Sensing his elevated heart rate or possibly even reading his mind, Oskar thought with irritation, his Goggles transitioned into Battle Mode, complete with crisp outlines and dimmed sky. He could stare directly at either of the suns and still see without issue.

Oskar started running towards the bend as soon as he felt them nearing. He was now pushing his senses outward constantly, and the power had grown to where by the time someone got within a few meters, he knew exactly where they were and what they were doing. He made the bend just in time to slam into Falk, shoulder first. The Croc had slowed coming around the bend, and was jogging upright when Oskar hit him at full speed, causing them both to crash into the sand.

Using the momentum, he rolled and was quickly back to standing, spear in hand. He shook off the impact and continued pushing forward, immediately lunging at Valla with his spear. Fox and Touwon were right behind him, and he trusted at least one of them to keep Falk occupied.

The attack blindsided Falk, and the look of shock on Vulk and Valla’s faces told him they were unaware how close they’d gotten to Oskar and the Kobolds until Oskar’s ambush. He felt no resistance as the spear appeared to go straight through Valla’s shoulder. She became mist-like as she fell backwards, uninjured.

This had the unfortunate effect of throwing Oskar off balance, which freed her to scramble backwards, snarling, her beady eyes wide behind her Goggles. Valla was suddenly a paler shade of blue than before, but Oskar was not sure whether it was the cost of her defensive spell or fear that caused it.

Oskar’s very first glimpse of magic was enough of a distraction that Vulk had time to come to her rescue. The big blue Croc kicked Oskar clear across the dune valley where Oskar crashed hard into the incline, knocking the wind out of him for a moment.

His PUB was telling not so subtly that he’d just likely had a few ribs broken, as if his labored breathing wasn’t enough of an indicator. He felt Penny drawing closer and sent her away.

He looked back at the scene- the one he’d just been forcibly ejected from- to see Fox on top of Pale, or Falk, rather. The Croc was pawing up at her blindly, groaning in pain as she ravaged him.

Fox was brutalizing him with a dagger and her clawed hand. Falk’s trash quality spear lay forgotten in the sand nearby. The shock of her savagery cleared Oskar’s head enough to react to Vulk, who was now rushing him at full speed, a short, wooden spear in his hand. The Croc's beady eyes were terrifyingly wild through his Goggles.

Still in the middle of it, get your head right, Oskar!

Oskar turned to rush up the dune to keep from getting run over. Valla was now behind the charging Croc, so he didn’t trust himself to dive out of the way of Vulk’s charge. Not knowing what she was capable of, he opted to keep the big Croc between them for now rather than end up an easy target for whatever she was cooking up.

He crawled up the incline on all threes, hoping to slow some of Vulk’s momentum, but Vulk was quickly closing the distance. Desperate, Oskar kicked sand behind him as he scrambled.

Instincts kicked in, and despite the Goggles he wore, the big Croc turned his head to avoid getting sand in his eyes. This allowed Oskar to get out of range of the spear, and he finally turned to face his opponent.

Not today, big boy.

The big Croc’s beady eyes widened in anger through the common quality Goggles he obviously wasn’t used to wearing. Apparently realizing Oskar had baited him, Vulk snarled and activated a skill of some sort. The big blue Croc roared and then launched himself upward, rising almost above the peak of the dune.

Oskar set his spear to intercept Vulk’s now decending form, the Croc barely twisted to avoid it. He lost the momentum of his attack in the process, and landed just beside Oskar, sliding down the dune. He caused a small avalanche of sand, scrambling to recover his balance. Oskar was near the top of the dune trying to get a grip on where everyone was.

Falk, somehow still alive, was groaning and swiping weakly at the air. Fox had apparently left Falk to die and had gone after Valla to ease some of the pressure the dangerous Croc was putting on Touwon.

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Fox was running towards the opposite dune after Valla, when suddenly she was barely standing, staggering from something Oskar couldn’t see. The triumphant look on Valla’s face as she dashed backwards told him it had come from her. The smell of sulfur filled the air and he watched Fox fell to a knee against the far dune.

Touwon was not idle, though. He had just dispatched a strange, misty shadow form with a swing of his boomerang, which he now used like a kukri.

The long, curved sharp portion of the blade inside the curvature passing through the torso of the creature, and it began dissipating. Its arms and legs curled like burned parchment as it did so, purple particles dancing away into the open air.

I don’t know how to fight this.

The strange feeling of pressure began building at the base of his skull.

Thankfully, the Kobold seemed to know exactly what to do. After dispatching the shadow, Touwon immediately spun towards the real Valla, throwing the boomerang knife at her in an impressive side-arm throw, and then collapsed as Valla’s disorienting magic took hold of him.

The blade spun through the air and took Valla’s leg off at the knee. She screamed, and again, the smell of sulfur and ozone filled the air as she pulled a gnarled, black fetish that looked like a monkey’s paw from behind her back. It showed a brief, bright blue outline before full darkness overpowered the fading outline.

Valla somehow remained standing, a dark shadowy limb replacing the missing leg as she continued screaming. Her cries of pain sounded rhythmic as she cried out her dark spell. Suddenly, Falk’s fading groans turned into a primal scream that harmonized with Valla’s in a way that set his heart hammering on the inside of his chest. The pressure in his head spiked.

He’s screaming just like Erik did in the nightmares.

A clear, shimmering something floated out of Falk’s chest, and the Croc’s back audibly crunched into an impossible angle. His scream cut out abruptly, and darkness enveloped and then absorbed the clear shimmer as it flowed towards Valla in greasy looking threads of magic.

Everyone froze, even Vulk, who looked just as disturbed as Oskar did at the scene unfolding before them. Valla was staring Oskar straight in the face, still screaming in a single impossible breath, but now it was fully rage, having lost the sound of magic.

Was this the type of magic used to torture Erik?!

Oskar stood in stunned silence as Valla’s voice cracked, trailing off. An odd shiver ran down his spine.

Is this what's it's like to be on the other side of a Gambit? And why me?! Touwon is the one who hurt her.

Valla turned and ran, far faster than anyone in the stunned group could have given chase. Her form flittering forward in inhumanly fast spurts with every other step as if the shadow limb were much more powerful than the other leg, and she was not yet used to the discrepancy. In a matter of moments, she had turned the corner and was gone.

Fox stood for a moment, clearly weak, and tried to give chase. She staggered back into the dune as Vulk, the first to recover, jerked a predatory gaze at her. He turned away from her and looked back up at Oskar, still standing near the top of the dune. The Croc grinned a devious grin at Oskar from the valley floor. The Croc turned, spear in hand, and sprinted towards Fox’s helpless form, struggling to stand on the other side of the dune valley.

Touwon was trying in vain to stand, and Oskar was too far and too slow to give chase. There was no way Oskar was going to let Fox down without giving it everything he had, though. He saw little Penny crawl out of the sand, slightly injured, but placing herself between Vulk and the Kobold. Vulk barely paused before booting poor Penny across the sand, and then his body shimmered with a red tint as rage seemed to radiate from him. He covered half the distance of the dune valley, easily 15 paces, in moments.

In those few seconds, time slowed for Oskar. He saw the streamers of sand shooting across the tops of the dune overhead in slow motion. Even sparse, tiny grains of cobalt sand stood out to him. He scrambled the last few feet to the top of the dune, and Oskar’s breath caught in his throat painfully as the hot wind screamed into his face.

From the top of the dune, Oskar spun around. The distance seemed impossible. Fox was staring up at the Croc with naked defiance as Oskar felt the wind catch him. It swirled around him like an embrace… and he jumped.

With the wind at his back, he launched forward so fast he worried he might overshoot Vulk’s slowed form, but the huge Croc doomed himself when he activated the same ability as before, jumping into the air to clear the last of the distance to impale Fox, and Oskar crashed into the back of the airborne Croc with bone breaking force.

He barely had time to register the thought before the impact, but he was moving fast. Unnaturally so. The last thing Oskar remembered was his spear being torn from his hands on impact, and the feeling of the wind’s embrace letting go before the darkness overtook him.

Notifications popped up, unseen but important.

// Gambit Accomplished: Freedom!

You did it! Although… I specifically said, “kill or escape.” You killed and then let escape, yet you are technically free from the bulk of the Vulk Collective for the time being, and that counts. Bulk of Vulk. Ha! I made a rhyme.

Insight gained! Sora threshold met!

The Magic Above has been revealed to you: Sora Mastery, 10%

Ability Learned: Wind Riding, subset of Sora.

World Gambit Updated– Step 2: Master the Magic Below

Like… that’s not exactly how you do it, but you technically did it, and as everyone knows, technically correct is the best kind of correct. //