— CHAPTER FOURTY-SEVEN —

  A Dance in the Sky

  (Willard)

  We charged through the gates of the Citadel, crossing the courtyard and bursting onto the entry platform overlooking the gardens. The air was thick with dust and the acrid smell of smoke. Above us, the top of the curtain wall erupted in a violent explosion, sending a mushroom cloud of debris and ash billowing outward. Chunks of stone rained down around us, crashing through the dried remains of the garden's plants.

  "Keep moving!" Grey shouted. "You remember what happened last time!"

  "Which way?" Liz called out, running for where the double helix bridges split off toward the central platform.

  Grey said, "Lower side; use the cover!"

  We veered onto the lower of the two spirals, passing underneath the other arm, which may have been a mistake. Another explosion rocked the structure, and I felt the bridge beneath our feet tremble. Cracks spread across the stonework, and pebbles fell from the stone above us. But it held.

  And to further reinforce we'd made the right call, as we came out the other side, a deafening crack split the air. Something massive dislodged from the top of the wall and dove out of the haze. For a moment, I thought it was just another piece of the disintegrating wall. Then it unfurled. Wings. Massive, bat-like wings stretched from its freakishly elongated arms to its torso, blowing down bursts of hurricane-force wind right on top of us.

  "Yep, here we go!" Grey shouted over the roar of the wind.

  The gargoyle circled above us. It climbed higher, silhouetted against the smoke-filled sky, then tucked its wings and dove.

  "Incoming!" Nap yelled.

  Flashes of grey-brown surrounded the creature as it swooped low. Spikes of stone formed in the air, then shot at us. Each projectile was the size of a fence post, whistling through the air and crashing around us, embedding themselves several feet deep into the bridge's brickwork. One spike shattered the stone railing mere inches from where Lance was running.

  "Spread out!" I commanded. "Don't bunch up! Makes us an easier target!"

  We scattered across the width of the bridge, weaving between the forest of paling. The gargoyle banked sharply as it pulled out of its bombing run, barely managing to stop itself from slamming into the wall. Its claws gouged furrows across the stone as it swung around for another pass.

  "Central platform's just ahead!" Siegfried called out. "Take the left stairs to the lower gardens!"

  For a brief moment, everything went quiet - we had a free moment before it caught up to us, but it wasn't quite enough to get to the central platform. The gargoyle was closing in from behind. This time, it extended its claws, ready to snatch one of us from the bridge.

  "Hit the deck!" Grey shouted.

  We all dropped flat as the creature's shadow passed overhead. Its claws ripped through the bricks, and here I would like to adjust my size estimate - the thing had to be the size of a semitruck, because the gouges left behind by one of its claws cut a set of trenches along the length of the bridge. Trevor was left stunned, staring at a furrow cut a foot away from his head. Quartz and Lance grabbed him and dragged him on the last leg of the run to the central platform.

  The gargoyle circled back, readying another attack. I could see the stairs just thirty feet away.

  "Sprint, now!" I ordered. "Don't look back!"

  We made a mad dash across the platform, feet pounding against stone as the gargoyle's shadow passed over us again. More spikes rained down, crashing on our heels as we threw ourselves down the stairs. We tumbled into the darkness, landing in a big tangled pile deep in the cave layer of the gardens.

  Once we were out of sight, the gargoyle returned to the smoke above and continued to harass the people up top. That gave us a moment of peace to pull ourselves apart, put our joints back into place, and check for wounds.

  "Anyone hurt?" I asked, finally allowing myself to catch my breath.

  Trevor and Nox both looked shaken, but a quick inspection revealed no serious injuries. Liz was examining a tear in her coat left by one of the spikes. "Not quite." she said.

  Grey hadn't stopped moving. He kept his eyes on the garden pathways around us, hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "I'm not hearing any mobs nearby." he said. "But that doesn't mean they're not here."

  We continued through the garden labyrinth, moving as quickly as caution would allow. The paths twisted and turned between dead hedgerows and skeletal trees. Seeing the smoke from outside, I'd expected the gardens to be in a much worse state, but it seemed the destruction was largely contained to the upper curtain wall. The gardens themselves were merely in the same dying state they'd been in since Halloween.

  Another boom rocked the Citadel as another section of the wall above us was blown outward. Through a gap in the foliage, I caught a glimpse of flames licking out from the newly formed hole, casting an orange glow against the smoke. Our view disappeared after that as we entered the depths of the 'Mistral Mountains' region. That's where the service entrance was, and the doors were hanging wide open.

  Grey pulled his sword from its sheath. "Stay alert. From here on, we're in unknown territory."

  We passed through the doorway and entered the interior of the curtain wall.

  The corridor was relatively narrow - only maybe 10 yards at its widest points - but it was about twice that in height. The base level was underground compared to the motte the Citadel was set on, so that first leg had no natural light. Torches flickered in sconces along the walls at irregular intervals. The passageway curved gradually to follow the wall's circumference with staircases appearing every once in a while to slowly rise toward the surface. On the plus side, the trash mobs that originally protected the area stopped spawning as the bosses were killed, so the way was clear for us. Our footsteps echoed in the emptiness as we ran.

  Once we got to the end of the hall, roughly near where the wall broke around the courtyard and main gate, we climbed up a tall, rickety wooden staircase to another corridor and doubled back toward the west side of the keep. This one stretched up to ground level - narrow slits high in the wall allowed thin beams of smoky daylight to penetrate the gloom. Wooden scaffolding had been erected at intervals along the inner wall - temporary structures left behind by the King's soldiers that had been defending the place.

  Then, after another roughly five minutes of running, the passage opened into a massive cylindrical chamber that extended upward for a hundred feet or more. The floor was covered in iron grates, and a stone ramp spiraled around the outer wall, climbing toward a platform near the top. It had been the arena for the first boss in the wing - and the first one that had cut off our ability to escape mid-fight. Acid had poured from the ceiling during the fight, and, a few minutes in, the grates shut so the place began to flood. We'd managed to kill it on the first try with only a handful of deaths, but after that the Vanguard adopted a policy of only allowing a few critical personnel per fight. Since the raid groups were pulling from the entire Vanguard now, it wasn't too bad, but it was quite the scare at the time.

  Anyway, the room was now empty and served as a checkpoint to access the higher floors by access of an elevator. Or, maybe 'elevator' is too grand of a word - it was a very bare-bones cargo lift, essentially just a wooden platform suspended by chains. It was currently up in the ceiling, having been used to get the main raid group up to the boss fight.

  Grey walked to a large lever mounted on a stone pedestal near the wall. "Let's get this thing down here." He grasped the iron handle and pulled. Nothing happened - and by that I mean the lever didn't even move. It was stuck in place. He planted his feet and pulled harder, his face reddening with effort.

  "Stuck?" Lance asked, joining him.

  "No, I'm just pretending to struggle for fun." Grey growled. "Yes, it's stuck!"

  I moved over to help, and the three of us heaved against the lever. It felt like it was welded in place.

  "Everyone!" I called out. "Give us a hand here."

  The rest of the group crowded around. We pulled together, straining against the immovable metal.

  "This isn't working." Trevor gasped after our third attempt.

  Behind us, Nox cleared his throat. "I just got word from Matsen. The last boss blew up the winch mechanism. They can't send it down either."

  A collective groan rose from the group.

  Grey kicked the base of the lever. "Because this place wasn't bad enough! They had to go and make it even less convenient!"

  I was already heading for the ramp. "It's a long run to the top! You can walk while you gripe!"

  We filed up the spiral ramp, then started down another long and slowly curving hallway. This one, however, was high enough to have positions for lookouts and archers to man. Balconies and short lengths of railing appeared on both sides. The interior side looked out over the gardens, while the exterior ones provided glimpses of the city. It was a good view, too - from up there, you had a clear line of sight across the whole city and into the landscape beyond. On the west side, that was the badlands to the north and plains to the south.

  The openness of the view did leave the positions a little exposed in case of actual attack, and that vulnerability came into focus real quick as we kept running.

  The gargoyle once again swooped away from the top of the wall, banking hard in the air and angling directly for our location. It grew larger and larger, picking up speed through the dive.

  "Everyone get out of the open!" Grey shouted. "Away from the wall! Brace for impact!"

  We had maybe two seconds. Two seconds to process, to move, to find cover. Liz and Trevor sprinted ahead toward a thick supporting wall. Nox and Siegfried darted onto an exterior balcony. Lance froze for half a breath before Carla yanked him by the collar. I dove behind a pile of fallen rubble, pressing myself flat in a nook.

  Then it hit like a meteor.

  A thunderous crack rattled my teeth. The entire corridor shook like an earthquake. The stones buckled inward in a shower of debris and dust that enveloped everything. Chunks of masonry rained down from the rafters, some as large as my torso.

  Through the settling dust, a piercing yellow light cut through - unnatural, sickly, almost radioactive. Then the dust began to clear, revealing a monstrous head filling the newly created hole in the wall. Stone ground against stone as it tried to force its way inside.

  It was colossal - easily a dozen feet tall for the head alone. The face was a grotesque thing, but beyond having an elongated snout, I couldn't tell what it was supposed to be. The stone had been broken, spiderwebbed with deep cracks. Large chunks were missing entirely, revealing a hollow interior filled with something that definitely wasn't stone - a viscous, shadowy purple substance that pulsed and shifted like a living thing. The same stuff as the Heart.

  The entire lower jaw of the statue was gone, exposing a maw of that dark slime. It dripped from what remained of its mouth, thick globs of purple-black sludge that hissed and bubbled when it hit the floor. Where it landed, the wood panels that covered murder holes that the mobs used to drop acid on us blackened and melted away, creating small, smoking gaps to the floor below.

  Above the ruined mouth, its eyes burned - twin orbs of yellow light that swept across our positions. For the first time, I was close enough to see the nameplate hovering above it: Grimm.

  Carla was the first to recover. She stepped out from behind a fallen beam, nocked an arrow, and let it fly directly at the creature's left eye. Her aim was impeccable - the arrow struck home with a sharp crack against the glowing orb.

  Grimm didn't even flinch. The arrow simply disintegrated on impact, turning to dust that was absorbed into that yellow light.

  "Run!" Grey shouted.

  But we were already moving as Grimm pulled its massive head back, scraping against the broken wall. Then it shoved its arm through the opening instead. The limb was even more damaged than its head - the stone was broken around every joint, revealing more of that dark purple substance underneath.

  It crumbled farther as the arm twisted unnaturally, the elbow bending backward as it groped toward us. Stone fingers, each the size of a person, clawed at the air, scraping deep gouges into the floor and walls as they twitched and searched.

  "Back up!" I shouted. "Keep moving!"

  Lance was backing away, eyes fixed on the probing limb, when he stepped onto one of the weakened floorboards. It gave way beneath his weight. His leg plunged through up to the thigh, and he let out a pained yelp.

  "I'm stuck!" he called out.

  Grimm's arm groped toward him.

  "Light!" Grey shouted at me. "Like the gardens!"

  I made a hand sign and immediately threw out the spell ball, summoning a bright flash of light - the same kind that had driven back the shadow creatures weeks ago in the gardens.

  The creature paused - but only for a second. It was like using a bucket to quench a forest fire. Grimm was simply too massive for standard spells.

  "It's not enough!" I called out.

  Grey and Nox were already at Lance's side. Grey braced himself against a support column while Nox grabbed Lance under the arms. "Pull!" Grey shouted, and they heaved together. Lance's leg came free with a splintering of wood, just as Grimm's fingers scraped the spot where he'd been trapped.

  "Move! Back to the chamber!" Siegfried ordered, waving us toward the elevator shaft we'd just come from.

  We scrambled backward, keeping our eyes on the creature. Grimm's arm slithered deeper into the corridor, fingers splayed wide as it tried to reach us. But we'd retreated beyond its grasp, and after a few more seconds of futile groping, the limb withdrew. Through the hole in the wall, I saw its massive form leap away, wings unfurling as it took to the air once more.

  We huddled near the entrance to the boss chamber, catching our breath. Lance examined his leg - no serious damage, just some blue wireframe scratches where the splintered wood had caught him.

  Liz was the bravest; she crept back along the wall to a small balcony and peeked out. "It's gone back up top again." she called over her shoulder.

  I frowned. "So we're safe down here, but it's going to focus on us the moment we try to get up there."

  "Well we're going to have to get through it one way or another." Grey said.

  But Nox said, "Maybe that's what we want." At Grey's incredulous look, he continued, "Think about it - The team on the wall can't do anything because Grimm has them pinned down. But if we can draw its attention- be the distraction - that will free them to act on their end."

  "Rose is up there with the main raid group." Siegfried said. "She'll know what to do if we give them the space."

  I took a deep breath and made sure all my gear was sitting right. "Then everyone saddle up; we're going out there."

  We quickly arranged ourselves into a formation. Grey, Siegfried, and Lance, as our tanks, took the point positions. As a Paladin, I hung back to guard the rear and help Trevor and Nap with healing. On the flanks, we had Nox and Quartz as melee DPS, for whatever use that would be there, while our ranged DPS - Carla and Liz - positioned themselves in the center for clear lines of sight. That was the best we were going to manage so, at Grey's signal, we charged.

  We passed the hole where Grimm had initially intercepted us without incident. That didn't last long, though. Through the balconies, we could see Grimm pull off the wall and dive toward us.

  "Here it comes!" Nox called out.

  We immediately flattened ourselves against the city-side wall of the corridor. The tanks planted their feet, shields raised toward the balconies and openings. I positioned myself in front of Trevor, who was pressing himself so hard against the stone that he might have been trying to phase through it. I closed my eyes, bracing for the hit.

  ... But it never came.

  At the last second, Grimm pulled out of its dive, instead coming just short of ramming us. It latched onto the nearby balconies with its massive claws, wasting no time before sticking its arm in through an opening and contorting it to scrape at us.

  Grey and Lance raised their shields as the hand swept closer to our position. "Back up." Grey ordered. "Slow and steady."

  "Keep your distance." I said, shepherding the healers backward step by step. "Play it safe. Don't let it touch you."

  We retreated in formation, maintaining the protective arrangement as we inched backward down the hall. Grimm's arm stretched farther to reach deeper into the corridor. The cracks in its stone skin widened as it extended, revealing more of the pulsing purple darkness beneath. For a full minute, the arm continued to grope blindly, scraping and scratching at the empty air where we had been.

  Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the arm withdrew. The sound of grinding stone echoed through the corridor as Grimm pulled back from the balconies and crawled higher on the wall.

  "Where'd it go?" Lance asked, still holding his shield high.

  We held our positions, barely breathing, waiting to see if it was trying to lure us out.

  After a tense minute of silence, Liz was the first to move. She crept forward, flattening herself against a wall next to one of the balconies. "Remind me to look into remote cameras later." She cautiously poked her head out onto the balcony. She surveyed the exterior for a few seconds, then ducked back in. "Okay, yeah, it's going for the top again."

  Grey lowered his shield, his face twisted in frustration. "I hate it when they're smart. Why can't these things obey normal aggro rules?"

  "The Heart was somewhat aware of its surroundings as well." Siegfried said. "We'll have to make ourselves a threat to keep its attention."

  "Well, it beats standing in a corner." Grey said, straightening up. "Let's drive forward! If it wants to play games, we'll take advantage of the opening."

  We reformed our ranks and continued down the hallway at a quicker pace. This time, there was no immediate sign of Grimm diving down to intercept us. We made good progress, covering most of the distance to the next stair room.

  Nox pulled up his message window. "Maybe the top side is making progress so it's focused on them?"

  The words had barely left his mouth when an earth-shattering boom erupted behind us. We spun around to see the corridor wall exploding inward in a shower of stone and mortar. Through the newly formed hole, Grimm's leg kicked through and began stretching toward us, bending and crawling like some nightmarish insect.

  "Forward!" Siegfried shouted. "It's cut off our retreat!"

  We continued forward, keeping calm and steady at a light jog. We managed to outpace the physical limb, but something worse emerged from the broken leg. From the gaps in the stone's joints, tendrils of darkness extended outward. They slithered along the floor and walls, writhing like serpents as they pursued us.

  The tendrils were too slow to catch us but moved fast enough that we couldn't afford to slow down. Abandoning our formation, we sprinted to the end of the hall, back near the Citadel's main gate. Ahead, a doorway led to a stairwell that would take us up to the next floor.

  We piled through the doorway, stumbling into a stairwell. The tendrils of darkness were still pursuing, slithering along the floor not thirty feet behind us.

  Siegfried looked around frantically. He grabbed a piece of old scaffolding that had been left against the wall and dragged it toward the doorway. "We can't fight the darkness without the light of those crystals - we have to stop it without touching it!"

  Everyone began grabbing anything not bolted down - pieces of scaffolding, broken crates, abandoned shields, chunks of stone - and piling them in front of the entrance.

  "This won't hold." Lance said as he shoved a heavy wooden beam against the growing pile.

  "I've got a wall!" Liz exclaimed. She rummaged through her pack and pulled out a portable wall dispenser. "Stand back!"

  We cleared away from the door as Liz activated the device and began tracing its nozzle around the doorframe. A faintly glowing outline appeared wherever she drew, marking the boundaries of whatever she was creating.

  "Portable wall dispenser-" she explained as she worked. "Only good for one use, but it should hold long enough for us to-"

  A violent thump against our makeshift barricade cut her off. Something had hit it from the other side - hard. The junk pile trembled, and a few smaller pieces clattered to the floor.

  "Keep going!" Grey shouted at Liz. He and Lance pressed themselves against the pile, bracing it with their shields and bodies.

  Another thump, harder this time, rocked the barricade. Then another, and another, each coming more rapidly than the last. The pile began to shift, threatening to collapse inward.

  "Almost done!" Liz called out, her hands steady as she completed the outline around the door. The glow intensified, and the outlined area began to fill in with a solid wooden surface.

  Grey and Lance strained against the pile, their boots sliding on the stone floor as they fought to keep it upright. Siegfried joined them, adding his weight to the barricade.

  "Just a few more seconds!" Liz watched her wall fill in.

  But before it was done, the pounding against the barricade suddenly stopped. For a moment, complete silence filled the stairwell.

  "Is it gone?" Trevor whispered.

  None of us answered. We held our breath, waiting.

  Lance and Grey took a few cautious steps backward, eyes fixed on the doorway as Liz's wall completed itself and settled into the physics system with a final thunk.

  "Must've given up again." I said.

  Nox was already checking his messages, swiping through notifications. "Matsen says they're making progress." he reported. "He and Rose are working their way down from the top and looking for light crystals."

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  "Good." Grey muttered, rolling his shoulder. "At least one of us is getting somewhere."

  The words had barely left his mouth when I noticed something. A tiny bead of purple-black liquid was seeping through a seam between two planks of Liz's wall. Then another. And another.

  "Uh, guys?" I pointed at the wall.

  The goop leaked slowly at first, forming thick, viscous droplets that clung to the wall before gravity pulled them down, burning streaks in the side of the wood.

  "Well, that's not ideal." Liz said, backing up another step.

  More droplets began to appear, oozing through every seam in the wall. Wherever the substance touched, the wood began to discolor, turning grey and then black. Small wisps of smoke rose from each point of contact. It ate through the wall. Small streams now ran down the face of the wall, pooling at its base. The wood around each stream was buckling inward, warping and dissolving. The entire barrier bulged, as if something immense was pressing against it from the other side.

  "Everyone back!" I shouted. "Get to the stairs!"

  We'd barely taken three steps when the wall exploded inward. Fragments of disintegrating wood shot across the room like shrapnel, along with a spray of the purple-black goop. The force of the blast knocked several of us off our feet.

  Quartz let out a sharp yelp. A jagged shard of wood had pierced straight through her shin guard. She went down hard, landing flat on her face.

  Grey and Lance, who'd been closest to the wall, took the brunt of the explosion. They were thrown clear across the room - Lance colliding with Trevor, who'd been cowering near the back of the group. Both men went down in a tangle of limbs.

  Behind them, the darkness surged through the shattered remains of the wall. It wasn't individual tendrils anymore; it was a flood, a wave of that oily purple-black substance that spread across the floor like living ink, consuming everything it touched.

  "Get up the stairs!" I shouted, running to Grey's side. "Keep moving!"

  Grey was in bad shape. The front of his armor was splattered with goop, which hissed as it ate through the metal and leather. One of his shoulder plates simply fell away, the strap holding it in place dissolving into nothing.

  I cast a quick healing spell, the soft golden light fixing up the health damage the substance was causing. I grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet, giving him a solid slap on the back to get him moving. "You alright, buddy?"

  Grey let out a groan, staggering toward the stairs. "Been better."

  "Hey, you're the one that wanted a more active role in the fights!" I said.

  "Remind me to be more specific next time." he muttered.

  The others were already scrambling up the wooden staircase. Nox was helping Quartz, who limped heavily. Behind us, the pool of darkness continued to spread, the leading edge of it already lapping at the bottom step of the stairs.

  Liz paused ahead of us, turning to face the encroaching darkness. She pulled her MD rifle from her back and fired on the rising pool of goo. Bolts of pale blue mana shot between us, striking the surface of the oily darkness. Where the bolts hit, the surface of the goop frosted over. But the effect was momentary at best. Within seconds, the ice began to dissolve, leaving the flow to rise unabated.

  Nox glanced back over his shoulder at the goop. "How much of this stuff does it have packed into that statue?!"

  "Is that really the thing you're concerned about at the moment?!" Liz shouted back, digging through her pouches as she ran.

  "Yes!" Nox insisted. "There should be a limit to how much it can fill up this room!"

  Liz pulled out a handful of mana crystals and chucked them at the pool. Each produced a different effect when it struck - one burst into flame, another released a shockwave of force, a third erupted in a flash of brilliant white light. None of them made any lasting impression on the darkness.

  "Even the light ones aren't working!" she said.

  The stairs began to creak ominously beneath our feet. It was chewing through the support beams. A section of stairs behind us collapsed with a splintering crack, falling into the darkness below. The gap wasn't large - maybe two or three steps - but it was growing rapidly as the goop continued its work.

  "Move faster!" Grey ordered.

  We scrambled upward, the stairs groaning and shifting beneath our feet. More sections began to give way behind us, the collapse accelerating as the darkness rose.

  Then I heard a yelp and a thud from behind. I whipped around to see Trevor sprawled across a step, having tripped in his panic. He struggled to get to his feet, eyes wide with terror as he saw the darkness surging ever closer, now just a few steps below him.

  I stopped, turning back to help him, but Liz was already on it.

  "Carla!" she shouted, pulling something from her belt pouch. It was a handheld device with a spring-loaded grappling claw at one end. She tossed it to Carla, then pointed at the wooden rafters above. "Up there!"

  Carla caught the device. In one motion, she aimed it at the ceiling and pulled the trigger. The grappling claw shot upward with a mechanical whir, latching firmly onto one of the thick wooden beams that supported the roof.

  Without hesitation, Carla swung down the collapsing staircase, swooping low enough to grab Trevor by the collar just as the step beneath him gave way. In an instant, they were dangling precariously over the rising pit of goop, Trevor clinging to Carla for dear life.

  "Hold on!" Carla shouted, her finger finding a switch on the device. The line began to retract rapidly, zipping them upward faster than those of us still climbing the stairs.

  "Nice one!" I called up to Liz, who was a few steps ahead of me. "Can you make more of those?"

  "I'm working on it, but the parts are expensive. That's my prototype."

  "I'll see if we can get a stipend from the Trade Union." I said. "For the Vanguard."

  The collapse was accelerating, steps disappearing into the gloom just seconds after we passed over them. The darkness had become a surging tide beneath us, rising ever higher, consuming everything in its path.

  Finally we reached the top of the stairwell. A heavy wooden door stood before us. Siegfried reached it first, throwing his weight against it. The door swung open with a groan, revealing another long hallway. We piled through the doorway - first Siegfried, then Carla and Trevor, then Nox helping Quartz, followed by the rest of us in a disordered mass.

  "Everyone accounted for?" I asked, doing a quick headcount. Ten of us had entered the Citadel, and ten stood before me now - battered, bruised, and in Grey's case, missing pieces of armor, but alive.

  For a merciful moment, silence enveloped the hallway. The darkness had stopped rising, the rumbling had ceased, and Grimm's statue shell was nowhere to be seen. We stood there in the momentary calm, chests heaving as we caught our breath.

  "Can you walk?" Siegfried asked, helping Quartz examine her leg. The wooden shard had gone clean through her shin, leaving behind a blue wireframe crack spreading over her leg. She winced as he snapped off the protruding ends.

  "We need to keep moving." Nox said, glancing anxiously back toward the stairwell door. "That goop is still down there, and who knows how long before it figures out how to rise up here."

  "Agreed." I said. "Let's get to the next level."

  We helped each other up, supporting those who needed it. Quartz tried to put weight on her injured leg. "I can walk." she insisted, though she was staggering. Lance and Nox positioned themselves on either side of her, letting her lean on them as needed.

  We set off again, our pace more measured than before but still urgent. We'd made it maybe a hundred feet when Lance suddenly stopped. "You hear that?"

  I froze, listening. At first, there was nothing but our own breathing and the distant rumble of explosions from the upper levels. Then I heard it - a slow, rhythmic scraping sound, like something massive dragging itself up stone.

  Then a massive claw rose into view, latching onto a balcony with a grinding crunch. The entire section of wall seemed to tilt as something heavy pulled itself upward.

  "Back! Get back!" Grey hissed, pushing us away from the opening.

  Grimm's massive form rose up outside the wall, its wings unfurling to their full span, blocking out the light from the exterior. Its head swiveled toward us, those yellow eyes fixing on our group with unmistakable malice. The gargoyle hung there for a moment, suspended by one clawed hand gripping the balcony, the other drawn back like a boxer preparing a punch.

  "Move!" Siegfried shouted.

  The warning came just in time. Grimm's fist shot forward, smashing through the wall with a deafening crash. Stone exploded inward, pelting us with debris as we dove for cover. The blow didn't stop at the garden layer of the wall either - it continued through, punching a ragged hole straight through to the city side, creating a gaping wound across the entire width of the corridor.

  That gave it plenty of space to drag its head into the hallway in front of us, glaring down on us out of the side of its eye. Its shoulders wedged into the opening it had created, one arm stretched into the corridor toward us. We couldn't pass it - and the stairwell behind us was still flooded. We were trapped.

  Grey drew his sword, the steel gleaming in the dusty light. "We hold our ground right here."

  Looking out the hundred-foot drop out a nearby balcony, I understood why someone would jump from a burning building. It wasn't a rational choice - it was instinct, a primal urge to escape immediate danger at any cost. But I wasn't quite at that point.

  I turned away from the drop, drawing my sword and moving back to the group. We formed a tight circle, backs to each other, weapons facing outward.

  Grimm's arm stretched farther into the corridor, purple-black ooze dripping from the cracks in its stone skin. Its fingers scraped across the floor, carving deep furrows in the stone as it reached for us. The hallway filled with that strange, acrid smell that emanated from the darkness within the creature.

  Then a high-pitched whistle cut through the air. Something white and luminous streaked through a gap in the wall in front of Grimm. It spun in a tight spiral, trailing sparks of fire, and as it passed the gargoyle's head, it erupted.

  Fire blossomed in the confined space of the corridor, a vortex of flame that engulfed Grimm's upper body. The gargoyle recoiled, the darkness seeping from its joints retreating from the intense light and heat. Its grip on the stonework loosened, and for a moment, it hung there, suspended only by the claws of one hand dug deep into the floor.

  That hand dragged across the stone as Grimm's weight pulled it downward, cutting a massive streak into the floor. With a sound like grinding boulders, its claws lost their purchase, and the gargoyle plummeted out of sight.

  We stood frozen, weapons still raised, not quite believing what had just happened. Then Liz broke the spell, rushing to a balcony that overlooked the gardens.

  "Holy-!" she exclaimed, leaning out to look down.

  The rest of us crowded around her, peering over the edge. Grimm was dangling from the side of the curtain wall, one elongated leg still embedded in the stonework a floor below us. The purple-black ooze was flowing back into its joints, seeming to crawl back toward the main body. As we watched, the gargoyle dug its claws deeper into the wall, securing its grip.

  It retracted its extended limbs back to normal length, then suddenly pushed off from the wall, launching itself into the open air.

  That's when I saw what had saved us.

  The spinning object leveled out about 50 yards out from the wall and spread its wings - it was a pegasus! And on its back, clear as day, were Percival and Lucia.

  Grimm charged after the little pegasus. They hesitated for just a moment, then tucked their wings and dove, picking up speed as they dove toward the gardens below. Grimm followed, arcing through the air to track them. At the last second, the pegasus pulled out of its dive and shot upward, while Grimm, unable to change direction as quickly, had to claw at the air to avoid crashing into the ground. Small flashes of light burst around the pegasus as they fired spells at the gargoyle, keeping its attention firmly fixed on them.

  "They're drawing it away!" Grey said, stepping back from the balcony. "That's our chance!"

  We pulled away from the balcony and hurried past the gaping hole Grimm had left in the wall. With the gargoyle occupied, we had a clear shot all the way up to the upper reaches of the Citadel. We ran as fast as we could, helping each other over fallen debris and across damaged sections of floor.

  As we ascended, the destruction became more pronounced. The upper levels of the curtain wall had borne the brunt of Grimm's assault before we arrived. Entire sections of hallway were missing with holes bashed through both sides of the wall. Piles of rubble choked the passageways, forcing us to climb over mounds of loose stone and splintered timber.

  Quartz was having the most difficulty. Her injured leg couldn't support her weight when climbing over the debris piles, and she winced with every step.

  "I'm slowing you down." she said after nearly falling from a particularly unstable section of rubble.

  "We're not leaving you behind." Grey insisted, though his expression showed his concern about our pace.

  When we reached a floor-end stairwell that seemed relatively intact, Siegfried made a decision. "Quartz, you should rest here. Trevor can stay with you." He looked at Trevor, who was also looking pale and unsteady. "We'll come back for you once we've linked up with the main team."

  We continued onward, pushing through the devastation. Halfway through the next floor, a voice called out from ahead.

  "Hey! Hey guys!"

  I squinted through the dust. Atop a pile of rubble about thirty yards ahead stood a familiar figure, waving enthusiastically.

  "Matsen!" Liz exclaimed.

  Sure enough, it was Matsen, his unruly hair covered in dust but his wide smile unmistakable. Behind him, more figures appeared - members of the Vanguard's main raid team, looking battered but functional.

  Relief flooded through me as we scrambled over to them, picking our way across the debris field. When we reached them, Matsen clapped me on the shoulder.

  "Man, am I glad to see you guys!" he said. "I thought that thing was going to bring the whole wall down with us in it!"

  "What's the situation?" Grey asked.

  Matsen gestured for us to follow him. "Come see for yourselves."

  He led us around a particularly large mound of fallen stone to a section where the Vanguard team was busy excavating something from the rubble. As we got closer, I saw what they were after - large, iridescent crystals embedded in the debris.

  "Light crystals!" Matsen explained. "We found them in the boss arenas on the east side. Rose said they're what we're looking for. We're going to drop them out of the pit in the bridge that passes over the gate - come on!"

  We joined the Vanguard team, extracting the remaining crystals from the rubble.

  (Percival)

  "Missiles, left side!" Lucy shouted directly into my ear.

  I leaned hard right, spinning Ashley into a corkscrew motion. The pegasus needed almost no guidance - it was like she was reading my mind. We twisted into a short dive, passing just under a flurry of large stone lances. They whistled past, close enough that I could feel the displaced air ruffle my hair.

  "Whip from the right!" Lucy called out again.

  I pulled us into a steep climb and vaulted us upside down. Lucy clung tight to my back as one of Grimm's tentacles lashed a few feet below our heads.

  Once we were clear, I swung us back upright and banked hard to put more distance between us and the gargoyle. We strafed to the side as Grimm hurled another barrage of stone spikes in our direction. I dipped Ashley's nose to gain speed, then pulled up sharply to avoid yet another grasping tendril. The maneuvers came almost instinctively now. I couldn't help but suspect there was some part of the game's systems reading my thoughts and using them to assist in guiding Ashley, because it really felt like I barely had to nudge the pegasus to get her to move how I wanted.

  Lucy's grip on my waist loosened momentarily as she reached for something. "I'm getting a message from Rose!" she shouted over the wind. "They need us to get it to the courtyard - hold it under the archway of the gate!"

  It was easy enough in theory, but I had my hands full just staying in the air - Grimm was swinging and throwing things rapidly, and I had to twist and turn erratically to avoid it. Every time I tried to angle us toward the courtyard, another attack forced me to change course. I couldn't afford to move us toward the gate without risking a direct hit.

  "We're going to need to make some space!" I shouted, yanking Ashley into another steep climb to avoid a massive stone claw that swept through the air below us. "Here's the plan - tie a rope around your waist and loop it around Ashley, then jump off. I'll swing you around like a flail to distract it!"

  "Absolutely not!" Lucy screamed back, her voice cracking with indignation.

  "It's just as safe as what we're doing here!" I insisted, throwing us into a barrel roll to dodge yet another projectile.

  "I am NOT a cat toy!"

  Grimm was getting better at anticipating our moves, forcing us into increasingly desperate evasions. We couldn't keep this up indefinitely, and we certainly couldn't make progress toward the gate.

  "Fine." I said, my mind racing through alternatives. "Push down on Ashley's neck for me!"

  "What are you-" Lucy began.

  I rolled sideways off the pegasus' back, falling into open air. Exactly as I'd hoped, Grimm immediately focused on me, abandoning its pursuit of Ashley to dive after the easier target. Lucy circled around to put Ashley's bearing toward the gate, then swooped down after the two of us.

  I spread my arms wide to slow my fall, watching the distance between us close rapidly. Grimm would have gotten there first, but just as it was about to reach me, I cast Blink. Suddenly, I was thirty feet higher and lost all of my downward momentum - the perfect place to watch as the gargoyle shot past my previous position.

  Its wings flared out to brake, but it was going way to fast. Grimm crashed into the gardens, disappearing into the labyrinth of pathways.

  As I began to fall again, Lucy swooped beneath me. I reached out, grabbing the pegasus' mane, and Lucy seized my arm, hauling me back onto Ashley.

  "That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen!"

  I settled back into the pilot's seat, taking control back from Lucy. "Anything that works is a good plan!" I nudged Ashley forward, and we shot toward the courtyard at full speed.

  Behind us, I could hear the crashing and splintering of stone and plants as Grimm tore its way out of the garden maze. The creature launched itself skyward once more.

  "It's gaining!" Lucy warned, glancing back.

  "Not fast enough." I assured her. We had enough of a head start that we reached the courtyard gateway with room to spare.

  As we approached the massive stone archway, I pulled Ashley into a hard braking stall maneuver. The pegasus reared up in midair, wings beating furiously to hold us in place. At the peak of the stall, I turned us to face the oncoming gargoyle.

  Glancing up, I could see movement in a gap above the archway. The Vanguard raid team was positioned there, ready to dump a load of iridescent light crystals. Grimm was coming in fast. Its glowing yellow eyes were fixed on us.

  "I'm going to put us in a dive." I told Lucy. "Then you tell me which way to go to run it into the crystal's path."

  "Got it." Lucy replied, her arms tightening around my waist.

  I locked eyes with the incoming gargoyle, my hands resting lightly on Ashley's neck. Time seemed to slow as Grimm closed the distance between us. I could make out every crack in its stone skin, every seeping tendril of darkness oozing from its joints. The creature was so close I could see the swirling patterns in its glowing eyes.

  A moment before Grimm reached us, I leaned forward, nudging Ashley's head downward and putting her into a dive. We dropped like a stone, the wind screaming past us as we plummeted. Above us, Grimm's massive form shot through the space where we'd just been.

  But something went wrong. Grimm had overshot too high, and instead of passing cleanly through the archway, it clipped the top of the gateway. The impact was catastrophic. A large chunk of the archway exploded outward, sending massive rocks tumbling in every direction. The section of the curtain wall where the Vanguard had been positioned collapsed inward.

  Screams erupted from above as several of the Vanguard were thrown out through the gap, plunging toward the ground far below.

  I yanked Ashley around, pulling us into a tight U-turn. We shot back up toward the falling figures. I reached out with my free hand, making hand signs and throwing out spell bells to give them Slowfall. Their descent immediately slowed to a gentle drift. Like dandelion seeds caught in a breeze, they floated away from the wall, drifting safely toward the gardens below.

  However, I didn't see any pieces of light crystal in the falling debris. That meant the Vanguard that were still up there should still have been able to drop the payload.

  On the downside, Grimm had already recovered from its collision with the archway and had wheeled around to face us once more. We were nearly stationary, hovering in place as we made sure there were no more Vanguard members falling.

  The gargoyle lunged at us, stone claws extended. I struggled to put us into evasive maneuvers. We were too close; there was no room to respond. We had to back off, fleeing into the air above the courtyard.

  But it didn't pursue - at least, not immediately. The gargoyle waved its arm, and suddenly the air was filled with a fusillade of stone lances. I dodged frantically, weaving between the projectiles. Most missed us, but they continued on their trajectory, soaring out of the courtyard and falling toward the city. Right in the middle of the crowd of picnickers watching the fight.

  The impacts threw up clouds of snow as the stone missiles crashed into the ground. All hell broke loose as civilians screamed and scattered in every direction. From our height, it looked like an anthill that had been kicked over, people running in all directions to escape the unexpected danger.

  I swung Ashley closer to the courtyard wall to prevent any further misses from hitting the city. But instead of lunging after us through the air, the gargoyle changed tactics. Its stone claws slammed into the outer face of the curtain wall with enough force to send tremors through the entire structure. Chunks of masonry tumbled away as it dug in, securing a hold.

  Then Grimm began to climb - not fly, but crawl across the wall. Its limbs stretched and contracted as it scuttled along the vertical surface. Each massive claw punched into the stonework, leaving gaping holes and sending showers of debris cascading down into the gardens below.

  That's when the idea hit me. The thing was after us with single-minded focus - we rammed it into the ground of the gardens a couple minutes ago. If it wanted to make new holes in the wall, maybe we could get it tangled up inside.

  "Lucy," I called over my shoulder, "keep your head down - this one's gonna be tight!"

  I sent Ashley into a steep dive directly toward one of the holes Grimm had punched in the wall. The pegasus tucked her wings tight against her body as we shot through the gap, stone edges scraping past us with barely inches to spare on either side.

  We burst into a cavernous space within the curtain wall - an elevator bay with a high ceiling that stretched up through multiple floors. The chamber was dimly lit by narrow slits cut into the outer wall. In the center hung a massive system of chains and pulleys, clearly designed to lift heavy loads between levels.

  Behind us, Grimm's arm punched through another section of wall, stone fingers grasping at empty air as it tried to reach us. I urged Ashley higher, spiraling up toward the ceiling where the chains were anchored. The gargoyle's limb strained after us, stretching to an impossible length, but still falling short.

  "It can't fit through!" Lucy exclaimed, her voice echoing in the chamber.

  "That's the idea." I said, guiding Ashley in a tight circle around the elevator mechanism. "We just need to find something to wrap it around - get it tangled up in its own body."

  A furious scraping sound drew my attention back to the wall. Grimm was tearing at the stonework, widening the hole it had created. Chunks of masonry tumbled inward as the gargoyle forced its massive head partway through the opening. Its glowing yellow eyes fixed on us, burning with malevolent intelligence.

  But it was stuck - its shoulders too broad to fit through the gap, its stone body too rigid to compress itself further.

  Then the darkness within the cracks of Grimm's stone shell began to ooze outward. Not just seeping, but flowing - extending beyond the confines of the statue in long, viscous tendrils. The purple-black substance poured through the gaps in the gargoyle's joints, forming writhing pseudopods that reached into the chamber toward us.

  ... Yeah, no one told us that it could do that.

  The tendrils stretched farther, flowing like liquid shadow across the chamber, climbing up the walls and chains. They split and branched as they spread, trying to entrap us in a net.

  "Time to go!" I shouted, wheeling Ashley around and diving toward another hole in the wall - one that would take us back out to the courtyard.

  But we weren't fast enough. As we approached the exit, more tendrils of darkness shot across our path, weaving a web of pulsing shadow across the opening. I pulled up hard, narrowly avoiding a collision with the barrier. Ashley's wings beat frantically as she strained to stop our forward momentum.

  "Left! Try left!" Lucy pointed toward another gap in the wall.

  I yanked the reins, and Ashley banked sharply. We raced toward the alternate exit, but more tendrils were already sealing it off.

  We were being boxed in. The darkness was everywhere now, coating the walls, dripping from the ceiling, reaching for us from all sides. Grimm wasn't trying to chase us anymore - it was trying to envelop us. And the worst part was I couldn't find any ground-targetable surfaces to use Towering Inferno on.

  "Percy!" Lucy's warning came too late.

  A tendril lashed out like a whip, catching Ashley's right wing near the base. The pegasus screamed as the dark substance began to eat through her body. The whole wing disintegrated into blue dust and we instantly fell into an uncontrolled tumble. We were spinning, falling, with no way to stabilize.

  "Hold on!" I shouted. Doing my best to lean our spiral down into a half-sealed opening in the wall, Ashley's remaining wing beating frantically but uselessly against the air.

  There wasn't any time to discuss a plan - and frankly I don't think I could speak without biting my tongue off, so I made a split-second decision. I grabbed Lucy by the arm, and she immediately latched back onto me. Then, we jumped away from Ashely.

  And I was wrong - there was a ground-targetable surface - the lip of the hole we were jumping through. A vortex of fire erupted across the gap, burning it open as we tumbled through the opening back into the open air! The courtyard spun below us, and Grimm's massive form detached from the wall to dive after us.

  But with Grimm coming in fast, I needed maneuverability - something I couldn't get while holding onto Lucy. As we spun through the air, I pushed her away, using our rotation to throw her off to the side. In the same motion, I cast Slowfall on her, gently arresting her descent and drifting her away from danger.

  Her furious scream followed me as I continued to fall. "PERCIVAL!"

  Ignoring that, I focused on the statue. Grimm was right on top of me. I twisted in midair, facing the monster head-on, and activated Blink. The world shifted around me as I teleported through Grimm, appearing on the other side of its massive body. The gargoyle, once again unable to adjust to my sudden disappearance, plummeted past my former position and crashed into the courtyard below. The impact shook the ground, sending up a cloud of dust and debris as stone cracked against stone.

  It quickly prepared to leap back up and intercept my fall. I knew I was going to have to use Slowfall to cut my momentum and throw off its aim. However, after that, I really had no plan.

  Before I fell into Grimm's range, though, something grabbed the back of my robe. My descent halted with a jerk that nearly dislocated my shoulders.

  "Got you!" a familiar voice grunted with effort.

  I twisted my head up to see Lily, her face strained as she pulled me onto the back of a giant beetle. She was sat in a leather saddle nestled in a nook behind the beetle's large curved horn. With one final heave, she helped me scramble up onto the creature's crest, where I found handholds in the ridges of its exoskeleton.

  "Lily?!" I gasped, clinging to the beetle as it bobbed in the air. "Where did you get this thing?! Forget it - tell me later! Get into that archway and hold position!"

  "I got it covered!"

  Grimm lunged upward. Lily pulled sharply on the horn, and the beetle shot straight sideways. Unlike Ashley's swooping, momentum-based movements, the beetle moved with precise, almost mechanical control - stopping and starting on a dime, changing direction without needing to bank or turn.

  "Whoa!" I nearly losing my grip as the beetle jerked to the right, then left, then up in rapid succession.

  "Hang on tight!" Lily called back, guiding the beetle through a series of erratic maneuvers that left Grimm swiping at empty air. Though the beetle lacked Ashley's raw speed, its hover-like control scheme gave it unparalleled maneuverability in close quarters. Each time Grimm thought it had us, Lily would jerk the beetle in another direction, juking around the gargoyle's attacks easily.

  She continued to zig-zag the beetle across the courtyard, gradually working our way back toward the main gate. Grimm pursued relentlessly, but was always a step behind.

  "Right here, hold it steady!" I called to Lily, looking up and watching the Vanguard team getting ready at the gap.

  Lily nodded and guided the beetle to hover directly beneath the stone archway. "Like this?"

  "Perfect!"

  Grimm launched itself toward us, stone wings spread wide, claws extended, that viscous purple darkness streaming out of its broken jaw.

  At the last possible moment, Lily yanked the beetle's controls, sending us shooting straight upward through the middle of the crystal shower as the Vanguard pushed their pile of light crystals through the hole. Grimm, committed to its charge, couldn't alter its course in time. It plunged headlong into the falling crystals.

  The result was instantaneous and spectacular.

  The crystals exploded on contact with Grimm's dark essence, releasing bursts of brilliant white light that merged into a blinding flash. The gargoyle's momentum carried it upward through the cloud of light, but its body was already coming apart. The purple-black goop inside the statue melted and boiled upon contact with the light, streaming out of the cracks in jets of blue dust.

  For a moment, Grimm hung suspended at the apex of its leap. I could see its glowing eyes flickering and fading as the darkness that animated it evaporated into motes of blue light. The broken pieces of the statue began to drift apart, no longer held together by the shadow within.

  Then gravity reasserted itself. The fragments of stone that had once been Grimm's shell tumbled down, raining into the courtyard as nothing but lifeless bits of rock.

  A series of flashes erupted around us as fireworks burst in the air, spelling out a message in glowing letters: 'Arch-Shadow, Grimm has been vanquished.'

  The Vanguard raid team, looking down from the gate, erupted in cheers and applause. Some were jumping up and down, hugging each other in celebration.

  I leaned against the beetle's crest, wiping some of the dust off my sleeves with a smirk. "I don't see why they were struggling so hard."