Katarina leapt, swinging the blade of her prosthetic leg in a vicious upward slash that cut a deep groove in the giant centipede’s face. It recoiled from the impact, chittering in outrage.

  Several things happened simultaneously.

  Eight of the smaller duskcrawlers burst from the sand in a circle around us.

  Encore and I both finished our performances. I sent my charge into myself and he sent his into Katarina, providing three more weaker charges of Kinetic Overload.

  Katarina flipped in the air, sending an arc of wind toward half of the smaller beasts.

  The broodmother released an ear-piercing scream that blurred my vision.

  I sent my lute into my inventory and enacted transform, shifting into the Alpha Arctic Kobold form as three of the centipedes latched onto me, sinking pincers the size of my forearms into each of my legs and one of my arms.

  Katarina’s blade of wind sliced through four of the other centipedes, killing two of them outright and sending the other two into thrashing fits.

  Encore began performing Kinetic Overload again as I flexed, forcing the mandibles back slightly with the considerable bulk offered by this form. It stopped them from biting off my appendages, but still hurt like hell.

  I roared, balling one of my hands into a fist and slamming it into the duskcrawler attached to my other arm. I expended a charge of Kinetic Overload, sending a spray of ichor across the desert sand.

  Both of my fists descended, destroying the creatures affixed to my legs and expending the last two charges of the song.

  I twisted and caught another duskcrawler as it leapt at my face, pivoting and swinging it into a second that was advancing from the opposite direction. Their bodies collided with a wet crunch of broken chitin, flying several feet away in a tangle of long bodies and countless writhing feet.

  Katarina danced with the broodmother across the desert. Encore sent another three charges of Kinetic Overload, replenishing her supply as she leapt from multiple platforms of solidified air, flipping around the broodmother’s impossibly fast lunges with jumps enhanced with explosive charges.

  The air cracked with a resounding click each time the broodmother’s pincers closed on air, seconds behind where Katarina had been.

  My attention was pulled away by several more of the smaller duskcrawlers. They skittered across the road, ignoring the two utes and focusing on me.

  Encore siphoned a few more magic points and began performing again, a multitude of chiming bells resounding from the depths of his wisp form.

  I jumped back as two of the large centipedes lunged, taking a shallow cut across the chest. I drove my fist into one of them, lifting it in the air as I kicked out at the second. It caught my foot in its mandibles. I surged forward, cracking the creature’s triangular head with a kick as I slammed the duskcrawler currently impaled on my fist down and into the the one on the ground.

  I leapt back, tearing my hand and leg free from the now dead centipedes and slamming a minor healing potion as three more duskcrawlers advanced.

  Several more of my magic points drained as Encore used Hastened Song, infusing me with Kinetic Overload. I was down to five remaining magic points, and conveyed that information to Encore in a text as I slammed a fist down on the closest duskcrawler, detonating an explosive charge that obliterated a circular portion of its head.

  Encore drifted over to Abe’s ute, landing and shifting back to his true form. He shifted, forming the fur lyre on his back, and began performing again.

  Five more of the centipedes erupted from the sand, joining the two that were closing in. I leapt, using an explosive charge and soaring twenty feet into the air. The duskcrawlers all collided in a pile of chitin, legs, and mandibles.

  The broodmother screamed. It’s sound washed over me in tangible waves, locking my body in paralysis as I plummeted towards the mound of writhing insects. I saw Katarina shift in her position on the behemoth’s back. A ring of condensed air erupted from her, followed by a rain of ichor and gore as the broodmother’s head was torn apart from the inside.

  The duskcrawlers screamed at the death of their matriarch, flailing and tearing into one another below as I fell, unable to move. I saw a glimpse of Katarina’s limp form falling from the corpse of the broodmother just before I landed in a maelstrom of insectile fury.

  Pain assaulted me from every direction, breaking the paralysis’ hold on my body. I shifted, my feet sliding on layer of crunchy fluids that had accumulated on the road, trying to get my footing but failing. I fell back, the bulk of the enraged duskcrawlers pressing down on me and grinding into me.

  My health dropped into the red. I consumed a Moderate Health Potion from my quickslot. It wasn’t powerful enough to counteract the chainsaw-effect of the numerous duskcrawlers grinding into me, but it did slow my health’s decline as it worked overtime mending my wounds.

  I roared, lashing out and activating the final charge of Kinetic Overload. My fist contacted something, and it was destroyed in an eruption of explosive energy. The weight lessened slightly and I managed to shift my body, putting my feet on the ground and regaining my balance. My health bar dropped to below 5% and began flashing as the furious insects lashed out at everything around them.

  4%.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  I drove my clawed hand between a pair of mandibles, ripping the head from one of the centipedes.

  3%.

  I roared, a narrow beam of desert sunlight breaking through the mass of duskcrawlers. I grabbed a long body and ripped, tearing it in half.

  2%.

  I shoved at another of the bodies, sending it and several others that had been entangled with it free of the mass.

  1%.

  Darkness encroached upon the edges of my vision and I felt my legs begin to give. Sunlight shone upon me for a brief moment from the opening I had created by shoving away several of the creatures and a series of radiant orbs slammed into my bloody face.

  Warmth, blessed warmth, flooded through my body as Encore’s Radiant Winds surged through me. My health rose to 11%. My legs regained their strength as the darkness faded. I jumped through the opening I had created, kicking off of bile-soaked carapace and emerging from the deadly grinding mass of duskcrawlers.

  A purple vial flew through the air, crashing into my chest and rocketing my health to 100%. I shuddered at the sudden sensation, spotting Abernathy a few feet away, his eyes wide with terror.

  “Mate, scared me senseless there. Thought you were a goner!”

  The memory of Katarina’s limp form falling from the broodmother’s destroyed head interrupted my response. I turned, dodging a pair of mandibles and sprinting around the writhing mass. I glanced at the party screen, confirming she was still above 25% health, but debilitated by Chi Exhaustion. I glanced at the mini-map as I ran towards the broodmother.

  Katarina dot was within the larger dot of the broodmother. I zoomed in as I ran, getting a general idea of her location as I sent her a message asking if she was okay. I noticed a slew of messages from Abe and Sebastian that I had missed in the combat, but dismissed them as I leapt over a segmented section of the broodmother’s corpse, running up curled legs like a macabre set of stairs and leaping to another section of the broodmother’s winding bulk.

  Encore soared past me, turning mid flight and called out. “Here! She’s here!”

  Thunder cracked through the desert air and I felt a tangible wave of force from the impact. I threw a quick glance over my shoulder and saw Sebastian standing outside of his ute, hands raised towards the smoldering remains of the last duskcrawlers.

  I ran along the broodmother’s body and found Katarina. She was awake, on all fours and vomiting into the sand between two sections of the broodmother’s long body. She looked up as I landed, her eyes hollow and face pale. Her eyes were unfocused, staring in my general direction as she struggles to stand.

  I hurried under one of her arms, pulling a handkerchief from my inventory and wiping at her lips before offering her a waterskin.

  “Here, swish this around. Are you okay?” I pulled up the party status screen again as Katarina’s weight settled against me. She was still suffering from Chi Exhaustion, but another status had appeared for both of us. Radiation Sickness, which was currently at 1% but ticked up to 2% as I watched. I cursed under my breath. “We need to get back to Abernathy. I’m going to pick you up, okay?”

  She nodded weakly against my chest, mumbling something about my wasting time asking, as I scooped her into my arms. I was amazed at how light she felt when I was in this form. I turned, leaping up atop the corpse with ease. Something glimmered in the sunlight, partially exposed from a damaged section of the broodmother’s body near where the head had been. It was a deep red gem, almost purple. I ran over and kicked it with my foot, sending it to my inventory and examining it there with a quick glance.

  Major Gemstone of Condensed Constitution.

  I leapt from the back of the beast, sprinting along another long segment before hopping down. I returned to Abernathy and Sebastian with a series of jumps and sprints.

  The Radiation Sickness, which had gotten as high as 5% in the time it had taken me to return to Abe’s protective aura, began dropping immediately, flashing away entirely in less than a second. The aura didn’t do anything about Katarina’s Chi Exhaustion, though. I carefully sat her down on two shaky legs. Her hand lingered on my arm for support.

  “Holy. Fucking. Shit.” Sebastian breathed, staring at me with wide eyes. “Are you a werewolf?”

  Katarina laughed weakly, leaning against me. Abernathy looked at her with concern, then up at me, and his expression, combined with the question, and Katarina’s laughter, caused me to laugh.

  Abe glanced over to Sebastian. “No, he isn’t a werewolf, don’t worry.”

  I reigned in my laughter as Katarina continued chuckling at my side. One of her arms was wrapped around my waist. She moved it away, tentatively standing on her own. We were all quiet, watching as she took a series of breaths. The hollows under her eyes diminished slightly and she cringed, placing her hand over her stomach and leaning against me once again.

  “Over did it there a little,” she croaked. “Used up all of my chi. Not smart. Gonna need some time to recover.”

  “Oh!” I pulled the gemstone out of my inventory. It’s size, about that of a basketball, surprised me. It had been mostly obscured in the broodmother’s bulk before I looted it.

  “Catch!” I tossed the gem to Abernathy, who made a squeaking sound as he tried, and failed, to catch the gem. It bounced from one hand to the other before falling to the sand with a muffled impact sound.

  He bent over and picked it up, examining it. His eyes grew larger as they scanned the description. “This is amazing! What a find! Did you get this from the giant centipede?”

  “What is it?” Sebastian asked, walking over. He eyed me uncertainly as he approached Abe.

  “A Major Gemstone of Condensed Constitution! That crazed gnome didn’t have anything even approaching this quality in this shop.” Abernathy tapered off, continuing to read some unseen menu. “Oh wow. I can use this to strengthen the container I am building for the aura. It should widen the area of influence exponentially. I will need some more time to work on it, though. Not quite there. This won’t take much longer to implement. I just need to calibrate the horizontal multiplier and adjust the body to fit…”

  He paused, looking around. “Sorry mates, rambled a bit there. This would sell for a lot, you sure you don’t mind if I use it for a bit of tinkering?”

  “Not a bit,” I replied. Katarina nodded, flashing a thumbs up and a weak smile.

  Sebastian shrugged. “I didn’t do anything to help, got no say.”

  “You nuked about a dozen of those giant bugs, that’s definitely doing something, mate.” Abernathy replied.

  “Yeah but that giant stone probably came from the big one. Didn’t do anything about that.”

  Katarina croaked something that was nearly indecipherable, but I caught the gist of what she was saying and interpreted. “That’s now how we do things in this party. It isn’t based on who kills what.”

  Abe laughed. “If that were the case, I’d never get anything.”

  Sebastian laughed. “I like that. I’m fine with you using the gem for crafting too, then.”

  Encore flew overhead, sending a message to us.

  Encore: There are more of the duskwalkers coming. And other abominations.