When I joined the others, I found Henrik still at the barricade, swinging his woodcutter's axe in large swings to keep the raiders from getting closer. Maya stood beside him, stabbing at the raiders with her pitchfork whenever she could get close to them. Three other villagers I didn’t recognize were fighting along with them

  Everyone looked scared and tired.

  A raider broke through on the left side, and he charged at Maya with a crude spear.

  I moved before I had time to think.

  I covered the distance to the raider in seconds, a lot faster than Tomas' body should have allowed.

  The raider realized I was heading towards him and tried to alter the course of his trajectory; but it was too late, I was already inside his guard.

  I stabbed my rusty sword into the raider's throat.

  The blade came out the other side and blood sprayed onto my face, hot and metallic.

  The raider collapsed, choking and clutching at the wound.

  I pulled the sword back out and turned to face Maya.

  She looked at me with a huge expression of shock. "Tomas? How did you—"

  "No time," I interrupted. "More are coming."

  And they were. At least a dozen raiders poured through the gap in the eastern wall. Most of them were beginning to transform. Their skin was taking on a reddish hue, and their muscles were becoming enlarged beyond what normal humans could achieve.

  "Fall back to the central square!" Henrik shouted. "We can’t hold this position!"

  We fell back in a controlled manner, which was significantly better than the panicked rush from the previous time.

  I stayed at the rear, protecting the others. With my increased Physical Essence, I was able to move faster, strike harder, and block attacks that would have knocked the sword out of my hands before.

  A raider swung a rusty axe at me.

  I blocked the attack and counterattacked with a thrust to his stomach.

  The blade cut deeply and he fell to the ground.

  Another raider attacked me from the side. I sidestepped and brought the sword down onto the back of his neck.

  He also fell to the ground, dead.

  As much as I hated the feeling of taking a life, I didn’t have the luxury to think.

  It was kill or be killed.

  And I was killing.

  We eventually made our way to the central square where the rest of the defenders had congregated. There were around twenty people in total. Each of them had some type of weapon at their disposal.

  Henrik immediately started to organize the defenders into a defensive position.

  "Tomas!" Sara, the woman with the hunting bow, called out to me from the rooftop. "When did you become capable of fighting like that?"

  "Long story," I yelled back to her. "Focus on the raiders!"

  The first Sun-Touched appeared at the edge of the square.

  It was the same enormous figure from the last time, over seven feet tall with swirling red markings on its arms. The red markings pulsed in sync with the red sun overhead, and I could feel the otherworldly energy emanating from it even from this distance.

  "Master," Azure said urgently. "That energy signature. It's what we need to activate the Genesis Seed."

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  I knew. I could sense it too.

  The Sun-Touched was filled with that corrupted energy.

  If I could simply figure out how to extract and absorb it into my inner world, I would have everything I needed.

  But first, I had to live long enough to try.

  The Sun-Touched charged toward us with supernatural speed.

  Henrik and two other defenders moved forward to engage the Sun-Touched, but they might as well have been trying to stop a boulder from rolling down a hill.

  The Sun-Touched slapped Henrik and the two defenders to the side like bugs.

  I sprinted toward the Sun-Touched. I knew what I needed to do.

  The Sun-Touched noticed me and smiled, revealing teeth that had been sharpened into points. It swung a massive fist toward my head. I ducked under the punch and drove my sword toward its exposed flank.

  The blade struck home, going through skin and muscle.

  But the Sun-Touched didn’t even flinch.

  It picked up my sword in one hand and tossed it to the side like trash.

  Then it backhanded me across the face.

  The force from the slap sent me flying backward.

  I landed on the ground and rolled, my vision spinning.

  Even with my increased Physical Essence, that single blow had nearly knocked me unconscious.

  It was clear that the Sun-Touched were at 5 times stronger than a regular human.

  "Fire or decapitation," Sara had said last time.

  Those were the only ways for a mortal to kill a Sun-Touched.

  I didn’t have fire.

  But I was no longer a normal mortal.

  The Sun-Touched advanced toward me slowly, enjoying the hunt.

  It believed I was powerless. That was its mistake.

  I waited until it was close enough to me, until it reached down to take me.

  Then I exploded upward, using every ounce of strength that my increased Physical Essence provided to ram my shoulder into its knee.

  The knee joint buckled at an unnatural angle with a sickening crunch.

  The Sun-Touched stumbled back, seemingly shocked rather than severely injured.

  That brief window of instability was all I needed.

  I picked up a fallen axe from a dead raider and swung it with all of my might.

  The blade sank into the neck of the Sun-Touched.

  It wasn’t deep enough to fully decapitate it, but it was deep enough to seriously injure it.

  Black blood splattered from the wound.

  The Sun-Touched roared and grasped at me, but I was already moving.

  I pulled the axe free and swung it once again.

  This time, the blade penetrated further into the neck of the Sun-Touched.

  Its actions became slow and uncoordinated.

  A third swing and the head separated from the body.

  The massive body collapsed, convulsing as the otherworldly energy leaked out of it in waves of red light.

  I knelt down beside the corpse, gasping for breath.

  This was it. This was what I needed.

  But how was I going to absorb it?

  I extended my hand and tried to draw the energy to myself as I would with qi when cultivating.

  But nothing happened.

  The red light continued to dissipate into the air.

  "Azure, help me with this," I called out. "How am I going to absorb this?"

  "I'm not sure, Master," Azure replied. "This energy is completely different from qi. I think we need t—"

  A scream interrupted us.

  More raiders were entering the square.

  And worse, three more Sun-Touched emerged from different locations.

  I was forced to make a decision.

  Remain in the area and try to figure out how to absorb the energy, or help the villagers survive.

  The energy from the deceased Sun-Touched was rapidly dissipating.

  Within a minute, it would be gone completely.

  I made my decision.

  "Everybody fall back to the old storehouse!" I shouted. "There are tunnels beneath it!"

  Henrik looked at me in confusion. "How do you know about the tunnels?"

  "Just go!"

  The villagers didn’t need to be told twice.

  They broke ranks and ran toward the storehouse, with me providing cover behind them.

  Sara shot arrows from the rooftop, slowing the approach of the Sun-Touched.

  Maya helped an injured man hobble toward safety.

  I knew what was coming.

  The Skybound would arrive shortly, probably in less than five minutes.

  The last time we were caught in the open when it arrived.

  This time, if I could get everyone underground quickly enough, maybe we could avoid the carnage.

  Maybe I could save them.

  We reached the storehouse and I kicked open the door. Inside was a dimly lit space littered with dust, just as I remembered. "The trapdoor is located in the back corner!" I yelled. "Everyone down, NOW!"

  Henrik found the trapdoor and opened it, revealing a ladder that led down into the darkness.

  The villagers began to climb down one-by-one, assisting the injured as quickly as they could.

  A Sun-Touched appeared in the entrance.

  I grabbed a spear from one of the defenders and hurled it.

  The spear struck the Sun-Touched in the chest, causing it to stumble backward but not killing it.

  But at least it gave us a couple of extra seconds.

  "Faster!" I encouraged the villagers. "We need to go faster!"

  Maya was helping Sara down the ladder. Henrik was coordinating the final few stragglers.

  Everyone except for an unlucky few had made it underground safely.

  It was at that point, the pressure hit.

  It was the exact same crushing weight I experienced last time, weighing down upon reality itself.

  The air became dense and difficult to breathe.

  My spirit felt like it was being crushed.

  "No," I whispered. "Not yet. We need more time."

  The roof of the storehouse exploded.

  Debris from the wooden beams and stone rained down on the storehouse.

  The villagers who were still above ground screamed and attempted to scurry for the ladder.

  But it was too late.

  A robed figure descended through the opening in the ceiling.

  The Skybound had arrived.