Nightmare Realm Summoner

Alex darted after the nameless monster with Claire hot on his heels. Neither of them dared to all out sprint as they slipped back down the alley and into the shadows lining the edges of the main street. As much as Alex wanted to get his hands on the monster's powers, he wasn't trying to get spotted by a City-Eater Centipede while he was running around like an idiot.

He caught a glimpse of a shadowed back darting down an alley in front of them, but the monster wasn't moving nearly as fast as it had proven to be able to. It seemed that his target was equally as cautious. A certain unfortunate cat and a tentacle had shown him why. The monsters in the Mirrorlands were no more friends to him than they were to each other.

Well, either that or this is an ambush. Only one way to find out.

Alex stepped into the alleyway and Claire raised her sword behind him, squinting into the dim light. They got there just in time to see the monster disappear down a street leading off to their right, behind the top half of a barrel that floated in the middle of the alley like a decapitated head.

They both ducked under the barrel and followed after the monster, just barely managing to keep it at the edge of their vision. It darted down another tight turn and they followed after it, turning a corner and stepping past a crate to find themselves staring at the main street once again.

A dark form stood at the edge of the street — but it wasn't the monster. It was its shadow. The monster burst from behind the crate, driving its weapon for Alex's chest.

A flash of silver arced past Alex as Claire thrust her sword past him. It scraped against the wall and a loud clang rang out as a black blade struck it and reverberated off. The monster vanished, swapping places with its shadow and reforming in the street. A hissing laugh slipped from beneath its hood. It was taunting them.

Alex took a step forward, wishing more than ever that he had some form of proper ranged attack — and then the ambush sprung.

A rippling purple portal the size of a kiddie pool split open in the air above the alley. Two mandibles emerged from the portal, followed by a long, segmented body covered with spines. Hundreds of legs swam through the air beneath it as a horse-sized millipede slipped from the portal. Its armored skin was covered with long, hairlike spines and a low chitter slipped from its mouth as it clicked its mandibles. The monster was nowhere near the size of the City-Eater Centipedes, but it could definitely go in the running as their little cousin.

Snapper (Adept 2)

"Shit!" Alex hissed, preparing to dive for safety, but the Snapper didn't even glance in his direction. It shot out, darting through the air in a streak of gray, and its jaws clamped down on the hooded monster with a crunch.

The Snapper's body coiled around the monster like a snake's, its many legs digging into the smaller monster in a series of loud cracks. The hooded creature screamend and writhed desperately in an attempt to escape. It was fruitless.

"It doesn't care about us! We're not worth the time," Claire hissed, grabbing Alex's arm and giving it a tug. "This is a good time to get bleedin' moving!"

"Hold on," Alex hissed. "That's our kill!"

"Yeah, well are you going to tell the big creepy thing that?"

The hooded monster struggled furiously, but it couldn't break free of the milipede. It couldn't seem to use its teleportation ability for some reason — but the reason wasn't going to matter soon enough. It was just moments from getting itself killed.

Alex's jaw clenched. There was absolutely no way he could fight the Snapper, even with Claire backing him up. Glint was still dead. And, frankly, even if Glint was alive, they'd still stand no chance against a monster two entire Stages above them.

The only reason it hadn't bothered with them was because they were…

"Too weak," Alex muttered, his eyes lighting up as a jolt of realization raced through his system. "Claire, can you turn back and hide for a few minutes?"

"What? Why?"

"Because I'm going to do something really dumb, and I need to make sure the wrong person doesn't become the target."

Claire stared at him for half a second, then gave him a sharp nod. "Don't get yourself killed. I really should have thought of this before we came down here, but you're the only damn way back out. I swear to any bleeding god listening that I'll haunt you if you get me trapped here."

"Won't have to haunt me if I'm already dead, but point taken," Alex replied, turning and darting out of the alleyway. The Snapper didn't even glance in his direction, and the hooded monster was far too preoccupied with other things to pay him any mind.

Alex flexed the fingers of his right palm as he ran. A blade of mirrored glass jutted from his palm, glistening as the purple-red light of the Mirrorlands reflected off it. Another loud crunch split the air and the hooded monster slumped, its weapon tumbling from its dark, segmented hands, and the Snapper let out a hiss of victory. It reared back —

Alex drove the mirrored blade straight into the back of the hooded creature's head. It met a moment of resistance before sliding home and snapping off, lodged deeply within the creature's brain.

A rush of energy flooded into Alex. His limbs prickled and a trill of excitement raced down his spine as a scream of fury tore from the Snapper's mandibled mouth. He'd stolen his kill back. Now he had to live to reap the rewards.

Alex spun and sprinted down the street as fast as his legs could take him, not even bothering to try and avoid sight. He didn't have the liberty. The air behind him filled with rapid, furious clicks and energy buzzed against the back of his neck.

He hurled himself to the ground in a roll. A loud crash echoed out above him as the Snapper slammed into the side of a building, sending dust and rubble raining down to the ground around it.

Alex lurched to his feet, barely missing a beat as he continued sprinting across the street, his eyes locked on an alleyway in front of him. The click of the Snapper's many feet racing after him thundered like a band full of furious children armed with tambourines.

Energy charged the air at his back and his hair stood on end. His stomach flipflopped and he dove, closing the last few feet between himself and the alleyway and flinging himself inside it.

Huge mandibles carved through the wall above his head like nothing was there. Alex sprung back to his feet as stone rained down around and upon him, pelting him like cold rain. The Snapper's body crashed into the stone and its feet scrabbled on the ground as it redirected an enormous amount of momentum in mere moments, only slightly slowing in its pursuit and following him into the alleyway. Alex's target — a large clearing full of rubble and a small splatter of blood — was only moments away.

Unfortunately, so was the Snapper.

His breath came out in ragged gasps and his feet pounded against stone. There was no room for failure. A single bad step would be the end. He could feel the Snapper's breath on his back and the crackle of energy racing across his skin. The click of the monster's feet thundered around him and its mandibles scraped the walls just behind his desperate steps.

Alex burst free of the alley and into the rubble covered clearing. He flung himself to the side, landing on a jutting stone and letting out a hiss of pain as it carved across his back. Energy popped and thrummed in the air above him. Alex skidded a foot before he managed to shove himself upright, spinning to look up.

A crackling pink portal snapped open overhead and the Snapper burst free from within it, its mandibles split wide open to reveal the twitching innards of the monster's mouth. It was so close that he could practically see the monster's last meal. Wide, onyx black eyes of an insect burned with fury and the overgrown millipede chittered as it bore down on Alex.

The ground exploded. Alex flailed as he was launched through the air amidst a spray of stone and dust. He curled into a ball, covering his head as best as he could just moments before he crashed into the ground.

The world tumbled and spun around him. A heavy stone carved into his arm and slapped his arm into his face. All air was driven from his lungs as he crashed into the wall of a building. Chunks of rubble pelted him. He kept himself curled for a moment longer before daring to lift his hands away from his face. Developing bruises throbbed across his body as scrambled to his feet, ignoring the blood dripping from lacerations along his arms.

A massive tentacle had burst from the ground and wrapped around the Snapper, which had coiled around the monster in turn. The ground trembled beneath Alex as the millipede tore into the tentacle with its many pointed feet, ripping deep into its bulging flesh.

Alex's mouth tasted of iron and dust. He swallowed amidst his ragged breaths, then staggered back for the exit. The earth bucked and heaved as the Barbacle started to pull its true body out from beneath the ground. More tentacles erupted from beneath the rubble-covered square, but Alex had no plans of sticking around to find out which of the massive monsters would win the fight.

He slipped into the alley, nearly tripping over his own feet as another powerful tremor ripped through the earth with enough force to bounce him half a foot into the air. Alex caught himself on the wall and coughed a mixture of blood and dust into his palm. He wiped his mouth with the back of a sleeve and continued on, only pausing to glance up at the sky above and ensure there were no City-Eater Centipedes watching before making the trip across the street.

It only took a few moments for him to make it back to where he'd killed the hooded monster. The creature's body was missing, but a black fire crackled gently in the place where it had fallen.

Low Grade Initiate (Echo Wraith)

Echo Wraith, huh? At least I finally found out the damn thing's name.

Alex grabbed the flame and scooped it into his mirror without wasting a second. He stepped into the alley that he'd left Claire in — and nearly tripped over a corpse.

A Corpse Burrower's body, this one considerably smaller than the one he'd fought together with Claire a short while ago, laid ripped to shreds in the alley. Claire stood behind it, blood dripping from her arms and her sword clutched in her right hand. The body of the Echo Wraith lay at her feet.

She must have dragged it here.

"You survived!" Claire exclaimed between heavy breaths. She wiped her mouth and swallowed before nodding down to the bodies at her feet. "This thing heard the fight and came looking for a free meal. Killed it. Thought you might want this thing's body. Where's the big creeper?"

"Fighting the Barbacle back in the clearing," Alex replied as he walked over to her, some of his breath slowly starting to return as his adrenaline relented. "I don't think the fight is going to be pretty."

"You clever bleedin' shit," Claire said, a grin tugging at her lips. "You got 'em to fight each other?"

"The Barbacle ignored the last weak monster in the area. I figured it would see the Snapper as a bigger threat and meal than me. No reason to assume monsters don't get rewards the same way we do," Alex said. "Bigger challenge, better reward."

They were both silent for a second as they fought to catch their breath. As Alex braced his palms against his knees, he paused. Something glistened on the Echo Wraith's thin, dark chitin wrist.

An onyx bracelet.