Skills which are indiscriminate are often exceedingly powerful, but there are those who say losing control in battle is the fastest way to a quick death.

  -Excerpt from ‘Studying the Blade’ by Farris the Wanderer

  Commodore Foulter was furious. He was also confused. He simply wasn’t sure how a simple invasion of a weak island nation had turned into him being beaten back by an arrogant prince and a little girl.

  To make matters worse, the prince had pulled out some ridiculous berserking skill and was actually breaking down the armour provided by his master’s treasure. And going by the sounds of cracking ice, the girl was soon to rejoin the fray.

  Even now though, the thought of losing did not cross his mind. The very idea was ridiculous.

  A commodore of Minenblum, losing to a child and an idiot with delusions of heroism? He would be a laughing stock if word got out. His master might have a unique punishment waiting…

  Or worse, he might simply ignore him. Silence was a devious form of torture. He wouldn’t let that come to pass.

  His confidence wasn’t only due to his pride. The commodore still had one more ace hidden up his sleeve, but he didn’t like to use it due to the overwhelming backlash it caused after the fact.

  In fact he didn’t even consider using it just yet. There was still the possibility of winning the battle without it. The prince was gaining momentum after entering the berserker state, causing constant injury, but it would not last forever.

  Furthermore, even though the girl had escaped the confines of the ice, Foulter doubted she would be able to battle with anything close to her full strength.

  He thought all of this while constantly fending off heavy strikes from the prince’s massive blade. The man had become a whirlwind of steel and arcane energy.

  Every time he blocked another slash it made his entire body shake, bending the metal of his cutlass. The weapon was sturdy—forged by one of the greatest smiths in Aughold—but it would not last forever.

  He attempted to study the whirling blade technique of the prince while struggling against it. He grew lightheaded as more of his blood drained onto the frozen sea, every failed block letting the man carve another wound into his skin.

  It was a sacrifice he would’ve preferred not to give, but one that was necessary to understand the technique. Foulter had always been naturally inclined to disruption.

  Often that led to him ruining social events or having awkward conversations that left those around him feeling uncomfortable. His demeanour had ridiculous synergy with his ice attunement.

  The cold was a natural disruptor of life and energy. When things lost heat, they slowed down; their natural processes were disrupted. He recently touched on a new concept related to that.

  A concept he was still only beginning to understand, but one that he could hopefully improve here. Ice as a disruptor of arcane energies and the underlying power behind the techniques of his foes.

  He didn’t understand it himself yet. Foulter only borrowed the inherent properties of his most powerful attunement and let it lead him in battle.

  In order to truly advance in strength he would need to understand what was happening and claim that power for himself. So when he saw the first opening in the whirlwind blade of the prince, he pulled on the frozen energy in his core and let it gather around the tip of his cutlass.

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  Prince Everyn had complete confidence in his victory. His dance of death was unstoppable and Commodore Foulter was slowly being forced backwards. The man’s defeat was inevitable.

  Which was why even when he saw him coat his blade in ice, he refused to halt his momentum. This was clearly a last ditch effort to win; the desperate attack of a dying man.

  His blade descended, the speed gathered from his constant spinning making it almost invisible to the naked eye. Victory was moments away.

  As the two blades clashed, energy exploded outwards alongside a metallic ringing. The ocean fell silent as the icy dust cleared, the hungry fish eager to see the results.

  Either way they would feast.

  ***

  Rose noticed something strange as she rushed towards the two men dueling. The one she assumed to be the prince would appear to have the upper hand.

  His momentum was constant, that strange technique allowing him to attack rapidly without pause. Commodore Foulter was being slowly carved to pieces and the confident smirk on the prince’s face only seemed to reinforce the feeling that victory was inevitable.

  Despite the apparent pressure, Rose noticed the commodore’s face was calm. A trace of annoyance and pain was present in his gaze, but there was nothing to indicate he felt truly afraid; that he believed he might lose.

  She wondered why.

  It didn’t take long before things changed. She had decided to stop rushing towards them.

  Acting in haste would only lead to mistakes and she’d learned that lesson already. Instead she observed, waiting for the tides of battle to change and indicate that the time was right for her to strike.

  There was also something she was waiting for. Rose didn’t need help to defeat the commodore. While she was at sea, this close to home, she doubted he had any hidden abilities that would pose a threat.

  In her right hand she held the Divine Serpent’s Lure and in the other she held the intact blade of Sunsplitter. The broken half was tucked into her belt, not shining as bright as the other half.

  Right now she was deciding which weapon to use. It was a really difficult decision because there were too many variables to consider.

  If Rose just went with her gut feeling, she would likely just use the fishing rod. But if she always listened to her gut she’d probably end up using the rod all the way until it became useless. Which would likely be a good few decades down the line…

  Sunsplitter had the benefit of powerful synergy with her light attunement—which was currently her highest levelled attunement skill. The sun technique she’d developed was also absurdly powerful, though she suspected it would not be as impactful when using her own arcane energy rather than divine energy.

  Nonetheless, it meant Sunsplitter had great merits. This internal debate happened over the course of just a few seconds and ultimately Rose put Divine Serpent’s Lure back in her inventory.

  Not only because she believed Sunsplitter would be most effective against the commodore with his ice attunement, but because she believed this might be the last battle it was usable in.

  It would be fitting to give her first weapon a rightful grave. Then again, it might be possible to repair it with the right materials and a talented enough smith, but that wasn’t a guarantee.

  She turned her attention back to the battle with both blades in hand, watching as the men clashed. Suddenly she felt something shift in the exchange.

  The prince had a beaming grin on his face as he swung his blade, clearly believing this strike would be the last. Yet the commodore seemed indifferent as ice energy gathered at the tip of his cutlass.

  If the battle continued as it was, the commodore would win. That much was obvious to Rose, but luckily the prince wasn’t fighting alone.

  She took a step forward, feeling that the tides were on her side. The time to strike had arrived. And not a moment too soon, as she also felt a ripple from beneath the surface of the ocean.

  Her call had been answered.

  Fighting her at sea was truly foolish for anyone not similarly blessed. The commodore would soon learn that, as would the entire invading fleet.

  Ice exploded outwards as the two blades met and through the storm of shards, Rose saw her target chasing down the broken prince.

  Somehow, Commodore Foulter had completely shattered the momentum of the prince’s technique and that had been devastating. She heard multiple crunches as bones broke, his blade falling into the sea when the copious amounts of blood leaking from his skin made his grip fail.

  The commodore pounced on this weakness, leaving three deep cuts on his foe in a matter of seconds. If things continued, the prince would die.

  After the storm, it was only natural for the sun to shine through. Commodore Foulter had a determined look on his face as he slashed out to decapitate Prince Everyn, but right before his blade made contact the world flashed white.