Anad pulled hard on the Trance, like taking a deep breath, and the lunging monster slowed to a crawl in front of him as metallic, silver light enveloped his sword. With the cane in his left hand, he almost casually pushed the twisted-bone arm to his right while he stepped around it and drew his blade long and hard against the thing’s throat. Razor sharp, the blade parted flesh and muscle with ease, all the way to the bone, and Anad cut until the head hung limply, blood gushing out like a waterfall.

Still, the thing didn’t die, twisting as if it were buried in mud, head lolling grotesquely to the side, and Anad stepped back in.

Thrust…thrust..thrust.thrustthrustthrustthrust, he pincushioned the creature, each stab passing between ribs to destroy the organs behind. With the chest a bloody mess, he then brought his blade across once more, cleanly disembowelling it, and then stutter-stepped back out of reach.

A flick of his wrist cleared the filthy blood from his blade – What is that smell? – and he let out his breath, along with the hard pull of the Trance, the silver light fading.

I’ve been using it too much. How many of these things have I killed now? Ten? Twelve?

“Make that thirteen,” Anad said quietly as the monster toppled over, the last of its blood soaking the forest floor. With his enhanced vision from the Trance, he watched as the fallen leaves twisted in on themselves, warping into absurd shapes full of hard lines and distinct angles before hardening, while small twigs actually took root and sprouted tiny, perfectly-normal-looking trees.

If it was anything like where he’d killed the others, those leaves would feel as solid as stone, while the trees would be indistinguishable from new growth.

At least I figured out how to kill them at all.

The bones were practically unbreakable – and uncuttable – while most wounds wouldn’t slow them at all. Anything short of complete devastation and the thing would keep going. Could it really even be considered alive?

Anad shook his head. It doesn’t matter if they’re alive or not. They’re dangerous, and they’ll keep coming unless I stop them for good.

Without eyes, the things seemed to rely on their oversized ears to guide them to their prey, but staying silent hadn’t made a difference. Whether they heard his breathing, or even the beating of his heart, they’d kept finding him over and over. And, unless the one on the ground in front of him was the last in the forest, there was probably another one on its way right now.

A burst of chaos energy – along with a faint crashing – miles ahead of him pulled his attention away from the corpse, and Anad looked in that direction. Whatever is happening over there is like nothing I’ve ever felt before. The woman’s sorcery? A second magic?

The story of clouds turning into whales had Anad glancing upwards, but he quickly put his head back down and started jogging towards the eruption of chaos.

Holding on to the Trance lightly, he kept his senses peeled for another of the monsters. They’d been harrying him non-stop for hours, and three times they’d pounced the second he’d let the Trance go, as if they knew about the ability. Which meant they probably did.

How much of my life am I burning through?

‘Don’t hold the Trance for more than an hour at a time’, they’d taught at the academy, ‘or your life will be a short one.’

My life will be even shorter if one of those things really catches me without the Trance.

Not bothering to sheathe his sword, Anad weaved around the trees at an easy jog – which was as fast as most people sprinting. Still, even his muscles were getting tired, arms heavy from swinging his sword, and head aching from the constant overstimulation of his senses. In most fights, he could rely on the magic armor of his tuxedo to protect him if he made a mistake, but something about the twisted bone spikes was unsettling. If his sword couldn’t cut their bones, would his tuxedo actually protect him?

Not worth testing.

Trees and the forest blurred around him on both sides, bushes little more than a green smear in the dark of his peripheral vision, while animal life was noticeably absent. Were the things killing anything that moved? Or was the wildlife just being smart and keeping hidden? It was a huge forest, stretching almost all the way from Gravelburg to Bastion in the northwest, and twice as far to the southwest.

If those bursts of chaos really were from something Tel and his sorcerer friend were doing, it seemed like they were heading for Bastion. On the other hand, if it was something or somebody else, he could be going in entirely the wrong direction. I need some kind of sign or trail to figure out if…

“Well, damn,” he said out loud, slowing to a walk. “I guess I should’ve asked sooner.”

A path of shattered and toppled trees stretched in a long line ahead of him. Like something had punched through trunks thick enough he’d barely be able to wrap his arms around, there was a clear path of destruction. The trail I was looking for? But…what could’ve done this?

Another burst of chaos, along with the ensuing crash from miles ahead, and Anad looked again at the line of broken trees.

“They’re fighting the same things I am,” he said, ducking under the first fallen tree, then leapt to the side as something snapped towards his head, quick as a viper.

Crack, the tree splintered while Anad hit the ground in a roll and sprung to his feet.

Another one of the…

A spike was already coming straight for his face, and he tilted his head, barely in time, to avoid getting impaled. A hot line of pain running along his cheek, Anad sidestepped to his right, blade coming up to parry aside the creature’s other arm.

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Somehow, he was barely in time again, and he pulled harder on the Trance. Another sidestep, fast enough he should’ve been practically teleporting to anything watching, and yet the thing was already on top of him again.

Both hands working, cane and sword a blur of parries, Anad was forced to fall back. Step after step, parry after parry, he backed away from the monster doing everything it could to drive its spikes through his face. That single-minded drive to hit him in the head was the only advantage he had, his focus narrowing to a small circle directly in front of his eyes

Blows raining down on him, his hands moving faster and faster, Anad weaved his body into the mix. Leaning, twisting, and dodging as much as he parried, he planted his feet, the storm of attacks raging around him from every angle, but always with the same destination.

Just… his sword slapped a spike up above his head… need a… he leaned to the left to evade… chance to… his cane swept around a double strike and swept both spikes out to the side in a powerful prise de fer… counter!

With both of the monster’s arms off to his left, Anad launched himself forward in a lightning-fast fleche, blade striking out once, twice, three times, before he was past. Skidding to a stop, he whirled around and brought his blade and cane up to resume his defense.

But the creature hadn’t pursued him, and instead stood unmoving across the line of fallen trees. No, unmoving wasn’t exactly true.

It was flickering… twitching.

Anad squinted, pulling so hard on the Trance pain blossomed through his head like he’d been hit by a hammer while silver light flooded out of his blade.

That’s not my imagination.

The creature’s edges didn’t stay in the same place for more than a heartbeat. It wasn’t moving itself, but it was instead like it didn’t exist in the same place from one second to the next.

He looked down at its feet, which weren’t moving, but every time he blinked, they were in a different place. Not only was thing blinking in and out of reality, it was doing it at a speed that was fast even to Anad’s Trance-enhanced senses.

This one was different than the ones he’d killed. More dangerous.

Which means it needs to die. Here. Now.

Anad held on to his hard pull of the Trance, the pain of overstimulation spiking across his head, and launched himself forward, a streamer of silver light hanging behind him. The forest all around grew utterly silent as he moved faster than the sound he left in his wake, and his muscles strained to drive the sword straight for where its heart must be.

Crack, his sword punched through a fallen tree all the way up to its hilt instead of the monster at the same time sound caught up to him, and Anad jerked his head left and right looking for how he could’ve possibly missed.

There, across the line of trees, where he’d just been standing, the creature stood with both of its spiked arms impaled through a trunk.

How did we pass each other?

Anad barely flicked his wrist to free his weapon, the edge of the blade carving through wood as easily it would paper, and he spun around to face the creature. It wasn’t moving again – other than the twitching – and Anad lined himself up for another charge. It was fast, but he’d be ready if it rushed by him again.

Now to…

The creature was gone. Just gone.

What…?

CRACK, wood off to Anad’s left shattered, and he spun in that direction. Up came his sword on instinct to bat aside small, splintered projectiles while his eyes found the creature again with its arms impaled through a tree.

When did it…?

It was gone again.

CRACK, right behind him, so close he felt the air almost pop across his skin, and he whirled around. Slash, slash went his blade in a quick ‘X’ before he double-stepped back and brought his cane up across his body to defend against a counterattack.

None came, and blood ran in long lines down the creature’s back.

It’s not moving. The way the air burst – it’s the one teleporting. It’s…

Gone.

Anad dove forward in case the thing appeared behind him, but the ensuing sound of splintering wood, crack, once again came from across the line of trees. He barely rolled to his feet when the next crack sounded just to his right. But, the creature was already gone by the time he looked, and crack, across the way again.

It can’t completely control where it goes. Like’s it’s random. That gives me…

Spiked arms rocketed towards his head as the creature appeared right in front of him.

Too fast to completely parry, Anad snapped his cane and sword up, just barely catching the spikes as they drove for his face, while at the same time buckling his knees and hurling himself backwards to the ground.

A line of pain blossomed from his left eyebrow across his forehead as it he wasn’t quite fast enough, but then his back hit the forest floor, and he rolled to the side and leapt to his feet.

With a drop of blood hanging mid-air from the twisted spike, the creature paused where it’d almost impaled him. Steam rose off it like it’d stepped from a hot bath out into a winter day, angry blisters dotted its mottled skin, and it stood completely motionless, not even flickering.

Whatever it was doing didn’t come without a cost. This is my chance!

Anad swept in from the side, blade already a blur of movement as he punched through the steaming skin below the creature’s outstretched arms. Half-a-dozen holes opened between the ribs, and then he was around behind it, his feet skidding on the forest floor as he twisted to keep it in front of him. No time to waste, he drove his sword all the way to the hilt in the small of the monster’s back beside its spine, then turned his wrist and ripped the blade out the side. Viscera and organs spilled out of the ghastly wound, but the thing didn’t even flinch, so Anad finished the arc of his sword, flipped it around, then brought it down across the back of the thing’s knees.

He severed tendons and muscles in the blink of an eye, which should’ve made the thing completely unable to stand, but still it stood frozen, like a statue, and Anad worked his feet to bring him to the monster’s other side. Its throat and upper arms were next, and he went to work with the surgical accuracy of a blind butcher. Where his blade passed, skin parted, blood flowed out in great gushing waves, and within seconds the thing was little more than a mess of bones covered in scraps of flesh and muscle from waist to chin along its left side.

Is that enough?

Movement, quick and sharp, and Anad stutter-stepped back while bringing his sword across.

One of the spiked tongues from the creature’s chest parted where the blade met it, the top-half sailing over Anad’s shoulder while the bottom instantly shrivelled up and recoiled. Swish, swish, the other two tongues shot for Anad’s face only to meet the same fate as the first, and he swept around in front of the creature.

Ducking under the spiked arms, he took aim and stabbed straight into the center of the grotesque mouth. Half the blade drove between the rows of teeth, the crusted ‘lips’ spasming around it, and Anad tore the blade straight down to rip free from the monster’s crotch.

More blood – How could there be that much in its body? – gushed out as Anad stepped around to the side and brought his sword up to strike again.

Before he had the chance, the thing toppled forward to hit the ground face first with a wet thud.

And Anad wasn’t far behind, the stress of the Trance on his body finally overwhelming him, and he dropped straight down to sit on the ground. He hauled in air in deep breaths, lungs and muscles burning in a way they hadn’t since before he’d started using the Trance.

“Need… a… break…” he wheezed out to himself, but another burst of chaos somewhere ahead told him he didn’t have that luxury. If that was Tel, and they were still fighting, that meant there were more of these monsters. And monsters were exactly the sort of things Mediators were supposed to deal with.

Another deep breath, and Anad pushed himself back to his feet, the Trance flowing through him just enough to heighten his senses and dull some of the soreness. The pain in his head would have to wait, because really, how many of these things could there be?