Three enemies, forming a triangular formation around him. The sand devils must have had some hidden way to communicate, organizing the ambush as Nic was led deeper into the birthing pools. Three of them…

Nic had his Warform ready, but he’d hoped to use it against the Monarch.

His Primordial Mist could kill one if he got them into close quarters and could hold them down for the killing strike. On the downside, it would consume almost all of his aura.

For the remaining two-

Before Nic could finish his thought, the four-armed giant had lunged into motion. An earth-quaking kick launched it high into the air, and two fists slammed down onto the ground as Nic skittered away. The silver bell anklet on his leg rang softly, and he felt some of the strength of the blow being stolen, added to his own motions, as if a phantom wind surrounded the beast’s attacks and blew Nic away from them like a leaf riding the storm.

But as he skittered back across the floor, the beast’s other two hands grabbed hold of the cracked stone. With a tremendous grunt it spun and heaved a fist-sized lump of masonry towards Nic, sending it hurtling through the air in a grey blur.

The boulder cracked against his side, dislocating his arm and spinning him down to the floor. He rolled, using his scarf to push up onto his feet, and immediately flung himself to the side as a scythe of cutting energy swept from the scorpion-devil’s tail across the room. The remaining mist was torn into shreds as the vertical wave tore into the stone arches above, sending chips of stone raining into the room as the ceiling began to quake and bend downwards.

Nic was moving light on his feet, relying on his Eight-Eyed Mantle to guide him as he skittered back in reverse, barely touching the ground as he made a zig-zag retreat.

Glass spines tore up from the ground, and he thrust his axe forward, commanding a wave of mud to burst from the nearest pool and cover the explosive glass mines before they could detonate. They still shattered, but the impact was weak and the shards barely flew through the air.

In the process, he’d created a mudfield spread across the floor. A zone of control he would hold, where he could interfere with his opponent’s footing. Two of them specialized in range, and the half-elf devil was incredibly quick-

But if he could reach the sword-scorpion, Nic had a chance of taking out one point of their attack formation.

His scarf grasped his dangling, disjointed arm and forced it back into place with a sickly grey wave of pain. The four-armed devil was rushing forward, moving across the muddied floor, and Nic pulled the ground underfoot to make it go faster and faster, accelerating the run into a slide-

The beast swung, and Nic pushed everything he had into slipping away, relying on the fading future-sight images of the mist to slip aside in time. He whipped the scarf from his neck, adhesive tar coating both ends, readying his trick.

The four-armed devil slammed one fist into the ground to pivot around and kick off once more, chasing Nic as he retreated. As a fist the size of his skull hurtled towards his face, Nic flung the scarf high, one end attaching to the weakened ceiling-

And the other end closing like a noose around the beast’s arm as Nic slid aside, skating on the mud to slip past the blow. The second, lower arm swung upwards, trying to catch him, but Nic jumped over and kicked off the devil’s blunt skull to vault into the air.

Behind him, the brutal momentum of the beast had hit the end of its new leash. The scarf strained, the sticky tar holding fast, creating a tether between the devil’s massive, momentum-carried weight-

And the weakened ceiling above.

An avalanche of stone, dirt, and masonry crushed down like a fist onto the four-armed devil’s back, slamming it to the ground beneath a brutal weight. Nic slid to a halt; the beast was still alive, but only part of its head and one arm emerged from beneath the landslide.

And that left the two ranged fighters exposed.

Nic feinted for the downed warrior, but instantly changed directions as an armor of glass spikes emerged to guard their wounded. He wove under and aside, fog pouring from the sides of his mouth like a dragon venting flames. The world filled with swirling, ancient mists, and Nic’s form vanished into them as he went on the attack- a hunter hidden in the fog.

The scorpion swept its tail out, sending a wide swathe of energy cutting across the room. Nic vaulted onto the ceiling and dropped over the attack as it passed, using the tar adhesive on his hand to stick for a second. Clusters of glass spears materialized underneath him as, in the passing of the energy wave, he was briefly visible.

He dropped a flash-grenade.

In the instant the clusters exploded, brilliant light reflected across every facet and gleaming surface of the glass blades. A piercing wail echoed through the stone chambers, so loud it caused ringing pain to explode through Nic’s skull.

He activated the Plates of the Sun God’s Dictate.

Where with one plate it conjured a single, stationary sphere of gold, with four the effect was magnified again and again, becoming a suit of blazing sun-colored armor that wrapped around his skin and made him shine like an avatar of the gods.

He dropped, the glass blades ripping against his armored skin without cutting through. From the moment he hit the floor, Nic burst forward with his maximum speed, each footstep leaving behind a blazing point of light so that his path was a zig-zagging trail of fire as he rushed down at the scorpion-devil. He poured his life energies into the Internal-Sacrifice Cauldron, fueling a two-handed axe swing that hurtled towards the scorpion’s humanoid head as its eyes opened wide-

And something like a triumphant laugh burst from its mandible-covered mouth. There was a flickering, grey-white blur, and the scorpion traded places with the four-armed and fur-covered devil. One appeared beneath the rubble of the avalanche, and the enormously strong opponent was in front of Nic in a heartbeat.

His momentum was too powerful to stop. His axe was still swinging through the air, blurring into a cleaving line of red.

All the breath left his body. The beast’s fist slammed into his gut with a brutal uppercut. Nic’s shield of radiant energy held, but he was lifted off his feet as cracks spiraled through the sun-gold barrier. His axe cut deep, ripping away one arm in a butter-smooth cut and sinking deep, cracking the carapace apart, spilling out yellow blood.

But he had no footing. He was in the air, hurtling back, with no ability to change his course or dodge.

Another arm shot out and grabbed him by the leg, swinging him through the air like a club. He smashed against the earth with brutal force and was instantly swung again, slammed into a pillar, the shield ringing out as it approached its last legs, the runes within the golden glow bursting apart into spray of sparks.

Nic clung on, anchoring himself to the pillar with sticky aura to buy a second where he wasn’t being flung around. Below, the earth was budding up with glass spikes, and Nic could see the next move in the fight coming a step ahead.

The ape-like devil would slam him into the elven devil’s trap. The spikes would tear through every part of his body in a heartbeat.

There would be no coming back.

But in the instant Nic was stuck to the wall, his leg being ripped so violently out of its socket that the stub of dislocated bone tore through the flesh of his calf, he managed to reach into his bag.

The adhesive gave way, leaving the skin of his back stuck to the wall as the brute swung him towards the glass spines-

And Nic twisted in its grasp, smashing the point of an arrowhead down against the back of its hand. The stone arrow didn’t pierce the carapace at all. It didn’t do any harm whatsoever.

That wasn’t the point.

It was a Featherflight Arrow.

As the arrowhead broke, there was a crackle of lightning energy, and Nic vanished. He teleported just a few fatal inches, out of the beast’s grasp and onto the top of its arm, balanced by his adhesive covered feet. His axe swept forward, biting into the bulky muscle of the devil’s neck. Opening the carapace and spilling out yellow blood. He roared, and like a dragon setting flame to its rivals, he sprayed a concentrated jet of Primordial Mist into its eyes, its mouth, its wounds.

The change was instant. The life was sucked from its flesh, all moisture evaporating, all youth turning to age and rot in a heartbeat. As stone poured over the carapace, Nic kicked up with his one good leg and vaulted over the dying beast- using its body as a shield to escape the detonation of the glass spikes below.

He dropped onto one foot and one hand, and skittered into the mist like an animal. Disappearing completely as the explosion settled and the fractured pieces of the devil-statue fell to the ground.

One down.

The scorpion devil was desperately trying to scramble free of the landslide, pushing, trying to lift the masses of collapsed stone and masonry onto its back. But either the teleportation-swap had been the four-armed devil’s trick, or there were restrictions Nic didn’t understand.

Either way, a flick of his axe and the captive beast was done for. Its head dropped from its shoulders and the weight of the stone fell onto its limp corpse, crushing it to pulp and dust.

The elf-devil was the last one standing. She turned, grimaced, and ran away.

Nic didn’t have the speed to follow. He grasped his ruined leg, yanked the bone back into its socket, and ate the last of his healing orbs to accelerate the regeneration.

The mist was clearing. All of the grubs and eggs within the bathhouse had died, rotting to slime and mounds of ooze within their pits. They couldn’t survive even the dilute form of his mist, the life sucked out of them.

Two of their best warriors had fallen.

On the whole, it was a win. Just a painful one. And with three surviving Ascended, not a performance Nic would want to repeat- the Sun God’s Dictate had saved him more than once, and it was expended for the day. His Wintertusk Bracer, his Warform, those were the powers he had left in reserve.

But there was something he could do to tilt the odds in his favor.

The scorpion’s bladed tail had fallen outside the landslide. Nic limped over and sliced away the broad blade of opalescent, purple-white chitin. It was far too big for him to wield as a sword in his smaller form.

But his Warform? His Warform could use a blade this sturdy, this sharp…

And with a powerful Echo bound to its wielder.