“Get off me!” Ellis cried, kicking at the man throttling his neck, his lip dangling between them.

  The guard’s grip grew tighter and tighter. He started slamming Ellis’s back against the floor, growling past his ruined face. Ellis stopped grabbing at the hands around his neck, to reach up and search the man’s face instead, his fingers scratching at his cheeks, trying in vain to find his eyes.

  The guard bit Ellis’s hand, causing him to cry out as teeth broke through the skin. He managed to wrench his thumb out the teeth, and dig it deep into the soft gooeyness that lay just above it, earning a howl for his efforts.

  But the grip around his neck didn’t loosen. The man did not let go, even when Ellis’s thumbs were buried to the knuckle in his eye sockets. Darkness started creeping into the edge of Ellis’s vision, his futile kicking growing weaker.

  A sword exploded through the man’s chest. The suffocating pressure released within an instant, causing Ellis to start coughing as an ungodly amount of blood splashed across his torso. The sword skewering the man’s body playfully poked Ellis in the chest, before it was yanked away. The guard fell off him with a heavy thump, a death sigh rattling in his ear as the man landed next to him.

  The coughing racked Ellis’s body as he sat up. Michael stood above him with a grin, surveying the carnage surrounding them. The bastard’s left side was covered almost head to toe in arrows, and the head of the spear still stuck out his shoulder. But otherwise he looked untouched.

  “So much for ‘palace guards’, am I right?” He laughed, before holding out a hand, an arrow sticking through his palm.

  Ellis grasped it regardless, Michael hauling him to his feet above the dead guard. He ignored the bile rising in his throat as he looked upon the bodies lining the floor wall to wall.

  And for the first time, he didn’t immediately think of praying for them. Or hating himself. No, instead he only grew confused. “There are only twenty two men here?”

  Michael tsked, like he was caught. “Yeah, Ameena had a spot of trouble so I fought my way to her. Allowed three men to lug some of the wounded back down that entrance over there.”

  He nodded, ignoring Michael’s gesture at the entrance. He was too astounded that men had gotten away. They were supposed to be the strongest in the city, so he shouldn’t be that surprised. He never stopped scanning the floor for traps as he walked towards Ameena, who was covered in blood but less so than Michael and him, leaning against the half wall the palace guards had managed to erect earlier.

  “You good?” Ellis asked.

  “I’m good, thanks to Michael,” she said, healing the new sword wound stretching from her chest to her stomach. Just a flesh wound, Ellis couldn’t see anything major when he glanced over it.

  He was going to sit down next to her, but he saw that Michael had started stripping a guard of his bloody gear nearby. Ellis decided to join him and activated his necklace. He surveyed the bodies surrounding them, but every status screen that popped up above a piece of armour was either disappointing or had Constitution under its name, except for a pair of pants he quickly stripped off a guard and put on himself, not caring at all for decency.

  He glanced back at the body, and there was a beautiful pair of boots that would grant a +4 in constitution, but… he had found his ring more than made up for anything he lacked in toughness. He compromised by stealing a fresh pair of shoes, and deciding to throw another stat point into mana, knowing he had probably leveled and hoping the extra point would save him.

  Michael finished quick, now adorned in the palace guards armour. It had purple lining that mixed with the red flowing down it, the soft drops of liquid splattering all over the floor. The man had chopped off the arrows sticking out of him, but that didn’t stop the blood from leaking and mixing with the armour's colour.

  “How do I look?” he asked.

  Like a monster. “You have a bit of red on your…” Ellis gestured at all of him.

  He snorted, before carrying over a bunch of gear over to where Ameena sat. He threw it at her feet, which she accepted with a wince, before ordering both of them to turn around. She cast an illusion over herself just as Ellis turned his back, and five minutes later he was allowed to turn around again.

  Now, she too was adorned in purple armour now, except she had kept some of her old gear... and all the clothes she was wearing when she entered the fortress.

  With their armour changed, Ellis sat down next to Ameena with a huff.

  Michael plopped down on the other side of her, and said ‘status’ to the open air. “Ohhh yes, leveled twice let’s go! How you guys looking?”

  Ellis’s necklace would still last a while, so he could still try and plan around their stats after they finished assigning them. He assigned his while waiting:

  A child of Anwir:

  *Ellis Marsh:

  Strength: 8 (braces of the strong: +4)

  Mana: 5

  Dexterity: 9 (Cloak of the tasteless: +5)

  Perception: 9

  Endurance: 7 (Sleepless pants: +4)

  Constitution: 8 (Minor ring of protection: +1)

  Total: 46 (+14)

  Level: 10

  For the first time since the burning of the church, he thought of Derek. The braces chafing at his wrists had more than propelled him past the old bully, but now Ellis’s base strength stat had surpassed his.

  Ellis was officially the strongest man in Solrise. He tried not to cry at the thought.

  He glanced over at his companions.

  A child of Evosa:

  *Ameena Fray:

  Strength: 9 (Chainmail of the mighty: +5)

  Mana: 16 (Wand of deception (bonded to: Ameena Fray): +5)

  Dexterity: 7 (Pants of the blur: +4)

  Perception: 6

  endurance: 7 (The bard’s ring: +3)

  Constitution: 9 (The boots of the hardy: +4)

  Total: 54 (+21)

  Level 11

  Skills: knit flesh(level 8), mend bone (level 4)

  The first few times she had poured her levels into more reasonable stats, but the toll of healing and illusions was clearly too much for her to bear. For her two levels she had thrown all her free points into mana. And her gear made her frightening. Killing her no longer seemed as easy as it once was.

  But that was nothing compared to Michael:

  A child of Dumiso:

  *Michael:

  Strength: 20 (Boots of a shieldman: +5)

  Mana: 11

  Dexterity: 10 (Greaves of the quick: +6)

  Perception: 6

  endurance: 11 (Guard’s shirt: +4)

  Constitution: 16 (Breastplate of the immortal: +5)

  Total stat points: 74 (+20)

  Level 15

  Despite himself, the first thing Ellis wanted to do after seeing the stats was ask after the sword, since the bonus no longer applied. But just as he was about to open his mouth, he remembered Michael doesn’t know Ellis can see his stats. And then he felt stupid, because even if the sword didn’t apply stats, a sword was still a sword. It would still kill someone with a single swipe, especially in that monster's hands.

  Ellis didn’t know how he was going to kill him. The purple cuirass he wore over his chest seemed to have a fitting name for the bastard.

  Trying not to discourage himself, Ellis looked at his total. 60. Ellis would have thought that an impossible number to reach, if he didn’t glance over at Ameena’s 75 and Michael’s 94. But… his plan had worked. He had kept the relative gap between their totals. Yet looking at the man’s grinning face as Ameena started to heal him, with all those wounds not causing the slightest hint of a grimace… he didn’t think it made a bit of difference.

  “Some got away. They’ll raise the alarm,” Ellis said after he finished assessing the new stats.

  “There were only twenty eight men when I entered.” Ameena finished her healing, grimacing through her pain. “Some must have already run back into the palace. Ellis, activate your necklace and check where the entrance is. We need to hurry before they can organize a viable defense.”

  With a sharp breath escaping her lips, she started to shimmy up the wall into a standing position.

  Michael put his hand on her shoulder and pushed her right back down. “No need. Plus, we need to heal first. Specifically, you need to finish healing me please.”

  Ameena locked her jaw. “I won’t have enough mana for the fight ahead if I heal you completely. Let’s just—”

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Michael waved a dismissive hand as he interrupted her. “Oh, the only part we’d really need your mana is for the entrance. And what is your mana? Misdirection!” he spread his arms wide like he had revealed a divine revelation. “Let’s just say I got a clever little trick to get in, since I really… really… wanna flank ‘em.”

  Ellis and Ameena shared a look.

  “Michael… mind telling us how you're going to do that?” Ellis asked.

  “I tire of using front doors,” he said with a wide grin. “I wanna fly.”

  ~break~

  “Are you sure about this?” Ellis asked, staring wide eyed over a sheer cliff face, the roofs of the palace staring up at him.

  “No, not really. That’s why I’m making you go first,” Michael said, kicking him in the back.

  Ellis flew into the open air, the body tied to his chest making sure he couldn’t keep an upright posture. He dropped like a stone with its added weight, screaming his lungs out as he fell head over heels the whole way down the side of the mountain.

  After twenty seconds of non stop screaming, the rope snapped taut. Ellis swore he could hear the strands cutting loose as he swung back towards a large window built into the side of the palace, overlooking the city. He poured mana into his ring, the silence being sucked out of him going unnoticed as he fell while simultaneously trying his best to wrench the body in front of him to cushion the incoming blow.

  The corpse’s skull flattened against the glass, smacking back into Ellis’s face that let loose a deep thud as they came to an abrupt stop. Despite his ring, he thought his nose broke as it started gushing with blood. Ameena had just spent half her mana healing him, ruined in an instant. He looked up from the back of the body’s skull, to find the glass in front of him covered in the man’s splattered flesh from where they had smashed into it.

  Ellis leaned the smushed corpse out of the way and rested his head against the bloody glass. He started whispering “thankyouthankyouthankyou” under his breath now that he had stopped falling. Wiping his teary eyes with shaky hands, he peered past the glass in front of him.

  What lay on the other side of the window was a beautiful viewing deck decorated with benches and tables, gorgeous flowers blooming in the partial light that ran along the inside edge of the platform forming a barrier between the glass and… viewers.

  Those viewers were dozens of men and women with jaws hanging open. The women were clutching their purple dresses and clinging to their husbands shoulders, which were covered in purple tunics. They were all whispering to each other, pointing at Ellis like he was the oddity, rather than them for wearing something that cost more than his entire village.

  Palace guards pushed past those rich nobles, who shared similar gobsmacked expressions as they started forming a battle line. The men in charge stepped out of that makeshift line, all of them wearing deep frowns as they barked orders to their men. Despite the commotion and their willingness to prepare, they just stood there. Waiting.

  The whistle of a stone falling filled Ellis’s ears a moment later, followed shortly after by Ameena splatting into the window on his right. Ellis briefly considered how someone could bite down a scream while falling to their probable death, but he assumed it was probably just one of her little quirks as she bounced off the body that had splattered against the window. She swung once more over the sheer drop before coming to a stand still against the glass. When she stopped staring at the ground, she looked over at Ellis with a busted nose.

  “You good?” she asked.

  Ellis couldn’t help it. He laughed. The noise sounded mad, even to him, but he didn’t care. He felt drunk. Better than drunk. He was on top of the world.

  “I’m having a great time! How are we going to get in from here?”

  She scanned the glass, her eyes covering every inch of where it met the building it was attached too, before shaking her head. “No idea. It’s thick enough to stop our fall, so I know for a fact Michael won’t be able to just punch his way through.”

  Ellis giggled. “So we’re all mad! That’s comforting!”

  “This isn’t a time for jokes,” she chastised, glancing down. The sheer drop that dwarfed the one they had just gone through lay below them. Ellis did not know why she bothered.

  “Fair enough! Then how about a plan? Once we magically break in and kill your father, I think we should immediately try to kill the monster! The palace guards will make for a good distraction!”

  Ameena started trying to crawl along the glass as she glared at him. “Are you insane? Why are you discussing that now!? Do you not see where we are!?”

  “When else are we going to discuss it!? And I got used to the view on the way down!” He laughed at his own joke, cackling as his shaky fingers clutched at the glass in front of him.

  She looked down, then back to Ellis, and gave him a shaky smile. “Fair enough. We—”

  The distant sound of boots sprinted across a hard floor far above his head.

  “He’s coming! The monster is coming!” Ellis laughed as he interrupted her.

  The sound of a rope snapping taught behind them signaled Michael’s arrival as he too, splatted against the window to Ellis’s left.

  He looked up with a wide grin and a busted nose. He had a new gauntlet strapped to his arm, one Ellis hadn’t seen earlier, which he used to wave at the nobles inside with. Afterwards, he turned to Ellis, but he kept trying to look past him to catch Ameena’s eye.

  “You see! I told you it would work!”

  “What is wrong with you!?” Ellis screamed.

  “I was dropped as a child!” he screamed back.

  Ellis and Michael shared a look, before they both started laughing, the sound drifting into the open air. Without meaning to, Ellis started knocking his head against the glass as he just kept cackling, unable and unwilling to stop. Ameena had started trying to swing towards him, a terrified look in her eye whenever he glanced from his own terrifying reflection back to her.

  “If you two are finished I would like to not die please!” She screamed at them in a fury that made their laughter echo further.

  When they were almost done, Ameena shouted over the wind jostling her hair, “Michael! What’s the plan!?”

  “Get in and kill those onlookers! Dibs on the one with the funny hat!” he called back.

  Ellis found this even more hysterical, and asked through his laughter, “can we— phew, can we get in faster!? My toes are getting cold!”

  Michael giggled at the joke, and gave Ellis a playful grin. “Why can’t you always be like this!? You're way better this way!”

  He pushed his gauntleted fist right against the glass, and a moment later a fire erupted from it, burning away all the blood dripping down in front of him as he held it there for an agonizing amount of time, the steel around his wrist growing white from the heat.

  After ten seconds, the glass started to press inward.

  “How did you know to do that!?” Ameena called, watching on in horrified fascination.

  “Same way you know I’m great in bed! Some things are just obvious, sexy lady! Also! Can you heal me!? I think the muscles in my hand are gone!” he called back, the gauntlet now half way through the glass window.

  She tossed a blue ball over Ellis’s head, which hit Michael in the shoulder. The onlookers had watched Ellis dangle at first, but with Ameena’s and Michael’s arrival they had started walking backwards, always casting fascinated glances over their shoulders as they did so. But ever since Michael’s hand started to burn through the glass, they had sprinted away like their lives depended on it.

  It wasn’t long until Michael had made a sizable hole in the window, not without Ameena’s assistance in keeping his hand attached to the wrist in the process. He stretched his arm through the molten glass until the resistance gave way, his face smacking into the glass as it did so.

  Pressing with all his might downwards, he started making that sizable hole bigger and bigger. But he burned with agonizing slowness, Ellis’s drunken state dissipating with every passing second. Ellis' laughter and smiles turned into a white knuckled grip on the rope he dangled from, his glances downwards growing desperate before Michael finally climbed through the hole he had made.

  Michael threw the body strapped to his chest down the mountainside, before popping his head out of the hole. “Ellis, you're next!”

  Ellis started swinging as Michael jumped down onto the viewing deck and spread his arms wide to greet the formation of fifty palace guards, who all leveled spears, swords and arrows at his chest over the top of their shields.

  They all shifted backward, staring at the man walking towards them like they were facing down the Ants. But Michael was having none of it, and he seemed to have mana to spare because he doused them in flame next. Ellis couldn’t see the rest as his silhouette disappeared into the fire, screams following not long after.

  Ellis swung himself sideways with a grunt, trying to gain traction on the smooth glass to no avail as he kicked and reached out as far as he could. He missed the lip of the new hole by a hair, the heat of the glass making him unable to find a grip.

  He cursed while he swung back, and looked toward Ameena, who was doing the same thing from further away. She was panicking, her breaths coming in short bursts as she swung, her eyes locked on the hole with a crazed glare.

  Ellis stopped glancing at her as he finished the arc of his swing. Ignoring the heat, he stretched with every finger and managed to slip his pinky into the hole, causing him to come to a dead stop. He used his pinky hold to get his hand onto the glass, and his other hand followed soon after. Once he had a solid grip, the rope keeping him parallel with the window went slack. He screamed as his body swung underneath him, his hands gripping the edge of the hole with every bit of strength he had.

  He dragged himself up, his heartbeat screaming in his ears as he turned back just in time to see his rope fall away. He breathed a sigh of relief once he had sure footing under him, the glass cooling at a rapid enough rate, the heat only mildly painful rather than unbearable. He watched the end of his rope fall before him. But it was missing the sword Michael had used as a stake. The bit that had been on top of the mountain was cut clean, as if severed by something very sharp.

  All that relief in his chest turned to dread. They were above him.

  “Ameena!” he called, turning away from the drop and back to her, still swinging toward him.

  She didn’t respond. She didn’t even blink. Her breaths came in pants, and she was making this awful, terrified noise as she tried to swing, tears forming at the edge of hers as she stretched her hand out toward Ellis.

  He stood there like a child, unsure of what to do. On reflex his hand shot up to his necklace, but found the body still strapped to his chest. Following the corpse's curves, Ellis realized that his rope still hung around his waist. He untied the body, and threw it through the hole, onto the viewing deck.

  He swung the slack rope towards her on her second swing, and she missed it by a fingernail. She screamed as she hurtled back across the mountain. Her hands crunched against the glass, the sounds of her fingernails cracking as she tried to stop herself, trying with every inch of her power to claw herself back to Ellis.

  “Ameena! Complete the swing! Go with it!” Ellis called, holding out his rope towards her.

  By some miracle, she did so. She swung all the way back, a mewling noise escaping her lips when she reached the end of the swing. Waiting was agonizing, every moment he could see her falling into the abyss below and splattering like the corpse Michael had thrown earlier.

  “Ellis!” she cried, her eyes locked onto the rope in his hand.

  “I’m right here! You must grab this! Do not miss!” he shouted back, his voice raw.

  “Ellis! Help me!” she begged as she crossed the midpoint of her arch back towards him.

  “I will! I promise I will! Just keep going!” he screamed.

  At the crescendo of her arc, she was more than ten meters away. He threw the rope towards her, time slowing down as it floated through the air. It started falling, a loose cry leaving her lips just as she stretched her fingers out towards it…

  Her rope went slack right as her hand grabbed a hold of his. She howled as she fell, Ellis white knuckled as the rope cut through his hands before her fall came to an abrupt stop, slamming Ameena back against the hard surface of the window.

  He started pulling her up like a mad man when she didn’t stop screaming.

  Inch by inch he pulled her up, gritting his teeth through the stinging in his palms. Ellis bent down and grabbed her outstretched hand once she was close enough, and hauled her up far enough for his other hand to sneak underneath her armpit for better grip. He hoisted her all the way up, despite her attempt to make the entire affair more difficult as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

  Despite his high dexterity, glass was still glass. The added weight made him slip just as her feet cleared the lip of the hole. Ellis found himself falling once again, and his screams mixed with hers as they cut through the air. His back crashed into the platform, Ameena landing onto his chest since she hadn’t let go during the fall. She grabbed at Ellis’s clothes like a broken child, her entire body shaking as she tried to curl herself into a ball.

  “We made it… we made it…” his voice was strained as he tried to breathe.

  They had made it into screams, steel being crushed and the clang of swords reverberating around the room.

  “Come on… I know it’s hard but we can’t stay here,” he whispered, patting her back as he thanked the gods for the ground.

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