The beast’s roar was making my ears really start to hurt. What in the world was this thing?

  Well, I knew its name. Eyelined Beast was definitely apt. There were indeed way too many eyes on its brown, leonine body, though most were clustered on its misshapen head. Four appendages crested off its back in place of a mane, each one halfway between a wing and an overly thick and fleshy tentacle, and all of them lined with more eyes. Closed ones, thankfully.

  As soon as I touched down, it roared one last time with extra ferocity before just letting off a constant low growl.

  I met its eyes for a few moments before surveying the rest of the area through the corners of my eyes. Cerea was also keeping a lookout.

  The battlefield was like some sort of colosseum arena, except with the stands built into the walls and half hidden behind several columns and pillars. There was no sign of Zoltan or any other Claws, but I figured they were out there somewhere. Close enough to keep watch from some secret nook or alcove, but far away enough that they wouldn’t be spotted.

  The lava we had seen earlier was coming from beneath and to the sides of the arena. There was a pool of it around our battlefield and in front of the stands, like a moat of liquid magma.

  “I’ve got this thing,” I said as the beast started padding towards me with steps that lightly shook the ground. The floor… I looked down briefly to see it was packed gravel. There was something odd about it. “Just keep an eye out, Cerea.”

  She didn’t protest. Cerea had always been meant for a support role in these expeditions of ours. Just because she had ways to protect herself and could contribute to a fight didn’t mean she was supposed to.

  “Just be careful,” she said. “That thing’s probably—”

  The monster’s low growl took on a sharp pitch before it rushed me down. My eyes widened at its sheer speed. I narrowly threw myself to the left, a whoosh of air flying past me confirming how its massive claws missed me by bare inches.

  “—at least low Gold,” Cerea continued saying, now in less of a warning tone and more of an acknowledging one. I had seen the strength of the Eyelined Beast first-hand. “If not nearly Opal-ranked.”

  “So another Greater Brillwyrm,” I said, creating some space between me and the creature. “Great.”

  I wasn’t worried. For one, I had killed the Greater Brillwyrm, and I would kill this thing too. For another, I was stronger than I had been back then. I was capable of greater things, armed better, and more experienced as well. I was ready.

  The beast roared once more, making my eardrums painfully threaten to rupture. This thing needed to stop its shrieking.

  Instead of rushing me down again, however, it just shot out a storm of the sparking tendrils that the Sight Flayers were so fond of. Energy glowed along their lengths, motes of black interspersed with the cracking white-purple. Black… right, killing all those Sight Flayers had sent their remnants back to this beast.

  I evaded. This was a test of my Agility because I had no direct counter to an attack like that, so my best bet was circling around the monster until it grew tired of the tentacle tactic.

  The ground cracked with little explosions where the tendrils struck behind me. There were so many that I had to duck backwards to avoid a barrage of them heading for the spot I was aiming for. I really needed to find some sort of real defence against this kind of an attack.

  When the beast roared again as I shot to my feet, I saw it send a pulse of extreme energy through every tendril. I managed to dodge the volleys once more. But when they hit next, a furious blast erupted out from the points of contact, the series of shockwaves sending me flying off my feet.

  It was only using Infusion instinctively that had saved me from tripping over into the pool of lava. I cursed.

  The Eyelined Beast wasn’t giving me a moment’s reprieve. Even as I was busy righting myself, it was rushing right through the dust cloud it itself had created with that blast. Even the eyes on its cresting appendages were opening up, glaring viciously. Strange, spectral, mesmerizing—

  Shit.

  “Ross!” Cerea shouted.

  Those eyes had been a distraction and now I had been sent flying over the edge of the arena and into the lava. I didn’t fall in. Infusion rapidly turned into Siphon and removed the suction of gravitational forces on me, and I didn’t even get close to the burning pool of molten earth.

  That much heat under me made me immediately think of Flare. I’d be stupid not to use Concentration here if I could. With a second of focus, I set up Concentration and Capacity to start accumulating the magma’s heat into little pockets over the area.

  The beast was looking to attack me even while I was floating just a couple of feet over the lava. That wouldn’t have been good.

  But then a zap cracked on its mottled brown hide, and the monster turned around with an annoyed growl. Cerea. Bless her for the distraction.

  I climbed back up as fast as I could. She wouldn’t be able to deal with that thing on her own. The monster had just started off towards her, but I raised my hand high. Instead of Infusion though, I decided to use Imbuement.

  “Hey!” I shouted, my hand blinking with the power of a lighthouse lamp. “I’m your real target, you mutt!”

  The monster froze. But it didn’t turn to attack me physically. In its place, its cresting appendages rotated to face me. Then the eyes opened and fired off their energy beams. A lasering burst that glowed extra bright this time, shaded with white-gold power.

  My reaction was instinctive. I lowered my hand to protect myself even as I threw myself to the left.

  There was a strange and interesting reaction when a beam struck my glowing hand. It of course did nothing to my mace, but more surprisingly, it did nothing to my hand either.

  The beam just bounced off, leaving a muted sizzling sensation behind.

  One laser did strike me on my foot, though. I cried out at the burning pain. At least seeing me fall had the immediate effect of making the monster target me with its full attention. Cerea was safe.

  I scrambled despite the wound on my leg. It would be fine in time. I just barely managed to avoid getting crushed, quickly forcing myself upright while biting through the burning torture shooting up my leg.

  The Eyelined Beast was whirling around, swinging its massive claw hard and fast. Thankfully, I was up quickly enough to block it with my mace. Not that it was a good blocking implement. A shower of sparks went up at the contact, and despite my raised Vitality, I was sent staggering back with my whole arm and upper body shaking.

  Its blows kept raining down, and I barely kept pace. I could have used my shield to block—I still had it strapped to my back. But for one, I was pretty sure a few solid blows would dent the metal to an irreparable state that would be more hindrance than use.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  And for another, I wasn’t just defending myself. I was countering.

  Once I had acquired a rhythm, I was going to fight back. I was channelling threads of Gravity into my mace, but not with Infusion in mind. Instead, I held Granular Control nocked and ready to go. Just one opening, just one moment where I wasn’t overwhelmed, focused only on guarding myself from being shredded while trying not to stumble on my injured leg.

  I needed a chance, and I created it myself. The altercation was pushing me back, and now, the Eyelined Beast was in position.

  All those pockets of Capacity I had gathered? I finally let Flare burst out in explosive little geysers. It wasn’t just me. Cerea contributed too. A zap of lightning shot in and landed right on the monster’s central eye.

  The Eyelined Beast reared back with a piercing roar. I ignored the ripping sensation in my right eardrum. Now, I had my chance.

  With all the Power I could use then, I swung in my mace just as I used Granular Control to manipulate the intermolecular forces and shift the mace’s head into a far spikier version, trying not to cringe at the severe pull of mana it cost me.

  Despite my increased strength, despite the buffs we had put on ourselves, despite how strong I felt my Power was, the monster still only shuffled back maybe three or four feet. This thing was huge and powerful. Its Vitality had to be enormous. High Gold at a minimum, if not Opal-ranked.

  But that was fine. The monster recovered, readying to counterattack with its overly toothy maw opening wide for another roar.

  Only to then be dragged to the ground as deep violet threads caged it in.

  I grinned. My little plan had worked. I was channelling Infusion as hard as I could, forcing the weight of the chunks of my now-broken mace inside the bloodied wounds of Eyelined Beast to keep it trapped to the ground. Granular Control had warped the mace so that a powerful blow had actually broken off chunks of the head, which had embedded themselves into my target.

  A target now at my complete mercy.

  Well, almost. Just as I was about to advance and take advantage, the appendages rose up and opened all their eyes, glowing with growing, crackling power. The monster was using its paws to try and claw out the embedded pieces of metal, but they had sunk in too deep.

  “Ross!” Cerea shouted. “Watch out!”

  Oh, I was seeing that alright. I didn’t have to think of the right response, but I had been in enough battles now for my brain to do the thinking for me.

  A couple dozen lasers fired in my direction just as I channelled Imbuement via my Illumination Aspect as hard as I could. My whole body turned into a golden-white lightbulb just in the nick of time. No more getting holes poked through my limbs—which was healing now thanks to a combination of my Mana Heal and Mana Injection Augmentations.

  I didn’t know what exact interaction was allowing Illumination to reflect or deflect those attacks. Was Illumination somehow illuminating the fact that some of the beast’s attacks could be reflected with it? Because when I wasn’t using my Aspect, the monster’s beams didn’t have that extra, golden-white sheen. Whatever. Now wasn’t the time to ponder it.

  The beams ricocheted off my radiant body. They were still strong. Still way too powerful. I found myself being forced back foot by foot as their burning sensations made my skin sizzle where it was exposed and my armour turn unbearably hot. My clothes caught fire. Shit.

  I was breathing hard when the monster was forced to stop its volley. Forget trying to take advantage of its downed state, I had been pushed back at least double the distance I had been seconds ago. Shit.

  And the eyes were gearing up to fire again. Double shit.

  Unless…

  I swung the shield off my back. It was finally going to get some use. My kite shield was flatter than most parts of my body. Earlier, The Eyelined Beast screamed shot all those eye-lasers, I had seen a few get reflected nearly straight back at its massive body.

  What would happen when it was reflected exactly a full one-eighty degrees?

  Imbuement had my shield glowing like a little star in no time. A millisecond before the beast fired, I had my shield propped up just enough.

  The monster shot its blistering rays once more, each beam edged with that highlight of glinting light, most striking the shield and a few zooming past me.

  Of course, it didn’t fire the beams in a straight line. The way those eyes were oriented on the appendages meant the lasers flew in at an angle to the shield, so even if it was flat, it wouldn’t be a perfect reflection.

  But that was actually good in a sense. I figured the only thing that would result from a full one-eighty-degree reflection of a beam back into itself would just result in an unfortunate explosion too close to me.

  I had a little bit of experience with that when I had tried flinging back one of the rowdy adventurer’s attacks back at the Adventurer’s Guild a while ago.

  As it was, the sheer force behind the monster’s blast still kept pushing me away. But it didn’t matter. The beams had reflected back the way they had arrived, and the angles were acute enough that they struck their parent. Sadly, the Eyelined Beast’s scream lasted for only a second before the reflected beams intersected with other lasers and then set off the detonation I had been afraid of.

  The heavy blast rocked the entire arena. I just barely managed to raise my weight enough and not get pushed into the lava by the shockwave, though it was a close-run thing. Half my body was tumbling over the edge, though I supposed that wasn’t really a problem for me and my gravity manipulation.

  The bigger problem was Cerea, though she had also managed to hold onto that edge of the arena without tumbling off. She was pulling herself back up to safety

  At least the Eyelined Beast had suffered for it. The reflected beams had torn through its body. Though, the wounds were slowly healing back up. I frowned. Did that thing have regeneration powers on top of everything else? That seemed a tad overpowered.

  My frown grew deeper as I realized something. Every time I had used my Illumination Aspect, it had acted oddly.

  Normally, it was hyper aggressive and held nothing back. However, whenever I had Illumination active, the monster hesitated for just that tiny bit or acted out in other ways that essentially said loud and clear that it hated light. And now it was regenerating…

  I rushed in. My shield was raised again, and I imbued it with a ton of radiance once more, turning it as brilliant as the sun. Or what the sun normally would be.

  The Eyelined Beast, now barely recovered from the injuries of its own reflected beams and the detonation from the blast, shrieked out. If my hypothesis was right, then it would retreat at the approach of the unbearable light. Instead, it roared and rushed right at me. But I was proven right. The beast was sizzling, smoking, burning alive.

  It was a Scarthrall.

  The roaring was ripping up my ears, but I held steady. My wounds could be healed. I just needed to survive, first. And then I would win.

  My shield lasted just long enough to deliver that victory. As I had suspected, it wasn’t going to last long against the Eyelined Beast’s incredible Power. The metal crumpled, bent, and tore apart with every strike. But it continued glowing brilliantly even as it shattered. It continued burning the monster away.

  By the time I was forced to throw away a broken hunk of metal and step back briefly, the beast’s front had been partially vaporized.

  Its roar came out as a gurgle and its claws were no more. I was safe.

  Which was why I jumped right up, using Infusion through Gravity and Imbuement through Illumination on my mace. When I brought it down, I cleaved right through the beast’s skull and gored into its chest.

  The Eyelined Beast screamed—as much as it could with a shattered maw—and fell back before thumping down. None of its wounds were recovering. All of them were fatal.

  It was practically dead.

  I left it there to die. While I took my mace with me, obviously, I imbued light into the stones under and around the monster, turning them all blindingly radiant. The Eyelined Beast started dissolving to acrid smoke even faster.

  [ Affix Unlocked!

  You have acquired a new Affix for your Illumination Aspect.

  Affix: Reflection ]

  [ Rank Up!

  Your Power, Vitality, Agility, and Spirit Attributes have risen by one Rank.

  Your Illumination Aspect has risen by two Ranks.

  Your Gravity and Ritual Aspects have risen by one Rank.

  Your Path of Burning Starlight has risen by one Rank.

  Power: Gold I

  Vitality: Silver IX

  Agility: Silver VII

  Spirit: Silver VII

  Illumination: Iron IX

  Ritual: Silver I

  Gravity: Silver IX

  Path of Burning Starlight: Silver VII ]

  “You did it!” Cerea said, rushing over with a broad smile.

  She was right. I had done it. But I was still bothered. Where in the world was Zoltan?