Alyx stepped onto the dueling stage, the pressure of high society’s eyes on her shoulders. She stood tall, forcing herself not to look for her father in the crowd again. Two of his children were fighting. If he weren’t watching, nothing she could do now would change that.

She just needed to prove it was worth it to watch her.

Kohen stood opposite her. He was level 28, two levels higher than her own.

The level gap had not been smaller since they were children, yet the gap in their stats likely had never been greater.

He was a level beyond the Gate, which meant he had the bonus stats for reaching level 27 and then another level on top of that. That was 27 free points for reaching level 27 and another 12 stat points for levels 27 and 28 (3 for human level ups. 1 additional point to a chosen stat starting at the First Step. 2 additional free points starting at the Gate. All that multiplied by 2 for the two levels). Ignoring any other bonuses either of them might have and that was a 39-point stat difference.

And he certainly had other bonuses. Unlike her, he was a favored child of a noble house. He had been trained by distinguished teachers. Their father and his mother had sent him to any and every trial they could get the rights to use. Uvana was just one of many opportunities he had gotten.

And yet, she’d goaded him into a fight all the same.

“What ruleset do you want to lose under?” Kohen asked from across the ring.

He’d challenged her, so she got to pick how they fought. If she just cared about winning, she would request just martial mastery to first blood. Kohen was a spellsword, skilled with both the family’s sword techniques and the wizarding his mother specialized in. Individually, he was only middling at both, but taken together he was a formidable opponent.

She could take advantage of that and select a dueling rule set that disallowed magic skills.

But winning was not sufficient. Beating him in a purely martial duel would be barely noteworthy while losing in such a duel would be highly damaging to her reputation.

“I’ll have you lose in an unrestricted duel,” she said. That was the only way she’d get the recognition she wanted.

“Already planning the excuses for your loss?” he scoffed.

“Just making sure you have none,” Alyx assured him, a wolfish grin spreading across her face.

He glared back. “Sure. And what is our win condition? First blood?”

Another rule that would favor her. A lot of magics dealt damage without breaking the skin. To fight to first blood would favor a bladed weapon like her sword.

“Or do you want to give me everything and fight to first touch?” he asked.

First touch favored ranged and Dex fighters. Anyone who could engage before their opponent or who did not have the Str to break their opponent’s Frt.

“I think we’ll fight to breaking,” Alyx said, tapping the face of the mask she wore on the side of her head. “You insulted my honor by calling me a liar, after all. I think that’s only fair.”

He scowled, his hand instinctively rising to the glass boar mask he wore on the side of his head. It was the record of a significant foe he had defeated, likely the Lord of the Pass from his conquest of Uvana.

It was a mark of pride. Wearing it was a symbol of his status, his skill, and his power.

If it broke in a duel, he lost the right to wear that achievement. An opponent purposefully destroying it in a duel was the same as saying they didn’t think him worthy of that accomplishment.

She grinned at him, well aware that her mask was of nothing more impressive than the wolves of the local forest. Even if it broke, she had already defeated more impressive enemies to replace it with.

It would still be more embarrassing than losing at first blood or touch, but she would live down the embarrassment where she wasn’t sure if he would.

“No?” Alyx taunted. “You can give up now if you’re too cowardly to risk it over this.”

“It’s fine,” he growled. “But I will only take your apology on your hands and knees.”

“Sure, if you can win,” Alyx said. She was surprised he’d had the presence of mind to demand that now. She had assumed he’d look for a reasonable way to kill her during their duel instead. Perhaps he wouldn’t if he was thinking ahead to his victory.

“We are in agreement,” the referee said. “This shall be an Unrestricted Duel to the Break of Honor between Sir Kohen Delim Veldor and Dame Alyx Aretios Veldor.”

She gripped the hilt of her long sword, the Reverberating Sword she’d won from defeating the Forest Herald. The sword Cass had won for her.

Kohen glared at her as he readied himself. One hand went to the arming sword at his hip, the other—gloved in a caster’s glove—he held palm out facing her.

As a spellsword, he would attempt to break her mask with a long-range spell before she could close the distance. If that failed, he would move to maintain distance and continue pelting her with long-range magic attacks while setting up more powerful ritual spells.

Unfortunately for him, she had no intention of letting that happen.

“Begin!” the referee shouted.

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Alyx shot forward, her sword arching out of her sheath into a slashing upward Heaven’s Strike. Her blade glowed with her aura, the edge bleeding amber light as it sliced through the air and clashed with Kohen’s blade.

Kohen’s sword redirected her blade wide. She pulled it around and sidestepped to block his repost.

But he’d never meant to land that attack. There was no skill on the stab. Instead, his free hand clenched and a burst of force threw her back.

Alyx tumbled, skidding to a stop across the ring from him. His gloved hand was making arcane gestures. Lights sparked into existence around the ring—the setup for a powerful attack.

She could not let that continue.

She sprinted toward him again. He switched spells, the lights on the floor not dimming, but for the moment not growing either. Instead, bolts of light appeared around his head, all crackling with the power of lightning.

He waved his hand down, like a commander ordering his archers to release fire, and the bolts shot forward.

She dodged the first. She caught the second on her sword, her blade blocking high to cover her mask.

The third struck her chest, sliding under her raised guard.

The electricity writhed through her body. Pain laced her vision. It burned.

If she had been wearing her armor, she would have shrugged it off, no problem. But this was a duel at a banquet, not a fight for her life in the wilds.

The stakes were incomparable. Winning or losing here was so much more important.

She could not lose.

This was her chance to announce herself to society. To prove she was worth watching. That she was not a ghost lingering after her failed mother. That she was deserving of the name she’d been given.

That she was worthy of a dragon.

She forced her feet forward. The electricity rolling through her muscles resisted. It was more than just pain. A stun then?

Perfect.

She activated her newest skill, her one and only Racial Skill.

Second Wind!

Status Condition (Electric Paralysis) Removed.

Stamina Recovered.

Her body listening to her commands again, she burst forward before he realized what had just happened. Her sword sliced for his mask.

He sidestepped at the last moment, his higher Dex and much higher Ala proving their worth. His sword guided her strike wide, his free hand punched beneath their clashing steel.

Alyx disengaged and dodged with Graceful Exit, her body phasing out of existence and slipping behind him as his electrified fist went for her gut.

She swung down in another Heaven’s Strike as she rematerialized.

He sprinted forward and her strike missed by a fraction of a fraction of a centimeter.

Abyss. She’d burned two of her cards just like that. Both Second Wind and Graceful Exit had long cooldowns before she could use them again. Second Wind especially—at once a day—but even Graceful Exit’s two-minute cooldown was an eternity in a duel like this.

But she’d needed both of them. She couldn’t afford to be stunned. That would be an imminent loss. And that punch was certainly going to paralyze her again.

But now she had nothing but her natural Dexterity to avoid his attacks. She needed to finish this fight, and she needed to do it now.

He was casting again. Was it his arena-wide spell again or something to force her back? Either way, she needed to stop him.

She swung again, a horizontal Heaven’s Strike, aiming for his off-hand side, anything to distract the casting hand.

He pushed it away with his sword, stepping with the strike. The parry flowed effortlessly into a counter of his own. His sword swung back at her, glowing with his aura and sparking with electricity.

Heaven’s Strike (Lightning).

The true form of the family’s signature sword skill. The way her sword should look if she’d had the family’s signature Concept.

The sparks burned holes in her robes, pricking her skin and alighting her nerves, but she stepped back, out of the range of his shorter sword.

She’d dodged it, barely.

His hand was still casting. He pointed at her. Bolts of lightning materialized around them, hovering mid-air. His hand waved down.

This was how she lost.

Her jaw clenched. Graceful Exit was still down. She wasn’t faster than lightning. They’d paralyze her in place.

He’d be able to do whatever he wanted while she was stunned, whether that was crushing her mask beneath his sword or tearing it from her hair and throwing it to the ground.

But what had she expected?

He was stronger than her.

Faster than her.

He easily pushed her sword out of its strikes. Easily stepped out of the way. And that was while simultaneously having the mental stats to throw magic like this around.

She wasn’t Fioreya. She couldn’t so effortlessly ignore the level difference. It had been hubris to think she could.

Maybe if her skills were greater. Maybe if she were a genius. Maybe if she’d been given the same opportunities as the rest of them.

“Go Alyx!” a voice yelled from across the room. “You can do it!”

Cass.

How had Cass done it? How had she survived Uvana at level 1? How had she faced opponents several times her level repeatedly? Her skills were as low as her level. She hadn’t grown up in a world of violence. Everything scared her.

Yet she was alive. She was powerful.

She was still cheering for her, despite her hopeless situation. Perhaps she didn’t realize how dire this position was?

Perhaps it didn’t matter to Cass.

Perhaps every fight was equally unwinnable to her eyes. Yet that hadn’t stopped her yet.

Why should it stop her then?

Alyx jerked forward, her sword stabbing with her entire body weight behind it, with every muscle lurching toward him. Aura built in the blade as she poured her Stamina into it.

She was going to lose. His lightning would get her before she could reach him. His hand was still waving down the bolts.

But she wasn’t about to lose alone.

He pushed her sword wide, stepping past her and out of the way.

But she hadn’t been aiming at him.

Her lunge had been directed at the floor. As its tip stabbed the stone tile, Alyx unleashed Radiant Aura.

Her aura burst around them, far bigger and brighter than she’d ever pushed it. Brighter than she had thought possible.

She spun around, the only one not blinded by the blast of light or staggered from the force she’d just unleashed.

Kohen staggered, his sword wavering, his gloved hand rubbing his eyes, the lightning bolts dissipating into nothing with his concentration broken.

She shoved him, his Fortitude no match for her Strength while staggering from the blast. He tumbled down, his head slamming into the floor.

She was on top of him, her foot pressing her entire weight against his chest. She placed the blade of her sword against his neck and leaned down, tearing the boar mask from the side of his head.

“Surrender,” she commanded.

He blinked rapidly, his vision—and the audience’s—returning slowly. But there was no argument.

“I-I surrender.”