As Jonathan collapsed, Edgar snarled. He was in a tough spot. The other fighters were luckily all melee fighters, but they were still hard to deal with. All of them were higher level than he was, and only his higher level of skill was able to narrow the gap. His potent elemental abilities had dealt with one of the other fighters already, but the rest were proving difficult to harm.

Their armor, a seeming mainstay among the forces of Granath, was too tough for his strikes to deal with, unless he spent time gathering enough energy to make them count. However, that would require him to stop, and against enemies that were much faster than him, that was suicide. Instead, he would have to make this a war of attrition, fighting for every advantage that he could get.

Eventually he found an opening and sent in a conceptually enhanced bolt of wind, lifting one of the fighters off their feet. A series of spears of wind hammered into the man, killing him. With a grin, Edgar kept moving, using the air to keep his speed up. Jonathan had already dealt with the leader. It was up to him to prove his worth.

There were only three fighters left, all of whom seemed to be perturbed by the death of their leader. Perhaps if Edgar instilled enough fear into them, he could force them to leave. His outward appearance might have seemed to be unperturbed, but his mana was beginning to run out, as well as his elemental energy stores. The decline of a mage was purely internal, and it was hard to tell when one was losing their grip on their mana. However, Edgar refused to fail here.

With a roar, he started to spray powerful spells in every direction, acting as if he was only getting warmed up. As they struck his enemies, he achieved his goal. One of them cursed and started to run, quickly followed by the others. Edgar hovered in the air for a few moments, making sure that they were gone, and then fell to the ground, panting. Both men were entirely spent, but the city was safe, for now.

Jonathan awoke with a searing pain in his left arm, and a dull headache thumping behind his forehead. The headache was likely from the resources that his body was using to heal his tremendously damaged shoulder, which were quite costly to maintain. If not for the fact that he had been sleeping, it would have taken a lot longer to heal.

Even now it was still tender and raw, and he knew that he would be better off not fighting with it for at least another day. Yaltan had been incredibly powerful, and that battle could have gone either way. Speaking of the man, his corpse lay by Jonathan, with all of his belongings still there. The sword that he had used to great effect was strewn across the ground, untouched. Jonathan hesitantly got to his feet and walked over to the sword, before analyzing it.

Alakrathys

Tier 2 Weapon(Bladed)

The ancestral blade of the Beruvoid family, this blade has been wielded by their scions for generations in the service of Granath. Made from a pattern only known to the Beruvoids, a great clan back in the realm of Telvaria, it boasts heightened power compared to most other weapons of its rank,as well as the ability to easily channel the ancestral elements of the clan, that of Life. With a name that means Blooming Rose in the ancient language of the elves, a tongue not often spoken, it is much more deadly than that name suggests.

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+12 to Strength, +12 to Dexterity, +6 to Resilience while wielding.

It gave the same stat boosts as his weapon gave, but the description was very different. It was mostly useless to him however, given that he was not a swordsman, nor did he use the element of Life. He would give it to the city to deal with. However, there were a few more pressing matters.

You have reached Journeyman Rank 1 with Martial Arts!

You have long since surpassed the mortal limits of this skill, finding deeper truths about yourself and your martial path in the practicing of your preferred method of combat. When it comes to martial arts, you are a prodigy of the highest order, able to weave together the techniques of yesterday with the attacks of tomorrow.

+15 to Strength, +10 to Dexterity

You have access to a new skill!

Fists of the Hurricane: Epic

Your prodigious strength and speed allow you to move in ways that force the world around you to bend to your will. Taking a step upon this path will allow you to bend the very air around you with your strength, creating powerful gusts of wind that unbalance weaker enemies.

Accept?

Y/N

Jonathan accepted without a second thought, entranced by the description. Immediately he felt new information enter his mind, allowing him to find the most effective way to leverage his strength. He punched forwards, and held his fist in such a way that it hit the maximum amount of air. A small gust shot forwards, rattling the rocks on the street. It was weak for now, but it would grow with time.

Another notification waited, this one for his Flowing Hurricane skill.

You have reached Journeyman Rank 1 with Flowing Hurricane!

With your advances in strength and speed since you first learned this skill, you have reached a greater degree of mastery than would have been possible for the Jonathan of even a few weeks prior. You can blend your attacks together, creating an implacable net of strikes that even the most stalwart of foes can fall to.

+15 to Dexterity, +10 to Strength

Jonathan smiled and closed the notification, only then noticing that Edgar was lying on the ground a few dozen feet away, seemingly resting. Jonathan made his way over to the man, wincing as his injuries twinged, and sat down.

“That was certainly an interesting battle,” Jonathan said.

“Interesting, but not very fun. I almost depleted my entire mana stock. All 7500 plus points of it.”

“Yeah, that sounds rough. At least your shoulder wasn’t reduced to splinters,” Jonathan replied, grinning halfheartedly. “That Beruvoid bastard was no joke.”

Edgar merely nodded in reply, staring up at the sky. There would undoubtedly be more fighters coming, and they would need to train up all of the citizens to be able to fight. Even a dozen or so Tier 2 guards would be enough to guard the city against most threats. Although it might seem that Granath commanded the loyalty of legions of Tier 2s, there weren’t actually that many in this realm. Many were bottlenecked by the ambient mana and died before their time, and those that survived were hard pressed to gain levels. However, out here in the untamed ash, there were plenty of opportunities to gain levels, and at a rapid rate at that.

The presence of Jonathan and Edgar were key though, as they were able to keep the soldiers safe for long enough that they could actually benefit from the levels. A lot of things were going to have to change around here if they were to keep their people safe.