(Dyn)

  Ostello’s fidence faltered at Ru’s request to give up trol. For a moment, his eyes darted from his oppoo his team leader as he sed-guessed himself. Driven by instinct, his distra was too tempting for the beast to resist.

  Its tightly coiled muscles unleashed as the galizine sprang forward. Ru sidestepped into the ssh and yipped as the furless felid raked across her braced arm. The cws were long, sharp, and too numerous for her bde to deflect ly, tearing through the fabric of her sleeves and deep into her flesh. With her good arm, she twirled like a dervish, shing out with sshes of her own. The beast hopped away after suffering a few light nicks from her bde.

  Ru growled, holding the beast’s gaze. “Galizines are at least a two-adveakedown.” The purple blood trails on her arm dried up, likely through magic.

  Dyn wondered if she had her own passive regeion ability. There was so much going on. He couldn’t tell what was magic, a racial, a passive, or something else he wasn’t yet aware of—there was a lot of that going around.

  Ru signaled for Ostello to go left while she tinued right, fnking the monster. Its head swiveled bad forth, forced to split its attention. It let out another roar in protest.

  “Attack,” Ru anded. Ostello’s jaw tightened as he moved in sync with her. She twirled with her bdes again while he made a fist, thick barbed thorns sprouting from it. The galizine leaped backwards, avoiding both attacks.

  Ru nded in a low stance, growling. “It’s too bloody fast…”

  Ostello lifted his knee high before smming his foot down. A fissure shot out from under his heel, the ground groaning as the knitted root system uhe jungle floor ripped apart. Rocks and dirt were swallowed up as the gap grew toward the galizine. Again, it was too fast, leaping up into a tree to avoid falling into the expanding pit.

  The intense elf relentlessly pursued the scaled beast. A series of stos shot up from the ground, instantly blooming into foot-sized ptforms for him to sprint along like a set of temporary stairs. The pnts wilted with a brittle crack, crumbling into dust shortly after he stepped on them.

  The stone blossoms spiraled around the tree, allowing him to climb higher than the perched galizine as it hissed and crouched, its muscles coiling defensively at his unventional approach. Finally high enough, he dove, his thorn-ced fingers reag out to tto the galizine’s back.

  Uo maneuver into a terattack, the beast abahe tree, leaping down to avoid the grapple. Ostello overshot the tree and fell, tug into a roll as he he beast had a head start and on him before he finished his roll, swiping at his leg. A siing snap echoed as the galizine swatted Ostello away.

  The inteumbled sideways, his body trembling as he clutched at his injured leg. Only able to get to a knee, his face twisted with pain aermination as he silently stared down the approag beast.

  Ru shadow stepped to him again and summoned another curtaihe three of them. The galizine, uo see, retreated from the darkness and turs attention toward Wedge and the initiates.

  Dyn couldn’t see them through the curtain, but he could still hear muffled voices and the low rumble of the beast’s growls.

  “Get up,” Ru’s voianded.

  “Listen,” she said sharply. “Dorian’s not here. Athrax ’t tank without his gear. We’re spread out, and I ’t be everywhere at once. And we’ve got initiates, for Mother’s sake. Not to mention one of them is a bloee. Now set aside your infernal pride and bring him out.”

  “Fine. But I don’t want to hear it when he doesn’t listen to you.”

  Ostello stepped out from behind the umbral curtain. The urew dark as clouds quickly gathered above them. Thunder rumbled as lightning fshed through the clouds above, illuminating the dim area in sporadic bursts.

  His eyes arced with sparks of energy, glowing white with increasing iy. The sudden stave the monsters and Athrax pause, their attention drawn to the angry sky above as static electricity crackled in the air.

  “What in the bloody Pits is going on now?” Athrax growled through ched teeth, his cyberic arms straining as he shoved the saurmonk pile off him and broke free.

  Ostello’s electrified gaze turo the storm above. “Perun!” he yelled into the sky. “I invoke my right as your vessel.” Thunder cracked in response, and the storm ed violently, fshes of lightning illuminating the roiling clouds.

  Thunder bellowed its response, unleashing a bolt of lightning upon Ostello. His entire body arced with unbridled energy, the raw power searing through him and threatening to e his very being. When he spoke, his words boomed with thunder and force.

  The Avatar held out his arg hands, flexing his fingers as streams of energy danced between them.

  “Still on rank,” Perun said loudly with a sigh. “This vessel barely tain the smallest fra of my power.” The words resonated painfully in Dyn’s skull as he and the others covered their ears against the booming voice.

  Ru dispersed her umbral curtain and stepped beside the Avatar, gng down at her tattered sleeve. “Then I humbly suggest you hurry up and smite our enemies before his mana runs out.”

  The Avatar ughed, the sky rumbling along with him. “Fret not, little o will be more than enough.” Around him, the air grew thick with static as the hairs on Dyn’s arm stood erect.

  The galizine loosed a challenging roar at the Avatar, its cws digging into the earth as it stood on its hind legs before leaning into a charge. A grin spread across his face as he sprioward the galizine, eagerly accepting the challenge.

  The beast took to the air, its muscles propelling it forward with a mighty leap, bared fangs and cws aimed at the Avatar. At the st moment, he brought up his forearm to block the six-hundred-pound scaly missile.

  The beast tched onto his offered limb as he poured raw arergy into it. Its muscles spasmed untrolbly, its jaw log down harder as acrid smoke rose from its scorched flesh and the crag energy filled the air.

  The Avatar gave a hearty ugh as he tio cook the beast’s internals, halting and taking a step backward as the energy cut off abruptly. The galizine slid off his arm, whimpering on the ground at his feet. An unbidden yawn forced itself on him as he shook his head, his shoulders slumping slightly.

  “This vessel has such a limited capacity,” Perun said, fending off another yawn. The Avatar raised an arm, summoning rapid lightning strikes that lit the juh blinding fshes. The arg energy surrounding him crackled furiously, as intense as when he first transformed.

  The galizine y on its side, vulsing as wisps of smoke rose off its half-charred body. The stench of burned flesh filled the air. Dyn couldn’t imagi getting back up. Then again, five minutes ago he couldn’t imagiell into a god either…

  “Thank you, Perun,” Ru said, ining her head with a hint of respe her voice. Or was it reverence?

  “You’re wele, little one,” Perun said, his voice still booming.

  Ru held her hand out toward the galizine and snapped her fist closed. Dyn heard a wet, siing pop from within the monster. It let out a guttural death rattle befoing still.

  He blinked, and wondered, ‘Did… did she just use the force? Just like Christian Bale—Goddamnit Charles, now you’ve got me calling him that.’ An uling thought crossed his mind. ‘Wait… am I with the bad guys?’

  Ru sed the battlefield, cheg on the rest of her team while tactfully trying to dismiss the god. “Feel free to return to your throne.”

  Perun lowered his voice to just below bellowing and said, “But there are still foes about.” He gestured around them.

  Dyn heard Athrax grunting loudly and turo see what was happening. A saurmonk had tched onto him, its jaws locked around his furry ankle. Somehow, the old soldier had lost his boot during the struggle.

  Athrax had his cyberically enhanced arms ed around the saurmonk and wre free with a botling pull. A wet, slurping pop followed as the creature’s head separated from its body. The disembodied head remained locked onto his leg. He sighed heavily, muttering a curse as he dropped the headless body in a heap and gave his leg a sharp kick, trying to dislodge the stubborn head.

  “We’ve got it from here, mighty Perun,” P’reslen said, floating above them all.

  Dyn poked his head out from behind Wedge, his curiosity getting the better of him. “Are you some sort of god?”

  Ru winced and pihe bridge of her snout as Dyn versed with a god. The Avatar chuckled, his shoulders jostling as the sky rumbled with a deep, resonant growl.

  “Dyn,” Eury said, jabbing him in the side with her elbow. “Please don’t ahe god of storms.”

  The Avatar gave him a radiant smile that seemed both weling and uling on Ostello’s face. “Yes, little one, I am Perun, god of storms. Do you seek a patron?” Around him, the others tensed, giving Dyn the impression he shouldn’t answer hastily. The Avatar’s attention shifted as he turo address another presehat only the god could see or hear.

  “Greetings, my dy,” Perun said, taking a knee and bowing his head.

  ‘Who, or what, does a god bow to?’ Dyn wondered, tinuing to watch the one-sided exge.

  “Apologies, I… I wasn’t aware,” Perun said. He picked his head up to gn Dyn’s dire. “Does… he know?”

  Dyn assumed the pauses in the versation were when the invisible, inaudible entity eaking.

  “As you wish,” Perun said with a nod and then got back to his feet.

  “That’s the st of ‘em,” Athrax said, slurring his words as he approached. His gait staggered, and he swayed as he walked, his breaths ing in shallos.

  W’itney gave him a ed look. “You don’t look so good.”

  “Right as rain, sunshine,” Athrax rasped, his grin faltering. “Just need a little kip.” He piwo fiogether before promptly dropping to his knees with a thud, his fading squarely in a fern that rustled in protest.

  “He’s going to be okay, right?” W’itney asked, as they all heard the old soldier sn in the bushes.

  “Saurmonk venom is paralytic,” Hay’len said, looking to Ru.

  She shook her head. “I have nothing to se him, but I’ll keep his health topped off while his body processes the venom.” She sighed, notig the ed look on all their faces. “Let’s all take aended water break while he sleeps it off. He’ll be fine.”

  P’reslen nded beside Ru and poio the bed galizine and politely asked, “May I?”

  “Yes, but do it over there.” She pointed away from them, toward a huge mossy rock.

  P’reslen nodded, walked over, and grabbed the galizine by the tail, tug it under his arm as he leaned forward t the body.

  Dyn watched the noble drai drag away a body twice his size. “What’s he going to do?”

  “He’s going to loot,” Ru said.

  “But…” Dyn gnced back at the smoking, lifeless body for something he might’ve missed. “It doesn’t have any pockets.”

  “P’reslen has a looting ability,” she said. “He doesn’t need pockets, just a hard surface.” She noticed Dyn still had that look on his face—the ohat said he had more questions.

  “Go on,” she gestured after P’reslen. “Watch if you’d like. Just keep your distance if you don’t want any on you.”

  That was just cryptiough that he couldn’t resist even if he wao. He chased after the drai dragging a galizine corpse behind him.

  “Need a hand carrying that?” Dyn asked as he approached.

  P’reslen stopped and turned back, looking Dyn up and down with a faint, amused smile. “It’s okay. I’ve got it.” He resumed tugging the corpse over the jungle growth.

  Dyn braced a hand against a tree as he stepped up and over a rge rock. “Ru says you’ve got a looting ability.”

  “Yep.” P’reslen repositioned his grip after a leg got snagged on the rge rock.

  “How does it work?”

  “It’s like most other looting abilities,” P’reslen said, switg the tail to under his other arm. “I destroy a retly killed corpse,” he added casually, “to reveal hidden loot.”

  “Oh, that’s .”

  “You might want to stand back.” P’reslen stopped a doze in front of an enormous boulder, its surface weathered and streaked with moss. Dyn wondered why they’d stopped to look at a rock.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because my ability get… quite messy.” P’reslen gripped the tail securely in both hands, his muscles tensing as he waited a moment for Dyn to step back. When he didn’t, P’reslen shrugged and twirled around, shotput style.

  After a few rotations, he grunted and said mid-rotation, “It’s called corpse explosion.” Then he flung the corpse into the makeshift wall.

  Dyn watched as the feat lived up to its he galizine’s corpse exploded on tact with a siing spt, bits of flesh and bone scattering on impact. The immediate area, including himself, was now covered in galizine.

  He stood there, looking down at his hands dripping with purple gore. A slimy piece of liver slid off his shoulder and plopped onto the ground with a wet smack as he looked over at P’reslen, who was also matted with gore.

  “This… this is how you get loot?” Dyn asked, horrified.

  “As Lo’kai says, ‘Adventuring isn’t all fame and fortune, ofte’s just messy.’ Shame we won’t be able to take all the loot with us.” He frowned, letting out a small sigh. “Quinten’s the oh the ste ability."

  Dyn tio stare at the gore-covered drai as they walked away toward the unmoving saurmonk. P’reslen casually bent down and lifted the one-hundred-and-fifty-pound body over his shoulder. Then he walked back up to Dyn and dropped the corpse at his feet with a heavy thud, making him flinch.

  “You give me a hand gathering up the small ones if you still want to help,” P’reslen said. “Keep a for a boot. I think Athrax is missing one.”

  “Small ones?” Dyn asked, his feet still po the ground, frozen in shock at the brutality.

  “The little guys.” P’reslen poio the corpse at Dyn’s feet. “They should be light enough for you to manage.”

  ‘How strong are adventurers?’ Dyn wondered as he squeezed one of his biceps, feeling very ie.

  “Just watch out for their mouths or you’ll join Athrax for naptime.” P’reslen was dragging two back this time, their limp forms rustling along the jungle floor as he held each by an arm.

  Dy P’reslen do his thing and walked back over to the group with Perun, shaking his head as he tried to process the sheer absurdity of ‘looting’ abilities.

  “You’ve, uh, got purple…” W’itney said, gesturing all over their body with their hand. “Everywhere.”

  Dyn sighed. “I know…” He wiped his hands off on a leaf and then froze, his eyes widening slightly. His head darted between Ru and Wedge. “This isn’t going to give me a rash, is it?”

  There was a gruesome pop as P’reslen hurled a saurmonk at the boulder. The wet impact eg through the clearing.

  Ru paid them no mind, fog on diplomatically persuading Perun to return Ostello’s body.

  “Nonsense,” Perun said dismissively. “It takes but a mere portion of my sciouso inhabit this vessel. I still remain on my throne and rule my realm.” Above them, the storm tio crad boom in his presence.

  “Surely—”

  The Avatar cut her off by raising his hand, arcs of lightning chasing each other around it. “I have decided to apany you for the day. It has been far too long since I’ve walked among mortals.” Around him, the group exged uneasy gnces.