Abby wove through the forest, dodging between the trees as she wrung every last bit of stamina from her body. It wouldn’t be enough, though. Three times since she’d escaped from Julio and his cronies, she had very nearly been caught. And she knew precisely what would happen if she let up even a little bit.

The previous couple of weeks had been absolute hell. Not only had she been chased for more than a hundred miles, but she’d also been forced to go without even a hint of rest. And even though her body had been reforged by her relatively high level and the increased stats that came with it, she was running on empty. Soon, her endurance would give out, and she’d be forced to make a last stand.

During her flight, Abby had had plenty of time to revisit her many mistakes. The first was partnering with Julio and his men in the first place. From the moment she’d accepted that invitation, her days had been numbered. In retrospect, it was obvious that Julio would betray her. It was who the man was. And the worst part was that she knew it, but she had gone along anyway, thinking that she could handle whatever came. That had been a mistake, and one for which Vladimir had paid the ultimate price.

Abby could still see the shock on her friend’s face before he’d been exploded by Julio’s skill. She still didn’t know what the skill was, but it had been deadly. Vladimir hadn’t concentrated on endurance, but he’d had enough durability to withstand most normal attacks. It had meant nothing against Julio’s skill, though. By contrast, Abby’s own endurance had been enough to mitigate the worst of the skill, but she could feel the curse regenerating. She was safe, for now, but if Julio caught up, she knew it would only be a matter of time before he could control her once again. Or worse – trigger the curse and kill her. She’d endured the previous explosion, but that had been caused by the rune losing its fidelity. If Julio triggered it after it regenerated, things would be much worse.

That was why she had chosen her current course, hoping that she could lose her pursuers in the Myrewood Forest, which was home to plenty of monsters that could prove a danger, even to Julio. She knew it was a risk; those same creatures were even more of a threat to her. She had spent most of the past few years working as a scout, so despite the fact that she lacked any real skills associated with the role, she was capable of avoiding any undue trouble. So long as she didn’t run across anything too powerful, at least. Either way, she was willing to take her chances with the monsters if it meant losing Julio and his band of unsavory characters.

Her pursuers were determined, their pursuit dogged, and they’d continued to follow her with little difficulty. Even the few times she’d managed to ambush them, she’d only slowed them down enough to maintain her lead. Clearly, someone among the group was an actual scout who possessed some variant of tracking – more evidence that her inclusion in the group had been a setup all along.

Over the next few hours, the terrain continued to slope steadily upward, giving her a hint at her general location. So, when she burst out of the forest and looked down on the valley that contained the ruins of Tua’Ta’alar, she wasn’t really surprised. However, just because she’d expected it didn’t mean she was happy to see the ruined city that had once been home to a civilization of elves. That had been over a thousand years ago, and any trace of the enigmatic race had long since disappeared. Only the crumbling remnants of their city persisted, and even that had been overwhelmed by a tribe of dangerous and cunning harpies.

Even though she knew she didn’t have much time, Abby took a moment to think. Standing there and gazing out over the sprawling ruins of Tua’Ta’alar, she considered her options. First, she could circle around the edges of the ruins and hope to lose her pursuers before fleeing back toward Beacon, where she hoped she would be safe. Doubtless, Julio had thought of that already. And if it came down to her word versus his, she knew precisely how that would go. In Beacon – and more importantly, amongst her guildmates in the Champions of Light – power trumped all. And Julio was undeniably more powerful, both individually and regarding his influence within the guild.

Her other option was to wage a guerilla war against the group. During her flight, she’d already wounded a few of her pursuers, and she couldn’t deny how satisfying that had felt. However, not only did they outnumber her, but even discounting Julio himself, their power was on par with hers. Winning out against that kind of force would be more than merely difficult. And as for Julio himself? Unless she caught him completely unaware, Abby had almost no chance of taking him out. The gap was simply too wide.

Which led her to her final option. Lead them into the ruined city and hope that she could somehow use the harpies’ presence to her advantage. It was easy to imagine a scenario where she deftly slipped past the vicious avian monsters while Julio and his crew were forced to battle it out. They were powerful, but the ruins of Tua’Ta’alar were avoided for a reason. Part of it was because the city had been picked clean of anything of value, but it was mostly because of the harpies. Individually, they weren’t overwhelmingly powerful, but there were thousands of the monsters in the city – some of which were truly dangerous, even to warriors in their high teens. If Abby could somehow thread the needle and avoid drawing the harpies’ ire, there was a good chance that she could lead her pursuers into a mass of monsters that even Julio couldn’t handle.

But that was assuming she could avoid the monsters’ attention while staying ahead of Julio’s crew, which might just prove more difficult than she expected. However, Abby didn’t think she had much choice in the matter. Going through the ruins seemed like the only viable option. And at the end of the day, she was confident in her ability to escape the harpies. So, choosing to go into Tua’Ta’alar wasn’t necessarily the end of the line. She could always change course if things got out of hand.

So, with that settled, Abby unslung her bow and started her descent into the ruined city. She didn’t take her time, but she didn’t rush, either. Caution marked her every step, lest she run into something she couldn’t handle. But even after almost ten minutes of trekking through the once-mighty elven city, she hadn’t encountered a single harpy. It was unnerving; every story she had ever heard about the city made it clear just how dangerous the place was. So, why hadn’t she seen a single monster?

After another ten minutes, she got her first answer in the form of a clump of corpses. The creatures looked like they’d been overwhelmed by an avalanche. Broken bones jutted through their tough skin to sprout amidst their blood-soaked feathers, and that was for the most intact bodies. Others seemed like they’d simply exploded.

Had some intrepid group decided to raid the place for experience? That strategy wouldn’t be without benefit. There were so many of the harpies that an enterprising group of adventurers could effectively gather a good deal of experience in a short amount of time. However, doing so would come with significant risks, as well. Only the most well-rounded of groups, complete with a rare healer, could hope to survive such a plan. But if they did, the rewards could prove monstrous.

Not that Abby cared much about experience at the moment. Even if she hadn’t spent the previous two weeks running for her life, she was level-capped at fifteen until she found a way to evolve at least one half of her race. Which was why she’d chosen to participate in the ill-fated mission in the first place. The Fruit of Nascent Zeal that would’ve been her reward was her ticket to pass the level fifteen bottleneck, and she was willing to take any number of risks to get one.

Despite her haste, Abby wouldn’t pass up the opportunity for a little loot, though. So, she bent down, and with her camp knife, she carved out the monsters’ beast cores, tossing them into her pack. They weren’t terribly dense, but they were still valuable enough that she couldn’t in good conscience leave them. Why the monsters’ killers hadn’t done the same, Abby couldn’t know. Perhaps they’d bitten off more than they could chew, and they simply didn’t have time for harvesting the cores.

She pushed that mystery aside and glanced at the still-rising sun. It was only a couple of hours past dawn, which meant that the harpies would be at their most active. Hopefully, she could make use of it.

Once she’d stowed the cores away in her enchanted satchel, Abby continued on her path, weaving in and out of various alleys in an effort to stay hidden. She needn’t have bothered, because there didn’t seem to be a single living thing in her way. There were plenty of corpses, though. She counted more than a hundred of them before she stopped bothering; eventually, she was forced to pass up the loot, too. If she tarried too long, Julio and his men would catch up. So, leaving all that wealth behind, she pushed deeper into the ruined city.

The place really did live up to its reputation. Even though many of the buildings had succumbed to the ravages of time, what was left was still impressive. And the place was enormous, stretching for miles in each direction. At one point, it must’ve housed more than a million of the legendary elves.

Abby had grown up in New York, one of the greatest cities in the old world. And while Tua’Ta’alar wasn’t quite that city’s equal in terms of sheer scale, it wasn’t that far off, either. And where it fell short of that mark in size, it more than made up for in character. Everywhere she looked, she saw one more wonder. Delicate statues, ravaged by wind and rain. Frescoes, faded by the sun. Fountains, crumbling under their own weight. Buildings whose majesty could rival anything built by human hands, fallen and forgotten.

If she hadn’t been running for her life, Abby would’ve stared in awe. Not many people got to see such sights, and even through her stress and fatigue, she felt lucky to bear witness to the elves’ achievements.

For over two hours, Abby made her way through the ruined elven city, and not once was she attacked by its new rulers. However, she did continue to see plenty of corpses. There were enough that Abby began to worry that perhaps she wasn’t following in the trail of a human adventuring party. Perhaps some demon had wandered up from the Lake of Flames. If that were the case…

Abby shook her head, unwilling to dwell on that possibility. The Lake of Flames was nearly seven-hundred miles to the southeast. For a demon to come so far, someone would’ve noticed. The entirety of Beacon would have long since mobilized to see to the threat, and that wasn’t even considering the reaction of Sanctuary or the handful of waystations along that path. Even Lady Constance herself would have likely responded to such a threat.

Abby pushed on, both through the city and from that line of thinking.

Finally, Abby found herself nearing the great square at the center of the city. According to legend, the square had once been the site of an expansive bazaar where the elves plied their goods from temporary stalls. When humans had first been reborn into this new world, the elves had welcomed them with open arms, and for a while, the two races had lived in harmony. However, due to some schism between their respective leaders, they had gone to war with one another. And after two decades of near-constant battle, humans had come out on top. It took a further hundred years for the elves to be exterminated by the ever-growing population of humans. And now, nearly two millennia later, the once-proud race had gone extinct.

Abby couldn’t help but wonder what had caused the war. Though she was obviously happy that humanity had been victorious, she also regretted that it had been necessary in the first place.

Regardless, all thoughts of elves and mostly forgotten wars fled when she finally found herself looking out across the square. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of harpies lay dead or dying. Shrill screeches cut through the air, and even from a considerable distance, Abby felt like someone was driving spikes into her skull. She shoved the pain to the back of her mind as she tried to make sense of what she saw.

Because at the center of that mass of corpses was a solitary figure, brutally swinging some sort of primal club at the attacking harpies. At the moment, he was facing off against a few of the larger, higher-leveled monsters, but judging by the similarly sized corpses at his feet, they wouldn’t be the first.

Where were his allies? Had he been abandoned? Or was he the last one alive?

Even from so far away, Abby heard the sound of his club impacting the nearest harpy. The blow ripped through the monster’s wing to collide with its torso with such power that Abby’s senses screamed of the danger. The creature collapsed atop the mounting pile of corpses, and the man turned his attention to the next monster foolish enough to attack him.

Abby gaped. She had never seen anyone strike with such overwhelming strength. And that was only swinging with one hand. In his other arm, he cradled some unidentifiable mass of fur.

The man himself looked just as bestial as his bone club. He was tall – perhaps an inch or two over six feet – and well-muscled. However, that muscle wasn’t like what she’d seen on the men who spent all their time training. Instead, he was lean. Deadly. His entire body was covered in gore as well, which served to accentuate that impression. Finally, Abby couldn’t help but blush a little when she realized he was basically naked, save for a few strips of stained cloth that might’ve once been his pants. All in all, he looked more like a prototypical caveman than an adventurer.

How long had he been out here, to arrive at such a sorry state?

But regardless of how he looked, the warrior had yet to reach the end of his endurance. Far from it, judging by how easily he dispatched the harpies before him. Finally, Abby used her inspection skill, hoping to identify him.

Ezekiel Blackwood – Level 10

Level ten?! Abby’s jaw dropped even further. How could a level ten be so powerful? She was five levels higher than him, and it had only taken her a couple of seconds to determine that she wouldn’t last long in a direct confrontation with the man. Perhaps if she managed to surprise him with a few arrows before she knew he was there…

No. She wouldn’t preemptively attack someone like that. For one, though he certainly looked the part of the brute, he’d done nothing to warrant her ire. And for another, if she failed in the ambush, she’d make another powerful enemy.

But wasn’t the opposite true? If she helped him, perhaps he’d help her as well. Abby wasn’t certain if the man could win out against someone like Julio, but he could perhaps tip the scales in her favor. Besides, the mysterious stranger had single-handedly dismantled her plan to have the harpies run interference. So, what choice did she really have?

Without pondering it any further, Abby summoned an arrow and loosed it at one of the harpies. Before it connected, three more were in the air, each propelled through the air by her skill manipulation the wind. The first punched through an unlucky harpy’s chest, felling it with a single blow. However, the next two only managed to wound her targets. But that was okay. She had plenty more where that came from.

And so, she let loose a barrage of arrows, hoping that the mysterious man would notice her help and feel obligated to return the favor.