“Oh, this is really good,” I said, reading the new skill’s description.

  NAME: Ironburst

  TYPE: Active / Area Attack

  DESCRIPTION: Slam the ground to summon a burst of steelhusk spears, impaling up to 15 enemies within range. Can focus all strikes on a single target, or divide strikes among multiple foes.

  Mana cost: 40

  "Worth the pain, wasn't it?" Roq said smugly. "A little suffering for a lot of power. Say you would do it again. I dare you!"

  “We'll have to see it in action first, buddy, but yes, I would do it again. I promise as long as this can help save us.”

  Though internally I couldn't help but feel a thrill of anticipation. If Roq could truly guide the skills I received, without having to stop my heart every time, the possibilities were fantastic. Even if it could just gently nudge the skills in a certain direction…

  I headed for the wall right next to the gate, grabbing a rope ladder since all the elevators were at the top, hauling myself up at super-human speed.

  Ming stood at the top surrounded by Alex and six guards which were frantically loosing arrows and jabbing spears at monsters trying to scale the walls.

  "Where in the thundering cloud have you been, Ash?” Ming demanded.

  "I had an idea," I said, catching my breath. “Just trust me for once.”

  "Is your idea about helping Edwin?" Ming asked.

  I looked down over the wall and my stomach dropped. Edwin was barely holding. His flaming sword cut wide arcs through the smaller creatures, but he was clearly struggling to keep going.

  “Alex, Isaac, and I are supporting him, but there’s too many for him to keep up any longer. The monsters are spending their lives like water to quench a fire, just to keep him from the siege monster,” Ming hissed, frustration evident in her voice. “And my spells barely affect it. The plating it has just channels my spells into the ground."

  "My idea is about stopping the siege monster," I said. "If it's anything like the Ironroot Golems, we need to get through the plating and damage its insides or that thing is coming through and we’re dead anyway.”

  “You’ve got your hammer,” Alex said. “But how exactly are you going to damage its insides? Its colossal.”

  I touched my wrist. "I've got a glowcap carcass with the siege monster's name on it. Just need to figure out the best way to use it."

  "Good luck," Alex said, turning his focus back on Edwin. “I can’t keep you both alive, Ash. I’m sorry.”

  Ming looked at him in surprise.

  "You're not going to talk him out of it?"

  Alex shook his head.

  "We need to do something about that siege monster. If Ash has an idea, let him try, but he’ll have to risk his life to do it. Today is the day to do or die, Ming."

  “Get me a fire starter,” I called to one of the guards and he ran over with the same device they’d used to light fire arrows, pressing it into my palm.

  "Roq. Is the Hive Mind controlling the siege monster?"

  "No," Roq replied. "It just wants to prove its strength by destroying the gate. It is as single minded as Knut when he spots beer. But there is a group of flyers heading straight for us."

  "Ming," I said, moving to the edge of the wall where it met the gate, storing my shield. “We’ve got flyers incoming. Try to help me out here.”The siege monster was right below the wall, and even then, I could almost touch it.The top of its back was only a few feet below the wall, its four legs rooted to the ground as it leaned back, preparing to ram the gate again.

  "Can we use Armor Break?"

  "No," Roq said with a hint of disappointment. “It sure would be nice to see it crack.”

  “Monster Muck.”

  I took a deep breath, bracing myself as Ming's chain lightning crackled through the sky, passing between the Riftwings. The siege monster struck the gate and slowly started retreating again. I took a deep breath and leapt.

  "WOOHOO!" Roq whooped in delight. “Again! Let’s do it again!”

  The jump only seemed to last for a heartbeat before I landed on its neck. It was as wide as the trunk of a hundred-year-old steelhusk, the surface a complex latticework of wood layered above armor-like plates of bark. At least it was easy to get a good grip.

  I hurried forward, scrambling up onto its body. The surface beneath me felt like a living and moving fortress. It was rigid yet somehow organic, with the bark plates shifting slightly with each movement. I struggled to maintain my balance even though my boots had traction on the mesh mesh of wood, and my gloves managed to get between the plates so I could hold on.

  "What's the plan? Call it names until you hurt its feelings and make it run away?"

  "No, you fool. Look, you keep telling me how monsters taste. Use that crazy brain of yours to find me a way to kill this thing!”

  I hammered the monster's back with rapid strikes, not going for power but speed so I could stack a few debuffs.

  "Find me a weak spot!"

  "Hmm," Roq mused. "It's like asking me to know a strawberry pie, but you only let me lick the crust before answering. I need more... contact. Keep hammering, oh Hammer Lord!"

  Stagger triggered, and the monster's movements slowed suddenly. That meant its defences were reduced, too.

  “Fine! Here goes!”

  I raised Roq and hit as hard as I could, but he just bounced back, the strike reverberating up and into my arm, the monster’s plating holding firm.

  "So far, no weak spots," Roq admitted. "I'm used to us making our own weak spots. This is rather…disappointing."

  “Would the new skill work?”

  "The spears won't hit high enough," Roq said. "They come from the ground, not from the spot that you strike.”

  I hit the monster again, and suddenly Roq's voice brightened.

  "Wait! The resonance! The crust is talking to me. There's space inside the plates! Just make a hole in the plate, drop the glowcap in, and blow it up! Easy as pie!”

  “Sure, smartass! What do you think I’ve been trying to do?"

  “You asked for a plan, and this is me giving you a plan.”

  "Will Smash get through?"

  "Worth a shot? We can try and be disappointed afterward.”

  I activated Smash, channeling mana into Roq, and slammed him down hard.

  The armor held. Something inside made the plates extremely resistant to blunt damage.

  "Well, it was worth a try," Roq sighed. "If only you had my armor break ability."

  "Yes, I know, you're awesome when you work," I growled. “But right now you don't, so use that brain of yours and find me a way in."

  “Strike some more. Make the plates sing for me," Roq requested.

  I continued hitting the siege monster as it prepared to strike once more, each blow sending jarring impacts up my arms.

  “Oh, there it is!" Roq suddenly said. “The forks in the crust!"

  "What in the rotten rift are you talking about?"

  "There are ballista bolts stuck in its chest," Roq clarified. "Underneath. They've weakened the armor!"

  "Underneath?"

  "Yes, underneath!”

  "Cracked steel! Do you want me to get eaten or something?”

  I hung Roq from my belt and moved to the edge of the monster’s shoulder-like growth. I had no idea what it even was, as most of what made up the monster’s body was just an amalgamation of monster parts. I kneltand grabbed onto the branches, climbing down its side, and using the thicker branches as hand and foot holds.

  The monster struck the gate once more, and a sickening crack resounded from behind me. the impact sent me swinging wildly, but my grip held. The gate fared less well and I could only imagine we had a few more minutes at best. Steelhusk was extremely strong, but so was this monster’s head.

  Below me, the ground crawled with monsters. As I reached the belly of the beast, my legs hanging down, a Shimmerscale leaped upward, its scythe-like limb carving through my armor and cutting a long gash in my leg.

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  “You really didn’t think this through, did you?" Roq observed not so helpfully. “Maybe we should have a strategy session next time. See if we can come up with a better approach?

  I stayed quiet, not wanting to waste a breath on his stupid jabs. The air suddenly hummed, and I looked to see the monsters shaking, sparks running between them.

  Ming had cast a lightning field on the ground, buying me precious seconds.

  "Hurry!" she called from above. “It’s not going to last long!”

  Warm wetness ran into my boot as I climbed hand over hand toward the nearest ballista bolt protruding from the monster's chest. Once there, I hung from one arm, grabbed Roq with the other, and struck right where the bolt had pierced the armor. On the second strike the armor buckled and the bolt slid out. I hammered again, and chunks of armor fell away, widening the hole until it was larger than my fist.

  Purple light spilled from inside, reminding me of the red veins I'd seen inside the Ironroot Golems. And just as Roq had said, there was space inside the armor. Or more accurately, there was plenty of space between the mass of branches running from the plates and inwards. It was as if the bark-like plating was the canopy at the end of branches.

  “So that’s what stopped my awesomeness from breaking through. A natural shock absorber. Rude but effective. We need to replicate this with your armor. Tell Pa to stick you full of thick branches and--oh, wait, that won’t work. You’re as dense as dirt.”

  Acutely aware of the seconds Ming had bought me, I hung Roq back on my belt and put one hand into the opening, totally ignoring him yet again. With the other hand I touched my spatial tattoo and willed the Glowcap to appear inside, but nothing happened. There wasn't enough space. I tried further in—still no luck. Then I tried to the side of the opening, towards the second ballista bolt protruding from the chest, and suddenly the carcass left my storage.

  Thank the bells.

  "Die, you bastard!" I yelled, in case the Hive Mind was listening, and took the fire starter, lit it, and shoved it into the hole just as I let go and pushed off with all my power.

  My stomach lurched as I dropped and a blastwave hit me as the juggernaut golem exploded, slamming me into the wall with bone-jarring force. Metallic bark pinged off my helmet as I fell, and a piece embedded itself in my left shoulder, just between the shoulder guard and armor.

  Monster balls!

  I fell back to the ground at a bad angle, and a crack resounded from my left leg. Another second later, and electricity from Ming’s spell shot up through my body, locking my muscles in agony. I spasmed, my body shaking on its own as if I was being manhandled by a giant gorilla. I struck my head several times and finally landed on the ground. The gate came into view as my vision focused.

  It was still standing, though the top half was bent inward, and cracks ran down the right side. Or was it the left? I couldn’t quite tell as I had no idea what was where.

  "Get up!" Roq urged. "The siege monster is toppling toward you. It's not dead!"

  “I can't move! Electricity!”

  "Suck it up and get moving, or die!" Roq said. "The cloak cocoon is on cooldown, so it won't save you now!"

  Then the lightning field disappeared, running out of time. Mybody hurt so badly that I just wanted to curl up and lay there, but I couldn’t. Even if the giant was done for, there were still hundreds of smaller monsters.

  Steel scuttlers, rotfangs, and shardfangs rushed me as one. I grabbed Roq from my belt, pushing myself into a half kneeling position.

  "Time to test this bad boy.”

  I activated Ironburst, my new skill, and felt a great tug at my mana. Power ripped through me, originating from the well in my chest and blasting down my arm, flooding into Roq.

  The hammer’s head hit the dirt and the energy released.

  A low thrum vibrated up my back from the ground, before fifteen steelhusk spears, each about five or six feet long, burst from the ground, each one appearing beneath a monster.

  The spears weren’t clean or forged, but rather brutally organic, like branches ripped from a steelhusk tree and filed to a sharp point. They shot up in the blink of an eye, a forest of impalement blooming around me in an instant, saving me from immediate death and serving as a makeshift wall. At least for the time being.

  One took a Shardfang through the throat mid-lunge, the monster’s momentum ripping the wound wide before it slid down the spear, dead. A Steel Scuttler was sent tumbling through the air, bouncing off the spear's point. Several Rotfangs had their undersides punctured, collapsing to crawl uselessly on the ground.

  While some monsters were merely wounded, spears tearing through limbs or non-vitals, others were struck through the head or chest, bodies going still in immediate death.

  It was brutal, messy, and delightfully effective.

  "Blood and breakage! Again! Do it again! Oh, wait, you can’t, but we need to do this again! I love it! It’s like drinking a cocktail of mixed milks and pies!"

  I wondered if it had been a lucky hit, but no, this wasn’t luck. This was power. For the first time, I felt distance open up between me and these lesser monsters, not because of Roq, but because of my own abilities. Sure, it was his guidance that got me this power, but it had been my hard work and perseverance that got me there.

  And while this had bought me a moment, I was now out of mana, and the number of monsters would still bury me unless I did something.

  I pushed myself up on my one good leg, my left refusing to work. Something was clearly wrong with my knee, but I didn’t know what.

  More monsters charged toward me, but arrows and spells ripped into them from the walls. A wooden elevator dropped to the side of the gate where Alex and Ming stood, and they screamed for me to move.

  I hopped one step forward, swiping out my shield, but I couldn't put any weight on my left leg. Suddenly, a piece of my cloak elongated, stretching out to wrap around my leg, from thigh to foot, going rigid, and forcing the leg to stand straight.

  I screamed at the pain and fell sideways, but to my surprise, my wounded leg caught me, now moving as if it were normal, though it hurt like crazy and seemed to have a mind of its own.

  Not wanting to question my good luck, I limped toward the wooden elevator.

  "Get to the siege monster and finish it!" Roq demanded.

  "No.”

  A Rotfang lunged for me. I hit it with Roq, killing it instantly, but another was right behind it, its claws cutting at my neck. My armor held, and I pushed it away with my shield.

  "Look at the siege monster!" Roq insisted. “How succulent it looks! Do it! Or I’ll never forgive you!”

  I glanced over, seeing a wound wide enough to walk through where I had thrown in the glowcap. Inside, hanging by a few remaining branches, was a glowing purple globe.

  “We simply MUST destroy it,” Roq said excitedly. “The power! Just imagine how much gems worth of experience you will get! And the fame! Don’t you want it?”

  “It’d be suicide," I replied, pushing for the elevator, knocking away a Shardfang.

  “Fine. But, I have an idea," Roq said. "Store me and then bring me back out in the middle of a strike. I'll try activating Forge Anchor. It might work, but you MUST store me immediately after."

  “But—"

  "Trust me and just do it!"

  Suddenly, a golden globe of light surrounded me, and a Bonepicker's claw slid harmlessly off it.

  A protection buff from Alex. I made a note to treat the man to a good meal later on as a thank you.

  I limped toward the elevator and was about to hop on, but hesitated. Might as well try to do what Roq had proposed. It wasn’t something I’d admit every day, but I needed power. Now more than ever. I decided to risk it.

  I swiped him in and out of my spatial storage while throwing myself at the elevator, and immediately struck the ground as I landed on the planks and on top of my shield.

  "Forge Anchor!”

  I mentally targeted the siege monster, or rather the spot he’d indicated. Roq screamed in pain in my head, his voice warping unnaturally, but I felt his ability activate, and Steelhusk roots pushed up just in front of the siege monster, crawling along its armored bark and feeling their way around.

  The elevator started rising with me laying inside, and I watched as several tendrils found their way into the gaping hole I'd blown in the siege monster. I held my breath, hissing and cursing at my bad luck. But then, one of the tendrils pierced the purple globe even as Roq continued screaming.

  A loud moan, like the world’s largest cow taking a painful dump, erupted from the siege monster, and I jerked in surprise on plank.

  The purple light just faded, and an energy I'd only felt once before in the Glowroot Caverns, rushed through me.

  “I just leveled up again!” I said in surprise as I swiped Roq back into my spatial storage, cutting off his screams.

  Strong hands grasped me as the elevator reached the top of the palisade, hauling me over the wall and unceremoniously dropping me to the walkway.

  As the breath whooshed from my lungs, relief flooded me, a dizzying wave that would have me chuckle, if my chest wasn’t heaving so much, and my limbs trembling.

  I was alive.

  I’d actually done it.

  For a moment, the roar of battle seemed to fade, only to be replaced by the pounding of my own heart in my ears.The rest was cut short by a voice, smooth and laced with ice.

  “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the fake hero sprawled out like he’s sunbathing.”

  My head snapped up and I swiped Roq from the storage on reflex.

  Benedict.

  Of course it was bloody Benedict.

  The frost mage stood a few feet away, leaning against the steelhusk battlement with an almost theatrical air of nonchalance. He casually flicked his staff, sending off an Ice Bolt.

  “Riftrot and deserter’s balls,” Roq snarled, “I thought it was eating and regurgitating the siege monster that had me feeling sick and bloated. This is even worse. Hurry up! Hit him and say it was an accident!”

  Benedict turned towards a woman that stood nearby. She was undeniably striking, but in the way a poisonous snake was beautiful. Silver hair sat coiled elaborately atop her head, completely out of place out here on the frontier. It framed a face of sharp angles and a pair of glacial eyes. Her lips were painted a deep crimson and her pale skin looked as if it hadn’t seen the sun for decades. Most likely it hadn’t, as her black gown was so high-necked she couldn’t have seen her toes.

  Behind her stood two men clad head-to-toe in plate armor, and of high quality to boot. Their faces were hidden behind visors. A lean archer, loosing arrows with surprising grace, rounded out the entourage.

  “Honestly, Serona,” Benedict drawled, gesturing towards the chaos below with a dismissive wave of his hand, “One would think Commander Edwin could handle a simple siege, but alas, no. Commoners always need us to clean up their mess, do they not?”

  The silver-haired woman, Serona, scoffed, her voice haught.

  “Indeed, Benedict. It is always so with the…common stock. They are enthusiastic, I grant them that, but ultimately… they are inefficient and fall short.”

  Her gaze flickered over to me for a split second dismissive and utterly uninterested, before returning to Benedict.

  Ming snapped at her.

  “Inefficient?!” she spat, stepping forward and raising a sparking finger towards the woman. “Listen up, frostwhite. Either start helping or get lost! We’re busy slaying monsters!”

  “Ash! Problem!”

  Serena looked down her nose at Ming.

  “What is it?” I asked Roq.

  “The Hive Mind is pissed. Like, royally pissed. Just heard it screaming in my head. Told all the flyers to come kill us. All of them.”

  My blood ran cold.

  “Take cover!” I yelled, pushing myself up, ignoring the white-hot lance of pain that shot up my leg. “Flying monsters incoming! Now! Ming! Get down!”

  Serona sighed dramatically, a theatrical sound that grated on my nerves even in the midst of the chaos.

  “Very well. If it will shut you up, I will show you enthusiastic types what true power looks like.”

  With a flourish that would have been comical if not for the deadly seriousness of the situation, she drew a slender, intricately carved wand from within the folds of her gown as aseries of high-pitched shrieks and the flapping of wings filled the air.

  Serona raised her wand in the monsters’ direction and cast a spell.

  “Wind Shear!” she said, and a deafening roar ripped through the air above us. An arc of wind sliced through the sky like a sharp blade, carving a swathe through the approaching Riftwings. Those caught head on simply disintegrated into puffs of gore, while others rained down on the battlement, with many missing pieces.

  “Show-off pretty bird,” Roq grumbled, though even he sounded grudgingly impressed. “Waste of mana. Could have just smashed them. Hmm, I take my word back. Smash her instead!”

  Ming stood, biting her lip under Serona’s mocking gaze.

  “Exquisite,” Benedict said. “Let us bring Edwin back as well. It would be awfully droll having to replace him. Can’t hold on to an old grudge, after all, as we are far above that kind of petty.”

  He raised his staff and cast a spell, making his wall of ice erupt from the ground below Edwin, lifting him above the monsters. The wall was angled towards the wall, and Edwin didn’t waste a moment in running and climbing along it toward the wall. Guards threw down a rope ladder as he hurried away from the monster tide, and hurriedly grabbed on just before they hauled it back up. Serona, meanwhile, pointed her wand again, this time towards larger flying monsters heading for us.

  “Gust Lance!” she said, and two concentrated spears of what I assumed was compressed air, invisible missiles of pure force, shot from her wand. I only figured that was the spell from the impact they had on the larger flyers, as something pierced their bodies and sent them plummeting to the ground.

  Two more spells, and dead fliers littered the ground and walkway around us.

  Serona lowered her wand, a smug smile playing on her lips.

  “Benedict, you stay here and ensure this camp survives. I have more pressing matters.”

  With that, she turned and strode towards one of the elevators, her two armored guards and the archer falling into step behind her.

  I stared after her, dumbfounded.

  “Who the hell was that?” I asked Benedict, my voice still rough.

  Benedict smirked, a knowing look in his eyes.

  “That, Ash, is Serona. Fiancée of Earl Domitius. Which,” he added with a hint of self-importance creeping into his tone, “Happens to be my new employer.”

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