The sun didn’t rise as we made our way through the valley towards the base of the mountain. Even without the light of morning to illuminate the silhouette of the mountain, it stood stark against the backdrop of the milky way. Our galaxy spread out in a thick band with no light pollution to obscure it from sight.

Kaiser rode with me, but the revelations of the last day weighed heavy on my mind. I’d never been a religious man. I’d been forced to do my confession and my confirmation as a Roman Catholic growing up, but I’d never been a practicing Catholic. In my family, it was more tradition than actual belief in some greater power, some ultimate creator and controller of our destinies.

Writing horror, I used a lot of that fear of God that was drilled into me to leverage the fears of my readers. But that’s all those fears were – tools in my arsenal that I could use to emotionally manipulate my readers into feeling spooked.

However if the soul really existed as some kind of spark that could be captured like Balaur had done to Khopesh, then how many myths and legends really were based on phenomena our tiny human brains couldn’t begin to comprehend?

Balaur himself said that the forms the Dragonslayer chose to corrupt the people of this place were brought forth from their own myths and legends, but those archetypes already existed in Balaur’s consciousness. Did Balaur discover them by consuming the souls of dead Romanians over the ages? Or did he plant those monsters into the minds of those that survived?

Where did monsters truly come from?

That thought was rudely interrupted by a pack of upyr launching themselves at us from above. We were expecting it this time though, so we immediately took evasive action and drove our snowmobiles somewhere were the trees were thinner. The attacked from above, so we would take their advantage away.

Once the upyr were forced out into the open, they were easily to pick off. We used our long range weapons to take them out, and now that we knew to look for shining eyes in the lamplights of our snowmobiles they couldn’t hide from us even in the darkness.

We banked more experience and move on, but we were beset by more raids as we got closer and closer to the bottom of the mountain.

An entire pack of nemorti, at least a hundred of them, hid themselves behind the immense tree trunks of the old growth forest and waited for us to pass by. When our column had reached the end of the pack they threw themselves at us without any thought for their own safety. Somehow I knew that Trajan Cel Tradat was looking through their eyes, watching us as we grew closer to his fortress.

My new claws made quick work of any nemorti that made the mistake of getting too close. I experimented with the portal too now that I could stabilise it.

I’d played the Portal video game when I first get a Steam account, and I was slowly working through Portal 2 with Seth, though he was maybe a little too young for it just yet. I was already familiar with how I might be able to use this new stable portal ability to turn the tide of battle.

Every two minutes and a half minutes as the portal collapsed in on itself and as my class skill recharged, I tried something new.

Leaping through a horizontal portal with a vertical exit let me carry my momentum through for an epic superhero landing that stunned all the nemorti gathered around the impact zone. Then I shredded them with my claws and absorbed their anima.

It was a little disappointing that each of these nemorti only had a fraction of the anima that the varcolac had. These things had been villagers once, but were now nothing more than cannon fodder. I felt bad for killing them, but there was no other option.

I was comforted at the sight of Balaur’s green vines reaching up for the fallen husks. He absorbed what remained of the nemorti, and I hoped that their souls were still there, uncorrupted.

One grisly experiment I needed to know the answer to was what would happen if something got stuck inside the portal as it closed. Just in case Kaiser or I were ever in a position where that might be a risk.

That experiment ended exactly as I thought it would.

One half of a nemorti was clutched in Kaiser’s mouth, and the other was near me. The portal severed the zombie-like creature as it expired in a shear wet slice.

That was a sobering realisation. If any of us got caught in the portal as it closed, it’d be all over, red rover.

As the crowd of nemorti thinned and I sucked the anima out of every last one of them, we all went up another level. Hitting Level 20 felt awesome, and in the course of absorbing the nemorti’s anima I learned a brand new anima skill.

Anima ability acquired: Nemorti Control

Cost: 100 anima per Nemorti under your control

Duration: 10 minutes

Source: Nemorti

Convert a Nemorti to obey your commands. Follows all mental commands that a Nemorti is capable of carrying out.

With the last few nemorti, I used a few hundred anima to convert them to my control.

“That’s new,” Xiphos said.

“The benefit of absorbing all this anima is that eventually my body learns how to make use of what makes each enemy type special,” I explained. “If we can use the powers of the dragonslayer’s minions against him, then we can turn the tide of this sight. Trajan doesn’t know that I can do this yet.”

I commanded the nemorti to run in front of our snowmobiles as we continued on, and it wasn’t too long before we ran into another trap set by the dragonslayer.

One of my controlled nemorti exploded in a flash of red anima as it moved between a couple of trees, leaving behind a mess of body parts and the small of charred meat. I’d seen those explosions before back at the ski lodge. There were boneclaws waiting for us to pass by. Wait – no – what did Balaur call them? Baubaus. That’s right.

Having access to their explosive power would be a literal game changer, so I had to figure out a way to get close to them without letting them explode on me.

The baubaus needed to penetrate the membrane of their explosive collar to set it off, so we needed to remove their hands and claws from the equation.

“We need that explosive power!” I said as I slowed my snowmobile.

Kaiser hopped off the seat and I quickly dumped a point into the skill I’d looked over only hours before. One point into Guard Dog and suddenly Kaiser’s enemy detection radius increased by 45%, which would let him sniff out the hiding baubaus much more easily.

I beckoned Stiletto to ride next to me as Kaiser faced towards a nearby tree and growled.

There was a baubau hiding not too far from us.

“Will one of your tether shots pass through a tree to hit whatever’s behind it?” I asked.

Stiletto shook his head. “No way, man. The moment it hits the tree, it’ll lock the tree in place. I assume that’s not our intended target.”

“No, there’s another explosive bastard behind that tree. Okay, let’s go with Plan B. I’m going to need to lure it out.” I revved the engine of the snowmobile. “I’m going to pass by that tree, and I need you to pin it down before it kills me, okay?”

“You got it.” Stiletto got off his snowmobile and set his rifle up, balanced on the seat of his ride.

“Kaiser, I’m going to activate our class skill the moment Stiletto fires, and I need you to bite down on the baubau’s right hand to stop it from exploding, okay?”

Kaiser barked once. Yes. He understood.

Naginata laughed nervously. “Why the right hand? What if it uses the left?”

“Roughly ninety percent of the world’s population is right-handed,” I said. “Odds are that’s the one it’s going to use. I’ll jump through the stabilised portal a second later and grab the other arm, don’t worry.”

“That is very risky,” Naginata said.

“Driving through a minefield with hidden explosive monsters is risky too, but this way we might be able to harvest their power and use it against our enemies.” I tried to offer Naginata a reassuring smile. “It’s worth a shot, right?”

She nodded.

“Are you okay with this plan, Captain?” I asked Xiphos.

“We need that power. If we come up against another varcolac or capcaun, we’re going to need every advantage we can get.” She took a deep breath and looked at the mountain uncertainly. “I’ve got a feeling there’s something even worse waiting for us there.”

“We can do this. I know it,” I said, then checked the readiness of Stiletto and Kaiser.

I gunned the snowmobile’s engine and roared to the side of the tree the baubau hid behind.

It rushed out from its hiding place at me, then the crack of Stiletto’s pinning shot split the night air. I activated my class skill and sent Kaiser through the portal, which opened behind the baubau. Time seemed to slow as the baubau reached up towards its collar with its right hand, then Kaiser’s jaws came down on its wrist.

I leapt off the side of the snowmobile and rolled through the stable portal before springing back to my feet. The claws on the baubau’s left hand almost reached the glowing red explosive collar… just as I grabbed its wrist with one hand then brought my tactical hatchet down, severing its hand.

Kaiser held the other hand away, and Stiletto’s pinning shot held it in place. I summoned my claws stabbed all ten fingers deep into the baubau’s back then drew on its anima.

The light pulsing from those anima-filled explosive pustules dimmed noticeably as I sucked the energy out of the bogeyman.

I converted all of that energy into experience until the fight went out of the monster, then I let it fall to the ground.

Green vines reached up from Balaur’s anima network to break the monster down and return the soul of the transformed villager back into his network.

We’d defeated the threat, but I didn’t get a new anima power out of it, which was disappointing. Out of all the abilities I’d gotten so far, being able to make some kind of anima explosive was at the top of my list and just out of reach.

But that wasn’t the only baubau that waited for us in the forest.

We proceeded with caution. The closer we drew to the bottom of the mountain and the entrance to the ancient city, the more traps Trajan Cel Tradat laid for us.

We repeated our strategy against hidden baubaus, fought off upyr ambushes, and took out hordes of nemorti as we continued on. Eventually, after the rest of the team had levelled up again and I hit Level 21, I obtained what I was searching for. Two baubaus tried to attack us simultaneously, but lucky for me Naginata and Xiphos were quick on the draw and put the second one down with a few well-placed head shots.

As I sucked the other baubau dry, the new ability unlocked.

Anima ability acquired: Anima Grenade

Cost: Variable

Time: 1 anima per second

Source: Baubau

Convert held anima into an explosive ball of flesh. The more anima you invest, the stronger the explosion. The grenade will explode five seconds after channelling concludes. Warning: explosions will not distinguish between friend and foe.

It wasn’t some kind of all powerful ability that let me become an agent of death. If I wanted the anima grenade to be deadly, I needed to use a fair amount of time to prime it. It would explode seven seconds after I finished channelling anima into it, which meant that I wouldn’t be able to prep a whole bunch of grenades before entering combat.

Not unless I wanted to blow myself up.

I went over the mechanics of how it worked with the rest of the team, and Xiphos was determined that we would make this work.

“It just means that Stiletto, Naginata and myself will need to keep the focus on us while you channel power into the grenade,” Xiphos said. “Test it out and see if you can do other things while channelling anima into the grenade, just like you convert anima into experience while fighting.”

“Good call,” I said.

We got the opportunity to test it out as we reached the cave entrance that led into the ancient underground city.

Another towering varcolac stood between us and our destination, and this one looked pissed. Like every bad guy we’d slain so far in the forest was a personal friend, and it was here to avenge them all.

We’d fought one before, and this time we had some new tricks up our sleeves. I equipped the anima grenade skill as my active anima skill.

Stiletto immediately disappeared to line up shots from the high ground. Xiphos immediately buffed us all, and Naginata took the role of our tank now that Khopesh was gone. Her perfect parries and vaults gave the varcolac a hard time. It was like it was too big and slow to hit her, when in reality it was a fast, savage beast. Naginata was just faster.

Channelling my anima grenade skill was not a pleasant experience. I peppered the varcolac with bursts from my crafted SMG to active the Focused Fire buff for the rest of the team, but channelling into the grenade hurt.

It emerged from the palm of my right hand, small at first, but then grew at a steady rate as more anima welled up inside it. Eventually I couldn’t even hold my gun because the grenade was so big that it got in the way.

I pulled Ironbark out of its holster and fire it wildly in a one-handed grip. The kick on that weapon when fired from one hand was insane. Eventually I had just over two hundred anima stored within the anima grenade and figured that had to be enough to do some damage. I was anxious to let it loose because the more anima held within, the more it burned my hand.

“Stiletto, pinning shot now!” I called out as I fired one last Ironbark shot at the varcolac.

The shot cracked the air and slammed into the varcolac’s chest. That very same instant I stopped channelling anima into the grenade and arced my arm back for a throw. Ropes flew out of Stiletto’s bullet and pinned the monster in place as I counted down from seven in my head.

On four, I threw the grenade right at the varcolac. It landed at the monster’s feet and a second later it exploded into a momentous green fireball.

When the smoke cleared, the varcolac’s legs were gone. Just… gone.

It crawled towards us on ragged, bloody stumps, lashing out at Naginata and Xiphos.

I activated my class skill and followed Kaiser through the portal onto the varcolac’s back. Kaiser tore into the monster while I stabbed my claws down and sucked the life out of it.

Anima converted into experience again and again as I kept drawing on the life energy that this monster had absorbed. I rocketed past Level 21 and almost to Level 22 before my anima tank filled and the life went out of the varcolac.

Now nothing stood between us and the ancient city.