The alarm horns continued screaming through the night.
Keizeix raced beside Sia while Shirespoke and Marike led them away from the southern camp.
Behind them, soldiers scattered into predetermined retreat paths. Supplies were abandoned. Tents burned. Anything the humans might use was destroyed before the Silversilk forces withdrew toward fortified territory.
Another thunderous impact struck behind them.
**BOOOOOOM!**
The ground jumped beneath Keizeix's legs.
Trees shook.
Stone shattered somewhere in the darkness.
Then came laughter.
Loud.
Human.
And getting closer.
"RUN, LITTLE SPIDERS!"
Another object screamed overhead.
Keizeix looked back just in time to see what resembled a glowing black-red cannonball tear through the sky.
No cannon had fired it.
A man had thrown it.
The sphere struck the abandoned camp.
**BOOOOOM!**
The explosion was several times greater than any normal cannonball Keizeix remembered from Earth.
Flames and magical energy erupted upward.
The man's laughter carried across the battlefield.
"NOT SO TOUGH NOW, ARE YOU?!"
Another magical cannonball formed between his hands.
"RUN BACK TO YOUR LITTLE HOLES LIKE THE VERMIN YOU ARE!"
He hurled it.
Shirespoke shoved Keizeix sideways.
"KEEP MOVING!"
The magical projectile struck where they'd been seconds earlier.
Earth exploded.
Keizeix tumbled before recovering.
Beside the laughing man ran a second human.
A woman.
Water swirled around her body in enormous ribbons despite there being no river nearby.
It condensed from the air, seeped from the ground, and poured from containers strapped across her back.
Shirespoke cursed.
"They're gaining."
Marike looked back.
"We won't reach the forest."
Another blast landed ahead of them.
The road disappeared beneath a crater.
Everyone stopped.
The two humans descended onto the ruined road behind them.
The man's armor was thick and dark, reinforced around the shoulders and arms.
A glowing sphere rotated lazily above one palm.
The woman wore lighter blue armor while water circled around her like serpents.
The man grinned.
"There they are."
Keizeix lowered himself.
The pressure coming from them was nothing like the soldiers he'd been slaughtering.
His core felt it.
Heroic.
The woman looked at Keizeix and Sia.
"So these are the little monsters?"
"Apparently."
The explosive human laughed.
"Expected something bigger."
Shirespoke stepped forward.
His sword left its sheath.
The blade was narrow and dark green.
Several smaller daggers rested along his waist.
Marike moved beside him.
"Prince. Princess."
Her voice changed completely.
"Do not interfere."
Sia bristled.
"But—"
"That is an order."
Shirespoke didn't look back.
"Run when we give you the opportunity."
Keizeix stared at him.
"No."
Shirespoke's eyes hardened.
"Young master."
"No."
"That wasn't a request."
The explosive human clapped his hands.
"Aww. Touching."
A magical cannonball appeared.
"Let's ruin it."
He threw.
Shirespoke moved.
Fast.
His sword struck the sphere sideways.
Keizeix expected an explosion.
Instead green liquid spread from Shirespoke's blade across its surface.
The magical sphere destabilized and exploded prematurely.
**BOOM!**
Shirespoke was thrown backward but landed on six legs, sword dragging through the dirt.
Poison hissed across the ground.
Keizeix's eyes widened.
Shirespoke grinned.
"My poison doesn't care whether something has blood."
The explosive man stopped laughing.
For about two seconds.
Then his grin returned.
"Oh, I like you."
Marike raised one hand.
Mana surged.
One Marike became two.
Then four.
Eight.
Sixteen.
Keizeix stared.
Every clone looked identical.
Every one drew a weapon.
The human woman narrowed her eyes.
"Clones?"
All sixteen Marikes smiled.
"Find out."
They attacked.
The battle exploded into motion.
---
Keizeix had thought he understood speed.
He hadn't.
The Heroic fighters moved so quickly that his eyes struggled to follow.
Marike's clones surrounded the water-wielding woman.
Blades struck from every direction.
Water hardened into rotating shields.
Three clones were severed in half.
They vanished into mist.
Marike immediately created four more.
Her real body remained somewhere among them.
Impossible to identify.
The woman thrust both hands outward.
Water exploded in every direction.
Clones flew through the air.
More appeared.
Again.
Again.
Again.
But Keizeix saw Marike breathing harder.
Mana.
Every replacement cost Mana.
Across the battlefield Shirespoke fought the explosive human directly.
Sword against magical bombardment.
Shirespoke's blade dripped different poisons every few seconds.
Green.
Black.
Purple.
One poison ate through stone.
Another evaporated into toxic mist.
Another clung to magical attacks and destabilized them.
But the human refused to let him close.
Cannonball.
Explosion.
Cannonball.
Explosion.
Shirespoke dodged.
Deflected.
Cut through one.
Then—
**BOOOOM!**
An explosion caught him sideways.
Shirespoke crashed through a tree.
"MENTOR!"
Keizeix stepped forward.
Sia did the same.
Marike screamed.
"STAY BACK!"
Her clones rushed harder.
The water woman smiled coldly.
Then her eyes shifted toward Sia.
Black-purple lightning crawled across the young princess's body.
"I can help!"
"SIA, DON'T!"
Too late.
Lightning exploded from her.
The woman raised one hand.
Water surged upward.
Not toward herself.
Toward Sia.
A sphere snapped shut around the princess before the lightning reached its target.
Sia froze.
Water completely surrounded her.
She struggled.
Then unleashed her lightning.
The woman smiled.
Something changed in the water.
Keizeix felt it before understanding it.
The water's conductivity increased.
Sia's own lightning suddenly spread through every inch of the sphere.
Her body convulsed violently.
"SIA!"
The woman laughed.
"Electricity and water are such lovely companions when you know how to control conductivity."
Sia tried to breathe.
There was nothing.
Only water.
Her legs thrashed.
Lightning repeatedly tore through her own body.
Marike screamed.
"PRINCESS!"
Half her clones immediately turned toward Sia.
That was the mistake.
The water woman swept one arm.
A pressurized wave shredded six clones.
The explosive man hurled another magical cannonball into the others.
**BOOM!**
Marike screamed as the feedback from so many destroyed clones struck her.
She fell to one knee.
Keizeix looked from Sia to Marike.
Then Shirespoke.
His mentor was rising from the shattered tree.
Slowly.
Bleeding.
They were losing.
Badly.
Keizeix's mind raced.
Heroic beings were too strong.
He couldn't overpower them.
Couldn't outspeed them.
Couldn't survive direct combat.
But he didn't need to.
His eyes fell upon Shirespoke's belt.
Daggers.
Poison.
Keizeix sank into shadow.
---
The explosive human saw him disappear.
"What the—"
Keizeix traveled through the darkness beneath the broken trees.
Mana fell.
He emerged beside Shirespoke for less than a second.
One dagger vanished from his mentor's belt.
Keizeix disappeared again.
Shirespoke's eyes widened.
"Keizeix!"
Too late.
Keizeix emerged from the explosive man's own shadow.
The dagger slashed across the back of his knee.
A tiny cut.
Barely anything.
The man roared.
"YOU LITTLE SHIT!"
His hand closed around one of Keizeix's legs.
Keizeix tried to dissolve.
Too slow.
**RRRIP!**
Pain exploded through him.
One leg tore free.
Keizeix screamed.
Then another hand seized him.
**RRRIP!**
A second leg.
Keizeix's vision went white.
The man laughed furiously.
"Let's see you run now!"
Keizeix forced himself to remain conscious.
Shadow Mist.
He dissolved just as the human grabbed again.
But the transformation wasn't complete.
**RRRIP!**
A third leg tore away before his body became shadow.
Keizeix nearly blacked out.
Mana crashed downward.
Health plummeted.
But he'd done it.
One poisoned cut.
Not enough.
The woman.
Sia was still drowning.
Keizeix threw himself through shadow after shadow.
He appeared beneath the water woman's feet.
The dagger came upward.
She sensed him.
Water slammed downward.
Keizeix felt bones crack.
But the blade grazed her ankle.
Tiny.
Almost meaningless.
She kicked him away.
"You irritating little insect!"
Keizeix landed hard.
The dagger slipped from his grasp.
He couldn't stand properly.
Five legs.
Three gone.
Blood pouring from him.
The explosive man started toward him.
Then stopped.
His smile vanished.
"What..."
He looked down.
Dark green veins crawled outward from the cut behind his knee.
The woman stumbled.
Black-purple discoloration spread up her ankle.
Shirespoke's eyes widened.
Then narrowed.
"Oh."
His expression became murderous.
"You touched my daggers."
Keizeix coughed.
"Borrowed."
The explosive human dropped to one knee.
"What did you..."
Shirespoke walked toward him.
"Seventeen poisons."
The man's eyes widened.
"They react to each other once inside the bloodstream."
The water woman tried to summon another wave.
Her hand shook.
The water collapsed.
Sia's sphere burst.
She crashed onto the ground coughing violently.
Marike crawled toward her.
The humans looked at one another.
"RUN!"
They turned.
Shirespoke vanished.
His sword flashed.
The explosive man's head separated from his shoulders.
Before the woman could scream, Shirespoke's blade pierced through her back and emerged from her chest.
He twisted.
Green-black poison flooded the wound.
She collapsed.
Silence.
For several seconds nobody moved.
Then Marike's clones vanished.
All of them.
Marike collapsed beside Sia.
Sia coughed once.
Then went limp.
Keizeix tried to crawl toward her.
"Si..."
His vision blurred.
The System screamed warnings across his sight.
**HEALTH CRITICAL**
**SEVERE LIMB LOSS**
**Consumption Heal available**
He tried to focus.
"Use..."
Darkness swallowed him.
---
Keizeix woke to warmth.
Not a tent.
A ceiling.
Stone.
Gold decoration.
Silk curtains.
His room.
The castle.
He stared upward for several seconds.
Then memory returned.
Humans.
Heroic.
Water.
Explosions.
Sia.
His legs.
Keizeix shot upright.
Pain immediately ripped through him.
"AH!"
"Do not move!"
Shirespoke.
Keizeix turned.
His mentor sat beside the bed.
Bandages covered one side of his torso.
His left arm rested in a sling.
But he was awake.
Alive.
"Sia."
"Alive."
Keizeix's body relaxed.
"Marike?"
"Alive."
Keizeix closed his eyes.
Then remembered.
He looked down.
Five legs.
Three shortened, heavily bandaged stumps marked where the others had been torn away.
Keizeix stared.
Shirespoke followed his gaze.
"The healers stabilized you. They could not regenerate the limbs."
Keizeix swallowed.
Then remembered his ability.
System.
The blue window opened.
**Health: 31%**
**Consumption Points available: 61,482**
**Consumption Heal recognizes catastrophic physical loss.**
**Regeneration possible.**
Keizeix's eyes widened.
"How much?"
The system responded.
**Estimated Consumption Cost for complete restoration: 18,700 points.**
Keizeix almost laughed.
"Do it."
Shirespoke frowned.
"Do what?"
**Confirm restoration?**
"Yes."
Pain exploded.
Keizeix screamed.
Shirespoke jumped to his feet.
"What is happening?!"
The bandages around Keizeix's missing limbs bulged.
Bone formed.
Muscle.
Chitin.
Three black legs slowly pushed outward from the mutilated stumps.
Crimson circles appeared around the new joints.
Shirespoke stared in absolute disbelief.
Within minutes, Keizeix lay panting while all eight legs rested on the bed.
Whole.
Shirespoke said nothing.
Keizeix looked at him.
Shirespoke looked at the regenerated limbs.
Then back at Keizeix.
"Young master."
"Yes?"
"What..."
He pointed.
"...are you?"
Keizeix laughed weakly.
"Still figuring that out."
Shirespoke stared at him for several more seconds.
Then unexpectedly began laughing.
Quietly at first.
Then louder.
"You poisoned two Heroic beings while at Master rank."
Keizeix blinked.
"You lost three legs doing it."
"Yes."
"You nearly died."
"Also yes."
"You disobeyed direct orders."
Keizeix became slightly less comfortable.
"...Yes."
Shirespoke leaned closer.
"Never do that again."
Keizeix nodded.
"Understood."
Shirespoke paused.
"Unless it works."
Keizeix stared.
His mentor grinned.
Then immediately became serious again.
"No. Forget I said that."
Keizeix laughed.
A knock came from the door.
Marike entered slowly.
She looked exhausted.
Behind her came Sia.
Keizeix sat straighter.
Sia's golden-silver body showed scorch marks from her own lightning.
They stared at one another.
No competition.
No teasing.
Not this time.
Sia crossed the room.
Then struck Keizeix across the head with one front leg.
"OW!"
"You idiot!"
"What was that for?!"
"You lost three legs!"
"They grew back!"
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT BETTER!"
Keizeix stared at her.
Then Sia suddenly pressed herself against him.
A hug.
Awkward with sixteen total legs.
But unmistakable.
"You saved me," she whispered.
Keizeix froze.
Then gently leaned into her.
"You'd have done the same."
Sia didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
Marike looked away.
Shirespoke smiled.
For once, nobody cared who had the higher kill count.
After a moment Sia pulled back.
Then immediately narrowed her eyes.
"Although technically I was incapacitated after you, which means—"
Keizeix stared at her.
"Do not."
Marike groaned.
Shirespoke laughed.
Sia's eyes gleamed.
"We never received yesterday's final counts."
Keizeix clicked his fangs.
"You almost drowned!"
"And yet numbers remain important."
"You are impossible."
"So are you."
Their mentors exchanged exhausted looks.
Everything, apparently, was returning to normal.
But Keizeix's gaze drifted toward the window.
Somewhere beyond those walls, the battlefield remained.
And somewhere inside his storage were tens of thousands of cores.
Two new Heroic cores should now belong to their side as spoils.
Keizeix's thoughts sharpened.
He had nearly died because the gap between Master and Heroic was enormous.
He would not allow that to happen again.
Not helplessly.
Not if he could prevent it.
His System opened.
**Strength: 31,672 / 100,000**
Keizeix stared at the number.
Then smiled.
Heroic no longer looked like a distant dream.
It looked like a target.