I’d stepped on a beehive when I was nine.

  Some of the other kids and I had been playing a game on the playground, and there were all these bushes way out past the swing sets. It was capture the flag or tag, something like that. I can’t remember. I do remember pushing through the jagged, small-leafed brush, ignoring the scrapes on my arms and legs. There was a shortcut to the other team’s base, and if I could get there, I’d have a clean shot to steal their flag. I guess it must’ve been capture the flag.

  I was about halfway across the field, pushing through the rabbitbrush and sage, when my leg started to hurt. When I looked down, there were dozens of bees jamming their tail ends into my skin.

  That was the only time Dad had ever picked me up from school for something that wasn’t at least partially my fault. I’d just been playing—and I was fine. After the first twenty minutes, it didn’t even hurt that bad, and I could have gone back to class. Instead, I had to wait in the nurse’s room for almost an hour before Dad could get there and take me home.

  The desert between the steam wall and Phoenix’s 303 Wall looked like that.

  Ellen was already moving. She dashed past the bulky cannon—pigtails bouncing as it fired and a wave of pressure washed over her—and dropped a Shadow Shapes across the field. The monsters caught in it screamed and thrashed, trying to free themselves from the shadowy black tentacles ripping them apart. But even as Ellen dropped that spell and let it echo with her Arcane Resonator skill so she could cast a second one, I knew it wouldn’t be enough.

  “Evacuate!” I yelled.

  The workers stopped mid-reload, the Traynor-Overholz Cannon’s shell jammed into the steel loading chute, and they ran for the elevator. So did Rebecca Overholz and the other scientist-looking woman. But Nathan Anders stuck around for a moment. The big man looked at me, eyebrow raised. “Can you hold?”

  He wasn’t going to help. I glanced at the oncoming monsters, then lightning rippled through my veins as I pushed my aura out to cover the wall. “We’ll hold.”

  “Great. The civilians need to get to safety. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Give me five, at most.” The head of the Governing Council stepped onto the elevator, and it started descending through the Wall.

  And I focused on the oncoming monsters. We could handle five minutes.

  From this range, I couldn’t use the Polarity Shift combo—I needed Lightning Charges to get it going—and Stormbreak would put too many people in danger. That was fine. Ellen was already killing, and the archers and mages from the lower-ranked team had started attacking, too. Until the enemy climbed the wall, I didn’t have any good moves.

  I’d need to level Cyclone Forms’s casting, Mistwalk Forms’s defense, and the Stormsteel Core to hit A-Rank, though.

  So, instead of casting, I summoned Cheddar. He appeared below the wall, and I sent him an image—him, ripping across the battlefield from high above and vomiting sunbeams down onto the monsters below. The Stormlight serpent took off, getting low to duck below the Wall before any delvers could attack him, then gained altitude until he looked like a star in the day. Then the first sunbeam slammed into the earth below—and the monsters.

  I didn’t bother looking at the results. Cheddar would kill whatever he could kill. I’d take care of the rest.

  Shadowstorm Battery kicked in as Ellen started drafting Mana from me. I let her, but pulled Mana from Cheddar to make up for it. That energy went into a wave of Thunder Crashes, one after another, each targeted at the largest, highest-ranking monsters I could find. They were easy to pick out because Ellen’s field of death and the other mages and archers were taking care of anything lower-ranked.

  A Scaling Construct rushed the wall. Lightning crackled out from the sky and reached down to ripple across its gears and claws—and to shred the monsters clinging to its platform. It faltered, then made contact with the Wall and started its climb.

  “Take out the Scaling Constructs,” I shouted. The archers and mages took a few seconds to adjust, then started focusing fire on the onrushing, gear-wheeled machines.

  But the one that’d already made contact moved up steadily. I ran to the edge and stared down at the brass-and-silk monsters below. A mix of B and C-Rank. One A-Rank Silkstormer in the back. That was the biggest threat; I focused on it. Thin, armored, and carrying a needle-pointed staff. It was like a mockery of an Arboreal portal world’s elves.

  As the Scaling Construct hit the top like an elevator from hell, monsters poured onto the Wall. I grinned. “My turn.”

  Both Wind Charges went into my brand-new skill, Cutting Storm, as I fired off not one, but two of them into the mass of monsters pressing toward me. The lightning-infused wind-blades sliced into the horde. Blood splattered, only to cauterize mid-air as lightning pulsed through it. On the surface, it looked like chaos. But chaos was predictable.

  I’d focused my fire and split a path into the monsters.

  Thunderblade ate both Lightning Charges, and Stormsong’s blade sang as it carved through the enemies. The Silkstormer’s razor-covered ropes cracked out like whips. I shifted stances and used Flashstep to cut the distance down to nothing. Then I switched back to Thunderbolt as the monster whirled and the silk whips sliced across my chest. The Stormsteel armor held. I lunged and caught the silk and brass construct in the chest. Lightning rippled out, and Stormsong flourished as I pulled it out of the wound.

  Then I stepped back.

  My main goal was to hold the wall. But secondary to that, I needed to level specific skills.

  Mistwalk Forms. Polarity Shift. Lightning Strikes Twice. Polarity shift a third time. Touch of Shadow.

  The Silkstormer’s razor blades cut into my skin. I ignored them; they weren’t lethal to me.

  Thunder Crash.

  The combo fired. Lightning—black-green lightning infused with shadow magic—poured from the sky and rippled across the Silkstormer’s body. The silk inside the brass armor burst into flames, and I whirled to face the monsters I’d been ignoring so far. There were dozens of them. Some fought the C-Rank tank. Others were dying to Ellen’s Shadow Box. But there were enough unchecked that they were a threat to Orion, the D-Rank dust mage.

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  I ripped into them with a second Cutting Storm. Wind and lightning swirled around me, and the weakest and most injured monsters fell. Ellen dropped Shadow Shapes right on top of me. I ignored the flailing tentacles and focused on finding the next monster.

  Then everything stopped.

  A massive, winged form arose from behind us. Its aura pulsed outward, blazing hot and stronger than almost anything I’d experienced on Earth. Angelo Lawrence was close, and so were a few of the other S-Rankers. I watched the blazing wings as they moved closer, and the lowest-ranking monsters left alive burst into flame.

  The Phoenix was reborn. Councilman Nathan Anders, S-Rank, was coming out of retirement.

  It took thirty seconds for the Phoenix Reborn to clear the wall.

  It would’ve been faster, but there were delvers on it.

  When he landed and his burning wings vanished, he looked exhausted—and exhilarated. His aura collapsed inward, and he nodded approvingly at the small thunderstorm I’d inadvertently built overhead with my casting. “Good work, kid.”

  “Thanks. What’s next?” Ellen asked. I wasn’t even mad about her stealing my credit; she’d done at least as much work as I had.

  “Next, I hold the wall, and you check your phone.”

  Ellen did, and so did I.

  Ulia Hernandez, C-Rank: My team has a Besieged, C-Rank portal. We’ve been clearing it for the last five hours, but our mage is down and we are stuck. Location: Bierstadt Road, near the abandoned senior craft center in old Sun City West. Requesting any back-up.

  No one had responded, and the request had come in almost ten minutes earlier, while we were fighting on the wall. A five-hour clear wasn’t unusual, but it didn’t sound like they were close to finishing, and the city couldn’t afford portal breaks right now. The siege made any chaos inside potentially disastrous. I glanced at Ellen. “Do we…?

  Ellen nodded.

  I waited, staring at Councilman Anders. “Aren’t you worried about us getting hurt?”

  “No. The whole ‘Phoenix morale’ front is Harriet’s project. I’m more concerned about holding the city. These cannons are going to be useful, but right now, they’re more trouble than they’re worth. Once we have fifty, they’ll be able to cover each other. We’ll deploy them on the walls, and they’ll hold down sections so we can counterattack. I’ll hold this section of the Wall myself, you two help out that portal team, okay?”

  “Okay,” I said.

  Kade Noelstra, B-Rank: On my way, with a B-Rank mage. Ten minutes out.

  As I headed for the elevator, Nathan winked at me. “And get yourself ready. I’d love to see Deborah knocked down a few pegs—she’s a pain in my ass at Council meetings!”

  I snorted, then stepped onto the elevator.

  Bierstadt wasn’t far from the Wall. It was also in our territory, and I couldn’t help but wonder why Jeff, Sophia, and the lower-ranked team hadn’t responded yet. Maybe they were already in a portal, or maybe they were just assembling. Either way, a C-Rank Besieged portal world was a perfect opportunity for me to keep getting stronger—not too challenging, not too easy.

  “Hopefully, they’re okay,” Ellen said as we jogged down the abandoned four-lane road that cut through Surprise and into Sun City West.

  “Yeah, hopefully. I’m sure Jeff and Sophia have them well in hand with whatever they’re doing. That’s a strong pair of delvers to send with beginners.”

  “I meant the team we’re bailing out,” Ellen said.

  “They will be. We’re coming for them.”

  We ran faster, though, just in case.

  The yellow glow of the C-Rank portal drowned out even the sunlight nearby, throwing everything into a pallid, almost jaundiced tone. The portal itself sat between a pair of tall, overgrown palm trees in the road’s median, but with the GC and delver teams stretched thin by the siege and the Surprise district as unpopulated as it was, there were no GC reps, no barriers, nothing except an ebony-skinned, curly-haired woman.

  She waved and started jogging toward us, and we picked up the speed to meet her. “Ulia, right?”

  “Right. You’re Kade and the B-Rank mage?”

  “Yep. Ellen. B-Rank, shadow magic, specializing in area damage,” Ellen said quickly. “You’ve got a Besieged portal here, right?”

  “Right.” Ulia swallowed painfully and blinked, trying to hold back tears. “I’m the team’s archer, and the most expendable right now. Cam’s down. Tommy’s working on him, but it’s not looking good. He might die before I get back in there, and he’s definitely not breaking the siege with us. We’re in trouble in there.”

  I nodded slowly, remembering the Besieged world we’d fought our way through at E and D-Rank. The orcs inside of it had been vicious, and they’d already broken into the city and taken control of it before we got there. “You need to break the siege?” I asked.

  “Yes. Come on. I’ll explain once we’re inside so you can see what’s going on.”

  “Alright, lead the way.”

  “One second.” Ulia pulled out her phone and sent a quick text.

  Ulia Hernandez: Reinforcements are here. Request canceled.

  Then she stepped inside the yellow portal. Ellen and I followed, and we found ourselves on a battlefield.

  Ulia reacted first. She took off in a mad dash for the nearest trench, then threw herself into it. We followed, and a moment later, our heads were below ground. Something massive slammed into the ground fifty yards from our positon, and Ulia pointed up. “We need to break the siege somehow. Come with me.”

  It was the inverse of Phoenix. We were on the outside, and just like the other Besieged world, we had to get inside.

  We followed her, heads down, as she wove through the portal world’s maze of trenches. Blood and mud squelched under our boots, but after a few minutes, we found ourselves in a long, narrow pit facing the walls less than three hundred feet from the fortress-city.

  There were five other delvers. One man lay on the ground, pale and covered in dirt. His chest was completely caved in, and both legs looked broken. He wasn’t conscious. In fact, I wasn’t sure he was still breathing, but a second man knelt next to him, hands gingerly pressed against his ribs, pumping healing magic into him.

  “How is he?” Ulia asked quietly.

  “About the same,” a third delver said. She wore chain mail and carried a tower shield and short sword—a tank if I’d ever seen one—and she sounded broken and exhausted. The fourth and fifth, a fighter and support, respectively, didn’t look much better.

  I glanced at Ellen, and she looked back at me, eyebrow raised. She didn’t have to say anything for me to know exactly what she was thinking; if we were going to get this portal cleared, it’d be a hard carry, not a joint effort. We were relatively fresh, and we hadn’t been failing for five hours.

  “What’s the situation?” I asked.

  The tank girl took a shallow, rattling breath. “Besieged portal. Orcs vs. knights. The guides I read all said that the orcs were winning or had already won. We didn’t expect the knights to be the real problem, but the city’s still defended, and the orcs haven’t breached the walls. There aren’t enough of them out here to do it, and—“

  “Let me guess? The boss is a knight?” Ellen asked.

  “We think so,” the tank girl said again. “We haven’t found anything out here, at least. We were looking until Cam…”

  “Got hit by a catapult stone,” Ulia said quietly. She blinked, but this time, she couldn’t hold the tears back.

  “Okay. Ellen and I need to talk. We’ll come up with a strategy and see about cracking that castle’s defenses like an egg,” I said.

  The team of C-Rankers nodded, one after the other, and Ellen and I retreated to the far side of the pit. Then she lowered her voice and leaned in close enough that her whisper was barely a breath. “I can see why they’ve failed so far.”

  “Yep. They’re not built for this. Not enough gap-closers, not enough firepower to make a breach, and not enough toughness to take the hits they’d take trying to get over the wall against resistance. But they were smart enough to ask for help.”

  “And you think we can help them?” Ellen asked.

  I shook my head. “No. I think we can beat this portal ourselves. All they’ll have to do is their best, and you and I will take care of the rest of it. Take a look at the wall and tell me what you see.”

  Ellen poked her head over the trench’s side, just high enough to take in the shining, polished stone wall. She looked for almost ten seconds, then ducked down as a steel spike almost a yard long hissed past her head.

  “Did you see it?”

  “Yes,” Ellen said. “That’d be tough to exploit for most people but—“

  “But for the two of us, it won’t be a problem at all. Let’s get these C-Rankers moving. We can lock this portal down, and we can do it way faster than they’d expect.”

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