More chittering noises revealed another half dozen splicers crawling over the wall. Richard stayed close to Leylah because he couldn’t survive on his own. Leylah would always go for the crippling shot, and Richard went for the final kill. They killed three more splicers this way before Richard allowed himself to breathe. To his surprise, words filled his vision, much like with the skill tree.

  Basic Physical (basic) > Basic Physical (advanced)

  Increase strength by 10% > Increase strength by 40%

  Richard glanced down at his arms, wondering if he could feel it. Maybe the next monster he attacked would help him notice a difference. He was certainly getting more experience points, too, with all these kills.

  It was only after he took that break that he realized what he and Leylah had accidentally done. Terror gripped him, turning his shaking hands numb.

  “Leylah,” Richard said. “Leylah, we’ve got to get back.”

  She was exhausted herself, and barely let out a “Huh?”

  “We’ve… gotten separated.” Richard searched for a sword sheath until he remembered he had an inventory. Against his better judgement, he placed a sharp metal object into the small of his back and was relieved it didn’t sever his spinal cord. “Come on.”

  Despite how surprisingly well they were doing, they wouldn’t have a chance if they got surrounded. They were too far away from the main group of much stronger-level farmers.

  Leylah kept her sword out as they ran. Richard had heard Elwyndor’s shouts of warning all week about trampling on the farmlands, but even she had to admit that the safety of the silos was most important, then the safety of the individuals, then the safety of the farm.

  Richard’s heart pounded, his mind searching for the power of time. Was it anything he had done before? He certainly wouldn’t mind going back in time to before they got separated and chose to stay with the group. His heart sank as he realized he hadn’t controlled it. He had only experienced it. If he needed to figure out how to control it, now would be an excellent time.

  A splicer slid in front of them, opening its crow beak and roared at them. Richard skidded to a stop, eyes wide. He expected the creature to caw, but it was a strangled mix of all the animal sounds this body produced, including an anaconda. Richard froze and fully admitted that this creature had caught him off guard. Leylah’s quick action was the only thing that saved his life. The creature lunged toward Richard, but Leylah was there, shouting as she thrust the sword right through the neck. Richard caught the weight of her and the splicer as they all fell to the ground. Richard moaned as Leylah threw the creature off.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yes, thank you.” He took Leylah’s hand, and she helped him to his feet. They didn’t waste any time as they rushed forward again but were soon stopped when three more splicers came after them.

  “Shit.” Richard reached into his inventory, already feeling the hilt of the sword in his palm as he drew it out. He was staring at his death, these three monsters snarling as they approached, ready to kill. He tried to force the ringing in his ears to come back, but it wasn’t working.

  Richard studied them, feeling tears prick his eyes. What kind of existence was this? He wasn’t thinking about himself; he was thinking about them. These creatures. Was there a deranged scientist out there stitching creatures together like this? He could almost see the pain in the creature’s eyes as they hobbled forward on their macabre legs. How were these creatures alive? What kind of twisted magic made this okay? What first scared him now filled him with a different kind of fury. Who was making these creatures? That was the horrible monster Richard wanted to murder, not these poor creatures.

  His thoughts of compassion made him hesitate, and the splicers took advantage of that. One of them lunged toward him, and he forced his mind back into the battle. He tried slamming the sword into the creature’s body like Leylah had, but the creature was still barely alive when it landed on top of Richard. Richard had enough time to cover his face with his arms as the boar head dug its jagged teeth into his arm, moving its head as the flesh of his arms tore apart. Richard cried out in pain before the creature was thrown off him. Leylah stood there, staring at Richard’s torn and ragged arms. At least the creature didn’t break them off entirely.

  “Richard,” she whispered.

  He understood her fear. Richard had gotten his sword arm torn to ribbons, giving him a dull, pulsing pain. It didn’t hurt nearly as bad as the leopard digging its claws into his back, but he had a feeling he was going to experience a lot worse in a few more moments. Where was the time reset when he needed it?

  “It’s alright.” Richard climbed to his feet. “I’m not dead yet. Together, we’re still level eight.”

  Leylah glanced up, fear in her eyes. Richard spun around and saw a splicer crouched, ready to pounce. Leylah lifted her sword. Her breathing hitched as Richard felt the weight of his useless arms. The splicer pounced, then got thrown to the side as a net wrapped around its body. Richard’s head snapped to the side as he tried to identify who threw that.

  Elias shoved himself onto the scene, slitting the throat of the other splicer. He pointed to his net, and the creature got hit with multiple bolts of electricity, screaming before it went limp. Elias made a jerking motion as if he were pulling an invisible rope, and the net flung back into his hands.

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  “Drop, girl,” Elias said.

  Leylah did, and Elias threw his dagger at a splicer that had been sneaking up from behind. The dagger hit the splicer in its bug eye, and it screeched before collapsing to the ground.

  Enraged by the attack of its own, three more splicers came sprinting toward Elias. He used his net again. This time, instead of electric bolts, the net filled with water, drowning the creature inside while he killed the other two creatures. Leylah quickly moved to Richard, inspecting his wounds. Richard let her, his torn arms shaking. He found himself glued to how controlled Elias was with his skills, kicking a creature and breaking in the skull.

  Leylah found his sword, easing it into his inventory as Richard tried not to stare at the shredded flesh of his arms. He instead distracted himself by watching most of the guards putting out the fire of the dead, demonic forest creature. Timick and Amrynn were passing out potions to the guards that kept the splicers from coming over the wall. Richard gasped for air, knowing he couldn’t ignore this pain much longer.

  Elias appeared in front of Richard, and he was struggling to remember how that happened. Richard’s vision turned blurry with pain. Elias took Richard’s wrists, running his eyes over them. He tried not to gasp, but the pain was impossible to ignore. Elias pulled out a waterskin and dumped it all over Richard’s arms. Richard gasped, almost blacking out as he felt the healing potion being poured over the wounds. It didn’t help.

  Elias sighed. “I didn’t think they’d heal, but it’s good to check. Do you have the ability to heal your wounds yet?”

  Richard stared, his mind struggling to comprehend Elias helping instead of being snarky or glaring. It took another moment before Richard pulled up his skill tree.

  “Y-yes. Yes, I do.” Richard didn’t wait. He mentally chose that skill, and he gasped as the deepest cut in his right arm stitched itself together. His arms still looked torn apart, but having the deepest cut disappear helped him focus enough not to break down. Already he could see a timer counting down from three hours on his skill tree.

  “Th-thank you,” Richard said.

  Elias grunted. “Get back to the silos, newbies. We’ll take care of the rest of the creatures.”

  Leylah nodded, helping Richard through the farmlands. They had traveled far when fighting the splicers. That was a mistake that almost killed them.

  Richard almost wished the liquid light balls weren’t so bright. He saw in excellent detail the damage this attack did to base two. Part of the wall where the splicers had come was breaking off. The entire gate was broken, leaving them unprotected. Half of the farmlands were ruined. Broken bodies were everywhere. So much dead. Both splicers and survivors. Richard’s eyes grew warm again.

  “He is coming.” Richard glanced up toward the sky, because that’s where he heard Dmitri’s voice before he realized it had been magically projected through the base camp. “Death is coming.” He sounded defeated. “Prepare the seriously injured.”

  Richard was close enough to the others that he heard the hushed, terrified whispers. Richard and Leylah limped back to Amber and Fang.

  “What’s happening?” Richard asked.

  Amber shrugged. Fang didn’t react, his eyes distant. Amber stared at Richard’s torn arms, her eyes wide. “What does he mean by seriously injured?”

  A glance around the base camp told Richard that his injury did not qualify. Some people who moaned had half their bodies broken in. Once again he asked himself why the pain blocker was part of the skill tree. The answer came to him all too clearly. In this hellish landscape, most of the people would be dead from the shock of their injuries if something didn’t numb them first. He could barely function with his arms torn as they were, and he kept a constant eye on his cooldown timer, wishing it wasn’t three hours long.

  A lone figure walked through the cracked dirt outside the base camp. Since it was still night, Richard couldn’t see who it was. The figure would soon reach the light dome at the gates. All the groaning ceased, and it felt like everyone held their breath. Richard tried to distract himself from the throbbing pain in his arms, so he watched the figure coming ever closer.

  “Do not look too long into his eyes, newbies.” It was Dennison, a farmer he had briefly met. “You are not strong enough to maintain eye contact with him.”

  Leylah’s brows furrowed. “With who?”

  “Death,” Dennison said.

  Richard and Amber exchanged glances. Fang sank to the ground, curled up into a ball, and whimpered.

  “Death? As in…”

  “Order and Chaos are pure, personified beings, but they’re not the only ones. They are in charge of all the other pure, personified ideals, and one of those is Death,” Dennison said.

  The being walked through the broken gates, and therefore into the light. Richard’s heart plummeted into his stomach. He knew that man. It was the person he saw in the corner of his bedroom. The one with the too-wide smile. He wore the black suit, black shirt, and black hat that were seared into Richard’s memory. The memory he should have forgotten. He didn’t dare check to see if the man was grinning his smile that filled too much of his face.

  Richard sank to his knees, staring at the ground ahead. The silence was like that of the grave. He had ignored what people said about Order and Chaos being actual people. He figured he’d believe it once he saw it. Now he had seen it, but in Death.

  Death kept walking, and Richard dropped his gaze to the ground. Death stopped at the edge of the farmlands, then pulled out the device from his pocket. No one dared move. Some were looking Death in the eye; others were cowering away from him. A quiet sob filled the air as some people realized what this meant.

  Death searched through his device, tapping it in a few places. Richard focused on the device, wondering what it was. It was black as well, and the more Death tapped on it, the more dark smoke leaked out of it in lazy wisps that moved too slow.

  The pure, personified version of Death slipped the device back in his pocket, then lifted both hands upwards, palm toward the sky. The wind picked up, and Richard dug his fingers into the ground, terrified he’d get sucked into the strange whirlwind Death had created. As the wind shook the base camp, it sounded like the screams of the dying. The wind tore into the farmlands, picking up dirt and grime, and the shrieking got louder. Death gave a deep inhale, one Richard heard as though the being stood next to him and made that noise right in his ear. Richard shuddered, feeling ready to curl up into a ball just like Fang. The only thing keeping him from doing that was how much it would hurt his arms.

  Richard felt a deep desire to follow that being. It was like his very soul wanted to escape out of the cuts on his arms and follow, but Richard closed his eyes and resisted.

  The wind died down, and Death turned around, walking back out of the gate. Richard stared ahead, his chest heaving. He could have sworn nearly invisible wisps followed Death as he headed back to the forest.

  Noise came back at once. People picking up bodies of the newly deceased, sobbing. Richard stared at the retreating figure through the broken gate as the orbs of light began to fade and darkness threatened to come back. Somehow he knew, even though he hadn’t been here a full week, that this was one of the worst attacks this base camp had ever received, and they might not recover.