Grand Game 302: Success and Failure (Patreon)

You have entered sector 18,240 of the Forever Kingdom. Reminder: This region is under assault by a young void tree that has taken root in the heart of the sector. Remaining time until the sector is pulled into the Nethersphere: unknown.

Warning: You have entered the nether! The nether toxicity at your current location is at tier 2. The dark miasma infecting the region is unconducive to life and will cause your health, psi, stamina, and mana to degenerate by 15% per minute. Current status: Protected. Remaining duration: 45 minutes.

Your farspeaker bracelet has been deactivated. The matching device(s) are not present in this sector.

I reappeared in the same position—crouched, hidden, and with my mindsight unfurled.

Heavy banks of smog that I’d known to expect roiled all around me, transforming everything beyond a few yards into a wall of gray. I wasn’t about to complain, though. While the free-floating nether reduced visibility, it concealed me, too.

Multiple hostile entities have failed to detect you! You are hidden.

The Game message came as no surprise.

Mindsight reported the area to be thick with hostiles. Dozens upon dozens of them, closely packed atop one another. I glanced upward. Even though I could not see them, I knew most of the stygians had to be flying above me. Were they like the ones that had come through the portal—rank fifteen creatures?

I suspected so but didn’t dare attempt an analyze to confirm. The last time I’d done that in this sector, my target had detected me, and this time around, retreating into the tundra was not an option.

I lowered my head, aware of the ticking clock but knowing I couldn’t act hastily. There were perhaps two dozen ground-bound stygians around me, but I couldn’t see them. Now and again, one would come close enough to penetrate the wall of gray, and I would get a glimpse of a body part—a scaled tail, a glistening tusk, or an armored torso.

But again, despite temptation, I didn’t try analyzing the beasts.

Unbending slowly and readying myself to flee if it became necessary, I called out softly with my mind, “Ghost?”

There was no response, neither from the spirit wolf nor the milling stygians. Emboldened, I projected my mindvoice further. “Ghost, where are you?”

Still no response.

I tried again, broadcasting my mindvoice as far as it would go. “GHOST! ANSWER ME!”

“Prime?” came a faint response. “Is that you?”

Sharp relief sang through me. “Yes! Come to me.”

“Where are you?”

“The same spot where the portal opened.”

“I don’t know where that is,” Ghost replied, her voice small. “I got turned around following a slug-thing, and now, I don’t know where I am. I’m sorry. I should have listened to—”

“Shh, none of that now,” I ordered. “Follow the sound of my voice.” Raising my head, I howled. Not in the real, but with my mindvoice.

AhhhooOOOOOoowhoooo…AhhhooOOOOOoowhoooo...

I howled over and over, one long, undulating cry that never let up. Ghost didn’t reply again, but I knew that wherever she was, she couldn’t fail to hear me.

A minute went by, and I began to get edgy, but I kept going. Another passed, and I knew I was nearly out of time. I didn’t let up, though.

Seconds later, a blinding star appeared at the edges of my mindsight. Ghost. I broke off my howl, chest heaving from the mental exertion.

“Prime! I found you!” the spirit wolf cried, dancing around me in delight.

I smiled and, unshuttering my mind, let her see my joy that she was safe.

“What’s going on?” Ghost asked, suddenly anxious.

She’d sensed more than my surface thoughts, I realized. She had felt the mix of emotions beneath too.

“The others are coming through soon,” I said, not attempting to disguise the truth—or my own worry—from her. “I have to draw the stygians away before that happens.” I fixed my gaze on the spirit wolf’s mindglow. “Ghost, this is serious. Can I trust you? To follow my lead and all my instructions—to the letter?”

“I’m sorry,” she said contritely. “I should not have disobeyed you before. I will do as you ask. Promise.”

“Good. Then stick close to me and don’t wander off. Things are about to get complicated.”

Lifting my head, I howled again. This time in the real.

✵ ✵ ✵

The response was instantaneous.

Multiple hostile entities have detected you! You are no longer hidden.

I didn’t hesitate. Cutting left, I raced into the nearly impenetrable cloud of gray, adjusting my stride as the terrain revealed itself. The stygians gave chase.

My legs pumped, and my feet pounded, both threatening to give way with each step as the ground rose or fell in unexpected ways. But my agility proved equal to the challenge, and I caught myself every time, averting disaster.

A shape burst through the mist.

I threw myself out of the way, weaving psi.

You have evaded an unknown hostile’s attack.

I bounced across the hard ground, my tumble nowhere near as controlled as I liked, and scraped hands and knees in the process. Two dark minds rushed up from my rear.

But my spell was complete, and I was ready for them.

You have cast windborne.

Spell-manifested wind formed at my back, and in the next instant, I flew up a ramp of air and out of the reach of my pursuers’ snapping jaws.

You have evaded the attacks of 2 unknown hostiles.

I rocketed off the windslide and went into freefall. Mid-air and without clear sight of the ground, I did the only thing I could. I shadow blinked behind a lone stygian twenty yards ahead.

You have teleported into the shadow of an unknown hostile.

I lurched, finding uneven ground underfoot, but once more, I managed to retain my balance and evade my foe’s lashing tail. Putting my head down, I resumed my flight and howled again.

My deft maneuvers had caught my landbound enemies flatfooted, and the distance between me and the nearest one was opening fast. Sadly, the same did not hold for my airborne foes, and a few seconds later, the sky turned black with dark minds.

The flying horde from the nether portal had caught up.

My jaws tightened. Escaping so many was not going to be easy. I drew psi in anticipation.

“Turn left, turn left,” Ghost sang.

I stumbled and almost lost the threads of my spell at her unexpected cry. “Ghost,” I rasped in reproach. “You told me you were going to—”

“There’s a river ahead. Can’t you see it? You’ll run straight into it if you don’t change direction.” She giggled. “Or do you want to get wet?”

I blinked. Was she right? But it didn’t matter, one direction was as good as another. Swerving left, I kept running.

Five shapes hurtled down from the sky, but before they could strike at me, I flung the spell I held ready.

You have cast mass charm. You have charmed 5 of 5 targets for 20 seconds.

“Oww, I like that spell,” Ghost said.

A grin slipped on my face. The spirit wolf sounded like her old self again, and even amidst the deadly chase, I found her mood infectious. My thoughts circled back to her earlier warning. Ghost might appear a naïve child at times, but she was not stupid. Was there a river?

Deciding to put her words to the test, I sent one of my new minions diving into the ground to the right; the other four I ordered to attack their former fellows.

Continuing my flight, I listened for the moment of impact.

The splash was audible even over the sound of my feet slapping against the ground, and my mouth dropped open. The spirit wolf had been right. “Ghost, can you see through the nether?”

“Nether?” she asked. “What nether?”

I smiled, her surprise was answer enough. “Listen closely. I want you to describe the surrounding terrain in as much detail as possible. Leave nothing out.”

“The ground, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“Alright… but can’t you see it yourself?”

I shook my head. “My vision is obscured by a gray mist—we call it nether.”

“Oh. Is that why you nearly ran off that cliff?”

My grin turned sickly. “Probably. Now go on. Tell me what you see.”

I listened intently as the spirit wolf relayed what she saw. Her detailed description confirmed my suspicion: Ghost had no notion of the nether at all. It was completely invisible to her spirit sight.

Which raised an interesting question: if Ghost could not see the free-floating nether, did it mean it was not of the physical world? Not real? Is it purely magical?

A thought worth pondering—but later.

Maintaining my steady jog, I kept my senses trained for danger while I led the stygians on a merry chase.

✵ ✵ ✵

Five minutes later, and only a few minutes late by my reckoning, a Game message flashed for attention.

Your farspeaker bracelet has been activated. The matching devices have entered the sector.

A heartbeat later, Safyre’s voice rang sharp and clear in my mind. “Michael, the portal is open.”

“Any stygians about?” I asked, dreading her response.

“A handful still lingered,” she replied crisply, “but they’ve been put down already.”

“That’s the best news I’ve heard all day,” I panted, ducking low to avoid a diving stygian. “And the pack?”

“Passing through as we speak. A dozen adults have already entered the dungeon portal and are in the tundra. Two—the big black one and the old white one—are sticking by my side.”

“That’s Duggar and Sulan,” I huffed. “So everything is going smoothly?”

“It is.” A pause. “What about you?”

“All good. I found Ghost. We have our hands full with the stygians, but we’re managing,” I replied.

The spirit wolf’s sight was proving to be an unlooked-for boon. Her guidance had sped my flight and, just as importantly, ensured I hugged the river, which in turn, kept my right flank protected from the land-bound stygians. And so far, I was managing to outrun those on my left.

The flying beasts, though, were an ongoing problem. I’d avoided being tagged, but it was only a matter of time.

“Let me know if anything changes on your end,” I said to Safyre.

“I will,” she replied and fell silent.

“Nine beasts—the flying kind—approaching from over the water,” Ghost sang out.

The spirit wolf was enjoying this, I realized. “How much time do I have?” Ghost was also acting as my spotter, warning me of incoming danger before it entered the range of my mindsight. Sometimes, though, I still had to remind her what information was necessary to relay.

“Fifteen seconds,” she said cheerfully.

I grunted in acknowledgment and held back the charm spell I’d been readying for use against the two stygians swooping from above. Screeching to a sudden halt, I let them overfly me.

You have evaded the attacks of 2 flying serpents.

My maneuver slowed me down, but that couldn’t be helped. Keeping a wary eye on the stygians behind me that were drawing closer, I resumed running.

A few seconds later, just as Ghost had predicted, nine fast-moving shapes zipped into my mindsight, and I wasted no time releasing my prepared casting against them.

You have cast mass charm. You have charmed 9 of 9 targets for 20 seconds.

To my immense relief, my charm spell had yet to fail me since entering the sector. After the horde was alerted to my presence, I’d not been afraid to inspect my foes and had analyzed more than a few of them.

I had learned that the majority of the stygians in the region were serpents like those I’d run across in the rift with Simone’s party and, like them, were usually below rank fifteen. As a result, I’d come to depend heavily on my charm spell. Focusing on my new minions, I ordered them to attack the stygians at my rear.

“Uh-oh.”

“What’s wrong?” I wheezed.

“The big one is back,” Ghost replied.

‘Big ones’ was the term Ghost applied to the more powerful stygians. Unfortunately, despite repeated attempts, I’d failed to analyze any of those so-labeled. None had entered my sight range yet—the spirit wolf had successfully steered me clear of every ‘big one’—but I suspected I would not relish encountering one.

“Which one is it?”

Ghost didn’t reply immediately, and when she did, her voice was unusually subdued. “This one hasn’t chased you yet.”

I frowned. “But you said it’s ‘back.’ When did you see it before?”

“Near the portal, before it closed.”

“And where is it now?”

“Flying above you.”

My gaze jerked up involuntarily, but of course, I saw nothing. My trepidation grew. None of the other big ones had been flying creatures. “Am I able to outrun it?”

“I don’t think so,” Ghost whispered.

That did not bode well. More than Ghost’s words themselves, her muted responses worried me. She was scared. And that was unusual. But it was more than the spirit wolf’s fear that I found disconcerting.

The skies above me were clearer than they had been since the first flying serpent had caught up to me. “Where are the rest of the stygians? Has the big one chased them away?”

“No. I think…” A long pause. “I think he is gathering them.”

“Gathering them?” I asked, trying not to let my alarm show. “Where?”

“Above you. The smaller beasts are circling the big one.”

That was definitely not good news. “How many do you see?”

“Fifty that I can make out. More are arriving every second.”

What Ghost described was not typical stygian behavior, not as I understood it. So far, the beasts had attacked in fits and starts as soon as they entered striking range. There had been no attempts at coordination.

Until now.

Was the big one controlling the others? It sure sounded like it. Damnation! I cursed, my pulse quickening. Things looked like they were about to go from mildly bad to impossibly bad.

“Is something wrong?” Duggar asked suddenly, his mental voice made faint by distance. “I can sense your unease.”

I hesitated, then spoke truthfully. “I’m not sure. The stygians look like they are gathering for a concentrated assault. I may not be able to—”

“They’re diving,” Ghost broke in tersely. “All of them.” She paused. “You have twenty seconds.”

My heart lurched. All of them?

“Scion?” Duggar called.

“No time to talk,” I wheezed, my thoughts preoccupied with the incoming assault. There would be no dodging a wave that big.

Do I fight? I wondered. My steps faltered, and I drew psi. If I could get amongst the flying serpents before they finished their dive, then perhaps I could…

Could what?

There was no fighting fifty stygians. The very idea was ludicrous. Beads of sweat broke out across my brow. I was staring final death in the face, I realized. And the best plan I’d come up with was… one last stand? Damnit, Michael, think! There must be a—

Duggar’s presence grew in my mind until he was like a rock for me to lean against. I calmed immediately. “Thank you,” I panted, not knowing what the alpha had done but grateful, nonetheless.

For one fatal second, fear had nearly overtaken me, but now I saw more clearly. Fighting was not the answer, I realized. More running was.

My steps firming, I altered my course and made a beeline for the river. According to Ghost, its waters were deep and the current swift, but right now, the river offered the only hope of escape.

It was a slim hope, but I clung to it.

I couldn’t die here—in a blaze of glory or otherwise—too many depended on me. Reminded of my responsibilities, I reached out to the dire wolf alpha again. “Don’t wait for me, Duggar. I don’t know how long it will take me to get back to the portal. And one more thing—”

I broke off to swerve around a large ditch.

“Yes?”

“The werewolf, Anriq, the one I told you about, do you remember him?”

“I do.”

“He is on his way to the tundra. Tell Snow to find him. He, too, is pack now.”

Before Duggar could respond, a hundred mindglows crossed the border of my mindsight—the flying serpents diving in attack. Ghost’s estimate had been on the low side.

I was out of time, but the river was finally in sight.

“I will see it done,” Duggar promised. “Stay safe, scion.”

“I’ll do my best,” I replied. Leaping forward, I dived into the water.