I’m once more being escorted through town by a cadre of the highest leveled guards in the city. Only this time, nobody but Scruffy will even meet my gaze. He doesn’t look very happy, either.

  Thankfully, it’s a short trip. The guard station is just across the square from where Cari and I were eating, built beside the gate to the Tunnels. There’s another on the opposite side of the gate, but it’s more for storage than anything from what I can tell.

  They’re still impressive structures though, even if I’ve seen them hundreds of times. The wall itself is just as massive as I remember it, built high to stop anything short of flying creatures. The stones are ancient and worn, looking like they’re barely hanging on.

  Its looks can be deceiving, though. From what I could find in the history books I managed to get my hands on, it’s been like this for the past six or seven hundred years without needing any maintenance.

  They walk me through an old metal banded door, through a small training arena on the first floor, and up several flights of stairs and into a small office space near the top. Strangely, my escort doesn’t follow me in, instead closing the door behind me as I follow Scruffy inside.

  Suddenly, we’re alone in what appears to be his office.

  He slumps into a large wooden chair behind a desk covered with stacks of paper strewn haphazardly about its surface. Looking around, I find the space rather cozy, all things considered.

  There’s a small bookshelf on the right, filled with what I can only assume is ledgers of some kind, given their unmarked bindings. On the other side is a large wooden chest, weapon rack, and armor stand.

  There’s even a small cot in the corner with halfway decent looking pillows and covers. Scruffy sighs loudly then, bringing my attention back to him.

  “Take a seat Emilia,” he orders, but his voice is more disappointed than commanding. “Do you know why you’re here?”

  I do as ordered, shaking my head.

  “Let me give you a hint. The brothel,” he says, straight faced.

  It hits me then, and I freeze in my chair.

  I hadn’t even thought about it at the time. I murdered an entire group of people. Shitty people, sure—but the law doesn’t care. Why didn’t that even cross my mind?

  I thought of myself as something of a planner, and I definitely had plans that night. But they all revolved around killing them in the end. What’s more is that I’m not even a little sorry for killing them, but why was that the only outcome I sought?

  “Yeah, that. Unfortunately for me, your arrest has been called for by Councilor Morvane himself. He managed to convince the other Councilors to agree with him, given the charges. And as much as I dislike the man, he’s my boss,” he says, pausing for a breath and wiping a hand down his face, displeasure evident across his features.

  The more he speaks, the lower my heart sinks. I can tell he likes this about as much as I do. It’s reassuring, but it’s already obvious that he isn’t going to go against his orders. I don’t have many options, either.

  “For what it’s worth, I agree with what you did. So does most of the guard. If it were up to me—”

  He’s interrupted by the sound of a roaring explosion that shatters the window behind him, a wave of hot air sending glass everywhere. There are screams coming from the streets below, and when I look back to Scruffy, his face is set in a grim line. Before I can even wonder what’s going on, he’s moving towards the door as my escorts tear it open.

  “Explosions in the square and all throughout the city!” the Mage escort says, her voice filled with worry.

  She spares me a glance. Scruffy turns to look at me then as well and scowls. He stares for a few seconds before his face morphs into a grin.

  “Well, you going to help or not?”

  My smile is more measured. For a split second, I wonder if I even should. They’re trying to throw me in prison, and most people in this city hated me until just a few days ago. But those thoughts are erased from my mind at the thought of Cari or Krissy getting hurt because of my inaction.

  “Let’s go,” I say, and we move back downstairs in a rush.

  Scruffy and I quickly out-pace the other guards, reaching the bottom of the tower well before they do. When we step outside, I’m filled with a mix of horror and disbelief. The square is a mess of fire, rubble, and dust. Acrid smoke fills the air, burning my nose and throat.

  But there’s also the scent of far too much blood.

  The center of the square, where once there was a large fountain surrounded by countless stalls and tables, is now little more than a crater. It’s hard to make anything out because of the dust and smoke in the air, but what I see infuriates me.

  Dozens, maybe hundreds lay dead all around the sight of the explosion. Men, women, Delvers, pedestrians… children. Then I notice some of them are still moving. Without thinking, I’m dashing for one of the worst looking ones.

  A young boy, no more than ten years old, is missing his right leg. Enhance body is maxed out instantly, and I’m by his side in moments. He’s patting the air where his leg used to be, as if he’s confused by its absence. Only when I start healing him does he start screaming.

  I turned off Enhance Body and shoved every bit of my regeneration his way, sparing nothing. Still, it feels as if the wound is healing too slowly. Even with Arcane Regulation burning over 20,000 combined regen, the 95% reduction from sharing it with someone else makes me want to scream.

  I can’t help but feel like it’s not enough.

  The kid is gaining over 1,000 health per minute from me, and it still takes several precious seconds just to stop the bleeding.

  The entire time I’m healing him, I’m looking through the clouds of debris and smoke to find my next target. There are too many.

  In seconds, I pick out over a dozen people in desperate need of healing, and a horrible realization dawns on me.

  I’m going to have to pick who to save.

  Without a healing Class, I can’t determine who needs it the most, so I just have to eyeball it and pray to the Gods that I’m right.

  Either way, there’s too many, and I can’t get to them all with how slow my healing is. I don’t even have time to heal them fully.

  All I can do is stabilize them enough that they won’t die today.

  I leave the boy the instant his bleeding stops, reactivating Enhance Body and quickly moving to the next person. A woman, spasming on the ground thanks to a nasty crack in her skull.

  Then the next, another kid. A girl this time, frozen with shock as her hands hover around a fragment of stone that’s pierced her hip.

  A kid who was probably no older than sixteen died from his burns before I could get to him, and I stumble in my sprint to him.

  Then another person moans in agony, and I turn away from the corpse to help the next one.

  I don’t save them all. I don’t think I saved even a quarter of them before I hear Scruffy calling for me.

  “Emilia! Emilia, where are you!” he shouts.

  To my surprise, it pierces the haze of my mind, and I call out.

  “H-here!” I say, coughing. “Over here!”

  Then he’s beside me. I don’t stay put though, and he follows me without hesitation to my next target.

  “It’s the other gang! They set off explosions around the city—” he says, pausing to hold down an older man as he thrashes under my grip while the skin on his leg regrows, “—as a distraction. They’re breaking their people out of prison as we speak, and we need to stop them. I could really use your help.”

  I pause, but only for a moment. Then we’re moving to the next injured person, and my mind races. He notices my hesitation though, and speaks quickly.

  “If they succeed, the city is as good as dead. We’re already struggling to keep them from doing shit just like this. Think about what will happen when they double their numbers!” he says, his voice pleading now.

  When I meet his gaze, his face is marred by ash and grime. It makes him appear like a great warrior from the stories. But I can also see the concern in his eyes. I look across the square, taking in the bodies strewn about the area.

  It’s all I need to make my decision.

  “Let’s go,” I say the instant I finish with my last patient.

  He dashes off, and I follow closely behind. We wind through several major streets, all but plowing through the panicking crowds. Then we’re passing an entire squad of guards rushing the same direction as us.

  Not long after, I see a massive plume of dense smoke filling the sky ahead of us, the scent of it quickly growing overwhelming. The moment I’m certain that’s where we’re going, I sprint ahead of Scruffy, quickly leaving him behind.

  The prison looms ahead, built into the stone face of a low hill not far from the city walls. It looks like a small fortress of stone and metal, with squared towers and battlements linings its roof.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  The rune-etched gates are shattered, one side hanging half off its hinges, and the other collapsed inward with some kind of magical fire still burning across its metal surface.

  Smoke billows from windows high along the fort's walls, curling into the sky and swallowing the entire area with darkness. I can hear shouting, metal on metal, and the roar of even more flames echoing inside.

  Beyond the gate, the entrance to the fortress itself has been breached as well, blown inward like a giant decided to kick it in. I can make out nearly twenty thugs standing around the gates and entrance, fending off nearly as many guards.

  I’m in their midst before they see me coming, and I don’t hold back even a little. If these people are responsible for the horrors I witnessed in the square, then they deserve the worst I can give them.

  Punish.

  Fae Ferocity activates, pushing my rage to an all new height. My world turns into a blur of black and red as I tear through them.

  One moment, I shatter the sword arm of a thug before he can cleave a fallen guards head open.

  The next, I'm tearing another's throat out.

  Another goes down in a shower of gore when I use a Blood Burst right beside their head.

  Skills, kicks, punches, claws, fangs - I use whatever does the most damage.

  Just as I’m finally approaching the entrance, Sense Danger flares. A flash of light explodes from the gloom within, but its too fast for me to see what it actually is.

  Before I can even try to dodge, Scruffy is in front of me. He glows all over from the activation of some skill, a shield raised to block whatever is coming.

  There’s a crack of a whip, then his shield and the arm attached to it are just… gone.

  He grunts in pain, and I step forward to touch him so that I can heal him at least a little bit. But before I can, there’s an explosion of fire from his injured side that blasts us apart.

  I only stumble back a few steps, fortunate that I wasn’t the primary target. Scruffy, on the other hand, tumbles through the air.

  I’m shocked when he lands on his feet mostly unharmed. Singed and toasty, and missing an arm, but somehow stable. That’s when I finally look toward the busted open entrance. Two figures stand in the wreckages, a man and a woman, both crackling with fire.

  Human Mage

  Level ??

  Human Fighter

  Level ??

  At the front stands a woman in scorched leather armor, her grin feral and her flaming whip coiling and crackling like it has a mind of its own. Beside her, a tall, angular man watches in silence, his sunken eyes matching the glowing yellow gem in his staff.

  These must be the leaders. Or at the very least, they're high enough on the food chain to have earned my hatred.

  The urge to end them is so powerful that I don't think. I just move. Her eyes widen with shock when I appear just a few steps away before her arm has even pulled back all the way for another attack.

  She activates a skill, her whip glowing an even brighter red as it snakes through the air as if it has a mind of its own. But I never stop. With a jump and a twist of my hips, I’m spinning through the air towards her, and the gap vanishes.

  The whip follows me instantly, and I realize that there’s no dodging the skill. So I activate Scarlet Barrier and Blood Burst at the same time she activates a fiery barrier of her own.

  Blood burst explodes behind her, but doesn’t seem to have any effect on her barrier at all. Then her whip slams into my barrier, cracking several of the crystalline shields.

  For a moment, the whip tries to wrap around the barrier, but with the spinning of my shields, it quickly starts to get tangled up. She tries to pull it back, but it’s too late.

  My kick lands on her barrier, fully empowered by Arcane Strike and Bloodmist Fist. The flames near instantly devour my boots, pants, and even most of the skin of my leg.

  Still, my attack clips her jaw. She twists with it, reducing its impact, but it doesn't matter.

  Twisted satisfaction blooms in my belly when I hear her howl in pain as the mana from Arcane Strike invades her system. She steps back with the attack despite her obvious pain, her whip suddenly transforming into a fiery blade in a flash of light.

  The moment my foot touches the ground, Scruffy smashes into the Mage beside us. It's fortunate that he's with me for this fight, because the Mage is pointing his staff at me, its tip glowing a dangerous orange.

  Behind me, I hear the roar of more guards storming the opening. Having dealt with a lot of the thugs, they have more leeway to back us up.

  I lock gazes and snarl at the Fighter in front of me, her eyes blazing with rage. She screams as she charges me, sword swinging towards my midsection as if to eviscerate me.

  At the same time, I dash in, getting inside of her swinging sword arm and clamping it under my own arm. I have to push through the barrier, and it burns away my clothes and most of the skin on my right side, but I ignore it.

  While it's still active, it's also visibly weakened from my first attack.

  Thankfully Pain Resistance is at level eight, so I only feel 20% of what I normally would, and I’m good at ignoring pain in the first place.

  It only takes a fraction of a second. The moment the crook of my arm meets her elbow, my face shifts into a savage grin. She looks shocked for a moment, until realization and horror dawn on her features.

  I jerk my arm upwards as hard as I can.

  Now that I'm through the barrier and actually touching her, the force behind my attack isn’t reduced in the slightest. Her elbow lets out a sickening crunch as it folds the wrong way, and she screams, only this time its filled with pain.

  She explodes with fire, coating us both in the process. She doesn’t seem to take any damage from it at all, but I’m not so lucky. Thanks to my racial skill Magic Resistant and the second Wisdom milestone reducing magic damage by a total of 60%, it’s not life threatening.

  It still hurts more than I care to admit.

  It doesn’t stop me though, or even blow me back thanks to my grip on her arm. My fist slams into her face, her nose crunching loudly as her head rocks back. Her knees wobble beneath her, but I keep her up and punch again. And again.

  I keep punching until she isn’t moving anymore before turning my attention to Scruffy. His fight is almost over as well, and even with one arm, he’s a force to be reckoned with. I thought I’d had a tough barrier to deal with, but the Mage has a barrier of flames so dense that they appeared to be solid.

  Even so, it looks like it’s been slashed open in several places, and Scruffy’s blade blooms with mana. In an instant, his sword arm is buried in an opening in the barrier all the way up to his shoulder. He breathes out a slow, calm breath, and there’s an explosion of mana bursting from inside the barrier.

  Then blood and gore explodes from the many openings in its surface, as well, before the barrier fizzles out entirely. What’s left can’t even be called a man anymore, but I don’t waste time staring at his handiwork. I quickly turn around and find that it wasn’t just guards who came to help.

  There are Delvers too.

  Cari dances through two thugs with a martial grace I'm jealous of even now. At the same time, her hands contort as she directs two ghostly purple tentacles to entrap one of them and slap aside the other. I can hear the crunch of bone when the tentacle connects with its target even from here, and I wince sympathetically.

  The rest of the thugs are either already dealt with or being just as easily handled. Relief floods me at the sight, and I suddenly realize I’ve never bothered to check her tag. I got so used to Cari being so… her. Class or no.

  Now my curiosity wins out.

  Human Mage

  Level 43

  I feel a bit bad for not checking earlier. I could have congratulated her on being so close to her evolution.

  I know she has a witch-like Class, but if she’s managed to level up that much without delving regularly, she must be able to use both of her Classes at the Guild in some capacity. It's probably less effective than fighting, but levels are levels.

  I make a mental note to praise her later before turning back to Scruffy. He lay collapsed against a section of undamaged wall with his head down and blood leaking from his mouth, unmoving.

  The sight gets me moving again, and I drop the unconscious woman without hesitation. The instant I reach him, I push everything I can into Arcane Regulation and tune out the rest of the world.