As the duke disappeared from sight, I fell to the ground hard. I let out a little grunt, but there was no need to play up the terrified God-Touched any longer, and my attributes were no longer limited, so I simply rolled smoothly to my feet and looked about at the three people around me.

  The messenger was dressed in armour and had a hand on the axe at his belt, but seemed perplexed more than anything, and didn’t look to consider me much of a threat. I’d been suspended in the air and flailing helplessly when he arrived, and it probably wasn’t the best impression if I was aiming for ‘menacing and deadly’.

  Estan likewise looked a little smug. No doubt me dodging his strike had ruffled the ego that he clearly nurtured and seeing me squirm had gone some way to reassure his superiority complex that I was not a true threat. I was making a lot of assumptions, but something in his bearing and the ease with which he smirked and leered reminded me of every pompous noble and arrogant bastard I’d met in this world.

  Varice though watched me with careful consideration, the raven on her shoulder clacking its beak menacingly as I stood to my feet.

  “You understand the position you are in,” she said, though her tone made clear it was a question she expected an answer to.

  I shrugged in response, opting for politeness as a default approach as I tried to think through how things would progress from here. “I’m not sure I do. Please enlighten me, Varice.”

  “First of all, what is your name? I will not address you as ‘boy’ like the duke did, and I do not wish to keep using your title” the plain woman said, and I found myself a little surprised at the courtesy.

  “I am called Lamb. “I am called Lamb. The Shield-Shaker, Guardian Of The Lost Mountain, Surefoot, World-Walker and Red-Spear-” I replied, taking a chance.

  “Lies” croaked the raven immediately, and I shot a venomous glare at the summoned creature. Varice smirked and ran an approving hand down the bird’s head, ruffling its shining feathers and scratching its beak, and the creature crooned into her hand in response.

  “Fine. Just Lamb, for now” I groused. “What is the plan now?”

  “Well, Lamb. That depends on you. You can either come with us and get settled in the temporary barracks we have erected down here with the other God-Touched-”

  “The other God-Touched?” I interrupted with a frown, but Varice just continued talking as if I hadn’t spoken at all.

  “…or you can try to escape, at which point I break a few bones and wrap you up in restraining magic that will be decidedly uncomfortable, I assure you, and then put you in the barracks with the rest of the God-Touched.”

  She finished with a smile, and I gave her a sarcastic twist of my lips in return. “Sterling options,” I said, “I think I’ll have to go with the first.”

  She nodded. “Very good. Come with me” she said as she turned on her heel, then called over her shoulder to the guard bringing up the rear. “Varden? If he makes any sudden movements, be a dear and put that axe of yours in one of his legs.”

  “Yes mistress,” was the respectful response, and I shivered at the flat acceptance in the gruff voice of the messenger. That sounded like a man who had done the same in the past without much issue.

  Still, he was only low 2nd tier from what I could tell, and I suspected I would have little trouble killing him if it came down to a fight. It was stupid to underestimate any 2nd tier fighter though, with the large amounts of mana that could be pumped into skills at this tier, they were that much more effective and deadly, and even a relatively weak fighter could still surprise a strong one.

  Estan felt vaguely stronger than me, but I was not impressed with him. His blade-work was sloppy, and while I would not be surprised if he possessed at least one powerful skill, I doubted he had the drive necessary to level all of them to get him to the point of being a real danger. He’d definitely fight dirty though, so I’d still need to be careful.

  No, the real danger was Varice. She felt far above me in power. I’d put her as a peak 2nd tier mage. Given that she was the duke’s spymaster, I had a little hope that she would punch below her weight in terms of combat prowess, but she didn’t need to rely on weapons-work to take me out of a fight if she had potent magic to draw on.

  My only advantages would be the element of surprise and the fact that they would not want to actually kill me, since I was still the key to accessing the ruin below and around us. So I bided my time, allowing them to guide me further down the well-built wooden scaffolding that had colonised one side of this massive obsidian pyramid beneath the earth.

  I made sure to keep my dagger, floating along behind us with the support of A Frozen Pyrre, well out of view in the darkness behind us all. It was difficult to manage, but I was now at the point of mild telekinesis with light weapons of mine, when it was the only skill I was focusing on. Moving them with any degree of accuracy was still beyond me, but keeping it fixed at the same distance from me was now doable.

  It wasn’t long until we came to a cluster of buildings, and when I saw the heavy iron chains across the double-doors on the largest, I began to get nervous. There was a subtle aura of distress emanating from the big barn-like building in the centre, nestled into the pyramid and built on massive wooden stilts.

  I couldn’t pin down exactly where the feeling came from, but the energy here was off, and I felt Varice stiffen up in front of me as well as we drew near. She turned to me before we reached the building, and gave me a measuring look.

  “I can’t say that this will be a fun stay for you, but it can be a brief one. That aura skill of yours should keep away the worst of the dread, and you could always disable it if you could ‘find the right pattern’” she said, raising a somewhat mocking eyebrow at me as she referenced my poor lie from earlier.

  She held my gaze a moment longer. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” she said with finality, and then unlocked the heavy chains and wrenched open the wooden doors.

  Inside were several large cages. Prison cells, really. They were relatively well kitted out – a bucket in one corner, a bed, curtains for privacy and blankets to keep the cold at bay. A table and desk, no windows but I supposed there wasn’t much point in a window this deep underground.

  All in all, they looked as comfortable as jail cells could get, but I shivered to look at them simply for the lack of freedom they represented. I hadn’t spent long in a cage – no more than a few days in total – but I had hated every moment.

  “I’m not getting in a cage” I growled out, surprised at the heat in my voice. Varice sighed to herself, but Estan interrupted whatever she had to say by kicking my knee out from under me and moving to stand in front me.

  “You’ll do what you’re told, boy” he said, his voice clearly pitched to mimic his father.

  I stood, his forehead barely reaching my eye level, and while I was only an inch or two taller, I felt as if I towered over him at that moment. End Of The Hunt flared briefly, and I saw his eyes widen as my aura brushed over him for an instant.

  I leaned in close, whispering; “I killed Francis D’Sware as a 1st tier…what the fuck do you think I’ll do to you?”

  He trembled slightly in surprise, before I saw his face twist into a picture of rage. Clearly, he wasn’t used to being challenged by any but the duke. He lashed out a kick again at my leg, but I was ready. Instead of accepting the blow, I activated Break-Step for just a moment, giving myself time to grab his leg and sweep his other from underneath him with my own kick, arm outstretched as we fell.

  By the time we hit the ground together, my fang-dagger was in my hand and it nestled itself in the crook of his neck, kissing the bare skin of his throat with its hard edge. I stared down into wide, panicked eyes, and whispered softly.

  “You’re not your father, Estan. You need to be more careful if you want to stay whole.”

  There followed a few tense moments where I watched his startled eyes roam around looking for some support, and then I felt a subtle caress from Varice’s own weapon. It was a floating blade, no handle or support of any kind, double-edged and pointed on either end, and it traced a gentle line along the back of my neck.

  “The duke wants you alive, Lamb, but if you harm his son, you will not enjoy what follows,” she warned, and I detected a weariness in her voice. “There are worse fates than death.”

  I stared into Estan’s wide eyes for a few more heartbeats before standing and turning my back on him.

  “Look me in the eye and tell me you haven’t wanted to do that before,” I said to Varice, and her lips twisted up in a smirk despite her best efforts. I laughed and let the fang dagger disappear into my storage ring.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Why would I step into that cell?” I asked. “Look, I get it – the duke is scary and could kill me in a flash. But he’s pretty busy right now by the sounds of it, and while you might be a powerful mage,” I said, looking pointedly at her floating blade and purple-hued raven familiar as I spoke, “I’m pretty confident in killing, or at least beating, those two idiots.”

  I tossed a lazy gesture over one shoulder at the messenger and spoiled noble, and I heard a step behind me and tensed slightly, coiling up my legs in preparation for the chaos that would follow. Varice’s eyes didn’t leave my own, but she did let out a sharp command.

  “Leave it! He’s goading you, looking for an opening.”

  I raised an eyebrow, but she continued on, unruffled. “Despite what he says, he’s not confident in this fight, hence why he hasn’t attempted to flee yet. He’s stalling and hoping an opportunity will present itself that he can exploit, because fighting us now would more than likely result in serious injury with no chance of escape.”

  She said all of this calmly, staring right at me as she talked to the two men behind me. “Or do you think I’m underestimating your capacity for violence, Lamb?” she finished.

  I sighed. “No, you’ve got my number there I suspect,” I replied with as much resignation as I could muster, and I saw her relax a fraction. “But you’re severely overestimating my capacity for reason,” I added.

  “Don’t-” she started to say, even as I moved.

  I took a quick half-step to the side, and then activated Break-Step alongside my pathbound aura skill at full blast. Varice shot a hand out towards me, and the raven vanished from her shoulder, reappearing at the head of a bolt of brilliant purple that shot towards my chest.

  It was impossibly fast, but I had stopped moving after that first step. My momentum was almost nothing, a slight sway of my shoulders but no more than that, and so time seemed to stand still for a heartbeat or two. It was long enough for me to visualise, with aid of my mana-sense, the two figures behind me.

  Estan shone like a beacon, circulating mana into some skill that he no doubt meant to hit me with from behind. The soldier wasn’t present as anything more than a low hum in the background, so I assumed he had done the sensible thing and opted to simply smash me in the head with his weapon. It was hard to be sure, as I only had the barest sliver of time in which to understand the situation, but I had to assume the soldier would hit me first.

  As had become a habit for me in fights like these, I dropped to the ground as quickly as I could. The soldier was faster but that turned out to be a great help rather than a hindrance. He clubbed me from behind with the haft of his short axe, but because of my rapid fall, it hit my shoulder instead of my head. It also forced my body to the ground that little bit quicker due to the power in the strike, and so the lavender form of the mana-wrought raven streaked through the air above me and straight into the chest of the soldier.

  He was blasted back a few meters with a muted scream, and slumped against a slab of obsidian, twitching as violet light encircled his form. I had no time to look up, but I heard a grunt of surprise, and the fizzle of mana discharging to my senses, and then Varice cursed followed immediately by a heavy impact of metal on metal.

  Rolling to my side, I saw a beautiful sight; Estan stood in shock as he stared at the phantom copy of his blade embedded within a thin metal kite shield that hovered protectively in front of Varice. He stuttered an apology, and the older woman just looked at him with disdain even as her hand lashed out towards me once again. I knew what was coming this time though and jerked to my feet in a sprint.

  I dove forwards into a roll, hearing the slab crack behind me from another magical impact, and turned back to see Estan finally picking his brain off the floor from where it had clearly been laying as he stared dumbly at Varice. He now stepped towards me, blade held high above his head in a bizarre mimicry of a ready stance, but it felt to me like a fool’s gambit – far too many exposed areas that he would struggle to cover quickly with the position of his sword.

  Varice’s shield hovered at her side, ready to interpose itself between her and any attacks headed her way, and the raven swirled above her head to orient on me once again after missing its most recent dive. The messenger was still out of commission, lilac sparks dancing over his body and limbs twitching in response every few moments.

  I caught a flash of silver, and then my spear, summoned to my hand from my storage ring the moment I rolled to my feet, was deflecting the thin handle-less blade that the woman had threatened me with earlier. I grimaced at the speed of the attack, and summoned forth my shield to cover my left forearm and give myself additional protection.

  We stood across from one another for a moment, me with my back to the hastily constructed barracks filled with cages, and them with their backs to the open cavern and the darkness that shrouded its secrets.

  “I don’t suppose you’ll agree to a time-out while I don my armour, will you?” I called out, and Estan spat a curse my way and took a step towards me, heavy with intent.

  “Estan…” warned Varice, and he looked back at her in confusion or for instruction. I had no real idea why he looked back to be honest – why he’d ever take his eye off the enemy before him in such a moment baffled me, but it seemed that he was just a bit of a moron as far as I could tell. I took advantage of the error, though.

  My spear whistled as it cut through the air, and Varice bit off another curse the moment the duke’s son started to move. Credit where it was due, she seemed to know her way around a fight, despite her reputation as a spy. She whipped a string of violet mana through the air, snaring one of his legs and yanking him off his feet, turning my lethal throw into a painful glancing blow that only cut off half his ear instead of splitting his head open.

  Even as she recovered, my hatchet was in hand and sailing towards her, but it was intercepted by the floating shield. I dived to the side to avoid a retaliatory strike from her floating blade as well, and then I was on the groaning soldier, who had by now ceased his twitching. My dagger made short work of his chest, piercing the heavy brigandine with ease as I slipped it past the shaped breastplate he wore and into his heart.

  You have killed a Human (Guard Messenger - level 55). Experience gained.

  You have reached level 64. Attribute points available for allocation.

  Skill ‘A Frozen Pyrre’ has increased in level. A Frozen Pyrre – level 5

  Trusting instincts that screamed danger even as I ignored the system messages dinging in my mind, I rolled onto my back and wrenched the now limp body in front of me as a shield. Shocks ripped through me as my muscles spasmed in tandem in response to the strange magic of her skill, but I grit my teeth and pushed back against the rampaging energy, feeling End Of The Hunt eat through the hostile mana invading my body. It wasn’t a function of the skill I was truly conscious of, but there was an outside force trying to impose its will upon me, and my soul could not allow that to stand.

  I bunched my legs and kicked with all the strength I could muster, and the corpse of the messenger was sent flying towards Varice where she stood frantically casting something. I didn’t want to wait around to see exactly what she was doing, and summoned Resolution to my hand once more even as I hit her with Axis-Shift.

  She stumbled in place slightly – more of an effect than I was expecting to be honest, but I’d levelled the skill well in the Riverlands so it shouldn’t have been a massive surprise – but her hands never wavered, and even as my spear slid towards her as if pulled inexorably by a string of fate connecting her and it, she finished the cast. A seam of neon violet light, blinding bright and distinctly unnatural, split the air behind her. She stepped backwards into the seam, falling into a hole in the world, and then it sealed itself shut behind her.

  My spear continued its flight uncontested and slid far off into the darkness, and I recalled it immediately before it could go too far. I still hadn’t managed to find out the outer limits of the range, but I knew I could recall it from at least a few hundred meters. It never paid to take unnecessary risks in battle though.

  I had no time to consider the danger of Varice and where she had vanished to though, as Estan bellowed a challenge and sprinted towards me, blade leading the charge. He swung long before he was in range and a mana-forged copy of the thin blade shot forwards from his sword, which I hastily blocked with my shield. Resolution slapped into the palm of my right hand just as he crossed the threshold into my range, and I took a careful step back as I spun the spear around to knock aside his first lunge.

  He followed through, dagger in his off-hand slicing towards my neck, but I slipped by the strike, my back foot shooting out as I leaned forwards and to one side. He tripped on my outstretched foot and sprawled to the floor, and I spun neatly on my other leg even as he turned on the ground to look up at me.

  In a move I had practised incessantly with Sadrianna – she’d called it something stupid like ‘bending willows’ – my back foot rose from the ground, and I leaned forwards into a graceful lunge, weight entirely supported by my front leg as my entire body formed a near horizontal line. My spear led the charge towards Estan’s opening mouth as he began to scream seeing death approach so relentlessly.

  Purple light reflected off the red-lacquered haft of Resolution and it was knocked off course at the last possible moment. The frozen spearpoint embedded itself in the slab next to Estan’s head, and slim shards of volcanic glass scattered at high speeds, some tracing bleeding lines across the man’s face, but he was very much alive.

  I looked up in time to see Varice’s upper body emerging from a new seam in reality above us and to my left, out in the empty air of the cavern. It seems she had some sort of portalling skill, or an extra-planar space she could access that moved about on alien principles that I couldn’t even begin to guess at. In any case, she didn’t seem to be falling out of the air, so I assumed she could re-appear anywhere around here should she wish to.

  I leapt back as Estan slashed through the air where my front leg had been resting, and then fell to my ass to avoid the hovering blade of Varice that once more came seeking my neck. Estan rose to his feet, and I used a novel application of A Frozen Pyrre that I hadn’t yet managed to try in a real battle. The principle was sound, and had worked during sparring, but it was always finnicky and generally not suited to a one-on-one fight.

  Being outnumbered had changed the calculus though, and I needed to finish Estan before I could deal with Varice. Besides, the recent skill level should help turn it from an impossible task to merely a difficult one. I focused, marshalling my intent. It was a passive skill, so I didn’t need to pour mana into the skill, since the effect I was focusing on was constant, but it did require focus. I let my hands and legs scrabble against the surface of the obsidian beneath me, pushing myself further away from both my opponents as my mind focused on the task ahead.

  I felt for the bond in my soul between me and each of my weapons, and willed the hatchet to rise from the floor. Rather than recall to me, I forced it to shoot at Estan’s unprotected leg behind the knee, and there was a satisfying squeal as the sharp axeblade bit deep into tendon and flesh, Estan falling to the floor immediately in response.

  I paid for my distraction though, as a purple raven smashed me in the chest. I was flung back with an immense amount of speed, but activated Break-Step to siphon away my momentum, such that I only hit the obsidian slab behind me with mildly bone-jarring force. I coughed as I fell to the floor, but pushed any distractions from my mind.

  The handaxe ripped its way from the wound with another scream from Estan, and then it buried itself in his neck under my telekinetic command. I had no time to celebrate the feat though, for my body locked up in a spasm easily three times as intense as the previous one. My back arched and a scream tore its way from my throat as it felt like every nerve in my body was lit aflame.

  Then, blackness, deeper than the uncompromising void that hung over the ruin. My consciousness fled.