“At least I’m hydrated,” Mason muttered to himself as he ran, pushing himself to keep up with Leornal and keep an eye on where the guardians were floating behind them.

“You really don’t have to run, you know. We’re going to kill you either way, and if you just let us, there will be a lot less property damage!” One of the cheery orbs of death announced as it flung itself bodily right past Mason, blowing a rather large hole in a wall that Mason passed without a second glance.

“I’d like to not die, though! Isn’t that an option?” Mason asked as it floated back out of the hole.

He noticed that when they spoke, they expanded, and when they flung themselves, they compacted. His mind dug at that discovery, looking for an idea that would take advantage of that oddity to save his life, but he quickly decided that wasn’t the right approach.

Mason saw Leornal take a corner, and he left his own path to follow, irritated that the archer seemed unconcerned with cooperating in any way. The orbs continued to blast back and forth, wrecking the city in a way that Mason could never hope to accomplish, and would take a great many powershots from Leornal’s bow to replicate.

“Nope! We’ve got strict orders to kill every being from another planet that shows itself here! You just ought to be glad we didn’t have more time to charge or we would have vaporized you by now,” the orb closer to Leornal explained cheerily.

The other one chimed in, “Not that we mind this game! It’s pretty fun, and we don’t get a whole lot of opportunity to explore the city. Our master bound us pretty thoroughly.”

“You cannot leave this room unless you’ve detected a threat, and when you do, you are to kill it to the best of your ability, and then return immediately,” one of the orbs said in a mocking tone.

“Do we really count as threats though? I mean, look at how weak the human is. He’s no threat to anyone!” Leornal called, always quick to insult Mason.

“Oh we were bound more thoroughly than that.”

“Oh yeah, tons of energy patterns and life-form identifiers, you name it. We identified you as non-native so quickly!”

It was impressive that these things could keep up such a cheerful conversation even in the midst of blasting through walls and corridors after the two runners. They had left the core of the mall at this point, taking a passageway up and into the offices above, which Mason assumed were where the administration and purchasers for the mall resided.

Luckily for them, Leornal had picked one of the largest buildings to climb on their route to the strange dome. This meant wide hallways, open office-looking spaces, and plenty of places to duck and hide to avoid the charging, glowing balls.

But running was proving fruitless; both Leornal and Mason were breathing heavily, and the orbs seemed to be picking up speed if anything. When the two passed closely by one another, Mason pointed straight ahead, and then turned on his heels for a desperate move.

He hadn’t realized how close the orbs were behind him, and he had to throw himself to the side to avoid the first one, but before the second had made it to him he had his staff out and swinging.

With how he swung the staff, he wished he had more experience playing baseball, but despite his inexperienced stance, the swing made contact. Mason was swung around by the force of the orb’s collision, but he felt his Mana Vampirism activate.

Demon willed the staff to suck hard, and felt a veritable torrent of mana pour into his body. He found his footing and thrust the staff forward, launching the mana back out in a powerful, crimson blast of energy which completely missed both of the speeding orbs.

It was a start, at least. He saw the orb he had struck sway a bit in midair, and felt a pang of hope, but when the other one sped past his head, he pushed his hope aside and sprinted after Leornal.

Bursting through a door at the end of the hallway, he found himself on a long, wide sky-bridge strung between the large mall building and another building that was much closer to the dome they had been pursuing. The orbs took advantage of the open space and flew out across the abyss, launching themselves past the runners at all sorts of new angles.

Demon dived and ducked to prevent himself from getting bludgeoned to death, but his head turned when he heard a loud crack and saw one of the orbs flying off unsteadily.

In Leornal’s hands was a dented, heavy metal pipe, and he had clearly imitated Demon in using it to deflect one of the charges. Demon turned away to see one of the orbs on a collision course with his skull, and he ducked away, only to turn and see the other similarly charging at him. He had just enough time to bring his staff up, and though he didn’t really land a direct hit on it, the orb still made contact, which let Mana Vampirism work its magic.

Mason fell back on his butt and pressed his hands behind him to lift himself up, then swallowed hard when one of his hands almost missed solid ground entirely. The bridge, though wide, wasn’t the safest place for high-maneuverability combat.

He saw Leornal casting weak force blasts out, slowing repelling the two orbs which, to Demon’s eye, were at least a little slower after losing a bit of their mana. Demon charged over, slamming his staff down on one of the orbs as it passed near Leornal, and when he felt the surge of mana through his body he was reminded that he had never expelled the more recent capture.

He pushed as hard as he could to expel the mana in a Mana Blade before it overwhelmed him, and was gratified to see the red crescent actually collide with one of the orbs.

They were furious now. “Hey! You can’t use our mana like that! Would you just let us kill you already?”

“We should have just waited to attack. Vaporizing these guys would have been so great. I’m already tired of chasing them down.”

“They just,” one of the orbs started as it launched past, “won’t stay still!”

Demon planted his feet and batted at one of them, and the force of its strike sent him sprawling to the ground. In the process of falling, he tripped over Leornal’s leg, and the archer failed to dodge the other orb’s strike.

It hit him hard in the shoulder, and he stumbled backwards toward the edge. Demon scrambled to his feet to try and reach out to his companion, but Leornal had used a massive burst from a force blast to push himself back onto the platform. The archer roared at Demon, “Finish the other one already!”

Demon turned and realized that one of the orbs was nowhere to be seen, and hoped that his most recent strike had sapped it of enough energy that it was disabled.

He dropped to the ground to dodge a close strike, then got back up and began to position himself to counter the next divebomb. The guardian seemed to realize, and rather than attacking directly again, burst down the bridge and away from the two of them.

Shouting, Demon pumped his limbs and sprinted faster than he thought he could down the bridge, gaining on the weakened orb little by little. It was close to the next doorway when Demon thrust forward with the staff like a spear, barely bumping into the orb at the very edge of its length.

The orb kept moving for a moment, but Mana Sight showed the last of its energy pouring into Demon’s staff. He wasted no time in expelling the excess mana to the air, then shouted again, walking over and picking up what was now no more than a small, golden, rune-covered metal ball.

“That staff,” Leornal growled, bearing down on Demon. “No sane person would wield that staff. It should not be able to activate so many strange abilities with your meagre power.”

“So then, what? Do you want me to toss it off the bridge? Break it over my knee? It’s saved our lives now several times over- with Geralt, the gremlins, the yeti-things, and now with these guardians. I’m not a huge fan of the soul-sucking, but being able to pull the life, mana, and stamina out of anything that fucks with me is a pretty nifty trick,” Demon held tightly to the staff as he spoke, his knuckles turning white even as the red glow of his Glamour darkened on his skin.

“I don’t want you to get rid of it, I just…” Leornal threw up his hands and stalked a few feet away, “It scares me, Demon. You scare me, and I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say you terrify just about everyone.”

Demon laughed darkly, “I’m weaker than almost everyone around me, and yet I’m terrifying? Torysen was able to stand against Geralt head on, and might even have had a chance without my help. Did you see the way she knocked me senseless when we sparred? Even Shayjol probably could beat me in a fight, for now.”

“It’s that last part that terrifies us. The ‘for now.’ I’ve seen you when you’re spent on mana, or, rather, I can hardly see you. Nobody should be able to exist with so little mana, and nobody should be able to survive what you already have with so little power. You keep coming out on top, and who knows where that will leave the rest of us if that trend holds up?”

Demon glowered, but he respected the fact that Leornal was being more honest with him than he would be if the situation were reversed. His expression softened, “I’m on your side, so if I get stronger, so do you.”

Leornal looked about to say something, but instead just nodded. “Let’s keep going before more of those guardians show up.”

Demon shrugged, too exhausted to argue. Strong or weak, people seemed to resent his very existence. At least when he got strong he could shut them all up.

The pile of small bodies at the entrance of the cave was grotesque in its volume. It was hard to tell at a glance whether hundreds, or thousands, of those gremlins had poured from the cave, and that didn’t include the sheer number of gremlins that Torysen, Sentir, and Shay had killed on their way out.

The battle had lasted long enough that the archers had depleted their supply of both magical and physical arrows, and had to resort to striking out with their swords, alternating in groups to allow them all to stay well-rested. The fighting had been simple enough when the swarms were unable to surround the fighters, but it had been a battle of attrition that left the Roving Band exhausted and angry.

Leornal was well-liked, even if Mason’s standing was ambiguous at best, so that loss sat heavily on the hearts of the entire group. There was no celebration when the bodies finally ceased pouring out of the cave. Torysen just quietly ordered a rotating watch on the cave entrance so that they could rest and ensure none of these gremlins escaped.

She had hardly begun stalking away when Sentir and Clearsay walked up to her and asked for a word. Her body sagged wearily, but she nodded nonetheless, and they all walked over toward her tent to sit in front of it.

“Captain, I don’t mean to add a heavier burden to your shoulders after such a long fight, but there are some things which don’t add up that I think we need to discuss urgently,” Sentir spoke steadily and his voice demanded attention, even while he maintained a sense of subordination.

“I’m listening. If you think it’s urgent, I trust your judgment. Is this about the human?” Tory asked, her head swiveling limply between her two companions.

“No, though if he and Leornal are still alive, it may end up being relevant,” Sentir started, before taking a cup of a warm, fortified broth from Clearsay. Tory was so tired she hadn’t even seen the cook begin preparing anything. “Those gremlins could not have lived in those caves. There were endless tunnels, but no sign of beds or food or anything of that sort.

“I don’t think they were properly alive, at all, but I think they may have come from living beings once. Those would have lived much deeper though, further in than we got, for sure.”

Tory considered the strange reaction of their bodies to mana, and it made sense. “A soul corruption, then? But I’ve never heard of more than one or two rogue spellcasters with the affliction. What could cause hundreds to all face it at once?”

“A curse? Or perhaps an extinction level danger? Soul arts are no more my specialty than yours, but I don’t think we were facing anything more than the husks of the real creatures that lurk in those caves,” Sentir explained between sips of the broth.

“Then that’s why you think it’s relevant to the human and Leornal!” Clearsay almost shouted, “You think they’re still alive, wherever those things came from!”

Sentir looked down sadly, “It’s very unlikely, but it might explain where they went. When we come back with more of the Darkest Night for a full expedition, I want to request being allowed to participate so that I can look for them.”