I spared Signe a glance as she turned on her heel, set on a path towards Kels like an arrow in flight. I had a feeling we were going to have some extra cargo on the way out of the dungeon.

  Any chance I can just rip these pitons out of the walls without something exploding? I questioned Vipera mentally.

  I don't see a reason why not. They seem to be just a draw; pulling them out should be like closing the tap on a faucet. I got a mental shrug at the end of that, though that made me question her surety a little. There was little else to be done if I wanted to take one of the machines; in the end, I wandered over to the nearest piton and gave it a hard yank. It came free of the rock more easily than expected, revealing a long silver spike that was at least a foot long. The silver metal pulsed with glowing veins of blue. I stared at the piton for a long moment, expecting the blue veins to dim now that it was removed from the dungeon wall. They did not; the steady pulsing continued as if it were simply part of the material.

  Strange.

  I jerked the other five pitons free of the walls and floor without issue. As the last piton came free, the result was noticeable. Immediately, the mana wash coming from the main body dropped significantly and then faded entirely, leaving the machine completely inert. Vipera had been right; it really was a bit like a faucet being turned off. I swiftly moved around the chamber, yanking out the rest of the pitons powering the machines. The steady hum that had permeated the cavern slowly dimmed and then vanished entirely when the last machine went inert.

  I glanced over at Kels and the others. It seemed like the survivors were patched up and doing much better after being in the care of Kels' crew. They looked like they were ready to move; at the very least, they had some colour to their faces and life in their eyes now. Those Banner potions really were nifty things. I was going to have to see about buying some for myself; they were too useful to pass up having a supply of the things.

  "You ready to move Kaesor?" I looked over to Kels when I heard my name.

  "Whenever. I assume you want to take a few of these with us?" I asked, jerking my thumb over my shoulder at the inert machines.

  “For the best, the Banner will want to examine them as soon as possible.” Kels nodded. “ We’ll take three. One for your home branch, one for mine, one for the council. That should keep the politicking to a minimum.”

  "Sounds fair enough," I agreed. The prospect of keeping the politicians out of it was an attractive one. I hadn't had to deal with them much yet, David didn't count, and the longer I could put it off, the better as far as I was concerned. "Who's lumping them?" I glanced around the assembled group as the survivors wandered over, flanked by Signe and Angus.

  “Neither of us have high Strength, but we should be able to carry one between the two of us without issue.” Two of the survivors volunteered. Seems the potions and the rations had done the survivors a world of good. Though I imagined the Banner recruiting from military backgrounds likely helped. Their people tended towards having a good spine in them.

  "I will take one, and Angus will take the last one. The dungeon isn't fully cleared. I'd rather you keep your hands free." Kels finished taking the issue out of my hands.

  ——-

  The six of us trudged back through the dungeon, mostly without incident. There were occasional wandering monsters that needed to be dealt with, but they were swiftly put down by Vipera or me, usually. With four of our number lumping the machinery out of the dungeon, we couldn't afford any major issues. Fortunately, there were none. With the machines disabled, the mana wash had vanished, and my senses were once more working at a hundred percent. It was impossible for any of the monsters that remained to draw close enough to do any harm without my being aware of their approach before they were in range to do any harm. We fulfilled the promise as well and stopped to collect Felix's body on our way. Signe carried the black bag that held his body without complaint.

  We emerged from the dungeon, tired but victorious, to the sun peaking over the horizon. The dawn light was unfamiliar, almost jarring after so many hours under the cold, pale glow of the dungeon. I squinted against it, a weird, prickling sensation crawling up my neck as my eyes readjusted. For a moment, I half-expected the trees to be made of ice, the sky a slab of cracked black glass. Instead, we stood in a rough semicircle on the snow-covered ground overlooking the rock-face we'd scaled what seemed like ages ago now. We looked like hell: blood, blue or red, on every patch of exposed skin or armour; bandages already soaking through, clothing in rags. I was certain that, to an outside observer, our little exit parade would look less like a rescue than a POW exchange. Kels and the others set down the machines they were carrying, and Kels stepped away with what looked like a sat phone. Presumably calling for a pick up for the machines. There was no way they would fit in the motorcade we had come in.

  We’d made it. Stopped the dungeon from Breaching. And come out mostly whole.

  My senses tingled in the back of my mind, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Something wasn't right, and I was long past the days of questioning my instincts. My aura slammed down on the surrounding area like a hammer while my senses surged outward, hunting, searching. [All-Seeing Eye] showed me the Spells and Skills flying through the air before I would have seen them, as well as the Rankers staggering under the assault of my aura unleashed. Even as I watched, several of the presumably weaker ones collapsed outright.

  "Down!" I shouted, dropping to the ground, dragging one of the survivors with me. Everyone else listened without thought, and the spellfire whizzed overhead. Streaks of fire and lightning, sickly green bolts of energy, ice lances, and a half dozen other effects all came from different directions. This was an ambush. A prepared one.

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  Not waiting, I rolled over my side, fixing my gaze on one of the mana signatures I could see. My eyes were plenty healed enough to put some work in after a bit of rest and the trek back through the dungeon. An [Edge Glare] ripped outwards on a direct course with the mana signature. I grinned when it bisected my target. I rolled back to my feet as Signe began conjuring energy barriers that glowed purple in the dawn light. Kels started barking orders to get behind the barriers, but I paid him little attention. This wasn't a great situation for us. I could both sense a few dozen enemies surrounding us, a mix of Rankers, creatures that should have belonged in the ranks of the Unseen and normal humans. That explained the ones who had collapsed under the weight of my aura previously, likely normal humans without any type of magical protection. It also explained the sound of gunfire that had joined the Spells and Skills being lobbed at us. If I were a betting man, I'd say that there were likely a few crates of ammo out there to help them burn through our barriers without expending all their mana on it. There was only one faction with that mix of Unseen, Rankers, and normal humans.

  The Vish.

  There was something wrong about their auras, even the ones that felt like normal humans among the System Enhanced Rankers and Unseen. It was like they were hollow. Like a fake smile that didn't reach the eyes. As if all the outward signs were right, but inside was nothing but rot. It was disconcerting. It reminded me of the disgusting oily feeling I'd gotten from Bradley Sturm. Only now I was beginning to wonder if that was his own aura or a sign of something else?

  I watched as Signe returned fire around one of her barriers with her wand. One of the survivors was on the opposite side, lobbing spears of ice at our enemies. Several [Edge Glare]s arced out of our little fortress of barriers, cutting through trees and rock to reach their targets. Their mana signatures dimmed and then vanished from my vision after contact with the lethal Spell. There was little Angus and Kels could do without leaving the shelter of the barriers. That was the problem. We didn't have enough ranged firepower; our enemy could pound away at us until our barriers broke, and then move in.

  Of course, it wasn't all bad either. The enemy was certainly bleeding as they advanced towards us. Signe and the Survivor, hurling Ice lances, were keeping them nervous about poking their heads out for too long. Meanwhile, there was nowhere they could hide from my sight and the deadly arcs of kinetic destruction that followed.

  More mana signatures appeared in my vision. These came rushing on through the gun and Spell fire to assault our position directly.

  "Incoming melee!" I shouted, looking towards Kels and Angus.

  Both Kels and Angus hefted their weapons and stood moving to opposite sides of the barriers being cast by Signe and her counterpart. Figures in black tactical gear emerged from the trees surrounding our position, rushing at inhuman speeds. A moment later, they reached the barriers and Angus and Kels engaged the enemy. The two men had been fairly strong when they had entered the dungeon; they proved that while they had suffered loss in the dungeon, they had come out stronger. They hacked and beat at anything that came too close to our fortifications with their weapons. Enemies fell back, bloodied from the hammer or the blade on either side of the barriers. When one slipped in past them, Vipera was there. Once in her grasp, they didn't live long.

  I cursed as I watched the ambush continue. It was a damn stalemate, a bloody one. At least for the moment. Signe's and the other Banner Rankers' barriers were holding for now, but they cracked and flickered occasionally. Kels and Angus were taking spell fire the longer they were forced to engage in melee. Already, they were ducking behind the barriers at every opportunity to avoid as much damage as they could. I could end this myself, but the moment I left the barriers, it would leave the others vulnerable to a larger push from the surrounding Vish.

  Slowly, the fighting died down with the Melee combatants backing away first, retreating into the trees. Whoever was in charge of these Vish had to know by now that they couldn't force their way through without it costing them lives, a lot of lives. Hopefully, more than they wanted to spend.

  Moments later, the bulletstorm slackened, and the spellfire abated, leaving a cold, sullen silence. I peeked over the lip of Signe's battered barrier, squinted out at the treeline. In the stillness, every sense screamed at me with mechanical precision. There were still a few dozen Vish out there despite all the ones we had killed already. That was when the shouting started.

  A rough, booming voice that could have belonged to any warehouse foreman, except this one belonged to someone who’d been trying to murder us.

  "Kaesor!" It came from below, down the rock face from where we were positioned by the dungeon entrance. A man was wearing a heavy coat, puffing mist into the air. His aura felt worse than the others', like whatever was going on with the Vish had progressed further with him than with the others. Almost like a disease was winding its way through the man, evolving, evolving to a later stage.

  I was curious to know how he knew my name. It seemed I was rather popular lately. In this case, I assumed it had to do with the way I had kicked in Bradley's front door and then given the two Vish enforcers that had shown up the same treatment. "We've got you boxed in. We want the goods. Give us the accumulators, and you get to limp home, tails between your legs." I didn't recognize the voice or the face, but it was good to know that the Vish were connected to the accumulators somehow.

  I glanced over the newly assembled crew. Signe's jaw was set, a pale web of sweat clinging to her brow. Kels had his shield braced against the snow, and I could see the way his left hand trembled as he gripped the handle of his sword. Angus looked as unruffled as ever, but his shoulders heaved with every breath. The Survivors didn't look any better, having barely recovered from their own ordeal before being dumped into this one. I heard Kels curse under his breath. He knew the score here.

  "I don't think so," I shouted back, projecting as much derision as I could muster. "You haven't cracked us open like an egg because you can't." I grinned, standing up and looking down at the man over the lip of the barrier. There was some strength to his aura; he was a Ranker, albeit not a strong one, perhaps level fifteen at the highest. I grinned down at him the way a wolf grinned at a fresh steak. "Because you know that once you do, I'll kill you first. Then I'll work my way through the rest."

  The man on the rocks bared his own teeth at me, a rictus of contempt or maybe nervousness—there was enough of both in his aura that I couldn't confidently say it was one or the other. I liked to believe it was the latter, though. Even through the numbing cold, the tension crackled between us like a live wire. The Vish might have brought numbers, but this was not going to be the pushover they expected. I could taste the fear coming off the normal humans in their ranks in the wavering line of their auras. Even the Rankers and the Unseen with them weren't exactly brimming with confidence. Every single one of them had felt my aura, felt it even now, felt the monster staring them down. Just waiting for the chance to tear into them.

  “Could be, Kaesor, could be,” he called back, “but your friends will die first. You want that on your hands?” He let the question hang, and I could see his face now, heavy-set with a broken nose and a nest of beard. He wasn’t bluffing. There was a confidence in his bearing that told me he’d done this sort of standoff before, had written a script and was damned set on seeing it acted out. Whether he believed in it or not.

  I laughed, “You know as well as I do, that they’re the only thing stopping me from coming straight for you.”

  The Vish man grinned wider—warped, shark-like. “Unfortunately, that’s all that’s stopping us from putting you all down like dogs. So let’s not escalate, yeah? We’ll even let your Banner friends go.” He raised both hands, fingers splayed—the universal sign of what he wanted to look like reasonableness.

  The situation sucked. To put it bluntly. We could keep fighting, and technically, we could win. It would just cost the lives of everyone here except possibly mine. On the other hand, I could give up the accumulators, and we could all walk away. Supposedly, at best. Neither option was good. On one hand, most likely died, and on the other, we lost what was likely a treasure trove of information on whatever the hell was going on up here in the north and the Vish's involvement with it. I glanced around the group to find Kels, Signe and Angus all looking at me. Apparently, they were going to leave this shit decision in my hands.

  "Talk about being left holding the bag," I muttered to myself.