The trek to Basalt Ridge took three hours of uphill hiking that Gideon categorized as "a cardio event I did not sign up for."

  The terrain changed from the soft mulch of the forest to jagged, grey stone that tore at boots and morale in equal measure. The wind up here wasn't a breeze; it was a physical bully, shoving against Gideon’s new Heater Shield and trying to push him off the mountain.

  "Is the wind really necessary?" Gideon shouted, leaning forward at a forty-five-degree angle just to stay upright. "I didn't spec for high-altitude endurance! I'm an academic! My natural habitat is a rolling chair!"

  "Keep your center of mass low and angle the shield to break the headwind," Elara called back. She was walking ten feet ahead of him, her cloak fluttering wildly, yet she moved with the annoyingly perfect balance of a cat on a fence. "And save your breath. We're here."

  They crested the ridge.

  Below them lay a vast, bowl-shaped canyon of jagged rock spires and updrafts. And circling those spires, riding the thermals like vultures, were the Razor-Wind Harpies.

  Gideon squinted against the grit. They were ugly creatures—humanoid torsos fused with the bodies of massive vultures, with wingspans that looked to be at least ten feet wide. Their feathers were metallic, shimmering like steel, and their screeches sounded like knives being sharpened on a grindstone.

  [ TARGET: RAZOR-WIND HARPY ] [ LEVEL: 18 ]

  "Level eighteen," Gideon swallowed, his throat dry. "That’s an eight-level differential. How am I even supposed to land a strike? You can't actually expect me to stand in front of it and trade blows."

  "By not playing fair," Elara said, unslinging her pack.

  She reached into the side of her pack and pulled out a short, curved object wrapped in oilcloth.

  She unwrapped it with a snap of her wrist. It was a Recurve Bow—small, compact, and made of a dark, matte wood. It wasn't the massive longbow of a ranger, but a tool for a rogue: designed for short-range aggravation and silent kills.

  "I didn't know you had a ranged spec," Gideon said, eyeing the weapon.

  "It’s a tool," Elara said, stringing the bow with a practiced, fluid motion. "I prefer knives. Knives are personal. But Harpies are smart. They stay in the air, dropping rocks or diving only when they see a weakness. If you wait for them to come to you, you’ll die of old age."

  She plucked the string. It hummed—a low, deadly note.

  "I use this to send an invitation," Elara said. She pulled a black-fletched arrow from a quiver at her hip. "I’m going to pull one. Just one. Your job is to catch it when it comes down."

  "Catch it?" Gideon raised his shield, looking at the circling monsters. "Elara, that isn't a frisbee. That is a vulture the size of a Honda Civic. If I try to catch that, I don't get 'Experience Points,' I get a closed-casket funeral!"

  "I want you to be a Tank, Gideon," Elara said, nocking the arrow. "Tanks get hit so the rest of us don't. Brace yourself."

  She drew the bow. She didn't aim for long. She simply tracked a Harpy that was banking lazily near a thermal vent, led the target by three feet, and loosed.

  Thwip.

  The arrow flew. It wasn't a kill shot—Elara had aimed for the thick plumage of the thigh.

  The arrow struck. The Harpy shrieked—a sound that made Gideon’s teeth vibrate. It flapped wildly, spinning in the air, its red eyes snapping down to find the source of the pain.

  It locked onto them.

  "Aggro established," Gideon whispered, his heart hammering against his ribs. "It looks... personally offended."

  "It’s diving," Elara said calmly, stepping back and fading into the shadow of a large boulder. "You’re up, Tank."

  The Harpy folded its wings.

  It didn't just fall; it accelerated. It became a missile of feathers and claws, streaking down from the sky straight toward Gideon.

  Gideon stood alone on the ridge, the wind howling around him. He looked at his sword. He looked at the Harpy, which was currently closing the distance faster than he was comfortable with.

  "Okay," Gideon breathed, planting his feet and raising his shield. "Just like the Golem. Except this one flies. And screams. And probably has a grab mechanic."

  He gripped the handle of his shield until his leather glove creaked.

  "Come on then!" Gideon yelled, his voice cracking slightly as the monster filled his vision. "Let’s see whose hitbox is bigger!"

  Gideon had seconds—maybe two—to react. He did what any reasonable Tank would do: he hid behind his metal plate and prayed the physics of deflection were on his side.

  He crouched low, tucking his head behind the Heater Shield, angling the steel surface upward to deflect the blow rather than absorb it.

  "Impact brace!" Gideon yelled, though the wind snatched the words away.

  SCREE-CLANG!

  The collision was terrifying.

  It wasn't a solid thud like the Golem. It was a chaotic, scratching screech of metal on metal. The Harpy’s talons—steel-hard and razor-sharp—raked across the face of his shield, digging deep furrows into the cheap steel.

  The force of the fly-by hit Gideon like a battering ram. He wasn't crushed, but he was shoved backward, his boots skidding through the loose gravel. He flailed, barely keeping his footing on the jagged ridge.

  "Okay!" Gideon gasped, peeking over the rim of his shield. "That was... unpleasant."

  The Harpy didn't land. It used its momentum to bank sharply, pulling a G-force turn that should have snapped its hollow bones. It swooped up, circled a rock spire, and immediately realigned for a second pass.

  "It’s looping!" Gideon shouted, raising his Reforged Iron Sword. The blue vein in the blade pulsed, hungry for contact. "Elara! I can't hit it if it doesn't stop!"

  "It won't stop!" Elara called out from behind her boulder. She sounded bored, which Gideon found deeply unfair. "It’s an aerial predator. It attacks in passes. You have to time your swing!"

  "Time my swing?" Gideon watched the Harpy tuck its wings for another dive. "Look at me! My Agility stat is built for holding ground, not swatting supersonic pigeons! You’re asking me to parry an airstrike!"

  The Harpy shrieked again, dropping like a stone.

  This time, Gideon tried to be a hero.

  As the silver blur descended, he stepped out from behind his shield. He swung his glowing sword in a wide, desperate arc, trying to intercept the flight path.

  "Eat photon-infused iron!"

  Whoosh.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  He missed.

  He didn't just miss; he missed by a mile. The Harpy rolled mid-air, dodging his clumsy swing with insulting ease. As it passed, it lazily extended a wing-claw and raked it across Gideon’s shoulder.

  Riiiip.

  His new, sturdy canvas tunic tore like tissue paper. A line of red appeared on his arm.

  [ HP: 530 / 550 ]

  The Harpy circled back up, screeching something that sounded suspiciously like laughter.

  Gideon stumbled, the momentum of his missed swing nearly sending him off the cliff. He regained his balance, breathing hard.

  "I can't fight this," Gideon realized, watching the monster circle for a third pass. "It has total kinematic superiority. I’m playing Whack-A-Mole, and I’m the mole."

  He looked at his sword. It was heavy, slow, and useless against a target that refused to engage in friction.

  "I can't hit what I can't touch," Gideon muttered, raising his shield again as the Harpy turned. "And I can't touch it because it refuses to obey the laws of drag."

  He watched it dive again. He saw how it tucked its wings to minimize air resistance. He saw how the wind flowed over its metallic feathers.

  And then, he looked at his shield.

  It was wide. It was flat. It was, aerodynamically speaking, a brick wall.

  "Wait," Gideon whispered, his eyes widening as the Harpy closed in. "I don't need to hit it with the sword. I just need to ruin its airflow."

  The Harpy was banking for its third pass, and Gideon knew the math wasn't in his favor.

  It was faster than him. It had the high ground. And, judging by the way it screeched, it had realized that the guy in the grey canvas outfit was essentially a slow-moving buffet.

  "It’s coming back!" Elara shouted from behind her rock. "Same dirction! It’s going to clip your head!"

  Gideon watched the silver blur align with the wind. It tucked its wings tight, becoming a sleek, aerodynamic missile.

  "It’s surfing the updraft," Gideon muttered, his eyes narrowing behind his hood. "It’s minimizing resistance. It thinks the air is its friend."

  He looked at his Heater Shield. It was dented, scratched, and heavy.

  "I can't hit it," Gideon realized. "But I don't need to hit it. I just need to make the air... sticky."

  He waited.

  The Harpy dropped. It picked up speed—forty, fifty miles per hour. It was committed to the dive.

  "Wait for it..." Gideon whispered, his knuckles white on the shield handle.

  The Harpy opened its beak, letting out a triumphant shriek as it closed the final twenty meters. It extended its talons.

  "Now!"

  Gideon didn't block. He didn't swing his sword.

  Instead, he channeled mana into his shield.

  "[Radiant Lattice: Surface Scatter Mode]!"

  He thrust the shield forward, but he didn't create a smooth dome. He projected a jagged, chaotic wall of hard-light hexagons—hundreds of tiny, flat panels floating in front of him like shattered glass frozen in time.

  He didn't make a wall. He made a cheese grater for the wind.

  The smooth, fast-moving air ahead of the Harpy hit the jagged light-constructs and shattered.

  The smooth, aerodynamic dive instantly degraded into a high-velocity tailspin.

  The Harpy didn't hit a solid object; it hit a pocket of "dirty air." One wing lost lift completely while the other was still generating thrust.

  WHAM.

  The Harpy spun out.

  It looked like a kite that had its string cut in a hurricane. It tumbled, shrieked, and smashed chest-first into the rocky ridge, skidding across the gravel in a tangle of feathers and confused rage.

  "Turbulence!" Gideon yelled, pointing his sword at the crashed monster. "It’s the silent killer of aerodynamics! You just hit a pothole in the sky!"

  The Harpy was dazed, thrashing on the ground, trying to find which way was up.

  "Now!" Elara shouted. "While it’s grounded!"

  Gideon charged.

  He wasn't fast like Elara, but he was heavy. He slammed his boot onto the Harpy’s wing, pinning it to the rock.

  The monster hissed, snapping at his leg.

  "Oh no you don't," Gideon grunted. He raised the Reforged Iron Sword. The blue vein in the metal pulsed.

  "[Smite]!"

  He brought the sword down.

  CRACK-ZZZT.

  The blade connected with the Harpy’s neck. The infused radiant energy discharged on impact, flashing bright cyan. The Harpy convulsed and went limp, dissolving into a cloud of grey mist and loot data.

  [ ENEMY DEFEATED: RAZOR-WIND HARPY (Lvl 18) ] [ XP GAINED: 450 (Base) + 350 (Level Disparity Bonus) ]

  "Whoa," Gideon breathed, staring at the notification. "Eight hundred XP? That’s... that’s a lot."

  "Don't celebrate yet," Elara called out, nocking another arrow. She pointed up.

  Three more Harpies were circling. They had seen their flock-mate fall. They looked angry.

  "They're adjusting," Elara warned. "They won't dive in a straight line now."

  "Then we make the air worse," Gideon said, grinning. He felt a rush of mana return as his [Open Circuit] title cycled. "I’m going to make this entire ridge a no-fly zone."

  The next hour was a chaotic, screeching lesson in physics.

  Gideon learned that while he couldn't fly, he could make flying miserable for everyone else.

  When a Harpy tried to flank him, he used his shield to redirect the wind, blasting a gust of displaced air that threw it off balance. When two dived at once, he overloaded his [Radiant Lattice] to create a flash-bang of light, blinding them mid-swoop and causing a mid-air collision that looked like a slapstick comedy routine.

  Elara was a ghost. She moved between the rocks, her bow singing. Every time Gideon grounded one, an arrow would appear in its eye or wing-joint, finishing the job before it could recover.

  They fell into a rhythm.

  Bait. Disrupt. Crash. Smash.

  "Incoming on your left!" Elara shouted.

  Gideon spun, raising his shield. A Harpy slammed into it, claws screeching. He didn't buckle. He used his Strength 50 to shove it back, then followed up with a backhand swing of his glowing sword.

  THWACK.

  The Harpy went down.

  [ XP GAINED: 800 ]

  "Another one!"

  Gideon was panting. His mana was cycling, his muscles burned, but the numbers in his peripheral vision were climbing faster than he had ever seen.

  [ LEVEL UP! ] [ Gideon Vance is now Level 11. ]

  [ LEVEL UP! ] [ Gideon Vance is now Level 12. ]

  "I love this game!" Gideon laughed, dodging a falling rock dropped by a Harpy. "The progression curve is steep, but the rewards are dopamine-heavy!"

  "Focus!" Elara snapped, dropping a Harpy out of the sky with a precise shot to the wing. "The Matriarch is coming! It’s level 22!"

  A massive shadow fell over the ridge.

  It was a Steel-Feather Matriarch.

  It was twice the size of the others, with feathers that looked like polished chrome. It didn't screech; it roared.

  It dived.

  "Okay," Gideon said, bracing his feet. "Big bird. Big turbulence."

  He waited until the last second. The Matriarch was fast—too fast for a simple shield block.

  "Elara! Stabilizer!"

  Elara didn't ask. She loosed an arrow. It struck the Matriarch’s tail feathers, not damaging it much, but disrupting its flight path.

  The Matriarch wobbled.

  Gideon stepped forward. He didn't block. He swung his shield edge-first into the airstream, activating [Smite] through the shield itself to create a pressure wave.

  "Sit down!"

  He slammed the shield edge against the oncoming wind. The mana discharged as a shockwave.

  The air pressure wave hit the off-balance Matriarch like a hammer. It tumbled, flipped end-over-end, and crashed into the ridge with the force of a falling piano.

  Gideon was on it instantly.

  "System! Dump the battery!"

  He grabbed his sword with both hands. He plunged it into the Matriarch’s chest.

  BOOM.

  The radiant energy detonated inside the monster.

  [ ENEMY DEFEATED: STEEL-FEATHER MATRIARCH (Lvl 22) ] [ XP GAINED: 2,500 (Boss Bonus) ]

  The golden light of a level-up exploded around Gideon, brighter than before. It wasn't just a ding; it was a chorus.

  [ LEVEL UP! ] [ Gideon Vance is now Level 13. ] [ LEVEL UP! ] [ Gideon Vance is now Level 14. ]

  Gideon fell back onto his butt, sitting in the gravel, gasping for air. The ridge was quiet. The remaining Harpies had fled, realizing that the ground was cursed.

  He checked his status.

  [ Name: Gideon Vance ] [ Level: 14 ] [ Points Available: 48 ] (+12 per level for Decade 10-20)

  "Forty-eight points," Gideon wheezed, staring at the screen. "The scaling... it increased. It was ten points per level, now it’s twelve. That’s a twenty percent yield increase!"

  "Stop doing math and check the loot," Elara said, retrieving her arrows from the carcasses. She looked untouched, as usual. "The big one dropped a pouch."

  Gideon crawled over to where the Matriarch had dissolved. Lying in the dust was a small leather sack and a bundle of arrows.

  He tossed the arrows to Elara.

  "For you," Gideon said. "[Screeching Arrows]. Apparently, they scream when you fire them. Because you needed to be more terrifying."

  Elara caught them, inspecting the fletching with a rare smile. "Sonic distraction. Useful."

  Gideon opened the pouch. He hoped for boots. Or gloves. Or maybe a ring of protection.

  He tipped it over.

  Out rolled a single, heavy, grey sphere.

  It was about the size of a marble, but it hit the rock with a solid thud and didn't bounce. It just... sat there. Perfectly still.

  [ ITEM: DIVER’S PEARL ] [ Rank: F (Junk) ] [ Description: A dense, non-buoyant pearl found in the gizzards of sky-predators to help them dive faster. Shiny! ]

  "It’s a rock," Gideon whispered, picking it up. "I killed a boss, gained four levels, and my reward is a ball bearing."

  "It’s junk loot," Elara said, shrugging. "Sell it to a vendor for five coppers."

  Gideon held it up to the sun. It was perfectly spherical. And it was heavy. When he placed it on his palm, it didn't roll. It sat perfectly centered.

  "It’s hyper-dense," Gideon murmured, tilting his hand. The pearl refused to wobble. "And the center of gravity is absolute. It resists rotational force."

  He squeezed it. It felt immovable.

  "This isn't junk," Gideon said, pocketing the pearl with a grin. "This is a gyroscope. If I find enough of these, I can countersink them into some greaves. Inertial dampeners. I’ll never get knocked down again."

  "You're going to put rocks in your pants?" Elara asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "I’m going to upgrade my center of mass," Gideon corrected, standing up and dusting off his canvas trousers. "Come on. We have sixteen more levels to go. I need another pearl."