As I kick the shield, I realize a moment too te I’ve done so with my injured foot. The worst sequeo this should have been that it just kinda hurt and was a little stupid and unnecessary. Instead, it’s much worse.

  The glowing red lights engraved in the shield whip out when I kick it, like text lifting from a page, and around my foot. Armed, I try to yank my leg back, but only bang on one leg while holding up another person is not the most stable stance.

  I am successful in yanking my leg back. I’m not successful in yanking my leg away.

  The shield es with my boot, the weight of both tip over me, and then all three of us crash bato the sand in a painful, tangled heap.

  I struggle to throw everything off of me. “Let go!” I cry, attempting to fil my leg.

  The shield seems pletely uurbed by any of this, mentally prodding at the wound in my leg. Ah, there is the blood source!

  “Oh, no you don’t,” I say, grabbing the shield and trying to yank it off of me. “No, no, no, no, no!”

  The red bands of light shift, using the opportunity to let go of my boot and sh around my forearm instead.

  “Crap!” I try to push the shield away with my free hand, but the magic has strapped my arm down against the inner surface of shield. It’s really stuow.

  The shield finds my behavior very perplexing. Why am I ag this way? Don’t I want to fight? Don’t I want to win?

  I mao roll to the side, extrag myself from Hans, who at this point is still mumbling to himself and seems pletely unaware of anything going on around him.

  Must be nice.

  But at least now that my foot is free, I’m able to stumble to my feet. I spend a moment dumbly filing my arm around, whily succeeds in banging the bottom of the shield against my own shin several times, but the demon shield isn’t going anywhere.

  Well, this is just great.

  “What do you want with me?” I demand, holding the shield as far away from my body as I manage. Which is to say, half an arm’s length.

  The shield thought this was obvious: Blood!

  “Okay, well, besides that,” I say. “Because I’m not giving you any of my blood. I hat for not dying!”

  It wouldn’t need very much blood, the shield crifies. It could do so much, with only a few ounces. Besides, I’m leaking it anyway. Wouldn’t it be better for the shield to have my blood than for it to go to waste in the sand?

  “That is the creepiest argument I’ve ever heard,” I say. “Besides, I don’t need your help. I was doing great earlier with just that rusty old sword, and I’m pretty sure that’s going to be more useful to me than you.”

  Affront bursts through my mind like a physical blow, and I stumble back from its suddenness. A rusty sword? Absurd! How dare I pare the two! Don’t I know what I’m dealing with? How powerful it is? Such disrespect is entirely undeserved!

  I blink. Wow. I think I hurt its feelings.

  The shield is still fuming at my insult when the cactus vine whips my way. I spin the shield around, and the feeler skips off its face, deflected into the nearby sand. I poun the vine before it has another ce to attack, severing the end as I pnt the shield in the ground.

  The shield swells with pride. A pathetic attempt to damage it. As if it could be scratched so easily!

  “I don’t think it was aiming for you,” I say.

  Relegating myself to the fact that I’m stuck with this thing for now, I head back over to Hans. It’s being a real pain trying to keep this man alive.

  “Hey,” I tell him. “I’ve got one less arm to use now, which makes getting you out of here kind of difficult. Could really use your help in the fight.” Hans tio rock bad forth. “Or, you know, just don’t leave yourself open to attack.” He mumbles to himself. “Like, even running away would help.”

  I sigh, stabbing the shield down on top of another feeler creeping our way. This just couldn’t be easy.

  It could be, the shield says, invading my mind once again. I am using the shield in such a rudimentary way. But it’s so much more. It holds amazing powers beyond my prehension! If only…

  “Yeah, yeah, if only I give you some of my blood,” I say, finishing the thought. “Didn’t you already get a taste?”

  It did. But that was only enough to establish the bond. To do anything offe needs more.

  “Offense?” I ask, knog another vine away as I retreat a step.

  Yes, the shield eagerly agrees. An attack! That’s the only way I stand a ce of defeating this beast. A ventional on will not be nearly enough. And with just a bit of my blood, the shield could be so much stronger!

  As much as I hate to admit it, the shield has a point. With Hans out of ission and g much of anything to fight with myself—even if I did grab another rusted sword—the likelihood of getting close enough to the cactus’s tral stem to deal a fatal blow seems low. I either o find a way to get us all out of here, or I need a better way to fight.

  “What kind of attack are we talking here?” I ask the shield.

  The shield grins into my mind. It knew I would e around!

  At the same time, Echo pipes up. [Check: The Crimson Aegis.]

  [Currently avaible abilities:]

  [Repeal: Absorb and redirect kiic attacks. Activation cost: 10 mana.]

  [Devour: Apply a corrosive effect to the outer face of the Aegis. Activation cost: 1 mana per sed.]

  [Endure: Enhahe strength and shock absorption of the Aegis. Activation cost: 1 maen seds.]

  I’m liking the sound of activation costs using mana instead of blood. “How much mana do I have?”

  [Mana: 40/40]

  “Sweet.” I’ve got some options then. “You activate these abilities if I spend my mana?” I ask the shield.

  It grumpily admits this is the case. But using blood would be much more effective. And it has even stronger abilities I could unlock if I gave it just a few ounces…

  “I’ll take your word for it.” Things are looking up, actually. The shield—the Crimson Aegis, apparently—might have, uh, particur tastes, but it seems it doesn’t actually need blood. And having a sapient magical on on my side while attempting to fight off a maing pnt only t in my favor.

  I’ve got 40 mana to work with, so I shouldn’t start with the ability that drains 1 mana per sed. It’s probably the stro, given the cost, but until I know what I’m dealing with, I’ll o be servative with my mana.

  “Let’s try Repeal, then,” I say. It’ll use a quarter of my mana, but being able to redirect attacks against the murder cactus will help me more than just making the shield better at being a shield. “Er, how do I make it work?” I mentally prod the shield.

  Echo answers instead. [Mana transfer avaible via Paation. Initiate Pact?]

  “Suuuure,” I say, hoping this isn’t a big mistake.

  [Paitiated.] And then Echo says, [Additional capabilities unlocked.]

  A couple things happen simultaneously. First, I realize I see through the shield. Not like it’s transparely, but it’s as if the stones on the front of the shield are actual eyes that I use as my own. Doubled over the top of my normal vision, it’s almost like a set of bifocals.

  And sed, the shield gets loud. If the Crimson Aegis had been a dista irritating whisper in my mind before, now it’s a booming gale.

  Finally! It has waited too long to taste pain. Even this is merely a fra of its potential, but it ot wait to exercise its will again! It will be good to crush its enemies and drain them of their blood.

  “Uhhhh, or we could not,” I say, abruptly having deep regrets.

  But before I ask Echo if any of this is reversible, she says, [Repeal activated. Mana: 30/40.]

  The light ihe rubies overflow, engulfing the Crimson Aegis in a faint red glow.

  “Okay then.” I blink rapidly, trying to adjust to the double vision. It’s a little disorienting, but at least I ow see where I’m heading and what’s ing at me. All I have to do is point the shield properly and make sure it takes some hits. That shouldn’t be too hard, right?

  I step forward, raising the Crimson Aegis before me, and right now, illuminated with its red magic, it’s certainly living up to its name. As I move toward the cactus monster, it sends several vines my way. I duck beh the shield, pnting it in the sand so I don’t experieny more aabbing surprises, and then flinch as several impacts smato the shield, rattling me.

  [Kiiergy stored,] Echo reports.

  “Hell, yeah,” I say. “Let’s see how it likes a taste of its own medie.”

  A ripple passes through the shield’s red glow, then it pulses outward like a forcefield, blowing back toward the cactus.

  And it does… nothing. A handful of sand stirs at the attack. The cactus monster sways minutely, as if caught by an ued but light gust of wind.

  [0 points of Bludgeoning damage dealt.]

  “Are you kidding me?” I cry. “That athetic!”

  The Crimson Aegis balks at my words. Its powers are anything but pathetic! It’s not the shield’s fault I don’t know how to use its abilities properly. If I’d just waited for more strikes to hit, its terattack would have tio grow in strength!

  “Oh.” I guess that makes sense. “Okay the’s give it another shot.”

  The shield simmers down as I ready a sed Repeal, its affront switg to eager anticipation as it looks forward to nding a critical blow. Man, it sure ges tune quick.

  [Repeal activated.]

  [Mana: 20/40]

  Once more the red hue covers the shield, and again I maneuver around the crater, raising the shield to bloy ining attacks, brag against eag blow. I have to fight my instincts and stay standing there to take it each time. Cutting through the vines with the sword had been much easier, but I hadn’t been able to deal any serious damage that way. Hopefully, if the shield sustain enough hits, I end this fight in one shot.

  I’m not sure my arms are up to the challehough. Eaew strike rattles the Crimson Aegis, and in turhe vibrations jarring through my hands and arms no matter how much I try to brace against them.

  But there was that Endure spell, too. It said it would increase the durability of the shield and act as a shock absorber.

  “Would that interfere with Repeal’s effect?” I ask Echo.

  [ive,] she reports. [The spells’ effects may be stacked without impag the efficy of either.]

  “That’s what I’m talking about.” The Endure spell costs 1 mana every ten seds, though, which means I ’t take forever on this. Hopefully, though, with a few more hits on Repeal, I’ll be ready.

  I activate Endure as well, and a sed effect appears over the shield; still red, like the rest of the magic, a staticky effect appears along the engraved lines in the shield, trag all the fangs and cws and the hint at a monstrous face that are embossed in the surface. When I block the virike, I don’t eve. On the inner surface of the shield, however, magic ripples in the spot where the viruck, like a stone cast into a pond.

  Alright, I might be warming up to this murder shield. I dart around the field, cirg closer to the cactus monster and drawing more of its attention. It begins ing at me from both sides now, and I have to spin bad forth to keep defleg the attacks.

  There’s no way I could have moved like this before. Pig up the shield isn’t effortless—it definitely still feels heavy—but I’m barely breaking a sweat. And yeah, I do spend a lot of time at the gym, but this shield has got to weigh at least two hundred pounds, and I’m swinging it around like it’s made of cardboard. What am I now? A dhampyr? What does that even mean?

  [Check,] Echo says. [Damphyr: one of the many native sapient species of the p Lusio. Noal and ivorous in nature, dhampyrs require a diet of fresh meat and blood to survive.]

  Dhampyr… like vampire? You gotta be kiddihat expins why my blood smells so unfortably attractive.

  It just figures I’d get saddled with a shield that’s got the same craving.

  “This is stupid,” I grumble.

  But something else Echo said also sticks out to me. The p Lusio. Then this really ish anymore. I mean, the monsters and magic probably should have given that away, but…

  How the hell did I end up here? Why in a different body? And why does the magic act like some kind of video game meics?

  What in the world is going on?

  Numbers blink in the er of my vision: [Mana: 8/4etting low. Another minute before I’m totally out, I think. Which means I o end this now.

  “Ready, shield?” I say, abs another couple of hits. “Looks like it’s now or never.”

  The Aegis surges to the forefront of my mind, eager to let loose its power. That makes two of us. I dash fetting as close to the main body of the creature as I dare. More feelers are ing at me from every dire, now; there’s too many to block them all. Instead, I sm the shield into the ground, point it at the monster, and release Repeal.

  The magic bursts from Aegis in a red shockwave. The vines o us snap back so suddenly that they break into pieces and fly away. The main stalk bows beh the pressure of the attack, and sand bsts into its flesh, peppering the surfad drawing out more of its watery fluid. A wind whirls around us, kig up sand and f me to duck my head into my arm. Then the wind dies, and the crater is still.

  [213 points of Bludgeoning damage dealt]

  I peek an eye open, blinking away the grit and sand. “Did we win?”

  Pain explodes through my side. I stagger and go down as something drives me into the ground, agony burning through my stomad back.

  [29 points of Pierg damage sustained.]

  [Status Effect: Blood Loss]

  I scream, twisting to get a look even as the movement wrenches new nces of pain from me. A fist-sized vine is stabbed through my side. Aw, damn. That doesn’t look good. And I doubt I’m going to be given enough time for my healing to ki.

  In a herculean effort, I swing my arm around my body, dropping the shield on the vi severs the limb a foot from my body, but this end is still stu my abdomen. Crap. Crap crap crap.

  Grimag against every twinge and stab that’s radiating through my side, I drop my head to the sand, turning it to the cactus monster.

  “How?” I ask through ched teeth. I thought we nded a direct hit.

  [Check,] Echo says. [Carrion Cactus: Mutated by the naturally ara spawned from the Lifespring Oasis, carrion cacti are harmless when dormant, but voracious and single-minded when starved and in need of food.]

  Great. Gd I’m getting this information now. But that doesn’t tell me anything about how it withstood my attack.

  [HP: 492/725]

  Oh. That’s how.

  I’m so screwed.