Ignoring Johanson's frantic questions about what happened to the weapon of mass destruction and what was going on with The Fallen Shepherd, Luke pointed to the field where sparks of light and the shimmer of barriers showed the group fighting against what looked like orcs wielding wide-bladed axes and spears.

  "Wait! Where are you going?" Luke shouted as Tor carried him almost straight down instead, heading for the bat-like monsters. "Relian and the others are that way! They need our help!"

  Tor's powerful arms wrapped tighter around Luke as they crashed through the bats without stopping, continuing down toward the ground. "You will heal my wife!"

  "Huh?"

  "Laila! You will heal Laila!"

  Having been unable to turn around to see Tor’s expressions throughout the flight meant missing what had to have been a mixture of pain and anxiety as the bearded Scotsman watched his beloved tumble out of the sky. Events so far above a single life in importance unfolded not far from where they landed, but there was no telling the man that, not in the state he was in when they discovered the crumpled figure of Laila on the ground.

  With one wing missing, she was in a heap of limbs bent the wrong way, blood, and bruises. But, as if by a miracle, Laila’s chest rose and fell, her breathing a ragged thing.

  Luke extended several threads. The woman was a wreck. Perhaps that was not the proper diagnosis, but it was difficult to tell where to start. No, on closer inspection, her heart needed to take priority one. A nick in the side of the vital organ meant she was bleeding out, and the heartbeat grew weaker and more erratic with each thud. Massaging the heart, trying to get the arrhythmia under control, Luke stitched the wall of her heart back together as well as the puncture wound in Laila’s chest that had brought it about. Even then, the heart fluttered and slowed.

  “Dammit,” he muttered, focusing on massaging it as he dealt with a myriad of other issues. Falling from that kind of height was not something you survived, so she must’ve at least partially slowed herself on the descent. Even then, things were dire. Even with most vital injuries taken care of, her heart just wasn’t doing its job. It needed a jolt to zap it back into sinus rhythm. Right now, it was destroying itself.

  Around him, bat monsters fell to the ground, one after another. Soon, Tor descended to stand next to them.

  “Help her!” he shouted.

  Luke answered without looking away from his patient. “I am! It’s her heart!”

  Massaging the heart with a thread, trying to calm it, Luke gritted his teeth.

  Martin: “Good job making sure we stay un-nuked, but we could really use your help here! There are more monsters and Relian isn’t trying to talk with that thing anymore. I think he’s getting ready to move!”

  Martin: “Oh, hell. Yep. Here he comes!”

  "I have to go," Luke said, clearing his throat.

  "What? No, no, no. You fix her. That's what you do, right? Fix people."

  "Her heart can't keep a rhythm going," Luke explained, his voice gentle. "There's nothing more that I can do for her without zapping."

  "But-"

  "Hold on," Luke said, diving into the list of available skills.

  With a thought, he threw all available attribute points from the level-ups into his mental attributes, putting Wisdom, Intelligence, Focus, and Willpower at 23, then the last point in Vitality, bringing that to 20. The coming fight would take everything he had, and more, so going into it with unallocated points made no sense. That task done, and taking less than half a second, Luke eyed the skill list. There!

  Weaver’s Rupture [Active - Mana Cost: Moderate]: Shatter a Thread of Mana into a pulse of force.

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  He'd read the description several times before, and thought it a skill meant for attack. Perhaps that was its purpose, but now he had a different idea in mind. Using one of his two available skill points gave him the skill, and the knowledge of how to use it poured into his mind, like he'd always known. This would be a gamble, but if he did nothing, Laila would not make it.

  Luke brought forth two threads and positioned one at the right atrium of the heart and the other on the apex. With everything in place, Luke activated Weaver's Rupture, focused on keeping the pulse low. The threads disintegrated, like he knew they would, and a jolt went through Laila. In that instant, she sat up with a gasp, her eyes wide, then screamed. Yeah, that would be painful, wouldn't it?

  Another quick check to make sure everything was in order showed him, through Weaver's Eye, that she'd live. Her health bar filled at a slow pace, and even her wings began regenerating. Luke ran.

  Luke: "I'm coming! What's happening?"

  Curtis: "I think Relian is angry."

  Cass: "He's closing in!"

  Luke: "Hit him from a distance!"

  Greg: "Hold on."

  Luke kept running, his speed far outpacing what he could've managed before becoming Integrated. Still, it was not enough. Leaning forward, he pushed with Threads of Mana, sending him half-flying, half-leaping forward in a quick succession of lunges.

  Greg: "No. Arrows don't reach him. "

  Rolf: "The orcs in his path are falling into pieces."

  Linda: "He brought friends. What is that thing?"

  Curtis: "It's a chimera."

  Linda: "A what?!"

  An inkling of something else approaching made Luke grin. Things were about to go from chaotic to full-blown pandemonium.

  Luke: "You need to move away from Relian, and you need to do it NOW! RETREAT!"

  Martin: "Falling back now."

  Pushing even harder, Luke moved fast enough that he almost flew across the field. A quick purchase from the Integrated shop, and he was about as ready as he was likely to get. Not slowing down at all, Luke brought out the quarterstaff he'd just bought, activated The Healer's Staff, and slammed into Relian at top speed, bracing for impact.

  Even having seen Luke coming, and with several threads of mana extended much farther than what should be possible at his level of experience, The Fallen Shepherd didn't mount a solid enough defense. Holding the now unbreakable staff out in front of him turned Luke into something not far from a solid missile, and he tore through Relian's threads, just like he'd hoped, and slammed into Tim's frail body. They went down in a heap, but the speed carried Luke past Relian and into a clump of surprised orcs.

  Before the monsters could move a muscle, Curtis and Martin were among them, severing limbs and ramming swords through muscular, dark green-tinted chests.

  "Relian!" Luke shouted, getting to his feet and stumbling toward his target.

  The Fallen Shepherd got to his feet, a look of overwhelming anger on his face as his nose righted itself and snapped back into place. "Enough of this foolishness! I have given you every opportunity to do the right thing. If I die, you are all doomed!"

  Gathering himself, Relian straightened. "A struggle between the two of us is useless, and the result is a given. Again I say, turn away from this madness."

  "You're a monster," Luke said, without inflection. Even standing in front of this bastard, he found himself unable to gather even an ounce of rage. This creature in front of him needed to not exist on Earth. That was it. That was all, and Luke would see it so. "It's time to end this."

  Relian's upper lip twitched in annoyance, and he shook his head as he got into a fighting position, more orcs rushing in from behind him. "So be it. You are not the only Lifeweaver in this system."

  Avoiding a mace blow from the towering, frothing orc at the front, Luke charged forward.

  Luke: "Greg. An arrow would be great right about now."

  Luke: "Cass. Any debuffs you have, throw them at the bastard!"

  Luke: "Rolf! I need barriers!"

  Luke: "And remember, don't move into his range!"

  Feeling himself grow stronger, faster, and more durable from buffs and barriers, Luke reached out with several threads of mana. Some were tipped with Needle of Life, some were not. This would be a battle of wills, and the battlefield would be their mana channels and meta-hearts. Alone, this fight would have been too much, he knew that, but Luke also knew he was not alone. Together, they would destroy this monster and see the world rid of a scourge that would have otherwise haunted it for what might very well have been an eternity.

  Relian stood there waiting for him, looking a little distracted for some reason. Before Luke got close enough, The Fallen Shepherd turned to look over his shoulder toward the void being. "Him? You want him? This was not what we agreed!" Turning back to face Luke, the irritation had turned to anger. "Very well. I'll just remove you as an option. I wished for a different outcome, but I have not yet grown so attached that I cannot dispatch a young novice."

  As Luke drew close, he saw several threads of mana reaching forward, grasping for him. Rather than charge headlong into close combat, Luke reached up with a single thread and latched on to one of Relian's, gaining access to his mana channels. The problem was that, at the same time, The Fallen Shepherd gained access to Luke's.