizzling faded, it snapped its dark eyes to Corminar, and it growled.

‘Cor, I think it’s—’ Lore started.

The corrupted man then launched into the air, soaring above both Lore and Carle—no easy feat—and landing behind them, at Corminar’s side. The elf froze for just a moment, but fortunately I was quicker to react. I whipped a hand forward and opened a portal behind Corminar, the haste making my aiming sloppy, putting its edge just under his feet. The elf teetered on the edge for a moment, but when the mala-corrupted man moved to attack, he took a step backwards and found no ground beneath him.

As the monster leaped towards where Corminar had been only moments earlier, I realised that it was going to keep flying through the air into Carle. My breath catching, I opened my other pair of portals—thanking my past self for picking the Enhanced Portals ability back at level 50, allowing me to open two pairs at once. This second set I placed between Carle and the enemy, expecting the creature to fly through it.

But it reacted quickly upon seeing the portal, flinging its limbs wide and catching the edge of the magicks to avoid falling through.

At that moment, two metal projectiles—courtesy of Ama—shot towards the monster, burying themselves in its flesh. Each impact visibly knocked the monster backwards, but they weren’t enough to push it through the portal and out the other side, which I’d positioned high in the sky above us.

Corminar, meanwhile, had skirted around the edge of the battleground, once again lighting an arrow from Lore’s torch. If it had worked before, it would work again, but I had a feeling that killing this creature was going to take more fire than any one arrow could deliver.

As this flaming arrow met its target, the creature shrieked. Once again, amongst the noise, I could swear I could hear a word. A word in the common tongue. Was the man’s brain not entirely corrupted?

Carle charged, roaring, bringing his flaming torch in an arc through the air and down towards the beast.

In that moment, I made a—possibly bad—split second decision. ‘Stop!’ I shouted.

The warrior hesitated, stopping his attack in mid-swing, then looked to me, confused. For the record, everyone else in the courtyard was also giving me that same expression—one that silently asked, “Have you gone mad?”

‘I think it’s…’ I started, meeting the creature’s black eyes. ‘I think there’s still a man in there.’

‘A man that’s killed multiple people,’ Ama shouted back.

‘A man who’ll kill anyone he touches,’ Carle added.

When did they become such experts in mala? I ignored the pair of them, keeping my eyes on the creature, whose demeanour had changed. It no longer snarled, it no longer looked like it was about to attack. Had we just been dealing with a cornered animal? One with no real malicious intent? A creature just looking to survive?

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‘Lore,’ I cried to him, keeping my eyes on the possible enemy. ‘Do you have any visions? Do you see what happens if we don’t kill it?’

‘Don’t kill it?’ Raelas repeated.

I ignored her too. ‘Do you see anything, Lore?’

‘Nothing.’ The reply was glum.

‘Never come when you want them to, huh?’

To this, Lore had no reply. Was that a disagreement? If so, what had he seen already that he’d wanted to? What possible fates had he avoided?

‘Can you hear me?’ I asked the creature.

It didn’t reply, but stared back at me with bleak eyes.

‘Can you understand me? Is there still a man in there?’ I pressed the question.

This time, it made some kind of noise, again a noise that—if generous—you might describe as being a word in the common tongue.

‘It does not understand you, Styk,’ Corminar said. ‘It is a monster. Nothing—’

‘Stand,’ the creature hissed, and my heart dropped.

‘That was definitely a word,’ Raelas said.

‘We’re all already standing,’ Lore added, a tad perplexed.

‘Under…stand,’ the corrupted man said, this time managing the full word.

I continued holding the creature’s gaze. This posed a pretty bad problem. Carle and Ama had been right—this “man” had killed people already, and would do again, if left alive. Anyone it touched, even unintentionally, would too succumb to the corruption. And yet… it was an innocent. A victim. A cornered animal.

‘I don’t know what to do here,’ I said.

‘Kill it,’ Corminar snapped.

‘It didn’t do anything wrong! Not intentionally, at least.’

‘You do not know that. Alenna said this creature was far more intelligent than any mala we have faced before; perhaps this is a ploy?’

The corrupted man held my gaze too, and in those dark eyes, I could swear I saw sadness.

I gulped. My heart began beating so hard that I could hear it reverberating around my head. And I took a steady step forward towards the corrupted man.

‘Styk?’ Raelas asked, and I could here the genuine concern in her tone.

I took another step forward.

The creature didn’t recoil.

‘I dunno if this is such a good idea…’ Lore said, also worried.

‘A vision tell you that?’ I asked.

‘No, just common sense.’

I ignored the big guy and kept moving, holding one hand out in front of me to reach towards the monster gesturing that I was coming in peace, the other hand pointing at the ground.

‘Don’t let it touch you!’ Ama shouted.

‘Yes, I know the drill.’

‘Then why—’

I shook my head firmly, and continued to look into the eyes of the corrupted tiefling. ‘I’m not going to hurt you, OK?’

The creature said nothing, but cast its eyes over at Carle and Lore’s torches.

‘Put the torches away,’ I told them.

‘Do no such thing,’ Corminar said.

The two larger men settled instead for holding the still-flaming torches behind their backs.

I took another step towards the creature. ‘We’re going to help you. We’re going to get you to someone who can help. We’re going to get you to the doctor.’

And then, the monster snarled once more.

It bared its grime-covered teeth at me.

And it lunged once more.

"Styk"

Level 20 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 50

Intelligence — 216

Dexterity — 130

Strength — 79

Wisdom — 76

Charisma — 49

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 58

Knifework — Level 42

Stealth — Level 26

Identification — Level 18

Needlework — Level 18

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.

Saved Portals II — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

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].

Gentle Step — Passive. Your footsteps are dampened on even the hardest of surfaces. Reduce noise of movement by 80%.

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%