I went flying, knocked off my feet from the force of the blast. Dazed, I felt myself impact the stone of the floor several feet away from the doorway. As if from a great distance, I could hear the cacophony of battle all around me.

I blinked one eye slowly, and then the other. Something dripped over my eye as I did so. Slowly, I reached up to wipe it away. When I did so and looked at my hand through blurred eyes, I saw red.

Oh.

Fumblingly, I reached for the small pouch I kept on my waist that held my potions. I had given away most of them to Aurum earlier, but I still had a handful. With a shaky hand, I pulled one out and popped the cork without even checking which kind it was. Still lying on the floor, I threw it back.

I think I passed out then, as the world went dark and silent.

Seconds later, I snapped back awake with a flood of adrenaline. Panicked, I sat up, groping around for my spear and looking around wildly. What the hell had happened? Where was Sylvia?

Where was the guy that had attacked us?

I found both of them.

Sylvia was fighting a desperate battle not far from my position. I must not have been out of it for long, as the rest of the hall was still locked in combat. However, it wasn’t going very well for her.

Sylvia was losing.

Her build wasn’t suited for straight-up fights. Sylvia was geared towards hit-and-run tactics with plenty of illusionary trickery thrown in. She wasn’t made for desperate combat against a large, well-armored opponent. As I watched, she desperately tried to parry a sweeping blow from the armored figure’s greatsword with her much smaller short sword. She was nearly thrown off her feet as well from the force of the blow, stumbling in place. Desperately, I could see her try and cast some form of illusion to try and retreat, only to need to dodge out of the way of a follow-up strike when he shook it off.

I was reminded that Syliva was probably not much more than twenty or thirty levels higher than I was. Not everybody had my odd advantage of getting levels from opponents that weren’t monsters.

I needed to help her.

I don’t know where my spear had gone. It must have gone flying off somewhere into the chaos of the battlefield. Luckily, I still had my spare. I drew it, while at the same time pointing at the armored man. Hopefully, this would work again.

Grasping Roots.

My thorny, blood-red roots erupted from the stone of the hall floor, twining around the man’s armored legs. Unfortunately, they were unable to penetrate his plate. He was momentarily startled but simply stopped in place for a moment to kick the roots off of him.

That was enough for Sylvia.

She dived away from the man’s position, and immediately cast her invisibility veil, vanishing from sight. The man clucked his tongue in disappointment, shaking his head briefly.

He then turned in my direction.

Slowly, I stood up from the crouched position I had assumed. As I did so, I assumed the dagger-based combat stance Azarus had taught me all those months ago. I didn’t want to extend my spare weapon just yet. Unfortunately, I was aware that this guy wasn’t a good match-up for me as well. I was more suited for ambush tactics than straight combat. The Scintillant Blade might be meant for piercing defenses, but that didn’t extend to armor. It was only effective at piercing System-borne defenses. It wouldn’t be of much help against full plate. However, I had some advantages that she didn’t.

Sylvan Vigor must have faded from its low usage state when I was unconscious, so I ratcheted it up to half. At the same time, I reactivated Thorn Cloak for the extra protection.

Let’s do this.

I had the idea of a plan.

I think.

A chuckle echoed out of the armored man’s helmet. “Come on then, boy,” He said mockingly, raising his greatsword into a stance and setting his feet wide. “If you think you’re hard enough.”

I sneered, unseen in the shadows of my thorny hood.

I’ll make you regret that, bastard.

I sprang at the man, faster than I think he was expecting from me. In the split second before I reached him, I saw his eyes widen slightly. However, that didn’t keep him from instantly reacting with a powerful horizontal swing aimed at bisecting me at the waist.

I fell backwards into a slide, feeling the rush of wind just over my head before the blade could touch me. I slid through the opening of the man’s open legs, emerging out behind him. Instantly, I flung myself up into the air, facing the man’s back and pointing one hand at him. I cast my best hope of piercing this man’s armor.

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Poisonthorn Shot.

My poisonous thorn erupted from my hand and impacted the rounded surface of the man’s steel breastplate. Unfortunately, it didn’t stick. The thorn itself bounced off of the hardened surface of the armor. However…

Some of the corrosive poison did stick, beginning to slowly bubble on the surface.

I allowed myself a brief smirk, before springing back instantly once I touched down. I was just in time to avoid the diagonal slash that the man sent my way as he spun in place.

As we faced each other, I could tell that the man was taking me more seriously from the way his visible eyes were narrowed in my direction.

That was…kind of mixed bag, honestly. With my poison weakening his armor, I think I had a shot at piercing it from his back. But the armored man was wary now. It was going to be hard for me to reach his back.

Luckily, I wasn’t actually fighting alone.

Suddenly, the man jerked in surprise and swung his blade into a blocking position, facing his left. However, nothing was coming at him from that direction. Instead, Sylvia materialized on his right.

She had sheathed her short sword, and in her hands, she held a battered warhammer no doubt scavenged from the battlefield.

So that’s where she had gone.

She gripped it in both hands and swung it as hard as she could at the back of the man’s armored knee. He let out a muffled grunt of surprise, sinking to the knee Sylvia had bashed in. It didn’t seem like she had managed to wound him, just dent his armor in. The man didn’t go down without a fight, however.

Reaching out swiftly, he grabbed the haft of Sylvia’s hammer and yanked her closer, rocketing his head forward at the same time. The armored man delivered a brutal headbutt to the Sculpted woman, causing her to stagger backward, dazed.

The man struggled onto both feet and raised his greatsword in a chopping motion aimed at my friend. Sylvia was going to be too punch drunk to react in time to avoid the blow.

I instantly ratcheted Sylvan Vigor up to max, and shot towards the man’s turned back. Both to save Sylvia and to strike the man’s turned back and end this.

However, for the second time today, I fell for his trap.

When I got in striking range of the man, he instantly spun around in one smooth motion. As he did so, he angled the flat of his blade in my direction and swung the greatsword, bashing me away with it. Once again, I flew away from the man. Luckily though, I didn’t hit my head on the stone floor again.

That didn’t help me much.

Before I could scramble back to my feet, I felt a heavy armored one crush down onto my chest. The man had swiftly advanced on my position and pinned me down under one of his armored boots. Looking up, I found the man had raised his greatsword into a chopping position once again, this time aimed at my neck.

My eyes widened.

“Bad luck, boy,” The man said smugly, tightening his grip on the hilt of his greatsword. “Try again in another life.” The blade of his weapon erupted into a swirling haze of crimson power that roiled up and down its length. With a shout, he swung it down at me.

I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to watch the instrument of my demise.

However, something odd happened then.

I heard a high-pitched bark.

And then….a crash of sizzling energy

I opened my eyes tentatively, to find that the man’s burning red blade had been stopped from removing my head by something unexpected.

A shimmering, swirling shield of pure, blue-green Aether.

I blinked, looking up to meet the stunned gaze of the man who had nearly killed me. His eyes shifted to somewhere behind my head. I followed them, amazed that I was still alive.

It was Fade. He was, somehow, standing behind me.

My pet Spirit wolf was crouched behind my head, snarling in what looked to be concentration. The thin stretch of skin that had been covering his nascent horns had torn away, revealing small, fresh ones no longer than my pinky finger.

They were glowing the same color as the shield that had saved my life.

Before either of us could react to the insane sight of a spell-casting wolf, Fade took a visibly deep breath. Once he had filled his lungs to capacity, he barked again.

This one was different.

It was like a deafening wall of Aether-laden sound exploded from the tiny wolf in visible waves. They washed over my form harmlessly, aside from the volume, but visibly drove the man standing over me away. He staggered back, raising his hands to clutch fruitlessly at his ears hidden by his helmet. He was screaming I think, but I couldn’t really hear anything after the deafening noise of Fade’s bark. The man was still clutching his sword, and under my astonished gaze, the red haze on it winked out.

In fact, all mystical abilities died out.

As the waves of sound echoed out from our position, all evidence of either Skills or Magic fizzled out across the entire hall. Some combatants instantly died when they found their defensive skills useless, but the raucous fighting mostly slowed to a halt in confusion. Those closest to our position, either ally or enemy, clutched at their ears in pain from a noise that hadn’t really hurt me.

They sure seemed to be in pain, though. Even Sylvia seemed like she was being affected by whatever Fade was doing, driven down to one knee from the force of it.

In the distance, I could see the bubble shield that Grey and the Warden were fighting in die out momentarily, and then wink back into being.

I lay there stunned for a moment, watching as the armored man staggered above me in pain before reality stepped in.

He wasn’t going to be stunned forever.

The shield protecting me winked out at the same time that the glow on Fade’s horns did. Exhausted, the pup staggered in place before flopping onto the stone below.

I felt a surge of adrenaline flow through me. This was my chance.

I activated Sylvan Vigor at full strength again, grateful that at the very least my own Skills were working. At the same time, I slammed the hilt of the dagger still clutched in my right hand into the stone beneath me and pressed the activation switch. I kept an iron grip on my spear as I was rocketed into the air, clutching it like it was a pole vault. At the height of my impromptu jump, I pivoted in midair, floating ever so briefly above and behind the armored man hunched over in pain and clutching his helmet.

I activated The Scintillant Blade.

And dove.

My burning blade, combined with my full weight, punched straight through the weakened steel of the man’s back breastplate with a screeching noise. I felt it as my spear blade punched through his chest and exited the other side to lodge into the stone below.

I had pinned the man who had nearly killed both Syliva and me to the floor like an insect.

As I crouched on the man’s back, suspended on my own spear, I felt him go limp below me.

Something entirely unexpected happened then.

I felt my racial talents, lodged deep into my soul, begin to resonate in a way that was familiar to me. In a way that I hadn’t felt since I had killed Magnus, all those months ago.

I felt it, as the long-dormant hidden portion of Hidden Amidst the Spheres came alive once more. The well built up, and then surged.

Something came loose from the dead man below me, and entered my Status.

I knew what that meant, by now.

I had stolen another Skill.