Ingrid wasn’t exactly sure how to process what she witnessed. She tried to do it step by step with what was planned. First, Alice had lit the fires. That was the signal to start. Good. Straightforward. Simple. Her and Kallen would run for the entrances while any guards were distracted by the fires. Also simple. Alice would jump around all stealthy and try to keep as many of the stragglers from grouping up as possible. When she could, she would prevent them from getting close to Kallen and Ingrid.

They started hearing shouting and smelling smoke, which meant it was their time to run over as fast as they could. They did that. Kallen appeared to be significantly faster than her. The drastic height advantage definitely helped with that, but there was also a remarkable amount of power with each stride. That was where things started getting hard to process.

When Ingrid thought about going in one of the entrances, she imagined a window, or a side door. Maybe even a backdoor near where they knew Malori was. The enormous main entrance was not her idea. Still, Kallen started running towards it, and didn’t seem to be responding to any of her calls to go to a different one, so she nervously followed along.

Kallen proceeded to sling the glaive off of her back, then lowered her head and right shoulder. The front gates were large, wooden doors that didn’t appear to be in too bad condition. They were definitely solid, and seemed able to take a beating. The sound was something she really hoped she’d never have to hear again. The sheer cacophony of the wood splintering and practically exploding outward in a hail of shards and debris was enough to leave her ears ringing as Kallen barreled through them like they were made out of paper. Ingrid really needed to start expecting the unexpected, otherwise she wasn’t going to make it out of this journey alive.

She managed to snap out of her stupor quickly and continue following Kallen in. Without missing a beat and swinging her glaive in one enormous arc, Kallen proceeded to cut two shell shocked thugs holding swords clean in half. The two others with them seemed just as surprised as Ingrid, and one barely had time to shout a curse and reach for a weapon before she was run through with the blade. The other at least managed to fumble with a short sword for a second before the arm, then his head was removed.

Kallen looked back at Ingrid, a completely unphased look on her face. “Come on! She’s in the back left corner right?” She called.

Still trying to steady herself, as well as avoid looking directly at the gore, Ingrid gave a small nod. “Y-Yeah! They probably heard that though!”

“That’s fine, as long as we’re quick enough they probably won’t be able to react super well,” she said, before running off into the building. Ingrid had to use some of her magic to quicken her step in order to keep up with the juggernaut that she was apparently following.

Labhras had told her in her training that a surprise attack done with overwhelming force was and always would be one of the most effective methods of combat. On paper it was something that simply made sense, but now that she saw it first hand, it was hard to be anything but a little terrified of it. They came across two more groups of three as they ran. The first three went down not unlike the four from the entrance. Kallen jumped forward, brought her glaive down on one of them who proceeded to drop like a sack of bricks. She then grabbed another, threw them into the third, and ran both of them through before continuing to run.

The second group was much more ready for a fight. They clearly knew at least some of what was going on, as they already had their weapons held firmly in front of them. Two carried scimitars while one had a rapier. The three charged Kallen at once, the two with scimitars swinging at her from her left and in front of her. She blocked the first with the blade of her glaive, slamming into it with enough force that the attacker stumbled and tried to keep a grip on it from the vibration. In the same motion, she brought the shaft up to take the blow from the second, who seemed surprised at his inability to simply cut through what appeared to be normal wood. At the same time, the one with the rapier attempted to stab her in the side. She gracefully sidestepped the strike and, in the same fluid motion once again, brought the butt of the glaive up to crack them in the side of the head while delivering a slash to the first attacker’s torso.

The man in the middle of the other two had a look of terror as both of his partners dropped, which turned to Ingrid as she finally caught up with her friend. Kallen flashed the man an eerily warm smile.

“If you want to surrender and run, now’s your chance!” She chimed happily.

He immediately dropped his scimitar and sprinted past Ingrid and Kallen towards the main entrance.

Ingrid looked off after him, then turned to Kallen. She opened her mouth to speak, but was quickly cut off.

“Come on, we’ve got to be quick right? Ask any questions afterwards!” She said quickly before running off again. At least this time Ingrid’s magically enhanced speed managed to be able to keep up.

There seemed to be sounds of fighting from other parts of the warehouse, as well as general screams of confusion and unintelligible orders being barked out. Judging by the fact that they continued, as well as a couple of bodies on the ground that she and Kallen didn’t make, Alice seemed to be doing her job well. She counted about four in total, but she knew those were just the ones that she knew about. There were almost certainly more if Alice was involved.

Despite the respectful amount of terror that Kallen was inspiring, it was also reassuring to know that she was on Ingrid’s side. They continued their dash forward into a group of five, all armed and ready to attack. Ingrid gulped as she looked into their eyes. There wasn’t a shred of mercy or fear in any of them. Kallen stepped in front of her defensively, daring them to charge forward. They were happy to oblige.

Even with Kallen’s absurd amounts of strength and speed, there were still five of them. They definitely seemed more skilled than the last group of three that the duo had come across. She was quickly put on the defensive, dodging and blocking her way around three attackers while two of them ran towards Ingrid.

Ingrid yelped and brought up her staff to block a jumping swing from the first one’s longsword, then barely managed to roll to the side to avoid getting stabbed by the other’s shortsword. The woman with the longsword brought it up again, but feinted into an upwards swing that Ingrid barely managed to still block. She didn’t have enough time to fully dodge the next strike from the shortsword, and it caught her in the side. Immediately she thanked her lucky stars that she had had enough time to put her armor on before this or who knows how badly that would have gone.

She let the force of the strike send her back, swinging the head of her staff as she did so and cursing as the woman blocked it. Rolling with the momentum, she steadied herself as they charged again. This time, she was ready for it. Channeling a small amount of magic, she lifted her hand to bring thick roots to the surface, cracking through the ground. The roots wrapped around the woman’s leg, tripping her and sending her falling forward directly onto a jab from Ingrid’s staff. It caught her in the forehead, knocking her out cold as she slumped over.

The one with the shortsword quickly reminded her of their presence as she felt it slash her arm, drawing a quick splatter of blood onto the ground. She twisted out of the way of another strike, then swung back around with her staff, trying to channel her magic into raw strength as she brought it crashing into the back of their head. They flopped to the ground next to the unconscious woman.

Panting from the exertion and the pain in her right arm, she looked over to see how Kallen was fairing. She was just in time to see Kallen throw an orcish man into a wooden crate, sending splinters and smashed wood out from where he impacted. The other two lay on the ground either dead or unconscious.

Despite Ingrid feeling winded and her arm quickly going numb, Kallen seemed no worse for wear. Gritting her teeth and forcing down the pain, Ingrid kept moving, hoping that they were close. With all the commotion of combat, it was hard to actually keep track of how far they had gone. Her prayers seemed to be answered when she opened her mind briefly to try and sense where Malori was. She was quickly able to pick out her presence in a room that was just around the corner. The downside was the eight other presences in the room with her.

“Kallen! Around that corner!” Ingrid gasped, trying to multitask. Trying to heal her arm, search for Malori, run, and keep up her enhanced speed to not fall behind was like some sort of conditioning nightmare. She felt like she was going to pass out as soon as this was over.

Her human friend didn’t need to be told twice, and darted off in that direction. Ingrid was really starting to wish her companions would let her finish talking before running off and doing things. Nevertheless, she continued following behind. She was exerting herself far too much to call out the amount of people in the room without tripping over herself or gasping for breath. Out of the corner of her eye, there was a flicker of shadows that she could only assume, or hope, was Alice. Eight people was enough. Hopefully Alice was continuing to do a good job preventing reinforcements from arriving. There was also the matter of the fire spreading, meaning there was only so much time until they had to escape the building altogether.

Quickly shaking the unnecessary thoughts from her mind, she focused on what was in front of her. She turned the corner to see what was presumably the outside of the room, blocked by what looked like a heavy metal door. It didn’t seem to slow Kallen down in the slightest, however. She continued sprinting towards it like a bull, before body slamming it just as she had the main doors.

The metal was clearly more durable than the wood, as the hinges tore chunks of the wooden walls out with it as it was sent flying into the room with an enormous dent where Kallen hit it. As Ingrid entered next to Kallen, there was a groaning half elven man clutching his stomach directly next to the door. Looks like there was one less person to worry about.

All seven of the remaining kidnappers had backed away from the door after their colleague was hit by it, flanking an enormous, tattooed man who must have been Zelzar. He hefted a greatsword out of a sheath on his back and leveled it at the two of them.

“Well, I have to admit I’m a little impressed that the two of you could cause this much chaos this quickly,” His voice boomed confidently. Just behind him there was a small yelp. Ingrid’s eyes went wide as she saw a small, willowy girl in clerical robes behind him, barely visible due to his size. “I think it’s a safe bet you’re here for the little one, eh?”

Ingrid tensed. She tried to think of what to say, but was coming up empty. Thankfully, Kallen wasn’t.

“Yup! Don’t suppose you’re willing to hand her over and surrender, are you?” She asked, cheerful as ever. She tapped her glaive against her shoulder, waiting for a response.

The half-giant gave a bellowing laugh. “Do you have any idea of the payday waiting for me and my group? I’d sooner eat my boots!” He gripped his sword with two hands, preparing for a fight. The other group members at his side did the same, holding tight to their own weapons.

“That’s a shame,” Kallen sighed, putting a second hand back on her glaive and lowering it. A smile spread across her face, “Well, don’t say I didn’t make the offer. This is your choice now.”

Ingrid gulped, shakily raising her staff. As she saw Kallen about to dash forward, she knew it was her time to act. The floor was stone. Earth. She tended to struggle with earthshaping, but that just led to her practicing more. Plants and animals were easy, they were living things that she could exchange thoughts with and work together with. Rock and stone were natural, but didn’t have that same connection that other things had. While manifesting plants with her magic, it was like pulling a person along in the road. All she had to do was guide them forward, then start running. It took energy, but they followed along with her. Earthshaping was more like struggling to drag Mattias out of bed in the morning. It was purely her own strength, having to pull something forward that fundamentally didn’t want to move. If there was ever a time to pull something out to even the odds though, it was now.

Kallen shot off like a crossbow bolt again. As she did, two of Zelzar’s followers immediately started running at Ingrid. With a somewhat embarrassing battlecry, she slammed her staff down. As she did, two pillars of stone shot out of the ground at angles, each of them about to slam into the head of one of the attackers. She kept the points blunted. Even if it was a tense situation, the idea of taking life was still barely computing in her mind. While one of them managed to see it coming and react, ducking out of the way, the other pillar landed a clean hit on a charging dwarf with an axe and dropped them to the floor.

If the half-elven woman with a scimitar was surprised by the development, she didn’t let it show. She continued to run at Ingrid while Kallen was left to deal with the other five. Ingrid didn’t have time to worry if she’d be okay as she quickly ducked out of the way of a blade that came far too close to her face. The woman immediately brought the blade back around for another swing, this one glancing off of Ingrid’s breastplate. Thinking quickly, Ingrid jabbed the butt of her staff into the woman’s shin, causing her to stumble off balance and fall forward. Ingrid tried to take advantage of it and bring her staff swinging up into the woman’s forehead, but was stopped by a searing pain in her calf that caused her to fall to her knees.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Checking to see what the cause of it was, she found a small throwing knife protruding from her leg. Before she had time to respond, her opponent spun herself around, delivering a hard kick across Ingrid’s face. Ingrid fell to the ground, dizzied by the blow. She looked to see the woman hopping back to her feet, scimitar in one hand, and two more throwing knives in the other. Ingrid barely managed to roll backwards, the clanging of a knife hitting where her head just was making her shudder. She managed to bring up a thin stone wall from the ground that blocked the third knife.

There was no time to be proud of herself however, as the woman used the wall as a springboard to jump over and bring her scimitar down. Ingrid rolled again, this time to the side, her teeth clenched as she heard the clang of metal colliding with the stone floor. Clenching her fist and yanking it to the side, she snapped the stone wall away from the ground and brought it down on her attacker. It was thin, but still heavy enough to bring the woman to the ground as the stone cracked from the impact. Seizing her chance, she scrambled to her feet and brought the butt of her staff across the side of the woman’s head with a loud cracking noise. There was a small groan before they fully slumped to the ground, unmoving.

Ingrid took a moment to gasp for air, hissing in pain at the knife still in her leg. She looked over at Kallen, who was holding her own it seemed. There were some blood stains along her tunic that were clearly from blows she couldn’t manage to fully dodge or block, but there wasn’t a hint of the exhaustion Ingrid felt showing. Two of her assailants were already either dead or incapacitated on the ground, and right as Ingrid looked Kallen used her own glaive as a spring to jump off of in order to spin and bring the inside of her foot crashing into the side of a human man’s head. The man dropped to the ground immediately, the only sound being the slumping of his body onto the hard floor.

The last attacker other than Zelzar, a rather androgynous catfolk, looked at the seemingly unphased Kallen as well as the groaning and silent bodies of their comrades. Holding up their hands in fear, they dropped their shortsword.

“I-I surrender! Just let me take the survivors to safet–”

“Shut your gods damned mouth!” Zelzar shouted, causing both Ingrid and Malori to flinch from the volume.

The catfolk froze, then immediately began scrambling away. Zelzar’s eyes went wide with anger, and he took a step to pursue before Kallen interposed herself between the two.

“I didn’t think we were done,” She said with a smile, glancing back to see the catfolk grabbing two of the people still alive and hurrying them out of the room. Ingrid hoped Alice wouldn’t get the wrong idea and kill them.

Zelzar growled, gripping his greatsword tighter. His eyes flicked between Ingrid and Kallen, then back at the still bound Malori. Dashing back with surprising speed, he grabbed the terrified girl and held her up, chair and all.

“You’re gonna let me walk out of here with her, or I cut her fucking throat,” He growled, earning a cry of fear from Malori as the edge of the blade pressed against her neck.

Ingrid and Kallen froze, not daring to make a move. Ingrid felt her heart pounding as Zelzar smiled. Malori’s eyes pleaded with her, the terror in them more than apparent. A million thoughts raced through Ingrid’s mind, when she heard a distinct voice in it. Malori’s.

Please, please don’t let him take me! It said in desperation, He said he wanted to sell me to people and I don’t know what he meant by it and I’m scared!

It took Ingrid a second to realize that it really was Malori’s voice. It was her first time having Malori talk to her telepathically. Despite it being understandable, it made Ingrid want to scream at her to shut up. She was having enough trouble thinking without Malori cluttering her thoughts even more. This was all too fast. She needed a moment to think, but every step Zelzar took closer to the door was a moment leaving rather than a moment spent.

Kallen apparently didn’t need that moment. Ingrid didn’t know what it was she was waiting for, but her glaive flicked out like a snake’s tongue. Zelzar seemed just as surprised at first, but quickly clenched his teeth as he went to make good on his threat. It was kind of impressive that his instincts reacted faster than his sense of pain, as that showed up second on his face.

He let out a cry of pain, clutching the stump of his sword arm that was severed at both his forearm and bicep, the sword clattering to the ground. Kallen used the opportunity to run forward, in one, fluid motion, silencing his scream and catching the falling Malori in her free arm.

There was a beat of silence. Not complete silence, the sounds of the fire outside mixed with that one catfolk running in and grabbing some of the unconscious bodies providing background noise, but it was at least relatively calm. Ingrid closed her eyes and slumped against a wall, using this as the first moment to take a breath in this entire ordeal. She opened them to see Kallen cutting Malori out of her binds before standing up fully, lifting her up in a princess carry.

“Are you alright? He didn’t hurt you or anything, did he?” She asked calmly.

Malori’s eyes were wide, but she gave a small shake of her head. Ingrid noticed as she looked a little closer that Malori’s eyes were locked completely on Kallen, her face bright red. She rubbed the bridge of her nose. They really needed to get the hell out of here.

Struggling back to her feet, Ingrid’s eyes went wide before yelping in pain and falling again. Right, knife in her leg. Malori and Kallen both turned to look as they heard this, Malori taking just a moment longer to stop looking at the woman holding her. Noticing the injury, Malori gasped.

“Th-th-thank you m-miss, but can you l-let me down for a moment?” She asked quickly, “Sh-She’s hurt, I need to h-heal her!”

Kallen blinked as if she spaced out for a moment. “Oh, right. I think they mentioned you did healing magic,” She let Malori back onto her feet. If any of her own wounds were bothering her, she didn’t let it show.

Malori rushed over to Ingrid’s side, dropping to her knees. She examined the various wounds across her body, giving a nervous whimper as she slowly removed the knife. Ingrid sucked in air through her teeth, trying not to be loud. Ingrid reached into her bag, grabbing Malori’s staff that had been left behind.

“You might need this if you’re anything like me…” She groaned, handing it over.

Malori breathed a sigh of relief as she grabbed the staff, looking slightly more comfortable with it in her hands. “Th-Thank you…” she muttered, closing her eyes.

As Malori moved the staff over the wounds, the shimmering golden magic falling onto them, Ingrid clicked her tongue. The feeling of her wounds stitching themselves back together at unnatural speeds was something she’d never fully get used to.

“O-Okay, the bleeding is s-stopped. They might still h-hurt for a while, but we should really b-be getting out of here,” she said anxiously, smoke starting to drift into the room. She looked back and forth between Kallen and Ingrid. “W-Where is Alice?”

“Being her own brand of distraction outside,” Ingrid grunted, staggering to her feet. She was only now realizing how much it hurt to talk after getting kicked in the face like that.

“Hey, you fast?” Kallen said, leaning down next to Malori.

The shorter girl yelped in surprise, jumping a bit. “O-Oh! Um, if you m-mean, can I run quickly? Um, n-not very, I didn-AH!” She yelped again as Kallen effortlessly scooped her up into a princess carry.

“Alright, that’s fine. Not sure how the fire is going outside, so it might be safer like this. Remember to keep your mouth covered! You good to go, Ingrid?” She asked cheerfully.

Ingrid gave a weak thumbs up. She was already channeling as much magic as she could into her legs to try and keep up with Kallen. As soon as she gave it, Kallen began sprinting off. Ingrid didn’t even have time to give a tired sigh, she knew she had to follow as quickly as she could. The room where Malori was being held was in the back of the warehouse, and the fire seemed to be concentrated in the front. As usual, Alice’s plan worked.

Kallen was courteous enough to look for an actual door to take Malori out of, rather than making a third brand new entrance. There was one fairly close to the room that the fight took place in, and they wasted no time rushing outside. She followed Kallen over to an alley, where the taller woman finally stopped running. Ingrid slumped against the wall of a building, just taking a moment to gasp for air.

“I, ha, I really would appreciate it, if you’d give me a warning before body slamming walls down,” She huffed, sliding down the wall until she was sitting down. “Are you okay if we take a quick break? That was, ha, extremely tiring.”

“Of course! Fighting is tiring. You need to make sure to take it at your own pace,” Kallen smiled, still holding a bright red Malori. She looked down. “Oh! Right, where are my manners? My name is Kallen! It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“N-n-nice to m-meet you…” Malori stammered, looking like she was having an out of body experience.

“Sweet! You guys are in one piece!” A familiar voice chimed from above. Ingrid looked up just in time to see Alice drop down from the roof of the building they were next to, landing silently. She didn’t look too bad, but there were a few clear injuries along her arms and legs. Even Alice couldn’t get out of something like that completely unscathed.

Despite how nonchalant she sounded, Ingrid could tell that something had her shaken up. She furrowed her brow. It was something she’d likely have to ask about later.

She heard a small sob, then turned to see tears welling up in Malori’s eyes.

“Hey hey, are you alright?” Kallen said gently.

Malori nodded, but didn’t seem to be able to stop the tears. “I-I-I’m f-fine. I just, I was s-scared,” she whimpered, “I didn’t know if y-you’d come for me…”

Ingrid felt a pang of sympathy as she watched the girl cry. The little journey had been going for barely a week and a half and she was kidnapped out of her bed and almost sold for ransom. She could only imagine how stressful that was, let alone how terrifying it must’ve been.

“There was no way we were going to leave you behind,” Ingrid assured her, “When we were trying to figure out what to do, Kallen overheard us and offered to help.”

“Yup! I was happy to do it. I’m glad you’re okay,” She beamed. “They told me all about you!”

“Th-They did…?” Malori sniffed.

“Yup! Ingrid especially was really worried about you. You’ve got some good friends. Plus, you kept calm during that whole ordeal at the end! You should be proud of that,” Kallen rambled on. Ingrid noticed it only making Malori blush even more.

“O-Oh, um, th-thank you. That’s v-very nice of you to s-say,” She squeaked, wiping away some of the tears.

Ingrid looked at Alice, who had her eyes ever so slightly narrowed. It wasn’t lost on Ingrid that Malori hadn’t asked to be put down yet. She doubted Alice hadn’t noticed it either. The dark elven woman put a hand on her hips, quietly clearing her throat.

“Sooo, what now?” She asked, “You have any plans, Kallen?”

“Hm?” Kallen looked u., “Oh, uh, not really. I don’t really ever have those.”

“I’m shocked,” She deadpanned, “Well, it’s only a little after noon. Princess, Shortie, you two wanna try and relax for the rest of the day? Or do you wanna get our little resupply done so we can leave tomorrow. You two got pretty roughed up, physically and mentally,” She pointed at Ingrid and Malori respectively. “Figure you should be the one making the call.”

“I’m fine with resupplying, I just want to take a quick rest,” Ingrid gasped, “I should start getting used to life threatening situations just being a part of my day if this is how this trip is going to go.”

“Yeah, yeah that makes sense,” Alice chuckled, “Wouldn’t exactly recommend takin’ it here, but it makes sense,” She gestured to the warehouse, which was now thoroughly aflame. The fires would likely start jumping to the other buildings around it.

Ingrid clicked her tongue. She had sensed people in all of the other buildings as well. They were calm presences, weak in places. There was nothing threatening about any of them. In all likelihood, they were filled with other vagrants and homeless citizens. She staggered to her feet. This was a terrible idea. She saw the first flames starting to lick ever closer to the other buildings, indicating that it was likely only a few seconds until they started to catch fire. This was a terrible idea. She vaguely thought she heard Alice asking her what she was doing, but the sound was murky as she channeled as much magic as she could. This was a terrible, terrible idea.

Shaping rock and stone was far harder than shaping wood or plants. Living things. Still, it was something that could be done by generic mages to lesser degrees. That kind of magic was what helped make more stable foundations for buildings, more durable roads, fortresses even. It often took a whole host of mages to make something like that though. A Druid could do it alone if they were strong enough. Ingrid wasn’t sure why, but she started to remember something that Labhras had told her during her training.

Look kid, there are times when training is harder than the real thing.

At the time, it had confused her. What do you mean? Isn’t the point of training that it’s easier? It’s a more conducive environment for learning.

Technically yeah, but it’s hard to explain, He sighed, Training happens in a vacuum. It gives you time to think things through. It also gives you time to overthink though.

I’m… Not sure if I follow.

When you’re in the moment, when you really need something done, you give it everything you’ve got. At least, that’s what most people do. If you fail, something bad usually happens. Sometimes there are lives on the line. The consequences of failing far outweigh whatever unseen side effects could happen from you just doing it right. So every ounce of willpower and strength goes right into trying your damn hardest. If failure isn’t an option, what choice do you have but to succeed?

…Instructor, I apologize, but that doesn’t really make much sense. Even if I understand it. I think.

Eh, I think it sounded cool.

She may have just been trying to be polite back then when she told him she understood it. It wasn’t a statement that made much sense. As she slammed her staff down onto the stone, raising her other palm to the sky, something about the statement clicked into place in her head. She knew what it meant.