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He yanked his leg free, his fingers digging into the shifting ground beneath him in attempt to find purchase as he threw himself away from their unwanted tagalong. Alex managed to find his feet.

The warped version of Valley Ford was off in the distance, separated from them by a field of rolling black sand dunes.

Shale rose across from him, and Winky stood beside him. The latter of the two must have had time to grab onto the first one\'s leg, and they\'d both pulled themselves along on the trip to the Mirrorlands.

Their faces twisted in disbelief and horror as they realized where they had arrived. Shale spun back toward the portal, which still buzzed behind them, and threw himself at it without an instant of hesitation.

His shoulder slammed into a glossy black sheen covering its surface with a loud thud. He staggered back with a slew of curses, then spun back to Alex. The fear covering his features warped into fury.

A sheen over the portal — there\'s a Riftwarped monster coming. Where is it?

"You little shit," Shale snarled, his swords lifting into the air around him. "What have you done?"

"Whoa," Derek said, lowering Orchid and craning his neck back to stare into the sky. His mouth pulled open in unmasked awe. "This place is beautiful."

"That\'s a word for it," Claire muttered, drawing and readying her katana before her.

"When did another one of you show up?" Winky demanded. He readied his hands as if he was holding the hilt of some weapon. Even though Alex couldn\'t see it, he\'d seen the man turn a sword invisible already, so it would have been foolish to assume the man wasn\'t armed. "How many of you are there? What family are you from?"

"It doesn\'t matter what family they\'re from. Kill the others, take the boy alive. He opened a portal to the literal fucking void. We need him to get us back out, because gods know Drake won\'t come here on his own," Shale growled. He raised his hand and the swords twitched — and then he froze. His eyes went wide in realization. Amusement bloomed across his features and raucous laughter erupted from his chest. "Wait. Winky, we\'re not on 274-50 anymore."

Winky blinked. Then a cold smile pulled his lips apart. "You\'re right. The Disruptor is right over there. No barrier between planes to separate it from us anymore. Do we push the Restrictions back?"

In response, Shale clapped his hands together. He pressed his palms against each other and blew out a sharp breath — and a wave of pressure erupted around him, rolling out across the ground and blowing sand into the air in a small cloud.

The golden letters above Shale\'s head changed, and the ones above Winky shifted soon after.

Shale - Weaponmeister (Initiate 6)

Winky - Shadowblade (Initiate 5)

Despite the worsening situation, Alex couldn\'t keep himself from speaking. "Seriously? You went up one level? You were sneering about that? I can do that while I sleep. Literally."

"We\'re not that close to the Disruptor," Winky snapped, pointing at Alex with whatever invisible weapon he had in his hands. "I don\'t want to hear shit from an Initiate 1. What are you even trying to do? Play knight and save the pretty girl? Was one not enough?"

Orchid snarled something into her gag. Even though her words were completely muffled, it was somehow abundantly clear that she\'d said, "Fuck you."

"Speaking of Orchid, why is she not doing anything?" Alex hissed. "Help us bail your ass out, would you?"

Orchid glared at him.

Oh, damnit. She\'s still gagged. Can\'t respond.

"Enough of this idiocy," Shale said. The eight swords floating around him hummed, and then Shale himself lifted into the air. Power twisted around his body and flowed into the weapons, connecting them to him with tendrils of white magic. The edges of the weapons lit with molten energy, hissing and crackling.

And still, there was no sign of the Riftwarped monster that had sealed the portal. There were so many things to keep track of that Alex felt like he was going to die from the stress of trying to predict where the monster would pop out before Shale could even try to stab him.

"Kill them!" Shale roared.

He swept his hand down.

His swords flashed forward, streaks of grey and white.

The ground exploded — but not from his attack. A massive worm burst from the sand beneath Shale\'s feet and swallowed him whole. Rippling purple skin covered with segmented scales flashed through the air like a passing train as the monster, easily four times as thick as a human, rose up into the air without so much as shaking the sand around it.

Riftwarped Sandmouth (Initiate 6)

The worm arced through the air and twisted, preparing to plummet back down into the sand and vanish as gracefully as it had arrived.

It unfortunately never got the chance.

There was a flash of light from within the monsters mouth followed by a loud crack. The worm twisted and thrashed midair. It fell back to the ground, crashing to the sand with a loud thud instead of slipping back under the dunes.

The monster thrashed desperately. Scales bulged around its head, growing to the beat of loud cracks. Then they shattered and Shale stepped free of it, dripping with green ichor and covered with large scratches. Fury gripped his features — and he was so focused on his anger that he didn\'t even see the sheen covering the portal fade. A few moments later, it snapped shut.

Alex\'s heart started to beat faster, and he couldn\'t keep a thin smile from crossing his features.

He killed a Riftwarped Rank 6 that easily? I guess he was inside it, so that helps, but shit. Pretty badass way to pull that off. We might be fucked, but this is going to be fun.

Shale didn\'t waste any more words. He flicked his hand. The swords blurred forward in streaks of light, heading straight for Claire.

Sand exploded beneath the Dhampir\'s feet as she burst into motion. Wings snapped out from her back and she launched herself into the air, rearing back before whipping her katana through the air and flinging it like a spear.

The weapon flew with surprising accuracy for Shale\'s throat.

He clapped his hands together, catching the blade by its flat inches before it could connect with him. His lips pulled back in a smile and he ran a hand along its surface. White magic twisted along the weapon and it lifted into the air, joining the others floating around him.

"Oh, that\'s just unfair," Alex muttered as Claire landed on the sand.

"Life isn\'t fair," Shale replied through a sneer. "That phrase is from 274-50. Heard a native say it when he was robbing a child, and I have to say, I quite liked it."

"Excuse me?" Derek asked.

Everyone ignored him.

"I\'ll deal with the boy," Winky said. "You can kill the other two. Shouldn\'t we keep the prisoner alive?"

"At this point, I don\'t care," Shale replied. Then he swept his hand forward and the swords flashed toward Claire again.

Alex didn\'t have any more time to watch the fight. Winky charged toward him with a roar, rearing back in a two-handed swing with his invisible weapon.

Extending a hand, Alex cast Funhouse in the air between them.

Winky let out a slew of garbled curses as he passed through its zone. His body twisted and elongated before snapping back to its normal proportions before Funhouse spat him out straight into the air.

His momentum carried him about an inch straight into the sky before he plummeted back down, falling right back into Funhouse\'s domain before being spit out — unfortunately — right on the other side of it and right in front of Alex.

Winky staggered as a wave of disorientation passed over him.

"What the f—"

Alex used Spark\'s power to bind a shadow where he stood and then lunged forward. He thrust his hand into Winky\'s chest, right above where the man\'s heart was, a blade of mirrored glass jutting out from his palm.

But his hand didn\'t even get close to the armor. About a foot away from Winky, the glass shattered against something invisible. Alex\'s palm met it a moment later, and an invisible spike drove straight through the center of his palm.

Black goop splattered across Alex\'s arm and chest. Energy drained from him as Princess\' power activated and he snarled in anger.

Winky swept his hands through the air and Alex ducked. Wind howled over his head as the invisible weapon passed over him. He dodged back, putting distance between himself and the Outworlder.

"You like that?" Winky asked through a cold grin. "Lots you can do when people don\'t realize what\'s around them. It\'s easy to get their focus on one invisible threat and get them with another one entirely."

"You shouldn\'t go around telling people your strategy," Alex said. "It ruins the thrill of figuring it out yourself."

"Save that for Drake. He\'s going to want to have a long talk with you after you take us out of here," Winky replied, lurching forward.

Alex swapped spots with his shadow. Winky\'s hands passed through nothing but darkness.

"Excuse me," Derek called again, but everyone was still a little too preoccupied to answer him. Alex heard the sounds of battle rising up from Claire and Derek behind him, but even with Princess\' magic shielding him, he had to focus the entirety of himself on the Outworlder before him.

Winky reached to his side and pulled several things from his waist — all of them invisible. Then, grinning, he started to throw them.

Alex tried to dodge, but there was only so much one could dodge when they couldn\'t tell what it was that they were dodging.

A sharp point slammed into his shoulder, ripping through it and sending a spray of black sludge across the ground. Another one caught him in the leg.

He managed to close the distance between himself and Winky again, but his glass shards shattered against whatever it was the man was using as an invisible shield around himself. This wasn\'t just a fight against an Initiate 5. They had all the experience — and just as importantly, equipment — of an Outworlder family.

"Would you just stop already?" Winky snarled as Alex ducked away from him once more, the wounds that Winky had left already largely sealed at the cost of a large chunk of his magic. "What kind of class do you even have? Take your cloak off."

Alex didn\'t get a chance to reply. Claire slammed down beside him and black sand pelted his legs.

"Disorient him for me. I need him weakened," Claire hissed. Her body was covered with long, painful looking cuts and she favored one leg heavily, but she was still alive. Despite the deep wounds, almost no blood had left her body. She was keeping it inside herself with her blood control ability — but that wouldn\'t be able to last forever.

Then she was off again, bounding away as a sword slammed into the ground where she\'d been a moment before.

Winky flung something at Alex again, forcing him to dive to the side.

Get some of his blood, huh? I need to find a way through the invisible spikey armor around him. Looks like it\'s just about time to call the gang back for a few seconds.

"Give up," Winky said, pulling several more invisible throwing weapons from his seemingly endless supply. "You\'re just wasting time."

"Actually, I\'m just getting started."

Alex drew on every scrap of Riftwarped Qi he had churning within himself.

Then he activated Encore.