I dodged to the side as the gorlophant rushed through the space I had just been occupying, trying to gore me with its horn.

I heard the creature let out a deafening screech as Fiona let loose with the prismatic rapier. The creature's tough hide parted like thin paper to the blade's edge and ability to nullify magic. Learning that their tough hide wasn’t just thick but also magical had come as a bit of a shock but it explained why it had been so hard to take them down in our previous attempt.

Using the distraction, I hauled my staff back and swung with all my might at the creature’s back knee. The lion head of my staff impacted with a muffled boom and the angry beast stumbled under the blow, swinging its head toward me and lashing out with its powerfully muscled trunk.

I was forced to implement Time Shudder to avoid the blow, dancing backward and out of range of the injured beast. Fiona used the distraction to attack its other flank and it turned back toward her. I used the time to scan the edge of Cage of Vengeance and the dozen or so gorlophants attempting to push their way in.

“We need to hurry this along!” I shouted, seeing the cage start to fray. It had been the first time I had used the cage as we caught one of the creatures alone. But a bellow from it had drawn in nearby creatures to come to its aid. I suspected this was going to be a reoccurring issue and had decided to see if the cage could help out. And it did, but it was a lower-level spell, not meant to hold off creatures with tier two strength. Similar to my Area of Denial ability it was being ripped apart.

“I’m trying but these things aren’t exactly easy to kill,” Fiona huffed as she phased out to avoid being stomped flat by the angry bleeding beast.

One thing I hadn’t taken into account was the limited amount of mana I would have available while the cage was in play. I had thought I could get by but I used a lot of mana when I fought, I just didn’t realize it anymore with my mana pool being so large. It changed the fight dynamic, causing me to shift from using abilities to fighting solely with my weapon.

That didn’t mean I was all out of tricks though as my staff took on an icy chill as I rushed back in and slammed the dragon head of my weapon into the same injured leg. I had learned that Overcharge worked wonders when I used it on my Imbue, along with the bonus my weapon gave me to elemental damage, the gorlophant’s leg didn’t just ice over, it froze solid. Before the creature could retaliate, I swung the staff around a second time, shattering the leg and rushing away as the creature bellowed in pain as it tipped on its side.

It should have been an easy kill after that but the beast kicked out with its remaining back leg, catching me in the chest and flinging me across the field. I groaned in pain as I slowly got back up. Fiona was slicing the creature's thin underbelly open while it tried to attack her, but with her ability to phase in and out, the attacks always missed.

The attack had hurt like hell but the armor was doing what it was designed to do and even as I rose I felt my body becoming stronger. I looked at the damage I suffered and winced. That one kick had taken three hundred health off of me. That was after being reduced by sixty percent by my armor and ten percent by rock skin.

Fiona finally finished the creature off as I limped back toward her. “We need to go, can you meet me at that rock outcropping we spotted an hour ago?” I wheezed.

“Yeah.”

Giving myself a few more seconds for my healing to do its work, I ran toward the far side of the cage. I sucked down a mana potion and got ready to speed away from the scene. I dropped the cage and ran as fast as my skills could take me. I could already hear the angry thundering of hoofs behind me but it seemed like going all out, I was faster.

Either the creatures chose not to chase us or they figured out it wasn’t going to work, but either way, they finally turned around.

I let out ragged gasping breaths as I finally jumped to the top of the rock. I lay flat against the hot surface as I caught my breath. Fiona appeared a minute or so later. She wasn’t as quick as I was but it wasn’t like it mattered for her. She could just phase out to avoid any serious injury.

“Well, that was fun,” she said dryly, sitting down beside me in her human form.

“Yeah, that could have gone better, but it was worth it. That one fight pushed me over halfway to level sixteen.”

“I agree, the creatures, while a pain, are worth the effort. We need a better way of separating single targets though.”

“I do have a few ideas for our next match, but let’s rest here for a bit, shall we.”

It took an hour for me to recover after using the Cage of Vengeance. Being limited to two hundred and fifty mana made me feel like I was back in my early levels. I still recovered mana at a ridiculous rate but it meant picking and choosing what to employ during a fight more carefully. It also made it impossible to Multicast almost all of my spells due to the doubling requirement of the skill. It wasn’t horrible but definitely something I would need to keep in mind.

Fiona and I spent the rest of the day fruitlessly searching for another lone gorlophant. A group of two or even three would have been doable but the smallest grouping we came across was four and most often they were in packs of six or more.

With no luck, we headed back to the fortress which I had set down in the Panamanian jungle a few miles from this new landmass.

“I don’t know why they can’t just cooperate with us and spread out,” I grumbled as we walked.

“Why not just blast them with the guns on the fortress?”

“While tempting, I wanted to get a feel for my new abilities. I already learned a few things that I otherwise might not have. Besides, it's good to stay in practice.”

“I’m not disputing that fact, but wasn’t the whole point of coming down here, to level?”

“Yes and no,” I replied. “I feel like my level shot up faster than my skills and fighting in that tournament made it clear that I need every advantage that I can get. That being said, if I feel we’ve hit a dead-end on improving, I may just blast the gorlophants to bits just to feel better.”

We had just entered the dense jungle when I heard a strange sound. I motioned for Fiona to hide and scout while I slowly moved forward.

It wasn’t long before we came across the source of the disturbance. At first, I thought it was a deerkin as it had antlers and walked around on two legs. But as I got a better look, I saw that its movements were stilted. The smell of rot assaulted my nose shortly after and I suppressed a gag as the creature walked through the forest.

I looked around but only saw the lone creature. A twig snapped under my foot as I moved forward and the creature froze. Its head swiveled around like an owl making a disturbing crack. Blank pitch-black eyes stared at me before its entire body turned. Without so much as a sound, it ran toward me.

Seeing no more need to hide, I got into a fighting stance as it quickly closed the distance. I fired off Identify.

Higaran Swarm Beast | Level 1

I was slightly taken off guard by the low leveled creature but I didn’t relax my stance. The creature – which I could now tell was a grossly deformed deer – whipped its front leg at me faster than I thought a creature of its level could. I still easily blocked the strike but I felt something wet slap against my armor.

I didn’t have time to inspect what it was as I fought off the creature's unrelenting strikes. Fiona was slashing at the creature as well but it ignored her attacks completely. There was a searing pain in my arm and I jumped back to see what the hell it was.

A leech-like creature had burrowed through the leather on my arm. I ripped it off along with a dozen others that were attempting to do the same. At least I now knew what the wet slap had been.

I glanced at my status and saw a new icon. When I concentrated on it I got an unwelcome surprise.

Swarm carrier curse: If the curse isn’t removed within an hour, the host body will die and become host to a new swarm. Curse cannot be cleansed or removed unless you kill the original vector of the curse.

I was about to yell out to Fiona to quickly kill the beast but before I could the creature shook violently, disintegrating in a shower of tiny creatures. My eyes went wide as I saw them begin to burrow into the ground.

With no time to coordinate with Fiona, I cast Imbue adding fire and earth to my staff with Overcharge. I smashed my staff down activating Seismic Strike. A few of the disgusting creatures died but I still had the curse.

Thinking frantically, I activated Beacon. That seemed to work as the ground heaved and the leeches shot back out toward me. I wasn’t done though. Knowing I had little time I used Time Shutter to shave off a second of the activation time for Eye of the Storm.

I hadn’t needed to use the spell in some time and with my higher level and the boost from Overcharge and my weapon, it was like a volcano had erupted with me at its center. The molten rock was shot up into the air in a twisting vortex of fiery death. Even the wet jungle for hundreds of meters around caught fire or blackened due to the intense heat. I lifted off the ground, using my wings as I kicked off any remaining parts of the monster.

The last slimy parasite flew off my leg and into the inferno, roasting to a crisp and ending the curse.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I ended my spells and dropped to the smoldering ground outside of the effective range of the spell.

Fiona appeared next to me a second later. “What was that all about?”

“A curse, one that couldn’t be removed unless you killed every part of that creature. They were trying to burrow out of sight so I didn’t have any time to tell you what was going on.”

“Fair enough,” she replied, looking over the new clearing and the charred remains of trees. Some of which were still burning.

I didn’t bother putting the fires out. The jungle was wet enough that it wouldn’t spread. One good thing had come out of that weird fight, I had leveled my second class to sixteen. It seemed that each leech was worth very little experience but the whole beast was made up of millions of the nasty little things, all shoved inside a skin suit.

“Hmm,” I said, tapping my fingers on my staff.

“Hmm what? Don’t tell me you want to hunt these things?”

“Why not, they give good experience and as long as I torch them they aren’t much of a threat.”

“Yeah, but what if one escapes after infecting you?” Fiona asked pointedly.

“Then I would die a horrible horrible death. But I think the pros outweigh the cons in this case.”

“Fine, but if you die, I’m going to haunt the shit out of your soul.”