[World Chat
[Edwin, Messenger of Olympus] "We believe we have made sufficient advancements in every field to attempt a raid on the portal to the demon realm.
With the help of The Church of Light, New World, Keepers of the Light, World Shapers, and many more, we have assembled forty of the finest men and women this world has to offer.
We ask everyone to wish us luck in this endeavor and contribute to our donation pools where possible.
Thank you, and godspeed."
]
The announcement brought me out of my stupor a little. For the first time in a while, my mind wandered somewhere other than the sea.
World Shapers was one of the biggest beastmen herds.
I looked down at Mei.
"You know a few people in World Shapers, right?"
"...A few, yah. But I hadn't heard about this." She looked up at me. "What do you think?"
"...I think I got lucky in my raid."
Not exactly the most reassuring start.
"Well, it depends on a lot of things. But considering the party they've put together, I can't imagine them losing, right?"
"Yah…"
She seemed scared. Or maybe just sad about the fighting.
It was hard to tell, and looking at her for longer wasn't making it any clearer.
"...What would you think about joining the High Order?"
"Your guild?" She shifted against me. "Wouldn't I need to be a mage?"
"Ehh, using mana is enough. I might've been more strict about it at first, but things change."
"Well…if you want me to, sure."
She hugged me a little tighter.
"Thank you."
"If you have any friends who are at least level thirty, you can let me know about them too. I'm looking for new members now."
"Have you been getting many more?"
"A few more applicants. We're pretty selective, though."
"So…" She glanced up at me. "Am I skipping a line?"
"No, not really. You're level thirty-seven, so I'm not worried."
"Okay…"
[Whisper from Hunter] "Help."
I stared at the message.
One word.
I hadn't heard from him in a while, and that was what he opened with?
[Whisper to Hunter] "On my way."
"Hey, um…my friend just asked for help. I might need to leave."
I pulled up our friends list, finding his name as I started forming the spell.
"Oh…yah, of course."
"Sorry." I looked at her. "Can you heal?"
"A little…"
"Are you okay coming with me?"
"Sure…"
She rested a hand against Billy's shell, and the crab started carrying us toward shore.
It took about five minutes to make a portal within a layer. The only real requirement was having something to fix the destination to.
With Hunter on my friends list, that part was easy enough.
The waiting wasn't.
I kept checking for another message while the spell took shape. Nothing came.
Five minutes was normally nothing. Now, every little adjustment felt like it was taking ages.
By the time Billy brought us into the shallows, I was almost done.
"Ready?"
Mei nodded.
I steadied the rift, and we stepped through.
Hunter was nowhere to be seen.
In his place was an eight and a half foot tall direwolf with grey white fur.
For a second, I thought it was Deadman.
Then I saw what it was eating.
There wasn't much left, but there was enough.
"...Fuck."
Broken constructs lay scattered around the clearing. Each had been about six feet tall, with complex innards now exposed through shattered bodies. Some had been pulled apart. Others were crushed badly enough that I couldn't tell what had gone where.
Beyond them stood a massive iron gate.
I knew of it, it stood set into a massive mountain.
I'd just never seen it before.
My eyes wandered up its surface, trying to take in its size, the constructs, the beast…
Too much at once.
And while I was looking around, the direwolf stopped eating.
Its head turned toward us.
I barely had time to register the movement before it lunged.
I'd fought beasts like this to the death twice now. I knew how much force they could put behind an attack.
There was no sense meeting it with strength.
So I didn't.
I brought a barrier over myself and let it hit.
The impact drove me onto my back, knocking the air out of me. Claws scraped against the mana around my chest as its weight settled over me.
Then I got a proper look at its eyes.
"...Hunter?"
There was something familiar there.
More than the eyes, really. The connection I'd used to find him hadn't led me past the beast.
It had led me straight to it.
Oh, fuck.
I should've considered this.
Direwolves were close enough to werewolves that, depending on which lore the world was following, a bite turning someone wasn't exactly impossible.
Knowing that now wasn't particularly helpful.
"Hunter!"
I spread my mana over his, trying to get a better sense of what I was dealing with.
His mana pool had grown overwhelmingly. Enough that I could've considered him a caster in his own right.
His teeth closed against the barrier covering my face.
The sound went straight through me.
"Hunter, come on!"
Nothing.
He bit again, dragging his teeth across the shield, looking for something he could get through.
"Sorry, man."
I sent a blast of raw mana into his side.
Crude, but it worked.
He was strong. Immensely strong.
But he was putting everything into biting me. His footing was shit, his weight was forward, and force was still force.
The blast threw him off me.
He hit the ground hard and rolled, claws tearing up the dirt as he tried to stop himself.
I scrambled up before he could recover.
Chains formed around me, stretching between the ground and the gate's supports. It was something I'd been practicing with the spiders.
They made moving through a web look a lot easier than it actually was.
I hopped onto one of the taut chains, caught my balance, and started preparing for his next attack.
Hunter was already getting up.
Of course he was.
He planted his feet, turned toward me-
A massive spectral camel's foot appeared above him, descending before he could spring.
Its broad pad spread against his back, pressing him to the ground. He twisted beneath it, but the foot settled with him, keeping its weight spread across his body.
"...Thanks, Mei."
I'd gotten so caught up in dealing with him that I'd almost forgotten she was here.
"Mhm…of course, Tero."
The foot held him against the ground, but he wasn't staying still.
He twisted beneath it, shoving upward with a strength that made the outline of the spell tremble.
I started chaining him down as well.
One around his torso. Another over his legs. More pulling from either side, holding him flat instead of giving him something he could roll against.
It took more than I would've liked.
Even with all of that pressing down on him, his jaws kept snapping at us.
His eyes followed every movement.
"...Don't get too close," I said.
Mei stayed back.
Hunter pulled against the chains again. One stretched far enough that I reinforced it before doing anything else.
Whatever was happening in his head, talking wasn't reaching it.
But we had time now.
A little, anyway.
I lowered myself from the chain and carefully felt around him with my mana.
At first, it was mostly a mess. His own mana, the restraints, Mei's spell pressing against him. I had to separate what I was feeling before I could make sense of any of it.
A proper mage could probably hide the workings of their magic if they wanted to.
Hunter wasn't doing that.
At least, this version of him wasn't.
There was mana moving through his body constantly. Not just sitting in a pool, waiting to be used.
Something was spending it.
Maintaining something.
"...I think the transformation's using his mana."
"Can you stop it?"
"Maybe."
Not a great answer, but it was what I had.
I reached deeper, feeling out the boundary between his mana and his soul.
Taking the whole thing was something I knew how to do.
This needed me to be a lot more careful.
I found a little of his mana that I could separate and pulled.
Hunter jerked against the restraints.
I stopped.
For a moment, I just watched him.
Still breathing. Still furious.
Then I tried again, slower.
It was a bit like peeling a sticker off a sticker sheet. Once I found an edge, the mana came away with surprisingly little force.
The difficult part was making sure that was all I took.
With a soul, I could grab the whole thing and pull.
Here, I had to pay attention to every little piece. Follow it. Separate it. Make sure I wasn't catching something else along with it.
It was much easier in terms of power.
Mentally, it was awful.
Hunter kept struggling while I worked, and every time the chains shifted, I had to split my attention again.
Mei's spectral foot stayed steady over him.
Slowly, something changed.
The fur along his side started thinning.
His body shrank beneath the restraints.
"...There we go."
I adjusted the chains as he got smaller, careful not to let the slack become an opening.
His claws shortened. His muzzle pulled back. Grey white fur faded from his skin, and his clothes returned as the transformation unraveled.
It wasn't pleasant to watch.
But after a while, there was a human lying on the ground in front of us again.
Hunter.
I stopped pulling.
For a moment, none of us moved.
Then his chest rose.
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
"...Can you check him?"
Mei nodded, crouching beside him as I loosened the chains enough to give her room.
I kept them there, though.
My eyes wandered back to what remained of Deadman.
Hunter had killed him.
Then eaten him.
And all I'd really done was take away the mana keeping that form together.
I looked back at my friend.
What will happen when it came back?