Inside her mind, it was chaos. No battlefield—no clean lines, no enemy to see. Just pressure. Just pull. Just it.

It spoke in feelings, impressions, thick and hot, smearing through her skull like oil in water. The longer it was in her, the less it felt like a tool. It was a warmth that wrapped around her thoughts like a lover's breath against the ear.

It tugged her from the arm, and even with her digging her heels into the boards. It tugged her diagonal, her feet only stopping when the ridge of the boot nicked the gap in the floor and steadied her.

"No," Tanya hissed. She leant backwards with her full weight and fell down again. Her arms instinctively threw behind her, and the sword arm sliced into the wood.

It laughed—or maybe she did. The line between her and the blade was blurring more and more. But she could feel the edge of herself. Somewhere under all this, there was still a Tanya who hadn't yet let go.

She clawed toward that place.

Each step inward felt like dragging herself through quicksand. Every memory it had touched felt tarnished, frayed at the edges. The time she'd killed monster after monster out in the street, the feel of it pulsing out of her skin. At the time, she'd thought that was normal, just what the tattoos do. Maybe it had already been in her head then. Maybe the drunken feeling wasn't from her low Attributes at all. She remembered the way it felt slicing through the monsters in the kitchen, and she salivated. The sword was all that was keeping her alive—every moment it had helped her right from the first fight she'd had in the stairwell—

The memory flickered with the cricket bat and Assistant.

It wasn't there then.

It was replacing her memories.

She felt it flinch.

"You don't like that, do ya?" she snarled. The rage that emanated from it was still there, but she tried to turn it back on the sword.

It struck back. Heat shot through her corrupted arm—an explosion of need, of fight, of bloody hunger. The ground beneath her knees in the real world cracked as she arched with the pain, jaw clenched so tight her teeth squealed.

Out of the corner of her eye, reality sliced through. She used all of the Concentration she could to focus on Mrs Eceer, to wait it out until her thoughts were anything but pain.

Mrs Eceer moved. Not like a warrior. Like a surgeon. Her hands flicked in precise arcs, and at just this angle, Tanya could see the shapes she drew in the air with her fingertips. They sealed some opening in the barrier just as something slammed into it from the outside. A flash of blue light rebounded off the shield and sent shadows sprawling across the floor.

Tanya saw the crack spread up the wall.

And then her arm surged harder.

She screamed, slamming it into the ground. The floor dented. Her elbow buckled. She grabbed her own wrist with her free hand and pulled, like she could dislocate the damned thing—like if she could just disconnect the limb, she'd be safe. The blood spilled down her arm from her pressure on the blade, but she couldn't feel it, just see it.

She closed her eyes. Reached inward.

There it was. A knot of wrong. A dense mass of heat and instinct coiled in her head, clinging to muscle and memory. She grasped it, smothered it out, trying to rid the light from it. Blackness almost overcame her, and she released it.

No, that isn't the sword; it's part'a me.

She looked again but spread her awareness further. She could tap into Concentration. It was a feeling just like when she used to be three hours into a sketch and suddenly realised it had gotten dark outside a long time ago. There were more of them—sections of her brain lit up.

Her body twitched again—shoulder jerking as the thing made another bid for control. Her back arched, her teeth chattered with the effort of holding it back. Then, nothingness. It felt like she'd left her body. Her teeth still clenched down against each other, her nails scraping at the wood as she held it together, but the pain was so far away, and she watched Mrs Eceer once more.

Mrs Eceer didn't even look. Her eyes stayed on Tanya. "Get it out!"

Tanya nodded, barely.

"Push. All of it."

Tanya clenched her fists. Her fingernails dug into her palm.

It felt like trying to vomit out her own heart. She pushed, not just against the presence, but through it—pouring everything she had into a single thread of resistance. She thought of every fight she'd ever crawled out of. Every moment she didn't run. Every refusal to back down.

Her insides twisted—violently.

Pain erupted behind her eyes. Her corrupted arm bucked and flailed, striking the wall beside her, leaving a long, shallow gouge through brick.

But Tanya didn't stop. She pushed again. "Too much," she whispered through clenched teeth. "Take all of it, you bastard. Choke on it."

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One more pulse. One more surge of Will. It burned—left her trembling.

And then a snap.

Not a noise, but a sensation. The tension broke. Her breath returned in a wave. Her shoulder sagged. Her arm was still there—it looked exactly like before the sword but she was struggling to move it.

She collapsed, half-conscious, her body shuddering as the remnants of the fight bled out of her. Her blinks came slower and slower; between each one, she saw flashes of Mrs Eceer.

The woman dropped low and slammed both palms against the floor. A pulse radiated from the impact like a soundless thunderclap. Every circuit in the room flared at once. Traps Tanya hadn't even noticed before lit up—shapes in corners, straight lines chalked into furniture edges, patterns hidden in the grain of the wood.

She blinked again. When her eyes opened, Mrs Eceer was already at the barricade, slapping a palm up to one of the holes. Red light glowed at the edges of her hand, some energy bleeding through from whatever she was creating on the other side.

Weaponised barriers?

Another blink. Movement pulled Tanya's eyes away.

A monster was clawing around the barrier at the back door. Larger than the rest, its chest heaved with every breath, ribs visibly pulsing in time. It didn't claw with its front legs like the other hellhounds. Instead, it braced on the smaller limbs, then hurled its massive haunches forward, driving swordlike back claws into the barrier. Holographic light scattered with every impact, like some kind of video game particle effect.

Tanya looked back. Mrs Eceer was still slapping her palms into the openings—over and over.

She hadn't seen it.

Tanya blinked again without meaning to. She fought to reopen her eyes, but the sound came first. The barrier collapsed before she saw it in a sound of shattering glass and the heavy thud of something massive pushing through. The sound of the barrier breaking was so sudden that Tanya's heart skipped, her body jolting in response. Her eyes were so heavy. Everything begged her to give in and keep them closed, but she strained her head to see what was happening.

Mrs Eceer's face was a mask of disbelief, her mouth half-open, her hands still poised as if trying to mend the breach that was no longer there.

The beast surged forward, a grotesque, hulking form. The closer it got, the more Tanya saw. The bones of its spine stuck out further than was natural, with jagged spines. Its chest rose and fell with a sickening rhythm, a growl emanating from deep within its throat. It had more legs than she'd seen before it passed the doorway. Awkwardly crawling through the broken hole in the barrier, each of its limbs scraped and dragged as it pushed into the room. One of its limbs flailed and batted the sofa off the counter as it entered.

A high-pitched shout cut through the chaos. "Get away from my mum!" The words rang out like a war cry, a fierce shout from a high pitched voice.

Fahad. He stood on top of the counter, his arms raised high, wielding a lantern at the end of a heavy mace. The lantern swung wildly in the air, the chain rattling with every desperate twist.

Tanya's heart lurched in panic, her breath catching in her throat. "No."

"Fahad, no!" Mrs Eceer cried, spinning around in an instant. Her hands shot forward, ready to conjure another barrier, but before she could cast the spell, Fahad launched himself at the creature. He swung the lantern with a strength that didn't belong to him. The metal lantern collided with the beast's shoulder with a sickening crack.

For a moment, time seemed to freeze.

The beast howled, its claws reaching for Fahad, but the lantern burned with a fierce, golden light as it connected with its flesh. The heat of it blistered the air, and the monster staggered back, jerking away from the boy with a guttural hiss. The blow had landed right on its ribcage, where the lantern's light burned into its mottled skin, scorching it.

Fahad's face was twisted in fear and determination, but there was no hesitation in his movement. The boy yanked the lantern back and swung again, harder this time, his small frame using every ounce of force he could muster. The lantern hit its mark—right in the beast's exposed throat.

The creature stumbled, groaning with pain, its grotesque limbs flailing to stay upright. It roared, but this time, it was a sound of injury, not just rage. The heat from the lantern burned through its scales, leaving smoldering marks in its wake.

Mrs Eceer was already there, moving faster than Tanya could track. In a blur, the wizard's hands sliced through the air, pulling at strands of light, weaving them together in a shield around the boy. It wasn't enough to completely protect him, but it slowed the monster's next strike long enough for the beast to falter.

Tanya blinked, her senses still reeling. The adrenaline of the moment sliced through the fog of exhaustion. She pushed herself up, her arms shaking but willing herself to move, to do something.

"Fahad!" she rasped, her voice hoarse. "Get back!"

But the boy wasn't done. He swung the lantern again, his small face set with a wild, determined glare at the monster. "Don't hurt my mum!"

The creature's claws came down in a slashing arc toward him, but just as the beast's limbs descended, the boy's swing connected once more, this time with the creature's wrist. The impact was powerful enough to make it recoil, the monster letting out a screech of frustration.

Mrs Eceer's hands flurried, her eyes wide with focused intensity as she threw barriers into the air—quick, layered shields that shimmered against the beast's next attacks. Her hands shook from the strain, but her eyes never left the boy.

Fahad raised the lantern again. It glowed brighter than before.

The monster was reeling.

Tanya finally pushed herself fully up from the floor. Her hand touched the spectral blade beside her, and its ribbons brushed her arm, caressing as gently as before. She jerked back, the sensation making her feel sick. It was all she had, but she didn't need to check her Will to know it was still low. So, instead of picking it up, she ripped off the plank under her. She groaned at the stiffness and pain but pushed through. Then she held the plank high above her head and jabbed it down into the sword.

The ribbons worked on it in a frenzy, swallowing the sword whole and growing longer and longer as they did until they cocooned around it. It floated a foot above the ground, the wood reshaping into a sword just as it had before. She craned her neck to look at it, hand poised to catch it when it fell.

Something else grabbed it first.

Flying through the room faster than Tanya could process was a floating hand. Phantom Brand locked in its grip, Assistant propelled itself at the monster faster than Tanya could react.

The blade slid into the monster's chest like warm butter, then twisted with a sickening wet crack as it drove into the creature's chest. It was over before the beast even knew it had been struck. The monster's massive form shuddered once, then crumpled to the ground, lifeless, its hulking body slumping against the barrier.

Tanya barely had time to register the victory before another monster fell.

Then another.

The two creatures still clawing at the edges of the broken barrier dropped like dead weight, their limbs going limp in a synchronized collapse. Tanya scrambled to the boarded window, barely keeping herself upright as she crawled toward the crack between the planks.

She peered through, eyes wide, mouth dry.

One by one, each of the beasts outside fell as well, their hulking forms dropping like marionettes with their strings cut. The ones farther away—ones she hadn't even seen yet—fell as if the death of the first had sent a shockwave through their very essence. They went down in quick succession, all of them succumbing to the same invisible force.

Achievement: Mini Boss Slayer

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