“Go!” Nathan shouted, darting out from behind the statue. Behind him, Cleo sprinted in the other direction and Saleh stepped around the statue, staying near it so he could duck behind it if needed.

No sooner had Nathan yelled than the massive behemoth that was the Keeper of the Crypt lurched into motion. Its dull eyes flashed with a spark of dark blue light as it turned its head with a creak. Large sections of moss and dirt fell from the keeper’s body with every movement. Like it had been sitting still for years, an overgrown amusement park ride long abandoned, suddenly powered on.

The keeper’s movements were slow and mechanical as it stood to its full towering height, looming in the center of the columned room. Rusted metal screeched as the keeper drew the massive blade from its back and let its tip fall onto the floor, cracking the tiles.

Nathan wasted no time. He could feel an aura pulsing off the monster, like a person without a Veil. The keeper may have appeared slow, but underestimating it for that would be folly. His hand erupted into emerald flames and he summoned an Echo.

The lunar lynx Echo shimmered into existence beside him, falling into step, bounding across the tile, claws clacking. It would be nice to see it in action for once now that this second lunar lynx would not be immediately falling to its fiery death.

Should he feel a little guilty about that? Nah.

The name of the game is distraction. I just have to stay light on my feet. My job isn’t to kill the thing.

“Hey! Over here, you decaying sack of gangrene!”

The keeper let out a thunderous roar that rattled Nathan’s bones. Stale water and bits of green flew from the creature’s mouth, and then it charged. Each step shook the room as it closed the distance between it and Nathan much quicker than he had anticipated. It reared back, then swung, its slab of a blade shearing through the air like a guillotine.

Nathan threw himself to the side, rolled across the ground, then was back on his feet in a flash, running back behind the creature. Much to his surprise, the Echo also ran around the keeper. In the past the Echoes had only ever focused on savage killing, but maybe they were more intelligent than he gave them credit for. This one almost seemed to understand the plan.

The assassin wove between boulder shattering strikes, leaping back and forth as sprays of rock chips and dirty water splattered against him, the keeper’s blade never hitting. He made sure to stay near enough to the keeper. A good distraction needs to make the target think they have a chance of winning.

One particular strike got a bit closer to connecting than Nathan was comfortable with, but then the lynx Echo leapt onto the keepers back. Fiery claws slashed against its body, doing pathetically little damage, but it was enough to gain the monster’s attention.

“Are you waiting for a damn invitation?” Nathan yelled back to where Saleh was hiding. He took three bounds back, giving himself some distance from the keeper while it was busy with the Echo.

“Targets are more resistant to my commands for a time after the first one,” Saleh said, poking his head around the statue. “We can’t afford to waste it!”

“Fucking spellcasters,” Nathan muttered under his breath.

The keeper spun, swinging a car sized fist down onto its own back. The Echo tried to leap away to safety, but the skeletal behemoth moved much faster than its size implied. A splash of emerald fire, like an oversized foot stomping into a puddle, erupted upon the keeper’s back.

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Echoes really don’t seem to have much in the way of defense.

Lunar Lynx Echo Ushered.

Power gained: Increasing agility permanently by 5%

Ability temporarily gained: Moonlit Leap

Moonlit Leap: Heavy as the falling moonlight. You can leap, becoming a blur of silvery radiance that can soar through the air, unbound by gravity.

Echoes Stored: [2/5]

Total Echoes Ushered: [5/5]

He felt the familiar rush of energy as the Echo died. It was good to have confirmation that two Echoes of the same type gave him the same ability and power. The predictability meant he could rely on it.

The keeper shifted its haunting eyes toward Nathan. He had one more lynx Echo should he need it, but he wouldn’t. There was no way the monster could touch him now.

Nathan twirled a dagger in his hand – Cleo had given him one of hers after he’d lost his blade fighting the maw – then rocketed forward. His body twisted into a streak of pale light, flying through the air like a shooting star.

The rush of the wind buffeted his hair as he slid down beneath the falling blade of the keeper. He heard a loud crunch as its metal shattered the ground, but he was already past it, landing against an opposite pillar and then shooting back toward the keeper.

I can’t help but feel like I’m doing all of the heavy lifting in this plan.

The assassin slammed into the side of the monster’s skull, his dagger aimed for an eye socket.

Another roar echoed through the room as his blade sank into its glowing eye, the pale blue light snuffing out. The keeper stumbled back a step, massive fingers letting go of its blade embedded in the ground.

“Fall!” Saleh screamed, his voice somehow even louder than that of the keeper.

The words flew through the air like physical objects, their weight crashing into Nathan’s chest. It felt like the air was pushed from his lungs, and he could feel himself starting to tip backward. Saleh’s commands hadn’t been expressly targeted at Nathan, but he felt a compulsion to obey them all the same.

A shimmering glow enveloped the keeper as its roar ceased, its one eye glazing over. Then it toppled backward and fell to the ground, rumbling the arena like the crashing of an ancient oak.

Nathan leapt backward off the monster, biting his tongue to keep himself from obeying Saleh’s command. He blinked several times and felt a coppery taste in his mouth, but he had avoided being crushed by the weight of the keeper.

The thing lay still for several moments, but Nathan knew that they did not have much time. Saleh had said that he probably couldn’t hold it for long.

Nathan glanced back over his shoulder to see the white haired man stepping out from behind the statue, his expression stern, veins bulging across his neck and forehead.

“Still!” Saleh bellowed as the keeper had started to move an arm. A drop of blood seeped out of one nostril, but the keeper stilled. It looked angry. A great beast of bone and sickly flesh constrained to the ground by the words of a man.

The first part of their plan had worked, now to see if Cleo’s ability could gain control of the thing’s limb or not.

Cleo appeared from almost out of nowhere. Nathan hadn’t seen or heard her coming, but she was already beside the monster, digging a dagger into the decaying flesh of its upper arm. She grunted with exertion, but the blade was able to cut.

She turned to face Nathan, her expression sour. “If I get some sort of disease from this,” she said, “I hope you get it too.” And then she kissed the rotting skin, dark blue blood seeping from the wound.

Almost instantly a web of black veins bulged around the wound, traveling up the arm like rivulets of oil. Cleo hopped back, cursing and spitting and rubbing her lips with the back of her hand.

Nathan grinned. “That was–”

“Shut up.”

Saleh’s grip on the creature at last relented, the glow subsiding, and it rose to its towering height. The keeper’s joints ground like stones, echoing in the dim chamber as the trio slowly backed away.

Nathan gulped as the thing took a heavy step forward. He watched as its black veined fingers wrapped around the hilt of its blade and slid it from the groove it had cleaved into the ground.

“Uh, Cleo,” Nathan said. “Now seems like the time to take control of its right arm.”

The keeper raised its blade above its head, one eye alighting with cold, blue anger. Nathan readied his Moonlit Leap to jump out of the way if need be, or to try something else.

But the need to dodge did not arise. With blade raised in the air, the keeper’s wrist twisted, spinning so the blade was pointed downward. And then it plunged its massive sword into its own chest.