The creature’s crooked grey ears twitched as it let out its last breath. Valian balled his bleeding fist and stood atop its corpse. His eyes were like daggers as he looked up towards the hatch he had been thrown down.

“I did it, you hear me!”

Silence was his only answer.

He clicked his fingers and drew up a light spell. Its radiant glow filled the room with gentle luminance.

He paused and stared at the blood dripping down his arm. Had the creature bit him without him seeing it? Or was this something else.

He peered at the wounds closer. Strips of flesh were dug out of his arm, in elaborate patterns. It reminded him of elven carvings he had seen in books from times long past. Had he drawn upon magic that hadn’t been seen in the world before the pact of the twelve kingdoms. And if so, was the damage permanent?

He hurried to tear off his sleeve, wrapped it into a tight knot, and pulled it tight around the wound with his teeth.

His foot buckled, and his vision faded as he collapsed atop the strange creature.

…

WRAP TAP TAP

WRAP TAP TAP

“Ugh…” Val groaned and rolled his head.

With one eye squinted open he peered over at the magician as his fingers tapped impatiently on a hardwood table. Candles flickered along the tower walls, and magical parchments were stuffed haphazardly in shelves behind the mage.

Val pulled himself up to sit on the edge of the bed.

“My sister…”

“Quiet child!” the mage said as slapping his black hand down on the table.

The mage’s dark eyes peered at him venomously.

“I passed your test, let my sister go, and I will help you with whatever you want, like I said”

“I don’t need the help of a child”

“But…”

“Do you even know what you killed?”

“A goblin?”

“No child. That creature is not of this realm. It is a creature of cunning, known as a chitterling”

“A chitterling?”

“They are creatures of unmatched tact. Some say man is the most treacherous creature to walk the realms. Ha…”

The mage stood up from behind his desk and kneeled in front of Valian to look into his eyes. The vacant depths of the man’s pupils caused a chill to crawl up Val’s spine.

“Treacherous, huh? Well, its plotting days are done now”

“Don’t get a big head. Defeating one of them is an easy enough task. But the more of them there are, and the more time they have to adopt a strategy. Well then, they are an entirely different class of monster”

Valian winced in pain as his arm throbbed. He peeled back the bandages to reveal red scabbed channels carved down his arm. The red scabs didn’t merely seem to be clotted blood, but some form of gelatinous magical ooze. Was it already healing?

The mage grabbed at his arm and peered at the wounds.

“Very clean burns, you should be proud”

“What do you mean?”

“These are mana burns, as mana boils out of your channels, it mixes with your flesh. In most cases these burns destroy the channels, and a mage’s power is weakened. However, your channels are still intact”

“Did you put something on them to help them heal?”

“No, that is brine. Your body has repurposed it to staunch your bleeding. I didn’t do anything other than bring you up here to see if you woke up or not”

“Why did my mana burn?”

“Because you used magic that was beyond you. In most cases it is very foolish, but in your case, what you did was quite wise. Otherwise the chitterling would have nawed your face off without a doubt. They like to do that”

“Naw my face off?”

“Yes yes, but now that the test is over we have more important things to discuss. Are you aware what this black hand of mine means?”

Val shook his head. While he had heard rumours of powerful archmages with black hands, no one had ever told him what it meant to have one.

“This hand was granted to me by the gods themselves, it is a gift from Thana herself”

“The goddess of death”

“So you know about her?”

“Only what my father told me. He told me that she was evil. And that all who follow her are evil”

“And I wonder why he thought that? Perhaps because he owed us a favour and was too dishonest of a man to ever pay it back”

“Maybe he just didn’t want to pay back people who worship a goddess of death”

“Maybe. It matters not”

“What can it do?”

The mage let out a wide grin, “Spells that would kill the ordinary man, can be channelled through it. So long as it is fed souls in return, your life will continue on”

“So if I had a hand like that, I wouldn’t have an arm like this?”

“Ah, you figured it out”

“If I’m honest, then no matter how powerful that hand is, I’d rather bleed for my victory”

“Suit yourself, you’d never be able to earn one in any case. Not unless you could slay an archmage who had one”

“Is that what you did”

The mage chuckled under his breath and stepped back from Val.

“I will always do what is necessary”

…

Winds swept in over the mountains as the dark clouds towered over the city. Rain poured down in violent bursting waves.

Water soaked through Valians robes and trickled down the engraved red markings on his arm. The last drop of blood, flicked off his fingertips, as water cleaned off his recovering wounds.

“Ugh…”

His fingertips twitched as his eyelids fluttered and then peered open. He pushed himself to his feet as the rain battered down, and pain wracked his body.

“Azmit”

He stumbled his way off the skywalk, and stomped towards the stairwell. Pausing for a moment at the top of the stairs to gather his wits, he took in a deep breath. The red channels on his body closed over with unnaturally white flesh.

With a grunt and a furrowed brow he rushed down the stairs, and headed after the other magicians.

…

Mirio stared at the outlines of the childlike figures on the other side of the ice wall. They moved slowly from side to side. Not like a caged and agitated creature, but like a craftsman.

*Are they analysing the wall? Why would a monster analyse the ice? Are they too dumb to realise that won’t work… Or is it that they are confident it will?*

*But why would a goblin be confident? In anything, aren’t they compelled by greed?*

*I should remember that these creatures are from that gate out there, there is no telling what they are capable of*

Mirio gently closed his eyes and lulled himself into a gentle trance. The dark mass towered over the obelisk, like a demonic shadow. He couldn’t help but wonder if the darkness was simply a result of the magic of the magician who summoned the gate, or if there was something more sinister behind it.

*What if Akur is behind this? It seems silly to think something so paranoid, but I’ve never seen creatures like what have come out of that gate*

The world winds blustered past Mirio and disappeared with a flash as he opened his eyes and turned to listen to the others.

Gladly was animated, and throwing gestures left and right, while the Duke remained stoic. Dasha stared at the ice wall with a concerned look on her face, while Alyssa gazed intently at Mirio between responding to discussions with the Duke.

“How has it come to this, trapped in my own Palace” the Duke scoffed.

“How long will that ice hold?” Gladly asked of Dasha.

“About twenty minutes, but I can recast it, so about an hour at most”

“So we don’t have all that much time to come up with a plan, we have to get started” Gladly said with a stroke of his beard.

“I’ll trust your judgement” the Duke said with a nod towards the halfling.

Gladly muttered under his breath, his eyes looking down and darting from side to side as he paced back and forth in front of the Duke.

CHIP CHIP CHIP

Mirio and Dasha turned towards sound to see flying chips of ice. The shadows merged at the centre of the wall as a small pipe drilled its way through.

FWIT

Mirio pulled his index finger and middle finger together and spun a maelstrom of kinetic energy to blast the dart just past his ear.

CHIP CHIP CHIP

The shadows spread along the wall, the child like figures resting a hand on the ice as they drilled through with their other arm.

THUNK THUNK THUNK

FWIT FWIT FWIT

“Duck!”

The Duke dived towards the princess as the darts shot past. They thudded to the ground gripped up in one another.

“Are you okay princess?”

“Y-yes, thank you”

The Duke grumbled as he pulled a dart out of the back of his neck. As he tossed it to the side his body froze in place.

“Why is he stuck like that?” Alyssa called out.

“There must be a paralysis poison on the dart” Gladly replied as he rushed to the Duke’s side.

He placed his ear on the Duke’s back, and paused for a moment to check if he was still able to breathe.

“He’s still breathing, quick let’s move off to the side and out of the way of these damn things line of sight”

Mirio stared at the holes drilled in the ice and watched as the creatures pulled out their pipes and instead placed their eyes up against the ice.

CHI CHI CHI!!!

The creatures chittered amongst each other as they huddled together once more.

*They are turning the wall into a turret… Using features of the battlefield against us?*

“Guys I don’t think these things are goblins… Look… They are plotting their next move”

“What do you mean?” Gladly said as he approached Mirio’s side.

“They first looked at the wall, then huddled together, tested if they could drill through the wall to see our reaction, and then acted in lockstep together. And now they are huddled again”

“So you believe they are thinking it through?”

“I think we should prepare for the possibility that these things are as smart as we are”

“Smart goblins? Those chittering things?”

Alyssa’s ears perked up as she listened into the conversation.

“He’s right. I once heard about creatures like this from our mages. They are called chitterlings. They are summoned from a parallel world and are obsessive battlefield tacticians”

“Well, fuck…” Gladly said as his face dropped, “And there is an army of them out there, each with paralysing darts, and presumably a knowledge of alchemy. What is to say some of them aren’t running back up the tunnels to grab things to break this ice”

“You mean like the torches at the entrance of the catacombs? And furniture from the palace?” Mirio replied

“Yes, but they might get lost in the twists and turns of the catacombs, they’d have difficulty making it to the palace, we should still have some time”

Dasha walked towards the ice wall with the look of dread as a square shadow appeared on the other side of the ice wall.

THUD

“Shit, I think they figured out the maze” she spat out as the glow of torches lit up against the pane of ice.

Gladly gripped Mirio by the arm and pulled him down to listen to him, “We need a sorcerer to burn that room to ashes, any ideas?”

“The only sorcerer I know is the arena champion”

“Yes, great idea! He’ll do”

“But he’s at the arena, how will you get to him”

“Don’t worry about that, I’m a spy after all, can you hold these things off for a bit for me? Buy some time?”

“Yeah I can try”

“Dasha, can you stop mending the ice for a bit, let them burn a hole. Just long enough for me to slip past?”

“Are you sure?”

“We can’t all sit here waiting for these things to get in. I’ll bring us some firepower. Don’t worry” Gladly replied with a wink.

Gladly’s eyes darted around the room like the fluttering wings of humming bird, “Mirio, that armor, put it on. When they come through, it will protect you against their darts”

Dasha turned her head around to call out to Gladly, “They’ve made a hole! Whatever you are doing make it quick, because if I don’t seal this up soon, they are coming in!”

Gladly locked his gaze onto Mirio and extended his hand, “Get me the time I need”

Mirio took his tiny hand with two fingers and shook it with resolve.

Gladly smiled and with a snap of his fingers his image faded away.

“Okay Dasha, I’m going through, seal it back up” Gladly said as his footsteps passed through the opening.

“What the?” Dasha said as turning her head to look for him.

Mirio smirked “He’s invisible”

“Neat trick”

Mirio’s eyes settled upon a shining suit of ornamental armor in one of the display cases. As he approached the sheen of magic on the armor glinted. The silver dragon scale was engraved with magic sigils and elven script which glowed as he picked it up.

Dasha furrowed her brow and gripped her hand to the ice wall, forcing the hold in the ice shut and reinforcing it as best she could with what remained of her mana.

“How do I look?” Mirio said grinning before he slid on the full faced helm with a plop.

Dasha smirked and shot him a thumbs up.

“You look like a true hero” Alyssa said with an adoring smile.

The Duke looked on with frustration in his eyes, his veins bulging at the site of a nobody child wearing the armor of his great grandfather.

*Whoa, its light, I wish all plate armor was like this. And the helm doesn’t restrict my vision. It must have light bending enchantments on the helm*

He stepped up to the ice wall, and pulled forth Ember, allowing the flow of his mana to channel through his body and spiral up to the tip of the blade.

“C’mon Gladly”

…

The gate towered over the godstone, a gaping wound in the fabric stitching the world together. It was dark, and fierce, just like the magician that had conjured it.

Gladly had heard whispers of powerful portal magic being developed by the black hand, but he was certain that was all they were.

*So that black handed bastard Azmit figured out how to make it work, just our luck*

Gladly weaved through chitterlings as they roamed about chattering their teeth at one another. Each one moved as though with method and purpose. Despite the appearance being a mixture of the undead and a grotesque form of a goblin, he could see from the light in their eyes, a terrible cunning that was familiar to him. It was the light given to men who had been taken in by a belief that they would do anything for. It was obsession, judgement, and the keenness to commit unspeakable evil if given the chance.

He twisted and turned as he slid past yet another of the creatures, missing colliding with it by a hair’s breadth.

WHOOSH

Gladly made his way through the chitterling encampment like a breeze through the trees, and started winding his way up the pathway back into the maze tunnels of the catacombs.

CLICK

SHING

THUNK

“Arrrrrrrrrgh!!!” he screamed as broken chair legs, sliced into his abdomen.

*A trap?!*

He tried to push himself free of its grip, but with sharpened spikes piercing through him, there was nothing he could do to free himself.

Blood spurted from his mouth as his invisibility spell faded, his form now catching the light and the gaze of every chitterling in the cavern.

*No… I have to get word out…*

A shadow appeared in the tunnel ahead, and peering from the darkness were those insidious eyes. Gladly tugged and pulled at the snare that had him in its grasp in a panic as the creature’s spoon shaped teeth came into the light.

CHI

His eyes widened, as the creature stepped forwards and gripped him in its boney hand. It gripped tightly to his arm, as it scraped its teeth along his flesh.

“WROAAARGH”

…

Dasha’s eyes were wide as she turned back to Mirio.

Mirio’s face contorted in horror inside his blue helm. The thoughts that ran slow in his mind shifted to match the pitch of Gladly’s screams.

ZIP

CRASH

THUNK THUNK THUNK

A trail of blue mist hovered in the air where Mirio had once been, and a loud crash sounded from the other side of the ice wall, as Mirio’s momentum blasted pieces of burning furniture outward from the pile stacked against it.

He emerged from smoke and dust, with his sword ablaze, shimmering in his magic dragon scale armor.

Gladly turned his head and watched on with tears in his eyes as the chitterling scraped its teeth along his collarbone towards his neck.

“Leave me! Think of another way!” he screamed out with the last of his strength.

Mirio’s breath was hot under his helm as he stormed towards the mass of creatures.

FWIT FWIT FWIT

TINK TINK TINK

Darts scattered all around him as they deflected off of his armor. Light trails zigged and zagged as he spun and twisted his blade, cleaving half a dozen of the creatures in two in a split second.

Mirio surged forwards like a madman, paying no heed to the churning black mass above his head, as his eyes fell into a trance, and the silver strands of the world winds whipped through his vision. Ghost images of himself searched for the fastest way to cut through the horde.

He slashed and hacked as he blew through the horde like a force of nature.

THUNK

SNAP

The jaws of an improvised trap snapped hard into his armor stopping him in his tracks.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

TINK

TUG

Lashings of rope made from torn apart curtains and silks of the palace, snatched tight around his limbs and neck. He swiped and slashed with his sword to tear himself free, smashing at the jaws of the trap that held tightly onto his armor.

SNAP

The jaws of the trap split in two, and yards of rope flew off his unbroken armor.

The trap while likely powerful enough to pierce steel, couldn’t pierce dragonscale.

“I guess you didn’t account for that!” he said as he broke free and leapt forward.

Dark shadows swirled in his right hand as he held it back.

FWOOSH

SHING SHING SHING

The dark dagger summoned from his curse spun through the air.

THUNK

A fountain of blood poured from the neck of the chitterling that had been gnawing its way up to Gladly’s throat.

With a whip of Mirio’s fingers the dagger returned to smoke and snapped back into his hand.

“Bring it!”

The chitterlings paused for a moment and looked at each other, before their eyes gleamed in unison.

CHITTER CHITTER CHITTER

They stared at Mirio with smirks on their faces and greedy eyes, almost as though they found his will to fight amusing.

Several of them pulled together in groups behind the lines of chitterlings surrounding him.

“Yah, yah!”

Mirio swiped and slashed with his sword, slicing through another half dozen of the creatures with a flash and twist of his sword.

Each group of chitterling circled around the flank and shot knowing glances to other chitterlings in the thick of battle who nodded in return.

FWOOSH

Mirio looked on in shock as his strike hit air.

SPLAT

Clouds of ash and grit spat up into his face.

FWIP FWIP FWIP

THUNK THUNK

Chitterlings dodged his blows as they piled onto his legs, and gripped him into place. Ropes lashed tight around his waist, before he was thrust violently through the air as all the chitterlings let go of him at once.

CRACK

His armor cracked the godstone as he smacked up hard against it.

The chitterlings made short work of lashing him to the glowing obelisk.

Mirio lifted his fingers to summon his cursed dagger, but was hit by the impact of a chitterling smashing against his arm with such force that it disrupted the calling of the spell. The chitterlings boney fingers, dug ferociously at the seams of his armor for its straps.

“No…” Gladly whimpered with tears in his eyes as he saw the boy flailing as pinned to the godstone, surrounded by the vicious creatures.

Mirio’s breath was claustrophobic in his helm, as the creatures, tugged and pulled at the straps of his armor.

FWOOSH

The hot air of the helm blew across his face, as his skin was exposed to the air, his helm now in the clutches of the chitterlings.

His eyes met with Gladly’s in the distance, his face stoic and steeled, as he looked on at the halflings tears.

FWIT FWIT FWIT

Mirio’s face froze, as the poison from the darts flooded through his veins.