I couldn’t distinguish them properly from here, but it was clear as day that a horde of creatures was coming out of one of the Metal Trenches and heading to the Outer Ring.

“Rey… get us to the Outer Ring, now.”

“Oh, hey! Authoritarian, damn. I’ll comply for now, but why?”

“My sister is coming here, and there are going to be way too many creatures heading toward them; they are not strong enough to face all those monsters.”

“Didn’t anybody teach you that you shouldn’t underestimate people?”

“Yeah, whatever you want, but not right now. Besides, I know my allies; there are no tanks with them; it’s going to be a bloodbath.”

“Aaaalright,” he answered, peeking me up and speeding away.

By the time he arrived at the Median Ring’s winding-down platform, the two conjoined parties had taken care of all of the enemies, and I was welcomed with Loki’s whispers.

 

You've earned 25,870 + 65,412 + 32,111 (x2) + 16,588 (x5) + 12547 + 26,899 Soul fractions. Soul fractions for next Red Tamer level: 400,000/400,000

 

Sub-Class Red Tamer has leveled up to 41.

Focus + 1

 

You've earned 52,415 Soul fractions. Soul fractions for next Red Tamer level: 52,415/410,000

 

Loki has earned 25,870 + 65,412 + 32,111 (x2) + 16,588 (x5) + 12,547 + 26,899 Soul fractions. Soul fractions for next level: 380,119/400,000

 

Those were a crazy amount of points...

Loki had also gone into Frenzy, and I was noticing only now.

 

Skill points for Frenzy Promotion:

-  Frenzy Major Perk: 127/2000

-  Frenzy Minor Perk: 251/1000

-  Frenzy Passive Perk: 23/500

His minor Perk had shot up. It was likely that somebody had helped him heal back up to full.

However, his Stamina wasn’t faring just as good as his Health.

 

Loki (Adult Golden Netherlion), (Titan), Level 40 (380,119/400,000)

Health: 97%

Stamina: 35%

 

I needed to evolve one of those Perks to make him recover Stamina as well as Health after Frenzy triggered. It would even help him get even wilder during Frenzy.

But I had no idea how to push him into that train of thought. Where would I even have to begin? I couldn't say.

Still, it was not something I could think about at this very moment.

"Harlow!" I shouted. She was checking the state of her armor. Seeing how her face glowed, it was clear that she had leveled up, "Nova and the others are coming this way!"

It took her a second to understand, but from as she turned to look at the Outer ring and then back at me, it was clear that she had arrived at my same conclusion.

 

"They are coming without a Tank, Loke!"

 

"That's why we have to hurry!" I shouted back.

 

"Kids, kids! What's going on?" Said Noland coming back from having dealt with the last monster, as he saw us turn to head back. "First you come, then you go back; what's your deal? Weren't you looking for your friend?"

I tightened my jaw. The man was right.

Alistar was still down there, hiding who knew where and waiting for us.

"I'll go," Harlow said, "they need a tank; I'm going to be the one they need. You take Alistar back alive. We will be joining you."

"That's the spirit!" Noland said, pumping his clock-arm in the air, "I'm going to get you there."

"You what!?" Giada shouted, "You can't leave now!"

"Relax! I'll be coming back; Rey will be your Speedster. Jamie," Noland added, pointing at him with his Greatsword. "You take charge, don't fail me, Jamie."

Jamie nodded, "It never happened."

"Well…" Noland said, shrugging, "That's up to different interpretations."

"Son of a Moon walker…" Jamie answered before turning toward me, "Well, are you coming, little Hunter, or not? Don't you trust your girlfriend?"

Did I? Could I trust Harlow with Nova's safety?

I looked at her, spontaneously Tracing her.

 

Harlow Raive, Armorer Level 40 (121,558/400,000), Clock-technician Level 43 (7,620/430,000)

Health: 100%

Stamina: 89%

 

Agility: 10

Constitution: 30

Strength: 30

Focus: 24

Perception: 7

Willpower: 20

 

Strengths: Armored, Armor, Constitution, Strength

Weaknesses: Perception, Loke Nightfold

 

Class Skills: Forged Body (Constitution), Overload (Strength), Deep Knowledge II (Focus), True Resolve (Willpower)

Sub-Class Skills: Armored (Constitution), Heavy Metal (Strength), Mind for Metal II (Focus), Tech Manipulation (Willpower)

 

Race: Human

Sex: Female

Height: 178 cm

Weight: 63 kg

Age: 21

Origins: Unknown

Family: Logan Raive

 

She had leveled up quite a lot. These creatures gave an enormous bounty of Soul fractions. However, something else attracted my attention.

I smiled. She had put a point into Perception. I always told her she would need at least ten. And every time I kissed her, I removed her glasses, for she indeed was even more beautiful without them.

She had done it for me.

 

"Of course I trust her."

Harlow smiled. She simply smiled, but behind that smile was pride—pride for what we were becoming.

"Take this," I said, giving her my last Dark Crystal.

"Loke?" It was an answer more than it was a question.

"I bet you can finally upgrade your Forged Body Skill, right?"

She nodded, "Do it. I don't want any scratch on your perfect legs," I said, smiling at her and making her blush just this much.

"You… you are going to receive an amazing price for this. Be sure of that."

"I can't wait," I answered, grinning.

"Wow," Giada said, "I could say get yourself a room, but even if you found it, you would likely get killed mauled by creatures even before you started with the action, but that was really good," then she turned toward Jamie, "See how it's done? And he's like a decade younger than you."

Jamis shook his head; he didn't answer as he turned the other way around.

"Come on, Jamie," said Drick, "You'll find the perfect mate for you, might take it a while, but you know. You are not exactly gorgeous…"

"Why don't you all go fuck yourself!" Jamie shouted, livid, drawing waves of laughter,

"Haven't we got, like, a party to save!? So come one, what are you waiting for!"

I drew Harlow into a kiss, then Noland swiped her up, turned toward me, "Don't worry, kid. If I got her killed, there would be no place in which I could hide, so I'm going to bring them all back. See yaaaa!"

They disappeared at the speed of his amazing Dash.

Instead, I took a big breath and turned the other way.

A Kobold needed to be saved.

"My brother's tough," Rey said. Then he winked at me, "They will all be fine. Come on, let's go."

 

***

 

We ran over the minefield, which Rey had freed of its dangers.

I was still worried about the others, but there was a question I had to ask, well, two. One was for Rey to answer, the other for Jamie. Although I had a few more than one questions for Jamie, those can wait.

"Rey," I called.

"Mmh?" He answered.

"What is this?" I beat myself three times on my chest with my right hand, "What does it mean?"

His face sporting an everlasting grin turned serious, "If you don't know, then you are not supposed to know."

"That's not really helpful."

"I wasn't planning to," he answered.

Rey had slowed down to keep his pace with ours.

"I've seen my old master do it once. A long time ago, Faruq showed it to me once. But then I forgot to ask him what it was."

Rey snorted, saying, "I knew it," maybe he thought he had said it softly enough for me not to hear it, but I had heard.

"So? Why does it seem so secret? I saw you doing it openly. If you can do it like that, in the open, then it is an open secret more than something hidden."

"You are not from the City; you wouldn't understand."

"Well, nor was my master or Faruq."

"I don't know about you, master, but I wouldn't be so sure about Faruq."

I almost stumbled as I heard that.

What was this bastard trying to infer?

"Can you repeat, please? I think I might have heard you wrong."

Rey shrugged, "I said that I would not be so sure if I were you."

"Then tell me what it is because if you are suggesting Faruq is a spy, I'm going to punch you right here, right now."

Rey abruptly stopped, drawing a few curses from the others.

"Alright, let's put it this way. If you, with your meager Skills get out of this place alive, I'm going to tell you what this," he repeated the gesture, "means. Until then, shut the fuck up about it."

His eyes were full of pride as he said that. But I held up my own.

"Then prepare to spill the beans, and I want no bullshit."

"Deal," he said, offering me his hand; his shit-eating grin was back on.

As smug as he acted, I couldn't deny that he had not only Skills but experience and character under his belt. I kind of liked him. So, shaking his hand, I couldn't help but be drawn in by his smile.

We reached the others then.

My other question was for Jamie, "Hey, Jamie. I need to know how you understood that the Melting Breath wasn't dangerous anymore."

He tsked but didn't answer.

"You know we might encounter the Dragon again, right? It's very likely that I'll need to know since I'm the only other Tracer here. What if you fall?"

Jamie's brows shot up; he scratched his balls, "For the love of the Sun, don't say those things!"

Giada laughed, "Teach the kid, Jamie, come on! It's not his fault if you were a dumbass to Harlow and she dumped you."

Still, we were about to reach the gates of the Citadel. And with the tail of my eyes, I could see the immense Colossus shift his attention toward us.

I was still scared of Tracing it for some reason. It didn't feel like something we could take on, if at all. Maybe it wasn't even an enemy that was meant to be fought.

Its size was such that it would be able to literally take hold of the flying Dragon and tear it apart easily with its bare hands. Or at least, that was what seeing it communicated to me.

"Anyway, it's not something I can teach you. For it's an expansion of my Area of Control Skill. Like your Trace certainly ties with Hunting Tactics too, so does mine with my other Skills."

Area of Control… I had never heard of the Skill, but I could guess it gave certain advantages or knowledge about the area immediately around the user.

It was a nice Skill to have.

"So, try not to get me killed, and I'll solve the dragon problem. Anyway…" he then whispered something I could barely hear, "I'm happy that Harlow found someone who cares so much about her."

I was almost certainly positive he said that. It put a smile on my face.

But we had to put that aside, for danger was abound the moment we saw the gates open.

The aimlessly wandering tech-creatures near the gates turned their attention toward us immediately, then, some slowly, some with ardor, started coming at us.

It was clear we were about to take on a lot of them.

Still, I traced them, and many of them were likely droids whose level was around sixty. There were many others much more powerful. We didn't have to go all the way inside of the Citadel. As long as we managed to drive Alistar's party's attention and get the attention of the monsters long enough for them to make a run for it, we would have done our mission.

Alas, when my body started feeling the buzzing again, I knew it would not be that easy. It never was.

The horde of droids and other creatures stomped the ground like a herd of furious Rhinodusters, looking for water in the middle of the driest month of the Flow season.

I could hear Drick's laughter as the horde literally launched at us.

Loki by my side roared, but even though his roar was the mightiest he had ever produced, the sound of my own heart furiously beating in my chest was the loudest of them all.

Seeing all those creatures launch themselves at us, running at us in the hundreds, stomping the ground with mighty steps, moving at us like shadows of death… I had never been more scared and more excited in my life.

Delvers was a crazy, crazy son of a dirty Moon walker’s bunch, and as I saw their grins wicked grins widen, their eyes open wide, their pupils dilate, and their nostrils enlarge, I knew that I was born for their world. It belonged to me just as much as I was born for it.

With a frozen ardor in my chest, my hand automatically drew the bowstring as much as it could, a Shadow Blow arrow manifested, ready to be shot.

The air filling my lungs exited from my mouth in hazy puffs of hot air, my blood pumped faster and faster through my body, my temperature rose, my transformed eyes radiated cold energy; then it was chaos.

There was no aim, no need for it, just releasing my arrows reaped Soul fractions, a pitiful amount of them, but it was still a beautiful feeling.

Then it repeated, faster and even faster.

Then I became the reaper. I became the Ghost of the night summoned during the Eclipse with the only purpose of destroying machines. I was the Night Hunter, the Eclipse Hunter today.

My hands were an instrument of death; my body heat was the fuel for Shade to act through me, manifesting itself in all its glory, showing to both the just and the wicked what its chosen was capable of, what its envoy could unleash upon this world.

I was the one who administered death; I was revenge incarnate, I was the fury of the Abyss, I was the storm, the coming of the ice-age, I was the incarnation of the end, the ravager of time, the—

When Rey pushed me, and I fell ass to the ground, I returned to my senses.

Rey was saying something, looking at me and shaking me from the shoulders, but my ears were deaf to his words; they whistled with a continuous atonal sound typical of high-pressure.

My eyes saw snow around us, on the ground, layers of frosty all around us.

My right hand, no, my arm and my legs, I couldn't feel them, and as I raised my head, I noticed that everyone was looking at me, some pleasantly surprised, some almost worried.

There were no more creatures around us, and in front of us, the horde had been entirely annihilated.

If I looked at the gates, I could see nothing, or at least, nothing close by.

The creatures that had remained were much farther into the city, the big ones. But the ones that had launched at us had practically disappeared, and so was the vast majority of those that, in my memory, had yet to reach us.

 

My eyes wandered back to my vicinity.

The field was littered with scraps of destroyed, blown-out tech-creatures.

A couple of Kobolds sat on the ground, trying to catch their breath as they looked at me, critically, judgmentally.

Then my teeth started chattering, the cold seeping in, no; it was there already; I hadn't noticed, but I finally did.

In my mind was a tempest of whispers waiting only to be heard, seen, defined.

Then I took a look at my body, my neck cracking as I shifted my position.

A layer of frost had surrounded every inch of my clothes, clock-arm and leg, weapons and likey quiver. Traces of intense white had appeared on my uncovered hand; it almost looked like the Shade-plague.

It might as well have been that, given how much Shade I had drawn to myself with the devastation I had been capable of.

But it did not end there.

As a hand placed itself on my shoulders, and I started feeling warmth seeping slowly into me, a couple of arms helped raise me up, and I managed to really witness what I had taken part in, or most probably what I had mainly been able to accomplish.

I had no idea how many monsters or the tech parts in front of us could have been, but those were not the remains of only one horde attack.

There had likely been others, and I had no idea, not the slightest, minuscule, knowledge or memory of what had interposed between the start of the fight and the current moment.

Then a faint sound, a voice. A voice I could recognize, a voice I cared deeply about, a voice of somebody I cared about more than I cared about of myself was calling for me.

Where did it come from?

Oh, right, behind me.

Still mostly unable to move, I turned behind, finding Nova shining her Flow on me, likely absorbing my coldness, just as she had done for years to the villagers.

She was freaked out, but she was fine.

I tried to smile, but I could hear the corners of my mouth cracking, breaking the ice that had formed around them.

Her expression changed to one of stupor as my skin probably cracked with the ice.

She placed her hands on my face then, shining Flow on me just as I noticed Giada had been doing for a while.

I didn't know exactly what happened then, but everybody started looking up.

Yeah, I could figure out what had happened.

The Dragon, it had likely been attracted by my spectacle.

Somebody pointed to the Citadel then.

We had killed enough creatures to free the road to one of the buildings nearby.

Noland turned me around; he had been the one that had got me up from the ground.

So he had come back, just as he had promised.

How much time had gone by?

But as he placed me on his shoulder, still stiff like a statue, I could see my companions, all of them were perfectly fine, thankfully.

Roana and Faruq looked at me with worry; Aisha was… perplexed. Harlow didn't know if she wanted to take my hand or not, but her face spelled concern for my safety.

I knew we were moving then; a few more battles put themselves between us and the two parties' objective.

Yet, finally, a shadow drew over us; it was the building they had decided to hide into.

I could still hear nothing. But the faint buzzing of my clock-tech told me that the Dragon was almost above us.

It was just as we entered the building that his Melting Breath reached us.

I didn't know why, but shields were not raised in time, and exactly for that, a Kobold, the last of the line, was reached by the breath and started melting in front of my eyes.

Then a pair of metal doors shut themselves close behind us, and the Melting Breath remained behind with them.

If the metal of which the building was made was as tough as that of the Metal Trenches, then we would be fine as long as the Dragons didn't heat up the whole building from another access.

Then Noland placed me on the ground, and I could see the party of Kobolds shedding tears for their fallen, while Nova immediately sat by my side, shining her Flow on me.

It was thanks to her almost forced smiling face and thanks to Loki's body heat, who had sat near me.

I fell asleep soon after.