“Watch your flank!” Freja cried as she portalled a group of communists high above the city.

  Sally turned with a speed to match the wind itself, slicing through three lycanids in a single sweep. Blood spurted from their severed legs, showering the muscular catonid with gore and ooze.

  Turning back, she cracked the skull of a svartalf and then thrusted her oversized, black blade backwards into the stomach of a small gnome. Pirouetting, she flung the dying creature into a group of oncoming attackers like a trebuchet. However, it bounced off them harmlessly as they continued towards her.

  “Fuck, we’re gonna get overrun at this rate,” she swore and Freja created another portal in the middle of the group transporting them into the sky with the other. The first batch still hadn’t hit the ground yet, but when they did the resulting fallout would quite literally paint the town red.

  Though she still wasn’t fully healed, Sally had spent the last week joining in on the final assault to retake Cali Port. Freja and her remaining adventurers had begun systematically clearing the city shortly after Dissident Flame had left. It was slow and dangerous work, but piece by piece they were taking the city back.

  They now found themselves deep in the heart of the final holdout’s base of operations. By this point most of the city was secured and the residents had begun fixing the damaged caused by the civil war. Unfortunately, despite many of them being level cappers, they were not fighters. Hardy as they were by the sheer nature of levelling up, most of the surviving citizenry were workers and specialists.

  Fighting hadn’t been a way of life on the continent for hundreds of years. With the abolition of the conscripted standing army of Castalor over a century ago, all waring duties fell solely onto the shoulders of the adventure society. Kings and rulers had their own guardsmen which often operated as a small standing army, but that was not the same as having a national force like they used to.

  Thanks to this act, a relative peace had been in place all across the continent for a long time now. However, as the old proverb goes, hard times create strong men, strong men create easy times, easy times create weak men. Sally wondered if it was perhaps the result of these easy times in Celestia’s history that had created the ideal social vacuum for an uprising.

  Then again, she was never one for politics. She was a fighter through and through, just as she’d always been. She was also only one level away from reaching gold rank. A dream she had been chasing for far too long. With a fangy smile and determined eyes, she leaped high into the air and came crashing down, sword first, into a group of gnomes. Obliterating them in a single, mana fuelled attack.

  All around her adventurers fought. Though there weren’t many of them, they were strong and disciplined. Cali Port had lost far too many good souls to the civil unrest in the past month and if they could claim victory here then she knew it would have all been worth it. She’d seen a few messages from Kaleb recently. She hadn’t ignored them, even though she refused to reply. Before he left she had made him a promise that she would be gold rank the next time they saw each other and there was no way she was going to speak to him until she had met that goal.

  “We’re almost there,” Freja panted. “We just have to clear out the final holdouts. Our intelligence network places them directly below us in the sewers.”

  “I thought we already flooded the sewers a few weeks ago?” Sally asked.

  “We did but apparently there was a section we didn’t know about. A walled off strongroom with only a single entrance and exit.” Bending down she waved her hand over a seemingly normal part of the bricked road. The bricks disappeared in a shimmer revealing an iron hatch. “No wonder it took us so long to find it.”

  “I hope you’re ready for this,” Sally said, turning to look at the other adventurers as well. “This might just be our last ever fight, we have no idea what’s waiting down there.”

  A few of them looked unnerved, but most steeled their expressions and nodded. Saluting with a single fist across the chest. It was an old tradition that had fallen out of style with the new generation. Still, it was a sign of respect, of honour, of a commitment to duty and the protection of the people. Sally saluted back.

  Though she was still silver rank, she was one of the best melee fighters in their ranks. Having Freja’s favour also helped. The others respected her immensely, even the two gold rankers among them. Though they technically outranked her, they saw her as a peer. They’d heard the stories. They knew she was a worthy companion.

  “Ok listen up everyone,” Freja said, holding a finger to her throat and projecting her voice. “Our final objective lies somewhere through this hatch. We don’t know what we’re going to face, but whatever it is it’ll be tough. I know you’ve fought hard this last month. We’ve lost brothers and sisters to this nonsensical civil war. Well, today we avenge them. Today we march into hell itself to slaughter the devils within. Today, we fight so that tomorrow we may mourn and rebuild. This is what it’s all been building to. Are you with me?”

  A resounding roar erupted from the gathered adventurers; it was so loud that it shook the buildings nearby like an earthquake. Freja smiled and saluted her warriors.

  “That was quite the speech. After this maybe they’ll make you the new leader of Cali Port.” Everyone’s heads turned immediately. Weapons drawn; the adventurers were ready to cut down whoever had spoken. “Now, is that any way to address and ally? I only came to offer my assistance.”

  Sally glanced over the heads of the adventurers. A dark-skinned man in golden armour floated regally above them. His smile was wide and grew wider still as he locked eyes with her.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Lucas?” She said.

  “It’s been a while Sally, looks like you’ve been busy.”

  “Hey there sis!” Sally glanced down to see Taylor standing below him armed with two large sewing needles, a seamstress even in battle. Next to her was… is that administrator Gonzo, I’ve never seen the slimy bastard leave the office before.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “We’ve got some catching up to do it seems, old friend.” Lucas said with a genuine smile. “But first, how about we help you deal with these insurgents?”

  ***

  “They’re everywhere!” Someone screamed as a resounding smash rang out around the dark room.

  Sally parried a sickle even more oversized than her sword. How could there be so many of them? Gritting her teeth she pushed her attacker back and thrusted forwards, piercing the insignia tattooed on its chest.

  Inside the underground room was a dozen proto gnomes. The last holdouts of the communist revolution. They were huge, muscular and angry. Fighting them was especially difficult due to their hive mind nature. They fought as one being, seeing everything, understanding everything. It was almost as if they had a 360 view of the battlefield. Four adventurers had already fallen.

  The gnome laughed, picking Sally up in its massive hand as he her sword hung inside its chest cavity, blood oozing and dripping down its naval. The attack didn’t phase it. Just as it was about to press its thumb into her skull, a shining purple portal appeared just above the elbow joint. It wasn’t big enough to suck the creature in, but as it snapped shit the arm severed and Sally dropped to the floor. With her cat-like reflexes, she jumped away, grabbing her stuck sword and slicing it up and through the gnome’s chest, removing it from the wound.

  Channelling her mana, she put all of her power into one strike. Red and black aura shrouded her sword and she jumped high into the air, slicing down with all of her strength into the nape of the distracted creature’s neck. It felt like trying to cut through steel, actually, steel was easier to cut through. Screaming, she pushed down harder, slicing as she went and with an audible pop, the proto gnome’s head fell from its neck, smashing through the concrete below them like a bomb.

  You have defeated proto gnome (lvl 100)

  Bonus experience awarded due to level discrepancy.

  Congratulations! You have reached lvl 100.

  “Fuck, I finally did it,” Sally panted, a bloody smile cutting through her haggard, war beaten face. “I FUCKING DID IT!”

  Turning around with a newfound speed, she felt her muscles swelling, surging with power. Then she went to work.

  ***

  “Well, that was quite the workout,” Lucas said with a smile as he laid back onto his hands on the floor. They had been fighting for so long that it was dark outside by the time they returned to the surface.

  The only survivors were Lucas and his retinue, Sally, Freja, and the two gold ranked adventurers. The others had all been killed. It was not lost on Lucas just how much the city had lost defending its people from the gnomish incursion.

  Cali Port was once a thriving, peaceful place with a strong group of adventurers. Now it had two. So many dead. So much lost.

  “We’re finally equals,” Sally said, looking Lucas in the eyes. She looked bigger and her aura covered her in a thin, red veil. She’d need to learn to control that, but he was happy for his friend. She’d been chasing the level cap for as long as he’d known her. He smiled for he knew that she had only managed to reach her goal through learning to fight with others.

  Kaleb’s influence is quite something, he thought.

  Though the city of Cali Port was decimated, the adventurer casualties high, a part of him saw it as necessary. The Cali Port council had been a cancer that had ruined so many lives through their greed and superiority. If nothing else, at least this was another city freed from Chrysus’ influence. His smile faded.

  “Sally, I came here to get you,” he said seriously, “I’m travelling to Castalor for the tournament. They made me king so I don’t have much of a choice. I wanted to offer you a job as my bodyguard. You’d get to-”

  “No thanks,” she interrupted. “I appreciate the offer, but I just fulfilled a promise to a friend and I plan to reunite with him and his team, if they’ll have me.”

  Lucas didn’t speak for a moment, then he nodded. She really has changed.

  “Well then he’ll be lucky to have you.”

  “As it happens though, he’s in Castalor right now. So if the offer’s still open we could travel together.”

  Lucas smiled warmly at her. “Of course it is.”

  “How do you plan to get there?” Freja asked, she’d been buried deep in her interface ever since the battle. Meditation and sorting through her stats at the same time. She’d been silent and Lucas had wondered if she was alright. He still needed to talk to her before he left.

  “We’ll travel over land,” Gonzo answered. “I have already procured the necessary transportation and if we leave in the morning we should arrive in time as long as we don’t make any detours.” He glared at Taylor who was covered in blood and sweat, panting like a dog on a hot summer’s day.

  “What are you looking at me for, you’re the one with the specialty dietary needs. My informants tell me that the roads have been cleared recently by an adventuring party. So we shouldn’t have any trouble or any need to stop. If we leave the ship here with most of the crew we can collect it on the way back. If that’s ok with you Director Freja?”

  Lucas and Sally shared a knowing glance as the mention of the cleared roads. He had already sent the bulk of his fleet to a port city further up the coast, closer to Castalor. Leaving one ship here would ensure alternative escape routes just in case. Taylor was growing into her new role perfectly, he’d made the right choice in promoting her.

  “It is, but I have an alternative solution for you,” Freja replied. “I haven’t tried this yet, but it should work. If it’s just the four of you, I can teleport you directly there.”

  Lucas balked, looking at her with an open mouth. “Does that mean?”

  “It does, it happened during that fight just now. I’ve been meditating on it and choosing a skill to upgrade. According to my interface I can send you to anywhere within Castalor.”

  “What’s happening?” Taylor asked.

  “Plebian, can’t you tell?” Gonzo added.

  “If I could tell then I wouldn’t have asked.”

  “How pedestrian.”

  “Well, do you know?”

  “Of course I know, it’s quite obvious isn’t it? She has looted a skill upgrade potion.”

  “What?” Sally and Lucas said in unison.

  “Keep to your admin work, Gonzo,” Sally chuckled. “She’s saying she’s hit Jade Soul.”

  Which makes her the strongest among us…

  “Well that was my second guess,” he replied indignantly.

  “I’ll send you across first thing in the morning,” Freja said. “I could use some rest first.”

  “Come with us,” Sally suggested, taking her hand in hers.

  “No,” Lucas said firmly. “Cali Port needs a leader, now more than ever. Besides, there is an important matter I need to discuss with you Director. It’s concerning your claim to the Castalorian throne.”