I didn’t wait for the kobolds to come to me; I cut straight into them. My blade sang as it tore through the first snarling face, hot blood spraying across my armor before the corpse even hit the ground. Another lunged from the side; I pivoted, aura flaring on Ember, and split it from collarbone to hip.

  Balt had gone behind me, erecting a barrier on the gate with his staff and shooting bolt after bolt at the kobolds still trying to break the gate.

  They pressed in on me, claws raking, teeth snapping, but Limit Break still roared through my body, and I was moving too fast for the uncoordinated monsters to pin down. Every strike I threw landed sharp and deadly; every step forward left another body broken in my wake. The gate thundered behind me, wood splintering under the horde’s numbers, but I kept up my assault, refusing to give ground. “Come on!” I snarled, voice raw with emotion. "Come at me!"

  I egged on the kobolds, trying to get them to attack me and not the gate. “You want this village?! You’ll have to climb over my dead body to claim it!”

  Balt’s barrier flared at my back, his spells cracking like thunder over my shoulder, but I didn’t look back at him. I couldn’t. The kobolds were endless, a tide of scales and teeth, and I was the rock they had to break against.

  I twisted, drawing every ounce of power into my core.

  My aura flared white?hot, pressure building until it felt like my skin might split. Then I let it go. “Limit Slash!”

  I spun, the blade carving a full circle, the strike exploding outward in a storm of sapphire and silver fire. Kobolds shrieked as the arc ripped through them, bodies cleaved apart and hurled back in sprays of blood and smoke. The drawbridge shook beneath the force, the bridge groaning under the weight of corpses piling at my feet.

  Balt roared his own battle cry behind me, his staff slamming down. The barrier he’d kept anchored protecting the gate surged outward in a sudden wave, a huge wall of force blasted into the kobolds closest to the gate. Dozens were flung screaming into the moat, their bodies splashing into the black water below.

  Balt had done it. We had them all out front now. The moat they had been pushed into was only ten feet below the drawbridge we stood on, but not having the enemy at our back bought us some more time.

  The footing was treacherous, slick with blood and gore. My armored boots skidded as I braced, every step threatening to send me sprawling. If I were wearing my pre-System boots, I would have stubbled a dozen times by now. With Limit Break and my new sword forms, I held the line, blade flashing, aura burning bright.

  “Balt!” I shouted over the chaos, cutting another kobold down. “Ask the villagers, if I clear the drawbridge, how fast can they pull it up?!”

  Balt threw up a barrier and tactfully retreated, throwing bolts all the while. He must have relayed the question, because I heard a female voice magically enhanced ring out. It was ragged but clear. “It’s broken!” she cried. “Something broke it before the horde came; we can’t raise it!”

  The words hit me like a hammer blow. My mind raced as I split another kobold in half trying to rush me. No tactical retreat was available. No fallback point of any kind. The drawbridge was a meat grinder, and we were standing in the middle of it.

  I cut another kobold down and looked for my next target. The only thing saving us from being overwhelmed was Balts' barriers and the fact that the bridge we were standing on was just narrow enough where no more than five or six could get to us at the same time.

  I looked at my anchor every moment I could; my mana was running low. “Balt, I’m going to go all out. If you want to blink onto the rampart and stay with the villagers, I’ll understand.”

  His answer came like a thunderclap. “You must’ve lost your mind! We’re in this together!” A grim smile tugged at my mouth. “Then follow me, partner.”

  I surged forward, blade flashing, with all the aura I could muster focused into Ember. Every strike carved a path wider; every step forward left another corpse broken at my feet. Balt was right beside me the whole way, his barrier flaring every time a spear or a claw tried to strike us, his bolts hammering kobolds that were able to avoid my blade were pushed into the moat below.

  Together we drove forward, shoulder to shoulder, until the last of them either fell shrieking below or had been struck down by me. Balt's voice came to me ragged, gasping for air. "The bridge is clear"

  I turned, chest heaving as well, the horde still surging at us. "Protect yourself, Balt."

  I drew every shred of mana I could, every ounce of will, into my blade. The aura around me flared blinding the incoming kobolds momentarily. I turned to the foot of the bridge. “Limit… Breaker… Slash!”

  The strikes power ripped free from me in a cataclysm of fire and force. My blade carved downward into the wood, the aura from the strike exploding in a crescent that tore through wood and stone alike.

  The drawbridge shuddered briefly and, for a moment I thought my strike would not be enough, but mercifully the wood started to split, then it collapsed in a thunder of splintering beams to the moat below.

  Several kobolds that were treading water were hit with wood and stone, sealing their fate. I heard the villagers cry out in elation as the last of the drawbridge tumbled into the murky depths below.

  The aftereffects of my strike left my arms trembling, my vision swimming, but the monster's path to the villagers was severed.

  I barely had time to breathe before a jagged spear slammed into my side. My now flickering armor hardly cushioning the blow, the force of it driving me sideways toward the shattered edge of the bridge. My boots skidded on blood?slick rock and wood, the black water below writhing with kobolds clawing over one another to swim up the steep rock ledge of the moat.

  For a heartbeat, I teetered on the brink of falling in. Then Balt’s hand clamped onto my arm, yanking me back as his staff slammed down with a crack that shook the air. “Force Wave!”

  The ground buckled outward in a display of raw power. Kobolds were hurled screaming backwards away from us. Balt didn’t stop, his staff flared again, and a shimmering barrier snapped into place between us and the horde, a wall of light holding back the tide.

  I staggered upright, trying to get back into the fight before Balt ran through his reserves protecting me. The Limit Breaker Slash had drained me more than ever before with the addition of my focused aura.

  The plates of light clinging to my body flickered, unstable, threatening to dissipate on their own and draining the dregs of my mana if I forced the armor to stay any longer.

  I dug deep standing tall, dismissing the armor. The glow bled away in streams of light, leaving me unprotected but still breathing, my limbs trembling with exhaustion.

  Balt glanced at me, sweat streaking his face, his barrier groaning under the weight of the kobolds hammering against it. "You good?" I tightened my grip on Ember, forcing my legs to steady. “I’m good" I brought my blade up in guard position. "I'm not done yet.”

  Balt’s barrier was showing cracks, spiderwebs of light racing across its surface as the kobolds continued to slam against it in a frenzy. I knew he had to be exhausted, but by buddy still held the line.

  I stepped forward, Ember now heavy in my grip, my arms trembling but my resolve never wavering.

  Balt gritted out. “No help appears to be coming."

  I took another step forward. "Then we fight until there’s none of them left.” The barrier shattered, and the tide poured in.

  I roared out in defiance and met them head?on. My blade carving through snarling faces and snapping jaws. Every swing burned my muscles raw, but I forced more out of them, each strike fueled by sheer will more than anything else.

  Blood sprayed, hot and coppery, coating my hands, my body, and my face now that my Talent armor was gone.

  Beside me, Balt bellowed his own battle cry, his staff blazing with light. He slammed it down, shockwaves blasting kobolds off their feet, then swept it wide, bolts of force hammering into the horde. For everyone I cut down, he crushed one as well, his magic tearing the air apart with force.

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  We fought back?to?back, the ground beneath us slick with gore, our boots slipping, our balance faltering—but we did not fall. Every time I staggered, Balt’s barrier flared to cover me. Every time his knees buckled, my blade cut down the kobold that would have ended him.

  The horde pressed harder, endlessly, their shrieks drowning out the world. My lungs burned, my vision blurred, but I refused to yield. This was our line. This was where we stood. This is where I broke them.

  “Together!” Balt shouted, his voice raw. “Together!” I roared back my agreement, driving Ember through another kobold's chest, and for a heartbeat, in the chaos and the carnage, we were unbreakable.

  Then Balt went down in my peripheral vision. A spear had punched through his weakened barrier and into his side, the force spinning him into the ground. His cry disappeared into the roar of the monsters who believed they had finally defeated one of us.

  “Balt!” I bellowed, positioning myself over him. Spears rained in from every angle, trying to end us both. I was able to redirect several, but not all. I groaned as another spear tip bounced off my shoulder. I did my best to protect my vitals and defend Balt. More strikes began to slip through to less protected areas on my body. Steel bit into my arms, my ribs, my thigh. Hot pain flared, but I refused to fall.

  I continued to carve a circle around us, Ember's color now dull. My boots slid on gore, my lungs burned, but I never faltered in my duty to protect the man who had protected me so many times. I was an iron wall. “You will not have him, you sons of bitches! You will not have him!”

  A rain of arrows from the village and a few spells pelted the kobolds back far enough for me to reset my guard. Balt finally stirred, dragging himself up through the muck. His staff was slick with blood, his robes shredded, his face a mask of gore. Still, he stood.

  Blood from several accumulated wounds on my head was pouring into my left eye, turning the world into a haze of red and shadow. I closed my eye and fought half-blind, every strike guided by instinct and rage.

  Beside me, Balt rose, swaying, his staff flaring with light. “Not… done… yet,” he rasped, blood dripping from his chin.

  I spat copper, tightened my grip on Ember, and forced my legs to steady. “Then we fight until there’s none of them left.”

  And so, we did, broken, bleeding, half?blind but still standing.

  Where the hell were Will and the cavalry? Where was our backup?

  The world narrowed to blood and my blade.

  My left eye was blind, and attackers continually took advantage of that fact. Stabbing me repeatedly where I couldn't see it coming. The pain was immense, but I still swung my blade. Limit Break was on cooldown. Every strike I sent out was slower, heavier, but Ember's flames weren't out yet.

  Balt staggered beside me, his staff just a piece of wood now, his anchor transparent, indicating no mana left. His words slurred, half?chant, half?madness. “Not… done… not done…”

  We weren’t fighting anymore; we were enduring. Each heartbeat was a miracle; each swing a defiance of death itself. The villagers sent out volleys, and I did notice several monsters that came at us had arrows sticking out of them. The kobold figures blurred into shadows in my mind, their snarls distant, unreal. My arms moved on their own, my body a puppet of rage and determination not to leave my partner and these people to die.

  Then something happened.

  The pain dulled; the haze sharpened. My aura flared, no longer sputtering but roaring, white?hot and endless. Ember felt weightless in my hands, every cut carving through flesh and bone as if the world itself had grown brittle.

  Beside me, Balt’s staff erupted in light, his barrier no longer fragile but towering, radiant, unyielding. His voice boomed, no longer ragged but thunderous, each word a hammer that shattered kobolds where they stood.

  We were beyond exhaustion, beyond reason. We were delirious, half?dead, and yet, ascending.

  We had leveled up!

  The surge of power hit like lightning, flooding my veins, burning away the fog in my mind. My wounds still bled, but my limbs steadied. My vision cleared. The world snapped back into focus.

  And in that clarity, I saw.

  Corpses. Piled high around us. The drawbridge was a charnel ground; the moat choked with bodies. The horde was gone, broken, scattered, annihilated. Only the dead remained, their blood soaking the ground, their eyes staring sightlessly into the night.

  I swayed, Ember dripping red at my side. Balt leaned on his staff, his chest heaving, his face a ruin of blood and ash. We stood alone in the silence. The storm had passed; the day was ours.

  But still, no cavalry. No Will. No salvation but what we had carved with our own hands.

  Balt beat me to it. “Where the hell are the men with those wagons?”

  I wiped the blood out of my eye with a piece of an old shirt I had gotten from the merchant’s den and looked past the bodies. “I don’t know, but they better have a damn good reason. Let’s go see what the hell is going on.”

  We had barely taken ten steps from the spot we had made our stand when a sound rolled down from the hill. It sounded like bones grinding, claws slashing stone and a roar I remembered all too well.

  I froze. My breath caught in my throat. “Oh no…” The words slipped out before I could stop them. My gut already knew what my eyes confirmed as the shape crested the rise.

  Tall. Twisted. Its frame was a lattice of jagged bone plates, glowing faintly with ember?red veins that pulsed like molten cracks.

  Its skull?like face turned toward us, eyes burning with cold intelligence.

  I forced the word through blood?cracked lips. “Identify.”

  The system’s response burned across my vision:

  My stomach dropped. Level thirty?eight. This was the same type of creature that had been part of my Outlier trial.

  The creature lumbered closer, dragging something in its claws. With a casual flick, it dropped them at its own feet.

  Heads. The answer I had been looking for stared lifelessly back at me. The heads were the soldiers from the wagons. Their eyes stared up at me from the dirt, mouths frozen in silent screams. I heard cries from behind the gate ring out, and then the creature smiled, showing razors for teeth.

  The Boneclaw’s voice rasped like stone tearing against stone, deep and deliberate. “You two killed all my fodder, so I thought it only fair to kill yours as well.”

  Its claws flexed, scraping sparks from its own bone plating. The air stank of ash and blood.

  I tightened my grip on Ember, the weight of the blade grounding me against the rising tide of dread.

  Balt’s voice came low, strained. “You… you know this creature?”

  I started centering myself. “I killed one before.”

  My gaze fell to the ground and froze. Among the severed heads the Boneclaw had dropped, I saw him. The farmer. The one who had clasped my hand thanked me with tears in his eyes. His face was slack now, his eyes glassy, his mouth still parted in a final plea.

  Something inside me snapped.

  Heat roared through my veins, my aura flaring so violently it seared the air. Ember thrummed in my grip, the blade drinking in my fury. The plates of light surged back across my body, snapping into place one by one until the armor blazed around me, brighter and heavier than before.

  A System Notification came across my vision, and I felt my armor change.

  The bulky plates I had grown used to didn’t just vanish, they melted, streams of sapphire light bleeding off my body like molten steel. For a heartbeat I stood bare in the storm of radiance, then the light snapped inward, forging itself anew.

  The armor that settled over me was no longer crude bulk. It was sleek, predatory, regal. The plates hugged close, interlocking like living scales, every edge traced with faint lines of sapphire fire.

  A mantle of light flared across my body, a ghostly cloak that rippled with every breath appeared on my back. My gauntlets gleamed with etched sapphire runes, each one pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat. The helm formed last, a crown?like crest of burning silver that left my face exposed but wreathed me in a halo of silver fire.

  The surrounding air warped, pressure rolling outward from me in waves. Every movement I made hummed with new power; every step left scorch marks on the blood?slick ground. This wasn’t just protection anymore; it was a declaration of offensive power as well.

  I raised my blade. “Stay back, Balt. This bastard is all mine!”