Scowling, Oskar did a quick count.

  That accounts for every enemy except the major threats themselves.

  Erik was the first to speak as the danger of their situation became clear.

  “Aww hell. Look at ‘em.”

  These shadow enemies were more visible to the senses than the previous ones, for reasons unknown to Oskar. Maybe they were weaker versions, or perhaps he was getting stronger. He hoped it was both, but had no intention of waiting around to find out.

  He rushed forward to engage before Erik tried something heroic, like hurting himself by trying to kill them all with his light beam thing. That would cause him to lose weight he couldn’t afford to lose. Oskar blinked as his Goggles went into battle mode, and the scene sharpened before him. He heard his brother’s surprised curse behind him as his own PUB likely reacted by switching to battle mode as well.

  You’d think I’d get used to it by now.

  Using Talau, Oskar pulled sand down from the top of the dune beneath the four dark figures that had just crested the dune, and then Sora to widen the growing valley of sand now avalanche-ing down beneath them. Two of the four were swept up in the sand, including Wing who almost caught itself, but went down flinging sand in every direction with its scrambling. Rushing forward, Oskar flew toward the one closest to him as they tumbled down.

  When his Ward made contact with the creature, a smaller, hunched Croc, it let out a piercing scream. It also had a wing, it seemed, but it was a broken, frail thing that flapped uselessly as it wailed. The creature’s outer surface, dark and liquid-like, rippled as his spear slid in with so little resistance that it almost threw him off balance. The musty smell of rot hit his nose as a smokey vapor wafted from the wound, and Oskar recoiled back, subconsciously pulling his Ward tighter to himself as the creature seemed to unravel, leaving behind a rotten smelling mist that didn’t dissipate.

  Oh, man, that’s new. And nasty!

  The PUB, along with his Aura and the information Lavern shared gave him a much better picture of the battlefield than he’d ever had before, and he suspected his and Erik’s PUBs were again working in concert. A subtle green blink in his vision confirmed. He moved to engage Wing, who’d finished rolling down the massive dune and had come to a rest buried in a mound of sand. Oskar pushed his Ward outward to envelop it as he drew near, thankful that Fox had encouraged him to work on the ability.

  Upon closer inspection, Wing was a large, but pitiful Hyena thing with one eye and a twisted version of a Kobold’s mouth. It tried to scream, but buried in the sand as it was, it was a simple thing to use Talau to shove more sand in the creature’s maw as it opened.

  Oskar learned two things… whatever these things were, they didn’t like eating sand, mostly because it silenced their constant screaming. Unfortunately, the other thing was that they didn’t technically need air to function, because it struggled to free itself from the sand, mute, but unharmed. Oskar shoved his spear smoothly through the head of the creature, and just as before, the creature unraveled, and the smell hit him like he’d just sprayed the worst air freshener in the world.

  Worlds, actually. Both of them.

  Realizing he was getting out of position relative to the others, he reluctantly used Sora to glide back a few steps, away from the two remaining attackers who were just now reaching the bottom of the dune.

  Both were twisted versions of Crocs. One of them, though, was a bit of an oddity. It held a club in hand, dragging it behind him, but didn’t seem entirely sure what to do with it. It wasn’t holding it properly or preparing to attack with it, but Oskar didn’t have time to consider the oddity as he caught sight of Fox and Penny keeping three of the four creatures from the other dune occupied.

  One enemy lay on the ground, its head entirely bashed in, but it was pawing blindly at the air, somehow not completely dead.

  Or re-dead. I don’t know, they aren’t really zombies. Their motions are jerky. They remind me of those ants that get a brain eating parasite, controlling their bodies as they ate them from the inside.

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  On his next breath, he scrunched his nose and added, and that smell. Ugh… probably best to stay away from the dead ones.

  Touwon and Sara were staying mobile and not directly engaging, which was smart on their part, since Touwon could not escape close combat once he was in it like he and Fox could. Speaking of Fox, she suddenly seemed to be in two places at once, an ability Oskar had never seen in use before.

  One of the Hyena creatures chasing Touwon buckled as Fox appeared briefly behind it , but without the Ward’s aura to weaken it, it recovered quicker than Oskar would have liked. Unwilling to leave Erik’s side, Oskar used Sora to pull the off balanced creature toward him. The magic seemed to flow around it, not really catching the creature fully, but Oskar put a little more into it, and used Talau to toss it a few inches in the air, and the momentum was enough to get it close.

  It entered the range of his Ward, shimmered, screamed, and was skewered. These creatures didn’t seem to be the same caliber of creature as the ones they’d seen previously. They lacked the focus and raw power of the initial creatures he’d faced.

  Looks like they’re resistant to direct attacks with Sora or Talau. Questions for future Oskar who’s not outnumbered and surrounded. This Oskar has some ass to beat.

  Taking advantage of Fox’s attack, Touwon and Sara abruptly shifted direction, and two of the creatures got tangled with the third as it stopped to shift directions. Penny was running up the dune to get a air for an attack, and Oskar gave her a little boost. Turns out, he’d gained more than a little power since they’d played around like this what felt like weeks ago, and she went much further in the air than he expected.

  Luckily, Penny seemed to be built for these kinds of attacks and he felt nothing but excitement from her as she hit the air currents above them. She even shifted into a wider position to alter her drag so she didn’t overshoot them on the way back down. Oskar was trying to keep both an eye on her and Erik, who had a frustrated look on his face, probably because he couldn’t use his beam attack with the fight so spread out. He was watching everyone like a hawk, though, even while angling so that Oskar could engage the two remaining from their side of the dune.

  Two on me and Erik, and then there’s Myelome, standing there holding a knife like she’s got zero intention of using it. Three on Touwon and Sara, and two, not including Bashed Head Wavey Hands, still on Fox and Penny… Penny! Oh my God!

  Oskar let out a shocked laugh as Penny hit the lead Shadow creature so hard that she didn’t even slow down on her way into the ground below, crushing the creature’s head almost completely into the sand. Her bronze scales disappeared under the sand as she maneuvered around to help the Kobolds.

  Inspired, Oskar pulled the sand out from under the two closest to him and then pulled the sand back around the shadow creatures as they sunk, trapping them almost waist deep in the sand.

  That’s a neat trick!

  With a grunt, Oskar swung his weapon horizontally across their bodies, which was enough to kill one, and to what should have been at least disembowelment on the other, if these particular shadow creatures hadn’t been full of smokey rot instead of guts.

  Oskar heard a deep laugh, and then… his PUB barely gave him a warning when fire and sound exploded outward from the creatures, who suddenly exploded like a pair of propane tanks. He had no time to react, but when the fire reached him, it stopped just outside a tight dome around him, courtesy of Erik, who somehow had gotten a shield up around Oskar in time.

  Physics being physics, though, he still flew backwards- and sideways. With a grunt, he hit the sand but was able to roll back up to standing a few paces away, his ears ringing more from the drastic change in pressure than the sound.

  Yeah, that confirms it... been pretty sure for a long time, but now I know for sure. I don’t like getting blown up. It sucks.

  The worst of the damage he received was from the hot sand burning his back when he landed, and maybe the feel of his heart beating out of his chest at the very visceral momentary reminder of the explosion that had taken his leg back on earth. He’d seen Erik tumbling a little further back when he rolled over, wide eyed, but alive.

  He didn’t realize exactly how dead he would have been until he saw a molten layer of hardening glass where the two twisted creatures had been trapped waist deep. For the briefest of moments, the Collective froze, and only the remaining black, twisted creatures moved, closing the distance again.

  Looking back at Erik, he saw his brother awkwardly pushing himself to his feet with his one arm. Erik was swearing to himself and opening and closing his jaw, trying to release the pressure in his ears.

  Behind him, atop the dune on the other side of Erik… the two major threats had arrived. He’d tried to keep an eye out for them, but his attention had been mostly focused on keeping him and Erik alive. And then, of course, he’d gotten himself blown up… an incident with some pretty awful connotations in his past.

  Standing atop the dune behind Erik, an actual Drakon, complete with ruby red scales, black robe, and a self-satisfied gleam in its fierce, orange eyes. Beside him, a shadow asp moved erratically, the jerking motion disconcertingly juxtapose to the smooth way snakes usually moved.

  “Stay away from the bodies, guys. The rot is… really, really volatile,” Oskar said, his own voice sounding oddly muted in his ears.

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