The next time, it was, in fact, different.

For one thing, the portal wasn't in an obvious spot. The GC had no idea how long it had been active in the apartment building's laundry room, but it had been discovered at five in the morning, and no one had done laundry since eleven that night. As soon as Jessie reported it, the council made the executive decision to open it to multiple parties, as long as there was no conflict within, in the interest of clearing it before it broke and shut down half of Mesa. They didn't even send someone else out to check. Jessie had complete control as long as she let the other teams follow.

We were the first team in, but we wouldn't be the last.

The portal had the right amount of golden tint to it, and Karina was still running with us, giving us some consistency for the first time in a while. The moment we stepped inside, a familiar smell hit me. "Morass world," I said before Ellen could identify it. "Stay out of the water. Half the time, it's poisoned."

"Expect leeches, bats, and oversized insects," Ellen said as Yasmin and I buffed up and got ready. I was already searching for the path forward; there'd almost certainly be a rain Paragon in here. The Stormsteel breastplate and bracer stayed unsummoned for now. I wanted to preserve my Mana in case this place dragged on for a while. I could nova an enemy out with stacked Thunder Waves, but only if I had the Mana to go all-in—and the right conditions for it.

Unlike my last trip into a Morass portal, the river of brown sludge next to us moved at a snail's pace. Algae covered almost the entire surface, giving it an almost solid look. I wasn't fooled, though. I drew Tallas's Dueling Blade and poked the thin layer. It punched through with no resistance. "We can't cross this. Let's get moving."

"Got you," Jeff said. He pushed forward under decrepit, skeletal trees and past oversized mushrooms. The stink of rot was everywhere, but it took almost fifteen minutes to find anything worth fighting.

Shadow Wraith: D-Rank

It was hard to describe them. They were cold. Ethereal. I lashed out with the dueling sword as the dozen monsters pushed through tree branches like they weren't even there, but the slash didn't even leave a cut on the thing's body. I backpedaled. "They're physically immune! Ellen!"

An Orb of Darkness crashed into the closest one. That did something; it threw the wraith backward almost ten feet as its cold, almost transparent body went jet-black and solidified. I followed up with a lunge. It caught the Shadow Wraith in the center of its mass, and this time, my sword encountered resistance. Something about her spell had caused it to become corporeal.

I shifted stances to Cyclone, readied a single Ariette's Zephyr, and fired it into the next Shadow Wraith.

No reaction.

But Cheddar wasn't having the same problem. His sunbeams didn't just force the monsters to go solid; they sliced through them like they weren't even there. He dove from above, and the Shadow Wraiths scattered like bowling pins after a strike. It was almost comical. "Ellen, save your Mana," I said after watching for a second. "I think Cheddar's going to clean this up."

She nodded, and we watched the carnage. It didn't take long; the winged sunserpent took less than a minute to hunt down and kill the pack of Shadow Wraiths. Her familiar, Pepperoni, was about as effective as my spellcasting had been—that is to say, just about useless. As he worked, Ellen leaned over. "Think that Shadow part of their name means this is a Shadow Paragon we're after?"

"I have no idea. I hope not. I really need these if I'm going to make it to C-Rank," I said.

Ellen nodded. "I know. It'd be interesting to see what a Paragon means for me, though."

It would. I was curious, I had to admit. And I wouldn't mind hunting Paragons for Ellen if we needed to. But right now, I was on a time crunch, and this was my only way forward.

When Cheddar had finished, he flapped over to me, landed on my shoulders, and wrapped around my neck like an oversized, inconvenient scarf. Then he stared me in the eyes…and burped.

It didn't take us long to find the Paragon. It—she—lurked in the center of a clearing, surrounded by curved-in, spike-topped tree trunks in a crude fence nearly fifteen feet tall, with a mud-and-reed hovel in one corner. The skins of different monsters hung from the walls, along with wood-carved effigies of different monsters—and people.

The ground stank of blood and shit.

Shadow-Formed Lyztrana: C-Rank

She was small. Not much over four feet. Hunched beneath a swamp-colored cloak, bare head almost completely bald except for a few strands of stringy hair that were as much mold as anything else. No staff, no wand, nothing that indicated how she'd be casting her spells. Just two clawed hands, tattered clothes that covered none of her emaciated body, and an arm, shoulder, and half her chest made out of a void so dark I could hardly make out details.

I bit back a curse. Ellen had been right; this was a Paragon, but not the one I needed.

On the other hand, there was a second team, and Jessie—the GC rep on duty—would make it very clear that they needed to figure out where we'd gone, and then search in a different direction if they could. We probably wouldn't see them before they found the boss. That was especially true if she'd let a third or fourth team in, too. This portal was about to be overrun with delvers.

Which meant, for all intents and purposes, this was the portal boss for us. "Ready to get a shadow core?" I asked Ellen.

"You bet," she said.

Jeff interrupted. "Stay focused. This monster's probably more dangerous than—"

Lyztrana howled.

The sound echoed from the spiked, bent walls. She shivered, twitched, and split right down the border between her shadow-covered right arm and the rest of her body. There was no blood, but the swamp's stink faded as an acrid, almost burnt-meat smell filled the air.

Lyztrana's main body—her legs, head, and the left side of her torso—hovered mid-air. Her voice kept echoing across the battlefield as she started to chant a spell. I readied the Stormsteel armor and dueling sword, then threw myself into the arena. We needed to stop her from casting.

But as the spell reached a crescendo, her shadow limb rushed straight for Ellen.

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Jeff tried to get in the way. His sword and shield lashed out, but the Paragon's arm went straight through my friend's defenses. He shuddered, stepped back, and vomited. "I can't…"

Ellen took one look at the oncoming arm with its razor-sharp shadow claws and started running. As she did, she cast an Orb of Darkness. It slammed into the pitch-black limb, which seemed to stagger but didn't look hurt. It bought her a second.

I sent a quick mental image to Cheddar—Ellen, then the winged serpent in front of her, blocking the path. "Protect Ellen," I said. My familiar screeched from high above, and then I was too busy fighting the Paragon's main body to keep tabs on Ellen's situation.

Even with one arm, Lyztrana was fast.

I barely got the dueling sword in between my face and her claws; her wrist came away from the parry bloody, but she hardly seemed to notice. She howled like a wolf, her tattered skirt ripped as she kicked at my chest with calloused feet, and I had to throw myself to the ground to avoid the impacts. I pushed myself to my feet. The battle trance pulsed in my ears. An arrow sprouted from Lyztrana's shoulder. She ignored it, and a moment later, it disappeared as shadowy energy tore it apart.

The whole time, she kept chanting.

The dueling sword's tip whipped toward the Paragon's face. She caught it in her hand, and I dragged the blade away from her before she could trap it. Blood dripped from the wound, only to disappear before it even hit the ground. I stepped back to buy a second to think.

She didn't give it to me. Not until a shield crashed into her face, and a spear tip erupted from her stomach. Jeff and Raul had arrived.

With the three of us hacking away at Lyztrana, she was covered in wounds within seconds. I shifted from my defensive Mistwalk stance to a casting Cyclone, summoned Ariette's Razor in my off-hand, and joined in the cutting. Three quick slashes, all to the Paragon's chest and stomach. Then I threw the air razor straight at her face and consumed the Rainfall Charge I'd gotten for defending myself.

Saltspray activated. Lyztrana choked as the spell she'd been chanting stopped.

Then she started to laugh.

Her body fell apart. Every cut we'd made, every injury she'd taken, seemed to extend until it wrapped around her in dozens of bands of void that matched the arm and torso chasing Ellen. It started from the outside; her damaged wrist fell off, and her clawed hand disappeared.

I jammed the dueling sword into her neck. She didn't dodge. The laughing didn't stop—it didn't even slow. Her arm and torso disintegrated, fading away even as it sloughed off toward the ground.

The process took eight seconds. Maybe ten. And then Lyztrana's body was no more, just a silently laughing head.

Ellen yelled. Loudly. She didn't scream—Ellen rarely screamed. But she did get my attention. "Help!" she called.

I whirled. Where there'd been only a shadowy arm, now all of Lyztrana sprinted after Ellen. The feral-looking hag woman's body was made entirely from shadow, and as fast as she'd been when I'd first traded blows with her, she was even faster now. Cheddar's sunbeam sliced across her chest; she staggered, then dropped to all fours. Her howl echoed again, and she started chanting the same chant she'd cast before.

Something about that spell threw me. It took me a second to understand. Then it hit me as an arrow zipped toward the boss. She hadn't dodged a single attack. Instead, she'd intentionally hurt herself as much as possible. I fired a Zephyr and intercepted Karina's arrow before it could hit.

"Don't hurt her!" I yelled.

Jeff stared at me. Ellen yelled, "What?!" And Yasmin looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

I had a Lightning Charge and two Wind charges. That wouldn't be enough, and it wouldn't be the right combination. And I didn't have time to explain. "Trust me!" I said. Then I switched to Mistwalk stance and used Gustrunner.

My speed picked up, and I rocketed after the shadow-covered boss. I unsummoned the Stormsteel breastplate and gauntlet, but kept my sword in my hand. I needed a Wind charge, but I couldn't get one—not unless the boss attacked me. After a second, I unsummoned Cheddar, too. "Get rid of Pepperoni!"

Ellen coughed, stumbled, and managed to ensnare her familiar within her shadow. I winced a little; she was trusting me to be right. All our eggs were in one basket now.

I dove in front of the Paragon, hit the ground, and rolled. Mud splattered up around me, and I tucked the dueling sword in close so I wouldn't lose it from flailing around. Lyztrana's eyes shifted from Ellen for a second, then back to her. Then they locked on me.

Perfect.

The shadowy monster ripped toward me, eating up space almost faster than I could get up. I slipped in the mud, dropped into a defensive stance, and immediately hit the ground a second time as her claw clipped hair from my head. I was off-balance, and her next attack shredded my unprotected chest. I screamed, then bit back the pain and flooded my body with Stamina. It took a moment of terror to regain my footing. By the time I was up again, I had a half dozen more bloody wounds.

But a single orb of rain appeared on the tip of my blade.

I backpedaled, shifted stances, and shouted, "Get ready, Ellen!"

Then, as the chanting, howling boss rocketed at me, I fired a single Zephyr at her face.

Once again, the chanting cut off with a gurgling sound. But this time, the boss didn't fall apart. This time, she changed from shadow to skin like someone had flicked a light switch. "Now!"

Ellen used Shadow Box. Then she cast it a second time. Then a third. And I launched myself into a furious attack on the Paragon. "Jeff, Raul, her throat!"

We had to stop her from casting long enough for our shadow magic to rip her apart instead of hers.

Raul's spear punched into the boss's neck, then Jeff's shield slammed into the side of her head. I sliced and stabbed. Every wound we landed seemed almost pointless; she seemed to heal them instantly. But she wasn't able to chant—not with a throat more tattered than her disintegrating clothing.

As Ellen layered her Shadow Boxes and Orbs of Darkness, the damage over time added up. The Paragon's flesh began to fall off—and this time, there was no core of shadow underneath. She kept fighting, claws slashing at Jeff's shield and scrabbling across his armor. But when she finally stopped moving, I breathed a sigh of relief.

I'd been right. The spell had been a trick; the faster we'd 'killed' Lyztrana the first time, the more powerful her shadow form had become when her spell stopped for any reason. The only way to kill her had been to prevent the spell from starting in the first place. Once we'd done that, she'd died quickly enough.

In fact, she was so incredibly gone that all that remained was a black marble the size of a ping pong ball. It swirled with dark gray and pitch-black sections, as if it had just been filled with ink and water and shaken around. I handed it to Ellen. "I guess we're done here?" I asked.

Jeff shook his head. "No, we're not. Until we see that timer, we keep pushing and leveling up your skills. I need you at C-Rank."

I nodded. "Got it. Let's get moving, then."

Jessie wasn't stupid.

She was young, ignorant, stubborn, and impulsive. To a lot of people, those traits looked exactly like stupid—but she was anything but.

The guy who'd been watching from behind the GC barrier around the portal she was camped out at wasn't a civilian. She couldn't pin down exactly how she knew. It was a vibe. A feeling. Jessie was pretty sure she'd seen him three days earlier, though, at the last portal Kade had cleared. If she was right, the guy was one of two things.

Her money was on him being a guild guy. Someone from the Coyotes or Iron Falcons, who wanted to recruit Kade—and maybe his friends. Jessie wasn't sure how she felt about that. On the one hand, it'd give Kade the support he needed to be more like Dad. But on the other hand, Kade had made it clear that he wanted to be independent. He probably wouldn't accept, no matter what offer the guy made.

But there was an off-chance that the guy wasn't here for the delvers at all.

And if that was the case, he could only be from the Governing Council. Which, Jessie had to admit, was way, way worse. It meant he might be here for her.

So far, three teams had entered the C-Rank portal in the building behind her. She was thinking about cutting it off at four.

She glanced his way again. The nice thing about being the GC rep in charge of the portal was that she was supposed to keep an eye on the crowd, so it wouldn't even look suspicious. He was wearing a green T-shirt a couple of sizes too big, reflective shades, and a baseball cap. All in all, it was a perfectly reasonable late Phoenix spring outfit, but something about it rubbed her the wrong way.

Jessie couldn't pin down what it was. But she snapped a picture on her tablet, emailed it to her phone, then sent it to her online friends.

J-Dawg: This guy is suspicious. Thoughts?

The reply came after only a few seconds.

User295: That's a cop. You okay?

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