Chapter 13: Solving the First Problem

The notification arrived between the fifth and sixth cast, and I felt the difference immediately, the sixth Spark carried more charge than the five before it, a subtle increase in the quality of the discharge, and the demon’s pause extended to nearly four seconds, and the sound it made was no longer flat but had a fractured quality, like something under strain.

Sixth... Seventh...

Behind me the camp was chaos, I could hear the shouts, the Surge casts, the sound of Commander Rel’s voice organising the retreat that I knew would fail, but I kept my attention on the jaw structure and the twenty metres between me and the crack and the demon that was slowly, loop by loop, hit by hit, becoming a problem I was learning the shape of.

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