As the Skeleton Lord’s Astral Power faded away, the dark armour that had surrounded its form crumbled away, leaving behind nothing but dust and the shield it had used. Knowing our foe was defeated, the gestalt formed by the Raven’s Shadow and the Unyielding Wolf faded away, as did the Avatar states that had made it possible in the first place.

Gasping, trying to centre myself in the maelstrom of emotion, I desperately clung onto Sigmir, just as her arms wrapped around me, holding on for dear life. Fighting as we had, both of us blending into the other's mind was intimate in a way impossible to describe. We didn’t cease to be who we were, but we became something more. A part of a greater being, the Unity of the Pack. It was simply overwhelming.

“Teacher, are you alright?” Rai asked, sounding worried. Neither Sigmir nor I had the energy to rise from our kneeling position, holding the other, both to close and to keep upright, but I managed to gather the energy to speak.

“We will be. It was just a difficult fight.” I explained, before going back to taking deep breaths, Sigmir’s smell helping to calm my rampaging emotions.

“Sister, let’s follow Adra. That way, we can keep Morgana’s obfuscation of our abilities going.” Lenore suggested, using my voice. Nearby, the panting Ylva pushed herself up, her actions all the response needed.

While Lenore took to the sky, her flight a little wobbly, Ylva was trotting downhill, following along.

I had to smile at Lenore’s decision, even while I was grateful for it. This way, Adra, Mal and the others would know that we had won and could wait, and by the time we caught up, our mental connection would hopefully have calmed to the point that they could return to their Hallow to rest.

“There you are,” Olivia called out, coming down the hill towards us. Looking over, Myra was in the lead, with Olivia following close behind, together with Jakyl and Kirl.

“Graceful Eleuthera, grant these victorious fighters relief from their wounds.” Olivia intoned, once she was nearby and gentle, golden light settled around us, healing to soothe the manifold aches the combat had brought with it. Curiously, even the mental connection between the pack was calming down a little.

“Thank you,” I told her, finally having the strength to push myself up, even if I had to lean on Sigmir a little. In return, I carefully braced myself, allowing her to pull herself into a standing position, too.

“Are Ulchia and Eronui unharmed?” Kirl asked, looking worried.

“They should be. When I felt the Skeleton Lord approach, I asked Mibo and Gilo to escort Ulchia away, repeating the same orders to Mal and Adra in regards to Eronui.” I replied, taking a deep breath before continuing.

“I wanted to ascertain that, if we failed to beat the Skeleton Lord, not all three of you would perish,” I added. Kirl’s relief at my words was obvious, though some of the earlier worry lines remained, likely due to the situation her request had brought us into. The fight had obviously been incredibly close and if anything had gone wrong, or if Sigmir and I were a little less powerful, we’d all have died.

“Look at the upside,” I told her, glancing into the Cleft, formerly known as Shadow. “We did a great thing here. The land will heal, at least in time.” I reminded her, getting a grateful smile in return.

“Let’s grab the shield and head back towards town. Who knows what’ll crawl out of the ground next.” Sigmir suggested, causing a soft groan from me. I really wanted to simply curl up on her chest and sleep for a few days, but sadly, I also knew she was right. We were in no position to fight anything and remaining where we had a good chance to be attacked would be unwise.

The procession that set out after the rest of our group had to look rather amusing from a distance. A massive Giantblood, leaning on a tiny elf, a small Halfling being supported by a human, all while two Daimon’s and a Wolf-Beastman led the way, none of them looking all too well.

Following the path we had taken to get to the Cleft, we continued to march, until we stumbled onto a camp in the final stages of preparation. A brief, mental communication from Lenore shared what she had told the retreating group, bringing a smile to my face.

Once Lenore had caught up to them, she had informed them of our victory in my voice, asking them to prepare a camp nearby, as we were all battered. Once the message was delivered, she had created a small cloud of mist and winged it, trying to make it look like she had disappeared. While I had no idea just how effective her deception had been, she and Ylva had been hiding nearby and were by now fast asleep.

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“Sit, relax. We’ll take care of you.” Mal told us and for once, I had absolutely no problem getting ordered around. Once Sigmir was seated, leaning against a tree while sitting on some furs, I plopped myself on her lap, leaning against her chest.

“Here, take this. It’s not coffee, but it should help some.” Mal told me, handing me something that looked suspiciously like an energy bar. Grinning into Sigmir’s chest, I started to gnaw on it, not caring that Sigmir was having one herself and a few crumbs landed in my hair. I was simply too tired to care, even if I knew I’d regret it, once I had to wash my hair.

“What’ll happen to that shield?” Jakyl asked once we were all situated. “You just grabbed it, but it’s not like you’re going to use it, right?” he glanced at Rai, the one who had been carrying it.

“I will not. Far too heavy, and Teacher taught me to use two blades.” He replied, pulling it from his Magic Bag.

Reaching out, I placed a hand on it, using Identify to see what we were dealing with.

Shield of the Undying Rarity Rare Type Shield Base Protection 15 against Piercing Damage Base Protection 15 against Slashing Damage Base Protection 12 against Blunt Damage Special Effect Defiant in Death– Increases Endurance by 5%, for every 10% your HP is below 50%. Special Effect Attribute Increase – While this shield is held, you gain +2 Courage]

For a moment, I glanced at Sigmir, trying to remember the attributes on her shield. She had been using it for a long time, and while she’d always tried to maintain it, taking it to a smith to get repaired whenever possible, it had taken a literal beating on our travels.

“Love, do you want it?” I asked quietly. Apparently, not quietly enough to avoid being heard by Jakyl.

“What, you want to give it to the two-hand weapon user over the shield-user? Lovely.” he snarked, glaring at me with sudden vigour. Behind him, Mibo looked rather eager, staring at the dark metal shield, dim light reflecting off its surface. Bristling up, I pushed myself from my comfortable position, standing and glaring at him.

“Do you truly believe you’d have had even the remotest chance of defeating that thing without us? Gods, I doubt you’d have managed to get that far, the Hunting Skeletons would have done you in.” I growled, not willing to back down.

Before Jakyl could answer, a hand gently squeezed my shoulder.

“It’s alright, I prefer to keep using my Obsidian Shield,” Sigmir told me and I let myself be pulled down, back onto her lap. If she felt she didn’t need it, arguing with idiots would only allow them to pull me to their level, where they could try to defeat me with their experience.

Once I was leaning against her chest again, she quietly whispered into my ear.

“In addition, I really don’t like the feel of that shield. It sends shivers down my spine, and not the good kind. Nothing good will come from that thing.” she told me, and I glanced at the shield myself, not trying to identify or even use magic. Just looking at the dark, gleaming metal, the creepy artwork and the decorations and felt myself agreeing with her. There was something wrong with it, though I couldn’t tell what. Sniffing, I tried to detect the scent of malicious magic, but there was only the lingering smell of Death coming down from the Dorrian Mountains.

For a moment, I considered warning Mibo, but after a moment, I decided against it. If their greed brought them misfortune, on their heads be it. If they found a competent spell-caster, they might be able to find what Sigmir’s instincts were warning her about, but that, too, was not my problem.

Snuggling in, I closed my eyes, pulling Sigmir’s arms around me for comfort. Ensconced in her warmth, I decided to look at the messages from the battle. For a moment, I considered scrolling through them, before deciding that I couldn’t be bothered, instead, I looked around to find the filter for kill notifications. I simply didn’t care how many Undead had been destroyed and how much EXP each had given. The important part, was that I was now level 115, gaining another three points in Intelligence from my Class and enough free points to push it to seventy.

That done, and with an additional point into Intuition, bringing it to 52, I let my mind float for a moment, trying to feel the subtle changes.

A grin came to my face when a Blue Box told me that one of my traits had been upgraded, that the Astral Power I channelled into the world now retained a stronger connection to me, thanks to my rising intelligence. While I couldn’t be certain of the effects, I could guess that it would allow me to work large spells easier, as I would be able to store more Astral Power in a formation while working. Just for that, the increase in Intelligence was more than worth it.

In addition, there were a few Skill-Ups, Darkness-Magic rising to 69 and Ice-Magic rising to 89. Just those, but given that they were two of my more important skills, getting two points in one and a single point in the other was great. It made me wonder what I’d get, once I finally raised Ice-Magic to 100, but as slow as the skill had been growing lately, I wasn’t holding my breath.

With visions of Power, the Ice I conjured covering the world, I let myself fall into a deep slumber. If there was one place I could relax, it was in Sigmir’s arms.