Maude spread her ability out across the entire battlefield, only targeting members of Aulbert’s battalion; those wearing Aulbert’s blue and gold colors. Lime green sparkles rained down on the battlefield, touching members of Aulbert’s troops, and giving them a faint lime green glow of their own. Her run to the battlefield was brief, and as she ran into the fray, she heard them cheering for her. They were excited to have her in the battle, and she could feel their energy pulsing through her.

My ability spread across so many people will not be as impressive, she thought. Each person whose capability I augment decreases the amount each individual person gets augmented. I sincerely doubt that my ability will have that much impact on the outcome of this fight.

Still, she could tell that across the battlefield, Aulbert’s troops were much more rallied than they had been only moments before. Maybe my ability is more powerful from the rallying side of things, Maude thought. I hadn’t considered that it might boost morale and might make people stronger from that angle.

A couple of the empire’s men were coming towards her. I’m probably the greatest threat on this battlefield right now, she thought.

She drew the peridot encrusted sword. Her heart was thundering in her chest. Can I really do this? She asked herself. Can I really kill these people?

It is kill or be killed, another voice inside of her replied, sounding steeled. It is not as though Aulbert asked to be invaded.

One of the men slashed at her. She easily blocked it, and dealt a lethal blow in her first strike. The other man growled at Maude as she withdrew her sword from the man who crumpled to the ground. The sword’s blade was wet with fresh blood. The second henchman tried to swing at her, probably in hopes of it being a surprise attack, but Maude had fought Callum and all of his dirty tricks too many times to let the sword hit her. She blocked it easily, and with another quick slash, the second man crumpled to the ground.

Maude was horrified, standing over the two bodies of the men who had been breathing only moments before. That was too easy, she thought. Surely their lives should not have been that fragile to end with just a stroke from my blade.

It is kill or be killed, the voice in the back of her mind reminded her. Now is not the time to question if what I am doing is morally right.

Maude swallowed hard, tasing bile in the back of her throat. If we win, I will perform a memorial service for you, she promised the crumpled men. Because I know the empire will do no such thing.

She turned and began looking around the battlefield for Jaspar. Surely he’s not in terrible condition if these are the types of troops the empire is throwing at us, Maude thought.

The sound of thunder cracked again, and Maude recognized that it was likely one of the thunder tubes. She contorted her ability, pulling it off all of the Aulbertian soldiers and changed it into a giant shield in the sky. It caught the thunder tube’s ball, and Maude felt the impact on the shield. She shuddered.

No wonder the king was looking for a strategy for these, she thought. One of these landing on a person could absolutely crush them in an instant.

Another thunder tube went off, and Maude held her shield strong over the battlefield. She was suddenly grateful for all of the hours her sword tutor had asked her to stand, projecting a shield over her head. “You never know what will come in handy someday,” he had told her. “It is best to master your ability in all of its forms because of it.”

I would have never imagined that he would be right, she thought.

Around her, Aulbert’s troops were beginning to cheer again. “Lady saint! Lady saint! Lady saint!” They cheered for her.

Maude felt her face flush, and nearly lost her concentration on the shield. If only there had been more augment saints throughout the whole war, she thought. Maybe then Aulbert could have won easily…and Jakob would still be alive.

She gently brought the shield down, and ensured that people were out of the way before she removed the shield and spread her ability out across the Aulbertian troops again.

There were more cheers for her. She swallowed hard and chewed on her lip. I can only hope that I can live up to their cheers, she thought. The impact of those thunder tube balls is something I will never forget. She shuddered again. It is no wonder that Aulbert was outmatched by the empire as soon as those were brought onto the battlefield.

Maude began scanning around again, looking for Jaspar. There were so many people about, all facing different directions that she knew it was going to be difficult to find him, but she still hadn’t expected this level of difficulty.

Her heart started to pick up, and her throat tightened. And what if he’s already dead? She thought. Then what?

A couple more of the empire’s henchmen came at her, their swords bloody from Maude’s Aulbertian fallen comrades. Seeing the freshness of the blood on their swords, Maude felt a surge of heat run through her. She grabbed a little extra of her own energy from the other troops, and used it to extend her sword into a light green beam at the end. She used it to kill them both in a single slice, before dispersing the energy back to her comrades. The empire’s men had not stood a chance against her.

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She began to move deeper into the battle, wondering if there was a section that might have different soldiers with a higher skill level than where she currently was. After all, she thought, if this was the skill level of all of the empire’s troops, Aulbert wouldn’t have struggled to win the war in the first place.

Maude heard the sound of several thunder tubes going off at once. She switched her attention to projecting her augment ability as a shield in the sky. She noticed, simultaneously, that there were two new empire troops striding towards her.

So they learned that I have to focus for the shield, Maude thought, taking a deep breath as thunder tube balls impacted her shield, and she heard more cracks of thunder as even more were shot off.

Maude gritted her teeth, focusing most of her attention to hold the shield up as more balls hit it. She paid attention as much as she could, to the two men striding towards her. They began to attack as Maude heard more thunder tubes erupt.

I got to make this quick, she thought. She pulled out her sword and dropped the shield, noting that the balls had already hit it and would continue their path downward, towards whomever may be below. She quickly extended her sword with her power, and quickly slashed across the chests of the two troops. As they fell, she switched her focus back to the shield, and caught the falling thunder tube balls, less than a foot before they impacted the troops who were underneath. The balls that were launched as she had dropped her shield impacted it shortly thereafter. The impacts caused Maude to grimace as the vibrations ran down her arm.

She let out a sigh of relief. I can’t believe I was successfully able to pull off such a dangerous gamble, she thought. All of those years of training really have paid off.

She gently lowered the balls down to the ground again, and began to look around once more to see if she could find Jaspar. She spread her augment ability out across the whole battlefield again while looking around.

I am sure he is here, Maude thought. There is no way he is dead yet.

A few troops began to approach her again, and she easily cut them down once more, without much of a fight.

Internally, she shuddered. Jaspar was right, she thought. The experience of being on the battlefield is an entirely different one than killing someone I just spoke with at such a close range. Maude felt her skin crawling a bit. It still bothers me how easy it is to end a life, though, she thought.

As she made her way deeper and deeper onto the battlefield, however, she could tell that the enemies were getting stronger and stronger. I wonder if both the empire and Aulbert put their strongest troops at the front of the battalion, she thought. That could explain why Jaspar has been nowhere to be found so far.

She swallowed hard as another of the empire’s troops made their way toward her.

After watching me kill all of their other men, I figured no one would want to attack me, she thought. But here is another one. Do they all just have death wishes?

Or they just want to die an honorable death of having tried to kill the traitorous sword saint, another part of her suggested. There’s no possibility of them earning any valor for going after someone who is a nobody from Aulbert. At least with me, they’ll be able to say that they died at the hand of the sword saint.

The man attacked her and was a stronger opponent than all of the other people she had fought before him. Their battle still only lasted a few minutes, and Maude was still able to kill them with a single swing of her weapon.

Finally, as she was turning away from her most recent victim, she spotted Jaspar’s face. He was towards the opposite edge of the battlefield from where she had entered, and he had a few cuts on his hands and his face. HIs opponent was attacking quickly, and somewhat recklessly. Though Jaspar was pretty quick for a swordsman, he seemed to be struggling a bit to keep up with his opponent.

And he said speed wasn’t worth as much as power, Maude thought, tsking her tongue at Jaspar. Now look at him. Struggling due to his lack of speed.

Maude noticed that there was another troop of the empire, lurking near where Jaspar was fighting his opponent.

That bastard wouldn’t dare… Maude thought as she watched the man draw his sword and look around carefully. How dishonorable, she thought. Though I should not be all that surprised since this is the emperor’s men we are talking about.

Maude took off running across the battlefield. The blow the cowardly opponent would land on Jaspar would be lethal, no matter how Maude sliced it.

Please let me make it, Maude begged as she ran with all of her might.

She got up close and personal with the man who was going to attack Jaspar from behind, and just barely managed to stop his blade with her own. The metal screeched across each other with the force she had to use in order to stop the blow.

And she heard the voice that she thought she would never hear again, saying her name with such a soft sweetness, she nearly thought that she was hallucinating.

“Maude,” Jaspar murmured, his back gently touching hers. “What are you doing here?” As he was talking, she could feel his voice vibrating in his back. This time, she shivered from pleasure rather than disgust.

“I decided to fight,” Maude replied softly. She blocked the attacker’s sword again. He was much quicker than the other men that she had fought so far. This is definitely the place that I am needed, she thought. Jaspar must be here because he’s more skilled than the other soldiers.

The attacker came at her again, and she blocked a third time. I need to find an opening, she thought, watching the man’s feet. Within a few strikes from the man, she found her opening. She quickly switched from the defensive to the offensive. A surprised look flashed across the man’s face. Suddenly, he was on the defensive, doing everything he could to block her blows…until he couldn’t anymore, and he, too, crumpled to the ground.

Maude’s stomach rolled. The other fights were a little less personal, she thought. Maybe I should have stayed over there after all.

She glanced over her shoulder, back towards where she had come from. The fighting was still intense, but she didn’t see many people having as long and drawn out fights as the people around her were.

She moved back towards Jaspar, placing her back against his again. “You’re back,” he murmured softly.

“And I’ve got your back,” she replied. He was still fighting the same person. Curiosity nipped at her, and she found herself looking over Jaspar’s shoulder to see who from the empire was such a skilled swordsman.

The swordsman’s face caused her gut to tighten and her heart to drop in her chest.

There is no way he’s this skilled, she thought. Not when he was always pulling dirty tricks on me whenever he and I dueled.