Olfric had lost. He’d failed them all.

He should have stayed. He should have held his temper. He should have listened to Maude when he had the chance. Instead, here he was, running, fighting, struggling to resist and defy the nightmares that threatened to kill him in this never-ending horror of an anomaly. A darkness born of the cursed sands, of faith corrupted into insanity, of chaos that had become eternal.

“To your left!” he heard a distant voice say. Zuken, maybe. Or Elena. He didn’t know. It didn’t matter.

What did he have left anyway? Shahxith was gone. His kami, the one passed down in his clan—first wielded by his great-granduncle, then his elder cousin, and now him—was lost forever. Unbound and free to escape inside this anomaly, and it was all his fault. What would his Clan think of him? He shamed them all.

“Olfric! Get back! The stingers!”

He had been fighting monsters using his sword since then. He could use his lifeforce, but every time he did, it felt like a facsimile of the real thing. That creature—it had unlocked so much power, and then—it was all gone. That power was gone. His Shahxith was gone. And now, he was—

Nothing.

The hands that held his sword were nothing.

Weak.

“Don’t get closer! You can’t possibly—”

A clang! was heard as metal met carapace.

The horde of monsters were twisted hybrids, somewhere between a praying mantis and a spider, crafted out of a meshwork of carapace and metal, layered with ligamentous tissue holding everything together. Long, thick tails with sharp stingers protruded out from the end, with two pairs of eyes on either side of the head. They painted a twisted caricature that could be considered anathema to anything that enjoyed living.

Calling the fight unfair was an understatement because fights weren’t supposed to last this long. Especially not fights between a lifeforce slinger and terrors like these.

“These things keep on coming!” Olfric snarled. “I can’t keep this up for long!” Without Shahxith’s power, he was limited to his blademastery. It wasn’t anything to scoff at, but still barely in the Adept stage.

In response, Zuken lashed out with his fist, shouting something that sounded vaguely Felleisen, and the earth rippled up in a wave that flew out radially. Olfric had never fought against terramancers before, but he knew enough to not want to be in the way when attacks got near him. Holding the sword in reverse grip, he avoided the large boulder coming his way and let it smash against the monster he was fighting.

The terramancer wasn’t done. A heavy stomp of his foot sent a ripple through the ground, the unseen force dropping monsters down like bowling pins. Another twist of his wrist drew grasping waves of rock and earth up to clamp down on them. He closed his fist, and the earth tightened, drawing back down into the ground, cutting and tearing its way through monster flesh and carapace.

In less than five seconds, Zuken Banksi had taken down fourteen monsters.

Olfric barely had the time to nod in acknowledgment, when more screeches attracted his attention. Monsters came swarming out of the woodworks in droves. Olfric decapitated a particularly ugly-looking thing with a swing of his sword, while Zuken hammered the ground with unseen force. He then lashed out with some kind of dense, blackish spell Olfric had never seen before, and the monsters closest to him simply fell apart into what looked like grains of sand.

Olfric whistled.

“Disintegration spell.” The terramancer laughed. “It’s been ages since I got the chance to use it.”

“And you only thought of using them now?” Olfric shook his head. “You know what? Never mind. We’ve gotta get out of here!”

“No way,” Elena yelled. “I’m not leaving the others behind.”

BOOM!

Another explosion shook the anomaly around them. Just as Zuken claimed, the walls around them held. But that didn’t mean it was the same everywhere else. Floors were collapsing, the tunnels caved inward, and the stalactites fell like projectiles, fully capable of killing those that fought beneath. Any more damage and the anomaly wouldn’t just collapse; it would take everyone with it.

“For all we know, Tanya’s causing these explosions!” Olfric snarled.

“Don’t be ridiculous! She’s an aeromancer!”

“When has that ever stopped her from destroying things?!”

“…That’s a fair point,” Elena conceded. “But she went after the thing that possessed Maude, right? That means your kami’s there too. If we find her—”

“The anomaly is about to collapse! Maude is gone! Tanya is probably out by now! We’re the only ones left!”

“I don’t believe that!” the changeling replied with surprising ferocity. “Tanya is still here, and we’re not leaving her behind. We’re going to save her! We’re going to save them both!” Tears cascaded down her cheeks. “I don’t know how, but we’re going to do it. We’re not giving up until we find them!”

“And how do you—”

Olfric’s words were cut short, as he grabbed Elena’s arm and jumped away, just in time to avoid another bombardment of falling debris. Conversing with the changeling, fighting alongside her, saving her life—all of those were great ways to stay angry. Being angry meant he was too busy to be scared.

And in their situation, that was a good thing. Because being scared was a step away from being dead.

“Elena, can you sense her?” Zuken asked.

“I can try,” she quickly replied.

“Be quick. We’ll take care of the monsters.”

As if on cue, more monsters rushed toward them. Zuken sat down on the floor, cross legged, and two columns of rock shot out of the floor on either side, forming concentric semi-circles to create a barrier between the inside and the outside. As far as the monsters outside were concerned, they may as well be crawling their way through a pulp grinder.

That left the ones within.

With a yell, Olfric charged at the first creature he could find and thrust his blade into its skull. It let out a vicious, pain-filled screech, but before its partners could retaliate, the earthen floor disintegrated in thin sand, entrapping most of the monster herd within. He took advantage and pushed his blade deeper.

“Come on!” he hissed. “Just a bit more and you’ll die. Stop moving around so much!”

The monster continued to scratch and claw at him in furious agony despite his words.

“Stop it!”

Olfric stopped short. He glanced back toward Elena, who had decided in a feat of bravery and even greater stupidity to walk up to the monsters.

“Don’t attack us!” she yelled. As if the monsters would simply listen to her. “Go away! Eat something else!” And to his utter surprise, the monsters paused. Even the one under his blade had stopped screeching and stared at the girl like she’d grown a second head.

“Did you not hear me?” the changeling snapped, her voice stern like a scolding mother. “I said go away!”

Olfric was having trouble trusting his sight. In that moment, it looked like the monsters were actually considering her suggestion.

Maybe she was onto something with that monster taming of hers.

“Elena—” Banksi hissed from his vantage point.

“No, Zuken,” Elena yelled back. “I’m—I’m getting tired of this trip. So you”—she glared at a random duo of monsters—“are going to walk away from here and leave us alone.” She took another step forward, within arm’s reach of the monster Olfric was trying so hard to kill. “You don’t have to hurt us and we won’t kill you,” she said, her voice now tender. “Run away. Everything will be fine.”

The monster in front of them stared at her blankly, its two pairs of beady eyes glowing, yet empty. It took a measured step backward, and Olfric carefully pulled his only weapon out from its head.

…

The monster swerved its forelimb in a large sweep, straight toward the girl’s exposed, fleshy neck.

Given the surprised look on her face, it was clear she didn’t really think the monster was going to kill her. Olfric would have called it naïveté if it wasn’t for the confidence in her gait.

Halfway through the swing, the appendage was intercepted by a rock slab that sprung out of the ground like a coffin. Capitalizing on the chance, he picked up Elena like a sack of potatoes and scurried away.

“Wha—what was that?” the changeling squeaked, too startled to make out an eloquent reply.

“Why the fuck did you think that would work?!” Olfric shouted at her.

“I was trying to be heroic!” she babbled. “I—I’ve never had problems with it before!”

“Everyone! Focus!” came Zuken’s voice. “I can’t do this all day,” he coughed out. Olfric didn’t miss the flecks of red suddenly dotting the ground in front of the terramancer.

That wasn’t a good sign.

“DUCK!” Elena shrieked.

Digging his legs into the ground, Olfric fell forward, with Elena still over his shoulder. Zuken was still doing an admirable job in throwing timely obstructions against the spider-like creatures. But if the blood were any clue, he had used too much mana in a short while, throwing his elemental balance into complete disarray. In other words, mana poisoning.

A spiritist with a kami could do a great many things. But use too much of it, and it could easily kill you.

Olfric looked toward the changeling again, who looked borderline catatonic.

“Hey you, changeling!”

“My name is Elena!” she threw back, snapping out of her trance.

“Whatever!” he scoffed. “Tell me, can you really control these monsters? Back there, I saw them pause for a split second, like they were fighting against your will.”

“I can! It works for most monsters, but these ones are hungry, so it’s not that easy.”

“What the hell do you mean by hung—”

BOOM!

He hurriedly turned toward the changeling. “Look, I don’t care how you do it. Can you actually do it right this time?”

Elena scowled at him. “I don’t like you.”

Did she really think he cared what she thought? “Nice to see you’re so spirited. It’s adorable. Now get going, and don’t get killed until the monsters are taken care of.”

“We don’t need to do that. I think I’m sensing someone. It’s nearby and—BEHIND YOU!”

Without the slightest warning or change of expression, Olfric dropped her and plunged his blade into the monster behind him. There were three more remaining. Growling, he readied himself. He’d trained himself in a fighting style that suited aquamancers to a tee, which was why he used a long blade capable of making wide, graceful swathes. He might not be able to call on water anymore, but he was still an aquamancer.

Zuken was strong and stable, like the element he wielded. Tanya was like the wind—free, confounding, stormy, uncontrollable. Water, however, could be both strong like earth and fluid like air. Nothing was softer, and there was nothing it couldn’t crush under its strength.

Offering a quick prayer to Susanoo, Olfric readied himself for his greatest technique.

He closed his eyes and felt a rush of lifeforce through his arms. It was so easy to imagine that it was water flowing through his skin instead. Keeping the illusion intact in his mind, he pushed himself forward. Right, up, right, up, then left, followed by a wide clockwise swing of his blade.

The unfortunate monster before him was chopped into dozens of pieces.

Olfric felt an intense pain in his ribs. What had he been thinking? Trying to perform it without the protection of his element was beyond foolhardy.

Clearly, his time spent among these idiots was getting to him.

There were still more monsters to deal with, and he had already fractured several of his ribs. The changeling was less than useful, and Zuken was busy keeping as many of the monsters away as he could. At this point, they needed a miracle if they wanted to see another day.

And then, a miracle happened.

From the opposite direction, something was moving so fast it looked like it had phased straight through Zuken’s protective barrier. The figure, a humanoid shape, slowed to a stop, her blonde hair swaying from the resulting shockwave of wind.

“TANYA!” Zuken and Elena both yelled in surprise.

“Guess she didn’t run away after all,” Olfric snorted.

“Whatever you do, don’t let your guard down!” Tanya yelled frantically. “Hit him with everything you’ve got!”

Him? Who was she talking about?

The answer came in the form of their newest arrival. Standing on the other side of Zuken’s revolving barrier, with a cocky grin on his face and a fiery blue blade in each hand, was a black-haired bremetan. He had sharp eyes, a chiseled jaw, and wore half-damaged Cyffnarian battle armor—

Olfric narrowed his eyes.

Brown eyes. Black hair. Those sharp features. Armor. It couldn’t—

His jaw fell.

This couldn’t be happening. He had seen the water blades tear through this man—heart, limbs, abdomen—and then his lance had exploded in his face. Skilled or not, no pyromancer could have survived that.

“That’s impossible!” he breathed. “There’s no way anyone could have survived that attack!”

The stranger’s dark eyes rose to focus on him, and a terrible, frightening rage overtook his features. “You.” His voice was deadly quiet. The blades in his hand dispersed into sparks of flame, and his voice rose to a wrathful roar as the ground began to tremble.

“YOU!”

The scream threatened to deafen him by sheer volume, but it was far, far more painful than that. Olfric could feel it press against the vaults of his mind, an emotion so violent and intense that it would tear his sanity apart if he let even a portion of that into his head.

And then, a whirlwind of power erupted out of the stranger. Stone shattered to dust. Raw energy exploded upward through the ceiling, maybe even through the floors above that. Pure heat surged out with it in a wave of such breadth and power that five minutes ago, Olfric would have considered it impossible.

The stranger raised a hand in their direction. Zuken’s barrier was no longer there.

There was nothing between them.

Oh shit.

The stranger conjured a sphere of liquid fire and launched it in their direction, while twisting his body backward, dodging Zuken’s sudden attack. The fireball was intercepted by a raised slab of rock that instantly shattered to pieces.

But that wasn’t all. The sudden movement cost the bremetan his body coordination.

Olfric took advantage of that, leaping to the side before bringing his sword over the man’s head at an angle, aiming to separate his neck from the rest of his body. The sword hit his shoulder at breakneck speeds, piercing through bone and cartilage, but got stuck. Before he could pull his blade away, he was sent flying by a powerful burst of energy.

Tanya stepped into the fight. She rushed forward with blades of wind, but had to alter the course of her moves mid-leap to prevent a ricocheted chunk of rock from taking her left arm. As for her own attack, her blade struck the stranger in the chest, just below the neck. A perfect stroke.

It dissipated before it managed to pierce the skin.

Zuken, who was already weak from too much mana usage, gathered more power and sent a dozen rocks at him from all directions. The stranger punched the incoming projectiles head-on with a strange, animalistic enthusiasm, which only seemed to worsen as the terramancer poured more mana into the move. Rocks became boulders. Boulders became shrapnel. Shrapnel became blades and spears and maces that kept flying at the pyromancer and turning into dust by his blows.

Olfric had had enough.

Rather than take shelter, he slipped into the man’s vicinity and thrust his blade forward, aiming for his heart.

The stranger swatted him aside. Blood fountained from Olfric’s mouth, and his sword shattered just from the impact of the powerful bremetan’s fist. Olfric staggered back, but before the stranger could go after him, Tanya came to his aid, slapping him aside with a wall of air.

The stranger threw his head back and laughed. “IS THIS ALL YOU CAN DO?”

Zuken spat out some more blood—

“Yes.”

—and yanked his hand upward, raising the fallen dust and debris. Right into the bremetan’s eyes.

The ground beneath his feet instantly turned to sand and yanked him down feet-first, entrapping him up to the waist. The pyromancer madly tried to escape from the sand prison, but Zuken clenched his hand into a fit and yanked downward. A stalactite fell down from the ceiling, right onto the man’s head.

And that was it. He finally stopped moving.

“Well, that was easy,” Zuken said, panting heavily, rivulets of blood dripping down his chin. “You’re saying this guy was giving you trouble, Tanya?”

The aeromancer rolled her eyes. “Just wait and see,” she muttered, her gaze affixed to the gash on the stranger’s shoulder. Olfric, curious as to what she meant, stared at the wound he’d given the stranger earlier. The strike had cleaved through his right collarbone, but missed anything vital. Had he struck a few inches lower, he’d have nicked an artery or even a lung.

Ah, well. Beggars couldn’t be choosers—

Olfric narrowed his eyes. The wound…it was already beginning to close, and rapidly too. Left alone, it would be as good as new in under a minute. The bleeding was stemming, and skin began to knit itself back.

Judging from the looks the others were giving him, they had caught it too.

“That’s some healing there,” Zuken said, peering at the wound with thinly veiled interest. “I thought Maude was good, but that…” He paused, halting mid-word. Then, his expression twisted into a frown. “Tanya, is there a reason he’s attacking you?”

“Yeah,” she said, without looking any of them in the eye. “There is.”

“And I suppose negotiations aren’t on the table?”

“Enough of this!” Olfric snapped. “What are we waiting around for? Let’s kill him while we have the chance!”

“No,” Tanya denied, stepping forward. “We need him alive.”

“For what?”

“For…reasons I can’t state until it’s clear we’re on the same page.”

“Well, I’m all ears.”

Tanya looked at him in annoyance. “I have a contract with Zuken and the rest of you regarding the mission, and I’ve gone way out of my way to hold up my end of the bargain.”

“No doubt about that,” Zuken agreed.

“At the same time, I have a verbal contract with this guy.” She pointed at the unconscious, weirdly powerful, bremetan. “And I need him alive to fulfill it. Rather, we need him alive.”

“Are you out of your damn mind?” Olfric demanded. “This nutjob was trying to kill us!”

“Actually, he was trying to kill me, and only because the anomaly’s guardian did…things to him.”

“Things,” Elena repeated.

“Things,” Tanya confirmed.

“Stop saying things and explain properly!” Olfric snapped. He’d had it with this damn group and their easygoing attitudes. His kami was gone, Maude was gone, and they nearly died! Was he the only one who realized that?

“This guy helped me kill the anomaly’s guardian.” Tanya paused. “Well, actually, he killed the guardian all by himself while I just stood there. If it wasn’t for him, we’d probably all be at the—” She paused again.

“At where?” Zuken probed.

Tanya suppressed a wince. “Look, it’ll take some time to explain, and it’s been a long day. Can you just keep him trapped until I get a second to breathe?” Her stomach rumbled. “And maybe something to eat?”

Elena laughed, and reached for her bag.

Olfric threw his broken hilt at the wall.