Claws shrieked against Olivia's shield, making every effort to shred the fine steel.

Unable to manage a full swing of her sword in the close confines, Olivia stabbed her blade forward. It couldn't quite reach the massive winged feline, but the motion was still enough to activate Wind Slash.

[Wind Slash] - Wind, Vanguard - Active, Attack - Use a bladed weapon to make a ranged attack delivered through hardened air. Damage and quintessence cost depend on the weapon used to make the attack.

The beast that had once been Egin staggered back, the force of the small projectile unable to cut through the hybrid monster's hide but at least managing to buy Olivia a little space and a moment to recover her balance. Even as it roared in that unnatural combination of brassy and yowling tones, Olivia threw a Gust Blast at the ground, roughly throwing herself backwards.

The cat flared its wings, but Olivia had taught the beast better than to try to fly when she was able to use her Gust Blast against it, and it instead threw itself forward in a long pounce, claws ready. It was an attack Olivia had seen before, but she still hadn't figured out a good defense for it. The force blast from her runeblade had worked once, but it was long since expended now.

Unable to figure out a better option, she braced her shield and sword for the impact, sending the power of a Critical Strike rushing through her weapon.

[Critical Strike] - Active, Attack, Luck - Make a special attack with potency increased by one tier. Potency has a small chance to instead increase by three tiers. Moderate stamina cost is decreased to lesser if the critical effect triggers.

The potency was enough to leave a shallow cut in the monster's ribs, the fourth such Olivia had managed in their prolonged fight, but little more than that. The hawk-cat, on the other hand, managed to sneak a paw around Olivia's shield, and left a ragged cut of its own, one that even Olivia's enchanted tunic was unable to ignore.

The squire and the cat both recoiled in pain, and Olivia realized with dismay that the last attack had apparently been too much for her shield arm. Even trying to lift the kiteshield sent a surge of burning pain through her, joined by a fresh gout of blood, steaming in the predawn air.

The monster that Egin had turned into was far and away the most powerful foe Olivia had ever faced alone. Standing at the peak of the lesser rank, far stronger than Egin had been before the transformation, the beast had shrugged off attack after attack, its unnatural resilience managing to heal potentially crippling wounds before Olivia could take advantage of them. The squire herself had no such benefit, and the numerous minor attacks the hybrid beast had managed to land, even through her Reinforced Defense, were slowly taking their toll on her.

And now, after nearly twenty minutes of their drawn out encounter, things seemed to have finally reached a head. Olivia's stamina, focus, and quintessence alike were running dry, and hurt as she was, she knew that she had little chance of surviving the beast's next rush.

Still, as the cat crouched, Olivia braced herself, ready to go down fighting. There was always a chance her last Critical Strike would finally trigger its luck effect and end the fight.

But before the transformed bandit could pounce again, a sound from behind it caught the avian-feline's attention. It whirled and leaped away, the last second movement the only thing that saved it from a bolt of lightning crashing through the brush.

Olivia saw her chance and she took it, moving despite the blazing pain that covered her body. Her shield arm dangled behind her, copious trails of blood running down from it, and she knew that it would be mere moments before she passed out. Still, she had to take the chance she had been given–the sudden movement had left the wounded monster off-balance. Just before it could recover, Olivia was there, her sword chopping at its back.

[Critical Strike] triggered

Potency increased by three tiers

Stamina cost reduced to lesser

The monster that had once been Egin didn't even have the chance to respond as power surged through Olivia's runeblade. The attack didn't slow as it hit the cat's shoulders, just in front of its wings, and passed cleanly through at a diagonal, coming out of the hunting cat's stomach in a shore of gore and leaving the hybrid monster in two pieces.

It was over.

Olivia staggered in place, the rush of the fight finally leaving her, and she was unable to keep her balance. The exhaustion and pain of overusing her stamina and focus had left her drained, and she didn't have the force of will left to ignore the pain of her wounds.

For better or worse, even if Egin had failed to kill her, he had removed Olivia from the fight going on around her. Hurt as she was, she'd be lucky to even survive without help, and there was no way she was going to make it to Keystone. Even if she did, she was so drained that she'd be of no good to anyone. She just didn't have any more fight left in her.

Adeline had put her trust in Olivia, and she had failed. All of the skills she had gained since she had left Elliven hadn't helped her, hadn't been enough. She had survived the fight, but lost the battle. With Adeline occupied back in Millstone and the rest of her friends miles away, there was nothing else she could do.

Olivia bowed her head, tears fighting their way from her eyes as pain wracked her body with every breath, every movement of her ragged muscles.

And then there was a clink as a small cloth bundle hit the ground in front of her.

#

The sun had only been up a few hours when Olivia made it to the borders of Keystone, her wounds healed, her attributes restored, and her hope rekindled. Where the potions had come from, she didn't know, but she also didn't have any spare energy to think about it. All that mattered, in the moment, was that they had done their job and gotten her moving.

She felt the odd energy as soon as she crossed the edge of Keystone. There was something in the air, something she had never felt before. It was like the pervasive life magic of the trade town was being displaced, sucked somewhere else and supplanted by another force, one that set Olivia's teeth on edge. She didn't know what was happening in the town, but frankly, she didn't care.

Adeline had warned her that they had been led straight into an ambush by Garol, and Olivia knew that meant that the militia of Valley Hearth could no longer be trusted. But she didn't fully realize what that meant until she saw the two hunters watching the road. They were alarmed, but it was more than that. It wasn't Olivia's determined stride or hurried step that worried them it was her presence in and of itself.

They hadn't expected to see her again.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

When one of the hunters drew her sword, Olivia knew there was no time to hesitate, and her steps barely slowed as she drew her own weapon.

There was no doubt that Garol's people were capable–but it took a lot more than mere capability to defeat Olivia Argent.

Bare minutes later, Olivia continued on, sword in hand and two corpses left behind her.

#

The shriek was the only warning Olivia got, just as she entered the residential part of Keystone, and then the goblins were leaping on her.

Unfortunately for them, that shriek was all the warning she needed. A Wind Slash caught one in midair, cutting it cleanly in half, and she whirled in time to cut down a second before it could land on her. Three more were hot on their heels, but Olivia didn't waste her time on them, just throwing out a Gust Blast, bowling the diminutive minor monsters aside so that she could keep moving.

Unfortunately, two blocks later, it wasn't merely goblins that blocked her way. Olivia barely got her shield up in time to block a series of arrows, and she quickly wrapped a Mantle of Wind around herself as she met the charge of another predator.

Though she had never faced gnolls before, Olivia was familiar with the monsters, having studied them while she was growing up. Cadence had given her even more first hand information on the foot soldiers of the Chained World, and Olivia was ready for their hard eyes, their snarling maws, their witchglass weaponry.

Individually, any single gnoll wasn't the match of even a Novice battle-gifted, as Cadence had proven during her early adventures. Aside from their leaders, they lacked any inherent magic, and they were little stronger than an ungifted human of the same build–which, given how rangy and wiry they were, wasn't much.

The threat they presented was twofold. The first was their witchglass weaponry, which greatly reduced Olivia's margin of error against them. Reinforced Defense was far less valuable against an enemy whose every attack had tier one potency. The second was their numbers–gnolls were rarely a solitary threat, and they were universally trained to work together. At Novice level, Olivia would have had little chance against a trio of the bestial soldiers.

But she wasn't a Novice anymore. A surprise Gust Blast bought Olivia the chance to take down the gnoll that had closed to melee range, and a pair of Wind Slashes gave her time to close the distance on the archers, who were much less effective at close range.

Unfortunately, Olivia wasn't the only one the gnolls were attacking. They seemed content to avoid the continually docile citizens of Keystone, which the squire found odd, but as she ran, she saw no small number of corpses–some in the red mantles of Apothic mages, other in the functional leathers of hunters and guards, militia members who apparently hadn't found their alliance with the rot hag to be as binding as they expected.

Though it hurt to do so, Olivia ran through the slowly growing chaos of the outsider attacks. Had she come across a battle still in progress, a mage or a villager fighting for their life, Olivia doubted she could've stopped herself from helping–but as she only passed the remains of those who had lost their own fights, human, gnoll, and goblin alike, she was able to keep herself moving, focused on her goal.

An island of peace in the area surrounding the Mendicant's hospital, though she knew all too well that it would be both fragile and temporary.

Waiting outside of the building were a trio of mages, all wearing the red mantles of the Apothic Order, led by the older, gray-bearded healer the others had described meeting on their first day.

"Squire," the man greeted her with an infuriatingly calm nod of the head. "Do you know what's happening in town?"

"Outsider attack," Olivia explained curtly. "I need to talk to the Mendicant."

"Outsiders," the old man repeated, nodding with what he likely thought was sagely wisdom. "Prepare the others, Micah. Garol and his men will likely need some care once the fight is over."

Olivia ground her teeth, and tried to simply push her way past the men. "Garol is responsible for this! I don't have time to explain everything twice–I need to speak to the Mendicant, now!"

The man gave Olivia a reproachful look, his tone condescending as he replied, "I don't know what you mean with these accusations, young man, but the Mendicant is far too busy to come deal with something as routine as a minor outsider attack."

Olivia's eyes went wide, and her hand flew to her sword. After everything she had been through in the past twelve hours, she didn't have the patience to deal with the officious, pompous man. "Listen here, you–"

"Enough," a breathless, wheezing voice said as another man emerged from the hospital. "Brother Anthony, please take Micah and Dominic inside and check on the patients. I expect my ability to care for them may be compromised for a time."

The lead healer looked taken aback. "N-now, Master Mendicant, surely there's no need for th-"

The Mendicant's voice was hard despite the apparent weakness of their current form. "Anthony. Enough. Inside, now. Let me speak to Olivia Argent."

Olivia had the pleasure of seeing the bearded mage's face pale by several shades as he realized the implications of the Mendicant's words. That the sage wanted to speak to her, that she was certainly not a "young man," and that she had the honorific name of an Argent Knight, even if she was only a squire.

After a flustered pause, Anthony bowed his head. "As you direct, Master. Come Micah, Dominic."

The healers left, the younger pair casting worried looks back while their senior leader did his utmost to ignore Olivia's existence.

"New body?" Olivia asked, noting the difference between the Mendicant's wizened elderly form and the young girl they had presented as days before.

"I find it helps clear the mind to have a weaker body on occasion," the Mendicant explained. "A poor choice for today though, it seems."

"I'll say," Olivia agreed with a nod. "It looks like the Sheriff is a proxy for the rot hag. Most of the militia is on his side, and I expect he is at least partially responsible for the plague."

The Mendicant's face became increasingly grim as Olivia explained. "Can I assume Adeline is handling him, then?"

"No. We were ambushed at Millstone, and she stayed behind to buy me time. I don't even know if…" Olivia's voice cracked, and after a thick swallow, she forced herself to change the subject. "The rest of my cadre went to Cobble at your suggestion, and I don't know their status. It's just us here."

"Ah."

"I don't know how, but the hag has a significant force of raiders in the town. Goblins and gnolls, apparently looking to kill anyone able to defend themselves. They've left the civilians alone, as far as I can tell, but the townsfolk themselves aren't taking any action to fight back either. I don't know why not."

The Mendicant nodded slowly. "Unfortunate. And this energy in the air…"

As if provoked by the sage's words, a fresh pulse seemed to run through the air of Keystone, robbing even more strength from the aura of life magic that was normally so dense in the town. The very air Olivia breathed began to feel stagnant, as if to breathe it in was weakening her. An invisible presence felt like it was looming over the town, its mere existence an existential threat to the people of Valley Hearth.

"That can't be good," Olivia said, her voice fraying a little with panic.

"I'd say not," the Mendicant agreed. "I can feel four moderate ranked presences approaching us, along with nearly a dozen at the higher reaches of lesser. The ogres and warbeasts missing from your description, I'd assume."

Olivia swallowed. Four ogres? And a dozen warbeasts aside? Even if Adeline was there, she wouldn't be able to make a difference against numbers like that.

"What do we do?" Olivia asked.

The Mendicant gave her a mild look, the seemingly elderly celestial apparently unconcerned. "I expect we fight."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.