Ellen stumbled on the cobblestone street, and another shimmering red specter disintegrated.

She resisted the urge to say something. It wasn't as if everyone else wasn't triggering the specters. Even Kade—who had it easiest, since he was up front and could, in theory, see them better—had broken up a few.

But even though he'd mentioned the strange feeling a long time before anyone else, now even Ellen was feeling it every time a specter died. It felt like an unsettling in her stomach. She wanted to vomit uncontrollably, but only for about half a second. Just long enough to taste the bile, but not long enough to actually clear anything out. It felt like the time she'd caught the flu, and spent two days in bed before Bob had finally called a doctor to take a look. She'd been seven, and she still remembered it vividly.

It was awful. And now it was happening every few seconds. The streets were too crowded to avoid them all.

"We need to get out of here," she mumbled. "This place is killing us."

Kade nodded. He looked pale and a little green around the edges. "Agreed. But I think the fastest way out is the boss. The, uh, mini-boss might've had the exit sealed, but we're well over an hour from getting back to it. We've cleared our two objectives. Now we need to take care of business for the Governing Council."

Kade was right. Ellen knew he was right. But another wave of bile hit her as Sophia made an apologetic sound behind her, and as she swallowed it down, there was a moment—just a quick, blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment—where she wanted to kill the healer for making her suffer. She was why they were here, after all.

Then Sophia offered her a clear plastic bottle.

Ellen took a sip from the healer's nearly-empty water bottle, swished it around, and spat it out. "Let's just get this done. Fast."

Ellen was right.

I knew she was right, but it wasn't like I could track down the portal's boss—not in these winding streets. The Eldritch City portal world was a mess. A maze of streets that all looked the same. Worse, it resisted marks. Even Bindings only held on for a few minutes before the world consumed them, leaving nothing behind.

As I turned a corner, another specter walked straight into me. It had to be the twentieth I'd hit; they were almost enough to make me miss the Shoggoth we'd pinned down and lit on fire five minutes ago. At least we could fight it.

But this time, as it disappeared, the bile didn't rise in my throat.

Nothing happened.

And then, everything did.

A deep rumbling shook the ground below my feet. I held up a hand. Ellen and Jeff stopped instantly, with Yasmin freezing a half-second slower. The GC team—including Sophia, who'd seemed both desperate to talk to me and terrified of doing it—took a few seconds longer. "Something's coming," I said.

The moment I finished my sentence, the buildings on either side of me exploded upward. Bricks and wooden beams and hundreds of tons of plaster threw themselves dozens of feet into the air, angled away from us. The explosion was silent; the crashing rubble smashing through roofs and walls all around us wasn't. It echoed across the city, and this time, when the wave of nausea hit me, I couldn't swallow it down.

Neither could anyone else. It was like a toxic, fetid smell in my nose, a bitter taste on my tongue, and a punch to the stomach. A hundred specters had to have died in the explosion. A thousand?

No. All of them?

The street dropped out from under us, and we fell.

The ground we hit was surprisingly squishy, considering it was cobblestone.

"Any broken bones?" Jeff asked. Sophia shook her head, and the tank nodded. "Missing limbs, severed veins? No? Great. Get ready."

"For what?" Yasmin asked. "And what is that sound?"

Jeff didn't answer, and I looked around. We were in a mirror of the city. Yellow-gray mist hung in the air, a mirror of the reddish fog that had choked the city's streets. And overhead, a yellow ring circled the sky. It felt quiet. But it wasn't. An infernal, incessant buzzing filled my head, like a thousand bees had decided to move in. "You're hearing it, too?"

"Yes," Yasmin said.

I nodded. "Okay, it's not just me." Then I looked around. The buildings that lined the street seemed…fake. Like they were facades, unfinished inside and—

"Look out!" Sophia screamed.

I ducked.

And a knife jammed into the cracks in the cobblestone right in front of me.

A knife attached to a hand wrapped in filthy, pus-covered bandages. A hand that led up into a tattered cloak. And a cloak whose hood wrapped around a featureless porcelain mask that stared at me eyelessly.

City-Killer Wellan: C-Rank

Red mist welled up around the boss, and he vanished, seeming to sink into the street.

"Where'd he go!?" Jeff shouted as his sword cut the air and bounced off the stones near my feet.

"I don't know," Ellen said. Behind her, Sophia's eyes glanced around, flicking from one empty, open door to the next. Every one of them led to nothing but blackness.

I readied myself. The Stormsteel armor went on, and Tallas's Dueling Sword flickered to life in my hand. "He's a striker. An assassin. Movement magic, a dagger for landing a single, lethal blow. Watch each other's backs and—"

My danger sense surged. I flicked the sword over my head, and City-Killer Wellan disappeared in another red cloud as the tip punched through his robes. Then he reappeared, dagger already stuck in Arturo's chest. The man screamed in pain as the boss twisted the knife and blood sprayed in the air.

I ignored it. Either the bard support would be okay long enough for Sophia to get there, or he wouldn't. Jeff did not ignore it, though. He charged. His shield lashed out, then his sword. Neither hit. Instead, the boss disappeared again.

But as it did, I saw it. The red mist he'd left behind wasn't just mist. As it disappeared, I saw it for what it was. Bodies. Translucent, red bodies. Just like all the specters we'd accidentally—and intentionally—destroyed. "He's fueled by the specters!" I shouted.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Sophia rushed Arturo's thrashing, screaming form. Her hands sank into the wound on his chest, touching muscle and bone. "Okay. Okay. You're okay," she kept repeating. I wasn't sure if she was trying to reassure herself or the support.

"What do you mean?" Jeff asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know. But I think we can't kill him until he runs out of specters to use."

"What? And how many does he have?"

"No idea. A lot? Form a circle, and get ready," I said.

We circled up, with Yasmin, Sophia, and the injured Arturo in the center and the rest of us on the points. I stared at Ellen for a second. She didn't have any combat training, really; it was all but a guarantee she'd be the next person targeted in this formation, and she was on the wrong side of the circle. "Douglas, switch with me."

"Huh?" the fighter said.

"Switch with me. The boss is going to target—"

Before I could finish, Jeff's shield lashed out and caught the dagger; I watched a quarter inch of the blade punch through a hair's breadth from his arm—and a foot from Ellen's face. Jeff's sword punched forward. The boss vanished again, leaving a spectral cloud behind.

"It's going after the easiest target every time. We need to position so Ellen's the bait," I finished.

"What?" Ellen asked. Her eyes flicked to Arturo, who was covered in blood but had, mercifully, gone unconscious. "You want me to be next? No way!"

"You don't have a choice. The boss is targeting you one way or another," I said. "All we can do is protect you."

She looked around at the dark doors and windows that surrounded us and the cobble at our feet. I lashed out with my sword, slicing the air as the boss materialized—only to disappear as soon as my blade touched his neck. Then Ellen nodded shakily. "Just keep it off me."

City-Killer Wellan was Jeff's worst nightmare.

A boss he couldn't properly defend against—even with Yasmin's speed and deflection buffs—and that Kade couldn't kill. It had already put one of their ad-hoc teammates out of commission, and only their ridiculous defensive positioning had kept it from getting to Sophia.

He hated it. Hated that someone who was his responsibility had gotten hurt when he'd had a shield close enough to help. Hated that he couldn't do anything to help Arturo. Hated that Kade's battle strategy was so passive.

Kade had to be missing something. Anything. This couldn't be a portal boss. If a team screwed up badly enough, it wouldn't be survivable. That was fine. But the inevitability wasn't. It was worse than the trap portal. At least those deaths had been quick. This looked like it'd be slow and painful.

Something hit his mind. A realization.

"Kade," he said. "The boss attacked you first. You're not the weakest. In fact, you might be the strongest. So, why you?"

Why me?

Jeff was right. It didn't make sense to target me. Not after I'd put on my armor and gotten my sword ready. I was probably the second-toughest target. Maybe Douglas was tougher; he had a few pieces of E and D-Ranked armor in addition to his halberd. And Jeff was definitely harder to kill.

But there were at least four people more vulnerable than me.

I parried another stabbing attack aimed at Ellen's face as she flinched. I couldn't blame her; the crackling dueling sword was close enough that lightning arced from it to her hair, which stood straight up wherever it wasn't tied back.

Then I went back to thinking as the assassin disappeared again.

Wellan shouldn't have targeted me. But he had. Why?

It had to have something to do with vulnerability, but not with armor. Not directly, at least. I unsummoned my gauntlet and breastplate, then waited, ready for an attack.

Jeff stared at me. So did Ellen. "What are you doing?" she asked, eyes narrowing.

"Testing a theory."

Then Jeff blocked another attack from the boss, grunting as he threw himself in front of Ellen and knocked her to a knee with his armored shoulder. "Sorry."

I smiled. I was right.

"Team, I think I can trap the boss. Can you guard each other for a minute?" I asked. Without waiting for an answer, I stepped away, keeping the dueling sword ready. "And call out if you see the boss. I need to know."

"Will do," Jeff said. Stress and anger dripped from his every word.

I took another step, then another. Then I dodged, rolling left as the boss's dagger sliced through the air where my neck had been—the air, and my unarmored shoulder. I spun. He vanished.

Everything was proceeding according to plan.

My free hand reached behind me. I ripped a handful of pages from my notebook, then thumbed through them. A single lightning trap Binding remained; I winced. That…wasn't ideal. I'd need to write some new ones, and soon. "Okay, team. I'm going to do something stupid. If it works, we win. If not, you need to get me to safety quickly, then buckle down and wait out the boss."

Yasmin stared at me. She looked drained, and I realized she'd jammed close to a dozen buffs on Sophia. Then she nodded. "Will do, Kade. Good luck."

I put the lightning trap Binding on the ground, crouching with one hand on it and the other on the grip of my dueling sword. Then I waited. Breathed in, breathed out, and waited.

"Kade, watch out!" Ellen called.

I didn't. Instead of whirling to parry the boss's dagger, I took my hand off the Binding. It activated as his dagger punched into my back and stabbed through my ribs. I breathed reflexively, and the blade sliced my lung.

Then I collapsed right onto the Binding. Which activated.

Lightning coursed through my body. If I'd been wearing the Stormsteel armor, it might've helped. But I didn't want it to help. I wanted it to hurt. As my own trap ripped through me and my muscles convulsed, I forced them to make me roll. The dagger caught on my ribs. Pain surged through my body—more than I could manage with my Stamina, and all at once.

But the boss was stuck. He had a choice to make: let go of the dagger and escape, or keep it and stay here. And as the lightning trap ripped through me and up his bandaged arm, it made the choice for him.

I had him.

I let go of the dueling sword—not that I had any control over that. The E-Ranked trap wouldn't slow the boss for long. I had to force my body to cooperate. My core strained, and Mana erupted all around me as I cast Thunder Wave on Wellan.

The boss tried to vanish again. I felt it happening. But even though a cloud of red mist appeared as he consumed specters to disappear, he didn't.

Instead, a halberd crashed down on his hood, hard enough to crack bone. It encountered almost no resistance; instead, it rang off the cobbles below.

Wellan rolled. His cloak ripped free from his head, and his mask clattered across the cobbles, revealing a yellow-fleshed man wrapped almost completely in bandages. I watched through almost-shut, tear-filled eyes as his daggerless hand reached for his waist, then stopped as squares of shadow danced their way across him. Everywhere they opened wounds, his bindings seemed to disintegrate.

Inside was a single specter, transparent and red.

At least, there was until Jeff stabbed it in the face.

Three minutes later, Sophia had her hands clean enough to work on me. They were warm, pressed against my back, and even though her Mana stitching my lung together felt like agony, I couldn't help but enjoy the touch of healing she provided.

"I can't believe we're here again," she said quietly enough that only she and I could hear her. "You're finally doing what you want to, and I still have to worry about you dying all the time."

"Says…" I coughed blood, but less of it than I had a few seconds earlier. "…says the healer we came here to save."

"Kade, your plan was stupid—and frankly, suicidal. What if the trap hadn't worked?"

"It did, though."

Sophia went silent for a while as she worked on putting me back together. I let the pain hit me, partially because I was out of Stamina, but mostly because I didn't have the brainpower to force my body to cooperate. The portal close timer ticked down, and I listened as Jeff and Douglas searched for the boss's loot. My eyes closed.

Then, suddenly, four hands were pulling me to a sitting position. I gasped as something tore in my ribs. Sophia's face appeared in front of me, eyebrows furrowed with worry. Then Ellen said, "He's fine, Sophia. Kade's a lot tougher than you're used to."

I snorted. Sophia stared, then glared at me, and I shrugged. "I mean, it did hurt, but I'm okay."

"Great," Ellen said.

Sophia's glare only sharpened. "Don't do anything like that again. What would I tell Jessie?"

Ellen shook her head. "I wouldn't tell Jessie that Kade's dead unless I had the body. Not after last time. And even then, I'd wait a few days, just to be sure. Unless I killed him myself—which I might do if he keeps pulling dumb crap like this."

For a second, Sophia's glare shifted to Ellen. Ellen only raised an eyebrow at me. "You know I'm right, Kade."

I thought about it. Then I nodded. "Yeah, fair."

Ellen smiled. Then Sophia smiled. And a second later, both of them were laughing. I wasn't fooled, though. Things weren't resolved—not until Sophia and I had that conversation she obviously needed to have with me.

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