With a thought, the smooth shaft of her spear dropped into her hands. The feeling of her midnight murder stick was both familiar and comfortable, not because of an abundance of experience with the weapon but because it was fundamentally a part of her. The black spear commanded a near absolute trust, much more than she’d ever felt for her first spear, and it stood between her and her enemies like Athena’s aegis as she closed the gap between them.

The monsters had no eyes that Karen could see, but her impression of how they were arrayed – both in lightning and around the building – was that she’d have no hope of getting close without one of them blasting. By the time she’d made it half the distance to the goal, that feeling of imminent harm continued, and every sprinted step was taken under the threat of magic shock. Yet even when she was only steps away, they remained as still and imposing as they had been when the fence was jumped. It wasn’t until those final steps that she’d imagined she would strike before they did.

Karen had a policy in life to treat every gift horse like she was a fucking horse dentist, but for this she was willing to make an exception. Without stopping she lined up her slash and swung through it like she was fourth in the lineup. There was no resistance. The black spearhead cleaved through the elemental’s ethereal body with a sound like electric Velcro, dissipating it in a misty, gusting swirl.

The moment the spearhead had started ripping through the swirling monster it had started sucking up the ambient crackling sparks that covered its body, funneling a tingling, hot energy into her like she was Zeus’s toilet. It was a novel sensation, but nothing too distracting. Until the source from the elemental’s death kicked in.

The source feedback made the lizardman feel like an imp, and something about the combined sensations made her body feel as if it were covered head to toe in ants that desperately wanted in. Karen immediately ate shit, going headlong into the dirt and very nearly face first into the crumbling wall. A wall that then exploded as three bolts of lightning split her dust cloud and gave that section of ruined masonry its final end. Bitches be trippin, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

What… is… this? It was equally a struggle to regain control of her body as it was to form a lucid thought.

During the spirit’s jabbering the pain switched off like a lamp, leaving her tingling once more but capable of movement. She resummoned her weapon, using it to help gain her feet as she faced down the three approaching enemies.

It’s okay to say ‘I was wrong,’ you know? It feels like every time you aren’t completely sure about something it ends with me getting fucked up.

Karen grit her teeth and set her feet, bringing her spear up toward her opponents instead of using it as a literal crutch. Despite the slow speed in gaining her bearings, those slowpokes had yet to arrive. Getting about was not even in their top three skills on their elemental resume, with one two and three being epidermal laser shows, being living statuary, and blasting apart old walls. Still, they seemed intent on closing the gap so Karen had no intention of letting them closer than spear length.

Dispatching the trio was almost childishly easy. Two were cut in half in a single stroke, then the third fell to another. Two hamburger style, one hotdog.

Electric Velcro had been downgraded to polyester blanket in winter. Apparently, the zap of chopping them was directly related to the charge of their shot, but even the reduced zap combined with the abiding low-level buzz was enough for a second dunk in Zeus’s commode. The urine was fully charged and the weird Olympian STDs were running at full burn.

What came next was all too certain and Karen seated herself in the dirt to prepare.

How many more ar– The ants were back, but this time they were twice the size and three times as angry. Her vision went black, the world stopped making noise, and for a few moments all she knew was the distinct and intense feeling of her entire body rejecting whatever was happening to her

The sensation ended as suddenly as it started, but the memory of it persisted and the ghostly pain kept lighting up raw nerves, leaving her twitching and jittery.

The spirit said, now certain Karen was once again in control of her senses.

Struggling back to her feet with all the grace of a newborn fawn, Karen internally debated her next course of action. Should she slay two and have a more intense incapacitation as the third approached, or take just the one and have a less intense incapacitation as the duo approached? Instead of waffling over it, Karen chose neither, slipping into the newly formed gap in the wall and hoping her enemies would group up for one large, final exchange.

A ruin in this kind of condition looks exactly what one would expect it to on the inside, with one minor exception. Even with much of the interior blocked by piles of shattered rubble, the abandoned home had a larger feel than she thought it would. Maybe it was the infinitely vaulting ceiling.

The exception, and the home’s most favorable surviving amenity, was its large pile of rubble near the entrance, complete with its own plasma globe lamp. The nest core slipped neatly into her ring; the perfect gift for the girl who has recently been the victim of magical torture.

Already preparing to slip out the front door and put this place in her rear-view, Karen stepped out into the entrance hallway. The floor was cleaner, being the only place with an intact – also hazardously sagging – roof. Cleaner, but not clean, because it’s hard to call any floor clean when it’s home to a corpse.

Upon inspection, the body wasn’t actually that old. It certainly wasn’t fresh, but it looked about a century too young to be one of the home’s previous residents. Clearly, the death had been a violent one. The shirt it wore was slashed across the front and stained bloody, and the sliced bones on the chest were the only ones visible. Maybe investing source into your body slowed decay? It didn’t seem implausible.

The spirit said as if reading her mind. She’d have to trust him about the color thing, but it made sense as in every picture of a mummy she’d seen they looked like they could camouflage in a Buc-ee’s jerky bar.

We need to report this, don’t we? Someone came out here and died trying to complete the job. After scanning the body she didn’t spot any weapons or jewelry, and that fucker was way too icky to touch. He could have a mountain of gold bricks on him, but they’d damn well stay there if they were stuffed away inside his magical prince albert.

You think he was killed.

The spirit clapped back.

Don’t be an asshole, you know what I mean. You think someone killed him, not a something killed him. I don’t want to get involved in whatever this is. Karen backed away from the body, clearly making ready to leave.

There’s two outside by the way, they stopped moving when they didn’t find anything around the corner.> The spirit added the last bit as Karen started peeking out, visibly tired of listening to him and ready to move on.

Inching out just enough to catch them in her vision, Karen could see the two air men had returned to sentinel mode. That suited her just fine, they could stay here forever for all she cared. Maybe rebuild the place, make a few nice sweat investment upgrades. Maybe put in a wind pool, just something to relax in during the summer. Have a couple wind babies. A girl and a boy. They’d name the girl Shhhhwwwssshhhhhhhhhh after her grandmother.

Karen silently wished the lovers well on their journey and stepped out into the afternoon sun.

The feeling was definitely not mutual. A sharp electric CRACK sounded the moment Karen was fully revealed, and blinding twin bolts slammed into her spear like a lightning rod. The feeling that followed wasn’t the burning tingle that she’d experience before, but a full body pins and needles as if every inch of her had been an extremity that was regaining circulation. Not painful exactly but not comfortable.

Her first instinct was to flee. They already shot off their load, there was nothing they could do to her as she made her way downtown walking fast faces pass and she’s homebound. But on the other hand… they already shot off their load, there was nothing they could do as she cut them in half and made their source her own. It was going to suck though. A lot. A lot of sucking if this tingling was any indication.

The spirit interrupted her indecisiveness.

She almost chose not to, wanting to show she didn’t need his permission to do so. But a free lunch is a free lunch. Or a rather expensive lunch. No, this wouldn’t be free. Not at all.

It had gone on for long enough that the pair had nearly made it over to her, but a simple swipe saved them from a loveless marriage and the burdens of home ownership. They dissolved into mist. Karen dissolved into pain.

It was so much worse than the previous time; bullet ants tip to tail. If it wasn’t so assuredly brief Karen might have lost her mind at the reality shattering intensity of it. But it ended, and rather quickly too, leaving her spasming and twitching on the ground.

“Totally… worth it.” She’d tried to whisper it, but it came out as more of a whimper.

The spirit almost screamed it in her mind, bringing her to as much a state of alertness as she could muster.

Still weak and twitching, she had no hope of getting away. Even standing was a bridge too far. The best she could do was resummon the spear, hold it across her body, and hope for the best.

Either the elemental was anemic or it had some kind of perception slowing time power. Whatever it was, Karen could only watch it round the corner at its glacial, Yavin-clearing pace. But it did clear.

Karen’s world lit up in pain. Some portion of the bolt did manage to be absorbed by the spear and into her energy body, further piling on to the oversized load she was already towing. The rest had only one place to go, extra crispying the skin on her hand and arm as it raced to find a new home in every nerve in her body.

It was almost too intense to bear. But it passed, the same as the other fits of pain had. An attempt at speech came out as groans. Her throat hurt. She vaguely remembered screaming, or at least attempting to. There was no way to tell.

Pressure on her chest made caused her eyes to flutter open then go wide with alarm. She had definitely been out of her senses longer than she thought, because airman mcshock had closed the distance and seemed to be trying to reach into her guts. Seemed to be trying. It was hard to tell due to the total lack of success. Her shirt was fluttering where its drafting arm nub was touching, but she’d had worse from a can of compressed air.

What’s it doing?

Karen watched a moment as it continued its single-minded task without any noticeable progress. Huh. I just kill it then?

Get her feet back under her. She’d rather keep her ass back under her. Maybe see what good food was like in the eastern province. Look out over the lake, see if anybody actually did any swimming in it. A glass of fancy elf wine. Or a bottle. She sighed.

Maneuvering the spear was a little awkward while laid out, but choking up on it to right under the head allowed her to plunge it just below where the monster’s neck would be, if swirling energy monsters had necks. She pulled down slowly as if unzipping its dress. It was only wearing white mist underneath. The mist washed over her. For the briefest instant she lit up like a painmas tree, then all went black.