PreCursive

  Mid-leap, one of the SED Agents was knocked out of the air by something traveling so fast I could barely make it out. It was only thanks to the pyback of the se by my c that I was able to just barely perceive a single arrow coated in flowing purple Mana, before it promptly pierced the side of the unlucky Agent.

  Wisp och had gotten one of them.

  The force of the arrow was great enough that the SED operative was blown off of their feet, flying to sm against a nearby tree in the pza. Somehow, her shot was accurate enough to lodge itself straight ihroat of the ambusher. The arrow pihe bck-cloaked figure like it tured i. They writhed for only a moment, clutg uselessly at the shaft irachea, before they fell still.

  By the time Crook, Sylvia, and I had met the surviving SED members bde to bde, it was now four versus three, instead of the five they’d arrived with. Curtly, the leader that had been speaking to me earlier gestured with their free hand not occupied holding back Crook’s stave at another one of their cohorts. They broke away fr to circle around behio dash off in the dire of Wisp on her rooftop, dodging arrows coated in violet Mana all the while. The sound of the projectiles crag into the stone of the pza echoed like gunshots in the night.

  Three versus three, now. Evenly matched.

  Thanks, Wisp.

  Sylvia and her chosen oppo both shimmered out of sight in duel illusionary Skills for their own battle, out of sight from the rest of us. Odd, hidden cshes started erupting out of mid-air all over the pza, the tarent stealth specialists g only briefly just out of phase. Meanwhile, Crook and the leader had begun trading blows in a much more straightforward duel than I was expeg, her stave g against the fug broadsword that the leader had drawn from nowhere. The two brutish ons were creating shockwaves that rolled over the rest of us, from the apparent strength behind both ons.

  I had no idea Crook was this strong. Thank fuck I’d brought her along.

  But I only vaguely noticed any of this, and only thanks to the observational abilities ed Mind. I was too busy trying to fight off someone who was very, very obviously strohan I was.

  And failing.

  I cursed mentally, desperately dodging out of the way of a strike from the SED member’s bizarre on. I’d never seen or fought against anything like it before, in my time on Vereden. To my eyes, it looked like someone had attached a mini scythe to a length of fine , and theed the other end with the head of a small, spiked mace. My oppo was wielding the strange on with such preternatural skill that I was certain they had gohe route of specialization in it. They had to have an advanced proficy talent in using this thing, whatever it was.

  In a way, their fighting style almost reminded me of the way Azarus teo throw around his hammer and shield. Right now, I was feeling like a plete moron for never asking to spar with him when he was using his s. It had just never e up, with as focused as he’d been on teag me ventional on forms.

  How the hell was I supposed to know I would enter another wielder? How popur could the damn things be?

  I promised myself I would bug him for the practice.

  If I ever saw him again.

  Even with Sylvan Vigor jacked up as high as I could manage, I was only barely managing to keep the bded edge of the flying scythe from taking my head off. I had no doubt it could do that, either. As I parried one wide, scything throw from the operative, the tumbling edge of the bde briefly touched the wood of the bench from earlier.

  The solid wooden structure was eatly in half when my oppo reeled the bde ba. I only scarcely caught the sight of that, though, as I was too busy being knocked off of my feet from the mace head of the impag my stomach, thrown underhanded by the SED operative. If I hadn’t been wearing a sleeveless vest of leather armor under my civilian clothes, I would have been disemboweled right then and there. As it was, I could see feel the spikes of the mace pee deep enough through the hard leather to prick the skin of my stomach before it was withdrawn.

  I tumbled through the air from the force of the blow, only able to stop myself from flying into the garden by stabbing one of my daggers down into the stone of the pza below. The fgstones crumbled uhe ented fory Oninite bde, but still slowed me enough that I was able to nd on my hands and knees. Instantly, I raised both my head and my right hand, still clutg the dagger not buried ioh, and poiwo fingers in the dire of the wielding assassin.

  Snarling, I fired off a barrage of three Poisonthorn Shots at them.

  The SED operative stopped spinning the of their on for ahrow and caught the hand of the scythe. Holding the bde ft before them, a pane of inky bck shadows, so simir to the Skill that had held me earlier, span up in front of them. Almost ptuously, my oppo blocked all three of my poisonous thorns, her the point nor the corrosive acid coating them managing to pierce the solid darkness.

  But in the brief moment that their sight had been blocked by their shield, I had pushed off against the fgstones as hard as I possibly could, straight at the -wielding maniac. The stone under my feet cracked in a dissimir to the shots that Wisp had been nding earlier, as I flew through the air, daggers poised to strike at the operative like the fangs of a serpent.

  I saw my oppoense in surprise in the split sed before I closed in on them as they she of their on in a guarding position. The length of gleamed oddly, looking to grow sturdier.

  My Oninite bdes crashed into the strangely sturdy links in an explosion of sparks. In an instant, the length of somehow flowed around the bdes of my daggers, trapping them in pce. Above me, I could see the scythe bde at the end of their long on angle down at me in a killing blow. For some reason, I got the impression that the opposing agent was smirking at me.

  I grinned viciously in response, and activated the entire reason I had gotten so close to them.

  Grinding Crimson Sunder.

  The bdes of my daggers erupted into a swirling mire of blood-red screeg thorns. The around both of my daggers burst into an explosion of sundered links from the grinding fory synergized Skill, falling in fragments all arou the same time, I depressed the activation swit the dagger I was aiming.

  Right. At. Their. Head.

  The colpsible spear exploded into its full length in an instant, as I tried to hrough their skull with just the power of the springs in my on.

  Somehow, the SED operative was able to rea time to dodge the ining point of my spear. They jerked their head backward just in time to avoid taking the full bde to the face. Instead, the crimson-coated edge just barely scraped along the swirling illusionary surface of their cealing spell mask. It was disrupted along the line of the bde, briefly revealing their face to the world.

  In respohe operative rocketed their head back forward in a headbutt that I didn’t see ing, closing the short distahat was between our two bodies. In the split sed before their skull impacted my own, I was able to see I had carved a bloody line over one furious brown eye, set into a pale feminine face.

  That was all I saw, though, because in the instant, I was seeing stars. I stumbled back, activating Thorn Cloak almost instinctually as I did so. It was a good thing I did, as I felt the spiked end of my oppos severed mace swing around behind me and strike my back. The spikes pierced the mass of thorns, but not the surfay armor this time. I skipped ba order to get some distaween us, as my sight started to clear.

  When I could see again, I noticed that the surface of the operative’s illusionary mask had regeed from my strike. But now their posture was much warier now that they’d found out I could actually hurt them. They were holding the handle of their severed scythe in their left hand, while they swung the shorter length of attached to the mace head iher, gearing up for ahrow.

  Shit.

  That had been an almost st-gasp gambit from me. I didn’t know what else to do, now that this apparent woman was wise to some of my best tricks. I wasn’t going to be able to get them with the extension of my daggers anymore, and they were going to be wary of my bdes now that they knew I had on enha Skills. I could hurt them with Grinding Crimson Sunder, and hell, I could probably get them with The Stilnt Bde too. But the problem now was they still had range oh that mace, and my spear wasn’t lohan that . I couldn’t rely on backup either, as both Crook and Sylvia were still preoccupied with their own oppos.

  Damnit, this robably the worst bat matchup I’d ever had on Vereden. ceptually, I was too simir in ability to this woman, and I couldn’t beat her with pure Skill. In pure instind skill, she seemed superior to me as well.

  Fuck it.

  I was just going to have to grit my teeth and do my best.

  I sheathed my left dagger aended my right, gripping it in a spear stanstead of b with daggers anymore. The may be lohan my shorter spear, but it was still better for this situation.

  I took a deep breath, and prepared to charge.

  I have bothered.

  Appearing as if out of nowhere, a familiar Gnoll woman shimmered into view in a flying kick to the side of the SED operative I’d been failing against.

  Dusk, somehow miraculously ing to my rescue.

  Impossibly, I saw the woman try to react to the sneak attack, but not fast enough for ohe kick impacted their side, and they went flying to sm against the nearby trunk of a tree in the pza. In particur, I saw their head bounce hard off the bark. They tried tle back to their feet from the hard impact, only to slump back against it, looking to have lost sciousness.

  I let out a slow breath, before flig my eyes over at taciturn Gnoll that had saved me. I nearly had to do a double-take at the sight of her.

  Bizarrely, while she was still wearing her face-cealing mask, she was not wearing the normal Order armor. Instead, she had an almost ingruously stereotypical maid uniform on. The long bck skirt and blouse were overid by a frilly white apron, upon which I could see dust and dirt stains.

  I stared at her dumbly for a moment, fetting the entire frontation still ongoing. I nearly wahing at how out of pce the Gnoll woman looked. After a moment, though, I snapped out of it.

  Something else had grabbed my attention. Multiple things, in fact.

  The first was that the SED leader had disengaged from Crook, and had backed off while the other operative fighting Sylvia shimmered into view o them, regrouping. Because someone else had joihem, too.

  The agent that had bee off in the dire of Wisp.

  They had returned, and their body was dripping with freshly stained blood.

  My own ran cold at the sight of it, the implication slowly sinking in while Crook and Sylvia joined Dusk and I. Crook noticed the same thing I did, and snarled like a wild animal, taking a teep forward. She was blocked by the extended arm of Dusk, however. I’m not sure she even noticed. “What did you do?!” She shouted in the silence of the pza, at the blood-drenched SED operative.

  They didn’t answer. Instead, the leader did for them. “No more than you, Noe,” They said, their disdain somehow transting through the voice moduting effect of their illusionary mask. “An eye…for an eye.”

  Crook tensed further, her grip oave tightening enough for the wood to creak. Before she could do anything, though, Dusk finally spoke since her sudderance. “Enough,” She said lowly, causing Crook to turn her head slightly. I broke out of my shock caused by the appareh of Wisp to look at her. “We o go. Now.”

  “Why?!” Crook questioned furiously. “We ’t just let them get away with this!”

  But it wasn’t Dusk who answered, or even the SED leader.

  Instead, it was a familiar voice, ing from the entrao the pza.

  “Oh, possibly because of me,” A cool, refined female voice rang out, apanied by the sound of marg armor-cd boots.

  I…khat voice. The owner was the entire reason this frontation even happened.

  Turning my head, I saw her.

  Rhiannon.

  Apanied by what looked like aire ptoon of cssers from a group I hadn’t seen since we’d takeein.

  The Order of Solstice’s Fme.