‘Oh good,’ I said, ‘another fight.’

The man with the quarterstaff charged, swiping his broken weapon wildly.

I ducked to one side, avoiding the arcing weapon, then charged in to Stab with my blade. My dagger hit flesh, and I pushed the attack by activating my Closed Reach ability.

Recruit of the Ascendancy Cult defeated!

Worldbending — +1,050xp

Knifework — +1,300xp

Someone shouted something off to my right, but I couldn’t quite make it out over the sounds of battle.

And then someone else clubbed me over the head.

Raelas appeared at my side, stepping out of a portal at my side. She turned her right arm to ice and used it to block the attack of the enemy I hadn’t seen. ‘Duck, I said,’ she repeated.

‘Could’ve said it a bit lou…’ I started, but then my latest ability selection returned to me. With the flick of my wrist, I activated my Portal Relay ability, creating with it seven small portals, no larger than an apple, one for each of us. I had the ability to create up to ten of these, but I just couldn’t see any point of creating more than we could use. I burst my hands forward, fingers splayed, and six of the seven small portals soared off towards my travelling companions. They slowed as they approached, then began gently circling their heads.

‘What in hell,’ Arzak mumbled as she met enemy blade with blades of her own.

‘New ability,’ I shouted through my own portal, though I didn’t really need to shout. ‘Use it to communicate.’

‘Styk, turn around,’ Corminar said.

‘Yeah, communicate just like that!’

‘No,’ the elf repeated. ‘Turn around. Raelas is about to die.’

‘Oh, right.’ I whipped myself back to the tiefling who’d saved me just in time to see the enemy pushing down against her icy arms. I leaped into action, activating my Knifestorm ability while just out of range of my ally—but not the cultist. Knife wounds peppered the man’s side, not quite enough to eliminate him but enough that Raelas could push back.

The tiefling rose steadily to her feet, then headbutted the enemy. As the cultist staggered backwards in surprise, I charged in for the finishing blow.

Ascendancy Warrior defeated!

Worldbending — +950xp

Knifework — +1,650xp

Knifework increased to level 43!

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

I whipped around just as I heard a cry from Arzak. One of the ambushers had struck her from behind while she’d been facing another. As a result, her right arm now sported a huge gash. My orc friend dropped her right-hand sword, leaving her only with the one I’d given her all those weeks ago—the one I’d “borrowed” from a knight of the realm.

I opened a portal to blink to her side. I fell out of the portal above one of the enemies, knocking them from their feet. At the same moment, Arzak turned to meet the glowing blade of the other attacker. It was nice to know that even after all this time apart, we were still in sync when it mattered.

Arzak’s blade clattered against the enemy’s, and a second later the glowing blue aura of the other sword began shifting into Arzak’s.

‘No, no, no…’ the enemy began to mutter as the glowing grew brighter and brighter before… It exploded. The magicks sent a shockwave out that knocked the enemy from her feet, but passed over me and Arzak like a gentle breeze.

‘I’d almost forgotten it did that,’ I said, then pressed the attack on the man now stumbling back to his feet. I stabbed forward with my blade, but the man was quick enough to block it with his leather bracer. I tried again, to much the same result. ‘Oh, to hells with this.’

I lowered my free hand to the ground, fingers splayed, and opened a portal beneath the man’s feet, its partner high in the sky above. He fell through and began tumbling to the ground, and I turned my back, thinking the fall damage would do the trick. But when his feet hit the sand once more, it was like he’d barely fallen at all. He landed in a crouch, almost on one knee, and then rose slowly back to his feet, rage in his eyes.

‘Huh. Quite a cool landing.’

The man charged, blade arching through the air, and I stepped back through a new portal to avoid it.

‘Let’s try something else,’ I said, allowing myself a quick smirk. I raised my hands to— Something hit me in the shoulder. Hard. ‘Ouch?’ I turned around just in time to see an enemy ranger about to fire a second arrow at me—because that’s what I’d been hit by—and I slipped back through the same pair of portals to avoid it.

‘On it,’ Tokas said over the portal relays.

A moment later, Val added between strained breaths. ‘Maybe spend more time fighting and less time being smug?

OK. No more smirks.

As the same enemy charged me once more, I opened a portal in front of him and once again dumped him in the air high above. But this time, before he could reach the ground once more—and look really cool in his landing—I opened another portal that tossed him into the air above me. At the same time, I arched my dagger overhead, slicing through the man’s back, rendering his light armour too damaged to be functional.

Another arrow careered overhead, missing me by a foot or more as Tokas worked her illusion magicks on the enemy, making them see things that weren’t there. As someone who’d been on the receiving end of that before, it filled me with more dread than I might have expected.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

‘Behind,’ Val said through the relays.

I didn’t react, because I had no idea who she was talking to, and then someone stumbled into me.

‘I said “behind”!’ Val shouted, this time not requiring the relay.

‘Maybe tell us who you’re talking to next time?’ I retorted, wondering whether this was the normal good-natured bickering or actual arguments rooted in the complex feelings we had about one another. There wasn’t time to find out, because another enemy launched a fireball at us.

I spun around, stepping in front of Val, and activated my Ash Husk ability. As Val was now forced to deal with the now armourless swordsman, I prepared myself to face down a sorcerer. There were so many fire magick specialists out there, and I’d recently had an idea how to deal with them.

I grabbed the fireball from mid-air, just before it hit me. Even with my ashen hands, this hurt. A lot. I screamed as I tried to work through the pain, then opened a portal at my feet. I fell through it, appearing in the air above the sorcerer, and I tumbled fireball-first.

The fire engulfed the sorcerer, and so used were they to dealing the fire damage that they clearly hadn’t prepared for receiving it.

Apprentice of the Boundless Flame defeated!

Worldbending — +2,250xp

Worldbending increased to level 61!

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

Though we were turning the tide on our ambushers—they now numbering fewer than us—there was no time to waste. I turned back to Val and the swordsman, and saw that the enemy was overpowering her. Even her green-glowing magicks that summoned scorpions from the desert was not enough to slow him down. The scorpion’s poisons were fast-acting in these parts, but not so fast that they’d kill the man before he killed Val.

I stepped through a portal, back to the man’s side, and activated Knifestorm once more. But the man was quick enough to block it, and even though his armour was rendered useless, he still had his blade. When my ability had run its course, he swiped with that sword and I was lucky to avoid it, staggering backwards across the loose sands of a dune.

I had half a second to think before he pressed the attack, and think quickly I did. I knew he could survive a fall, and he knew that too. So far, that had meant he saw no problem with tumbling from the sky, and therefore he’d made little attempt to avoid my portals. But I still had a trick up my sleeve.

I opened another portal in front of him as he charged, just in time to avoid the tip of his blade meeting my heart. The man fell through it, and… disappeared.

Vice-Champion of Fallenstone escaped!

Worldbending — +2,400xp

I breathed a sigh of relief.

‘...Where’d he go?’ Val asked.

The enemy was probably standing in Coldharbour’s central plaza in that very moment, wondering the same question. Maybe my Saved Portal ability was more useful than I’d given it credit for. ‘Coldharbour.’

A wry smile crossed her face. ‘Nice.’

‘Thanks.’

She turned away after that, remembering herself, and all that had passed between us.

The rest of our ambushers fell soon after that, Corminar and Lambkin picking off the last of them as they fled. ‘It was my arrow that felled them,’ the elf told us—a point that needed clarification because both had hit the enemy at the same time.

‘OK?’ Val said, with a shrug.

I wrenched the arrow from my shoulder and winced with the pain. The witch, sighing as though it was some great chore, placed her hands over the wounds and started her Healing. I nodded to the yellow-white glow. ‘You’ve got better,’ I said.

Val nodded. ‘Thanks.’ As she was about to turn away, I raised my hand, revealing my heavily-burned palms. The witch sighed once more.

A little way away, I saw Tokas notice Arzak’s gaping wound, and the tiefling hurried to be helpful. She placed her hands over the orc’s arm and began healing, generating that same yellow-white glow as Val.

‘Thank—’ Arzak started, then her eyes bulged when she saw that it was Tokas, not Val, who was healing her. She recoiled fast, stepping backwards up the side of a dune, a gaping wound apparently far more preferable than having the tiefling so close. Than having the tiefling who was prophesied to kill her so close.

‘I won’t—’ Tokas began, but the orc cut her off.

‘Stay away from me. Away from me,’ Arzak said.

The tiefling nodded, choking back her distress. Lambkin stepped forward and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder once more.

I met the eyes of the ex-captain, and understood what he was silently telling me. We needed to fix this before something bad happened.

I just didn’t know how.

"Styk"

Level 20 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 52

Intelligence — 227

Dexterity — 131

Strength — 80

Wisdom — 76

Charisma — 50

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 61

Knifework — Level 43

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.

Portal Relay II - Up to ten small-scale portals can now be positioned stationary to an entity, and used to communicate sound. In addition, your standard portals may be used to communicate sound.

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%