The wendigo I was holding with my hand was draining fast. Their vitality wasn’t on gorg levels, but it was enough. I shaped four Arcane Darts, thicker than usual, swollen with mana and stolen life force, and held them floating besides me.

  My multicasting skill screamed in protest together with my mind.

  I adjusted the spell matrix on the fly, sacrificing power for speed. The darts vibrated, unstable.

  One winked out as my control slipped.

  “Fuck,” I hissed. Focus.

  I used the loss to my advantage, snapping off hexes instead of keeping the spell at the ready. Two curses each on the next wave. Speed. Coordination. Then Malign Intensification.

  As I finished, three streaks of distorted light punched forward.

  Two wendigos took hits square in the chest. Fist-sized holes appeared where hearts and organs used to be. They dropped instantly.

  The third dart clipped the edge of a ribcage.

  It tore the entire right side open.

  Blood and viscera sprayed across the forest floor.

  Good.

  Quinn flickered into my peripheral vision, a shadow with intent. He slipped behind the wendigo Melissa had been stalling and slit its throat in one clean motion before vanishing again.

  Then Alya screamed.

  Pain, not rage.

  My curse flared for a moment, distracting me. I looked for just a second over to Alya to fire a dart at her enemy, but then I left the fight to her; I couldn’t spare any more time despite the curse saying otherwise.

  The last wendigo I had hexed was already on me.

  I cast Arcane Blast again, amplified by the grimoire, but the life force feeding it ran dry mid-cast. The blast still hit, hurling the creature backwards and opening wounds in its torso, but it wasn’t enough to kill it outright.

  It was already recovering.

  I stepped forward to finish it when something slammed into my side.

  The world spun.

  I hit the ground hard, rolling, breath torn from my lungs. Pain flared sharp and wet along my ribs. I looked down just long enough to see blood soaking through my clothes – too much blood.

  I looked up.

  A wendigo was charging straight at me, claws slick with fresh red, murky yellow eyes locked on mine.

  Behind it, the formation was fraying.

  If I went down here—

  No.

  Not yet.

  I forced myself up onto one knee and fired an infused blast straight from my palm.

  There was no time to shape the spell properly, no careful balance, no finesse. Just raw force, dumped into the most basic structure allowed. The recoil jarred my arm and sent a spike of pain through my ribs, but the effect was immediate.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The wendigo flew backwards like it had been kicked by a siege engine, hit a tree, and tumbled away in a mess of snapping branches and cracking bone. It didn’t get back up.

  No time to confirm the kill.

  The one I’d been preparing to face before getting blindsided was already inside our formation.

  It was going for Rhea.

  Mary reacted instantly, throwing a golden shield between them, but she was already stretched thin. One hand was glowing as she worked on Alya, the other shaking as she held the barrier together. Sweat ran down her face. She wouldn’t last like this.

  I got up fully and ran, pain screaming at me with every step.

  I didn’t bother with subtlety.

  Four hexes slammed into the wendigo in rapid succession. Speed, coordination, strength, resilience. I layered them so fast the magic blurred together, then rammed Malign Intensification through the whole stack. Hexes were fast. Faster than shaping spells for some reason, maybe because they worked on my will more than any spellwork I did with the other magic skills.

  The creature staggered mid-stride.

  I closed the distance and slapped my palm against its face.

  The bone-like mask exploded outward as I discharged a point-blank blast. Shards of ivory and dark flesh sprayed the air. The body dropped gracelessly to the ground.

  Dead.

  I turned immediately.

  Mary was still healing Alya, but another wendigo was hammering at the golden barrier now, shrieking as its flesh burned with every impact. I burnt through my mana without hesitation.

  Two hexes to slow it.

  Another.

  Three more to sap its strength.

  One for coordination.

  Malign Intensification.

  The creature collapsed mid-swing, limbs locking up as if its body had forgotten how to function. It twitched on the ground, claws digging furrows into the dirt as it tried to rise.

  I stomped onto its back and activated Drain the Accursed.

  The life force poured into me, thick and invigorating. My wounds knit faster, the sharp pain dulling into something manageable. I didn’t micromanage it. I let the skill do what it did best.

  “Mary,” I said sharply. “Focus on Alya. I’ve got this.”

  She didn’t argue. The moment I took over, the golden shield vanished, and her full attention snapped back to Alya.

  I glanced down.

  Alya was still clutching the hilt of her broken sword in one hand, knuckles white, blood soaking her clothes. Three long gashes crossed her torso, starting at her right side near the hip bone and going up across her abdomen to just under her left breast. It was bad. But she was alive.

  Later.

  I lifted my head and assessed the battlefield.

  Marcus was bleeding from some gashes too but was still upright, grappling with another wendigo. One lay dead at his feet already. Melissa was holding yet another at bay with barriers, her face pale with exhaustion. Marco was off to the side, hunched over, panting, doing absolutely nothing.

  Pathetic bastard.

  Bodies were scattered around us. At least three more kills that weren’t mine. Quinn’s work, clearly.

  I fired a dart past Melissa’s shoulder and punched straight through the wendigo she was stalling. Another dead.

  Then I hexed the one Marcus was fighting, stacking debuffs until the creature faltered. Marcus didn’t miss the opening. He swept the bone club low, took its legs out, then brought the club down and pulped his skull with a single strike.

  More shapes moved towards us; the monster I was draining died, but my wounds were still not healed completely.

  “Marcus,” I called. “Leave the two in front to me. Team up with Melissa to take the one on the flank.”

  He nodded once and moved.

  I still had mana left. Not much, but enough.

  I threw up a barrier in front of the rearmost wendigo, solid and thick, stopping it cold. The one charging at full speed I hexed mid-run, layering debuffs until it slowed to a crawl, limbs jerking uselessly.

  Two darts took its legs out. It dropped in front of me, so I stomped on one arm, felt bone give, and activated Drain the Accursed again. The healing surged through me, sealing the last of my wounds. When it tried to reach for me with its other arm, I caught it and held it still.

  It wasn’t even close to strong enough to break free.

  Then I had an idea.

  Those beasts weren’t strong or resilient; they were quick and, from what Quinn said, had good senses. The last wendigo was already nearly on me. Instead of slowing it, I only hexed its defences. Nothing else.

  I poured mana into an Arcane Blast, more than I should have, compressing it down until the spell screamed in protest.

  The wendigo leapt, and I released when it was about to strike me.

  There was nobody left to fall.

  Just limbs and chunks of flesh blasted backwards in a wet, red spray that painted the forest floor.

  I finished draining the last of the life force from the creature at my feet and straightened slowly, scanning the treeline.

  Nothing else moved.

  Marcus and Melissa had finished off the flanker together. Quinn appeared from the brush and wiped his blade clean. Mary was still working on Alya, golden light pulsing steadily now. Marcus sat heavily on a fallen log, finally letting himself bleed.

  We were hurt and exhausted, but we were alive.

  I exhaled, long and slow, and finally let the tension drain from my shoulders.

  “...a fucking disaster,” I heard Quinn mutter to no one in particular.

  That had been close.

  Now though, Marco and I were going to have that talk.

  20 chapters ahead!