Pudge shoved Sasha aside, sending her skidding across the disgusting floor. Bits of bone and flesh got caught in her fur, as she splashed through a pool of half-congealed blood. The smell alone was enough to make her gag, but she pushed that feeling aside. If she could keep her rebellions stomach under control in the Dead Mire, she could endure the smell of a bit of rotting offal.

The half-rotted hand, which was big enough to wrap its fingers entirely around her, crashed down where she’d just been. Pudge met it with his own summoned, black-and-red claw. As it batted the hand aside, sending chunks of decaying flesh flying through the air, the hobgoblin jailer screamed in what might have been rage or agony. Then, the half-dead bodies that had, so far, been suspended a few feet above the ground, fell to the floor with a series of splashes.

The hooks remained in place, but the chains connecting to the ceiling extended, giving the bodies freedom of movement. They used it to collapse upon Pudge with reckless fury. He erupted into motion, slashing through them with his mundane claws as well as the one he’d summoned via a skill. Corruption, hot and thick, danced in the air, making Sasha’s skin crawl as Pudge summoned [Hellfire].

Soon, the smell of cooking flesh and burned hair joined the odor of rot, prompting yet another rebellion from Sasha’s stomach. She ignored it, already focusing on the spell she intended to cast.

Using [Mana Manipulation], she harnessed the ambient energy that suffused everything. Then, she funneled it through [Elemental Conversion], transforming it according to her wishes. Using Pudge’s skill as an example, she chose to transform the mana into fire-attuned energy. But that was the easy part, and it took place over the course of only a few seconds. In that time, Pudge continued to fight – but he wasn’t the only target.

Sasha raised her staff to block an assault from one of the pseudo-corpses, taking a brief moment to identify her attacker:

Tortured Minion – Level 42

That second of distraction nearly cost her life when the creature, which appeared as an elf that was missing half its face, put on a burst of speed and grabbed her shoulder. However, Sasha had learned her father’s lesson’s well, and she’d spent months surviving in the wilderness. So, she reacted quickly, raking her staff across the monster’s forearm and dislodging its grasping hand. She followed up with a low, sweeping attack that took its legs out from under it. Harnessing her momentum, she spun around and, with an overhand strike that utilized every point of her low strength, Sasha brought her staff down on the creature’s head.

The instant her staff connected, she heard a distinct cracking sound as her staff shattered. Sasha didn’t let that slow her down, and only a moment later, she fell upon the prone monster, stabbing it repeatedly in the face with the jagged end of her broken staff. The first couple of strikes did little good, but her persistence soon bore fruit as she riddled the creature with stab wounds. Eventually, she got lucky when her makeshift stake slipped through the tortured minion’s eye socket and pierced its brain.

Immediately, it went limp.

Sasha kept going, though, repeatedly stabbing the monster until she finally realized that it was dead. When she did, she rocked back on her heels, her breath coming in ragged and panicked gasps. However, she couldn’t afford more than a moment’s rest, because when she looked up, she saw her worst nightmare given life.

Pudge had been buried beneath a pile of tortured minions. Every now and then, one would be sent flying through the air, eviscerated beyond all recognition, but of her companion, Sasha only saw a few short glimpses.

She knew he was powerful, and Pudge could keep going for hours if necessary, pushing past injuries that would kill almost anyone else his level. But he wasn’t immortal, and what’s more, his skillset wasn’t built for direction confrontation. He could manage it well enough, but he’d always claimed that he preferred a stealthier approach. So, as much as she wanted to believe Pudge could survive anything, she knew that just wasn’t the case.

He needed her help.

And she’d already wasted more time than either of them could really afford. So, pushing her own panic and fatigue aside, she rose to her feet and embraced [Spellform]. In a way, it wasn’t so dissimilar from what she knew of runecraft. However, it differed in a number of key ways. For one, her spells only lasted for as long as it took her to coax out an effect. The moment she completed the spell, the symbols and glyphs she drew with her mana would dissipate into nothing.

Second, her spells were far more flexible, and while it still took quite a lot of practice to truly harness mana, it was nothing compared to the years of study required to become even a novice enchanter.

And finally, while her spells were only temporary, they also held nearly infinite potential. The only limiter was her own mana capacity. The stronger the spell, the more symbols she needed to draw. Each one took a specific amount of her mana. So, while the spells themselves were fueled by ambient energy, the structure of the spells were dependent on her own capacity.

Thankfully, her entire development was geared towards increasing the amount of mana she could contain. As such, so long as she had time to build the appropriate spells, she could bring quite a bit more power to bear than her meager levels might indicate.

Unfortunately, the biggest limiting factor was time.

Spells were complicated and detailed creations, and even the most minor mistake would render them inert. Or worse, they might blow up and obliterate the caster. In short, being surrounded by a bunch of half-dead tortured minions who wanted to rip her to pieces did not lend itself to her strengths.

Even so, Sasha persisted, hastily drawing one glyph after another as she raced to build an appropriate spell. Luckily, Pudge was making such a ruckus that he garnered the entire mob’s attention, which left Sasha alone to use her skills.

And about ninety seconds later, she finally completed the set of runes of her spell. Mana rushed into it, and a moment later, a massive cylinder of flame poured out. It was at least ten feet wide, and perhaps three times as long. A second after it manifested, it started to move. At first, it was stiff and clumsy, but with every passing moment, its movements became more sinuous and graceful. At the same time, the rough shape grew more detailed, soon taking on a shape that resembled a giant snake.

Then, it struck, racing through the clump of tortured minions and leaving nothing but charred corpses in its wake. One revolution. Then two. Three. And after the fourth, it dissipated into nothing. But by then, the damage was done. Dozens of tortured minions had been slain, giving Pudge the room he needed to finish the rest off.

And just like that, only the hobgoblin jailer, who’d raised some sort of liquid red barrier to protect itself, remained. It cackled, screaming something Sasha couldn’t hear, before lowering its blood shield. Then, it gestured, and suddenly, Sasha found herself falling to the ground.

A moment later, everything went black.

* * *

Pudge watched as the hook tore through the air, moving almost too quickly for him to track before it sliced into Sasha. Blood splattered across the ground as the chain attached to the hook sailed toward the ceiling, attaching itself and dragging Sasha into the air. There, she hung, clearly uncomprehending before her eyes went wide. A moment later, she slid into unconsciousness.

Meanwhile, the jailer’s giant, rotting hand closed around Pudge and began to squeeze. The hobgoblin jailer screamed something unintelligible before filling the room with cackling laughter that Pudge barely heard.

Neither did he feel the decomposing fingers close around him. Instead, all he felt was overwhelming despair as he watched Sasha’s limp form slowly swinging back and forth.

He let out a roar, and suddenly, all the injuries he’d endured at the hands of the hobgoblin’s minions didn’t matter. Instead, the only thing he cared about was Sasha. He didn’t know if she was alive or dead. If it was the former, he would save her from further harm. If it was the latter…

He didn’t even want to think about it.

He lashed out with all the enraged strength he could muster. [Hellfire] erupted from his hands, but it didn’t take the shape of fireball. Instead, it simply wreathed his claws and twisted around his arms up to the elbow. He struck the conjured hand, slashing through the flimsy flesh and creasing the bones beneath. The smell of burning meat filled the air as he became a devastating dervish of demonic fire, ripping through the conjured hand with the fervor of a hellish fiend.

As his fury mounted, so too did the [Hellfire] expand. Soon, it reached his shoulders. Then, it wrapped around his torso. His legs. And finally, his head. It was agonizing, but the fire also lent him unnatural strength – a trade that Pudge would make a thousand times over. Before that increased might, the conjured hand was entirely insufficient, and in moments, it had been rendered into a husk of charred meat and melted bone.

Still roaring, Pudge burst free of the suddenly brittle cage and tore across the room towards Sasha. Before he could reach the boarkin girl, though, he felt something pierce his side. When he looked down, he saw a chain extending from a hook.

Then, it jerked him upward.

But Pudge was far more durable than Sasha had ever been, and with another furious growl, he ripped the hook free and fell to the floor. Blood splashed and sizzled, boiling from the hellfire still enveloping his body. The distant hobgoblin slashed its hand forward, but this time, Pudge was ready.

He caught the hook in flaming hands and yanked. The hobgoblin was caught off guard, and its eyes widened as it was suddenly flying through the air, directly at the flaming bearkin. When it came into range, Pudge lashed out, summoning the largest [Netherclaw] he’d ever conjured. More, like Pudge himself, it was wreathed in [Hellfire].

It fell upon the hobgoblin, smashing the creature to the ground with enough force to crack the flagstones. But the creature was too durable to let that be its end, and it sprang to its feet and twirled around. Instantly, a half-dozen hooks appeared, each one attached to a chain extending from the hobgoblin’s hands. In only a second, he became a whirling tornado of slashing hooks.

Pudge was almost furious enough to simply ignore the hooks in favor of attacking the object of his ire. However, even with demonic corruption enveloping him, body and soul, he maintained enough reason that he knew just how disastrous that would be. In his state, he didn’t much care about his own death. Rather, he was only concerned with how that would affect Sasha.

She was injured and likely dying. Without him, she would surely expire. And Pudge couldn’t allow that.

So, against his hellish instincts, Pudge dodged. His agility and dexterity were high enough that he avoided most of the hooks, and for the ones he didn’t, he had his endurance. He couldn’t trade blows with most monsters, but he could certainly take whatever attacks slipped through his ability to dodge.

He advanced, dipping beneath one chain-hook while diving to the side to avoid another. He leaped into the air to dodge yet another, and when he landed, he’d finally closed to within range of the hobgoblin jailer.

It seemed surprised that Pudge had avoided its barrage.

But that lasted only an instant before Pudge crashed into it, leading the way with his hellfire-wreathed claws. The hobgoblin was strong. It was fast. And it had access to some terrifying abilities. But what it didn’t possess was sufficient endurance to live through the furious barrage of blows Pudge brought to bear.

He didn’t hold back. And he didn’t spare any thought for additional defense. Instead, Pudge simply attacked, ripping through the monstrous creature with all the fury he could muster.

It fell within thirty seconds.

But Pudge kept going until the thing had been completely eviscerated. Only then did the flames – both metaphorical and literal – begin to retreat, and he remembered the source of his anger.

Wheeling around, he raced toward Sasha, dropping to his knees and skidding to a stop next to her. The hook had disappeared the moment the hobgoblin had died. As it turned out, that was a bad thing, because its disappearance meant that Sasha’s blood was free to flow from the wound.

Remembering Zeke doing something similar, Pudge clamped his hand on the gaping injury, applying as much pressure as he dared. Still, the blood continued to gush from the wound. Desperately, his mind whirled as he sought a solution, but nothing came to mind.

Not until he remembered something Abby had once said in passing while discussing some Earth story with Zeke. Pudge couldn’t remember many of the details, but he did recall the point of the story: heat could stop bleeding. He didn’t know the reasons behind that, but both Abby and Zeke had accepted it as if it was common knowledge. Pudge chose to as well.

Besides, if he didn’t do something, Sasha was going to die. She didn’t have the vitality or endurance to recover from such a wound on her own. The blood loss alone was going to kill her. So, stopping that had to be Pudge’s first priority.

To that end, he raised his hand into the air and summoned a tiny ball of [Hellfire]. He concentrated with every bit of willpower he could muster, and in doing so, forced the corruption to retreat. It didn’t dissipate entirely – it was still [Hellfire], after all – but he’d long since learned that the level of demonic corruption was, at its most basic level, adjustable. Normally, it was out of his control, reacting only to his anger, but in his desperation, Pudge forced it to obey his desires.

The black tendrils retracted, leaving almost an entirely orange flame behind. Pudge’s brow creased in concentration as he kept the corruption at bay, and he lowered his hand to Sasha’s wound.

The moment it touched her hide, the smell of burned hair and cooking flesh assaulted Pudge’s nose, and he only kept it there for a second or two. Sasha let out a scream, but she didn’t wake. When he canceled the skill and removed his hand, only a burned mass of flesh remained. However, the bleeding had stopped, which gave Pudge hope that she would survive.

Scooping her up in his arms, he looked around for an exit, and he soon sighted in on a stairwell that led up to the next level. He only had one option – to keep going. Eventually, he would be reunited with his friends, and when that happened, Zeke would know what to do.

So, Pudge set off, ignoring the carnage all around him.

He also ignored the notifications that had come with the battle. Once Sasha was safe, he would worry about whatever the Framework had to say.