Alice arrived at the sparring grounds early the next morning, where Leopold was already warming up with Aron. The two were engaged in combat, Leopold dancing around the goliath while poking him with a wooden practice spear, while Aron stood unarmed, deflecting the incoming strikes with his fists.
What was surprising to Alice was how fast the pair was moving. Even with a full set of brigandine armor on, Leo was quicker and nimbler than Alice was, even unencumbered. On the other hand, Aron was more than a match for the man. His movements were less acrobatic than Leopold’s, but the speed and precision in his parries and attacks were a sight to behold.
The bout came to an end when Aron punished Leo’s thrust by grabbing the spear mid-shaft and snapped the weapon in half.
“Good fight!” Aron commented, tossing the broken tip over his shoulder. Leopold flashed a grin at his friend and retreated to the edge of the arena, to not to be in the way of other practice matches going on around the field.
Alice took a moment to gather herself before approaching the two men. How in the world was she supposed to win against Leo? She wasn't an expert at energy reading, but it was obvious even to her that the man’s level was two, maybe three times her own. Not only that, the level of skill he displayed with the spear was at least expert level. What could she do against that with a proficient five level swordsmanship? Then again, if the goal wasn’t to win the fight, but to prove that she wasn’t a liability… That she could do.
“Hey you two!” Alice called out, forcing her voice to be her usual chipper self, as she didn’t want to display her lapse in self confidence to her new friends.
“Oh hey! Great timing! Aron and I were just about finished with our matches.” Leopold waved at her, while Aron looked disappointed.
“We were? I was just getting into it.”
“You’ll get back into proper action soon enough, okay? After we’re done here, we can go out for a zombie hunt if you’d like.”
That seemed to cheer up the man, and the duo focused their attention back to Alice.
“No armor?” Leopold asked, after Alice had walked up to them. She looked down at her clothes and shrugged.
“The sets made in the city are too heavy for me, and the lighter options are out of my price range.”
Rong was quite heavy on metalwork, thanks to the mountain and ore rich deposits surrounding it. Thanks to the unique location and weather conditions of the area, the surrounding fields were almost useless for raising animals, making textiles high value imports.
“That’s the spirit! Nothing makes you better at fighting than going unarmored.” Aron beamed at her, while Leo reached for his bag.
“Use this for now.” He said, and tossed a bundle of cloth at Alice. She caught the roll, which turned out to be a neatly packed gambeson. “It may be slightly too big for you, but it’s better than nothing.”
“Thank you!” Alice smiled, and quickly slipped it over her clothes. After a round of stretching to test out its mobility, Alice nodded in satisfaction. The padded cloth was slightly awkward to move around with, but not enough to severely hamper her movements.
“So,” She continued. “What are the rules?”
“No rules. You’ll have ten minutes to show off as much as you want. Use whatever weapon, spell or tactic you can to attack me with.” Leo said and picked up a new spear. “I’ll be mostly on the defense, but if you let your guard down, I won’t hesitate to punish openings.”
Alice nodded in understanding. The Order’s combat tutor used similar sparring rules to see where he should focus the training on. After fetching a practice sword for herself, Alice moved further onto the field and assumed a ready position.
“Begin!” Leopold shouted, starting the match.
Alice rushed towards the man, her sword held ready. As she drew closer, Leo thrust his weapon forward, keeping her at a distance. Alice attempted to sidestep the blow, but she had underestimated his speed. Leopold adjusted his grip on the spear and used the shaft to sweep Alice’s feet from under her. The movement was so sudden that Alice didn’t have time to react, and she fell painfully on her back.
Grumbling a bit with dissatisfaction, Alice stood up and assumed her ready stance once again. Leo had already taken a few steps back, regaining the lost distance. If Alice didn’t manage to get within his guard, the fight would be over before it even began.
Taking a deep breath, she charged towards Leo again, feinting a strike to his outer arm. Her goal was to get close. Once she was inside the spear’s reach, she would have more room to maneuver. Leopold didn’t fall for the feint and shifted the tip of his weapon to block Alice’s advancement. With a quick pivot to her waist, Alice came to a stop just past the spear tip. Remembering how Aron had defeated Leo, she grabbed the shaft with her off hand and tried to yank the weapon out of Leopold’s grip. His eyes widened slightly with surprise, but managed to keep a hold of his weapon.
Now locked together, the pair eyed one another. Alice was certain that if Leo wanted, he could regain a hold of his weapon. The fact that he didn’t, meant that he was waiting to see what she would do next. Not wanting to disappoint the nobleman, Alice pulled on the spear again, using the movement to build up speed as she advanced. She aimed a strike to his neck, changing the direction at the last second to deliver a blow to his shoulder instead.
A loud bang echoed in the air when Alice’s weapon made contact with Leo’s pauldron. As she had predicted, Leo had bent backwards to avoid the neck strike, leaving the rest of his body free to be attacked. The hit wasn’t hard enough to deal any actual damage, but Alice was quite pleased with herself that she had managed to hit the man at all.
Her joy was cut short however, when an arch of lightning traveled up Leo’s spear shaft, giving Alice a nasty shock. The sudden jolt of electricity caused her to drop her sword and stumble backwards. Leo seized the opportunity, lunging forward, the tip of his spear aimed for Alice’s chest. She managed to dodge to the side at the last moment, narrowly avoiding the blow.
Leopold retreated a few paces, and gave her a sheepish grin.
“Sorry about that.” He apologized. “It’s hard to shake off the instincts, you know? Are you alright?”
“I’ll be fine.” Alice replied, rubbing her hand, which was still tingling from the jolt. After picking up her fallen sword, she flashed the man a grin. “I didn’t know you could cast spells!”
Leo raised his eyebrow at Alice’s comment. “I don’t cast spells. I’m not a wizard.”
“What was that lightning then?” Alice asked, now confused herself.
“A technique.” He answered, before his eyes widened a bit. “Wait! Are you saying that no one has taught you techniques by now? What affinities do you have?”
“I don’t have any.” Alice shrugged. She knew some adventurers unlocked elemental or adaptive affinities, but no one had explained them to her. Even the term, technique, was something she had only heard about in passing.
“They really do things differently here.” Leo muttered and assumed his ready position once again. “I guess we’ll have to teach you ourselves if you pass. Speaking of, let’s continue. Clock is ticking.”
Alice gave him a sharp nod and dashed forwards, her sword held ready. Like before, Leo tried to cut off her advancement with a thrust, but Alice parried the spear to her side and kept moving forwards. Leo released a flurry of strikes as he kept his distance. The blows were easy enough to dodge, making Alice think that he was only testing her defenses.
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The two continued to exchange blows, with Leo taking full advantage of his speed to keep Alice on guard. However, Alice was quickly picking up the patterns in his attacks. The counterattack windows were tight, but she still managed to throw in a few quick strikes of her own. Leo deflected her attacks with relative ease, but seemed pleased by the effort.
There was a gradual shift in the flow of combat as Alice started to anticipate Leo’s moves and respond quicker. Parry left, lean back for a swing, counterattack, backstep. Alice was gaining confidence and felt her movements becoming more fluid. Leo noticed the change and smiled, picking up the pace of his attacks to truly test her limits.
In the heat of the combat, Alice noticed an opening she hadn’t seen before. Every time Leo brought his spear down on the ground, there was a moment before he could bring it up again. Previously she had only dodged the attack, but by the next time Leo struck the ground, Alice was ready to try something else.
As the spear came down, Alice planted her foot on the shaft, using the pole as a springboard for her attack. She knew her plan had failed the moment she took her step. Leo let go of his weapon, causing Alice to stumble forward, momentarily off balance. Leo didn’t let the opportunity for attack go to waste and delivered a kick straight to Alice’s chest, knocking the wind out of her. Alice collapsed on the ground, heaving for air.
“Not bad.” Leo commented, a hint of amusement in his voice. “The last move was a bit… well… call it unwise. But other than that, not bad.”
“Not bad? I think she was great!” Aron’s voice came from somewhere off to the side. “I say she passed the test.”
Alice struggled to regain her breath as Leo and Aron continued their conversation. Slowly, she managed to sit up and have a look around the field. As she did, Alice noticed a blinking notification at the corner of her eye. She opened her progression sheet to check the message:
Skill “Sword Mastery” has reached Proficient 6.
Level up x 5
Grinning with delight, she dismissed the notice and moved on to distribute her free points.
Alice Althorn
Level: 33
Path: Mastery
Attributes:
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 30
Body: 15
Intelligence: 12
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 10
Mana: 120/120
*Unallocated attribute points: 5
Traits:
-
Before she managed to make any changes, Leo, having noticed the distant look in her eyes, knelt down next to her.
“You gained levels?” He asked. Alice replied with a nod, and Leo continued. “What kind of build do you have?”
Alice listed her attributes to Leo, who listened attentively.
“A rogue build? Unusual choice for an adventurer.”
“Not exactly.” Alice corrected him. “I’m aiming to be a duelist, and from there, a Sword saint”
Leo raised his eyebrow in surprise. “Now that is an ambitious goal. But maybe you need to be a bit ambitious to get there.” He stood up and offered his hand to Alice. “In any case, if you still want to, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t go on missions with Aron and I.”
Alice grinned as she took Leo’s hand, who pulled her up to her feet.
“I would be happy to!”
“Yes! Now let’s go kick some zombie ass!” Aron shouted in delight.
The following days were a blur of activity. Since no further instructions had come from Morrison, Alice spent her days on missions with Aron and Leo. As much as she tried to keep herself busy with various activities, the ever present feeling of unease kept growing inside of her. One undead hunt after another, followed by a journey back to the city, witnessing the slow decay of her home. Alice felt like she was trapped in a loop. Nothing progressed, nothing changed.
The oppressive atmosphere of the city wasn’t just affecting Alice. The refugees flooding the streets were understandably miserable. Starvation and homelessness made way for an increase in theft and violence.
Walking back home from the Order’s headquarters, Alice saw every day more and more boarded up windows, and signs of lawlessness. Once bustling markets were now empty, boutique shops closed, and restaurants repurposed into homeless kitchens. The city was eating itself alive, and with the leadership staying silent, things only grew worse as the days went on.
This was all of course expected. Having read the Bishop’s letter, Alice knew that the situation would only keep worsening. Even after it all was over, would the city be the same again? Could the people recover?
Almost two whole weeks passed before anything happened. One morning, Alice was woken up by someone frantically knocking on her front door. Alice groggily got out of bed, still half asleep. She stumbled to the door and opened it to find a man, about her age, with a messenger bag waiting behind.
“Mmmh?” Alice asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“You’re Alice Althorn, right?” The man asked, seemingly in a hurry.
Alice nodded and watched the messenger pull out a pair of letters from his bag.
“From the mage’s guild and the Order. Marked as urgent. If you would mark here to confirm the delivery-”
Alice took the letters and signed the form, before closing the door and retreating to her kitchen. Only after Alice had taken a seat, she realized what the messenger had said. Letters from the mage’s guild and the Order. Instructions from Morrison perhaps? And the mages.. She had requested to be informed if something happened.
Now fully awake, Alice tore the letters open, reading through them.
“Alice.
Meet me in my office as soon as you receive this letter.
-Morrison”
Cryptic. Extremely cryptic. But that hopefully meant that they had found something. Something that couldn’t be said in writing. Alice put the paper down and focused on the second note.
“Ms. Althorn.
Previously you made a request to our guild to monitor ambient mana levels in surrounding regions, and asked to be informed if noticeable changes were to occur.
Two nights ago, at approximately 1AM, we detected an abnormal mana surge, located in Nosrut mountain. The change was drastic enough to investigate further, and as the anomaly still persists, we thought it wise to inform you of the change.
Sincerely,
Vala Sal’Miak”
This was it. This had to be it. Whatever Jonathan was doing, this had to be what he meant. The messenger Alice had caught was heading towards the mountain. Now the mana surge. The cult had to be hiding in the mountain! Every clue was pointing towards it. And if the mana levels kept being high, those in the know could pinpoint the location of the hideout.
Suddenly full of energy, Alice got dressed before running towards the Order’s headquarters and straight into Morrison’s office. She was in such a hurry, Alice didn’t even bother knocking as she swung the door open, panting slightly from the run.
“You asked to see me… sir!”
Morrison looked up from his desk, his expression grave.
“Sit down, please.”
Alice did as told, barely able to contain her excitement as she took her usual seat.
“So! Did you get a note from the mage’s guild? Are we finally moving?”
“I did.” Morrison sighed. Alice was about to make further inquiries, but came to halt as she noticed the man’s expression. It wasn’t one of excitement and action.
“What’s going on?” She asked.
“Last night, Bishop Thomas Valmer fled from our surveillance. Our scouts following him reported him riding north, towards the mountain.”
Alice wasn’t following. That was a good thing, right? Even more of a reason to amass a fighting force and storm the place. She was about to say as much, when Morrison continued.
“On the way, about a day’s march from here, the scouts discovered a horde, tens of thousands strong.” His voice grew darker with each word. “According to the report, Bishop was able to ride through the undead unharmed, causing our scouts to lose his trail. Instead, they remained at a distance, observing the undead. Their numbers kept increasing throughout the night.”
Morrison’s words sunk in slowly, and Alice felt her heart sink with them. The excitement she had been feeling just moments ago was replaced with growing dread. Tens of thousands of undead gathering within a day’s travel of the city. It was a pure nightmare scenario, and Alice knew that the Order didn’t have the manpower to take them all on.
“What can we do?” Alice asked, her voice low.
“We’ve already sent messages to the neighboring cities, requesting aid. But even if our calls are answered, they won’t make it in time. The city council is having an emergency meeting as we speak.”
“But-”
“It is one hell of a situation, I won’t lie. The Order will do its duty and protect the people. You can expect an official announcement later today, but for now… I don’t know, Alice. When you joined our ranks, I made a promise to keep you safe. But I don’t think I can keep that promise.”
Alice felt a knot form in her stomach as Morrison finished his speech. She thought she had known the dangers of joining the Order, but this was beyond anything she had ever imagined being a part of. Alice wanted to say something, to offer some kind of reassurance, but the words just wouldn’t come.
“I wanted to inform you before others, so you can make whatever preparations you need before the city wide panic sets in. Within a few days, we will be in war.”