áine’s skill activated and surged through my neck. The wound sealed over and I traced a line across the skin, feeling it smooth and unblemished.

  As I stood up I stared at the massive hole beneath me. Its sight caused a flash of pain in my eyes as the abyss underneath flickered around the jagged edges of reality. Beneath it, something lurked, shifting the sea of shadows.

  To my side a shrill scream pierced the air, drawing my attention.

  The human stabbed frantically at the creature, cutting through shadows only to find the popped balloon of black refill itself and repair the cuts. Metal met the creature, and came out clean before a crab-like pincer snapped at its edge.

  A shard chipped, its edges smooth despite the jagged appendage that grabbed it. The blade entered again, creating another hole and this time slashing at a diagonal across the bulbous arm holding the creature up.

  Another claw: another chip. It refilled the space and the human shifted his stance to carve the offending appendage away from his body.

  I stared behind the spectacle, observing the ‘fight.’

  Defensive skill is absent—panic? Mana fluctuation. Cut on right cheek, chunk off right arm. Wasted energy on screaming, should correct. Losing air.

  Another ten seconds of frantic slashes left me with only one word to describe the scene.

  Inefficient.

  Without its armor the creature bounced around as it shifted its weight. When the sand gave way to immaterialized shadows the human failed to capitalize on the weakness and instead created another puncture wound against its shoulder.

  As expected the attack failed to do anything meaningful to the creature and allowed it to stumble forward and latch onto his shoulder. The human had enough reaction time to pull away but not before the creature pinched down and tore at his armor. Leather came undone as did a quarter of flesh along his upper arm.

  A spear sliced through the pincer arms and severed them as the wielder retreated five paces. Unfortunately for him where one claw dropped onto the sand and melted into goop, two more took its place.

  “No! N-no! Get away! Get away!” he screamed.

  A pulse dragged my gaze toward the seam but another scream forced me away for a second time.

  Erebus sent his annoyance through a series of clicks but he adjusted the mana around my claws. I approached the living balloon from behind and waited for the right moment.

  “Stop!”

  A surge of mana blasted through the creature’s chest, and a glittering blue blade pierced through the shadow flesh and nearly grazed my sternum. With a twist the skill exploded and sent a shockwave around the spearhead, obliterating the space around it. The skill gave, turning into dust while a sharp crack raced through the metal head and three inches down the shaft.

  For the first time since manifesting its true form, the creature stuttered.

  I leaned forward, watching the strands of goop pool inside the solid meat and drip down creating a sticky black web. The mesh slowly reformed, binding together as the creature slumped forward. Its heavy arms sent sand flying, and a guttural roar rumbled outward.

  “Roooouuuuugggghhh.”

  “Why won’t you die?!” the man shrieked. The spearhead retracted and mana rushed into its tip forming the diamond. But as the skill shaped the point it failed to stretch and the metal gave way, shattering into fragments and sending the backlash into the shaft. The three-inch crack split the shaft apart nearly a foot in length before petering out.

  Between the black mesh, the human’s eyes shed tears as they quivered at the sight.

  “No… Please no…”

  I sighed. “Useless.”

  The creature reared up and slammed a meaty claw against the ground. It raised its second arm and three pincers became five with more sprouting from the limb like angry snakes that snipped the air.

  Erebus sent another trill, and the mana around my claws hardened into fine blades.

  Before the creature could smash the human into a pancake and rip him to shreds, I shoved my arm forward. While nearly sealed, the hole remained wide enough for my searching fingers. And when my claws met resistance, they easily parted the creature’s skin.

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  I trailed up and toward the right. As I felt a hard object clink against my chitin, I gripped the core and tore my arm free. Black goop rained across the human as I flicked my wrist and moved aside.

  “Rouuu…”

  Its body flopped onto the sand. The noble’s skin began to hiss and bubble, but he didn’t move, nor did his eyes leave the creature. Slowly, its form lost cohesion and it too bubbled and turned into goop that pooled together. But as it did, what was once its arm spiraled up and toward the purple orb in my grip. One of the strands latched around my wrist and attempted to push into my arm. It failed to penetrate the bone-white chitin and squirmed its way up my palm and toward the orb.

  When the shadowy-tendril met the purple orb mana pulsed and more strands snaked across my limb. The puddle below lifted from the sand and up my leg, leaving behind a cold trail of frost crystals over the grains.

  The human man backed away, still stunned but with enough self preservation to at least attempt a retreat. He managed to flop once before his arms gave out.

  Fear. Pale skin around the injuries. Tainted blood?

  Where the claws had pinched and the goop landed across his body, the color of his skin paled and blackened. From the trembling it was easy to see how much of his fatigue was due to mana fatigue and blood loss.

  Pain radiated from my pinky and I raised my hand to stare at the thick tentacle squeezing down attempting to pry the orb from my grasp.

  Erebus sent a disgusted trill, one filled with anger and annoyance. He sent the thoughts and I allowed it to guide my mana. From the shadows rose grey thread weaved together and bound the shadows into something solid. They surrounded the core and encased it in Erebus’ skill, reminding me of a loot orb.

  Unlike the usual goodie bag his skill created when he harvested from a corpse, I could feel the weight in my hand. And as I squeezed, the shadow creature’s core squealed, physically present unlike items from the loot orbs.

  “Riiii…” the shadow mass wheezed.

  As I lifted my arm away from the puddle it lost its cohesion and returned to pooling beneath my feet. It slid off the chitin along my boots and my arms and dripped down, remaining inert. I observed it, waiting incase the creature came to life for the second time but half a minute ticked by with no reaction.

  “You killed it. Haah,” the man sighed.

  I cocked my head and frowned. “And you didn’t. Why?”

  “What?” he coughed.

  I stepped closer and crouched to meet his gaze evenly. He tried to move back but his legs refused his command to move, earning a maddened glare from the man.

  “Inefficient. A noble, you’ve fought monsters, yes?”

  “I, uh-”

  “Answer the question.”

  He swallowed and leaned away. “Y-yes.”

  “Then why did you forget all of your training? A noble of house Ajestella. A major house. Yet in the face of an easy monster you failed to aim for its core, failed to sense it. You attacked despite the ineffectiveness of your hits and continued. Why?”

  “S-sense it?” he asked, disbelief coloring his voice as his pitch raised to even shrilled heights. “How could I sense anything inside a shadeling! You threw a monster at me! Of course I attacked it!”

  He pointed an accusing finger my way, but his strength gave out and left him shaking in place.

  “I see,” I said slowly. Standing up, I pocketed the orb and placed it inside a pouch along my belt before heading over to the seam still splitting reality a couple of feet away. My foot met the edge and the hole widened further. “Then to get more results, I just need to toss another spirit at you.”

  “You what? No!”

  My arms plunged into the hole and I sent mana down my arms and to spread through the shadowplane. The bubble formed around my palms and I pushed another thread into the flow increasing the reach.

  “With a wide net, I should be able to grab something bigger. You are a noble supplied by the house; use a healing potion.”

  “They are forbidden inside an arena match…” he said, voice trailing at the end.

  My frown deepened. “Useless.”

  I closed my eyes and shut the world out, letting my senses focus solely around the area inside the shadow plane. I knew something was there, I saw it push around the shadows before I stopped to watch the human fight.

  More.

  More mana filled the space until I covered an area four times my arm-span. Carefully, avoiding the edges around the entrance, I moved my arms down and then around, hoping to attract something to take the bait.

  And sure enough, something did.

  When it entered the bubble I controlled space shifted and slowed, breaking away. It pushed forward, hardening the sea around it, slowing my hand to a crawl as I tried to adjust my position. I let more mana replace what I lost but found it ripped away the further the creature pushed.

  It's big. Three times larger?

  Erebus shrieked through the link and I kicked away, leaping from my position and tearing my arms out of the hole. Before I landed an ear-splitting roar boomed and forced me back. The enchantments along my ring suppressed the noise, but it didn’t stop the wall of air pushing against my chest.

  I dug my heels into the sand and stopped.

  “Oh,” I blinked. “Incorrect guess. Ten times larger? No… More.”

  A tentacle slammed against the arena pit, and shook the earth. It rose into the air as a obsidian monolith jutting blackened spines longer than my arms. Undulating it moved through the air, leaving behind a trail of frost that wisped away.

  SLAM!

  A second tentacle emerged, forcing the hole wider. Nearly the width of Arturous, the entrance continued to spread further until a third and then forth appendage appeared.

  I backed away as more of the creature emerged, revealing slick glass-like ridges coated in thousands of tiny tendrils. It reminded me of a large turtle but with the arms of a squid.

  To my right, the human screamed and screamed. Blood slipped from his mouth and he dropped, head hitting the sand as his eyes fluttered shut.

  “Too big,” I grunted.

  Its head rose from the shadowy sea, carrying the abyss with it, creating a waterfall that torrent into the earth. It’s larged fanged maw split three ways with another bunch of clawed tendrils sprouting downward.

  “Rooough!”

  It vibrated the air, and the enchantments around the edges of the arena flashed into existence before several of the runes started to shatter.

  What now Erebus?

  I took another step before mana surged from above and a blinding sun formed in the sky. Its golden light seared the world and the great entity looked up and roared again.

  Its cry silenced as a blade wider than its head pierced the earth and released a wave of searing light that erupted and turned the world white.