With every moment, the mana grew thicker, with every moment, the orbit from his mana stone drew in more, and Declan wasn’t just worried, he was outright sick. “This will do. Do you have any more weapons?”

  Foreman Scythe came running back “We don’t need them. That came with the house. We’ve got so many windows, I don’t think we can seal it.”

  “Do what I told Jen. Get everyone to the root cellar and barricade yourselves in,” Declan said, testing the blade. It was real, real enough, and every swarm built in intensity. He didn’t need to stand in the swarm and kill them as they came, he had three technicians who worked like their lives depended on it.

  “How long?” he asked with a calm that wasn’t his feeling.

  “Longer every time we have to stop to answer,” the head tech answered, then cursed as his tool slipped and bounced across the array.

  The biggest problem was that the rune array was built in the open, in an area where arcite slag had been dumped. As a child he had sifted through the piles like every child to pick out the shiniest drops of slag as toys.

  The plus was that it gave him plenty of space to see blazed beasts coming. The minus was that it gave them absolutely nowhere to hide.

  Declan chose a crate and sat on it, letting the tiny mana stone orbit and judging the rising mana from the wash that drained over him with each complete orbit. It might be fine. The techs were working and some swarms held out for days after they could have.

  Then he saw the first flash of purple light closer to the Foundry building. He paced toward the light as it grew from a flash to an orb, and from an orb began to take shape. There might not have been gods but he was still grateful, it wasn’t a storm walker. They looked like monkeys with scales over their bodies and bloody mouths with jagged teeth.

  Declan ran it through as it finished forming.

  Then, a true arcanist, he pocketed the shard from its mouth. First spawn was like the first drop of rain from an approaching storm. Declan paced back to make sure he could see all around the array. Another flash of light from deep in foundrytown. He ignored it while still calculating how close it was to the tenaments.

  Another flash. Another. Another, they grew faster. Fear rose in him, cold and solid as ice in the winter.

  “Shit!” A tech shouted. One had spawned on the far side of the array.

  Declan sprinted across the array, dodging tools, but this time the scale monkey had finished forming and went on the attack. It leaped across the ground, moving so quickly Declan had to stop or risk not being able to swing. It leaped with a screech that grated in his ears and brought a hundred answering screeches. As it did, it gained speed far faster than the jump should have.

  It wasn’t magic, it was the power of repeated beatdowns that had taught Declan what not to do more than what to do. Don’t step so close you can’t bring the edge of the sword to bear. Stabbing was fine when you held surprise but slashing was the route to deep damage. He sidestepped and slashed, carving deep into the monster’s gut and then bringing the sword back down in a brutal chop that caused the head to loll over. Another shard.

  A pair of flashes on both sides of the array. Declan picked one and ran it through and then raced to the other as it practically flew to the techs. “How long?”

  He wanted to catch this one in mid air. He missed the step and it caught the edge of his arm, raking through cloth and digging into his skin. It latched on, sinking claws deeper and raised up to bite. A sword through the mouth proved the best answer, and it slipped to the ground convulsing before it went still. The sky was lit with light now like lightning as the swarm grew thicker. One of the techs had surrendered, curling up in a ball and weeping.

  The mana felt like jelly. Every breath like breathing mud, and it was still rising.

  Three orbs began to form in the center of the glint array, then winked out as though they’d been blasted. A moment later, a single dark purple orb appeared, swelling and growing a tumor. Veins of purple light rippled along it.

  “Do not stop,” Declan told the other two techs. He readied himself counted seconds that just wouldn’t pass as time itself slowed down. The orb shrank, molding into a form that reminded Declan of a man.

  No, this was an ape, a much, much larger of the scale monkeys. Plates of scales covered its back and fangs jutted from the oversized jaws. Smoldering purple eyes scanned the techs, Declan, and then the sword in his hand.

  The scape reared back and roared, pounding its chest, and charged Declan, who ran. His only goal was time and distance was time. Ten paces past the edge of the array, he threw himself backward, rolling. The creature’s momentum took it flying over him, and in the time it took to land and spin, Declan was on it. In every aspect it held the advantage. Power, speed, ferocity. But it didn’t have a sword or the determination that drove Declan’s every step.

  He slashed, cutting deep into a shoulder muscle and then mostly avoided the flailing blow the scape struck with. More importantly, the blow was to his free arm and he cut downward, taking a thumb off.

  “It’s activating!” a tech shouted. “Get clear!”

  That moment of inattention cost Declan. The scale ape took the shout as a challenge, and charged straight at the tech. As it charged, a wall of purple built up in front of it.

  Declan activated protect on the tech and sprinted after the scale ape, sword ready for the moment he believed had to come. It struck the shield, which flashed brilliant blue, and staggered back—straight into Declan’s sword. With one arm, Declan clung to the ape, with the other, he worked the sword back and forth. It screamed in pain and raised one arm to grab him, then threw itself backwards.

  That only drove the breath from his lungs and the sword deeper in its chest.

  “Glint array active!” someone shouted. “Run for it!”

  Declan was locked in a battle with the scape, one that could only end with a death. It kicked and thrashed, but it wasn’t a matter of strength, since one arm was ruined the other’s hand had been cut deeply. And only one of them had a sword driven through it.

  The ape’s movements grew weaker, its attempts to turn less. Declan wrenched the sword less and drove it down through the chest.

  “That’s one dead, you can kill something else now.” Rohan Taylor had arrived. He didn’t look well but the man was standing and that was everything Declan could ask. “Where are the people?”

  “I had them barricade in. The real problem’s the foundry. The arcite there will draw them,” Declan said. He reached into the ape’s mouth and drew a complete rune. It joined the shards in his pack.

  A moment later, Alister Rush and Tegan Domine stepped out of the glint, followed by three soldiers with spears and shields.

  Rohan looked to the others. “Most of the swarm will attack the foundry, the ones in town will be driven to attack people. Our orders are clear. Tegan, clear the town.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “This place is a labyrinth,” she said, surveying Foundrytown. “What’s a house and what’s a shop?”

  “Declan, you’re already out in the middle of a full swarm. It literally doesn’t get worse. If you’re willing, show Tegan where the people are, let her kill the monsters drawn to kill them. We’ll handle the swarm and the swarm-heart when it spawns.”

  He’d already made his choice. “Follow me.”

  “ArCore, move!” Rohan said. He activated a Wind Lift rune and sprinted, not flying but taking leaps that moved him twenty feet. Beams of sunlight exploded through anything in his path. A mob of the scale apes had begun to scale the foundry.

  Declan didn’t care for machinery, just the people who ran it. “The tenament doors are paper thin. This way.”

  “Town’s a maze of twisty passages, all alike,” Tegan said. “How do you know where you are?” With every work, she activated Destroy, a churning set of hooked, bladed gears that ripped flesh from anything that moved.

  “Look out!” Declan pointed upward.

  Instead of Destroy, Tegan activated the same Wind Lift, shooting the falling monkey into the sky. Then she began to orbit runes, mixing them with Destruction.

  Declan stabbed a monkey and tossed it into the air. It fell in a wet mess as destruction raked over it. Then he found the first destroyed door. “Shit!” Declan charged in, sword drawn and stabbed the horde of monkeys feasting on fallen workers. With every slash, he moved faster, with every blow, his rage grew and tears clogged his eyes.

  Tegan grabbed him and pulled him back. “They’re already dead. Focus on the living.”

  He sprinted through the streets, taking every shortcut, leaving no path uncovered. “The foreman’s house. Jen and her parents are in the root cellar.”

  Twenty feet away, glass exploded in the house. Someone screamed inside, and the limp body of Mr. Cook struck the dirt. A scale ape leaped to the window and screamed at Declan.

  “Come on, you disgusting, greasy shitbag.” Tegan soared upward, activating destruction and dodging the stone shingles it ripped loose to throw at her. Then she spun, using a rune he’d call Spear of Light. The name was the rune, which extended out to ram through ape’s skull.

  Inside the foundry, flashes of scarlet and violet grew brighter. Tegan spun to look at the light. “Stay clear. I need to go help them.”

  She never saw the wagon that hit her in the back.

  The ArCore woman went flying, trying to activate a rune and failing. She struck the ground, bounced and then rolled. Before she could stand, a swarm of disks like turtle shells with bladed edges came swinging down in a swarm. Tegan activated Earthen Rampart and walls of rock errupted around her.

  Earthen Rampart: Raise a ring of stone to protect you. The tier of this rune will determine the thickness of the walls. Mana Cost: High, Variable.

  For the first time, Declan got a look at the monster that had ambushed her. It was a man. It was a monster ape, but the monster ape was man-like, with deep purple skin and shaved head, completely naked and covered in patterns of pink like runes. The eyes held intelligence, but not those of a person. This was naked, brutal intelligence.

  “All right, good one.” Tegan staggered out of Earthen Rampart, activating Healing over and over. “You get one free shot. Now, you get the Destroy experience.” The rune flared into existence and locked into place, shooting forward.

  The manape leaped back, then sprinted forward inhumanly fast.

  “Don’t like that? Have another.” The rune continued to rotate Tegan and at every completion, she loosed it again, forcing the monster left, right, even climbing. “Can’t run forever.”

  Other runes began their orbit, three more. This time, she unleashed a gout of fire to one side, ice to the other and a bolt of electricity. Destroy glowed with deadly power as it locked into place.

  The manape wasn’t running. It wasn’t even looking. A bright pink rune flared up before it as Destroy raced down. Both met and winked out of existence. The manape opened its mouth wide but what came out wasn’t a scream. It was a gentle hoot.

  It was laughing.

  “Declan, run,” Tegan said. “Run and hide.”

  He wasn’t moving. “To the foundry? The one filled with scale apes? Or should I hide in town and wait for it to find me?”

  The manape’s rune flared out once more and then rotated, an unstead path that locked into place. Then it looked at Declan and its gaze slithered to Tegan. The teeth bared and it loped forward. Destroy struck the shield and winked out. For the slightest moment, the manape stopped its charge to relaunch its shield. Then it advanced.

  “That’s not working,” Declan said. “Maybe try something else?” It felt cowardly, hiding behind a woman but then again, the woman was the arcanist equivalent of an elite soldier.

  Tegan hadn’t panicked. She hadn’t sat idle, she’d shifted runes, some fading into her arcsoul while others blossomed. She ran toward it, launching three at once.

  One was the Earthen Rampart she’d used before, except this was targeted on the manape. The second was a new wind type rune that Declan felt was a shove rather than a lift. The third he didn’t understand but the wave of heat that burst from the Earthen Rampart said it was fire based.

  The most effective was the rampart. The manape had no such skill and found itself protected by stone walls it hadn’t summoned and didn’t expect. It would have leaped, but the blast of wind kept it pinned in place and now the earth had turned to fire beneath it.

  “Ok, I can hurt it,” Tegan said. She backed up, reaching out to grab his cloak. “That’s the heart of this swarm. We kill it, the rest of the swarm will go down in intensity. The boys are damned near unstoppable up close, I’m a ranged fighter and healer.”

  The manape had stopped shrieking and summoned its shield, for all the good it did against flames. Then it ignored its own sizzling flesh, scratching its armpit. A second rune flared into existence. One Declan knew. “How the fuck is it doing that? Since when do they have multiple runes? Or orbits? Or healing?”

  “That’s a healing rune?” Tegan asked.

  He recognized the despair in her voice. “We should both be running. Get to the foundry. Didn’t you say Rohan and Alister are unstoppable?”

  “That’s a swarm-heart. It strengthens everything around it. I can’t lead it back to its swarm and once it gets near the arcite, we won’t be able to stop it. Hey!” She plucked a rune from the air. It was silver, bright and polished and she held it up. “You hungry, you hairless freak?”

  It smashed the Earthen Rampart and sniffed the air, looking at Tegan, then sprinted forward, surrounded by shield and healing runes. She ran toward it, triggering Wind Lift and sliding under it as the burst of wind sent it sailing upward. It crashed into a building and broke the wall.

  “Run,” Tegan shouted. “You need to be running, because I’m running, too.”

  “Follow me.” Declan sprinted away. He knew Foundrytown in his soul. Knew every corner, every turn, every corner and shop. “How often can you lock it in place?”

  “Enough but that won’t kill it. And your pig sticker is cool, but you need elemental enchantments to kill something like that.” Tegan continued to unleash the ramparts, using them as they turned corners. The moment it spent looking was a moment they had to gain. But each rampart came later. And Declan sensed the manape wasn’t trying to catch them. It was enjoying this chase.

  “How long until someone else comes through the glint?”

  “Standard practice is to shut it down when we go through.” Tegan didn’t hide the despair. “This thing is made to devour my runes.”

  What he had couldn’t be called a plan, it could barely be called an urge to survive. “This isn’t working. It’s stalking us.”

  “Chasing.”

  The shopfront before Declan exploded as the manape cut through to land before them, the healing rune already stitching the damage. It didn’t heal in pretty ways. It didn’t heal right, but it was pulling back together and instinct said it wasn’t worried about long-term effects. “Hit with Destroy.”

  “The shield blocks it!” Tegan said, firing it anyway. “See? Shield? How about doing the Insight thing on the shield?”

  Declan dove to the ground as the manape threw an entire cart at them. “Love to. Take out the rune stone and I will. Of course, it will be dead at that point.”

  “So will we if you don’t figure out that shield.” Tegan threw Declan to the side with wind push, then blocked the manape with ramparts and hit it with Destroy. “It has to heal and resummon. But monsters are much more efficient at mana conversion. Long fights are losing fights and that’s when we’re well matched. We’re not.”

  Tegan had a point. He focused on the manape. “Make it resummon.”

  She wind-leaped over half a wagon flung at her and blasted it with fire. “I’m trying. It’s healing everthing faster than I can damage.”

  He’d gotten a glimpse this time. The runes was ten times harder to read than a stone. Reading it from the air was like reading upside down and backwards and his intuition stubbornly refused. “I have an idea. You burn it, I’ll stab it.” He felt in his pack. The mana stone and bearing remained and a loose pile of shards—and a spare dagger he’d thrown in. “We run while it heals.”

  “Get ready.” She used lightning this time, striking it as it leaped toward her and pushing Declan to the side. It landed locked in an Earthen Rampart, but when it smashed the wall, Declan was waiting, slashing the way Anthony taught, across the muscle on its forearm. He rolled to the side as it screamed, and flames exploded over its head, then scrambled toward Tegan, who followed him deeper into Foundry.

  “The healing rune’s plain Healing,” he said. “Not Healing Rush.”

  “What about the shield? Forget the healing, tell me what’s keeping me from using Destroy.” She stopped, scanning the street behind them, while Declan watched for it to crash through walls.

  He realized too late where it was. It was above them and already falling, mouth wide, arms outstretched.