Two inches of wood separated Kade from death.
Slimy yellow ichor and copper-smelling blood oozed under the door—the ichor from the centipede-like monsters that had erupted from a portal so bright it dulled the sun, the blood from the crying teenagers' father.
He stood in front of his sister. He'd balled one fist ineffectually; his nails ripped into his palms hard enough to draw blood. The other gripped a practice fencing foil in a white-knuckled squeeze. When the bathroom door came down, it would mean nothing. All his anger—forged into determination by the man he called Dad. All his practice with the sword in training spars and with his fists in schoolyard fights. The promise he'd just made.
It meant nothing.
Not compared to the monsters outside. His stepfather had been a delver, and he'd still died. A mundane, Earth-made weapon—not even a weapon, but a practice foil—couldn't possibly harm portal monsters immune to machine-gun bullets and artillery shells.
The boy needed a miracle.
And a miracle arrived.
System Awakening…
User: Kade Noelstra E-Rank Stamina: 50/50, Mana: 50/50
Skills: 1. Stormbreak (E-01, Unique) Open Skill Slots: 6
Kade jerked the door open as the first monster ripped into it. His heart pounded. Anger filled his every thought. Anger, determination, and the battle trance he'd felt every fencing match, every boxing round. He would take care of his sister. That's what his stepfather had asked him to do.
"Take care of your sister. Make me proud."
And he'd promised he would. No matter what.
The door shut behind him.
He used Stormbreak. One second passed. Two. Three.
The storm broke.
The first delvers to respond to the Mesa portal break didn't find any monsters. Only burning buildings, fried power lines, and gore—both human and insect—covering the home at the portal break's epicenter—and, inside the burning, ozone-scented house, two teenagers, unconscious and barely breathing, in a second-floor bathroom.
Present Day:
The portal covered half the street.
It hummed low enough that my feet vibrated on the asphalt. The emerald glow was bright enough to cast even the suit-wearing woman standing next to the barriers in a sickly light. And the flashing construction barriers around it barely seemed like fireflies next to it.
A D-Rank portal.
One filled with monsters tougher than concrete, with weapons and claws that could shear through rebar, and a boss that would even push my friend Jeff—a D-Ranker who could bench press three-quarters of a ton—to his limits. He'd invited me to this portal. I'd said yes, of course. My half-sister's medical bills hadn't stopped when my system awakened. If anything, they'd gotten worse. If it weren't for delving, I wouldn't have had a chance of paying for her treatments.
But more than that, tonight was my first D-Rank portal. The first chance I'd had of claiming a D-Rank boss's core and finally finishing my first merged skill. I'd been working on this build for a year—most of that research before I took the first big leap. Tonight might, just possibly, be that leap.
The woman's badge flashed in the light. She waved me over. Governing Council. She cleared her throat and pulled a stylus out of her suit pocket as I jogged up. The ubiquitous tablet that every GC rep carried came up. "Last member on the team? Great. Name, rank, and skills. Pull them up. This portal, at least, is getting done by the books." She sounded bored.
I opened my status, then touched the scanner on her tablet.
User: Kade Noelstra E-Rank Stamina: 120/120, Mana: 180/200
Skills: 1. Stormbreak (E-03, Unique) 2. Mana Sense (E-09) 3. Skill Control (E-09) 4. Arjun's Script (E-05) 5. Tonya's Binding (E-07) 6. Dodge (E-06) 7. Light Blade Mastery (E-04)
"Stormbreak's setting off flags," the representative said after a moment. "It's 'Extremely—"
"Hazardous.' I know," I interrupted. It pinged every rep's tablet; once they read the description, it always went the same. The answer was always the same, too: the answer the Governing Council wanted to hear. "I don't plan on using it unless the party is in imminent danger of dying or it's the only option to stop a portal break."
I'd only used it twice. That had been enough to agree with the Governing Council's assessment of it. Stormbreak wasn't a skill to use except in the worst emergencies, because it would almost certainly make things worse for everyone.
Enemies. Allies. Even me. I knew both of those facts from painful experience.
It was incredibly strong, but I'd only used it twice. And, yeah, it had saved people's lives—most of them, anyway—the second time I'd used it, but it had also put all of us in the hospital for days and weeks, and if I'd been wrong and it hadn't killed the portal boss, we'd have all been dead.
The first time had been worse. Much worse.
"I'm trying to build to get it under control," I added.
"Oh! A Unique skill merge? Good luck. With an 'Extremely Hazardous' skill, it's either that or—"
"A generic build, yeah. I know." I'd said that before, too.
"Kade, you coming?" Jeff shouted from the portal entrance. I looked over my shoulder; the rest of the six-person team was geared up, and the portal's emerald glow silhouetted them, making them black shapes with green outlines. I knew most of them; Jeff was the tank, Angie and Carlos the team's two archers, and Sophia Walker, the team's healer.
Sophia was the single reason Jeff's team worked. A low E-Rank healer—even lower than me—but a healer. They were a hot commodity, and I had no idea what Jeff was paying her to keep her out of the guilds' hands, but it wasn't enough. She could be on the fast track to B or A rank with the Coyotes or Roadrunners. Instead, she was slumming it with Jeff's team.
The last guy was new. I didn't recognize him. He was probably another delver Jeff had texted for backup.
And all five of them—including Jeff—looked impatient.
"Delver Noelstra, you're registered as a support, focusing on Scripts and Bindings, for this delve. And, since you've already agreed to only use your 'Extremely Hazardous' skill in an emergency, we don't have to go over that," the rep said quickly. She tapped her tablet and nodded at Jeff. "You're cleared to proceed, Delver Carlson."
"Thank you," Jeff said. He rolled his eyes as I jogged past the traffic barriers the Governing Council had set up around the portal. "Still E-Rank, Noelstra? When are you going to catch up?"
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"About the time you run out of steam," I shot back, glaring. We stood there, his hand on his short sword and mine on a leather pouch on my belt, squaring off. Not that I had a chance of beating a D-Rank tank like Jeff in a fight. Even with my ideal build, he was a full rank higher than me; in an all-out fight, stats, skill levels, and gear mattered more than determination and discipline.
Jeff was everything I could have been. He was absolutely massive, with arms as thick as most men's legs. Toned, too, under his gear. His armor covered his vitals with enchanted steel and his arms and legs with mail and padding. That was about all a delver could ask for at D-Rank. And the massive shield on his back reminded me of something from ancient Rome. That was C-Rank—low C-Rank, but still the most powerful magic weapon out of everyone here.
Even if I'd worked out nonstop, I wouldn't be as big as him. I was almost that toned, but from running sprints and working the punching bag more than from lifting. But D-Rank gave him physical advantages, and he'd always been a big dude.
But even so…I wasn't going to back down. Not this time…
My facade crumbled an instant before his did. I felt the smile crack my face despite my effort, and stuck a hand out. "Thanks for the text, Jeff."
He laughed and grabbed it, pulling me against his breastplate in a massive, back-thumping bear hug. "Any time. Glad you made it, even if your build's coming along slower than 101 traffic."
"Shut up," I said, smile still plastered on my face.
"Okay. Everyone ready? I'll go in first. Stay behind me. I'll protect you. The plan is for me and the archers to do the heavy lifting, let Erik save his Mana for serious threats, and move fast. Let's get this portal sealed."
He stepped into the green portal and disappeared. For a second, his silhouette hung in the air. Then it disappeared. And one by one, we followed him into the portal world.
By the time I stepped into the cavern, Jeff was waist-deep in goblins. Some of them were dead. Others were only injured. Even more of them streamed from around stalagmites and across the rough, jagged cave floor.
All of them were screaming. Battle cries. Cries of pain. Cries of rage. It didn't matter; portal worlds were always like this; the portal itself seemed to empower the monsters inside and drive them into a blind rage, where all they wanted to do was kill and kill. And the only solution was to kill them even faster—before the portal broke and spilled them onto the streets of Phoenix.
I drew my dueling sword and dove into the fight.
Goblin: E-Rank Monster
Goblins were among the weakest of the sentient portal monsters, but in a D-Rank, Warren-typed portal like this, they came in swarms—and portals at this rank didn't have the safe entry point E-Rank ones usually did. I hacked and stabbed into the screaming mass of wrinkled, wart-covered green skin that was currently beating against Jeff's shield like a tsunami against the cliffs.
A goblin lunged at me, a rusted knife in its hand and a loincloth around its waist. Its seeming weakness didn't fool me; as its knife rushed toward my stomach, I got my sword down in a low guard and pushed it off-target. Then I stepped to the side as the monster's momentum carried it past me.
I needed a fight, but I didn't want this one. I'd been a fencer and a boxer in high school, before I'd awakened. Those fights got the battle trance going. That feeling, where an enemy matched up with me, and it was just our skill, strength, and determination that decided who won. I hadn't felt it in so long. Not since my city championship duel. I'd lost—but I'd felt it.
The goblin screamed a war cry and rushed me again. This time, its slash cut my leg and opened up a bleeding wound. It wasn't deep, though; I clenched my teeth and stabbed. My blade caught the monster's stomach. Blood and the stench of intestines filled the air. It was ugly. But it was effective.
I'd felt it with Dad sometimes, too. He was holding back. His C-Rank status put him so far beyond me that he'd have killed me instantly at full strength. And even with him holding back, I'd still never won. I'd been getting close, though, before he died. Close to making him proud. That was an even greater feeling than the battle trance.
I stepped back. The goblin's screaming, shrieking counterstrike caught nothing but air. Sophia moved behind me and Jeff, and I dropped into an awkward lunge as a rock pivoted under my feet. My sword slipped between the goblin's ribs, and it died screaming. Like goblins did.
Sometimes, I felt the rush and the narrowing of the senses in E-Rank portals, but I didn't feel it as Jeff's team and I tore into the goblins. All around me, echoing from the gray-brown walls and high, roughly rounded ceiling, was slaughter.
But even though one goblin didn't get the blood pumping in my temples—even though Jeff's team was going to win—that didn't mean the little monsters weren't dangerous by sheer numbers. One was easy. Two would probably be manageable. Three…three was too many.
So, of course, three peeled away from Jeff, eyes locked on me.
I stepped back as they rushed me. Screaming. Because that's what goblins did. My sword left a spray of green blood gushing from one's stump of a wrist; I tried to pull the cut fast enough to block the second's crude knife. But I wasn't fast enough, and I stumbled on a rock that stuck out of the floor. The knife cut across my arm. A steady flow of red joined the green already slicking the cavern's floor. Pain spread across my arm.
A second later, Stamina poured from my reserves. It didn't heal the wound—monsters could do that with Health, but delvers could only dull the pain without the right skills. I kept my grip on the sword and spun, cutting awkwardly into the attacking goblin's chest. It wasn't pretty. Even with four levels in Light Blade Mastery, I didn't have the clean cuts I wanted.
But the goblin died. Its blood sprayed into the air like an old golf course fountain. I backed off, smiling. It wasn't the battle trance, but it was something. I wanted this. Needed it.
That left two. One held its wrist as it screamed. Pain? Anger? I had no idea—maybe it just liked screaming. The other rushed me with two crude knives. I blocked its swing for my neck. Then I blocked its next swing; the blows echoed in the tunnel as its knives hit my portal metal blade. I countered. A wound opened up on the monster's shoulder, and one knife hit the ground.
Then my foot was on fire.
The goblin I'd disarmed had bitten me. Its needle-like teeth had punched clean through my tennis shoe, and I kicked, trying to dislodge it as it gnawed on my ankle. Teeth snapped off in my foot, and the goblin went flying.
The other one's remaining knife hit my stomach. It punched through my hoodie, and I screamed as it cut into my guts. I crumpled to the cavern floor.
And that's when three hundred pounds of muscle and steel smashed into the goblin.
Jeff didn't even pause to see if I was alright. That wasn't his job. He just kept going, straight into the next group of goblins. A D-Rank tank could put out more damage than a support-built E-Ranker any day, and despite the gore covering him, he didn't look like he'd been hurt at all.
I wanted to be him. Not a tank, but a delver with a Unique skill that matched the way Dad had taught me to fight. I'd never be as big as Jeff. But I wanted to be that strong. No. Stronger. He was my best friend, and I trusted him with my life—and my sister's—but I couldn't help regret the months of study it had taken to finalize my build. Meanwhile, he'd blown off skill merges and accepted the C-Rank Bottleneck.
If not for my caution and his impatience, I could have been right there with him, instead of hiding behind him and struggling with a couple of E-Rank goblins.
I tried to push myself to my feet, then stopped. I was wasting Stamina, and I couldn't move either way. I paused for a moment to check my wounds.
My arm and foot burned, and my stomach was split open, but even so, I stopped pushing Stamina into my pain suppression. I screamed again as the full weight of my injuries hit me. I saw stars. I felt…a warm feeling against my stomach.
"I know you don't want to be a support," Sophia said as she channeled healing into my injuries. Her brow was furrowed, and she wore an expression that was equal parts confusion, compassion, and stress. Her hand was soaked with blood. My blood. "But one of these days, you're going to get yourself killed. Don't insist on hanging with the fighters and strikers until you're one yourself, alright?"
Two arrows whipped by, and two goblins fell, dead. "Let the injured sit if it's not safe for you, Soph," Carlos said. He nocked another arrow, and a second later, another goblin twitched and screamed on the floor. "Especially if he's not battle plan-essential. An E-Ranked support isn't going to make enough of a difference to risk your life mid-fight."
I ignored him. The healing was already working; it hurt, but the pain was different. Not tearing, but stitching.
Carlos was a good guy to have in a fight, but he was always focused on the end result and what was fair—and he was right. My support skills, Arjun's Script and Tonya's Binding, would already be cast as buffs for most of our fights. It wasn't that I wasn't worth keeping alive. It was that in a tougher fight, against D-Rank monsters, Sophia would have to prioritize the buffed-up damage dealers or Jeff, and she couldn't be rushing off to heal me. I'd have to suffer sometimes.
But I was used to it. Supports usually drew the shortest sticks in emergencies, especially the buffing kind, and especially when they hadn't even gotten their buffs out yet.
"I'll heal whoever needs it," Sophia snapped back.
Jeff finished killing the last goblin, smashing its skull in with his massive shield. He stood up and stretched his back, then looked over the team. Other than me, no one was hurt. "We're clear here. You two, knock it off. Sophia, watch your mana levels. Carlos, watch your mouth. Let's focus up—it's going to get worse than a few swarms of goblins, and I'm not losing people in here."
Carlos rolled his eyes. I ignored that, too.
Sophia nodded at Jeff, then leaned in and whispered, "But seriously, Kade. Stay with me. We backliners have to stick together."
"Alright. I'll keep an eye on you," I said.
"Let Jeff take care of that. Just focus on keeping the buffs up and not dying," Carlos said.
"Let's make sure we mark the exit before we get moving," Jeff said. He paused. My eyes were closed as Sophia's healing magic did its thing in my intestines, so I didn't see him look around, but I heard it. The next time he spoke, though, my eyes flew open.
"Where's the exit?"
I looked left. Nothing. Right was the same; the sickly green light of the D-Rank portal's exit was nowhere to be seen. My heart hammered in my chest. Something had gone wrong. We couldn't leave.
We were trapped.
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