I faced off against the giant Carver, still unsure what I could do against the massive creature. A few of the normal bugs made a play for me, but I casually ripped through them with my sword. I guessed the only thing I could do, with my current lack of raw power, was go for the cheap shots. I’d chop at its legs until it either chased me around or I’d somehow managed to defeat its incredibly thick chitin to take out a leg.

I clicked my tongue in frustration, but I wouldn’t accomplish anything just standing here like an ass… like Clyde. I leapt forward, easily evading its attempts to slice me with its undersized bladed arms. The legs worried me more, for while the bug itself moved slowly, the legs were mobile, and the rasping sound they made itched the back of my skull.

I passed into range of its legs, attempting a slice and a chop with nothing to show for it. I’d expected as much of course, but to see its natural armor deal with my sword so easily dealt a blow to my pride in kind. Of course, Kan’on would be able to pierce its armor with his superior sword technique and raw power. Martial cultivator types always had some kind of trump card cheat.

I continued to pass in and out of its range, being as annoying as possible. There was an effect, however small. I could tell its attention shifted toward me, but the direction it traveled didn’t change. Leaping back out of range, I rested and cleared out the back of the pack of Carvers still pushing into the mouth of the alley.

The soldiers, despite me not being there to swat down the climbers, seemed to be making a good showing for themselves. The casualties mounted, but not nearly as fast as the pile of Carvers grew in front of them.

Facing the mutant Carver again, I switched up my strategy. I ran in, but instead of going for the legs I’d go for its compound eyes. I leapt up and slashed at its eyes, still far above my own head, and landed a solid swipe.

It screeched, the power of which knocked me back a few steps before I recovered. That was the first real reaction I’d gotten out of the deeps damned monster. I circled around its back, trying to harry the legs I hadn’t targeted yet, before coming back in for a quick swipe to its face.

Once again, I leapt up so I could reach its head with my weapon, but as I glided through the air I stiffened in shock as the giant creature lurched forward at incredible speed.

I looked up from the ground, head spinning, pain from the gargantuan impact having thrown me some distance. I had lost some time, how much I wasn’t sure. Excruciating pain in my chest kept me from rising to my feet.

Looking down at my chest, blood leaked from crushed and broken skin through a rent in my armor from right shoulder to chest. I gritted my teeth, sounds of agony threatening to rip out my throat, and used my good side to lever myself into a sitting position, then standing.

The goliath Carver hadn’t changed course. The normal bugs threatened to overwhelm the defenders. If they retreated, the Carvers would continue to pressure them, if they ran, the Carvers would sweep through the town like a scythe.

Denial threatened to throw my mind into turmoil. I’d failed again, failed the people I’d taken responsibility for. I once again questioned why I’d done it, I could have just left. This place had nothing to do with me to begin with, just another town threatened by the realities of the world we all lived in.

It was too late, though. I’d already made the decision; I couldn’t go back on it just because I didn’t like it. I needed to do as much as I could, even if it just meant buying more time for the soldiers next to me. My sword arm hung limp, useless, the remaining power in me miniscule.

I ran forward, my breath coming in pained gasps, looking for an opening in the Carver mess to drop myself into, to make one last effort to stem the bug tide. The ragged soldiers, bloody and torn, saw me coming and surged forward valiantly, opening a space for me.

Pride swelled within me, these people who had just minutes before been on the verge of panic, had steel in their eyes. The Carvers had eaten away at their numbers, but those who remained had spines of iron and I saw their determination, saw the transformation from backwoods men at arms, to stalwart defenders.

I made it to the pocket, turned toward the Carvers, and swiftly drew another familiar rune, with a wicked little twist from my intent and willpower tacked on. With a smile on my face, I dumped all my remaining power into the rune, everything in me, including my battle aura, and activated the rune.

My crushing force rune burst forth horizontally, straight into the oncoming carvers, but instead of crushing, it twisted in on itself like a tornado. It shot straight into the Carvers, dragging dust and debris with it. Everything the rotating force vortex touched, it mulched. Carver body parts splattered against the nearby walls and shot into the sky.

I stepped forward, trying to push the effect forward somehow and keep my connection to the power as long as possible to eke out every last drop. The power used itself up too soon, the dust and debris dropping out of the air, giving me a clear view of what I’d done.

Devastation met my gaze, everything except the goliath Carver shredded into unrecognizable parts. To my dismay, new Carvers already swarmed in to fill the empty space I’d created. Ah well, at least I’d given the soldiers behind me enough time to regroup and rest, if not a lot.

A shadow blocked out the torchlight and I realized the goliath Carver was on me. I made a move to retreat back to the line of defenders, but stumbled to my knees, completely spent. Not a drop of power remained inside me and the pain in my shoulder and chest almost crippled me with its intensity.

The oversized bug lashed out with its closest leg and I couldn’t evade. My mind fuzzed out again and I found myself waking up slumped against a wall, my chest armor crumpled, struggling to breathe.

I sat there unable to move, watching more Carvers swarm in to fill the empty space I’d created, watching the goliath’s unstoppable approach. I felt resigned, but not disappointed. I’d done what I could, I’d done my duty. At least in the end I hadn’t failed in that. I could live with that. Or die, things weren’t looking good for me, but I could think of worse ways to go out.

Something struck the mass of Carvers swarming in like a meteor, throwing up more dust and debris. I shuttered my eyes, trying to see through the dirt cloud. A red glow suffused the cloud as a whirlwind of fire sprouted up out of the ground. The spinning fire cloud cleared the air, and my jaw dropped, stunned.

A man stood in the middle of the miniature firestorm, whirling a giant spear over his head, almost as large as a lance. I could sense glyphs on the weapon, but they weren’t like any glyphs I’d ever seen. They felt… deeper, connected to the man in some way I couldn’t explain. Power wafted off him, rolling into the Flow in giant waves, disturbing all the currents around him like a physical force, his battle aura like a solid presence that stood along with him.

The man stopped whirling his spear and planted the butt in the ground. He wore nothing but bracers on his arms, greaves on his lower legs, and a leather kilt around his waist. Recognition poked me somewhere in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t place it.

The man looked over his shoulder at me and shock raced through me a second time. Familiar eyes smoldered in the receding flames of the firestorm, except instead of judgment for me, I only felt compassion as he stared at my broken body.

Jass looked down at me, a sorrowful smile on his lips highlighted in the firelight. Scars crisscrossed the body of a wiry, hardened warrior… too many scars. Tattoos covered his torso and I realized that he’d tattooed glyphs all over himself. Cursed depths, tattooed glyphs, what the hell was he thinking?

“Dash. I made it back in time. Rest now, you’ve done enough.” With that, Jass turned around to face the goliath Carver through the ruin his arrival had created.

I struggled for breath, my vision slowly fading. I’d probably lost too much blood. As the curtains slowly closed in on me, I watched Jass launch himself at the goliath, fire gathering around him and his spear in a white-hot ball that I could barely stand to look at. He struck like a shooting star, the impact knocking back dust and Carver bodies. His spear pierced the giant creature and through the spear, fire flowed into its body, lighting it up and consuming it from the inside. I closed my eyes, smiling. Depths damned Jass, far too impressive for his own damned good, stealing my thunder with his one shot kill.

###

I floated in emptiness. That wasn’t right, not emptiness. I recognized it as the meditative state that let me spread my mental filaments far out into the world, or at least something similar.

I couldn’t feel my body, which relieved me, since I didn’t feel the agony it no doubt radiated. I vaguely sensed feedback from the currents around me, but nothing substantial. I couldn’t control anything, not even my mental filaments slowly spreading out into the world. They spread further and further, spreading my consciousness with them, until all I knew was a diffuse sense of self spread over an unfathomable distance.

I sat there for a while, until time stopped being meaningful, my consciousness sinking into the Flow. Fear crept into the back of my mind, fear of losing myself in the currents. I couldn’t come back from that, no matter if my body were healed, my consciousness would just be… gone.

Just as my fear started to turn into panic, something disturbed the Flow, something enormous. An unfathomable presence reached through the currents and plucked me out like picking a leaf out of the flow of a river.

“A drifter, have we?” The words slammed into my mind, not so much words as intent so powerful that my mind didn’t have a choice but to understand it clearly. “Oh, not just a drifter. Once marked, are we? The mark of Selfishness, I see. Ambitious, the giver. Overcome, it seems, or so the story your ripples tell.”

The mind, for it was an unfathomable mind that held me in its grasp, waited as if I would answer. I had no idea what it spoke of, I couldn’t focus enough to form a coherent thought. I couldn’t answer even if I wanted too.

“I see your echoes, drifter. You ripple into the world. Such are the actions of those Seeking the Brethren. Deserve the second mark, do we? Hmmmm, Sacrifice? Is it warranted; I wonder?”

The mind left me to drift for a time. Left to my own fuzzy thoughts, the idea of being ‘marked’ floated into focus. What did it mean to be marked? When had I been marked? Selfishness, that had been the word it pushed into my mind. It tickled memories, but my unfocused mind wouldn’t let me make any connections.

“Without fresh water, the pond stagnates. Very young, drifter, to be a Seeker, yet the pond is clouded with old minds. Have we become so risk averse? Risk then, lest we sink into rot.”

The presence gathered my mental filaments back into the container of my mind. The Flow pressured me from all sides, suppressing my awakening awareness into a small sphere containing all that made up my consciousness.

“Marked, once, reveals the trial. Marked, twice, trial passed reveals the path. Seeker, follow the path! Seek the third! Marked, thrice, quorum reached.”

“Wait! Who are you?” I had managed to push enough of my intent out into the Flow to make myself heard.

“Who are we? Shouldn’t the Seeker know that which it seeks? You sought us, those of the Deep. Now, reap what you sow.”

Before I could ask any more questions, the mind reached through the Flow and poked me.

My consciousness, my everything, shattered.