Myrsvai ducked behind a stone column as Suta kicked a rebel elf. An arrow pinged off the stone beside Myrsvai’s head, just before the flailing mob crashed into the other elves.

  Suta took a step back and cast Abyssal Barrage. Myrsvai leaned around the column and cast his own barrage. By the time both barrages ended, all of the elves were dead.

  “Green,” Suta said, pointing to the room ahead.

  To the left of the glowing door was a battle of elves. Myrsvai opened his index and started forward while Suta checked the corpses for loot. He flung the elves all over, throwing some against columns, as he did his normal violent shaking method of checking for loot.

  The Shard Heroes list in the index had shifted slightly since they started. A few higher heroes had died, and a few people he didn’t know had acquired their first shards. Nothing was noticeably concerning. Chorsay, Arkasti, Vondaire, and Owin were all still alive. He noted that Veph had gone up to four, but she was on their side. For the moment.

  Myrsvai preferred not to see what Suta was doing. He reached the door before Suta was finished, and with a push of his staff, the door swung open. An elf woman screamed and ran as a shapeless specter oozed toward her.

  “Ah. This is going to be inconvenient.” Myrsvai swirled magic around his staff and cast Halt, blocking the specter’s advance. “Do we have a way to kill this?”

  Suta walked up and lifted both hands.

  “No, Suta. There are many specters in the Fortress.” He opened his index to all of his spells. They were nearly all abyssal, except for the one Power 6 spell he had taken in the elemental path. At the time, he thought it was clever. Egnatia had told him it was stupid.

  “Can you grab one of their swords?”

  Suta ran away and returned shortly with an elf’s sword. He held it tight in one hand and grabbed a handful of Myrsvai’s pants with the other.

  Myrsvai dropped Halt, sucked in a breath, and cast Cryokinetic Tempest. The sword crumbled to ash in Suta’s hand. The air chilled as Myrsvai let his breath out. Storm clouds formed all around, covering the ceiling of the kitchen and the hallway.

  Meanwhile, the shapeless specter continued oozing forward. It flowed over the counters and carried random bits of rotting food within its body.

  “It’s done,” Mrysvai said as he tapped his staff against the ground.

  Dagger-like icicles fell from the clouds. They bombarded the entire area of the second floor, killing the elves in the hall and cutting the shapeless specter apart until it finally died.

  “Casting Power 6 every time will be quite a hassle,” Myrsvai said. “If you think of something else, do let me know.”

  Suta nodded. He kept one hand gripping Myrsvai’s pant leg as they explored the rotting, slime-covered kitchen.

  ***

  Wading through the green smoke was both unpleasant and disgusting. And awful. Also horrible. The water was cold and slimy, and smelled like every horrible thing Owin had ever encountered.

  When he neared the end of the Ocean, there weren’t a lot of positive things he could say. His hearing was all messed up from being underwater and his skin was constantly wet and irritated. There were a lot of things he hated.

  Not being able to smell all the awful things he encountered wasn’t something he had really considered. Even when he did catch whiffs of things in the Ocean, it wasn’t as if he could fully tell what any of it was.

  Now, in this sewer, he was miserable. It wasn’t even a long walk to the end, and he still hated every second.

  Shade opened the grate on the end, took a step, slipped on the slime, and fell inside. Owin more carefully climbed onto the lip and looked down. It was a good twenty feet down into a pool of more sewer water.

  Shade splashed in the green-brown water until he managed to stand. The thin waterfall landed on top of his skull and splashed to the sides.

  Owin jumped over the pool and landed heavily on the stone ground. A figure stood in the corner, currently motionless, just in front of a chest.

  “I think this is the secret,” Owin said.

  “What makes you think that?” Shade crawled out of the pool and stood beside Owin. Rancid water dripped through his body and spilled onto the ground.

  Owin pointed to the thing in the corner.

  It was a towering creature on two somewhat thin legs. It looked unbalanced, even while not moving. Its arms were massive, hanging all the way to the ground. Three clawed fingers were tightly curled into fists.

  What stood out the most to Owin was the creature’s head that was little more than two massive eyes and two tiny nostrils. If he hadn’t seen some weird things before, he would have assumed it was a statue or something not dangerous.

  Fortress Mob

  Cafatilnor

  Prazene Warrior

  Level 25

  “That’s a horror,” Owin said.

  Cafatilnor opened its mouth, which was apparently in the middle of its torso. It was like the creature was falling into two as its mouth opened and let out a string of viscous drool. Five tentacle-like tongues shot out, not quite reaching Owin and Shade.

  “Oh my,” Shade said. “That’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen, and I have to see you all the time.”

  Cafatilnor’s eyes shifted from a dull orange to a bright yellow. Hairs sprouted all over its chitin-like body. The horror lifted an arm, opened its three curled fingers, and shot a bright blue beam. Owin moved aside, but the beam still grazed his arm.

  It burned for the slightest moment, then faded.

  Everything faded.

  He ignited the Incandescent Blade. It glowed in the blackness.

  A staircase formed, and for a moment, nothing happened.

  Flames burned brightly on the sword, but not strong enough to push back the enveloping darkness.

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  What kind of spells did the horror have? Owin scanned the area around him, but kept finding himself looking back at the stairs.

  An elf appeared.

  A big elf.

  Wearing a straw hat?

  “Zezog?”

  The 7 Shard Hero calmly walked down the stairs and strode straight toward Owin.

  “What are you doing?”

  Zezog broke into a sprint and punched Owin. The black void tumbled around him until Owin felt himself connect with a wall. He splashed into something.

  Apparition damage.

  He was seeing things again.

  Zezog sprinted forward. Owin planted his feet, reignited the sword, and swung straight across the knees, just like Zezog had taught him. A heavy form crashed into him.

  Reality snapped back. The horror was on top of Owin with blood flowing from its legs.

  Shade stood to the side, repeatedly stabbing Cafatilnor in the back with the Darkblade. He didn’t seem particularly in a rush or concerned. He just kept stabbing the horror over and over.

  “I think it’s dead,” Owin said, strained with the heavy body on top.

  “Hm?” Shade stuck the knife into its head. “One can never be too sure.” He did it three more times before he kicked the corpse. “I think it’s dead.”

  “Thanks.” Owin pushed the horror off himself with Shade’s help, and slipped out from underneath. “I don’t like horrors.”

  “Imagine if you fused with one.” Shade pointed to his empty abdomen. “You could have a mouth right here. Think about that.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “I wonder what it would be like to talk out of your stomach. Do you just have to flail your upper body back and forth?”

  “Can you check it for loot? I’ll get the chest.”

  Shade got back into the water and started doing as he was asked, but his talking never ceased. “What do you think I fused with when I was a Shard Hero? Maybe something handsome like another human.”

  “Ew.”

  “You know what? I agree. Fusing with a human mob is a little odd, isn’t it? Maybe it was an Omen.”

  Owin opened the top of the chest. “You have no guess?” He had to stand on his toes to actually see inside.

  “I have enough guesses to fill the entire day. None of them have any real weight or meaning.” Shade held up a mana potion. “Is this helpful?”

  “You know it is.” Owin grabbed the charge gem inside, held it up long enough for Shade to notice, and put it in his bag.

  “I’ve seen better loot in a closet.” Shade kicked the horror’s corpse. “Is that all we get?”

  Owin grinned and grabbed the other item in the chest. A little black gem.

  “Oh!” Shade ran over. “What are you going to get?”

  The void gem’s list felt infinite. There were so many options to pick from.

  “Should we just get one of your bones? Is that an option?”

  “You can look, but I don’t believe they would be in that list.” Shade tapped Owin’s shoulder. “I don’t want to rush you or make you panic or, uh, anything else I guess.”

  “Okay?”

  Shade tapped harder. “Look.”

  Back at the thin waterfall, the foul liquid had turned from brown to bright green. It had even stopped flowing like water. It was just . . . slime.

  Owin’s eyes widened. “Maybe an item to help with specters.”

  “I like your thinking. May I suggest hurrying up?”

  The pool at the bottom of the waterfall was already filled with shapeless specter. Green slime flowed over the horror’s corpse, dissolving it and integrating the pieces into its body.

  “What could I use?” Owin was already looking through as fast as he could manage. Swords obviously weren’t going to be the best. A hammer against slime seemed just as useless. It had to be something that could hit over a wide area to clear entire portions of the specter.

  Maybe a wand or staff?

  He stopped and looked at each staff as quickly as possible. There were a few that sounded like they would have elemental spells, but one stood out. Staff of the Stormcaller.

  Shade kicked a glob of slime away. “Make a decision already!”

  A gnarled stick appeared in Owin’s hand. It was as tall as Shade, which made it awkward to hold. He used it to push the skeleton aside.

  Staff of the Stormcaller

  Adapt Level Staff

  Spells: Chaining Lightning, Electro Tempest

  8/8 uses remaining for today

  Note: Further use without charges will result in health drain

  Note: Electro Tempest requires a verbal command

  “Electro Tempest!” A wind suddenly appeared, circling Owin. It was strong enough to cause Shade to stumble. Bolts of lightning arced through the winds. Nothing touched Owin, but Shade, who was caught in the wind, was repeatedly struck by lightning until he poofed into a cloud of dust.

  The strong winds caught the gray dust and started spinning it around Owin. Lightning flashed between bits of Shade’s corpse. Owin sighed and walked forward. As soon as the spell touched the green slime, lightning vaporized the specter. Bolts attacked repeatedly until there was nothing left.

  He stood at the bottom of the waterfall, letting the spell destroy as much of the shapeless specter as possible.

  The only real issue was getting through waist deep water with electricity constantly zapping things around him. If he was going to die, he didn’t want it to be from his own spell.

  Maybe an ice staff would have been more useful.

  The spell ran out just before Shade’s cooldown finished, so Owin walked back to the chest and waited, watching the time tick down.

  Summon the Withered Shade

  The skeleton poofed into existence and looked around the room. “Why are we in the same place? Did I die for nothing? Is my life worth so little?”

  Owin handed Shade the staff and took back the Darkblade. “You’re going to have to clear the pipe.”

  Shade held the staff in front of his face. His eye sockets narrowed. “Because I’m disposable? Expendable? Just a skeleton?”

  “Yeah.”

  What was the point in arguing? Shade would act offended in any situation.

  “That’s fair.” Shade strode forward with the staff raised high. “I am the almighty wizard king. Bow before my power!” He pointed the gnarled head of the staff and cast Chain Lightning. Bolts erupted from the burnt staff, struck the green slime, and arced up the waterfall, disappearing over the side.

  “I guess I could’ve done that,” Owin muttered.

  Shade jumped and deftly landed on the lip of the sewer grate. “There is a lot of slime up here.”

  “That’s why I asked you to do it.”

  Shade turned to Owin. “I will do this. For you.”

  “Okay?”

  “I thought it would sound dramatic.” He pointed the staff again and launched lightning into the pipe. “Do you think I should wait to step into the water until after I’ve killed the slime?” Before he was even done asking, he walked forward and vanished into the pipe.

  After about a minute, Owin jumped out of the pit and ventured back into the green gas of the sewer. The water was filled with bones, but no sign of the shapeless specter. Shade stood at the far end, a menacing silhouette, and waved.

  “Is it clear?” Owin asked. His voice bounced down the pipe.

  “Yeah, why not?”

  “That’s not really reassuring.” Owin jumped into the water and hurried down the pipe. The room they had come from was still overflowing with shapeless specter slime, but the pipe was clear and the next room looked clean. Maybe not clean, but there was no visible slime.

  “Nice job.”

  “Can I keep using this for now? I have four charges left.”

  Owin shrugged. “What happens if you use it when there are no charges?”

  Shade opened his index and looked at the staff. “At adept level, it should take four sevenths of your health for using it with no charges. What a weird amount. I don’t have health, so there is only one way to find out.”

  “If it takes my health, I’ll be angry.”

  Shade mocked Owin as he crawled onto the high grate and opened the door. “What is this? A brewery? You’re too young to drink.” He crouched and offered a hand.

  Owin let himself get pulled up. “Didn’t we just discuss how I’m older than you.”

  “Stop yelling at me.”

  “Uh.” Owin shook Shade and pointed.

  Loyalist elves slaughtered rebels on the far side of the brewery. Their corpses collapsed, bleeding. It was a one-sided battle.

  Owin wasn’t worried about the elves. Those were easy.

  Black string-like creatures zipped from the shadows on the ceiling, puncturing the dead elves’ chests. Within seconds, the skinweave specters were on their feet, ripping the loyalists to shreds.

  “Hey, Owin,” Shade said. “That’s bad.”

  “You have the staff.”

  Shade’s eye sockets widened. “I have the staff!” He ran forward. “I have the staff!”

  Three gore-covered skinweave specters turned as one to face Shade. Even while running toward them, Shade started screaming.