“Alright, Bronwyn, I’m going to let your double keep the attention as long as it can, then I’ll take over. You’re going to harry its flanks, trying to cut off those legs with your hatchets, right?” Morgan asked, peering through the half-opened door at the huge insect monster.

“Yes, as we discussed a dozen times now!” Bronwyn growled. Morgan knew he was being irritating, repeating the plan over and over, but he was really just filling time while they waited for Olivia’s elemental body spell to come off cooldown. “How’s it coming, Olivia?” Bronwyn asked, turning to look at her friend.

“Just about ready,” Olivia said calmly, not opening her eyes or projecting any stress or annoyance. She was sitting with her back against the wall, not cultivating but concentrating on her Core. She said it helped her relax and focus her thoughts.

Morgan gripped Bloodfang tightly, squeezing his palm into its hilt's rough, dry material. He knew the weapon was conscious, and it certainly chose when it wanted to aid him and seemed to get excited when he fought, but it never spoke to him. In a way, he was jealous of Issa, having a weapon that gave her advice and pointers, but in another, he was glad Bloodfang was quiet. He wasn’t sure he’d like the things the sword had to say.

“Let’s do this,” Olivia said, holding out a hand for Bronwyn to haul her to her feet.

“How long will your fire shape last?” Morgan asked.

“I should be able to keep it going for nearly ten minutes,” Olivia replied.

“That’s a long time in a fight—we should be good.” Morgan nodded.

“Yeah, let’s hope so,” Bronwyn flipped her hatchets and caught the handles in each hand. She said she still only had basic axe mastery, but with her agility and natural fighting skills, she seemed to be doing just fine, at least against the smaller insects they’d faced in the hallway. “When you’re ready, Olivia. My double will be hot on your heels.”

Morgan and Bronwyn stepped back while Olivia moved up to the door. She gave them both a quick look, then nodded her head and burst into flames. Her fiery, smoldering form slipped through the door, and, just as Morgan was about to say something, Bronwyn’s double took shape, and she urged it on to attack the insect monster. Morgan nodded and rushed into the hall, following a few paces behind the double.

The centipede-like monster was already barreling over the ground toward Olivia, but when the mirage double came into range, it turned to swipe one of its many swords at it. Morgan cast Hollow Charge, surging over the smooth marble floor to smash his blade into one of the many limbs on the monster’s left side. Bloodfang bit deeply, sheering through the carapace, nearly removing the appendage altogether. Yellow-green ichor sprayed from the wound, but Morgan didn’t stop to examine the damage he’d done. He cast Azure Burst and then Void Stepped to the far, rear side of the monster.

It was surreal coming out of his teleportation to see the tail end of his Azure Burst still expanding and blasting against the monster. Several of the legs on that side of its body were destroyed, and Morgan could see flames licking along the cracked carapace on its thick, contorting body. The monster hadn’t noticed Morgan’s new location; it was twisting back toward the mirage double or what Morgan thought was the mirage double. Both versions of Bronwyn were busily hacking at the monster's limbs with gleaming jade hatchets.

Morgan lunged forward, driving Bloodfang into the monster’s tail and casting Void Wave. Crackling, reality distorting, black Energy expanded from him, completely obliterating several of the monster's legs and mangling a wide swath of its rear quarter. Morgan knew the attack would get the creature’s attention, so he backed up, lifting Bloodfang into The Crane Defends the Nest. The massive creature whirled its segmented body with a whoosh of displaced air and brought three of its sword arms down at him with a combined, smashing strike.

Morgan’s defensive form dealt with two of the blades, but the third slipped under his guard and smashed into his ribs. He was sent sprawling over the marble floor but felt almost no pain—his new armor had mitigated the blow nicely. Morgan rolled to his feet, eyes on the colossal monster, watching as it moved toward his new position.

The creature wasn’t nearly as nimble as it had been. Its tail end was in ruins, and oozing yellow and green guts were still leaking from the partially destroyed segments. More than a dozen of its legs were hacked short and spreading ichor all over the floor, and while it was fixated on him, Bronwyn and her twin were hacking apart more of them.

Morgan pointed his sword at the approaching horror and wound up a Void Lance. Just as it lifted its swords to strike at him again, the spell finished and blasted out in a percussive hammer blow to the monster’s top left shoulder, ruining the joint and causing one of its sword arms to fall limp. Morgan waited for the last second as the blades started to descend on him before he Void Stepped again to the rear quarter of the monster, just above the ruined portion.

He saw Olivia on the far side of the hall from his new vantage, moving slowly back and forth while fireballs chased her, exploding harmlessly around her. With his big-hitting spells on cooldown, Morgan cast Energy Drain and started to hack into the creature with Bloodfang. His vigor surged as he pulled a thick stream of black-tinged, caustic Energy into his pathways, devouring it with his Vortex Core, and hunks of chitin and meaty insect innards began to fly as Bloodfang really went to work. He carved a huge gouge out of the monster's abdomen before it finally broke away from whatever distraction Bronwyn and her double had caused and brought its remaining swords to bear against him.

Morgan used his crane forms to block most of the sword blows, but by then, his Azure Burst was off cooldown, and he cast it again, catching the boss insect’s humanoid torso and most of its sword arms in the blast. As he finished the spell, Morgan’s silvery armor saved him from many gashes, but one of the blades smashed his sword aside and glanced off his skull, leaving a deep cut that hurt and bled like hell but didn’t crack the bone. Then, the blue wave of fiery Energy was rolling over the monster, destroying chitin and flesh and knocking the massive creature back.

Something tickled the back of his mind, and Morgan used Hollow Charge to streak away along the monster's flank, just as it reared up and smashed its girth against the marble where he’d been standing. It struck so hard that the marble cracked with a thunderous concussion, and it seemed to have dazed itself. Just then, with a sizzling explosion of blazing light, Bronwyn brought the might of the Summer Fae to bear, and the enormous, chitin-covered monstrosity writhed in the burning beam. The column of sunlight seemingly erupted from the ceiling of the high hall, shining down on the centipede-man and cooking its shell and the innards within.

In the stillness that followed, the whoosh and impact of the fireballs on the far side of the hall became a lot more noticeable, and Morgan knew the creature must not be dead, or those would have stopped. He jogged forward again, toward the toppled front half of the monstrosity, lifting Bloodfang for a coup de grâce, aiming to relieve the horror of its round, bug-eyed head. Just as he brought Bloodfang down in a mighty hack, the giant insect stirred and snapped out with its mandibles, catching the blade in a death grip. Bloodfang’s edge cut deep into one of the pincers, but the creature held fast, and then it pummeled Morgan with sword blows with its three remaining arms.

He held his left arm up, trying to block the haphazard swings from the dying monster, at least enough to protect his head, while he jerked on his sword, trying to pull it loose. He knew the smart move would be to release the blade and dodge back, out of the monster’s reach, but he stubbornly held on. He jerked and pulled, and then a smoking, whistling missile tore into the chitin of the monster’s head, smashing a fist-sized hole through one multi-faceted eye and bursting out the back in a shower of yellow droplets. The missile clattered over the marble floor, and Morgan realized it was a smoldering, black hammer.

The sword arms twitched and fell limp, and the mandibles released Morgan’s sword. He looked back over his shoulder to see Bronwyn whooping and pumping a fist. She held out her right hand, and suddenly, with a loud smack, she was holding the smoldering hammer. Morgan turned to Olivia and saw her gliding over the ground toward them, still in a fiery form but no longer bombarded by fireballs. “Hell yeah! Nice shot, Bronwyn!” he yelled, backing away from the enormous corpse.

He watched, waiting for the sign that Energy was gathering. Just as Olivia and Bronwyn approached, he saw it; little twinkling lights gathered around the body, slowly growing into large orbs of purple-gold Energy that merged to form a cloud. The cloud began to flow toward the trio, splitting into three thick streams, and then Morgan was impaled by one, lifted off his feet, and flooded with euphoria and vitality.

***Congratulations! You’ve achieved level 34 Void Adept. You have gained 8 Intelligence, 8 Will, and have 12 points to distribute.***

“Did you guys level?” Bronwyn asked.

“Yep,” Morgan said.

“Me too!” Olivia’s face was flushed and excited, back in her human form.

“Damn, Morgan, what are you up to?” Bronwyn asked.

“Thirty-four.” Morgan walked to the side, skirting the giant corpse, and sure enough, a large chest had appeared near the far doors. “Chest time!”

“Guys, I’d like to take some time to rest and go over attributes and talk strategy. I think I’ll try to destroy this corpse as much as possible, so we’re not camping by a giant, rotting body.” Olivia gestured toward the chest. “Why don’t you go over there while I cook this thing? I’ll try to drive the fumes away with Wind Gust.”

“Right, but we won’t open it until you’ve checked it out,” Bronwyn said.

“Yeah,” Morgan nodded, walking over the marble, doing his best to avoid stepping in any yellow bug guts. He looked at his attributes and decided to spend his extra points on vitality. His strength and dexterity were nicely balanced and at decent levels, and his agility was outstanding. He seemed to keep getting himself into positions where things were beating on him, so he figured being more sturdy could never be bad. That done, he turned to Bronwyn and said, “What attributes are you focusing on?”

“Well, the Summer Queen talked me into improving my mental stats. I mean, she told me how they affect my Energy levels and kind of taught me a lesson through experience about how important will is. I’m taking a break from boosting my strength and agility and pushing those up a bit.”

“Sounds smart.”

“I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m still putting some points into my fighting stats, but my will and intelligence are getting a big chunk every level now.”

“How many free points do you get?”

“All of them. Twenty-eight.”

“Holy shit! That’s cool! The class is one designed by the Fae?”

“Right!”

“Seems a big benefit. What do you give in return for all that?”

“Oh, come on! We’ve talked about this. I’m working for the queen.” Bronwyn’s face grew flushed and irritated, like she was expecting Morgan to start to lecture her about something.

“Relax,” he held out a placating hand. “I’m not judging. I just want to know more about you and your situation. What if she asked you to kill Olivia?” Morgan sat on the marble floor in front of the chest and watched while Olivia sprayed crackling, flaming blue plasma all over the corpse of the giant sword insect. “Speaking of swords,” he muttered, then yelled, “Olivia! Don’t destroy the swords!”

“Morgan, that was an asshole question!” Bronwyn said, finally. “The Summer Queen wouldn’t ask me to do something like that. She promised she’d never ask me to do something that would go against my heart.”

“Your heart?”

“She has a way of speaking; it’s almost like poetry. Anyway, she wouldn’t do that.”

“Alright, I believe you. You’re not worried she might lie, though?”

“Didn’t I tell you guys the Fae can’t lie? They can hold back information or tell you truths that serve their interests, but they can’t directly lie.”

“How do you know?”

“She told me. I know how that sounds,” Bronwyn sighed explosively and sat down. “I felt it, though. I can’t describe it any better, but I knew she wasn’t lying.”

“Alright, alright. Goddamn, those spells are impressive,” Morgan said, watching as Olivia’s plasma reduced the corpse to a bubbling black puddle, and she drove the fumes away with gusts of wind. Every so often, Olivia would stoop to pick up one of the swords, tossing it to the side on a large charred expanse of marble she’d already “cleaned.” He stood up and said, “I’m gonna go check those swords out, okay? Don’t be mad about my dumb questions, all right?”

“I’m not mad. I hope you can meet her someday, Morgan. You’ll see what I mean.” Morgan nodded and walked over to the pile of swords, careful that Olivia could see him so she didn’t spray any fire his way while she cooked the guts and insect blood that were splattered all over that side of the hall.