My next opportunity for skill leveling came in the form of a portal break—an instantaneous, D-Ranked one. It unleashed monsters across the old canal from the Colorado River and into some of the north-side neighborhoods, and an all-points bulletin went out to help hunt them down. They didn't want S-Rankers. Low-ranks only. A perfect leveling chance.

I was happy to respond, and joined a team of E-Rankers stalking goblins across what was left of Sun City. It was an old retirement community, mostly abandoned, and the goblins weren't considered a big threat, but they still needed to die. So, we spent three hours in the May heat, killing monsters house by abandoned house. It was grueling, exhausting, and stressful; some of these houses had so many nooks and crannies that we had to clear them twice.

But when I collapsed into a bus seat and let the blessed, holy miracle of air conditioning run across my sweat-covered body, I couldn't help but smile.

I'd done it. All the skills for my next merge were ready. And just in time; the egg had begun shifting ominously in its bed of towels. It was going to hatch in the next day, and I'd need open skill slots for Familiar Bond and the rest of my final merged skill.

The moment I got home, I dropped into a seated lotus position in the middle of the living room and grabbed the D-Rank core from the elf portal. It was time to get to work.

"Whatcha doing?" Jessie asked from the couch.

I almost jumped; had she been hiding from me, or had I just been too focused to notice she was there? "I'm about to merge my fourth skill."

"Oh, cool." Jessie looked up from her math book. "Can I watch?"

"No. No way," I said. "I broke the couch with my first merge, and you're not going to be in the danger zone."

"Then why are you doing it inside?"

"Because…" Actually, I had no idea why I wasn't doing it outside. Because it was hot, and I was sick of it, probably. "Okay, fine. But you have to set up in the kitchen, and you have to keep your distance. I don't think either of my last two merges has been as violent as the first, but I need to be sure you're safe. Deal?"

"Deal," Jessie said. She stuck her hand out, and we shook on it.

I waited until she was safely entrenched behind the 'bar' counter that separated the kitchen and living room. Then I broke the core.

Stormwind School was a violent merge. Everyone agreed on that. But the violence was mostly focused on the merger, not on what was around them. That was another reason to allow Jessie to watch.

It was also, oddly, one of the few that created a 'pocket world' experience rather than being alchemical in nature.

It began with Ariette's Grimoire, out of necessity. With only four skills this time, I'd have to pick the most solid base for the other three to build on, and every single one of them required a foundation of true magic. Ariette's Grimoire would provide that foundation.

I was building a tower. A desert tower, almost a minaret. Something that overlooked the sands and yellow-brown cliffs, protected an oasis, or watched for enemies on the distant horizon. I couldn't explain the reasoning behind the construct, only that the end result of the Stormwind School merge had to be a tower.

Ariette's Grimoire took a similar form to Arjun's Script and Tonya's Binding—a structural, supporting element. Magical runes shaped the sands below, hardening and squaring off a section of the desert. As they appeared, the wind began to rise around us. It howled in my ears and beat sand against my skin.

I needed shelter, and the Grimoire's symbols responded, building a circular tower upward, with a small door at its base and a ladder reaching upward. I stepped inside and climbed.

Focus Casting. The structural supports for the tower's precarious walkway and, above that, the minaret itself. Without the walkway, the Sirocco-like windstorms coming from the south would go unspotted. Without the minaret top, the sands would pour into the tower and choke it.

And Spellblade Affinity, making the tower flex with the wind. Rather than fighting an unstoppable force, the tower gave just enough, like a tree in the breeze. It bent, bowed, but didn't yield. Instead, it found another way forward. A different way. Where it couldn't fight directly, it redirected. Where it couldn't redirect, it offered a different option: attack.

Attack? How did one attack the wind? It seemed impossible, but Spellblade Affinity insisted that, with enough work, it was within its power. With enough understanding of the Laws of the storm. I needed to learn—and consolidate, when I hit D-Rank—more Laws to meet unrelenting power with unrelenting power, but the skill promised that there was a way.

And that left…

Overcharge.

I had a good idea of what would happen when I added it. Everything battering against the tower would increase in intensity. A lot. With Jessie waiting in the wings, this was the most dangerous part of the standard Stormwind School merge. I'd need to be on point, especially because it was almost a certainty that whatever happened after it would be more intense.

I steeled myself, then added Overcharge.

The moment I did, the windstorm went from dangerous to apocalyptic. The sheer amount of sand flying through the air made being outside feel like being buried alive. It scoured at my skin, ripped at my flesh, and tried to drag me off the minaret. I could go inside at any time. Every person who'd failed the merge by doing so had made it perfectly clear that I could open the door and climb down the ladder. It'd be easy. Safe. Painless.

But it would also cause the storm to subside instead of raging even harder. And if the storm didn't rage, it couldn't be tamed. It couldn't be forged into a school of combat.

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So I stayed out as the wind ripped by louder than thunder. As it tried to flay my skin from my bones. As the sands piled up around the base of the minaret.

Then it stopped.

The Stormsteel Core Awakens. Prepare yourself.

I grinned, spat grit out of my teeth, and kept on grinning. This was going to work.

Then the wind shifted. Hard.

The tower collapsed.

Not like a tower should collapse. It didn't crumble. The dried mud bricks didn't come apart or turn to dust.

Instead, it turned sideways in the air. The minaret came off, folding like a hinge even as it slid freely so the walkway stood on one side of the hundred-yard-long tube, and the exit at the other end. The entire structure sailed into the air as the wind picked up even more. It tossed and turned like a ship on the ocean, and I braced myself against the walkway's rail.

It had been caught in a massive, ungodly whirlwind. A tornado that could have consumed not only a trailer park in the old American heartland, but the heartland itself. There seemed to be no end to the furious black cloud that swirled underneath, threatening to rip me away from my perch and throw me into the nothingness all around me. Even the ground had disappeared, caught up in the massive cyclone's grip.

There was only one possible safety. I had to walk into the tube.

Dust-choked wind poured through it, and the pressure inside popped my ears instantly. If anything, it was more ferocious inside than outside. But it was predictable. The wind could only come from one direction—and that direction was dead ahead.

I let go of the railing, braced myself, and inched forward, around the walkway. Then inside the long, mud-brick tube.

The moment I made it in, the minaret disintegrated. So did the walkway.

I saw the trap here—the loss condition. In order to complete the merge and add the Stormsteel Core's alteration, it wouldn't be enough to ascend to the top of the tower. I couldn't take a single step back. Any hesitation would mean the end of the merge and the loss of all the skills. Worse, it'd mean adjusting my entire build, and doing it in record time. I had no idea when the egg would hatch, but it had to be soon.

I stepped forward. As I did, a layer of bricks turned to dust behind me, and the wind intensified. This time, it didn't feel like my skin was being flayed away. This time, it did start disappearing, vanishing into dust like everything else. I stepped again, and the same thing happened. Again.

The storm was ripping me apart, but I had to continue moving forward. I had no choice. The only way to succeed was to push.

So I pushed. My muscles parted, then disappeared. There was no blood—only dust. My bones lasted almost fifty yards before they, too, vanished. And I kept pushing forward, head down, until it, too, disappeared. All that was left was my Mana core—and the Stormsteel Core. It was here, and it hid behind my Mana Core like it wanted a shield from the wind.

I couldn't continue. But I couldn't slip back, either. I had to persevere.

I needed a windshield, too.

Something in Ariette's Grimoire. A spell, Windsplinter. It was Mana-hungry. If I let it, it would drain me dry. But until it did, it would allow me to take another step. Then another.

I inscribed it on my soul, the same way I had Ariette's Zephyr. It took up more space than the tiny, simple spell had; by the time I finished, well over two-thirds of my core had been filled by the two spells. But I did it, and on the first try.

And, even better, I didn't have a headache.

It was hard to have one with no head, when you were nothing but a Mana core, but even so.

I cast Windsplinter. A wedge of air appeared in front of me, driving the storm apart into four smaller, less powerful gusts. I took another step. Then another. Standing behind my shield, I was able to push nearly to the end of the tower. Only a few layers of brick stood between me and the end. And yet…

And yet, try as I might, I couldn't progress. The Windsplinter wasn't strong enough. I needed more.

Much, much more.

I tried to Overload the Windsplitter. Nothing happened. It wouldn't—or couldn't—get stronger. There was nothing I could do but let myself be driven back. Let myself fail.

Or.

Or, I could try casting it a second time.

The sheer drain on my Mana would be overwhelming. All but impossible to overcome. But I didn't need it to hold for long—just long enough. I steeled myself, braced against the side of the tower, and recast Windsplinter.

The onrushing hurricane fragmented again, and I all but fell into the pocket of calm air in front of me. The tower disintegrated completely behind me as my Mana core and the Stormsteel Core both fell through the suddenly-clear sky.

I opened my eyes in the living room.

Skill Merged: Cyclone Forms

The Stormsteel Core has altered this skill from Stormwind School

The wind. It rages. It howls its defiance against anything that would keep it out, finds the tiniest cracks of weakness and exploits them, breaks apart ironclad defenses. It is implacable. Relentless. Angry. Even the lightest breezes can become forces of fury with time—or with purpose. Using these casting-focused forms to merge wind spellcraft and swordplay builds Wind Charges.

Stormsteel Effects: 1. Lightning Strikes Twice: Consume Lightning Charges to magically echo a cast spell. 2. Saltspray: Consume Rainfall Charges to counter an enemy's spell on melee or cast. 3. Headwind: Consume Wind Charges to add a speed debuff effect to a spell.

Upgrade Effects: 1. Each rank increases your spells' damage. 2. Each rank increases the travel speed of spells cast while wielding a sword. 3. Each rank increases your Mana pool.

Jessie was the first to speak.

"Did something happen? That was it?" she yawned.

I stared at her. "What do you mean, 'that was it?'

"What I mean, you goof, is that you broke the core, then formed it into a pillar about a foot high. Then, it disappeared, and you sat there for fifteen minutes. It was boring—I started chatting with Stephen halfway through."

Sure enough, her computer was open on the counter, and she sat behind it like it was a shield against…apparently, nothing. "I mean, from my perspective, I just spent fifteen minutes fighting my way through a tornado, but I guess I see what you mean. At least the apartment didn't get totaled, and we kept all our furniture this time."

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Listen, next time you need to merge a skill or whatever, can you at least make it entertaining?" Jessie gave me a quick, half-hearted punch to the shoulder. I ignored it, and she continued. "Did you get what you needed, though?"

I pulled up my status.

User: Kade Noelstra E-Rank Stamina: 101/250, Mana: 24/300

Skills: 1. Stormsteel Core (D-02, Unique, Merged) 2. Thunderbolt Forms (E-08, Altered, Merged) 3. Mistwalk Forms (E-05, Altered, Merged) 4. Cyclone Forms (E-01, Altered, Merged) Open Skill Slots: 3

Path: Stormsteel Path Laws: First Law of Stormsteel

It was done. Cyclone Forms would do the work of all four skills. And, equally important, I'd freed up a bunch of Mana from Overcharge and Focus Casting. The merged skill hadn't quite replicated either of them, but I didn't need weapon-based casting anyway. That had always been a perk more than an essential. Replacing Overcharge with Lightning Strikes Twice looked like an upgrade in every possible way except one; I'd been hemorrhaging Mana with every use of the skill, and burning Lightning Charges was almost certainly superior.

The only problem was the same problem every Charge-based active skill had: I'd have to have the Charge to activate it. It'd slow down my initial burst, but the sustain would be more than worth it in the long run.

I nodded. "I did. I'll need to play around with my new skill, because it's just as wonky as the old one, but it should be a lot stronger. I'm down to a single merge, and then I can start focusing on—"

My phone buzzed.

"One sec, Jessie," I said, checking the message, then double-checking it. I stood up and headed for the door. "I need to deal with this. Emergency."

I'd been about to say, 'I can start focusing on ranking up.' But the message I'd just received was from Ellen. And it was bad news.

Ellen: It's hatching. No room for skill. On my way to you. 5 minutes. Help.

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