Cass stared. Levina couldn’t actually be dead, could she? Hadn’t she done the shadow dissolve thing? Had she really run out of uses? Why hadn’t she retreated before that?

She couldn’t actually be dead.

But, that had been the goal, hadn’t it?

Kill the woman trying to kill her?

It was self-defense.

Not even self-defense, this wasn’t her fault at all. No one had forced Levina to fight the boar. Levina had chosen to stay and fight them and it. It was her own fault she was dead.

If she was dead.

Which she couldn’t be.

There was no way. People didn’t just die. Did they? There was more fanfare when people died. There were dramatic monologues of regret and vengeance and…

And Cass had never seen someone die. Not in real life. Not on Earth.

She still hadn’t.

She was playing dead. A clever ruse. She’d—

“Cass!” someone yelled.

She couldn’t be dead. That didn’t make sense.

“Cass, Focus!” Alyx yelled. Something in the words pulled at Cass’s attention. She could have ignored them, Cass could feel that as certainly as she knew they commanded more weight than a loud sound.

Cass blinked anyway, her eyes snapping to Alyx.

“We need to run!” Alyx said, pulling Cass’s left hand again.

A quick look at the boar and Cass agreed. If the assassin was dead they didn’t need to stay here anymore. They didn’t need to kill this monster.

They ran.

Something about Sprint was easier. More natural.

The wind split more naturally around her, pressed more securely behind her. It swirled around her, perfect and playful. Everything she needed was lost amid a seemingly random play of wind.

Every step took her further. Her legs pushed her faster than her Strength should allow. Her steps more sure than her Dexterity could provide.

She was the wind.

Before she knew it, she’d long outstripped Alyx.

Alyx probably didn’t have a skill for running. She relied on only her stats for speed and endurance, and it was telling.

The boar was catching up.

She didn’t have the resources left for anything fancy.

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There was no plan. That wasn’t enough Focus to even Wind Step. All she could do was run.

Lighting exploded from the sky, striking the high ridge behind her. Thunder roared. The mist thickened to heavy drops falling around her.

The boar snarled. Its feet pounded over the soft meadow, tearing up a torrent of dirt and plants behind it. Every second the distance between it and Alyx shrunk.

And shrunk.

And shrunk.

Until there was no space between them at all.

The boar slammed into her back.

Alyx flew forward, bouncing over the soft ground, a trail of crushed plants in her wake.

Keep running, Salos ordered.

The boar scrapped a hoof on the ground. It threw its head back in a warty scream. No lightning, perhaps it had finally run out of its reserves.

Cass was running low too. Alyx must be running on fumes. Was Alyx alive?

Cass’s heart pounded in her chest.

She would have died if that had been her. Her mind tried to conjure up images of herself flying through the air, skewered and gouged and broken.

The image dissolved before Alyx’s echoing command.

Focus.

She didn’t have the bandwidth for anything else. She had to focus on the now.

Atmospheric Sense whispered assurance, that Alyx was breathing. She was alive.

Run, Cass! Salos urged.

She ignored him. She wouldn’t leave Alyx. Not now. Not after killing the assassin to get this far.

But that left her and an enormous, lightly bleeding boar. All she had was a staff and her skills and her rapidly depleting Stamina and Focus. And Salos. She also had Salos.

He might want to run, but he was stuck with her.

The boar charged again. Cass squared her shoulders. Dodging alone wouldn’t save them. They couldn’t run anymore, despite what Salos was demanding. Alyx could not go any further.

They had to kill it here.

The boar ran, head down. It screamed, its beady eyes glaring malevolently at Cass all the way.

There was a lot of force behind that body.

And it didn’t turn. Not easily. Not quickly.

Didn’t she already have the perfect method?

She tapped her staff on the ground behind her, willing Elemental Manipulation to grab the stone beneath her. She pulled it.

More and more, she pilled it high. She shaped it sharp and pointed it at the raging monster.

She might be too low-level to deal significant damage to its hide. But it wasn’t. It had plenty of Strength. She just needed to give it the right push.

Salos, she said. Her words were slow and calm. Focused. Fear and shock ran rampant in the back of her mind, but she ignored it. Use Hidden Blade and Abyssal Aura on the stone spear behind me.

He said something in response.

Cass wasn’t listening. She didn’t have the bandwidth to listen to anything else.

There was only her and the boar and her spear.

She pulled and pulled at the stone. Point after point of Focus poured into the skill. Thicker and thicker at the base. She sharpened the leading edge, transforming it from spear point to razor blade. To kill it better? Because Salos had asked her to? She couldn’t say. She didn’t have the mind to question.

The boar pounded toward her. She had to wait to get out of the way. The Boar couldn’t look at the spear. It needed to focus on her.

Closer.

Closer.

Something cold and frantic beat in her chest. Distracting. She ignored it.

There was only the boar.

Only her spear.

Only another two yards.

One yard.

Cass leapt to the side, Dodge and Sprint and the Wind pushing her aside with everything they had.

The boar barreled past her running with every ounce of its System blessed Strength and Endurance. There was a sickening thud as stone crushed skull and squelch as it sliced brain matter.

There was a brightness in her chest, a rush of energy and exultation.

The boar was dead.

Cass’s Focus hit zero.