Confusion quickly changed to screams as the giant creatures charged forward. They were serpentine monsters, with long, scaled tails that led to strange humanoid bodies. They had torsos and bulging arms like a man, but the heads were full snake, with huge cobra-like hoods framing them. The things, even without stretching up on their tails, were taller than Josh.

You're cursed. It's the only explanation, Boomer said as Josh struggled out of his shirt.

Ignoring Boomer's panic, Josh said, No time to call the others. Tell Taji to alert Mateo. He tossed his shirt to the side, revealing the oryem-leather vest beneath. A thin holster attached to two near-invisible clips beneath the shoulder pad and at his torso, securing two hidden daggers.

Since they couldn't carry weapons out in the open, this had been their solution. Josh would have killed to have his sword and shield, but he settled for pulling one of the daggers from its sheath.

"Stay here," Josh barked at the twins as he sprinted out of the alley. A few rushing bodies jostled against him, but he pressed forward. The moment he was free of the frenzied crowd, he leaped forward and brought the dagger straight for the man serpent's shoulder.

The blade glanced off the hard scales. Josh went with the momentum and rolled out of the way before the serpent could sink its fangs into him. He popped back up on his feet, keeping his legs bent and braced to move.

The serpent hissed at him, its hood vibrating. Three, five, eight total serpents slipped from the portal and onto the streets of China.

They were strong monsters, whatever they were. A normal attack wouldn't be enough. He channeled energy into his dagger as he charged forward again. The dagger bit into the snake's scales, but not enough to do damage. He upped the energy. The snake swung its arm at him in a claw attack. Josh intercepted with a slash of his own, and a smug triumphant swelled within him when the dagger sliced into the monster.

The serpent hissed, and its hood spread wide. Two eye-like patterns glowered down at him. They looked like they pulsed with how the hiss vibrated the hood. His prior elation died down as he stared at the patterns, and the world felt far away—

Josh, look away! It's messing with your mind! Boomer cried, but it was too late. Josh was too entranced to dodge the bright green liquid that the serpent spat his way.

His left arm, still held out from attacking, took the brunt of the splatter. Where the substance touched, it burned. Josh yelped and recoiled away. He hadn't moved far before the snake lashed out, dragging its claws across his torso. Only the sturdy oryma leather kept it from eviscerating his chest.

Josh scurried backwards, cradling his arm. A venomous green steam rose from his skin as the liquid evaporated, leaving behind wrinkled skin discolored into various shades of red.

He blanched. The attack had done this much damage to him, and he was a Soul-Bound. What could it do to normal people?

Someone shrieked nearby. A middle-aged man crashed onto the ground. Acid devoured his slacks and seeped into the skin. Blood leaked down his leg—

Josh ripped his eyes away, both because he couldn't bear staring at the injury and because he couldn't forget his own enemy. He needed to defeat it quickly.

The innocent people hadn't been herded away. They were here, amid all the danger.

His snake-monster had paused in its pursuit, but that was only to spray out a poisonous cloud. It raked both of its claws through the erosive energy. The cloud clung to its scales, reshaping and solidifying into triangular blades stemming from a handle-like hilt the snake held.

Josh glanced down at his daggers and then at the snake's hardened-poison weapons. "That's not fair."

Everyone is hurrying your way, and they're sending a couple of Sages to force an emergency barrier, Boomer reported.

Josh gritted his teeth. Well, they need to hurry up and do that.

The snake slashed its strange blades at him. He dodged. His attempted counterattack went nowhere, only succeeding in putting him too close to the enemy. Its serpentine body let it lash out at an awkward angle, and Josh only avoided a bad cut by blocking. His wrist bent strangely to do so, though, and he couldn't keep his grip on the dagger. It went flying. He rolled out of the way and retrieved the fallen weapon before the snake could skewer him.

Daggers sucked. He didn't understand why Mara preferred them. He needed to use magic, but that was only more trouble to cover up—

Someone new screamed, and a young voice wailed. A combined dread and fury welled up at the sounds. Nope, it didn't matter what all the clean-up crew had to do. Magic it was.

"Dragon's lightning!" His electricity burst into existence around the dagger blades. He spun back to the snake monster. It had its arms pulled back to strike. Josh swiped both daggers through the air, and the lightning flew off and at the snake. It recoiled with a shriek as the energy collided with its chest.

People continued to scream, and he caught a few words he did know. Demon, magic, run. Help. Focusing on that plea, he shoved down every teaching about secrecy and released streak after streak of lightning at the various serpents.

They each turned to this new threat, the one that could actually hurt them, and rushed forward. Some carried hardened-poison weapons, while others wielded their natural claws. A couple of the serpents chased after their prey, but he couldn't risk taking his eyes off the monsters slithering his way.

There were so many screams. So much terror. This wasn't supposed to happen. The innocents were supposed to be protected. That was the job of the Soul-Bound.

The powerlessness creeping up his throat had nothing to do with the half-dozen intent on his death.

He lunged forward to intercept the nearest serpent at the same time he heard the familiar cracking of a portal ripping open. For a horrible moment, he thought it was another rift, ready to spew more monsters. Then a familiar man stepped out.

Josh never thought he'd be relieved to see Omero. He and a Sage Josh didn't know jumped into action, energy flaring around their hands.

Omero shouted something, but Josh had to turn all his attention to the monsters to avoid being ripped apart. As it was, despite his attempts at keeping one or two of the beasts between him and the others, some continued to sneak strikes in.

The hood of a serpent began to vibrate, and Josh ripped his attention away before the lull could fall over his mind. It put him right in the fire of an acid spray. The leather armor hissed and steamed, while the skin of his collarbone burned. Blasting more lightning at one part of the group left him partially exposed, and one of the snakes got in a cut near his ribs.

The poison made the entire side tense, and he moved slower. He was going to be overwhelmed. Even Boomer, focusing all his will into Josh, couldn't let him see everything, and even if he could, he wouldn't be able to react quickly enough to everything.

"Suyin!"

Kai's voice. He was yelling at his sister, but why?

The ring of metal against a hard object cut off a couple of the snakes' hisses. As they twisted, they gave Josh a glimpse of the culprit.

Suyin held the now-dented trash can lid, her lip trembling even if she stared determinedly at the monsters. She shouted something in Mandarin before chucking the lid hard at a snake's head. It hadn't even fallen to the ground by the time she turned around and sprinted away.

Two of the serpents chased after Suyin. Josh's fear spiked. He couldn't chase her, though. The four other monsters surged, ready to be done with this Josh-sized pest.

Hoping that she'd be wise enough to run toward the Sages, Josh focused back on his enemies. Four was less to handle than six, but it didn't give him the upper hand.

New technique?

Boomer's words were both a question and a reminder. Josh mentally kicked himself for forgetting. His newest technique didn't work as he wanted it to, but the effect it produced when it misfired would still help in this situation.

He sent lightning to every part of his body. The skin tingled at the building energy beneath its surface. He didn't bother trying too hard to control the output as he cast the spell. "Lightning guard!"

The electricity surged over his skin, forming a chainmail-like covering over his body. It lasted for a split second before exploding from him in a burst.

The serpents shrieked as the lightning slammed into them. Josh winced at the painful release, but it hurt far less than it would have had one of the monsters struck him.

Before they could recover, Josh leaped forward. He used the momentum to drive the daggers into the snake's exposed torso. Both tore through the scales. With a yank in either direction, he cut through the snake. When the daggers left its body, the monster dropped to the ground, lifeless eyes staring at the particles drifting from its body.

One out of four. He spun to another. It was shaking off the effects of the shock already, but he managed to get beneath its guard anyway, stabbing it just like he had the others—

He noticed the attack coming too late. His initial enemy had recovered, and it drove its strange blade straight for him. Planting his feet, he prepared to twist, but no amount of reaction would save him. He'd just have to mitigate it enough to be alright.

The attack never found its place. Before it could reach him, something slim and shiny slammed into the serpent's wrist. The serpent hissed as the force of the projectile pierced its body and threw its arms sideways. One of its weapons clattered to the ground and dispersed. It swung its head toward the new threat.

Josh was sure he already knew who it was. His heart performed that strange rollercoaster motion, soaring upward and plummeting downward multiple times, but he had no time to focus on the conflicted emotions.

With the initial serpent focusing on the new threat, Josh only had two more to deal with. He dodged a venomous short sword from one of them and the claw swipe from the other. Reversing his grip on one dagger, he charged both weapons with lightning and stabbed at the serpents. The one in front retreated out of range, but the one he'd side-stabbed hadn't expected it, and his dagger buried the place where its ribs would be if it were human. He'd hit the one with the short sword, and it glowered down at him with vengeful fury as it brought the blade down.

Josh rolled to the side, putting distance between him and both snakes. Before he could stall his momentum, a solid object did for him.

"Finding trouble as always, aren't you?"

Josh craned his head back. A familiar, brown-skinned boy smiled down at him. Josh returned it. "And you're late once again, Mateo."

With an eyeroll and scoff, Mateo shook the leg Josh pressed against. "Go finish your enemy. I'll come help you if I finish your leftover first."

Even in the midst of the chaos and wrongness of everything that was going on, Josh couldn't help his smile. "You're so on."

Josh jumped to his feet and flung himself at his enemy. Lightning crackled along his blade as he slashed at the blade-wielding serpent's center. It brought its sword down to block, just as Josh expected, and he used that moment to plunge his other dagger into its arm.

It shrieked, and the vibrated hood began to lull Josh into stillness. Boomer's consciousness shoved against his, and Josh used the push to yank his gaze away. He didn't snap out of it fast enough to keep his grip on his dagger when the serpent threw its weight forward, shoulder-tackling Josh with its uninjured side.

Josh backpedaled. The serpent lashed out with its short sword. Too off balance to block properly, Josh could only redirect the strike so it sliced into his bicep.

A sharp burn accompanied the normal sting from a cut. He grimaced. The poison, most likely.

"Okay, I'm annoyed now." Josh had been taught to throw daggers properly, but when he flung his at the serpent, it was with little finesse. It fumbled through the air, sharp end drawing close enough to the monster's face that it had to duck away.

He used that moment's distraction to charge electricity into his hands. "Eat this, rancid breath. Dragon's lightning!" The bolts of lightning shot forward, hammering into the serpent's chest. He kept channeling his magic, enhancing the power and duration of the spell.

After a bout of convulsing and a hissing fit, the monster went limp, and Josh released his hold on the energy. No longer supported by the lightning's force, the monster hit the ground, particles drifting from it.

I think that was overkill, Boomer said.

Josh stretched his cut arm while his chest heaved. It still hurt, but already, the burning sensation was fading. The poison hadn't been meant to take down a Soul-Bound with a single nick.

The dumb snake hurt me! It didn't get me playing nice anymore, Josh said.

Uh-huh. Josh could sense Boomer's eyeroll. It wouldn't have been able to get you if you'd just done better. What is it you say at the other people in the video game? Get good?

Josh promised himself right then that he'd stop teaching his dragon modern trash talk.

One opponent down didn't mean they all were. Josh shoved away thoughts of his last fight and looked for a potential new one. The light of his banter with Boomer evaporated as if someone dumped water onto fire.

There were bodies on the ground. Not just the disintegrating forms of the monsters, but humans, either passed out from the pain or unable to feel pain ever again. It had been easy to ignore amidst everything else, but now the acrid odor of chemicals and burned skin assaulted him.

Bodies. Corpses.

Death.

He'd been over here racing with Mateo and verbally sparring with Boomer, all while the serpent's poison and acid stole lives around him.

He didn't realize what was about to happen until he was doubled over, his breakfast from that morning forcing its way back up.

All this time, the Sages' barriers had kept innocents away from the devastating blows monsters could deal to them, leaving him blind to their destructive capabilities. The poison and acid had hurt but overall done little to him. Normal humans, though?

The proof of the difference splayed on the ground around him. Over a dozen very heart wrenching examples.

What had happened?

Fun Fact: The snake monsters are greatly inspired by nagas, if that helps any with your visual of them!

Death of innocents has made its way into the book 😬 Josh's dream come true is really making its way into being a nightmare.  Was it a slip from the Sages, or something much worse?  Either way, the gang is gonna need to figure out something to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Let me know your thoughts on the chapter down below, and if you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote and comment! I also have a discord open to anyone who wants to join, and we have a section there to discuss the book :D Let me know if you want to join!