At the far end of the platform was a group of small buildings. The minotaur had gone into one of those. Morgan cautiously skirted the faintly glowing circle in the ground. It was 20 feet wide, separating him from the buildings on the far side, and the faint glow pulsed rhythmically in time with a guttural chanting that crescendoed every five seconds.

  Sophia told him.

  Morgan had only taken two steps before the minotaur exited a building holding an unmoving soldier by the back of the neck. It stopped for a second when it saw Morgan, almost causing the harsh chant coming from its lips to waver. Instead, with a feverish scream, it finished the last syllables of its chant and drove a small dagger into the side of the Soldier’s neck. The air shuttered around them. The dagger burned a bright crimson red as the minotaur tossed the body and weapon into the circle near its feet. With a deep laugh, it turned and reentered the building.

  The spinning dagger emitted sparks like a welding torch, covering the ground inside the circle with red burning pinpricks of light. The Soldier groaned and coughed before dropping to the ground and being torn apart, sucked into the pinpricks of light. With a popping sound, the red light fused into a single color and spread instantly, filling the circle with a familiar shimmer.

  Morgan thought.

  The veil of the rift was pushed aside, and instead of a creature crossing into our world, a large hand, each finger larger than Morgan, grasped at the edge of the rift. Colossal fingers landed near Morgan, shaking the ground in great upheavals, knocking him from his feet and sending Broken Fang clattering away. The flesh of the fingers stank of decay, and chunks fell away from the bones as they tensed, getting a grip on the stones. Small tendrils of cracks raced away as the stones groaned under the fingers. Then another hand emerged on the far side of the circle, also grasping for purchase.

  The minotaur emerged from the building once more, this time holding a large staff, and wearing wicked dark red leather armor. It immediately touched the circle on the ground with its staff and began another frantic chant. As the minotaur chanted, the circle glowed brighter. Every three or four words, the circle pulsed and grew slightly larger. Morgan jumped to his feet, summoning Broken Fang as he did so. Now that he had a clear view of the minotaur, Morgan did a scan.

  ::Threat Scan Complete - Invader - Minotaur Shaman Champion::

  The shaman locked bloodshot eyes on Morgan, still chanting as fast as it could with its large cow lips. Raising a hand, it pointed a twisted wooden stick at Morgan. A bolt of lightning shattered the air with a deafening roar, slamming into Morgan and throwing him backwards like a doll.

  Morgan lay on his back, with his legs below the knee hanging over the edge of the ziggurat. He was surprised that he felt no pain, but realized he felt nothing. Then, as his nervous system repaired itself, the waves of pain started rolling over him. As his eyes were repaired, his vision filled with black and white flashes of the tendrils of lightning that had been burned into his retinas. The smell of burned hair and meat clogged his nose. When his body had recovered enough, he looked down to see a large hole where his stomach should have been. The entire left side of his body was quickly knitting back together. His hearing returned in spurts of tinny whines as his eardrums were being repaired. The shaman was still chanting.

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  Sophia said.

  Morgan replied sarcastically.

  That was a sobering thought. Morgan had taken for granted his regeneration after experiencing its miraculous effects. But at what point would it stop working? How much damage would he be able to take and still live?

  Pushing those unhelpful and unsettling thoughts aside, Morgan gently patted his now reformed stomach as the armor flowed over the skin and reformed as well. Satisfied, he attempted to move his body. Morgan had been thrown off the edge of the ziggurat and was on the pathway 10 feet from where the corpses of the orc defenders lay. He couldn’t see the top of the ziggurat, but could hear the chanting continue. Summoning Broken Fang, he took a deep breath and prepared for round two.

  Cresting the ledge, Morgan was surprised to see the top half of an orc’s massive head had squeezed between the hands in the now expanded rift. It wasn’t decayed, and Morgan realized with a shock that the hands weren’t decayed anymore either. The head sucked in deep massive breaths, and with each one, the color of its skin deepened and grew more vibrant.

  ::Threat Scan Complete - Invader - Information Redacted::

  ::Error::

  The shaman saw Morgan, and it visibly started, faltering in their chant. This caused the giant to turn its head down at the shaman.

  “Continue,” A resonate and deep voice reverberated through the space. “I can nearly enter this realm. I can feel its life force restoring my power.”

  The shaman shuddered under the giant’s gaze and began its frantic chanting again, but pointed an accusing finger in Morgan’s direction. The giant rotated slightly until Morgan was in its periphery. Then, it adjusted the grip of its hands and spun farther to look directly at Morgan. The shift caused massive splinter cracks in the stones underfoot.

  “What have we here? A mortal? A survivor from the raiding parties of this pathetic world?” The orc’s voice vibrated in Morgan’s chest. As it spoke, the thick gold bands around its protruding lower tusks shimmered and sparkled. Its eyes burned with an intensity and hunger Morgan had never experienced before. Instead of white, its eyes held a swirling darkness speckled with dots of light as though looking at a night sky. The giant continued as its gaze bored through Morgan. It sniffed, sucking in a vortex of air around Morgan.

  “It seems even worthless planets can have worms grow backbones. Came this far, all alone. Commendable, but still unremarkable.” As the Orc finished his sentence, it raised a finger and moved it toward Morgan.

  Morgan blurred to the side, using Kinetic Burst, and then struck down at the edge of the circle with Broken Fang. There was a resounding clang, and then the rift disappeared. Just like with the goblin, the closing of the rift cleanly severed the connection of the giant’s head and hands with the rest of its body. The hands and fingers collapsed noisily. The giant head tried swallowing and speaking. It was a few heartbeats before the light swirling in the eyes faded completely. Morgan’s vision filled with alerts and error messages. The shaman stood on the far side of the now inert circle.

  It howled a resounding wail of heart-wrenching sorrow. It snorted in anger and fixed its bloodshot eyes on Morgan. Raising the lightning wand once more, he pointed it at Morgan, closing his eyes as the end of the wand expanded into an arc of lightning. Morgan dodged to the side, leaving the area where he had just been as the lightning streaked through. He then lunged forward, covering the 20 feet in a flash. The shaman, still looking in the direction Morgan had been, opened its eyes just as Broken Fang severed its head.

  The resounding thrum of cascading error messages drowned out everything. The error messages were multiplying. He had expected the usual achievements, but something was wrong.

  Morgan asked. There was no reply.