His Stamina had restored back to 40%, but that wouldn’t last long. The wyvern staggered forward and swung its whip-like tail. Gunnar leapt into the air, and the creature slashed him with its left claws, the wing fully restored.

Gunnar tumbled on the ground. The creature lunged out with vicious fangs for another strike. But lurched back at the last moment as Sheira and the wolf both landed attacks on its wings again. Now, it was stuck in position, with both limbs decommissioned.

It roared in pain, and Gunnar sent his Shooting Star flying again, dealing another 60 Damage. But this time, when it roared, the star didn’t come back.

That bastard swallowed it!

To his chagrin, this act did not deal any further damage. The creature’s eyes glowed with furious hatred.

Gunnar’s Health was down to 60%, which struck him as a lot for the attack itself. Until he noticed another debuff notification at the bottom of his vision.

[You’ve been Poisoned! Health will deplete at a rate of +1 Damage per second until Health is restored to 100%. Or the source of the wyvern’s venomous power is destroyed.]

“Watch out for the claws!” Gunnar shouted. “They’re poison too!”

But Sheira was examining her own wound and shook her head. “Too late, I’m afraid.”

Scan revealed that all three of them had been struck by the wyvern in the attack. The wolf licked at her front paw. All their Health bars were slowly draining.

“Word of Healing will only bring more of them on top of us,” Sheira said, “besides, we’d just give it more time to heal itself too.”

“You have any potions?” Gunnar asked, though he could already guess the answer. She would have mentioned it otherwise.

“Just one minor. Not enough to get either of us back to 100.”

The wyvern’s Health was back above 60% again already.

“What did it mean about the source of power?” Gunnar asked. “It’s Soul?”

“It’s not real venom. It’s magic. Once it’s dead, the debuff should fade away.”

“All together then! Let’s finish it off!”

The wyvern’s eyes were wide with rage as it struggled on the ground with two useless limbs. Sheira shifted around so that they could hit it from three different angles. The creature tried to glance around, but couldn’t shift positions to see anything from behind.

The wolf struck first, bounding up the wyvern’s narrow back and latching onto the nape of its long neck. She took some damage from a whip of its tail.

Sheira went next, dodging its jaws and sliding under the wyvern’s belly, slashing at the tender spot where its wing met its body.

The attack drew the creature’s gaze away from him, and Gunnar leapt up and swung his sword in an arc at the wyvern’s face. But the creature was ready.

It whipped back away from Sheira and its thick skull struck Gunnar’s chest and swung down like a massive hammer, pinning him to the ground. Gunnar lay motionless for a moment, stunned. He’d lost his saber, and reached for a pair of daggers.

As he drew them, pain shot through his entire body as the wyvern latched on to his torso and whipped him up into the air. Gunnar had never felt such piercing pain in this game, and he worried the wyvern would rip him apart entirely.

But it didn’t let go.

Its neck arched back, its wings returning to life in a rush. The wolf swept at the wyvern’s face as she flew from the creature’s neck, her long claws slashing from eye to snout, but the wyvern did not let go.

His Health was at 20% and still dropping from the poison.

Gunnar jerked around as he felt the creature flapping its wings hard to take flight. If it managed to take off, he would be done for. His stomach lurched as the wyvern’s feet left the ground. With one last desperate effort, he plunged his daggers into the creature’s eye.

The blades stuck, dealing another 60 Damage.

Gunnar dropped back to the ground in an instant, and the wyvern flopped on the ground, desperately trying to dislodge the blades with its long claws.

But that left it wide open to another attack.

Sheira shot past, plunging her saber into the other eye.

The creature’s Health plummeted to zero.

[You have defeated a Venomous Wyvern with an assist from Sheira and Dire Wolf - Level 13! Here’s 40 XP!]

The wyvern went still.

And Gunnar breathed a huge sigh of relief.

His Health was below 10%, but the debuff notification vanished.

Only to have it replaced by a damn bleeding effect from getting thrashed around by the creature.

Shit!

He lay on the cold grass as Sheira and the wolf stooped over him. He tried to form words, but they wouldn’t come.

The pain was a constant throbbing in his gut as his last few Health points ticked down.

And he was seconds from death.

He tried to reach out his hand, but even that was too much.

Sheira knelt beside him, lifted his head, and produced her Potion of Minor Healing.

Gently, she poured the contents into his mouth.

It wasn’t much, but it was just enough to remove the bleeding debuff.

His Health was still at 40%, but he was still alive.

“Didn’t think I’d let you die a moment too late again, did you?” Sheira asked with a sly smile.

Gunnar groaned in pain, but smiled back. “Not gonna lie. I thought I was gonna die right at the last moment. Just like the slave ship all over again.”

“Not on my watch,” Sheira said. She turned and surveyed the wyvern’s corpse. “That was one of the coolest kills I’ve ever had.”

“See if you think that after having that thing’s teeth impaling you.”

The dire wolf nudged his face with her wet nose and let out a soft whimper. She’d been afraid for his life. He could sense that easily, though not in words exactly.

“Gotta think of a name for you,” he said, rubbing her muzzle.

“Just don’t do some lame name,” Sheira said. “Like White Fang, or wolf in another language or something.”

“So not Lobo then,” Gunnar said with a chuckle.

Sheira rolled her eyes.

Gunnar had always liked more normal names for dogs anyway. Growing up, he’d had a black lab named Chase, because he was always chasing after everyone in the yard as a pup.

“You keep saving my ass just in the nick of time,” Gunnar said. “How about Nicki?”

The wolf leaned back and shifted her shoulders, as though shrugging.

“Lame,” Sheira said. “Even she knows it.”

“All right, something more exotic sounding then. Nikita?”

The wolf nodded her large muzzle.

“Puns are also lame,” Sheira said.

“Whatever, puns rule,” Gunnar said. “Besides, she likes it.”

The wolf nuzzled her head under his entire arm for a giant pet, and then, bracing himself against her large frame, he raised himself up to a seated position. “How much farther to the wall, do you think?”

“Quarter mile, maybe,” Sheira said.

“Well, let’s hope we don’t run into any more of those wyverns,” Gunnar said.

“No magic, and maybe we’ll be all right.”

Before they moved on, they looted the wyvern’s body, splitting half a dozen Lesser Soul Gems, presumably from its victims, a much larger Greater Soul Gem, and two vials worth of venom.

They set out in silence. The fields were growing brighter with morning, even in the mists. It took Gunnar a couple minutes to realize that the mists themselves were fading. He could see twenty yards ahead of him. And then thirty. And then, all three of them dropped to the ground.

They had reached the crest of one last hill near the edge of the Golden Hills, and there was a host of creatures gathered at the edge of their vision below. There were at least two more wyverns that Gunnar could see, as well as several other creatures, including a couple half-trolls and manticores, in addition to several robed cherubs hovering around a shimmering rift in the fabric of the world.

The cherubs held out their hands, clearly the source of this portal.

“Guess we found the source of that magic we saw with Spiritual Sight earlier,” Sheira murmured.

The group stood outside a noble manor that lay in shambles—windows shattered, the roof on one side of the building caved in. All creatures faced toward a woman who strode down the hill a hundred yards north of where Gunnar, Sheira, and Nikita were hiding.

The woman’s gown trailed behind her in the long grass, and Gunnar instantly knew who it was.

He didn’t dare move. He just watched as Leilani reached the host. They conferred for a few moments, and then the portal pulsed with magic, and one by one, the creatures stepped through.

Leilani was the last. She glanced around the valley. Gunnar was almost certain she was smiling.

As she passed through, the portal vanished, and all the mists along with it.

The sun was just about to crest the eastern peaks beyond Thailen, and without the sorcerous mists, the valley was bathed in light. Several more noble estates had been razed that he could spot, and more plumes of smoke darted the Golden Hills beyond.

Gunnar’s heart pounded in his chest, and it was not just because he was still only at low Health.

“What the hell was that?” Gunnar whispered.

“You know who the cherubs serve, right?”

Gunnar nodded. “All the Nighthawks serve lesser gods. Leilani’s serving a different god now, isn’t she?”

“I expect so.”

“We all thought we were changing something by taking out the governor.”

“The Elysian gods are the ones who rule,” Sheira said. “This city is in the midst of a war because they want it that way.”

“All this is about Glory,” Gunnar said.

Sheira merely nodded.

There was a commotion in the distance, somewhere beyond the hill behind them.

“Red Cloaks,” Sheira said.

Nikita growled, the hair on her back standing tall.

The mists were entirely gone, and they stood right out in the open. The western walls of the Golden Hills stretched a hundred yards ahead of them.

Gunnar brushed his hand along Nikita’s back. She was tense. Eager for a fight. And he could sense how she equated battle with their bond itself.

She feared once it was over, she’d be sent off again.

But Gunnar had different plans.

“Another time,” he said, stroking her fur. “I promise.”

Nikita growled softly and nodded her head.

“To the crypt, then?” Sheira asked.

Gunnar nodded, thinking of all that lay ahead. He just hoped his crew would be up for it. “Can’t jump into a guild war without a guild, right?”