Gray dove down to the ground as fast as she could, then came to a halt at the center of the crater. The ground was black and smouldering, and Pirin couldn’t make out much beneath the layers of ash, but the slopes of the crater exposed tunnels of the catacombs.

  “How much do you wanna bet the last Dominion resistance is hiding in there?” Pirin whispered.

  I get extra birdseed if you’re wrong, and I get extra birdseed if you’re right?

  “You did do a lot of flying today. Definitely earned it.” Pirin drew his sword and shut his eyes. He hadn’t had time to accumulate any more pure Essence, and he only had half his usual supply of gnatsnapper Essence left. But it’d have to be enough. But, for good measure, he drew the stub of his sword.

  How do you know they’re in there? Gray asked.

  “Who else would blow up a residential district? I sure hope it wasn’t any of our guys, but either way, we need to find out.”

  They could’ve escaped the city.

  “I suspect that goes for many of the regular soldiers. But for the wizard?” Pirin shook his head. “Do you really think the Dominion would just let a Blaze go after abandoning a city? Even if they’ve chosen not to care about Vel Aerdeil.”

  Gray rumbled softly. I suppose not. Their pride is too great, punishment for failure too steep. If they stay here, they can cause havoc.

  “Which means we have to root them out.”

  Pirin shut his eyes and relied on his spiritual senses. What he’d previously thought of as a push and pull, he now registered as a weight. It felt like it was pushing down on his core from one direction or another.

  Today, it was pushing from a direction toward the city center and the Summer Palace. The wizard wasn’t even veiling himself anymore. He’d probably detonated a weapons cache in the catacombs with his abilities.

  “Oh, you better not be doing what I think you’re doing…” Pirin muttered. “If he destroys the throne, we’re done for.”

  Can he destroy the throne? Gray asked.

  “I don’t want to find out.”

  What if he’s trying to lead you into a trap?

  “Then we spring it. The cost of waiting is too great.”

  He ran up the slope of the crater and stepped into the nearest catacomb hallway. It led toward the city center—in the direction of the Dominion wizard—and Pirin followed it.

  The walls were thin shelves of white limestone with elven skeletons crammed in between. They’d been in here for centuries, but a smell of rot lingered. Dark Essence seeped from their bones and manifested in the cracks of the bricks, giving them bulging, black veins. Elves had a slight inherent magic to them, still, even if most couldn’t manifest it. But the world seemed to hate when they died.

  Or, simply, there was a by-product left behind when they did die.

  The hallway’s arched ceiling was twice the height of Pirin, and the hall was just wide enough for Gray to follow him through.

  He slid on his mask and flooded the runes with power. If he needed, he could draw on gnatsnapper Essence.

  But Gray was right. If this was a trap, he had to be ready for battle. He wasn’t in prime fighting condition, and chances were, he was up against a Blaze with much more experience than him.

  And they couldn’t afford to move slowly. He sprinted down the hallway, relying on his enhanced body to move quickly. It drained Essence, but not as much as if he were to push with wind and use his pseudo-fortification technique.

  The walls of the hallway blurred. He tracked the feeling of spiritual weight from the other Blaze in the city.

  Pirin was faster, or the other Blaze was purposely moving slower. They had to be nearly halfway back to the summer palace by now, and wherever this Blaze was, he was close by. The weight on Pirin’s core wasn’t unbearable, but it was a direct push, and he could barely distinguish direction anymore.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Then the other Blaze’s core stopped exerting any pressure at all.

  Pirin stopped and held out a hand, then charged a Winged Fist. Gray skittered to a halt behind him.

  The wall to the left burst apart into shards of bone and black-veined limestone, but Pirin launched a burst of wind in the opposite direction, halting them mid-air before they could harm him.

  An ostal leapt through the swirling dust, wielding a heavy battle-axe with two hands. He slammed it down toward Pirin and Gray. They both rolled in opposite directions, avoiding the strike.

  The ostal wore the standard dark grey leather armour and white cloak of Dominion wizards, and runebond markings ran across his hands and up his cheeks to his eyes—like golden, runic tears. A mane of porcupine spines ran down the back of his head, and through a slit in the back of his armour and cloak.

  A hedgehog Familiar? Gray asked.

  Pirin wanted to shoot Gray a sarcastic look, as if to say “Seriously?” but the wizard unleashed a bolt of yellow Essence at him. It formed into a spine mid-air, then splintered apart and struck the wall behind him like a burst from a flak catapult.

  Pirin rolled out of the way in time, but the shards tore up a cloud of dust and stone shards, and this time, Pirin couldn’t stall them mid-air. A chunk of stone struck him in the back and sent him sprawling onto his stomach, but he rolled over and countered with a concentrated pulse of wind. It struck the wizard in the chest. At such a close range, bone cracked and flesh tore. Miniature feathers of Essence manifested in the air without Pirin trying, slicing the wizard’s armour and damaging the skin below.

  For the first time, Pirin got a good look at the wizard. He was an old ostal with grey hair and ashy rings on his horns, and his long beard had been tied into a ponytail. A porcupine clung to his shoulder, squealing with glee.

  No obvious signs of a perfect body enhancement. With the ostal’s core unveiled once more, Pirin used his spiritual sight to scan the man. Only five foundation timbers.

  But his spine glowed as well. The base of it, at least—maybe a quarter to a third of it. He’d opened…two of his Inner Gates?

  Still a threat.

  Pirin held the stub of his sword at his side and pushed himself from behind with wind. This wizard would want to keep Pirin at a distance, and Pirin couldn’t allow that. He dispersed a clump of Essence spines with a Winged Fist, then struck the battle axe’s haft with the stub of his sword. It was tough—Essence-soaked titanwood—and it resisted Pirin’s reign.

  But the wizard still stumbled, taken aback by the speed of the attack and the strength of Pirin’s enhanced body.

  He stumbled right into Gray. She struck him in the back with her beak. It’d normally be a debilitating blow, but a sheen of yellow Essence swirled over the wizard, taking on the texture of matted porcupine spikes.

  The wizard blocked fatal damage, but Gray gripped the porcupine in her beak with her next blow and dragged it off the wizard’s shoulder, then threw it down the hallway like she’d just picked up hot coals.

  Spiky! she exclaimed. Not a hedgehog!

  Pirin concentrated his Reign and manifested Essence along the remains of his blade, and the wizard did the same with his axehead. It was an arms race, but unevern. Each time Pirin struck the axehead, he drilled out a chip of steel. A crack formed through the axehead, and the weapon splintered.

  While Pirin attacked from the front, Gray pecked from behind and slashed with her talons. The wizard blocked her with pulses of spiky Essence, holding her off until the porcupine returned. It leapt at Gray and gripped her beak, then pulled her head into the wall. Its strength was concentrated, and Gray, despite her enhancements, was still a bird. She kicked the porcupine and scraped at it with her talons, keeping it away from Pirin and allowing him to focus on the wizard.

  But the wizard could also focus entirely on him.

  Striking with an open palm, the wizard drove a spike of golden Essence at Pirin’s gut. Pirin pushed against it with a current of wind, but it still pierced a few inches into his skin. He gritted his teeth, then shattered the spike with a slash of his sword stub.

  The wizard staggered back, and Pirin pressed forward. He slammed the man’s head into the wall with a gust of wind, then pushed him down to the floor with a Winged Fist. Overturning the hilt of his sword, he blocked a chorus of blows, then counter attacked and turned the fight to his prerogative.

  He batted aside the man’s battle axe, then slashed through his fortification technique with his Reign.

  The wizard’s eyes widened. “An…Embercore. Impossible…”

  “Not impossible,” Pirin spat. “I’m evidence of it.”

  If he left this wizard alive, he’d cause countless problems and headaches for Pirin. There was no question about it. Pirin drove his blade’s stub down and pierced the wizard’s heart. For good measure, he launched a Winged Fist into the man’s head. His neck snapped back, cracking from the speed, and his skull smashed against the floor.

  Pirin staggered to his feet and turned toward Gray. She hopped back on one foot. With the other talon, she gripped a porcupine quill sticking out of her shoulder. Next time, you fight the spike ball!

  “I hope we won’t have to deal with a porcupine wizard again…” He patted his gut and gasped, but the wound wasn’t as bad as it could have been. With the remaining dregs of gnatsnapper Essence in his channels, he fuelled his enhanced body and urged the strands of muscle to knit back together.

  Now, don’t get yourself into any more fights today, said Gray. We don’t have the Essence for it.

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that…” Pirin shook his head. “But since we’re in the catacombs…we need to go on an elixir hunt.”

  No better time. But…it’s getting late.

  Once we find what we need, we’ll head back to the surface. The Chancellor will need to hear about this, and we need to plan our next steps.”