"I think he did it!" Thi Lan’s voice called out from a distance. The two of them looked like they were holding on by a string, the stakes of the battle having reached the point where Dusk and the other wolfman could no longer participate.

Nebb, however, wasn’t present for an entirely different reason.

Amunet nodded, not having the energy to do much more. She was almost impressed that Thi Lan could speak so much and so loudly in the first place.

"What now?!" Thi Lan called out again.

Amunet shook her head. She didn’t know. All Grey told them was that he needed time and he would do something to the teleportation platforms.

But teleportation or not, Thi Lan still couldn’t leave. Her only guess was that it was related to finishing the arc quickly, but that wasn’t something they could do instantly.

A fluctuation suddenly shook the air.

"Another wave," Amunet said, her jaw steeling. "I’m going to meet them."

Before Thi Lan could respond, a shadowy hand manifested above Amunet’s head. She shot out like a bullet, her speed seemingly not affected by her lost leg at all.

Tendrils of darkness wrapped down her thigh, extending into a new limb that looked formed of rotating black threads.

Her control was getting better. Every step forward she made felt like it counted like three because of feedback from Grey’s own insights.

And there was no better teacher than life and death battles.

Amunet cut a path out of the barrier, but what she saw left her eyes opening wide.

"... What...?"

Thi Lan zipped out after her, her heart trembling, her feet coming to a stop.

Until now, they had come in batches of two. Those, Amunet and Thi Lan could handle well enough. It was difficult, but they could manage. They were even getting better at working together through it all.

Amunet had lost her leg when three appeared.

At first it was fine because they were arrogant. But in later batches, maybe because news was getting back to them, they started to take the battles more and more seriously.

Amunet had hoped when a third arrived, they could goad them into fighting a fair battle.

They were wrong, unfortunately.

All three attacked at once and she had to sacrifice a leg just for them to survive.

This time, there wasn’t a group of two. It wasn’t a group of three either.

There must have been two or three dozen.

The Dormaji moved forward slowly, their eyes lit with intelligence completely unlike how they were when they pushed their bodies to their physical limits.

But in the group, seven of them stood out from the others. In fact, the marching legion seemed to be grouped into four sets, one Dormaji leading three others in a completely subservient manner.

Amunet couldn’t help but recall the combat style they tried to use against Grey, the one where one rampaged and the other took control from the back. In this way, they were able to benefit from their intelligence and their raw physical prowess at the same time.

This seemed like the same thing... on a completely different scale.

Just how strong did a Dormaji have to be for it to take three others for them to maintain any semblance of sanity?

Seven leaders. Twenty-one followers.

"How many Dormaji were you meant to kill to be free of your contract again?" Amunet asked slowly.

"... Seven."

Amunet’s jaw clenched.

It wasn’t a coincidence at all.

Of course they’d promise that the names on the list would appear. By the time they appeared, they would be guaranteed to be in an undefeatable position.

Let alone the eighteen Syrn and two Volthari they were supposed to kill, how would they even deal with these? Even Grey couldn’t handle something like this on his own.

Not only were these far more powerful than the bottom feeders they had been fighting before, but there were just too many of them.

Amunet took deep breaths. She closed her eyes for a moment.

Run.

It was the only thing that made any sense.

Even if Grey came out right now, whatever had occupied him had to have been tiring. At his peak he alone would be enough, let alone whatever state he was in now.

Staying here was as good as dying.

"Amunet. Run." Thi Lan said.

There was a conviction in her voice that made Amunet’s heart tremble. She opened her eyes to find that Thi Lan wasn’t even looking at her. She was looking forward, focused, gripping her dagger in one hand and her whip in the other.

It didn’t look like she had any intention of running at all.

A wisp of something danced in Amunet’s eyes. Thi Lan was so strong. Not in power, but in will. She was a woman that she could only look up to.

"I said run!" Thi Lan repeated.

Amunet’s jaw set and she looked back out at the slowly approaching group. They didn’t even seem to be in a rush, and why would they be?

Sure, they came here for the sponsorship money and benefits, but there was a deeper underlying reason.

Revenge.

They wanted to pay back the humiliation that Grey had left them. And just killing wasn’t going to be enough for that, especially not after how many Thi Lan and Amunet had taken with them.

There was far more they wanted from this. They would return it tenfold.

"Amunet, you have your whole life ahead of you. I signed the contract, not you." Thi Lan said, almost pleading.

Amunet chuckled. "Why do you say that like you’re so much older than me?"

"I am almost 12 years older than you. In my culture, you respect your elders and you damn well listen to what they say."

"Well, my culture might have been built by aliens, so I’m going to need more than that."

"Amunet—!"

"I already did something I regretted once before. I’m not doing it again." Amunet took a deep breath, her eyes blazing. "At least when I die I can haunt that bastard as a ghost for making me such a fucking idiot."

Amunet roared and the ground trembled. Plumes of endless darkness spread round.

BOOM.

BOOM.

BOOM.

Arms of the Old Ones began to tear out from the ground.