Rosaria panted. Her left leg ached from the deep bite that had pierced into it earlier in the hunt.

The clouds covered the moon; there was only fog and darkness in the sunken, bowl-shaped valley. Ankle deep, clear water that she could not see through the fog rippled around her boots and had soaked them through to chill her feet.

Three of the seven squires who had set out from Highmount in the morning were wounded, and she only hoped not too badly. Theo and Lyndie had dragged them out of the basin to keep them from being hurt any further while she and the others had provided cover. That left only four squires, including her, to engage the enemy.

She held her longsword in her hands as she stared down the object of their quest. It was the size of a bear, with thick and mottled brown fur. Its eyes shone an unsettling, albeit natural amber. The trait that marked the wolf clearly as an apprentice-tier beast was the moss-covered set of sharpened, curled horns that crowned its thick head. That and the plate-like carapace of overlapping armor that covered the upper section of its back and chest—and which were likewise made of the same ugly keratin as its horns.

"Are you okay?" Arthic asked her, not taking his eyes off of the horned wolf as it backed away into one of the valley sides.

He was tall, broad, and four years older than her. Arthic wore iron plate on his trained frame, and a war maul filled his hands.

"I'm fine. We need to finish it," Rosaria said, "before I'm not and it charges us again."

"Right," he agreed. "I'll pin it down again as best I can. Are you ready?"

"Ready," she said.

"Merlo, Kindis!" Arthic commanded his squad in a booming voice. "You know what to do! Keep it from moving or flanking us!"

The two archers, one of each who stood far off to either of their sides, shouted in the affirmative and nocked arrows.

The horned wolf growled at Arthic's shout and lowered itself into a menacing crouch.

"Now!" Arthic echoed his voice into the night and then glanced to Rosaria. "Let's go."

Merlo and Kindis released arrows as Rosaria and the squire-captain approached the beast directly and carefully.

The horned wolf snarled as an arrow bounced off of its carapace, and it then lunged violently at Arthis. The beast wasn't especially fast, but its bulky frame was nearly impossible to stop once it got moving.

Arthic charged forward to intercept the beast before that came to pass and shouted. "Fortress!"

The squire-captain's hammer impacted the horned wolf's face with a much greater weight than it otherwise should've. The wolf took the blow head-on and was staggered, but only slightly.

Regardless, Rosaria was quick to capitalize on the momentary stumble. The young squire couched her sword and aimed directly for the wolf's eye.

In response, the beast lowered its head and charged forward at her as Arthic's maul rebounded off of its now broken jaw.

"Disarming parry!" Rosaria shouted and activated her skill.

With her life-force funneled into her body, she was just fast enough to catch one of the wolf's horns on her weapon's face. She did not, however, have the strength to push the wolf aside. Against her skillful leverage, the creature's horn was barely moved over at all.

Rosaria tried not to grunt in pain as she was forced to put her weight on her injured leg as she threw herself to the side of the monster's horns. The wolf barreled past her and her adrenaline spiked as she just barely avoided having her good leg trampled by its huge bulk.

"Merlo!" Arthic shouted.

Two arrows slammed into the shoulder of the wolf in rapid succession as Arthic signaled the archer. Another projectile soared over the wolf's head. A final arrow sunk into a gap within its carapace, and the wolf shrieked in an agony that Rosaria had prior not heard from it, despite the many injuries they'd already given the lupine.

"The flesh under its back!" Rosaria shouted. "It's weak under the plates!"

"Noted!" Arthic shouted and lunged forward while he raised his hammer.

Rosaria watched as the arrow-ridden wolf opened its bleeding jaw. A sense of impending disaster struck her. "Wait! Arthic no!"

"Shieldb--" the squire-captain started to announce his own skill, only to be halted as an echoing wind of opposing skill-energy rushed through the valley.

Tasked life-forced rippled through the fog, clearing it as the wolf released its skill through cracked fangs.

Rosaria felt her heart spasm and cease beating when the wolf's released life force flowed into and then through her body. Her veins were turned to ice. Her head grew dizzy.

Arthic froze with his massive weapon above his head. His own eyes had grown huge. The muscled squire stumbled forward, his maul's head splashed into the water as he suddenly leaned against it to try to recover himself.

No arrows came to their aid.

The horned wolf did not remain idle. The creature whipped forward and rammed its shoulder into Arthic. The squire-captain was tossed aside as the beast reared into the air.

Rosaria's eyes widened. Had Arthic been gored? It was too dark for her to tell. Fear for her friend rushed through her. It was enough to make her frozen heart beat in worry. Enough to get her moving.

She took a stumbling step forward, her injured leg numbed by the wolf's skill--along with her whole body.

She couched her own blade and prepared to strike at the wolf before it could trample Arthic or charge one of the archers.

She only had one chance to break through the wolf's carapace. The same chance that Arthic had tried to capitalize on.

"Shield--" her voice trembled along with everything else, "breaker!"

Her depleting life-force flashed from her soulcore and ran into her arms and up her sword. Her weapon was soon coated in a gleam of lavender and seafoam specks.

The wolf whipped its head towards her and lined itself up for another charge. It had given her a clear target. If she could just be fast enough

She lunged forward. The wolf barreled across the now skill-cleared, fogless valley floor. The water below their boots and claws was thrown up in dashing splashes.

The beast lowered its horns; she knew they could very easily pierce through the leather cuirass Alexander had bought her.

It would be close. But she was more nimble than the wolf, thanks to Pery's and Bastion's training.

She lowered her level and dropped to her injured leg's knee at the last moment before she and the wolf made contact. She winced in pain and pushed with her good leg against the unstable pebbles and mud beneath the clear water underfoot.

Her skill-enhanced blade met the carapace on the wolf's chest. Her skill-coated blade gleamed. And the natural armor shattered.

The wolf gargled and snapped at her in pain as her blade sank into its torso. She was now between its horns and below them, safe if it would just die. She did her best to tuck herself under the thing's biting reach, but she knew it would be able to pierce its teeth into her if it had the chance--if it didn't grow still soon.

"Shield-Breaker!" a voice echoing with re-attempted force drowned out the monster's panicked snarling.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

A loud resounding shook through the wolf's body at the same moment as the shout. The beast went rigid. Rosaria took the chance and rolled behind and under the monster's right foreleg.

When Rosaria looked up, now unarmed, she saw a very stiff-armed Arthic looming over the wolf with the pick-sided face of his war maul sticking into the wolf's skull. The massive beast finally lay unmoving in the rippling water.

"Are you alright?" Arthich asked her, his weapon still imbedded in the monster's body as he took labored breaths.

"Fine," she struggled to say through her own exhausted everything. "We need to check on the others."

Arthic reached down and, with a strained heave, pulled her longsword free from the carapace it had sunk into. "You're right. We certainly do."

----------------------------------------

I walked into my bedchambers drained. To my surprise, someone was waiting for me.

Rosaria sat on the trunk that set in front of my bed--or the bed Bastion and Samantha had loaned me anyway. The moonlight bathed her raven hair and shimmered against it softly.

"Hey, Pery," she said. "You haven't been around much."

"Hey," I said and, after taking Mytharis off of my belt and hanging my outer robe up in my armoire. "I've just been spending a lot of time in the library lately."

"I'm gone most of the day too, but I'm usually home for supper. Samantha makes enough for each of us."

Her words didn't sound like an accusation, just a subtle correction.

"Has Bastion been there at all? I haven't seen him much either."

I noticed that Rosaria glanced to look at me out of the side of her eye before looking forward again. "He trains with me in the courtyard in the evenings, but he's still been getting up early. He gets to the order house before us squires even do."

"Shouldn't the castellan and the order master have all the details by now?" I asked, referring to how Bastion had been briefing the local authorities on what had happened with Perenine and the daemon.

"I don't think he's briefing anyone anymore. You really should talk to him."

I looked at her with a worried interest. "Is something happening?"

Rosaria frowned. "I can't tell you, Pery. You're not a squire, and it's not mine to tell. There are rules; I'm not even supposed to know."

"Then how do you?" I asked.

"It was his to tell me," she said, "but it's not mine."

I frowned and sighed. "He's rubbing off on you."

Rosaria smiled a little. "What do you mean?"

"You remember a few weeks ago when I was poaching goblins?"

"Yes."

"He more or less threatened to arrest me if I didn't stop."

She laughed; I loved my oldest friend's laugh. "You're lucky you got a warning."

I laughed too, but less strongly than she had. I let our shared, and much needed, levity settle down before I replied.

"You're going to be an amazing knight, just like him."

Her smile turned more sincere and touched by my words. "You still could be too."

I frowned. "I thought so, but when do I have the time?"

She leaned back against the footboard of my bed. "Are you at least keeping your sword skills up?"

"I'm trying; there's a lot of combat training, but most of it is magic based. Most of everything is studying," I admitted.

My mind flashed back to the duel with Cedric that had taken place a few days prior—and how badly it had gone.

"I bet you're good at that," Rosaria said. "You could train with me and your brother if you can find the time."

"Yes, I suppose," I said.

"You aright?"

I looked at her. I honestly needed to talk to someone about what had happened with Cedric.

"I got in a fight," I said.

"With another mage?" she asked me, but she didn't appear overly panicked. "You look alright? Are you?"

"One of dad's old friends healed me and... helped me talk through what happened to him."

Rosaria put her hand on mine. "You haven't talked about it with me."

"Or anyone, but he might be able to help dad."

Rosaria's eyes widened at that. "Soon?"

I was fairly certain she missed my father as much as I did. Rosaria's own father had died when she was too young to even know him. She'd grown up with my father being the only real male figure in her life. I suddenly felt guilty for not helping her to work through what had happened and for refusing to speak of my father at all since he'd become Perenine's vessel. But I couldn't before now. I still barely could.

"I don't know," I said. "I hope, but probably not. He has to research it. It's complicated."

Rosaria clenched my hand tighter. "It's still better than before. There's a little hope now... and he's coming back eventually, even if it doesn't work out this time."

I tried to fight back the pang of pain and irritation that shot through me at her last statement. My hand twitched under hers.

Rosaria pulled her grasp back slowly. "Are you mad at me?"

"No... I don't know. Twenty years is a long time," I said. "It's longer than we've been alive."

Perenine had said that she'd need twenty years to heal in my dad's body before she could return him to us.

Rosaria clasped her hands in her lap. "That's not fair to me or him."

She was right. She didn't deserve my anger. She really didn't. "It's why I didn't want to talk about it."

Rosaria frowned. "I'm here when you can or want to, but you don't get to be mad at me for caring."

I clenched my fists and then unclenched them. "Talking with Master Renalt helped, but it still hurts."

"We're hurting too, Pery. You're not the only person who lost him--you're not even the only son who lost their father," Rosaria said.

I'd rarely ever seen her angry, save for when she'd protected me against the iceling broodmother in our first dungeon--and even that was a crueler, colder, and less hurt filled anger than what seeped into her voice now.

"We didn't lose him," I said.

She didn't reply.

I reminded myself once again that she didn't deserve to be a target. "I'm sorry."

She didn't look at me but instead changed the subject. "How did the fight start?"

I put my own hands in my lap, glad to no longer be speaking of my father--and saddened to not be all the same.

"It was a spar at first," I said, "but then he kicked Mile."

The dog perked up from where he'd laid down at Rosaria's feet when we'd come in. She reached down and stroked his head. "Why?"

"Mile let me know that Cedric was about to attack me," I said. "He helped me to dodge his sword."

Rosaria scratched between Mile's ears as the dog lifted his head more forcefully against her hand. "He was a part of the duel too?"

My voice grew quieter. "Yes."

"Pery--"

"I know," I said. "But Mile wasn't attacking him; I told him not to bite, just to watch my back."

"He was still a part of the spar though," Rosaria said and lifted Mile into her lap. "I don't want him to get hurt either, but if he was helping you then..."

"Then what Cedric did wasn't really wrong," I finished her thought for her. "I just got so angry. Because he only did it because he was mad I was beating him. Because I started to enjoy beating him too much."

"The spar became a real fight?" she asked.

"We weren't allowed to use magic," I told her. "He did, but only after I hurt him on purpose, but not enough to officially win the spar before I could hurt him more."

Rosaria didn't say anything right away. "He broke the rules first?"

"Yes," I said.

"And did you?" she asked.

"I used a ward to protect myself from his spell," I replied.

"A ward?" she asked.

"A shield sign," I replied.

"Pery, I'm not a mage. What's a sign?"

"A simple spell," I said.

She nodded her head. "I'm glad you're learning more magic. You're good at it."

"Me too. I've really liked it even with having to deal with some people like Cedric."

"But how is protecting yourself breaking the rules? Is anyone mad at you for that?"

"Not really for that," I admitted. "His spell got through my ward. It hurt. I was still angry about Mile, and I bound him with vines."

"So that's how you got hurt. Did you hurt him after that?" she asked.

"No. The fight was stopped. Mile got hit again."

"Would you have?"

It was my turn to not respond.

Rosaria accepted my silence before she asked a different question. "Are you in trouble?"

It'd been a few days since the fight. A few things had happened since then.

"Master Steelvein set the rules for the spar. He found me a day later and told me there'd be no punishment. He doesn't ever look like he's feeling much of anything, but he looked unhappy when he said it."

"Maybe someone else made the decision for him."

"Maybe," I said. "I've thought about it, but I don't know who could have. Maybe Master Renalt spoke up for me, but he hasn't said anything."

"But you're still upset that you got so mad and hurt Cedric?"

"He--" I paused. "I'm upset that I'm still happy about it, even though I know I was wrong too. And that I couldn't control myself when I got mad. I don't want to mess up things at the Towers."

Rosaria nodded. "Just try to be better going forward. That's what Bastion always says when I make a mistake. It's what he'd tell you."

"What about what you'd tell me?"

"I'm glad you got him back for hurting you and Mile."

I laughed. "Yeah. Me too. Even if it's wrong."

"Still try to be better though, okay?"

My laugh turned into a smile. A relieved smile. Talking to Rosaria always made me feel better. At least as better as I could feel.

"There's a battle royale in a few days," I said.

"At the Towers?"

"Master Steelvein announced it the same day he talked to me about what happened. We'll be hunting each other in the arena."

"Hunting?" she asked. "With magic?"

"With anything we bring as a weapon," I answered. "The big island in-between all the other towers is the arena. It has resurrection magic built into it."

Rosaria raised her eyebrows as she put together what I meant. "You're going to be killing each other."

"Yes," I said. "We are. For points."

"That's... scary," she admitted.

Rosaria was someone I'd very rarely ever seen scared. She was much more fearless than me as far as I was concerned. She also seemed to be becoming better at handling her emotions than I was.

"I'm terrified," I admitted. "And I'm slightly less terrified that I'm excited to try to win."

"You've changed a lot," she said.

"Since when?"

"Since we left Streambrook. You were always special, but you're different now. You like things that used to just scare you," she told me.

"I guess so. I felt like I had to start doing that," I admitted.

She turned her face to me, her eyes lowering in concern. "Why?"

I took in a deep breath. "To protect all of you."

Rosaria studied me and then sighed. "We all need to protect each other, Pery."

I looked away from her.

"I know," I said.

But it was at least half a lie.

Mile stood up in Rosaria's lap and licked at my cheek.

She's good, he told me telepathically.

I know, buddy, I repeated to him. She's always been good.

I smiled and reached over to pet the dog too.

"Are you ready?" she asked, regarding the battle royale.

"I think so. My brawn is maxed right now. So is my dexterity. I still haven't learned a lot of new magic, just theory, but I hope it's all enough."

"Your brawn is maxed?" she asked me with what seemed like surprise.

"Yes?"

She put Mile down and stood up slowly. "I think I have something that can help you tomorrow, Pery. I want you to have it."