6.

  “I’m not complaining, just saying you’re not very good at this teamwork thing,” Naomi said as they worked their way through the second nest. It had been an ongoing fight for them as they left the dark dwarf den. Santi had tried to defend himself and slowly the woman had used logic and reason to show that he was not a good teammate.

  “We’ve been working together alright,” Santi defended himself weakly, the fire of the fight finally fading away.

  “We’ve been working together well because we’re both overpowered for this time frame and know how to adapt,” Naomi said. She craned her head up to look at the tall apartment building that a feeling of despair was wafting out of. Shivers rolled down Santi’s spine as he looked at the building.

  “Reminds me of one of the first nests I cleared, it was built on cursed energy,” Santi commented. He thought back to the goblin nest and the battle there where he had secured Homebase and the town.

  “These are always more difficult. The den guardians are generally twisted amalgamations that have fed on the curse,” Naomi said as she cracked her neck to either side.

  “The one I fought was a cross between a goblin and a big spider monster. Wrecked a partially built subdivision to kill it,” Santi told her. His blade shortened into a long knife in his hand and they entered the building together. The metal security doors were broken and off their hinges, forcing both of them to walk over it and into the apartments.

  The front entrance was covered in metal mailboxes ripped open with molding pieces of paper scattered about the lobby. Water had drained from somewhere, staining the walls with mold growing in the corners. Each step further into the building furthered the icy spikes of despair to be driven deeper and deeper into Santi’s chest.

  “Are you seeing it?” Naomi asked. She was looking blankly into space with her brows furrowed, knuckles tightening around the hilt of her blade. She swallowed thickly and Santi raised a single eyebrow in shock at her sudden frozen state.

  “No?” Santi said.

  “Visions then. I’m seeing moments of failure in my life. My daughter’s and husband’s death. Failed campaigns, dead companions, things like that,” Naomi kept her voice even but there was a hint of pain in her words.

  “No, I don’t have any visions. I have a title that protects me from mental attacks,” Santi said. It wasn’t hard for someone to figure it out if they paid a bit of attention, especially with how he had seen through Delilah’s old skills.

  “If it’s already this bad, I doubt I’ll be able to maintain combat readiness. My suggestion would be to skip this den,” Naomi said. Santi looked over the former Champion and felt a bit of surprise.

  “A former Champion turning down a challenge?”

  “I made it to Champion by staying alive. Which means not going into battles with a handicap.”

  “I’ll clear this den,” Santi said.

  “That’s not wise. I would suggest we just retreat and find a better suited den. Come back and clear this later,” Naomi said.

  “I want to win this bet and if they’re using some type of psionic or emotional attack already, I’m willing to bet they’re physically weak. I’ll rip right through them and burst this den and then be on our way,” Santi said. He was still stinging a bit from Naomi’s criticism of his teamwork.

  “Don’t get killed trying to assuage your pride,” Naomi warned, but she was already walking out of the apartment building. Santi watched her back as she left and realized he was being dumb. His pride had been hurt and he wanted to show he was strong and not wrong. It was stupid and he knew it. He was still going to do it.

  Santi looked around for the stairwell and its busted open door. He started up the stairs, jogging lightly as he looked for monsters. Most of the doors that led into the apartment complex’s interior were missing. Every time he made it to the top of one of the stairs he’d look inside and when nothing came screaming to kill him, he’d duck back into the stairwell and keep jogging upward.

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  As he hit the third floor his advanced senses gave him warning as something burst free of the doorway and came rushing at him. In the dark it was hard to make out the details, but it was low to the ground and had nearly a dozen limbs jutting from random places in its body. It howled in a haunting melody that staggered him back as his ears rang, but the morph blade slashed out regardless.

  A long whip of razor sharp metal tore apart three of the jutting limbs, sending them sprawling across the stairs as the creature howled again in pain. A distant corner of his mind recognized that there was pressure building in his skull like a headache. It was almost like there was a smell in his mind, rain heavy clouds with rotting soil. Santi sneezed violently as he cast [Gust] to throw it backward and against the wall. Bones crunched and more of the twisted limbs broke as it howled and howled.

  Further away he could hear scrambling from the upper floors as more of the monsters came streaming toward the commotion. [Windblade] split his opponent in half and finally ended the infernal screaming.

  Sorrow Eater lvl. 36

  Santi went up to the creature and got a good look at it. It was the size of a rottweiler with leathery gray skin and a mix of insect-like appendages and human arms welded to its body. Wide, luminous, white eyes stared up at him, the fist sized orbs oversized for the monster’s body. Shark teeth filled its wide mouth like a buzz saw with chunks of flesh still attached to it.

  “Aren’t you pretty,” Santi said as he kicked the pieces away and stepped into the third floor. Monsters were racing toward him, some on the walls, some on the ceiling, and even a handful on the floor. Twelve of the monsters were coming toward him, their limbs twisted in a way that didn’t allow them to run well.

  That pressure returned quickly to fill his mind, pressing hard against his defenses, as his nose filled with that scent again. Just like he had thought, they weren’t physically dangerous creatures, but relied on their psychic abilities.

  Santi’s spells turned them to pieces in moments. He didn’t even have to move from where he stood to blow them apart. That was rewarding for him, the power finally to stand back and be a true mage. To call upon power beyond comprehension, to make wield and bend reality to his will.

  More of the beasts came and Santi continued to stand in his spot, casting [Gust] and [Windblade] over and over. The hallways filled with corpses as he worked his way all the way to the fifth floor. At the top of the apartment complex the despair in the building pressed upon Santi hard enough that his knees threatened to buckle as he walked. It couldn’t pierce the defenses in his mind though, it was a weight that settled on his shoulders and tried to break him.

  Santi had the distinct impression that if he turned his head fast enough he could see the visions the den wanted to push on him. He could smell his dad’s cologne mixed in there, the burning dorm room from the first timeline, Delilah’s supposed death, all of it was there. Kept away by his newest title.

  The top floor was bleak. Even with light streaming through the shattered walls and windows there was a gloom that clung to everything. A black mist rolled across the rug at ankle level, cold as the grave as it rolled across his feet. Standing in the middle of the floor was a tall, cadaverous figure with black rags drifting around it as if it was underwater.

  Specter of Despair lvl. 47

  It turned to look at Santi and its face changed. For a moment Santi saw smooth flesh stretched tight without a hint of a feature. Then it was his dad that stared at him with warm eyes. It stepped forward slowly, walking with predatory grace that his father had never had.

  “You failed me, Santiago. You should have saved me,” Vicente’s voice came from the creature’s mouth just as the largest wave of pressure hit his mental barriers. Santi grimaced as he realized that this creature would be a deadly threat if he didn’t have his mental barriers. Even to someone like Naomi she would have no defenses against this creature unless her Willpower stat was truly outrageous.

  [Air Manipulation] gripped the ethereal figure and Santi could feel it trying to break away instantly. His father’s features flickered for a moment as it slid back to its featureless skin before Vicente’s face was back. He was scowling in anger and his voice became filled with anger.

  “Are you going to kill me again, Santiago!”

  “I didn’t kill my father. Abraham did. I know that now,” Santi whispered as he picked the creature up and threw it through the wall and out into the open sunlight below. He raced after it and watched as the sunlight stripped apart its cloak of mist and forced it back to its blank state, even before it hit the ground. Santi followed it out the hole in the wall, blade extended as furious rage filled his chest.

  Naomi looked up from the sidewalk, surprise etched on her face, as the creature hit the ground. Santi landed on top of the monster with his morph blade turned into a lance that punched through the monster’s body and into the street below with a cracking of concrete. The monster trembled then died and he got an alert to the challenge that he had cleared another den.