I needed to know.

To know that my core was working again, and what it was capable of. To put it under some pressure and see what would happen. To get out there and fight like I hadn't been able to in three weeks.

But Jeff was…off. He seemed purposeless, and when I asked him to join me, he didn't respond. Yasmin was too worried about him to disappear into a portal. And Sophia was still out, working through everything she'd had to do to keep us alive and the extra pressure of forcing herself to keep functioning on the way home. With Raul out of touch, that left Ellen and me.

Which meant we were picking up a group for a C-Rank portal. Nothing fancy—no indication that it was a Paragon portal, or that there was anything unexpected inside of it. Just a yellow ring in the middle of a sweltering park in central Phoenix.

The GC rep did a double-take when I presented my build.

User: Kade Noelstra Reforged Core, C-Rank Stamina: 380/380, Mana: 480/490

Skills: 1. Stormsteel Core (C-10, Unique, Merged, God-Touched) 2. Thunderbolt Forms (C-09, Altered, Merged) 3. Mistwalk Forms (C-09, Altered, Merged) 4. Cyclone Forms (C-08, Altered, Merged) 5. Stormlight Bond (C-07, Altered, Merged) 6. Shadowstorm Battery (E-10, Altered, Merged, Dual) 7. Stormbreak (E-10, Unique)

Path: Stormsteel Path Laws: First Law of the Stormcore, Law of the Shadowed Storm, First Law of the Hungering Abyss

"I had a little accident and had to do some repairs to my core," I explained quickly, before he could say anything. "Everything else should be in order, though."

His eyebrow raised, but the rest of the team—C and D-Rankers—had piled up behind us, and when Ellen coughed, the GC rep tapped on his tablet for a moment. "Alright, Delver Noelstra, I guess you're cleared to proceed. Next."

I stopped in front of the portal, its glow lighting up the park like a star under the picnic shelter. Then I waited while the partial team's unofficial leader joined me. "So, the B-Ranker?"

"What about Ellen?" I asked.

"She's a real looker. Is she as serious about fighting as she is about looking good?" she asked.

"Yes. Ellen's very good at what she does. This should be a quick portal. We're just here so I can get back into the swing of things," I said. Then I paused as Ellen joined us and put an arm around my waist. "Just keep her alive, and we'll make the enemies dead."

"Arboreal," I said before Ellen could even finish stepping through the portal.

This time, we weren't climbing the trunk of a massive tree or fighting in its boughs. This time, a single, long branch stretched across the mists below, wooden boards laid across it to form a street. White wooden buildings lined the edges of the road, clinging to the edges of the branch—and in some places, hanging out over them. Webbing reached into the sky, where a second branch towered overhead. It reminded me of a suspension bridge, but with an entire city hanging from its cables.

"Right. Expect archers, bug-mounted elven knights, and string mages," Ellen said. "I'd bet our target is over there."

She pointed to the main tree's trunk, where a gigantic white building wrapped around it in a spiral. The soft yellow glow of elven lanterns poured from the dozens of windows, and a wide gate stood at its base, guarded by a thin silvery portcullis.

"Alright, let's get moving," the group leader said. She slid a helmet over her buzz-cut head and drew an axe from her back, then a small round shield. Then she headed straight down the street.

I followed her, and the rest of the team fell into a slow jog.

That lasted only until the first Boughguard Sentinel noticed us. The elf's tower shield flashed down, the C-Rank tank's shield went up, and they slammed into each other.

And then, the air was thick with arrows.

I summoned Tallas's Dueling Blade and the Stormsteel armor and cloak just in time for the first arrow to slam into my chest. It hummed as the maelstrom breastplate ripped at its tip and flung it off the edge of the branch. My sword went up, and I got my bearings.

There were six of them. All archers. All spread across the upper floors of the nearby buildings. I broke into a sprint and charged the closest door. My shoulder lowered, and I slammed through the wafer-thin wood. It crumpled around me. I dropped into a defensive Mistwalk stance, sword up and hand back.

A blade flashed toward my face. I parried it. A charge appeared at the end of my sword.

Boughguard Reserve: D-Rank

I smiled. Then I lunged. My blade's tip punched into the elf's shoulder, leaving an electrically cauterized wound behind. This monster was D-Rank? Really? My off-hand shifted into a grip on my sword.

Three blows later, it was over. The Reserve was dead, and I took the narrow, sweeping stairs two at a time.

The archer up top turned, bow already drawn, and fired.

It caught me in the unarmored arm. I kept pushing as Stamina rushed into the injury. My vision narrowed until only the archer existed. God, it was good to be back in a portal, doing what I was meant to do.

I activated Thunderblade and started attacking, moving like a blur from one stroke to the next. My last blow severed an arm at the elbow, and the elf screamed as he fell off the edge of the building and plummeted into the mist below.

One down, five to go.

Or at least, it should have been five to go, but when I hopped down to the road below, shadow was consuming the upper floors of three of the buildings while the rest of the team assaulted the fourth and fifth. Ellen's face was a little pale, so I focused on her and pushed Mana her way with Shadowstorm Battery.

She opened her eyes. "You shouldn't be playing at support, Kade. Test your limits. Please."

"I am. The D-Rankers I just killed weren't enough to push me." I wiggled my arm; it had already stopped bleeding, and the motion didn't reopen my wound. "I'm draining my Mana down to see what my regen's like."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Fine. Just be careful."

"Always."

Ellen snorted, then went back to obliterating the three buildings she'd chosen, and I got to watch her work at B-Rank for the first time.

It wasn't fair to the D-Rank enemies who'd holed up in the buildings. Shadow poured in through the windows first, then reached up to the flat roofs, weaving through the curving, carved white railings. It was almost a physical thing; where it met resistance, it forced its way through it, then wrapped around the archer and dragged him, screaming, through the wooden railing and into a window.

Then there was nothing. No sound. No screaming. Nothing but darkness, until even that faded as Ellen let her spell go.

"Have I told you that you're terrifying?" I asked her.

She rolled her eyes. "Not anywhere near enough. I had a lot of time to think about my build when we got home. I'm aiming to be a little more like the Light of Dawn, with big area attacks instead of single-target damage. I figure you'll be able to take care of that once you're caught up, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I can be the boss-killer if you can deal with the swarms. We'll balance each other out that way."

It took another minute for the rest of the team to clear their buildings, and when they did, the tank took off her helmet and stared at Ellen. "Girl, you need to chill with us. Whoever you're running with, we'll pay you double."

"Money's not an issue," Ellen said. "I owe the guys on my team my life, and besides, I like working with them. They're going to push me harder than you can, I guarantee it."

The tank's eyebrow raised. Then she nodded slowly, eyes down. "Alright. Can't blame me for shooting a shot, though."

The street kept widening as we followed it toward the wooden palace leaning against the massive trunk. Shops and stalls, all filled with fine, beautifully-crafted wooden wares, gave way to larger businesses and warehouses as we got closer, and the number of C-Rank enemies increased with every block we passed.

Ellen kept proving the power of B-Rank with every fight. In fact, I'd switched my entire battle plan around her; instead of pushing myself to clear a single building or fight a single C-Rank enemy, I was keeping my Mana about halfway full and siphoning off any extra to her, then acting as a bodyguard while her Shadow Shapes spell ripped through buildings in the form of a multi-tentacled octopus that squeezed through every crack and found every low-ranked enemy.

Those that it missed, she found with her aura. It wasn't the sledgehammer of an A-Ranker, or the steamroller that the Light of Dawn threw around. Most of the enemies, even the D-Rankers, could still fight when she unleashed it. But it let her know where they were, and that was enough.

She was terrifying. And, thanks to Shadowstorm Battery, she barely had to stop.

Every once in a while, though, something would make it through. And when it did, I was ready.

The C-Ranker facing off against me with a rapier in hand was proof of that.

It lunged. I parried and activated Flashstep, disappearing and reappearing between Ellen and it. Then I switched stances and lashed out with Lightning Chain. Only a single chain formed, but it linked me to the elven duelist, and I pulled. Hard.

The elf fell forward as lightning rippled through his body, and I lunged. Tallas's Dueling Blade punched through his back before he could recover. Then it did it again and again until he stopped moving.

I smiled savagely and turned to Ellen. "Got your back."

"Thanks." Her aura flashed out again, and a half-dozen elves slowed as the pressure built up around them, smashing them to their knees. Then, the shadow ripped into them. "I think I have a new favorite spell."

"Better than Shadow Boxing?" I asked.

"Depends on the situation. For dealing with a bunch of enemies, yes," Ellen said conversationally as her spell destroyed the portal monsters in front of us. "Shadow Shapes is really built for this. But I need to be careful with it. I won't always have a Mana battery following me around, right?"

"Half right," I said. "I'm with you for the long haul, remember? But I will need to start saving my resources for myself soon."

She nodded. The fight was over, and her spell dissipated. Then she pointed at the nearest warehouse. "Want to check it out while we wait for the rest of the team to catch up? These guys aren't exactly Jeff or Yazzie, you know?"

"Right." I walked to the door and opened it, and we started to go inside.

At least, we did until the smell hit us. It reeked of formaldehyde, acid, and death. Ellen backpedaled, ducking behind me, and I raised my sword, ready to defend. But nothing rushed out at us. It was perfectly still—except for the bubbling liquid in a dozen tall, glass tubes. The monsters inside of them didn't belong in this world. They…

"It reminds me of that fleshcrafting world," Ellen said quietly. "But…it shouldn't be here. Why is it here?"

I stepped inside, sword still at the ready, and approached the first tube. The monster inside of it looked like the flesh-and-skeletal shape of an Experiment Thirteen, right down to the cleavers grafted to its arm bones. But it wasn't active. It seemed asleep in its tank.

"They got those monsters from somewhere," I said. "This isn't like the fleshcrafting world. This is more like the Dark Citadel portal world that was invading other places and taking prisoners. Let's get looking around; there's something going on here, and I want to know what it is."

Ellen nodded, and we started digging through the warehouse. The first floor was nothing but the twelve tanks, each with a different experiment, and piles of crates that all smelled like chemicals. I climbed the stairs, ready for an ambush, while Ellen waited by the door.

A thin wooden door, almost too narrow for me to pass through, blocked the end of a short hallway. I pulled it open to reveal a tiny, lantern-lit office. Dust covered every surface—almost an eighth of an inch thick in some places—but in the center of the ornate, bent-wood desk, a single book sat. I flicked it open. Rows and columns, scribbles of words I couldn't read, and all the signs of a ledger greeted me.

It was perfect. We'd need to get it translated—or work through it ourselves somehow. The rest of the office was empty, but I went through each drawer and the shelves, just in case. Nothing. Not a letter, or a pen and ink. Nothing.

After a minute, I pocketed the little book and returned downstairs.

"Did you find anything?" Ellen asked.

"Yes. It'll take us a little while—we'll need to find someone who can read this language—but I think I found a hint. Something we can use to figure out how they're contacting a fleshcrafting world, and to—"

A shout from across the wooden street cut me off. "Hey, you two, get over here! You're going to want to see this!"

It was good to be queen.

Deborah Callahan wasn't stupid enough to occupy Angelo Lawrence's office. He'd locked it when he left, and while she could break in easily, he'd be back eventually. If she didn't deal with him—if she couldn't come up with a plan to manage him or eliminate him—she'd need to keep playing the long game.

So, instead of moving into the penthouse suite and the office right below it, she'd made the main conference room her temporary headquarters. And it was there that she reviewed the Governing Council's conclusions from the convoy mission debriefs. They'd go public—in a heavily redacted form—tomorrow, but since she was the current head of the Roadrunners, Deborah could see them in all their unmodified glory.

She was curious about two things.

First, whatever had happened inside the Hurricane Paragon's portal world. Kade Noelstra had definitely lost. But she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that she hadn't actually won. Not yet. It'd be easy to remedy that. His core was broken. It was impossible to fix that, which meant it'd be beyond simple to get rid of him. But…

No. No. She'd won. It was over. Kade wasn't a problem. The Light of Dawn was. She needed to focus on him. And on the second curiosity that had come out of the convoy's mission.

Funnily enough, this one also had to do with Kade.

Or, more accurately, with something he'd found. He and his team. It had been during their mission to Roswell, when they'd been ordered to do reconnaissance. Instead, they'd delved a C-Rank, Dark Citadel portal—and they'd come out with a half-dozen people. People from a different world. People who didn't speak any language known to Earth. People who, from all the evidence they'd collected, were convinced that they'd traded one portal world for a different one. They should have been portal monsters.

But they weren't.

The report went into depth about them—although it had been marked for redaction. Deborah agreed with that decision. If it got out that some portal worlds were connected—or that there might be a way to contact other worlds directly—it'd be a mess for everyone.

But the report also went into the possible benefits of working with people who, to Deborah's mind, were alien invaders from another planet—or another reality.

Deborah sighed and flipped back through the report, landing on Kade's few paragraphs for the third time. He shouldn't have been sticking in her mind. Not like this. There were more interesting things in the report.

But he'd told her no, over and over. And even though she'd won and he'd lost, Deborah wasn't sure she wanted to let it go. Not yet.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.