Thunder reverberated in the background as the Wavestrider was tossed from one towering wave to another as it navigated the Bay of Storms. Atop its deck, Ezekiel Enzeal stared straight ahead stoically, neither wind nor rain able to change his expression in the slightest. From time to time purple electricity would flash in his eyes, a mirror of the lightning leaping from cloud to cloud high above. Finally, something broke the monotony of the choppy grey waters.

Obelisks of the darkest stone rose up from the sea, visible in the distance through the gaps of the waves, reflecting the intermittent flashes of lightning. From afar, it resembled the jaw of a shark – row after row of jagged rock arranged in the shape of a half-ring. Waves shattered into white froth against them with a sound that competed against the thunder.

A wave raised the ship, carrying it on its crest and threatening to dash it against the rocks. Letting go of the wheel, Ezekiel clapped his hands together before separating them. Tendrils of violet electricity connected his palms forming a sparking cat’s cradle between them. Ignoring the wildly spinning wheel and the turning ship, the mariner pushed his palms outward and the network of lightning expanded into a circular portal of electricity situated in front of the ship. As the prow passed through the portal, nothing emerged from the other side. The rusty ship, the flapping sails, the elemental sailors of lightning – all of them vanished into his Dungeon as they passed through the Gate.

Only he remained upon the crest of the wave, hurtling towards the rocks. His hair whipped in the wind and rain lashed against his face, making him narrow his eyes. Drawing heavy iron shackles out of his Dungeon, he clasped them on his wrists, the broken chains trailing behind him.

Now that he was closer, the ‘rocky obelisks’ revealed themselves as pillars of a dark metal. White spray surged up as the waves smashed against them and vortices churned between the maze of pillars. Death would be his only outcome if he fell into the violent waters – either crushed on impact against the pillars or drowned by the vortices in between.

The glow in his eyes grew brighter, violet brilliance spilling out of them as arcs of electricity that skittered across his cheeks. Whipping his arm forward, he sent one of the chains whistling through the air towards the approaching obelisk. Violet sparks coiled up its length as the chain struck the pillar and stuck to it, held in place by magnetism. He yanked himself forward, swinging around the obelisk even as the wave he had been riding crashed into it.

At the peak of his swing, he cut the flow of electricity to the chain and it detached from the metal, sending him flying through the air. Whipping his other arm around, he sent his other chain shooting forward to attach to the next pillar. He swung from pillar to metallic pillar, the intermittent flashes of lightning illuminating the dark vortices swirling beneath like the gaping maws of a thousand beasts.

Swinging free from the final pillar, he crashed onto the beach, transiting into a roll to bleed off momentum. Rising to his feet and brushing off the black sand that clung to his wet clothes, he looked towards whence he came: A jagged maze of metallic pillars towering into the sky, acting as a breaker for the waves that were whipped up by the unending storm that raged in the region.

Ezekiel turned away, shifting his gaze north. Black sands stretched as far as the eye could see and unbroken dark clouds occupied the sky. Purple lightning leapt from one thundercloud to another and at times jagged streamers of purple electricity would connect land and sky. The arid winds from the Tyhr met the moist marine breeze in this region resulting in the perpetual thunderstorm that gave it its name: Perpetual Thunder Desert Area.

Crossing it, would bring him to his goal.

Lirael stumbled as she dropped out of her high-speed movement.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch…”

Hopping lamely on her right foot, she sat herself down on a flat-topped boulder near at hand. Raising her left foot on her right thigh, she took off her shoe and gingerly massaged her sore ankle. Inspecting it with her mana, she found that her Shrinking Space shard had cracked right down its middle; almost splitting into two.

Although she had been expecting repercussions from pushing her shard so hard, she hadn’t expected it to be so serious. If the shard hadn’t been fused with her Dungeon, and therefore protected from permanent damage, it would have been destroyed. She winced as a spike of pain shot up her leg from her inflamed ankle. Gingerly, she pushed some of her violet mana into the damaged shard to help it heal.

Turning to her side, she found Vlad looming over her, looking at her ankle with concern. Taking the Thrall along with her by wrapping him in her Domain had placed more strain on her shard than anticipated, skewing her calculations and making her misjudge her limits. Fortunately, they had reached their destination before the shard had given out.

Lirael turned her gaze north. A huge swathe of the land in front of her had subsided into the ground, leaving a crater with sheer precipices on all sides. Currently, Lirael was at the edge of the precipice, looking down into the depression. The miasma was much denser in the crater than it was anywhere else; thick enough to obscure the sight of what lay within. But that didn’t really matter to Lirael. She had the right shard for the job.

Closing her eyes, she split a bit of her mana from healing her space shard to activate her Seismic Sense shard as well as her Memory shard. Ripples of light broke the darkness behind her eyelids. Vlad shifting his weight from one foot to another beside her, a breeze dislodging a rock and sending it careening down the cliffside, the stirrings of a skeleton within the crater near the edge, the movement of stronger undead deeper in – all sent ripples of light radiating outwards. Ripples that interlocked with each other, forming a grid of light in the darkness of her mind, giving her the lay of the land in a conical arc that extended nearly five kilometres in front of her.

Generally, a Tier 1 Seismic Sense shard could detect vibrations through the earth in a ten-metre radius around its user. At Tier 2, the radius would increase to a hundred metres and at Tier 3, a kilometre. But by dint of her rigorous practice, Lirael had been able to extend the range of her shard by modifying the shape of the region of perception into a cone with her at the vertex. Using the Seismic Sense shard in tandem with her Memory shard allowed her to imprint a map of the region being sensed to her mind.

Using more than one skill at the same time to produce an effect was a high-level utilization of shards that required the mage to be extremely familiar with all the shards involved and have the ability to multitask skillfully. It was referred to as a combination move; or simply, a combo. Some shards were made for each other like the Third Eye shard and the Flame Pupil shard that Sand's opponent had used in the Arena or even Sand's combination of the Phlebotomy and Undead Marrow shards. But, theoretically, as all shards originated from the same source, any and all shards could be combined if one put their mind to it. Lirael’s combo was one of the more complicated ones. It had taken her several months to perfect it.

In her mental map, tapering columns of rock populated the depression like trees in a forest; the razor-sharp vertical spikes of eroded sandstone weaving an isolated and inhospitable landscape. Yet, her shard told her that the crater was teeming with life… or rather undead. Infrequent ripples of dim light demarcated areas of high activity while densely packed, brighter ripples indicated spots where undead fought undead, vying for evolution by consuming each other.

Cutting the mana to her shards, Lirael opened her eyes. The swelling on her ankle had subsided and he pain had reduced to a dull throb. Her mana senses told her that the deep fissure was now little more than a hairline crack. She’d spent quite a bit of mana to accelerate the healing, but the final bit of damage needed time. Still, she was capable using it sparingly. She would need it in the battles to come. She sighed. Her time was running out like sand from a shattered hourglass. At any moment, the Sangre could exert pressure on her family and incite them to issue a recall order for her. She needed to upgrade her Embryonic Dungeon before someone from her family came calling.

Thankfully, now, instead of having to directly aim for promotion to a Dungeon mage, she could aim lower and just finish integrating the Undead Marrow shard. Then she would have a fully independent, portable production facility for spice. With that lucrative a business to call her own, her value would increase and even if her family didn’t change the candidate for the engagement outright, they would negotiate with the Sangre for a cut of the profits… or more concessions. Whatever the case, it would earn her some reprieve within which to complete her Dungeon.

Putting on her shoe and lightly stamping her left foot to test it, Lirael stood and beckoned for Vlad. Approaching her, the Thrall took a knee in front of her, his nearly two and a half metre frame, causing his shoulder to be on par with hers even bent down as he was. Stepping on his thigh, Lirael seated herself on his shoulder and steadied herself with a grip on his hair.

Vlad straightened, carrying her up, and flared his Aura, the semi-solid energy wrapping around her hips and fixing her in place. Breathing deeply, he activated his Strength shard. Veins stuck out all over his body as his muscles coiled under his skin, straining against the sudden influx of power. He breathed out of his mouth, steam spilling out of the corners of his mouth as his scarlet eyes glowed brighter. Taking a step back, the muscles in his legs bulged and he stamped hard on the ground.

Fissures spidered outwards from the point of impact and he shot forward, his figure blurring from the speed of his dash. Thunderous cracks rang out as craters formed wherever he stepped, accelerating himself further as he approached the edge of the cliff. With one last stamp at the very edge that sent shattered pieces of rock careening down the cliff, he shot out into the air.

The wind whistled in his ear and blew Lirael’s skirt as he fell towards the miasma covered forest of stone spikes below. Spreading his arms out to orient himself in the air, he activated his defence shard.

~ Daybreak Shield ~

Thin threads of light the colour of the rising sun burst out of his right hand, weaving into a huge tower shield that weighed nothing. Wisps of white fire ran all over the surface of the shield of orange light. Positioning the gleaming shield in front of him facing the swiftly approaching ground, Vlad flared his Aura of Strength to its maximum range.

For a short moment, their sight was occluded by the miasma before clearing again as they passed through the dense smog. With an impact that jarred Vlad’s arm, the Daybreak Shield crashed into a huge spike of stone. Rock met solid light and rock crumbled. When the dust diverged, Vlad could be seen atop the cracked pillar with Lirael on his shoulder. Cushioned by Vlad’s Aura from most of the impact, they had come out unscathed if missing a chunk of mana. Crouching and tensing his legs, Vlad leapt again, shooting up high into the air as he moved towards the centre of the forest – towards the goal of their hunt.

Behind them, the densely fissured pillar disintegrated into rubble.