Totally ignoring the rest of the blinking notifications in the corner of my vision, I sprinted full tilt into Barriers and More to find Marie keening over the bleeding form of her sister. A forearm length spike of ice with a bloody tip rested to her side. The brunette whirled around and glared at me with hate in her eyes. Gone was the uncaring shopkeeper from before and in her place was a woman who wanted blood. To be more specific, she wanted my blood.

“You killed my sister!” She launched herself at me screaming as a pair of matte black daggers appeared in her hands. The reverse grip she used for her blades told me all I needed to know about her combat ability, Marie knew what she was doing with a pair of short blades.

Dancing back, I tried to ward off her blows with my own blades, but it was almost like her matte blades were alive as they writhed around my own like I wasn’t even trying. In the space of a few moments she nicked me more than a dozen times and I saw that I’d picked up the [Moderate Poison] status. It wasn’t anything lethal, but it did slow me down even more and I wasn’t going to survive if things kept going like that.

After checking my Mana levels, I figured I could handle a few moments of [Haste] to figure what exactly was going on. The second [Haste] kicked in I pushed and the world seemed to slow down even more. Marie was still slashing at me, but now I could see the individual swings for what they were, a trained attack chain with no real variation. I reached out and tapped her right blade lightly on the pommel and couldn’t help but smile internally when the tiny bit of force sent her stumbling to the side. I scanned the room with my recently acquired [Spatial Awareness] to see if there was anything I wasn’t seeing and stopped stock-still when I found the most amazing thing.

Mindy’s heart was still beating, she was using her Mana to keep herself alive by forcing it to work while the hole in her chest skewered her non-functional lungs just to the right of it.

As long as her will lasts, I can save her!

Much to my chagrin, my Mana ran out then and [Haste] came crashing down around me.

The loss of my enhanced speed made it feel like I was moving through molasses as I moved toward where Mindy was bleeding out.

“She’s still ali–”

Marie, in her fury, didn’t appreciate me speaking or my course of action. “Stay away from her!” The Runecrafter’s voice took on an almost physical quality as she screeched and when I kept moving, her jaw dropped before she set her mouth in a thin line. “If that didn’t work, I’ll have to work harder to kill you.”

Another notification popped into the corner of my vision, but I ignored it in favor of diving toward Mindy’s prone bleeding form with a pair of potions in my hands. The left contained my third Pseudo-Legendary healing potion, [Megara’s Healing Potion V] while the right contained a Rare [Potion of Regeneration] I’d looted back in the Dungeon.

Despite having the jump on Marie, the [Moderate Poison] condition slowed me down enough for her to dig both her blades into my right leg as I thudded to the ground next to Mindy. With a quick bit of sleight of hand, I managed to dribble one potion into her mouth and the other into the wound in her chest. I’d only seen the effects of [Megara’s Healing Potion III] and this version two iterations later didn’t disappoint.

Bright gold light sprang from her mouth, eyes, and the hole in her chest as it and the regeneration potion worked together to fix the woman’s heart, lungs, and every single other wound and scar on the woman’s body. When she gasped and rolled to the side away from Marie and I to hack up blood, her sister froze.

Deciding enough was enough with her, I triggered [Sun Jump] for the first time and, using the light beaming into the room, teleported to the other side of Mindy to check on her.

The [Hydromancer]’s eyes were wide with panic and when they locked on mine I couldn’t help but smile. “Sorry about the ice spike.”

Internally, I cringed, but it seemed my [Charm] stat was enough to carry the day when she coughed weakly before chuckling. “Your aim could use some work.”

“Move!” Marie slammed into my side and bowled me over. When she saw her sister alive and breathing her shoulders sagged and she spoke quietly. “I thought I lost you.”

“Silly,” Mindy reached out a shaking hand to touch her sister’s blood splattered face, “just use the [Family Compass] to find me if I get lost. Remember, it’s…” The surge of energy from [Megara’s Healing Potion V] wore off at that moment and she slipped deeply into slumber, despite Marie trying to shake her awake.

“It won’t work, you know.” I pulled an Uncommon [Healing Potion] and downed it as I watched the timer tick down on my [Moderate Poison] while sitting back against the counter where she’d knocked me. “That potion is a beast, but it almost always knocks the person out for at least a day or so if their wounds warranted using it in the first place.”

I only had six of those when I left home and less than a month later I’m down to four. Autie Megara would be the first to agree that it’s better to have powerful potions and use them than to horde them and let people die.

She whirled around to glare at me. “Why didn’t you tell me you could heal her?” Despite her words, her tone lacked the venom from before and in its place was a bone deep weariness I could relate too.

“Didn’t know I could, if I’m being totally upfront.” I closed my eyes and trusted [Spatial Awareness] would be enough to protect me from her if she got pissed again. “It wasn’t until I felt her Mana still working to keep her heart beating that I thought to even try.”

Sobs from the young woman got me cracking an eyelid to catch her in the act. “It’s all good, she’ll be fine now. Hell, that potion was powerful enough, if she had any old wounds or debuffs, they’re probably gone now too. Relax, she’s fine.”

I closed my eye again and mentally checked in on my elementals. Based on the console for [Elemental Pactlord], the [Arcweavers], [Thunderhawks], [Gargoyles] and [Cloudpups] all appeared to be doing decently well. Each group had taken a few losses except for the [Arcweavers] to my surprise.

I guess Volta and Voltaire really are badasses, if they can keep all their fellows alive despite everything going on.

The [Gargoyles] fared the worst, with nearly seventy percent of them having been smashed and reformed at least once. It sounded worse than it was because of their unique tie to the Tower, as long as they’re within ten miles of it, they could reform themselves over and over again as long as their cores were intact.

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“Why?”

My eyes snapped open to lock on Marie where she sat rocking with her knees against her chest and her arms wrapped around them. “Hmm?”

She glared at me and the illusion of otherworldly beauty I’d missed before fell from her to reveal a mousy haired woman with a decent build and a mean streak. “You know what I mean. Why did you heal her? You could have just left.”

“That’s easy,” I sat forward. “I wanted to and had the means to do so, so I did.” I shuddered. “It was my magic–”

A black and white swirl appeared in Marie’s right eye as she spoke. “Combat magic is dangerous and you should avoid using it in the future. Look what happened when you used it again.”

For a second, it felt like I was ten years old again standing in the ruins of my childhood home. That feeling faded almost as soon as it appeared, leaving me more confused than anything else.

“You’re only half wrong.” Raiju padded in and sat down next to me with a huff as she stated at Marie. “Combat magic is dangerous, so Artie should use it more so he gets better with it.” She laid her head in my lap with a snort. “Who are they?”

Before I could reply, Marie leapt to her feet with her blades held defensively in front of her. “You two need to leave.” Her body practically shook as she motioned for us to leave. “Now!”

“What do you–”

“Get out!” Her scream drowned out my question. “Be gone in the next ten seconds or I’ll kill you both!”

Something is going on, but I don’t exactly have time to figure out what right now. I’ll come back later.

“Let’s get out of here, Raiju.” I heaved myself to my unsteady feet before straddling her waiting back.

“Ungrateful.” She snorted as she glared at Marie. “I hope your first litter is overly territorial.” With a swish of her tail, she had us blasting out of Barriers and More and up into the sky.

She ran up in silence as we careened over a part of the city that appeared to have been spared from the fires because of a thin misting of rain in the air. I thought I caught a glimpse of a [Cloudpup] and when I checked the System console I found they’d split up to better prevent the fires from spreading and destroying the city.

Good deal, they can adapt on the fly even if I summon them directly. That’s good to know. It’d suck to have a guardian elemental summoned and have to give it hyper specific instructions to get it to do anything.

As we ran, I finally took the time to go back over my notifications in reverse order of when they popped up.

[Due to Lordly Aura, you successfully resist Devourer’s Coercion.]

Huh, I hadn’t made a decision on that one yet… oh.

[Chosen of Dominus automatically selected Lordly Aura to protect the Chosen from another god’s influence.]

Dominus protect me. How bad would it have been if I’d already picked [Tactical Targeting] over [Lordly Aura]? I’ll have to ask her when I sleep next.

[Sanguimancy Acquired with Skill Dominance]

[Active Skills - Mastery

Skill Dominance - 31%]

So that’s how Mindy was keeping herself alive. My mind drifted back to the pale tiefling woman for a moment before I shook my head. I should make sure to check in on her before leaving Chalcedony. It’s only right, I did almost kill her before basically bringing her back from the dead. It’s my job to make sure she’s still alive.

[For killing a Raid Boss class monster double your own level, you’ve been granted the Tiny but Mighty Passive Skill.

Tiny but Mighty - You’re not afraid to mix it up with anyone or anything bigger than you and that’s amazing. When fighting anything larger than you by a significant margin, you’ll deal thirty percent more damage.]

“What the hell? Is this the System making a short joke?” I muttered under my breath in mild disgust. “[Tiny but Mighty]? Really?”

Never one to leave me alone when I was talking to myself, Raiju butted in. “Did you get a new Skill? Why are you mad about it if it’s only helpful?”

Over the next two minutes I did my best to convey how terrible a joke like the System had made at my expense really was, but in the end, she didn’t get it.

Instead, she couldn’t stop laughing. “The System called you short!”

Utterly disgusted, I considered using [Air Step] to get myself some reason before sighing and giving up on the idea. I sagged against her back.

“Bully.”

When that only earned me more ridicule, I went back to my notifications.

[Elemental Bolt Mastery Increased: 75% → 90%]

Seems like a lot for using the thing for the first time in fifteen years, but I guess I did just use it almost a hundred times in less than twenty seconds, so maybe that’s normal?

[For reaching 100 Toughness, you’ve received the following boon, Hydra’s Regeneration

Hydra’s Regeneration - Passive Skill - Never one to let someone else stand between you and the action, sometimes you get hit and sometimes you get beaten. Badly. Hydra’s Regeneration triggers when you reach thirty percent HP for the first time each hour. It grants ten percent HP regeneration per second for a minute.]

Interesting, so the System can pull from my experiences to generate Skills for me. I guess it makes sense, but I’d never really thought about it too hard. As for [Hydra’s Regeneration], it seems like it’s saying I get into melee too often, but that heal isn’t going to stop me from doing it if the situation calls for it.

Ahead, I could see the Lord’s Tower with only Jaegan and Ylsa standing atop it with the guard captain huddling between them. As Raiju alighted on the parapet, all those assembled winced at the System tone that rang out.

[Tower of Trials - Chalcedony Purification Wave 1 Complete

Highlights:

Highest Single-Handed Kill Count - Jaegan “Wallbreaker” Toretto

Highest Group Kill Count (Paid to Leader of Group) - Arthur Bajbub Neilson

Raid Boss Kill - Arthur Bajbub Neilson and Melinda “Mindy” Emberstone

Rewards will now be paid out to all who participated in repelling the wave while punishment will be dealt out to those who sought to hurt their fellows in the turmoil of the event.

Tower of Trials - Chalcedony Purification Wave 2 will commence in thirteen days, twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes, and thirty-six seconds.]

Howls of anguish and cheers of exaltation filled the air all around the Lord’s Tower as people got their just desserts.

Jaegan’s grin said everything, he felt alive in a way he hadn’t in years. It was obvious as he addressed me. “Took down the Raid Boss with some rando, huh? Wish you’d come and gotten me, we’d have cleaned it up right quick.”

“It was a level 52 [Ashen Hydra Devastator].” I glared at him and he had the good graces to look away, chagrined.

“Maybe not.” He groaned. “You’re a damned monster. Did you know that?”

“So you keep telling me.”

He stared at me for a few seconds before snapping his fingers. “You used some kind of combat Spell didn’t you!? That’s why you’re not crowing like usual. That’s amazing!”

I did my best to measure my response, but it was far harder than I expected. “In doing so, I nearly killed someone who I might need alive later. We can discuss it later.”

“Oh.” He shrank back behind Ylsa, who merely nodded as she waved out at the city.

“Can we go get a drink? I’m parched.”

Summoning the [Cloud Carpet], I motioned for the pair to jump on. “We can, and we’ll check out the loot we’ve earned at the same time.”