The fact that these were known monsters, creatures they had already named, suggested there was also at least some knowledge on the best practices to beat them. Of course, they could have come up with the name after the last expedition, which might not have been enough time to establish a foolproof strategy that would always work.

  But even a single prior encounter would have been invaluable. I wasn’t disappointed at all.

  “The best way to beat those things is by evading!” Ugnash shouted, not just for his teammates’ benefit, but for everyone around us.

  Not that I was confident of people hearing it over the craziness everywhere. There were the massive booms of the Councillor’s clash against the oversized Steel Tyrant. There were the shrieks of the smaller Steel Lurkers, as I had learned they were called, falling from far above us.

  Well, not that far now. Those things were diving fast.

  And then there was the way we were all trying to chaotically get into position. A ring to protect non-combat focused expeditioners wasn’t going to work if the monsters could just fly over said ring.

  I forgot all about everyone else when the first of the flying monsters landed among us.

  Ugnash had been one hundred and ten percent right. Evading was pretty much the only way we were going to survive against these things.

  I had just gotten about a dozen feet away from the nearest spot where the monster dive-bombed. And even then, when it crashed to the ground, its impact sent an explosion of metal and earth flying everywhere, the shockwave ripping me off my feet as pain burst through my legs.

  “What the fuck,” I murmured as I managed to land on my feet, staggering a little before regaining my balance. I hadn’t even realized this metallic floor all over the Nether Vein could be broken. How strong were these things?

  More impacts rang with furious explosions all around me. The air was choked with dust, studded with painful shrapnel of metal that turned the atmosphere into a bullet-hell.

  I couldn’t even see my teammates anymore. Shit. Where was Cerea? Our formation had broken so easily.

  The dust cleared when the first creature flapped its metallic wings, screeching as it prepared for another attack. I could see it properly now. The monster was easily as big as a sedan, a cross between a raptor and a dragonfly, with multiple sets of wings on its back. At least they weren’t shredding through the air as fast as dragonfly wings.

  It raised itself to attack, then promptly fell back to the ground with a shrieking squawk. I grinned.

  “Stay down, you freak,” I said.

  I got moving, leaving the struggling Steel Lurker and my instance of Field Manipulation with Infusion behind. There were more screams here and there. Lots of people were shouting. The confusion was huge. I spotted more of the monsters bursting out of dust clouds, covered in ominous amounts of blood.

  With another curse, I tried to focus on how to help. Somewhere farther off, the dust and little debris were gathering in a tornado. All thanks to a wind-related Aspect someone else was using.

  Right. I knew what to do now.

  Massless Interaction and Granular Control made threads of Gravity writhe to life. I directed them to the ground, making them spread as far and as wide as I could. Sure, the formerly flat surface was now broken and pockmarked in several places, but it wouldn’t matter.

  As soon as Field Manipulation had spread far enough, I put in just enough Infusion to target and draw in only the debris floating in the air. All the dust floating there, all the little bits of metal raining on us, all of it got slammed to the Nether Vein’s floor.

  The sudden clearance shocked not just all my allies, but all the monsters too. It was almost hilarious how their screeching froze when they lost their cover.

  If only I wasn’t too busy taking advantage of it to laugh.

  I rushed to the nearest monster as it was forcing itself away, powering away from my Gravity. My mace was in my hand. More Gravity was ready. I leaped to strike it, arcing in with all the Power I could muster.

  The monster just launched its head at me with a burst of Netherthreads from its back.

  I didn’t even get to finish cursing before I was being bashed out of the air. My new Power Augmentation, Empowered Deflection, came in real handy. I wasn’t gored by that maw filled with steel teeth. Nevertheless, when it struck my mace, I was hammered away to one side.

  By the time I landed on the ground, the monster was pulling itself free of the field of artificial Gravity using its head.

  Alright, so that tactic was out. I’d need to pull out some bigger stops to take it out. Something told me my earlier blow wouldn’t have worked well anyway. That steely body looked extremely durable. A quick glance proved most people hadn’t had much luck in taking out the other monsters.

  I took a deep breath. Time for a new tactic.

  More of the monsters were swerving up far into the air to launch another devastating salvo of dive-bombs.

  “Over here!” one of the adventurers shouted. “This way!”

  Even as I looked over, people were already running to the voice. I saw why. A huge dome of coppery energy was carving itself into being above the caller. A dome that looked easily big and powerful enough to repel the monsters’ plummeting attack.

  But that wasn’t going to kill or stop the Steel Lurkers for good. I was sure about that. So, the instinctive steps I had taken towards that huge shield slowed to a stop.

  “What are you thinking now, mageling?” Khagnio asked. He didn’t stop running. I saw that his Netherthreads looked a lot wilder than before. “Now’s not the time for your craziness. Come to safety.”

  Cerea and Ugnash reiterated the same thing as they followed Khagnio. I didn’t blame them one bit.

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  “The old tactic will work, Ross,” Ugnash insisted. “You didn’t see it, but Cerea and I got one of them. I tanked the dive bomb and the subsequent blast, then Cerea was able to land a killing blow. Come on.”

  He had shouted that last bit because they were getting farther away from me. I shook my head and turned the other way. Towards where Revayne was protecting her little squadron of guards all by herself. Her book was out, her ink swirling around her comrades, the sabre of inky darkness rippling off her hand.

  “Ross!” she shouted. “Take cover!”

  Her warning wasn’t too necessary. I was channelling both my Agility Augmentations, lines of mana jutting out of me to jerk me out of harm’s way while a Manifestation of Illumination all around me meant any of the monsters touching my Aspects would gift a portion of their speed to me with Drain.

  It was the former Augmentation that obviously helped a lot more. The first Steel Lurkers that got close enough triggered the mana lines, which thrust me just far enough to evade the worst of their impacts.

  In fact, I started timing it to use their shockwaves to propel myself even farther ahead. Bless Reflexive Mana.

  That didn’t mean Drain was useless. With more and more monsters coming into contact with my Aspects, I moved faster and faster, every step taking me a greater distance. In heartbeats, I was next to Revayne, who had successfully fended off the worst of the Steel Lurkers with her whipping sword.

  “I didn’t know that thing was a sword-whip instead of a sabre,” I said.

  Revayne surveyed the fallen corpses of nearby Steel Lurkers for only a second before her face was once again inside her book. The other guards were making sure the monsters really were dead. “It’s whatever I need it to be. Did you come here for a better vantage point?”

  I wondered if her book had told her that. “For a better angle to destroy these monsters.”

  The plan Ugnash and the others had come up with would probably have worked, but there was no reason to stick to it. Not when I had come up with something that could take them down for good.

  “What are you going to do?” Revayne asked.

  “Use my Compound Aspect.”

  She looked up, eyes minorly wide. “Good plan, but you’ll need proper clearance, then.”

  Right. I wouldn’t want to hit one of the expeditioners by accident. “Then I’ll leave it to you to warn them.”

  Revayne gave me the softest glare, amplified by the rest of the guards looking like their captain was the one who was supposed to be in charge. But nobody said anything when I started focusing, Manifestation calling up Gravity, Flare, and Illumination altogether. Concentration and Capacity combined to form a long, long pole of energy, wrapped with threads of dark violet.

  “Get down!”

  Revayne’s barked command wasn’t aimed at me or the guards. Instead, she was yelling out at a couple of adventurers, one of whom was flying.

  The Steel Lurkers had risen high once again, preparing for another dive. They had lost a few of their numbers with the adventurers countering once that massive shield hanging above everyone had repulsed the last mass dive bombing. But the storm of draconic insects made of metal hadn’t diminished anywhere near enough.

  I really wasn’t one for a battle of attrition.

  The flying adventurer waved a spear around defiantly. I didn’t hear anything. We were too far away. Clearly, only Revayne possessed the power to scream across the battlefield. But I didn’t need to pick up specific words to know what was being conveyed.

  “Get down, now!” Revayne ordered again. “Unless you want to get fried with the rest of the monsters!”

  At this point, I didn’t think a warning was necessary. The monsters were diving once again, the air rushing like the start of a jet engine. Even if the adventurer disagreed with my idea, the Steel Lurkers left no choice but to find cover, not unless one wanted to get torn apart.

  “Should we take cover too?” one of the guards asked. A younger Scalekin, by the looks of things.

  “The captain will protect us,” another said. “She already did once, Glissa. Have some faith.”

  “She didn’t protect us from that.”

  The guard called Glissa was pointing at my Compound Aspect. I had gathered and compressed so much energy that the air itself was warping around us, the whole area flush with heat and a sensation like space itself was popping, a feeling that made me think of a heavy flood moving through us all.

  My hands were shaking with how much energy I was containing just then.

  “Ah, shit,” the second guard said. “You’re right…”

  Revayne looked at me in concern. “Ross…”

  “It’ll be fine,” I said. “Just maybe duck when it’s time. And take care of the ones shooting for us, please.”

  I knew I could count on Revayne to handle the Steel Lurkers heading straight for me. My goal wasn’t the riffraff. The vast majority of the monsters were diving straight for the adventurers gathered under the huge shield. That was all I had my eyes on.

  The monsters attacking us arrived like meteors but I didn’t care. Revayne yelled out and struck back before the danger could turn actually threatening. Her black sabre turned into a whip that sliced around with enough force and power to create a little hair-ruffling storm, knocking the monsters out of the air. I saw now how she had taken care of the last dive.

  But I wasn’t really paying attention. With a hammering gong like a mountain had dropped on that enormous coppery shield, the Steel Lurkers had struck. Luckily for the adventurers and everyone under the shield, it once more successfully bore the attack without letting a single monster through.

  And luckily for them, it was my turn to counter.

  “Revayne,” I said. “Might need a bit more power.”

  I knew—I just knew—that she was going to understand what I meant. That book of hers was one of the most magical things I had seen yet, and better yet, I knew how it worked.

  “Here,” she said. “Catch.”

  I was channelling Sacrifice before I had even caught the corpse of Steel Lurker. It worked too. Threads of white buzzed through the air to connect with the dead monster before it even reached me. Bless the Weave for recognizing that ownership of the body was mine without me needing to touch it.

  [ Sacrifice

  You have Sacrificed 1 [Moderate] Remnant of a Gold-ranked Steel Lurker. Windfall bonus activated.

  Reward: Essence of a Gold-ranked Steel Lurker now manifests around your body with tangible prowess for 3 hours and 20 minutes. All Iron-ranked Attributes raised by 15 Ranks, all Silver-ranked Attributes raised by 10 Ranks, and all Gold-ranked Attributes raised by 5 ranks for every battle encountered for the next 3 hours and 20 minutes. ]

  Now there was the power I needed. It burned through me with full ferocity in a mere instant. If I had thought the elongated blade of Starburst I had created was hard to control, it now turned so blistering that I was sure I’d explode if I held on even a second longer.

  “Get down!” I shouted. “Now.”

  She passed on the command to the rest of the guards. “Down, down!”

  I swung.

  The power that unleashed from my hands was several times worse than what I had used against that Blightbringer in the Blight Swarm battle. Starburst. The name was so appropriate.

  My overlong sword of energy turned into a volcanic eruption, shooting across the battlefield, crashing into the mass of monsters that had just collided with the huge shield. I felt like I had unleashed a real solar flare.

  It was difficult to see what was going on in the sheer blitz of light that forced even me to squint, and I had my Highlight Affix on too. My ears were stuffed with the rocket-engine-roar of the unleashed energy, though I could still hear the screams of the monsters, the gong of the lowering shield, and the Netherthreads shrieking ethereally against the power I had released.

  I staggered when it was done, my skin red and splotchy, my armour and clothes smoking ever so slightly. The blowback would probably have been significantly worse without Absorption and Intake.

  Everyone slowly stood fully back upright. Revayne and the guards around me, the adventurers and other expeditioners coming out from behind that huge shield, they were all staring up at the rain of ash and burning, molten remains of the army of Steel Lurkers.

  “Well,” Revayne said, coughing slightly in the smoky aftermath. “That significantly simplifies the encounter.”

  My ears were ringing, my skin tingled and stung, and my whole body was rigid with all the threads of Threaded Reinforcement now constricted and tightened. But I was grinning anyway. “Yeah, it definitely does.”

  I watched, pleased, as a small blitz of blue screens flooded my field of sight.