“This is your last warning,” Cass said, her attention snapping back to the demon. “Go away and I won’t hurt you.”

One of his gold eyes twitched. “That’s a lot of bluster from the child curled up on the floor in pain until a moment ago.”

Cass shrugged and charged him, her staff ready.

He summoned his sabers again, easily batting her off with his superior skill. She didn’t let up. Energy coursed through her. She was safe here. She would not be beaten. Her staff flew after him, swinging as fast as her Dexterity and Staff Mastery would allow.

No, she paused, back peddling as he started his own offensive push. She was faster than this now. It was close, but it wasn’t just Dexterity which was guiding and empowering her accelerated movements here. Just as it wasn’t only Strength behind the power in her strikes.

This wasn’t reality. This was some construct of her mind. Which meant her mental stats were aiding how she moved and fought. Will for power. Resistance for defense. Mysterious Ala for speed? That felt right.

She blocked several of his sword strikes. She was getting better.

The system agreed.

Staff Mastery has increased to level 5!

But he was much better still. So much better.

Several more of his slashes ripped through her body, renewing and redoubling the Soul Poison. She grit her teeth, keeping up with his attacks even as she wanted to curl up again.

She couldn’t do that again. She’d already given him his last chance. She couldn’t keep retreating. There had to be a way to finish this.

Poison Resistance has increased to level 9!

Poison Resistance has reached the First Step! Congratulations!

[Your extended application of Poison Resistance has opened choices.

1. Gain Skill: Soul Guard (lvl 5), Keep: Poison Resistance (lvl 1)

2. Reforge Skill Poison Resistance to incorporate Mental Poisons

3. Keep: Poison Resistance (lvl 9) ]

She picked option 1 before she could overthink it. She had been warned that Poison Resistance wasn’t intended to work on Soul Poison. It had done its best. But a skill dedicated to protecting her soul was what she needed right now.

Skill Earned: Soul Guard (lvl 5)

[An unguarded soul is fragile. You have been trained to protect your most vulnerable piece.

Passively increase resistance to attacks on the soul and, to a lesser degree, the mind.

Actively enforce a lockdown on your Soul Well, letting nothing in or out.

Cost: minimum 1 Focus/min

Modified by Res.]

The difference was like night and day. The pain dropped to an ache at the back of her mind. She could feel it grabbing at her Focus, but the bonuses from Beacon of Home and Hearth were regenerating it faster than she was losing it.

She redoubled her attack. Staff and swords met again and again. Tirelessly, she raged on. Her home was far away, but her soul was a kind of camp and refuge. Her skill treated her being in camp the same as if she were safe at home and doubled those bonuses. Who could beat her here?

He struck her four times for every one of her own. His blades left cut after cut on her plastic skin. Her wounds leaked fire, blue and sparkling. Was that Focus leaving her body?

Yet, her wounds were closing as quickly as they appeared and they were shallower now, each slice less powerful, less painful than before.

She almost laughed. He himself was an attack against her soul. Every sword slice, every stab, every slash was an attack against her soul. Soul Guard was increasing her defense against his “ordinary” attacks just as much as against his Soul Poison.

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Could she push that further? She remembered the shield of wind that had protected her against his first attacks. She’d focused her Will to reinforce certain sections. Could she do that still, but with her skin?

He slashed at her. Staff Mastery informed her she wasn’t going to be able to block. Dodge confirmed it was too late to get out of the way. Cass focused on the section of her arm that the blade was going to rip through. It was hard. Hard as iron. Harder. Impenetrable.

His sword skidded harmlessly over her skin, sparking like metal over stone.

He leapt back, his gold eyes wide in shock.

Soul Guard has increased to level 6!

“What did you do?” he hissed.

“What? This?” Cass couldn’t contain her grin as she waved her uninjured hand at him. “Just perfecting my defense against you. Feel free to give up whenever you want. I can do this forever.”

Surprise rooted him in place and Cass didn’t wait for him to recover. She slammed her staff into his side, followed by another to his left shoulder.

He dodged out of the way of the third strike, but his left arm hung limply by his side. The sword in that hand disappeared as he raced forward with just the right one. He didn’t slow in the slightest, if anything his attacks became all the more feral, his face twisting in a sneering snarl.

Not that it helped him.

Their fight continued.

He darted back. Cass followed.

He rolled out of the way of a staff strike. Cass struck again.

He slashed her. Cass punished the attack.

His strikes still connected more often than they didn’t, but it took only the slightest focus of Will and Cass made that part of her body invulnerable. Her skin no longer leaked fire, her existing wounds long closed by the regenerative properties of Beacon of Home and Hearth.

The demon on the other hand was obviously tiring. His left arm still hung uselessly at his side. He limped with every step. Fractures ran up and down his shadow body, like cracks in carbon fiber, just waiting to explode into a thousand splinters if placed under a little more stress.

Cass was happy to provide that stress.

Ravaged, his gold eyes bloodshot, he leaped back and dropped his swords. They clanged to the ground as his hands went up in surrender. “Yield. I yield!”

Cass didn’t lower her staff. An eyebrow went up. She’d won? Was the demon giving up? Did she let him? And then what? He goes and attacks someone else later?

But if she refused, then what? Keep fighting? Until what? Until she killed him?

The thought made her stomach flip. She knew in her heart killing him was the right thing to do. It would ensure he didn’t attack her again, protecting others in the future.

He’d tried to kill her. It was only fair that if you tried to kill someone would eventually kill you.

And really, he wasn’t any different than a monster. Identify called him a Demon. That was a monster. Just like the boars or cockroaches. Just like the terrorcat. Killing monsters was the Right thing to do.

And, if he wasn’t surrendering, she’d have no trouble doing it. Really. It definitely didn’t make a difference that he was humanoid. Or that he could speak. She could kill him if it was part of defending herself.

It was just because he was surrendering that this was hard.

That was the only reason she was thinking about letting him live.

“You promise not to hurt me again?” Cass asked. “And to leave me alone?”

He hesitated for a fraction of a second. He couldn’t even commit to the most basic of assurances. She shouldn’t trust him. She had to kill him.

But then he was gone.

Cass opened her mouth to demand where he went, only for a cry of surprise and pain to erupt from it instead. A dagger had impaled itself in her back. His dagger. Still coated with Soul Poison.

He was behind her, a hand on her shoulder, the other doubtlessly around the dagger’s hilt.

“Assassin’s Yield,” he muttered in explanation into her ear. The voice was almost embarrassed. “Never thought I’d need it against a child.”

She sputtered. It was some kind of skill. It had teleported him behind her and increased his damage to get through her defenses. It had done far more damage than that same dagger strike would have without a skill behind it.

She could feel her Focus dropping by the second.

The wind of her soul whirled around her as her panic grew. Was this the end? She didn’t have anything else.

Her Focus had dropped to single digits and her body sagged under her own weight.

He jerked his dagger out, perhaps thinking she was spent, perhaps his skill having run out.

The wind pulled at her, but she had nothing left to give. He’d dumped enough poison in her with the last attack to overwhelm her regeneration. He didn’t need to do anything else. Just watch and wait.

Except, she had one more thing, didn’t she? She never got around to applying her Free Points from levels 7 and 8.

Res 14 -> 22

Relief flooded her as her maximum Focus expanded.

Focus: 3/126 -> 75/198

He noticed the change, leaping at her, his dagger extended. She grabbed the wind and Wind Stepped away. She didn’t know where she was going, but she couldn’t stay here. She couldn’t let him do that to her again.

She saw his eyes go wide as she whirled away, the winds carrying her up and up. As she broke the tree line, she felt herself pass a threshold, like she’d broken the surface of a body of water.

Gasping, she was standing in the cavern again. She could feel him racing after her. Reaching to pull her back into that space. Back into her Soul Well?

She flared Soul Guard, feeling sturdy walls go up between herself and him. He slammed into it, screaming, but harmless.

Harmless as long as she had Focus.

Focus: 25/198