Salos whipped around at the sound of Cass’s scream. His heart pounded in his ears. He could see her thanks to his Dark Vision. Her wide eyes were filled with shock. Why were they shocked? What had been her plan?

How did he fix this?

If he were still level 74–still a peerless Nyxdra assassin–he’d tear that overgrown bird down to stone with a casual cast of Pull of the Depths. It’d hit the ground so hard its world would spin until its life was cut short by a quick Leviathan’s Strike veiled in Hidden Blade. A level 25 beast was nothing before his true skills.

But now? Like this?

He was a cat.

A small cat.

There was nothing he could do for her now.

Why was she so stupid? She played the hero. This was the consequence. He knew that. If she were smart, she would have realized it too.

He could not save her like this.

She was going to die here.

Maybe this was good, he tried to tell himself. Who was she to him anyway? He was getting altogether too familiar with her. She was a liability, she was going to get them both killed.

His eyes were still glued to her. She was still screaming. It was a high-pitched frantic thing.

His chest constricted. His fur rose.

Getting herself killed here was hardly ideal. Better if she died in a more easily accessible place. Then someone else would have a better chance to pick up his necklace.

His ears lay flat against his head. His claws flexed in the dirt.

“Cass!” Alyx shouted from beside him, her eyes tracking the glowing Epherwing through the dark. There was concern in her tone, even if there were already calculations running in her eyes. She’d run as soon as she realized what had happened and what it meant for her.

Traitor. After everything Cass had done for her. Wasn’t there something she could do to save Cass?

No, running now was the smart thing. Depend on no one. That was what he had said to Cass. That was how he needed to live now. He couldn’t depend on someone else to save him. To save Cass.

That was why Cass was going to die.

He should have chosen a bird form. He knew it was more strategic. He…

It would not help. He would still be tiny besides the behemoth that was the Etherwing. He wouldn’t be any more capable of hurting it as a bird than he was now as a cat. Distance was not the issue.

If only he still had access to all his skills. His true skills. His real stats. Not this shallow shadow of who he really was.

It was a foolish thought. But his head was full of foolish thoughts.

He could not save Cass. It was not possible.

He should be doing as Alyx beside him was, calculating the move that got him the most from this disaster. That was how he took care of himself. That was how—

“Damn,” Alyx muttered. She clenched the hilt of her new sword, the one with the Reverberating Blade enchantment. “Only enough for two.”

She drew her blade anyway, taking a deep breath.

“Two what,” he asked her in Jothi. It was a useless question. He couldn’t think of a single skill she might use that would help him. He couldn’t escape without Cass, he was tied to her necklace after all. And she couldn’t possibly be considering something to save Cass.

She startled, her eyes wide as she looked down at him. “Damn cat, you speak Jothi!” She shook her head, gritting her teeth. “Two Aura Blades.”

Salos’s brow curled in a confused knit. “What are you going to do with Aura Blades?”

She stared down at him, incredulity in her wide eyes. “Save your companion, cat.”

Salos blinked. What? Why? “How?”

“Gonna shoot them at the damn bird.”

Salos looked between her and the still-rising Epherwing. “No.”

She couldn’t make that shot. Even if she could, the bird would just dodge. Even if it did hit, it would barely scratch the monster at this distance.

“I have to do something,” she spat back. “Now stop distracting me, it's only getting harder.”

She was going to save Cass? Why? They barely knew one another. Her debts would be wiped clean by Cass’s death. The dead could hardly collect on their debts after all.

Her crown sprang to light, glowing a blinding amber in the dark. Her blade in her hands burst with the same light, gathering more and more of that glow with every second she charged the attack.

Cass could survive?

No. It was a vain hope. A useless hope.

A desire for it to be so would not make an Aura Blade more powerful. Hope alone would not see it hit an enemy it could not reach.

It would miss.

He shook his head.

But what if it didn’t? What if there was something he could do?

“You are shooting two?” he asked.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Alyx nodded, still charging.

Maybe, just maybe, it would work.

“How well can you redirect them in mid-air?” he asked.

“Poorly. Especially if there are two of them.”

“What about just the second one?” he asked.

She shrugged.

That had to be good enough.

“Focus on the second of your two shots,” he instructed. “We’ll use the first as a decoy.”

“We will?”

Salos didn’t answer, checking his resources.

16/21 Focus

22/27 Stamina

He wished he had Cass’s prodigious Focus, but he had enough for what he needed.

“When you’re ready,” he said.

Alyx swung her sword. A glowing, amber, ghost copy of her sword flew off the blade and into the air after the bird.

Salos cast Fairy Fire, infusing the amber blade with a powerful impulse to look at it. It took on an aggressive purple glow, screaming to be seen by all.

Barely a second later, Alyx swung again, throwing the second aura blade. She crumpled beside him as the light left her sword. She caught herself on one knee, her sword digging into the dirt as a cane. Her eyes remained fixed on the aura blades.

Salos cast another skill on the second blade.

Abyssal Aura (lvl 7) (Racial)

[The Nyxdra are beings of the deep, and the deep is dark and murky. You may draw on the nature of your home realm to instill fear in a light-dwelling heart or to obscure an object in a familiar darkness.]

His aura wrapped around the second blade, hiding it in a shroud of darkness in the dark of night. Even to his Dark Vision, the second blade was all but invisible.

Now, Alyx just needed to make that hidden blade hit. She could do that much. He couldn’t make it any easier.

This was the true secret to Stealth. It was one part hiding what you wanted hidden and one part forcing attention on something else. The two were simply two halves of the same whole.

There was just one problem remaining. Even if that second blade hit, it would barely hurt the Epherwing over this distance. Point blank it would be devastating. A meter or two away, still plenty destructive. But an aura blade lost too much of its power over distances of this extreme.

If only he had a buff in his kit. Something to make that second blade strike harder.

But there was nothing he could do about that. Not even his real skills would have been able to change that.

If it was his sword though… Or if he could apply Hidden Blade to someone else's skill…

Would you like to attempt to apply Hidden Blade to ally’s (Alyx Veldor) Aura Blade? Ally buffs are outside the normal range of targets for Hidden Blade and will be less effective and consume significant Stamina and Focus.

Salos read over the notification a second time. What was this? He had never seen such a prompt before.

He shook away the questions. There was hardly time now. He could unravel the why and how after Cass was safe.

He selected yes and felt his skill engage and connect with the rapidly advancing Aura Blade.

Hidden Blade (lvl 7) (Precipice)

[The hidden blade is the deadliest. Hold their lives at a knife’s edge.

Activation requirement: Blade is undetected by target.

Significantly increased cutting and piercing power of bladed weapons. Significantly increased again if weapon is still undetected by target immediately after damage is dealt.]

The two swords flew through the air, brilliantly bright and shrouded in shadows respectively. The Epherwing dodged the first, barely redirecting its path to elegantly sidestep the glowing projectile. Salos felt the second blade make the same trajectory change.

It blew through the right wing, feather and flesh exploding in a bloody spray from the wound. A second later, countless shadowed blades sliced across the Epherwing’s body, each a Reverberating Echo of the first. All triggered both conditions of Hidden Blade.

The monster plummeted from the zenith, Cass coming loose from its claws.

Cass! He screamed over their telepathic connection. It was weak. The distance was too great, though that was rapidly changing.

She was falling, her body limp, her mind unresponsive to his screams.

He’d saved her. He’d actually saved her.

And he was about to lose her again all the same.

He couldn’t catch her. She’d hit the ground at speed. As dead as the Epherwing.

What a way for a slyphid to die…

He cursed himself. What was he saying? She was a slyphid. She could save herself now that she was free of the claws.

Cass! Wind Step! He screamed.

Still, she fell.

She must have thought of it too. She was a slyphid. Wind Step was as natural as Dark Vision was to him. As natural as flight to a bird.

But she isn’t, a part of him whispered. She’s human. Too human.

Cass! Can you hear me! He was frantic, he knew it. Irrationally so. Why was he worried now?

The Epherwing was dead or dying. If it survived impact it wouldn’t survive long. Its wings were broken. If it was still breathing on arrival, even he in this form would be able to do something about it.

Cass, Cass, Cass, he was howling.

If Cass died Alyx could take her necklace. She’d loot Cass’s corpse. Humans couldn’t resist enchanted equipment. He’d have another go at possessing a body. A human body wouldn’t be as good as a Spirit’s, but it would be his. And she had some nice enough skills he could potentially incorporate into his repertoire.

Cass! He tried again and again, unable to stop himself. The cold logic did nothing to stem the rising panic in his heart.

She was going to die. That shouldn’t matter. There was an easy way forward for him.

She was going to die. He’d done his best. More than his best.

She was going to die. And he’d be free of her.

She was going to die. And he couldn’t stop screaming her name.

CASS!

Salos? Cass’s mental voice trickled in over their connection, weak and unstable. Relief swept through Salos’s body.

She was alive.

She was still falling!

Wind Step! He shouted. You need to Wind Step!

The wind gusted, blowing dirt and dust into the air. He flinched, his eyes closed for only a fraction of a second.

When they opened again, Cass was gone. He didn’t see her.

She had been falling one moment and just not there the next. His heart beat wildly in his ears. His eyes scanned the sky, back and forth and up and down and—

A cold wind roared over the ridge line.

There was a gentle thump next to him.

He jumped, his hair standing on end, an involuntary yowl escaping his lips.

Cass collapsed beside him, corporeal again.

“Cass!” He rushed up to her, inspecting every inch of her he could see. Limbs were all intact. Head fine. Neck untouched. Chest… That was a bad gouge wound and still bleeding.

She wasn’t breathing, but then, she didn’t need to, did she? But, Cass usually breathed, so her lungs were likely damaged. Was that it? He had never wanted the medical variant of Identify so badly before.

“Hey,” Cass wheezed. “You miss me?”

He head-butted her, pressing his fuzzy forehead up against hers. “What were you doing?”

“Trying to get it to redirect its dive off of us?” Her words were pained and breathy, but she was okay. She was alive.

There was a heavy thud behind them.

Herald of the Pass has been slain…

Salos didn’t read any further than that. All he cared about was his stupid, stupid companion was still alive.