The forest was dark, and the snow now fell heavily. The trees towered up, dark pillars stretching into the sky.

Sylvia's wolf-golems prowled at a distance, their fiery manes crackling and smoldering.

Brandon held on to me. His hands shook stiffly. His lips had turned blue with cold. He only wore two hoodies, one layered on top of the other. Frosted lashes rimmed his dark, sunken eyes.

"What are you doing here?!" Sylvia shouted at him. "Get away before she kills you!"

"What?" I interjected. "I'm not gonna – "

"I saw you," Sylvia interrupted me. "It was you, with your crossbow on Brandon! You were about to murder him, in cold blood, before I stepped in to save his life!"

I shook myself free from Brandon. And he shrank away from me.

"You just want us to roll over and die, don't you?!" I yelled back at Sylvia. "Just sit by as you level up to 10, raiding our caves, then let you kill us all?"

Sylvia swung her stone sword through the air, as though she could swat away my words. "Shut up, you liar!"

"I already overheard everything," Brandon said.

"I heard everything you had said, Sylvia. And you too," Brandon spoke as he turned to me. "If we're gonna have to fight and die, can't we at least be honest with each other?"

I wondered what went on inside his mind. Did he expect that I'd try and kill him still? He was only level 2, and half-frozen already.

"Get away from her," Sylvia repeated sternly at Brandon. "This isn't your fight."

「Saber has destroyed the Top Fabricator.」

Sylvia spat out a curse and ran off, away from me and Brandon.

She knew she had to leave and defend her base. Immediately.

"BRANDON!" she screamed. "Go back!"

Brandon stared hard into my eyes for a moment. And when I didn't respond, he ran away. I let him go.

But Sylvia. I had to stop her retreat.

Her stone wolves had fallen apart now, back into lifeless rubble on the ground. I wondered how long it had taken for their magic to expire. But now, without them around, I was free to pursue Sylvia. Once again, I rushed into enemy territories, keeping my eyes peeled for her.

I stood no chance against her in a 1v1. But if my guess was correct, she'd be trying to return to base using her Ring of Recall. It had a 30 second channel time, and all I needed to do was prevent her from channeling. And keep myself alive, of course.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Sure enough, I found her among the trees of the forest, centered inside a blue, glowing runic circle. The darkness of the night made it easy to spot.

I fired a Frost Missile at a 45 degree angle, at a nearby tree. The projectile snapped the tree in half, then ricocheted into Sylvia. She flinched and let out an arrested yelp.

The runic circle faded as her concentration broke.

She yelled curses at me, into the night. She conjured her stone spears once again and shot. But not at me – she fired at the broken tree, where the Missile came at her from, where the noise came from.

I concealed my presence, hiding behind a snow-laden shrub. Ordinary snipers risked revealing their position with every shot they made. But not me. Not when I could rebound my attacks from any angle.

Sylvia's stone spears rocketed through the woods, felling trees. She now fired them in erratic directions. One pierced through the shrub mere yards away from me. I stiffened my body to be as still as I humanly could.

And then she ran off, or so it sounded like from her footsteps. I peered out from my hiding place and squinted my eyes. I spotted the blue glint of the runic circle, now a fair distance away. She was trying again. This time, she had summoned four wolves which encircled her snugly.

Meat shields, huh?

I could try to hit them with an AoE attack, or even ricochet my Frost Missile off one of the wolves into her. But either way, I'd need to shoot at her in a straight line, revealing my location.

If I messed up and she came after me, with all her wolves, I wouldn't live. We had crossed far into her side of the map, far away from the cover of my towers. And I doubted Brandon would be here to save me a second time.

But…there was one flaw in Sylvia's defense.

I angled a Frost Missile upwards, at a tree branch high up in the air between the two of us. And I fired.

The Frost Missile hit the branch and ricocheted back down. My calculations were off, and instead of hitting Sylvia, it nailed one of her wolves. I quickly repositioned myself.

Almost. I almost had it.

Before I could take a second shot, Sylvia dispelled the rune circle and ran off. She must've realized that attempting to channel the Ring of Recall, here in these woods, couldn't be done while I was near. I followed her, at a safe distance, practically out of sight. It was by her footprints in the snow that I tracked her, and by the distant firelight of the wolves that followed her.

I realized she was attempting to get back to base on foot. I hurriedly penned a warning to Saber in our team notebook. My handwriting was horrible as I wrote while running.

It wasn't before long that Sylvia had made it back into base. Our ally golems had already marched into their base through the top lane, and Sylvia rushed in without paying them heed.

Saber hadn't replied yet. Was she inside there? She had to be; otherwise our golems would've been easily cleared, even by just Brandon.

After a moment's hesitation, I dashed into the enemy base as well.

As soon as I entered, I saw and heard the clash of blades. In the middle of their base, Saber and Sylvia were trading blows. A dome of lightning surrounded Saber as she fended off Sylvia's volcanic sword and her swarm of wolves.

Saber's armor had been pierced. Her face, stained with wounds or soot. Her blood stained the snowy battlefield. She was down to under 200 HP.

I rushed up, threw every spell I could. Sylvia managed to avoid the brunt of the blast, but her wolves were caught in the attack. It was a mere matter of seconds before Saber's stormy aura struck them down.

As the stone-forged beasts collapsed, a golden glow pulsated across Saber. She looked back at me.

"Thanks," she said.

So that was it. Just like with the stone giant we fought at the beginning, these summoned wolves granted XP upon death.

Sylvia sank into the earth.

The ground under Saber bulged, glowing red-hot. That was Sylvia's lava-burrowing attack.

"Saber!" I shouted. "Step back!"

But Saber simply stood her ground.

"Ultimate ability," she announced. "Defense of the Ancients."