Max hit the ground hard as Sar’zek slithered overtop of his body to block the knight’s strike. He hadn’t dodged or even noticed the attack. No, Esthara had grabbed the back of his neck and thrown him to the floor. The knight’s sword impacted their leader’s shield. For a moment, it looked as though the blade would chop through the snake-man shield and all, but yellow light covered Sar’zek and his snake tail bunched up nearly crushing Max.

With a strained grunt, Sar’zek turned his shield to the side deflecting the strike of its rounded edge. A dark wave of energy cut away from the sword into the darkness. Tiani shouted something as the light of her torch flickered. Sar’zek struck out twice with his short spear, each strike blurring with streaks of red energy, yet the knight dodged the first with a minimal adjustment and redirected the second with the crossguard of his blade. In the chaos, Sar’zek’s tail throttled Max’s midsection.

For his part, Max couldn’t summon his wits. The chaos around him froze his body and clouded his thoughts. The pressure of the snake-man’s movements constricted his chest and his breath came in short, frantic gasps.

Am I going to die? This single thought pierced the mental fog. Rather than startling him into action, it paralyzed him further. The reality of his situation fell into painful focus and everything seemed to move in slow motion. Still, he could do nothing. So, this is it then?

His eyes burned with tears yet to form. When he came to Fracture, he thought it would be a new and bright beginning. His old life had been filled with lost chances and indecisiveness caused by his cowardice and reluctance to suffer for his dreams. Instead of facing his failings, he escaped into video games and they made him happy while he trudged through life. For some reason, he thought Fracture’s system of power mimicking a video game meant he would excel.

After acclimating to the truth of his new reality, he even adopted a new persona. He was a Psy-gunner, someone cool and aloof who was ready for anything. He managed to keep the mask on when facing the enemies so far which while dangerous, posed no threat to a competent party. However, in the face of a real threat, it all crumbled away.

The stark fear on Tiani’s face as she used her skills to bolster Sar’zek; the grim expression of defiance on said snake-man’s face; the smell of ash in the air: they were like cruel signs of his impending death— a promise of his bitter end in the dark.

Suddenly, someone roughly grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked him backward. He cried out, his shocked mind momentarily jumpstarted by pain. His neck strained as he was tossed a meter behind Sar’zek who started to maneuver more freely. It was only then that Max realized the knight wasn’t fighting Sar’zek, or rather, the snake-man wasn’t its target. The giant armored menace wanted Max and their leader was desperately trying to prevent the creature from getting its way.

“If you are going to lay down and die, do it where you’re not in the way,” Esthara, the person who yanked him away from the melee, shouted in his direction as she stepped up to support Sar’zek.

Her entire body emitted trails of black ash and the smell of brimstone. Her ax burned with flames in which phantom faces flickered. Her body flexed with a mighty swing bringing many of her tattoos into sharp focus as though they had come to life. Axe met sword and fire battled shadows. Sadly, despite her size and high Might, the knight was bigger and stronger. It shoved her with its sword and then used the momentum of the push to slice into her side. Max’s heart sped up when he noticed a bit of bone in the wound. Esthara gritted her teeth even as the blood poured down her side.

Sar’zek who tried to use the distraction to his advantage received a nasty kick to the gut from the knight which sent him flying backward several meters into the wall near the barrier of shadow fire. Seeing this, Max clenched his fists.

Sar’zek almost died. A bit to the left and… Huh? He looked down at his right hand. He was holding his gun in a white-knuckle grip. Somehow, he’d kept his grip on it throughout the ordeal. Right, I can… I can shoot it. I can fight.

The knight took one step forward closing the distance and lifting its sword to skewer him. Fear blanketed his mind, but he found the courage to lift his gun and squeeze the trigger to activate his Psy-Shot skill. He fired again, and again, and again. The shards of mental energy impacted the black armor yet the knight showed no signs of stopping. At that moment, Max lamented the lack of physical force in his shots.

He watched the blade descend like death’s embrace. Then, Esthara crashed into the knight’s side like a burning truck, and seeing his end averted, he desperately tried to scramble out of the way at the last second. Unfortunately, he didn’t succeed. The knight’s sword gouged a deep furrow from his hip to knee and he screamed as the sudden burning pain traveled like a shockwave up his back and down his leg.

His panic transformed into fear and desire. He wanted to have fun, to experience the magic and power promised by The Logos and Fracture, to be respected, and to live free of worry and fear. This dark creature would take all of that from him. He couldn’t even run now.

So, he had to fight.

His gun moved as though it had a mind of its own, aiming at the fearsome brawl between Esthara and the knight. Sar’zek joined the fray just in time to disrupt a blow that might’ve downed his burning teammate.

Max watched his group struggle even as Tiani rushed to his side. She shouted something while grabbing his shoulder, but he couldn’t understand the words. She dropped her sigilcrafted rod choosing to keep the torch in hand rather than her implement and started pulling him away with her free hand. His eyes never left the knight. Even now, the towering figure seemed more preoccupied with getting Esthara and Sar’zek out of its way than killing them outright.

Why me? Max asked as though the universe would answer. His emotions rampaged over his rational mind. Old feelings resurfaced like vermin returning after the winter.

Hatred and anger reigned supreme in the chaotic mess of his thoughts: turbulent anger at the knight for targeting him in particular while a flaming woman with an ax and a buffed snake-man were right in front of it and irrational hatred for his teammates who hadn’t listened to his warning earlier and who failed to prevent his injury. Amid his mental storm, a small piece of his desire fought back.

I don’t want to die, but I don’t want Esthara, Tiani, or Sar’zek to die either. We have to kill this thing. He activated Psy-Shot and his mana reacted. This time felt different. He couldn’t understand what the change meant consciously, but that small part of his mind speaking in the maelstrom knew. We have to make it. If we don’t make it, then I can’t tell them off, especially Esthara.

The shot gathered in the barrel, but more mana than ever poured into it. He felt his emotions somehow blending with the mana and empowering the skill with every additional point consumed. Then, he pulled the trigger. As the shard of mental energy left the gun, his hand jerked up. The shot lanced through the air like an angry, red star through the night sky. It passed through Esthara harmlessly and struck the knight in the center of mass. The creature stumbled backward and from beneath its shadowed helmet, Max sensed a wave of hatred aimed at him.

Huh? He was too confused to react to the knight’s malice. Did my gun just recoil from that shot? But I thought—

Before he could finish thinking, a notification appeared interrupting his thoughts.

Grade: E

The creation of psychic munitions is the core of the Psy-Gunner’s strength. This process involves many variations with potentially endless results. One such variation is the imbuement of negative emotions into the psychic munition to devastating effect.

This skill creates psychic ammunition for any firearm wielded by the Psy-Gunner. The ammunition can be charged with negative emotion for increased mana cost and charged with additional mana to add striking power. The force and recoil of the shot are proportional to the amount of mana infused while charging. Attacks made with ammunition created by this skill will only damage creatures recognized as enemies by the Psy-Gunner.

The strength of the shot is moderately increased by Focus while creation and charging speed are slightly increased by Resonance.

Excitement broke through the tumultuous thoughts clouding Max’s mind. Hope reared its head for the first time since the battle started. He nearly laughed. They could do this. He started charging another shot even as Tiani stopped dragging him and used one of her skills on him. He vaguely registered the effect of the skill which increased his Ethos regeneration and prevented further blood loss.

Esthara jumped at the opening created by Animus Shot. Her flaming ax found the knight’s leg bringing it down to one knee. Sar’zek lunged forward, leading with his shield to knock the titan onto its back. At the same time, Esthara brought her ax around for another strike.

Then, the knight’s form blurred and everything changed.

Their leader shield passed into the knight’s body causing the snake-man to be slightly off-balance when his strike failed to make contact. Simultaneously, a black gauntleted hand grabbed the top of Sar’zek’s head and the knight surged to its feet. The snake-man yelled even as his body was moved into the path of Esthara’s ax. The obsidian-skinned woman had to pull her strike short at the last second which made her wince from the wound in her side and left her open to the massive blade that bloomed from Sar’zek’s back.

The edge of the black blade bit into her shoulder. Max and Tiani called Sar’zek’s name as they saw their leader weakly lashing out at the knight even as his blows continued to pass through the creature. Esthara let loose a battle cry and rushed even closer to the creature. She moved around her companion’s skewered body; however, the titan had other plans. With the hand holding his head, the snake-man was pulled from the blade releasing a spray of blood and spiraling darkness from the blade. The knight threw his body at Esthara while she was mid-strike bowling her to the ground.

Max fired hoping to get the knight’s attention once more. His emotions from earlier felt like ash in his mouth. His shot slammed into the knight’s shoulder averting a potential death blow for the two front liners. The titan looked his way and its blade blurred. The problem wasn’t the speed of the swing though: it was that the sword looked to be gathering and fusing with the darkness as it moved.

A black wave billowed from the sword sweeping through the air like a baleful revenant. Tiani dropped the torch which landed on the floor next to him and raised both her hands. A barrier of white light surrounded them. Before Max knew it, darkness met light. The struggle lasted a second. Fear gripped his mind and he raised his free hand and squeezed his eyes shut as though his weak flesh could succeed where actual magic had failed. Strangely, he didn’t feel the strike hit him. He just felt cold and tired all of a sudden.

An enraged scream erupted from somewhere in the room. He opened his eyes despite the bone-deep weariness, but he couldn’t see anything except a flickering orange flame some distance away. The scream increased in volume and the flame grew in strength burning bright enough to illuminate a good portion of the room.

It was Esthara, not her ax but her entire body. At her feet, Sar’zek lay in a pool of blood, unmoving. Burning eyes of cinder and black ash glared at something close to Max. He struggled to turn his head, but when he did, his mind went blank.

Tiani’s head stared back at him with hollow eyes, her cheeks still wet with tears. Instead of a bloody mess, her neck looked gray and withered where it had been severed from her body. The chaos of emotions returned and Max tried to scream yet he barely managed a strangled sob. His eyes found the titan standing a few meters away from him; however, it wasn’t looking at Esthara. It was looking at an arm grasped in its free hand.

Max’s mind tumbled to a halt when he saw the black ring laying in sharp contrast with the arm’s pale skin. His head turned, dread mounting, to look at his side. Then, he saw it. His shoulder was a ruined stump of withered, gray flesh like Tiani’s neck.

It was too much.

His consciousness began to fade. Esthara charged the creature and it finally turned its attention to her. The withered voice of the king rang out.

“You have reclaimed your honor, my knight. Now, finish these pathetic creatures.”

The knight began to blur again as it moved to meet Esthara’s charge. Regret and despair dominated Max’s psyche.

I’m sorry I wasn’t better everyone. I tried. I did... His head dropped to the floor and exhaustion beckoned him into oblivion. He tried to fight it. He wanted to witness Esthara’s stand. Unfortunately, even as the end approached, he failed at that too. Ironically, confusion won in the end when his head rolled to the side giving him a view of the shadow fire that sealed their fate. Blue light…?

Those were his last thoughts.