The Kitespines dropped from the ceiling.
Cass launched herself upward, white wind whirling around her boots. Ilan fired before the first creature reached the ground, and his arrow split into three thin streams of light that curved toward different targets.
One Kitespine screamed and fell. Another caught the arrow in its wing and spun away. The third came straight at Max.
He stepped aside and raked his gauntlet along its exposed belly. The claws opened a deep red line, but instead of pulling away, the beast folded its wings around his arm and dragged him toward the edge.
"Hey!" Max shouted, digging his boots into the stone. "You’re not taking me down there!"
He hauled backward, dragging the creature off balance, and slammed his elbow into the glowing sac beneath its throat.
POP!
The sac burst. The Kitespine lost its lift and hit the ground hard, and Max finished it with a downward strike.
**Ding!**
[D-rank Kitespine slain]
[EXP +200]
Another two wheeled above him. Before he could turn, one raked his shoulder. The cut burned, and his arm went numb for an instant.
Max ducked beneath the next dive. He could have used Stormbolt, but Ilan was still trying to shoot through the tangled bodies, and Cass had disappeared above the overhang.
’Let’s try something else.’
Max waited until the two creatures came down together, their wings spread so wide that they nearly touched. Then he drew a breath and released the power gathering deep in his chest.
"GRAAAAAH!"
The sound that came out of him was far rougher than his ordinary voice. A blunt wave of mana burst from his mouth, scattering gravel across the stone. The nearest Kitespine seized in midair. Its wings locked open, and its eyes went wide as it dropped onto the path.
The second beast staggered sideways but recovered almost immediately. It had resisted the worst of the Fear effect.
Max didn’t give the fallen creature a chance to move. He caught its head with both hands and drove his gauntlet beneath its jaw.
SHNK!
**Ding!**
[D-rank Kitespine slain]
[EXP +200]
He turned toward the survivor, only to find Cass already falling toward it feet-first.
BAM!
Her boots struck its spine. A compressed gust slammed the creature into the wall, and Ilan’s next arrow finished it before it could fall.
Cass landed, looking at Max with an expression halfway between admiration and disbelief.
"Did you just roar at them?"
Max coughed. His throat felt scraped raw, and the vibration still lingered in his ribs.
"Apparently."
"Like an actual monster?"
"I thought it sounded pretty good."
"It sounded terrifying," Ilan said. "Do that before I shoot next time, please."
Darius approached, eyes on the dead Kitespines. "It frightened the first one badly enough to interrupt its flight. Useful. But you caught the others in the edge of it. Don’t assume the effect will work on everything."
"I noticed."
Max looked toward the surviving stains of mana beneath the overhang. At two percent mastery, his roar had nothing like the Tyrant’s range or power. But one creature had frozen completely. Against enemies that relied on flight, even a second of paralysis could be fatal.
’No wonder that Tyrant was such a nightmare.’
He helped harvest the cores while the others checked their equipment. When Ilan carried the last of them toward the collection pouch, Max slipped behind a broken stone spur and took a bite from one of his kills.
[Devour Activated]
[Parameter Selected: Stats]
[CON +1]
The warmth settling into his body made his shoulder feel sturdier, although it didn’t close the cut. Max retrieved a basic healing potion from Stomach, drank it and sent the empty vial away again before anyone returned.
The next hour took them across three islands. Their movements gradually settled into a rhythm. Cass flew ahead to check the paths, Ilan covered the open approaches, and Darius kept small fragments of rock circling near him as a warning of changing gravity.
Max handled anything that reached them on foot. A pair of ground-dwelling stone crawlers tried attacking from a crack beneath the third bridge, but he caught the first and broke it against the wall before it could spit its sharp gravel. The second backed away only to meet the claws of his gauntlet.
**Ding!**
[Two D-rank Stonecrawlers slain]
[EXP +400]
The last creature managed to tear a line across Max’s forearm before he killed it. As he pulled his claws free, the crimson seams of the gauntlet flashed.
[Sanguine Claim Activated]
The cut on his arm closed. The ache in his shoulder eased slightly, although the bruising beneath it remained.
’There you are.’
He’d been wondering when the ability would trigger again. It wasn’t reliable enough to replace potions, but in the middle of a fight, even a little healing could keep him moving.
"That’s a strange glove," Cass said from behind him.
Max turned. She was looking at his forearm, where the blood had already stopped running.
"It’s a gauntlet."
"I can see that."
"Then we’re making progress."
She rolled her eyes, but didn’t press him. Darius was already calling them toward the next crossing.
A ruined bridge connected their island to a huge slab of rock hanging farther out over the ravine. Half its supports were missing, and the remaining planks sagged between rusted chains.
"One at a time," Darius ordered. "I’ll steady it. Cass, stay underneath in case someone slips."
Ilan crossed first. He made it without trouble, then turned to cover the far side. Max followed, testing each plank before putting his weight on it.
Halfway across, the island ahead shifted.
The bridge jerked sideways. One chain snapped with a sound like a gunshot, and the planks beneath Max’s boots folded away.
"Max!" Cass shouted.
He sprang toward the remaining chain, caught it with his left hand and swung beneath the broken bridge. Cass dove to reach him, but a violent current struck her wings and flung her sideways.
Darius threw out both arms. The falling planks stopped for a heartbeat, trembling in his field.
"Move!" he shouted. "I can’t hold all of it!"
Max saw Ilan stranded on the far island, Cass fighting to regain control, and the huge section of bridge twisting toward Darius. If it struck him, the captain would lose his hold on everything.
Max caught the edge of a loose iron support with his gauntlet.
’Store.’
The support vanished.
Without its weight, the wreckage lurched upward in Darius’s field. The captain blinked, but he didn’t waste the opportunity. He shoved the remaining planks toward the far side, forming a rough path through the air.
Max climbed onto it, ran three steps and jumped.
WHOOSH!
Burst Step launched him across the gap. He landed beside Ilan and rolled to keep from sliding over the far edge.
Behind him, Darius released the wreckage. The remains of the bridge disappeared into the clouds.
Cass managed to reach the island a moment later, landing hard enough to drop to one knee.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Ilan looked at Max. "Where did that beam go?"
Max glanced at his gauntlet. "Somewhere safe."
"That’s not an answer."
"I’ve been told that before."
Darius crossed last, stepping through the air with short, costly adjustments of gravity. He landed breathing harder than before.
"Whatever did that," he said, looking back toward the broken bridge, "didn’t just change the wind. It moved an entire island."
Max followed his gaze. The stone they’d left behind was drifting slowly away, as though something enormous were tugging it from somewhere beyond the clouds.
A long shadow passed over them.
Max looked up, but the sky above was empty.
Then a cry rolled through the ravine, deep enough to make the stone beneath their feet tremble.
Darius’s expression changed.
"We need to find out what’s doing that before it finds us."