The wind was cold and sharp which made me thankful for my new armor. The armor was warm and comfortable, and came with boots that were much better than those cheap sandals had been. And it even had built in support for my tits, which kept them from bouncing around so much and helped my back as well

According to Grayson, my new armor was classified as ‘light’ armor, or ‘light to medium’ armor, meant more for a mage than for a frontline fighter. That made sense because it was called ‘Armor of the Enchantress’, not ‘Armor of the Bulwark’. Because of that, my new armor was limited in just how much it could protect me.

My new armor did have a few interesting features though, ones that I’d only discovered after that last fight with a group of monsters. During that fight, the fabric parts of my armor had been torn up a bit and I’d gotten splattered with monster blood. However, half an hour afterwards, all the damage had vanished, as had all the blood and stains. It seemed that my armor was self-cleaning and self-repairing, both of which would be useful in the Labyrinth.

I was a little disappointed though that my armor couldn’t do more. After all, I’d been forced to wait to meet the prerequisites before I could even activate it, so I would have thought that it would have been more impressive.

“Soulbound items tend to be fairly powerful,” Grayson had told me after my complaints. “So, it probably has more features you just haven’t discovered yet. Maybe locked behind more prerequisites.”

I looked down at myself, taking in my armor. It was completely clean and in perfect condition, looking as though it was brand new. That was quite the contrast to everyone else, since their armor was all banged up and dirty. But unfortunately, looking nice wouldn’t do anything to protect me from monsters.

After taking a few long seconds to simultaneously appreciate my armor and be disappointed that it didn’t do more, I looked up and examined my surroundings again. They hadn’t changed since the last time I’d looked around.

We were passing through a mountainous and very rocky area, with large chunks of ice scattered about. A short distance away, there was a very large chunk of ice, one that appeared to actually be part of a glacier. We were avoiding that and the cracks and crevices that ran through the ground.

Giles had abruptly stopped about a minute ago and was looking around with a grim expression. Whatever he was looking for, I hadn’t seen any sign of it.

“What’s going on?” I finally asked. “You look like you just took it up the ass and are trying to decide if you like it or not.”

Grayson burst out laughing, Pham snickered, and Lenore said, “Good one, Red.” She held out her hand for a fist bump, so I obliged.

Giles looked at me with a sour expression. “It’s a primal,” he finally responded. “There’s a primal nearby, and I was trying to figure out what kind it is.”

“That’s good news,” Pham said. “You might get a new ability.”

Giles shook his head. “No, Agent Pham, it isn’t.” He gestured towards the glacier. “It feels like an infernal…and also an elemental at the same time.”

“And why is it not good news?” I asked. “I thought any chance to get a new ability would be good.”

Giles had previously told me that primals were a kind of magic spirit that could give abilities to invokers like him. However, I didn’t really know what he meant by ‘infernal’ or ‘elemental’.

“This particular primal, Miss Donna, is an infernal,” Giles explained patiently. “And there are two major reasons why it would be a bad idea to try bargaining with it.” He held up a single finger, and not even the middle one. “Two of my current patrons are celestials, and if I even tried to make a deal with an infernal, they’d end our deals immediately and I’d lose their abilities.”

“Shit,” Lenore said. “It sounds like they’re territorial little fucks.”

“Yes, Miss Lenore,” Giles agreed. “Celestials are very territorial where infernals are concerned. But the second reason…” He held up a second finger. “Infernals can’t be trusted. They love to make trouble. Specifically, they hate rules and usually want to make people break any that are important to them. “

“I’ve heard about them,” Grayson offered. “One invoker I knew, told me about how an infernal tried getting him to give a human sacrifice.”

“Yes, Mister Grayson,” Giles agreed, “that is exactly the kind of thing an infernal asks for in exchange for power. They’re quick to make deals, but the price they ask…” He shook his head before adding, “And if their deal sounds reasonable, then you should be even more careful because it usually means that there is some other catch.”

“Well, fuck,” Lenore said. “So, what’s the plan here then, if you’re not going to ask it for a new ability?”

“We avoid it, Miss Lenore,” Giles answered evenly. “We simply continue on our way.”

“That sounds good to me,” Pham agreed, giving a wary look towards the glacier. “That looks way too cold to go there anyway.”

“Sounds good to me too,” Grayson agreed. Then, he adjusted his shield and continued walking down the trail.

We only made it about twenty yards before Giles abruptly stopped again. He snapped around and began looking around with a look of surprise.

“What is it this time?” Lenore snapped impatiently.

Before Giles could answer, I saw it for myself. A cloud of black smoke had appeared in the distance and was racing across the ground, heading straight for the glacier. It took me a few seconds to realize that it wasn’t just a cloud of smoke. There was a shape within the cloud, a shape that looked like a large black dog of some kind.

“What the hell is that?” I blurted out.

“No fucking clue,” Lenore responded.

As soon as the smoke dog reached the glacier, the ice began to crack and shift. A figure slowly rose from the ice, one that seemed to be made of the ice itself. It was shaped somewhat like a gorilla, with an upper body that was much too large in proportion to the lower, and it had a pair of large horns emerging from its head and curving backwards.

“Holy shit,” I exclaimed. “That thing has to be thirty feet tall.”

“The infernal,” Giles answered grimly. “And whatever that wolf is.”

Pham gave Giles a curious look. “Are you sure it isn’t a primal too?”

“It might be, Agent Pham,” Giles responded, not taking his eyes off the two creatures. “It feels like a primal, but not a type I’ve ever seen before.”

A moment later, the two primal creatures threw themselves at each other. The smoke wolf leapt at the ice infernal, who was already in the process of charging forwards. Black fangs bit into an icy arm even as ice claws tore into the smokey body. Shards of ice and wisps of smoke exploded outward.

“Are you sure that thing is an infernal?” Grayson asked. “It looks like some kind of ice elemental.”

“I believe it is both, Mister Grayson,” Giles answered almost absently.

The two primals continued to tear into each other, and at first, I thought that they were evenly matched. Then, I noticed the black smoke that was starting to move around the infernal. It slithered around its limbs, moving more like tentacles than real smoke. Then, the smoke seemed to constrict and the infernal dropped to the ground, barely able to move.

Once the ice primal was trapped and helpless, the smoke wolf became even more vicious. It’s massive jaws tore into the icy body, ripping through it with ease. At the same time, black smoke began pouring into the newly opened wounds, tearing them apart even more. In less than fifteen seconds after being captured, the infernal’s body was completely destroyed.

“It’s…eating the infernal,” Giles whispered in stunned disbelief.

The giant smoke wolf did seem to be eating something, though it wasn’t any of the ice that had been left behind. When it was finished, it leaned back and howled, though it didn’t sound like any kind of howl I’d ever heard before. A deep and eerie sound filled the air, something that sounded more like the wind from a powerful storm than anything that could have come from a living creature.

“It’s like the Fenris wolf,” Grayson whispered, his voice shaking a little. “Fenrir.”

The smoke wolf, Fenrir as Grayson had just called it, finished eating its meal. Then, it abruptly turned and looked in our direction. It’s glowing red eyes burned bright, even from that distance.

“Oh shit,” I gasped, taking an involuntary step back.

Fenrir started running straight towards us, the menace and hunger clearly visible in those glowing red eyes. Giles threw up his shield right before the smoke wolf slammed into it. The whole shield immediately shuddered, but it didn’t collapse.

“It wants me,” Giles said. “And not to make a deal…”

I stared at the creature through the shield, thinking about the way it had just eaten that other primal. Then, I looked at Giles and shuddered as I imagined it doing the same thing to him.

Lenore conjured and arrow and readied her bow to fire. “I say we put this fucker down.”

“Bad dog,” I snarled as I brought up both of my abilities, throwing ‘Cursed Ground’ on the ground beneath the creature before placing a ‘Hex’ directly on it.

“I don’t think it liked that,” Pham said, even as he held out his hand and fired a wind blade right at the wolf.

My banes seemed to slow the creature down, but not nearly as much as I’d hoped. It was simply too powerful for my abilities to do much to it. But still, what little I was doing seemed to get its attention. It glared at me with the same intensity that it had previously focused on Giles.

The shield suddenly popped and smoke came rushing in. Grayson yanked me out of the way a moment before a giant pair of jaws snapped shut on the spot where I’d been standing. My sword slipped out of my grip and fell to the ground in the process.

Lenore was suddenly wearing her heavy armor. She shot her arrow at the primal, then conjured a new one, one of those heavy duty arrows that had a bit more power behind them. That one immediately followed the first and hit the creature in the neck. It staggered back and shook it’s head.

Pham used his scepter to blast Fenrir, and it winced a little at the impact. A second shot was fired, though that seemed to do little more than sting the creature. In fact, all of our attacks seemed more annoying than threatening to it.

Giles and Grayson charged forward, attacking with sword and halberd, though they were careful not to step into my ‘Cursed Ground’. Blades hit the primal’s chest and seemed to just pass through without doing any damage at all.

“Very annoying,” Pham said as he turned his attention to my lost sword.

Pham grinned for a moment and gestured to my dropped sword. A moment later, my sword actually melted down into a puddle of metal goo. I gaped at that, then even more as the metal pulled back together and took a new shape, that of a metal spider.

“I don’t get to use this one often,” Pham announced.

The metal spider skittered towards Fenrir and then began to climb its leg. That seemed to be distracting because the smoke wolf shook its leg to try knocking the spider off, and when that didn’t work, it bit at it. There was a crunch and then the spider was gone.

“There goes my sword,” I grumbled. “Not that I got much use out damn thing.”

I took a deep breath and then shot Fenrir with a second ‘Hex’, which added to the stack and increased the strength of all the banes. It was moving even slower and taking even more damage over time. Still not enough of either.

Fenrir’s burning red eyes locked on me again and it growled, a low rumble that almost sounded like thunder in the distance. It lunged straight at me.

“LOOK OUT!” Pham shouted as he shoved me out of the way.

Suddenly, there was a sickening crunch and a brief scream that abruptly cut off. When I looked behind me, I saw Pham…or what little was left of him. He’d been bitten clean in two with his bottom half having been left behind.

“No,” I gasped, my eyes going wide with horror and shock. “Pham…”

“Move it,” Grayson ordered as he pulled me away.

“You fucking leg humping piece of shit,” Lenore spat out furiously. “I’ll neuter you with a rusty spoon.”

Giles rushed forward and slammed his halberd into Fenrir’s nose, getting the creature’s attention. “It’s me you want. Remember?”

Fenrir turned its attention back to Giles who moved back. The creature stepped forward, though my banes slowed its movements enough to give Giles a chance. He braced with his halberd.

“His eyes,” Giles said. “If you would, Miss Lenore.”

“Gotcha,” Lenore responded, firing an arrow right into one of Fenrir’s eyes.

Fenrir stepped back and shook its head, trying to get the arrow loose. Lenore simply took the opportunity to aim for the next shot, which she struck right in the other eye.

“Now,” Giles snarled. “For Nathan…”

With that, the invoker activated his emergency ability and a column of flame suddenly erupted right where Fenrir was standing. The smoke wolf howled in pain, taking obvious damage for the first time. It tried getting away, but my ‘Cursed Ground’ made it’s movements too slow, keeping it trapped in the middle of the flames.

“BURN,” I exclaimed as tears ran down my cheeks. I desperately wished that I could hit the damn thing with another ‘Hex’. Instead, I had to make due with the fact that my existing banes were contributing to its current pain.

The burning column faded away before Fenrir could fully escape from it. Once the flames were gone, I got a good look at the creature. It looked…weaker somehow. It was still surrounded by smoke, but more wisps of smoke were leaking out in a way that made me think it was bleeding.

‘Hex’ was ready again, so I immediately blasted the primal with another one. It staggered from the bane, apparently weak enough now that my additional damage was really starting to add up.

Fenrir turned its burning eyes on me again, though they quickly shifted to Giles. The anger and malevolence in that gaze intensified, and I was sure that it was about to pounce once more. But then, it paused and tilted its head. It raised its head and sniffed the air.

“What is it doing?” Grayson asked quietly.

“No fucking clue,” Lenore responded grimly. She was already taking aim with another arrow.

A second later, the primal turned away from us and stared into the distance. Then, it turned again and began walking away…in the other direction. It’s movements were slow and awkward, partly due to my bane and partly due to its injuries. But once it was away from my ‘Cursed Ground’, it began moving faster. Not at a full run, but definitely in a hurry. Soon, it was gone entirely.