As Logan received the Snapwake Salts from the woman, a roar split the air again, and he craned his neck to peer out the nearest window. A wall of blue light rose in a ring, encompassing the entire diameter of the vendor square and much, much more. The woman looked too, and clucked. So did Miss Josephine in her arms.

"Not that again," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"That's the third time I've seen that wall. Each time, it lasts three hours." She shook her head. "I don't recommend trying to pass through it." She dragged a thumb across her neck and Logan quietly took a step back, despite being inside a building and far away from the wall.

"Does it expand?"

"No, it stays in a fixed radius. Whoever's in there raising it, they seem to get stronger when the wall is up."

So, it wasn't just a barrier to keep people out—or in. It probably also provided some buff to the caster at its center.

Unfortunately, the wall cut directly through the path the back to Cassandra and Alden. Logan walked to the doorway and leaned out, lifting his eyes. It only extended about fifty feet up.

He could bypass it by running the opposite way outside town and climbing the slope back toward the castle. But even then, he wasn't sure which side of the wall Cassandra and Alden were on.

As a plume of fire rose from an apparently errant fire blast inside the ring, a bird screeched overhead and wheeled away. Logan followed its path and noted how it wasn't affected by the blue wall when it passed over.

"Nugget, can you fly above the wall and deliver this to Alden? Stay with him and Cassandra until you know they're safe, okay?"

The dragon chirped and gripped the vial of Snapwake Salts in one talon, then flew up high. Nervous, Logan watched and only relaxed when the dragon crossed the threshold, above the wall's edge. It did a small flip, which Logan suspected was to ease Logan's worry.

He tapped his finger against his chin. Three hours was an awfully long time to wait for the wall to come down. He had already lost an entire day just by crossing through the Ruined Wilds. Sure, Mariv and Razor were strong, and clearly they still lived because his quests to restore the gnomish homeland of the Waterwoods and save dragonkind were both still active. But they had to be exhausted from such a long fight.

His best bet at helping them was to make it over that wall somehow. Since Nugget was taking care of the Snapwake Salts, Logan raced outside the town's gate.

Running is level 28! Running is level 29!

He had the Life affinity now, and that meant he had Eldertread. The skill let him build momentum with each successive jump, and using it reminded Logan of footage he had seen of astronauts jumping on the moon, mixed with the accumulated height gained from bouncing on a trampoline. But even that capped at a point.

It only took him two jumps to get high enough to see that there was a second, shorter blue wall behind the larger outer one. And blue energy crackled between the two, like the ground was electrically charged.

So the plan to just drop in from above wouldn't be smart. And he doubted even his Eldertread would let him cover the distance between the two walls. It used as much mana as Null Pulse, and while it was better with precision landings from taller heights, it wasn't as good at covering long distances.

Unless…

From his current height, he looked down the slope back toward the apothecary shop. Between it and him were the bluffs he had once climbed to get that chicken, little Miss Josephine. She was strong and athletic for a bird…

The idea seemed too ridiculous to try, but he had seen it work in games…

He ran back down, gained another level in Running for his haste, tested his hypothesis, then smirked.

"You'll be fine down here, right?"

The little white-haired woman nodded.

Logan grabbed Miss Josephine and a couple of spare potions from the apothecary's counter, then returned to the slope.

Despite the field of blue energy crackling menacingly below him, Logan laughed hysterically as he floated through the air, drifting in on the chicken.

Given his skills under the Life affinity, he had started off with Eldertread, building momentum to extend his leaps. Next, he cast Invigorating Flame on Miss Josephine, dumping a ton of mana into her. As it lowered his reserves, he downed a mana potion, keeping an eye on his potion cooldown timer.

Between their momentum, Miss Josephine's enhanced strength, and Logan's slowed falling rate under Eldertread, he had basically turned the chicken into a living hang-glider.

A little over halfway between the two blue walls, his potion cooldown ended, so Logan swigged another draft since keeping the two high-cost skills active was mana-intensive.

His laughter dimmed, though, when he saw Razor behind the chicken coop, in dragon form, swiping at thin air.

From that thin air, a blue beam appeared and Logan shook his head in confusion. His Bounty of Silence allowed him to maintain multiple concentration-based skills at once, but that was a technical thing. It didn't actually make it easier to split his attention, and seeing her in dragon form was surprising enough, not to mention he had no idea what she was fighting.

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He usually used Meditate to clear his mind, but that would add a 1.5x cost to other active skills. He estimated he would have a small amount of mana to spare once he crossed the second blue wall while keeping Invigorating Flame and Eldertread active. If he increased the drain with Mediate, though, he would run out before he could take another potion.

He squinted, and the tiniest bit of a blur became visible, as if something was cloaking a figure that Razor was fighting.

At this angle, Logan was facing Razor's side profile. Assuming she was fighting someone, they probably faced her… and one glance at him might give him away. He was flying in on a chicken, after all.

He gently swayed his legs left, trying to guide Miss Josephine so they faced Razor more head on, and therefore (hopefully) from behind her opponent. They only covered a little side distance, but they were almost over the border anyway and no blue beams were blasting toward Logan. So that had to count for something.

Right as they crossed the second, inner wall, Razor blasted a gout of fire and then lunged forward. She raked a talon at the the air, and, for just a moment, Logan saw a figure phasing into view.

Congratulations! You have learned a new skill! Veilpiercer (Legendary), level 1! +10 to Perception, +5 to Willpower See what intruders wish to hide! Unmask threats up to 10 feet away cloaked from the System. Consumes 5 Mana per 10 seconds. Spend extra Mana for increased range and a small chance at deeper penetration. Range increases greatly with level. Penetration increases slightly with level.

As he stared, the skill automatically activated. But that also meant it increased the drain on his mana.

Mana depleted.

Logan gasped and Miss Josephine squawked as suddenly his full weight sent them both plummeting to the ground. It was a solid twenty foot fall at this height, but he rolled himself to the side to keep the bird from getting squished beneath him.

He landed in the center of the vendor area. The impact knocked the air out of him, and the chicken jumped from his hands, scurrying in fear, headed right toward the nearby inner blue wall they had just cleared.

Logan watched in horror as Miss Josephine was about to become fried chicken, but a glint of gold swept through the air as Nugget swooped in and lifted Miss Josephine in his two talons, shepherding her to safety. Or chicken herding, I guess.

With a relieved sigh, Logan immediately downed another mana potion. He hadn't even noticed when he grabbed it, but it was a higher-tiered Superior Mana Potion. It filled his mana up to full, but the cooldown timer was longer than he expected at a full minute.

His Vicelock skill had prevented him from burning any stamina during his chicken flight, which meant his stamina was still at full. He darted toward Razor, using toppled carts as cover to conceal himself.

Razor barreled toward the open area in the vendor square, and the cloaked figure faded into view again briefly.

Veilpiercer is level 2! Veilpiercer is level 3!

Stealth is level 24!

Despite gaining the new skill, it didn't yet seem strong enough to gain a reliable view of the opponent, which Logan didn't take long to determine was a reaver. With the context clues of Razor's route and the subtle hints of blurring, the next moment the reaver phased into view, Logan Analyzed.

Name: Unknown Reaver Race: Human Type: Person Level: 128 Health: ???? Mana: ??? Lore: Unavailable Strength: Unknown Weakness: Unknown

Veilpiercer is level 4! … Veilpiercer is level 8!

He swallowed.

The reaver stopped and faced Razor, then faded from view again. But it wasn't running anymore. Logan darted to the next patch of cover. Where were Mariv and Avalyn? He hoped Mishki was okay, too.

The blue tip of a lance flashed into view and flew toward Razor's chest.

Meditate!

As he scanned the lay of the land, he saw Razor bat the lance with her wingclaw, but it sheared straight through one of her talons.

He needed to close the gap a little more. Hang on, Razor, I'm coming.

He dashed twice more, timing his bursts with the reaver's attacks.

Stealth is level 25!

Synergy detected with Exalted Kin bloodline. Stealth is level 25, with Agility at [50] points or higher. Unlocking threshold perk…

Threshold perk unlocked! Shadowed Edge You put the sh in shiv! Actions taken while hiding have a [25 + skill level]% chance of improved outcome. That's damage in battle or success in finesse attempts.

His opportunity to use the threshold perk was right now.

Razor opened her mouth for an incinerating breath attack.

Invigorating Flame!

Razor was his target, and it seemed even she was surprised by the sudden heat that erupted from her mouth. A notification told Logan he had just given her an additional 50% buff due to Shadowed Edge, and the stall hiding him caught flame.

Heat Resistance is level 19! … Heat Resistance is level 22!

Invigorating Flame is level 22! Invigorating Flame is level 23!

Mana depleted.

Invigorating Flame burned mana in a unique way because it could be increased depending on the pull of the target. And Razor was strong.

He reached for a mana potion but caught himself before drinking it. He still had 15 seconds left on his cooldown timer and didn't want to incur migraine and potential poisoning.

Meditate!

As Logan crouched lower, trying to bide time to recover at least a small amount of mana, the reaver phased back into view, staggering under Razor's enhanced strength. For a fraction of a second, Logan chided himself for getting into this situation. Even when the potion cooldown ended, what was he really going to do here? Heck, he didn't even have any offensive Life-aligned skills, so he would have to rely on his gauntlets alone.

He shut that train of thought down right away. He had taken defeated worse than this, and recently. If he was going to do this, he had to go in with a plan, and he had only seconds to come up with one.

The reaver began to fade, its outline dissolving like paper curling inward as it burned. Logan watched in slow motion. And then he saw it.

A medallion was fixed to the reaver's breastplate, and it glowed with a deep red hue. His Hidden Gleam perk tagged it as a Life-Affinity Nullifier, but before he could read more, the reaver disappeared completely.

His thoughts flitted back to Cassandra. Her ward had shivered under Razor's fire due to the difference in strength. He had just assumed the reaver was so strong its attack had cut through her ward completely. While that might be part of it, Cassandra had the Life affinity, and he would bet this medallion was the real reason it severed her ward so completely. Was that why she had gone unconscious too?

Logan swallowed. He had the Life affinity now, too, and 23 hours and 42 minutes until he could switch back to the Void.

His eyes darted to his storage bag.

That monster core from the Tentacled Stalker had a pearlescent sheen, which meant it was linked to the Dream affinity. He might have a cooldown before he could switch to the Void affinity, but did that cooldown affect all affinities?

He reached into the bag and pulled the core out.

Holding it in one hand, he clenched his other in a fist and smashed the orb with his gauntlets.

Dream affinity detected!

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