Other messages followed, but I waved them aside. I didn’t have time to deal with anything except survival. I lifted my hands high and roared in victory as I triggered Soul Feed.

  A torrent of power thundered into me, restoring my pools. Finishing Bristleback had also supercharged my Tesla Coil bracelet, even though he had transformed into such a tiny monster. I kept 20% of the energy of Soul Feed set to fuel Energy Ward. I feared I was going to need it.

  “Energy Ward power at 300% for 15 minutes.”

  Wow, Bristleback had been one tough son of a boar. Even though all my pools were topped off and my physical stats at 150% for 5 minutes, I just wanted to lie down and rest.

  Then the last message fully registered and I scowled at the sky. “Two levels?”

  “Bristleback was far stronger than anything you’ve faced. The bonuses really add up. Well done.”

  “Thanks.”

  If he had been holding back my experience from the other kills to ensure I had to fight Bristleback, had he added it back in after the fact? It didn’t matter. I’d take an extra level. All I had to do was survive the apocalypse.

  Then a word in one of the other messages caught my attention and I focused on it.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! Your spell Harvest has upgraded.”

  “Harvest. Spell. Upgraded to: Harvest. Unique. 70% chance to gain a skill or ability from a defeated enemy. Chance increases by 2% per enemy level higher than your own. Can have a maximum of up to 2 harvested spells. First in, First out. Mana Cost: minor. Upgradable.”

  I whooped a second time. A second Harvested spell slot was awesome!

  A stronger shake of the mountain reminded me I was far from safe. I’d reached level 10 but still had miles of apocalyptic landscape to traverse. The entire peak was shaking and could collapse any second. With great anticipation, I triggered Harvest.

  “You have successfully harvested Tether Slide from Bristleback.”

  “Tether Slide. Spell. Rare. Mark an object or item as your tether. Within 10 minutes you may cast a magical hook to that tether and slide to it across any terrain up to a distance of 200 yards. Tether must be within sight when spell is triggered. Mana cost: minor. Uses Remaining: 5.”

  Yes! I got the magical grapple. This was going to be awesome. I accepted the prompt to loot the corpse and turned away as the bloody remains melted into dark mist. I’d check the loot once I reached safety.

  I was surprised by a new message. “Duplicate Base Camp detected. Choose which one you will keep.”

  “What?”

  The huge cave appeared in the air next to me. It thumped to the ground, then fell off the side of the mountain and tumbled down into the frothing waters thousands of feet below.

  “Hey, was that Bristleback’s Base Camp?”

  “Oops,” Cyrus said, sounding chagrined, then brightened again. “That makes your choice easy, doesn’t it?”

  “What did he have in there?”

  “Doesn’t matter now. Focus, Lucas.”

  I really would have liked checking out what I could get from a sacred boss’s personal Base Camp, but the shaking of the mountain grew worse. I nearly followed the cave over the side. I caught my balance and leaped up, scrambling higher as the lower steps all broke free and fell away. Soon there would be no mountain left.

  I paused to scan the valley and muttered, “This will be a challenge.”

  Cyrus exclaimed, “No fair. Too many people used that phrase to know which one you’re quoting.”

  “I don’t only quote other people, you know. Sometimes I say things I come up with myself.”

  “Don’t be boring, Lucas, not after that amazing show. Now stop dawdling. The mountain will collapse in 8 seconds. Let’s see what else you’ve got.”

  Two-thirds of the central valley was now flooded, with huge monsters visible in the waters. More were emerging onto dry land, big, lumbering things, like ogres or even just piles of animated stone.

  A high-pitched shriek snapped my gaze into the sky and I blanched. I hadn’t even noticed the flocks of birdlike monsters swarming down from the second stage and maybe even the third. They filled the sky like black rain and some were heading my way. I spotted huge birds, bigger than the griffon I’d killed, but most were flocks of smaller, faster flying creatures.

  I needed to move, but jumping off the cliff seemed like a fast way to just die. The shaking earth and still-spewing geysers were filling the space between the mountains with frothing white water. I was a good swimmer, but I doubted I’d make much progress through all that before a monster from the deep swallowed me whole. I needed a better plan.

  The seconds ticked by like drumbeats of impending doom as I considered my meager options. If only I had another use of Shadow Portal. I could have teleported straight to the top of the slope and stepped across to the second stage.

  Thinking of the portal spell reminded me of Jane. I checked my messages and saw one from her.

  “Lucas, I made it back in time. THANK YOU! Switchblade is amazing. I swear, you’re lucky I love Tomas so much, or I’d date you just to ride it more. Seriously, though. Thanks, and good luck. Get here soon.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Good. She made it. More importantly, she no longer needed Switchblade. New hope sparked bright and fierce as I summoned my hover bike.

  It appeared in the air in front of me just as the entire mountain groaned and started shaking more violently. I stumbled and nearly fell off the edge of the step. That would have been the worst way to die, with possible salvation literally within reach.

  Switchblade looked battered, but I leaped on and hit the throttle. It shot across the flat step, aimed west, and I grinned until I checked the energy levels.

  Jane had pushed the bike hard and I hadn’t banished it to repair and recharge. Still, it should have enough charge to cross the flooded plain if I didn’t use Shattercore Ballista at all. Worse, Shield Dome was spent.

  “Nothing’s ever easy,” I muttered, then spotted my goggles wrapped around the handlebars. That had been clever thinking from Jane. I settled them over my eyes as the bike tore across the last few yards of open stone before the crazy drop to the churning waters.

  Cyrus said, “By the way, well done, Lucas! That was a fantastic fight.”

  “Thanks. He was tough. Do monsters get a big boost to strength when they hit level 50?”

  “Indeed they do. Great question, but now’s not the time to get distracted.”

  “Tell me about it.” I crouched, bracing myself as Switchblade rocketed off the edge of the cliff.

  Switchblade was a hover bike, not a flying bike, but the thrusters and jets and magic still helped slow my fall to a graceful descending glide toward the frothing waters below. Instead of just falling straight down, on Switchblade it was more like falling with style as I glided down at an angle toward the water. That gained vital distance from the base of the mountain to avoid falling rocks and the frothing maelstrom there.

  Behind me, the mountain peak collapsed, but the little shrine somehow stayed perched on the top. I bet there’d been a hidden loot box in there. It fell with the rest of the mountain as the entire thing cascaded down into the waters in a thunderous avalanche that sprayed geysers of water over 1000 feet and tore the frothing water into an insane maelstrom. If I’d simply jumped off, I’d have been crushed.

  Some of the nearest flocks of flying monsters spotted me and swept in, screeching with hunger and thirst for blood. The closest flocks included two distinct small bird types. I managed to identify a couple of them.

  “Whisper Finch. Level 38. Uncommon. These unassuming birds’ entire bodies are designed around magnifying sound. They hunt by disabling prey with debilitating auditory blasts that render those with sensitive hearing unconscious and could even disorient or confuse your Uncle Harry when he wasn’t wearing his hearing aids.”

  “Blight Crow. Level 41. Common. These intelligent, crafty avians hunt as a flock, spreading a poisonous cloud to kill and soften the flesh of their prey before landing in a swarm and ripping it to pieces in a blood frenzy almost as savage as early morning shoppers descending on Walmart on Black Friday.”

  I could deal with that. At least they weren’t death touch buzzards, or something. The blight crows might still prove dangerous if they triggered their blood frenzy, but hopefully they’d waste precious time hitting me with their poisonous cloud. With my ring, I wouldn’t have to worry about that, and maybe it would help keep some of the other flying monsters off my back.

  The whisper finch were more of an unknown. My goggles protected my eyes, but did nothing for my ears. I couldn’t dive lower to try to avoid the onrushing birds because the monsters down in the water would be worse. I wanted to cross as much of the grasslands as possible before dropping to the waves. Hopefully my bike’s hover ability would keep me above the surface.

  So I pulled out a roll of bandages. I’d never used them, but I had bunches of them from early loot boxes. I tore off a couple pieces and shoved them into my ears like makeshift earplugs. Wrapping the rest around my head without losing forward momentum proved tricky, but I managed it before the birds arrived.

  The whisper finches announced themselves with a concentrated wave of sound so high-pitched I barely registered it, even with my enhanced hearing. Even so, it triggered an instant headache right through my makeshift ear protection.

  I groaned, my vision blurring as the world spun around me. I tried to keep the bike moving forward, but couldn’t tell if I was holding a steady course, or if I was plunging straight down for the water. My stomach roiled and threatened to heave.

  As if from a great distance, I felt pricks of warning from Energy Ward. The birds were dive bombing me, but glancing off my defenses. Good thing I had it active, or I would have been helpless against them.

  Then the wave of sound dissipated and I blinked watering eyes clear. Wow, that hurt as bad as one of Bristleback’s punches. Looking around, I cursed.

  I had indeed fallen faster and lost a lot of altitude. Stinking birds. I leveled out and managed to slow my descent some, but a lot of damage was already done. The rough waters were getting dangerously close. My gliding fall would drop to those waves all too soon.

  The finches had retreated as the blight crows swarmed around me. They kept just outside of Energy Ward, smart enough not to keep darting through it and getting deflected. A cloud of orange toxic gas surrounded me and the crows. It stunk like an open cesspit, but I felt no ill effects.

  I got a notification, probably about resisting the poison, but waved it away. The birds were cawing angrily. Soon they’d realize their poison wasn’t working and either try attacking directly or back off to give the finches another go.

  Not my preferred choice, so I decided to test how clever they were. I groaned and swayed on the seat, wobbling my entire bike. The crows cawed excitedly, the gas cloud intensifying.

  Good. They were buying it. Not that I’d just take it without responding. My head was still pounding from the finches’ attack, despite healing power trickling in from my bracelet, and the constant cawing was really annoying.

  So I pulled out a stun gun and fired off a blast one-handed in the general direction of several of the birds. Half a dozen of them dropped senseless out of the air and plopped into the water.

  Half a second later, the water frothed as something unseen under the surface ripped the hapless birds to pieces. The water turned red and scores of shapes suddenly moved under the water, creating ripples as large bodies rushed in to join the feast.

  I’d been right. Swimming would have gotten me killed in seconds.

  The crows screeched in anger and sped up, some starting to dive-bomb at my back. Energy Ward still had plenty of charge and each bird deflected away, passing just out of reach for their razor claws and beaks. That only seemed to enrage them more.

  Too bad. I pulled my steel-banded fighting stick from my inventory and slashed at one of the crows as it deflected past my head. I connected, and it too fell to the waters to feed the monsters. Hopefully they’d fight over the prey and kill each other off.

  The other crows didn’t like that, and after I clobbered a couple more, they retreated. The finches swept in, but I did not want to deal with that again. I focused on one of the retreating crows.

  “You have set your tether point.”

  A fresh sound assault slammed into my brain, triggering another instant migraine. I groaned and swayed, but managed to focus on the distant crow and cast Tether Slide.

  A beam of bright, golden light shot from me, extending in a blink out to the targeted crow. As soon as it touched the bird, I rocketed forward at triple my previous speed, pulled by the magical line. The crow had been rising, so I blasted up through the flock of surprised finches. I managed to club 4 of them out of the air as I swept through, while my bike plowed through a few more before crashing right into the crow I’d tethered the slide to.

  “Thanks for your help,” I muttered as I hit the throttle, laughing.

  Tether Slide was even more amazing than I’d hoped. That move had give me a temporary reprieve from the finches and catapulted me forward and upward. I could win several hundred more yards before my inevitable descent dropped me to the waves.

  My joy was short lived as a much louder shriek drew my gaze even higher. A huge, black, leather-winged monstrosity was diving straight at me.