Day Seven. Morning.

For a second, I could only gape at the Game messages.

The Adjudicator was offering me a Class evolution? And now, in the middle of a battle? It couldn’t have come at a worse time.

I knew I didn’t have time to ponder the choice, but at the same time, I realized I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity either. Not hesitating further, I replied in the affirmative to the Adjudicator’s query.

Your Class has evolved! You are now a mindslayer!

Your secret blood trait has been triggered!

To conceal your bloodline, your Class will be reported as being that of a mindstalker to other players and Powers.

More messages vied for my consideration, defining the exact changes made to my Class, but I had no time to spare them. Ishita’s sworn demanded my attention.

Remaining crouched near the cave wall, I eyed the three surviving mages.

“Finally!” Xrex exclaimed, eyes fixed on the dead wyvern. Striding towards it, he spat on the corpse. “And good riddance. Now, find that damn thief. I want his head!”

On my left, Ishan groaned and rolled onto his back. “Xrex... help me!” he gasped. “I’m... dying.”

The lizardman ignored him. Turning about in a slow circle, he scanned the darkness.

My gaze shifted to Lutra, and with a start, I realized that during my moment of distraction, the human mage had begun another spell. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good for me.

I can’t afford to let him finish. Spinning psi, I blinked into Lutra’s shadow.

You have teleported yourself six yards away. Three hostile entities have failed to detect you!

Lutra was still chanting. Not waiting for him to finish, I dropped my last bomb at his feet.

You have ignited a smoke bomb. You are hidden.

As more clouds billowed into the chamber, Xrex spun in my direction. “Lutra, he’s—”

I stopped listening. I was safe from the lizardman’s attacks for the time being. Raising my swords, I assaulted the human mage’s shields.

I struck hard and fast, attacking first with ebonheart, then with spider’s bite. I empowered both blades with piercing strikes, and even though I hit out blindly, I didn’t miss.

You have attempted to backstab Lutra. Backstab failed! The damage has been transferred to the target’s shield. Three hostile entities have failed to detect you!

You have attempted to backstab Lutra. Backstab failed! The damage has been transferred to the target’s shield. Three hostile entities have failed to detect you!

I felt Lutra’s shield—already weakened by Besina—tremble under the pressure of my devastating twin blows. Even better, with the smoke concealing me, I remained hidden.

I repeated the combo, quicksilver fast. Both hits landed.

Lutra’s chanting faltered. “Xrex… do something!” he shouted. “I can’t hold him off much longer.”

Ignoring the mage’s outcry, I hit his shield again with piercing strikes.

“I can’t see him!” Xrex hissed in frustration.

Lutra was done waiting. In a flat panic, he fled blindly. I kept up with him easily, tracing his flight by the sound of his footsteps alone.

On the run, I struck again. Once. Twice. That was enough.

Lutra’s frost shield has been destroyed!

“No!” the mage exclaimed. “Ishita, help—”

He got no further. Following the sound of his voice, both my blades flew forward to slash at his face.

As powerful as the mage’s shield had been, his body was equally frail.

You have killed Lutra with a fatal blow. You have slain a sworn servant of Ishita, increasing her ire towards you!

With a last whimper, the human mage crumpled to the ground.

~~~

I rolled away from the corpse, senses alert for the one threat remaining: Xrex. Clouds still lay heavy in the cavern, and the lizardman, unhelpfully, had gone quiet.

Xrex was stalking me just as I was him.

Placing each foot with care, I padded through the cavern, listening intently, but other than for Ishan’s harsh breathing, I heard nothing. My foe was better at remaining quiet than I’d expected.

For Xrex, it was a waiting game. Once the clouds dissipated, he would have clear line of sight to me. For me, though, the passing seconds were precious.

Let’s see if I can’t lure him out.

I cast ventro, disguising my location. “Not suddenly scared, are you, Xrex?” I mocked.

There was no response.

“Don’t tell me the high and mighty sworn of Ishita is afraid of a meager thief?” I jeered.

Still nothing.

“What will your goddess say? Mind you, her intelligence is questionable, and I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t place much—”

A bolt of light cut through the smoke, shattering a harmless piece of rock. I grinned. I had the lizardman’s location now.

I chuckled. “Touched a nerve, did I?” I quipped as I rushed through the gray smoke to where I knew Xrex to be.

Perhaps, realizing his error, the lizardman didn’t respond. But it was too late for him to hide now. I had closed near enough that the sound of Xrex’s shallow breathing carried clearly to my sharp ears.

Accelerating suddenly, I rammed my shoulder into where I estimated the mage’s shield to start.

I hit him head-on.

Xrex hissed as he stumbled backward. I didn’t let him break contact. Keeping one hand outstretched and touching his shield, I fell with him. A bolt of fire burst from the mage, striking me on the arm. Intense pain rippled down the limb, but I ignored it.

I had my foe pinned under me, but I was running out of time.

I raised ebonheart and hacked at the lizardman. Another spell shot out from Xrex, this one striking me in the shoulder.

Xrex has cast stonegrip on you.

Spell failed! You are immune to tier 1 and 2 entanglement spells.

I laughed. Ironically, it was Xrex’s dead companion’s item that had saved me. Beneath me, the lizardman cursed as he realized his spell had failed. Ignoring his sputtered words, I kept raining down blows on him.

After a moment, Xrex grew tight-lipped again and returned to using damaging spells. I wasn’t sure why he didn’t try other castings. I suspected it was because his sight was too impaired to target me properly.

Whatever the case, from then on, Xrex only threw fire bolts at me. Some hit me fully, a few missed entirely, and many only grazed me. Xrex was casting blindly—and ineffectually. My own attacks were more accurate. Every blow landed, and every blow ate at his shield.

Bit by bit, I wore Xrex down.

It wasn’t pleasant or elegant, and halfway through, I had to quaff a healing potion, but finally, I broke through my foe’s defenses.

Then, without hesitation, I plunged both my blades into the lizardman.

~~~

Xrex took longer to die than Lutra, but after four successive blows, he stopped moving.

You have killed Xrex with a fatal blow. You have slain a sworn servant of Ishita, increasing her ire towards you!

Panting heavily, I rolled off the corpse. I didn’t bother to move further. Smoke still clouded the cave, and the only one of my foes remaining alive didn’t sound in a good way. Eyes closed, I cast chi heal and mended my body from the burns the mage had inflicted.

It took a while, and by the time I was done, the air was free of smoke. Using my swords to support me, I rose to my feet. I was fully healed but remained weary.

I surveyed the cave, ignoring the corpses as my gaze fixed on Ishan. Miraculously, he was still alive. Moaning and mumbling to himself, the human appeared to be in the throes of agony.

Sheathing my blades, I walked over. Ishan’s eyes widened at my approach, but he didn’t stop muttering under his breath.

He’s not muttering. He’s chanting.

Suddenly wary, my hands dropped to my blades, ready to whip them out.

A heartbeat later, I paused as I noticed an oddity. Some of Ishan’s wounds were closing. It was in response to his spell, I realized. I grinned as understanding dawned. “That wyvern’s poison is no joke, is it?” I asked conversationally.

Ishan glared at me but didn’t break off from his chanting. Reaching out with my will, I queried his health status.

The target is Ishan. He is severely injured and infected by a wyvern’s toxin.

I shook my head in pretended sorrow. The mage was barely holding the toxin at bay, and all too soon, I expected it would overcome him.

Deciding to let Ishan be for now—he was certainly no threat—I pivoted a slow circle searching the cave for what I had come for.

It didn’t take long for me to find it.

In a tiny alcove, set in the rock wall behind where Xrex had fallen—had the lizardman thought to guard it?—was a tall cylindrical object with a dull red sheen.

The shield generator.

Walking over, I inspected the area intently for traps. As far as I could tell, there were none. Nervous suddenly, now that my goal was almost within reach, I lifted the object out of the alcove and inspected it.

The target is an Aether Cloaking Device, an artifact of unknown rank forged by the Power Ishita. Items of this type generate a sector-wide cloaking field and are often used to hide sensitive locations from hostile eyes.

I hefted the object in my hands. It was surprisingly light and seemed to be formed from multiple small crystals intricately fused together. But for all the importance of the artifact, it looked fragile. “Huh,” I grunted, then, whipping my arm forward, smashed the shield generator against the ground.

You have destroyed an Aether Cloaking Device. Congratulations, Michael, you’ve shattered the shield woven about sector 12,560. This sector’s aether coordinates are no longer hidden.

You have destroyed an artifact of Ishita, increasing her ire towards you!

That was easy.

With a pleased grin pasted across my face, I turned around to look at Ishan. He was staring at me aghast and even went so far to break from his chanting to hiss at me. “You idiot! Do you know what you’ve done?”

I nodded. “Sure, I do,” I replied easily, walking back to him. “I’ve opened up the sector for my escape.” I smiled. “And I suppose for anyone else who wishes to enter.”

Drawing to a halt before the mage, I crouched down. There was no doubt he was dying. The pallor refused to leave his face, and his limbs had begun to tremble. If Ishan could have healed himself of the wyvern poison, he would surely have done so by now. “Tell your goddess when you see her that her monopoly in this sector is over.” I paused theatrically. “Oh wait, you’re on your last life, aren’t you? I guess you won’t be seeing Ishita again, after all.”

Ishan glared at me. “She will not stop hunting you for this,” he said between chants. “Before you die, you will be made to regret this.”

I shrugged. “I don’t fear your spider goddess.” I stared at him thoughtfully for a moment, then withdrew a full healing potion from my belt and dangled it in front of his face.

The moment he realized what it was, Ishan couldn’t tear his gaze away from the flask.

“Take it,” I said, almost gently.

Naked disbelief crossed the mage’s face.

“Go on, it’s no trick. I want to talk to you properly, and I can’t do that if every second you break off to chant a spell.”

Ishan stretched out a trembling hand. Quivering with eagerness, he gulped down the flask’s contents and squeezed his eyes shut as the potion’s life-giving energy washed away the wyvern’s toxin’s effects, if not the toxin itself. A moment later, his eyes snapped open to feel ebonheart resting under his chin.

“Feeling better?” I asked.

He nodded slowly.

“Good. Now we can talk,” I said and gestured to my blade. “Think of this as insurance, so there are no... accidents. Chant again, and you die. Got it?”

Ishan nodded again.

“Alright, in return for my generosity, you will answer a few questions.”

The mage sneered. “And why should I? I’m still a dead man. The healing potion won’t save me.”

“It won’t,” I agreed. I held out a second potion. “But this will.”