“There… Do you hear that?” Rosa murmured as she guided the flat-bottomed boat toward the shallows of the wide river.
“Hear what?” Finn groaned. All he could hear was the rumbling of his distressed stomach and the distant calls of birds.
Finn’s current malaise was owing almost entirely to the fact that he had become painfully aware that while he might be a good fighter, he was certainly not a natural boatman. It also didn’t help that Rosa kept on using her Air Path powers to propel their small vessel down the river like some kind of medieval jet ski. Finn had not been impressed.
They had been traveling for the better part of the morning and into the afternoon, and for most of that time, Finn and Rosa had been surrounded by woodlands on their right and scrublands on the left. There was the occasional, strange shriek of some creature in the undergrowth, but nothing else. All signs of Blackwood were long gone.
The purple star remained, hanging over the hills. It got just a little larger, and a little brighter, with every passing hour.
Now, however, Rosa had put a halt to her magic as they rounded the latest bend in the river, and her keen eyes were scanning the wooded hills. She was a tall and athletic woman, her body hardened by battle. If he hadn’t known she’d been a gamer back on Old Earth, he would have guessed she’d been a professional athlete—a runner or a triathlon competitor, maybe.
“What is it?” Finn asked again, tilting his head.
“Listen, Finn! Don’t you hear it!?” Rosa grumbled as the boat slid into a patch of muddy reeds, coming to a stop as the pink-haired woman stood on the prow and again started to weave her hands before her face. She murmured as she worked, shimmering blue trails crossing in front of her.
“Dear gods, please don’t send us racing anywhere again—” Finn managed to say.
A blue haze formed in the air to their right, and an errant breeze, laced with Rosa’s blue powers, suddenly swirled down to their boat.
>
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> Rosa Lux has cast Whispers of the Wind. You are affected.
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Clash!
Suddenly, the strange breeze brought with it the distant sound of metal on metal.
And screams.
“Who is that!?” Finn was already attempting to stand, the Pyrrhic Blade flickering into his hand. Its blade flashed a warning red. He hadn’t summoned its inner fires yet, but the Pyrrhic Blade was always ready.
Someone is getting hurt. Someone is being killed.
“I don’t know, but the wind tells me it is coming from just over that rise.” Rosa was already leaping from the boat, twirling her silver quarterstaff through the air before her.
Finn was a bit slower in disembarking, his boots splashing in the muddy banks as he followed the gamer girl up the wooded bank.
The trees around them were thin but closely clustered, and the rise itself was steep and dense with leaf litter as the Knight-Defender and Air Initiate raced forward. Blue energy crackled around Rosa with every movement of the Staff of the Aethers, and Finn’s Part-Plate of Azor was flickering into existence across his shoulders and chest as he hurriedly equipped himself.
“AGH! Stop them!”
It was only a few more paces before Finn didn’t need the Whispers of the Wind to hear the sounds of battle. Whatever and whoever it was, it didn’t sound like they were having a good time.
Rosa was the first to reach the crest of the wooded ridge.
“Finn, I see them—”
She barely had a chance to speak before Finn saw a sudden explosion of leaf litter next to her, and Rosa was tumbling to the ground.
“Rosa!”
What was that?! Finn charged forward, catching sight of a shimmer in the trees. A humanoid shape, somehow becoming more solid with every passing heartbeat, stood right next to where Rosa had been running.
It was a person, wearing a heavy, dark-gray cloak and holding a savage, curved blade.
Finn roared. He had never seen anyone appear out of thin air before, but his mind was full of rage at how they had dared to attack his friend. He leapt, his eyes flickering as he summoned his Fire Path abilities.
>
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> Ascension Path: Fire
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> Strength +1 STR per 20 Mana
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>
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> Name: Finn Callahan
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> Level: 20 (81, 525 / 84,000)
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> Mana: 541 / 541
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> Strength: 44 (+2 Gauntlets of Strength) (+5 Pyrrhic Blade) = 51
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> You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Finn used sixty Mana immediately, giving him an active Strength of 54 as he brought the Pyrrhic Blade crashing down.
The blade whistled harmlessly through the air and smashed into the nearest tree, bursting its bark and exploding the wood.
Huh?
One moment, the attacker had been there, and then the next, they hadn’t. Finn had never seen anyone move so fast. He spun around on his heels.
His assailant had been waiting for him when Finn turned, and Finn felt the cold slice of the man’s blade skitter across his side.
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> You have been struck for 60 points of damage. Health Points deducted.
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Finn saw the man up close for a moment. His face was strangely ashen, and his skin looked weird and uneven—like it was horribly scarred, perhaps.
But it was a man, Finn was pretty sure of that. Even as he stumbled back, he was thinking that if they were facing men, that meant they could be killed.
Finn allowed his heel to slide back as the gray-garbed man advanced on him. Finn saw the sudden sparkle of victory in the man’s eyes as he raised his saber again, but then Finn was spinning and lashing out with the Pyrrhic Blade in a backward slash.
His opponent’s eyes widened in shock, and Finn saw the man’s mouth open to mutter something. The edge of their form started to flicker and shift, appearing to fade from view, but it wasn’t fast enough to stop what was coming.
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> You have struck the assailant for 124 points of damage.
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The Pyrrhic Blade blazed an angry crimson as it struck, and the man was thrown back. He hit the ground in an explosion of leaf litter.
Finn jumped forward in another attack, but the leaves exploded in another flurry of wind. His opponent once again disappeared, leaving behind a spatter of blood.
“Will you stop doing that!” Finn snarled at the empty space, feeling cheated of his victory.
>
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> Assailant has fled. You receive partial experience.
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Well, at least it wasn’t all for nothing. Finn growled as he looked up, scanning to see where Rosa was. She was already back on her feet, now further down the other side of the rise and engaged in battle with two more of the strange beings.
Even further down the hill, Finn could see the battle they had initially heard going on between a group of short humanoids and more of the vanishing attackers. There were sparkles of red and green light, as one side or another used what magical powers their Ascension Path had given them, but he couldn’t take time to watch and was already charging down the slope toward Rosa.
She was spinning her silver quarterstaff in an arc that was keeping her assailants at bay. She moved almost as fast as they did, Finn thought in awe. He saw one of the figures fade and reappear on Rosa’s other side while the first tried to keep her occupied, but Rosa was fast. She had the power of Air and if the winds were anything, they were fast. She spun and caught a blow before it could land, parrying it expertly and half-turning to slash out at the next attacker.
Not even Rosa could move faster than people who could teleport, however. Finn was almost there when he saw her catch a blow from one of them men’s gauntlets as he materialized and slammed his fist into Rosa’s nose.
“No!”
Finn roared in fury, becoming incandescent as, without thinking, he called his Ascension Path powers.
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> Fire-Strike (Ascension Path: Fire)
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The assailant looming over Rosa didn’t see Finn as he stabbed the air ahead of him with the Pyrrhic Blade. All of Finn’s rage burned through the blade and exploded in a jet of fire straight into the man’s back.
Rosa’s assailant was engulfed in flames. He screamed and staggered away from the battle, dropping their sword as they stumbled and swayed.
>
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> You have spent 150 Mana Points as damage.
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> +50 base damage.
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> Enemy is on fire. They will continue to receive 20 damage every five seconds.
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Finn was already turning to the next attacker. This one solidified with an expression of both anger and fear. Once again, he noticed the strangely-textured, gray flesh.
“Who are you! What do you want!?” Finn demanded as he leveled the Pyrrhic Blade at this next attacker, meaning to do repeat his fiery attack if he had to, but he didn’t get the chance.
“You’ll find out soon enough, Blackwood!” the man hissed with a heavy, guttural accent. The edges of his form began to fade, losing substance and solidity with every moment, until Finn was looking at nothing but thin air and a drift of leaf litter.
“Rosa! Rosa, are you alright?” Finn reached down to clasp Rosa’s hand and haul her to her feet. She was shaking her head, spattering blood from a broken nose in the process.
“Dubbering Puk!” Rosa muttered in a thick voice, already pointing to the rest of the battle. “De ubbers. Dub Dere!”
Yeah, down there. Finn and Rosa turned to see that the battle wasn’t going as well for other non-gray men as it had for Finn and Rosa. There were scattered bodies lying face down in the dirt, and very few of them appeared to belong to the gray-clad, teleporting attackers.
Most of the bodies belonged to the smaller humanoids, with chestnut, brown, and auburn hair, usually tied in bundles at the back of their heads. A knot of those still living were trying to rally against a handful of the assassins. Even though their numbers were far larger, there was no way they could predict the next attack.
Wait. I know them! Finn blinked in shock as he looked at the victims. They were a little smaller than the average human. They had long, pointed ears and large eyes. Their features were a little finer, sharper…
“Verdans!” Finn exclaimed.
“What?” Rosa snapped. She was already twirling her staff above her head, summoning a blue vortex.
“Verdans. They are another people stranded in the New Zone, like us! My friend at the order was Verdan!” Finn said as he leapt forward, his Pyrrhic Blade flashing red through the trees.
Finn didn’t have a chance to reach the fight before Rosa released her tornado against the attackers. The use of elemental powers wasn’t exactly a precise art, and Finn saw more than a few of the Verdans flung to the ground, but at least three of the attackers went down as well.
“Stand down!” Finn roared as he slid through the leaves, his blade bursting into flames before him. “These people are under my protection! Stand down and give up your weapons immediately!” He hoped that the element of surprise might make them think twice, though he added a shimmer of fire sparks to the air to punctuate his point.
Rosa kept up her vortex, directing it with a ballet of graceful movements—despite the blood sheeting down her face—as she moved the gales against two more of the teleporting assassins.
Will it be enough? Finn wasn’t sure. These people could appear and disappear at will, but even they couldn’t deny the science of numbers. There had to be at least twenty or more Verdans at Finn’s back, and now there were two clearly well-trained Defenders too. There were only five assassins left.
“Enough!” one of them cried, gesturing with their sword as they started to fade out of existence.
“Who are you! Where do you come from!?” Finn shouted, starting forward with his blade raised high, but the mysterious beings were already disappearing. “Dammit!” Finn swore.
He was facing nothing but a faded memory. He had no idea who they were, why they were there, or if they had anything to do with that purple star. The one he’d set aflame was dead, and the rest were now gone.
>
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> You have defeated the attacker. Experience awarded.
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> Your attackers have fled. 50% experience awarded to all parties.
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Finn looked around him, and one thing rang in his head, over and over again.
They called me Blackwood.