The Malatian troops didn’t come for the rest of that day. The tension around the town was growing by the hour. The following morning when they still didn’t look like they would attack. Sania and I took to the skies once more. We kept low to avoid detection. Then headed south west once more.

I had a worrying feeling that the only reason they would be waiting is if they really were just an advanced force and a larger army was on its way.

We flew to the range limit I dared risk from Grigor, and we hadn’t seen any signs of more troops, but I desperately wanted to travel further and be sure.

“You do realize I can go further, don’t you, Clive. For starters, our Soul mate range is far further than the bonded range you have with Grigor, and don’t forget, I’m not actually bonded with Grigor.”

“I know, but it’s too dangerous alone,” I said dismissing the offer.

“Can I not handle danger?” She asked as we hovered there. I felt her irritation through the bond.

“Don’t start the mind games. There’s plenty of dangers neither of us can handle alone. Hell, there’s plenty of dangers we couldn’t handle together. But I don’t want you flying off alone and getting yourself killed, and there’s nothing I can do to helpWithout killing Grigor.”

She let out a big huff. Which, when combined with the feelings from the bond, translated as. You’re right Clive, but I’m still not happy. And apparently not finished trying to convince me.

“I will be very quick. I’ll keep moving and I won’t stop until I return. I’ll only approach until I see the first signs in the distance, and I won’t leave the Crasters. I also won’t leave our communication range.” She had her hands on her hips now, daring me to disagree.

“Sania, honestly. Every book I’ve ever read, or tv show I’ve ever watched, I’d be screaming at the page or the screen. Don’t split up! So I really don’t want to.”

“This isn’t a story, Clive. This is real, and I will be fine.”

She wasn’t going to drop it and a huge part of me wanted confirmation one way or another to fly back with. Letting out a huff of my own, I relented.

“No fucking around, Sania. As brave as you are, I want no bravery this time. Will you promise me that?”

“Absolutely. I will be as swift as a falcon!” She said and without waiting for a response or risking me changing my mind she was off, shooting off into the distance.

I watched her go until she disappeared, then hung in the sky waiting. Scanning the area for enemies or anything of interest as I felt Sania move further and further away. There was nothing of interest and I soon just floated there a strange mix of boredom and anxiety waring within me.

Twenty minutes later, there was a spike of emotion in the bond, preceded by her moving back toward me fast.

“I’ve spotted them. Someone's coming after me though I didn’t even get close!”

“Shit. Hurry, Sania!”

“ I am. I need to concentrate for speed, Clive,” she said, then fell silent.

I wanted to know everything, but fought to remain silent myself, not wanting to ruin her concentration on flying.

As long as she was moving toward me, and bond said she was okay I could wait. I didn’t want to think about what I would do if she was caught, and I had to go toward her… and kill Grigor who innocently waited to defend our home.

I started edging closer anyway. Tentatively stretching Grigor’s bond to me further than I ever had before. I knew he would feel it and would probably be panicking now, yet still I took it almost to the limit of what it could bear just to be that little bit closer to Sania. Then I waited again. Sania was still flying at top speed towards me. It was going to be okay.

As I waited, to my surprise, I felt Grigor’s bond retract as he came closer. His worry must have brought him out of Far Reach. I struggled over what to do, but then moved to the limit again. Yet still Grigor moved closer, and closer to me. Soon I was flying towards Sania about as fast as a Woltar could run through a forest.

When she finally came into view, my heart soared. Though moments later, another figure came into view.

“Clive! Is Grigor…”

“Grigor’s fine. Who’s this fuck nugget chasing you?”

“I don’t now, but they’ve been gaining steadily. I haven’t been able to risk a look back, but I don’t think we will escape whoever it is.” she said into my mind as she pulled up alongside me.

“Looks like it’s jelly time then,” I said pulling a Perfect Mint Berry Compote of Strength from my void pocket and shotting the lot. It was tasty, with a good tangy counterpoint to the sweetness, but that wasn’t really important at the moment. Sania copied the move with her own supply and followed it up with the next buff.

A few seconds later, we both had +10 in Strength, Speed and Stamina. And sticky mouths.

She was quicker to eat them than me began immediately building a ball of Hunter's Flames. As the figure chasing her came into full focus.

Anskor, Level 81 Paladin of Devotion. Nephilim.

He saved us the trouble of trying to negotiate as he built the familiar blue-colored Flames of Devotion, setting it off immediately in our direction. We each launched our own projectiles while avoiding his. They always looked so deadly in the fights we’d seen, but now, I knew how frustratingly easy it was to move out of the way of even a medium range effort. That didn’t stop all three of us building more Neuma projectiles.

As we all continued to fire of shots as the distance between us closed.

I thought for a moment that he was going to fly straight into us, but he pulled to a stop a few yards away and greeted us with a wide grin. He was big for a human, close to seven feet tall, but just like with the Mother there was no sign of a fifty-foot human to be seen and it led me to believe Grimstrom had been taking the piss.

“A half Demon and a flying Wultr, how utterly compelling,” he said. His voice reverberating through the air with surprising power. “I believe I have to leave one of you alive, if I’m not mistaken. Though there was no command from above about the condition in which I had to leave you. Clive.”

“Good guesswork. Pillock. Though I wouldn’t count your chickens just yet on flying away from here yourself.”

He merely smiled and summoned a huge glowing sword.

Sania began building another Hunter's Flame and I followed suit only this time I used the Dark Neuma. Anskor looked surprised to see it, as well he should. We both knew it would cause more damage to him than the gold Neuma I’d been using so far. I grinned back, until he shot forward, lightning fast with his blue flamed sword swinging in a wide arc at Sania. I shot my Dark Clive’s Spicy Ball at the descending sword, rather than him, knocking it to one side and causing it to hiss in reaction to my power. Sania’s own ball smashed him in the chest, but if it had any effect, I couldn’t tell.

He recovered quickly and slashed again at Sania. She avoided the blow as I hammered a Spicy Ball against the size of his head. That caused him some trouble, leaving a bright red mark and burning off his blonde sideburn.

He growled at me but continued his assault on Sania who was now focused on avoiding the wicked sword. His tactics were obvious. He wanted Sania dead as quickly as possible so he could concentrate on me.

That realization pumped my fear levels up to maximum, and I started building a much more powerful blast. Once I could barely hold it, I released knowing this was going to cause real damage.

Except he easily avoided it laughing as he then sliced deep into Sania’s arm causing a gout of blood. I quickly knew my mistake. I’d once complained to Elsbeth for doing the same thing.

I began producing much smaller blasts at far quicker intervals, which he struggled to avoid. They were still little more than an annoyance to the powerful Paladin, and I was barely slowing him down. Compared to Sania, who was clearly struggling now with her injury. She was lucky to still have the arm.

Desperation demanded action and instead of shooting a projectile out, I coated my right arm with light Neuma and propelled myself forward. He saw my approach and swung the sword at my arm.

With both being made from light Neuma, my arm was easily up to the task of deflecting the blow. I flooded my left fist with the dark and smashed the smug fucker in the face with a heavy right hook. It was a hell of a blow, and he fell back a few feet injured. Unfortunately, I’d over extended my abilities, and with only the Two Meridians in my feet keeping me aloft, I began to fall.

I caught myself quickly, but the twenty feet I’d lost in the middle of the fight was not ideal. The moment I’d caught myself, I formed a ball of Dark Energy.

Anskor was now charging me in a rage, from my last attack. He flew face first into the quick fire energy ball that I sent at him and fell away from me scrabbling at the injury. I knew it wasn’t over, but there was a sense of great satisfaction as he fell towards the ground.

Sania dropped alongside me. My eyes fell immediately to her arm followed by a wave of relief as I saw she’d managed to heal it.

“Well done Clive, that was amazing. He’s unbelievably fast,” she said, chest heaving with exertion. I built another dark ball of Neuma as I refocused on the Paladin below who had brought his descent to a stop just above tree line.

He was looking up at us, but he didn’t fly back up. At first, I couldn’t make out what he was doing.

“Move! He’s growing,” Sania shouted. For a second, I didn’t really compute what she was saying, but followed her advice, anyway. As I cleared the space above him, Anskor, did indeed grow.

Sania and I both shot away in slightly different directions as the Paladins' full Nephilim height became known. His head was now level with where we flew. His face had changed, too. Taking on a strange quality that looked a little less human. His eyes were much larger in proportion to his face, his jaw noticeably longer.

Then I noticed the arms. Or should I say the two extra arms, that had grown beneath the existing ones. They protruded out of where his lower ribcage should have been, though the shape of his torso had changed to accommodate the extra appendages.

The light had faded from his Ascension weapon. I suspected that was due to the fact that identical swords had now appeared in each of his other hands.

“Run!” Sania screamed at me. I had little choice but to agree. This wasn’t a dance I wanted to be part of.

We flew as fast as we could away from the monstrosity, heading back in the direction of Far Reach . Anskor bellowed for us to fight, Jumping forward and landing closer to us than I would have thought possible, despite our speed. Flailing swords only narrowly missing both of us as we each took evasive manoeuvres.

I considered creating a spicy Ball, but Sania, seemingly guessing my thoughts, shouted through the bond.

“Focus only on escape. Speed is our friend here.”

I agreed and continued pushing forwards, but every rumbling destructive step of Anskor, brought him back among us, and we had to apply evasive manoeuvres once again.

He eventually caught Sania with one of his swords. No longer coated with energy, it didn’t slice clean through her, as it would have otherwise. It did however knock her from the air unconscious.

I screamed, as she fell and let go of the power keeping me aloft to blast at Anskor with two quick-fire balls of darkness. Both finding targets on the behemoth without much trouble. I angled my body to dive down to Sania, still free-falling, and reached out a tendril of Neuma to catch her.

Once I had a hold of her, I focused on trying to land myself, but two of Anskor’s swords came down toward the limp form of Sania, so I pushed her out of the way. In doing so, I missed the opportunity to catch myself.

I hit the ground hard, but my Constitution was up to the task. Keeping me alive and barely injured. I didn’t even bother to stand up, using Neuma to fly out of the small crater I’d made, heading straight for where Sania had landed. I was still disoriented and flew in the wrong direction for a moment, which was just as well as Anskor’s sword smashed into the ground where I probably should have been.

Then I felt Grigor’s presence, hurtling towards me. He’d kept coming even when I’d stopped stretching the bond. I didn’t know whether I was happy for the help or terrified that we were all now going to die.

“Grigor!” Level 81 giant Nephilim. Four Swords. Be careful,” I gasped across the bond as I continued my race to Sania.

“We will. Take care, Hold on.”

“We?”

“I didn’t come alone.”

I didn’t have time to form an answer as I found Sania, conscious again, but unsteady and only narrowly avoiding the huge swords that stabbed and slashed from high above us.

“We need to get back in the air,” I shouted. And as I flew past her I grabbed her around the waist and shot upward away from Anskor.

“You can’t escape me!” He roared confidently and lunged at us.

I dropped and swerved. Then shot back up to gain altitude, narrowly avoiding each of his persistent attacks.

“I can fly again, Clive. Let go,” Sania said as she took control of her own weight. “And thank you for saving me, though I can’t see how we can get away from him.”

We had to split up and avoid a few more wild blows from Anskor, before I could speak back. Through the bond.

“Help is coming!”

“How?”

“Grigor, must have realised something was wrong when I stretched the bond. We’ll have to be ready when he arrives. For now, just focus on staying alive,” I said implementing further ungainly acrobatics. While we had learned to fly and I thought I was at a high level. This fight had proven otherwise.

Now we weren’t trying to run or attack we were both able to turn out full focus on avoiding Anskor’s giant blades and it became much easier. Openings presented themselves and I was tempted to launch the odd spicy ball at the big bastard, but I held off. There would be time soon I hoped. I could feel him coming in very close.

Then he shouted in my head. “We are here, Lord Clive.”

I felt a surge of relief at his words, which I knew he would feel. Then yelled across the bond to Sania. “They’re here. Fire what you can,”

She didn’t reply, such was her current state and the desperation of our situation, but she managed to launch her Hunter's flames.

I set off a trio of quick-fire Spicy balls, that Anskor tried to deflect. One made it through, scoring a hit on his shoulder though the damage was negligible, eliciting nothing but a grunt of anger from him.

That sound was followed quickly by a snarl of pain and anger. I glanced below through the trees and saw Grigor Feen and Kuhn below. Each with their glowing Claws of rending Salvation active, and doing a number on Anskor’s legs. I took the moments distraction, to begin putting together a larger Spicy ball, knowing this time with Anskor’s size and the distractions below, I was likely to get a good connection. He was so busy now, thrusting down into the trees below, and fighting Sania that he saw what I was doing far too late. I was at the stage where I could no longer hold the black ball of power. It was the largest most powerful I’d created so far, and as I moved closer, avoiding a desperate sword swipe from, I saw fear in Anskor’s face.

The force of the blast as it hit shocked even me. At such close range it took part of Anskor’s right cheek and eye with it, leaving blackened brains on show. It seemed as though the world slowed as the giant Nephilim slowly toppled. His size reducing as he fell.

I shook myself from the shock I felt and dove below, Sania joining me in my descent. Both of us unsure if it was over, or not.

We landed next to the Paladin, who was struggling to get to his feet. The wound to his face healed, The only evidence of injury, the hair that had burnt away on the side of his head that I hit. With that said, he staggered and didn’t look like he could put up much of a fight any longer.

There was a hunted look in his eyes that only grew as Grigor, Kuhn, and Feen ran into the clearing he’d made when he’d fallen. He held a pleading hand out to me. If I didn’t know better, the stupid bastard was trying to surrender.

“I built up another blast. Not wanting to get too close to him.”

“Wait, don’t do this. There is still hope between you and Devotion, but not if you do this.”

I growled holding the completed Spicy ball off to one side as I faced him. “I didn’t do this. You did. And you didn’t show any mercy to us when we tried to escape you.”

“I wouldn’t have killed you, though.”

“But you tried your hardest to kill my Soul Mate. If she died, I would have died, too. And so would Grigor, there,” I said pointing to the dangerous looking Woltar.

“I… didn’t know that.”

“I don’t’ care,” I said and launched the spicy ball at him. He tried to move, but a Hunter's flame from Sania, smashed into the side of his face at the same time, halting his evasive actions meaning the ball of glowing darkness smashed into his face. He went down but still didn’t look beaten. So Sania hit him again. Still, he moved and looked like he would heal. It took me building a large spicy ball again, which I pushed into his head. This time, his head disintegrated and the notifications came.

Congratulations. You were part of a team that defeated a Level 81 Nephilim. Based on your contribution, you have been awarded 700 Experience Points from the 1810 Experience Points available.

+10 Bonus Experience Points for every level your opponent was above your own. 430 Experience Points.

Hero for the ages! Epic Achievement! You struck the killing blow against a foe at least twenty-five levels above your own.

Epic Bonus 1000 Experience Points.

Total Experience points: 2030

Level up:

Congratulations. You have reached Level 39.

As I couldn’t increase Constitution or Intelligence, the only viable option in my mind was Internal Connection. I had no doubt that I’d need plenty of that in the coming days, so I dropped all ten points into it. Or at least I tried. I reached the Tier Max at 40. I put the extra point into Strength without much thought.

Level 39

Physical statistics:

Strength: 53

The capacity to exert and resist force.

Dexterity: 20

Skill and ease in hand-based activity.

Agility: 20

How effectively the body can move into a range of different positions.

Speed: 50

Rate at which the body can move.

Stamina: 50

Period at which body can effectively sustain prolonged activity.

Constitution: 100 (TIER MAX)

The ability to withstand physical punishment.

Mental Statistics:

Intelligence: 30 (-5 Racial Trait) (TIER MAX)

Knowledge and its application. Warning. You have reached the limit for Intelligence.

Charisma: 18 (-5 Racial Trait)

Charm, coerce, inspiration.

Perception: 21

Awareness of surroundings

Spiritual Statistics:

Ethereal Awareness: 0

Attunement with the Gods and spirits of Gulithea. (Necessary for Ethereally supplied magical ability.)

Internal Connection: 40 (TIER MAX)

Attunement with oneself. (Necessary for cultivation of one’s own inner power)

World sense: 4%

Knowledge of Gulithea.

Experience Points to next level 900/1950

I dismissed my stats, to check on everyone. They’d all finished allocating points, and everyone but Sania had moved up in level. With both Kuhn and Feen reaching level 47 and Grigor reclaiming Level 51.

I was surprised to see no one was too badly injured. Even Sania looked well. In fact, I was currently, in the worst shape as I struggled to make a full inhale. Checking myself over, I found a few ribs were in need of a Nuema infusion.

“Well, it looks as though first blood goes to us,” Sania said breaking the silence.

I took her in a one-armed hug. “That was intense.”

“I was,” she agreed. “I can’t believe he put everything into trying to kill us, then tried to surrender at the end. Who does that?”

“It was very cowardly,” Grigor answered. “He should have died with honor,”

“I don’t blame him for trying, but thank fuck you three came when you did, or that would have been a very different story.”

“It was that or die,” Grigor said, but he had a slight grin. “I am proud to be part of this victory. I knew you wouldn’t risk our bond by moving out of range unless it was a matter of life and death. I didn’t risk bringing others as none of our pack move as fast as the Woltar, and I didn’t want to weaken our strength at Far Reach too much, in case it was a trap.”

“Well, I can’t thank you enough, Grigor, and you guys. You saved our asses for sure. Are you good for the trip back? We probably shouldn’t hang around here for very long.”

“We will have to return more slowly, but we can make it back by nightfall,” Grigor replied.

“Uhm, we could carry you?” I offered. The look of horror on all of their faces answered my question.

“Okay. Then we will match our pace with yours.”

“No, Lord Clive. Go with all speed. Far Reach needs its leaders. We will be fine, and I can contact you should we encounter trouble.”

“They’re right Clive. Go on Grigor, we’ll see you back at home,” Sania said taking the decision out of my hands. She then moved over to inspect the body of the fallen man. His robes were ruined, but it was a safe bet to assume they were robes of holding.

“Let’s just leave them, Sania. We don’t need anything he’s got, and we’d have to put them on, to loot them. I just want to get back home now before anyone else shows up.”

She nodded mutely and we left the area much to my relief. Everything I’d said was true, but I also couldn’t bear to be around the body either. The body of another human I had killed as he begged for mercy. I did not feel good on my flight home.

“I suppose that pretty much cements our war with Devotion then,” I said to break the silence and stop my mind playing the final moment of battle on repeat.

“I think the three thousand Malatian troops heading through the mountains had already cemented the war.” Sania said. “If anything, I think we just warned them not to take us lightly.”

“How long until the other army arrives?”

“They are much further away than where we saw Elsbeth’s army come from, so I’d say perhaps five days. Maybe more.”