Every day, more traps appeared around Veils End, and more undead tempted him to detonate them. It had been 5 days since Harvey finished his first Wildfire Charge. They’d yet to see a single skeleton, but more and more Graveweavers, turned forest animals, and Dirgebats appeared every day.

  “At this rate, we’ll be the only living things left by the end of the week!” Julian complained, yanking his sword from the gut of a turned Stonetusk. They were out hunting beyond the walls of Veils End, guarding Harvey while he buried his magical IEDs.

  “I’m ready to get it over with,” Harvey said. “Stressing over every sound is driving me insane.”

  They’d had a few close calls where a Dirgebat almost escaped. Judging the range of their echolocation was impossible, so the trio was forced to sprint after them anytime they heard something remotely close to one of their angry songs. Just that morning, two had come within sight of the Outpost at the same time, forcing Harvey and Julian to hunt the second while Hannah and Buttercup easily dispatched the first. Ever since Buttercup evolved to a Grove Sentinel, navigating the roots and rough patches of the forest floor was near effortless, but the same couldn’t be said for Harvey. Luckily, he’d been diligently practicing flying around with Booster whenever he had a spare moment, so he’d managed to catch the bat before running out of essence.

  “Me too,” Hannah added. “I say we just let the next bat go on its merry way.”

  “No, we can’t give up now. The more traps Harvey makes, the better,” Julian asserted.

  Harvey had forged dozens of each type of charge by now, but even that wasn’t enough to fill the ever-growing range of his aura. Every morning began with a new batch of Lightning Ink, followed by around 15 arc charges. Once they were done, he’d bury them around the outpost and outside the walls before spending a few hours hunting with Hannah and Julian. Then, once he felt like he’d recovered enough, he’d cut himself open and do the same thing for wildfire charges. Those had to be stored in a slipsack until the Undead got a little closer to stave off the degradation of the wildfire ink, and he was building up quite a stockpile. 5 days of nonstop crafting, hunting, and trapping had gained him two more Profession levels, three more Class levels, and three Race levels, and after putting every free point into Willpower, he’d gotten it all the way up to 443. His aura range was close to 100 feet back when he only had 282 points, and the exponential growth of every point had more than doubled it, leaving a lot of forest for him to detonate.

  “Honestly, Julian, I don’t know how many more I’ve got in me right now. Constantly bleeding myself is taking its toll,” Harvey sighed.

  “I know, but every skeleton that dies here in Veils End is one less threat to humanity,” Julian pleaded.

  “Yeah, but there are so many other things to do! I haven’t even started figuring out the essence barriers I wanted to try for the watchtowers yet,” Harvey complained. It wasn’t that he’d gotten bored with forging arc charges. Even at his most selfish, he’d agree that was a terrible excuse. He wanted to start experimenting with something else because it might give him a reprieve from at least one bloodletting session while he worked on his new plans.

  “Be honest with me. How many traps do you think you could make in the time it takes you to figure out that one theoretical inscription?” Julian asked.

  “I don’t know,” he mumbled. “Maybe 30 of each?”

  “Alright, which is more important? 60 deadly traps we’ve already proven are effective, or a hypothetical shield to cover us while we try and lure the undead inside the Outpost?” Julian asked.

  Harvey knew the answer. Instead of responding, he picked up his shovel and walked over to a new patch of undisturbed soil.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t think we’ll ever get to rest until this war is over,” Julian apologized.

  “Shhhh, do you hear that?” Hannah froze, scanning the late afternoon sky as Buttercup held himself mid-step. “I think we’ve got bigger problems to worry about.”

  Harvey froze, listening intently for whatever started ringing alarm bells in Hannah’s mind. All he could hear was his heartbeat, thumping rapidly as a mix of panic and exhaustion waged a war under his skin.

  “I don’t hear anything,” Julian said. “Too much loud music in my past life, I guess.”

  Harvey didn’t hear it either, but he did feel something strange pushing up against his aura. Being able to sense his inscriptions over 200 feet away didn’t mean he was somehow omniscient within that range. They were like blips on a radar screen, only showing up because they were intrinsically connected to his weave. He’d only sense other auras when they were actively interacting with his own, and something was trying to do precisely that.

  “I don’t hear it, but I feel something,” he shared.

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  Neither of his companions shared his massive pool of Willpower, so they didn’t sense the intrusion until it was close enough that identifying the source was unmistakable.

  Bats…

  Multiple bats.

  Using Booster to launch himself onto the highest branch of a nearby tree, Harvey surveyed the horizon. Five massive Dirgebats were flapping their way, each releasing a deafening screech as they scanned the forest below.

  “How many?” Julian asked.

  “Five,” Harvey responded.

  “You’re kidding, we can’t take that many at once,” Julian swore.

  “We have to try!” Hannah shouted as Buttercup barreled through the trees towards the source of the cacophony.

  Harvey followed suit, using Booster to soar into the air and move to intercept the creatures. True to its word, the skill turned him into a living rocket, sacrificing maneuverability for raw speed in the air.

  “I’m going for the closest one!” He shouted, conjuring fireballs in each hand and slinging them straight ahead. The bat tilted diagonally, careening out of the way to let the orbs of forgefire fall to the trees beneath it. Harvey wasn’t surprised. His projectiles didn’t have the velocity behind them to land at this distance reliably, but he wanted to divert the bat off course.

  Carefully modulating the stream of flames erupting from his legs, he moved to follow the beast like a homing missile locked onto its target. As he closed in, he fired two more fireballs on an intercept trajectory, only to swear when the bat rapidly decelerated. Harvey had no wings to slow himself down and was forced to make a wide, looping turn after barreling past his mark.

  From what he could see, Hannah was having better luck, already poking a hole in her bat’s left wing. Julian didn’t have any ranged attacks, so he was forced to throw rocks at the apex of each leap made with Vanguard’s Entrance. It was a simple strategy, but his massive pool of strength turned each rock into a cannonball that whistled as it pierced the sky.

  Come on! Gotta get the first one quick so I can catch a second!

  Finishing his turn, he found his target flying just above the treeline. Multiple deafening screeches were echoing around inside his helmet, making him worry he would burst an eardrum. None of the Dirgebats had fought back so far, but he was reluctant to take off the helmet, since 9 times out of 10 his flight attempts ended in a crash landing. Almost a third of the countless dents on his once pristine armor had come courtesy of ramming through tree branches.

  Now trailing behind the beast, he was able to release a barrage of fireballs until one eventually clipped its leathery back. Fur went up in smoke as small holes in the leather quickly grew large enough to send it tumbling into the leaves. It was grounded, but the lack of a kill notification meant it was still alive. Unwilling to leave the beast to find a hiding spot and recover, Harvey released his flames and let himself fall to the ground before new jets from his arms and torso arrested his momentum. The bat lay in a crumpled heap on the ground, angrily screeching as he sprinted over with his hammer in hand.

  A single swing crunched through its skull.

  “Got one!” He croaked, his voice cracking after flying completely dried out his mouth. The raging river of essence that normally flowed through his body had been reduced to a dying stream, and his weave ached from the exorbitant expenditure. Even a minute of flight was far too taxing for an F Grade ascendant, and he’d already been running himself ragged hunting for the past few hours. Booster was meant for rapid redirections in fights and only the occasional burst of flight. Until he evolved, he simply didn’t have the essence reserves to stay in the sky.

  Grabbing an F Grade Essence Potion from the pouch at his waist, he uncorked the vial and tipped the liquid lightning down his throat. The river within raged once more, but he could feel his weave warn him that he couldn’t fight forever with potions alone.

  No time to worry about that. He thought, bursting through the branches to return to the sky. A quick scan suggested Hannah had already killed one bat, and Julian had his arms wrapped tightly around the flailing body of a third as they fell to the ground.

  Two more.

  He found them flying over Veils End, both having already reached the gate opposite their arrival. He shot towards them right as they split off in opposite directions to circle back towards the undead forest.

  “They’re splitting up! I can’t chase both!” He screamed, having no idea whether his friends could hear him.

  Hopefully you did. He thought, adjusting course to intercept the bat on his left. His first two fireballs missed, as did his second set when the bat did something he’d never seen before. He’d aimed to fly right into it, using his own body as the projectile if he had to, but instead of fluttering out of the way, it tucked both wings and dove right underneath him. The wispy strands of fur on its back were close enough to touch, but his reflexes just weren’t fast enough.

  He could feel his weave trying desperately to squeeze his essence into the Booster sigil like blood vessels constricted to their limits, and if he pushed any harder, one was likely to burst. A single potion wasn’t enough to satiate the greed of his skill, only leaving him enough to make a sharp turn back towards Veils End, where he used the main road as a makeshift runway. Sadly for him, his steel suit wasn’t equipped with any landing gear, leaving him to tumble through the dirt until he came to rest on his back, looking up at the darkening sky.

  “Ow,” he wheezed.

  Picking himself up, he staggered out of the gate and into the forest. The ear-splitting screeches were gone, meaning the bats had either died or gotten far enough away that they stopped scanning for threats. Harvey wanted to sprint to his friends, but his body wouldn’t listen. He couldn’t see them, but felt the inscriptions on their weapons moving nearby through his Modular Array skill. Eventually, Buttercup clopped up next to him with a tired Hannah resting on his back.

  “We got the one on the right,” she said. “I saw a trail of flames following the other one, so we left it to you. Did you get it?”

  “No,” he groaned. “It slipped right through my fingers. Literally! I got so close I could’ve grabbed those stupid wings and snapped them in half!” Harvey swore.

  “Well, I guess the cat’s out of the bag,” Julian sighed as he joined them in the clearing. “The only reason there would be 5 showing up at once is if somebody sent them, so I’m betting the Undead know where we are.”

  “I’m sorry,” Harvey apologized.

  “Don’t,” Julian smiled. “I know you did the best you could.”

  “Let 'em come!” Hannah exclaimed. “We’re ready as we’ll ever be.”