Miles and three of the guards went in while Grace stood outside, where the other two were grumbling about finding this killer.

Her hands trembled slightly as she knew the number of guards would be more challenging if she didn't attack now. Each of these men moved differently than the three she had first killed. Those other men were obviously not as well trained, which scared her.

Levi dies…

Those two words kept playing over and over in her head. The memory of the building on fire and her brother inside made her heart beat faster.

Whatever it takes… he needs that future…

Closing her eyes, Grace took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Both guards stood off to one side, away from the door, hiding what she was about to do. The plan in her mind had to work. If it failed, things were going to get ugly fast.

Walking to where the two men were, she stood between them and grimaced.

Their conversation stopped as they looked at her.

Bowing her head slightly, Grace started to mumble quietly.

“What?” one of them asked.

“Uh… I need to ask something, but… it’s embarrassing, and I don’t want to say it loud…” Grace spoke, still in a quiet voice. She bit her lip as she looked up at the two men who were a foot taller than her. “Can… can I tell you both, and you two tell me if it’s ok?”

One of them snorted and shook his head while the guard on her right grimaced.

“A secret?” he asked.

Grace nodded and motioned with her finger to bend close.

The one on her left rolled his eyes and shrugged as he grunted. “Let’s hear her out and get done with this. We don’t have time for stupid stuff.”

Grace winced, using every bit of acting she learned these last six months to convince people she was weak. “It will just take a second, and please don’t tell people, if you will.”

Both bent down, their expressions showing their frustration at a young girl and whatever problem she felt she needed to share.

The moment they were both close, she moved.

Her hands and arms were so fast neither man knew what happened as she slammed their heads together, causing them to burst against each other and spraying her with blood.

The crack of their skulls echoed in her ears, and Grace wasn’t sure how loud that had actually been.

Grabbing the chain armor and squeezing it as the bodies sagged, blood gushing from every hole in their head, she lowered them quietly to the ground.

Her heart felt like it was going to burst from her chest as she watched the door, waiting for the other three to come charging at her any moment with swords drawn.

The seconds ticked away, and when no one came outside, ready to strike her dead, Grace took another deep breath and looked at her hands.

Blood was everywhere.

Gathering herself, Grace did what she knew she had to do next.

The scream she let out as she put her hands to her face was one of the loudest she had ever done.

Shouts and the pounding of steps came, and a moment later, all three men were outside, swords in their hands.

They glanced down at the men and at her, covered in blood.

“What happened?!” Miles shouted, moving toward her and his fallen men.

“We… we…”

“Breathe, take a breath, and breathe!” he exclaimed as he glanced at the other two men and spun one finger in the air. Both men moved to either side, backs facing the house, ready for whatever might be out there.

Grace nodded, taking a few deep breaths.

“We were talking,” she said, letting her voice crack and break. “Something… something smashed their heads together from behind… a sha… a shadow. A… a shape. I saw teeth, and then… then it vanished that way.”

Grace pointed toward another house to her right.

Miles looked at her, the pile of bodies at their feet, and Grace could see his mind trying to work everything out. His blue eyes shifted from side to side as his brain tried to piece things together.

“Jordan, Frank, you two go now and check the house and alley!” He then turned and looked at Grace, who was doing her best to shake and look afraid.

“Inside with me now. We can pull back into a room!”

He grabbed her arm and pulled her as the other two men took off in the direction she had pointed.

Miles pulled her through the house, not being gentle as he led her over the corpses and body parts to a small room that had no window. It was a small five-by-five food pantry stripped bare, only empty shelves now lining the walls.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Stay behind me,” he ordered as he pushed her into the room and stood in the doorway, sword out, his head constantly moving for anything that might come.

Grace stood behind him, almost feeling guilty for a second, knowing what she had to do. As kind and noble as Miles seemed, the man had to die. If he didn’t, then Levi would.

“How big was it?”

Miles’s question caught her off guard momentarily as she started slipping a hand behind her back to grab her dagger.

“Tall… taller than them, I think… it happened so fast… it just appeared and then…”

Miles grunted in reply, shifting slightly on his feet as he continued to stand guard.

Her dagger was out, and the eight-inch blade looked so short. She saw his chain armor and considered if it would do the job it needed.

Shouts came from outside, and Grace felt her window of opportunity closing quickly.

Miles had his right leg slightly behind him, his weight balanced to move in any direction.

Grace kicked in the back of his knee with every bit of power she had. Miles fell backward faster than she had expected, the blow knocking both legs out from under him.

She moved up with her dagger, missing where she had initially planned to stick him, and instead, the blade drove through the man’s armor and into his back, burying the entire blade in his right side.

Grace saw his sword coming at her as the man fell, surprised that he had held onto it.

She jumped back and slightly to the side. Miles crashed into the ground, grunting as the dagger thrust itself deeper into him.

Even on his back, a weapon lodged inside him. Miles reacted the moment he hit the ground. His sword thrust toward Grace, who danced to the side, realizing he was more challenging than the others.

His sword slammed into a shelf, sending wood chips and pieces flying.

Darting to her right, Grace kicked his forearm, shattering his bones and causing his hand to finally let go of the sword.

As she attacked, his left hand came toward her, a dagger in it, and caught her right leg right at the calf, cutting through her pants and slicing the skin.

It stung, yet she knew it wasn’t as deep as Miles had hoped it might be. She really was tougher than she had thought.

Grace pulled her leg back and saw Miles’s blue eyes watching her every move. He had a scowl, and he now knew who had been killing all of these people.

“You!” he grunted, blood coming out of his mouth as he spoke.

His left leg pushed against the floor, but his boots slid in the dirt and dust while his right leg failed to work.

Miles slashed recklessly with the dagger over his head, trying to reach her in the tiny space they were in.

His movements looked so slow as Grace focused on his attacks. She dodged each attack, noticing how quickly he thrust the blade back and forth, trying to limit her ability to fight back.

An opening came after his third attack, and she kicked his arm again, hearing the bone crack in his forearm, and watched as his dagger flew from his hand.

The second he was disarmed, Grace moved next to his head and grimaced as she saw the hate in his eyes.

“You’ll burn!” he growled, struggling to breathe and talk from the blood that came from his nose and mouth now.

“I’ll gladly burn if it saves my family,” she replied as she lifted her foot and brought it down on his face.

The sound it made made her stomach churn as the man’s head shattered like a piece of fruit hit with a hammer. Blood and gore squeezed itself out of the chain links that surrounded his head.

“Sergeant! Where are you?”

The men were outside, and Grace bent down, grabbed his sword, and moved out the door and into the hallway that the men would come through.

“Help! We’re hurt!” Grace shouted.

Boots thundered across the floor as both men raced toward where she was.

She set her feet, held the sword back, and somehow again knew how to swing it.

Grace swung as the first man appeared, racing through the small doorway, and the blade almost whistled as it cut through the air.

Two halves of a body crashed into the hallway a second later, and Grace found the sword cutting through not just the man, his weapon, armor, and the frame of the house, but it also clanged into the sword of the guard coming next.

“What in the–”

The guard skidded into the hallway. His sword was cut almost in half, and the one Grace held was wedged in it.

She saw the man’s eyes dilate as he saw her and what she had just done.

As his mind tried to comprehend it, she drove forward, pushing the sword she held, and barreled the man into the broken wall and to the ground.

He fell back, and she went with him this time, not giving up an inch of space.

The sound of wind being knocked from his lungs was soon lost as she pressed both swords against the man’s chest and took her left hand off the handle.

Blows rained down on his face as she punched over and over, stopping this time only after three swings, realizing he was dead because his face was gone, and she saw brain matter splattering around her and the room.

Letting go of the sword, she felt her chest heave and something wet running down her face.

Keep it together… For Levi… this is all for him…

She needed a moment, fighting back tears that wanted to roar like a waterfall. There were no other options as she didn’t doubt the man who had given her this power and shown her those things was telling the truth. If she failed, Levi would die either by his hands or someone else.

A minute passed, and Grace stood up. She saw herself covered in gore and blood.

Will everything I own be like this forever? Can I ever own something that isn’t ruined?

A bell chimed in her head, and a red screen came a moment later.

***

Quest Completed: The Time Has Come

Reward:

Choose one of the three following Abilities:

* Heal

* Empower

* Command

***

What is up with those same two abilities…

Grace stared at the screen and tried to guess which would be best. Command seemed like such a great ability, but she wasn’t sure how different it could be from Persuade.

Taking a moment, she lifted up her right leg and saw the cut across her calf. It was barely a quarter inch deep, and it had almost stopped bleeding, which surprised her even more. Most cuts like that would bleed out until sewn shut or sealed with a hot piece of metal.

“Heal.”

***

Heal Ability Granted: This ability has a three-day cooldown after being used. The Heal ability may be activated. User may heal themself or another person of any injury completely. The injury must be recent and can restore limbs. If a person has died, this skill may not be used on them.

***

A whistle escaped Grace’s lips as she saw the ability.

“Holy shite…” she muttered.

Three days… but still… any injury…

Shaking her head, Grace didn’t want to imagine why she would need an ability like this. Part of her started to realize that if she was given abilities this strong, whatever she would end up fighting would, at some point, be just as powerful.

Shoving those dark thoughts away, she began to obey the rules of her city.

As she bent down to start rifling through the man she had just killed, another red screen popped up.

“Shite…”