Blue-hair reached her first. Swung a blow. Hit Leah’s temple. Her boot stamped at his knee and a crack split the air. He yowled and a headbutt silenced him. He fell to the ground and Green-Wing swooped in, filling in the vacated space. Wing-spot and Black-Feather circled over, flying closer. Static enveloped her mind. The System trying to claim her, trying to make her level up. It whistled as she ducked. Green-Wing missed her lunge but grabbed her hair, and continued flying. Legs scratching the ground and its dry leaves, the Ranger bit the lower front of her captor’s wing, as hard as she could. A scream. A tightening of her grip. And they collided with something hard and rough. The world spun as they tumbled. Spun when they stopped. Shouts getting closer. She spit out green. First Blood. Eyes settled on the girl above her. Still spinning but it was clear. Her eye was open. The other, caved in, along with half her head. More than First Blood. A life was taken, because of a fool’s pride. More would follow. Static. Yells overhead. Mystic energy pouring into Leah’s instinct. Price for the last few moments, but still not enough. She pushed the corpse off her, and welcomed the sight of a diving eagle. World still spun.

Black-Feather’s beak seemed to grow longer the closer he got till it collided with the ground in a splash of soil and leaf, right where she’d been a second before. Leah rolled onto her feet, kept her balance before sneaking a glimpse at the most infuriating sky-elf on campus. He still held the prince in the water, and the latter was still thrashing trying to escape, but the struggle was weaker than before. She had a minute to save him, maybe less. A minute to kill six accomplices and prevent a war. The paperwork was going to be a nightmare.

A screech and Black-Feather pounced at her, walking over Green-Wing’s corpse, brandishing his really long beak like a sword, stabbing it at her. Backing away and keeping her legs steady, she missed the first stab, and the second, but before she missed the third, was covered by a shadow from above and knew a third step behind would land her at a dead end. Bounding at Black-Feather instead, the ranger let the confused eagle’s mouth tear at her shoulder. Not as deep as it would have been if her impromptu advance hadn’t made him second-guess his next stab, but it made a dent. Wing-spot landed with a boom right where she would have been, and a burst of air rippled out from the point of impact, making Leah and Black-Feather sway like a thin tree in a storm. The balance broke and they fell with a groan and a muffled screech, right back onto the corpse of the Green-Wing.

Her teeth found the side of the eagle’s head in an instant, biting and tearing, as she pushed her shoulder away from the Black-Feather’s beak. Another shadow. Wing-Spot came near, tried to kick the Ranger off her screaming friend. She let the hits land as she feasted and wouldn’t let go. As the Techno-Mana in her Instinct continued to form and fill. As her hand tightened into a grip around the pointy appendage that had almost taken her limb off. Another kick. Another hand. She spit off a chunk of feather and flesh, before she let her gripping fists turn. The long-beak shattered, and the Black-Feather screamed again. Leah took her new weapon and let the tip find the oncoming leg. It made more than a dent. Wing-Spot’s shouts joined her friend’s, an almost harmony. The Ranger stood from Black-Feather’s chest and pounced at the Sky-Elf, breaking her balance, letting them both fall. She pulled the beak back out of the foot, stabbed it into the side of the knee, and the abdomen, and a shoulder, screams echoing her every stab till Wing-Spot grew quiet, though her heart continued to pound. Leah rolled off the Elf and one knee on the ground held her long-beak out ready for the next attacker…

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No one came.

Breaths as loud as the injured Sky-Elf’s, she surveyed the park. A prince still drowning, no longer thrashing. A sky-borne yelling at his victim as he kept his head from coming out of the water. And a dozen meters from them, a dozen meters from her, a human fighting his Orcish companion, the other already lying unconscious on the ground.

It took two breaths to understand what lay before her. He was fighting with her. He’d betrayed his people for her. And now, he was dying. He’d defeated one, but both was an impossible feat. He needed help. They both needed her, but at that moment, with the Techno-Mana which had filled her Instinct, could save only one. She let the Techno-Mana convert. Break down into Energy Artifica so it could enter her body, and power her skill. The only skill she’d dared learn for more would risk earning a Class. And earning a Class at her age without a Pocket System that could take the role of [Oshveperthe] in helping her level would stunt her growth in the arts forever. A career-ender. Would render her Sixteen years in the most Prestigious Academy moot. She felt the static again. The Slumbering Mother trying to help her ascend. She shook it away, and again surveyed her options. If she saved the Prince, she prevented a war, but if she saved the human, she helped someone who’d prevented her death. One was being drowned by a foe, but the other was fighting a friend, though as the Orc landed a hit at the chest with her Warhammer and sent the human sprawling, Leah knew the purple-skinned woman wasn’t the type to let an opponent survive, whether they were a friend or not. She walked toward the splayed man, and the Ranger knew the next hit would be the last. A dozen meters from them, her objective continued to drown. If he survived, she could have anything she would ever be in want of. A career-booster. Her catalyst. All she had to do was help him survive.

She chose. The Energy Artifica pulsed as she gave it meaning, as she activated her skill [District of Decay] and aimed it with a Storm-bolt. A mere second later an Orc dropped her hammer, clutching at her hand like she’d put it in a fire. But it had suffered no burns. The hand was dying, and if she didn’t cut it off soon, would spread up her arm on its way to the heart. Leah had never known how proud people could be till the first person she’d aimed the Storm-bolt at. She hoped the Orc would choose different. The human below her was staring at Leah, and a dozen meters from him, a Sky-Elf was kicked into the water. His attacker looked away from him eyes finding the Ranger, feigning a gasp as two of her students lifted the Prince out of the water.

She shook her head. “Look at the mess you’ve made, Cheretesha!” Mackenzie Goldenblade yelled out, and Leah had no doubt in her mind that her old friend had been watching the whole altercation, waiting for her opportunity. Her Career-booster.

Declathean’s forest, the Ranger cursed, and fell back down to the ground, knowing what awaited, and damning her conscience all the while.