Nikolai looked around the room for the next pole to ignite and frowned when nothing happened for a moment. He shared a look with Kaelith, who shrugged, but neither of them moved an inch or let their guard drop.

  Finally, another pole lit up, then another, and another. All of them flared in rapid succession, and Nikolai got a really bad feeling about what might be about to occur.

  A large hole slowly opened in the center of the room, and they retreated as a group to the curved wall. It expanded until it was big enough to let a tank through before finally stopping, and the sound of stone grinding on stone filled the room.

  Through the hole came a head, bald, with runic markings seemingly tattooed into the deathly white skin. Then the huge torso appeared, four arms, and the large throne-like chair to which this humanoid monster of a man was strapped with thick chains. He had no mouth, but three eyes, each moving independently, scanned the room.

  The one in the center of his forehead locked onto them and narrowed slightly. As the throne came to a halt in the very center of the circular room, the chains all unlocked at once, and the figure slowly moved its limbs, testing its freedom. This was no mindless undead—this was something else entirely.

  He couldn’t take his eyes off the man, as each arm grabbed a separate weapon leaning against the throne. He stood to his full height—easily double Nikolai’s height and several times wider. He had bare feet and long, flowing pants in what looked like cheap linen, though it could have been anything. His chest rippled with muscle, and he was just about the most terrifying thing Nikolai had seen yet—and that said something.

  Even Kaelith looked taken aback, seemingly unable to look away from the giant.

  “What is that!?” Nikolai hissed.

  “I am not sure… I have never heard of anything like this… Nikolai, I am not sure even I am going to be a match for this thing,” Kaelith said, her voice trembling slightly.

  If she was afraid, then Nikolai knew he was probably royally screwed himself. There was no way out, though. This was a trial, it was do or die.

  “We have no choice, Kaelith,” he said, his voice mostly calm and rational, thanks to the soothe spell.

  His Discerning Eye told no lies. The feeling he got from this foe was that it was absolutely deadly, more than a threat—this damn thing spelled almost certain death for him.

  Something felt strangely familiar about the being, not in a “I know what this is” kind of way, but more that he had sensed something like it before. All at once it hit him, and he groaned, “I think this creature is somehow related to the fae—or the in-between at least. I don’t think it’s from this world at all.”

  Kaelith nodded slowly. “Makes sense… Well, it doesn’t but… What do we do here?”

  Nikolai shrugged. “Go for the legs?”

  Kaelith’s eyes snapped to him. “That…” she giggled nervously. “…is actually not a bad idea.”

  Nikolai forced a grin. “Let’s test the waters before we go all out. It would really suck to use the big guns and miss.”

  “What are guns?” she asked in confusion.

  “Oh, come on. You can understand from context, right? I’m not explaining guns now!” he said.

  She slapped his arm gently. “I’m just fucking with you. Alright, let’s see what we’re up against…”

  Lurk moved forward, practically jumping in place with excitement. The big guy had no sense of self-preservation, but Nikolai supposed being dead would do that to you.

  As Lurk moved, Nikolai ran left to try to flank the monster—but it didn’t work. One eye followed his movement, while another focused on Lurk. Nikolai blinked, and the huge monster was in front of him, having moved so fast he barely registered it.

  Kaelith cried out, but there was no time for thought. Nikolai dodged the sword about to cleave him in two, but couldn’t avoid the kick hitting him in the chest and sending him flying into a nearby wall.

  It was so fast and so hard that Nikolai felt bones crunch on impact. He dropped to the floor, dazed and in incredible pain, blood spurting from his mouth. Lurk appeared next to the monster, swinging low with his sword. The monster jumped back before initiating a blistering barrage of strikes with all four arms. Lurk was easily pushed back, retreating from the onslaught.

  Kaelith’s shadow tendrils erupted from the floor and sank into the giant’s skin, seeming to slow him down only marginally. He paused, looked down at himself, then decided to ignore them and push on.

  Nikolai activated his healing, which had been upgraded recently. It was a lot more efficient, and the damage could have been worse. No bones were fully broken—rather he had hundreds of minor fractures across his chest region. Had they truly broken, it would have been worse. The damage he had received was quickly healed enough for him to bear the pain and struggle to his feet.

  With a snarl, he mouthed “Curse of Torment,” and with a living-breathing creature, it finally elicited a proper response. An eye snapped back to him, and the monster threw a large axe in Nikolai’s direction, flipping end over end with incredible speed.

  He dodged to the side and cast his barrier at the same time, and it deflected into the wall behind him, sending stone chips flying, cutting him shallowly in a few places.

  Kaelith’s shadow tendrils continued increasing, and the giant slowed. Lurk managed a cut on one thigh but took a heavy blow from a large hammer in return, which caved in his chest plate. It had already been damaged, but now looked like a crumbled piece of metal.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Lurk was thrown back by the strike, and the giant turned on Kaelith.

  Her eyes widened, and she pulled the staff she had used against the wraiths. It glowed brightly as she held it, and the monster charged. Kaelith stood her ground, her mouth moving, but Nikolai had no idea what she was saying. Then the crystal atop the staff glowed, and a beam of sickly blue light shot from it, the sound of keening ghosts filling the room.

  The giant was thrown back by the sheer force, and hundreds of minor cuts appeared all over him. Green blood stained every inch of his exposed chest, but he seemed fine despite that. Nikolai raised his cane, then cast his healing, but in reverse, pouring dark affinity into the spell and firing it at full blast.

  Now this got the big guy’s attention. Every single wound he had taken—the curse, Lurk’s cut, Kaelith’s spell—all stopped healing, instead began bleeding harder, and black veins spread over the giant’s skin from the increasingly infected wounds.

  He charged Nikolai but was slower now, allowing him to dodge and weave between strikes. Each blow was still powerful enough to kill him outright, so Nikolai conjured shields and kept moving back.

  Lurk was back on his feet, albeit moving jerkily. Kaelith panted hard, having expended a lot to fire that spell. Nikolai was on his own for the moment, and this giant mountain of a monster was not letting up.

  He crushed Nikolai’s shields, and eventually his luck ran out. He tripped on a Myrmexen corpse, and the only thought he had as the hammer approached was how cliché it was to die from a stumble.

  The shield between him and the monster broke, and the hammer hit him straight in the side.

  The sound of bones crunching inside himself was the worst part—at least until the pain arrived, then the sound couldn’t compare.

  The monster pursued Nikolai as he slid across the blood- and ichor-covered floor, but Lurk got in the way. Nikolai wasn’t sure how it worked, or whether Lurk had special abilities like runes, but the speed at which he tackled the monster—and judging from the reverberations in the room from the impact—he had done something spectacular.

  They tumbled to the ground in a heap, the monster losing grip of its weapons. Lurk began pummeling the monster with heavy strikes, but grappling four arms with only two was pretty unfair. Who could have guessed?

  Nikolai pushed his healing further and then, with reluctance, increased his soothe to full effectiveness. A wave of intense cold spread throughout his body and into his mind. His mind cleared from the intense pain, and he started getting to his feet. There was the sound of broken bones crackling inside him, but he ignored it.

  His mind was focused now, survival for himself and his allies was all that mattered, and he wasn’t mortally injured.. Not imminently at least.

  He saw Lurk thrown away, the giant ripping his arm off before tossing it aside with casual cruelty. Then it turned to Kaelith, who began backing off. Dark flames erupted from her hands, bathing the creature in soul-burning fire. The creature jerked, but the runes on its body flared, and the flames veered around it instead of hitting home.

  Kaelith’s eyes widened as the giant ran toward her. It was significantly slower, but Kaelith had no chance to escape. Nikolai’s mind screamed in panic, but his spell wouldn’t allow him to act with emotion. Only cold calculation remained, and he knew when his chance would present itself.

  He knew in a detached way how broken he was, knew he was bleeding internally, felt the essence he had gathered earlier aiding the flow of healing coursing through him. It wasn’t good; bone splinters were lodged in his organs, and while the healing pushed them out, it tore new damage elsewhere.

  He ignored it all. He could survive it. He had to.

  He aimed his cane and cast Lesser Essence Drain. Even as the monster reached Kaelith, she screamed as it crashed into her, picking her up in huge hands. One arm held a limb each, and Nikolai knew what was about to happen.

  He moved, undistracted by the warm glow of his drain spell upgrading, unbothered by his body screaming for him to stop. This was it—his opening.

  It wasn’t emotions screaming at him to save Kaelith that moved him now; it was pure opportunism. Nothing more.

  He threw his cane aside, and in each hand a blade of pure energy materialized. Long, curved—one of pure light, the other of absolute darkness.

  He leapt, reaching the monster just as Kaelith’s leg was ripped off, and cut down with everything he had.

  He carved through both arms on either side, and they fell uselessly to the ground, along with the screaming Kaelith.

  The monster fell to its knees, green blood spraying everywhere. Nikolai didn’t stop. He cut sideways with both weapons, decapitating the monster, letting his blades dissipate, and placed his hand on its back. As it toppled, he cast Essence Drain, taking everything it had left. The spell was more effective with direct touch, and the amount he took was significant.

  His eyes fell on the extremely pale, bleeding Kaelith. She looked at him pleadingly, and he knew what had to happen.

  He was at her side a moment later, his body still screaming from the torture. He took her severed leg and put it next to her. “Attach the bones, now!”

  Kaelith seemed delirious from pain and blood loss but nodded vaguely.

  She wiggled her fingers, and the shattered bones began knitting back together slowly. Nikolai watched, eyes impassive, until the moment was right. He cast Healing Grace on her leg, and while he thought it wouldn’t work perfectly, he felt satisfaction seeing the flesh knit together.

  He pushed essence into the spell, enforcing the effect. It took a long time, and wasn’t great. Additional healing would be needed later, but the leg seemed saved.

  Lurk wasn’t his responsibility, so he ignored the struggling draugr; Kaelith was the priority. Now that he had helped her. He himself was next.

  Kaelith looked close to passing out, but he grabbed her face and cast Soothe on her. “I have bone splinters lodged in my organs. You need to put me back together so I can heal, do you understand?”

  There was no urgency in his tone. Her eyes glazed with the Soothe spell. She understood. She had to work now.

  To say the experience was horrible would be an understatement. Nikolai felt himself cut to pieces all over again, and it took Kaelith a long time to finish. The essence he had stolen was gone. His mana nearly empty by the end. Only just enough remained to keep him alive.

  In his state of absolute balance, absolute calm, the magic surged within him like never before.

  The principles of his path came to mind, and he understood:

  Clarity of Balance

  “Clarity brings control. Chaos dulls the blade.”

  In his current state, there was no chaos—only absolute control. He had guessed at it before but realized how much of a difference it made. Soothe might have been a simple tool to stay in control till now, but it could also act as a significant power-up when needed.

  He focused his healing only on the most necessary parts: his innards, organs, blood, veins. Once his mana ran out, he began burning his own essence, converting it into raw mana.

  He was alive, but darkness crept in at the edges of his vision.

  Eventually he let soothe drop, unable to keep it running, And everything came rushing back—the pain, the fear, the helplessness, the rage.

  He screamed, and then there was nothing…