A bullet whizzed by Alex’s ear, his head whipping forward in respoo the sound. He dove forward a running, pushing off the ground with his hands to get a little acceleration before he leaped into the air and whipped his arm out, covered in scales. The massive limb that grew from his body crushed a pair of trees before colliding with one of their attackers. He nded a moving, patting his waist to check that the pair of small legs were still ed around him. He gnced back at Snow who gave him a determined look before he turned bad kept running.

  “Move! Move! Move!” Greg shouted behind them, the heady buzz of his powers activating rattling Alex’s senses for a moment as a hail of bullets was deflected. Alex darted around aree and made for the path again, they couldn’t be much farther, could they? How long had they been running? He pressed his lips together, Hang in there Lily! He thought, dug beh a brand alighting oh. He turned and his eyes wide the sight of a pair of gun barrels poi him. “Shit!” He threw up his arms.

  “Got it!” A voice called from above. He whipped his head up to see a streak of gold and pink collide with the ground, there was a noisy crash and when the dust cleared Cass was standing there with the biggest hammer he’d ever seen slung over her shoulder. She gnced his way and gave him a nod before moving away from the small crater she’d created, rag towards their destination. He shook his head after a testy poke from Snht him back to his senses and he followed after her.

  “I see it!” Came another voice from ahead, Val, the lights of his rockets guiding them through the trees, “Someohere!”

  “Don’t engage!” Greg shouted, “We’re ing!”

  Off to the left Alex saw John and Ollie hurrying along. Ollie looked pensive while John had a scowl of absolute focus on his face. Alex had never seen the guy frown so hard. Alex hopped over a low hanging brand picked up his pace, whipping his arm out to grab the one and snapping towards it like a rubber band, “Hold on Snow!” He called as a tiny squeak sounded behind his head. He pulled himself forward, one branch at a time, e on, e on, e on! He willed himself to go faster, if he could turn fully into a serpent he could just move around everything. Nothing could get in his way.

  He pulled himself fain and unched into the air, kig his feet slowly as he caught a bit of air time. He gnced down and spotted the clearing. The pilrs of the dungeon were in pin view as was a man standing off to the side with his haeowards it. Reddish bolts of ‘something’ were darting from his fiips and striking the portal. What the heck his that guy doing?

  “Mana levels skyrocketing!” Snow said quickly behind his head.

  He gnced back at her as they desded, “How do you know?” He asked.

  “My impnt, don’t worry about it,” She said quickly, “We got a problem. He’s trying ter a break!” Her voice seemed to echo for him and he realized it was the after effect of her broadcasting her voice to the others as a series of curses answered her immediately. Just as Alex the edge of the trees another shape came rag out in the form of Cass, her on raised and a snarl on her face.

  “Don’t you dare!” She shouted, her body pig up tremendous speed as her head tilted forward. Something on her head- Is that a ? No, Horns?

  The man spun and his eyes widened, “Cassiopeia!” He gasped, breaking into a wide smile, “You came to me!” He ughed. He pivoted away from the portal and threw out both hands, he held them together for a moment before spreading them open in quient. Between his palms a glossy surface that looked remarkably like that of a bubble appeared. She kept moving, her legs pumping against the ground and leaving deep holes with each step. He took aep bad opehe bubble wider as Greg let out a shout, “Don’t touch it!”

  Cass didn’t hear him or didn’t listen, her eye burning with fury as she crashed into the bubble. It popped and she vanished. What? A cry of surprise and arm filled the air and Alex looked up in time to see Cass falling from the sky.

  “I’m fine! Move!” Cass shouted as she threw herself forward in a sommersault in the air, gripping tightly to her on as she spun towards the ground like a blunt saw.

  Alex looked to the portal, “Just go in?” He shouted t.

  “Everyo inside, we o get Lily and the others out before anything worse happens!” Greg called back. John didn’t o be told twice, he was darting towards the portal the moment Greg gave the order. Val rocketing off . The man whipped towards the troag him just as a screaming Cass came down towards him with the force of a small meteor. Her hammer aimed at his head. The ma out a gasp of arm and for a moment he flickered before appearing a few feet to the right of where Cass had inteo hit him. Cass hit the ground and the whole area shook.

  She stood up and Alex darted forward as Ollie hurried behind them, “You still good Ollie?” He called.

  “I’m fine!” His friend said, “Just get in the portal, you too Cass! Hand to hand isn’t going to work with him!”

  “We ’t just leave him!” Cass shouted back, pointing her on at the man as he took a few steps back, holding his hands up. “I oughta-”

  “You oughta follow orders!” Greg barked behind the lot of them, “Get in there Cass! I already know what his power is, you aren’t a good match!”

  Cass clicked her tongue and doubled back, hopping backwards through the portal with a gre aimed at the man. Val and John raced through . To Alex’s surprise, Ollie barreled bast him and literally threw himself through the portal. Alex was , he g Greg as they got close, “What would be a good match?” He asked, “I’m ready to-”

  Greg frow him and spped the air to his right, just behind Alex. Alex blinked a himself get lifted off the ground and thrown forward towards the portal. He looked back at a grim-faced Greg and his eyes widened in horror. “Are you fu- GREG!”

  He hit the portal with a spsh and stumbled onto the grass and roots of the undergrowth, hitting the ground with his shoulder and scrambling to his feet. He quickly pulled Snow off of him and turned around, rag back towards the portal only to hit it and something else oher side that sent him stumbling backwards.

  —

  Greg stared at the portal and sighed. He walked slowly over to it and tapped the surface, a wall of purple light f over it before ing around the eructure. He gnced over his shoulder at the man who stood there, hands on his hips, with an amused look on his face, “You aren’t getting past me.”

  “Ceous!” The man ughed. “Sir Halloway. I used to go by Rift though.”

  Greg nodded and turo face him, his fiips bzing with violet light, “Gravitic,” He said even as the butterflies in his stomach screamed at him to retreat. He cmped it down, that wasn’t battle instinct, it was cowardice. He straightened his shoulders and ched his fists, raising them up in a fighting stance.

  Halloway tilted his head, “Gravitic?” He asked before his expression fell and his eyes narrowed, “Oho, you’re a smart ohey’d just get in your way, wouldn’t they?”

  “Sad to say, but yeah,” Greg said as he started walking forward, “Just you and me, Halloway.”

  “Bravely said, but I’m afraid you’re up against a professional killer, it’s over,” raised two fingers, he whipped them across his field of view and released an arch of that same bubbly substalined with red snaps and crackles of electricity. Greg threw his hand out and formed a ce with his fingers, he twisted his hand to the right and pushed. A small e of purple light pushed out from his palm and split the ining ‘bde’ in half. The two halves raced past him and cut through half a dozen trees oher side of the clearing before stopping.

  Halloway frowned and looked down at his hand in fusion, “What?” He looked up at the young man for a moment and raised an eyebrow, “What just happened?”

  “You didn’t py a lot of games as a kid,” Greg quipped, tilting his head up, “Gravity bends space, dumbass. I have the advantage here,” Greg said before stomping his right foot and ung almost horizontally across the ground. Halloway snarled and moved his hand to the right before it vanished into a red rift in the air. The hing Greg knew, he was face to face with the man, his shirt held tightly in his grip. Halloway s him and pulled his hand back, red arcs dang on his fiips just as Greg shot him a smile. “Thanks,” He said and spped the guy on the abdomen.

  Halloway jerked back before abruptly lifting off the ground with a start. He snarled a curse as he spun helplessly for a moment. Greg threw himself forward, rearing bad driving a fist into the side of the man’s head. Just before the moment of impact, two fshes of violet appeared, on his knuckles and the other at the impact point. Halloway’s eyes widened aried to turn away just as the punch came. Greg felt his knuckles shudder a little but it was far worse for Halloas sent flying across the clearing, striking a tree and knog it over with the impact.

  “Super effective,” Greg said with a smirk, shaking out his hand. He took a few steps to the right and watched the tree, trying to keep himself between the man and the portal. “Whatever you were doing, it stops here,” He said with a growl.

  The feeling of the air shuddering was his only response, a dozen bdes of spatial rifts ung out in all dires and striking anything nearby, disiing the tree that had fallen on the maaggered to his feet and bore his teeth, “That was a mistake,” He snapped. A moment ter light blossomed in the distance, pilrs that came down from the sky and struck the ground. Halloway watched them for a moment and smiled, “Good,” He said, “All acc to pn.”

  Greg g the light, “What are those?”

  “You’ll find out if you do well enough,” Halloway said with a hiss as he stepped out of the trees, space rippling around him, bits of wood and ground gouged out around him with every step.

  Greg opened his right palm and held it out, “Didn’t you say it was over earlier?” Greg goaded, pulling on a bit of Alex’s antics, “e on, that kind of phrase loses its impact the first time it flops.”

  Halloway’s face fell and he dove forward, his body vanishing through a rift. Greg turned and threw up both arms, blog the rippling strike that came out of thin air to his right. He slid back a few paces as Halloway vanished again and he ducked down, Halloway’s attaing from behind. Greg rolled onto his bad snapped his foot out, catg the man on the . Halloway s him and vanished again, Greg rolling to the right on the ground as the man came up from beh him. “How are you doing that?!”

  “You’re predictable,” Greg said as he got to his feet, “Miss ovna fights better than you do.”

  Halloway’s eyes widened and his nostrils fred as he pulled himself out of the rift in the ground. Greg positioned himself again to riposte an attaly to hesitate when the man didn’t move. Halloway chuckled and gnced in the general dire of the fightihe main building, thunder like cshes sounding from that dire. “Alright, fine, you’ve ear,” He let out a sigh and shook his head, “Oh well, as long as I kill you, no one has to know.”

  Greg ched his fists and got ready to sp his ow in defense if he o.

  The man threw his head bad opened his arms, “Strength from Liberty! I am Sir Halloway of the Round Table!” He decred and a pilr of light smmed down from above, infusing him with a cold glow. It turned e and then almost golden as his body seemed to expand, his muscles growing rger and the red glow around his fingers intensifying. He lowered his hands and looked down at Greg before he abruptly vanished. Greg blinked, he’d lied a little about the guy being predictable, he could feel the spatial bends from his rifts.

  Three?

  Three fists collided with Greg’s head, two oher side of his fad oo the back. Paihrough his skull, his brain shaking in its g. Blood streamed from his nostrils as he tried to steady himself. He staggered forward and spped his chest just as two rifts appeared oher side of him and bdes of rippling spatial might swung forward to try to carve through him. Greg threw up his arms and kicked off the ground, one of the bdes catg him on the k dissolved but not before leaving a gash of torn and ripped flesh. Greg let out a cry and staggered, He’s taking the momentum from me!

  Greg nded on his bad leg, wing and throwing himself down to the ground as two rifts began to form above and below. He looked down into the cold eyes of Halloway and spped the guy in the face just before he could get off arike. Both Halloways let out a grunt of pain and pulled away. Not real copies, just him repeating himself somehow. One rift going to multiple pces? He turned and struck out at another rift and bsted through it with purple lined fiips.

  “You little shit!” Halloway snarled and reappeared off to the side, he reached into his coat and drew a gun. “Die!” He raged as a rift appeared to his right. He fired several rounds into it as an equal number of rifts appeared in the air around Greg.

  Shit! He intensified the repulsive force around his body, More! He pushed harder. The cle and sheer number of projectiles digging into his reserves. He felt his body tense and his stomach flip as the nausea finally began to hit him. Not now! He pushed it down ahe bullets cat the field around his body. Owo- an explosion of pain ripped through his leg. Missed one! He winced and bit his lip, trating with everything he had. en, got ‘em! They floated there for a moment as he traced an imaginary line from each of them with his thoughts, pointing them back to the man who had fired them. His vision blurred for a moment and he looked down at his leg. Lot of blood, isn’t it? He thought weakly before shaking himself out of it. Focus!

  e on, e on, e on! Do it this time! He ground his teeth together and pushed every ounce of will he had through the movement. Curving gravity like a ribbon. He created rajectories that peeled away from him. Slugs of metal ged course and uhemselves in Halloway’s dire as Greg’s arms went sck, he coughed a some bile rise up in his throat as his leg gave out under him. Halloway let out a scream and he looked up to see the man gripping his side. Blood dripped from his arm and his waist.

  “You rancid little brat!” Halloway bit out, “How are you more petent than a lised hero?” He raged and stalked forward as Greg tried to get to his feet. He had nothi and this guy, full of bullets, was still walking around like it was just an annoyance.

  “I went to school for it,” Greg bit out, grinning up at him, “Learned a lot here. So did they,” He gnced back at the portal. “They’ll get out just fine.”

  “You won’t,” Halloway hissed.

  “You don’t know that yet,” Greg said as both of his palms glowed purple. The man stood over him and created another curved spatial rift. “I got one more trick left. It’s a bit stupid though!”

  Halloway rolled his eyes and swung down, aiming for a killing blow as Greg pulled his hands back. With all his might brought them together in a thunderous cp that shook the earth. I’m right behind you guys, I won’t fall behind! He swore as purple light enveloped him.

  —

  Alex got to his feet and marched towards the portal again, “Son of a-” A hand ed around his wrist and he whipped his head towards Val who was looking him dead in the eyes. “Let go.”

  Val gave him a hard look, “Don’t be an idiot man,” Val said.

  Alex tugged his arm from Val’s grip and turned on him, “What’d you call me?” He barked and poi the portal, “Greg is out there, he needs us!” He shouted, “We ’t just leave him behind!”

  Val frow him, “Dude, you gotta chill-”

  “Chill?” Alex threw up his hands, “Greg was the pnner! He was the voice of reason, are you seriously expeg me to just- He’s our fug friend! I’m not gonna leave him out there!” He barked.

  “Alex, don’t take it out on him, Greg gave us a ce, we o take it,” Another voice chimed in and Cass stepped in behind Val.

  Alex’s lips twitched, “Who the hell do you think you are? You just get ied introup like you’ve always been here and expect me to listen to a word you say? I’ve known Greg since we were in middle school! I don’t know a damn thing about you!” He shouted, “I’m not leaving him behind!” He immediately regretted it as soon as the words left his mouth, his poundi stuttering on his chest as he caught the pained look on the young woman’s fabsp;

  Cass looked away and nodded, “That’s… fair,” She said quietly and turned away, “Do what you want. I’m going to find Lily.”

  John, off to the side, frow Alex and shook his head while Ollie pihe bridge of his nose and sighed. Alex ched his fists, “I-” He ground his teeth. Damn it, why don’t they uand? I don’t get it!

  “Alex,” A small soothing voice rang in his ear auro see Snow looking at him with a sad look in her eyes, “What would Greg dht now?”

  Alex looked away, “How should I know? I’m n,” He grunted petuntly befng bato those pearlest orbs. He squeezed his eyes shut a out a sigh, Damn it. He looked up at Val who held his gaze while Ollie and John moved to follow Cass. “He’d finish the mission if one of us was c the rear. He doesn’t do self-sacrifice. He’s fident, but he doesn’t want us wasting time,” He said hollowly, he didn’t like saying it, he wao fight at his friend’s side.

  Val reached out and squeezed his arm, “He’ll be fine. We’ll see him in no time, yeah?” Val said with a smirk and pat his arm before turning away.

  Alex didn’t move for a moment, staring at his feet, “Val, sorry about-”

  Val snorted, “Dude, we go back too, I get it,” He said as his steps moved further away, “I’m not the one you should be apologizing to.”

  Alex winced and gnced up at the back of the blondes head as she dipped under a brand stepped onto the path leading into the first ‘passage’ of the dungeon beyond what the scouts had started to call the ‘lobby’. She didn’t look back. Ollie caught up to her and said something with a smile on his fad she g him, returning the expression. Alex let out anh, Shit, I fucked that up, He thought and scratched the back of his head before moving to follow the others.

  Val, his hands up behind his head, tilted a bit to listen to something John had to say and raised his voice, “Yo, we need a fu’ formation. We don’t got any heals right nht?”

  Alex chewed his lip, “I regee a bit, I’ll take rearguard.”

  Val gnced back at him a his eyes. Alex looked away a his stomach twist. I just don’t know what to say. I’m not good at that kind of stuff.

  “Alright, Alex is on rear guard, Cass you got the front?” Val called out.

  “No problem,” Cass said, “Nothing will get past me.”

  “Cool, John and I have fnks, Ollie and Snow should stay in the middle,” Val said as they fully stepped into the open path.

  Alex had been given the small opportunity to peek into the dungeon a little while back so he’d seen the eerie circur clearing surrounded by a literal wall of tree trunks that made up the lobby. The trees went into the sky and made it a crazy thought to try to go over them to do anything. Apparently one scout had tried and had gotten attacked by something though they’d had a hard time describing it. He had not, however, seeual ‘operating’ parts of the dungeon. They didn’t have anyone who’d been memorizing the paths either. They were flying blind.

  That didn’t make it any less breathtaking.