Surveying the carnage just inside the gates of Tarn, the Myth Seekers slowed their steps. Blood stained the broken stone. Charred limbs and crumpled bodies were strewn across the ground, tangled in the ruins like forgotten dolls. It was a grim welcome, and stark illustration of the giant-kin’s power.

  Raith crouched beside a fallen corpse, if it could even be called that. The body was a twisted scattering of bones, clearly belonging to one of the bone horrors Sabik had told them about. “These must be first stage evolutions,” he murmured. “No bigger than those emerald root tenders we fought in the forest.”

  Nyhm poked another body with his toe.

  “And these thin ones here would be shrike snakes.”

  There was no sign of the wights.

  “Either the incorporeal don’t leave corpses,” Raith muttered, frowning, “or they didn’t show up for the opening act.”

  The three crept through the ruins, carefully stepping around shattered tiles and burnt-out wreckage. The silence felt watchful.

  Raith gestured to a branching alley.

  “If the Earl’s information was correct, the giant-kin went that way. Towards the northeast side of the city.”

  He pointed far across the horizon of the sunken city, where spires loomed like massive teeth. Taking out the scroll Selene had given him, he read the runes to cast the spell that would point them in the direction of the artifact. As the scroll crumbled to dust in his hands, an arrow appeared in his mind pointing unerringly towards the city center.

  “The artifact is that way. We should make our way, but slow and stealthy.”

  “I’d rather test the enemies now,” Nyhm said. “Get a sense of what we’re up against before they evolve any further.”

  Thea stopped walking.

  “Absolutely not,” she snapped. “The entire strategy is to avoid fights, remember?”

  Raith and Nyhm both turned to her. She was trembling, just barely, but enough so Raith could tell.

  “You’re scared,” he said gently, but realized it was a stupid thing to say the moment the words left his mouth.

  She flinched, jaw tightening.

  “Of course I’m fucking scared. This whole thing is insane. I’m down an arm, I haven’t trained enough with the new gauntlet, I can’t use most of my spells, and you want to deliberately pick a fight with evolving terrors?”

  Raith held her gaze and spoke quietly.

  “I’m scared, too, but it would be a good idea to get a feel for how they fight before we’re cornered by some smarter, meaner version of these things.”

  Thea was silent for a long beat. Then, with a huff of frustration, she closed her eyes and seemed to come to a decision.

  “Fine,” she muttered. “Let’s just get it over with.”

  They didn’t have to wait long.

  A loud clatter echoed from around a crumbling wall. Metal on stone, dry bone on brick. Raith held up a hand.

  “Wait here for a second.”

  He slipped ahead and crouched low while activating [Fade], then peered around the corner. Five creatures marched in ragged formation. Already much larger than the ones scattered around the gates had been. Each had an absurdly oversized humanoid skull, jaws split wide to reveal jagged fangs. Long neckbones led into torsos held aloft by six clawed legs. Their arms snaked out from behind the skulls, wielding crude weapons. Maces, axes, or bent swords. A few wore old gauntlets and helmets that showed dents and spots of rust.

  They stood five feet tall, but their spindly builds gave them surprising reach. The armor was sparse at this stage of their development.

  Raith returned.

  “Five of them on patrol. Ugly bastards, but they don’t look too tough. If we’re quick, we’ll have the advantage.”

  Thea gave a reluctant nod. Nyhm was right, they needed to have some idea of what these things were capable of before the monsters got too strong. As one, the team struck from the shadows. The battle began with a sudden burst of movement.

  Thea led the charge, shield up, eyes wide with adrenaline. Her first [Shield Bash] ejected the skull clean from one creature’s shoulders, the bones collapsing in a clattering heap. Without missing a beat, she hurled her shield into a second, knocking its weapon arm off. She caught the shield on the rebound, spun, and slammed her gauntlet into a third like a club.

  Nyhm darted beside her, lashing at joints and weak points with precision. Limbs snapped under his blows as he dismantled another bone horror with terrifying efficiency.

  Raith fought at the edge, frustrated. His dreamforged weapon struck true, chipping bone and distracting the creatures, but it lacked the decisive power he expected. Better than his old blade, sure, but still not enough.

  Then Thea misstepped.

  She threw a seed from her gauntlet, and it bounced uselessly on the ground. A few spindly vines sprouted and wrapped a creature’s ankle, but the bone horror glanced down and shook it’s leg like a cat, sending the seed skittering away.

  Color rose in Thea’s cheeks. She fumbled awkwardly at her pouch with her shield arm, spilling seeds out onto the floor.

  She cursed.

  Desperate, she unfurled a vine to release another charged seed, but an axe came swinging. She raised her shield just in time to block, but the moment cost her grip again. Another seed hit the ground.

  “Damn it!” she growled, striking the creature in the jaw with a root-knotted punch. She deflected another blow, bashed forward, and slammed her gauntlet against its skull with a sharp crack. Bones shattered, and the creature fell.

  Silence settled in.

  The team froze, listening, but no new sounds echoed in the distance.

  Raith nodded down the road.

  “Let’s find somewhere quiet to regroup.”

  As they moved, Nyhm bent down to scoop up Thea’s spilled seeds. She gave him a small nod of thanks and tucked them carefully away.

  They crept on, wary and watchful. Raith let his mind drift to his new mapping [Skill]. A glowing image sprang into view behind his eyes. The streets, alleys, and building outlines they’d passed already etched into his memory. The edges of the map blurring into darkness at the limits of his perception.

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  I think if I find a high vantage point I could expand this. Get a better look at the city.

  As they walked, Raith glanced at Thea. Her brow was furrowed, jaw tight.

  “Well,” he said, “even if my weapon didn’t do much, that wasn’t so bad. Might be smart to get an idea how the others fight while they’re still weak.”

  Nyhm nodded.

  “Agreed. If we can find them along the way.”

  Thea didn’t answer at first. Her neck was still flushed, and she looked down at her gauntlet. After a few breaths, she said quietly, “I need the practice. Better now than against something that can tear me in half.”

  Raith smiled faintly.

  “Then let’s see what else Tarn has waiting for us.”

  As the trio moved deeper into the city’s tangled heart, the hush of the vast city created a tense stillness. Rubble strewn alleys and half-collapsed archways loomed on either side, casting long, slanted shadows across broken cobbles. In one courtyard a scattering of bones had been picked clean. Whatever violence had occurred was long past, but the signs still set their nerves on edge.

  Raith raised a fist and the group halted, dropping into a crouch behind a cracked wall.

  "Stay here," he whispered. "Let me see what’s ahead."

  Thea nodded, silently adjusting her grip on her shield, while Nyhm gave a small, tight smile and melted back into the shadows. Raith crept forward, boots silent against the debris littered stone, his eyes flicking from corner to shadowed crevice, alert for the slightest movement.

  He found them near the ruins of an outdoor amphitheater. Six shrike serpents weaving in and out of the cracked marble, their long, whip-like bodies winding fluidly between broken columns. These weren’t like the ones from the gate. These had grown.

  Their bodies were longer, their scales glinting with an oily sheen. Small, cruel eyes watched from narrow heads, and they moved in coordinated, practiced patterns. Circling, weaving, protecting their flanks.

  He puffed up his cheeks and exhaled slowly. Definitely smarter than the bone horrors.

  He activated [Staccato] and carefully evaluated the scene. Just beyond, nestled between two fallen statues, Raith spotted a natural choke point. Rubble from a collapsed tower formed a bottleneck no wider than three people shoulder to shoulder. Perfect. He made his way back to the others.

  “They’re close. Obviously faster and smarter than those bone horrors, but I’ve got a place we can use to hit hard and fast, keep them funneled.”

  Thea’s eyes narrowed.

  “If you’re going to need a vine wall, I’m not sure I can do it.”

  “Not this time. The terrain will get the job done. Don’t forget to avoid the fangs, they’ve got venom.”

  They moved, silent and swift, slipping into position behind the rubble. Raith drew his weapon, Nyhm activated tattoos, and Thea knelt, focusing intently on her gauntlet hand, channeling a pulse of magic into a seed nestled in the vines.

  Raith gave the signal.

  The first shrike slithered into view and caught Raith’s dart in the eye before it could hiss a warning. The second burst forward, lashing out with a scythe-like tail that cracked the stone, missing Nyhm by inches. Then all hell broke loose.

  The shrikes surged forward as one, darting through the choke point in tight, coordinated arcs. They struck like arrows loosed from the same bow. Fast, purposeful, and deadly. One launched toward Thea, fangs snapping. She brought her shield up in time, deflecting it and twisting her body to deliver a crushing counterstrike with her root gauntlet.

  She triggered her grasping vine, a tangle of green erupting from the ground. Thea gritted her teeth and poured more energy into it, the tendrils wrapping around the nearest snake’s body. It shrieked and thrashed, slamming into the wall as it tried to free itself.

  Raith danced through the fray, striking with speed and precision, but found again and again that his blade met resistance. The weapon could punch through the scale and muscle much more cleanly than the bone horrors, but not as decisively deadly as he would have liked. A [Piercing Strike] to the heart neatly resolved his frustration, dropping one instantly.

  “These bastards are tougher than they look!”

  Thea didn’t respond. She was focused entirely on the vine spell, forcing the last energy from her seed into tightening the grip. It wasn’t strong enough to hold for long, but it was just enough. She ducked under a lashing tail and slammed her shield edge first into the trapped creature’s skull, cracking it wide.

  Finally, the last of the serpentine foes collapsed, twitching in death.

  Silence returned, broken only by heavy breathing. No injuries. Just bruises, sweat, and adrenaline.

  Raith exhaled and turned to Thea.

  “Your vine spell worked!”

  “Barely,” she muttered, brushing a strand of hair from her forehead. “I could feel it slipping the whole time. It’s not what it was.”

  “It’s a good start,” Nyhm said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

  Thea gave a half smile, then looked to the bodies.

  “They’re only going to get worse from here.”

  “Yeah,” Raith agreed. “And I’m concerned we haven’t come across any of those spectral wights.”

  Stepping out of a shadow, Veil waved its little arms to get their attention. Nyhm jumped back at the daemon’s sudden appearance, and Thea brought her shield up defensively. Raith only then realized he had been the only one who could see the little creature darting through the shadows around them and keeping watch.

  Veil pointed to one of the nearby buildings and then took on something approximating the shape of the wights the Sabik had shown them.

  “The wights are in that building?”

  Veil nodded. Raith looked at his companions, but no one seemed eager to pick a fight with those things. He turned back to Veil.

  “Have you seen any outside of the buildings?”

  It shook its head no.

  “Have you seen any of the serpents or skeletons inside a building?”

  Again, no.

  That had a certain logic to it. Threaten delvers with the corporeal monsters in the streets, but haunt the buildings with wights to prevent them from finding any refuge. They moved on, keeping out of the buildings for the time being. The broken skyline of the ancient city stretched endlessly into the distance. Terraces stacked upon terraces, towers leaning at odd angles, and grand structures whose scale defied comprehension.

  “This one is tall enough. I’m going to get a better look,” he said, already starting to move.

  Thea gave him a questioning glance.

  “A better look at what?”

  “The layout of the city and try to see if I can spot the giant-kin. If I can get high enough, [Hawksight] should do the rest.”

  Nyhm gave a quick nod.

  “We’ll stay low and hide. Don’t get eaten.”

  Raith gave a smile and jogged off to the wall of the building he selected. Not wanting to go inside and risk a solo wight encounter, he opted to scale the exterior. Handholds were easy enough to find, and the stone much sturdier than he’d initially feared. Hand over hand, he climbed until he reached a patio near the roof. He froze and had to stop himself from leaping back off the building. Through a large open doorway he saw the horrifying visage of at least a dozen spectral wights staring at him greedily. Two in the front were pressed against an invisible wall, clearly straining towards him.

  He waited a long moment with his breath held, until it was obvious that whatever rules this dungeon played by prevented the creatures from leaving the building. Thank the Weavers his guess had been correct.

  At least for now.

  With a final glance at the monsters, he resumed his ascent. One final surge, and he was on the open rooftop, wind tugging at his hair. He stopped and stared as the view struck him like a physical blow.

  The city sprawled in every direction. Far more immense than even the Earl’s map had suggested. Streets and avenues carved in careful symmetry. Tiered districts rose around the center, and that center...Raith’s breath caught.

  There, in the heart of it all, stood the domain of the true giants and the gods.

  Colossal pillars ringed a wide central avenue, each one thick as a redwood tree. Grand halls, easily three hundred feet tall, stretched in either direction. Stone temples with arched roofs, obsidian fortresses with walls engraved in ancient runes. Statues loomed at the corners of vast intersections. Beings of immense proportions, their features worn but still commanding, eyes hollow and watching.

  A massive park sprawled through the middle, an oasis in the endless stone. The skeletons of ancient trees, towering and alien, circled a wide lake. Boats, long abandoned, still bobbed on its surface. At its heart rose a stepped ziggurat of glittering quartz.

  Raith narrowed his eyes and triggered [Hawksight]. The world sharpened as the map in his mind’s eye filled in blanks at a rapid pace. His vision extended down alleyways, through cracks, over courtyards and broken walls. He spotted clusters of the bone horrors and shrike snakes, their patterns weaving through the ruins in disciplined circuits. Patrols marched their routes in tight guard formations. He followed their trails for many long minutes, memorizing their timing, watching how they returned to specific waypoints after finishing their rounds.

  No sign of the giant-kin squad, and that made him nervous. The dungeon monsters were one thing, especially this early in their evolution. But the three of them wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight against the elite formor. They couldn’t afford an accidental encounter.

  Raith stood still for a long while, wind tugging at his hair, eyes locked on the haunting majesty below. He eventually turned and began the climb down, the image of the giants’ quarter seared into his mind.

  When he returned to the others, he could see the tension written on the other's faces.

  "We were about to go looking for you," Thea said.

  “Sorry, it's bigger than we thought.”

  Thea looked up, brow furrowed. “How much bigger?”

  Raith just shook his head. “The kind of big that makes Beckhaven look like a quaint province town. Gods and giants lived in that center ring. You can see it in every stone they left behind.”