The Solarians crackled with barely contained energy, spells coalescing in their outstretched hands as they spun to face him. Pain was a hair’s breadth away, but the very earth beneath them trembled.

  A cacophony of snapping, tearing bark ripped through the air ahead as the gargantuan molten armadillo hurtled through the trees. A burgeoning wellspring of energy, a palpable wave that radiated from its hulking form, heralded its approach.

  Everyone scrambled for cover. Kor lurched to his feet, scrambling around the massive pine with a sudden burst of speed he hadn’t known he possessed. The burgeoning energy surged, cresting to an almost unbearable intensity before erupting outwards.

  He barely wedged himself behind the trunk as a fiery nova billowed forth, a searing inferno that consumed everything within fifty yards. The raging flames licked at his fractal barrier, the intricate patterns cracking under the onslaught. If I hadn’t got behind the pine...

  He gulped, a tremor running through his hands. Risking a glance around the trunk, he saw everywhere the loamy earth was scorched, a small bush nearby engulfed in flames. This Karex dwarfed the last in both size and raw energy. Fire and Earth? Some kind of volcano manifestation, perhaps?

  No time to ponder.

  A boy’s voice, tinged with panic, cut through the din. “What the void is that?”

  “Karex,” Kelleth’s authoritative tone sliced through the chaos. “Ignore it for now and get the damned Lexican!”

  Kor needed no further prompting. Despite the exhaustion clawing at him, he found a reservoir of stamina, pushing himself into a desperate sprint. The ground beneath his boots was scorching hot, but he ignored the sensation, his mind focused solely on escape. No clear direction, just away.

  A surge of energy swelled behind him, his heightened sensitivity to the flows of arcane energies allowing him to weave between the ancient pines as spells ripped through the woodland. Icy flames slammed into a nearby pine, the impact jarring him. He tripped over a gnarled root, barely avoiding a razor-sharp wind blade that sliced through the space where his head had been moments before.

  They were all in pursuit; the Karex included. The woods thrummed with the creature’s strange, barking roar as it rumbled through the tees behind them.

  Kelleth, closer than he’d have liked, called to his followers, “Just keep moving. We’ll lose the creature eventually!”

  He fled, his head swivelling erratically, scanning the dense woodland. The whole damned place looked the same, an endless sea of towering pines. No plan, other than to run as if the hounds of the Void were at his heels. His fractal barrier shimmered, a constant drain on his reserves, even as his legs screamed in protest and his lungs burned with each ragged breath. He couldn’t maintain this pace much longer.

  Tree after tree blurred past in a dizzying rush, a relentless barrage of spells homing in on him with increasing accuracy. He chanced a quick look over his shoulder, his heart lurching. The Solarians were far too close!

  A searing gout of flame washed over him, several spheres of concentrated energy piercing through the inferno to slam into his barrier, sending him sprawling. I can’t just keep running!

  A galaxy seed blossomed to life in his mind. He ducked behind a thick pine, barely evading a volley of spells that shattered against the trunk. The Karex’s guttural bark echoed through the trees, punctuated by a nearby explosion.

  One student cried out.

  Now! Kor sprang out from behind the tree, hurling his galaxy at the first target.

  Teneth! The boy’s perpetual sneer vanished as Kor’s spinning accretion disc slammed into his shield. Got you! Teneth’s barrier cracked almost instantly, but a surge of Kelleth’s wind gusted into the boy, knocking him out of the spiral’s path.

  Damn it! He spun on his heel and ran, voices shouting behind him as the pursuit continued.

  Galaxy on cooldown, he conjured a fractal bomb, infusing it with a hefty dose of his power as he dropped it beside a pine. The Karex barked again, the sound much closer now. The damned thing was fast, and gaining on them rapidly.

  He could only manage a half-fill, the strain of maintaining it growing more costly with every step that separated him from his makeshift trap. Two dozen yards and—there! He released his hold, the muffled detonation and the satisfying crack of a shattering barrier ringing out behind him. He couldn’t risk a glance back, his attention snared by something looming ahead.

  Giant standing stones?

  They blazed with a mystical radiance, beacons of raw power even amidst the dense, magical energies of the inner forest. Sweat plastered his robes to his skin, his breath coming in ragged gasps, but he forced himself into one last, desperate sprint.

  Another clearing? The trees thinned, revealing a vast, circular expanse ringed by countless menhirs, each the size of a small building. These megaliths encircled a gently sloping hill, perhaps a few hundred yards wide. At its apex, a veritable army of Therastins milled about. Dominating the summit was a truly monstrous specimen, large enough to rival even the colossal Karex. Its lesser brethren spread out below, closer to the treeline.

  By the Void! Can’t I catch a break?

  He dashed past the menhirs, a blast of frozen flames catching him squarely in the back, cracking both his barrier and the icy spell. He crashed to the earth, rolling, dazed, struggling to regain his footing.

  Telleth rushed through the menhirs, two Solarians flanking him, their hands crackling with the energy of a newly forming spell. “I’ve got you now, Kor,” he practically spat.

  Not yet, you don’t. A defiant growl ripped from Kor’s throat as he primed another galaxy seed.

  The Therastins’ hisses and the clattering of their carapaces echoed somewhere behind him, up the slope of the hill, but Kor’s focus remained locked on Telleth. The trio of Solarians unleashed a torrent of power. By some miracle, he dodged a whip of fire, casting his arm out as Pylen’s flames gushed towards him.

  The spells collided in a burst of raw energy. Kor’s galaxy disc punched through, slamming into the boy just as Teneth’s frozen flames struck him, hurling him bodily toward the hill. His barrier cracked, the intricate snowflake patterns losing cohesion as the unrelenting barrage of ice numbed his arms. A brief flash of gold came from his galaxy as he held on. One down.

  He’d already spent far too much of his energy reserves, and somehow Teneth had become considerably stronger than during their practice. His vision filled with the icy onslaught, yet he spotted the other Solarians, Keneth and three others, fleeing into the ring of menhirs.

  “Kor!” Viree’s voice reached him as raw force powered overhead to collide with Teneth, shattering his shield and sending him rocketing into a menhir, his golden badge barrier flaring to life just in time.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  He whipped his head around even as professors descended. Viree sprinting across the hillside, several large and angry Therastins in hot pursuit. Her blonde ponytail bobbed behind her, a concerned frown etched on her face.

  He snapped his gaze back as the Karex hurtled past the menhirs, its molten carapace glowing. Kelleth and the others split aside, narrowly avoiding the creature’s path. Barely a moment to breathe, he poured more of his power into his barrier, restoring the cracks as the recursive nature of his magic took hold.

  Not even a quarter of his reserves remained.

  Another eruption, this time a molten plate of earth that hurtled towards a lone student. A professor swooped down, barely pulling the student aside as his barrier snapped and his golden badge flared. No time to worry about Keneth or the other Solarians. He scrambled to his feet as Viree drew close, the Therastins still hot on her heels.

  Perhaps they would fight each other?

  “The Karex!” he shouted, running around it as more spells punched into the creature, having little effect. Clearly, fire wasn’t the answer here.

  Viree tossed him a thumbs-up as she drew in power, sprinting headlong towards their molten foe. With nothing to do but hope she understood, Kor rushed for the cover of the menhirs. Another galaxy fractal formed as the Solarians faced off against the Karex.

  Pick them off the Solarians, or try to injure the Karex? If he was going to get anything out of this mess, he needed to kill it!

  Even so... He flung his arm wide, his galaxy spiral tearing into another Solarian. The student’s barrier cracked multiple times, his cries piercing the air. Kor stumbled past even as it broke and a different professor swooped in for the save.

  At the same time, Viree catapulted through the air, her fist slamming into the Karex with a force that belonged to a battering ram, not a teenage girl. That’s not what I meant, Viree!

  The Karex rocked back, its molten armour cracking under the impact. Viree landed and bounced away with an agility that even a cat would envy. His stomach lurched as she dodged a vicious swipe of the creature’s tail, narrowly evading another barrage of spells from that had punched into the beast. Kelleth’s conjured cutlass sliced into the beast’s unarmoured belly, drawing a hiss of pain.

  He slumped against the cool stone of a menhir. His chest heaved, a desperate fight for air that seemed to yield little. His galaxy was on cooldown, several moments until it could be used again. Raw mystical energy pressed against his skin, emanating from the menhir’s ancient power.

  When this is all over, I swear I’m going to run more laps!

  The battle raged on, the Therastins halting their headlong pursuit. Even the monstrous, scorpion-like creatures seemed to recognise the raw power of the Karex, giving the battle a wide berth. Void-cursed things. He’d foolishly hoped they might be drawn into the fray, turning the tide. Now, if he intended to pull anything off, he needed to take a drastic risk.

  His heart hammered a frantic beat against his ribs. He positioned the menhir between him and the fight. Dropped his fractal barrier and focused on drawing in energy from the surrounding environment. The chaotic sensations of the battle washed over him as he reached out, his senses extended, searching for the raw power he craved.

  His eyes widened in alarm. Such potency!

  The moment he opened himself to the surrounding mana, it rushed towards him, not with a gentle flow, but with a savage ferocity that threatened to tear him asunder. The menhir! His meditation technique, honed over countless hours of practice, proved utterly inadequate to handle this torrent of energy. It simply wasn’t designed for such a potent surge, like trying to contain a raging river with a teacup. Every part of his body burned, a searing agony as the raw power ripped through him, overloading his circuits, threatening to consume him from the inside out.

  “Stop it, Kor! Stop! Any more and you’ll burn out!” Lentus’s voice echoed in his mind, a frantic, desperate warning.

  He could feel it, the agonizing truth in his companion’s words. His body screamed in protest, but closing the floodgates was proving impossible. The power inundated him, a relentless tide. Close! Damn it, close!

  A searing pain ripped through him, and something within him shattered. The last vestiges of his meditation technique, the carefully constructed walls he’d built to control the flow of mana, burned away, crumbling to ash, hollowing out a part of him, leaving a raw, gaping void. The torrent of mana abruptly ceased, but every fibre of his being felt raw, utterly spent, like a field ravaged by a firestorm. Another explosive eruption from the Karex ripped through the air, a stark reminder that he didn’t have time to dwell on the damage. Not to him, nor to his meditation.

  Just over a third back?

  His recovery had been too quick, orders of magnitude faster than he’d anticipated, a terrifying testament to the sheer power he had absorbed. He pushed himself away from the burning beacon of energy that was the menhir, his body trembling. If he poured everything into a fully powered galaxy fractal... would that be enough to take down the Karex? If he was going to do that, he couldn’t afford to waste even a sliver of mana on a shield.

  All or nothing, then. A dangerous gamble, but he was out of options.

  Naked and vulnerable without his barrier. Kor formed the seed, spinning his attack to life as he pumped it full of energy. It formed over his outstretched hand, the black core pulsing and spinning as he contained it. More and more, he funnelled energy into the attack as Viree and the Solarians battled the creature. One stray spell, and his student’s golden badge might not be enough to save him.

  He gulped, his arms shaking, his stomach rebelling at the thought as he powered up his spell. Glancing over, he could see Kelleth, two other Solarians, and Viree remained in the fight. Viree’s energetic dance weaved too close for comfort as she slingshotted around the monstrous Karex. The creature was bleeding from beneath, its carapace cracked in multiple places, but the malevolent glint in its eyes held a terrifying promise of might.

  Power. More power. All of it! His brow furrowed in concentration, his arms trembling under the strain. The fractal spun in place, straining and pulling against his control. So dense, so potent. That was all he could handle! Flames erupted from the Karex, a fiery nova that rushed out to greet him.

  Void it! He pulled back, heart hammering as the fire guttered out before reaching him.

  Here goes! He dashed along the outside of the menhirs, drawing closer, unnoticed by the combatants. Viree had just landed another devastating punch, the impact rippling through the creature’s form as she fell to the floor.

  “Now!” Kelleth shouted out. A flaming whip cut through the air, ensnaring Viree as she landed, binding her fast. Unable to pull away, she was trapped as the Karex turned its full attention on her, rearing onto its hind legs, a gargantuan, terrifying display.

  “No!” he bellowed, his voice raw with desperation. He wouldn’t be in time. He thrust his arm out, a surge of desperate power.

  A different kind of energy filled his mind, Lentus! His companion’s exertion, his reassurance, was palpable as something loosed from within him. Faster even than Kor’s galaxy could fire, Lentus’s magic alighted upon the flaming whip, dissolving it into unstructured mana. The fleeting sensation of chaotic dissolution faded as Viree shot away from the creature, freed from the fiery bonds.

  His galaxy attack tore through the distance, even as quakes erupted from the creature, the earth splitting open. The maelstrom of churning fractal energy burrowed into the creature’s head, a lucky shot by any measure. In a heartbeat, the galaxy ripped through its skull, bone and brain matter exploding outwards before it could even emit a sound of pain.

  The beast slumped to the ground as Kor, thrown off balance, crashed back into the loamy earth. The sounds of cutting, tearing flesh were horrific as his spell continued to bore through the creature. He leaned up, every part of him aching, but as he watched his spell complete its devastating work, there was no doubt the monster was dead.

  Even as a grin tugged at his lips, Kelleth’s enraged face emerged from between the menhirs, power boiling around him, ready to unleash. The boy didn’t even hesitate. Kor called upon the last dregs of his energy to defend himself, but it was too little, too late.

  Several wind blades sliced into him, unimpeded by any semblance of a snowflake barrier. The hum of golden light from his badge activated, protecting him for a fleeting moment as a dozen cracks instantly formed. Blade after blade tore into him. His breath hitched. Was he about to die here?

  Energy washed over him, whisking him up from the ground, lifting him bodily into the air. Turning to his saviour, Kor gasped, his eyes widening in disbelief. Twinned glowing violet eyes, sharp and knowing, peered deep into his own, seeming to pierce his very soul. The First Magus! Black robes and a flowing black cloak billowed around him, adding to the air of undeniable power he exuded.

  “Splendid,” the man’s voice resonated with charisma and a hint of something ancient, something beyond mortal understanding. “That was some real entertainment, lad.” An enigmatic smile played on his lips, a smile that didn’t quite reach his extraordinary eyes.

  A strange, almost sleepy hum buzzed in Kor’s mind, a sense of Lentus reaching out, communicating. But not with him. It was as if his companion was engaged in a silent conversation with... the First Magus himself?

  Viree? He quickly cast his gaze down. But the scene below was already shrinking, the chaos of the battle fading as he was whisked away, the ground receding at an alarming rate. She’d risked her neck for him and now here he was, unable to repay the favour.

  The Solarians! Why the void were they after me so desperately?