“Minna. Harl. Go hide in the corners,” I directed, pointing toward the wall with the door. My hope was that Ersabet’s presence would distract the Kurskins, and they wouldn’t notice Minna and Harl until it was too late.

  They ran to their positions as I sent my dagger into my inventory and summoned my new Razor Knight sword at my hip. I needed to get a thigh strap with a small sheath so that I could have one of my daggers with me all the time. If I ever had the time to go shopping after this. And if I didn’t die, of course.

  I readied my sword and glanced at Ersabet. She flipped her dagger in the air and grabbed it by the blade. Then she launched it towards the door just as it was opening.

  The dagger embedded itself into the edge of the door, barely missing the Kurskin who had opened it. It sure scared the piss out of him, though. He hissed and jumped back out of view.

  There was a sound like splintering wood, and the door closed inward slightly. Metal flashed as Ersabet’s dagger blasted out of the door back toward her.

  She ducked just in time, and the dagger clattered against the wall behind her. The Kurskins used the distraction to rush inside the room. From the looks on their faces, this was not the scene they had been expecting, but they were ready for a fight, nonetheless.

  I raised my sword, preparing to meet the attackers. Both Kurskins were in casual wear, and the one in the back had a shortsword in hand, while the lizard leading the way was unarmed.

  I quickly discovered why when he made a motion like he was pushing me, except he was still on the other side of the room. Some sort of kinetic force pushed at me, but there was nothing to it. It felt more like a soft breeze than anything else. However, the bed near me sure felt something as it launched off the ground and shattered against the wall.

  The event confused the hell out of me, but then I remembered I had the Magic Be Gone skill, which negated the first magical attack against me once a day. I looked at the befuddled Kurskin and smiled. My smile vanished when he stomped the ground, sending a shockwave through the stone floor. It buckled underneath my feet and snapped back into place, launching me into the air. I fell hard to the ground and only barely avoided landing on my head.

  The sword-wielding Kurskin overtook his companion and charged toward Ersabet. She made a movement with her hands but had to dodge away before she could do whatever it was she was planning to do. The Kurskins swing was wild and missed, instead striking the end of the bed she had been standing in front of. The sword cut through the mattress, and the wood cracked as it snapped the frame in two.

  I wondered if he had just used a skill like Devastating Strike. If a blow like that hit me, it could cut me in half.

  I regained my feet as quickly as I could and noticed Minna and Harl both leap into action. The magic-inclined Kurskin must have sensed Harl, who took a backhanded fist to his head for his efforts. His efforts weren’t in vain, however, as Minna drove her dagger into the Kurskin’s side.

  He roared and sent an elbow her way, but the short girl was able to duck it. She couldn’t duck his other fist, which came in low, striking her in the gut. She collapsed to the ground, writhing.

  My senses were still a little scrambled, but I rushed the Kurskin ahead of me, having faith that Ersabet could handle the other on her own. I swung my sword, and he stepped back, just out of reach. I swung, and I feinted, and I stabbed, but he was too fast, too fluid. I tried for one more quick thrust, cursing my unpredictable Heightened Combat Awareness ability for not activating. The Kurskin swatted the blade to the side and punched me in the face.

  Under normal circumstances, a punch from a Kurskin would have knocked me out cold, but with my Player-enhanced strength, I was able to take the blow without blacking out.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  I let my body follow the momentum of the hit and spun to my right, stepping back away from my opponent. It didn’t matter, as the moment I faced him again, he caught me in the chest with a push kick, sending me reeling backward and onto my ass.

  To my horror, instead of continuing his assault on me, he turned his attention back to Minna, who was moaning on the ground in the fetal position.

  The Kurskin raised his foot.

  “No!” I screamed.

  He met my eye and stomped down hard on the side of Minna’s head. I’ll never forget the crack her skull made as it cracked like an egg.

  In a rage, I scrambled to my feet. There was a feral roar, full of torment and hate like the sound of a soul burning in hellfire, and Harl leaped at the Kurskin. He attacked the lizard with a terrifying fury that even caught the Kurskin off guard.

  Harl slashed his dagger, punched, and kicked with a relentless fury that made my heart break. The Kurskin had no choice but to divert its attention entirely to fend off the big man, giving me time to join the fight.

  I bolted forward, raised my sword, and howled as I brought it down in a vertical slice. The Kurskin turned his head away from Harl just in time to see me out of the corner of his eye. But it wasn’t in time to stop the Razor Knight’s blade from cleaving his skull in half.

  The lizard was killed instantly, falling to the ground in a crumpled heap.

  I spun to my left, ready to help Ersabet, but stopped short. She was crouched and panting, one hand holding a bleeding wound on her side. Next to her rested the body of her opponent, his own sword sticking out of his chest.

  Harl fell to his knees and crawled toward Minna. He touched her head, flinched, and then grasped it with both hands as if trying to hold those broken pieces together. He whimpered and scooped her limp body into his arms, rocking her like a baby as he cried.

  This was my fault. I had put Minna in a situation she should have never been in, and now she was dead. I stood there in shock, unable to step toward her broken body. I didn’t deserve the solace of mourning. Her death was my fault.

  A hand touched me lightly on the shoulder, and I flinched away from it. Ersabet stood next to me, looking at me like she was studying a specimen. Her analytical, doctor-like gaze infuriated me. In this moment, she cared more about how I, her investment, felt than she did about Minna’s lifeless body and Harl’s shattered soul.

  “Where were you?” I said in a raspy whisper. I met her gaze and snarled. “You were supposed to be stronger than this. You’re a Dalari, for fuck’s sake. Why didn’t you kill them faster!”

  Her eyes left mine and looked at her feet. “These two were strong,” she said. “In a normal fight…,” she shrugged. “In a normal fight, I could handle two untrained Kurskin. But nearly all the Kurskins on Erda have combat training, and I am only level eleven. I suspect these two had more than a few levels on me.”

  I wanted to say more. I wanted to put the blame on her lest I carry it all myself, but that was my burden, was it not? I couldn’t allow others to carry the weight of my guilt. It was my burden to carry because I had made myself the leader. I had chosen this path. I had decided to play God with the lives of others, and this was the predictable result. There would be more deaths because of my decisions—much more.

  I closed my eyes and thought of Elena. How would she feel about the man I was becoming? If she were here, I would tell her I was doing this for all mankind, for the greater good. But in my heart, I knew the truth – I was doing this for her. When it came down to it, the one thing my heart truly wanted was to hold her again, to know that she was safe. She was my driving force, and I knew that’s an excuse she would reject. Elena would never allow me to sacrifice another life in order to save hers.

  She was selfless.

  But I was not.

  I shook my head, breaking the spell of despair I had cast over myself. I could contemplate my complicated motivations later. Right now, there was work to do.

  I walked forward and put my hand on Harl’s shoulder. Slowly, he lifted his gaze to me.

  “I failed her,” he said through a sob.

  “It’s not your fault,” I said. I gestured to the dead Kurskin. “It’s theirs.”

  If only I had someone around to say those words to me…

  “We’ll make them pay for what they did,” I said. “Not just for what they did to Minna but for what they’ve done and continue to do to us all.”

  Harl lowered Minna’s body back to the ground. He groaned as he slowly found his feet again. “She believed in you,” he said. “She hardly knew you. Neither of us did, but we both recognized the truth when you told us about them.”

  Harl met my eye. “It was hard to believe, even after Djadja admitted it. But I know it’s true for fact…,” Harl pointed at his head. “Not because I think it.” His hand moved to his heart. “But because I feel it. Minna did, too.”

  “Then what we do next,” I said. “We do for her.”