Laryn jumped and slid down from the top of the ridge, trying on his new strength. His enhanced body managed to land more nimbly and move more gracefully. Despite sliding down a muddy chute and cracking a shin on a log, he made it down to the bottom of the ridge feeling strong and ready.

  He saw lights moving through the trees in the direction of Harrat’s camp. In the darkness, nobody had spotted him working his way down the face of the cliff. But he knew there would be guards watching.

  In the short time they’d been there, they set up a series of breastworks surrounding the kingdom core. These faced the forest and Vallor. On the other side of the encampment, where pools of water bubbled up from the ground, the defenses were spottier, but engaging that way required wading or swimming.

  Laryn wanted to get as deep into Harrat’s camp as possible before they realized he was there. He slipped through the darkness, hiding in the shadows of the trees as he moved closer to the enemy. He pulled his hood further over his face, to prevent his eyes from giving him away.

  In a few moments…

  The distraction began.

  Gaten and Widan fired darts from the northwest gap, into the defenses of Harrat’s camp. Kenna fired one from the other ridge, and Gall fired his own.

  The magic flashed in the darkness, and a life bolt glowed as it smashed into a bulwark. A few shouts went up from the camp.

  The barrage ended. All his mages had to wait for three minutes between firing their [Dart] attack. But then the [Bombs] went off in rapid succession. Low booms rumbled, as the four of them threw magic toward the enemy.

  It was enough. Torches moved through the trees, heading to see what was going on at the front of the camp.

  Laryn pushed forward. He stepped onto claimed tiles, and noted their information. Two influence per tile. Not as much as he’d feared, but it would still disadvantage him.

  Men ran past on the other side of the low wall, heading to see what was going on at the front. Laryn crouched behind a tree.

  Harrat’s men had wisely cleared the trees for a dozen meters in front of their defenses, to make sneaking into the camp harder.

  But Laryn didn’t see anyone watching, so he jogged across the gap and vaulted over the low wall.

  “Hey!” someone shouted, running up. In the pouring rain. “What’s going on over there?”

  A man ran up, cloak dripping wet and muddy around the edges.

  “There’s a commotion that way,” Laryn said. “Seems like a probing attack.”

  The man cursed and jogged past.

  Laryn slipped deeper into the camp.

  As he moved, he caught glimpses of soldiers, standing in ranks, like they were preparing for an attack. Had Harrat planned to attack him tonight?

  Laryn knew that there were likely several core enhanced people here. He’d be killing one of them by destroying this core. But the others could pose a problem.

  Killing Prince Harrat would solve a lot of problems, but he doubted he’d be able to get to the man. He always seemed to be protected by several mage body guards. Even with his stat buffs, Laryn would have a hard time in a fight like that.

  Tents and campfires dotted the ground. Laryn moved between them, sticking to the shadows. Everyone seemed to have taken cover in their tents, save for a soldier or two sent out to see what the commotion was.

  Nobody challenged Laryn as he moved through the ring of tents and campfires. A second line of defenses around the heart of the camp could prove more challenging. He could see the vision; Harrat had competent men working for him. But they hadn’t completed everything yet.

  The inner defense perimeter was supposed to begin with a trench. It had been marked out on the ground, but digging hadn’t begun yet. Laryn guessed that was because they were too close to the natural hotsprings, which bubbled out of the ground in the north east section of the camp. If men started digging these trenches, they’d fill with water, making the work more challenging.

  Behind the missing trench was a solid wall. Constructed of timber, and rising about seven feet high, the wall enclosed the entire center of the camp. Three evenly spaced openings permitted the high ranking officials, warriors, and powerful mages to quickly sally in any direction to defend the main camp.

  These were guarded, and Laryn’s distraction had done nothing but place these men on high alert.

  From here the wall at the Northwest gap looked formidable. The sentries there had done as ordered, lighting torches along the wall, and occasionally moved them around to give the impression that many more men guarded it. The deception worked well.

  Turning his attention back to his task, Laryn debated charging straight into one of the entrances. Instead, he decided to try vaulting the wall. His strength would help him. He could do it quickly. What were the odds that someone noticed?

  Laryn ran across the sodden ground and reached the wall. In one clean motion, he jumped, grabbed the top of the wall, and heaved himself over.

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  As he flew through the air, darkness obscured his landing. He crashed loudly down into a pile of pots and pans. The crash rolled through the camp, and guards shouted, coming running toward the sound.

  “By Ishtoran,” Laryn muttered. He skipped back in time four seconds.

  Slightly altering his trajectory this time, he flipped up over the wall and landed gently on the ground, beside a large pile of cookware. No alarm went up from the guards.

  He paused for a few seconds and reclaimed his missing four tiles.

  About thirty meters away from him the dark obelisk of the kingdom core glittered in the night. He recalled Kenna’s instructions about trying to cut the core heart free. He wished that he asked her more about destroying the core. It was something he knew was done all the time, but that he’d never had to physically do before.

  As soon as he attacked the core, the man bonded to it as [Ruler] would know.

  Someone had set up a tarp next to the core, and two guards sat beneath it. They were playing cards by the light of a dim lantern.

  Laryn advanced cautiously. He didn’t know how powerful his elemental [Bomb] spell was, so he didn’t want to use it. But a well placed [Dart] could kill one of these men, and he could easily take the other.

  If he could do it quietly, he could have a moment to inspect the core before he started his real attack.

  He slipped forward, until he was certain of his aim. A life dart would be more powerful, thanks to his current elemental affinity stats, but he opted for an earth dart, since life darts tended to glow and earth darts didn’t.

  As he prepared to fire, he drew his sword. He’d attack from the side. The guards wouldn’t have time to react.

  He fired the earth dart and charged.

  The dart slammed into an invisible wall, sending a spray of soil out in a fan. Laryn slipped on the wet ground and slid forward, passing through the invisible wall without trouble.

  The two guards sprang to their feet and began shouting “Intruder!”

  Laryn reset time. He skipped back five seconds.

  Some kind of magical wall blocked his attack, but hadn’t stopped him.

  He’d have to get up close and personal.

  This time Laryn snuck around an ornate tent, which he assumed belonged to Prince Harrat. As he moved alongside it, he noted the guards near its entrance. Light leaked from seams in the fabric, and he heard the low rumble of voices.

  A new idea struck him. If the prince was in there, could he cut through the fabric of the tent and kill him? He could use his time rewind ability to make the perfect attack.

  He pressed his sharp sword against the fabric of the tent, and made a small cut. The noise of the cloth parting was loud, but dampened by the pattering of rain. Laryn peered through the hole.

  The chamber on the other side was empty, but light shone through the exit on the other side. Laryn carefully enlarged the hole and stepped through.

  Getting out of the driving rain was an instant relief. Standing in Prince Harrat’s tent created another kind of tension, though. Laryn’s heart pounded loudly in his chest. He shouldn’t be doing this. Going off plan was the best way to mess things up.

  But if it was a horrible idea, he’d just rewind. He had some wiggle room before things became problematic. He could scope it out, and then decide. But he had to move fast.

  He crossed over to the tent flap at the far end of the room, dividing the chamber.

  Through a narrow gap, the scene unfolded before him. Prince Harrat wore a crown, and stood at the head of a table. A half dozen men sat at the table, where a map was laid out. A dozen more men stood at the edges of the rooms, emblazoned with sigils that marked them as mages.

  “It’s got to be around here!” Harrat spat, his face red with anger. “Why else would they be resisting us?”

  “My lord,” one of the men said, but Harrat wasn’t finished.

  “I can’t believe we fell for their trick!” Harrat said.

  Laryn noted that the map the men viewed now had the true shape of Vallor drawn on it. They would have discovered the truth when Laryn claimed the tiles to reach Tier Four and Vallor was added to the map.

  “There’s no way such a small force would stand up to us without it,” Harrat said. “I won’t be talked out of it. Why do you think they went to tier four? It’s because they have the spell module and they’re going to use it against us. I’m not calling off the attack. If anything, this is more reason to press our advantage, while we have it!”

  “It may take them some time to learn it and prepare to use it, my lord.” Laryn recognized the robes of the speaker, marking him as a coresmith.

  “They’re probably installing it as we speak,” Harrat snapped. “This is an opening. They’re only going to grow their influence. We have to move. We push forward with tonight’s attack!”

  The men at the table murmured their agreement, and Harrat tore at his hair. He gestured to an aide, who ran from the room.

  The meeting was clearly over. Some of the men left the room.

  Laryn took his chance.

  He burst into the room and fired a dart.

  This smashed against another invisible barrier before it reached the prince, but Laryn was already charging forward with his sword out.

  The mages reacted immediately, and Darts flew through the air as shields formed to protect the prince. Laryn’s sword smashed into a solid stone barrier as a fire dart ripped his sword arm from his body. Another dart was about to crash into his head.

  He skipped back in time, three seconds, and gasped at the memory of pain.

  That attack had been unlikely to work. But now he knew how they’d respond if he attacked…

  He watched for a moment longer, but Harrat never came closer.

  Laryn shook his head. It was a pipe dream. He wouldn’t be able to kill the prince, not even with his advantages.

  He rewound time 26 seconds, to the point where he first cut into Harrat’s tent. He immediately reclaimed the tiles he’d sacrificed. He’d pushed influence down to one and a quarter.

  How long would it take Harrat to muster an attack against Vallor? Not long. He had to destroy the core and derail their plans.

  Harrat’s aide exited the tent. So the decision had been made, then. Soon they would all be pouring out of the tent, preparing for their attack.

  Laryn moved around to a dark crevice near the edge of the tent. If Harrat and his mages rode out of the tent and into camp, he’d have longer before they would be able to run back to the core and kill him.

  The wait only lasted a few moments. Harrat’s men left, and then Harrat, followed by his retinue of mages.

  The prince even had one of his mages summoning a water shield to divert the rain.

  Laryn watched them leave, then turned toward the card playing guards.

  It was time to kill a core.