The hulking creature scraped at the mud with thick hooves, snorting through the gaping chasm of its maw. Ready to charge.

  Derek braced his armored boots against the ground and raised the only plasma blade still working. No retreat. Not with his team down or injured. Not against a Silver-rank beast, faster, stronger, relentless.

  And not with a busted leg.

  A short distance away, Alyra staggered to her feet, clutching her head, dazed.

  Derek exhaled. Alive. For now.

  The horror bellowed. Its roar echoed by the shrieks of dozens of human and bovine mouths grafted across its body. Eyes rolled blindly, raving in madness.

  Were those mangled bodies still conscious, or just warped echoes of magic? Didn’t matter. Normally, that thought might have slowed him. Not tonight.

  Tonight, he would carve this abomination apart, whatever, or whoever, was trapped inside. Alive or undead.

  “Derek,” Vanda’s voice cut sharp through his comms. “Unusual brainwave patterns detected. Are you all right?”

  “I’ve been better. Maybe it’s all the painkillers you’re pumping into me.”

  “That’s not how painkillers work, Derek. And your dose is normal. There’s something—”

  The beast lunged. For a heartbeat its image split in two, flickering, then snapped into place right in front of him.

  It froze, teeth bared in a guttural snarl, only inches from his face.

  Proximity alarms shrieked, but no impact registered.

  It had moved so fast he hadn’t even seen it. So why hadn’t it struck?

  Derek looked up.

  NOVA’s arm was braced against the abomination. Only, it wasn’t an arm anymore. It had twisted into a long, curved scythe of metal, coated in the same black substance that had wrapped him when he absorbed the sphere’s power.

  Whatever this thing was, it had moved fast enough, and with enough force, to stop a Silver-rank creature in its tracks.

  The corruption had spread from his shoulder, then surged outward, shaping itself into the titanic blade now locking the beast’s claw in place.

  The monster roared and swung its other claw. Derek raised his plasma blade, but it was too slow and too weak.

  The strike slammed into him.

  He crashed into the dirt, HUD drowning in static. Red errors screamed across the display, warning that the left arm and shoulder plating were compromised.

  Micro-thrusters ignited, yanking him upright before he could even react.

  The colossus loomed over him, but instead of striking, it stopped.

  Why was it hesitating? Had it seen something that scared it?

  Derek’s gaze dropped to the black scythe his right arm had become. Was that it? Or had the beast simply realized this fight wouldn’t be easy?

  Only one way to find out.

  He poured every ounce of power into his legs—what was left of them—and charged with a raw battle cry.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Alyra staggered to her feet, swaying. Had she fallen without even realizing it? One moment the world had vanished into darkness and impossible cold, and she had thought she was dead. Then nothing.

  The clash of battle a few paces away snapped her back. She turned, and the memories slammed into her.

  Derek was fighting alone against the biggest, most horrifying thing she had ever seen. Bigger. Faster. And… what was that on his arm?

  The nightmare hurled him down. But Derek rose again instantly, lifted by the armor’s strange power. His plating was dented, smeared with mud, barely holding together. The fact he was still standing at all felt like a miracle.

  Could he really stop it alone? Was there truly no one who could help him except her? Useless, little Alyra?

  As if in answer, Markus staggered out of the mud, leaning heavily on his hammer.

  Her heart leapt. “Markus!”

  He looked up, pain etched across his face. “What are you doing here, girl? Get out!”

  She shook her head. “I won’t leave you alone!”

  Markus gave a strained half-smile. “You’re the bravest child I’ve ever known. I hope we’ll meet again one day, in Orbisar’s light.”

  He hefted the hammer onto his shoulder and marched toward the fight.

  In the meantime, Derek and the beast clashed midair. The NOVA was hurled aside like a ragdoll, rolling through the mire before he somehow clawed back to his feet.

  This time, the horror had lost an arm. The severed limb lay in the dirt, motionless.

  Alyra waited for it to crawl back like before. It didn’t. Why wasn’t the creature regenerating anymore?

  The beast snarled, drool flying, and barreled at Derek with its two twisted arms. Each strike crashed against the black scythe, moving too fast to follow, every impact ringing with a metallic clang. Veins of violet light pulsed brighter with every block.

  Strange. Each time Derek met its blows, the creature’s strikes looked slower. Weaker.

  The thing lunged forward, slamming a hoof into his gut.

  So fast Alyra barely saw it. The impact shoved Derek back, armored boots carving trenches in the filth, but somehow he stayed upright.

  Then the NOVA froze. Its knees buckled, and Derek dropped to the ground.

  Alyra watched in horror as he lay there at the mercy of that abomination. Why wasn’t he getting up? Why wasn’t he doing anything?

  The beast crept closer, as if wary of a trap.

  Alyra’s eyes locked on the motionless NOVA while the creature loomed ever nearer.

  A thousand mouths writhed across its flesh, gasping and choking, some shrieking broken human cries while others snapped like starving animals.

  A thousand eyes rolled wildly in their sockets, some blinking out of rhythm, others staring at her with glassy hatred.

  The monster raised one massive limb.

  If it landed, that was the end.

  Alyra’s sob tore the air. Her heart felt like it exploded in her chest. “Derek, no!” she cried with everything she had.

  The creature turned toward her, and in that moment Markus charged in.

  Turning to face her, the beast had spotted him in time.

  The blacksmith closed the last few yards, hammer raised high, bellowing a war cry.

  A black flash. Something flew.

  Alyra blinked. For a heartbeat she thought Markus was still charging. His stance was the same, hammer raised high.

  Then her vision sharpened. The hammer was gone. So was his head. Most of his arms had vanished with it.

  The massive corpse of the man—what little was left of it—toppled and hit the dirt with a sickening thud.

  Her voice broke loose, unstoppable. “Markus! Nooo!” The sound cracked, shrill as nails on slate. Tears blurred her vision into a shattered kaleidoscope.

  She clawed at the mud, shoulders shaking with sobs. It was her fault. If she hadn’t screamed like an idiot, the monster would never have seen him coming. What had she done?

  A wet, cavernous noise made her look up. The creature was coming for her.

  Her chest tightened. No, now it would do the same to her. She couldn’t run. There was no one left to stop it. No one to save her. This evil had already taken everything.

  Her village. Her family. Her old life.

  And now it was coming to take what little she had left.

  Heat welled inside her, rising from her core, flooding her chest, burning in her veins. The tears dried. The sobs stopped. What remained was something else entirely.

  She rose to her feet, trembling, yet unbroken. The looming silhouette no longer seemed invincible. For the first time, she saw not a nightmare to fear, but her true enemy.

  It was madness. But in that madness, she felt clarity. The weight of her loss, the fire of her grief, the stubborn spark of her will, all of it fused into one.

  Alyra raised her fists and set her stance. “Come on! Come, bastard!” she spat, voice carrying more than fury. It carried her soul.

  The beast stopped, uncertain, hooves scraping the ground.

  Why had it paused? Did it feel what had awakened inside her?

  It didn’t matter. She could not hold back anymore. Whether it came for her or not, she would go to it.

  She was done running. If death wanted her, it would have to meet her head-on.

  With a raw scream that echoed like a vow, Alyra charged.

  Derek cursed through gritted teeth. “Vanda, what the hell is happening? I can’t move anything.”

  “That’s what happens when you keep taking hits like that and expect everything to work as if nothing broke.”

  His pulse roared inside the armor, as if trying to outmatch the NOVA’s core. “Damn it, that thing’s going after Alyra! I need to move, now!”

  “I’m bypassing a failed peripheral motor board. Redirecting controls to—”

  “Just do it, Vanda! No time for tech talk. And hurry!”

  “Yes, Derek…”

  Something in Alyra’s scream had drawn the monster away.

  If it weren’t for her, Derek would already be dead.

  It moved like it was in a trance, heavy hooves sinking into the sludge, swaying as it lumbered toward her. As if it had forgotten Derek even existed. Hypnotized by the little girl.

  He had no idea what had gotten into it—or if Alyra had anything to do with it—but damned if he would waste the opening she had just given him.

  Any second now, that damn thing could snap back into snarling, drooling rage. By then, Vanda had better be done with whatever she was doing.

  “Done!” Vanda shouted. “You can move now. But be careful. Less than half your actuators are online, and I had to reroute multiple functions to the few boards still working. Movement will be clumsy. Don’t expect normal agility.”

  With a grunt, Derek shoved himself upright. “About time.” NOVA staggered like a drunk, and he fought to keep his balance.

  He turned toward the beast.

  Alyra was running. Not away, but straight at the damn thing, screaming like she was the demon.

  Derek blinked. If he hadn’t been wearing a helmet, he would have rubbed his eyes. What the hell was she doing? Had she lost it?

  He tried to sprint after her.

  Instead, the ground rushed up to meet him and he faceplanted into the sludge. “Shit!”

  “Derek,” Vanda chided. “I told you to be careful. What part of ‘half your actuators are fried’ sounded like an invitation to sprint?”

  “Yeah…” he hissed through his teeth. “You also didn’t tell me I wouldn’t be able to stand up.”

  “Of course you can. Standing is easy. Walking without eating dirt, now that’s the tricky part. Some controls are inverted, so maybe don’t—”

  “I don’t have slow, Vanda!” He shoved himself up with NOVA’s only functional arm. The other was still the massive black scythe. Great in a fight, not so great for balance.

  With effort, he got to one knee, then staggered upright.

  He turned carefully back to Alyra. She was still on her feet, yelling and throwing punches at the air, somehow untouched. It was as if the creature hesitated before her, though why it did so he had no idea.

  The abomination stood there, swaying, still not attacking. There was no telling how long that trance would last, and Derek had no intention of finding out.

  One unsteady step at a time, he forced NOVA to move again.

  Agonizingly slow.