Queen Mother Yalerox, Paragon of the Hurricane, remembered.

She'd ruled a continent, from sea to acidic sea. Her wants were her minions' needs, her innumerable children swarmed forth from the searing-hot breeding pit at the center of her floating palace, and the world trembled anytime she so much as glanced its way.

And then, she was here. In a cell. Oh, it had the trappings of her hexagonal, crystal fortress high above her continent. Everything was in the right place. Her consorts were physically the same as they'd ever been. Her children still came forth from her swollen, constantly pregnant body. She'd always been trapped there, in her breeding pit. But she'd never felt trapped. Not until her twisted, flawed, corrupted progeny tried to leave.

That's when they encountered the gate and discovered it was closed.

All Queen Mother Yalerox could do was give birth, filling her limited world with sterile, reeking offspring. Give birth, rage, and wait.

When the door opened and her children poured out, the killing would commence. Blood would be shed. And she would be free.

She waited a long time. And she remembered.

When the door finally opened, there was killing. And there was bloodshed. But most of it was her children's blood. They found themselves trapped between a force stronger than Queen Mother Yalerox's will and the walls of a fortress almost equal to hers, unable to retreat. Powerful beings guarded the walls, and for every one her children brought down, thousands died. A few threw off the force driving them forward and reported back. They could only speak of apocalyptic fire, arrows the size of trees, and fighters with armor so thick no claws or teeth could break it.

Queen Mother Yalerox killed those cowards. Their bodies became fuel to birth a new generation.

She hadn't given up on her freedom. She would return home. And if not, she'd conquer the desert outside her portal and the world beyond that. She was, after all, Queen Mother Yalerox, and her children were innumerable.

The fortress's walls would fall.

It was inevitable.

She was inevitable.

Officially, the blue portal outside our apartment was being cleared by Jeff Carlson, Ellen Traynor, Yasmin Gutierrez, and me. But my half-sister Jessie was bending the rules just for me. I was on my own.

She could do that—sort of—because she was technically a Governing Council representative, and so she technically had jurisdiction over the E-Ranked portal we'd found just after dinner. And because after the portal surge that had rocked Phoenix for days, both the Governing Council and the five strongest guilds were exhausted and on the back foot. That gave me an opportunity to try something stupid—and push my skills to the next rank at the same time.

The last time I'd stepped into an E-Rank portal by myself, I'd only been trying to level a couple of skills so I could merge them. This time, I needed to push two of them all the way to E-10, then four to the cusp of D-01. To do that, I'd almost certainly have to clear the portal and kill the boss.

And I wanted to do it alone.

Jessie leaned on her cane, face shadowy and blue from the overwhelmingly bright portal. "Ready to go, Kade?"

"Yeah, I'm ready. I'll make good choices. If I'm not out in three hours, call the rest of the team in. If anyone tries to come in other than them, let them. No need to start a fight over this." I cracked my knuckles and pulled up my status.

User: Kade Noelstra E-Rank Stamina: 300/300, Mana: 390/400

Skills: 1. Stormsteel Core (D-03, Unique, Merged, God-Touched) 2. Thunderbolt Forms (D-02, Altered, Merged) 3. Mistwalk Forms (D-01, Altered, Merged) 4. Cyclone Forms (E-10, Altered, Merged) 5. Sunbeam Bond (E-09, Altered, Merged) 6. Energy Font (E-10) 7. Brendan's Hymnal (E-09)

Path: Stormsteel Path Laws: First Law of Stormsteel, First Law of the Thunderhead, First Law of the Clouded Eye

D-Rank was so close I could almost taste it.

Energy Font and Cyclone Forms, my casting-focused skills, would almost certainly hit D-Rank before I got to the boss. I could practically feel the Law that ranking up the merged skill would get me. It was on the tip of my tongue. Energy Font wouldn't gain me a Law; it'd simply hit D-Rank.

I was already hitting as hard or harder than a D-Ranker. But I needed the rank-up so I could keep growing stronger, keep pushing toward the next rank of portals, keep Jessie safe.

And keep making my dad proud.

Part of why I was so strong for my rank was the Path I was on. I'd learned a little about it from my encounter with the God of Thunder toward the end of the portal surge, but most of it was still a mystery. What I did know for sure was that I wasn't the first to walk the Stormsteel Path, but that I was the first on Earth. I also knew that the lightning dragon was way, way stronger than Earth's strongest delvers, and that he wanted to help me along my Path.

And I knew that the Stormsteel Core's influence had changed my skills, and given me a double-handful of new active ones with a Charge-based resource system.

I pulled up the Stormsteel Core's alterations.

Stormsteel Effects (Thunderbolt): 1. Rain-Slicked Blade: Consume Rainfall Charges to pierce an enemy's strongest defenses. 2. Howling Gale: Consume Wind Charges to add cleaving damage to melee attacks. 3. Flareflourish: Consume Lightning Charges to dazzle an enemy.

Stormsteel Effects (Mistwalk): 1. Flashstep: Consume Lightning Charges to instantly reposition when attacked. 2. Gustrunner: Consume Wind Charges to temporarily increase movement speed.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. 3. Cloudwalk: Consume Rainfall Charges to temporarily reduce incoming damage.

Stormsteel Effects (Cyclone) 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.

"You're sure you're good?" Jessie asked as I looked over everything.

"Yes. See you in two or three hours."

"See you soon. Be careful," Jessie said.

And I stepped through the blue gate into the portal world beyond it.

"Glade," I muttered as the root-bound, wet cavern appeared around me. "Figures. Should be fine. Let's get to it."

I summoned my brand-new weapon and applied my movement and deflection Scripts.

The God of Thunder had blessed me with the sword as a freebie—a sample to get me to come back and learn from him. Tallas's Dueling Blade appeared in my hand, leather-wrapped pistol grip sitting in my hand like they'd been made for each other. When I pushed Mana into it, the electrical blade that appeared was wider than my Stormsteel rapier's had been. It crackled and sparked over a beautifully filigreed basket hilt instead of the plain round guard my old weapon had used.

Thunder echoed down the tunnel a moment later as the blade finished appearing and a lance of lightning lit up the tunnel—and ripped a chunk of root from the wall thirty feet away.

As soon as the weapon was in my hand, I used Sunbeam Bond, and Cheddar manifested.

The winged serpent familiar hadn't grown since hatching. He was still about four feet long, no thicker than my wrist, with feathered white wings shaped like a bat's, but more cloudlike. His scales glowed silver and white, and light poured from between his fangs as he hissed in greeting. A wave of curiosity washed over me as he swung his diamond-shaped head back and forth, taking in the world around him.

"Yes, Cheddar, we're soloing this," I said.

His wings beat, kicking up mud as he took off. Then I readied the Dueling Blade and started climbing. I'd soloed parts of an E-Rank portal before, but this time, I'd be aiming for the boss, not for a few skill levels.

I expected wolves. And I wasn't entirely wrong.

Dire Wolf: E-Rank

It was bigger than the ones I'd fought the last time I'd entered a Glade portal. Stronger-looking. Instead of mange and missing fur, it was covered in black and gray bristles. As it stalked toward me, its yellow eyes locked onto mine; it was just as tall as me, and probably heavier.

The battle trance rose.

I brought the dueling sword up into a two-handed grip, ready to lunge, and rushed forward. The dire wolf did the same thing. I'd expected it, though. E-Rank monsters rarely used tactics so much as let their killing instinct take over. As the wolf leaped toward me, jaws open, I spun to the left. Its fangs clacked shut where my face had been.

The dueling sword whipped around, my Thunderbolt Forms grip giving it extra power. It ripped across the wolf's shoulder and flank. Blood gushed, then cauterized mid-air as lightning surged up the blade. Bristly hair caught fire, and the dire wolf hit the ground, twitching and whimpering.

A single ball of lightning the size of a marble floated around my sword's tip—a Lightning Charge.

My feet skidded in the mud. I let go of my sword with one hand to steady myself as a beam of sunlight ripped across the E-Rank monster. Cheddar was as high up as he could go, blasting away at the dire wolf; the bright light tore gaps in the black and gray fur as it cut across it.

"Good job," I said. Then I conjured a single Ariette's Zephyr. The bolt of concentrated, compressed wind formed around my mud-covered finger, and I flicked it toward the dire wolf before consuming the lightning charge to echo it with Lightning Strikes Twice.

The two bolts grew to the size of arrows, then punched into the wolf as it tried to recover. Bone in its hip shattered, but its wounds were already healing from its Health pool.

I closed the gap and brought the dueling sword's blade up, back into the two-handed grip. Then I lunged. The tip sliced into its eye, and it went limp.

The fight hadn't been a challenge. In terms of rank, the dire wolf should have been my equal. But I hadn't felt threatened at all. My build was performing well above expectations.

Cheddar screeched and took off, heading up the tunnel. I followed him, dueling sword ready. It wasn't a branching path like most morass portals, or a split one like the lithic world we'd cleared with Jeff. It was just a single, long tunnel, devoid of enemies. I didn't even see another dire wolf—nothing but prints, all the way to the surface. Even Mistwalk Forms' danger sense didn't activate.

The last time I'd been in a glade world, we'd exited the tunnel into a clearing. This time, it was a thick, evergreen forest. Moss hung from the branches overhead, and what little sunlight made it through the thick canopy was mottled and green-tinted like a D-Rank portal, leaving shadows behind on every surface. It smelled, but not like sulfur. I tensed a little. I could beat a Serpentkin Broodwatcher easily enough, but a mystery boss was going to be a problem.

I stepped into the forest. Pine needles squished under my boots, and lightning crackled across my sword's blade. I sent Cheddar a mental image of a flashlight and pointed up; he took off, got about fifteen feet up, and cast a beam of light in front of me, like a spotlight. It panned across a mound of dirt in front of me.

The dirt twitched.

A second later, my danger sense flared. I spun. The dueling sword cut into a vine that had draped over my shoulder, severing it. Glowing yellow-green blood sprayed across my back, burning into my clothes like acid. I pushed Stamina toward each wound, dulling the pain, and readied myself.

Hunter Mound: E-Rank

For a crucial second, I didn't recognize the monster as a monster at all. The hillock of dirt and leaves was about half my height, with a single sapling at its top. It reached up into the canopy, where a dozen vines had draped down around me. A half-dozen more erupted from the dirt, blocking my path to the hunter mound.

I dropped into Mistwalk Forms' defensive stance, one hand on my pistol grip and the other behind me. The dueling sword was a touch longer than my rapier, and a bit heavier. My first parry was a beat slow, and a vine lashed across my face and chest. The Stormsteel breastplate took some of the punch, but I tasted blood and my nose cracked painfully. I ignored it.

My second parry was faster. By the third and fourth, I'd figured out my new weapon, but even so, there were a dozen attackers and only one of me. I used the Rainfall Charge I'd gotten from defending myself to use Cloudwalk, slowing the incoming attacks I couldn't block and reducing them from punches to slaps.

Then I got to work. I switched stances to Cyclone and immediately cast Thunder Wave. Tendrils of electricity connected from me to every vine near me, and lightning surged into them. With so many targets, the damage was minimal; Thunder Wave split its damage on everything in range. But it was enough for two things.

First, it knocked the vines away and gave me a second to breathe. And second, it gave me a single Wind Charge.

I switched to Thunderbolt Forms and, in the second I had before the vines closed in around me again, I consumed the charge.

Howling Gale activated. I slashed into the nearest vine, and wind blades cleaved onto all the ones near me. Chunks of vine scattered around me, spraying acidic blood across the forest. Tree branches melted and bark hissed and splattered as the acidic blood liquified it.

But the hunter mound was still alive. It started dragging itself away from me, tentacle-like vines already resprouting. I didn't want to give it the chance to recover, so I lowered my head, let the acid rain down on my back, and rushed the monster. A single lunge cut through its leafy exterior, and it shuddered. A half-grown vine lashed toward me, but a sunbeam cut across it before it could hit.

The other half-grown vine hung in the air overhead, then crashed to the ground. It twitched a few times, but when I stabbed the monster's body again and lightning ripped across it, its appendage went still.

Stamina: 231/300, Mana: 341/400

I'd burned far too much Stamina on that fight; the acidic blood and beating vines had hurt! But if I was smart, I'd be okay to fight the boss, whatever it was.

"Okay, Cheddar," I muttered, "let's be on the lookout for more of those—and let's find that boss before this place wears me down."

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