Storyteller stopped long enough to survey the village, and Cadence did the same, not knowing what else to do.

The village was perhaps another half mile down the road, with one more farm between them and the broken fences that had marked its borders. Still, they were close enough for her to make out a large number of roughly humanoid shapes running through the streets and along the edges of the town, many of them carrying torches. That explained the flames then.

In some places, conflict was evident. Some were clearly one sided, the raiders falling quickly before coordinated and powerful attacks, while others were more desperate struggles. The village’s hunters must’ve been badly outnumbered for the citizens themselves to be stepping in–but Cadence knew that those with the gift of the laborer, or even some of the Artisan’s blessings, could be plenty dangerous on their own.

“Gnolls,” Storyteller explained tersely. He seemed to be searching through his packs for something even as his eyes darted about, giving Cadence the impression he could see much more than her. Of course, she had no idea how high his own awareness attribute was. “They have no innate magic, and are slightly weaker on average than a normal person without gifts. But they’re trained soldiers, and well armed. You should be able to take one safely. If there’s two, use my gift. If there’s three, run.”

Cadence nodded grimly. She quickly pulled out her shortbow and strung it as Storyteller continued.

“They fight similar to yourself. Fast, little armor, light weapons. Some of them will undoubtedly be archers too, so be aware of yourself.”

“Where will you be?” His words made it clear she was going to be on her own.

“There are two ogres in the center of town. They need my help there.” He looked down at her, and for the first time since they saw the smoke, he hesitated. “Are you-”

“Don’t worry about me,” Cadence interrupted. “Go.”

The resolve returned to Storyteller’s face, and he nodded. Then he was simply gone, leaving Cadence wondering how high his speed really was, too.

“Right then,” Cadence muttered to herself. Not knowing what else to do, she slipped her strung bow back into her quiver and set off towards the village. She was tempted to Surge her speed, but held off, knowing that she should save such a potent ability. Instead, she resumed jogging towards the town, relying on her passive stamina boon to keep moving.

As she approached the edge of the town, a series of shrill screams drew Cadence’s attention to a young woman, perhaps a few years older than her, running through one of the nearby fields towards her. She had muddled brown hair common in the heartlands, a curvy figure adorned by a cute, if torn, dress,, and what could only have been a gnoll chasing her.

The outsider was roughly humanoid, though considerably more bestial. Its face ended in a blunt muzzle that hung open to reveal a mouthful of yellow fangs and a lolling, canine tongue as it ran. Its arms were too long for its body, reaching nearly to its backward jointed knees. It wore only a simple leather jerkin, long enough to drape below its waist, and from head to toe it was covered in coarse, dun-colored fur.

The woman flung a hand behind her in a purposeful motion, and Cadence realized she had thrown her shawl back at her pursuer. The gnoll batted the fabric out of the air–but as it did so, the simple cloth seemed to writhe and turn, wrapping around its clawed hand and tangling its fingers. Judging by the loud yap of pain it drew from the gnoll, the makeshift attack must’ve been quite painful, even if it hadn’t stopped the creature.

Cadence quickly drew her bow with one hand and an arrow with another, setting it to the string while the gnoll was distracted, trying to keep chasing the girl even as it snapped and tore at the entangling shawl. It never even saw the arrow that sank into its gut, or the second that slammed into its neck.

“Thank you! Thank you!” the villager cried as she approached–then she screamed again as a crude arrow flashed by her, missing her by scant inches.

“Don’t thank me, run back to town!” Cadence snapped as she spun around, trying to find the source of the attack.

“B-but there’s these giant things in town, they’re destroying everything!”

Cadence snarled at the treeline across the field, where she spotted another gnoll crouched, an ugly hunting bow held ready. She snapped another arrow to her bow–the same green fletched kind she had used for the first gnoll–and told the girl, “Not for long! I promise you’ll be safer there than here!”

Cadence quickly sighted and released her arrow, but accomplished little more than distracting her enemy, not that she expected to do much more at their current range. With both her and the gnoll shooting at the very limit of their short bows, the chances of a hit were low–but low was very much not the same as impossible.

“Come with me!”

“I’m a little busy, if you haven’t noticed!”

Running would give the gnoll archer all the chance it needed to get closer to them and shoot more accurately at their backs. Even as she thought that, another arrow shot through the space between the two of them, and Cadence cursed, hurrying to fit another arrow to her string. “Now go!”

Finally, the woman turned to run, and Cadence shifted her focus solely to the gnoll, sending her next arrow across the field, where it thudded into a tree next to the outsider. But now that she didn’t need to stay by the other girl anymore, she started slowly pacing toward the gnoll even as she fit another arrow to her bow, closing the distance between them.

The gnoll neglected to do the same, holding its position. Three more arrows flashed towards her as she approached. The first two went wide, one extremely so, but when the last hit the dirt less than a foot away from her, Cadence knew she had gotten as close as she dared. She’d only get one more arrow, perhaps two if she was lucky, so reluctantly, she knew it was time to tip her hand.

[Soul Surge] activated

Coordination attribute boosted

In the course of the numerous minor fights she had won in her travels with Storyteller, Cadence had thoroughly tested her Soul Surge on all of her attributes. In Felisen, she had relied heavily on speed and strength, which she had seen the other hunters use to great effect. On the surface, they were the most effective things to boost, providing simple, straightforward benefits. But she had been surprised to find the effectiveness of using the ability to improve her coordination.

Cadence had been training intensely since she had received her gifts, but it had still barely been two months. Compared to the experience of an opponent like a gnoll, her skills were clumsy at best. But the enhanced dexterity and reflexes granted by a boosted coordination attribute could go a long way to making up that deficit.

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Additionally, while Cadence had only been training to really fight for two months, she had been shooting a bow since she was old enough to draw one back. Coordination helped her guide her hand the way she wanted in her mind, enhancing her ability to quickly and accurately aim.

The final critical factor improving her attack was indicated by the red fletching on her arrow’s butt. While every arrow her mother gave her was of a far higher quality than the rough hewn arrows the gnoll had likely made for itself, the ten red-fletched arrows in her quiver were true masterworks, their shafts made with the help of Old Man Callahan from vitalwood. The bone of their arrowheads and even the feathers of their fletching were harvested from slain arcane beasts. Magic was imbued into them deeply enough to lend them their own potency, helping to make up for Cadence’s lack of special attacks.

Of course, the gnoll she had been caught in a shootout with had no way of knowing any of this. So far, it had only seen her shoot with accuracy similar to its own. So the look of surprise on its bestial face was worth the wait, as her arrow cleanly shot across the distance between them, passing right between its arms and its drawn bow, to sink cleanly and deeply into its gut.

Cadence didn’t waste her time with another arrow as the outsider fell to the ground, snarling and thrashing in pain. She dropped her bow back into its quiver and sprinted towards her enemy even as she reached for the hatchet still riding at her side. She had the wickedly sharp little axe in hand by the time she reached the gnoll, and the creature only just managed to notice the whistling of the descending blade through its pain a scant moment before the weapon crashed down on its head.

Abruptly soaked in the gnoll’s blood, Cadence wobbled in place, recalling the first time she killed a monster in real combat–the goat goblin at the Beltley farm. But she wasn’t the same girl she had been just six weeks before. She had no time to get sick, and adrenaline and the power of her Soul Surge still sang through her body.

Has it really been so little time since then? she asked herself.

With quick motions, she knelt next to the gnoll’s body and dug her arrow out of its gut, trying to ignore the sharp scent of bile and waste that filled her nose as she did. At least she had decided to boost her coordination instead of her awareness–if her senses were any stronger, the stench might have pushed her over the fragile line into sickness.

As it was, she fought off the wave of nausea and stepped away from the body. As she had expected, the gnoll’s thrashing had nearly snapped the expensive magical arrow, but there was a reason Ryme had paid to have Callahan make the shafts out of vitalwood. As the name implied, the wood was still alive in some way, and given a few days, it could actually grow back together. It was a testament to the old carpenter’s skill that he had been able to work with the infamously difficult wood at all.

As she examined the damaged arrow, Cadence heard the sound of something crashing through the woods to her right, from the direction of town, and she hurriedly stepped behind a tree. Her coordination boon still guided her steps, and what little sound she made didn’t compare to the crashing of the approaching gnolls. The tree she chose was thick enough that the two creatures didn’t notice her as they hurried past. The one in the lead still carried a burning torch in one hand, while the other held an odd weapon, somewhere between a short sword and a long knife, made from what looked like bone and some kind of black glass. The gnoll in the rear had its arms full of what must’ve been loot–a thick canvas sack thrown over one shoulder, while the other clutched a bundled cloth.

The two gnolls pulled up short when they saw the body Cadence had left behind, and she carefully slipped further around the tree, fitting another red-fletched arrow to her bowstring. From her hiding place she could hear the two communicating in what must’ve been their language, a series of growling yips and barks, punctuated by repeated sniffing sounds. Of course. They must have some sort of enhanced sense of smell, given their bestial nature.

Cadence felt sweat bead on her forehead, and she shifted her fingers along her bow, but she didn’t hear any further movement from them. The septic reek of the gutshot gnoll still filled the air. Maybe it was enough to confuse their sense of smell.

Finally, she heard one snap a harsh word, and the monstrous pair began to move through the woods again. She slowly blew out a breath, relaxing her bow as the monsters moved away–then she thought of the torch and the plunder they carried. She thought of the Honeyed Pear, of Old Man Callahan’s shop yard, of market day crowds and shared meals. And she thought of the Beltley farm.

These monsters had attacked this village for no seemingly reason besides to burn and kill and steal. And she was hiding from them?

Though part of her knew it was a bad idea, she stepped out of her hiding place. The gnolls were perhaps a hundred feet away, well within the range of her bow, especially with her coordination surge. The one in the back was still weighed down with the items it had stolen from those unable to defend themselves from it, so it died first. Two flashes of red hit it–one in the small of its back, the other right between its shoulder blades. It fell, dead before it could make a sound, and the crash of its body hitting the ground was no louder than its steps had been.

It was an old archer’s trick Ryme had taught her. Take down the target in the back first, and the one in the front wouldn’t know it–the same technique she used when she unleashed her first arrows at the Beltley farm. The torch-bearing raider hadn’t noticed the death of its companion, so it was completely unprepared when an arrow struck it in the thigh. It was just far enough away that Cadence hadn’t managed to kill it like its companion, but hamstrung, its reverse-jointed leg folded underneath it.

Cadence sought to end this gnoll the same way she had the first, dropping her bow and rushing towards it with her hatchet ready, but this time, her enemy was armed and, even worse, had managed to keep its presence of mind. Even as she approached, the gnoll scrambled around and desperately swung out with its torch, forcing her to take a step backward. She paused, trying to figure out the best way to bat the torch away, and the gnoll struck.

It was wounded, so the lunge it suddenly made with its odd sword was clumsy, but only her continued coordination boost allowed Cadence to step out of the way in time to avoid the attack. The edge of the blade just grazed her leather vest, but even that was enough to slice cleanly through the armor like simple cloth and leave a shallow cut along her stomach. It burned, but Cadence had experienced enough minor wounds to fight through the pain.

Her sidestep had carried her around the side of the lunging gnoll, and she quickly struck with her hatchet, a sharp, brutal chop burying the blade in the gnoll’s neck and dropping it to the ground.

Cadence grimaced, trying to ignore the pain of her abdomen, and leaned down to recover her hatchet. But when she went to pull at it, it didn’t move, besides tugging the gnoll’s corpse a bit. Cadence frowned, all too aware of her dwindling Surge time, and tried again to pull the axe free. It still held, stuck in the gnoll’s backbone–which was something of a problem, as another crash beyond the treeline heralded the arrival of two more gnolls, these ones both armed with the same bone and glass blades. The outsiders looked from her, still attempting to free her hatchet, to the three bodies around her.

There was a crystalline moment of stillness, and then they leapt forward.

She barely had time to swear before the two gnolls attacked, their blades flashing. Cadence backed up quickly, her coordination just barely giving her the reflexes and dexterity to dodge through the rapid, savage slashes of the two outsiders, often by less than an inch. As she did, Cadence cursed herself for her eagerness. She had dropped her bow when she rushed the last gnoll, and with her hatchet stuck in the body of her last victim, she had no other weapons besides her little knife. She doubted the gnolls would be much intimidated by a thin, short girl trying to cut them with a knife that could barely pare an apple.

Not that her hatchet would’ve done much good. Her victories against the gnolls so far had been predicated by surprise and the dirtiest tactics she could manage. In an even fight against just one gnoll, they had the advantage over her in skill, experience, and reach, and if that one lunge had been any indicator, their glass swords had innate potency, just like her special arrows. Against two of them, she’d get cut to shreds long before she could get in a swing with her hatchet.

Only one choice then. She needed to make some space so she could use the ability she had copied from Storyteller. With luck, she could take out one of them with it and make it to her bow to kill the other. But, she realized with a sinking feeling, the gnolls seemed determined to avenge their dead companions, pressing her so that she couldn’t get away, and one was beginning to edge to her left. Once they flanked her, even her improved coordination couldn’t keep her alive.

Cadence gritted her teeth–then she saw a third gnoll running through the woods towards them. This one held a crude spear tipped by the same black glass as the swords she had seen, and Cadence knew it would be simple for the outsider to spit her on it while she dodged the others. Even if she managed to fry one, using the copied ability would give the other two plenty of time to kill her. Maybe Storyteller or someone experienced with the gift of lightning could use it while actively dodging three enemies, but Cadence knew she couldn’t. She just hadn’t practiced enough with it.

She was going to die.