Soldiers poured from the barracks, crossbows loaded with runic bolts that glinted green in the dark. Tamed beasts howled from cages—scaled hounds, feathered reptiles, even a lumbering mass that breathed cold vapor into the night.
Kelix's lightning scythed through the first wave. Every motion was sharp and surgical, each strike a flash of thunder given form. Idalia followed in his wake, a cyclone of teeth and claws. Her roar shook the walkway beams and splintered stone.
She grew significantly stronger as they made progress through the base. Just after crushing another foe, Idalia felt a sharp surge ripple through her core; hot, electric, impossible to ignore. Her limbs grew heavier in a good way, more solid, more hers. Instinct made her glance inward, that strange internal sense she was still learning to trust.
And there it was:
??? [Skills] ???
She blinked it away as another roar echoed ahead. Soon, they moved toward the central keep toward the orange aura she had sensed before.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
"Almost there!" she called, but when she tried to tear open a portal to skip the courtyard—nothing happened. The air rippled, then snapped shut, space refusing to bend.
Her eyes widened. She tried again, harder this time. No shimmer. No spark.
"Kelix!" she cried out, panic creeping into her tone. "It won't open! I can't make a portal!"
Kelix turned, eyes narrowing. "What?"
"The space is dead," she said, claws scraping the ground as if she could dig the magic up by force. "Like… like someone bit the air!"
Then they both felt it, a pulse rolling through the ground, rhythmic and cold, with every beat sending a faint tremor through the base.
It wasn't natural. It was a spell. A barrier.
Kelix's gaze shot upward to the keep's balcony, and there she was.
A woman stood framed against the glow of the fortress's heart-forge; robes layered in geometric folds of white and gray, hair tied in an uneven bun that made her look perpetually distracted.
But the air around her hummed with so much mana and mathematical precision that Idalia's head ached.
Then the things on her eyes resembled rune crystals. Spectacles? Her spectacles glinted like the edge of a blade as she flipped through a hovering book, fingers tracing glyphs in the air.
"Found our problem," Kelix muttered.
The woman adjusted her glasses without looking up. "Dimensional resonance nullified," she said aloud, her voice crisp and curious rather than hostile. "Hmm. A young dimensional beast and… ah, a stray remnant of the Saphyra Division. Seriously? This has to happen on my day off?"
Idalia's growl deepened. "She talks weird."
"Strategist," Kelix said grimly. "Colonel's pet sorceress. Probably the one keeping this entire base bound together."
The woman smiled faintly, as though she'd heard him. "Correct on both accounts. I'm Nyla Venthras, chief arcane strategist of the Vulkhanzhar Mercenary Division. You're trespassing."
Before Kelix could respond, the air beside her rippled, and from it stepped a tall figure clad in segmented armor black as night. A warrior. The man's weapon was strange: a blade with two edges, one end glowing faintly crimson, the other blue. He balanced it with easy familiarity.
"Nyla," he said without taking his eyes off Kelix, "which one's mine?"
"The lightning user," she replied, flipping another page. "The beast cub's too wild for clean data."
"Perfect," the warrior said, stepping to the edge of the balcony. He leapt—landed with a metallic crash that cracked the stones—and straightened as if gravity was a polite inconvenience. His aura flared: a dark gold shot through with streaks of red. Controlled, lethal.
Kelix's fingers tightened around his lightning rod.
"You have a name?" he asked.
The warrior smiled faintly. "Captain Varos. Colonel'a first blade." He twirled his weapon once, the air warping with the heat of the motion. "And you're the one who's been frying my men. I've been looking forward to this."
Idalia stepped between them, tail lashing. "You can't have him. He's mine!"
Varos tilted his head, amused. "Cute. You can play with the dogs."
Nyla's hand flicked, and the ground behind them split open with a pulse of runic light. From the fissure crawled a tide of constructs—metal beasts with glowing cores, shaped vaguely like wolves, each one humming with magic.
"Kelix!" Idalia barked, leaping back as the first metal wolf lunged.
"Focus on her!" Kelix shouted. "Break her spell if you can! I'll handle the sword!"
Lightning flared as he clashed with Varos. The warrior's first swing nearly split the air in two, the twin blades burning with heat and frost at once. Kelix met it with a flash of electric force; the shockwave rattled the courtyard, scattering embers and dust.
Idalia turned toward the balcony. The sorceress watched calmly, glasses glinting.
"Block this!" Idalia roared, stomping the ground and unleashing [Stomp] hard enough to send shockwaves up the wall. Dust and stone burst outward—but the sorceress didn't even flinch. Her barrier shimmered once, perfectly intact.
"Predictable kinetic force," Nyla said, almost disappointed. "Effective against walls, not against a reinforced anti-dimensional lattice. Your spatial frequency can't interface with it."
Idalia didn't understand a word of that. "You talk too much!" she snapped, lunging at another wolf. Her claws tore through its chest, ripping free its glowing core but ten more replaced it.
Meanwhile, Kelix and Varos's duel turned the courtyard into chaos.
Kelix's lightning streaked like living serpents; Varos countered each strike with mirrored precision, his dual blade whirling in arcs of red and blue. Every impact spat sparks, carving glowing scars into the stone.
"Your rage makes you sloppy," Varos said, deflecting a thrust.
Kelix's response was a surge of power that turned the ground molten. "Your arrogance makes you dead!"
The two collided again, the flash bright enough to turn night into day for a long blink.
Idalia could barely look. She was too busy dodging exploding constructs, her claws glowing from heat. "Kelix! She's cheating! I can't open anything!"
"I know!" he shouted, parrying another strike. "Then break the source!"
"But it's up there!"
"Then climb!"
Idalia's eyes gleamed. "I like that plan!"
She sprinted toward the fortress wall, claws digging into stone like hooks. Her muscles bunched, propelling her upward in a flurry of motion. The sorceress noticed—her expression flickered from curiosity to focus.
"Adaptive behavior detected," Nyla murmured. She raised her hand, and the runes etched into the wall flared. The stones themselves came alive, reshaping into jagged spires that jutted out to block Idalia's path.
Resolved, Idalia snarled. "No wall tells me no!"
She rammed her shoulder into the stone. Cracks webbed through it. Again. Again. Her claws burned; her jaw throbbed from clenching! But she didn't stop. The Pride's code burned in her blood: leave no prey unbeaten, no meal unfinished, no obstacle unchewed.
Below, Kelix's duel intensified. Sparks lit the courtyard like a thousand fireflies.
Varos's weapon sang as a blur of heat and frost. Kelix met him blow for blow, lightning streaming from his strikes in crackling arcs. Their fight was less a duel and more two storms colliding.
But both of them felt it; the air shifting, trembling as Idalia tore another barrier apart.
Nyla adjusted her glasses, sighing. "Persistent little beast. Fine."
She slammed her palm onto her grimoire. A ring of violet energy exploded outward—so powerful it shattered the runes on the nearby walls.
Idalia froze mid-climb as the air thickened like syrup. Her body refused to move. Her [Spatial Sight] blurred, drowning in static.
"Full dimensional lock applied," Nyla said. "You really are a fascinating specimen."
"Speci… what?" Idalia hissed, struggling. "You mean snack?"
The moment the spell's pressure began to crush down, Kelix's voice cut through the chaos.
"IDA!"
Lightning surged upward in a single massive bolt, striking the wall beneath Nyla's feet. The fortress shook.
The sorceress stumbled, caught off balance, but her spell held. Barely.
Kelix's breathing was ragged, his blade arm slick with blood. Varos stood across from him, smiling through the scorch marks.
"Still alive?" Varos said, spinning his weapon lazily. "Good. I'd hate to end this too soon."
Kelix spat blood, his eyes glowing brighter. "You talk too much too."
Their weapons clashed again with a thunderous crack when Idalia tore herself from the wall's grip, snarling—furious, hungry, and craving something other than rhino meat!
11 chapters ahead [or 5 weeks of reading time ahead of RR]. Also next chapter Monday! Have a good one!