The remainder of the trip was not as arduous as the first half. Part of that was due to the caravan we crossed paths with in Mid Point. Like us, they braved the dark and fought off the creatures. The beasts of the dark would return, given enough time, but most were cleared from our path.

Still, it wasn’t without its difficulty. Two more merchants were forced to flee when a lava salamander surprised the group.

Ska and I were able to kill it while the rest of the guards protected the remaining people. Nobody else was strong enough to deal with the level twenty creature. And it wasn’t like Ska or I escaped unscathed. Ska was missing patches of hair where the beast’s breath scorched it away.

I fared better with my armor and buffs, but my eyebrows were singed off when my helmet shield failed.

I was lucky enough to dodge out of the path of the lava stream before it burned my face off. My helmet was completely ruined though. Had Fiona been able to assist we could have taken down the creature without any wounds but I wanted her to hang back and remain out of sight.

The wounds were quickly healed, but the hair and fur would have to grow back naturally. As for my helmet, I had to pull out my old one. The shield on it was subpar but it was better than leaving my noggin exposed.

On tired feet, we finally stepped out of the final tunnel and into East Exit. Like the other town, it was bustling. Trade went both ways but I wasn’t sure why merchants would brave the journey to West Exit to sell goods. I’m sure Frathsar would have been able to explain the intricacies of commerce to me if he were around.

Seeing as we were finally out of the tunnel, I stored my weapon and armor. It felt good to be free of the items and I stretched. Ska joined me a minute later. We had been paid and it was time to check out the area.

As we walked out of the embarkment area an altercation off to the side drew my attention.

“Paul, behind you!” Fiona screamed.

I jerked my head around in time to see a man stabbing at me with an obviously enchanted sword. The blade looked like mother of pearl and it flickered an iridescent color. Unfortunately, that was all I had time to learn as the blade slammed into my body like a freight train. I was sent hurtling back from the blow but from the pain over my entire body, I could tell my necklace activated.

I wasted no time getting to my feet and Identifying my attacker… attackers. Ska was fighting off two others and it looked like Fiona was keeping another busy. Only one man was running at me and I used Identify on him as I reequipped my armor and weapon.

Randy Cotton | Fate Spinner / Tempusmec | 23/15

“Fuck.”

The man lunged at me and I twisted my staff to intercept his strike. But something weird happened. His blade was now farther back and my staff swiped empty air. A cold sweat ran down my spine as I tried to twist out of the path of his blade.

The weapon pierced through my armor shield like it wasn’t even there. Only the quality of my armor saved me from being impaled. I still felt one of my ribs crack from the strength of the blow and once again I was sent tumbling to the ground.

I scrambled up but the man was on me and I was forced to activate Blink Step to gain some distance and heal myself.

The man flicked his blade and a crescent of pearlescent light intercepted my path, forcing me to dodge the attack. This seemed to be what he had expected as he was on me again. Even with Blink Step active, I was barely able to keep his weird blows from striking me. Every time I tried to attack him with magic, he flicked the blade of energy out to intercept the attack.

The energy seemed to cancel out any magic it came into contact with and my fear only grew.

The man was silent, he didn’t banter or bandy words. He didn’t demand an explanation or threaten me, he only attacked.

I could tell I wasn’t going to win this fight but I couldn’t break free. Even if I could, I couldn’t leave Ska and Fiona here. Somehow the man had learned I was going here and set this trap.

It wasn’t hard to guess that it probably had something to do with his first class. I was still trying to figure out his second class but the word sounded similar to temporal. A class with an ability to control time would definitely explain the weird attacks I was unable to block.

I was running out of time and ideas, so far I had been on the defensive. I had Imbued my staff with lightning and water but those attacks seemed to be useless as the sword simply nullified them as he parried my blows. Even worse the sword was non-metallic, meaning the energy of the lightning wouldn’t reach him anyway.

I tried activating the ring of temporal skip I had. The man’s eyes enlarged slightly as I activated the ring but I didn’t go anywhere, in fact, I felt like I was slowing down.

I turned my head to yell for the others to run but a blinding pain hit me in the mouth. I stumbled to the side as blood poured down my chest from my ruined jaw.

I cast Area of Denial, relying on my trump card as I summoned the token from my ring.

But the man knew… a flick of his sword popped my defensive spell like a balloon, severing my main hand with little effort.

I could only look on in horror as a fountain of blood poured out. My hand, along with my staff went sailing off into the surrounding mayhem. The entire square had turned into a battlefield as what I could only assume were Randy’s men, ruthlessly slaughtered anyone. Some people fought back but were quickly cut down.

I couldn’t even see Fiona or Ska in the surrounding violence. I stumbled away, holding my bleeding stump. I didn’t get far before a searing pain tore through one of my legs, causing me to fall to the ground. On instinct, I used my hands to brace for the fall. The pain of hitting my open wound on the ground almost made me blackout. But I was no stranger to pain and I forced myself to stay conscious.

The man finally chose this time to speak.

“You are a hard man to track down. Did you think you could run and hide from me forever? No, you were trying to gain strength and take me on, weren’t you? As if I would let you. This is for my brother and niece.”

I felt the cold blade repeatedly slam into my torso and I choked up blood as my lungs were perforated by the angry man’s blade.

All strength left my body as I collapsed to the ground. I felt cold and my vision went dark.

You have died

Second Chance has activated

Indomitable has activated removing the bleed debuff

The monotone grey of death was replaced by the vibrant color of life as my skill activated along with my two rings on my other hand. I could only lay there though as the pain was immense.

A foot rolled me over and I was face to face with Randy Cotton.

“Don’t think your little skill will get you out of it this time,” He stated with a grim smile. “This is for wasting my time.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

He pulled his blade back for another attack but he leaped to the side as a ghostly sword tried to skewer him. He wasn’t completely successful at avoiding Fiona’s strike though. A pained grimace blossomed on his face as Fiona pressured him back.

I could only watch impotently as I struggled to even rise from the ground.

“Ska, get him out of here!”

A moment later Ska was by my side. He lifted me onto his shoulder and slammed a health injector into my leg as he rushed out of the square.

I heard an angry roar and had enough energy to look up as the entire square froze gray, like my death vision.

Everything besides Randy and Fiona was frozen by the effect. Ska and I were far enough away to avoid the effect. My only guess was some sort of temporal lock and since Fiona was undead, was not subject to the whims of time like mortals.

The fact that Fiona was unaffected only slowed Randy down a few seconds as he renewed his attacks against her, starting to push her back. She finally disengaged just before we rounded a corner.

***

“Find them!” Randy roared, “do not let them escape.”

Three of his commanders ran after the two that escaped. Meanwhile Randy pulled out an item. He spoke a trigger word and tossed it into the air.

A flash of golden light spread out but he got no indication that the specter had been banished.

He gripped his sword tight enough to turn his knuckles white. The bitch had allowed that bug to escape and now she had fled as well. His abilities had not warned him about her presence. And only his skill and battle intuition had saved him from a deadly blow. He still felt the deathly cold that radiated from his side from one attack.

He would not let this man escape. The town was locked down and his men were sieging the walls. If he had to kill every single person in this shit hole to get his prize he would gladly do it. He flicked out his sword at a local that rushed at him, bisecting the man with little effort.

The battle in the courtyard was winding down and only three of his men had died. That damn half-breed was a far more competent fighter than he had given it credit for. And the specter, while a decent fighter seemed to have some limitations that his men were able to exploit, preventing her from killing more than one of them.

Randy stomped off after his commanders, the rest of his men following behind.

***

Ska was breathing hard after running for ten minutes. He had finally lost the three men chasing them but he had to stop. Paul was bleeding again and had passed out from his wounds.

Ska set him down and pulled out a bandage to wrap around his missing hand. He also jabbed another healing injector into his leg.

Fiona appeared while he was doing this.

“We have to get him out of here,” she said.

“I know,” he hissed, “but where to go. I can hear fighting at the wall and we won’t remain hidden for long.”

“Break his token and send him back to West Exit,” Fiona said quickly.

Ska had completely forgotten about the tokens. He quickly searched Paul for his but couldn’t find it.

“It is not here, it must have been in his ring,” Ska growled softly.

***

I woke up but I wish I hadn’t, the pain was intense. I still couldn’t speak as my jaw was mangled from the fight. I could hear Ska and Fiona speaking, then Ska roughly fumbled around my body looking for something.

“Down here!” I heard someone yell.

Ska hissed, then shoved something in my hand.

I only had a second to realize it was his return token. I tried to resist but he forced my hand to crush the token. There was a bright flash and I found myself bleeding on the ground in West Exit. A startled scream was all I heard before I passed out.

***

“He is safe, we must flee,” Ska stated, already rushing away from the three men chasing them.

The city wasn’t like the forest but he could easily scale the wood building and outmaneuver these men. Fiona kept up and watched his back as he made his way back toward the tunnel entrance.

***

Randy backhanded the man so hard he broke his hand. He ignored the pain, while the man got back to his feet.

“I told you not to let him escape. Explain why you disobeyed my order.”

“The half-breed had some sort of teleportation item and shoved it into our target's hand before we were able to stop him.”

Randy clenched his jaw, making his teeth creak. He had utilized his class skill Twist of Fate to bring this encounter to reality. The cost had been staggering, a full level and it didn’t guarantee success. Still, he had come so close to victory. Severing that man’s hand should have prevented any escape option. The fact that his cohort sacrificed his own ability to escape, for Paul, was infuriating.

His second class had easily shined in the fight. The Tempusmec or Temporal Sword class made use of tiny tricks of time to confuse your opponent or redirect your strikes to be more advantageous. Since getting the class Randy had not lost a single battle or even taken a wound. Top that off with his prismatic rapier and very few could stand up to him for long. The rapier had been hard to acquire but worth it in the end. Its ability to pierce any magic was unmatched. It also had the Prismatic Wave ability.

“And what about the other two?”

“They fled back to the tunnel where we lost them.”

“Agh!” Randy screamed, letting his blade tear through the surprised man.

The bisected man fell to the ground.

“Go after them, kill them both, and don’t bother to return if you can’t complete a simple task like that.”

The remaining two men nodded and rushed off to the tunnel.

“Gather up the rest of the men, it’s time to leave before the city realizes we are here.”

The man nodded and within minutes they made their way through the city and to a hidden exit.

***

I woke up an undetermined time later. While I didn’t feel a hundred percent, I did feel better.

I looked around, I was in some sort of room, and when I tried to sit up, found myself handcuffed to a railing.

“Good, you’re awake. We have some questions for you.”

I blearily looked over to an austere woman sitting in a chair along the wall. She was wearing some sort of robe but my head was too fuzzy to even activate Identify so I just collapsed back on the bed.

“Wh- Who are you?” I said through parched lips.

“You can call me Miss Farley. Now, how did you end up in the state you were in?”

“Attacked,” I managed to mumble out. “Could I get some water?”

“In time. Attacked by what?”

“No, there was an attack… in East Exit.”

The woman froze and looked at me. “Who attacked the city? And why?”

“The Black Dragon, a nasty organization from the Chicago area. I… I think they were after me.”

“You, why you?”

“It’s a long story, can I please get some water?” I plead, my mouth feeling like a desert.

I heard her get up and walk over to a table, pouring a glass of water. She then walked up to the bed and I was forced to sit up and take small sips. When my thirst was sufficiently quelled I flopped back into the bed.

I heard her sit back down. “Time for that story,” she stated flatly.

I recounted most of how I knew the Black Dragon but I kept some things to myself. Eventually, the woman left me to rest.

I jerked up on my remaining hand, the handcuff securing me to the hospital bed clanked. Since the woman was gone, I used my healing spells to rid myself of any remaining injuries. My hand didn’t reform and it felt like something was blocking it from regrowing. I quickly checked through my status log to see what happened during the fight.

Your hand has been severed by Fate

I didn’t know what it meant but I could guess it wasn’t anything good. I reached into my pants and grabbed my backup storage ring, sliding it onto my finger. It contained a few items of importance. One was a house token, bound to me. It would allow me to unlock the fortress, considering my tattoo was on my missing hand, I was glad I had a backup.

Thankfully the tattoo was useless now that it was disconnected from my body. It couldn’t be activated externally. I had learned that from my rigorous testing on trying to reinforce my body.

The next item was my spare staff. I wasn’t sure how effective I would be off-handed but I could probably get by for now.

There was a supply of healing and mana regen items. I also had food and water and a backup set of armor. Although the armor wasn’t as good as the damaged set I still wore.

The last item was a locator token. It was a feature I had built into my tattoo as well and would allow me to get the direction of anyone that had access to my fortress.

I fed some mana into the featureless piece of metal and it lit up like a radar. I saw two distinct directions displayed. One was to the south and one was to the east. I let out a sigh of relief. This meant Ska was still alive. If he were dead the indicator wouldn’t show up for him. I had to assume Fiona was with him as I couldn’t tattoo a ghost.

I put the item back in my ring and activated Godly Might. The strength boost allowed me to easily rip the pre-system handcuffs apart. I wouldn’t have bothered but I didn’t know how long I had been unconscious, it felt like days. I didn’t want to remain here where Randy and his goons might show up at any minute and I was in no condition to try and find Ska and Fiona. As long as those two stuck together, they could find me. Fiona seemed to always know where I was, due to our bond.

I stood up and walked over to a window. When I looked out I saw I was on the third floor of some building. It appeared I was still in West Exit. I threw open the window and jumped out, activating my wings and Blink Step.

I flew directly south, avoiding the wall and the guards. With triple casting the skills and downing a few mana potions, I was able to get to the sparse forest edge. I stumbled as I landed, hitting my injured arm on a tree and sending a spike of pain up my arm. I grimaced from the pain but kept running. My escape hadn’t gone unnoticed.

By the time I got to the fortress I was sweating and dizzy. The stitches in my hand had broken open and blood was soaking my bandaged stump. I fed some mana to the token and the exterior door of the fortress opened. I ran inside and quickly shut the door behind me. I only had a minute or so before my pursuers caught up.

I opened the inner door and rushed to the command center. I quickly powered up the fortress and engaged the cloak, I set it to hover thirty feet into the air, to avoid detection. Just in time, it seemed as a group of people rounded the valley entrance and came to a stop.

My whole body was shaking from exertion and blood loss, I used the time to catch my breath and sit down. Exhaustion eventually claimed me and I passed out in the command chair.