“Your brother?” Arek asked, his battle rage almost fading from the surprise. “The one that joined the guild and…”

“Abandoned me after I left my house to take care of him,” Ming finished, her eyes unreadable. “Yes, that one.”

“Ah,” Arek said intelligently. A wyrm roared from outside and thrust its head through the small gap. Arek decapitated it with his guandao, still frowning. “How bad of terms are you on with him? Do we need to prepare a quick escape after the siege is over? B ranked mages are powerful, but they’re still human.”

“I don’t want to kill him,” Ming said, a smile cracking her sullen expression. “At least, not myself. And that extends to you guys too. He’s a traitorous asshole, but we’ve all already got enough to deal with. We don’t need to add an extra sin to our plates. Especially you, Arek.”

“Some sins are worth it,” Arek replied. “But I’ve got no desire to kill anyone either. Frankly, I’ve just never seen you this unhappy. I know for a fact that the horde isn’t what’s bothering you, so this asshole is clearly the issue.”

Ming cocked her head slightly to the side, watching Arek. Then she extended her staff out the door, sending a series of explosions through the air as pure magic crashed through the monster horde. The force of the spell was much stronger than the one she’d cast the first time they’d fought a wyrm – instead of charring its skin, Arek could see flesh fly and hear bones snap with every explosion.

The small mage grabbed a pie from the bag and took a large bite out of it, ignoring the juice that dripped down her chin and onto her clothing.

“You really mean that, don’t you?” Ming asked, blinking. “You’d kill someone just because he made me unhappy?”

“I’ve done worse,” Arek replied, shrugging. “And I’d do the same for any of you. Anyone that caused you that much pain is probably a detriment on society anyways.”

Ming giggled through a mouthful of food, which was an impressive achievement on its own. “Thanks, Arek. It means a lot to know you and the others have my back. I’ve wanted to confront him for a while now, but now that the opportunity is here… I’m not sure I want to see him at all.”

“Well, it’s something we can figure out later,” Arek said. “There’s still a week before he arrives, and who knows if we’ll still be alive by then.”

The snarls of the wyrms outside the building punctuated Arek’s words. Ming gave him a small nod.

“Is everyone else okay so far?” she asked.

“Belmont is. Malissa is still missing,” Arek said, his words turning grim. The walls shuddered as a wyrm slammed against them. Dust rained from the ceiling and Arek pulled his visor back down over his face. “Belmont actually sent me to find the two of you. I don’t think we’ve got much more time to talk.”

“Right,” Ming said, grabbing her bundle of staves and wrapping all but the one she currently had back up. She slung it over her back. “What’s the plan?”

“Get onto my back,” Arek said. “I’m a lot faster than you. I’m going to head over to where Malissa was and we’ll figure things out from then. The wyrms have pretty much covered the outer thirty percent of the city, so things aren’t looking great.”

Ming nodded. She pushed the rest of her pie into her mouth and wiped her hands off on her cloak before grabbing her sack of food and running over to Arek. She hopped onto his back, holding the sack between her body and him as tightly as possible. Luckily, it was squishy and not heavy enough to throw the orc’s balance off.

“Hold on,” Arek warned her. “I’m going to move fast, and if the wyrms swarm over you, there won’t be much anyone can do.”

“I won’t let go,” Ming promised.

“Good,” Arek said, shifting his stance and spinning the guandao in his hand. “Here we go.”

Green energy thrummed around him as Arek drew on his magic. He had a lot more to draw from than he’d had before. As tired as his muscles and body was, the rune magic showed no signs of running out. Arek didn’t have time to wonder about the phenomenon at the moment.

The ground beneath his armored feet cracked as light flared around him. The wyrm corpse blocking the door was too big for him to squeeze past. He let out a slow breath and his eyes lit a brighter shade of red. Arek bounded forward, crashing clean through the wall.

Before the wyrms could react, he vaulted upwards with his guandao and slammed his feet onto one of the creature’s backs. Bones crunched under the force of his landing, but Arek didn’t stay to admire his handiwork. He leapt forward, bounding across the monsters’ backs. He reached a house and leapt onto the roof, nearly crushing it beneath his weight as he landed.

Arek staggered forward and managed to keep his balance, shifting into a lighter stride and dashing away from the horde before they could snap up at him.

“You okay?” Arek asked.

“I might have lost a pie or two, but I’m fine,” Ming yelled from behind him.

Arek mentally recreated a map of the city in his mind, plotting out where Malissa should have been and changing his course to head towards her.

Rooftops sped by in a blur as the strange duo shot through the city, ripples of green energy trailing from every step Arek made. Within minutes, Arek arrived near the area that Malissa should have been. It was a small street that led into what had once been a miniature shopping square. It was littered with the corpses of wyrms and guards alike. For some reason, the horde was thinner here than it should have been.

Aside from Arek and Ming, the only other things in the area were several wyrms eating their own brethren along the edge of the square. He scanned the area, searching for any signs of Malissa, but there were none.