Stepping out of the portal, Silas was met by a tumult of shouting underscored by deafening background noise. It took a second for his ears to make sense of it, but it helped as he looked around and saw the humidity in the air, a soft mist which curled around his fingers. The land was stony and wet, soft pebbles and jagged slabs scattered about him with the occasional fauna with glazed leaves. From the sound and scene, it was clear to him they were near a waterfall base.

But his focus was only on the land for a passing moment as he had a far greater interest in the dozens, hundreds even, of stingtails who surrounded him. As a whole, these ones had lighter scales than the Dlyos he had been around, and it was clear that they were beyond confused by the humans’ appearance in their midst. There was uncertainty in the chaos, and Silas could see that the Serpils were undecided on how to proceed. Perhaps he could use this to…

His thought track derailed as Dlyo stepped out of the portal - the very sight of the Sovereign was enough to push the Serpils to a decision, and it was not a particularly friendly one. Orbs of fire burst forward, and stone golems took shape from the ground and rose, and arcane armour materialised on the Serpils.

Mia clicked her fingers and produced a shockwave which selectively shoved all the nearby Serpils away. Dlyo’s tail hooked a nondescript Serpil and wrapped around her, pulling her back; at least there was no longer a question of which one was his daughter. Continuing her spell, Mia formed a mana barrier around the group, causing the incoming Serpil attacks to crash against it and fizzle out.

While she did this, Aengus wholeheartedly ignored the mana barrier and charged out, his Dane axe swinging to catch a Serpil by its head. His blade sliced through its arcane helmet like butter, and the Master of War pushed on with his momentum. Likewise, Dom went in the opposite direction with his mace and round shield, battering the stingtail closest to him on its thrusting tail.

The uproar was attracting more Serpils from the distance, and Silas could sense a Sovereign-level aura flickering from further on. Slow and steady, protected by both Mia’s and his own mana barrier, he slipped half a Transcendence from his sleeve and swallowed. Glancing up, he spotted Serpil in the sky, a giant stingtail of white and gold, amidst a collection of similiar stingtails, no doubt her children. She was rushing towards the humans; unaccustomed to stingtail expressions, he couldn’t read the emotions on her face, but he guessed at fury or excitement from the lightning pace she set.

From beside him, Mia torched the stingtails barraging her barrier with hellfire, her icicles falling from the skies like rain and lightning zapping from one to another. The ground sunk down at convenient places and trapped the stingtails who tried to run, allowing her to level through her nearby enemies. In contrast to her, Ajit stood idly, watching the sights with a curious expression. However, when he saw Silas stepping out of Mia’s mana barrier in Serpil’s direction, the Warlock gave him a small nod.

Dropping his spear, Silas drew his sword and tensed, his body tightening up before it erupted into motion. He raced forwards, tearing through the stingtails in his way with glancing cuts. Several of them understood his intention and tried to stop him, but they all found triangular shades spawning from the ground ahead of them. Although the shades’ edges didn’t look particularly sharp, the stingtails who braved their warding swings came out a limb less.

Of course, there were some stingtails who were powerful enough to parry and continue towards Silas, however these stingtails quickly came to the conclusion that they shouldn’t have showed off their strength. The shades which they had outskilled all exploded from the shame, their bodies shattering into knuckle-sized pyramids which shotgunned into the stingtails. And as if this wasn’t enough, these pyramids exploded once more on contact, turning into thumb-sized pyramids and so on.

Alas to say, the first few instances of this was plenty for the surviving stingtails to realise the danger of the shades and create distance, granting ample space for Silas to sprint through. He could feel spells shooting for him, but his mana barrier held through as he arrived at Serpil.

The stingtail Sovereign swung her tail and whipped at him, its length extending from void magic. The black extension stood out in contrast with her white scales, and it nearly smashed Silas into the ground before he chopped into it. His manastone-edged blade sliced through the void. Nearby, Serpil’s children tried to gang up on him, but a shade rose out of the ground for each of them, locking Silas and Serpil in a duel.

The stingtail Sovereign spat a cloud of dark mist, igniting it before he could even dodge. It scorched his barrier, and he replied with ultraviolence, lunging in with a wide chop, lightning propelling the strike forwards. She put up her mana barrier in time, playing right into his hand as he activated Weakness Vision and looked for its weak point. Spotting it, he curved his blow midair to streak through it.

As her mana barrier thinned, Serpil cast it again to change its composition. Not that it mattered to Silas, who easily spotted the new weak point, and followed up with a stab right there. At this, her mana barrier shattered, and he continued with his thrust, digging his blade through her scales and into her flesh. She gave a shriek of pain and immediately cast several void tendrils which homed in on him.

What she didn’t know was that Silas was familiar with void attacks, particularly this style due to his fight with Krumtor. Only while there he had been the underdog who had barely held onto his life, here he was the uncontested champion. His senses told him he would need another twenty or so more strikes on Serpil to use Rupture, but at the same time he had the feeling that Rupture was overkill.

Rather, he pooled mana into his arms and slowed, allowing Serpil to think she could finally get him. Her tendrils rushed in with a spurt of speed, eager to gore him, when he disappeared in a blur, the wind blasting into her as he pounced at her. The mana in his arms flowed into his sword, which went blinding white with crackling electricity. Serpil raised a defence in the nick of time, an inky shield which appeared out of nowhere, but his sword went through the shield and then through her with a defiant roar.

The blade entered through one end and came out of the other, and Serpil collapsed from the passage as her innards melted into goop. Her white scales were seared black at the site of the wound, matching her void tendrils which plummeted to the ground before disappearing without a sound.

Silas Wycliffe (human), the Duellist, has killed Serpil (stingtail), the Voidmaster

37 Sovereigns remaining.

Meanwhile, Aengus bulldozed through stingtails with such eagerness, such ease, that they began to actively run from him. Not a single stingtail could summon the courage to face the Master of War, who chased after them with a body splattered with their kins’ gore. Attacks against him seemed to have no effect as he continued through their ranks unhindered. Dom was in the same boat as him, using Rotting Flesh to heal off all the wounded around him, his Revel in Death at the maximum stacks and giving a 60% increase to his strength, constitution, and agility.

But, while the stingtails could at least run from these two, such wasn’t the case with Mia and Ajit who reaped lives from safety, shades and fire and sinking grounds and dark hailstorms raising the death count with every second which ticked.

Dlyo only made the occasional attack while standing with his daughter, watching with quiet disbelief as one of his main competing clans was butchered so ruinously around him. The Serpil clan, which had begun this fight with outrage and bloodlust, scrambled away in cold terror; the stingtails scattered in every direction, soaring and whizzing for their lives, not daring to look behind in case death followed. The humans chased them to a distance before it became a pointless task; the remaining Serpils were too many and too weak for them to waste their time hunting after.

As they all congregated together and Ajit opened the portal back, Dlyo gave a deep bow, his daughter joining him in the motion. Her disguise had fallen off to reveal her father’s purple and black colours on her scales. “It is my pleasure to be working with you humans,” Dlyo said.

Ajit smirked. “Shut up and get in the portal already. I don’t have endless mana.”

****

The Riverside teleporter burst into life as dozens surged out, rushing through with frightful glances served behind them. In total, nearly two hundred came through over the course of five mintues, and it was obvious the only reason more hadn’t followed was because the teleporter’s daily weight limit had been reached. The people who had made it were armed and frenzied, clearly not the sort who had come down for a holiday.

Fortunately, Riverside’s teleporter had been placed next to the constabulary in case of such an instance, allowing the constabulary officers rapid response to this militia. Lina was on duty some streets down when she heard the news, and she sprinted down to the teleporter with her patrol at once.

Arriving, she stopped at some distance and watched the militia, waiting until enough backup arrived to prove a fighting chance. If nothing else, it was clear to her that these weren’t your run-of-the-mill soldiers, rather, they were high-levelled, well-trained warriors equipped with strange gauntlets. The teleporter guards, who had tried to stop them, were all bound up, although not terribly roughed up. Lina could only hope that this meant all shit wouldn’t hit the fans in a few minutes.

Fortunately, backup came earlier than she had expected as Josh appeared with fifty officers. The Blazeblade waited until he neared.

“What’s happening here?” Josh asked, glaring at the invaders.

“I don’t know,” Lina answered. “But they’ve calmed down a lot since their arrival. I suspect they were running away from something to here.”

“So why have they tied up our guards?” he asked. “They’re cruisin for a bruisin and nothing less at this rate.”

However, before their posturing could go on for any longer, a man walked out from the militia. He stood out not only because of his appearance - a bookish sort who in no way belonged with such a roguish group - but also because his aura clearly distinguished him as a Sovereign.

“Why, hello there,” the man said in a clipped and enunciated voice.

“Who the fuck are you, man? What are you doing here?” Josh shouted back.

“My name is Emmanuel. I apologise for the sudden visit, but my people needed immediate sanctuary.”

Josh’s antagonistic front smoothed down, with good reason too as Lina also recognised Emmanuel’s name. Furthermore, Dresden was allied with Riverside, meaning it was unlikely they would launch an attack here - or at least one with so few people participating. Josh turned to her and grimaced. “What do we do?”

“Text Elise,” she answered, doing it as she spoke. “But we need to free our guards and keep these guys here until Elise responds.”

Josh nodded, then looked back to see that Emmanuel was still walking towards them. “Stay there, and release our guards first. Then we can talk.” However, the Alchemist continued to near them, now only a dozen metres away. Josh raised his sword and Lina her’s, tensing up for a warning strike when suddenly a hand rested on her shoulder; she would have usually reacted with a backward swing, but here she instead found her body seizing up.

Glancing to the side, she saw Josh was the same, a pale hand on his shoulder. There was a noticeable lack of aura behind them.

“Of course, I’ll release them,” Emmanuel said with a professional smile. “They got a bit too excited at our entrance, you see, so we had to calm them down for a second. And Katerina, release those two; I’m sure they know better than to try me.” He paused and his smile faltered, a hint of steel revealing itself. “And they need to text Silas that Kuraim has made his move. My Dresden has fallen.”