Standing with such a great distance between them and Gangnar the starter was capable of lulling anyone who knew very little about gargoyles into a false sense of security. But Aiden wasn’t just anyone. There had been a time when he had been just anyone, but that time was long passed, gone like the first gargoyle he had killed after stepping beyond the natural array.

In the Order a lot of things had been taught and Aiden had learnt from them. Being weak, the most important thing he had learnt had been how to face a more powerful opponent or an uncertain opponent. And he had used those teachings very judiciously ever since coming back.

In his second life, he was stronger in most ways but weaker in one that counted. Playing underdog most of his life had left him with a thoughtful mind. Asking questions first before throwing fists and skills had been the first sense he’d developed in his first life. Being an [Enchanter] had made it mandatory.

But it would be a lie to say he had developed it because he was smart. No. As harsh as it was to admit, he had developed it because he had been weak. Weak and with no choice. The weak either fought and died or learned to use their brains to survive.

Then he had become strong, and while the battles and missions the Order had continued to send him on even when he had become over level two hundred were tasks that found him as the underdog, there were moments when he had been faced with weaker opponents. Those moments had been enough to teach him how the strong fought.

The powerful, those truly versed in the art of violence, did not plan and scheme and trick. They did not feint or lie or pretend. They moved forward with overwhelming power, knowing that all would succumb.

Aiden could admit to fighting like that every now and then, even as an [Enchanter].

So in this second life, that had been his weakness. The urge to fight those around him as the powerful would fight. And why not, he was surrounded by those of low levels. Even Valdan was yet to reach level fifty. It was a mental bias.

The pride of the strong.

But with each fight that was not to the death, he had reminded himself that he was weak, mixed the strength of the weak with the hubris of the strong. Each enemy he hadn’t needed to kill, he had confused first, tricked and lied to in one way or the other. He had fought in a way most would call dishonorable—in a way the Order would call necessary.

He had done it with Haruto, summoned of Nel Quan, confused the man by telling him his own class and name, thrown him off-kilter with information he should not have had. In the Naranoff manor he had done it to all those who had challenged him by striking a weapon into a dummy with a circle drawn in sand. With a single action he had divided their focus between the circle, the spar, and their pride not to be kicked out of it.

But now Aiden found himself in a different situation. He found his pride working against him. To him, the gargoyle staring at him was weak. A mere level 49. Not yet fifty. In his past life he could’ve killed it with his eyes closed.

But this is not your past life.

“Keep your eyes peeled, princess,” he said to Elaswit in a low voice without taking his eyes off Gangnar. “You’ve seen the gargoyles we’ve fought, how quickly they can move.”

“Sudden bursts of speed,” Elaswit said in an equally low whisper.

“At its level I wouldn’t be surprised if it can cross this distance in the blink of an eye.”

But there was no surprise, really. Aiden knew for a fact that it could cross this distance in the blink of an eye.

And still you wanted to face it without any weavings? He thought, chiding himself. Without any enchantments.

Elaswit took a slow and quiet step to the side and away from Aiden. He let her. From what he knew of combat, the last thing you wanted to be as a group in a fight against a powerful foe was a single target. So she was spreading herself out, giving the gargoyle two targets.

It was a good thought.

And if the princess was using her brain, Aiden had to. The hubris of facing off against an enemy significantly stronger than him with pure skill was stupid. You can’t allow your annoyance at truly being the underdog rile you up.

“Ready?” he asked Elaswit.

She nodded. “Switch strategy.”

Aiden shook his head at her suggestion. The switch strategy only worked against opponents you could stand against, even if not toe to toe, at least to a certain extent. At level 29, he definitely couldn’t stand against Gangnar in any direct confrontation.

And your stupid ass wanted to fight with pure skill.

Aiden was tired of scolding himself.

I thought it would attack immediately, he told himself. It was a half-truth. He had truly thought it would attack immediately, but he’d instinctively also wanted to remind himself that what stood before him was only a mere level 49. The fact that it was powerful had been annoying, and he’d wanted to prove to it that he’d faced stronger.

Elaswit looked at him from the side of her eye. “Why not? And is there a reason its not attacking?”

Aiden wondered if the switch strategy was the only strategy the princess knew. It was a fleeting thought. A very fleeting thought. A member of the royal family would not just be trained in the art of physical combat. They would be trained in the art of strategy and manipulation and diplomacy.

They would be trained in every way a person could be trained.

Therefore, there was no way the switch strategy was all she knew. So was she suggesting it because she thought it was the only skill he knew?

You’re thinking too much, Aiden.

Thinking was good, but there were times when it became too much. And too much of anything was always bad.

“Do you know how to bait and switch?” he asked.

Elaswit paused, then nodded.

“Good.” Aiden lowered his stance a little, prepared himself for speed. “I’ll start, you follow.”

“As long as you know what you’re doing.”

Gangnar kept its eyes on Aiden. Not once had it looked away from him. It was as if Elaswit was yet to matter to it. It was why Aiden had chosen the strategy. It was why he had chosen to start it.

As for why it was yet to attack? Aiden did his best not to move his attention from the gargoyle to the hole in the ground where its hand had been buried a few moments ago.

His best guess was that it didn’t want to stray too far from the hole. If that was correct, then there was something in the hole. Something worth killing the gargoyle for.

A reward.

Done with all the planning he could muster, Aiden tossed his scabbard to the side and darted forward. He ran in an arc that had him approaching from the side, placing the rising stalagmites between them to obstruct its view of him. With his updated stats he was fast, but not fast enough.

Gangnar’s eyes darted almost immediately. It blitzed in its sockets, followed after him.

Aren’t I just the perfect bait.

Now he just needed a weaving before he got to it or it got to him. Something to keep him alive. The gargoyle watched him as his hands came together. It looked slightly confused yet apprehensive.

Between level twenty and getting here, he’d tried the effects of his new stats. And that rise in Dexterity was not playing any games.

Even with the hilt of his sword in his hands, his weaving was smooth. It could be smoother, but once upon a time it had been nigh impossible.

[You have used class skill Enchanted Weave]

…

[You have used Weave of Lesser Speed]

[Effect: 30% increase in movement speed.]

[Duration: 00:08:10.]

Aiden felt his mana course through him. He felt charged up and his feet moved faster beneath him. He couldn’t wait to hit level fifty when he could kick it up a notch and use the middling enchantments.

Five steps in and a little closer to the gargoyle, the creature made its first real move. It moved its hand across its body and placed it on the ground.

Its next action happened in the blink of an eye. Its entire arm blurred and Aiden terminated his course of action. He came to an immediate halt and took a very sharp right. Throwing himself to the side, he hit the ground in a roll.

The entire space boomed in the wake of an explosive sound as a barrage of rocks hit the wall in the direction Aiden had been.

When he came to his feet, Aiden paled slightly.

He hadn’t even seen the rocks cross the distance. The reaction he’d had was to the disappearance of the gargoyle’s arm from his sight. And all the stalagmites rising from the ground that had been between them were gone.

A cold sweat ran down the side of his face when he finally realized why the gargoyle had simply been watching him. It hadn’t been assessing him, it had just been confused. It had probably been wondering what he had been hoping to accomplish moving at the speed he had been moving at.

Then he’d picked up his speed and had become a threat.

That’s the difference that exists between twenty levels, he thought. If I’m not careful I’ll die without knowing what killed me.

Bait and switch had definitely been the better strategy.

Then Gangnar finally stood up with a deep groove that had not been there before in the ground beside it, and Aiden was weaving a new enchantment.

[You have activated Weave of Lesser Strength]

[Effect: +29% increase in strength]

[Duration: 00:08:00.]

Aiden felt himself grow sturdier, but that wasn’t enough. As much as he now believed he could survive significantly more than he once could, he doubted the attack he’d just avoided wouldn’t still kill him on impact.

He felt the fear of death hold him by the heel and he shook it off annoyance. He’d stared death in the face far too many times to be afraid of it now. A month plus of an easy life wasn’t going to make him forget eleven years of difficulty.

For fuck sake! I’ve died once.

Gangnar paused, eyes narrowed. Perhaps Aiden’s annoyance had shown on his face or maybe it was thinking of something else.

Aiden didn’t care. He weaved another enchantment.

[You have activated Weave of Lesser Endurance]

[Effect: +20% increase in endurance

[Duration: 00:05:00.]

Gangnar took a step towards him and a blast of red mana slammed into its back. It staggered a single step forward before catching itself. For the first time since getting here, its yellow eyes focused on something that was not Aiden.

“Come on!” Elaswit goaded it, arms raised to her sides, cleaver in one. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size!”

She was definitely not its size.

Gangnar growled. It was a guttural sound that reverberated in Aiden’s chest. Then it dropped forward so that its hands and feet touched the ground. It wasn’t a good sign.

With three enchantments coursing through Aiden, he reached into one of his many pockets and retrieved an enchanted item.

Anticipate where it will be, he told himself and threw the item.

Gangnar’s massive body moved faster than something its size had any right to move. Aiden’s enchanted item struck the ground a few paces in front of Elaswit and exploded. It burst into a flare of sparks that filled an entire space, exploding like countless fireworks, and he was already charging at it.

[You have used Cube of Lesser Flames]

Ganger got to the confined space, seeming to appear out of nowhere, shattering all the stalagmites that had been in its path, and staggered back. It had been caught in the explosion mid stride but not enough. Aiden had thrown the enchanted item a little too far forward.

Gangnar staggered back and away from the eruption. Its eyes moved and it showed its lacking intelligence by trying to swipe the enchantment aside as if it was a physical thing. Its hand cut through the air and got caught within the sparks.

It let out a pained growl, flinching away in pain.

A named gargoyle was a form of evolutionary gargoyle. It gained the ability to use skills along with increased stats. And in exchange for its powerful defense, it gained a certain level of flexibility and humanoid form.

“Get away!” Aiden called out to Elaswit as he approached them, tossing another enchanted item into the fray.

He didn’t aim this one at the ground. Instead, he threw it straight into the sparks. When he did, he let his footwork carry him to the side so that he went around Gangnar, skidding to stop behind it. To his side was a rising stalactite, spiking up as tall as him from the ground.

His interface came alive and he discarded it immediately.

[You have activated Enchantment of Lesser Gas]

[Effect: Explosion of Methane]

[Radius: 0.0012km.]

Ever the good listener, Elaswit was gone before the eruption. Gangnar only had enough time to look back before the sparks erupted in a full on explosion.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Aiden placed a finger on the stalactite beside him and drew a symbol on it. You could not apply certain types of enchantments on inanimate objects. If you did, they simply did not take effect. But Aiden’s enchantments cast through his class skills worked differently.

[You have used class skill Unarmed Engrave(U)]

The moment he was done, he smacked a hand against the stalactite, right above the engraving, activating it, and jumped back and away from it as movement within the smoke and flames of the explosion caught his attention.

[You have activated Enchantment of Lesser Durability]

[Effect: +35% increase in durability.]

[Duration: 00:04:52.]

Gangnar staggered out of the explosion, tongues of fire licking its body at different places. Its arm swung as it staggered, striking out at Aiden—or at least where he had been. Its swinging arm struck the stalactite Aiden had left and bounced off on impact.

Aiden was already moving, weaving through the rising stalagmites. The gargoyle had intelligence, but it wasn’t intelligent. That was a good thing.

Still littered with fire, Gangnar turned its attention. Eyes darted about, moving from stalagmite to stalagmite until it settled on Aiden. When it did, the gargoyle charged forward. It used none of the speed it had displayed earlier, barreling forward like a lumbering gorilla.

Aiden continued to dart backward, dancing between stalagmites, keeping them between him and the creature as his mind continued to devise a plan.

As Gangnar chased after him, smacking each stalagmite away from its front, shattering them with each swing of its arm, Elaswit chased behind it. Bait and switch was useless if all the members of the party kept the enemy’s attention at the same time.

Aiden’s eyes made contact with Elaswit’s and he nodded. Gangnar was close to him, but not close enough to be a threat. But as reassuring as that was, Aiden felt the farthest thing away from safe. Even the eye contact he had made with Elaswit had been a risk.

For all he knew, Gangnar could suddenly clear the distance between them in the blink of an eye.

Then why hasn’t it? Aiden thought.

Elaswit pulled to a stop. She held her cleaver in both hands, down and to the side, and swung it as if it was a longsword of simple weight, not the massive cleaver that it was. A diagonal slash of red mana shot out of it. The attack shattered a stalagmite before slamming into the gargoyle’s back.

The force of the blow staggered it forward. This time, it wasn’t by a step. Gangnar staggered four steps forward before falling to its knee.

Aiden stopped his fleeing. He changed his trajectory and darted forward. Gangnar raised its head the moment he did and Aiden channeled all the strength he had into changing his direction once more. [Dash] came alive. It carried away from his path and to the side.

Aiden let out a pained groaned as he slammed into the side of a stalagmite, thrown off course by the skill, and was happy for it. It was a better option than what might have befallen him.

On the ground, Gangnar’s eyes remained on him, unflinching. Aiden had charged forward, expecting its attention to be turned on Elaswit. Luck had favored him in his survival.

The question, now, was why Gangnar hadn’t changed its attention? Did it consider him the greater threat now or had he just really, really pissed it off?

Reaching out to its side with its left arm, Gangnar grabbed a stalagmite, its eyes never leaving Aiden. The stalagmite was dark and glistening, clearly not rock. Growing all the way to half its length from the ground was moss of the deepest green with a smattering of red. The moss stained Gangnar’s hand as it pulled.

It tugged at it once and the stalagmite did not budge. Then twice. Then once more. Aiden watched its muscles under cement grey flesh grow taut and bulge against its skin as the stalagmite gave way.

It shattered at the bottom where it met the ground and Aiden called out a warning.

“Elaswit, look out!”

Gangnar had no intentions of attacking her and he knew it. But he couldn’t be lax about safety. Even now, he watched over the princess. Why? Because she was a princess and there would be no way to explain her death if she died while on an unsanctioned scenario with him? Because she was his companion for the duration of this quest?

The answer did not come to him. But something else did.

Gangnar lifted one foot, planted it firmly on the ground, and threw. The stalagmite cut through the air, but Aiden was already moving, covering distances to save himself.

He ducked past the back of a standing stalagmite, dove into a roll. The thrown object slammed into slammed into another of its kind and erupted on impact. Debris flew about, cascading through the air with enough force to cause harm.

Aiden rounded another stalagmite, moving fast. He placed it between him and all the debris. The sound of something striking the cover he hid behind told him that he had been right to take cover.

Then Gangnar was in front of him. It had appeared like the herald of death. Aiden knew, now, why it had not moved so quickly before. Because the speed was a skill, not a simple action.

He stepped away from his cover at the last moment, a last ditch effort to reduce the impact of what was about to happen to him. There would be no avoiding it, only suffering it.

Gangnar’s arm move, blurred through the distance.

Another skill, Aiden noted as he raised his sword at an angle, buttressing its blade with the flat of his other palm. The outcome of this was inevitable.

Gangnar struck him with the force of a falling boulder. Its entire forearm slammed into the flat of the blade of the sword, pushed it back and into Aiden, then crashed into Aiden’s entire body.

Pain flared in Aiden’s chest and his nose. He felt something crack. Something wet stained his face, too. Wet and warm.

Then he felt the wind behind his back.

He shot through the air, clearing a distance he did not know. He tried to orient his body as he cascaded through the air, tumbling end over end, but his body did not listen to him. So he spun, darkness clawing at his vision as pain filled him like gas that refused to be farted or burped, growing worse with every passing second as it continued to grow, refusing to leave.

Aiden’s back struck something strong, something powerful. Whatever it was gave way to him. He was the unstoppable force. Again, something cracked within him. In his pain, Aiden heard nothing. But he felt it offer its allegiance to his already existing pain.

The impact knocked the wind out of him. Debris flew about, buffeting him in dust and pain and bright colored moss. Aiden pulled air into his lungs instinctively and more pain filled him. Had he punctured a lung?

The thought fled him as he hit the ground and bounced off it. Yet, it didn’t stop him. As one skipped a fine rock along the surface of a river or lake, so he skipped along the surface of the ground.

Twice. Then thrice.

Then he came to a stop, his back slamming against a sturdy wall, knocking more wind out of him. He heard a sound in the distance that sounded like his name, but he couldn’t be certain. He couldn’t be certain of anything except for the fact that he wasn’t dead yet.

Something wet and warm trickled down the side of his head, down his nostrils as well. There was also a sharp taste of metal in his mouth.

Slumped against whatever kept his back up, Aiden found little strength to move. Even as he wondered just how bad it was, his interface chose to give him the information he needed in numbers.

[You have been dealt a Fatal Blow!]

[Health 31%]

[Stamina 57%]

[Mana 60%]

Aiden thought he heard his name once more as he discarded the notification. He could’ve sworn he’d started this fight with full percentages in all his life stats.

And in just one blow…

He was having a hard time focusing on anything else.

So much for bait and switch.

Gangnar had decided that he was all the bait there needed to be. Elaswit wasn’t of much importance to it. It didn’t make sense. Elaswit was the stronger of the both of them. The bigger threat. By all accounts, Gangnar was supposed to be warier of her. You didn’t keep an eye on the weaker opponent in a fight when one was clearly stronger than the other. It wasn’t strategy, it was instinct.

Something red flashed in Aiden’s periphery. With all the pain, he could see very little. But he could see and that mattered. A guttural roar followed the flash of red.

That was good, it meant he would not be dying right now. His interface popped up in front of him once more.

[Health 29%]

That wasn’t good.

Health only dropped for no reason on two occasions. One was poisoning. If you were poisoned, your health degraded over time. Since his interface had said nothing about being poisoned, he doubted that was the case. Also, he knew of no kind of gargoyle with poison as part of its attacks. Although, there were poisons so masterfully concocted that interfaces didn’t inform people of their poisoning.

That left Aiden with the second, obvious, reason.

Blood loss.

Another blast of red light filled his vision. Aiden ignored it. He had other things to focus on. One, if his blood loss continued then there would be no natural healing. His health would continue to tick down and never up. Blood clotting was one way to go. A normal person would just natural bleed to death, but there was nothing normal about anyone above the age of eighteen on Nastild. Still, he’d likely be dead and gone before his blood clotted enough to allow him heal.

There was another flash of red. Elaswit was really putting in the work. He couldn’t let a child struggle so much to keep him alive when he was here.

That’s foolish talk and you know it.

She wasn’t a child. Not really. Even if she was younger now, she had been older than him once. He’d known her older version. And even if his experience now made him the older of the two despite their physical age, it didn’t matter. She was currently the stronger of the both of them.

She might not be the best choice to kill Gangnar, but she was the best match at keeping it at bay.

So Aiden focused on himself.

He was alive. That was good. He sucked in a deep breath and winced. He could breathe. It hurt, but it was possible. That too was good. So he took shallow breaths and was happy for the absence of pain.

Next came the important part.

Something exploded to his side and he was pelted with small debris, pebble sized. He ignored it.

Can you move?

Buried within all the pain, he’d been unable to focus on anything else. Now he willed himself to ignore the pain and focus on something else.

His hand moved. The entire arm. It was weak, tired, like moving about when terribly sick. It sufficed.

He forced his arm to move, one large action at a time. He moved his free arm since his other arm still held onto his sword, an instinct honed over years. You did not release your weapon unless you absolutely had to.

When his free arm landed on his soldier’s belt, he ran it along the surface of two pockets before landing on the one he wanted. Opening it, he pulled out a vial. Uncorking it was an annoyance but it was enough.

Another massive move of his hand placed the mouth of the vial in his mouth. Some of its content spilled on his cheek and shoulder.

Aiden prayed. He prayed he would make it in time, if he made it at all. There were no more red flashes, after all.

…

The sound of her blade cutting through the air did not fill Elaswit with any form of motivation today. She brought the blade to bear, deflecting another strike from the gargoyle. According to what Aiden had told her of the scenario, its name was Gangnar. Sadly, Gangnar was proving to be a bigger problem than she’d expected.

For one, it had completely disregarded their strategy of bait and switch. Why it had chosen to focus entirely on Aiden was what she didn’t understand. She was the stronger opponent, closer to its level.

It made no sense. Even when she’d struck it with [Aura Strike] it had refused to take its eyes of Aiden.

When it had thrown the stalagmite at him and he’d dodged, she’d been happy. Then the gargoyle had disappeared and everything else had been a tragedy.

[You have used Class skill Sword Strike]

Now she was doing her best to keep Gangnar away from him as another blast of mana struck true. Elaswit had lost count of how many times she’d used this skill so far. As much as she would’ve liked to use another skill, this was the only one in her arsenal that was an active attack skill.

Everything else only served to buff her in some way or the other. She was, by every ramification of the term, a passive [Butcher].

[Aura Strike] cut through the air once more, struck the gargoyle in the shoulder. It left a groove in its shoulder, deeper than Elaswit had expected. She found it strange as she dodged another attack. The gargoyles they’d faced in the cave were clearly weaker, but all she’d been able to leave on them had been cracks at best.

So why were her attacks so effective against this one?

Weaving behind a stalagmite, she avoided a blow from the gargoyle. Its hand slammed into the stalagmite, shattering its top half. Elaswit came up on the other side with another [Aura Strike]. Again, she tore another slash in it, this time, she’d gone for its thigh.

Like all the other cuts she’d given it, grey blood rose from the injuries, then solidified so that Gangnar looked like a beast walking around with scars from old battles.

Elaswit could whittle it down, practically cut it to death. At least she hoped she could. With the injuries scarring over, she had no idea if the damage remained or some form of healing was taking place.

She knew nothing and it annoyed her.

She jumped back as the gargoyle slammed its fist into the ground. Despite the gravity of what was happening, Elaswit kept shifting glances to Aiden.

Each time she looked at him, her fears grew a little more. He was a terrible mess. More blood than person. That he had even survived a blow from a creature almost at level 50 was a miracle by itself. Then he’d gone through a stalagmite, kissed the ground a couple of times, and ended up in a wall was enough to have killed him. But he still lived, the slow rise and fall of his chest, his twitching arm.

Elaswit was determined to get Gangnar away from him by any means necessary.

This wasn’t how things were supposed to go and Elaswit hated herself for it. In the beginning she had allowed Aiden take the lead because he’d known far more about their situation than she had. He’d uncovered the natural enchantment, had navigated the cave, and had known more about the gargoyle than she had. It was only right that she’d allowed him lead.

But this fight? She shouldn’t have allowed him. He hadn’t been strong enough. The moment she’d seen Gangnar’s level she should’ve opted out, asked him to turn back.

But she hadn’t. Why?

Gangnar’s arm blurred.

Because he was strong.

Elaswit turned, twisted her hip, throwing herself to the side in a summersault. Her evasion wasn’t complete and the blow clipped her thigh. Elaswit braced herself at the contact only to feel no pain. Instead, her interface came alive.

[Artifact Mad King’s Bar is in effect]

A piece of the Mad king’s staff designed to ward off attacks from skills of an opponent. Designed to keep you alive in the direr position.

[Effect: 30% Magic resistance.]

[Effect: 100% resistance to skill attacks for ten seconds.]

Elaswit frowned at the notification when she landed on her feet. That had been a blatant waste of the artifacts uses. And that was a flaw of the artifact. You didn’t get to pick and choose when it activated.

But since it was up, she was going to take advantage of it. The only things she had feared from the creature were how fast it had moved in the beginning and that attack speed. Now that she knew that the specific attack was a skill she was safe from it for the next ten seconds.

She might as well take advantage of it.

Stepping forward, she used [Aura Strike] once more, spamming the attack. It tore into the gargoyle’s leg. Rather than back away—a reasonable strategy—she followed the attack with a slash to the injury. Her cleaver dug a deeper hole and she drew it free.

[Mana 23%]

The gargoyle howled in pain and swiped at her. She saw the hand coming and ducked away. In the fight since entering the cave, she’d learnt that she could keep track of its normal attacks. Not having to look out for the skill gave her an advantage.

She moved, darted around the gargoyle. Once again, she realized that she shouldn’t have allowed Aiden lead this fight. What was she going to do if he died? If she could defeat the gargoyle on time, she could save him. If not, he would die.

And she didn’t know how to explain it to her father, or her mother. Her father had to have plans for Aiden even if she didn’t know what they were. But her mother? She knew her mother’s plans. As far as the queen of Bandiv was concerned, Aiden Lacheart wasn’t going to be the [Hero]. But he was going to be something, and whatever it was, it was going to be great.

So her plan was to find a way to tie Aiden to the kingdom. She believed he would be a powerful force in the future. And if he and his companions didn’t get to go home, then she would rather he have a reason to stay in Bandiv than end up somewhere else.

Elaswit’s duty here, amongst other things, was to find out what could move him. What he wanted or needed. If they knew that, they could bind him to them. And, as her mother so lovingly put it, if she could make herself the thing that bound him, even better.

But he has to live for that to happen.

Elaswit struck at the gargoyle’s leg from behind it as it tried to turn. It could heal its injury all it wanted, but if she took the leg, then that was a win for her.

Once again, the gargoyle struck. Its arm blurred once more and Elaswit ignored it. She’d practiced with the [Mad King’s Bar] enough times to know how long her ten seconds would last.

She swung into the leg once more.

Her cleaver tore at the injury before the gargoyle’s blood solidified, ripped a chunk of the creature’s flesh out a moment before its hand came down on her.

One more, she hoped.

Then the hand landed on top of her, a massive fist that should’ve flattened her. She pulled back for another cut when something went wrong. The weight of the hand doubled on top of her, pushed her downward. There was no damage so the artifact was acting as was expected of it, doing its job.

But the weight was a different thing entirely. It pushed her down, pinned her to the ground so that her leg muscles had to work hard to keep her on her feet. It took her a moment to realize what was happening.

She couldn’t move her upper body. No harm was befalling her from the skill but she had been neutralized. If she tried too hard to turn, it would shift her equilibrium. The gargoyle would pin her flat to the ground. It was all she could do to stay on her feet.

But staying pinned was going to be a bad situation as well. If it pinned her down for the rest of the ten seconds, [Mad King’s Bar] would run out of its activation. If that happened, it could inevitably squish—

Gangnar pulled its bad leg back and Elaswit paled.

Shit.

It swung its leg forward in a vicious kick. Elaswit felt the weight of the strike, felt her rib crack, felt the pain fill her head as it struck her.

Then she was sent flying. Fear and pain filled her as her interface popped up. She struck a stalagmite but didn’t break through it. And despite the force of the kick and the fact that she’d taken it unguarded, she was surprised at how much health she still had.

[Health 43%]

Breathing became hard, each one leaving her with the feeling of sharp pain. Elaswit did not need a doctor or a healer to tell her something bad had happened to her lungs.

She could still move, and that was good. All she needed to do was—

A sharp gust of wind hit her and Gangnar was already in front of her. Fear became an accomplice once more. Not for Aiden’s life, but hers. Her flight or fight response kicked in immediately and fight was the victor. She would fight to survive by any means possible.

Fear would not hold her down. She was a princess, and a princess did not bow. A princess fought until the end. Fear in battle would not hold down the daughter of King Brandis. She would not shame herself in such a way.

Her mind went to her cleaver but she knew she no longer had it in hand. She’d lost it at some point while she’d been tumbling through the air. If she was being honest, her life was something she should’ve lost too. The only thing that had likely saved her was the damage she’d inflicted to the leg that had kicked her. Gangnar had likely been unable to put in enough force into it.

Without her cleaver, she couldn’t fight. But she could still survive. She turned to her side, moved to evade whatever attack was to come next.

Gangnar did not attack. The gargoyle raised its head to the stalactites above and let out an ear piercing roar. It shook Elaswit to the core and she knew what had happened even before her interface told her.

[Enemy has used skill Predator’s Right]

Elaswit watched in fear. This couldn’t be her end. She refused to die like this. She couldn’t die in some random cave in some random place. She’d trained all her life, tutored at the hands of the greatest the kingdom had to offer.

Gangnar raised its leg, scarred and beaten, high above her.

Move, dammit!

[You do not have sufficient Resilience]

[Resilience (Mastery 27%)]

…

[Skill Predator’s Right takes effect]

…

[You are stunned.]

Elaswit stared at the notification and a tear slipped from her eye.

Please no.