The plan was simple. It also put almost everything on me.

  That was the way I wanted it.

  The trench network circled the entire citadel, looping through the fields in complex knots. It was never shallower than four feet deep and never deeper than eight, and here and there, Blood Orc Revitalists, Siegemasters, and other familiar, half-naked monsters blocked our way.

  I killed the big ones, and Ellen massacred the lower-ranked groups. Neither of us let the three C-Rankers put themselves at risk. The tank, fighter, and Ulia were all exhausted, and we needed them back up and running for the last two phases of the plan. Besides, the C-Rank orcs barely lasted long enough to be speed bumps. I was just too fast and too strong at B-Rank.

  Bit by bit, we wormed our way to the citadel’s gatehouse, and I peered over the trench’s edge to take a look.

  “That’s what I figured,” I said quietly. So far, I hadn’t seen a single soldier on the walls. There were no archers, no men with shields ready to repel the half-burned, stalled-out siege towers that littered the field. But, as I watched the wall, a glint caught my eye—a mirror.

  I’d seen them on the far side of the citadel, too. They implied something—that the defenders were safe inside, and they were using a periscope or something similar to look out at the trenches. That was an escalation from our first Besieged world, but it was also an opportunity. “Ready?” I asked Ellen and Ulia.

  I stood up on the edge and waved.

  Then I stood there, waiting for a catapult or greatbow to fire my way.

  I wasn’t disappointed. Within eight seconds, a boulder and three arrows were all in the air. They glowed a golden color—the same color as the portal the God of Thunder had used to pull me out of a portal just like this. I pushed the thought out of my head and dropped back into the trench as the defenders’ attacks slammed into the dirt. Mud poured down over us. I coughed a little. “Everyone okay? Great. Did you see anything?”

  “Two positions on the gatehouse,” Ellen said quickly. “They’re both close enough that we can probably cover both. How about the wall?”

  “I’ve got three,” Ulia said quietly. “They’re about twenty yards apart. Each.”

  “Damn,” I muttered. “Too far. Alright, we’ll do it the hard way.”

  “You’re sure?” Ulia asked. She looked like she was almost ready to cry, and Ellen touched her shoulder.

  I nodded. “It’ll be rough, but I think we can make it work. It’s the fastest way to get inside that citadel and find the boss. You ready, Ellen?”

  “Yep.”

  One deep breath, then another. I was B-Rank now, at the cusp of A, and what was rank for if not doing stupid stuff like this in a lower-ranked portal? “On three, then. One. Two. Three.”

  Ellen and I stood up together. She threw a Darkness up toward the towering stone gatehouse, obscuring both of the glinting mirrors she’d spotted. At the same time, my first Darkness covered one on the wall, and Lightning Strikes Twice copied the spell on a second one. The third started flashing, though, and I broke into a mad sprint. Windwalk sped me along, but I didn’t try to run in the air with it. It wouldn’t last long enough, and despite my best efforts, I hadn’t built up enough Wind Charges for two uses.

  Projectiles rained down all around me as I dashed across the field. I ignored them. A hundred yards, two incomplete trenches, and a fifty-foot wall packed with defenders who’d materialized out of nowhere separated me from my goal. I crossed the distance in six seconds—jumping the trenches and weaving to dodge the randomly-flying boulders and arrows. Then I skidded to a stop right below the wall.

  The first Lightning Chain lashed out and hit the wall about thirty feet up. I pulled on it and flew up toward it; my feet hit the wall, and the Lightning Chain vanished as I cast a second. This one whipped across the gap between wall and gatehouse, crackling against the wooden hoardings across the top.

  When I pulled myself through the air this time, I led with my boots. Both feet kicked out as I slammed into the wood. Shards of shattered wood rained down onto three lightly-armored soldiers who were in the middle of spinning and drawing weapons to fight me.

  Lion Brigade Trooper: D-Rank

  I snorted as I rolled to my feet. Stormsong ignited with a vicious-sounding hiss in my sword-hand, and I dropped into Thunderbolt’s one-handed stance. Then I stared at the monsters for a moment, and I winked. “You’re really going to try it?”

  They tried it.

  The first rushed me with a mace. The D-Rank soldier’s swing was fundamentally good; he kept the weapon in front of him, ready to parry. He was well-trained, but I had Scripts and buffs running, and two ranks on him. It was like he was attacking through syrup, and I didn’t even bother parrying. Stormsong flicked out as I sidestepped, and the soldier’s neck disintegrated.

  The second was already on me when I finished. I hit the ground to dodge, then kicked his legs out from under him before his shield could change angles. As I stood, Stormsong punched into his chest three times, and he died.

  The first one was still alive somehow. His neck was already healing, so I adjusted. Thunder Crash slammed down on the third Trooper just as he reached me; he died instantly. Then I walked over and stabbed the first Trooper in the chest.

  Done. Clinical, efficient, and boring. I’d even tried to give them a chance, but it hadn’t mattered.

  I headed for the stairs; I had a job to do, and until I did it, Ellen and the others couldn’t get inside. I was pretty sure I could solo the portal from here, but it wasn’t my portal to solo. It was Ulia’s team, and if I had to drag them, kicking and screaming, to victory, I’d do it.

  The levels on my skills were nice, and there were plenty of monsters in here to go around.

  Ulia Hernandez had serious doubts about Kade Noelstra’s plan.

  Sure, he was B-Rank, and this was a C-Rank portal, but as he’d explained how they’d break into the citadel, all she could think was that he wanted to die. She, Cam, and the others had been in this portal for six hours now, and they hadn’t even found a weak point. They’d lost Cam—maybe forever, and certainly for at least a week.

  And Kade had the absolutely crazy idea to not only send their only healer and their fighter with Cam, leaving them a man down, but he also claimed he’d solo assault the gatehouse, open the portcullis blocking their path, and do it faster than they could if they all worked together? B-Rank or not, ‘The Unbroken Storm’ or not, delvers weren’t that good. A group of C-Rank monsters in a confined area could still get the drop on him, and going solo was too much of a risk.

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  She’d been staring at the gatehouse for almost five minutes, head barely above the trench, and with every second, it was more and more obvious that Kade hadn’t succeeded. He was dead, just like Cam probably was. “Um, ma’am, should we pull back and get ready for this to break?” she asked the platinum blonde shadow mage hesitantly.

  “Nah. We’ll give him a few more minutes before we do anything impulsive like that,” Ellen said. Her eyes were closed, and she leaned against the trench wall, hands behind her head. She wasn’t even watching. How could she not be watching? Ulia, Liam, and Veronica had all been glued to the gatehouse since the wild, lightning-powered leaping assault, but Ellen didn’t seem to care at all. Unbelievable!

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yep. Absolutely.” Ellen opened her eyes long enough to stare at Ulia, then raised an eyebrow. “You know, you’ve been very brave, Ulia.”

  “What?” Ulia couldn’t help herself. She stared at the shadow mage, jaw dropping.

  “You have! It’s true! Your team’s been through the grinder for six hours, and Kade and I both told you we could duo it from here. You could have left.” Ellen reached into her bag and pulled out something. It was a sheet of paper with a phone number on it—a makeshift business card. “Kade’s sister runs our guild. If you want in, give her a call. You and your team. The Desert Wind Guild could use a team that’s used to working together to help keep Surprise clear.”

  “What?” Ulia repeated. Her jaw dropped further. “You’re—“

  “Oh, there it is!” Ellen said. She stood up, even though she hadn’t been watching, and started running across the field toward the citadel. Ulia watched as the gate creaked open and a single figure, in armor that looked like a storm at sea and carrying a lightning sword, stepped out. He waved.

  It took her a minute to get herself moving, and when she finally did, she tucked the paper into her armor first. If The Unbroken Storm was this good, she had to at least see what his guild was like.

  As the C-Rankers sprinted across the field, I stood in the gateway and watched.

  “Took you long enough,” Ellen said.

  I shrugged. Then I pointed at the half-dozen dead monsters just past the gate. “I noticed these guys just before I opened the gate. It seemed like a mistake to leave them here, so I took care of the problem. Interesting thing, though—they look human from the armor, but they’re not. They’re orcs—different orcs, but still orcs.”

  “Huh,” Ellen said. Her eyes closed, and she thought for a minute. “That doesn’t track with Besieged worlds. Typically, the people inside are, well, people.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know what’s up here. Anyway, it took me a few minutes to make sure the gatehouse was clear, then take these monsters out.”

  There was more to it than that, but I couldn’t do anything about the pressure in my head and core until the C-Rankers made it here. Even if a Law-Learning typically took no time at all, pushing Stormsteel Core to A-Rank would be best done once everyone was inside and out of range of the catapults and greatbows raining shots down on them.

  My Unique merge had hit B-10 toward the end of the wave of pikemen I’d mowed through just beyond the gate. They’d been C-Rank, and there’d been enough of them that they’d be a threat to the rest of the ad-hoc team. Taking them out had been almost too easy, but it had been worth it. I was one step closer to A-Rank—one step closer to being able to go toe to toe with Deborah Callahan in the arena below the place Dad’s ashes were kept.

  I needed to make it happen soon, though. The last thing I needed was a forced, mid-combat rank-up while three C-Rankers were relying on me.

  “What’s on your mind?” Ellen asked.

  I shrugged again. “Stormsteel Core. It’s ready for a rank-up.”

  “Why didn’t you start with that?” Ellen asked. “Get to it. Hey, guys, we’re going to take a few seconds for Kade to do something.”

  The C-Rankers skidded to a stop under the gatehouse. Ulia stared at me, her eyes wide. I glanced at her, but she didn’t look away, and it took me a moment to recognize her expression. She looked like she was seeing a monster for the first time. I grinned. “Just doing my job, Ulia.”

  “Let’s go up. It’ll be safer in the gatehouse. Ellen started walking up the steps, and I followed until we arrived at the room where I’d killed the three D-Rank soldiers. Then I sat down, closed my eyes, and got to work.

  The Laws of Stormsteel were simple. The first stated that destruction was protection. It fit in with most of how my build operated—aggression in everything, from parrying an attack to Stormbreak itself. The best enemy was one that couldn’t hurt you, or anyone else, and the best way to make sure of that was to kill them. The second was that no shelter could withstand the storm. The Stormsteel Path was inevitable. It would break its enemies. It was only a matter of time and will. And the third was that fury could not be contained. My core was a testament to that—it leaked mana from its huge gaps so that it wouldn’t shatter again.

  If the Laws of Stormsteel followed the same pattern as the Thunderhead did, this would be the final Law. I opened my eyes, expecting to be sitting on my mountain again, like I had been for the majority of my Laws.

  Instead, I found myself on top of a pinnacle—but this one was the top of a massive tower a thousand feet high that hung in a gray-skied void. Blue and red light reflected from the surfaces of even larger towers all around me, all suspended in the air. The air itself felt electric.

  I’d arrived in the God of Thunder’s realm.

  My first instinct was to find the SS-Plus-Ranked monster. He’d guided me through Laws in the past, and if I was here, it had to be because he intended to do the same thing again. But as I looked around, I couldn’t sense his presence anywhere. The electric air wasn’t waiting for him to appear.

  It was waiting for someone else.

  I crossed my legs and waited. Anyone who’d meet me in the God of Thunder’s realm would either be a teacher, a Paragon hunting me, or a rival on the Stormsteel Path. If it was the first or third, I’d learn something from the encounter. If it was the second, I’d fight—and kill—them, and they’d propel me along the Path. While I did, I closed my eyes and examined the Stormsteel Core inside of me. It had grown; two new bands wrapped around it, and it felt as though it was on the verge of a breakthrough.

  My closed eyes traced the two new bands wrapped around the core. They offered something, if I was strong enough and bold enough to reach out and take it. But I didn’t know what, and more importantly, I didn’t know how.

  I opened my eyes, and a knight stood in front of me.

  He wore a breastplate, bracers, and boots that trailed lightning arcs in the air around him, along with a single, oversized pauldron on his sword arm. A black cape with a lightning pattern hung from his shoulders, and the leather under his armor was storm-grey. The sword in his hand looked familiar, too—a filigreed basket-hilt, a thicker blade than Stormsong, and lightning on both sharp metal edges.

  “Hello, Tallas,” I said.

  “Paragon Kade Noelstra, the Unbroken Storm,” he said.

  “Are you here to fight me?”

  “I am here to teach you the final Law I learned before my death.” Tallas sat across from me, lightning crackling around him. “The Law is simple. The meaning is harder to grapple with. The storm destroys, and the storm protects.”

  I stared at Tallas, waiting for the rest of it, or for an explanation. When it didn’t come, I cleared my throat. “That’s—“

  “The same Law as the first one.” Tallas finished for me. “I thought so, too. Think on it. It will come in time.”

  I did. I closed my eyes and sat, cross-legged, across from the Stormsteel knight. He’d hit A-Rank in life. He’d been through this same Law, and if he said it’d come in time, it would.

  The First Law of Stormsteel was that destruction was creation. That had made sense at the time. The storm, when forged into the Stormsteel breastplate, had become a tool of protection—but the way it protected me had been violent. It had gnawed and tore at weapons and attacks that hit it. The deluge had been shaped into a protective barrier. Destruction was protection.

  But this final Law…it wasn’t about the two being one. It was about…

  It hit me like a thunderbolt. Tallas’s presence here wasn’t about the Law. The Law was simply a tool he’d used to step out of the God of Thunder’s memory and into my mental space. This wasn’t the God of Thunder’s world at all. It was still my core.

  The last time Tallas and I had met, he’d been a thrall of the God of Thunder—an eidetic memory made real through the SS-Plus-Ranked monster’s power. This time, though, he was a messenger—and a protector. He wasn’t here on the God of Thunder’s orders to test me, but of his own volition, to teach me. The lesson he needed me to learn was one that would keep me safe, but it would also destroy…something. And I had a bad feeling I knew what it was.

  “You understand? Good. You learn quickly.”

  I did. I hadn’t put it into words yet, but Tallas was a representative of the Last Law of the Stormsteel Path. The moment I truly learned the Last Law of the Stormsteel Path, I’d come out of the trance, and Tallas would be gone. I couldn’t explain how I knew it. I just did.

  As if to confirm it, the knight continued talking. “Now, listen carefully. The God of Thunder is setting you up for failure.”

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