The fact that a man who I had killed was alive and well before my eyes left me speechless for a moment. It might have lasted longer if a grim sense of irony didn’t hit me shortly after. Here I was, asking myself why someone who had died could live again.

Drake told me it was impossible. When I see him, I’m going to punch him in the face… again.

The battle was in a stalemate, but I could see causalities on both sides. At the current rate, Ray would take over the village before he lost more than a fifth of his forces, and that was if he didn’t step in himself.

I could see the bandit king as he waded in, but even his strength wasn’t enough. He could take on several of Ray’s troop, but the villagers were still outmatched and outnumbered. Most of those by the bandit king’s side had been members of the dungeon raid group, so I knew their levels and skill.

Damn it, why is he here? His timing is bloody perfect as always.

I had lost my pursuers, but the path to the village was blocked off. Even if I wanted to help them, the chances of me getting through were slim to none. I would need some sort of distraction if I wanted to slip past…

I don’t have time to go around, so I need to go through them. Clive, I hope you’re ready for this.

I turned and ran back into the forest. I moved back towards the bandit camp with one goal in mind. As I closed in, I heard the distant footsteps of a large group. Clive would have moved out to scour the area for me, but that worked out perfectly.

I ran out from behind a tree and launched a chunk of ore into the centre of the group. Clive wasn’t there, but the group was still large enough for my needs. As the ore slammed into the warrior I had aimed for, his comrades span around to face me.

“He’s here, pass the message back! We’ve got him!”

I shook my head, turned tail and ran. The group set off in pursuit as one, their formation destroyed as they dodged trees and broke through any bushes that got in their way. I slowed myself enough to keep in their sights, but not to the extent that they could catch up.

We cleared the trees after two minutes. The clearing around the village wasn’t too wide, which complimented my plan. I paused for a moment before I ran towards the cult forces in the distance. The bandits cleared the trees behind me and ran out into the clearing before they spotted the unknown forces in front of them.

“Attack!” I yelled in a deep voice. Ray turned to face me as his piercing blue eyes shone out from under the mask. He drew his sword and stepped forwards, joined by around half of his followers.

The bandits didn’t know what had happened, but their confusion ended as the first barrage of attacks hit them. The cultist’s held a division of archers and practitioners, who had turned their attacks against the new ‘enemy’.

They were called bandits for a reason. After the first wave of arrows struck down, any thought of backing off vanished. My new forces charged forward to greet the cultists in a pitched battle.

I reached their lines first, but my aim wasn’t to take them down. Ray moved to intercept, but I had already planned for him. I knew he was too powerful for me to face directly, but that didn’t mean he would be able to stop me.

“Buffed strike.”

I powered through and leapt into the air. Ray’s sword glanced off my armour and cut into my leg as I rocketed over his head, but he didn’t stop my advance as I cleared the first line and dropped towards the archers.

I shifted in mid-air and landed my uninjured foot into an archer’s face. He collapsed, but not before I used his body as a springboard to continue my leapfrog manoeuvre.

My next target was the line of cultists who battled the bandit villagers. They didn’t turn to face me, obviously blind to any threat from behind after their glorious leader had turned to face it. My second leap was far less graceful than the first, so I crashed into the back of two warriors like a huge, metal brick.

My armour didn’t add much to my weight, but it was enough. The force of the blow knocked the pair from their feet as I rolled towards the line of villagers. They turned their weapons to me, but Anne jumped out and pulled me to my feet.

“Stop, he’s one of us.” She glanced at my injured leg as she moved me back. Before she could say anything, the bandits who had chased me crashed into the cultists from behind. Ray’s forces were distracted by my arrival, not to mention the increase in enemies they now faced.

“Rolling retreat.” I muttered. I pulled out a potion and chugged it down as Anne worked her magic on my leg. More bandits poured out of the trees to join their comrades, which forced Ray to shift his priorities. More of the cultists pulled away, but I knew this was only a temporary reprieve.

Once Clive arrived, he would put a stop to this. To him, this battle was close to infighting. We had to escape, and we had to do it now.

“Practitioners, ready!”

“Wait, Cub!” Leah appeared from behind the group. Half of her face was covered in blood, but she didn’t seem to care as she leant close to me. She stared at me face for a second before she turned back to the troops. “Guys, the captains back! Follow his order!”

The practitioners started channelling their largest abilities. The cultists were distracted, but not enough to miss such a move. Their practitioners moved to counter the incoming blows, but they had to dodge our counter fire. Most of the archers were still focusing on the bandits, but a few turned back to interrupt our practitioners.

But not enough.

“Like the ants! Fire!”

My command was followed, but it didn’t give the cultists any warning. The projectiles landed just behind the main line, which gave close to the same results as my last time with the tactic. The cultists reacted with more intelligence as some of the warriors turned to block the blow, but they were still left shell-shocked by the combined blasts.

“Retreat!” I yelled. The former bandits turned and ran, though the bandit king did pause for a moment before he followed suit. We ran back through the village as the cultists gathered themselves. The bandits, who were surprised by the sudden barrage of magic, launched a wave of attacks towards the rear line of cultists.

“Leah, has everyone evacuated already?”

“Yes, we moved most of them to the dungeon, but we had to come back for the stragglers. They wouldn’t go with the others, so we had to… force them.”

Leah looked guilty as she admitted her plan, but I nodded in response. It made logical sense. If they left these stubborn villagers to die, it would affect the others more than if they were brought along against their will.

“You did the right thing, girl.” The bandit king shouted from beside us. “If they stayed behind, they’d be dead. No use in a dead person.”

I frowned and turned away. Though he had tried to cheer her up, his reasoning was off as usual. My leg twinged with each step as we ran towards our goal, but I ignored it. There would be time for proper treatment when we were safe.

Unfortunately, reality popped up to give me another kick.

The cultists had caught up, and they were backed up by the bandits. Clive moved beside Ray as they closed in from behind. We reached the dungeon entrance, but that gave us another issue.

How to get all of these people inside.

As soon as I was within the sphere of influence, I forced the entrance to open. The common villagers, faced with a possible path to safety, funnelled through it in droves. They could only enter one at a time, which meant the escape would take at least five minutes to complete.

That didn’t seem like a long time, but it was more than enough for us to lose a significant portion of our people.

“Clive!” I yelled and stepped forward. “Why don’t we fight, one on one?”

“You little rat! I’ll peel your skin off with a-” Clive stepped forward, but he was stopped as Ray placed a hand on his chest.

“Calm yourself, bandit. He is trying to distract you.”

Clive pulled himself back, though he glared daggers at me the entire time. With my primary target gone, I shifted to the other option.

“Clever as always, Ray. Long time, no see.”

I pulled my hood back with a grin. Even through his mask, I could feel the burning hatred of Ray’s glare. He drew his sword and stepped towards me as his forces moved aside in haste.

“Calm down, he’s trying to-” Clive started to speak, but Ray slapped him away like a fly.

“Shut up, bandit!” He spat before he turned back to me. “Rook… what a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed killing you once, I’m sure the second time will double my pleasure. Even if our plan fails, watching you die by my hands again is worth the cost of my return.”

Ray walked into the no man’s land between our forces. The bandit king tried to step out, but Anne forcefully held him back as she gave me a worried glance.

“Rook, do you want me to step in?” The bandit king glared at Ray, his eyes spitting fire. “I hate people who go back on their word, and that’s the cult through and through. Just ask, and I’ll rip him apart for you.”

“Not for now. This is between me and him, so just keep everyone else safe.” His offer caught me off guard, but I declined it all the same. If the bandit king stepped forward in my place, Ray would just order his forces to take us down. Leah frowned as she watched me move past, but she didn’t try to stop me.

“I know you’re distracting me, but I don’t care. You have some way to open the dungeon, and I’ll take it from your corpse.” Ray grinned as he pointed his sword at my face. “Oh, and don’t worry. I’ll treat your little friends with care, just like Claire.”

The bandits shifted uncomfortably. While the cult members were more powerful, they outnumbered them massively. That, added to the fact their former leader was on the opposite side, left them confused as to what was going on.

If Clive ordered them to attack, a large portion might go against his order.

But I couldn’t trust that assumption. If even ten percent of them moved on Clive’s order, they would overwhelm us in less than a minute, and that was if I could ignore the cult forces. I circled around to the point where we were horizontal to the forces on both sides.

“In an odd way, I guess I should thank you.” Ray tapped a finger against his scarred mask. “If it wasn’t for your disappearance, they would have never brought me back. You were always their first choice.”

“What?” I glanced at the villagers, who were still streaming into the tunnel, then back at Ray. “What do you mean, ‘first choice’?”

“Well, you’re a marked one. They asked for me to test you, to see how suited you were for the procedure.” Ray’s voice grated to a halt. When he spoke again, his tone had lost all of its previous fake joviality. “Now you’re back, I get to kill you again. They might end me for it, but I’m not going to last much longer anyway.”

So those damn tests were to see how suitable I would be as a puppet? This cult needs to be destroyed before they kill me again…

I raised my staff and took up a defensive stance. I knew that if I tried to use an ability, he would take that as the trigger to start our fight. The longer I delayed him, the more time there was for the villagers to escape.

And the higher chance I could make a clean getaway myself.

“Won’t your little friends be unhappy with you if their ‘first choice’ is gone?” I grinned at my enemy. I saw his arms twitch for a moment before the tension dropped from him again. I wanted to keep him on the edge of anger, but it was a precarious situation. One step off either side would be deadly for me.

“You passed the tests, but only barely. The only point you had in your favour is your status as a marked one.” Ray took a step toward me. “Even at the end, they asked for me to keep you alive. That fire was meant to seep into your heart and make you want to give anything to escape it.”

“So you failed. One job, Ray, and you blew it.”

“No, I didn’t.” Ray chuckled as he sword dipped to the ground a little. “How did it feel to be eaten alive by the flames? I bet you can remember it even now.”

I had known the truth from when he first mentioned the tests. If a magical spell that had been meant to restrain its victim killed it instead, someone would be to blame. The fact Ray had moved against me at that point had been simple.

Jealousy and greed.

“So you were mad because your masters liked me more than you?” I let out a loud laugh and shook my head. “And look at you now, a shell of yourself living on borrowed time. Good job, you really outdid yourself.”

“Enough talking. Time to die again, Rook.” Ray’s sword was covered once more in a blue spiral of energy. It looked weaker than when I last saw it, but it would still be more than powerful enough to go through my body, armour and all. “Let’s get this over with.”

His sword blurred as he dashed towards me. This was my first time going against someone above level twenty-five who wasn’t also holding back. Compared to Bryan, his assault was so fast that I could barely keep track of it.

Fast!

But I managed to block it.

His sword slammed into my staff, but the force of his strike sent me through the air. I skidded on the ground as I landed, but he caught up before I could correct my footing.

“Buffed Strike!”

I didn’t use the ability to attack, but to retreat. The ground under my feet burst as I leapt out of range of his attack. Ray didn’t stop his advance so that only gave me another few seconds.

“Keep dodging, you’ll get tired before I do!”

“Enhance Dexterity!” I yelled out my last ability before I switched to the Rage pool. Ray ignored that as he closed in again. The buff, which I had just used for the first time, had an unexpected effect.

Ray’s attacks, which had been a blur to my eyes, had cleared up significantly. They were still difficult to track, but the buff made it smoother for me to dodge and block his strikes by a noticeable margin.

Attacking was still impossible.

If only I were a Warrior...

In that case, I wouldn’t have the buffs in the first place. I could pull a Supporter with me everywhere I went, but that would just be another person to watch out for.

“Focused strike.”

Ray used the skill that had caused me so many issues in the past without a warning. His sword thrust towards my chest with unerring precision. I countered with a thrust and used the Rage strike for the first time.

“Buffed Fury!”