I laughed as we fell, this time her being the one to tackle me off a cliff, and then my core was sputtering in protest as I drained it once more to bleed our momentum as we hit the earth. I staggered to my feet, Jacyntha’s grip leaving my shoulder as she straightened, swinging her great axe above her head to block a thrust from a nearby rider.

  I hadn’t seen the attack coming, too focused on the timing of my skill, but I recovered quickly, leaping forwards to get beneath the lance and grabbing the man’s leg and belt. His dropped the lance and reached for a short cutting sword strapped to the saddle but I was faster, and pulled him bodily from the horse as he grunted in surprise.

  I kicked him in the face as I called Resolution to my hand, and then leapt aside from a bolt of purple magic shooting from his open palm as he rolled to his feet. I’d not had much time to get my bearings before finding myself in a battle once more, but Stride The Edge helped me keep stable footing in the churned mud beneath me.

  Before my spear arrived, Jacyntha’s axe thudded into the man’s chest, knocking him flat to his back with the force of the impact and I cringed at the wet crunch it made as it cut deep into his ribcage. The barbarian appeared a moment later, wrenching her axe out of the corpse as my red spear smacked into my open palm.

  We shared a wild-eyed look with each other before we sprinted off, ducking and weaving through a mad churning of horses and riders. I was nearly decapitated by a hefty swing from a broad-chested old man sitting aside an even more impressively muscled destrier, but I dropped to my knees and slid through the mud beneath the animal and launched back to my feet on the other side.

  I was slipping past another soldier before he could follow up and swung myself out of the path of a magical arrow by gripping the saddle of a nearby horse and twisting into the air. I caught a flash of green light as Jacyntha streaked through the pitched battle nearby, and I marvelled at the speed and power she displayed even as I avoided a swing from the rider beside me and heard a whinny of dismay from the horse I had yanked off course.

  Whatever work the seed had done on her had been potent indeed. I’d more than had her measure the last few times we had spared, but watching her scythe through the melee faster than I could dodge and weave, I knew those days were long gone.

  Her scars flared brighter, and then she ducked her shoulder and ran through a horse. The creature, and the rider above, were thrown bodily into the air, spinning aside as Jacyntha’s power ploughed through them.

  I gaped even as I juked around a pair of prancing horses, and then we were free of the chaos, running across open ground on our way to the white-uniformed company ahead. We were not entirely alone, a good portion of the Crimson Company having decided to cut and run already after their commander was cut down, and on either side of the ranks of disciplined white-armoured soldiers before us, I saw men and women of various colours and groups turning to march orderly or haphazardly away as their leaders bailed on the battle.

  “How are we doing this!?” I yelled over to my companion as we sprinted forwards.

  I just heard wild laughter in response, and chanced a glance over to see Jacyntha grinning, axe gripped in one fist as she pumped it by her side as she ran. That was an answer in and of itself. She caught my eye and grinned, hers alight and shining in the golden glow from above. I felt a flutter in my chest that was nothing at all to do with the recent changes to my soul, but there was no time to examine it as we closed in on the army before us.

  I saw the nervous faces of the men and women in the first few ranks as they turned, and felt my own fear rising, too. Spears, polearms, large-bladed axes and shields swivelled to face us, the men and women holding them reacting with admirable speed as we closed in.

  But I heard Vera’s enraged shouting, and felt my resolve harden into flinty conviction. Besides, there was no time to back out now as the meters between us vanished beneath our feet. I locked eyes with the woman before me, seeing the growing panic on her face as she internalised the fact that I would not be stopping and the speed with which I approached.

  Still, there were dozens of them in front, and they were at least six ranks deep, the woman bolstered by warriors and comrades behind and beside her. I saw resolve firm in them as well in those final moments before the clash, and my mind cleared.

  Time seemed to slip by slowly, as if I had activated Break-Step, but it was no earthly skill that did this. It was simply what happened in moments of great stress. My foes moved like snails through the world, but so did I, each of us powerless to stop what was coming. My head burned as if my mind was afire, and in some ways it was. The adrenaline and fear and excitement of the moment combined with my fervent hope and desire to save my friend into an intense stimulant, accelerating my thoughts for but a moment.

  I knew I had outstanding notifications to review; I’d likely gained a level or two from the lives of the Crimson Company I’d claimed, no doubt the World Tree’s seed had affected my skills in a way that the system might acknowledge, and I’d definitely have some attribute points to assign, but as I bore down on the white soldiers alongside Jacyntha, there was no time to consider any of it.

  I had recovered some mana in the mad dash over the field, and now had enough for a few skills at the least, though I would quickly run dry during a prolonged fight. Looking at the ranks of soldiers arrayed before me though, it didn’t seem like a long fight was on the cards to be honest. But I’d stared death in the face a few times already today, and it had yet to take me away.

  I grinned and flexed my aura, End of the Hunt exploding out from my body and racing across the open ground towards the soldiers far faster than I could. The confidence that the few soldiers before me had drawn from the presence of their brothers and sisters was swept away as they felt my presence wash over them.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  They may have trained for most of their lives, drilled with one another in formation, practiced with their chosen weapons and led lives of devotion to their craft…but I was the end of the hunt. I was the last thing they would see as they collapsed from exhaustion, the lone farmer in the field at dusk reaping a bloody harvest with thresher in hand. The one that would walk away.

  They were here, ultimately, for money. To fight for their liege lord in exchange for coin or land. I was here to kill my enemies, to drive them from this land and grow stronger from their deaths. I was here to save a friend, and I would not stop until that task was through, whether I had to wade through an entire army to get there or not. They beheld my conviction, and they quailed from it.

  As my aura descended upon the soldiers to shadow their hearts with my own intent, I saw them buckle. Jacyntha crashed into the front rank a moment before me like an implacable tide, and bodies flew with a flare of emerald light. I raised my shield and activated Axis-Shift, hitting a man on my left with the look of a veteran and causing him to lower his spear momentarily.

  My shield hit the woman in front as we collided, knocking aside her wavering axe and leaving my body open and undefended. There was no space between us at all, and I bowled into her, covering my body with hers as I ducked lower. A spear came at my face but I found safety in the crook of her neck, and I kept moving, my momentum propelling both of us hard into the man behind her.

  She grunted as she was flattened between him and myself, and I ducked my head behind hers to avoid another jabbing sword coming over at me from the third line. The veteran I had targeted with my skill had regained his balance and was moving to circle behind me even as I thrust out with my spear, taking the life of a man in the third row.

  I ducked again, hearing the woman I had hit with my charge cry out as one of her comrades stabbed her in the frantic struggle, mistaking her leg for my own. I ducked backwards, slamming my shield’s rim up under the chin of the man to my left who was trying to flank me. He bit through his own tongue with a scream, and then the jagged gauntlet blade at the end of my shield was slicing his neck as I drew it back.

  Something whistled towards my face and I flinched away on instinct, avoiding a swift death and turning to see a man to my right raising a stubby crossbow to his shoulder again after cranking it back rapidly. I kicked the man in front of him in the chest with all my strength, and they were both knocked back by the force of it, the crossbowman’s shot going awry again. My spear sought his throat, and then I was ducking and spinning again, a line of blood being extracted from my bicep by an unknown soldier even as I moved.

  The air was a barrage of flashing lights as various skills were discharged directly towards us, but thankfully the soldiers had good discipline, unwilling to let loose with any area of affect attacks into the ranks of their fellows. Jacyntha had moved though the first several lines and was carving her way through the army with admirable speed, her great axe tracing looping lines through the air that none seemed able to resist when combined with her incredible strength and ferocity.

  I had made a dent in the neat formation but found myself unable to push through by sheer force. She had received a full blessing from the World Tree, after all, and brimmed with its irresistible power. I suspected she was closer to a 3rd tier now in terms of combat prowess, while I had only marginally improved.

  At least physically. No new skills, no dramatic increase in my ability to deal death, but I did receive some advantages from the seed’s impartment. My skills came smoother, were far more efficient, and therefore I could activate them with no noticeable delay and for much less of a cost. That was enough though, because I wasn’t a powerhouse anyway. I had never been the most cerebral fighter, but I excelled at making quick decisions that others didn’t see coming. I wasn’t an implacable battering ram, but I didn’t need to be.

  I fed mana to The Mountain’s Gate, blowing a hole in the ranks before me as the thirteen jagged peaks I had become familiar with reared forth from the ground in an instant, scattering men and weapons aside like flotsam beneath a waterfall. They began a few meters in front of me, and bisected the army to end just before the slowly shrinking open ground that Vera fought in.

  I knocked aside a thrust from the woman in front who had regained her breath, and then smacked her in the head with the haft of my spear as I brought it around to deflect another attack from the side, and then I was running again.

  Three quick steps brought me back to her and then I leapt up, springing off her shoulder to land near to the top of one of the conjured peaks. I scurried up the last meter or two with an easy pull, and then I was leaping from peak to peak, traversing a mountain ridge as I had done so many times before, only in miniature.

  I still managed to cross a dozen meters in a few heartbeats, running through the sky above the heads of the solders, but now I was no longer surrounded by soldiers I was an easier target for ranged attacks and skills and all manner of chaos. Stride The Edge allowed me to cross the undulating, foot-thin rock with ease while I dodged explosions of ice and whips of acid from the soldiers below.

  I leapt from the final of the thirteen peaks into the air, spear shooting from my hand in a deadly arc towards the white-robed woman that was even now trying to restrain Vera, and cursing as an arrow punctured my shoulder, my shield arm abruptly going slack as I sailed through the air.

  I thudded into the ground, rolling and biting off a scream as the arrow snapped off, digging deeper into flesh before I was on my feet again. Jacyntha burst into the clearing with a roar, cutting a soldier in half as she did so, a corridor of death carved through the ranks of men behind her that closed even as she sprinted out.

  I turned once more to Vera, seeing the mage turn my spear aside with ease with a simple arcane gesture from her gloved hands. Resolution actually reversed is course, flung back to the top of the mini mountain range where I had thrown it from, and then falling to the ground upon reaching that point. I closed the final bit of open ground between us, fully expecting an arrow or blade in the back at any moment from the soldiers behind, but no death blow came.

  I had no time to ponder it as Vera screamed at us. I caught sight of her face, reflected in the back of her blade which she held in front of her head, eyes widening with surprise as she saw us.

  “No! Get back!” she cried, but it was too late.

  The mage grinned viciously and dropped one of her arms. Vera managed to burst through some sort of invisible restraint and take a few fast steps forward, sending a plume of raging flames at her enemy, but the mage had managed to gesture towards me and Jacyntha in the meantime and then return her full attention to Vera once more, at which point the roaring inferno was snuffed out before it ever reached her.

  Our momentum was stolen in an instant and we found ourselves unable to move a single muscle. Even breathing was impossible, the world halted and us inside it. I could see what was in front of me but couldn’t even move my eyes in their sockets to see what Jacyntha was doing. All I could see was Vera struggling against the same magical bonds that held us tight.

  She was having no more success than us, and I heard, above the screams of the injured we’d left in our wake, the familiar tramp of feet as soldiers closed in behind us.