Torwin was not hard to find. At least, most of him was not hard to find. Velik recovered three main pieces: his upper torso, head, and arms in one, a leg in a second, and another leg and pelvis in the third. About eight inches of spine and its attendant organs were simply gone, obliterated when he’d been struck by Tesir.

Velik stood over the body, quietly simmering as he looked at it without really seeing it. The thing in front of him was a pile of meat, not really Torwin. It didn’t have the old man’s laughter or that mischievous twinkle he sometimes got in his eyes. It possessed no words of wisdom, and there was no easy strength in its arms.

The worst part of it was that Velik was almost completely sure Torwin’s death had been an accident. Tesir hadn’t meant to hit him. He’d simply been in the radius of the divine beast’s response to Velik’s haste potion. When things had slowed back down, Tesir had seemed upset about it, in the same way a man who accidentally spilled something would be upset.

If I hadn’t used that potion, Torwin could very well be alive right now.

That was a stupid thought. Velik knew it was stupid. They’d been fighting for their lives and they’d needed every single advantage just to keep up with Tesir. Even claiming that they’d kept up was stretching the truth a lot. So, he knew it was stupid, but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking it anyway.

“I’ll catch up to him,” Velik muttered. “And I’ll kill him. For both of us and for everybody else he’s destroyed.”

He looked over the battlefield. It was covered with gold blood, his and Tesir’s. He could smell what belonged to who, but he doubted anyone else would be able to tell the difference. Something about merging [Apex Hunter] and [True Form] together had permanently boosted his stats in both shapes. The transformation was instant now, too, and he retained full access to his gear’s enchantments and stat boosts in wolf form.

All of that, and it still wasn’t enough. How else can I grow stronger?

Velik had the impression that he’d finally pushed Tesir to have to try there at the end, but there was no question in his mind who’d won that fight. He needed to gain more levels, keep working on his skills, find better gear… None of that felt like it was enough, now. Tesir had referred to a whole world beyond the system, and if that was what it took to gain enough power to kill the bastard, that was what Velik would find.

He wanted to leave some sort of memorial behind, something to mark the spot Torwin had finally met the monster that was too powerful for him to kill. Appropriately, it had been something out of legend. Nothing less could have overcome him. Unfortunately, the whole area was a disaster zone, and Velik’s skillset wasn’t exactly suited for creating something meant to stand the test of time.

He settled for a slab of stone the size of his torso, placed into the ground at the foot of what remained of the tree Torwin had been in when Tesir had hit him. It wasn’t square. It didn’t have a smooth, flat front to polish. The letters he carved in its surface were made by dragging his spear through stone, each one laboriously carved in Velik’s best attempt at legible handwriting.

It wasn’t very good. Torwin deserved better. Sorry. I’m not… This isn’t what I’m built for. But I can do vengeance. I promise you that.

Unnoticed, hot tears ran down his face as he stored the pieces of Torwin’s body in his bracelet. Returning them to civilization was the least he could do. There were people waiting for them to come home who would want to mourn over that body. Real craftsmen could put together an appropriate tribute to the fallen. Velik would pay for it himself. It didn’t matter how much it would cost.

Somehow, without him realizing it, he’d run out of reasons to stay. Lost weapons had been reclaimed. Evidence of the battle’s participants had been destroyed, as much as it possibly could be. Torwin’s remains were secured, and Velik’s pitiful attempt at a memorial would have to stand as it was.

With one final look around, he started running north, up into the cold and stone of the mountains, to the passes that would return him home. Behind him, a crudely carved rock laid exposed to the open sky. It had just three short sentences.

A hunter fell here in defense of humanity. His sacrifice will not be forgotten. It will not be in vain.

* * *

Every twenty feet or so, like a stone skipped across a lake, the impression of somebody’s body driving into the snow was still partially visible. The weather was working to erase the evidence, but Velik could see it clearly in his mind—Tesir bounding across the ground in great leaps, so fast that it was impossible to keep track of him.

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Why he was in such a hurry was a question Velik didn’t have an answer to. But he could still smell Tesir’s passage, despite obvious attempts to hide it. That struck Velik as out of place. It was a prey skill, something deer and rabbits commonly showed up with. Tesir wasn’t prey, and he sure didn’t act like an ambush predator. It was probably more of that ‘beyond the system’ stuff.

He wasn’t sure if he could detect the scent because his own stats had risen dramatically, close to forty levels worth all at once. It was, frankly, insane how much easier the climb over the mountain was now, and more than a little bit frightening that he still didn’t feel like he was strong enough to kill Tesir.

[Name: Velik]

[Race: Human (Duskbound)]

[Class: The Black Fang]

[Level: 50]

[Physical: 222(+46)]

[Mental: 148(+22)]

[Mystic: 127(+70)]

[Free Points: 0]

[Decarma: 51821]

[Skills:]

[Dread Lance (Rank 7)]

[Judgment of Penance (Rank 1)]

[Mana Sight (Rank 3)

[Awakened Blood (Rank 1)]

[Empty]

[Empty]

[Gear:]

[Harbinger of Dusk (+15Ph, +5My)]

[The Sixth Plague (+10My)]

[Fangs of the Wind Dragon (+10Ph, +5Me)]

[Night Striders (+6 Ph, +2 Me]

[Invoker’s Pendant (+20My)]

[Earcuff of Unbreakable Will]

[Cloak of Whispers (+10Me, +10My]

[Traveler’s Bracelet]

[Life Giver’s Ring (+20 My)]

[Heart of the Inferno (+10 Ph)]

[Silversilk Shirt (+10Ph, +10My)]

[Nightstalker’s Pants (+5Ph, +5Me, +5My)]

His status looked odd with two empty skill slots, but he was going to hold off on taking anything for the moment. Torwin’s final advice about mana sensing skills and [Blood Decay] echoed through his mind as Velik scaled the mountain, contrasted heavily against their battle with Tesir. What skills could have made the difference? How could I have stopped a divine beast?

The answer was probably a very simple ‘nothing.’ Such a monster was simply beyond him right now, and it didn’t matter what skills went into those empty slots. That didn’t mean he couldn’t consider what to take that might make the difference next time, however. Generally speaking, planning a build to kill a specific monster was a terrible idea, but if there was ever an exception to the rule, it was a divine beast.

His musings were interrupted by two massive ice elementals, each shaped like some sort of bird with fifty-foot wingspans. They descended on him with angry, discordant cries that sounded like steel scraping on itself. Both of them were significantly bigger than the one Velik had killed on his first trip through the passes.

Velik met the first one in the air, spear at the ready and three consecutive blasts of [Dread Lance] rocking its body. Ice fractured and fell apart where it wasn’t vaporized completely, and by the time he touched down on the snow again, pieces of the elemental were raining out of the sky.

[You have slain an emperor of the icy skies (level 71).]

[You have been awarded 9 decarmas.]

Just like that, huh?

The second elemental didn’t slow down or even hesitate. It swooped down, a spray of telekinetic ice blasting out from its body. Velik stood there, unbothered by the sting as the magic ripped across him. He let the elemental get close, then leaped straight into the air. An [Air Walk] redirected his trajectory once he had sufficient height, and he landed on top of the elemental’s back.

[Awakened Blood] had a few passive effects. Velik knew that his blood was golden even in his human body now. He could still shift to wolf form, and he retained his regeneration and stat boosts in both shapes. But the big boost, as far as Velik could tell, was that his mana recovered incredibly quickly now.

Yesterday, it would have wiped him out to drop [Dread Lance] five times in the span of a minute. He probably could have done it, but he wouldn’t have wanted to try. Now, he pushed straight past five and unleashed seven. The last two probably weren’t even necessary; the elemental was already on its way down after the second hit.

It was dead before it hit the ground. Velik let himself fall with it and absorbed the impact of a hundred-foot descent without trouble. Then he stood back up, brushed free a few chunks of ice that were sticking to his shirt, and walked away. He wasn’t even winded.

Two days later, he walked through the gates of Ashala. Half an hour after that, he was in Jensen’s office. It was weird that, somehow, despite everything, Jensen looked the exact same. Velik caught himself getting irrationally angry about that, like it was somehow Jensen’s fault that he didn’t know.

“You’re back! How’d the trip go? Success, I hope?”

“No,” Velik said darkly.

“No luck finding the seed? Damn, that’s too bad that you wasted so much time. Maybe we can—”

“Torwin’s dead,” Velik cut him off.

Jensen froze, mouth hanging open. It took a few seconds for his brain to start working again. “Dead?” he repeated. “That’s… no. That’s not… Are you sure?”

His eyes looked past Velik’s shoulder, like he was expecting Torwin to walk through the door laughing. When that didn’t happen, he sank down into his chair and stared blankly at his paperwork for a minute.

“I have his body,” Velik said. “What should I do with it?”

“What the fuck do you mean he’s dead?” Jensen suddenly snarled. “He can’t fucking die. He’s one of the strongest hunters in the world. What the hell did you drag him into?”