As Ike punched, he layered ice on his fist and wrist. He reinforced them with each activation. It wouldn’t be enough to avoid damaging his hand, but it would minimize the damage.

His fist smashed into the executioner’s back. Bones broke, snapping under his fist. The executioner’s ribs snapped. The ice broke, and his fist shattered, but he kept pushing. He threw all Shawn’s weight into the executioner.

The executioner dropped under Ike. Ike fell with him. He pinned the executioner to the floor, no more able to lift his fist than the executioner was to escape his weight.

“Shawn! That’s enough.”

Shawn yawned. He patted Ike’s shoulder, and the weight on his body receded.

Ike jumped back. The executioner pushed up to his knee, fighting against the pain and Wisp’s binds.

“Nuh uh! Get back down,” Wisp shouted. She jumped on top of him and bit. Her first bite, her teeth bounced off. Grimacing, she scurried down his body and bit where Ike had punched him. Purple venom flowed through his veins. The executioner grimaced. He focused inward, slowing his struggles. But as he focused, the poison slowed.

“Wisp, let me at him.”

“Oh, sure. Go ahead.” Wisp jumped off the man, letting Ike in.

Ike put his hand on the man’s head. He activated his new skill, Exsanguination, focusing its power on the man’s head.

Blood spurted out of the man’s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. He coughed and spat. His eyes opened, and the poison flowed through his body again.

“Damn! What is that?” Wisp asked, staring.

“That skill I used on the dead deer. Pretty awesome, huh?”

“Oh, really? You got that as a skill? Neat.”

Ike grinned.

The executioner growled. He pushed up from the ground. Wisp’s threads snapped.

“Stay down!” Ike and Wisp shouted as one. Ike slammed a lighting-charged Shockwave Punch down on the man, while Wisp hauled back, opened her mouth, and spat a stream of fire toward him. The fire lit her webs. The webs burned away in an instant, but not before searing deep into his flesh. The executioner screamed in pain.

Ike hopped back. He drew his sword. Ike charged in, planted his feet, and swung downward with all his might. Every muscle in his body connected. Aether flowed through him smoothly, resonating in every cell. His sword sung. For the first time ever, a clear note resonated from its blade. Energy burst forth from the sword. The energy slashed into the executioner’s neck, then the sword itself. The energy died halfway through the executioner’s spine, but his sword finished the job.

Ike stepped back. He looked at his sword. “What the…”

“Neat! How’d you do that?” Wisp asked.

“Uh… I don’t know. It was like… all my body condensed, or… kind of like all the aether in my body connected at once, and the energy flowed together… or something.”

Wisp pursed her lips. She nodded. “You aren’t going to be passing on techniques any time soon, huh.”

“Oh, hey! I just experienced it. I’m still trying to put things together,” Ike grumbled.

Wisp chuckled. She thumped him on the shoulder. “Let’s go get the king and queen and get out of here, huh?”

“Do we still have to leave?” Ike asked. He turned back toward the guards, the executioner, everyone. He spread his hands. “Who’s left to fight?”

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Wisp followed his lead. She cast her gaze over the platform, over the chained people, now guardsless, over the pathway beyond. The queen and king stood, letting the skins fall to the side.

“Oh,” she said.

“Yeah.”

“Did we just undo a revolution?”

“I think the term is ‘nobly reclaimed the throne for the rightful rulers,” Ike replied.

“Right, yeah.” Wisp flicked her wrist. Two white threads shot forth and drew the wolfskins to her side. “You think that pays?”

“Ought to. At least one Unique skill. And if it doesn’t, I might just be in the business of deposing the rightful rulers,” Ike muttered darkly.

“They know how to get into the treasury, too,” Wisp pointed out.

Ike pointed at her. “Yeah, good point.”

“Citizens! Gather! We have the upper hand. Reject this false republic!” the king boomed.

The queen clapped. All the chained mages’ chains unlocked and popped open. One after another, they clanged to the ground. The mages milled for a moment, feeling their wrists, and then mana surged from their direction. Several of them leaped into the air and flew off at top speed, while others raced into the dungeon.

The king and queen crossed to Ike and Wisp. The king nodded. He offered Ike his hand. “Thank you for coming to our aid, noble hunter. You are truly the model of everything a citizen of Finaire should be.”

Ike shook the king’s hand. He gave an embarrassed grin. “Actually, I was just wandering through. Clarina offered me a Unique skill to free you and the queen.” He paused. “Clarina is your daughter, right? I didn’t guess wrong and free the wrong people, did I?”

The king and queen stared.

Wisp elbowed Ike out of the way. “What he means is, thank you, my liege! I did it all for Finaire. And your royal selves, of course. By the way, which way is the treasury?”

Ike grappled her back. “You can’t ask them where the treasury is! It’s rude. You have to let them offer the treasury. Besides, who cares? I want that Unique skill.”

“Yeah, but what do I get? I want a Unique skill, too, you damn greedy bastard—”

The queen stepped forward. “You know where Clarina is? She’s alive? Safe?”

Ike looked up from struggling with Wisp. “Huh? Yeah. Let’s go. She’s right at the hidden teleportation circle. The one in the trees. Or she was, when we left her—”

The queen grabbed each of them by the shoulder. Magic washed over them. The sensation of stepping through the circle came again, and the forest appeared around them.

No. We appeared in the forest, Ike amended. He glanced at the queen. “This is the one.”

Ignoring him, the queen ran into the forest. “Clarina! Clarina, love. Are you here?”

“Mother?” Clarina stepped out from a thicket nearby. She ran over and threw herself into her mother’s arms. “Mother!”

“Clarina, my baby,” the queen murmured, wrapping her arms around Clarina.

Ike glanced aside. A strange discomfort welled up in him. He scratched the back of his neck. Is there anyone I would feel that safe with? Anyone whose mere presence is a comfort, like that?

Bored, Wisp walked to a nearby tree and crawled up in, vanishing into the branches. “Human bullshit.”

At last, the two parted. The queen looked at Ike. “Thank you.”

“Ah, yeah… It was nothing,” Ike said.

Clarina turned as well. “Even if you were only able to free my mother, thank you. Here, as promised.” She held her hand out.

Ike lifted his hand, letting her unlock the ring. A delicate, intricate circle appeared above the ring. Under Clarina’s guidance, it shifted left, right, then left again, then shattered. Instantly, Ike could sense the skill inside the ring, its power and perfection.

He nodded his thanks to her. “Actually, I freed your father, too.”

“It’s fine. You don’t need to lie to comfort me,” Clarina said.

The queen shook her head. “It’s true, Clarina. He and that woman, they slayed a great deal of the New Republic’s forces. Your father is rallying the remaining troops and freeing our fighters from prison as we speak. Those horrible puppets are nowhere to be seen. We should retake the sect by sundown.”

“Truly?” Clarina asked, shocked.

Wisp swung down from a branch overhead, dangling upside down. Her hair swung gently toward the forest floor. “We’re the ones who scared off the puppets, too.”

“What? What about Roderick?”

“Killed him,” Ike said, half-distracted by the Unique skill. Draw it out here? No… hmm. I need to inspect it. And Wisp deserves a cut, too. He glanced up. “Any chance we could get a second Unique skill?”

“Roderick is slain?” the queen asked, startled. “How did you deal with his mana-absorbing puppet?”

“His…” Ike coughed. His puppet absorbed mana? That explains why these high-level mages couldn’t defeat it. But I didn’t even notice, because… I use aether…

I probably shouldn’t out and admit I use aether instead. “Oh, well, you know. We, uh, used the forge against him… got it real hot, you know.”

“It’s like I’m there,” Wisp snarked, pulling herself back upright in the tree.

“Hey! You explain it better,” Ike called after her.

The queen smiled. “When my husband finishes dealing with the scraps in the city, would you two mind joining us for dinner?”

Rewards? I hear rewards! Ike bowed. “We would be honored.”

“Excellent.” Hugging her daughter close, the queen beamed at him. Clarina smiled as well, resting her head on her mother’s shoulder.

Despite himself, Ike smiled. We did good today.