Jack whirled and struck with his blazing longsword, leaving swaths of cleaved and withered flesh in his wake, even as spatters of vitriol stung and sizzled against his skin and armor. The metal was pitted and the leather of his gauntlets had dissolved hours ago. His shadows were a whirling black kaleidoscope, striking like serpents, cleaving flesh and draining away the life of the mutated beasts. As the blackness writhed around him, the spatters of dissolved flesh on his face, throat, and hands sealed shut, healing over with visible speed. The black ichor that passed for his blood remained, slowly caking the collar of his gambeson and the skin of his hands.

Behind him, Erin slammed into a wriggling horror, low-slung like a gorilla, but with a face made mostly of teeth and glittering eyes, supported by two nests of starfish-like arms rather than the bulky limbs of a primate. She lifted the beast above her head and hurled it into the creature approaching from Jack’s left. She turned without hesitation, unleashing another Charge against the piled monstrosities. Her armor roared to life, leaving iridescent streamers in her wake as it doubled her already massive strength. She collided with the heap of twisted flesh and activated Crushing Slam, driving her fists downward with a titanic crash. Her blow sheared and splattered the creatures, cleaving all the way into the ground beneath. The ground around her shook with the impact before she stood and oriented herself. The vitriol sizzled against her armor, failing to find any purchase against the enchanted steel. She cannonballed forward into another creature, crushing it between her unstoppable momentum and a massive, gnarled tree.

Rory appeared from the edge of the clearing and sprinted toward Layla, where she held off a group of the mutated beasts with a spread of dragon fire. He deftly vaulted one of the creatures and slid across the ground. As he neared the beast, he dug his heel into a thick root and sprang upright into a fluid arc. At the apex of his leap, he passed over a beast creeping toward Layla’s blind spot, driving his quillion into the creature’s nape and ripping the weapon sideways, perpendicular to the spine. His panel flooded with the wave of notifications as his layered abilities discharged. He smirked as the beast’s body flopped to the ground, its limbs abruptly no longer receiving signals from its brain. Two of the creatures near Layla wheeled toward this new target, then suddenly wobbled on their feet and lost focus for a moment. Had the other Chosen been looking, they would’ve seen a burst of cool white mana swirl around Rory before he faded from their view.

Layla shot a glance at the disturbance behind her, then grinned as she saw the precision wound that had disabled the monstrosity behind her. She shouted a quick thanks to Rory, wherever he was at the moment, then turned back to her prey. Mana boiled out of her like a volcano, layers of Lesser Dragon’s Breath transforming the forest into scorched carbon and the mutated beasts into steaming piles of charred viscera. Puppetry had proven effective enough, but the napalm-like nature of the dragon fire was peerless as a tool for disposing of the mutations. She laid down another thick wave of blazing mana, cackling madly as it clung to the creatures and blackened flesh down to the bone.

“I AM HAVING SO MUCH FUN, I WANT YOU ALL TO KNOW THAT!” Layla cackled as she unleashed yet another wave of searing flame.

“We’re happy for you, El,” Erin shot back as she body-checked a massive bull-thing with two heads, each with its own set of snapping jaws.

“Less fun here,” Jack yelled back just before a gout of acid sprayed across his face, revealing the white bone and black, ichor-soaked muscle beneath. “SHADOW HYDRA!”

He screamed a war cry fueled by pain and rage as every one of his shadow arms suddenly converged on the beast in a wave of lightning-fast strikes, driving deep into its body. His Stamina and Mana dipped as the martial art fueled six simultaneous blows, then released another furious shout as his Health shot back up, the muscles and skin of his face and neck knitting together in an instant.

“FUCK, THAT HURTS!” he yelled, taking advantage of the momentary lull to drop to one knee.

“You good?” Erin shouted from across the clearing.

Her body blurred with speed and power as she punted a beast the size of a dog out of the clearing, grinning at the satisfying squelch when it struck a tree halfway through its flight. She turned to check on Jack, but the nightbringer had already risen and started to jog toward the remaining creatures held at bay by the sea of flames Layla had laid down.

Rory appeared once again, pulling his dagger across the hamstring of a bipedal atrocity that resembled a cross between an ape and a sea urchin with the worst case of green cystic acne imaginable. The creature’s milky blood splashed across the forest floor as it collapsed to the ground, unable to make further use of its leg. Blood continued to pour from the wound, and within seconds the creature’s skin had grown noticeably gray. This time, all three were watching as the cyclone of translucent white mana wrapped around Rory and he vanished from view.

“Did… did Rory just… disappear?” Jack let go of his longsword, the blade transfixed through one of the beasts. The black flame continued to do its work as the beast writhed and attempted to squirm away from the swordsman.

“Oh good, I’m not imagining it,” Layla paused her flamethrower imitation and stared dumbfounded at the space where Rory had been.

“WE’RE NOT DONE HERE, YOU KNUCKLEHEADS!” Erin slammed her fists together as crimson smoke began to pour off her armor. “Behemoth Raid. Haymaker. Crushing SLAM! CHAAARGE!!”

She shot across the clearing at one of the last beasts, a massive creature the size of a polar bear. The beast rose up, burning with shimmering blue and green mana, as the dreadnought arrowed toward it like a runaway freight train. Suddenly, festering wounds erupted across its body as dozens of chitinous limbs burst forth, each tipped with a razored scythe. It leapt toward the warrior as she raced inexorably forward, aiming to spear her with the forest of chitinous blades.

The beast crashed against the unstoppable force, but as a stand-in for the immovable object, it was found wanting. Erin’s armor shattered over half the blades instantly, driving the rest away from her with the explosive impact. Her armor’s unique power gathered the layered enhancements, then doubled the force of her charge. The result was like an artillery shell striking an unarmored soldier. The monstrosity erupted in a shower of milk-colored blood and green vitriol, blown apart by the power of the dreadnought’s charge.

As Layla and Jack stood in awe of the titanic power of Erin’s attack, Rory appeared behind them and drove his dagger into the brain of the creature less than a foot from Layla’s back.

“Quit gawking, you twats,” he kicked Jack’s rear and pushed Layla aside. “Wind Blade.”

Another burst of white mana swirled into existence around Rory’s hand and shot forth as he swung his arm at the last of the mutated creatures. The wretched beast was already burnt beyond recognition, and the edge of compressed air simply finished the job.

“You cast magic now?” Erin toddled toward the group, soaked in gore.

“Wind element. It’s how you get stealth spells. I should be able to pick up something like invisibility by the time we get out of here,” he smiled.

“Didn’t you… just cast invisibility bud?” Jack retrieved his blade from the corpse beside him.

“Nah, that’s just a spell called Elusive Eye. Makes it easier to become hidden, but it’s not really invisibility. Also only works in the shade or with some cover,” Rory gestured to the afternoon light, obscured by the thick canopy of trees.

Layla belched a puff of smoke, then giggled.

“Well, that’s fuckin neat.”