Heroine weaved through the slums, using the tattered terrain as cover as she kept trying to close the distance. But the archer was too fast and too skilled.

  Heroine became visible through a damaged wall for a brief moment, and suddenly jolted down as an arrow nearly grazed her shoulder. It would have pierced straight through were it not for the heightened reflexes she got from her Erratic Nerves trait.

  “I want to run away... I can’t. I need more wealth. I need to be the best.”

  She dodged another arrow.

  “I should run… But Gilgamesh bought the gear I needed. He didn’t take. Someone else will take. No, I can’t trust him either. He’ll take from me, too. Everyone takes… Should I run?”

  Heroine cut around a path, but jolted her head back as an arrow sailed right past her eyes and pierced through a stone wall. She cut back the other way immediately and continued her relentless pursuit.

  “Run where? Everywhere is the same. I’m safer in a group. It’s better to stay. Should I use her…?”

  She dodged an arrow as she dashed across a short path to close the distance just a little.

  “No, she’s the reason I’m in this mess. I don’t need her. I’m better.”

  Heroine seamlessly picked up a piece of armor on the ground as she ran and tossed it out of the path to test how the archer would react. But he didn’t take the bait. Heroine immediately rolled back as two arrows came curving down to pierce right through where she had just been. Her face grimaced as she kept running.

  “This is dangerous. I want to run away…”

  Heroine switched her mace to her left hand and picked up a rock as she ran. In every opening, she threw a rock at the archer in return for the arrows that came ever closer to drawing her blood.

  None of her rocks ever hit the mark, but that was not her goal. With each miss, she learned more about the archer’s habits when he moved. Always on an angle away from her, more often to the left than the right.

  Heroine unlatched the shield from her arm and placed it in a window. She doubled back and threw a rock again, and darted into a house as soon as the archer moved. With no activity, the archer paused a moment, then tension forced his limbs.

  The archer stalked in search of their prey and spotted a flash of moonlight against the steel shield. In a split second, he loosed an arrow and hit it clean on the mark. But the shield just fell from the impact, and Heroine lunged from behind with her mace high.

  The archer started to dodge, but Heroine had drawn too close. Her strike would land. Suddenly, her eyes flickered left to the towering knight who swung his great axe down on her.

  The axe would surely cleave her in half if she did not evade it, but if she lost this chance to kill the archer, she knew she would not get another. Heroine made her decision in an instant. She let the mace fly with her swing to smash into the archer’s face and flung herself to the side as the great axe crashed down.

  Heroine sprang upright into a defensive stance. She confirmed the archer’s death with a glance, but a jolt of pain from her side pulled her focus downwards. Part of her chestplate had been cut through and blood flowed down her side.

  “Didn’t cut bone or organs. But it’s bleeding a lot. I can’t let this last too long…” Heroine scanned her situation.

  The archer was dead but the new enemy she faced now seemed just as strong. A large man in full plate armor who donned a great axe in one hand and a tower shield in the other. Only his cold, vicious eyes could be seen through his helm and chainmail guard.

  “My shield will be useless against his axe…”

  Heroine feinted a charge, then rushed to recover her mace in the opening. The cleave she dodged in the process made her grimace again. She pressed the action to test the knight’s abilities, but that only made her grimace deepen.

  The knight had higher Attributes than her and a better build, but the shield was the main problem. A tower shield as large and thick as a house door. He could easily defend against her enchanted flanged mace, and worse yet, he had no aversion to methodically defending as he waited for the slightest opening to cleave her in half.

  Heroine barely dodged another deadly strike with nothing but the dull metallic clang of her mace on his shield to show for it.

  “I want to run away…”

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  His axe sliced a few strands of hair from her head as she ducked under. She slammed her mace against his shield in return, but it only knocked him back a few feet. She lunged to target his side, but the man struck with his shield to force her back.

  “I want to run away. I want to run away. I want to run away. I want to run away. I want to run away. I want to run away. I want to run away. I want to run away.”

  Heroine lunged with his strike to smash his hand away and the axe along with it. He put up his shield, but she threw a fistful of dirt in his eyes to blind him. Robbed of his vision, the man committed wholly to defense, but that made him stationary, just as she wanted.

  Heroine grabbed hold of the top of the tower shield and pushed down as she vaulted above it and swung down her mace.

  “I want to run away.”

  The tower knight stomped his foot on the ground, and a cluster of blue lightning burst forth all around him to crash into Heroine. The force of the magic wasn’t much of a threat, only having knocked her back a few steps. But the lightning intensified her Erratic Nerves to uncontrollable spasms, and that left her vulnerable in the air.

  The man burst forward blind and rammed his shield into her with such force that she crashed back through the house behind her. Most of the walls and what was left of the roof broke apart and crumbled down, but Heroine did not move.

  The knight rubbed enough of the dirt from his eyes to see, as he retrieved his axe and walked towards the unconscious Heroine laid atop the rubble. He raised his axe high with cold eyes and mercilessly cleaved it down.

  But it cut only into the large Floating Shield that intercepted just in time, and a Boulder Ape bashed the knight away. He managed to guard the attack with his tower shield, but he had taken his eyes off the battle for a brief moment.

  A ball of clay sailed right in front of him, and before he could think, it unleashed a violent explosion of raw force. It was a powerful blast by any measure, one that trembled the ground slightly and deafened the ears.

  When the dust cleared, proof of that power was nowhere more evident than the knight’s corpse. His tower shield was completely destroyed, along with the front of his armor, and what remained of his body was mangled beyond recognition.

  [ Nikolai Bellic - Hero (Iron Rank) ]

  Strength - 26

  Agility - 18

  Vitality - 10

  Perception - 9

  Force - 3

  Spirit - 7

  Control - 5

  Willpower - 8

  Talents:

  Thunderstomp lvl. 2 (silver), Rush lvl. 2 (bronze),

  [ Thunderstomp ]

  ‘Create a concussive Shockwave at one's base.’

  Gilgamesh assessed the damage and found it acceptable. He had intentionally given the man time to defend in order to test how much he could truly rely on these Bomber golems.

  He glanced over at the still unconscious Heroine, and then to the wound on her side. It was the only one he could see and nothing that couldn't be treated. He first controlled his Stone Ape to carefully pick her up from the rubble then commanded it to carry her.

  “At least now she’ll finally sleep.” Gilgamesh thought it good that she didn’t die. He still had need of her at her full potential.

  A sharp whistle sounded in the distance and the cheering that followed sounded like his own pawns.

  “The leader must have retreated after losing too many valuable elites.” Gilgamesh deduced, as he walked back to them.

  Gilgamesh assessed the situation more closely as he returned. Half of his pawns were dead or deserted. But that did not bother him.

  “This battle is over!” He shouted. “Loot everything from the bodies. Half of you stand guard for the rest of the night. If anyone else attacks, we will slaughter them too!”

  They cheered in response.

  “Forget the gambling dens! Forget about honest work under the daylight! We are raiders! From now on, we will only raid!”

  The cheers grew louder and more zealous, enough that Gilgamesh felt he had sufficiently preserved morale. There likely wouldn’t be many defections over the rest of the night.

  Gilgamesh’s own thoughts, however, were deeper than that. “What I have isn’t enough. I need to increase my arsenal of golems.”

  The battle had revealed some crucial weaknesses, especially if he would be fighting other Magi. He needed counters for each of them. But first, he wanted to know who led this attack. Who it was that had threatened his progress. Fortunately, he had more than enough survivors to pull that information from.

  [ Apple Thrower ] delights in the strife of the Trial.

  ---

  Heroine awoke in a different house than she was used to. Scarcely a brief instant had passed before she snapped into a panic, but the sharp pain in her side held her still. Heroine realized her chestplate armor was off. She lifted up her undershirt to find that her wound had been stitched up.

  “My wounds… I was in a fight. I was knocked unconscious… then…” She glanced over to Gilgamesh, who stood calmly on the other side as he kept guard.

  “He saved me…? No, I don’t need to be saved. But he helped me. He didn’t take advantage or discard me? Is this a trick? He didn’t take from me. Everyone takes. But he didn’t take…” She paused in thought as she stared right at him. “Can I trust him a little…?”