I sprang up in the wake of her passing, spinning to face her and expecting any combination of kick, punch or blade to be coming my way. Instead, what I found was the big woman railing uselessly against the immovable form of Mr. Quiet as Mr. Nospeak looked on with a vague expression of amusement on his face.

For his part, the man being assaulted looked nothing but irritated, and with a small frown simply reached out as if to grasp her forearms, as you might a flailing child. But the Forge of Flesh member was apparently in no mood to be restrained, and dodged away just in time to avoid his reaching hands. Still somewhat ignoring me, she instead turned to target the other of the Guards, the blade still connected to her feet rising up as she backflipped, the point shooting for his chin.

The look of amusement fell away to be replaced with exasperation as he stepped back, almost casually avoiding the blow. The two guards were both definitely either in the Foundation stage, or both had some kind of speed enhancement; watching them move, I thought the former to be the case. Most people chose abilities that somewhat tied together, amplifying the effects of both, or had one act upon the other. An individual that was both immovable and fast did not seem like a great combo. And while I could perhaps see it in the case of Mr. Nospeak, in much the same way as it worked for Toria, and as it had for Sidona, it just didn’t look enhanced.

Feeling superfluous, I backed off a few dozen paces and cut the flow of Praxis to get a better perspective of how fast they were moving. It had been a while since the opportunity to simply watch people fight had arisen, and almost as long since I had done so in my normal state, as a person with a mere fifty times the physical capability of a normal human.

I watched as the blade wove about, the woman still attached to it as it spun and dove, attacking in front even as she lashed out behind her with her loose limbs. The blade moved quickly, even by my usual standards, but while her limbs were moving slightly faster than I would expect from a Core or Path stage cultivator, I did not think it was more than a general enhancement, something that possibly effected the whole body, making her both stronger and faster, though less than focusing on either thing might.

The two Blood Guards moved as simple blurs, close to imperceptible to my unenhanced eyes; the fact that I could see it at all without the use of my Focus or Path told me that if they were at the Foundation stage, it was not at its Peak.

After a moment or two of furious blurring, the two guards had apparently really had enough, because between breaths the same blue-white bar of flame I had seen before lashed out, barely avoiding Mr. Quiet but slicing the surf-blade clean in two, and reducing much of it to molten slag. With a yell of pain, the weapon finally dislodged from the woman’s feet and Mr. Quiet caught her as she fell, tucking her under one arm as she tried to thrash her way to freedom. Ignoring his new captive, the two guards casually walked over to where I was stood, the sect member’s exhortations to let her go echoing down the empty streets.

“Are you bringing her,” I gestured down at the furious woman, “with us, or taking her back to your base?”

“You’re not taking me anywhere! I’ll kill you! I’ll-”

Mr. Nospeak lightly cuffed her on the side of the head, stunning her momentarily, before proceeding to spoil the nickname I had given him.

“Raddin will take the prisoner back to headquarters. I will accompany you.”

His voice was fairly high pitched, certainly more so than I had expected from his frame, which was a little on the larger side. It was also strangely melodic, as if he was putting every word quietly to music.

“You’re okay splitting up? That’s not, like, a break in regulations or anything?”

I did not really want them going back with me, as I would be able to move with more stealth without them, and I had already used more Praxis than I had any intention of when setting out that morning.

“It does not. There were one-hundred and twenty-eight Foundation level cultivators in Ouhl, outside of the Blood Guard and sects, and they were not warriors. Unless a larger portion of a sect’s upper echelons attacks, I should be sufficient for your protection.”

“Uh, great? I don’t really need protection, mostly, and there may be others in the city than the sects and citizens. We shouldn’t take anything for granted.”

“We have our orders.”

The words held a firm finality that told me there would be no further discussion on the matter, so with a shrug, I dropped it.

“... Good talk.”

I definitely preferred the man when he was being silent, I decided. I supposed that rigid adherence was something you probably needed when the world around you was trying to drive you to murder your boss, but I still found it annoying in that moment. While I had needed protection in the past, I was mostly past that, and had in fact taken out a cultivator at least a stage above me. I did not say that, of course, as it would not have done any good. Instead, I just shrugged and said, “Fine.”

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With a nod of his head, Mr. Quiet turned and simply walked off in the other direction; I could see him stepping around the fallen blades, taking the exact path we had followed to get there.

Turning back to Mr. Doesspeak, I asked a question - had – to that point – no hope they would answer.

“So, as I said before, my name is Hunter – what's yours? I’d prefer not to keep calling you Mr... You.”

I had almost said my nickname for him out loud, but had managed to catch myself at the last moment; my efforts to be polite to those stronger than me were really coming along, I thought.

“Faen.”

“Well, nice to meet you, Faen. Shall we?”

I gestured on down the road, but he only waved me on. With a shrug, I turned and walked on, one guard down. And once more in silence.

*

***

*

We were almost back to the City’s Edge, still walking in silence through the eerie stillness of Ouhl when I heard a distant crash coming from that direction. With a curse, I set off running, Focusing and stepping on my Path at the same time. I did not push hard, simply keeping each at what was my normal throughput, which – at my then current level of integration with my Exemplar – put me at about three-hundred times the speed of a normal person, or six-times faster than I moved normally.

Running down the road, I caught Faen keeping pace with me out of the corer of my eye; he seemed to be shooting me a considering look, and did not appear to be capable of running much faster than me, which meant he was slightly above half-way through completing his Foundation.

The buildings – both those still intact and those that had fallen – rushed past as I raced on, concerned that the noise I had heard – the first I had heard in hours – had been coming from the direction of the inn containing my friends.

We arrived back at the inn within half a minute of subjective time, the distance it would have taken an hour to walk consumed in a blur, my heart hammering almost as fast as my Core as I prepared to enter battle, but upon arrival, I saw nothing in the street, and no harm seemed to have befallen the building. Dropping my Focus and Path cautiously, I moved closer, just as the door opened and I saw Darina, Toria and Riffa step out of the outer doors to stare down the street, in the same direction from which the sound had come.

Hurrying over to them, I called out so they would not be surprised, as distracted as they were in their search for the source.

“Guys! I take it you heard that?”

“With mild concern, we did, Hunter.”

I came to a stop next to them, along with Faen who was – no surprise – silent, but looking in the same direction as the rest of us.

“Don’t suppose you have any more of an idea what it was than I do? I’m just glad it’s not some giant beast attacking the inn, because that would be just our luck.”

“Did you not just see us exit the inn, Hunter? How would we know more, do you suppose?”

“I don’t know, Dee. I was just asking.”

“Well don-”

Darina was interrupted by another crash, this one louder than the first, and I saw a plume of dust billow into the air, followed by a roar that shook the stones around us, and a giant gout of crimson fire that rose high up into the sky above us.

The apprentice healer turned to look at me, hands on hips and glaring.

“You had to say it, didn’t you, Hunter? You had to mention a giant beast.”

“Hey, we don’t know it’s a giant beast, that could be a... very loud cultivator. This guy,”, I gestured at Faen, “does a similar fire thing, though his is blue. And way smaller. No offense, Faen.”

“I have not known you for long... Hunter, but I feel that you have indeed likely brought this down upon us, with your strange, ‘luck’.”

“I don’t think that’s very fair, Toria. Sure, trouble seems to find me a lot, but it usually ends up being a good thing, and I’m not sure how a giant beast... that breathes fire... could be good.”

“With careful pointedness, perhaps you should re-examine the events you refer to, Hunter...”

“Wow, all three of you? Where’s Reff, he’ll back me up. Probably.”

“In clear disagreement, my brother is guarding the sleepers.”

Another crash sounded, and this time I could hear dozens of impacts afterwards, like thrown gravel hitting the ground in the distance.

“Right, I’m going to try to get a better view... somebody catch me? I’d rather not re-break my legs...”

“With hesitant confirmation, I will attempt to do so.”

I hesitated, looking at Riffa for a moment; the whole ‘lack of confidence’ thing had not been particularly confidence inspiring, but jumping up was probably way safe than running off on my own towards danger.

Turning to Faen, I decided to ask for help getting a little more air.

“Faen, can you throw me as I jump? I can get pretty high on my own, but I’d prefer not to waste it and have to go again,”

The man just nodded at me, and crouched, linking his gloved hands together. With a nod in return, I placed one foot in his hands, and as I felt him begin to heave upwards, drove Praxis through my Core and Exemplar as hard as I could, leaping up at the apex of his throw and shooting me really too high into the air.

I apparently, I was still very unused to approximating jump heights, because with the throw I rocketed up what had to be thousands of feet into the sky, far outstripping the heights of even the tallest standing buildings in Ouhl as the city shrank beneath me.

My heart pounded harder than ever as I finally began to slow, terrified; a person’s body could usually handle however high they could jump, but a Path stage cultivator was not supposed to be jumping what I estimated to be half again as high as a peak Foundation stage was capable of. Shaking off the fear that was trying to crawl its way up my throat, I knew that I would just have to have faith in my friends, to either catch me, or... heal me.

Refocusing below, I spotted the source of the crashes immediately, a colossal, brassy blot making its way inwards from the city’s wall; it was hundreds of feet long, with wide, fleshy wings and a serpentine neck and tail. Red flame poured from its mouth, even as it kicked aside buildings that were blocking its way.

It was a dragon.

And I was falling.

Great day!