Benedict’s eyes darted between the monsters and the nest. Seven monsters, and every on that died would be replaced just as quickly. They would lose a battle of attrition. He maneuvered his rifle to try aiming at the nest, but everywhere he tried, a monster floated into his firing line.

  “Might have been able to surprise it if I’d started with a sword,” Benedict grumbled.

  “Leave the last one alive, then attack the nest,” Ordra said.

  Spells flashed through the air, and explosions wrecked the space around the monsters. Ordra advanced with Amalyn, Kirion, and Shiyo behind him. The monsters came through the dust cloud. Rifle shots rang out, spells flew, and blades struck. Benedict charged past, through the smoke, and readied to fire on the nest. A shout caught his attention, and he spotted a monster soaring over the smoke and diving on him, needle-tipped tentacles glowing red. It slammed into the ground as Benedict leapt away, almost scratching his leg, then paid for its attack by taking a series of gunshots.

  Benedict smiled. “I have an idea. Someone watch my back!”

  Amalyn came in with her glaive swinging. “Whatever idea you have, keep going.”

  Once again, Benedict aimed at the nest. More came in. Amalyn flew around, slicing into the enemies and leaving them easy pickings for Benedict. Kirion joined them, and soon enough there was only one monster left.

  Ordra bat it away with a shield. “Celica, now!”

  Celica’s staff glowed, and she raised it over her head. Six monsters popped out of the nest. Her spell slammed into one of them and burst, leaving the nest completely undisturbed. Benedict cursed under his breath.

  Ordra killed the monster he had been fending off, and a replacement popped out of the nest. From then on, every monster that fell was immediately replaced, and the battle of attrition was on. Every attempt made on the nest resulted in a monster defending it, but they kept trying. They kept going. The nest had to run out of monsters at some point.

  Pain and exhaustion streaked through Benedict’s muscles. He shut them up with a stamina potion and kept going. His rifle didn’t. As he fired upon another charging monster, a shock went through his hand on the forestock, and his next breath caught in his throat. No bullets left in that coffer, so he flipped the rifle around and slammed the buttstock into the monster, throwing it to the ground. In another motion, he drew his sword and stabbed the monster multiple times.

  “Benedict, duck!” Celica screamed.

  Light pulsed and blasted into a monster that had come from behind him. He managed to duck just in time. The blast stopped it from moving, and Ordra came in, thrusting a conjured blade on the edge of his shield into it.

  “Any new ideas?” Ordra asked.

  Benedict eyed the vines reaching into the ceiling. Maybe it was siphoning something from the tree itself. He sent his rifle back into its coffer, then drew the cross and threw it. Maybe the remaining monsters were too distracted to continue defending the nest.

  They weren’t. As the weapon flew in a gentle arc right toward the vines, a monster spawned from the nest and immediately flew into its path. Conjured blades sliced deep into the monster’s body. The cross slowed so much from the impact that it simply flew back to Benedict’s hand. He caught it and prepared another throw then stopped when something struck him from behind.

  Tentacles darted around him, needles stabbing and ripping. He tried pulling away and thrusting into the monster. His sword met nothing as it flew around, dragging him with it. Pressure released, and he fell to the ground along with the tentacles that had been around him. The monster flew back, its dismembered appendages flailing beneath it. Shiyo landed on the thing while thrusting her blade through it. Benedict felt blood drain from his most recent wounds as the world darkened.

  “You’ll be all right!” Celica shouted before forcing a healing potion down Benedict’s throat.

  He coughed hard as sour liquid went down the wrong way. The wounds still disappeared, and so did the pain.

  “I would have drank it willingly,” he said, voice hoarse.

  “How much more does this thing have?” Ordra growled.

  “We can’t leave it here regardless!” Shiyo shouted.

  Benedict watched more monsters pop out of the nest. That was the first problem. “It’s worth a shot. Everyone, stop killing them! Kirion, can you bind these things?”

  “I can try,” Kirion replied.

  “Another plan?” Ordra asked.

  “An outline, really,” Benedict replied.

  “I don’t have anything, so good enough.”

  They went for the nearest monster. Benedict poked its body with his blade to get its attention, then Ordra came behind it and punched it to the ground. Both he and Benedict were away when Kirion’s first arrow landed, bursting into bright light. Chains appeared, wrapping around the monster and attaching it to the ground. As much as it tried, it couldn’t pull free.

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  More monsters came in, presumably to assist their comrade. Tentacles tipped with glowing needles probed the air, reaching for the chains. Benedict’s blade darted in and out, parrying needles and striking at bodies to drive them back. One needle struck a chain, disintegrating it. Ordra shoved the offending monster away, giving Kirion space to bind it with more chains. Again, the remaining monsters rushed in to help their friend. Celica blasted them back mostly harmlessly. Kirion kept shooting. Maybe half his arrows found their marks, but he managed. Two remained free.

  “Keep those two down!” Benedict shouted, readying the cross again.

  One monster wrenched itself free of conflict and flew to defend its nest. A chain struck its body, halting its momentum. Shiyo stood by with her grapple out, pulling the monster back to her. The cross flew, and nothing intercepted it. Two vines burst when the blades hit, falling to the floor while spurting green liquid from the wound. The nest trembled and tried moving from its spot on thick, sluglike legs, only stopping because its remaining vines held it.

  “Celica! Use something big now!” Ordra shouted.

  “Stand back, everyone!” Celica shouted.

  One of the two remaining monsters charged her. Benedict caught it, slicing its tentacles and pinning it to the ground with his rapier. Celica’s staff glowed, and small wisps of light danced around her. Behind her, one of them broke from Kirion’s bind. Benedict left the monster at his feet pinned and drew his rifle. No ammunition!

  As he scrambled to insert a new coffer, the monster charged Celica. Kirion loosed an arrow at a different one, pinning it under chains. More broke free. Ordra and Amalyn took on one. Shiyo was too far away to do anything without Morighana’s power. Benedict launched himself. Whether with bullets or blunt force, he was going to stop that thing. His leg twitched, pain seared through his body, and he fell to the ground, useless. One tentacle had speared his leg, and black tendrils reached along the skin that he could see.

  Light burst as the spell cast. A single, slender dart bright as the sun crossed the arena in milliseconds, piercing the nest’s skin. Cracks radiated from the impact point as energy spread throughout its body; energy that eventually burst forth, ripping the nest apart.

  Then Celica screamed. Benedict finished reloading and blasted the monster at his feet until it disintegrated. His leg screamed as he rose and charged toward her. She fell forward, reaching out to break her fall. Beside her, Shiyo stood, sword thrust through the monster’s body, still twisting it as blood trickled from her mouth. Three tentacles stuck out of her torso, one of them entering just below her left breast. Her eyes glowed bright with Morighana’s power.

  “Shiyo!” Benedict screamed as he ran to her.

  The monster disintegrated, and Shiyo toppled over, landing hard on her side and flopping like a ragdoll. Benedict scooped her up and held her close. The wounds in her festered with the same black tendrils that hit his leg. He had one more healing potion in his coffer, and he trickled it into her mouth. While she gulped it down, Celica started laying patches on the wounds. Morighana’s light faded from Shiyo’s eyes before the others arrived. Benedict just hoped Celica hadn’t seen it.

  Applause came from one of the exits. “Bravo! Even I must admit that was a spectacular showing!”

  In the exit stood a group of the masked men. Their leader was at the front, red cape falling around his black tunic and pants. He was the only one without a mask, showing off his long blonde hair and bright green eyes. A longsword rested on his shoulder. Amalyn let out a pained gasp.

  “Nice to see my little sister is following in my footsteps, as well,” he continued.

  “Fandal, what is this?” Amalyn screamed.

  “You just ended a bit of divine justice, dear sister. My mistress has the power of the goddess on her side, and the ruler of Noctim threw her benevolence in her face like spoilt food. Doing such things comes with divine consequences.”

  Benedict spat on the ground. “A protection racket, more like. The power of this goddess apparently doesn’t confer good character if she’ll do this.”

  “With the right perspective, you would see the folly of your ignorant words.”

  Amalyn launched herself forward, covering half the distance between them in a single bound. “I’ll show you the folly of following that monstrous woman!”

  Before Benedict could tell her to stop, Amalyn flew backward through the air. Fandal stood with his blade raised to the side, still vibrating as if he’d hit something with the flat. There was no movement in between; the blade was in one position one moment and then instantly in the next. The only other real change was that his eyes glowed with Morighana’s power. Amalyn rolled to a halt back with the party, holding her stomach and coughing, unable to rise.

  “Sister, don’t make this more difficult than it is, already,” Fandal said. “Your time is limited if you don’t hurry.”

  “We have to run,” Shiyo urged, her voice little more than a hoarse whisper.

  “And why is that?” Ordra asked Fandal.

  “Because when we leave, this place will collapse. Did you think these enchantments were permanent?” Fandal said.

  A different man, still masked, cackled behind him. “Our experiment was already a success. We have no reason to stay here now.”

  “Goodbye, dear sister. I hope you survive your foolishness.”

  “Go!” Shiyo coughed.

  “If you escape, you should get her to a healer. The curses those monsters inflict are quite nasty.”

  The masked men disappeared in a flash of light—the same as produced by Shiyo’s teleport.

  Ordra hefted Amalyn, despite her protests, and cradled her in his arms. “We should go. If they are harassing the people in the canopy, then—”

  The earth around them trembled. In the tunnel nearest the party, dirt started falling in small clumps from the ceiling.

  Benedict tossed the glass and keystone to Kirion, then picked Shiyo up. “Run!”

  Shiyo coughed weakly. “I can do it. Please.”

  “Only if we must.” Benedict wasn’t about to let her reveal herself again. No one else noticed already, and he wasn’t going to push their luck.

  The tunnel slowly deformed around them, with strings of light appearing where the formulas holding the walls and ceiling together began to dissipate. Benedict’s leg screamed at him, the pain almost overwhelming. Shiyo’s labored breathing and trembling kept him moving forward.

  “Here!” Kirion shouted as he slammed the keystone onto the wall.

  Even while the tunnel collapsed around them, the stone stuck in place and the stairwell formed, though it was as misshapen as the rest of the tunnels. Benedict felt the steps deforming under his weight but kept going.

  “We’re almost there,” he whispered to Shiyo.

  Dirt continued falling around them, but Benedict kept his eyes locked onto the light ahead, just past Ordra. Pain rose in his leg, mixed with the exhaustion of the run, then they burst into the daylight. They emerged from a wall and into a wide street. Only then did Benedict allow his leg to give out, and he fell, twisting as he went to keep Shiyo cushioned against his body.

  “You… are… a… fool…” Shiyo moaned between heavy breaths.

  Kirion took Shiyo under his shoulder and lifted her off Benedict. “I should have taken her.”

  “No, I was good,” Benedict said.

  Celica and Amalyn together helped Benedict to his feet. The moment he put weight on his wounded leg, pain shot through his entire body. A single glance showed blood staining his pants and boots below the wound. He bit through the pain as he let the women help him back to the lift platform.