Dying for your comrades is the highest honor one can give, the second highest is being worthy of their sacrifice. Carry the torch.

  - Former UWO Colonel Clarence -

  Flickering flaming swords move toward us in a measured pace, the legion of black armored knights do not run towards us like wild creatures of the night. Their steps are intentional. Deliberate. The large skeletal creature strides in the center of their formation. The hooded figure looming above them.

  “Do it now,” Tenny says, giving a nod to one of the Sergeants.

  He nods back, “Sappers! Let it rip!”

  Explosive experts, I didn’t know that Fourth even had any Sappers. It’s not a class, well, it can be, but Sappers in the UWO are those who specialize in something very specific, blowing shit up. Did they rig…

  Light rips across the sky in the blink of an eye, a shockwave presses the air outward before pulling back in. Sound travels after, so loud it makes my ears ring. A massive fireball plumes in a line near the front of the gate where they all marched. Smoke billows and rolls in the roaring flames. A direct hit. A fucking glorious direct hit.

  “Fuck yeah,” Cortez says, pressing her binoculars into my hand again. Her grim demeanor suddenly changing, a smile daring to find her mouth.

  The smoke obstructs most of the field, but I see large deep divots in the ground where explosive ordnance exploded beneath the soil. That’s why they spent so much time over there earlier. Tenny working overtime with foresight. Exactly what you want to see from an op commander.

  Looking across the scorched dirt, it’s hard to see anything really, the wheat fields are ablaze now. Too much smoke to… red eyes, black robe falling away in cinders. The one that was on the skeletal beast… its standing again. It raises its hand in the air. High above it, a spell circuit begins tracing in light just below the clouds, deep red, I recognize the etchings that are forming. Paired with the color of the magic circuit, flame magic, really, really strong flame magic.

  “Take cover!” Tenny yells.

  There’s suddenly a chill in the air around us, like we just stepped into an Arctic wasteland. Turning, I see 1st Lieutenant Tenny splaying her hands outwards, runes appearing on her fingertips that trace up her arms, deep blue, like a glacier. Her eyes shift from brown to blue, glowing intensely.

  “Glacial Wall!” she booms.

  The air spins, becoming dry and cold, ice crystals form on the ramparts, giving way to larger structures that spindle upwards making columns that connect with sheets of ice. The ice glows with a reverent blue hue.

  “Get down,” Cortez says, pulling me hard onto the ground, making me land on top of her.

  Within a breath, the entire wall trembles. Heat, so much heat. The red glow of the flame scorching through the ice barrier washes over everything. My vision blurs from all the steam. I feel around, Cortez is still under me. My hand backtracks, blistering heat melts my glove before I even touch anything solid. Ripping it off quickly, I back away, enough steam clears for me to see molten rock where I had been standing. Fuck me. Cortez saved my life. I hadn’t even noticed I was still standing when Cortez pulled me down, Tenny’s magic completely took me in and…

  “We need to move,” Cortez says, pulling me up to my feet.

  “Medic… please… someone help me…”

  My eyes widen. Another call.

  “Soldier down! We need a medic!”

  “Where’s the LT?” another yells.

  It’s chaos. Breathe. Another explosion slams into the wall further down. Breathe. My eyes open. Get a grip. My hand is trembling, and Cortez is trying to pull me away toward safety. I can’t.

  “Please… I don’t want to die…” a voice whispers less than a pace from me in the steam.

  “Jimmy, Mwangi ordered us to live, let’s go,” Cortez begs.

  “I told you already, I'm not leaving yet.”

  She pushes and pulls me, but I lower my center of gravity, wrenching her hands from me.

  “Activate skill… Triage.”

  Time slows in my perception, my own breath hanging in my throat, every single fiber of my being pulsing. My eyes dilate fully taking in the low light, I can see outlines of people even through the heavy fog, mana bodies, auras some call it.

  The skill helps me decide who to save and who I can’t. A wave of emotions dumps onto my shoulders, I can see more than twenty fading auras, there’s nothing I can do for them. There’s a strong aura in the distance toward the Gate, like a crimson sun in the shape of a man, gaining on us at an unnatural speed. To my right, I see a flickering blue aura, I know it’s Tenny. There’s something strange near her, rows of glowing lights.

  My eyes focus back to normal, the uneasy feeling of using it comes, nausea, and pain in my eyes. I grit through it though.

  “Lieutenant Tenny needs help,” I say to Cortez, facing her, "She's everyone's best shot, you know it too."

  “Fuck,” she says, grabbing me close and pulling our faces less than a centimeter apart, “Once you help her, we bounce, agreed?”

  My eyes hang in hers, somehow finding solace in them in the face of our impending doom. Was she always this beautiful?

  “Fine,” I lie. It’s not the first time I’ve lied to her, and I suspect it’s not the last. Do what you have to do, that’s what my dad would have said. I'm not running when people need me, it's not who I am.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  She nods, and I swivel, leaping toward where I saw Lieutenant Tenny's mana aura, when I reach her, she’s half dead. Parts of her face are melted off, and she’s wheezing badly. Some of her right arm is charred to a crisp. With her left arm, she claws at the ground towards a thick briefcase.

  “I need it…” she sputters.

  Cortez moves the case closer, Tenny puts her remaining thumbprint on the handle. A vibrating feeling cuts against my skin as it opens. I don’t have to see it, I can feel it. Mana stones.

  “Patch me the fuck up,” she growls, shoving a stone into my hand.

  It’s like lightning in a bottle, I feel the magic dripping into my veins just from touching it. With mana stones… I might be able to help more people. If only I was a Cleric or a Paladin, I could cast mass healing. Why’d I have to be a basic fucking healer class? Focus damnit.

  “Activate healing skill.”

  Time slows again, my focus compounded by the pulses of thick mana pouring into me. Amplifying my ability. I can’t replace the fully gone flesh, but I can try to cobble her arm into working again. Work faster.

  Weaving in and out of her cells, my mana undulates with intent, forcing her cells to work like they’ve never worked before. Rebuilding what’s left of her bicep, anchoring the tendon back to the bone… shit… just keep going, no time to fix that. She screams bloody murder, but it’s like an echo when I’m in the trance. Next I fold her skin, pulling it tight, its grotesque like a monsters arm… but it’ll work.

  The mana stone cracks in my hand just before I finish. My eyes are blurry from channeling so much mana in a single day, I feel like I'm going to pass out. Lieutenant Tenny doesn’t even wait for me to say she’s good, she just jumps to her feet, grabbing a stone in each hand. Cold air bursts from her. Ice radiating from her feet.

  “Take who you can…” Lieutenant Tenny begins, ice etching up her throat, “and run.”

  The steam condenses around her forming ice. The fires extinguish. Magic in the air vibrates in reverence to her will… mana overload, she’s going to sacrifice herself for everyone that’s left. Cortez wrenches me onto my feet, holding me up by gripping my belt.

  Flame pierces the sky, a figure blooming from it, slamming into the stone less than five meters from us, cracking it. Did they just jump the height of the castle walls? My eyes take in the… it’s not a person. A body of charred black bone without flesh, eyes that burn crimson, fire ripples where the mouth should be. It’s a Lich, the highest rank an undead can reach according to the UWO field manual. His lower half is covered in thick black metal like the Knights he commanded, red gems encrust the ashen bone along the joints, they hum with deep reserves of menacing mana, vibrating at a different tune than what I'm used to. Looking closer, almost every inch of his bones are covered in runic writing that pulses as he moves. I can feel the mana bending around him as he takes his first step forward, leaving ash in his wake.

  Lieutenant Tenny tenses, so do I, even Cortez stops moving.

  “I am Aderaic, High Apostate of the Order of the Undying Flame, bow before your death, as I am its messenger. Weep not, for soon you shall have the privilege of…”

  An arrow of ice smashes into his sternum interrupting his monologue, then another, and a third, each one sliding him back a few paces. His head looks down, then slowly back up, a menacing smile dancing with fire.

  “Ah, a Glacial Warden, what a rare treat, if only you were stronger, it is…” another three slam into his head.

  He growls. The arrows vaporize.

  “Shame to pluck an unripe fruit,” the Lich says, air whipping around him as the ice melts and fire roars in his chest, steaming the water into vapor, “Such a shame.”

  “Fall back!” Tenny yells, her hands gripping the mana stones tightly. Three more ice arrows shape into existence.

  She pushes her hands forward sending the arrows flying quickly.

  The arrows do not find purchase this time. With a mere flick of his wrist the Lich vaporizes them in a column of flame. My feet stagger back from the heat.

  We can’t win this fight, I can barely even stand without Cortez holding me up.

  Lieutenant Tenny realizes it too, but she doesn’t run, she groans as she presses past her mana reserves, shattering the stones in her hand and conjuring more arrows. Twelve this time. The level of control is insane.

  “Fall back!” she yells, the last of the stragglers do.

  Cortez pulls me, slinging one of my arms over her shoulder to steady me. I don’t want to leave, but the order is clear, and there’s nothing I can even do to help her. My mana's nearly bone dry and I’m powerless in this type of situation, especially against an opponent this strong.

  The Lich laughs as her arrows vaporize again, he flicks a finger, a ball of fire burns a hole through the Lieutenant’s leg. He’s toying with her now.

  “I said run damnit!”

  Cortez drags me faster, and we nearly topple down the steps into the courtyard. My dad’s words cutting at my pride, telling me I should try to stay, I should fight to the bitter end. No, stop feeling sorry for yourself.

  There’s scarcely a soul left in the courtyard, those that linger drag people behind them, or what’s left of them. The uselessness of my body right now is pissing me off. I should be helping carry people, not getting carried.

  A scream of pain from Tenny frays my nerves.

  “Over here!” someone roars, waving people toward the main hall. It’s Barlow, he hasn’t left yet?

  “Hurry the fuck up!” Tran yells, coming toward me and Cortez, “We need to…”

  A thunderous smashing of Lieutenant Tenny’s body against the stone in the courtyard stops the words from Tran’s mouth.

  Wheezing, blood dripping from her body, smudging with ash, Lieutenant Tenny defies logic and tries to stand. If she wasn’t level twenty, she’d be a pile of broken bones right now. Her uniform sizzles with her flesh still, her face so charred I barely recognize her.

  “Get out of here…” she commands, dragging her hands in front of her, somehow rising to her knees, her eyes flickering as she tries to pull more mana.

  I’ve never felt so helpless before… not since I watched my dad…

  Tran and Barlow grab my arms, dragging me toward the main hall. My eyes widen as I see a fireball forming, small but growing in size as the Lich looks down on her from above, a satisfied grin in the flames that make his mouth.

  It disappears from my view as they pull me past the threshold of the door.

  “Keep it moving!” I hear Mwangi yell at people filing down the stairwell that Barlow found earlier, he nods to Tran and Barlow, looking at Cortez with a pissed look, “What the fuck took you so long?”

  “He wanted to be a fucking hero,” she says, but she’s not mad, she’s trembling.

  Even Tran and Barlow are. We aren’t a high enough level for this kind of fight. It’s folly. Even if we… my eyes widen. No…

  Rounding the main hall doorway is the tip of a flaming sword, followed by obsidian colored armor, and crimson eyes. It’s one of the Knights that the Lich commanded… didn’t the explosion… three more come next.

  “Fuck,” Mwangi says, pushing us down the stairwell, we aren’t going to make it in time, there’s a hold up a couple flights down with people shouting and trampling each other.

  So much chaos, I can barely think. Mwangi’s face changes, closing his eyes for a moment.

  No…

  “Sergeant,” I say, but Tran and Barlow grip me tighter, bulldozing through people with Cortez pushing me too.

  Mwangi turns from me, stepping in front of the doorway and gripping either side of it, his voice radiates intention and resolve, “Activate skill… Hold the Line.”

  His dark skin shifts and shimmers, hardening to steel. He’s a tank class, but that skill, he can’t move when he uses it… no… please no.

  “Let me go!” I scream, he’s going to die… because of me.

  I thrash against Tran and Barlow, but they hold me firmly. Cortez grabs my legs to lift me off the ground. My body is still too weak to put up resistance. The hall widens and they leave people behind us who crawl and beg for help. Their cries falling on hollow ears, there’s not enough people to carry them… fuck, if they didn’t have to carry me, they could help someone else.

  “Don’t stop,” Tran says, his voice strained.

  “Fuck,” Barlow says, gritting his teeth, he gives me a look. One that punches me in the gut… it’s my fault. If I had ran when shit hit the fan like Mwangi said, we'd be a mile deeper in the tunnels, with Mwangi next to us.

  Why did it have to be this way? Why did we have to get this fucked up Gate? It’s my fault that Mwangi, Tran, Barlow and Cortez are here, if I hadn’t gotten caught giving food to off-worlders, we never would have had to pull extra gate duty, his death is on my hands now. If I would have fucking run when Cortez told me too, if I hadn’t… the sound of metal striking metal echoes in the small tunnels, again and again, each strike cutting into my chest, each strike my fault. It does not relent until finally, it becomes the sound of bone cleaving and metal striking stone. Staff Sergeant Mwangi… is gone.