Despite the intensity I was pushing into the artificial gravity field with Infusion, the monster was still slowly rising. I thought I had made it strong enough to keep it trapped entirely, powerful enough to prevent it from moving even a single limb. That would have made things very simple for me.

  Unfortunately, the bug I had caught in my trap was strong. It started moving out of the zone of intense gravitational force I had created. Just my luck I probably caught a Gold-ranked monster.

  I shook my head. With me being one of the strongest people on Ring Four, it was a good thing I had ensnared one of the more dangerous threats.

  The monster in question was one ugly schmuck. One of the reasons I hated the meals made of insects here in Zairgon was because the little creepy-crawlies just weirded me out on a deep, visceral level, a reaction I couldn’t even begin to consider combating.

  It was the same with this oversized version of a common food here. The centipede was covered in thick, black carapaces that sported hairs as thick as my finger at the base. Its toothy maw was drooling acidic spit, its giant mandibles clicking together with enough threatening power to probably punch through a car’s chassis. Its butterflylike wings buzzed as fast as a fly’s.

  I took only a few moments to determine how I was going to deal with this thing. It was an insect. A bug. One that needed to be squashed, no matter how sized up it was.

  Of course, doing so was going to be a lot easier said than done. But my mind was already coming up with ideas. I just had to dodge the way it lunged at me that was far too fast for something its size.

  Thankfully, I was focusing on my Agility, on Reflexive Mana to jerk me out of the way as soon as the monster’s attacks triggered one of the javelin-like lines of mana. I tried hitting it with my mace, but the blows were glancing at best. Even when they did connect properly, I hardly left a scratch on the hard chitin. This thing’s carapace was tough.

  Which was why I’d need my plan to work properly.

  Strangely, it seemed to totally forget wherever it was heading earlier. Now, its attention was focused entirely on me. If anything, said attention seemed to grow several degrees more intense as it faced me properly.

  Then its attacks began flashing in with furious pace and power.

  It wasn’t difficult to avoid, thankfully. The monster only had a couple of ways of attacking. It was either the swipes and lunges with its mouth, or a choice between a spit ball or spray of acidic saliva. Neither was difficult to evade.

  At least, up until the monster added the other end into the fray.

  I was a little caught off-guard when the rear end of the monster curled in with devastating speed, possessing what looked like a scorpion stinger. My Agility Augmentation was all that saved me from getting impaled, though dodging that left me open to a follow-up swipe with the mouth. That hit me hard enough to send me stumbling backwards, almost losing my footing.

  It was trying to corner me. I was running out of space to dodge. There were houses around me I could try breaking through, but that wasn’t my goal.

  Keeping the monster here was what I needed to accomplish.

  Which probably wasn’t going to be hard with how incensed it seemed to be, like I had insulted its poor old grandma. Something strange was going on.

  It was getting more and more invested in staying here. I continued evading its lunges and thrusts as best as I could, dancing away from the rain of acidic spit to the best of my ability.

  And all the while, I was pouring out my mana in threads, sending it to the ground and to the air around me, channelling Gravity and Flare, little pockets of heat energy appearing all around the area.

  I just needed to wait for the right moment, until I had made sure that the monster would be bearing the full brunt of my counter.

  Sadly, I hadn’t counted on it taking to the air and going off on a little rampage.

  It shot a couple dozen feet high above me, its wings buzzing like a saw, then rushed down with incredible speed and power. I barely evaded the collision, before jumping to avoid the swiping follow-up with the stinger, but that still caught me. My foot got struck by its body, which made my momentum do odd things before I struck the ground, hard.

  The monster screeched above me like it had already won. Then it was striking down with its drooling, snapping mandibles in the next instant.

  This was as good a time as any to take care of the insect monster.

  I jumped straight upwards with as much force as my Gold-ranked Power could muster. The speed of my sudden ascent made the Swarm-monster miss. My body was already being lightened with Siphon as I rose higher and higher.

  It was as I was rising that I felt the strangeness again. My mana core was whirring faster and faster, despite me not using any of my Ignition Charges. Those strange, depressing sensations came up again, but the adrenaline rushing through my veins helped push them away. Why was my mana core acting up now?

  I ignored it and focused on the next stage of the fight. On how I was taking this overgrown bug down.

  All the Flare I had been channelling with Capacity and Concentration had gathered in pockets all around the little battlefield. Now, I released them all and let Flare take its true course. The gathered heat exploded out, the little shockwaves helping propel me even higher. All those little bursts kept the monster screeching, shrieking, and locked to the ground.

  Then I crashed down. Field Manipulation activated, locking in the monster even further. Not completely, but for just long enough. It also had me plummeting with meteoric speed. I enhanced my momentum by raising my weight with Infusion, turning my whole body into a crushing boulder.

  Images of all the times I had practiced this exact scenario to raise my Vitality and even my Power a few times flashed through my head. I could do this.

  The monster raised its maw and fired off its acidic spit. Shit.

  I tried to focus my Gravity to connect with the blobs of spit and push them away with something like Siphon. But there was already a strong Field Manipulation active. Plus, I was trying to focus on the Affix I had been trying to learn with Master Kostis’s help recently. An Affix I didn’t have yet.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  With a heavy stinging sensation, I proceeded to crash through the flying blobs of acid. My cultist robes started dissolving, as did a good chunk of my skin and flesh, like I had been dipped in a pool of hydrochloric acid.

  But I soldiered through the pain because the next instant, I was smashing down on top of my target.

  I caught the gigantic bug in the best state possible. My downward momentum with the mace extended caught its head and split it apart with a squelch of arthropod blood and flesh. I had landed with enough force to crack apart its ridiculously hard chitinous shell. My momentum forced the monster down farther until I was crashing into the rest of its body with just as much deadly force.

  When I finally touched down on the ground, the only reason I didn’t shatter my own bones was because of the buffer from the monster’s body. It still hurt worse than the flesh-dissolving burns the monster’s saliva had left. A dislocated shoulder and cracked ribs surprisingly won in the contest of pain.

  I got back up shakily. At least Mana Heal was rapidly taking care of the most serious injuries. The flesh wounds and the rib cracks weren’t going to disappear so easily, but at least my right arm was slowly turning more functional.

  [ Rank Up!

  Your Power, Vitality, Agility, Thauma, and Spirit Attributes have risen by one Rank.

  Your Flare Aspect has risen by one Rank.

  Power: Gold II

  Vitality: Gold I

  Agility: Silver X

  Spirit: Silver X

  Thauma: Iron IV

  Flare: Silver I ]

  Ah, interesting. Now I had not one but two new Augmentations to ponder over, and Flare was now Silver too, which meant even more new Affixes to consider! Not to mention two Attributes a step away from Gold as well. Considerations for when this whole Blight Swarm business was done.

  The monster’s corpse seemed to bubble. Its blood was whitish green, but it was leaking some sort of dark ooze. A bubbling, viscous darkness that disquieted me.

  It was dead for real though, so I ignored it for now.

  I was trying to find my next target, but it looked like the battle was winding down. Then I shook my head. No, I couldn’t go around acting like some kind of lone powerhouse single-handedly trying to save the entirety of Ring Four. I had to act like the leader I was.

  “Ross!” Sreketh was dashing up to me, her fingers covered in a worrying amount of red. “No, don’t worry. This is just paint!”

  “Why’d you have to use red paint?”

  “Well, because I wasn’t using it before… and then I ran out of the others. But shut up and let me heal you.”

  “You can do that now? Did you figure out how to draw a healer?”

  “Kind… of? Just give me a second. Things are looking fine. Most people aren’t hurt, and most of the giant bugs are dead.” She licked her lips at that last bit. I stared. Right. For someone who enjoyed feasting on insects, this had to be heaven. I tried not to shudder.

  Her painting was coming along at a decent pace, but my whole body was still restless. I had to at least get to a location where I could be at a better spot in case I was needed. But no. Patience. That was what I had to hold on to. The battle plans were already in motion, already being executed as well as they could have been.

  I didn’t exactly have active battlefield leadership experience. After all, I was the leader of a cult, not an army or a band of mercenaries.

  Sreketh’s painting was done. Honestly, her representation of a healer surprised me with how accurate and lifelike it looked. I could make out details like potion bottles and what looked like a bandage roll next to the figure. The Weave considered that a sufficient painting too, because it began glowing green the next second as healing energy poured into me. Mana Heal was working, but Sreketh’s healing turned out to be much faster.

  I sighed out a quick but relaxed breath. The pain down my shoulder and arm instantly began lessening, as did the ache in my cracked ribs. I didn’t know the full effectiveness of Sreketh’s healing abilities via her Aspect of Painted Power, so this was as good a time as any to find out.

  My mind strayed to the battle. She was right. Things were dying down, though it wasn’t over just yet. I could hear the distant roars of people fighting, screeches of bugs rending the air, the rare crash or thump or explosive bang. All slowly but surely dwindling.

  Even that aerial battle between the Councillor and the overpowered bug was nowhere to be seen. I could only assume the draconic Scalekin had finally subdued the monster.

  “Wait,” I said, suddenly spotting something that made my heart start to thud again. “What’s that—shit.”

  It was a giant bug. Another of the flying centipedes rushing in airborne. Farther behind it, I saw several of the Scarthralls giving chase, but they were too far away.

  Too far to catch it before it crashed into one of the local houses that actually had people in it.

  I started rushing too, ignoring Sreketh’s cry about the lost healing. Apparently, her painting needed the subject to remain stationary. Well, that wasn’t happening now. I needed to get there before the stupid oversized centipede made mincemeat of—

  Someone jumped on top of the hovel’s roof before calling up a giant black wall from nowhere. The centipede couldn’t arrest its momentum fast enough. It crashed into the wall with a screech, before slumping back down to the ground, so stunned that it looked like I was holding it in place with Gravity.

  I could only stare. That was Revayne on top of the house.

  “You know,” I murmured faintly as a few other guards appeared a second later, attacking the downed monster and hacking it apart with an array of different Aspects. “I keep wondering what’s the difference between your Painted Power and Revayne’s Escapism.”

  “Escapism?” Sreketh asked. “Is that what the Guard Captain’s Aspect is?”

  I nodded, my attention mostly arrested by the way the guards dealt with the monster. One Scalekin dashed in like he was skating on ice, his sword leaving trails of frost. Another Rakshasa was throwing pebbles that magically turned into boulders before impact.

  Revayne didn’t even need to join the fight before the huge bug was a squashed, dead mess.

  “And that,” Revayne was saying as I approached. “Takes care of the last of them.”

  I blinked, finding it a little hard to believe that the Blight Swarm had been repelled so… easily. “But it’s far from actually being over, isn’t it?”

  She didn’t look down at me, her face still inside her book again. “Correct. As I said, this was merely a probe of our defences and our level of preparation. They wanted to gauge our strength. Now, they will act accordingly when next they attack.”

  It really was over for the time being, though. I could no longer hear any sounds of fighting anywhere. People looked as shocked as they were happy at surviving. Several of the emerging non-combatants were peering and pointing at the humongous bug corpses lying all over the neighbourhood.

  I figured I ought to address everyone present, should give directions on what to do next, and most importantly, solidify our morale and our faith in ourselves. We had done it, after all. We had won.

  But before I could think about what was going on, the fiery draconic Scalekin was taking up all the attention.

  He arrived like a giant fireball at the gate between Rings Three and Four, just not as destructively as his landing would suggest. His loud voice drew everybody on both sides of the gate towards him.

  I found myself being dragged towards the big guy as a river of people slowly moved in the Councillor’s direction.

  “Just go with it, Ross,” Revayne said when she found me trying to push back. “I’m certain his address won’t take long. And it might be worth it to hear what he has to say.”

  The way her tone changed at the last bit suggested that paying attention really would be to my benefit. “What do you mean?”

  “Our work, our defence of Zairgon, isn’t done here. There is more to be done yet.”

  “For when the Blight Swarm attacks with their real force, right?”

  “Well, there is that.” A river of people was pushing us forward, so Revayne had to raise her voice to be heard over the general din. “But right this moment, we have one more task we need to accomplish.” She looked up from her book just long enough to flash me a small smile. “Can you guess what?”

  I didn’t have the faintest clue. “Uh, cleanup duty?”

  She laughed, so surprised that she actually had to close her book for a second. “I’ll give you a hint—offence is the best defence.”

  I blinked. No way. “We’re going to attack the Blight Swarm?”