This was the second portal since the fort to be reactive as a whole and Nestra believed this was going to become the norm. Her training didn’t cover that. It was kind of exciting. She kept following the same direction at a good pace until she heard feet stomping around a corner. She stopped. It sounded like more people this time. Reinforced patrols? Nice. As far as she knew, monster numbers were fixed inside of a portal world so that simply meant she would have to fight less encounters. Holding her breath, she waited until they approached. Just there, at the corner. The first guards just turned the corner when she used momentum to appear before them. Masks. She couldn’t see their faces. A sideway slash imbued with mana, just to be sure. Gain the advantage. Two dead, cloven in two. Forward. She killed the next pair on two clean strikes while they were raising their rifles. Go with the flow. Every step is part of a whole, a perfection in motion designed to take down the opposition in the most elegant, flawless way possible. Art given form. Dive under a jumping hound. Stab another as it rushes her. Crush the jellyfish just as it charges. The timing must be perfect. She smashed through the patrol in a whirlwind of violence before they could recover, before they could bring their numbers to bear. This patrol was more than twice the previous one, with new variants. One of the creatures had four arms, each ending in a blade that seems grafted there. It twisted on itself to deliver four blows. Weak, all of them. Nestra took a step back then caught a wrist with a devastating blow, severing it. The dervish creature stumbled. The next blow killed it. Nestra felt power seeping into her again, more speed this time. She— A shock, a stumble forward. A spike hit her lower back. The projectile fell, not having penetrated deep enough to stick. Blood. Hers. She turned and killed a hound but the rifleman took a step back as he reloaded. Use momentum and kill it, then turn and stumble back. A second jellyfish creature unleashed a shockwave of electricity. The beasts near it were unaffected. Two guards raised their pneumatic guns. Use momentum to rush forward. Errant indigo bolts danced on her arms, the remnants of the jellyfish spell. They tingled painfully and her arm spasmed but she endured. She brute-force smashed through the second dervish and killed the jellyfish with a single decapitating strike. Only a couple of guards left but she heard it. Rushing feet coming from, well. Nestra shook her head and walked at a sedate pace, careful to check all her corners. There were no more pools of darkness which meant that the three assassins were probably it. Most likely. Her hearing returned after a minute or two and the bleeding slowed down as well but she still stopped in a corner to apply some basic potions. It was good to be prepared. With the bleeding stopped, Nestra took a look at the wounds. Gray skin closed over the vanishing gashes. They were already itching. Only her arm was still painful but it had been run through and a slow move proved it could work without issue. In front of her, stomping noises announced the coming of another patrol. Nestra changed tactics. Rather than killing everything methodically, she went through the formation like a hot knife through butter, only reversing at the end for another pass. That way, there was always a guard between herself and other guards. It worked really well. She only wished she could spend more time killing the dervishes so she could study their movements. After that, her path led her to another section of the maze. This one was a sort of barracks with narrow cots and lockers. Some rooms looked like charging stations with strange fluids leaking from unraveling cords while others were kennels, some still hosting baying pale hounds she killed anyway. A mess occupied the center of the place with vats of bubbling food sitting against the wall. They smelled vile and didn’t look much better so Nestra regrettably left them alone. The kitchen wasn’t inspiring either. All the ingredients came in discolored bricks with solid parts frozen in them, some looking like maggots. Nestra hit the jackpot when she found three dervishes in a tiny training room. The creatures threw themselves at her, each one hampering the other by being in the way, so Nestra killed two using her superior strength before engaging the last one. She let the survivor charge her in a twisting hurricane of blades, pushing it back with measured slices. A momentum back led to the dervish rushing forward, closing the distance and leaving a shallow slice on her leg. She kicked it away and it charged back. Nestra countered with a thrust which the dervish failed to stop.The wound gave it pause, but only for an instant. It simply charged again. The pattern repeated a couple of times. Nestra was disappointed to see that her foe was more programmed than trained. She killed it quickly after that. She also checked the blades. They looked pretty sharp to be able to cut into her skin so she recovered a few. Her exploration continued. The patrols were growing rare now, and the corridors more familiar. Nestra was still careful, just in case there was another surprise, but the worst had passed. The next section opened on a large room with a table at its center. A tall, bipedal creature with a large head stood up from a large chair and shot at her. Momentum let her dive to the side and then she killed him before it could reload. It didn’t offer much resistance but she still got a sizable portion of power from his body. Her mind felt keener, faster. “Oh, you’re the commander of the base.” She considered keeping the sidearm and eventually decided to do so as a trophy. Not place had been very fruitful food wise. Errrr, loot wise. She found the exit portal behind that room. It was already opened, with two crystals and some weird stones she recognized as exotic magnets. Not useful to her but they would fetch a nice price on the black market. There was one section of the maze she’d not explored yet. She was tempted to do so. Very much tempted. Fuck it, it would be lost when the world collapsed. Had to see it. Nestra retraced her step and found a winding, circular set of stairs going up. It took a few minutes to reach the end, during which the explosions she’d first heard grew louder and more powerful. Finally, she found herself in what had to be an observation post doubling as a bunker. It was also the end of the portal world, as told by the waves she felt in the fabric of reality. Come to think of it, they were a little like a portal. The air smelled dry and rancid here. A warm wind carried an acidic stench she could not recognize under a roiling sky of sickly yellow clouds. Explosions sent plumes of smoke barely visible above a hazy cloud of dust, but sometimes their lights could be seen as ephemeral flashes in the grimy air. Distant shapes rushed away, sometimes small and humanoid and sometimes much, much larger, titans of flesh carrying weapons on their backs. There was an uncountable amount of them. Nestra stayed for five minutes and the tide of flesh never ceased. It was a multitude sent to assault a force beyond what she could see and she knew in her heart this was a real place. This was really happening. Placing her hand against the end of the portal world, she peered through the void to spot the opposite side and her fingers, very slowly, sank in. She pulled back with a gasp. That was how she went through portals. By pushing through. But then… But no, she couldn’t try. What if she got stuck there in that hellscape with no way back? That was far too dangerous. A little spooked, Nestra made her way back to the exit portal and back into the real world. It was rare when she got to think that Threshold smelled pleasant. The warehouse apparently harbored a collection of antique pieces of furniture, probably pre-incursion. Plastic sheets wrapped around veneered panels in a protective gaze. The smell of old wood permeated the place. As usual, there was a letter and this time, it came with a fine prize. Whatever place this thing came from, the benefactor had clearly decided to return there. That was perhaps why they’d been absent for three days? She munched the treat with great gusto before unpacking the letter. Ah, Kero nuts, a balm to her soul. What made them so tasty anyway? Well done tonight. As you can see, the training wheels are off and the next worlds will be harder first sphere worlds, or D-class as the humans say. It is necessary to prepare you for the future. You are going to need strength soon. Remember, when you reach the second sphere, I will tell you what you want to know. Until then, trust me when I say this is the safest option. I am looking forward to seeing you face to face!” There were two hastily written notes next to the main body that showed that the benefactor was somehow keeping an eye on her. To Nestra, it just reeked of a lack of preparation. “Little Nezhra, it appears I need to talk about ‘hubris’ now rather than later. It is the drive to win perfectly. It is what pushes you to give yourself a handicap so you can experience the enemy fully rather than just win. I will not tell you not to explore and fight on your own terms. One cannot defy their nature. Just keep in mind that this is how we die.” Huh. But it did make sense to fight the dervish one on one to see its limit in case there was something to learn, right? How else was she supposed to make progress?