I could hear Shawn muttering to himself even over the Phantom’s roar as we rode away. I caught words like “stupid” and “irresponsible” through the wind, and I pinged him in chat to see what had him boiling.

  Chris: You ok there buddy?

  Shawn: It’s Shah. I was asking her why she and that group were there. She was being stupid and overconfident.

  Chris: What do you mean?

  Shawn: She brought a team of mostly healers only out to grind and she refused Rebel guards. What the fuck was she thinking? It’s no wonder they got pinned down. They were fucking lucky we arrived on time.

  I didn’t reply. He kept arguing with her anyway, judging by the occasional curse that slipped out of him. I let him have it. That was his problem, and I’d told him that right from the start.

  We were riding back to New Jurong. I was out front on the Phantom with Shawn on my back. Siva was slightly behind us on his medic’s bike, and Shah and her team were in a minibus bringing up the rear. My mind drifted to the Temple idiots who had attacked us in the Science Centre while we were fighting dinosaurs. The same idiots I’d probably killed when I set the building on fire and… I didn’t feel anything about it.

  I didn’t feel guilt nor relief. Not even satisfaction. I just felt… nothing.

  I didn’t like that. It had to matter. All of this had to matter, or the world changing didn’t mean anything anymore. I was still digging through that thought when a warning flashed across my HUD.

  I didn’t even get time to process it.

  A sharp explosion kicked up under the Phantom and the bike lurched violently. The next second I was airborne, thrown off and sailing backwards. I hit hard and skidded, sparks and gravel tearing at me. My HUD flooded with alerts and my health bar plunged deep into the red.

  Pain hit a heartbeat later, hot and immediate. Shrapnel had punched through my arms, chest, and face, shredding everything that wasn’t armored. I slammed a health potion from my hotlist before I even finished rolling, then another as I forced myself up to a knee. Healing warmth spread through me, but it didn’t erase the pain. It only stopped me from dying in the middle of the road like an idiot.

  Behind me, Shawn was already on his feet. His cloak snapped into place, and he rose off the ground, hovering, purple light crawling over him as his scythe materialized in his hand.

  I saw Siva sprinting toward me, his bike toppled behind him on the road. Further back, the minibus had stopped, and Shah had stepped out.

  I raised a hand at Siva to stop, and that was when the second hit came.

  An arrow punched clean through the front of my thigh.

  It dragged pain with it, and blood, and something that felt a lot like bone. My vision flashed white. I bit down on a shout and almost dropped to the floor again.

  “There!” Shawn shouted.

  Figures burst from the tree line, moving fast, and then they jerked mid-stride as Shawn grabbed hold of them, liked he'd done countless times before. Their bodies lurched forward unnaturally, yanked by their own skeletons, and they hit the open road like they’d been thrown.

  Siva was on them before they even fully landed. I watched him cut through two attackers in a blur. The third managed to trigger a shield just in time, Siva’s blades screeching against it as sparks snapped off the barrier.

  I activated another health potion and grimaced as the healing forced the arrow back out of my thigh. It did not slide out nicely. The magic pushed it out like my body was spitting it back at the world. I sucked in a breath through clenched teeth, and my composite bow appeared in my hands.

  I started to line up a shot on the shielded one, but more shapes were pouring out of the tree line.

  Temple adherents. I could tell from the metallic augmentations catching the light on exposed limbs. One of them had a spinning buzzsaw where his forearm should have ended.

  Two can play that game.

  I stowed the regular arrow and pulled a [Buzzsaw Arrow] instead. As I drew, I triggered [Haze] and fog rolled out across the road, swallowing the headlights and turning everyone into half-seen silhouettes.

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  Through the haze, I loosed the arrow.

  It punched into buzzsaw-arm guy’s chest and kept going, tearing straight through him and exiting out his back. The [Blowback] effect from the composite bow hit a second later and it flung him backward into the Temple fighter behind him, knocking them both flat in the fog with a wet, ugly thud.

  And the sounds in the haze told me that was only the beginning.

  Unlike the last time I cast [Haze] in West Gate, this time the attackers entered the fog cautiously. I could feel the tension in the air as they tested their surroundings. I limped away from my position just as a flaming sword slashed down, barely missing where I had been standing seconds earlier. I quickly assessed the attacker, a man dual-wielding flaming swords, tubes running from the hilts and disappearing into a square pack strapped to his back.

  I retrieved my dagger from my inventory, and for the first time since I got this way back during that first night, it was going to use it. I crept up behind him, my inbuilt stealth abilities masking my every movement. I placed my hand over his mouth before slitting his throat in one smooth motion. The hot blood sprayed, and I felt his life drain away in my grip. I lowered his body to the ground, his death quick and quiet.

  For a split second, I paused, my conscience weighing heavy. But I pushed it aside. This was survival. I could deal with the bigger picture later. For now, we had to make it out alive.

  I turned to see Shawn, lowering himself into the fog to avoid the projectiles coming at him, and we quickly regrouped with Siva. Shah joined us soon after, her warhammer already dripping blood.

  The fog was our advantage. We could see through it, but they couldn’t. I signaled the group with a quick tap on my wrist, telling them we had some time. But then my Eva chat lit up.

  Eva: You don’t have much time. Someone’s coming. He can see you.

  Fuck.

  I updated the party chat, warning them to hurry, but before I could move, Siva tackled me to the ground. A boulder the size of a chair sailed over my head, crashing into the earth behind us with a deafening thud.

  Shawn immediately raised his hand, but he quickly updated the chat.

  Shawn: Too many of them. I can’t pull them all. If I start pulling people toward us, they’ll know exactly where we are.

  Chris: They already know where we are. Someone can see us. That rock didn’t just fly at me for no reason.

  Siva: Then we strike now, while the fog’s still up. Most of them are still blind to us.

  I gave a quick nod, and with Shah’s signal, we broke. We pushed through the attackers, our weapons flashing in the mist. Shawn and Siva cut through the enemy lines while Shah alternated between casting [Magic Missile] and smashing heads with her warhammer.

  I took every shot I could, moving and shooting as I weaved through the chaos. The fog was starting to thin, and it didn’t stop the occasional rock from slamming into the ground beside me. These attackers were more coordinated now, working in tandem, as if someone was directing them from the shadows.

  Someone had to be giving orders.

  I equipped my trenchcoat and activated [Invisibility], stepping silently out of the fog, making my way to a natural hill along the roadside. There, standing alone, I saw him.

  The man wasn’t tall. In fact, he looked completely ordinary if it weren’t for the two gems set into his eye sockets, glowing ruby red. He stood there, eyes flashing as he issued orders, his gaze constantly shifting to the massive man beside him. The giant was throwing boulders from a mechanized cart hovering behind him. He was almost as big as Bane, the rebel Jess had fought, but unlike the small guy beside him, this one lacked any visible augmentations.

  I nocked two arrows, my fingers steady as I lined up the shot. Time seemed to stretch as I aimed. Then, with a breath, I released both arrows in quick succession. They cut through the air like whispers. The first arrow pierced the gem in the man’s left eye, and the second found its mark in the right. He collapsed without a sound, and his body crumpled into the dust.

  The giant didn’t notice. He was too consumed by the chaos unfolding around him. But he would, soon enough.

  I fired two more arrows, one after the other. The first sank into his throat, the second following just a split second behind. He collapsed, the force of the blows sending him sprawling to the ground at the same time the [Haze] spell began to fade.

  Silence settled over the battlefield. We were the only ones left standing. The road was littered with bodies; I counted at least thirty dead.

  We moved toward the center of the road, each of us taking in the aftermath. The others looked like they had just emerged from a slaughterhouse, covered in blood from head to toe. I was only wiping the blood off my hands.

  “That was an ambush,” Siva muttered, scrubbing his face with the back of his hand.

  I pulled up my HUD, reviewing the notifications. I cursed under my breath when I saw the trap notification from my [Trap Finder] skill. I had missed it earlier. It had activated too near to what I assumed was a landmine that blew me up. I needed to focus on training that skill up.

  “Yeah. We need to move,” Shah added. “I’m calling the bus back. It’s not far off.”

  “Okay. But first, Shah, [Purify] us please.” Shawn spread his arms out, looking like he was ready for a shower.

  Shah sighed. “Uh… I’m out of Mana.”

  Siva groaned and sank to the floor. I left them to bicker, my attention turning to the Phantom. The bike lay on its side, front wheel blown off, and the engine parts shredded beyond recognition.

  I ran a hand over it, feeling a twinge of affection. It had carried me through danger more times than I could count. I was about to turn away when a notification flashed across my HUD: my gold had dropped by a few hundred, and a scroll appeared in my hand.

  “What the hell…?”

  Chris: Eva?

  Eva: That will help, Chris. You're welcomed.

  I frowned and studied the scroll in my hand. It was a scroll of [Make Whole], designed to restore non-biological objects to their original state. It was exactly what the Phantom needed, but the fact that Eva just acted for me without asking… that was disconcerting.

  I cast the scroll, and a silver glow enveloped the motorbike. The magic swirled around it, dissipating to reveal a perfectly restored Honda Phantom 200, as if it had just come off the assembly line. Even the previously battered seats and handlebars looked fresh.

  I straddled the bike, kicked it to life, and the engine purred like a content kitten. Shawn made his way over, ready to hop on the back.

  I held up a hand. “Not on my brand-new bike, buddy. You ride with Siva.”

  I laughed, feeling a sense of absurd satisfaction in the chaos around us.