It was as good a morning as any for a fight. Emilio adjusted the enormous anchor on his shoulder and rolled his head from side to side. His neck cracked, and he grunted with satisfaction.

“Where did they all come from?” Pearl asked. Her long taupe hair flew free in the mountain breeze. She wrinkled her nose when a few flyaway strands tickled her face, and she brushed them back. “This isn’t the right season for harts to feed.”

The damn things had surrounded the gates of Lyncina, picking off the chickens or sheep that strayed too far from their herds. Hart hooves were made for the mountains. They came and went like packs of bandits in the night, creeping up and down straight inclines to hunt, often leaving many farmers worried for their livestock.

“Who knows what woke them up.” Emilio shrugged. “Claudia’s been smoking all kinds of fish this week. Could’ve made ‘em hungry.”

“It’s certainly made me hungry,” Yazmin remarked. She rocked from one bare foot to the other, her dark skin glowing in the sunlight. She didn’t wear much for armor—it just got in her way.

“You’re always hungry,” Pearl laughed.

Yazmin grinned and licked her lips. “Who wouldn’t be? Ni Island has the best food.”

“Seems the harts would agree.” Emilio scratched his chin. “Let’s hope this is all of ‘em.”

Two of the harts at the edge of the herd noticed the Party. Beady red eyes locked on Emilio, and their gruff bleating revealed sharp black teeth.

“Time to work, ladies.” He lifted his anchor from his shoulder and rested the shank in his palm, gripping it by the throat. The arms and bills were sharpened to razor edges—a weapon unlike any other.

“Alright. Ready.” Pearl reached toward Emilio and rested her hand on his shoulder. She closed her wide, clear eyes, then quietly recited, “[Sigil of Power].”

A glowing white rune appeared on Emilio’s bicep, and a flood of [Strength] rushed through his veins. No matter how many times she cast that Spell, it always felt just as intoxicating. He felt unstoppable. With a thrilled laugh, he took a step forward.

The harts screamed and charged.

“[Sanguine Wrath]!” Emilio called. A dozen tiny cuts bit into his arms and legs, gradually sapping his [Health Points] as he launched himself at the herd.

His first swing of the anchor cleaved the throats of the two harts that had initiated the fight. Blood soaked their dark fur and sprayed over Emilio’s arms. Another hart jumped, kicking all four legs into his chest. Emilio swung again, slicing one anchor’s arm straight through the roach’s limbs. It screamed. The severed torso dropped to the ground, and the legs bounced around it.

Three more harts flanked him on opposite sides, lowering their heads and readying their sharp horns.

“Shit,” he grumbled. Harts adapted to every battle like a seasoned battalion—using the losses of their units to adapt and conquer. It made them a pain in the neck to kill.

“Go left!” Yazmin called. “[Extend Nails]! [Blood Bite]!”

Emilio took the hart to his left, racing toward it before it charged. He did not want to be on the tips of those horns.

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Yazmin moved in a blur of leather and black hair, descending on the roach to Emilio’s right.

“[Sigil of Confusion]!” Pearl shouted. The third hart veered to the side, spilling to the ground mid-stride with strained bleats. It kicked up rocks and dirt in a disorienting cloud as it spun in chaotic circles.

The hart focused on Emilio managed to pierce his tunic with its horns before Emilio buried his anchor in its midsection, striking through its spine and deep into its bowels. At his side, Yazmin descended on her target, ripping through fur and flesh with her hands and teeth. Wet sounds of her feeding on the roach’s blood mingled with the whimpering mewls that escaped inside its dying breaths.

“Yazmin! I thought you already ate breakfast!” Pearl said, wincing.

The [Whisper] leaned back and sucked her teeth before giving Pearl a gruesome smile. “I did.”

“Come on, girls. Keep at it!” Emilio called, not wanting to lose his focus. The [Sigil of Strength] was beginning to fade from his bicep, and the cuts from [Sanguine Wrath] were difficult to ignore.

Yazmin cackled and pounced into the center of a group of four harts. “[Flurry of Needles]!”

Emilio turned just as hundreds of tiny spines emerged from Yazmin’s skin, from the tips of her ears to her ankles, then shot and pierced the circle of harts. It was an off-putting sight—one he was still getting used to.

The Encroachers screamed, their eyes fogging from the resulting venom. It slowed their attacks and gave Yazmin time to kill them one by one.

While Yazmin decimated her group, Emilio finished off the hart still struggling with Pearl’s confusion sigil, then engaged the final group of three.

It was a bloody affair as they silenced the last of them. A handful of stragglers rushed down the sides of the mountain in a hasty retreat. He hoped it wasn’t enough for the roaches to reform and return.

They piled the harts together, and Yazmin moved through them, searching for the tiny gems that grew on their horns and carving out the powdery chalk from their hooves. The gems were well-liked for jewelry and gear crafting, while the chalk was used in multiple [Alchemy] recipes.

“This is a nice group, Emilio. Out-of-season hart materials should fetch us a lot of Bells,” Yazmin mused while she worked.

Emilio nodded, and the motion made him dizzy. [Berserker] Skills had that effect. “Pearl, would you mind throwing me a heal?”

“Oh! Of course!” Pearl skipped to Emilio’s side, then touched his arm and murmured, “[Mend].”

The cuts vanished, and Emilio’s head cleared. “Thanks.”

“Are we going to have to eat hart meat for a month?” Pearl asked.

Emilio laughed. “Aw, Pearl, but you love hart meat.”

Pearl stuck the tip of her tongue between her lips and groaned. “You know I hate it.”

“I’ll have Claudia smoke it for me,” Yazmin said. She stood and slipped the rest of her findings inside of her [Cat Pack]. “And Emilio. I guess.”

“I’m sure the Tower could use it for stew,” Emilio suggested. That tavern would throw damn near anything in a stew. “Why don’t we head back in and ask around?”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Pearl agreed. “Though, maybe the two of you should clean up first.” Her white and blue garbs were strikingly spotless compared to the blood-covered Emilio and Yazmin.

Yazmin snickered, then dragged her tongue from the crook of her elbow to her wrist, licking up the drying hart gore with a gleam in her eye. Emilio had realized early on how much Yazmin enjoyed getting a rise out of other people.

“Is every girl from Ichi insane, or are you just special?” Pearl teased. She’d adjusted well to Yazmin’s antics.

“Maybe one day you’ll find out,” Yazmin replied. “Let’s go. I’m hungry.”

Pearl sighed, and Emilio laughed. The two women turned and strode into Lyncina, but Emilio paused. Outside the walls of the city, he could get a perfect view of the expansive ocean lapping at Ni Island’s shores. The sun glittered on the clear surface, and the breeze carried the salty air all the way up the mountains. Ever since he’d arrived in Nyarlea, Emilio hadn’t been able to bring himself to get back on a boat.

But he could feel the itch to sail returning. His whole life had been spent at sea, and the idea of uncharted waters was too tempting…

“Emilio? Are you coming?” Pearl called.

“Right. My apologies.” Emilio shook his head and jogged to catch up.

He’d figure out some way to get them a boat. Soon.

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