Two massive explosions broke the stalemate. One came from a crystalline arrow humming with barely contained power that turned three Ossari clumped together into a rain of shattered bone. The other came from a ball of ghostfire slamming into the ground behind Harvey. He felt the life-eating flames seep through the cracks in his armor, eating away at the flesh underneath. The pain was enough to make him stumble, and an Ossari axeman took the opportunity to charge towards him.

  Down on one knee, Harvey raised his shield to intercept the strike. The bones in his arm strained, but a blast of retaliatory lightning from the shock-absorbing lightning array inscribed on his shield sent his attacker away. The muscles touched by the ghostfire felt cold and numb, like he’d lost connection to that piece of his body. Luckily, his Vitality was rapidly restoring the dead flesh, giving him the strength to surge forward to unleash a Flamestrike-infused hammer blow into the Ossari’s skull. Still dazed by the lightning, the skeleton’s attempted block was nothing more than ineffectively raising one arm. Steel met bone with a heavy thud, and a gout of flame invaded the small wounds left by the lightning. A crack opened between the eye sockets, leaking essence at an alarming rate.

  Even if the Ossari couldn’t bleed, they could be wounded.

  Following up on his strike, Harvey released a short burst of flame from the back of his right heel, sending a roundhouse kick rocketing towards the skeleton’s chest. If it wanted to block its head, he’d just have to hit it somewhere else. With every step, Harvey released another strike. A chain of shield slams and hammer blows quickly widened the fissure in the skull, until a brutal overhead swing finally produced the snap he was waiting for.

  You have killed Level 31 - Ossari. Essence Gained. 3421 Merit Earned.

  All around him, similar melees were taking place. The Veilstriders outnumbered the Ossari two to one, but when it came to levels, it was obvious they had the lower hand. Ice spikes whizzed over the ground, reaping lives every second. Skeletons turned to specters before dashing behind their battle lines, attacking their army on both fronts. Bony hands erupted from the earth, grabbing unsuspecting victims and restraining them until a second skill could finish them off.

  Now that the wall had fallen, Graveweavers and Hollowmaws, the spider constructs and unliving wolves, charged into the fray. The Veilstriders all unleashed their own skills, killing dozens of skeletons in the process, but only a select few were capable of taking on more than one Ossari at a time.

  Harvey’s battle had carried him past his reinforcements, and he found himself faced with three more warriors closing around him. At the same time, a second eruption of ghostfire blasted the ground behind him. He was far enough away to avoid getting burned, but he knew he needed to deal with whatever was causing those explosions. Deciding he wasn’t ready for a 3v1 battle, he pulled an arc charge from his slipsack and dropped it at his feet. As his own creation, his will literally embedded in the runes covering its surface, he was able to divert the lightning away from himself. He found he couldn’t imbue his imprint the same way as when he used one conjured with Echo Forge, but the original version was still enough to stun his attackers long enough for him to escape.

  Turning to run back to his allies, he finally saw the source of the fireballs.

  The dragon.

  It had perched itself atop the hotel, claws ripping through pipes and tiles as it roared down at them. A third explosion was already halfway to the ground, and Harvey unhesitantly charged Booster to rush into the air to meet it. A spectral shield appeared in the sky, larger than any he’d created before, thanks to infusing Innovator’s Arsenal with his imprint. The description of his Legacy had said it was up to him whether his creations became tools of destruction or walls of protection, and he was happy to see it took that duality literally. Just like his imbued Echo Forge charges became deadlier than ever, the shield he created held firm when the ghostfire slammed into it. He had to keep feeding the shield more essence to keep it from burning apart, but the flames dissipated before the cost became unbearable.

  Relief spread through his body as he resumed his ascent. The dragon above was terrifying, but blocking one of its attacks proved it was still just an F Grade.

  “I’m gonna need some help!” he screamed. Someone had to handle this thing, and he could see Julian was too busy acting as the vanguard to leap up here and do anything. His cry was answered by another crystal arrow whizzing past him, Hannah’s essence infusion giving it the speed of a sniper round. He nearly lost control of his rudimentary flight when the shockwave of a fully charged Critical Mass arrow detonated inside the bones connecting one of the wings to its body. A corner of the hotel roof was gone, debris raining into the parking lot alongside the dismembered wing.

  The beast roared in pain, stomping hard enough to fall through the top two floors. Harvey couldn’t help but laugh after seeing the power of Hannah’s ultimate strike. She’d come a long way since that night they stumbled upon a scared cheerleader running from a Bloodrunn.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  A second arrow soared towards the roof as well, but this one had a thin vine whipping through the air behind it. Harvey landed just as the arrow did, and he watched as the vine yanked Emily up from the parking lot below to land next to him.

  “Grappling hook?” he asked.

  “Hell yeah,” she responded. “Keep it distracted and I’ll tie it up.”

  Harvey didn’t see what a few roots would do to a dragon, but they didn’t have time to argue. The ground wobbled beneath him as he ran towards the dragon's head. He felt his heart skip a few beats, as each step could send him tumbling down into the building.

  “Hey!” he shouted, pouring lightning ink and his imprint into an orb. The dragon didn’t seem to hear him, still stomping around in pain, but he could see another blast of ghostfire being conjured in its empty ribcage. His orb shattered against its head, causing the flames to disperse as incessant lightning bolts wormed into the exposed marrow. Conjuring an imprint imbued copy of Aftershock, Harvey took a homerun swing at the side of its head that sent the bottom half of its jaw winging into the distance. Arresting the momentum of his hammer, he tried to swing back the other direction when a massive clawed foot burst through the floor beneath him.

  Razor-sharp bone carved a deep gash in his armor. His weave screamed in pain as Soul Forge was finally forced to endure a strike his armor couldn’t fully handle itself. Not a single drop of blood was spilled, but he felt the claws carve three shallow lines on his soul. Luckily, Soul Forge was one of the skills that scaled with his Willpower, and the bond between himself and his equipment had been reinforced to the point that it no longer felt like his weave was defenseless when embedded in his equipment.

  The force of the attack nearly threw him over the ledge, but a small retaining wall was enough to catch him before he joined the bricks tumbling to the ground far below. His conjured hammer had flailed with him, and he’d accidentally destroyed another chunk of the roof when he hit the ground.

  Emily stayed as far away as she could, dodging the spiked tail of the dragon that was trying to whip her away like a horse batting away a fly. Instead of shooting the beast itself, she shot her vine arrows into the floor beneath its feet. Seeing 20-foot vines bursting from beige carpet was a strange sight, but he was happy to see they were slowly restraining the thrashing bones.

  An idea was forming in Harvey’s mind. Staying on the roof got more precarious every second, but there might be a way to turn that into a good thing.

  “Once it’s stuck, get off the roof!” Harvey shouted.

  A stream of ghostfire from the dragon’s throat interrupted his brainstorming, and he frantically charged Booster to throw himself into the air. The head strained to follow him, but he flew high over its tail where the flames couldn’t reach him. Emily shot a few more arrows before leaping off the roof like a base jumper. A flash of doubt shot through him, but all he could do was hope she was smart enough to find a safe way down.

  Cutting the supply of essence to Booster, he felt himself go weightless for a moment. His rapid ascent turned into a free fall back towards the dragon, and he lifted Aftershock high in the air, the massive spectral copy doing the same.

  I really hope they did a good job reinforcing the basement.

  Harvey was taking a risk. One that could get a few Veilstriders killed, but also one he couldn’t afford not to take. The dragon needed to die, and he didn’t have the essence or the weapons for a drawn-out battle. Shattering its jaw had only seemed to anger the beast, and constantly using Booster to dodge the ghostfire wasn’t viable. He could feel he barely had a quarter tank left, and there were still hundreds of Ossari, Gary, and Marcus to deal with.

  Sorry.

  Using the momentum of his fall, Harvey swung his hammer like the dragon was hot steel and the hotel was his anvil. The kinetic batteries on his hammer were already fully charged, so he overloaded the inscriptions and unleashed his lightning on the dragon. Bones snapped beneath the weight of the hammer, followed by the building itself. As the spectral hammer disintegrated, he watched the Hell Hotel collapse floor by floor. Sounds of shattering glass and warping steel filled the air as all four walls were pulled in to fill the crater left behind by the one-winged beast.

  Harvey closed his eyes tight, offering a silent prayer that the Veilstriders in the basement could survive the collapse while the dragon couldn’t. Every boom made him shudder as he continued his own descent.

  Instincts finally overcame his fear, and he opened his eyes just in time for Booster to somewhat arrest his fall. He searched for the swimming pool, hoping the water would provide a softer landing, but found it filled with bone and rubble. Instead, he aimed for the decorative hedges Buttercup had been snacking on. All the wind escaped his chest as he hit the shrubbery hard. Booster had accidentally set fire to the plants, the perfect finishing touch for his masterclass in destroying Outposts.

  You have slain Level 52 - Thanefire Drake. Major Essence Gained. 18,987 Merit Earned

  So that’s what the ghostfire’s called, Harvey thought. A wracking cough pounded out of his chest as the light of a level burned through his weave. Killing the drake had been enough for another Class and Race level. The radiant light aggravated the wound left by the claws, but it wasn’t the same agony he felt back when he’d truly injured his weave to the point his stats had fallen by 30%. Quickly checking the screen, he saw the numbers hadn’t changed. Still, he put his 6 new Free Points into Endurance, hoping it would help him keep pushing his weave a little longer.

  One threat was dead, but the war wasn’t over. Uncorking a bottle filled with blue liquid, he tipped an F Grade essence potion into his mouth while picking his way toward the gate of the old wooden wall. Essence surged through his weave once more, and he drank a Health and Endurance potion before running back into the fray.

  Scanning the battlefield for targets, he saw that one had been chosen for him. Gary, with a single arm and a savage smile, was running straight for him.