"I agree with Curtis," Hannah said, her voice low and monotone. "They need to pay."

  Hiroki cleared his throat. "The revelation that there are other integrated systems on a similar course as ours leaves many questions to be answered," he said, weighing his words.

  "Like?" Luke prompted, glancing at the approaching army moving at a worrying speed.

  "Will it create some kind of incident if we kill them? Will our systems meet in the future? Will it set a bad precedent if we kill the first non-Earth Integrated we find?" Hiroki asked.

  "All good points," Luke said, frowning. "But they killed one of ours, so morally speaking, I think we’re in the clear. Still… there are four of them and four of us, but Hiroki, your level isn’t very high. Also, I have no idea what their classes mean."

  "Level isn't everything," Hiroki said without looking like he'd taken offense.

  "They’re a party," Curtis grunted, squinting at the approaching Integrated. "And you can tell just from looking, the one who threw the corpse at us is a fighter, and the other male is a fighter too, but not strength-based. The rest are spellcasters or support."

  "It’s dangerous to assume," Luke said. "We need more information."

  "Time is up," Curtis said, raising his sword as the goblins roared across the grass. He turned and pointed at the Integrated on the wall, summoning his blade into his hand.

  The Integrated up there mirrored him, raising his own sword in challenge.

  At least the blue-banded goblins didn’t attack Luke and the others. That was something.

  Curtis surged forward, forcing Hannah, Hiroki, and Luke to follow or risk their friend being massacred by the enemy Integrated on the wall. Even with Curtis’s strength, Luke thought, he wouldn’t stand a chance against four Integrated of similar levels by himself.

  Luke expected Curtis to strike at the wooden wall. Instead, the Reaver leapt, darkness streaming from his blade, propelling him upward with enough force for him to clear the wall and end up on the rampart.

  The enemy Integrated’s eyes widened in shock, and the sneers on their faces dropped when Curtis landed right among them, a whirlwind of metal and darkness.

  Darkness expanded from Curtis’s whole body, reaching for all four of the enemy Integrated and taking them by surprise as he swung for the lowest level of the bunch, Zimeio. The blade made contact just as Luke lost sight of them while sprinting toward the wall.

  It was tall, far too tall for him to perform the sort of leap Curtis had just managed. To his right, Hiroki sprang upward, fist slamming into the wood to kick off again and vault over the top. Hannah vanished, sinking into her own shadow.

  Luke didn’t stop running. He leapt with everything his legs could muster. It wouldn’t be enough, not even close, but he’d learned a trick while fighting the dragon, or rather while surviving the dragon’s corpse crashing down on top of him. He used Threads of Mana, extending them from his feet as he jumped, pushing, propelling himself higher.

  With a shriek of exhilaration and fear, Luke hurtled upward, reaching almost to the top of the log-crafted wall. Almost, but not over. Eyes wide, he stretched out a hand, fingers scraping the rough surface as his momentum died. He started to fall, then thrust another thread of mana outward, pushing it just enough for the thread to grab the top. With a groan of effort, he hauled himself up into utter chaos.

  One enemy Integrated already lay on the parapet, bleeding out, a pool of blood spreading beneath her. Curtis still stood, darkness whirling around his limbs, his summoned dark cloak extending farther than Luke had ever seen, reaching the top of his boots. Blood streaked his face, but he was otherwise steady. Hiroki fought farther down the parapet, dead goblins scattered around him as he clashed with the Starlinker, Zeluym. Hannah was nowhere to be seen.

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  Curtis blocked a blow from the Level 15 Integrated, Zaoyu, and the strike rang out across the wall. Goblins below slammed into the base of the fortifications, roaring and hacking. Luke was about to heal a cut he spotted on Curtis’s leg with Weaver’s Eye when a blur of motion crashed into him.

  The final enemy Integrated appeared, heel slamming into his chest, hurling him onto his back. Before he could breathe, she was on him, pounding his face like a frenzied martial artist. The Healer's Moment saved him, but instead of patching himself up, Luke used the brief window of respite to strike back. He reached with Threads of Mana, found the meta-heart in her chest, and sliced, only to be rebuffed despite time being frozen. Shifting his strikes, Luke instead drove Needle of Life into her brainstem and another into her heart. Just like with their appearance, their inner physiology resembled a human’s. Her heart was a little larger, shaped like an elongated oval.

  When time resumed, she collapsed on top of him, gurgling. Luke shoved her corpse aside, healed himself, and staggered to his feet. Hiroki was still fighting, but struggling. At level 8, Hiroki was at a disadvantage, but for the moment, he was holding his own. Curtis was pressed hard by the tall warrior, who fought with frightening ferocity, shrugging off darkness with bursts of light coalescing on his body. He shouted words Curtis couldn’t hope to understand.

  Then the warrior, Zaoyu, turned and saw his companion dead on the parapet. Rage transformed him. Light flared, blinding, then vanished, leaving him clad in thick plate armor gleaming in the sun. A helmet hid his face, but the muffled screams made his fury plain.

  Zaoyu raised his arms over his head, light streaming from the palms of his hands. Curtis slammed his sword into the breastplate. Another eruption of light blasted Curtis backward over the parapet and into the encampment, where red-banded goblins swarmed.

  Horror struck Luke as the downed Integrated both stirred. Whatever spell Zaoyu cast, the effect was clear. His friends revived, wounds gone, restored as if nothing had happened.

  “That’s not good,” Luke muttered.

  Zaoyu, the now plate-clad warrior, turned to face Luke. Then the wooden gate below cracked and splintered, flung wide, allowing the blue-banded goblins to surge in. Shadows spilled up from the floor, and Hannah rose, her tendrils lashing, striking at the warrior through the gaps in his armor.

  Luke had no time to help. Another kick blurred for his throat. The same female he’d thought dead, now revived, had gone on the attack without missing a beat. He twisted aside, and her heel smashed into his shoulder, flinging him straight into the armored juggernaut’s grasp. Light poured from the man’s body, forcing Hannah’s shadows back. He restrained Luke’s arms while the woman’s next kick came for Luke's head.

  Luke flung a thread of mana out his back, through Zaoyu, and out on the other side of him. Weavestep saved him, and the two enemies, Zaoyu and Zelaui, collided, and he slashed with Needle of Life, severing the tendons in the juggernaut’s legs, driving him to his knees and down onto his belly.

  He pressed the assault, reaching to cut through the plate and into Zaoyu's mana channels, when a blast of force smashed into his chest, hurling him toward the wall with enough force that he fell over. Luke hit the ground hard, groaning. His boosted physique saved him from death, but agony burned through his body. Worse, he was in the middle of a stampede of goblins pouring through the gate. At least he was alive. Anything other than death, he could heal.

  Somewhat restored but still hurt, climbing was his only option. No time to circle around when his friends were stuck above. Luke used Threads of Mana, forcing them into the wall itself, finding small gaps and indentations to use for holds.

  He rolled over the top, finding Hiroki and Hannah battling the martial artist, Zelaui, who'd kicked him before. The plate-armored giant was gone, and the one Hiroki fought, Zeluym, lay unconscious in the distance. These people's names were difficult to separate. Stupid aliens. Shadows writhed around Hannah’s shoulder as if staunching a wound. She was hurt. Hiroki bled from countless wounds, his chest a punctured mess, shirt gone.

  Luke didn’t hesitate. He reached out with a thread, not into Zelaui's mana channels, but to shove her. Eyes wide, she stumbled to the side, unable to react as she was in the middle of attacking Hiroki. Arms flailing, she fell into the encampment below. Luke spotted Curtis down there, battling against the warrior, Zaoyu. Bursts of blinding light from Zaoyu's weapon met with darkness from Curtis's. From the look of things, it was an even struggle, with no one coming out on top.

  That left three against one. The mage, Zimeio, stood alone, but she didn’t look worried. Not even a little.

  Hannah went on the offensive, reaching with spikes of shadow that slammed into an invisible barrier surrounding the mage. Luke turned away from them, pouring his mana into Hiroki instead. He closed the deep wounds in his chest, restored the torn lung, and even invoked Weaver’s Renewal to restore a mangled liver. How Hiroki had managed to stand through that mess of injuries was beyond reason, but he still found the strength to give Luke a nod of gratitude before again throwing himself against the mage’s barrier.