I’d relied on Physical Augmentation before, but it still drew directly from my own personal store of Vigor. I needed a way to use my new Environmental powers to boost my defenses and keep my energy ready for the fights to come.
Hamon reduced yet another demon to a spray of ashes, and I recalled the first time I’d fought my old nemesis with a new element. I reached out with Compress Ash and took the ankle-deep blanket of carbon from the ground at my feet. A touch of Environmental Vigor fortified the technique, and I shaped the ashes into a suit of armor. Smooth, polished ash latched onto my feet, raced over my skin like water, and hardened into obsidian-like plates. The Immense Blades were left untouched.
A demon slipped past an attack from Hamon, and its blade skated off my new armor with a shower of spikes. I kicked the monster’s legs out from under it, pierced its throat with the Sundered Heart, and incinerated its body with an Untamed Torch. The demon’s remains latched onto my ankles, formed itself into greaves, and finished my protective coating with a second layer.
Hamon halted his onslaught and stared at me for a long moment. “You have outdone yourself, Swordslinger,” he said quietly.
“Stop complimenting me. It’s weird.”
I peppered a demon to his right with a spray of Stinging Palm thorns. The wooden projectiles caught fire as Vesma hit the creature with a bolt of Untamed Torch, and I turned to the others. Mahrai’s golem stomped forward. Chunks of its joints had vanished in the attack, but it still looked more than ready to bowl over more demons. Vesma swept her hair out of her eyes and spun her spear to intercept a demon’s attack.
“I’m going in,” I said. “We need to stop the source, or we’ll be out here all night.”
Vesma nodded, pushed fire through her new spear, and decapitated the demon. “We’ll keep them busy. If we can draw more of them out into the open, then it’ll take the pressure off you for a few minutes.”
“Not that you really need it,” Mahrai said. “Get in there, Ethan.”
I flashed them a grateful smile and broke into a sprint. Demons sprang at me from all sides, but their claws couldn’t pierce my new armor, and the Sundered Heart made short work of them. Hamon joined me, shoved aside groups of monsters with waves of fire, and we reached the doors together.
I sheathed the Sundered Heart at my side and pushed outward with my palms. A trickle of Crashing Wave sprinkled from my skin but then caught the raw Vigor around it like a match. A few drops became a torrent of clear water, and the technique slammed into the demons as they streamed through the door. I directed the wave with a flick of my fingers, bowled their feet out from under them, and swept them away from the doors.
Hamon let loose another burst of fire. Steam filled the doorway, blinding the demons and scalding their flesh. I tucked in my head, used a little Physical Augmentation, and barged through the entrance to the castle. I caught a demon on my left pauldron on the way in and smashed it into a wall. Its claws raked over my ash armor futilely. I swept its feet out from under it, drew the Demure Rebirth, and busted its skull with a vicious blow. Steam filled the hallway, half-obscuring my sight, but Hamon’s fiery figure was impossible to miss.
“Follow me!” he shouted above the din.
I ducked under a sword, dislocated a demon’s knee, and shoved it aside. We sprinted down a staircase into a long corridor. Torches flickered in sconces along the walls, and red tapestries fluttered at the violence of our appearance.
“Do you know where Cinder is?” I asked.
Hamon caught the danger in my tone and shook his head. “I know where she’s likely to be, Swordslinger. The dungeons are the hardest place to reach in the entire castle, and the easiest to defend. Come, I’ll show you the way.”
We started down the long, narrow corridor, but a pack of demons appeared around the corner. I recognized the creatures. They weren’t the Lesser Demons that had swarmed us en masse earlier. The Greater Soldiers snarled, and their bulkier muscle stretched under their armor-like fur as they swarmed through the hallway.
I switched my warhammer for my sword and reached out to the torches around us. Flame Empowerment built the small fires into a raging inferno, and I added a touch of raw Vigor to the fire. Hamon sent a blue-white Burning Wheel into their midst that turned the tapestries to ash. The fire cleared a second later, and the only thing left of the demons were their ashes and white-hot weapons on the floor.
We sprinted down the hallway, took a right turn, and ran headlong into a tighter pack of Greater Soldiers in a small mess hall. Two long tables were in the center of the room, and a cluster of chairs stood around them. Three humans dived for cover and flicked Untamed Torches at us over the dining table as Hamon and I took on the demons. A fireball hit my side, flared up into a pleasant wave of heat, and dissipated against my ashen armor.
“Want some exercise?” I asked Yono as I pulled my trident from the harness.
“Oh, yes please, Master,” she replied smoothly. “I’ll happily do anything you ask.”
I smacked a demon in the face with the shaft of the trident and washed the air of the mess hall with a thick Acid Cloud. Human shrieks echoed through the hall, and the demons forged blindly toward me.
Whips of pure flame snaked from Hamon’s hands, and he ripped a Greater Soldier in half
