I watched a stone ax turn end over end toward my chest. The earthen work of the ax didn't get lost in its hurling motion. It was almost like the ax was spinning in its own realm, frozen in time. The problem was the ax wasn't frozen. It was moving incredibly fast. I processed the attack clearly but lacked the speed to completely dodge it.

The stone ax collided with my elbow, shattering stone and ice. Instead of losing my arm, it felt like I was punched by a boulder, and a chunk of my armor broke off. I completed my spin, ending my dodging motion.

The highlander pulled at the ground beneath me. Rock and stone reached for my ankles. A heavy aura of water mana restricted the ground from catching me. As I suppressed the ground attack, I threw out waves of ice spears created from the nether.

I sent a dozen spears head-on while aiming a few at the grounder's back. The tuskless orc blocks my ice attack with rock shields. He slammed his foot on the ground, creating a quake. I bent my legs, letting them absorb the shaking motion and tighten my stomach.

Hundreds of bloodwood spears are crafted in seconds and thrown at me in every direction. The grounder is trying to get me to hide behind a shell. I do just that. I couldn't dodge the spears even with my increased perception speed. As my barrier was barraged, I pulled two rune stones from Lana's ring. I fill them with my cyan mana and break them.

Dark energy filled my shell, seeping out of my impenetrable shell in a way only mana could. The silencing power, once out of my cover of shields, covered the immediate space around us. The assault on my shell stopped.

I shattered my orb of protection, creating shards of ice that I commanded to attack. The grounder, silenced by my runes, grabbed the kite shield and ax on his back. Holding the shield tight to his body, he chopped down with his ax, cutting through the ice firing at his front. An aggressive extension of his shield arm dispersed the shard aimed at his back.

Selene's moldy breath. The grounder had no mana, and yet he battered aside my attack as if he did. Was it luck? Probably not. I connected to more ice shards, keeping them tethered, and attacked again.

Hundreds of shards connected to my will assaulted the grounder. His simple chopping and moving of his shield blocked the first dozen waves. I directed and timed the tethered assault more precisely with the successive waves, scoring hits.

The grounder grimaced from the pain. He renewed his effort and swung his ax and shield faster. Shards struck him from every direction, over fifty attacks a second. The onslaught of razor-sharp ice buzzed in the air and created a formation of constant attacks around the highlander.

While the grounder was busy fighting my ice storm, I filled the surrounding area with a thick fog. The dry forest drank my mana from the air, causing me to invest more energy into the mist. The demand for the forest proved too heavy. I dismissed the fog, choosing to freeze the ground instead. A platform of ice lifted me into the air. I fired arrows from my new vantage, adding to the bombardment.

Several heartbeats passed. I thought I was weakening the sage. A pleasant melody whistling from the center of attacks destroyed that notion. The earth sage was covered in an aura of energy. It was raw, potent, and sharp—nothing like the earth energy the sage was bound to. My barrage of attacks hammered away. Slowly, the orb of energy grew. My attacks were hitting less.

I changed my position several times, attacking high and low. I fired arrows and mana pistols and unloaded dozens of runes onto the sage. Some of the energy pushed the rugged orc back but never knocked him down.

The sage's speed and skill with ax and shield surpassed mine and might even be better than Purity. I couldn't engage him physically, so I kept my distance and struck with all my ranged power. Ice bit at the legs of the sage. I tried to slow him down, hoping I could freeze him in place. Somehow, he resisted even the force of my domain, though it appeared to phase him. At the least, it stopped his humming.

The longer I assaulted the sage, the clearer it became that I was no match for the man. Still, I let it rain down. If I could wear him down a little, maybe we could talk. I just needed to push harder.

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My attacks doubled. I summoned blades of ice and added them to my tether. With a brilliant focus, I orchestrated wave after wave of barrages. My blades were lost in the intense speed of motion. A loud whirring noise sang loud and clear. I summoned Cal in his falcon form. He took to the air and added his mind assault to the mix.

There was shouting and a lot of cursing. The orb around the sage condensed, looking like it was about to crack. It tightened to a ball, barely large enough to cover the sage. An audible crack silenced the forest. For a breath, the warring world became still. Energy repulsed from the sage. A wave of an unseen force sped toward me and knocked me from my stand.

I flew back, receiving hundreds of cuts into my armor. The ground caught my crashing body in a hard embrace, not letting me roll any, if at all.

I groaned in pain for a second, opened my eyes, and rolled to my feet. Blood pooled from where I had laid. As dense as my armor was, it couldn't stop whatever attack the sage threw at me. I had a deep gash on my side. I repaired my armor and let my mana heal my wound. The deep cut should be healed in five minutes… if I can last that much longer.

The sage was hunched over and breathing hard. I needed to weaken him some more.

My mind was still sharp, and my body had much more stamina in the tank. After all, I'd mostly been shooting arrows and directing attacks. My spirit, however, felt the strain of pushing my channels and core to their limits. Just a little bit more.

I summoned Cal, two hundred shards of ice, and grabbed five explosive runes. Cal attacked first, followed by five explosions. Before the smoke cleared and the echoes died, my ice storm hounded the sage again. As I got closer, my domain hardened around the orc, and the intensity of my storm increased by fifty percent.

Blood covered the sage. He looked exhausted but managed to swing his ax, deflecting a quarter of my blows. At the same time, his shield blocked another seventy percent. It was a masterful display of ax and shield. He breathed heavily, and the ferocity of his attacks had lost some intensity.

I stepped closer, staying out of his range but increasing the density of my domain. My storm grew more violent. Any moment now. The whirling blades sang louder.

Out of the depths of defeat, a whistled tune to a popular miner's shanty accompanied my singing blades. The song was all wrong.

I braced for another attack of energy. Instead of getting slashed by hundreds of blades, I was cut down by five. Luckily, my right arm took two of the blows. My stomach and chest were also cut open, and I could see the bone in my left leg. I stumbled, nearly falling.

Ice covered my nub and formed into an ax hand. I sealed off the torso and thigh wounds as best as I could. I wouldn't be able to heal these during the fight.

"Who are you?" I asked as I limped toward the highlander, who looked fresh for fighting despite all the cuts and blood on him. His clothes were shreds, barely covering him at all. He took a deep breath and eyed me with a counted measure.

"I'm Tom, and this is my forest you’ve drained." He looked around and spat. "Thanks to ya, this land won't recover for a hundred years. And don't think I don't know 'bout what ya did down yonder. You'll pay for that as well."

"I'm sorry, Tom," I said between gasps of breath. It hurt to talk. "I promise the forest will heal faster than that, though."

"Ya can't just dowse 'em. It doesn't work like that."

"Give me a moment. I'll explain."

"Nah." Tom spat again. This time into his hand, which he rubbed with his other hand, and grabbed the ax resting at his side. "Think I'll just kill ya. You can explain in your next life."

Tom motioned forward. I backed up, holding my ax nub up in defense. The sage looked at my black ax with a hint of respect but pushed forward.

"Alright." I lowered my ax and accepted defeat. "I'll explain in my next life. But how should I find you?"

Tom paused, crooking his head. He searched me with great curiosity, came to a conclusion, and shook his head.

"In the dirt," Tom said with satisfaction. He swung his ax, though he was still five arm lengths away.

The last thing I saw before my world went dark was a silver crested moon tattooed on Tom's chest just above his heart. The motion of his ax swing moved his tattered clothes just enough for me to get a glimpse.

Death by another cultist—a Silver cultist at that. Now I really wanted to find Tom.

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I woke up to the sound of feet trampling through the forest. A mana-enriched breeze stirred the forest. Wild energy to the north had been unveiled. The rustling noises rapidly moved away from me toward the chaotic energy.

My heart beat wildly. I glanced at my hand. It was missing a ring.

"Lana," I whispered. Then launched towards my friends.