As Nick and the others stood atop the destroyed tree city, the charred, butchered bodies of their foes sprawled across the area, he saw the furry little bastards getting ready to mount a second attack in the distance. However, just as he was about to go find the casters of the purple lightning that had fried the final foes, the Black Witch’s voice rang out in his ears.

  “I think you’ve done enough,” she said. . “You’ve freed your people and mine. Now it is time to make a deal.”

  Her sudden voice in his head caused him to freeze for a moment, but it wasn’t unexpected. From the moment he had first stepped into the icy realm, only one group of people had used purple lightning: her mages.

  Not even a hello? How are you? How have you been? Nick joked back to the intrusive passenger that had made her way into his mind, feeling his breathing a little easier and his chest less tight just talking to her again.

  “I would love to take some time to wade through pleasantries, unfortunately, we do not have much time left. Even as I deliver this message, my best people are on the other side of the city, preparing for the invasion—should you accept my conditions,” she informed him. “Therefore, I must make this exchange quick and to the point. We need you to spare the herbivores that captured your people.”

  What?! Nick nearly fumed at the thought. He had been planning to burn the entire city to the ground and eradicate the threat before it could rear its ugly head again. They had captured his people, threatened the lives of those he considered family, and he was not about to leave before turning them into ash.

  “Our survival in the war against the dragonkin depends on the foolish little shrub munchers’ existence, and if you even take a moment to think about the nature of the system, you’d know my words to be true. However, I am not here to simply request this favor; as I mentioned before, I come with terms,” the Black Witch told him. “We’ll assist you in destroying that floating fortress before it can report back, if you agree to my request.”

  Nick stood there, feeling like he was frozen in time for a moment as his eyes studied the city before him. Spare them? he thought, his mind racing as he tried to piece together her intent. It was only after spotting over a dozen little sciuri spawn, holding tiny spears as they hid behind one of the trees in the distance with their mother, that he began to understand what was being said.

  How fast do they grow? he asked the witch.

  “Depending on the species, they can have up to ten or eleven in a litter and three litters a year, all of which will be of fighting age in only a year or two,” the black witch told him before answering his next question before he could even ask it: “Though even at a year old, they’ll still drop the essences we need.”

  The numbers were a lot higher than Nick had expected. So they don’t attack us just because they need slaves or sacrifices . . . or whatever else they do with their captives. They attack us because, if they don’t, they can’t support the population . . . he thought, beginning to understand how their society worked. They were like rats. If they had no predators to cull their numbers, they’d overpopulate and starve in merely a decade or two. Conversely, that meant that they were also an endless source of essences for the Black Witch and Nick’s own people to harvest in battle. So long as this city existed, the upgrades to their bases would continue in perpetuity just from the war parties these beasts organized.

  “It is good we speak the same language. Yes. The risk of a soldier or two dying in battle is greatly outweighed by the benefits we receive from the post-battle harvest. The combat experience, the essences, the furs—there are far too many benefits to give up such a resource. So, I ask you again, will you make this deal?”

  For Nick, the Black Witch’s bargain had gone from seemingly absurd to the most logical decision possible. He wasn’t a general staring at a city of potential warriors waiting to roll out and destroy him: he was a dairy farmer staring at a field full of cows, waiting to be milked until the day they died. Yes, Nick thought, we have a deal. But is this floating fortress really the only scouting vessel near here?

  “Indeed. This fortress in the sky is the only major one here, but it is merely one of the many different forward operating bases the dragons use as scouting outposts. These ships operate in loops, flying from known base to known base, collecting essence stones and slaves. They sent down a squad to collect the tribute from this village as well, but you disrupted the offering and killed off the dragonkin. When they don’t report back, the base will send notice back to their imperial city, and then they will sound out a dozen more bases, and then a dozen more, until they find and eliminate the threat that killed their scouts,” the Black Witch explained. “So you, me, and every potential threat in this area have only a single hour to take down that fortress, or we face an endless wave of dragonkin.”

  Nick’s eyes opened wide in horror at the thought. He could only imagine the devastation of the elder dragons he’d seen in the Black Witch’s visions if they attacked the small outpost humanity had carved out for itself in the northern tundra.

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  “But . . . how do I get up there?” Nick asked, this time out loud as he was too in shock to moderate his voice.

  “Get up where? There?” Seo-ah asked, pointing at the floating fortress as she intuited Nick’s thoughts.

  “Yeah, hold up. No one kill any more of the herbivores unless they attack first. We need to . . . I’m making a deal with the Black Witch to get up there,” he informed them.

  “The saintess has informed us that you, the herald and voice of the Lady, are in need of transportation onto the floating outpost,” a knight in an intricately embellished helmet stated as he and a full contingent of at least a hundred knights, all armed in sharp-looking white plate armor, came out of the woods behind Nick. Behind them, warhorses dragged a number of imposing contraptions of wood and metal with glowing runes engraved along their lengths.

  “What are those?” Nick asked as the knights began unhooking the constructs from the horses. There were a total of ten such devices, and as they were unpacked, Nick could see that they were built upon the frames of medieval siege ballistae. Their arms were reinforced with a dark-colored metal he couldn’t quite identify and strung with an intricate system of pulleys and tension cables that glowed faintly with embedded runes. Each device was fitted with a reinforced platform just large enough for a single person to crouch upon. In the center of each device sat a blue crystal that thrummed with power.

  “How does they work?” Allen asked, eyes wide with excitement as he took notes and drew diagrams on a tablet he’d pulled from his inventory.

  The knight directing the unpacking explained, “I’m not a maker of such things, but to my knowledge, the moment the mechanism is activated, the crystal core will unleash a concentrated burst of wind magic that will enhance the ballista’s draw and propel you skyward at a breathtaking speed.”

  “These are your means of reaching the fortress. However, once you arrive there, we will not be in charge of your safety or your protection. While we would all treasure and honor the opportunity to guard the Lady’s chosen avatar, we have a mission of utmost importance,” the knight informed him.

  Nick took a deep breath. “Well, I guess that answers that.”

  “Indeed,” the Black Witch replied in his mind. “My forces will take out the magical devices that connect the flying fortress to the other bases. You only need to remove the threats preventing their work.”

  They seem more than capable of doing that themselves, Nick thought, studying the fancy designs on their handcrafted armor, which seemed so expertly wrought that he was even a little jealous, wishing he had small etchings on the armor Reggie had given him. Still, he knew that their lack of resources and blacksmiths meant that Reggie had to prioritize function over form and didn’t have the time to add art.

  “They are only capable of dismantling the ship, your people will be needed for the greatest threat they will face there: the commander of the vessel,” the Black Witch explained, and along with her words came the image of a dragon in his mind, a monster on par with the one that had led the attack on his world. Unfortunately, his grandfather wasn’t there this time, and there were no Crimson Crusaders to help him. She was asking him to defeat a dragon on his own, without even Mr. Walters to assist him.

  Can we actually do it? he wondered, hesitating for a moment as he continued to watch the group of knights setting up the launchers.

  “Nick, I know you will return safely from this mission, as you have from a thousand before it,” the Black Witch assured him.

  Against a dragon? Nick frowned, remembering the devastating power with which his grandfather had fought in the match between him and the dragon back in his home realm. It had been so great that entire buildings had been reduced to rubble, and his grandfather hadn’t even survived the match as he’d given his life to protect Nick.

  “Nick, there are no other options. I believe in you, I know you can do it. I know you can succeed because, if you fail, the dragons will pour through the frozen north with legions of the best dragonkin under their command and conquer this region within a fortnight,” the Black Witch warned.

  Well, at least I won’t be fighting alone like you were, Grandfather, Nick told himself, taking a deep breath. And I’m also not who I was when the rift broke open. Nick looked over at the devices, now ready and waiting. He mustered his resolve and walked forward.

  “Alright,” he told his team, “we’re going in fast, we’re going in strong, and we’re going in first. We’re going to kill every single one of the flyers before they even get a chance to report back to that horrendous lizard den that the tribute was missing.”

  “That’s right! MURDER HOBO TIME IN THE SKY!!! LET’S GO!!” Topaz shouted as she finished materializing a special grenade and loading it into the launcher.

  “‘Tis a good day to die!” Christina bellowed, quoting her favorite game yet again.

  “I haven’t recovered enough mana to help . . .” Spencer warned as he drank a mana potion, having spent more than any mage would ever spend normally in a fight.

  “I’m tapped out too,” Clarissa added, “and, you know, since it’s in the sky . . .”

  Taejo, still covered in his own blood despite Adele healing his injuries, quickly volunteered. “I’ll handle the magic then.”

  “Sounds good. You two can stay back and keep the injured safe, and, Derryl, you keep them safe just in case the herbivores try anything,” Nick ordered, worried about those he couldn’t take with him.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Derryl replied, giving a haphazard salut before running over to where Adele had Noelle and Tabitha recovering, Spencer and Clarissa following as Nick walked over to the launching device.

  “‘Tis a good day to die indeed,” he mumbled to himself, sparing one last glance at Seo-ah before stepping on the modified ballista and preparing to be launched.

  “Don’t worry, Nick, you will not die. You’re caught in the time stream with me now. We’ll just restart from the beginning if something goes wrong,” the Black Witch told him, as if the words could ever be comforting—as if he could ever settle for losing the Seo-ah he loved and starting over.