A tide of black, brown and dark gray fur rushed at them, kicking up an even thicker cloud of debris and dust that quickly obscured the rest of the battlefield, and size of the den, from view.

  “In formation!” Kur shouted. “Don’t let them push us over the edge!”

  “Don’t expect they will swoop down and catch us, uh?” Tuk said, glancing downwards.

  Nar, clenching his jaw, also considered the miles and miles of wall beneath them, and then the floor of the Labyrinth, far, far below.

  “For now, we just need to survive that first wave!” Kur shouted. “Then we need to push them back to make space for the beetles to land!”

  Nar held his sword and stepped forward, standing next to Jul. He jumped gingerly next to her, loosening his muscles and inhaling deeply.

  Hopefully this will do as a warm up, he thought, shaking his arms, and breathing in and out, he was grateful for his helmet’s capabilities in keeping out all of that shimmering dust from entering his lungs.

  Now that he stood there, finally facing that dreaded assessment, he felt a warm emptiness spread over his mind. He was there to fight, with no option of doing otherwise, and he might as well get the job done right, earn his gains and get it over with.

  At his side, and behind them, the others got into position. Gad stepped slightly forward, and Nar followed her example, standing beside Jul. He would stand and hold the line until Kur commanded him otherwise, or he saw the need to do something else.

  His [Sight] kicked in, and at long last, he saw what they were up against. Their fur came in various shades of brown, black and dark gray, and even from where he stood, Nar could tell that it was going to be rough and thick, acting almost like an armor of sorts for the beasts.

  “Psaelis,” Jul whispered. That’s what the COO had called them.

  The psaelis were built limber, and they reached up to Nar’s chest at the tallest, though mostly they didn’t grow much beyond his stomach. The beasts looked as though someone had chopped two different beasts in half and joined them together. Their bottom half was darker in fur, and ended in quick galloping hooves, while at their top, the fur was less dense and a touch lighter as well, sporting skinny arms that ended in sharp four clawed hands. And as they stamped towards the apprentices, their open mouths salivated a gray foam, their sharp teeth flashing in the dull light.

  “I don’t like the look of those teeth,” Nar warned the others. “I think they might be made out of metal.”

  “Lovely,” Viy said.

  “Their eye is worse,” Jul said, her tone uncertain. “I don’t know why… But I’ve got a bad feeling about it.”

  Nar focused on their faces. As Jul had said, the psaelis only had one, huge, malevolent looking eye in the center of their faces, above their pointy snouts. Unlike her, he didn’t sense anything about the disturbing eyes, but he didn’t doubt her.

  “Alright, listen up!” Kur shouted. “We need to clear up a landing zone, so that’s what we’re going to do. Cen, charge up! You’re going to be our main DPS for now. Let’s see how they react to your [Aura Projectiles].”

  “Got it!” Cen said, and immediately, light shone from the tip of her staff.

  As part of her post-Ceremony gains, her two skills, [Aura Projectile] and [Multi-Aura Projectiles] had merged into a single, upgraded skill called [Aura Projectiles]. And out of the corner of his eye, Nar counted her new limit of 5 projectiles springing into being around the tip of her staff, charging.

  “Tuk and Rel, for now, focus on not allowing them to surround us,” Kur said, scanning the approaching growling and snarling mass, which now seemed hesitant to approach them, as more wasps blasted overheard, guns blazing and carving lines of death through their masses.

  “Will do!” Tuk said.

  “On it,” Rel added.

  They were less than 100-feet away now, and Nar lowered himself into stance, wondering how long he would be able to even remember it, and cycled aura through his body. It wasn’t perfect. Not yet, and the others were in similar states of incomplete combat cycling states, but it would have to do for this challenge.

  “The rest of you, hold the line,” Kur said. “And be ready to push forward.”

  Aura powered strength filled Nar’s body, blazing through his pathways, but Nar didn’t have time to marvel at the feeling as he normally did.

  “Here they come!” Kur shouted.

  Nar clenched his jaw, and poured his aura into his blade, using up half of his [Mastery]’s allotment of aura. Then, not waiting for the approaching psaelis to smash into him, he stepped forward, his sword leaving a dazzling trail of gray, and slashed horizontally.

  His blade sliced clean through three bodies, then he was inside the chaos. He grabbed the sword with both hands and slashed and cut with abandon.

  Sometimes a psaelis would catch his sword with its teeth, a sickly yellow glow radiating from them, and sparks and hisses would erupt where his aura and their aether connected, fighting for dominance. But he would quickly pour more aura into the blade and push harder, slicing the top of their heads clean through, and splattering green gore across himself and the beasts’ companions.

  Why’s it not exploding? Nar wondered in the midst of chaos. Wasn’t that the whole thing with aura versus aether?

  However, he didn’t have time to ponder over it, and allowed himself to be subsumed into the frantic rhythm of battle. At his side, Jul fought like darkness incarnate. Her daggers trailed dark smoke behind her, and wherever she cut, flesh and fur darkened ever so slightly.

  Is that a debuff? Nar wondered. According to Jul, she hadn’t unlocked any new skills yet, however, Nar wondered if her affinity was in itself debilitating simply by its nature.

  At the corner of his eye, he spotted Viy’s spear, gleaming in dark purple-blue, darting forwards and backwards, smashing into hands and piercing chests, while from his left side, he could hear Tuk’s rings darting in and out of the dust, dropping psaelis in sprays of green ichor. And above his head, Cen’s [Aura Projectiles] sailed above the battlefield and disappeared in the dust clouds.

  The combined shock wave reached him a few seconds later, kicking dust into his helmeted eyes and pushing psaelis forward into his hungry blade.

  “I can’t see what that did!” Cen warned.

  However, Nar felt it. There had been a distinct and sudden falter in the psaelis charge, though it had only latest a few seconds.

  “Keep going! Gad said. “That hurt them!”

  “Do it!” Kur told the caster.

  “Okay!”

  For the moment, everything seemed to be well in hand, and Nar focused back on cutting through anything that appeared from within the now dense, blinding dust. In a way, it was like fighting in the dark, back in the Climb, except his visibility was somehow even more impaired.

  Where did these clouds even come from? He wondered, as he cut down another psaelis as it jumped at him, snarling from the dust.

  “It’s getting hard to see!” Rel shouted.

  “Cen, aim a little bit closer this time around!” Kur told Cen. “Try to clear this up a bit!”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  This time, Cen charged a singular, bigger and brighter ball of light, and it shot up above Nar’s head, not as high as the previous skills, and the cloud blew in his face even denser and angrier when Cen's aura exploded.

  Thank the Crystal for this helmet, Nar thought, as he was able to keep his eyes wide open, even as dust scratched and clamored against his armor. And suddenly, light shone through again. The air wasn’t entirely clear, but it was possible to see within a hundred feet or so once more.

  Nar felt the tell-tale weight of an aethership passing overhead, and a wasp came to a halt over the spot that Cen had just cleared.

  “Forward!” Kur shouted, as a party of apprentices jumped down from the ship. “Let’s join up with them!”

  They ran forward, cutting through beasts and tripping on their corpses. The sound of their snarling and squealing was deafening, and Nar shook his head to keep himself focused when a particularly loud screech left him reeling.

  “Be-Besides them!” Kur shouted, shaking his head. “Tuk watch… Watch our backs!”

  What in the Pile was that? Nar thought, scanning the dust up ahead. There had been something about that screech, and it had tugged at his memory…

  “Nar!” Kur shouted.

  “Sorry!” Nar said, leaping to re-join the formation.

  At their side, the other party maneuvered themselves to join them, and the two parties stood together as the psaelis charged forward once more.

  This time, Tuk was kept busy keeping their back and sides clear, though there weren’t enough psaelis coming from behind to require Rel’s help just yet. And the other party also had a caster, an altei, amidst their ranks, and together with Cen, they widened the clearing around them.

  At some point, finding nothing else to fight within reach, Nar lowered his sword and stretched his back. More parties had joined them in the meantime, and Scimitar’s vanguard had formed a widening wedge to keep the center clear. Just then, a loud drumming burst into the shimmering dust cloud, and the weight of a massive shadow fell upon them.

  “It’s a beetle!” Tuk shouted.

  Nar grinned under his shifting gray helmet. The massive ship sprouted four flat feet from its underside, and came down with a gentleness that belied its size. Its doors were already open, and a stream of apprentices rushed forward from the belly of the ship.

  “Good job, vanguard!” the COO’s voice came from the aethership. “The beetles are landing! Now form up a line, and hold them back!”

  Nar raised his sword in the air and added his shout to the roar of the victorious vanguard apprentices.

  “Oh! And stay out of the way of the aethermancer apprentices! We don’t want any accidents!” the COO warned. “COO, out!”

  “Good on them for finally joining us!” Mul shouted.

  “Zip it!” Kur warned him. “Let’s gather up. We’re forming the line!”

  “That stuff about the aether…” Nar said, uncertain.

  “I noticed it too!” Viy shouted. “It’s not reacting like they told us! Unless these are aura beasts?”

  “I doubt it!” Kur said. “For now, let’s just keep fighting. We can figure it out aft…”

  Nar’s steps faltered, and the battlefield shifted sideways, tilting from under him.

  What the…

  The chaos of battle vanished for a split-second, as though he had blinked and shut both his eyes and ears. His [Instinct], which had only been lazily paying attention to the fight up to this point, now stood at attention, and Nar gripped his sword tightly, scanning the dust in front of him as the sensation faded.

  He felt something pass over him again, a feeling, a sensation, a brush of claws at the back of his neck… Whatever that was, its effects were less pronounced this time.

  “Viy?” Kur shouted.

  Nar glanced backwards, and noticed that he had walked ahead of the others. The spear woman was down, breathing hard and contorting on the floor as she held onto her helmet, her spear forgotten at her side.

  “What happened?” Cen asked.

  “I don’t know, she just dropped!” Kur said, kneeling at her side. “Something’s happening to her!”

  “It’s them!” Jul shouted. “They’re doing something to… Ugh!”

  Another wave passed through Nar, though this time he barely felt it.

  “Jul!” he shouted, running back.

  The quam was down to one knee, holding a hand to the side of her helmet.

  “Jul?” he shouted again.

  However, his [Instinct] flared, and Nar was forced to dodge and turn around to block the psaelis that had surprised him from the dust. He didn’t have time to cycle his aura into his body and sword this time, and the psaelis stopped his blow with its yellow teeth.

  Shit…

  With a burst of aura that brushed against his [Mastery] limitations, Nar cycled through his pathways and into his sword, and the blade flared out of control, consuming the beast’s face in an angry aura. Without a moment's break to bring his raging sword back under control, down from his [Mastery] limitations, Nar faced the incoming horde.

  “Hold on!” Kur shouted from behind him, dragging Jul back into the safety of their center. “The whole line is failing!”

  “Are you alright?” Nar shouted back at him, hearing the strain in Kur’s voice.

  “I-I don’t know…” Kur said. “It’s in my head. It’s talking to me… Calling me to lay down and let it eat me…”

  “Crystal Almighty!” Tuk shouted, horrified. “What the fuck is happening!”

  “It’s a mental, or psychic attack… It has to be,” Kur mumbled, before he too fell to his knees, holding his head with both hands.

  “Who’s down?” Nar asked, closing their ranks even further by stepping closer to Gad.

  “Kur, Viy and Jul!” Cen shouted. “I think something’s attacking our minds!”

  “Our… You mean our heads?” Mul asked. “How?”

  “It's a type of damage, like Kur said!” she explained. “We learned about it in aura class, mental and psychological damage or debuffs hurt and affect the mind directly! Most times, you can’t even see it!”

  “Crystal…” Nar said, scanning the line around them.

  The other parties were indeed also straining under whatever invisible attack was being hurled at them, and the line was being pushed back, towards the still offloading beetle. And as he glanced backwards, he saw another one coming down besides the first.

  “We won’t hold on for much longer!” Nar shouted. “We need to find out where these attacks are coming from, or they’re going to reach the ships! Gad? Gad!”

  “I-I’m here!” she grunted, shaking her head, even as she caved in a psaelis head with her green gory mace.

  “Is it hitting you too?” Nar asked.

  “I’m fine!” she said. “Trust me! I… I’ll hold on. You do what you have to… Take over…”

  Damnit! He thought.

  “Alright, alright!” Nar told the others. “We can’t see shit in this thing. Cen, can you try and clear up the air again?”

  “Will I hit someone?” she asked.

  “Everyone should still be by the line!” Nar said. “It’s a risk we’ll need to take before they overrun us! I can sense more beetles circling above us, but there’s not enough space for them to land! We need to make it for them!”

  “On it!” Cen said, charging up her skill once more, this time into its multi-projectile form.

  “Rel, help us at the front!” Nar shouted. “Tuk, just keep an eye around us, and give a hand to the parties nearby if they need it!”

  “On it, boss!” the trugger said, grinning.

  “Ugh!” Nar grimaced. The sound of that did not appeal to him the least.

  He turned back to the fighting. His sword was still snapping and snarling angrily as he cycled at the limits of what his [Mastery] now allowed him, and Nar yearned for the days of unlimited aura usage from his Climb. But he pushed the thought away as he pulled back on the amount of aura snarling into his blade. It was time to take charge, and lean into the tanking side of his hybrid path, and he quickly launched into a series of shallow attacks, spreading the aggro from his [Threatening Hits] passive skill.

  Around and behind him, the ones unaffected by the mental assault, dished out their damage, gray and colorful aura cutting into the dust and snarling fur that surrounded them, but Mul and Jul still had to fight at the frontlines. Gad managed to keep Mul somewhat safe, but Nar grit his teeth as Jul's HP bar dipped from his side. As the Master of Blades had warned him, he was not a full tank, and self-tanking, rather than protecting others, was the tanking side of his hybrid path. Without full taunting capabilities, all he could achieve was to slash and stab at the enemies that he could reach, those aiming to flank Jul, who was still suffering from that mental attack, and get around her daggers, even as he kept himself somewhat safe from all the ones he passively taunted to him.

  I’m going to need to get a whole lot better than this, he growled to himself, but hopefully, unlocking that ranged skill in the future would help tremendously with that.

  Nearly a full minute later, five projectiles of aura sailed over his head. Another, bigger and brighter one, followed them from the party to their left side a split-second later, and the shock waves blasted against Nar’s chest as the dust was blown away, revealing mounds of dead psaelis.

  In their midst, stood a single, much taller, lighter furred beast. Its yellow eye shone through the dust, and looking at it, Nar felt something pressing in from the edges of his mind.

  “There!” he shouted. “It’s that one!”

  Rel loosened a red arrow at the beast, but it seemed to snigger at the archer and dodged it with ease.

  “It’s too far!” Rel shouted, even as she loosened another arrow.

  “Damn it!” Nar said, his sword just a blur in his hands.

  The dust threatened to close in again on their elusive enemy, hiding it again and allowing it to continue attacking the apprentice line who was still struggling to form up under the combined mental and physical assault.

  “Go get it!” Gad shouted.

  “What? But the party!”

  “I’m still here!” Gad grunted. “And I’m better now that it’s gone! Go! Now, before it hits us again!”

  Nar didn’t wait to be told twice. This was his role right there, shifting seamlessly from defense to offense, and he leaped, alone, into the dust.