Karl was faintly aware of Livia speaking with Kara and Mýra, but he had no desire to talk with Titus or anyone else. Though he had managed not to shift again, the fire of anger toward Kara and the gladiator games still burned just beneath the surface. He couldn’t tell if Fenrir was feeding it or if it was entirely his own.

  “You okay, Karl?” Björn asked, grabbing his arm.

  Karl shrugged him off. “I’m fine,” he said, then lifted the Trickster from his shoulder and placed him onto Sporus’s, who looked anything but pleased. “I’ll see you guys back at the house. I need to take a bath.”

  “Couldn’t agree more,” the Trickster said, laughing to himself.

  With a grunt, Karl loosed an arrow and Elf Leaped away.

  Karl? Kara asked through the Pack Link.

  Karl shut her out.

  He bounded onto marble pillars and teleported from rooftop to rooftop, desperate to put distance between himself and everything else. Helheim gnawed at his thoughts, the image of his child being there refusing to fade.

  And who was to say Karl himself wouldn’t have ended there?

  The thought of that dreary fate, and of Kara so nearly condemning their child to it, sent heat rushing up his neck as his Moonlight Meter climbed toward its limit again.

  He forced the thoughts aside and let the howling wind fill his mind as he flew. In his anger, Karl overshot the bathhouse he had meant to visit and instead landed back at the house. Only the ten household slaves were there, preparing food for everyone and cleaning the home.

  Karl nearly turned back toward the baths, then stopped. Moving fast felt good. His body needed rest, but his mind wanted more.

  He spun on his heel and dashed into the home, rushing past Felix and searching his room until he found what he was looking for: the statue of Ullr, the Norse god of archery. Karl took a deep breath and focused, prompting the statue to respond.

  New Quest: Aqueduct Run

  “Time for a nice run on some Aqueducts! Oh, and if you stop running or fail, the Roman archery goddess Diana—who will be chasing you—will pepper you with arrows.

  Primary Objectives:

  Hit every target perfectly while running 0/20

  Reward:

  Ullr’s Blessing Rank 5/10: Summon a blizzard that reduces enemy visibility and accuracy by 50% within a 30-foot radius for 20 seconds. Your frost attacks deal 50% more damage during the blizzard. Cooldown: 15 minutes.

  Accept this quest?

  Karl didn’t hesitate, even with the monstrous, insane idea of a running challenge. His wrath made him quick to decide.

  It was time to increase his divine archery skills.

  29

  AQUEDUCT RUN

  The wind bit against Karl’s face as he Elf Leaped onto the nearest aqueduct on the Aventine Hill. The marble masterpiece stretched all the way into the heart of the Eternal City and swept in the opposite direction as far as he could see. If Karl weren’t so furious with Kara and the circumstances that made him suffer through life-threatening battles, he might have enjoyed the scenic view; after all, not even the modern world could compare to this Rome reborn.

  But Karl’s mind was too preoccupied with the angry wolf within. Perhaps it was Fenrir, or maybe just the weakness of his flesh.

  He gripped the Tentacle Bow without caring about its slimy, mucous-coated feel, his eyes fixed on the glowing golden ichor that constantly dripped from its form. Unlike before, the course now drifted ahead of him. Along the marble aqueduct in front of him, golden Roman discs hovered in midair.

  Adrenaline surged through Karl as he prepared to run.

  He ignored the internal parchment map showing his friends arriving at Titus’s house, along with the distant celebration of the crowds below for the Emperor’s upcoming festival. Not even the smell of roasted meats was appetizing.

  Instead, he focused on the steel-tipped arrows in his inventory and replaced the Venomcore Fanghead Arrows with them. He had plenty for the challenge. He took his time, carefully placing an arrow into the sinewy bowstring.

  Karl drew a deep, heavy breath. His Moonlight Meter was still high, but it was stable, his anger contained by the challenge ahead.

  He couldn’t shake the thought of Helheim, or the image of his child suffering in that cold, distant damnation. Nor could he forget how close the vault door had come to staying shut, or the near-deaths they had faced again and again.

  Only two floors remained, yet they felt impossibly far away. Kara insisted on finishing all of them, even with his child on the line.

  She would have been safer at home in Visby, a city he had fortified with his blood and sacrifice. Why had she chosen this reckless, suicidal quest for glory?

  Karl’s grip tightened around the Tentacle Bow, drawing a wet sucking sound from its surface.

  Even if she survived, she would surely gain enough glory to become a Valkyrie. She would leave him if that happened. And if she died, she would still be gone.

  Either way, she would no longer be his.

  He couldn’t understand why she wanted this so badly. Did she not love him?

  A dark thought trickled into his racing mind: he almost wished he didn’t know her.

  Rage pulsed through Karl as his body threatened to shift. He barely forced it down. A glowing red System message was the only thing that distracted him.

  System Message: “Are you ready to start running? Once you start, you won’t be able to stop, even if you get a leg cramp.”

  Karl nodded, swallowing hard and rolling his shoulders back in hopes of loosening up. He was thankful he used the restroom right before, as that would’ve really sucked to need to go now.

  Something landed softly behind him, a sound he would have missed if not for his heightened werewolf senses. Karl spun, bow raised, and found the goddess Diana already aiming at him.

  Karl took a step back in amazement.

  The first thing he noticed was her bow, which was pure bronze. The arrow she had drawn pointing at him bore a golden tip. She looked no older than him, perhaps in her late teens, wearing only a loose white tunic and a brown belt, her ivory skin exposed along her arms and thighs. He tried not to be overwhelmed by her simple, natural beauty, but it was impossible, especially with how flowy and thin her outfit was, revealing most of her busty features.

  She stared at him with a hint of challenge on her lips. “This better be worth my time, Viking,” she said, smiling faintly before loosing her arrow at him.

  Karl barely ducked as it whistled past and buried itself in the stone. She drew another immediately without effort and impossible speed, signaling the start.

  Karl spun and ran for his life.

  He could feel Diana’s calm, amused gaze on his back as she chased him, her feet barely touching the stone as she fired arrow after arrow. One grazed his side, the Moltenveil armor blocking the damage, though only just.

  He would be skewered if he didn’t create some distance between them.

  A few dozen meters ahead hovered the first glowing Roman disc. Karl didn’t hesitate, firing and Elf Leaping the instant the arrow struck the strange object.

  Hit every target perfectly while running 1/20

  Karl teleported and dropped from the shot, already drawing another arrow as he resumed his run. He Elf Leaped again, striking the next disc dead center and avoiding an arrow that would’ve struck his spine.

  Diana’s arrows could no longer reach him directly now, but she ran the aqueduct with effortless grace, firing like a machine gun. If Karl kept a steady pace without draining too much Stamina, he might survive.

  At least, he hoped so.

  He steadied his breathing as he hit the next three targets, using teleportation to continue widening the gap between them. To conserve Stamina, he refused to activate any arrow abilities, each one too costly.

  He had no idea how long this run would last. Only that if his Stamina failed, Diana would be there to remind him with perfectly placed arrows.

  But as Karl struck the fifth glowing disc, the aqueduct began to change.

  The first change came when the ground just ahead of him collapsed completely, as if a bomb detonated right beneath the stone. Karl cursed, barely leaping in time to clear the chasm, slamming into the far side and rolling, leaving an icy trail behind him. Another explosion erupted behind him, which Karl could now see came from Diana herself, such was the power of her arrows.

  He barely raised his bow in time to shoot the sixth target, now drifting through the air, nearly missing after the sudden break in the aqueduct. Another archway collapsed beneath him, this time directly underfoot as Diana’s arrows hit a meter from his feet, forcing a last-second jump that sent him crashing into the jagged ridge on the opposite side, shaving a small chunk from his Health and erasing the distance he had gained on Diana.

  Her arrow struck near his left elbow as he hauled himself up, thankfully, a non-explosive one. Was she teasing him? Drawing it out like some sadistic predator?

  Probably.

  Gotta go faster, Karl thought, redoubling his pace as he fired at the seventh golden disc, which twisted and moved erratically.

  As he Elf Leaped toward it, steam vents along the aqueduct erupted, and the targets above began to spin. Undeterred, Karl fired again, striking the next two perfectly, relying on his Lunar Sight to see through the clouds of steam.

  Hit every target perfectly while running 9/20

  Passing through the vents, the aqueduct tilted sharply, sections turning into slick slides. As he slid down one, Karl loosed an arrow at a disc that vanished and reappeared above him, then Elf Leaped again to clear a steep climb that followed.

  Diana’s arrows doubled, whistling over his head as he slid and fired at the eleventh target, hitting it cleanly. The burn in his legs from climbing another broken section was sharp, but it paled beside the sudden bleed of Kara’s emotions into his focus—loneliness, guilt, and love, all tangled together.

  Fear spiked, throwing off his timing. Diana’s arrow nicked his shoulder, and Karl nearly fired in panic, which would have ended the run.

  He cursed, shook his head, and surged forward, releasing an arrow into the twelfth disc with perfect accuracy. As he passed it, the aqueduct fractured into multiple parallel paths.

  Karl chose the left without hesitation, only to find no targets ahead.

  What the hell, he thought, running on as his Stamina dipped dangerously low.

  His lunar senses flared, and he glanced back to spot a golden disc floating behind him.

  There you are.

  He fired without Elf Leaping as Diana closed in, who was now firing three arrows at once.

  Karl hit the thirteenth target and rolled aside as her arrows buried themselves in the stone behind him. In one fluid motion, he drew another arrow and activated his Hungering Freeze Rune, firing straight at her exposed throat.

  The arrow struck beneath her chin, freezing her solid for five seconds. Yet even frozen in ice, her icy glare looked like it could kill him.

  Glory (-210): 3,245

  Should’ve done that earlier, Karl thought as he turned and struck the fourteenth and fifteenth targets that appeared on the far side of the split path. His divided attention nearly betrayed him as the aqueduct crumbled again beneath his feet.

  He fell too late, unable to jump—as he fell, he sorely wished for the ability to double-jump as he once could with his unicorn horns. Karl shouted and fired an arrow a heartbeat before impact.

  The shot struck true, teleporting him to the edge of the opposite path, where he hauled himself up with shaking, sweat-slick hands. Diana shattered free of the ice, looking more annoyed than angry, and resumed firing triple-shot arrows, slowed but still terrifyingly fast.

  Karl Elf Leaped forty meters ahead, landing beneath the sixteenth disc and destroying it with ease. As he turned to pursue the last four, both parallel paths ahead detonated and collapsed away into open sky thanks to Diana. The goddess must have unleashed some divine blessing, as hundreds of exploding arrows rained from the sky, absolutely eviscerating the aqueducts before him.

  Stone and marble crumbled into the grassy hills far below, stretching toward the countryside beyond the Eternal City. There was nothing left to run on, only four golden discs bobbing playfully in the air ahead. The rubble hissed with steam beneath him.

  “Running out of time,” Diana teased, giggling at her play on words as she continued her breakneck chase, though she didn’t activate another bombing, thank the gods.

  But where was Karl to go? There was no aqueduct left. Far on the horizon, the aqueduct resumed, but it was impossible to reach from here.

  Diana’s arrow hissed past his ear as she caught up.

  “Screw it,” Karl said, sprinting and hurling himself off the edge. Midair, he fired and struck the seventeenth target. He plummeted, then Elf Leaped the instant the arrow connected, snapping back into the air like a teleporting yoyo.

  He fell again, the last three golden discs drifting ahead.

  Come on, Karl thought, firing once more. The arrow struck just before he would have smashed into the grass below.

  Once again, he was airborne.

  But the nineteenth disc was much farther than the others before it. He was nearly out of Stamina, unable to use Eagle Eye Shot or Arrow Will Guidance. Although he was a far superior bowman than most, making a long shot while falling was nearly impossible. Besides, he was falling too fast to even aim, the air whipping past as the ground rushed up to give him a crushing hug. Karl shouted, letting the anger flow through him as he aimed higher than the disc, forcing the arrow to arc upward before angling down.

  He felt a blade of grass brush his face before he Elf Leaped again, snapping midair to the nineteenth target. Still airborne, he hastily drew to shoot the twentieth, but it was impossibly far away. It had to be more than four hundred meters. There was no way to reach it as he plummeted back toward the ground.

  Diana glided effortlessly through the air, firing more explosive arrows that detonated near him. One imploded just before his stomach, throwing him into a violent spin as the world dissolved into a dizzying spiral.

  In desperation, Karl activated his Rune of Overpressure Leap Mk II, erupting less than a meter from the ground in a diagonal blast away from Diana. At the same time, he marked her with Beta’s Mark, slowing her by fifty percent and buying the time he needed.

  Glory (-445): 2,800

  It hurt to spend that much Glory, but he needed distance from the archery goddess. With only a few points of Stamina left, Karl turned midair toward the final golden disc hanging mockingly in the sky.

  If he missed, Diana would have her deadly way with him.

  Karl’s muscles screamed as he drew back the Tentacle Bowstring, his hands trembling from exhaustion, but it thankfully didn’t slip because of its suction-like nature. As the volcanic thrust sputtered out and he began to fall again, he released the arrow toward the disc more than three hundred meters away.

  Karl slammed into the ground, tumbling and rolling with a face full of grass in a pitiful heap. Above him, Diana arced gracefully through the sky, drawing three golden arrows that would have exploded on impact as she descended like living lightning.

  Just before she loosed them, a familiar smacking sound came from where the final floating, golden disc was, followed by a System message that appeared before him.

  Quest Completed: Aqueduct Run.

  “I can see why Ullr broke up with her. She’s got quite the explosive personality, though she’s definitely a 10/10. Anyway, glad you lived again, I guess. Give her my number, will you?”

  Primary Objective:

  Hit every target perfectly while running 20/20

  Rewards:

  Ullr’s Blessing Rank 5/10: Summon a blizzard that reduces enemy visibility and accuracy by 50% within a 30-foot radius for 20 seconds. Your frost attacks deal 50% more damage during the blizzard. Cooldown: 15 minutes.

  Stamina (+10): lvl 5 (30/60)

  Glory (+330): 3,130

  Level (+1): 45 (190/460)

  Skill Points (+1): 5

  Diana landed lightly on the grassy knoll nearby and withdrew her arrows. That shot would have ended him had he not struck the target perfectly.

  Karl lay there, chest heaving as his Stamina slowly returned now that the run was over. Thanks to the Endurance of the Einherjar, his Stamina and Health regenerated at twice the normal rate.

  The breathtaking goddess smiled warmly and extended a smooth hand. Karl took it, struggling to his feet as his legs burned as though he had crushed them in an impossibly brutal training day.

  “Tell Ullr he still has yet to beat me in a hunting competition,” Diana said, her rosy lips quirking playfully as her fingers brushed Karl’s chin. “And that I may have found a real man to replace him.”

  She tapped his helmet once, then turned away. Her brown hair flowed behind her as she fired an arrow straight into the sky, a beam of light enveloping her form.

  In a flash, she was gone.

  Karl exhaled deeply, grateful to have survived and surprised that he was holding his breath the entire time. His anger had burned itself out with the run and her transcendent beauty.

  Instinctively, he reached for Kara through the Pack Link, but found only silence.

  30

  SO UNCIVILIZED

  Snow swirled all around Karl as he made his way back to the Aventine Hill. His latest Ullr blessing really packed a punch, completely covering the grassy slopes in white snow in a thirty-foot radius. A young Roman couple who were making out beneath a shady tree shouted at the sight and jumped to their feet, their faces full of fear as they looked at Karl.