The dragon roared at its escaping prey, a deafening sound that rattled leaves off trees and threatened to turn Ayn’s legs to jelly. A cacophony of chitters, chirps, howls, and smaller roars answered as the forest came to life around them.

  AEGIS OF AGILITY ACTIVATED

  A shiny squirrel bounced off Ayn’s shield, the hairs on its tail glowing the same electric blue as the dragon’s eyes.

  46 POINTS OF ABSORBTION REMAINING

  Little songbirds swooped out of tree branches, their gears whirring as they dove, and broke against the Aegis, whittling away what was left. The dragon roared again, its rumble barely reaching them. Ayn and her party didn’t slow. As aggressive as it was, the dragon didn’t seem to be keeping up.

  Ayn’s Aegis shattered. The onslaught of little forest creatures stopped. Ayn didn’t have time to breathe a sigh of relief before the sleek forms of four metal wolves fell into place on either side. Their copper bodies moved with fluid-like ease, keeping up with the party with no effort at all.

  Kayara broke ranks. Her daggers flashed out, aiming for a wolf’s neck. Baatar lunged, far less gracefully, at the next in line while Ayn engaged a third. Metal screeched on metal. Blue fluid leaked from the automatons’ wounds, but like the grasshoppers, they didn’t stop.

  Ayn’s aim had been a little off. She’d missed the neck, instead cutting a deep groove across her target’s shoulder. The injured leg went limp. Its owner didn’t seem to notice. The wolf twisted, latching on to Ayn’s arm with the force of a vise. Pain exploded over her arm. Her hand opened of its own accord and dropped her saber to the dirt.

  HEALTH AT 504

  Her other arm arced up in reflex and embedded her remaining saber into the wolf’s eye. Blue burst out, mingling with the red of her own blood. The wolf bit harder.

  HEALTH AT 440

  Shit. She wrenched her saber free and tried again on the head, the neck, on any vital spot she could think of. She didn’t have the leverage to separate the head from the body. All she could do was hope the automatons had another weakness.

  On her fourth strike, she hit what would have been the jugular in a normal wolf. Blue flooded out, and finally, the wolf’s jaws went slack. Ayn stumbled back, the sudden release of pressure leaving her light-headed.

  Bren yelled. Ayn shoved down her discomfort and spun to defend him. The fourth wolf struggled to free itself from earthen spikes. It snarled and snapped, all its focus on tearing off Bren’s face.

  Kayara finished off her wolverine’s prey with a quick slash and turned to the impaled wolf. Her eyes went wide as they passed over Ayn. “Damn it, Sheyric. Heal, idiot!”

  Sheyric, who had been hiding behind Bren, jerked at Kayara’s voice and quickly obliged. Ayn had just got feeling back in her arm when more songbirds closed in on them. Ayn dove for her dropped weapon, knocking over the lame, limp-headed wolf who’d chewed her up. Yells and yelps came from her party.

  AEGIS OF AGILITY ON COOLDOWN

  FOUR MINUTES AND EIGHT SECONDS REMAINING

  Too long.

  Green light lit up the area as Sheyric’s regen aura came up. A metal sparrow to his head dropped it again.

  Ayn scrambled to his side. “Drink a healing potion if you need to,” she said. She caught the glint of a dive-bombing bird and cut it down before it hit. “Put your regen back up. You should be able to run with it on, so get ready.”

  The aura came back up, and Ayn gave the command. They had to keep running. Not only were the forest creatures not letting up, but Ayn could also feel a steady, rhythmic vibration from the ground. Footsteps. Big ones, and they were getting closer. They’d sprinted maybe half the length of a football field when two metal-crafted bears cut them off.

  Small gears spun at the hinge of their jaws and joints, the only weak spots visible in otherwise solid bronze. At the size of horses, their metal plated bulk made an impassable barrier.

  The party skid to a stop. As if to prove the obvious, the bear automatons stood on their back legs and roared. The sound of smaller creatures responded from all around. A second later, a massive roar shook the forest. The clockwork dragon was catching up.

  Kayara feinted right. Ayn got the idea and feinted left. The bears called their bluff and dropped forward, powerful jaws snapping toward the spellcasters. Ayn and Kayara pulled back. The bears stomped forward in tandem.

  Clearly, splitting the mobs wouldn’t work. Kayara ducked, a squirrel soaring over her head. It hit the dirt where Baatar bit it in two. The bushes and trees rustled, and the second swarm descended.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Clockwork squirrels, birds, rabbits. Hell, Ayn was fairly certain she glimpsed a butterfly before Kayara cut it down. The entire forest seemed to descend on them, and Ayn lost herself to the adrenaline, letting the feel of the air and the sound of gears and screeching metal guide her movements and her strikes.

  Two minutes. She needed to keep everyone alive for two minutes, then her Aegis would be off cooldown. That was fine. There were a hell of a lot of mobs around, and Adrenaline Junkie increased her dodge chance for every one.

  Ayn twisted, simultaneously dodging a pair of birds and clipping their wings against her sabers as they passed. A rabbit kicked at her ankle. She shifted back, using the momentum to pivot in place and boot the long-eared menace back into the bush. The clockwork bears remained as growling walls blocking their path forward while the rest of the forest kept them pre-occupied.

  A footfall, the loudest yet, rattled Ayn’s teeth.

  In an instant, the onslaught stopped. The smaller creatures turned and fled, and the bears shuffled away, leaving their dismembered comrades and the stink of burning wires. The clockwork dragon stared down at them once more.

  AEGIS OF AGILITY ON COOLDOWN

  FIFTY-ONE SECONDS REMAINING

  Less than a minute. As Ayn watched the dragon’s lips peel back to reveal blades of teeth, it felt like an eternity.

  “Everyone!” Kayara yelled. “Grab on to me!”

  Ayn dragged her eyes away from the gaping mouth as it arced down to eat her. Her party had stayed grouped together, for defense, and for regen, but as she reached for Kayara’s hand, it still felt too far.

  A black and brown furball sailed by as Ayn’s hand touched Kayara’s, and everything blinked away. Something heavy collided with Ayn, and she fell face first. She didn’t care. She’d grabbed Kayara’s hand before the dragon got to her, and they’d teleported away. That’s all that mattered.

  She looked up. Bren and Sheyric still clung to Kayara, faces pale. Kayara’s eyes were wide behind her mask, her normally tan skin a sickly shade. Ayn didn’t understand. They’d got away. It wasn’t far, but it gave them a chance to run. All she needed to do was get out from under the weight on her lower half. She rolled over, expecting to see a tree limb, or part of an automaton. Instead, Baatar lay limply over her legs with a sizable chunk missing from his side. Blood ran freely from the jagged edged wound. It soaked into Ayn’s armor and the soil.

  Kayara, silent and ashen, dropped to Ayn’s side and placed her hands over the wound. She barely covered a fraction of it. It seemed a pointless act, until, as Ayn watched, the wound began to seal; the flow slowing even as more soaked Kayara’s side.

  Ayn’s brain finally caught up to what was happening. “Sheyric, heal Kayara, and don’t stop until Baatar is healed.”

  A familiar healed on its own by consuming its summoner’s mana. An animal companion healed no better than a Rebirth yet couldn’t be healed by standard healer class spells. Kayara had to give her health to Baatar and take on his wounds herself. Without a healer, she’d die just as Baatar was. With Sheyric at her back, she’d live, although Ayn didn’t envy the pain of a wound opening as it healed.

  The clockwork dragon roared. By the sound, it wasn’t far and would be on top of them again quickly. The smaller creatures were even faster. The telltale chirps of clockwork birds came from overhead. One hit as the last of Baatar’s wound sealed shut.

  AEGIS OF AGILITY ACTIVATED

  210 POINTS OF ABSORBTION REMAINING

  Baatar rumbled, a slight wobble in his step when he moved off of Ayn’s legs. Kayara put a hand up and waved off Sheyric’s heals even though blood still oozed from her side and her face stayed ashen.

  Ayn didn’t have time to argue.

  She scrambled up, more birds peppering her shield, and pulled Kayara up beside her. “We need to keep moving. Can you do it?”

  Kayara yanked her arm out of Ayn’s grip and stumbled back a step. “I’m fine. In fact, why don’t we end this shit right now before we all end up dead?”

  “Kay—”

  “Bren!”

  Bren jumped, the rhythm he’d been drumming faltering.

  “If these bastards are all running off the same power source, how big do you think it is?”

  Bren shot a Hydra fireball without finishing his stanza. “Normally, it wouldn’t even be possible—”

  “How big?”

  “I don’t know. Huge, I guess!”

  Kayara smacked Sheyric on the shoulder. “Keep me healed, or I’ll come back to haunt you.”

  With that, she darted out from under the protective bubble of the Aegis, and straight up a tree.

  Ayn barely had time to register what had happened before Kayara was out of sight, the boughs of the broad-leafed tree she climbed closing over her. She’d run up the thing like a squirrel, arms and legs braced against the trunk. Ayn had never seen anything like it.

  Sheyric grunted, hands up. “Can’t see.”

  Healing needed line of sight. Ayn’s heart dropped. Then again, if Kayara didn’t come back real soon, the Aegis would fall, the dragon would catch up, and they’d all need healing.

  Baatar snagged what looked like a metal gopher between his jaws and bit it in half. Bren cast more fireballs, dropping acrid-smelling birds. The shield still went down.

  Ayn nearly fainted when Kayara dropped out of the tree and landed in front of her as if she’d just been out for a stroll.

  “I know where the power source is,” Kayara said.

  Ayn could see the clockwork dragon’s mass twisting between the trees, its serpentine body as flexible as water. The forest creatures scattered at its approach. Ayn saw no reason not to do the same.

  Kayara took the lead. It didn’t take long before the dragon realized it couldn’t catch up and sent more assailants their way. All they could do was pick off what attackers they could without slowing, while Sheyric slung heals almost as fast as Bren flung fireballs. Their attackers were coming in greater numbers, and faster, until regen was a moot point. By the time the power source came into view, they were all bleeding, and Ayn wasn’t sure Sheyric had any mana left.

  The power source turned out to be an orb of glowing blue about twenty feet in diameter embedded in a copper ring. Metal tubes and filaments sprouted from the ring and disappeared into the soil like artificial roots, pulsing blue power into the forest floor. The whole thing sat in a clearing sixty feet across. If the orb had been alone in the clearing, Ayn would have happily sunk her sabers into it without a second thought. But, of course, it wasn’t that easy.

  A massive centipede curled around the orb’s base with copper plates layered down its body. Filamentous legs undulated as it raised a head adorned with spikes, showing off two large, bladed fangs dripping with green liquid.

  A blue wall shimmered to life as the party crossed into the clearing.