“What did you do to Spark?” Claire hissed, ducking as a ball of roiling green fire slammed into the wall on the other side of their barrier, sending necrotic fire spraying down all around them, mercifully missing by just a few inches on every side.

“I made him stronger,” Alex replied.

A scream ended in a wet crunch, and a body flew across the room to crash into the side of the room with enough force to splatter it like a rotten watermelon bursting under its own weight. Alex was pretty sure the unfortunate victim had been dead well before they collided with the stone.

It was hard to tell what exactly had dealt the blow to them. At this point, it didn’t matter.

The room was rapidly descending into chaos. Spark had created five corpse puppets already. He’d stopped after that, electing to simply stand and watch the battle unfold all around him.

Five more bodies dangled in the web of glowing gossamer strands swaying above the Luminary in wait. They hadn’t yet been transformed — it seemed that Spark had limits to the number of bodies he could control at once.

But five was more than enough. Even from Alex and Claire’s hiding spot, they were able to catch more than a few glimpses of the puppets’ effectiveness. They could be hurt. They could be cut. They could be smashed…

But it didn’t seem like they could be stopped.

Fatal blows were worthless when someone was fighting something that wasn’t even alive. Even with their limbs torn off and bodies blasted to fragments, threads pulled them back together and sent them charging right back at their former allies.

The puppets didn’t use any magic or special abilities. They were like zombies, tearing at everything in their path with relentless determination and pure physical strength. The Rotkeeper likely would have been proud if he could have witnessed the battle unfolding.

But there was only so much damage that one monster — even the Derelict Luminary — could cause to an experienced group of Outworlders. Despite the severe losses they’d taken, they had managed to keep from being completely overwhelmed by both the mystery boss and Spark’s surprise attack.

Nobody was flinging attacks blindly at Spark anymore. Instead, it sounded like they were preparing something. The sounds of battle against the actual boss in the room drowned out any attempts to figure out what they were doing beyond vague guessing. Alex couldn’t check without exposing himself, but the urge to try and figure out what was happening was nearly overwhelming.

Someone had mentioned a Soul Lance. Given Berith’s warning, Alex got the feeling that any kind of weapon that could directly target a soul was probably going to be pretty effective against Spark. But until he knew what it was they were doing, there was just no way to react.

“It’s almost time,” Claire said, just loud enough to be heard over the noise. “The others are going to run in soon. Everyone’s attention is completely on the boss and Spark. The moment they come through…”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “We have to go for the final blow immediately. Do you think its weak enough?”

“It’s not about how weak it is,” Claire replied. She bared her teeth in a grin. “It’s about how strong we are.”

“Good line,” Alex said. “I’m stealing it.”

A shrill whine split the din of the room. Alex instinctively squeezed his eyes shut as a beam of pure white light sliced through the thick haze in the room around them like a hot knife. It shot straight for Spark, who still hadn’t once budged from the spot that Alex had summoned him in.

Don’t let that hit you!

But the Derelict Luminary remained exactly where it had been standing. Spark didn’t even blink the eyes on his palms. However, the gossamer threads holding his captive corpses aloft swung. They brought the bodies together in a gruesome shield before the path of the beam.

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The magic connected with the bodies. Instead of carving through them or doing any damage to the corpses at all, the air filled with a crackling hiss as pure white fire ignited in the threads holding the bodies aloft.

It spread quickly, racing down the strands and toward Spark’s main body.

Cut them off! Don’t let that fire touch you!

Spark finally moved. His hand slashed down as the shadowy fingers of his hand sharpened into the same daggerlike blades that Spark had used to fight with before his evolution. They sliced straight through his own threads.

Motes of energy twisted up from his body like pale fireflies. White flame consumed the threads an instant later, leaving behind nothing at all.

Alex’s jaw clenched.

Whatever you do, don’t let that magic hit you. Stay alive and keep distracting everyone for as long as you possibly can, Spark.

“We’re out of time,” Claire said grimly. “He’s not going to last much longer. The only reason they haven’t killed him yet is because the boss is the bigger threat. I’m going to take a look at what we’re dealing with. You ready? The others should—”

The portal at their side rippled.

Derek exploded out from within it, a broken sword clutched in each of his hands. Right at his back were Wess and Alyssa. Wess already had his Soul Manifestation in his hands and the tip of Alyssa’s massive brush shimmered with magical energy at the ready.

The five of them locked eyes for one brief instant.

Then a second beam of light flashed through the room on its way toward Spark. The Luminary swung several more of its captive bodies into the way, but the white flame that erupted along his tendrils forced him to sever even more of them.

“Go!” Alex ordered, launching to his feet and launching himself over the chunk of stone that had been blocking them off from the rest of the room.

He finally got his first look at the full room. Dead grass covered the ground, turned to mud by the blood spilled across it. Huge chunks of brown carapace littered the ground like pieces of broken pottery.

Crimson’s men were split roughly into two groups. The first was considerably smaller and arranged in a semicircle not too far away from Alex. At their center was a wide man holding a long, tubular object that looked strikingly similar to a bazooka. Dozens of body parts littered the ground around them, torn away from the puppets that Spark had been sending in their direction.

The second of Crimson’s groups was far larger. It numbered something around thirty people — and given the number of dead Outworlders littering the ground of the room, it was clear that they’d met up with another one of the family’s teams and joined forces at some point.

Brandon stood amidst their number, his back toward Alex’s team. He was in the process of loosing an enormous arrow toward some massive unholy mishmash of a crab and a centaur.

Its upper body was that of a man — if he had been dipped into a vat of acid to cover his body with weeping sores and scorched-pink patches — that was fastened to the lower half of a fifteen foot tall crustacian.

The monster held a huge warhammer splattered with enough blood and viscera to completely obscure its original design, and the six thick, jagged shell-covered legs were in similar shape.

Herdmaster (Adept 9)

It was battered and bloodied, huge chunks of its flesh torn away and ravaged by magic and blade. There was no doubt that the Herdmaster was severely hurt. The monster had been worn down heavily… but it wasn’t dead. Not even close.

The snap of Claire’s wings shooting out tore Alex from his momentary surprise. She streaked past him in a blur, cutting across the room toward the boss. Wess popped out right beside Alex, lowering his huge gun as he took aim at the beast.

Alex burst back into motion. He raced across the room just a little behind Claire. He heard Derek’s heavy footfalls just behind him as the large man accelerated, every step of his loping stride carrying him nearly twice as far as one of Alex’s.

Someone yelled out a warning. Several members from the larger group spun toward the trio running toward them. One of them took aim with a large magical staff. But, before he could fire, a loud crack split the air.

A beam of blue energy carved past Alex’s shoulder and slammed into the Outworlder. It caught the man in the side of the helm, knocking the armor clean free of his head and sending him stumbling backward, the staff spilling from his grip.

“Hell yeah!” Derek roared, delight burning in his words. “This is it, man! This is the life!”

Brandon spun toward them. Fury crossed his features in an instant as he spotted Alex. His hands moved in a blur as he nocked an arrow, pulling it back and releasing it in a split instant.

Alex summoned his anchor with a thought, launching it forward in the same movement. The huge chunk of white metal shattered Brandon’s arrow and sending the burning magic enveloping it sputtering out harmlessly. In the same movement, the anchor tore Alex off feet and launched him forward and straight toward Brandon.

The Outworlder dove out of the way with a curse. There was no way he could block the immense mass of the anchor with his bow. Avoiding the attack was his only option.

For a brief instant, as Alex hurtled past him with Claire in the sky overhead and Derek right at his back, he locked eyes with Brandon.

Alex grinned.

Then he was gone — pulled like a flag behind his anchor on a direct collision course for the waiting boss.