Sally stumbled around in the dark, her muscles aching. She was built for fighting, and this certainly wasn’t her first rodeo when it came to protracted battles. But the inability to eat brains was a terrible hindrance to keeping her energy up.

  She staggered drunkenly to the side, avoiding the swing of a Radoch as she instead lopped off the alien’s arm. The dagger spun in her hand despite the exhaustion, as if it were a natural extension of her body. Three quick sweeps and the giant bug dropped to the ground, bloody ichor oozing from several deep wounds.

  Her horde had been blocking most assailants from reaching her. In the darkness, the Outsiders had become separated. The air was thick with the smell of zombies and dead Radochs. Uncomfortably warm despite being night. The bugs seemed to be able to see better in the dark than she could, but not enough to track her between the trees, roving undead she kept summoning, and the piles of corpses left in her wake.

  Despite the noise and distractions, she caught sight of a familiar red flame flickering about just ahead of her.

  Lurching through the treeline, Sally’s foot caught on an interfering tree root. Her tired legs buckled, and she almost tumbled face-first into a greatsword thrust.

  “Sally.” Humphrey paused before holding out an arm to stabilize her. A bisected Radoch slumped to the ground as he lowered his sword. “This has become quite the bloodbath.”

  “Not even a fun one.” She pulled herself onto his arm. Other than a few silver scratches in his dark armor and an excessive amount of gore, the Death Knight didn’t look too bad. “Handling yourself fine, Pops?”

  “Yes.” His skeletal face grinned. “There was an ogre-sized mole creature with a giant shovel that had me on the back foot, but I never lose a duel, as you know.”

  Sally looked up at the sky through the gap in the tree canopy. The Radoch spaceship blocked the way; the dark metal and dozens of small lights almost gave the appearance of space and stars. “Want to hear something neat?” she asked.

  “I’m all ears.”

  “Bully says he is working on a potion that’ll let me eat the bugs. It just needs refinement, and then at least ten minutes to send it over to me.” She smiled, just imagining having a full stomach.

  It wouldn’t let her turn the Radochs into zombies, but it would at least let her use her core skill - Eat Brains. Not just an execution skill for low-health enemies, it gave her a number of benefits in the middle of combat.

  “I suppose we’ll slaughter until then.” Humphrey gave her a nod and raised his sword. “They seem unending.”

  She glanced over to where he was looking, as fresh Radochs clambered over the terrain and piles of dead.

  Soon, they’d be meals to fill her stomach.

  Theo ran his tongue along his fangs. Not entirely filling.

  He turned away from the worg corpses to face the party still gathered near the campfire. “Everyone okay?”

  The fighter blinked, his head turning slowly from the dead bodies and back to the vampire. “I… think you killed them all before they could get close.”

  Perhaps he had been a little too eager. Then again, he had much better vision in the dark than the rest of the group, especially thanks to the fire. If something wanted to ambush him, they’d have to try a lot harder than these large wolf-like monsters did. A potentially challenging encounter for the group that he had simply waltzed through.

  Theo looked back at the adventurers, and for the first time in a long while, felt so separated from the person he used to be. He was a Monster, after all. Somehow merged into a copy of himself as well, but that was beside the point. Killing the small group would take barely any effort. He could drink real blood.

  Then again, if he was patient and helped save this world, then they’d become part of Sanctuary. They would all get the benefit of being able to respawn, and then there would be zero guilt in killing them. Or at least severely diminished guilt.

  He rested the sledgehammer over his shoulder and grinned, letting the firelight reflect in his glasses.

  How ironic that as the Aspect of Death he was tasked with securing the safety of this world.

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  Sally narrowed her eyes as her thrown Mortis Bomb exploded. “I kinda thought being the Aspect of Life meant I’d be doing less killing.”

  Humphrey crushed the carapace of one Radoch with the pommel of his sword before turning the blade into another. “Difficult to imagine, isn’t it?”

  She rolled her eyes as she commanded her freshly raised zombies to move in front of the approaching bugs. There were far fewer Initiates now, and the sporadic groups of assailants were getting increasingly difficult to brawl with. In the context of being stuck within the masses of an army, at least. In the cold light of day, Sally would have less of an issue sparring with whoever the Radochs were sending her way.

  Exhausted in the dark, it was sometimes difficult to tell at a glance what was a branch or a giant roach arm. It was only the flash of spells and abilities that sometimes lit up the area, revealing how entrenched they truly were.

  “I fear my natural light is something of a flame for the moths,” the Death Knight griped.

  “Well, I’m not leaving you.” Sally furrowed her brow. “We need to find the others and work out how to get Ed onto the ship above us.”

  “Jackie says he was last seen more to the north, but the number of opponents makes it difficult to track. Our shadowy friend doesn’t even appear on the radar.”

  The zombie nodded. At least Edward was still alive. She had enough gusto to use Zombie Apocalypse again, but didn’t want to clutter the battlefield until they were all back together. After firing off an explosive crossbow bolt into an opponent, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

  Her Life skills were still developing. Chuck had been in a constant state of awe of them, as there was something about being an Aspect that shattered his preconceptions about how parts of the System were constructed. The Architect had been studying both her and Theo since their return, but little had come of it aside from some vaguely scientific murmurs.

  If anything, she anticipated another update to their STAR System in the future.

  Sally put her focus into detecting the living beings around her. It was simple to filter out her zombies, as they were her creations. The number of Radochs still out there was briefly overwhelming, as they formed a barrier in her mind. Several different life signatures stood out from this wall of giant bugs. Most of them odd monsters or particularly powerful Radochs.

  Turning her head, she saw the brief thread leading her to a familiar life. That of the demon.

  “North is correct,” she said, opening her eyes and shaking her head. “He’s currently in battle with something strong, and there’s another Monster between us that we should intercept before he is overwhelmed.”

  “Understood.” The Death Knight brought his heavy metal boot down, splattering the head of an injured foe. Without further need for discussion, he turned and began clearing a path northward.

  Sally glanced behind and clicked her fingers, causing all of her risen dead to increase in speed and ferocity. Gathering together, they could blockade the pair’s exit so they weren’t immediately followed.

  The gnawing in her empty stomach continued, but she knew it was only a matter of time.

  Edward cursed under his breath. It was only a matter of time.

  To see a Monster higher level than him had been surprising. While not as dedicated as some of the Outsiders, he had managed to stay in the top percentage of the highest level Players back in Sanctuary - although that was in part thanks to Theo’s encouragement.

  But an actual challenge was something to be savored.

  Or at least it was until he started struggling. He was slowly tiring and getting fatigued from injury. Wading through constant waves of Radochs had been difficult, but he was agile and precise. Even a few of the higher-ranked bugs had just been slow in comparison, and he’d hardly needed to use most of his abilities.

  Then the Monster showed up. Less of a creature and more of a vengeful organism. Edward had been fighting it for minutes and not only had no better idea of what he was facing, but he hadn’t inflicted a single point of damage either.

  The towering mass of pale flesh sank between the trees, trying to pursue him. On one side, a wide blister elongated before popping. From within the slimy hole, a fly emerged. A foot-wide and covered in tiny barbs, its red eyes immediately swiveled to track the demon.

  He had already killed thirteen of them. If it weren’t for his ability to transfer afflictions from his body to his weapon, he’d probably be dead. Despite looking like a hellish mix of a housefly and mosquito, they weren’t trying to drink his blood. The injuries they caused were some manner of sedative. Judging by the appearance of the blob-monster, Edward assumed it wanted to consume his inert form and absorb it into the flesh mound.

  With the flash of his thin rapier, he sidestepped a lunging Radoch and cut through their face. He had just enough time to swing the weapon around to parry the darting fly. The buzzing noise from its wings rang in his ear - a sound he was long past tired of. Purple light shimmered around his body, and he vanished to reappear behind the bumbling insect.

  [Timely Betrayal] took him forward, the end of his rapier jabbing straight forward to pierce the fly like a shish kebab. With a flick of the sword, the demon discarded the corpse to the ground and turned to face the large Monster.

  “There are several people depending on me right now.” He held out his sword and grinned. Blood and ichor soaked through his torn suit. “I won’t let you get in the way of my betraying them at a pivotal moment.”

  “That’s an empty threat.”

  Edward winced and glanced over to his side. The odd, shadowy figure was floating there, eying him blankly. “The Monster doesn’t know that.”

  “You are a demon, are you not?”

  He gave the shadow a shrug and glared back at the approaching threat. “I fail to see the importance of that right now.”

  “There’s a familiarity to it. Like a hair stuck in my mouth that I cannot dislodge.”

  Edward took a deep breath and ran through his available skills to consider which would be most effective against the amorphous opponent. Before he could make his selection, he winced again and turned his eyes to the right.

  The shadow was now right beside him, white eyes within the darkness staring at him intently.

  “Demon, allow me to possess you.”

  Book 4 is now available on . Audio TBC.