The Starspawn could sense them in ways Dorian didn’t understand, and the Fiends were using that awareness to hunt them back.

  This would not be a simple fight.

  Dorian attacked first.

  He sprinted toward a Starspawn that resembled the first one he’d ever killed, though this one wielded two thick, spear-like arms. Twenty-four Remnants powered his movements. He slipped inside the creature’s reach and drove his sword into its torso, then dragged the blade upward, cleaving it from stomach to crown in one smooth motion.

  The Gauntleted Fiend arrived a heartbeat later.

  Its roundhouse kick arced toward Dorian’s head.

  He flared his Will just in time. The impact slammed against his barrier with a thunderous crack. Dorian countered immediately, pressing forward for the kill, but the Fiend retreated with uncanny agility.

  Two more Starspawn rushed in to fill the space.

  Kesi, on the other hand, was struggling.

  A deer-shaped abomination’s branching antlers made it hard to close distance, and the Spiny Fiend moved to protect it, lunging forward with its flower-mouth wide.

  Kesi stumbled back as two Starspawn pressed him from the sides. The Spiny Fiend rolled onto its flank, flexed, and fired two massive spines like javelins.

  He narrowly dodged both.

  But he didn’t see what the Spiny Fiend had lined up.

  Dorian stood directly behind him.

  The spines slammed into Dorian’s back before he could fully harden his Will. He slowed them, but couldn’t stop them. They punched deep, lodging in muscle.

  Snarling, Dorian forced Will into the wounds and shoved the spines free. The effort left him open. A nearby Starspawn slashed his shoulder, carving another gash.

  He sealed both injuries with flickering bursts of Will.

  It drained him fast.

  A clock started ticking.

  Kesi saw blood hitting the pavement. Panic surged. He was surrounded by Starspawn and a Fiend, and Dorian was faltering.

  He made a decision.

  He rushed a humanoid Starspawn covered in thick spikes, hacked off an arm and a leg toppling it, then stomped its skull into the dirt with a Will-wrapped foot.

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  The creature disintegrated instantly.

  The deer abomination was already charging, antlers lowered. The third Starspawn lined up a thrust with its three-pronged tentacle arm.

  Kesi dropped low, seized the deer’s torso, and dead-lifted it. With a roar, he hurled it bodily into the tentacled creature, smashing them together.

  That was when the Fiend struck.

  It lunged beside him, flower-mouth opening wide. Instead of biting, it inhaled.

  Hard.

  The air fled. Kesi’s lungs seized as the Fiend consumed the atmosphere around him, its gill-slits flaring.

  Then it exhaled.

  Jets of superheated, oxygen-rich fire blasted outward like a thermobaric explosion.

  Kesi threw everything into a full-body Will barrier.

  Fire hammered him from all sides. His skin flushed red even through the field. Small breaches opened, flames licking through and blackening flesh.

  When the blast ended, he barely remained standing.

  There was no time to recover.

  The deer and tentacle Starspawn were still alive. Battered, but repositioning.

  “I can’t keep this up, Dorian!” Kesi shouted.

  Down the street, Dorian cut down one attacker just as the Gauntleted Fiend struck.

  The blow hit like a freight train. Dorian raised his blade to block, Will flaring along his arms, but the Fiend’s gauntlets crushed through the weapon.

  The sword shattered.

  Fragments of obsidian and rebar scattered across the pavement. The remaining force hurled Dorian thirty feet down the road.

  His thinning Will barrier dulled the impact, but his weapon arm hung useless as he rolled to a stop, shattered from the impact.

  “Run with me!” Dorian shouted, forcing himself upright. His Will reserves were nearly gone.

  They fled together, pouring everything they had left into speed.

  The Spiny Fiend crouched to pursue. The remaining Starspawn mindlessly followed.

  Then the Gauntleted Fiend clanged its hands together again.

  A sharp metallic crack echoed through the street. Another pressure wave rolled outward.

  The chase stopped.

  The Starspawn turned back, regrouping at the Fiends’ side.

  Three lay dead. The street was ruined. Dorian and Kesi were bleeding and barely standing.

  The Fiends watched them retreat.

  The Gauntleted one remained still, calculating. Cornered prey was dangerous. Letting them run minimized risk. They would need days to recover.

  Days during which thousands more Starspawn would fall to Earth.

  The Fiend gathered the fallen Remnants and fed them into its furnace cavity. Heat flared. The gain was microscopic compared to consuming human souls.

  But it felt close.

  Very close.

  Dorian and Kesi ran until they reached the far edge of the neighborhood.

  Both were wrecks. Dorian doubled over, lungs burning, blood streaking his face from overusing his Will. Kesi’s skin was blackened in places where the burns were only just healing.

  “That…was bad,” Kesi panted.

  Dorian didn’t answer right away.

  “Why didn’t they follow us?” Kesi asked. “They probably could’ve killed us…”

  “…I don’t know,” Dorian rasped. “But you’re right. That was too many. Eight Starspawn. Two Fiends.”

  He knew what he’d been thinking.

  Eight Remnants. Fiends worth even more. Control. Precision. Power.

  The hunger had drowned out caution.

  “I’m sorry,” Dorian said at last.

  “It’s fine,” Kesi said quickly. “I chose this. No one forced me into that fight.”

  But I did didn’t I? I gave him the Remnant.

  “No,” Dorian said sharply. “I wasn’t done. I’m sorry, but we can’t stop. We can’t rest. If those Fiends aren’t the worst things out there, and I know they’re not, then fights like that are going to feel small in a few days.”

  Inside, a darker thought churned.

  The Fiends didn’t break the blockade, no way. Something much worse had to of.

  “We need more Remnants,” Dorian continued. “We need to be ready.”

  “…I’ll follow you,” Kesi said quietly, pain threading every movement.

  Gunfire cracked in the distance.

  “People?” Kesi asked.

  “The military, that was micro-railgun fire,” Dorian said. “Let’s go. Maybe they can help.”

  They sprinted toward the sound.