Edge sprinted down a winding series of stone tunnels, racing to save Trapper’s team.

  When he checked in with Gauge Depth, the skill let him know he was drawing near the surface at last. By this point, the hunters were crossing through the passageways running below the mountain, which were extensive but not nearly as tricky to traverse as the Deep-Gill Grottos. Now they needed to figure out where the expedition was holed up, where the Crimson Claws were positioned, and what they intended to do about it.

  The crew had pushed themselves hard after receiving the System’s warning—desperate to join the fight before the jailbirds slaughtered their friends. Everyone was worried, but the hunters of Ord were a tenacious lot. After working with Trapper in the field, Edge knew that cracking the expedition’s defenses would require considerable effort, making the convicts pay for every life they stole.

  He just prayed there was still enough time to turn the tide.

  No matter what kind of situation they were walking into, the crew needed to intervene without being swarmed by prisoners in the process. Despite their recent gains, taking on a small army of jailbirds and their elite strike leaders without fresh intel was a recipe for disaster. Sakura hadn’t sent another update, which wasn’t too surprising. Her information had come from aerial reconnaissance, and she couldn’t observe the Claws directly due to interference from their skills.

  Everyone came to a stop when Sasha flashed the hand signal for “people ahead.” The strawberry blond hunter had been using Enhance Hearing while clinging to Edge’s back, focusing her efforts on detecting their enemy while he devoured the miles beneath his boots. She listened for the next few minutes, then mouthed her report without speaking out loud.

  “It’s the Claws. I can only hear a couple of voices. It must be their scouts rather than the main army.” Since they needed to get closer to learn more, the crew began moving—prioritizing stealth over speed as they made their final approach. Sasha switched on Silent Step to mute their footsteps, and when the passage opened into a modest cavern, they ducked behind some rocks while scanning the enclosure.

  Not long after, the scouts walked past. They had been making sure that none of Trapper’s people had circled around to attack from the flanks. After finding nothing of the sort, the lookouts were on their way back to the jailbirds’ army. They were some of the weakest convicts Edge had seen—early stage-one warriors who must have been part of their support staff rather than members of their kill teams.

  These prisoners were easy to shadow and had no idea the hunters were there, making this a perfect opportunity to follow them back to the Claws’ main force. It seems we’ll be dealing with their army before meeting up with Trapper’s team. Once we find them, we need to decide when and where to make our move.

  Twenty minutes later, the crew came to a stop. There were more jailbirds ahead, waiting in what appeared to be their base of operations—a spacious enclosure where they had left supplies, extra weapons, and medical equipment.

  It was clear at a glance that the battle had already begun. A dozen wounded jailbirds were lying on the ground, and twenty or so bodies were piled in a corner. The strike force must be further down those tunnels and closer to the expedition’s base.

  Mel wanted to charge right in, but the other crew members convinced her to wait. It wasn’t wise to trade the element of surprise to kill a few wounded warriors and a handful of support staff when the strike leaders were their true targets. It meant the hunters needed to sneak past if they wanted to hit the bastards from behind. While it was a deadly, nerve-racking situation, Edge didn’t think it would be too difficult to pull off.

  While the jailbirds had plenty of members who were armed with sensory and detection skills, they were focused on the expedition and weren’t looking for people approaching from the other direction. After all, they hadn’t seen any trace of Edge’s crew after springing Ella’s trap and had no reason to suspect the hunters were still alive.

  Once his team made it past, they would be in position to deal a serious blow. However, if they got caught along the way, they would lose the opportunity to help their people and most likely their lives in the bargain. After observing the cave for a few more minutes while communicating via hand signals, the crew was ready to make their move.

  They waited until one of the wounded men started screaming, drawing everyone’s attention, then sprinted across the cavern under the cover of Silent Step. They turned down the first intersection they found, then dove behind a boulder with their hearts hammering in their chests.

  After making sure no one had seen them, the crew advanced down the main tunnel until they heard voices ahead, which had to be the convicts’ strike force. Getting close to the Claws wound up being easier than Edge had expected. They only have a single crew guarding the rear, and not a scout or sensory specialist among them.

  Now that they had located their enemy, the hunters turned down a narrow side passage, contemplating their options while Sasha eavesdropped on jailbirds.

  “It’s Trapper’s traps,” she mouthed. “The scouts are busy sweeping the tunnels for devices, and the strike force is frustrated by the delay.” It seemed the jailbirds had taken significant losses from Trapper’s handiwork and were reluctant to charge the defenders until the way was clear. They were almost finished with the painstaking process, which meant the crew still had a narrow window to make their move.

  “That’s perfect,” Edge replied. “We can position the monster to hit their support team. We’ll wait for the battle to resume, unleash it, then slip past after their reserve unit heads back to kill it. Once the way is clear, we can advance and ambush the strike leaders from behind. If we can eliminate Ripper, Ella, and Roth, we should be able to work with Trapper’s team and wipe out the rest of the Claws without incurring serious casualties.”

  Armed with the beginnings of a plan, the crew followed the side passage until they were far enough away that they didn’t have to worry about being overheard—ready to release the monster and spring their trap.

  “All right,” Edge outlined the plan he’d been revising on the march. “Based on what I observed in the dungeon, Regenerating monsters won’t die from being frozen. This thing is peak-stage two and armed with two Rare skills, so it’s going to be deadly as hell and hard to bring down. We need to overwhelm the monster before it knows what’s happening, then I’ll freeze it and use Extraction while it’s helpless to resist. I’ll steal one of its powers no matter what, and after I enter its core, I will know what skills its packing, which will give us a good idea of what’s going to happen once we turn it loose.”

  The women nodded along as he continued. “While it’s on ice, we can haul it to where the Claws’ staging area is clearly visible. After that, we’ll move into position further down the passage, listen for the monster’s attack, and wait until the jailbirds’ rear guard runs past to deal with it.

  “Once they are out of the way, we can join the battle. With any luck, our diversion will leave the strike force unguarded from the rear, and the rest of the Claws will be busy battling Trapper’s team. Then we’ll ambush their elites—hopefully killing them all—and regroup with the expedition. Does anyone have any improvements or ideas for how to subdue the monster?”

  That question marked the beginning of a rapid-fire discussion. The hunters were looking for a method of incapacitating the creature that would be fast, reliable, and mana efficient. Part of the way through, Edge realized how strange it was to be engineering a situation where his enemy would begin the encounter exactly where he wanted—an unprecedented advantage he intended to make the most of.

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  The crew decided to position the pocket dimension beneath a heavy net they had taken from the Claws’ storeroom. They would weigh it down with piles of rocks—enough that even a peak-stage two monster couldn’t escape right away. Sasha suggested they use their remaining stink bombs, and Lilly recommended having both of their flare guns pointed at the dimensional prison and ready to fire.

  Five minutes later, their strategy was complete—improved by some suggestions from each member of the team.

  When he activated the device, the monster would materialize trapped beneath the net. Its bulk would crack open the stink bombs, and it would take a pair of flares to the face the instant it came out of stasis.

  No matter what skills the creature was packing, the multisensory assault should disorient it, and it would be pinned in place for at least a few seconds. At that point, the women would bludgeon the monster’s head to stun it while Edge froze it with his iceblade and proceeded with Extraction.

  With a plan in place and not a moment to lose, the hunters made sure none of the Claws had entered the side passage and no dangerous beasts were lurking nearby. Then he pulled the supplies out of his vault and everyone sprang into motion. Mel and Lilly went to work spreading out the net and anchoring it in place. Meanwhile, Sasha made sure the flares were ready to fire, and Edge set the stink bombs beneath the net.

  Heart thrumming in his chest and adrenaline singing in his veins, he waited until the women were in position, then pulled the pocket dimension out of his belt pouch. He worked the silvery sphere between the weaves of the net and made sure everyone had a clear line of fire.

  With that out of the way, all that was left was to pull the trigger and pray their plan worked. Here goes nothing. He manifested his iceblade, activated the device, and then stepped back… nearly jumping out of his skin when his Guide appeared bearing a message from the System.

  You have activated your portable monster reward. The monster will materialize in 10 seconds. Please state which Uncommon rank-3 skill you wish it to have, or one will be chosen at random.

  “Regeneration,” Edge whispered while pointing his iceblade at the net. Rank three is perfect. That was all the time he had before a dense cloud of golden aether was released and the silver orb vanished in a flash of light. A bare heartbeat later, a shimmering portal wavered into existence, and a monster emerged from the pocket dimension where it had been held in a state of suspended animation.

  The creature wound up being a goatlike horror that was almost as massive as Blue—big enough that the net pulled taut and pinned its limbs to the ground. Before the ugly bastard had time to figure out what was happening, a sulfurous stench filled the air as the stink bombs beneath it shattered. By this point, Sasha and Lilly had taken aim and fired their flares, sending a pair of burning balls streaking for the creature’s face.

  The pitch-black goat screamed and began to buck and writhe—too panicked in that moment to use its skills. While the crimson flares created ever-shifting shadows across the rocky floor, the crew charged.

  Edge took aim and speared the goat-thing through the throat—a disabling wound that would take a few seconds to heal—while the rest of the team closed the distance and began bashing it in the head.

  He Slashed like mad as the women clocked the creature in the skull time and time again. Fortunately, everything went according to plan. The monster was stunned and disoriented, and before long, Elemental Blade froze its body solid. Everyone relaxed when the goat stopped struggling and its eyes clouded with rime, bringing the first stage of their operation to a successful conclusion.

  The next step was to see what skills it had and decide which power Edge wanted to claim. He needed the peak stage-two monster to be powerful enough to distract the convicts but not so strong that it slaughtered enough of them to evolve and spawn a horde, which could easily backfire and wind up harming his allies too. It was a risky move, but the only realistic method the crew had to make a dent in an army over fifteen times their size.

  While Lilly, Sasha, and Mel stood guard, Edge reached out with both arms and willed Extraction to activate. Skill-Eater opened one eye as a pulse of gluttony surged through his synapses—the prospect of devouring a Rare skill rousing the ravenous lord from slumber long enough to enjoy the meal.

  Meanwhile, the chains of oblivion burst free from his wrists and entered the hole he’d poked in the goat-thing’s throat. The living links dug through a few feet of frozen tissue and then plunged into its core.

  He followed them inside—although he couldn’t stay long, or the corruption would weaken him at this critical moment. After a brief sensation of his mind leaving his body and flowing through the chains, he found himself standing in the creature’s inner world.

  After battling the Gardener and learning how the first monsters had arrived on Ord, Edge was certain this was a real place—a representation of the dying world the creatures had come from. He wondered if these depictions were formed from some kind of collective consciousness or ancestral memory, since, as far as he knew, most monsters were spawned when their progenitors evolved.

  According to the Gardener, only the Ancients crossed through the portals that opened when the dimensions touched. Still, the first monster of each species had to come from somewhere. Maybe the Ancients brought them over later, or the System played a role somehow. He shook his head, dismissing the matter as another mystery he had no way of unraveling just yet, then returned his attention to the task at hand.

  This monster’s core featured a vast plain of obsidian interspersed by rivers of roiling lava. In the distance, Edge could see a long line of volcanoes, venting fire and ash in unending, apocalyptic glory. He could barely make out the immense, demon-like figure he had spotted before. This time, it was far enough away that all he could see was the top of its head and a pair of gigantic horns.

  He let out a shuddering sigh of relief. Even if it was just a mental representation, that titanic being scared the ever-living shit out of him. If there were creatures like that on the planet the monsters had come from, he could only pray they never made it to Ord.

  The air was thick with cloying motes of ash—rich in corrupted magicytes that were toxic to lifeforms like himself. He was more resilient to their taint after cycling up to the middle of stage two, but even still, he needed to pick a skill and get out of here before the miasma made him sick.

  In addition to Regeneration, he spotted two Rare skills and a handful of Commons and Basics. He decided to leave one Rare power for the goat to fight with and claim the other for himself.

  It wound up being an easy decision, since only one of the Rares was a good fit for his skillset. One let the monster breathe acid, and if he tried to use it, he would melt his own face off. The other was a ward skill that would automatically activate when certain conditions were met. Better still, it was a wind-based power, which meant Fear the Season’s passive bonus would affect it, and if his hunch was correct, it would deflect projectiles headed his way.

  The skill seemed decent, and since it would take two days to digest anyway, there wasn’t a reason to debate the matter. He gave the chains their orders, and they took off in a flash, hunting down the avatar as his Guide appeared with a message from the System.

  To extract a Rare skill, you must sacrifice 2 Mortium.

  Would you like to proceed?

  When Edge gave his consent, death-aspected energy was released from the lifecoins he sacrificed, infusing the black chains with potent magic that felt ponderous and inexorable. Empowered by Mortium, they quickly caught the agile avatar and dragged it out of the goat’s core.

  Lilly watched in fascination as the animate loops dropped the skill into his mouth and retracted through his wrists. This avatar was made of swirling air, and chomping didn’t affect it at all. Instead, he crushed it with his tongue against the roof of his mouth, savoring the intensely sour flavor. It conveyed an impression of energy waiting to be released—of enveloping a missile and bending its arc—all in the blink of an eye.

  When the avatar dissolved, he swallowed hard, let out a belch, and waited as the skill slid into his core.

  You have extracted an unidentified skill (Rare, Rank 1).

  It will take 2 days to digest it.

  “Okay, I’m ready to go. Keep an eye on the goat and let me know if I need to refreeze it. It can breathe acid once that hole in its throat heals, so I don’t want to take any chances.”

  It took the whole crew working together to move the bulky creature, but boosted by Warlord’s Mantle, they were able to get it done. Thanks to Silent Step, they didn’t have to worry about sound alerting their enemies. They dragged the monster on its side instead of carrying it, leaving little chunks of frozen fur and flesh behind.

  That must really hurt. When this thing unthaws, it’s going to be pissed.

  They set the monster in an alcove near the Claws’ base of operations, then repositioned and waited for the battle to resume. Just a few minutes later, they heard the clamor of combat echoing down the tunnel.

  Edge waited on pins and needles for the goat to thaw—ready to bring an unexpected end to the protracted siege.