They spent the next several days riding hard across the open fields between Hervet and Velillia. They stopped regularly for Cass and Alyx to switch between Alyx’s horse and the one that had been intended for Cass, but only truly resting when night fell and hurrying on their way again with the rising dawn.

It was near the end of that third day, as the day dipped into the gold of twilight, when Cass saw something on the horizon.

“Is that smoke?” Cass squinted at the rising plume of black coiling its way up into the darkening skies.

Alyx followed Cass’s gaze, her lips tightening into a sharp scowl. “Abyss. We don’t have time for this.”

“That is smoke,” Cass said. A lot of smoke. She could smell it on the wind.

Was it a forest fire or was it a settlement alight? Who normally handled such things here? It was hard to imagine there were forestry management organizations like those that controlled wildfires back home.

“Abyss and blood, blood, blood,” Alyx cursed under her breath, but their horse angled toward the smoke, their horses pressing on ever faster.

They cut across the countryside, plowing their way through the rippling grass to a town.

There had been palisades around the town, but large sections of the stakes were broken or knocked to the ground. Buildings within were on fire. People screamed. Smoke lay heavy in the air, carrying scents of wood and pork in equal measure. Cass’s stomach turned.

Alyx stopped the horse sharp, standing in the saddle to survey the scene.

Through the wreckage, an ape-looking creature bound through the flames on all fours, howling like a banshee. Its fur was black, like the smoke. Its body hunched, its head lolling.

And it wasn’t alone.

Bartiang (Lvl 16)

[A great ape common to the forests of the peninsula. They are highly territorial, the matriarchs of their clans never stepping foot outside their territory once claimed. They send out raiding parties against nearby creatures to collect both the gathered food of other cooperative species and the meat of those beings. Their arm strength is matched by few other creatures. It is said that if a bartiang grabs you, it won’t let go, even in death.]

Another three ran past, chasing a man through the town.

Bartiang (Lvl 16)

Bartiang (Lvl 17) x2

Human Tanner (Lvl 14)

Cass struggled to climb down from the horse, landing on her feet more because of her heightened Dexterity than because she knew how to dismount a horse.

“What are you doing?” Alyx snapped at her.

“We’re here to help, right?” That was why they were here. If Alyx had planned on leaving this to someone else, they wouldn’t have made this detour.

Alyx looked between their horses and the town, her frown only growing.

We should leave, Salos said. If there are enough of these things to breach the town’s walls, it has already fallen.

But we can help, Cass insisted.

You are only level 19. There are far more than just those four, Salos said. And there is also the fire to consider.

I can handle this much, Cass said. She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt. Caution warned this was more than was wise.

“We are here to help,” Cass said again, her stare hardening to a glare at Alyx. “That’s why we are here, right?”

The man tripped, stumbling through the smoke filled air, his scream joining the chorus of screams over the town. The bartiangs raced toward him, pounding forward like a wave through the smoke.

Alyx’s hands clenched around the reigns. “Shadows take me. Fine. We’re doing this.”

She leapt off the horse, the crown from the Caretaker burst to light on her forehead. She pulled her sword from the packhorse, drawing it even as she ran.

Cass pulled her staff off the packhorse and followed Alyx toward the burning town.

“You sure you want to do this?” Marco asked, his sword and buckler already in hand.

“No,” Alyx said even as she burst forward over the broken palisades, her sword swinging.

She inserted herself between the lead ape and the fleeing man. The bartiang howled, swinging one furred arm at Alyx. Its hand ended in large claws, each curling in a razor edge.

Alyx dodged the strike and sunk her sword deep in its body. Just as fast, she pulled back, swinging the blood off the blade. “But if the First General isn’t doing her job, then what choice do I have?”

The ape staggered but didn’t fall. Its companions rushed around it.

There was something pleased in the old guard’s eyes, even if he didn’t comment. The approval disappeared as they flicked over Cass. “Maybe the miss should wait back with Telis?”

Cass gripped tighter around her staff. There was a sense to his words. She wasn’t a fighter.

She’d fought. Oh, how she’d fought over the last several weeks. But given the choice, did she want to join the fray? There were other ways to help besides killing. Behind them, Telis was already setting up a tent for the injured that they’d soon see.

There were the fires over the town that needed putting out. Elemental Manipulation could surely help with that.

The screams echoed over her.

All that could wait.

That scream needed to come first.

“I’ll be alright,” Cass said to the guard as she stepped into the town, a Wind Blade coming to life on the tip of her staff. “I can help.”

Salos slipped from her shoulder, his form disappearing into her shadow. Not demanifested, but simply out of sight, for the unseen blade cut deepest.

The three apes crowded around Alyx. She sliced and diced at them, her sword cutting arcs of amber aura through the smoke filled air.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

One lunged at Alyx.

Cass slashed its exposed side with her invisible blade of air. The bartiang howled and twisted, blood dripping from the long gash. There were a dozen similar cuts all over its chest and arms from Alyx’s attacks. Sections of fur had been messily sliced off.

Yet the thing still continued its mad assault.

Another set of gashes appeared along the creature’s ankles, courtesy of the unseen Salos.

Beside her, the guard joined the fight, effortlessly beheading one of the remaining two apes still attacking Alyx.

Cass focused on her opponent. It was bleeding heavily and was of a lower level than her. Yet it fought like it was unconcerned about injuries, its clawed hands flailing after her with mad desperation.

For all its desperation, Cass had no trouble Dodging its strikes. The Wind happily showed her the arc of the beast’s attacks as they came. It aided her movement, snapping out of her way as she stepped around the creature’s strikes.

The Wind was alive and it had named her its master.

She slipped between clawing strikes and drove the Mana Wind Blade into the creature’s skull.

It still didn’t stop even then, the arms still flailing after her, even as she pulled back, bringing parts of its brain with her.

She knocked it down with the shaft of her staff, and only then did the thing finally realize it had died.

There wasn’t time to celebrate. There were far more of them where that one came from.

The man they’d leapt in to save was already running for the edge of town and the tent Telis set up. Alyx and Marco were advancing, cutting down another set of four.

Cass closed her eyes, listening for the screams. Fire crackled all around her, the smoke filled the air.

There, the scream came from around the corner. Cass Sprinted toward the sound. She could feel the victim’s panicked flight. Their ragged breath inhaling more smoke than oxygen with every breath. Their feet kicking up dirt and dust as they scrambled over the loose dirt road and stumbled between the buildings.

The two apes a step behind them.

Cass rounded the corner, time slowing to a crawl as she evaluated the scene. The beasts had their backs to her. The person fell to all fours, scrambling to get back up, to keep up her desperate sprint away. Cass would not reach them before they grabbed the woman.

But as fast as Cass was, the Wind was faster.

Cass swung her staff, throwing the Wind Blade from the end. It raced down the alley, cutting a clear path through the smoke and cutting with all her Will into the backs of the apes. The back one stumbled to the ground, its spinal cord cut. The forward one was buffeted to the side, away from the woman, its hands grazing her skirts but unable to grab them.

The remaining bartiang turned, murder in its glassy black eyes. A shiver ran down Cass’s spine. She hadn’t felt boundless malice like that since the first monster she’d encountered in the Valley. Nothing since that hound had evoked such a certain desire to kill and maul.

Status Effect (Broken Spirit) Resisted.

Cass glared back, showing the thing all her teeth in a growling grimace. She shot forward, throwing another Wind Blade down the alley at the creature.

It dodged.

Cass blinked. No monster had ever dodged a Wind Blade before. They were invisible. They—

The smoke. They cut a clear path through the smoke, giving away its position. Fine. She didn’t need the ranged attack against these things.

Her staff slammed down on its arms, the new Mana Wind Blade she’d attached cutting into its flesh.

It screamed, a horrible almost human noise that lived in the depths of the uncanny valley.

“Get out of the town, look for the tent!” Cass yelled at the woman behind the monster.

The ape swiped again. Dodge pulled Cass out of the way, the margin small but more than sufficient for this foe. It was sloppy. Flailing.

It was a terrifying attack, but full of openings and easy to avoid. Again, she wove her way through the onslaught and jammed her glaive through one lung. She twisted and pulled it free again.

The ape gasped, clawing after her, but tumbled to the ground. She slammed the Mana Wind Blade through their skulls, finishing them.

The screams continued. And so did Cass.

She ran through town, ambushing another pair. She threw a matching pair of Wind Blades, cutting through their spines as easily as the one before. They toppled over, still clinging to the child they’d grabbed. The little girl cried, her arm crushed in the huge hand of the beast.

“Close your eyes,” Cass said to the child. “Close your eyes and it’ll be all over.”

The bartiang roared, their free hands clawing toward Cass.

The child squeezed her eyes shut.

Cass drove her staff into their skulls. Anything short of a head shot seemed to do little against them. Blood splattered over the dirt and the little girl’s clothes.

The apes’ hand didn’t release.

Cass clicked her tongue. She’d really been hoping the system description had been an exaggeration.

“Keep your eyes closed.” Cass bent down and pried at the fingers. They moved as much as stone. She scowled. She’d have to cut them off then.

She pulled the dagger Salos had won from the epherwing from her Bag and pressed it against the dead apes’s skin. The blade barely penetrated the skin.

Why was nothing simple?

It wasn’t like the blade was dull. Their skin was just that hard.

She added Mana Blade to the edge, feeling the pull of her Focus and the weight of the world on the edge. She pressed the blade into the ape’s flesh again. It cut, but it was still like sawing through stone. If stones bled.

The little girl was sniffling, the fear and the relief all bundling up to more than a child in any world could hope to handle.

“It’s going to be okay. Just keep your eyes closed. I’ll get this thing off you in no time,” Cass said.

More are coming, Salos whispered. Be quick. I’ll slow them as best I can.

Thank you. Cass focused on sawing the hand off.

“Um, miss lady,” the girl whispered through her tears.

“Yeah?”

“Is—is my mommy okay?” The girl’s voice shook.

Cass inhaled. She didn’t know. She had no way to know. What could she say? What comfort could she give? No child deserved to be told their mother might be dead.

“I’m sure she’s okay.” The words slipped from her mouth. A lie Cass desperately wanted to be true. Was this irresponsible?

It had to be true. “I’ll make sure she’s okay.”

A light went on in the child’s face. A hope she hadn’t held a moment before. This had to be right.

A minute later, Cass had the hand off. She chucked the bloody appendage aside and pulled the little girl out of the middle of the bartiang corpses.

“Okay, you can open your eyes now.” Cass pointed in the direction she’d come from. “That’s the way to my friend. She has a big tent where you’ll be safe. Okay?”

The little girl’s eyes were wide. The smoke curled around them. The sound of yelling hadn’t lessened. Still, she lifted her chin and nodded. Strong because she needed to be strong.

Cass looked her over one more time, burning her image into her brain. It was the only clue she had for her mother.

She had dark purple hair, almost black in the dark, smoke filled alley. Her skin was a ruddy brown, darker from the soot and the dirt, and splattered with specks of crimson blood. Her eyes were grey and ever slightly down turned. Her nose and face were round, though Cass could only guess if that was an effect of baby fat or a familial trait.

There was no way to know if the girl looked at all like her mother. She could take after the father. She could be adopted. But it was all Cass had.

No. She’d save all the villagers. If she just saved all of them, that would solve this, too.

“Salos,” Cass called.

He slipped from the shadows. Ready? Do you know how many I took out while you were distracted?

Too many, I’m sure, Cass said. “Please make sure this little one makes it out safely.”

He scowled up at her. Really?

Yes, really.

Fine, but if you get yourself killed, I will not mourn you.

Uh-huh. “Just follow the kitty, okay? He’ll make sure you get out safely.”

The little girl nodded. “O-okay.”

Salos ran down the smoky street. He paused at the turn, his gold eyes staring back at his charge. She had barely caught up to him when he took off again.

“Mister Kitty, wait for me!” The little girl scurried after him.

Lead her safely, Cass sent after him.

What does it look like I am doing? Salos shot back.

Like you are hoping you’ll lose her in the smoke. Make sure she makes it back safely.

Salos grumbled something about slowing down in reply.

They would be okay. Salos, for all his grumbling, would do as she asked. The child would be okay.

And like that, Cass jumped back into the fray. She needed to find that child’s mother.