The veteran mercenary, drenched in his blood red cloak and silhouetted against the backdrop of the castle gate, cut a dramatic sight. The flames lighting him from below and dark skies framing his figure only enhanced the image

  In the time I took to admire the scene, some small part of my mind frustratingly focused on the poetry of it, he sent another arrow winging its way towards me, and this one was glistening with a silver glow of magic.

  I darted aside, Break-Step aiding my reactions and giving me back the precious time I had wasted with my gawking. I slid to a stop against the inner wall of the barbican and looked up. Staying here wasn’t sustainable. I needed to get to the north tower and rejoin my companions, but that archer was deadly on open ground. I couldn’t risk the dash across the open courtyard, and I equally couldn’t just wait out the man and hope he was killed by somebody else.

  The ease with which he’d dispatched the Sultan’s soldier made me think he would haunt this caste for a long while. I had no idea how the fucking Sultanate was involved in all of this, or why their army was besieging duke Ryonic’s castle, and why and how the Crimson Lions were here, but it was obvious that things weren’t going well for the duke and his guards.

  The gate was destroyed and the castle wards broken, and it wouldn’t be long before warriors were streaming in through the ruined gate and over the walls. Vera had said that it was imperative that we hold the castle in our planning the day prior, and I knew enough of the world myself to realise that without the security of Castle Ryonic, it would be hard to hold onto the Western marchlands for Vera, even with the support of the rebels and the village and worker councils.

  No matter what, having a high-level archer running around to pick us off would not support any plan that my friends may have, and so my path was clear; kill the archer.

  I took two quick breaths to psych myself up, and then I was sprinting along the curve of the wall, aiming for the wooden walkway ringing the inside of the wall only a few meters distant. I juked aside from another arrow but when I chanced a glance up, the archer was shooting at somebody else along the wall - I was clearly not his only target currently.

  I jumped onto the wooden scaffold and climbed up, spider-quick, my arms reaching for the next hold even as my legs propelled me upwards. Within moments I was vaulting to my feet and clashing weapons with a surprised Sultanate soldier. My spear had been shrunk to its smaller form, and the Heart Of Winter at its head drank deep of the man’s lifeblood as I cut his throat on my way past.

  One of the Sultan’s elite men, turban a deep purple and dual scimitars flashing in the night as he killed a Castle Ryonic guardsman, turned to me as I raced towards the wall.

  “Finally! A challenge!” He cried with a smile as he twirled his blades.

  I ignored the provocation and lowered my shoulder as if to charge. He braced and swept low with a burning sword as I bunched my legs and leapt over him. Axis-Shift provided a further distraction as I flew through the air, though he managed to partially resist the disorientating effect.

  We locked eyes as I flipped over his head and he sliced his other blade towards me, but even at the zenith of my leap, my spear was with me, already extended once more to its full form and dipping its frozen tip into the man’s chest. I finished the airborne cartwheel, using his body as an anchor, and ripping the spear from his chest as I landed.

  You have killed a Human (Soldier - level 42). Experience gained.

  You have killed a Human (Flame of Alakir - level 72). Experience gained.

  ‘Stride The Edge’ has increased in level. Stride The Edge – level 6.

  I managed to bring my shield up at the last moment, deflecting an arrow such that it only left a small cut above my ear rather than took me through the eye, but it was a potent reminder that I needed to be swift here rather than thorough. I sprinted towards and then onto the wall of the barbican, and there found my progress slowed once more.

  Ryonic guardsmen we're struggling against Sultanate soldiers in a frenzied melee, which to my eye looked more like a group of people shoving one another in an inn than a true battle. Shields were locked against one another with men and women grunting and heaving in a symphony of discordant shouting. Occasionally a shrill scream would punctuate the furore as a canny spear snuck between the front lines and took someone’s life, while rare skills exploded and flashed in the night, though steel still reigned supreme as a method of delivering death for the regular soldiers.

  I considered trying to push my way through but quickly discarded the idea. It would only take an errant knife in the front or the back – or the side, so many fun ways to die! – and that would be it for me. Besides, I wasn’t known to the guardsmen in the same way my barbarian friends were, so it would be too much of a gamble.

  Speaking of, I saw Jacyntha silhouetted in the distance as she fought against a red-cloaked mercenary, losing ground before the elegant strikes of the clearly experienced swordsman. The tall man gestured, and a bolt of brilliant azure lightning sizzled towards the barbarian, and in her haste to avoid the magical attack, she stumbled. The man saw his opening and lunged.

  I activated Break-Step on instinct, determined to do something, though I wasn’t clear exactly what. I watched in slow motion as the rapier threaded its way towards her heart, and I knew from the soft blue glint on the blade itself that it would have no trouble piercing her armour. I reached deep inside my soul for the mana that welled constantly within my core and began forcing it towards the skill constellation for The Mountain’s Gate, but I knew it would be too late.

  I was too slow with my mana control, the range of the skill was still not enough to reach Jacyntha, and so the man’s blade would find purchase before my skill ever could. I watched in achingly frozen time as my companion greeted death with helplessness…and then Nathlan was there.

  A single-edged sword sprang forth, a viper striking a mouse, and knocked aside the rapier just as it had been about to kill. In the next few heartbeats, as I struggled to process my surprise and let the world fall back into its normal pace as Break-Step faded away, I watched Nathlan pick apart the mercenary’s bladework with intricate steps and cuts.

  Moments later and he was standing over a rapidly cooling corpse, sword held loosely in one hand and eyes scanning for the next threat, his Ryonic cloak now abandoned and looking like himself once more with his barbarian armour on full display.

  I let out an explosive breath as I searched for Sadrianna and saw her in down in the courtyard now. I panicked to see it, knowing that a single arrow from on high could be the end for her, and unsure how she had even ended up down there. There she was though, battling three of the Sultan’s veterans, though she seemed to have support from two Ryonic guardsmen. Not exactly an even fight, but then I’d bet Sadrianna against any 2nd tier within the Sunset Kingdoms entire.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Even as I scanned, she was moving, darting back and forth around the courtyard with strange movements, staying unusually close to the ground in an almost lizard-like skitter as she zigzagged between two of the fighters before slicing beneath one’s shield and taking out their leg.

  I looked once more for the archer and saw him standing tall, great bow drawn back to its full length and sighting down towards where Sadrianna battled. I grit my teeth and willed mana to flood down the skill link to Axis-Shift. I saw him wince as my skill hit him, though he kept his feet steady, and then he was turning my way smoothly, bow still drawn.

  My eyes widened in surprise and panic, and I leapt to one side, feeling the air shiver as a projectile hissed passed my ear once more. He was fast, powerful, and incredibly dangerous. I hunkered down behind the crenelated wall for a moment to gather my bearings, the sounds of battle so close disorientating in the extreme. Men and women fought and died just meters from me, but I squeezed my eyes shut and focused.

  Shatter Point wasn’t just an armour-piercing skill, though I had used it to that effect most often since I’d earned it. It was also an upgrade to the stone-sense that Faultline had required. I no longer had the ranged component of it, but the power and speed of its affects were increased, as well as the penetrating power of the sense that governed the skill.

  I sent my stone-sense into the castle wall beneath my feet and expanded it along the uneven lines of the stones that were bound together into this supposedly impenetrable structure. In less than a heartbeat, I filtered out the stamping of dozens of feet, my perceptions racing along within the stone until I found the small parapet at the top of the barbican on which the archer stood.

  I could feel the tension within his frame as he held the massive bow taught, and then I felt pressure starting to compound. It was as if he was suddenly heavier, like he was pushing back against an enormous weight from above. I tilted my head to one side before realising what it must be and rolling away with a curse.

  I had barely moved before the stone wall I had hid behind was blown to pieces, an arrow exploding through the crenelation and lodging itself deep within the stone on the other side of the wall – still in one piece.

  I stood and threw Resolution, but despite my enhanced strength to power it and agility and perception to guide it, the archer neatly swayed aside before sending a trio of arrows back at me in the same movement. I took one through the meat of my right thigh, a last-moment dodge turning the piercing shot into a glancing one, but still leaving a line of fire across my leg. The other two arrows I had managed to intercept with my shield, but the precedent was set; I couldn’t trade ranged attacks with this man.

  I looked at the heaving mass of soldiers battling on the barbican wall, seeing the tide turning further and further towards the Sultan’s side, and as if to underscore the point, I heard the booming laugh of the Sultan echo across the battlefield in response to some turn in his fight with the duke.

  The courtyard was strangely empty, Sadrianna having vaulted back onto the wall to fight with Nathlan, Jacyntha and the rebels who were steadily pushing along the wall towards the gate, but considering that the gate itself was now missing and the wards were down, the wall was mostly useless as a defensive feature.

  I recalled my spear even as I slapped another two arrows from the air with my shield, the gesture almost contemptuous given the lacking power in them – the archer had turned back to the battle before him for a brief moment after shooting at me – and let my awareness seep back into the stone for a moment.

  Rather than search for the archer, I traced the spider-webbing cracks that littered the stone. It was full of subtle weaknesses anyway, as hewn stone often is, but whatever the duke and Sultan’s clash had done to blow apart the gate had further degraded the structure, leaving instabilities and large fissures shooting through the barbican at every level.

  I took a breath and focused, knowing my plan was ridiculous and unlikely to pay off, but also knowing that if it was to have any chance of success at all, I needed to be absolutely confident. Still, I knew who I was now, and more importantly, I knew what I was capable of. I would only need to activate two skills if I did this properly, but the timing would be crucial.

  An arrow winged past me once more, the tight braid running down one side of my head sliced apart and errant strands of hair falling across my face. Still, I didn’t open my eyes for another heartbeat, ensuring I had the visualisation perfect before committing.

  I opened my eyes, breathed out, and let my muscles move in response to my intent. No thinking, no planning, just execution and movement. My legs rose and fell, head ducking beneath another arrow – this one glinting silver and filling the air with heat as it whizzed past – and then I was stepping onto the top of a crenelation on the inside of the wall.

  I pushed off, leaping out into the centre of the inner courtyard, and there was a moment where I seemed to hang in the air, arms spread to either side with my spear and hatchet clutched in either hand. Then I spun, twisting my body in the air and throwing first the spear and then the hatchet as I fell. I caught a glimpse of the archer, stood proudly on the wall with his bow drawn and an expression of mild confusion on his face as he watched me leap off the wall and throw my weapons seemingly at nothing.

  He tracked their trajectory as they shot and spun through the air respectively, before they impacted points in the inner wall just above the gate one after another. I activated Shatter-Point twice in quick succession as my weapons hit the wall, and the skill sent shockwaves of pressure through the already weakened structure, smashing apart the exposed faults within.

  Even as I fell, spinning away from the wall and unable to see what was happening, I knew I had succeeded, and I pushed mana into Break-Step, landing on the ground a heartbeat later, legs bending to absorb the minimal momentum that I hadn’t managed to remove with the skill.

  I turned in time to see the entirety of the barbican wall give way. Stone crumbled and split apart, the gate arch giving way first and then the rest of the structure falling moments afterwards. The noise was deafening, just as it had been when the Sultan had blown through the gate earlier, but the sound never relented.

  I watched in awe as two dozen men and women fell into the rising dust cloud, great chunks of stone and cement smashing together on the cobblestones below, and I had to cover my mouth with one arm to stop myself from choking on the dust. I let my stone-sense roam once more, confirming what I had seen; an area of broken rocks and bodies, corpses of men and women strewn beneath, within and atop the corpse of the castle gate.

  The devastation was immense and made me think that perhaps the choice between Shatter Point and Glacial Carcass wasn’t as important as I had believed. It seemed I could use one to create the other, after all.

  My head still rang from the thunderous noise of it all, but the dust was soon being swept away by the wind whipping through the now ruined castle gate and into the courtyard. I saw a flash of a blood red robe, and then I grunted as an arrow struct me in the chest. I staggered to one side, coughing as I felt one of my ribs give way beneath the blow, but looking down I saw the arrow was lodged within the armoured vest I wore, having glanced off a sliver of the Corrinian Rhai exoskeleton and penetrating slightly sideways rather than through.

  I grunted in pain as I snapped the arrow off and charged forwards through the rapidly clearing dust cloud. Another arrow hit me, but this one bounced off my armour entirely and I took a moment to be surprised by the lack of power in both shots. This was a man who had blown apart a foot-thick stone wall only moments ago, and now couldn’t even penetrate my armoured vest.

  I cast my sense back into the stone beneath my feet and ignored the clawing hands and kicking legs I felt littering the ruin, instead searching for sure feet. I soon found them – footsteps flitting as the archer leapt from rock to rock in the confusion. I caught a flash of his robe once more and spun in the air, avoiding another arrow that he threw my way.

  Landing, I continued my pursuit, chasing him through the ragged terrain as rocks slid and tipped even as we leapt across them. He had lost his bow and was instead pulling arrows from his quiver and throwing them at me with dextrous flicks of his wrists. That explained the lack of power, though he was still dangerous with them.

  Unfortunately for him, I was much more used to this broken terrain than he was, Stride The Edge giving me the advantage as we sprinted through a broken world. He jumped upwards, grabbing a hand hold on the broken edge of one wall and clearly hoping to climb to a safe height where he could rain arrows down on me with impunity, but I was faster. Axis-Shift ruined his balance, and he was falling even as I crashed into him, tackling him to the ground while my arms wrapped around his torso.

  We hit the earth, but I had miscalculated our trajectory, and my head slammed into a rock as we landed. The world went black for a moment, and when I came to, I saw the archer rearing back, an ornate arrow with a long, thick blade – more like a shrunken spear than anything – clutched in both hands.

  I flailed, my body not responding to my commands for a moment, and then the arrow was descending towards my neck.