Thomas felt useless. He felt useless because in Landsknecht, everyone was a valuable asset except for him.

  Lucian was an all around solid fighter and an extremely good duelist. Thomas didn’t forget his performance during orientation. If he was one on one with his opponent, he would always win.

  Bena was a top tier scout, so much so it was hard to believe she didn’t get scouted by a guild. In fact, Thomas personally believed that she did get offers, but turned them down for an unknown reason. Her scout ability proved time and time again better than any other scout skill in the academy, even including guild affiliated scouts. There was no way the guilds didn’t notice her value.

  And Viviana was something else. She always had a plan. Quick to the uptake, confident, strong. A leader, tried and true. Not to mention a devastating combatant.

  Compared to them Thomas felt like nothing. Sure, he handled the finances. Sure, he did the accounting, contracting, and did the auctioning for all their loot. But when they needed someone to fight, Thomas felt out of his depth, despite all the training Viviana had given him.

  Landsknecht was running for their lives, dodging and ducking behind frozen pillars of ice as giant feathers rained all around them. It was a constant, unending barrage that they only survived because Viviana had deflected half of them as they retreated pillar to pillar.

  Only half, though. It meant the rest was tearing through them. Viviana took the brunt of the blows. She would look silly if it wasn’t terrifying; meter long feathers stuck out of her in odd angles, making her look like a strange peacock.

  “This pillar isn’t going to hold much longer. We’ve got to move to the next one,” she said, ripping feathers out. Normally it would be better to keep embedded objects embedded, to prevent bleeding out, but they were soulbound. The feathers just slowed regeneration.

  “I’ll take point this time. We’ll head to that pillar there,” Lucian said, pointing. Viviana nodded. Lucian did a short countdown. Three, two, one, go. They sprinted for the pillar as Lucian deflected as many projectiles as possible. Miraculously they made it intact.

  This strategy couldn’t continue. Eventually the pillars would all be destroyed, and then they’d have nowhere to hide. All it took was one lucky feather to pierce a jugular or the heart.

  Thomas thought. Racked his brain, yet for all his intelligence, all the studying he did to be useful, he couldn’t think of anything. Thomas knew the one thing he had over the rest of the Landsknecht was his knowledge. What was the point? I wanted to be a soulbound researcher, yet what good is my research when I’m being pelted by feathers?

  Thomas could barely comprehend what was going on around him as the sound of an explosion met his ears. The barrage stopped for a second. Then it continued.

  “I think it’s regenerated!” Bena yelled. “The frostburst organs aren’t going to work!”

  “It stopped the barrage for a second. Maybe we can use the organs to approach it,” Lucian said.

  “And then what? How do we bring it down?”

  Thomas got it. How could I be so stupid? I know what monster this was. I know it very well.

  It was one of the first things he ever researched. It was unbelievable that it was here, in the academy. A statistical impossibility. Yet it happened.

  The dungeon constantly shifted and changed, and the information about the terrariums were strictly controlled by the academy. There was no way Thomas could have known about this creature, save for a crazy coincidence.

  The first thing I researched. An item that could bring someone back from the dead. The [Frost Phoenix Ashes], a possible item that dropped from a level 20 or higher frost phoenix. I remember being disappointed. It had unimaginable power, but it could only delay death for the soulbound.

  The item was very, very valuable. Not only was the frost phoenix rare, but it was also difficult to kill. It flew, after all, and ranged skills were rarely granted by the system.

  There’s a way to stop it from flying, though.

  “...The egg,” he said. “It needs to protect its egg.”

  No one paid any attention to him.

  “The egg!” he shouted.

  All eyes turned to him. Bena nearly jumped out of her skin.

  “You’ve got a plan, Thomas?” Viviana asked.

  Thomas explained, raising his voice so the Landsknecht could hear over the barrage of icy feathers. “That thing is called a frost phoenix. Like you’d expect, the phoenix can revive. It does this by hatching from the egg over there. However, when it hatches, the egg is broken. The egg needs to reform so the phoenix can revive again. Look, it’s reforming right now.”

  “So we have to break the egg to prevent it from being revived. If the egg is fully intact, the egg will revive the Phoenix,” Lucian said.

  Thomas nodded. “Yes. Even if we kill the phoenix, if the egg is unbroken, the phoenix will come back.”

  “But then what after?” Viviana asked. “Even if we break the egg, we have no way of bringing the bird down. It’ll stay in the air and pelt us until we’re all dead.”

  Thomas thought. Then an idea came to mind. “We need to bait it to protect the egg. It can’t use the barrage attack if we’re close to the egg for fear of collateral damage. We need to threaten the monster. We need to convince it that protecting the egg is the better choice than killing us.”

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  “I get it!” Bena said. “It’s a bluff. If the bird thinks we can swat it out of the air, it’ll protect the egg so it can revive! Then, while it’s close to the egg, we can kill it and the egg at the same time!”

  “The problem is,” Thomas said, “How do we convince a giant bird we can kill it?”

  “Maybe one of us could flare their mana and draw its attention,” Lucian said.

  “I’ll do it,” Viviana said. “I have the most mana here, I think. I’ll flare my mana, pretend I’m charging some big attack, while you guys rush the egg. Then when it dives down to protect the egg, you guys need to either kill it or pin it down. I’ll rush over with my [flash step].”

  Thomas shook his head. “No… if we do this, we need you to go for the egg. You have the most speed right now, and it won’t stay on the ground for long. We need to kill it ASAP.”

  “Makes sense,” Viviana said.

  “I’ll do it, then,” Lucian said. No one had any objections.

  “Okay. Bena, Thomas, and I will rush the egg. I’ll throw frostburst organs to distract it,” Viviana said, reaching for the bag of holding.

  Bena prepared herself. Lucian closed his eyes, ready to channel mana. Thomas put his hands up. “Hold on, shouldn’t we talk about this some more? Are you sure we’re going with my plan?”

  Viviana nodded. “Get ready.”

  Viviana reached into the bag of holding that Thomas carried, pulling a handful of frostburst organs. Twelve credits. Two bowls of noodles, Thomas thought.

  Lucian flared his mana. Instantly a pressure filled the cavern. Warm, powerful, protective. Compared to the frozen harshness of the solitary frost phoenix, it was a perfect antithesis. He shouted. “Fear me, you stupid bird! I’m gonna blast you out of the sky!”

  Viviana chucked the organs. Thomas watched as they drew a perfect arc, detonating right in front of the bird, obscuring its vision in an icy cloud. The barrage stopped. Instantly they exploded into action.

  Thomas and Bena activated [dash] over and over again. They had only recently acquired it, so the chance of falling on their faces was high, but now was not the time for failure. They had to succeed. Viviana moved like a living lightning bolt, using her skill to zip across the massive room.

  The ice cloud faded. The egg was still fifty meters away. Viviana stopped using her skill. She’d need it to finish the fight.

  Thomas glanced backwards. This is the hardest part of the plan. If the bird doesn’t believe that Lucian is a threat, then it won’t move to protect the egg.

  As soon as Thomas looked behind himself, he found a giant bird staring right at him.

  Thmas dove forward, just barely avoiding a giant talon. Bena started [dash]ing sideways. Viviana moved to the right. Bena’s trying to split its focus! Viviana has to make it to the egg!

  He could feel the air chill as the bird prepared another salvo of feathers. But then he felt another feeling. Lucian’s mana, coursing through the room, much stronger than before. He looked back as he ran. Lucian was yelling, howling at the stupid bird to look at him.

  Even from here, Thomas could tell that Lucian was scared. Thomas couldn’t blame him. He was taunting a bird the size of a building and with the firepower of a repeating railgun.

  All for a measly sum of twelve hundred academy credits, Thomas thought. This plan has to succeed. No, I will make it.

  The bird turned back, sensing Lucian’s empowered mana. It thinks Lucian’s a threat. Now it’s come down to whatever decision it makes. Kill Lucian, or protect the egg?

  Thomas knew that this was a gamble. Thomas hated it. He always thought he had bad luck. But this time, Thomas was lucky. The bird dove for the egg.

  It was already too late. Thomas was only a couple seconds away. Bena and Viviana had already reached the egg, but even so it swooped down, wings folding elegantly as it extended its talons to cut him shreds.

  Thomas watched as talons sliced through the air, as Viviana placed another lightning sigil on her leg. Thomas knew that meant she could [flash step] forward. She was preparing for the final strike. It all happened in less than a second. He yelled out. “Bena, now!”

  Bena stood next to the egg, brought her blade back and swung in a two handed arc. A loud cracking sound reverberated throughout the room. It sounded like a mountain splitting apart.

  That’s when everything went wrong. The phoenix flapped its wings, rapidly leaving Viviana’s reach. It turned to Lucian, who was now on the floor, exhausted from flaring his mana so heavily.

  It figured out that Lucian’s mana was just a bluff. That we were trying to bait it out of the air. We have no way to kill it if it remains in the air, so remain in the air it will. The plan has failed. I shouldn’t have said anything. I shouldn't have mentioned my stupid idea.

  The bird was already preparing more ice feathers. Viviana was far too close to the bird to run to a pillar. She could deflect some of the projectiles, but she couldn’t get all of them. With no cover she was dead. Then the plan would be over. They’d have no way of killing the bird.

  A salvo flew at them. Bena stepped forward, her eyes ablaze. Her scouting skill?

  She moved, her hands a blur, parrying and deflecting flawlessly. Attack after attack rained down on them. But Bena parried it all.

  Thomas racked his mind. He knew she couldn’t keep up her skill for long.

  Think! What can I do? What should I…

  Thomas gripped his blade in his hands. One last idea.

  He warmed up [strike]. The first skill he got. He wasn’t sure why he got it in the first place. [Scout] suited him more. With his knowledge, and heightened perception, he could be an excellent scout. His parents had told him so. But he refused, picking [strike], a skill suited for frontline warriors.

  Thomas finally understood why he picked it. Because deep down, he wanted to be acknowledged. Not a bookworm, but the hero who swings their sword and defeats their enemies.

  For someone as weak as me, this is the best I can do.

  He poured all his mana into [strike]. Every last drop. He held the blade in two hands above his head, and with all his remaining might, his vision flashing as mana fatigue crashed into him– he threw the blade.

  It flew out of his hands like a cannon and smashed into the bird’s wing.

  The bird stumbled, off balance, and then tumbled towards the ground. It desperately tried to right itself, but in doing so it got too close to the ground.

  Viviana jumped, lightning surging through her legs, empowering her movement straight upwards. Her sword was angled to her side. A simple, straight forward cut. It was just strong enough to pierce the flesh of a level twenty plus monster.

  Viviana fell from height, nothing to catch her. Actually, Bena was under her. The bird fell too, right on top of them. It screamed all the while, blood pouring out of its neck. And then it was over.

  [You have slain a level 20 Frost Phoenix.]

  [+20 exp] [shared]

  [You can distribute (2) stat points.]

  [You have won a difficult battle.]

  [Feat recognized.]

  They had won.