"Get him to the medics! He’s losing blood!"
The third suppression team stumbled out of the Razorhound Gate with their healer between them. Blood ran down his leg, and the woman supporting him had half a sword left in her hand.
Captain Rourke hurried over. "What happened?"
"The tunnels changed again. We found a chamber that wasn’t there yesterday, and the Alphas just kept coming." She swallowed.
"There was something else deeper inside. We heard it roaring, but we couldn’t get close."
Rourke looked back at the Gate. Five days ago, it had been an ordinary F-rank hunting ground.
Then E-rank Alphas appeared, and the Association suspended entry while they investigated.
Since then, the mana pressure had risen every day, and every team sent inside to suppress the monsters had come back worse off than the last.
"Captain!" Nadia called from the monitoring station. "It’s crossed the E-rank limit. Containment’s at seventy-three percent!"
"And our reinforcements?"
"The D-rank unit is still forty minutes away."
Rourke swore. They’d already gathered more than thirty Players at the reserve, everyone the Association could pull from nearby assignments.
Nearly a dozen were injured. If the Gate broke now, there was nobody else to hold the line.
"Call the Academy reserves. Tell them to send whoever they can."
***
Instructor Hale was putting away the training gloves when the call came.
"Razorhound Gate?" he repeated. "I thought it was closed."
"It is. We’re expecting a breach."
Hale grabbed his sword. "I’m coming."
Anton caught him at the door, with two other students close behind.
"Sir, can we come too?"
"No. This isn’t a field exercise."
"We can help the medics," Anton insisted. "Carry supplies, move the wounded. You taught us how."
Hale considered him. The Association had asked for medical support as well as fighters, and all three students had field clearance.
"Alright. But if you’re told to leave, you leave. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Then move."
They reached the eastern reserve to find the inner barricade crowded with armed Players.
Medics were carrying the wounded between two tents, and behind the defenders the Razorhound Gate pulsed inside its containment field, red cracks spreading across its blue surface.
Hale sent the students to the medical station and joined Rourke at the western opening.
"How long do we need to hold?"
"Forty minutes, if we’re lucky."
The warning lights turned red.
[WARNING: CONTAINMENT PRESSURE EXCEEDS SAFE LIMIT]
CRAAACK!
A pylon burst. The Gate stretched outward, and a Razorhound tumbled through the opening. Before the guards could kill it, another emerged. Then five more.
"Shields up!" Rourke shouted. "Don’t let them through!"
The first charge broke against the spears. Hale cut down an ordinary Razorhound that leaped the barricade, then stepped aside as an Alpha lunged for his throat. His sword went beneath its jaw.
SHNK!
The beast dropped, but he barely had time to free his blade before the next pack came through.
They were killing the monsters. That wasn’t the problem. For every one that fell, another appeared, and the injured were being dragged away faster than the medics could treat them.
A Razorhound slipped between two shield-bearers and raced after a guard with a torn shoulder. Hale turned, too far away to intercept it.
A flaming spear flew over the second barricade and struck the creature in the ribs. Rourke finished it while Anton hurried out with a medic to help the guard.
"Take him back!" Hale shouted. "And stay there!"
Anton nodded and hauled the man toward the tents.
Then the creatures coming through the Gate began to thin out.
Hale almost felt relieved, until he noticed the surviving Razorhounds backing away from the entrance.
***
Talia had fallen asleep in the transport after their sixth Blackthorn clear. Max was looking out the window when they slowed near the eastern reserve.
Emergency vehicles crowded the entrance. Smoke rose beyond the fence, and a familiar howl carried over the road.
’Razorhounds?’
"What is it?" Talia mumbled.
"Something’s happening at that Gate I told you about."
She saw him reaching for his bag and groaned. "Max. We’ve been hunting all afternoon."
"I know."
"Then don’t tell me you’re going in there."
Another crash came from the reserve. Max was already on his feet.
"I’ll have a look. You go get some rest."
"You’re impossible," she muttered, sinking against the window again. "Be careful."
Max got out near the entrance, left his bag of cores with the supply staff, and followed the shouting toward the inner line.
Medics hurried past with stretchers, and a section of the western barricade had collapsed.
An Alpha sprang through the gap, forcing a swordsman backward.
Max recognized the man.
’Instructor Hale?’
He ran in and struck the monster before it could attack again.
BAM!
The Alpha flew into a steel support and dropped.
Ding!
[E-rank Razorhound Alpha slain.]
[EXP +150]
Hale turned. "Max? What are you doing here?"
"Passing by." Max pointed behind him. "Watch out!"
A Razorhound leaped over the barricade. Max caught it by the neck and drove it into the ground.
CRACK!
Ding!
[F-rank Razorhound slain.]
[EXP +10]
Hale stared at the body. Only a few days earlier, he’d beaten Max easily. Back then, the boy had needed Burst Step just to threaten his guard. Now he’d sent an E-rank Alpha flying with one punch.
"I’ve got this gap," Max said. "Go help them."
Hale looked toward the wounded Players struggling behind the second line. Another Alpha was already climbing over the wreckage.
"Don’t let anything through!"
"Got it."
The Alpha lunged. Max slipped past its jaws, caught its foreleg and punched it beneath the neck as it landed.
THUD!
Ding!
[E-rank Razorhound Alpha slain.]
[EXP +150]
An ordinary Razorhound tried darting past him. He turned and kicked it into the broken barricade.
Ding!
[F-rank Razorhound slain.]
[EXP +10]
’And I nearly died fighting these things before.’
He glanced at the bodies. So much meat, and no chance to use Devour with everyone watching. He’d have to come back to that.
Hale returned just as Max finished the last creature at the gap. He looked from the corpses to Max’s gauntlet, but before he could speak, a horrible tearing sound came from the Gate.
The remaining Razorhounds fled from the platform as something enormous forced its way through.
It stood nearly twice as tall as an Alpha, with thick bone plates over its shoulders and skull and jagged crimson ridges along its spine. The creature planted its massive paws on the concrete and opened its jaws.
[D-rank Elite Signature Detected]
[Threat: Razorhound Tyrant]
"Fall back!" Rourke shouted.
BOOOOM!
The roar struck like a physical blow. Shields split, Players went flying, and another pylon snapped. The western barricade crumpled under the shockwave.
Rourke got up first. Two medics were trying to lift a wounded man when the Tyrant charged toward them. He met it with his shield, but the beast tore through the metal and knocked him aside.
Hale rushed in and drove his sword beneath the monster’s shoulder, drawing it away from the medics. The Tyrant spun toward him and lashed its tail into a damaged pylon.
CRASH!
The steel frame fell across Hale’s leg.
"Argh!"
He tried pulling himself free, but the frame wouldn’t budge. The Tyrant turned, its crimson ridges glowing as it drew in another breath.
"Instructor!" Anton shouted from the second line.
"Stay back!"
Hale raised his sword, though he knew it couldn’t stop the next roar.
Max had been holding the western gap. When he turned, Hale was pinned beneath the wreckage, with the Tyrant preparing to attack again.
’Damn it!’
Max had been about to go after the Tyrant when its first roar tore through the platform.
He’d seen stronger monsters than the ordinary Razorhounds now, but a D-rank Elite was another matter.
The way it tore apart Rourke’s shield and chased the wounded was enough to tell him it wasn’t merely a larger Alpha.
He ran toward it as Hale drew its attention away from the medics. Then the pylon came down, trapping the instructor’s leg.
’Oh, shit.’
Max accelerated, slipping through a gap beside the collapsed fence. From there he had a clear view of the Tyrant’s side, but Hale was still too far away. The monster’s next roar was almost ready.
Even with his Agility, Max couldn’t reach him before it fired.
He glanced at his left hand.
Stormbolt.
He’d wanted to test it ever since Blackthorn, but he hadn’t imagined doing it with his instructor about to be blasted apart. There wasn’t time to look for a safer option.
’Come on. Just hit it!’
He raised his left palm. Mana rushed into it, blue sparks leaping between his fingers before compressing into a bright, crackling point.
[Stormbolt Activated]
[MP -25]
KRRRAAACK!
Lightning shot across the platform.
He’d aimed for the Tyrant’s head, but the bolt struck the exposed shoulder instead. Electricity raced through its body, its muscles seized, and the roar broke apart in a violent cough.
The blast that escaped its jaws went harmlessly upward, tearing a strip from the roof of the empty observation stand.
Hale flinched beneath the falling dust.
’Lightning?’
Before he could search for its source, someone landed beside him.
Max.
"Don’t move," he said, grabbing the fallen steel frame.
He lifted it clear of Hale’s leg and kicked it aside.
Hale stared at him. The frame had taken three men and a winch to position earlier that morning.
"Can you crawl?" Max asked.
"Yes, but my leg..."
"Then get behind me."
The Tyrant shook itself, recovered from the electric shock, and fixed its eyes on Max.
Max moved in front of Hale, keeping himself between the injured instructor and those enormous jaws.
’You’re not touching him again.’
It charged.
WHOOSH!
Max slipped past its first swipe, planted a foot beside its foreleg and drove his gauntlet into the joint behind the bone armor.
BAM!
The limb buckled. The Tyrant stumbled but recovered almost immediately, swinging its tail across the ground to catch Max as he moved behind it.
He jumped over the tail. It smashed through the fallen pylon instead, sending metal fragments across the concrete.
’Fast, too!’
Max landed near its hindquarters and struck again, this time driving his claws into the softer flesh behind its rear leg.
SHNK!
The Tyrant twisted to bite. Max pulled free before its teeth reached him, retreated two steps and watched it turn.
The beast wasn’t stupid. After two failed swipes, it began keeping its armored head between them, moving sideways to prevent Max from reaching the wounded leg.
He could feel the electrical mana settling again inside his left arm. The cooldown wasn’t long anymore. At thirty-six percent mastery, it had fallen from eight seconds to four.
[Stormbolt Ready]
’Already? Nice.’
He raised his hand.
The Tyrant recognized the sparks. It sprang sideways, trying to close the distance before he could release the bolt.
Max adjusted his aim and fired.
KRAACK!
The second Stormbolt struck the bone plates along its neck. Blue light raced between the gaps, and the beast staggered as its front legs briefly lost their strength.
[Stormbolt Activated]
[MP -25]
Max was already moving.
’Burst Step!’
WHOOSH!
He appeared beneath its head and drove an uppercut into the cracked plate at the base of its jaw.
CRACK!
The bone split. The Tyrant’s head snapped upward, and it stumbled backward across the platform.
Hale, now being helped toward the second line, looked back at the sound.
He knew that movement. Max had used it in their sparring match. Back then, he’d managed to block the boy’s follow-up and throw him to the mat.
Now the same movement had sent a D-rank Elite reeling.
’How much stronger did he get?’
The Tyrant’s paws scraped across the concrete. It lowered its head and charged at Max again, ignoring its injured leg. The broken bone around its jaw hung loose, but the muscle beneath it was still strong enough to crush a man.
Max didn’t meet it head-on. He sprinted to the side, drawing the beast away from the medics, then cut sharply behind it. The Tyrant followed him with another swipe, destroying an empty supply rack where he’d been standing.
Four seconds.
The cooldown ended just as Max reached the open stretch beside the command station.
He turned.
[Stormbolt Ready]
The Tyrant lunged, trying to trap him against the wall.
Max planted his feet and fired a third bolt straight into the exposed flesh below its shattered jaw.
KRRRAACK!
[Stormbolt Activated]
[MP -25]
Its charge broke. The electricity forced its jaws apart and left its front legs trembling beneath it. For a brief moment, the beast couldn’t move.
Max rushed in.
He caught the lower jaw with his left hand, dragged the creature’s head upward and drove the claws of his gauntlet deep into its throat.
SHNK!
The Tyrant thrashed, but Max held on. Blood splashed over his arm as he pulled the claws across the exposed flesh and tore through the thick muscle beneath.
The creature tried one final time to wrench free, but Max pulled it closer instead. He released the jaw and drove one final punch into the ruined throat.
BAM!
The beast staggered backward. It tried to stand, failed, and dropped onto its side with a crash that shook the platform.
THUUUD!
For a moment, Max kept his gauntlet raised.
Then the Tyrant stopped moving.
DING!
[D-rank Elite Razorhound Tyrant slain.]
[EXP +600]