Halloway’s eyes shot open as a sharp pain rushed up his side. He coughed, wing against the bzihat had begun to pool around his right side as his skin sizzled and burned. His vision swam and he forced himself to look down at the injury. A shard of wood was stig out of his waist, the long branch stretg out another foot and a half and saturated with blood. His eyes fluttered as he reached for it, snarling against the pain. As an assassin he had specialized in the sudden attack, a quick strike with a khrown at the throat. He had adapted that strategy to his spatial powers, his first refi of his ability had been the rift bde.

  He hadn’t needed much more than that. Nothing could block it. No armor, no shield, even power barriers were funally useless against it. Liberty had even deigo allow him to test it against her impregnable body. The wound he had carved into her skin had been enough to earn his life; his efforts t numerous members of the night society over to her side had earned his position. It was only after he had begun w under her that he had sidered other avenues for his ability. Creating a zone of stable space was one of them.

  He coughed again and tried to put some force down to break the stick at a joint, at least it would be less to pull out wheime came. His abs recoiled from the effort, screaming in protest while every inch of the skin on the front half of his body practically cracked uhe strain. He grunted and took a shuddering breath. Calm down, you got too riled earlier. He reprimanded himself and pointed his fi the branch. He cut through it with a sharp release of his ability before pulling himself off and colpsing to his knees.

  With a moal effort of will he lifted one of his hands and exami, the skin had turned almost bd cracked in several pces. The sheer pressure of whatever that boy had doo him had pulverized his flesh. He was lucky to be alive. He brought the hand gingerly down to his wound and pressed against it. It was fruitless with another hole oher side but it was all he could do. His other mangled hand slipped down to his belt. Where is it? He wheezed, his fingers slipping through a hole in the base of the poubsp;

  He grunted and whipped his head around, searg. A small glimmer on the ground a few feet away drew his eye a out a ragged ugh. With every muscle in his body screaming at him to stop he crawled towards it, his shaking fingers reag out until they ed around peared to be aremely thick metal needle with a razor sharp poigs ran down one side of the objed glowed with a faint green light. He fell onto his side, his vision darkening as he pulled the implement to his chest and jabbed it in with the st fragment of strength he had left.

  A low hiss followed by an explosion of torturous agony racked through his body. His flesh sizzled, his eyes burned, his bones creaked, everything twisted and ed as the object given to him by Liberty and created by that madmao work. He screamed, vulsing on the ground as bed and pulverized skin smoothed and cleared, knitting together. Bones set, wounds closed, and his body began to take on the general appearance of a living thing rather than the ied corpse he resembled moments before. It was only when the process was plete, a minute of agony that he would never fet, that he y there on the ground, breathing hard.

  He closed his eyes and focused on the space he had created around the camp. Miles upon miles of spatially ral terrain. Anything telep within it would be blocked and the user of the ability ‘reprimanded’, either by pain for the weaker powers or even having their ability disabled for the more powerful teleporters. Still there. Still w. Good. Gd it didn’t drop when I lost sciousness. He thought and forced himself to sit up. He turned his head towards the prone form of the boy that had nearly killed him. He may very well be the only person on this p I ’t hurt, he thought sourly. Bad match-up indeed.

  He got to his feet and started to walk, at first gingerly before his body moved with purpose. He came to a stop over the youth, eyes shut with a smile on his fad his chest rising and falling with steady breaths. His hands were maerribly and his wounds were still seeping blood, but he was still very much alive. Halloway narrowed his eyes, I ’t suffer you to live, Gravitic, you are my natural enemy. He thought and jured up another rift bde. The rippling edge pointed down.

  “I was getting bored of waiting for you to get up,” A new voice said behind him. Halloway’s entire body tensed and he brought the on up anyway, he wasn’t about to get distracted from his task, “I wouldn’t do that. I need him alive, if you don’t mind.”

  “Tough,” Hallway snarled and brought the rift bde down only for a hand to grab his wrist. He g it just in time for his eyes to bulge as he ulled away from Gravitid thrown several feet. His rift bde flying off to one side and digging a five foot divot in the ground before it exploded a a crater in its wake. He hit the ground and hopped back to his feet, creating another on as he stared down his new adversary, “I don’t have time for chil-”

  He paused as he met those glowing blue eyes. They weren’t the eyes of a child. Not a bright eyed aspirant. He felt his stomach a little as a cold smile curled on the boyish face of the youthful pretty-boy. A killer. One who does it for pleasure. Pure psychopath. He kept his guard up but lowered his hands, “Who are you?” He asked, “A vilin?”

  The boy blew out an obnoxious souween his lips and burst into ughter, “Me? No way, I’m the hero of this story,” He said and put a hand on his hip aed a glowing golden sword on his shoulder. He tilted his head up and looked down his Halloway. Arrogant. “And you work for that piece of work Liberty, right?”

  “I’d refrain from insulting her if I were you,” Halloway snarled.

  “Or what? You’ll kill me? That would be a rick,” The boy said and took a step before appearing in Hallway’s fabsp;

  Halloway froze, He teleported? No. He just- what? What just happened?

  The boy looked him up and down, “You got potential man, I like you, but you’re pretty hung up on that self aggrandizing bitch still, shame. Once she’s dead I’ll pick you up if you like,” He said with a grin, “What do you say?”

  Hallway snarled and whipped his hand out, edging his fingers with a rift and digging it into the young man’s side. He felt flesh give way and blood dribbled down the young man’s mouth. The boy blinked ond looked down at Halloways hand as if fused before looking up at him and grinning a bloody grin. “Nice! Real nice! Got through my skin! That’s impressive. You know,” He said as if he hadn’t just been stabbed, “I’ve been starting to think a lot more about how valuable some of you things are. Maybe some of you are actually people, with brains and shit. You know? powers too,” He said with a sagely nod as if he had the entire world figured out now. “People be useful. A good lesson. Miss ovna is so smart. That’s why I want to sign up with her.”

  He’s insane! Halloway thought as he pulled back, his fingers dripping with blood. He took a few steps away and watched with mute horror as the wound just started to close on its own, the young man not even blinking or eveing.

  “You haven’t answered me yet, man, Halloway right? Cool name. I like niames better though, you got one of those?” He said and lowered his on from his shoulder, waving it up and down with clear iion to use it.

  “What are you? A mythic?” Halloway demanded.

  The youth bli him and tilted his head, “Obviously,” He said with a snort, “Please don’t tell me you’re slow, that would be disappointing,” That st word, the way he said it, the iion… it sent a chill down Halloway’s spi felt, for just a moment, like the very specter of death was looming in front of him.

  “R-Rift, I go by Rift,” Halloway said quickly.

  “On the nose! Good stuff,” The youth said with a nod, “You may call me Otis, sider it an honor to know my name,” He said and the waving of his on eased a little. He searched Halloways fad pouted, “You’re not gonna even sider joining up till she’s dead, are you?” He let out a heavy sigh and shrugged, “Alright fine. I’ll make it happen if that’s what it takes.”

  Halloway squared his shoulder, “You may be powerful but-”

  “Bh bh bh, dialogue,” Otis waved his hand dismissively, “Go on with your little scheme or whatever you have pnned here, I couldn’t care less, it’s going to fail anyway,” He said with a shrug and slipped his hand into his pocket, he pulled out what looked like a thumb drive and tossed it to Halloway who caught it on instinct. “That’s for your boss. Maybe with it she actually aplish something meaningful instead of filing around like an idiot. It’s really annoying watg her,” He said with a sigh.

  Halloway had just about enough of this arrogant little-

  “I used my ability to divine a course of a she could take that would really hurt her enemies a what she wants. If she follows it, she might do well enough that I’ll resider what I have pnned for her,” Otis tinued, before looking Halloway dead in the eyes, “My sword cut through anything, Rift, and I like taking my time with things that annoy me.”

  With that, Otis seemed to decide the versation was over. He turned away to walk over to Gravitid k o him, holding his hand over his chest. Halloway wasn’t dohough. If he could just get one quick blow in at the neck he could separate-

  “My head will reattach,” Otis said as he tilted his neck forward, “row a new body, not sure, but it will,” He said, “You’re starting to annoy me, Rift. Run.”

  “I could just tell her about you, about what you look like. She could tell the world what kind of monster you really are,” Halloointed out as he backed up, gng around for the perfect route away from this pce.

  “No you won’t,” Otis said and gnced baile at him, “Once you leave, you’ll barely remember me. I’ve decreed it so.”

  Fug lunatic! Halloway thought and darted away, rag towards the trees before leaping into the foliage. He stopped there, watg from afar as Otis did something to Gravitic that caused his hated eo twitd writhe before pig him up and throwing him over his shoulder. He walked over to the portal into the dungeon and without looking back, walked on through. Halloway watched the disappearing form of Otis and frowned. Like I’d fet someone like you. He thought and hopped down to the ground, approag the portal and holding his hand out.

  Yoing to die in there, just like the rest. Now that I’ve opened more pathways for mana to get into the dungeon, it’ll overload any time now and this entire region will be a wastend. He thought before fog on the portal itself, ing a wreath of crag red lightning around it to seal his enemies inside.

  He turned away and gnced down at his shaking fingers. Gravitic had done a number on him. A worthy adversary. A nemesis even. A small part of him was sad that he had to die so ignobly inside of a breaking dungeon, but that was the way of things. He would rather be rid of such a dangerous oppoha him live out his life. He marched towards the edge of the trees. I o get back to the main camp and gather up the others, the damage has been do would be best if we weren’t present when the dungeo critical, He thought with a wry smile and stepped into the trees.

  He slipped his hands into his pockets a out a sigh before blinking as his fingers ed around somethiallic. He pulled it out and examihe thumb drive that had appeared there in fusion. Huh? What’s this? He thought for a moment. Odd. I don’t remember. He blinked again. I’m supposed to give it to Liberty, it will be useful to her, right, right. He reassured himself as he tried to remember where he’d gotten it from. His stomach ed and he scratched at his neck, “Who was it again?”

  –

  Otis stepped through the portal and dropped Greg on the ground. He didn’t o carry him anymore. He gnced over his shoulder and watched as the portal was wreathed with red lightning, blog his return. He could cut through it but there was no reason to do so. This is where he o be, after all. He gnced down at the healed aspirant and nudged him oh his foot. Not waking. Whatever he did burhrough a lot of his internal energy. I see it. He’ll recover quickly ihough, no worries, he’ll see me as his savior, that’ll be good enough.

  Otis sed his surroundings. The forest was thick ahead of him with a sih leading out of the clearing. The space had an odd headio it, as if a powerful presence had been here at one point but he couldn’t put his finger on it. The guide told him nothiher. How strange, he thought with mild amusement before tilting his head to listen. Something exploded and shook the distant trees. Ah, there we go. He snickered and turned back t, nudging him again as the sounds of distant fighting filled the air.

  The young hero-in-training groaned and his eyes fluttered open, squinting before log on Otis.

  “Marc? Where-”

  “Got you away from that psycho out there, he was about to kill you,” Otis said and held out a hand for him to take. He pulled Greg to his feet, “You’re lucky I got there when I did but you sure did a number on him. He was half-dead before he used some odd metal thing to heal himself.”

  Greg blinked, “I-I did? You did? I-” He blinked and looked down at his hands, “My hands.”

  “I fixed you up, riine,” Otis said with a shrug, “Got a whole bag of ‘em.”

  Greg let out a sigh of relief, “Thank you, Marc. You’re alright.”

  “Thank me when we save the others, we’re stu here,” Otis said, keeping up the ad owards the portal before turning to the trees. “Ready to go save the day?”

  Greg gri him, “I was born ready.”