"Ceaseless Wheel!"

Wind scoured the flames, driving them ever higher, blowing them sideways past Beef and his precious Railgun.

"Ondine!" Beef cheered.

The woman soared down from above, where she and her cohort had hidden among the clouds. Six Chimera followed her.

The Elemental roared, swiping its burning wings toward the descending threats. They avoided it easily, rolling across the winds, and a few even hit the Elemental with concentrated bursts of icy water. The attacks exploded into steam that only confounded the beast more as its three heads swiveled to keep track of its enemies.

The Chimeras spread out, fast enough that Beef couldn't tell where they'd gone—until two of the Chimera landed next to him. He didn't know their names, but they were both scary-looking wyverns, replete with lizard faces and feathers.

"Be still, Lord Hammer. The Queen stands ready."

"Uh, thanks."

Above, Ondine never deviated from her flight path. She shot right for the Elemental, even as it wound up its necks and struck like a trio of cobras. Ondine wove through their attacks, agile as a diving hawk, before she punched the air. "Core Manifestation: Queen's Distortion!"

The two wyverns got all glowy and gasped, their wings snapping out to full extension. A line of wobbling Mana etched the sky between them, nearly singeing Beef’s horns. “Whoa!”

It extended to the other Chimera still flying in the air. It swirled as it struck, defining an orb of greens, blues, and virulent reds before moving on in straight lines right back to Ondine herself. A thrum shook the air and washed into Beef, a tickling nausea that nearly made him spill his guts. He scrambled back, hooves slipping on the chitin, until his back hit a guardrail.

It was way worse between the seven of them.

There the world was distorted, like a heat haze above an asphalt road. It pinched, a needle prick at the center above the Elemental, where the haze gathered into tight folds. It was pulled and tucked, space bending inward as the creature struck again. This time, however, its flaming necks twisted and turned, somehow sent careening back toward itself. It delivered a crushing blow to its own chest, forcing out a pained squawk.

Ondine spread her wings, stopping mid-air. She clenched her hand. "Level Six: Scatter."

The Realm ripped apart.

Between the six Chimera and Ondine, reality bled into a rift of textureless black. The edges spasmed, lined with undulating light that the Greater Elemental clawed at for purchase. It found nothing, and not even its wings could fight the sudden pressure that hurled it down into the Void. It screeched, but soon even sound was lost as its flames vanished into the dark and the hole snapped shut.

You Have Defeated A Greater Fire Elemental!

XP Earned!

A small trickle of power flowed into Beef. He was surprised he got any at all.

You Have Ended Another 100 Threats!

50 Points Earned!

…

You Have Ended Another 500 Threats!

100 Points Earned!

Total Points: 750

That was more surprising, but Beef happily took it. He set about selecting his usual, adding to his control maximum, but hesitated.

Are you alright, Beef?

Fine. I’m just thinking…I’ll save these Points.

Hallow was silent for a moment. Wisdom is rarely immediately gratifying.

Beef assumed that meant she agreed.

"Nice distraction," Ondine said as she landed beside the Railgun. She was sweating.

“Nice, uh,” Beef gestured vaguely toward where the Elemental once stood. "Whatever the hell that was. Wait." He wiggled a finger in his ear. "Did I hear that right? Core Manifestation?"

Ondine grinned. "You did.”

“Congrats! When did you figure it out?”

“Not long ago. Turns out, I needed my Guardian Beasts to help me. The number that participates increases the strength of its effect." She smiled up at the wyverns and tenku. All six of them preened under her gaze. "I’ve had few opportunities to test it, as it drains my Mana and taxes my Will enormously. When I saw the Elemental, I figured it was a perfect test case."

"Well, you won't hear me complaining," Elowen said as she rose up under her own power. It cut off with a sputter, and she sagged, clearly spent. "We're running on dregs right now. Tell me good news.”

Ondine nodded, her expression hardening. Back to business. “The plan is working, but we need to move. That's why we've come. We're to transport you all to the secondary location."

Beef and Elowen traded a look. He all but vibrated with excitement, but the mage looked

resigned at best. He supposed not everyone was cut out for constant fighting.

"Mount the Legionnaires,” the princess ordered her Guardian Beasts. “Keep them safe.”

“As you wish.”

“I would appreciate a ride, too,” Elowen said. “I need time to recover.”

Beef held up his hands with a grin. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

The jungle flashed by them in a dark green blur, the night leeching most of the color from their boughs and vines, not to mention hiding the roots, holes, and brambles underfoot. This was of little concern for the Chimera, who flew alongside them bearing the Legionnaires.

Elowen had a much different view of things.

“I could have ridden one of your Elemental Risen!” she complained, the chains between her antlers jangling with every one of Beef’s footfalls.

“Nonsense! They make huge jumps to keep up. You’d end up jostled right off their backs!” Beef leapt over another small hillock, hooves crashing into mossy earth before continuing onward. On his back, sat in a chitin-forged palanquin, the mage braced herself against the short walls with a white-knuckled grip.

“Well, we wouldn’t want that!”

More Risen joined them from the jungle, their blackened-green light muted as they adjusted their speed to keep pace with the group. Beef had recalled his Risen, as many as he could within short notice. Those that weren’t engaged with the enemy had immediately disappeared into the underbrush. Beef could feel them on the way, as if he were looking at a sonar map—small blips that grew closer by the minute.

We do not need them all here, Beef. Redirect them to the rendezvous point.

Got it.

Hallow handled many of them, especially those currently fighting, but Beef had been picking up the slack. According to the weasel ghost, it was the only way for him to advance, and it was the true reason for the headache that kept getting worse. The greater his control maximum, the greater the mental load.

Exultant Command is level 122!

Beef envisioned the map of the area—the one they’d all memorized back at Hevaan—focusing his Intent as he shoved his Will toward his Risen. Hundreds flashed with power, responding to his control as they advanced on the position he directed them to, each at their own sustainable pace. He didn't need his fighters tired when they reached their destination.

It was hard coordinating so many bodies, but it almost felt like an RTS. Real-time strategy games were all about managing resources and forced you to think on your feet. He'd never been good at them when he was on Earth, but here, with all his advancements and power, it was…still really hard.

But easy doesn't advance, Hallow intoned from his chest.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Damn straight. Beef could handle hard. What he couldn't handle was staying weak.

Hallow's eyes narrowed. Beware, an enemy approaches!

Before her words could finish, the trees exploded as six Greater Elementals tore through the jungle at their side, limbs already wreathed in fire, mud, and howling frost.

“Entropic Paradigm!” A shield of chitin rose up before him and two of the nearest Chimera as Beef skidded into a graceless stop. Elowen choked, hands clutching hard to the palanquin, and Hallow hurled a crystalling appendage of blackened-green.

"Halo Rupture!”

Hallow exploded into a cascading wave of crystals and chitin, sharp as razors and inescapable as a hailstorm. It tore through the first Elemental, ripping its legs free and sending it falling to the ground. The others leapt over their fallen ally, uncaring, their deadly Skills whining in the night.

“Not sticking around for that!” Beef started running as the earth rumbled. “Exultant Command!”

The Multipede exploded from below, shedding clods of dirt from its bulky exoskeleton as it lifted up beneath Beef’s feet. The five enemy Elementals dropped their mighty blows on their heads, but the Multipede was already gone, racing across the jungle floor like a runaway train.

“Haha! Eat my bull butt!”

The Elementals followed, wind and flame throwing them forward at breakneck speed, but the Multipede was fast. Its many limbs pounded the earth, a drumline of acceleration that forced Beef to hunker low and seize the edge of the Risen’s chitin armor. Even through the knotted routes between jungle trunks, they quickly caught up to the Chimeras and Ondine.

Fireballs screamed by them, exploding roots and greenery where they missed their targets. Though the fires went out fast in the wet, gouts of smoke and cinder drove the lot of them off course. Ondine shouted something to the Guardian Beasts, and three of them split off, diverting in an opposite direction.

“What’re you doing?” Beef stared back at the Elementals. They were gaining on them. He seized his Risen with a piece of his Mind, readying himself. “We can’t split up!”

“Focus on your Risen!” the princess called back.

Beef did just that, his awareness slipping away from the Multipede and his iron grip against its armor. His Mind flickered, hopping through a chain of bundled light. They were blue but pulsating with a shadowed green—his power, no doubt—and at each knot in the chain was another Risen. Beef seized the ones closest to him and saw the Risen Elementals only a dozen yards behind their pursuers, and the Chimera were drawing close.

“Oh.” In the chaos, he’d forgotten about them entirely. He laughed. “Oh yeah! Wait, is that all I have nearby?”

“What’re you up to?” Elowen asked.

“Fighting back!”

“Then get me out of this thing so I can help!” Elowen shouted, grabbing onto Beef’s horns.

“Gah! Fine!” The chitin palanquin on his back melted away, dropping the Theron onto the Multipede’s back.

“Good.” She crouched, hand clenched onto a chitinous spike. “I hope you’re ready. Chaos Beckons!”

Two trees tore free of the earth, coated in a thick layer of purple-gold, and hurtled into their pursuers’ path. The five remaining Elementals leapt over the first, but the second fouled one then another, until all but one collapsed into a pile on the jungle floor.

“Success!” Elowen cheered.

“Not quite yet.” Beef squinted as their targets fell further behind. “Ondine! Now!”

Wind and ice magic skewered out of the trees, followed closely by twenty Risen Lesser Elementals crashed bodily into the foe. The Greater Elementals screamed, shadow coiling around their Bodies and against the Risen.

Beef didn’t wait around to find out who won.

He pushed his Multipede, and thankfully the creature had been gaining in Agility as it aged. It kept moving, slithering to and fro as the Elementals’ struggled to catch up. A twinge in his head meant the Risen had fallen, but not before one more enemy was taken out. The remaining four careened onward, Bodies covered in writhing shadow as they made up the ground they’d lost. Fireballs, ice needles, and windblades hurled in their wake. Beef avoided most of them, though the Multipede's chitin armor had to prove itself a number of times as it was struck.

"Don't worry," Beef said as the passage jostled him, his teeth nearly shaking out of his jaw. "I'll get you some nice new shiny armor after we're done."

The Multipede screeched into the night, and Beef chose to believe that was a positive response. "We're almost there,” he assured it. “Just on the other side of that ridge!"

A screech sounded from the distance, growing in volume as Beef turned in horror. A blur streaked out of the trees, t-boning one of the lead ice Elementals. "Fafnir. Fafnir, no!"

She was so damn big—far bigger than Yintarion. Now called a Risen Draconic, she shattered several of the enemies, even as she tore into the Frost Elemental, leaping around like an enraged monkey. Her jaws clamped onto stone and tore it free of the Earth Elemental's arm before she spat it out, along with a blast of necromantic breath. It poured over the four of them, blasting even pieces of the Fire Elemental away.

They weren’t dead, though. Fafnir wasn’t strong enough to handle them alone.

“Exultant Command! Fafnir! Get back here!”

Almost immediately, the Greater Elementals started to piece their lesser wounds together. Beef forced the multipede to keep running and flared his control Skill harder. The big Risen Draconic was tearing into one of the Elementals, trying unsuccessfully to get at their core. It swung an arm towards her, nearly crushing a wing, but she dodged away.

"Fafnir, stay near me!"

Exultant Command is level 123!

Mercifully, she listened, zipping back through the air and past Beef, headed, he hoped, in the right direction. They followed, passing the ridge and entering into a narrow passage that approached a fortified encampment. Hidden among the trees and a narrow cavern, chitin walls were built up around earthen ramparts and wood shaped battlements. It was here, in the back of that cavern, that they’d been moving all the villagers they’d saved.

Relief cut through him, but it was short lived. “Greater Elementals are following!”

Legionnaires on the walls lifted their weapons, their expressions grim. Already they hunted the night, looking for the enemy.

Ondine landed, her Chimera, too, and the Legion mages were offloaded into the fortress. “We are the first ones here. I do not like that.”

"Where is everyone? We were supposed to meet—" Beef spun toward the direction they’d come. He felt another few of his Risen disappear. “Something worse is on the way.”

Elowen flexed her hands and power sparked between her fingers. “How much worse?”

The four Greater Elementals crawled over the ridge, calm and slow, and they weren’t alone.

More Elementals emerged from the entire east and south, popping up among the ancient trees and unruly hillocks of the jungle. They were big, the smallest of them a mere fifteen feet tall, while the Greater Elementals hunched in order to make room for the rest. Between them, filling in the space, were the Corrupted Dwarves. Squad after squad of them walked out of the treeline, their faces pallid and eyes black.

Beef felt for his Risen. They were approaching, but he’d spread them out too far to get them back before fighting would start in earnest. We have to buy some time.

Speak to them, Hallow urged.

“Ahem. I see you’ve got us surrounded.” Beef coughed. “How great for you.”

Elowen stared at him like he’d grown a second head. “Really?”

"Did you think you could escape us?"

One Dwarf stepped forward, one that was clearly more powerful than the rest, if Beef were judging based on his armor. Like in SwordLore, the man had armor with large pauldrons and impressive glowy bits across his chest. It was made of reddish-gold orichalcum, high quality stuff, but it was leaking black fluid from every crease and crevice.

Not blood. More like ink, it trailed with every step he took. Worst of all, however, were the shadow tendrils that wrapped around his neck like a noose. His face was purple, but he didn't seem to care, and his eyes were wells of pitch.

"I am the Sixth Imperator Dav Ar’Vahn,” the Dwarf croaked. “You must be the idiot child, Beef. The freak mage. And the princess."

Elowen and Ondine stiffened, though they looked equally pissed. Ar’Vahn clucked his tongue. "You, my dear, should be careful not to do any of your little tricks. I saw your pathetic Core Manifestation, and it won't work if you cannot surround me with those wretched sky rats."

The Chimera bristled at the insult, but they didn't move. No one did. The Imperator laughed bitterly. "I've been watching where you've been taking these survivors. I knew this was your weakness, just like your feeble emperor’s. Your compassion was always going to be your undoing."

Beef frowned. "What do you know about our emperor?"

"Entirely too much, child.”

As if a puzzle had snapped into place in his Mind, Beef's eyes widened. "The Dwarf isn't talking at all. Guys, that's Marzul.”

Ar’Vahn froze, his expression vanishing before being replaced by a scowl. “No one likes a show off.”

Beef laughed. “You’re just mad I guessed right! Hey, if you're so confident, what are you hiding behind this guy for? Why not step into the ring?"

Those black eyes and dark mouth sneered at him. "You mean weaken myself within the bounds of this empire? The one he stole from me? I do not think so. I am on the cusp of something far greater than you Unbound could ever hope to achieve. Something you will not deny me.”

“Gonna stop us?” Beef scoffed, hands on his hips. “With just this?”

Marzul bared the Dwarf’s teeth into something like a smile. “I need nothing more to crush you all."

"I doubt that."

Vess's voice was bright and more than a little vindictive. Ar’Vahn spun toward the sky where the Dragoon general stood, her wings spread wide as spears covered the air around her. Yintarion was at her side, as were thousands of Chimera and Dragoons.

Beef’s senses shook as his Risen shook the trees in the near distance, now finally in place. "Now you're surrounded," Beef said with a grin. "What are you going to do about that, Marzul?"

The Marzul-possessed Imperator laughed, black tears streaming down her face.

Beef blinked. "She's…not supposed to do that, right?”

A horn sounded, followed by the deep beat of massive drums. To the north, the black sky had filled with smoke and a cherry-red light. Banners caught the air above the jungle as it rippled, disgorging hundreds of massive Superior Elementals that emerged from star-speckled rifts.

In the distance a thundering crash shook the earth.

"The Red Shield Hold answers the Nightmother's call!”

“The Sunder Hammer Hold answers the Nightmother's call!"

The cries went on and on, a nightmare attendance list. Dwarves filled the carved platforms atop the Superior Elementals, too many to count.

"The Dwarves of the Rimefangs. Their faith in the dark is strong," Marzul-Ar’Vahn said, her face twisted in a smug grin. "The dawn will not rise on this day."