A dozen more demons swarmed me. I waited until the last moment to draw them in, then used Hidden Burrow to sink into the ground and out of reach. With the earth turned to mud, it was easier to move around with the Burrow, and a second later, I popped up behind the pile of confused monsters. I wasn’t exactly where I’d wanted to be, but I was close enough. Now, the demons had their backs to me.
I laid into them, lashing out with sword and trident. Horned heads flew. and disfigured bodies fell as I tore through the cluster of demons so fast that they had no time to respond. The last of them was turning toward me, its body mud-caked and its movements slow, when I sliced its legs from under it with the Sundered Heart and caught it through the throat on the Depthless Dream. It stared at me with a shocked expression, black eyes wide, as the water magic of the trident coated it in ice.
I flicked the wretched remnant of the monster into the mud, and it shattered into a thousand frozen shards. It seemed that my spirit weapons were more powerful against these infernal foes.
Priests and golems were advancing on me, weapons raised, so I sank into the ground once more and let a Hidden Burrow carry me away.
I popped up on the other side of the battlefield. Here, Elorinelle had found a vantage point on top of a statue of an earth god, its body built of craggy muscles and its face like the side of a mountain. From there, she was shooting arrows at the enemy, but some of them had spotted her and were climbing the statue.
One of the climbers looked at me in surprise after I’d sprung from the ground. An Unswerving Shadows priests let go of the statue with one hand and channeled a Sandstorm. I countered with a Smothering Mist that turned his technique to mud, and the globs dropped to the ground. The cultist reached for the dagger at his waist, but before he could get there, I stabbed him with the trident. The prongs went all the way through the statue he was holding onto and stopped when they hit the stone. I pulled out my weapon, and the cultist lost his grip before his bleeding body fell to the ground.
I swung the Sundered Heart and caught the other two climbers across their legs. Both of them—a human and a demon—screamed and fell to the ground next to me. The demon clawed at my leg and took a chunk out of my Frozen Armor before I chopped it in half. The human, dragging himself to his feet, drew a sword and swung at me. I parried the strike with the trident, then cut him down
“Oh, yes,” Nydarth said, her voice wavering with excitement. “That’s more like it. Let the enemy’s blood flow.”
“Such strength,” Yono said, her voice smooth as silk across bare skin. “Such skill. Show us your power, mighty Swordslinger.”
“Use us as we were meant to be used,” Nydarth said.
The air around me swirled and filled with sand as Tahlis appeared, spear in hand, from out of the dirt.
“Want to team up?” he asked with a grin. “Or are you too busy showing off by yourself?”
“We’ll use Hidden Burrow together,” I said.
“Of course. Just follow my lead.”
“No. It’s time I showed you what I can do with earth techniques.”
Tahlis wore a wry smile as he summoned a Sandstorm that swirled around us. I channeled a Hidden Burrow, and the ground beneath me softened for me to pass through it. I felt the flow of foreign Vigor as Tahlis performed an identical technique. Standing back to back, the pair of us sank into the ground.
I focused on purposefully directing our route, using a breathing technique to ensure my every action was of single intention. I knew where I wanted us to go, and I didn’t waver from the thought as we shot beneath the ground.
A moment later, we popped up in the middle of a pack of demons.
Tahlis flung out another Sandstorm, temporarily blinding the closest demons. They hissed, growled, and flailed wildly with their claws. I killed the two closest to me with swift stabs and cut the legs out from beneath a third, while Tahlis wrought similar carnage behind me.
I smiled at what I was about to do next.
“Down!” I yelled.
Tahlis had barely finished pulling his spear out of a demon when I activated Hidden Burrow. I wasn’t sure whether the variation I’d used would bring us both down, but it did. We both sank into the ground and popped up again amid a surprised-looking group of Unswerving Shadows priests.
“Death to the Swordslinger!” a priest yelled.
They were all quick to react, and one blocked my first attack with a swift rotation of his long-bladed spear. He counter-attacked with a swing of the butt of the weapon, then flipped the blade around in a slashing arc. I dodged the first strike, parried the second, and stabbed him through the shoulder with the Depthless Dream. The spear fell from his hands, and he sank gasping into the mud. I ended his life in a spray of blood.
“This is fun,” Tahlis said. “But I think that Lord Ganyir might need your help.”
Across the battlefield, the Lord of Gonki led the Pathless on our right flank. He had become a focal point for the demons still swarming from the palace. The cult’s priests clearly really wanted Ganyir dead and were sending all the minions they could to achieve that end. Without any Augmenting or special weapons to help them, the Pathless
