With the cloying stench of the Abhorrent surrounding him, and the creature seemingly trying to snatch him off the rooftop, Xerxes scrambled backward. By chance, his hand brushed the hilt of his sword.

Grabbing it, he got to one knee and jerked it away. He expected it to stick stubbornly in Ninsunu’s bones, but it didn’t. Blood gurgled as it dislodged from High Seer’s body, which came as such a surprise that he nearly fell. However, his feet somehow stayed under him, and he scrambled away, holding the sword out in the Longfacing position in front of him.

But what could his tiny sword do against this gigantic monster? As the cyclopean hands neared, he saw that the skin of the Abhorrent was leathery and gnarled, like an old tree. Would his sword even pierce it?

He backed up two more steps.

Oh. The Abhorrent wasn’t reaching toward him.

The hand slammed onto Nina’s corpse, and a moment later, the High Seer was gone.

Xerxes watched with wide eyes as the creature brought both mages, one dead, one unconscious, closer to its face. Deep in the back of his mind, Xerxes knew that Aban Saddi was alive. And even further in the depths of his psyche, he felt an urge to jump forward and try to save the man. But that tiny, prickling sensation died before it could truly come to life.

The monster’s serpentine trunks writhed forward like wrinkled leeches and latched onto the mages, before beginning to pulsate slowly.

“What the hell?” Xerxes muttered.

He heard something to his side, and looked over to see his father land on the rooftop a few cubits away.

“By the Monad,” Ataneedusu said. “Is it… taking their melam?”

His father was right. How had he not realized it the moment he saw the trunks latch onto them? The trunks seemed to be pulsing from the mages and to the creature itself. After all, when a mage died, their melam would disperse, but not immediately.

“Dad, I think we need to get out of here.”

“But then what?” his father asked. “Think of how many people are in the city. Is it going to just… kill them all?”

“I think it wants mages specifically,” Xerxes said. “Plus—”

Suddenly, from a rooftop some two or three hundred cubits away, a pair of spheres covered in black slime whipped through the air and smacked into the gigantic Abhorrent’s shoulder. Another pair of spheres followed shortly after it.

Hissing sounds could be heard, and bits of steam began to seep out from the Abhorrent as corrosive mucus from the sphere-like creatures melted bits of its fur.

Looking over, Xerxes just barely made out a figure on the distant rooftop. “Gandy,” he said. “Where’d he come from?”

Trunks still sucking at Ninsunu and Aban Saddi, the massive Abhorrent turned in Gandash’s direction.

“Is he out there alone?” Ataneedusu said.

“He was supposed to be overseeing the ballistae on the keep,” Xerxes said. “I don’t see anyone around him.”

“Dammit, if he’s got no backup, he’s a sitting duck.”

The massive Abhorrent’s trunk detached from Ninsunu, and he threw her body to the side, causing it to smack into the wall of a nearby building. It left a smear of blood as it subsequently dropped to the ground. Then the Abhorrent took a step in Gandash’s direction, trailing a thin cloud of flying creatures.

“Dad…” Xerxes said.

“I know. We’ve got to help him. Let’s go.”

His father started running, and he followed. Together they leaped from rooftop to rooftop, using their enhanced physical prowess as Seers to maintain as much speed as possible. However, they weren’t able to move very much faster than the Abhorrent.

Meanwhile, Gandash was backing away, but at the same time holding position, as the smaller Abhorrent spawn he’d summoned continued to eat away at the gigantic Abhorrent.

There was no way Xerxes and his father would reach Gandash before the Abhorrent did.

“Gandy, get out of there!” Xerxes screamed, making a wild waving gesture.

Gandash looked in his direction then shouted, “Go back to the keep!”

The massive Abhorrent stopped walking, tossed Aban Saddi’s desiccated corpse aside, and turned yet again toward Xerxes and his father. They kept running, but that didn’t stop the Abhorrent from shoving its clawed hand in their direction.

“Watch out, Xerk!” Ataneedusu barked.

The hand smashed into the building they were running across, sending gravel spraying everywhere. Ataneedusu leaped into a forward roll, scraping through the gravel, while Xerxes skidded to a stop and simultaneously slashed downward with his sword.

His blade chopped through some of the beast’s fur, but failed to pierce its tough skin.

The creature spoke, the words dripping with loathsome clicks and thrums, but Xerxes had no idea what it was saying. Then its hand was gone. As he ran forward and put his hand under his father’s arm to help him up, he looked over his shoulder and saw that the Abhorrent was still looking at them, and its hand was in motion.

“Jump!” he said, and half-dragged his father into a scramble toward the parapet. They barely reached it, jumping wildly into the air as the clawed hand destroyed the building behind them. They landed hard on the opposite rooftop, which had no gravel, but instead, simple wooden planks.

Xerxes tossed his sword aside, grabbed a handful of crabnickel powder, and started casting Singular Lethality.

“What are you planning, Xerk?” his father asked.

“I’m going to jump on its arm,” he said. “Then run up toward its head. Maybe I can punch directly into its brain.”

“That’s insane,” his father said.

“I don’t see any other option. We have to kill it. Fast.”

Melam swirled through him as he finished tracing the Asgagu Isten rune, and then his hand turned into pure power.

The Abhorrent let loose something like a combination of a roar and a laugh, then shoved its hand in his direction.

“Son, you—”

“Dad, there’s no choice. You get Gandash out of here, I’ll catch up.”

The Abhorrent’s hand accelerated, and Xerxes crouched slightly, then broke into a run.

Gotta time this right, he thought. But I can do it.