Leading adventurers brought back memories for Abigail. Once, she’d been a captain of soldier and other knights. Leading from the front was nostalgic.

  Fighting a champion was something she’d done in the past too. She had less fond memories of such a that.

  She knew that the dead man walking towards her was a champion. She’d heard the stories about him before. Halvin almost looked like how he was remembered.

  A tall elf with broad shoulders. It wasn’t common you saw an elf with proper muscles, and it warred with his delicate features. Like her, he wore armour, though his wasn’t covered in runes. He was wearing a necklace with a picture of him holding a little girl. It clinked against his breastplate with every step.

  Of course, that was only what was left from when he was alive. Four snakes of shadow twisted out from his back to face her. When they looked at her, she felt something watching her. She shivered at their gaze. The attention from something larger staring through at her. She knew she had to call to it for it to touch her, but it still didn’t make her feel any safer. She hadn’t lived so long without knowing there were some things you didn’t cross.

  “Halvin, I ask that you let us go,” she said. Halvin paused for a moment and looked at her in consideration. He almost seemed to agree before one of the snakes whispered into his ear. When he looked back at Abigail, it was clear what the answer was.

  He lunged at her sword first. Abigail caught the blow on her own sword and slid past to strike at his neck. The dead man danced to the side just in time for his armour to take it. The snakes twisted around her strike and tried to bite her. Abigail tapped her sword twice and it flashed blue. The snakes reeled back in pain as they burned.

  Abigail hissed. She’d had to draw on her own cores for that, there wasn’t enough ambient magic to power it. Her supply was already low in this place, so she wasn’t sure how many more she had in her.

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  She didn’t waste the moment given to her. She switched to half grip with her sword and slammed it into Halvin’s shoulder, the one he’d been using the sword from. The armour dented as he let out a desperate swipe to get her to dance away, which she did.

  “I’ve fought enough of the Emptiness to know you can keep getting up, but I wonder how your armour will fare?” she asked. It wasn’t for Halvin’s benefit, he wasn’t there. No, it was for the adventurers all around her. So long as she looked in control of the fight, they wouldn’t break. The moment they broke, they’d die. She had to hold them together long enough for a hole in the Emptiness’ ranks.

  Halvin rolled his shoulder under the bent armour. It was restricting, but he’d still be able to use the arm. He switched his sword from the side she’d struck to his other hand. Abigail grimaced. Typical elf, so talented even when they were already gone.

  She kept her half grip on the sword. She could still use the blade, but it was his armour she was after.

  Halvin struck at her and Abigail kept her sword in the way. Her armour used more mana than her sword so she couldn’t let him get close. Unfortunately, he wasn’t just limited to the two hands. The snakes struck at her and Abigail let them bash into her armour. She could feel them burning away at here mana as they did so.

  She caught Halvin’s sword arm as he came in again. She pushed it out of the way and sliced her own sword across his neck. Halvin stumbled and fell to the floor. She went to take advantage of the moment, but his snakes surrounded him and lashed out at her any time she tried to get close. With their champion down, they seemed ever more vicious. Anger wafted off of them in a way that made the air around them shake.

  Abigail reminded herself that they could only touch the world through Halmir. So long as she let him get up, they couldn’t attack her.

  Around her, adventurers cheered at her success. That cheering stopped the moment Halvin stood up again. She looked for any of the tell-tale signs of deteriation that the empty showed when they’d been killed and found none. Damn, it was invested in him. Abigail glanced at the battlefield as a whole. The adventurers were holding but there was too many of the empty for them to push through yet. The consequences of letting this place linger she supposed.

  She switched her sword back to a normal grip, hoping to keep some distance this time. Her cores were still at about three quarters, thought she’d lost most of that in her first encounter. No big runes while fighting then, just simple sword work.

  She just had to hold until a gap opened. She had to hope that’d be enough.