Vance ducked sharply as an arrow flew over his head, the second one he couldn’t quite dodge but fortunately, it caught him in the chest and not the throat. The chi user shooting wasn’t very good, the arrows were just normal arrows without a trace of reinforcement. They could still kill him if he got unlucky but there was no way they were going to get through his armor. The archer ceased to matter a few seconds later as the enemy soldiers charged forward and obscured their line of fire.

A spear user ran forward and stabbed at his shoulder, the enemy was fast, very fast, but not quite fast enough and Vance was able to just barely get out of the way. His mind raced furiously as he swung forward himself, his sword caught on the haft of the enemy spear. It was like striking a brick wall, and he was bodily shoved backward falling heavily to the ground. He rolled left once again narrowly avoiding the spear point and scrambled back to his feet.

The soldier looked annoyed at the near misses, and Vance had finally worked out what was going on. His greatsword swiped under the soldier’s guard forcing him back, Vance stepped with him trying to stay within sword range. The enemy was a tier-three chi user, and normally Vance would have been dead already, as it was the only reason why he was still alive was his enemy was incompetent. He honestly couldn’t think of another reason for what was going on, to make effective use of a chi class you needed to train yourself. Some things you just got better at over time, for example, if you waved a heavy spear around all the time you would eventually get pretty strong. However things like speed or agility needed to be specifically trained for, and fortunately it looked like his enemy had neglected those fields.

The haft of the spear raced towards his head, and Vance ducked pushing his sword up just barely trying to deflect the attack. His arms felt numb as the strength of the attack still nearly tore his weapon from his hands. The soldier was in an even worse position though, wide open to attack, which Vance intended to take full advantage of. His greatsword scythed along parallel to the ground with all the force he could muster.

The blade bit deep into the enemy’s side but Vance didn’t have the strength to do lethal damage, at least not in a single swing. Vance felt the air rush out of his lungs as a boot planted itself deep into his gut. There was a brief sensation of flying and then he crashed back into the ground gasping for air. He lay there stunned for critical moments before scrambling back to his feet in confusion wondering where his enemy had gone.

What he saw made his eyes widen, a root as thick around as his arm was jutting from the chest of the soldier he had been fighting. The root led back to a knotted confusion of plants blocking the entrance to the boss room. Kira stood before the plants, a shimmering green sphere surrounding her as she directed the plants. Vance paused in wonder for a brief second recognizing one of the newest forms of magic in existence before shaking himself and glancing around for Arthur. The younger mage was vanishing into the trees scrambling as fast as he could, while two soldiers trailed after him laughing and calling out insults. Vance made a snap decision and raced after the soldiers, Kira looked like she could handle herself, but Arthur wasn’t going to last long at this rate.

Arthur ran through the forest tripping and stumbling but someone managed to stay upright. There was a slight twang and an arrow sprouted from a nearby tree as a harsh laugh rang out behind him. Why him? Couldn’t they have gone after Vance or Kira? They were both better at this sort of thing than he was, a small part of him felt guilty for even thinking that but the majority of him was too worried about getting out of this situation alive to care.

The young mage dove behind a tree as an arrow whizzed by him again and continued his helter-skelter run away from the battle. Mana pooled and wove itself into a familiar pattern, Arthur was now rather grateful that mana bolt had been so firmly drilled into his head, he wouldn’t have been able to cast it otherwise. His spell raced back at his pursuers, striking one of them with a nasty-looking club and sending him spinning to the ground. Unfortunately, the poorly thought-out attack gave the archer a clear line of sight, and a second later a feathered shaft sprouted from his shoulder.

Arthur turned and ran as more arrows flew his way cursing his poor choices, memories he had shoved down and vowed to never remember came bubbling back to the surface. Laughing and fire, so much fire, the sound of swords and screaming, monsters he had said monsters had destroyed his village, killed his family and they had been monsters. He tripped and fell flat screaming in pain as the arrow dug further into his shoulder, doggedly he staggered back to his feet and continued forward.

Monsters didn’t just come in the shape of beasts though, there was another awful twang and Arthur collapsed as his leg screamed in agony. He crawled on the ground driven by pure adrenaline and fear, the worst monsters of all walked like men but refused to see others as people.

Breath left his lungs in one awful woosh as a wooden club slammed into his body lifting him into the air before he slammed into a tree. His vision fuzed as he watched the soldier raise the club again, a smile of cruel amusement on his face. Why? Why extend his suffering like this? They could have finished it with the first arrow, but no they chose to drag this out, targeting the weakest of the group mercilessly. It was too much. Why were people like this? Arthur’s mind wandered as he felt his death approaching, there were so many good people; a friendly hand helping him into the wagon, a cheerful song in a crowded bar, an old man stern but smiling. Why did there have to be just as many vile ones too? Fury raced through him as he gazed up at the monster’s smile. They should just leave him alone, they needed to leave him alone, they should all just Burn.

Vance dashed through the trees, sword extended before him. He stepped carefully but quickly, trying to catch up while remaining unnoticed. He spotted figures through the trees and increased his pace hoping that he wasn’t too late, mages weren’t exactly the most resilient. He vividly remembered the lessons taught by his family even to him at a young age on how to get away if you were ever outmatched as a mage. It involved a lot of running and using spells to delay your enemy enough for our running to actually matter. Vance shook his head, now was not the time to get lost in memories, he barreled around a tree and froze.

The young noble first noticed the screaming man on the ground clutching his burned face, his clothes alight with fire. Arthur lay slightly behind the man collapsed with arrows striking out of him, but his chest was slowly rising and falling, alive for now at least. The problem was the last soldier who was screaming in fury but not getting any closer to Arthur. The man was trying to get a clear shot with his bow around his burning companion.

Grinning wolfishly, Vance realized that in the chaos no one had noticed him arrive. Quietly he stepped up behind the archer, the idiots mostly incoherent shrieking keeping him from noticing anything wrong. Vance lifted his sword over his head and set his stance, as he had done a thousand times before. His sword hissed through the air as he brought it down with all the force of years of training behind it. If he was facing an equal fighter, it would have been game over with a virtual execution but he was not facing an equal today.

The archer must have heard something as he half turned and ducked trying to get out of the way. However, Vance’s momentum was too quick to entirely avoid, and his blade bit deep into the enemy’s shoulder and arm, drawing an enraged howl of anger. The young noble skipped back, avoiding the flashing dagger that the soldier had pulled. Vance narrowed his eyes and assessed his enemy, the older man had snapped out of his insensible rant and was staring at him with hate. His right hand clutched the dagger he had just avoided while the other hung limply at his side, blood slowly seeping down from the shoulder.

Smiling grimly, Vance swung again, using his greatsword to keep his stronger opponent at bay. The man was fast and frighteningly strong, but he was also injured, and unskilled. Skill Vance reflected, could not conquer brute force, at least not always but it did give you an edge when you needed it most. The enemy’s dagger whistles as if hit only empty air yet again much to its owner’s annoyance, the soldier lunged forward trying to catch Vance out. He was ready for the attack though and stepped delicately to the side bringing the hilt of his sword down on the back of the soldier’s head.

It felt like hitting an old tree, with only the slightest bit of give, but the tier three soldier still lay stunned for a few crucial seconds that Vance took full advantage of. The blade of his sword cut through flesh and bone to pierce the soldier’s heart, as the enemy stilled Vance heaved a sigh of relief. Taking on a tier-three was dangerous, even undertrained tier threes like these had been, one wrong move and he would have been a goner. He stared dully down at the body in front of him, it had been necessary to kill him, and to be honest he didn’t regret it. He just felt numb and wrung out, it was the first time killing another human. He had seen many murders and criminals put down before by his family but this was the first time killing himself.

There was another groan of pain, and Vance spun around remembering the other soldier. He scolded himself for getting lazy, if the enemy had recovered while he wasn’t paying attention he would have been killed without even realizing what had happened. He looked down at the man curled on the ground, half insensate with pain, he kicked the large club he found away and crouched down to check on Arthur. To his relief the mage was still alive, he wasn’t exactly alright but he would recover with time. Other than the two arrows sticking out of him, Vance also thought he might have a few broken ribs.

Vance looked down at the soldier again who was slowly starting to stir to wakefulness. He couldn’t just leave him be, even if he was badly burned, those injuries wouldn’t stop a determined tier-three fighter. Slowly he raised the blade over the man’s prone form but paused and considered for a moment. Killing him was definitely the easiest thing to do, it would ensure that no matter what happened this enemy could never hurt him or his allies ever again. It also felt excessive to Vance, this wasn’t combat, for the time being, and the soldier was completely helpless.

He knew that even if he showed mercy to this soldier, the odds were good that he would still attack them anyway. So leaving him alone wasn't going to work either, the burned man groaned and stirred again reminding Vance that he needed to make up his mind soon. He quickly dragged Arthur away from the soldier and then took up his sword again.

He swung hard in quick succession opening up jagged cuts on the man’s legs that woke the soldier up with a start. The man lashed out with his fists, but Vance was already out of reach. An attempt to stand left the soldier curled on the ground in agony and Vance nodded satisfied that they were not going to get chased. “You might want to bandage that unless you feel like bleeding out.” He wasn’t sure how long that would take for a tier-three but he was sure it was still possible.

He ignored the man’s whimpers and picked up Arthur trying his best not to brush the arrow embedded in his flesh. He looked back through the trees towards where he knew the boss room was and turned away. They wouldn’t be any help anyway, whatever tier Kira was at, it seemed like she could handle the soldiers just fine. The battle might have even been decided already and he would gain nothing from running back into a fight with a wounded ally. He would head back to the secret passage they had found before, if Kira prevailed, and he fervently hoped she did, she would be able to find them. If she lost well, in that case hopefully Gary wouldn’t figure out where they were.