Kessa hit Tamsin from the side.
They rolled behind the old quarry boulder as four glassmaws landed above them.
One cracked the stone.
The others didn't.
Below, the light pin sank through the pool. White radiance spread across submerged steps, lighting Jin's legs from underneath.
His new skill was still recovering.
He couldn't reach Tamsin in a burst. He couldn't reach her by wishing harder, either.
“The bell!” he shouted.
Garran understood first. He caught the little bronze shape with the end of his pole and swept it off the rim.
It bounced down two steps.
Jin caught it against his chest.
The real creature lifted its head.
So did the copies.
“Oh, you like this?”
He rang the bell.
Rook shouted something from the platform.
Jin rang it again, backing through the water.
“Your dinner is disappointing. Come complain.”
The glassmaw bounded down the rim.
For a moment all four bodies stretched over the pool.
The pin's light struck them from below.
Three shone through. One belly blocked the white glare, a solid dark shape beneath broken dorsal plates.
Garran's missing pieces. A gap the creature couldn't close without twisting the rest of its back.
Jin threw himself sideways.
The real paws struck the submerged step. Water exploded over his head.
He came up choking, still clutching the bell.
“Jin!”
Kessa pointed uphill.
His route's first mark. He was standing at the wrong end of his own escape.
The creature swept a foreleg through the water. Its claw caught the bell's lip and ripped it from his hand.
Bronze rang against stone beneath the surface.
The glassmaw stopped to nose toward it, looking for the source of the familiar note.
Jin ran up the steps.
His trainers filled and emptied with each stride. He reached the first mark and turned, chest heaving.
BRACED WAYPOINT: READY.
The creature turned too.
Rook snatched a loose bell from the boards and struck it against the platform rail.
Not the old command. Just a savage, irregular clanging.
The glassmaw thrashed. Its false bodies crossed the pool in a storm of thrown light. Water churned beneath them all as the real one kicked up the whole shallow shelf.
Jin lost the dark belly in spray.
Rook knew what they were looking for now.
“Here!” he called. “Here, then! Come back to me!”
The real shape began to climb.
Rook seized the nearest lamp and hurled it down the steps.
Oil splashed across the water and the lowest dry ledge. Fire ran along the surface in a bright, crooked stripe.
Jin flinched back from the heat.
Beyond it, Kessa shifted her grip on the spear. Garran was already moving. Neither of them had space to turn and run while the creature climbed toward their knees.
Garran stepped out from behind the boulder.
The pole's hook snapped beneath the bronze collar.
He planted his heel.
The creature jerked him forward. His bandaged arm stayed tight against his chest; the good one strained along the shaft. A pale crescent flared beneath his boot.
The collar held.
The animal twisted, trying to turn its jaws onto the pole.
Kessa struck its reaching foreleg. The spear point drove between two long bones. She shoved the shaft down against the step and pinned it there.
The glassmaw's head swung toward her.
“Jin!” Garran roared.
Jin selected the burst.
The first stride took him off the dry ledge.
The second struck the wet step.
The flame stripe came up beneath him. Heat licked through the wet cloth at his shin; he drove past it before it could catch properly.
Garran's heel was starting to slide.
Jin kept moving.
He kept the knife close, elbow tucked, watching the real weight dragging against Garran's hook.
The last mark rose beneath his heel.
He arrived beside the jaw.
His weight settled.
Jin drove the knife upward behind the hinge, putting his hip, shoulder and planted leg through the same narrow line.
The point struck bone.
He bared his teeth and drove harder. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Iron broke through.
The creature's mouth opened around a sound he felt in his chest.
Its body slammed into him.
For one heartbeat his footing held, long enough to wrench the knife sideways through the deep wound.
Then the brace released.
Jin threw himself away from the falling weight and rolled into the pool.
Cold water closed over him.
When he came up, the darkness was gone.
The copies had gone with it.
One enormous body lay across the steps. Its limbs twitched once. Kessa braced a boot against its side and pulled her spear free.
Jin stood in water to his knees, shaking.
The body broke into light.
Bronze collar and hooked pole clattered onto the stone. Kessa's knife came free in Jin's hand.
RECLAIM DETECTED: EXP +300
LEVEL UP: 19 → 20 → 21 → 22 → 23
LEVEL 23: 12/85 | FREE AP: +20
He spent the twenty: eight Strength, eight Agility, four Endurance.
MODIFIERS: STR +35 | AGI +42 | END +33
AP REMAINING: 0
His fingers tightened around the wet hilt. Heat ran through his arms and down his back. He drew a breath that finally reached the bottom of his lungs.
Garran was still standing.
Kessa was laughing. Tamsin had both hands over her face. Bram stood beside an extinguished lamp, grinning so hard he seemed unable to close his mouth.
Jin laughed with them.
Then he looked uphill.
Rook was moving toward the trees with Garran's sword.
“Excuse me,” Jin called.
The handler stopped.
Jin climbed out of the pool.
“You forgot the bill.”
Rook turned. His hand closed around the stolen hilt.
He crossed the distance in two fast steps.
Jin lifted Kessa's knife.
The sword struck it above the guard.
Her blade broke in half.