Something was in Queen Mother Yalerox's newest tower.

Maybe multiple somethings. A slightly higher than normal number of her youngest children were dying. That wasn't out of the ordinary by itself. Her children were always dying. Even when she wasn't at war, they were being born and dying like background noise.

But her older children—the ones she relied on for war—didn't usually drop dead in the nursery tower. The C and B-Rank ones were supposed to be tough enough to survive the grueling process of raising the youngest ones. They shouldn't be dropping dead. And they shouldn't be dropping dead in multiple places.

Normally, Queen Mother Yalerox would deal with it herself. If it was a rogue child, it would be easy to slap some sense into it, or to kill it and move on. But…

The portal had closed. The trap had been sprung, but Yalerox couldn't feel an overwhelming force inside of her portal world. That meant the thing killing her children was…not the aura she'd fought and lost against outside. And that meant she had time to prepare for its arrival.

Yalerox would soon have her hands full opening the Eye of the Storm. She had no time for…whoever had entered her portal world.

But her warlord would.

Stamina: 213/370, Mana: 84/470

Howling Gale went off. Swordstrokes ripped through a half-dozen C-Rank Broodkeepers as I slashed at the Legionnaire leading them. I shifted stances instantly and Flashstepped the monster's counterattack, appearing next to a chitinous grub as it squirmed toward Sophia and pinning it to the ground with my blade. It screamed piteously, with a sound that made every hair on my head stand on end.

There were so many enemies. In the last hour, we'd gone from an occasional battle against two or three B and C-Rank monsters to entire swarms of them. They'd caught our scent, and we were outgunned by their sheer numbers.

Even Carrol, the A-Ranker, was getting pressed. With so many lower-ranked monsters, he was solo against the occasional A-Ranked one. And I was learning that a monster's rank meant a lot more the higher in the ranks they grew. Some of them died quickly—especially if he had help—but if Carrol was low on Stamina or Mana, they put the pressure on him.

A spear rocketed toward my face. I parried it. Then I parried the second blow. Against a B-Rank enemy like this one, Eugene's advice was the only thing that kept me alive. Both parries were vicious, desperate things that strained my arms from their force.

But the second one opened up a tiny gap, and my sword squeaked through it before the monster could close its defense. A moment later, its arm hung loose from its shoulder, a thin band of ligament holding it in place.

That was all I needed. And it was all Ellen needed, too. Magic rippled across the monster's carapace, and my sword lashed out. It took almost fifteen seconds of pressing the attack, and the arm had nearly healed when we finished the fight, but it was finished.

"Do you think they know we're here?" Yasmin asked as the rest of us caught our breath.

"Yazzie, you're adorable when you're being sarcastic, but—"

Ellen interrupted Jeff before he could finish. "Zip it."

Carrol rolled his eyes. "I think we've done what we can in this tower. We need to start working our way over to the next one and trying to break contact. If we can get a few minutes to recover, that'll help. You all look pretty spent."

"Yeah," I said. My Stamina was holding up, but I hadn't used any spells that fight aside from a single Ariette's Zephyr to get the Charge for Howling Gale. Shadowstorm Battery was good, but it didn't push as hard as Energy Font had, and with Cheddar giving every fight his all, too, I didn't want to drain him.

"I think there were bridges between the towers. We need to head for one of those," Ellen said.

"Right. Let's move." Carrol took off, and I followed—but I couldn't help but notice that both Jeff and Sophia were starting to flag.

The patterns of corpses didn't make sense to Tathrix.

It kicked the body of a B-Ranked Legionnaire, rolling it over. This one had died to five separate sword-strokes, a magical attack that removed chunks of chitin, and a spear thrust that had shattered its skull. The C-Rank monsters that had accompanied it had all died to no more than four and no fewer than two slashes, all nearly identical in angle and size but all targeting different parts of the body.

And the second B-Rank in the dead group had shattered chitin and short cuts across its entire front, scorch marks that looked like burns from being under a star too long, and a single magical impact in the back of its neck.

This group screamed incompetence. A trio of A-Rankers—not Tathrix, but the typical fodder Queen Mother Yalerox created to support it—could have handled them. Tathrix considered deploying such a group for the third time.

But the first two groups had both died. And they'd been killed by lightning and spear-thrusts. Nothing else.

When Tathrix had found the first group of three, he'd been shocked. Three entry wounds, each to the chitin that covered the monsters' chests. Three exit wounds, shattering their backplates as the spear-thrusts broke through. And charred, stinking organs and muscle. Identical. Perfect. The damage was beyond what a normal A-Rank monster—even one that the Queen Mother had birthed—could handle.

The two patterns didn't make sense.

Two groups of intruders couldn't have entered Queen Mother Yalerox's domain. The domain itself would resist it, and even an S-Rank being couldn't break through.

That meant one group, with two teams. Tathrix pondered for a moment. Then it directed the servitors and warriors it had assembled upward into the tunnel, while it began following the other group downward.

Its job—assigned by its queen—was to kill the Thunder God's Pet. It would succeed.

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"We have to get out of this tower," Sophia gasped.

I stared at her. She was obviously exhausted. The sheer number of monsters we'd been fighting had taken its toll on us. Both Sophia and Ellen had nothing left in the tank, and the healer's build was starting to show its weaknesses. She hadn't built for dungeoneering, but for hospital work.

Worse, the portal hadn't sent serious threats at us in a long time. We were dealing with swarms of D and C-Rank monsters now, not the big A and B-Rank ones we'd had occasional fights against earlier.

The rules portals obeyed weren't being followed. This one was doing its own thing. That had to have something to do with the Paragon.

"Bridge up ahead," I said. I pointed.

"No way," Yasmin said.

"Unbelievable." Ellen shook her head.

The 'bridge' was little more than a narrow wedge of packed dirt, half-soaked through with rain from the hurricane whipping around the castle mound. Worse, it didn't lead anywhere except to a winding ramp that wove its way down the central tower.

"We're taking that," I said.

"I'm not taking that," Yasmin said.

"Yes, you are. And I'm collapsing it behind us. That'll buy us the time we need to regroup. The team's on its last legs."

"It's a miracle we've survived this long," Carrol said.

I shot him a look. Then I nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I only expected us to make it a few minutes."

"Then why the aggressive strategy?" Carrol asked.

"Because if we didn't move, we'd get pinned down, and I didn't think there'd be anywhere to hide for a long time. Then, once the portal was a trap—which shouldn't have happened—we didn't have any other options."

"Good assessment. Jeff, you're first across. Then Kade, then the others. I'll stay back and make sure nothing gets across until we're all safe." The A-Rank fighter hefted his spear and turned back into the narrow hallway that exited onto the thin bridge. "Go!"

The God of Thunder was having a great time.

He was hunting. And even with his power-reduced, A-Rank form, the hunting was easy. Just challenging enough to be entertaining—he'd taken a few blows from the most aware enemies—but not enough to threaten him. Nothing in the Paragon of Hurricanes's domain was truly dangerous to him.

He'd figured out what Kade was up to the moment he'd arrived.

The kid was stalling. He was trying to let his teammates take as much power as they could, to force the three of them that could still grow to grow as fast as they could.

It was a good strategy. And under most circumstances, the God of Thunder would have allowed it. But this wasn't most circumstances, and Kade wasn't out of options himself. Not yet.

Until Kade was out of options, Eugene wouldn't accept anything less than the best from his newest, weakest Paragon. After all, if Kade wanted to walk the Stormsteel Path, he'd need to be at his best, faltering core or not.

Eugene ripped his attention off the kid and onto the dying A-Rank monster on his spear. He shook the shaft, and the four-armed, hulking pile of carapace and muscle slid off and crashed to the ground, smoldering and twitching.

He started further downward. Then he stopped.

He had something's attention. The creature's aura was faint, but stronger than the chaff he'd been cutting through. In his current, A-Rank form, it would give him a solid fight. One that might be entertaining for upward of fifteen to thirty seconds. If he reduced himself even more, that might extend to a minute. Maybe even two.

But Eugene had a better idea. He kept killing. But this time, instead of leading his enemy downward, he started working his way up. And his shape changed slightly. The lightning spear and maelstrom armor shifted until the portal metal all but overwhelmed the storm. His attacks burned less and left gaping wounds more.

By the time he'd killed his eighth group of A-Rankers, he was all but indistinguishable from the spearman accompanying Kade.

Everything was coming together.

As Carrol stepped off the sodden, muddy bridge, I fired a Slicing Bolt into the dirt. Then a second one. It ate through most of my Mana, and this time, I did borrow from Cheddar to refill. I didn't take anything from Ellen, though; her Mana was more valuable than mine right now.

The bridge toppled under the force of the wind and the sudden glassification of the dirt. First a little of it gave way, then more and more, until it was completely gone. "That's that," I said.

"No turning back," Ellen added.

We went forward, into the hive castle's central tower.

And right away, something felt different.

The smell, for one thing. It smelled like disinfectant wafting up from the depths below and the craggy, sandstone pinnacle above. I hadn't expected the sterile, chemical smell of a hospital—not after the stench of blood and gore we'd been all but drowning in for the last couple of hours.

But the architecture was different, too. In the smaller tower, the hallways had been narrow and winding, with rooms full of larvae and eggs. But here, the corridors were wide and tall. Fifteen feet across and twice as high. "No one builds that big unless they have to," Ellen said.

"Not true. The rich and powerful build big," I said.

She stopped like I'd slapped her. Then she composed herself and nodded once. "Point taken."

"I'm going to help you with that when we're done here."

Ellen shook her head. "Let's just focus on surviving this right now. Bob can wait. He's patient, and he's not trying to kill us."

"Right." I fired up Tallas's Dueling Blade and kept moving forward.

It wasn't just the architecture. Unlike the smaller tower, this one was decorated. Skulls and massive, jet-black horns covered the walls like hunting trophies. Weapons—every one of them thrumming with the power of the hurricane—sat in display racks. So did armor—the jet black armor Tathrix wore, but also armor that reminded me of the Stormsteel breastplate and gauntlet. It felt less like an insect hive and more like the hallway to a throne room.

And it was completely empty.

Shadowstorm Battery continued working as we walked down the hall toward a pair of massive stone doors. Carvings adorned them, and as I got closer, I stopped to look.

At the very top, split evenly by the gap between the two doors, stood a massive, insectlike statue. She—and she was definitely female—touched the ground, and where she did, more skeletal insects sprang up like rows of corn. Behind her, a storm raged on the sandstone. It seemed to swirl and howl, even though it was completely still.

Her army spread out, conquering the door one row of soldiers at a time. Monsters died under swarms of chittering servitors. Worlds fell apart under the pressure of the massive, all-consuming storm behind her. But at the very bottom, curled next to the floor, was a familiar face.

Eugene.

Somehow, I wasn't surprised to see him depicted here. The Stormsteel Path seemed to have its fingers in everything, and that meant he did, too. "This has to be a boss door, right?" I asked.

"Yep," Carrol said.

"Right." I pushed the door open.

A massive throne dominated the far side of the room. In front of it, a vast pit filled with something that wriggled and pulsed took up most of the floor space. If the hallway had been decorated, these walls were adorned with trophies from hundreds of different monsters.

But there was no boss.

Other than the pit, it was completely empty.

Carrol cleared his throat as we stepped into the room, weapons and spells at the ready. "Spread out. We're looking for—"

A blade erupted from the center of Carrol's chest. Blood splattered across my face as the tip froze mid-air, only an inch from my eye. Then it withdrew, and the man crumpled, more blood erupting from his mouth as he coughed and gasped for air.

I readied Tallas's Dueling Blade.

The bent neck and gray-black armor that loomed over Carrol's body were familiar. So was the two-armed, two-legged body. But the weapon was new. Tathrix hadn't had a sword when he'd stalked us through Carlsbad Fortress.

The Hurricane Warlord's aura flared, and I pushed myself up to a knee and glared back.

"Thunder God's Pet." Tathrix stared at me, and his aura let up. Then his blade flashed in front of him, a serrated portal metal edge longer than he was tall. Both his hands wrapped around the grip. "You really thought to assassinate the Queen Mother? Foolish. This is her domain, and I will cleanse it of you. Are you prepared?"

I took a deep breath and wiped blood off my face as Jeff and Ellen readied themselves behind me. Sophia and Yasmin were on their knees, trying to save Carrol's life. We had to buy them time. "Do you have any gods?" I asked.

"Queen Mother Yalerox is my only goddess."

"Then you'd better start praying to her," Ellen said.

Tathrix snorted. Then he moved. His sword flashed toward my face, and I brought the dueling blade up to block.

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