Floodlights blinded me. My eyes barely adjusted before I heard Jinny scream. There were twelve figures waiting outside the trial for us, all arranged in a half circle. On the left and right edges were a bow and crossbow User respectively. Buzzcut and Daphne took up the center.

Talia was unconscious on the ground in a heap, a single bearded man in heavy plate with a knife poised over her, looking up at us like a deer in the headlights.

“Nobody fucking move—“ I hissed through my teeth.

But before I could finish, Jinny was already casting, her glowing wand held aloft towards the man in plate at the center, face transformed into a visage of fury at the sight of the fallen summon.

Everything moved in slow motion. I cast on the crossbowman at the edge, thinking he would react the fastest, immediately preparing to cast it again on the other bowman. Nick was raising his shield to cover Jinny, his expression a mask of panic.

I turned to focus on the bowman—

And found that he’d already loosed an arrow. His lips twitched in preemptive satisfaction.

There was a hollow thunk. Jinny reeled backward, her wand clattering to the floor as a bloom of red poured from her neck, blood dying her white regalia crimson.

Nick shouted something and slammed his shield against the floor, a golden rune spreading across the concrete ground until the outside of it formed a translucent sphere that surrounded us. Then he dropped his shield and his sword and caught her before she hit the ground, cushioning her fall. The gloves and gauntlets of his armor were immediately coated in bright red.

Arterial blood. Jugular or Carotid. Could be less than ten to fifteen seconds.

I immediately pulled a health potion from my inventory, flipping it upside down and holding it to Jinny’s lips. Then pulled another and poured it directly on the wound, over Nick’s hands. Jinny wasn’t thrashing at all. She was looking up towards the ceiling, lips moving soundlessly as if she was trying to say something. I put pressure on Nick’s hands, helping to keep them in place.

Sae was backed up as far as she could go against the golden enclosure, looking between us and the figures aligned on the tracks, her eyes wide.

My head was right next to Nick’s and I could hear him, whispering. “Please no. Baby no. We were going to do this together. Stay with me, we’re gonna get you help, just stay with me.” Nick’s entire body was shaking, warm liquid still escaping through both of our hands.

Twelve people, they had a healer. No way they didn’t. All I had to do was convince them in time—

I stared at the window, not understanding. Slowly, I looked down again. Jinny’s eyes were glassy, and a long wet rasp escaped her lips. Then nothing.

She was gone.

“Oh god. Oh my god.” Sae said it again and again, like a mantra, her face tight in a rictus of fear. Nick hadn’t realized it yet. He was still speaking in soft tones, applying pressure to the wound.

There was a dull ringing in my ears. I could feel the numbness of shock starting to set in, my mind slowing down.

No.

I slapped myself hard, the sound of my glove across my cheek a wet impact that echoed across the bounds of the tunnel. I’d gotten blood on my face, but that didn’t matter. Needed to think.

Recover. Salvage. Survive.

I fell back into letting the title consume me. Shock was replaced with a familiar cold center I could operate from.

Necromancer.

The single word rose from my subconsciousness. They wanted Nick. If they somehow got their hands on Jinny’s core, and Kinsley was right that they did have a necromancer, they’d have all the leverage they needed. I acted immediately, fumbling out how to open Jinny’s inventory, physically holding still and giving the impression appearing I was helping Nick staunch the bleeding. There wasn’t much there apart from her staff and selve, which I left where they were. I found what I was looking for in the miscellaneous tab.

User Core: Magus Level 6.

Fuck.

They’d beaten a rogue User to death for something like this. If User cores were anything like monster cores, they didn’t always drop. I just needed to hide it, but how? And if we survived this, they were almost assuredly going to go through our inventories. I pulled up the chat, scrolling past nearly a dozen messages from my siblings to a specific contact.

The reply was almost instant.

My entire body screamed with nerves as I flew through the interface of the site, selling the for a ten-thousand Selve, and the which, strangely, sold for one. The transactions went through without an issue.

I tried not to look at Jinny’s lifeless body. Tried not to think about how quickly it had happened. Refused to contemplate how she’d saved my life only hours ago.

Nick was still alive, as was Sae.

If I was going to save either of them, I couldn’t afford any distractions.

It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. You didn’t know her, right?

No answer. Nick was weeping, his breaths coming in long sobs.

I stood slowly, wearing the detachment like a shroud. The patch of skin on my cheek was frigid where I’d touched it. I turned back to the group of twelve. Strangely, the group appeared to be in disarray. The crossbowman still had his weapon trained at us, but the man in the center with silver gray hair and well-groomed goatee was up in the bowman’s face, screaming at him.

While Nick’s spell muffled some of the dialogue, I could still pick up bits and pieces.

“—Kill his fucking girlfriend and really think he’s going to work with us now?”

“What was I supposed to do? Let the spell hit you?”

“Yes, you fuckwit. They’re single digit levels and not much of a threat. Which I emphasized during the briefing, repeatedly!” A fleck of spittle left his mouth with the last word, impacting the bowman’s face.

Almost casually, I placed my hands in my pockets as I studied their faces, committing each one to memory. It was too early for a title switch, so I was locked out of entirely on my own here.

I spotted the mother who had been loading her child into the Escalade on our way to the trial, talking in a hushed tone to three of the other figures all dressed in business casual. Their conversation was much more quiet, but I picked out the words, “When we find the queen.”

A wave of self-loathing washed over me for missing the significance of seeing them parked on the side of the road on the way here, and I pushed it down brutally. At some point, I was going to pay for everything I was repressing, but that was fine. As long as I could operate now.

That was another point of interest. Other than the two ranged figures and the man in the center, most of them hadn’t even bothered wearing armor.

How cocky are they?

Better question. How capable were they of backing it up?

Buzzcut smiled at me. It was the same, pseudo-friendly smile he’d worn that first night in the alley. I ignored him.

My gaze landed on Daphne, who stared back at me in shock. In a motion almost too subtle to notice, she raised her hand to waist level and gave me a small wave. When I didn’t return it, Daphne walked over to the silver-haired man who was still audibly dressing down the bowman and whispered in his ear.

He was some sort of leader. Of the group, or of this particular contingent was anyone’s guess. The gray-haired man looked at me, gave the bowman a single push, and approached the bubble, his eyes locked with mine. “Matt, right?” Then he glanced down at Jinny, and sighed heavily. “This is an unfortunate series of events.”

I mentally reviewed everything I needed to accomplish here. Stop them from taking Nick. Barring that, convince them that it was worth leaving both me and Sae alive.

It took everything I had to shove the anger down. Once that was done, I gave the man a congenial smile. “There really are better ways to start a conversation.”

The golden dome faded.