The sun inched toward the horizon, flecks of light slipping through the canopy of leaves overhead. The familiar dirt path crunched underfoot as I walked through the forest northwest of Kirshe, where I lived. I was on my way back after filling my pack with stones from the gorge at the base of the mountains on the far side of the woods. It was a spot with a high concentration of sonotite, or manastones as many people called them now.

Originally named for their odd characteristic of producing a faint humming sound, ever since the resurgence of the use of magic, it had become apparent that they produced the sound after absorbing ambient mana, thus the new name. I hefted the pack holding quite a few of them as I walked. It was heavy, but I was used to this much after spending my days going out to collect them like this. Since the manastones could be broken down to release the stored mana, which had a myriad of uses, the stones were quite valuable now.

Of course, the ones I’d collected were fairly low-grade, most of the stone was compounded with bits of granite and sandstone, degrading the quality. Even so, I would make a decent sum of gold once I sold them back in town. I just had to keep my eyes out for any monsters sneaking around amidst the trees. There weren’t many of them this far away from the larger cities to the north, and they weren’t even very dangerous compared to some of the large ones I’d heard of, but that didn’t stop them from being more than most normal people could handle.

Thankfully, my trek went without incident for some time. I only spotted a few goblins far away between the trees. They were small and short-sighted, so I picked up my pace for a few minutes when I spotted one, to put some distance between us without being noticed. Like that, I neared the edge of the forest where it met the short tract of grassy plains outside town. I would arrive back in town within a half hour, but I would have to sell the stones, inspect and maintain my gear, and take care of other various tasks before I headed home. By then it would already be dark, so I bit into some of the extra hard bread I’d brought along to hold me over until I got home and could eat a proper meal.

Between two bites of the crunchy bread, I stopped when a faint metallic clang reached my ears. It was followed by a lower pitch thunk, and then a second clang. That was all it took to recognize the sounds of combat. I frowned momentarily, investigate or keep going? Given the distance to town, I decided to take a look, it might be someone from town who had been caught by a monster lurking at the edge of the forest.

I dashed toward the sound, moving to keep within the cover of the last few trees and low brush, and quickly came close to the battle. I ducked low to the ground and peered around the trunk of a large tree to see what was happening. Just beyond the edge of the forest, standing in the calf-high grass, two people were surrounded by kobolds. A quick headcount numbered the attackers at six. With the appearance of anthropomorphic dogs, they stood about chest high, their dull gray coats covered with spots of lighter and darker shades. Their snouts twitched constantly and they darted side to side as they fought, each one wielding a short sword in its clawed, four-fingered hands. Outnumbered three to one, the two encircled humans must have been very strong to even survive this long. I watched for a few seconds, seeing that the pair were pressed back to back, the first a woman's straight sword deflecting one attack after another, while the second covered in a cloak swung a quarterstaff back and forth to keep the other three at bay with the longer reach of their weapon. Judging by their stature, another woman.

The two strangers probably wouldn’t survive without help. Even if I jumped in, we’d be still be outnumbered two to one. I wasn’t sure if I could defeat two kobolds at once in the first place. Even with my doubts, they were being attacked by monsters- I had no choice but to help them. I shrugged off my heavy pack and set it down by the tree, then drew the sword and round shield from my back. Ensuring I had a steady grip on my weapons, I waited a moment longer for my adrenaline to really start pumping. A short breath out, and I slipped from behind the tree. Rising into a run, I accelerated fast, sprinting the dozen or so meters toward the fight. I approached from the side with the cloaked woman, aiming for the one on her right side. I only made it halfway there before the kobolds spotted me. I’d lost the element of surprise, but raised my sword high anyway.

In response to my appearance, two of the kobolds that were attacking the woman with the quarterstaff turned and charged directly toward me. “Crap,” I muttered as I drew my weapon up to attack. In my peripheral vision, I saw sprays of blood shoot upward, but didn’t have enough time to focus on them before my blade clashed against the right-hand kobold’s short sword. It stopped my attack dead, the beast far stronger than its thin arms would lead one believe, and the impact reverberated up my arm own painfully. The first time that had happened in practice, I’d dropped my sword. Now, I grit my teeth and bore it, swinging the shield on my left arm out to deflect the attack from the other kobold, before circling to the right to create some breathing room. My heart was pounding after just the first clash. I wasn’t sure yet how I planned on winning the fight, I’d need to find an opening in their defense before they did in mine.

The extra space also gave me time to spare a glance at the ongoing fight between the two women and the other four kobolds. My eyes shifted away from the one closing on me, but what I saw was not at all what I was expecting. Only a handful of seconds had passed, but all four of the other kobolds were already falling to the ground dead. The surprise delayed me a moment as I continued to scan, verifying that all four truly were dead.

As my focus returned to my own fight, I realized it was a moment I hadn’t had. The monster before me was already swinging its sword down. I stumbled, only managing to raise my weapon to block the overhead blow, but the kobold’s strength easily overpowered my own. I twisted to get my head clear, but its blade still caught me in the shoulder. I felt the tip of the blade sink into my skin, cutting from the top of my shoulder down to my armpit. The hit sent me reeling, a trickle of blood begin to seep out of the wound. From the force of the attack and my already destroyed posture, I couldn’t keep my balance and fell to the ground on my back. I prepared to shield myself, but a part in the back of my head was already reminding me that falling in battle probably meant it was over. My vision narrowed on the sword raised, its point plunging down at me from above. I raised my shield to meet it, but the other monster was already closing in too.

Without warning, fire seemed to explode from the side of the kobold above me. Cinders rained down, but I my shield bore the brunt of it. The sudden explosion threw the monster sideways out of my field of view, its sword vanishing into the tall grass. Staring up at the now empty space above me, I realized that one of them had a staff, so she must be a magic user. I pushed myself back to my feet as fast as I could, silently thanking the mage for saving me. It was just in time, the second of the two kobolds was almost on top of me already.

From the corner of my vision, the woman with the straight sword seemed to fly from her previous position, her initial stab deflected by the last standing kobold as she landed in front of it. After her blade was parried to the side, so fast my eyes couldn’t follow, she spun and drew a second slash directly across the monster’s torso, another splatter of blood as she nearly cleaved it in two. I blinked after, unsure of what I’d just seen. Was it really possible to move that fast?

A short distance away, the last kobold fled toward the forest; large parts of its back and left arm had the fur burned away, the skin beneath charred black and smoldering. The swordswoman raised her hand, aimed at the back of the retreating kobold, and a magic circle appeared for a moment before a fireball shot out and struck the monster. A large explosion of flames engulfed it once more. As I watched its lifeless body collapse, I realized that my earlier assumption was wrong. The one who had saved me was the swordwoman.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

With the last of the monsters dispatched, I let out a relieved sigh and sunk to my knees. That was too close, closer than any fight I’d had recently. After a few seconds to let my boiling adrenaline settle and my pounding heart slow, I let out yet another long breath, then reached up and took the hand offered by the swordswoman. On my feet again, we shook hands. “Thanks for the help,” she said with a nod. Now that I got a good look at her, I saw she had long red hair pulled back into a braid, and wore simple cloth clothing. Probably early twenties, so a little younger than me.

“I’m not sure you needed it, with the way you handled them,” I chuckled, “thanks for saving me.”

“It was nothing,” she responded, “you reduced their numbers enough that I could move freely.” I nodded to that, it was true enough. “I’m Gwen, follower of Vanne, God Of Magic. My partner here is Sharya.” As she spoke, the other approached, pulling back the hood on her cloak and giving a small bow. Sharya looked a bit younger still with a somewhat childish face and a height a good head and a half shorter than Gwen and myself. Her brown hair hung loose into the inside of her brownish green cloak, which covered anything else she was wearing. A magician then, if her god and attire were any indication.

“Allistor, follower of Herral, God Of Combat,” I responded. We ended the handshake, and I winced once more as my injured arm returned to my side.

“Ah, let me treat that for you.” Sharya stepped forward, touching my shoulder lightly as she inspected the wound. Even though I’d almost taken a direct hit, it wasn’t very deep, not much more than a scratch. It hadn’t even caused much damage to the muscles in my shoulder, if it had cut those, I wouldn’t have been able to grip my sword at all. My god’s blessing was to thank for that, it protected me from most physical harm. It was the main reason the three of us could fight monsters that normal people could not.

“She specializes in healing magic,” Gwen explained, though I'd guessed as much from her earlier statement.

“It doesn’t do me a whole lot of good in the middle of a fight though,” Sharya commented. “I’m going to learn some offensive magic from Kino when we get back so I’m not such dead-weight in a fight,” she grumbled.

“Ahh…” I muttered. I didn’t know their circumstances, so I just stood awkwardly while Sharya bent down. Taking a stick of charcoal from inside her cloak, she took a few seconds to clear a spot of tall grass and sketch out a magic circle on the ground. Magic circles were inset with shapes and characters which determined what type of magic would be created, but I didn’t know anything about how it worked since I’d never studied it myself. The circle she drew was inset with a square, and ringed with a handful of unrecognizable characters, probably from some ancient script used by the original gods.

Sharya took a deep breath and for a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen. I didn’t have the ability to sense mana, but I knew that right now, she must be releasing her own mana to power the spell. It was a skill that normal people couldn’t perform, the only reason she could was the blessing given by her god.

“For a follower of a God Of Magic, you’re amazing with a sword,” I commented while I waited for the magic to activate.

“Well, we have so many magicians in our following, we really needed someone to protect them, and I had a bit of talent with a sword, so it kind of just happened, you know?”

I nodded, “Yeah, we have a few like that too. The other way around, of course.” We waited a little longer before the black charcoal lines on the ground flashed and glowed a dazzling white. Sharya held a hand over my wound and the skin immediately began to grow together, closing within moments.

“There, how does that feel?” She asked.

I rolled my shoulder a little, then smiled. “All good, thank you very much. I wish we had a good healer like you, it’d make life a lot easier.” Since Herral was a god of combat, almost everyone in our following used weapons, there were only a few guys I knew who practiced magic, and only because they had a talent for it.

“Well, if you don’t mind, can I collect the mana from these?” Gwen asked, changing the topic.

“Sure, it was your fight in the first place, and you killed them all in the end anyway,” I said while raising my hands a little. Wow, my shoulder really did feel a lot better.

While Sharya stood and brushed off her cloak, Gwen pulled some manastones from a pouch at her belt and held them over the already disappearing bodies of the slain kobolds. The stones let out pure ringing tones louder than usual as they filled with mana, and the bodies vanished almost immediately as their forms unraveled back into the mana they were all composed of.

For a few more seconds, the stones Gwen held continued ringing loudly before quieting once more. “Pretty high quality stones, grade four or five?” I asked. I could tell based on the sounds they made. Instead of one or two overlapping tones emanating from the stones, I thought I could make out four or five.

“Good ear, we got these back in Flaren before we left.”

“You’re from Flaren?” My eyebrows shot up automatically when I heard that. Flaren was one of the largest towns in the region, a week’s walk north of Kirshe. There were supposed to be some very well known Gods protecting from the repeated monster attacks against the city. It sounded like a very dangerous place to live, no wonder why Gwen could fight like that.

“Yeah, we were asked to run an errand to Smithtown. Vanne gave us some high grade manastones to collect mana along the way.”

“Why Smithtown, isn’t that really far out for skilled warriors to run an errand? Wouldn’t it be better to send a few trainees instead of the stronger members of your following?”

“Skilled warriors?” Gwen let a laugh escape before holding a hand up to smother it. “We’re not that great, there are lots of others stronger than us!” Ahh right, they were completely out of my league, but they were from Flaren. Just how strong were the people there exactly? “In any case, we were asked to tell a relative about an upcoming wedding, they sent us because we’ll probably have to escort them back to Flaren.”

“Oh, I see,” I nodded. So they sent middling members instead of fresh recruits because they’d probably have to protect a civilian on the way back. That could get tricky trying to navigate through the groups of monsters lurking around Flaren.

“Anyway, we’ll be staying in Kirshe tonight before we head out in the morning, want to walk back with us?”

“Sure just give me a second to grab my bag.” I ran back to where I’d hidden my pack behind the tree and shouldered it with a grunt. When I returned, I found Gwen and Sharya also picking up large packs from the tall grass that I hadn’t noticed before.

Of course, I realized a moment later. They must have been traveling for a week from Flaren already, and it was another two or three days trek West to Smithtown. There’s no way they could travel that far without provisions and some basic camping gear.

We set off back toward the city at a slow pace, all three of us weighed down by the extra gear now. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon already, I hadn’t expected the time it would take to help them. I’d be getting back later than I’d planned, but I’d have a story to tell later at least.

“So what about you?” Sharya asked this time.

“Me? What about me?” I replied, confused by the sudden question.

“What brought you past us today? I think that’s what she means,” Gwen clarified for the younger woman.

“Aah, I was collecting manastones.” I pulled one from my pack and handed it off. “Low quality, but it makes a living.” Sharya held it up to the sun for a few seconds as she examined it before passing it back with a simple nod.

We continued walking for a while without saying anything, and finally arrived at the city gates shortly after dark. “Thanks for the help earlier,” dipping into slight bows, and I returned the gesture. With that, we said our farewells and headed our separate ways. As I walked down the dark streets of town, I stretched and released a long, tired groan. Another nice day.