VII
Double Team II
‘I’m so fucking dead,’ Judith thought as she watched the girl waltz outside like she was going for a breather.
The girl was going to die, after which the prowler would barge in and rip her to shreds. She slammed a fist on the floor. How bad was her luck that the girl was level 1? And why wasn’t she with anyone else?!
A tear dropped on the floor. ‘Ray, Jake…I’m sorry…’
The water droplet glistened from a flash of light coming from the window. Judith crawled forwards and popped her head above the windowsill. Wings darted low over the frozen forest floor almost quicker than Judith could follow. The prowler lashed out. The girl’s blade met its claw head on. Sparks flew as the two objects clashed. The girl shifted her weight. With a yell, she threw the still air-borne beast to the side, sending it reeling into a heap of snow and unravelled earth.
“What in the world…”
Judith rubbed her eyelids and glanced at the disciple’s level one more time to be sure.
[Ashenkeeper - lvl. 1]
‘How is that even possible…’
Yes, the girl she’d condemned for death was basically twice her size—at least 6’5—and her robe couldn’t hide her figure (Judith suspected the girl’s thighs combined with the right headlock could crush her skull). However, the prowler, despite its appearance, was a creature that put all of its points into strength and dexterity. Its physicality was unmatched at the lower levels.
‘Is ashenkeeper some super rare class?’
But that didn’t make sense. Those birds weren’t spirit companions, they were summons. No summoner class boosted physical stats. They boosted nothing, really. Which is why no one went for them.
Unaware of Judith’s inner turmoil, the girl wove a sign in the air.
Dark wings cut a gash in the ground as the prowler whipped around. It lunged—
The blur exiting the portal forced the prowler to swerve out of the way…straight into the ashenkeeper’s path. Metal tore across the prowler’s flight organ, and the beast crashed to the ground.
A line of blood smacked against the snow. The girl angled her blade…and stood there. Her lava-orange hair, the portions that didn’t cling to her face from the sweat, whipped back and forth in the storm. Somehow, Judith had expected her to smile. But the girl’s expression was a mask, the severity of which was only accentuated by the long features of her face and neckline.
Judith remembered to breathe as an uncontrollable shiver passed through her. She’d been in the stands when her niece faced level five creatures without having a class yet. And while this was not the same, it came closer to it than Judith had seen any aspiring disciple of her Weapon Empire come.
The prowler clambered to its feet. Black ichor dripped from its wings, a pained screech penetrated the air. It launched itself forward for a final strike—
Another portal opened almost as an afterthought. The clipped wing had seen the prowler lose most of its speed, so there was no way for it to dodge. Talons smashed its head into the ground before it reached halfway towards the girl. Then a second set descended, and for the first time in her life, Judith wished mercy for a monster.
A sharp whistle as a blade re-entered its sheathe. Rolling her shoulders, the girl made her way back towards Judith. “Doable.”
“Doable…” Judith repeated.
Their gazes connected. Bright were the girl’s eyes. Residual heat poured from them like Judith was staring into a volcano.
“You might be able to help…” Judith mumbled despite herself.
The girl’s head tilted. “Help?”
She was kicked out of her daze. Yes! Help! If they went now they may be in time.
“My friends are holding out in a cave nearby!” her words rushed out. “They’re being hounded by prowlers.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“How many?”
“Three. But one of them is a boss monster.” she glanced at the corpse of the beast on the side…were the birds eating it? They clawed at each other as they did.
The girl followed her gaze and sighed. “A boss you say. What level is it?”
Judith thought hard. “Level six…maybe level seven, but definitely six.”
A frown appeared on the girl’s face. “That’s a bit high.”
That’s what she said after dismantling a level 5?
“I can reward you,” Judith said. “I’m from the Vire clan.”
Despite what Judith expected, the girl’s expression didn’t go wide.
“One of the Pillars?” Judith tried.
Only then did recognition dawn.
“Mother told me to avoid you,” she said and moved to re-enter the cabin.
“Wait! Please! I don’t know what you’ve heard but it’s wrong.”
The girl turned around.
Judith bit her lips. “Okay, maybe not everything. But we don’t backstab our allies!”
Which was more than could be said of some of the Pillars.
Brows raised. Her summons, finally finished with their plunder, came to rest upon both of her shoulders.
Thin lips almost burst. This wasn’t supposed to leave their clan, but Judith had no choice.
“I can share with you the location of our gate to Castle Shield.”
“Castle Shield?”
“One of the destinations of the first trial. It’s only known to the most prominent of the clans and where most of the powerful inheritances are for the claiming.”
At the term ‘inheritances’, the girl perked up. Who wouldn’t? Inheritances were half the reason anyone entered Everwinter.
A moment passed.
“Let’s go,” the girl said.
To Judith’s chagrin, I first checked the corpse of the prowler for a core. No luck. But something else did happen.
A pulse in the shard made me open the portal for the branch of the cindertree. The arm wrapped around the corpse and dragged it inside.
‘It’s taking the body even though it has no core?’
I glanced back at the boar, which was left entirely alone. Offering it to the portal didn’t make the tree reach out either.
‘Maybe it’s too low level?’
Doubtful. But it was the sole explanation I had.
Attention shifted to my trembling arms. In an effort to test myself against the prowler, I decided to save my summons for last. The fight took a toll on me, not the same one the fight against Mother did, but a toll nonetheless.
‘I need levels.’
Even if I produced another Ashwing, I wouldn’t be able to summon them into battle. Which brought up another issue: how could I enhance the shard? Despite being able to pour essence into it, none of it stuck to the shard itself. I needed to do something other than cycle.
‘But what?’
The question reverberated in my head as Judith led me through the forest up a slope behind the emergency shelter. She had run quite a distance, it turned out. The blizzard hadn’t wiped the traces of her flight yet, and the flurry of tracks kept going up.
She signalled that we were close ten minutes later.
I carefully retraced her steps over a stream, which creaked underneath my weight. Past the frozen water, the forest abruptly ended, leaving solely the side of the mountain strewn with rocks and snow. Two prowlers sat motionlessly upon a rock outcropping like gargoyles. Their black skin stuck out against the white background, making them easy to spot. Where was the other one?
At my side, Ashwing the First had her gaze strained on a single spot. I peered.
‘Yeah, that’s a boss for sure.’
[Storm-Cutting Prowler - lvl. 7]
The prowler blended with the snow more fully than I’d seen any other monster do until now. Its wings and muscles were also twice the size of that of a regular prowler.
‘Level 7…’
An unreasonable task.
‘Maybe not if the prowler gave me enough to level.’
Reaching level 2 would give me three stat points to spend. My best bet would be to put two in strength and one in dex.
“Are your teammates in that cave up ahead?” I whispered.
The dark hole in the mountain big enough for two people to fit through side-by-side was hard to miss.
“Yes, they said they would narrow its path of attack and take it down.”
A lie, both of us knew. Though the storm cutter would have trouble using its superior mobility in the cave.
“Could they have found a back exit in the cave?” I said.
She shook her head. “We camped there before we were ambushed. It’s a dead end.”
My brows touched. Was that why the prowler was waiting? The pair of disciples would need to come out for food and water eventually, so there was no need to take an unnecessary risk.
‘It’s smart.’
More trouble.
I slunk back behind the tree I was using to peek. The prowler’s eyes had moved towards us.
“What level are your teammates?” I whispered.
“Jake is level two, Ray level three. An archer and spearman. Ray is injured…” she trailed off as her voice broke.
“How injured?” I asked. “Is he capable of fighting?”
“The shoulder on his offhand. I’m not sure.”
I nodded. “I’m going to meditate and reach level two. We’ll launch our attack when we finish. Try to grab the attention of your friends.”
“Will do.” A spherical device appeared in her palms.
Life sensor. Came in pairs and allowed one to ping the other object with a pulse. Her team would’ve mapped pulses to short messages.
Not wasting more time, I fell into meditation. The process was different this time as I was not sending the experience into the shard, but pushing it into my bones. A tiny amount of essence lingered near my core, where the essence clung like mucus and expanded the base of my power.
I reached level two by the last drop of experience.
Ashenkeeper - lvl. 1 -> Ashenkeeper - lvl. 2.
3 free stat points gained.
A moan escaped me as I allocated my stat points. Like gaining experience, the rush of levelling wasn’t one to be underestimated.
I eyed my status—
Level: 2
Vitality: 5
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 6
Fortitude: 8
Perception: 7
Arcane: 11
Free Points: 0
—and stood.
“They’re ready,” Judith said.
Glancing at the cave, I could barely spot two shadows standing in the entrance. The prowler noticed them too, for it was no longer resting on its haunches but on all four feet. It was staring in our direction.
“Do you have any spells that allow you to form a screen?” I asked.
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