As the monstrous creatures charged at us, words appeared in my mind:

  You receive the quest [A Horde of Misshapen Things]:

  The words burned in my mind's eye. A wave of certainty washed over me. This is where I needed to be. I could feel it deep down inside me. I was supposed to be here. I could help. But I couldn't do anything if the idiot elf in front of me got torn apart before we even got to the mausoleum.

  "Ro!" I hissed at the absolute idiot in front of me. "Don't be an idiot! We can make it inside the barrier if we run!" At least one of us could. The things were fast, but I'd seen how fast Ro-Saleh could run. It was me I was worried about.

  He didn't turn. "Go. I’ll draw them off. When they fall upon me, get yourself to our Mother." The idiot's voice was so steady. He really was a hero. Way more than me.

  But I wasn't having it. "Run, you dumb ass! You won’t last five seconds out there!" Across the clearing, the monsters howled and screamed, their twisted bodies contorting as they charged. It gave me the chills.

  Ro-Saleh took a long, deep breath and drew his sword. He took a single step forward, putting himself into a fighting stance. "Five seconds will be enough. Use them well, my friend." His sword began to glow bright white, the same color as the Great Tower's Orb of Light.

  Why did he always have to be so cool? "That's not happening, you idiot! Come on!"

  He didn't respond.

  The creatures were maybe one hundred yards away and closing fast. The first of the beasts charged past the final gravestones ringing this side of the mausoleum. It was a misshapen ape-thing with bulging eyes. Half of its chest was split open, exposing its red, pumping lungs. Spittle flew from its mouth as it charged. For an instant, our eyes met. When they did, the monster roared. A chorus of animal calls followed.

  Behind it, dozens more creatures galloped: spider-limbed cats, snake-headed wolves, and even more twisted things that I had no names for. Their eyes were filled with rage, and hunger. I couldn't even count how many there were, and more calls sounded from the forest around us.

  "Ro!" They would tear him to pieces. Then, they'd come for me.

  They were close now. Fifty yards.

  Fucking idiot! Without thinking, I rushed forward. As I ran, my hand dove into my pouch. Grabbing the small cloth bag that Farvad had given me weeks before, I ripped it from my belt pouch just as I reached Ro. “Close your eyes!” I shouted.

  Ro-Saleh's head jerked to face me. "What—"

  "Close them!" I threw the bag filled with [Dust of Disappearance]

  I saw that the fine dust had settled on us like any other dirt or debris. Anger flared in me. That bastard Farvad gave us the wrong stuff! But, right when I was about to curse his bloodline, I saw that wherever the dust touched us, our skin rippled, and the powder began to sink into our skin. As it did, our skin grew less and less visible until it vanished from sight.

  "What are you—"

  "Saving your damn life!" Pulling Ro-Saleh by the pauldron, I yanked him off his feet and practically threw him toward the nearest gravestones. The elf winked out of sight just as he hit the ground. I jumped into a long roll behind him. The instant my feet left the ground, the apeman roared, leaped, and landed where Ro and I had just been. Its massive fists slammed into the earth. A dozen other monsters piled onto it, tearing at the ground and one another in their frenzy.

  A bright white flash emitted from the white orb surrounding the mausoleum. Jumping to my feet, I gave it a single glance, then everything went white. A force pressed against my back, followed by the smell of burnt fur and ash. I was thrown forward through the air like a ragdoll.

  I lost all sense of up and down as I flew. Flailing my arms and legs, I clipped something with my right knee before smacking into something hard, which stopped my forward progress cold. The breath rushed out of my lungs, and my vision, already black from the burst of light, was a sea of stars.

  My vision stayed black for several breaths. The sounds of the beast people had vanished, replaced by an eerie stillness. I could smell the smell of fur and iron in the air. Slowly, my vision cleared. Looking around, I saw that one of the gravestones had stopped my flight. It was little more than rubble beneath me now. Behind me, about twenty feet away, dozens of charred, smoldering bones rested on the ground where we'd been standing just seconds before.

  "Get up," a man's voice hissed in my ear. "More are coming."

  My vision swam back into focus. Someone's hand gripped my collar, pulling me to my feet. "Ro?"

  "Yeah, it's me."

  Nodding, I looked toward the treeline, I could see hundreds of eyes peering out from the darkness. Several of the creatures began walking into the cemetery clearing. As they did, they sniffed the air, their distended jaws working as they sought for what I could only guess was our scent. "I can't believe how strong she is." It was truly breathtaking.

  "The Mother saved us," Ro whispered.

  "Right on time, too," I whispered back.

  Taking a look around, I watch the creatures move. They were already fanning out. Some held their heads high, searching intently with their animal eyes, but others had their snouts to the ground, looking like creepy, malformed hunting dogs. One of them, a thing with a wolf's body and six protruding insect legs, was moving straight toward our position. "I think they can smell us."

  "I think you're right."

  I smacked him. "Don't go sacrificing yourself like an idiot. Do you know how much trouble I'd be in with Tristan and Na-Ya if I let you die?" They'd kill me dead.

  I heard him shuffle next to me. "Thanks. I owe you."

  "Let's survive first, then we can worry about who saved who." I looked around, I saw that Lady Varga's barrier was still a good eighty strides away. The barrier glowed like a second sun in the darkness, but it was weaker than before. Between us, there was a long row of large gravestones. At the end of the row was a smallish crypt, and behind it was the glowing barrier. It seemed like a relatively straight shot. The problem was there were at least three of the beast people sniffing around along the way. "You see that row of gravestones?"

  "Where?"

  I reached out and found his chin. Turning his head, I said, "See it?"

  "Yeah. Looks good, but what about the creatures?"

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  "I'll take the hits. You cut them down after."

  "You're certain?"

  "I am."

  "I'll follow your lead, Guardian."

  That's right. It was my turn to be the hero. "Come on." I darted forward, toward the large gravestones.

  Using the cover, I darted from cover to cover, breath held, heart filled with nothing but a hope and a prayer. We made it ten strides, twenty, thirty. A massive half-dog, half-goat roamed from bush to bush, sniffing around for us. Reaching down, I grabbed a loose stone and threw it toward the trees. When the rock clattered against its branches, the monster rushed away, toward a dinner it wouldn't be eating.

  Continuing forward, we lucked out when the next creature got bored and rushed toward the barrier, evaporating the instant it touched the shield. Another twenty paces, and the wolf-insect thing raised its head as we passed, nostrils flaring. For a moment, I thought it had caught us, but when a number of the beasts cried out in the forest to the east, it hissed and rushed to the other side of the cemetery.

  We made it past the crumbling stone graves and pressed our backs against the cold rock of the small crypt I'd seen before. Poking my head around the building, I cursed. An iron fence stood between us and the barrier. I hadn't been able to make it out from so far away, but now that we were close, it was clear we couldn't continue forward.

  "Path's blocked," I said over my shoulder.

  Ro grunted in reply. "There has to be a way." I heard him move to the other side of the crypt.

  "I'll look." Looking back around the building, I searched for any other path, but there was none. "Nothing this way."

  Sweat trickled down my spine despite the chill in the night air. All around our hiding spot, more beasts poured from the treeline, their forms silhouetted against the barrier's light. Whatever had called their attention to the east was pulling more of the monsters into our path. We were so close, too...

  A goat man stepped out from the treeline, maybe twenty feet from us. It cocked its head and sniffed the air. After a few sniffs, its eyes locked on our spot.

  "We can't stay here," I whispered.

  Ro nodded. "We don't need to. Come over here and look."

  I tiptoed over to him and looked around his side of the crypt. There, maybe twenty paces east, the iron fence opened up, revealing a path of scattered rubble and headstones that led directly to the barrier. It seemed like a clear shot. "If we're careful—"

  A howl cut through the night, sharp and urgent. The goat man had found us. Dozens of howls called back to it as its feet stomped toward us.

  "Go!" I shoved Ro forward, and we broke into a sprint, rushing toward the opening in the gate.

  The goatman's howl was answered by a dozen more. As we burst through the opening, I could hear the scrape of claws on stone, heavy animalistic panting, and the snarls and yips of the countless monsters. I didn't dare look back. Looking back would slow me down, and slowing down would get me dead.

  We leaped over a fallen angel statue, ducked beneath a low-hanging willow branch, and slid under the ruined roof of a family tomb. We were close now. The creatures were gaining, but we were going to make it.

  "We made it!" Ro gasped ahead of me. He was so much faster than I was.

  A second later, I was standing next to the barrier. The light cast long shadows across the graveyard. It was so bright it was nearly blinding.

  "Do you think we can get through?" I'd just assumed we could. A sinking feeling in my gut made me doubt that assumption.

  "I'll try to push through." In the light and despite the alchemy affecting our skin, I could barely make out Ro's silhouette. He reached out to touch the barrier, but the glowing energy rippled and repelled his hand.

  "Shit." We were going to die.

  "I didn't think it would push us ba—move!" I felt him grab my wrist. He pulled me forward just as something flew through the air where I had been standing and slammed into the barrier. In a burst of fur and smoke, the monsters literally evaporated.

  Stumbling forward a few steps, I regained my footing. "Thanks."

  "Friends and all that."

  Before I could respond, something heavy landed on the tomb behind us. I looked backward. A massive wolf stood on top of the tomb we'd slid under, its body rippling with muscles that didn't look quite right. One side of its face was canine, the other stretched into something almost human, with bulging eyes and teeth that curved outward from split lips. Its fur was patchy, revealing raw skin beneath, oozing with a black fluid that reflected the light of Lady Varga's barrier. The creature's chest heaved with heavy breaths.

  Our eyes met.

  It knew we were here. It could see us.

  The beast lunged downward and leaped, its jaws open wide enough to swallow my head in a single bite. I couldn't move fast enough. Planting my feet, I felt spittle fly onto my face as the monster's mouth closed around my head.

  [Iron Skin]The wolfman's teeth shattered on my hardened skin.

  With a screech, the monster reared back, its misshapen hands clutching at its mouth. Black blood poured through its twisted, clawed fingers.

  Ro's glowing sword flashed, opening a gash along the beast's face, then a second along its jugular. Black blood sprayed across the cobblestones. The wolfman clutched at its throat and howled, the sound halfway between a wolf's cry and something that might have once been human speech. Behind it, dozens more calls sounded in the night.

  I didn't wait to see what it would do next. I grabbed Ro's arm and we ran along the barrier, no longer trying for stealth. I didn't know what I was looking for, but I knew I'd know it when I saw it.

  We sprinted along the barrier, leaping over graves and ruined markers as we did, our feet slipping on the crumbled stone. The beasts were flooding toward us now, drawn by the wolf's call. A quick glance inside the barrier showed that Lady Varga still floated within, her face strained with effort. I could see that more cracks had spread across the dome of light, especially in the center where the monsters had been throwing themselves at it.

  That was it!

  "To the center! We can get through there!"

  "Alex!" Ro's voice was frantic. "The dust is fading!"

  I glanced down at my hands. The invisibility was wearing off. "Just keep going!" We weren't far from the road where the cracks were thickest, but creatures were closing in from all sides. In seconds, we'd be fully visible and very surrounded. This had to work.

  Ten strides. Seven strides. Four.

  We arrived.

  My feet skidded to a halt before the wall of light. Hundreds of cracks littered its surface, and in one small spot, the barrier had faded completely. Turning back, I saw that the creatures were converging on us from every direction. Worse, a glance at my hands revealed that we were completely visible again.

  I pressed against the barrier, but it felt firm. A grim realization hit me. "You go first," I said, pushing Ro toward the barrier. "You're stronger than I am. If one of us has to make it—"

  "Alex—"

  "Just go!" I drew Embermist in one hand and Ennel's shield in the other. Doing what he'd done minutes before, I took a step forward and braced myself for the impact of teeth and claws.

  A wolf-thing stopped maybe five paces away. It was close enough that I could smell its rotten breath. A dozen more stopped next to it, each of them eying me with wary, hate-filled eyes.

  In the corner of my eye, I could see Ro touching the barrier. He placed both arms on the barrier and pushed. The light rippled, and his arms went through.

  At least one of us would survive the night.

  Seeing their quarry escape, the monsters roared and charged. In a single bounding step each, they'd all closed half the distance between us.

  [Provoke]All of their eyes focused on me. Their movements jerked as their charge was redirected at me.

  "Bring it, you fucks!" I leveled Embermist at them.

  The world slowed. In that moment, I realized this was it. This was my final moment. It hadn't been a perfect life. I hadn't made all the right decisions. But it had been my life. I found love. Twice. And I did the best I could. I lived to become the best version of myself. One day, when after Tristan and Vral found me and kicked my ass in the next life for dying first, I'd ask them if they wanted to do it all again. I wouldn't have it any other way. It had been a good life. The next one would be even better.

  Two hands grabbed me from behind. I was yanked backward, through the wall of light. Pain shot through my body like liquid fire. The barrier rippled around me, light crawling up my skin, and my world became pain. It burned, but not like fire—more like it was searing away something beneath my skin.

  For one terrible moment, I was suspended in the burning light, neither in nor out. I could see the slobbering faces of the beast people, their jowls working as they reached for me. One of them touched the barrier, then burst into smoke. Then another. And another.

  In another breath, I was through. I landed on the ground with a dull thud, my eyes black and lungs heaving. I heard the beasts scream as they threw themselves at the barrier. When my vision cleared, I saw that each burned away upon contact, but with every impact, the cracks in Lady Varga's shield grew larger.

  "It won't hold much longer," Ro said, rising to his feet. His clothes were singed, wisps of smoke rising from the fabric in thin tendrils.

  I nodded, my breath still coming in ragged gasps. "I can't believe we made it."

  Despite everything, he laughed. "Me neither." He held his hand out to me. "You did well, my friend. Thank you."

  Taking his hand, I stood, and together we turned toward the mausoleum. Above us, Lady Varga's face was drawn with exhaustion, the light surrounding her faltering with each new assault. There was no indication that she'd seen us.

  We took a step toward her. Ro called out. "Mother!"

  Lady Varga's face screwed up. She lifted her hand, and a burning ball of pure-white energy formed in her outstretched hand. "Begone, foul things!" Her voice boomed through the cemetery. The ball of light doubled in size. "Be purified in the Goddess's holy light!"

  My heart sank. She was gonna roast us.