The moment Kade slid through the crevice, the wind stopped.

Jeff hovered on the edge of the abyss for a second, feet balanced on the branch beneath him and sword-hand wrapped around a knot of wood near his head. When he recovered, he slowly turned around. "I don't think we can get through," he said.

He didn't have to shout anymore. The boughs and leaves were eerily silent. It was almost as if every bit of wind was inside the branch. He could barely hear it whistling past the crack he'd been about to jump through, but it felt like it was pushing against it now. Like if he tried to jump through, it'd resist, and he'd plummet to his death.

If there'd been a platform a hundred feet below—or even two hundred—he would have risked it. A few broken bones couldn't stop a C-Rank tank. But as far down as he could see, there was nothing, nothing all the way down to the thick fog below. Even an S-Ranker couldn't survive a fall that high.

Maybe Bernard the Wall—if he had the right Scripts running. But no other delver could.

"So, what do we do?" Ellen asked.

"We keep clearing, look for the boss, and wait."

Jeff had been about to say something similar, but to his surprise, Yasmin had beaten him to it. "You're sure, Yazzie?"

"I told you not to call me that in public." The woman's face remained carefully neutral, but Jeff caught a hint of light in her eyes. "And yes. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that Kade can handle a lot more than he should be able to."

Ellen glared at the crevice. Then she nodded. "Fine. Let's keep moving."

Jeff didn't want to abandon his best friend. It felt wrong—he'd abandoned so many people at Carlsbad Fortress, and he'd sworn never to leave someone behind again if he could help it. Turning his back on Kade when he was obviously up against something ridiculous left a bitter taste in his mouth. But he couldn't survive the trip across the gap, and Ellen and Yasmin were right.

If there was anyone who could win this and get back to them, it was Kade. And this was his fight.

◄▼►

I hated spiders so much.

Khalir the Windlord: C-Rank

The wind changed as I rushed the Paragon. It had all been howling toward the cyclone-spider, but the closer I got, the more it resisted. I pushed harder, digging my feet into the smooth heartwood beneath them. Five more steps. Four. Three.

Khalir's abdomen rose up high over its back, then lunged down as its eight stormbound legs pushed up. A massive stinger appeared amidst the storm. It looked almost formed from clouds and windstorms. I readied myself, dropping into Mistwalk stance.

A split second before I was ready, a spear of air punched toward me.

I almost got Tallas's Dueling Sword up in time. Instead, Khalir's attack smashed into my face. My nose crumpled, and blood vessels popped in my eyes from the pressure. I wasn't blind, but my vision shrank to just the tiniest pinprick of light for a few seconds. I pushed Stamina to my eyes, ignoring my ringing, deafened ears and the blood pouring out of my nose.

The stinger raised up again. This time, I was ready. When the air spear blasted between the Paragon's legs, I dodged left; its passing tossed me like a rag doll, but it only grazed my armored shoulder. And I followed up with a quick slash across one of its legs that left a thin, almost inconsequential cut.

The spider warbled and screeched; the sound was deafening even through the ringing in my ear. I risked a glance over my shoulder. The rest of the team should have been right behind me, so where were they?

Nowhere.

The wind. It had to be pushing on the entrance and preventing them from helping me. This had been a trap.

I squared up and readied myself, shifting stances and summoning Ariette's Razor. It would give me the most power for its Mana cost, and with only a touch under one hundred to play with, I'd need to be economical. Energy Font kicked in as I summoned it, slowly refilling my Mana pool from almost nothing.

Then I went on the offensive.

My sword and razor sliced into the boss's legs. Two of them raised up, bleeding from cuts, then slammed down on me. I sidestepped one and took the other on my armored shoulder. The Stormsteel maelstrom chewed into the spike-tipped storm, and lightning crackled across the gap as its leg pulled away.

I didn't give Khalir time to retreat. Instead, I kept attacking. The tiny bit of blood I'd drawn was almost nothing. I didn't care. It was a start, and the battle trance had taken hold of me. A one-on-one against a superior opponent was a learning opportunity. A small part of me hoped my friends were alright. The rest of me didn't have a moment to care. I was too busy blocking legs.

The Paragon's stinger whipped toward me. This close, there was no wave of wind; I parried the blow and jammed Ariette's Razor into its side, then let go in a throwing motion that shoved the massive spider's body to the left. That opened up a window. I slid my free hand onto the dueling sword's hilt and went on the offensive.

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I dashed toward Khalir. My sword thrust forward into the monster's storm-covered abdomen. Blood erupted out in a fan as the windstorm around it caught the spray of gore in the instant before it cauterized. The dueling sword slid free, and I cut across the monster's outstretched leg. It screech-warbled and backed off.

But all that had barely hurt it, and I dropped into a defensive stance, activating Gustrunner with my Wind Charge as soon as I could. The Paragon pursued me, legs slamming into the branch's hollow interior hard enough to send bark crashing down from above.

I focused on dodging, parrying, and keeping ahead of the monster.

God, I hated spiders.

The last thing Jeff wanted to do was fight a C-Rank boss one man down.

On the other hand, the team backing him was stronger than they'd been when they'd faced off against Lorak the Desecrator in the Besieged portal. Ellen had ranked up, while he was in C-Rank gear now, and the rest of the team was solidly D-Rank. Karina—the archer he'd picked up—was nearing C-Rank herself, and so was Raul.

If they were ever going to be able to do this, it was now—and if Kade managed to beat the Paragon, there was no way he'd be useful in a fight against the boss, anyway. "Okay. We're going. Sound off when you're ready."

"I'm good," Ellen said. Of course she was; the team composition he'd built had—finally—allowed him to do exactly what he'd wanted from the beginning. She'd hardly had to cast a single spell; Raul and Karina had done most of the fighting once the team had figured out its rhythm.

In all honesty, this five-man team was probably better than the one he'd brought into the trap portal. If they had a healer, it'd be perfect, but he couldn't cut Kade or Ellen, and any other changes would mess with its sustained power.

He'd have to think about his options if he ever got a healer who was interested. God, he missed Sophia.

Maybe…tank, support, healer, striker/fighter hybrid, mage, archer or fighter? If he could find a healer. That was the biggest problem—and right now, it was secondary to completing this portal. The more C-Rank portals Jeff had under his belt, the more likely he'd be to find a healer. Success bred interest, after all. And more importantly, the more likely he'd be to have a team that could get him to Carlsbad Fortress.

He refocused his thoughts on the delicately woven gate sitting in front of him.

The only thing that surprised Jeff about this portal was how quick it had been. They'd barely descended into the tree—the boss shouldn't be here yet. The Besieged portal world had lasted hours. This one had barely made it sixty minutes.

Was it the Paragon? Or was it something else? It didn't fit in with what Jeff knew about C-Rank portals.

The rest of the team checked in and readied up. Raul's spear glinted in the mottled, leaf-filtered light, and Karina's bow had an arrow nocked and three more between her knuckles. "Everyone's re-buffed," Yasmin said. "Let's go."

Jeff nodded. Then he stepped through the door.

Webbing covered every surface. It hung from the carved wooden pillars that lined the room in dusty drapes, gripped at his feet as he stepped forward, and curtained the walls and arched, too-wide windows that lined the long, curving hallway. At the end, an elf in silver and white armor stood, their hand on a long, slender staff. Four spiderlike limbs hovered over their shoulders, and their helmet came down in two portal metal mandibles.

"String mage!" Ellen called the moment she stepped in behind Jeff. The boss reacted. Their staff angled toward Ellen, and a burst of razor-sharp silk shot toward her.

Jeff braced himself and activated Split-Second Shield. Hopefully, Kade was okay, but right now, this enemy was threatening his friends.

Jeff couldn't allow that. No way.

I'd been dodging legs for a while. My shoulders and hips were covered in bruises; even with Gustrunner, I couldn't dodge everything, and Khalir was incredibly fast. Most of the time, his running speed was enough to keep up with me.

But he'd also introduced something new. Sometimes, his entire body would turn into wind, and he'd disappear—only to appear right on top of me. That's how my back had gotten shredded a minute ago.

I used Flashstep to reposition myself and immediately activated Rain-Slicked Blade as I shifted stances. My compressed water sword sliced through the wind—and the flesh beneath it. This time, blood gushed out, coating my face and unarmored shoulder with shockingly cold gore. I backpedaled. Khalir threw himself at me, front legs and jaws slamming toward me.

Flareflourish activated. The blinding effect wasn't enough to truly stun the gigantic wind spider, but it was enough to make it hesitate—and in that moment, I rolled out of the way. Gustrunner was still going, and I quickly repositioned.

Stamina: 79/310 (+10), Mana: 87/400

Energy Font was paying off; my Mana kept recharging enough to use another spell. I let one hand leave the sword's grip and used Slicing Bolt. My Mana plunged back down into the high thirties as a blade of air reinforced by lightning crashed into the boss. The typhoon wrapped around Khalir's body parted for a moment, and I got my first good look at the boss's body.

It was black. Jet black. And it was shockingly thin, like most of the monster's bulk was an illusion brought on by the windstorm that surrounded it. I didn't have time to see much, but it looked almost like the long-legged spiders that had haunted my old apartment's bathroom.

Either way, it gave me a target. I followed up the Slicing Bolt with a pair of Ariette's Zephyrs. The wind darts popped into the monster's carapace as the storm re-covered it; it cracked slightly.

My danger sense triggered. I threw myself to the side, spinning mid-air. The massive burst of air slammed into my back and shoulder blades instead of my face and chest. Something gave—a stabbing pain erupted below my lowest ribs—and I poured my Stamina toward the impact point as I forced myself back to my feet.

Then the boss's jaws closed around my arm. Muscle parted. Blood spurted. I screamed—I couldn't help myself—and dropped Tallas's Dueling Sword.

And Cheddar slammed into the monster's face a split second after a beam of light cut across its back.

I landed hard on my injured arm. It twisted, and another lance of agony ripped down to my wrist and up to my shoulder before I could dull it. I rolled to the side and looked at the wreckage of my arm.

It wasn't broken. But the muscles were cut clean through a few inches below my elbow. Blood poured out of the wound; I wouldn't be using my sword anymore this fight. I summoned it all the same, even though it wrenched my muscles and hung uselessly in my white-knuckled grip. When I shifted into a Mistwalk stance and forced the sword in front of my body, my vision swam even through the Stamina.

But I had to win. I couldn't lose—not here.

I gritted my teeth, hissed in pain, and focused on staying alive.

And as I did, my Mana ticked upward—painfully slowly. I needed just a little bit more—just a little bit more, and I'd be able to finish this.

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