We traveled a different path this time as we departed Armenelos. After making our way through Overwatch Pass, we took a northern route that skirted the edge of the Forest of Tantrevalles. Rafe once again sparred with me whenever we paused for breaks, and on the third day the warrior woman Rose held up a hand.

“I’m in need of flexing my muscles. I will be your partner for today,” she pronounced.

I looked at Rafe who shrugged as if to say, “It’s up to you.”

I gestured with my hand in affirmation. “Sure. We all need to stay loose and ready.”

I hadn’t warmed up to her after the prickly blonde’s unwelcoming approach, and a part of me hoped I’d be able to best her. I knew there was likely small chance of that. Any fighter that had been complimented by the eternal warrior himself would almost certainly be far beyond my skill. Still, it had to be better than Rafe. Fighting him was downright demoralizing. He barely seemed to pay attention, blocking all my attacks one-handed with a wooden sword two feet shorter than my own. At times he wouldn’t even move his feet. He’d simply stand there looking bored and beat off every attempt I made to pierce his defenses.

Perhaps I could take this contemptuous ice princess down a peg or two.

We stood ten feet apart with wooden swords in ready position. I narrowed my eyes, focusing on my opponent. She held her blade with both hands, but as expected the right hand appeared to be dominant. She swept it back and forth, feeling out the balance. I was well used to my own battered piece of wood and waited patiently for the signal to begin.

Rafe glanced at her and then at me and raised his hand, paused, and swept it downwards.

“Begin!”

Rose slid forward smoothly, immediately on the attack. Her speed was frightening until I activated Flashpoint. My speed more than doubled as I led with my forward foot and swept my blade to the side, parrying her blow and dancing to the side. Though her movements were no longer a blur to my eyes with Flashpoint activated, her quickness and startling agility still outmatched me. After three exchanges I felt the tip of her wooden practice sword thump heavily into my stomach, and I fell to my knees with the wind knocked out of me.

Rose fell back and looked me up and down in skeptical contempt as I knelt gasping on the ground, forcing air back into my lungs.

“Is that the best you can do? I won’t even break a sweat if this is all you’ve got.”

Her words stung, and I forced myself to my feet.

“Again!” I ground out through clenched teeth.

She smirked and raised her sword. Without warning, she leaped forward and suddenly I saw stars. I was on the ground, staring at the tips of her sturdy boots, and a spot on my head warned me that I’d be feeling a lump there before long.

Rose has smacked your head for three damage. No concussion because of attacker’s adherence to the rules of sparring.

I guess I would have had a concussion in real life. Well, actually, my head would be in two pieces if she had been holding a real weapon. That was small comfort to me as I groaned and slowly lifted my non-concussed, single-piece head from the ground.

“I think that’s enough,” she sniffed. “You don’t even keep yourself ready to fight. What good will you be?”

Rising to my knees, I demanded harshly, “One more time!”

Rose turned away, “There’s no point. I can’t learn anything from this lackwit.”

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Barnabas bristle at her words. Rose began to stride away when a rich soprano suggested, “Perhaps he could learn from you. Let’s not be selfish, sister.”

The wizard Clara sat on a log, her bright eyes challenging the yellow-haired fighter. Rose met that gaze and then shrugged. “Okay, I suppose I could do that. Not like there’s anything else to do until we reach Creshey.”

I climbed to my feet, rubbed the top of my head, and rolled my shoulders. I narrowed my eyes, focusing on this ill-mannered woman.

Ippon-me.

Flashpoint.

The world slowed, and my opponent charged me, hair flying behind her and sword curving in a clear attack from my left. I stood balanced and steady, sword hilt in both hands and the world around me turned unnaturally crisp. My weight shifted as I prepared to block her swing when I felt a tingle as a sense of impending doom impelled me to shift my weight once again, ignoring her feint and smashing her sword as she flipped her blade across her body and attacked from my right.

Rose’s blue eyes widened in surprise as I surged forward, coming within less than arms-length of her and smashed my forehead down on her nose. She stumbled and then fell on her butt, eyes watering from the sudden pain in her face.

Rafe burst out laughing. I released Flashpoint and stepped away from Rose. I once again rubbed the top of my head where I could feel a large, tender pigeon’s egg rising from my skull.

“That was cheating!” Rose accused.

To the side I could see Barnabas chuckling while the men of Creshey grinned at each other.

Congratulations! Your Swords skill has increased to level 22.

Funny how that worked. I had been sparring with Rafe at least twice a day since we left Armenelos with no gains to my skill, but here I was leveling that skill with a head butt. What did that say about how this world worked?

Rafe said dryly, “In battle, there is no cheating. There is victory and defeat...which is often death. In this case, you’re flat on your ass with your sword on the ground and probably your enemy’s weapon in your heart.”

She grimaced angrily and leaped to her feet.

“Again!” she demanded.

Amused, Rafe met my eyes. “Are you up for another round?”

I opened my mouth to answer, ready to take the wench down another peg when Amelia strode into camp.

Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead as the redhead snapped with a gentle lilt to her voice, “Enough foolishness, Rose. We have company. Get yourself together.”

Rafe asked sharply, “What is it? What did you see?”

Her lips tight, the ranger answer, “Smoke. Perhaps two miles away.”

“A forest fire?” Rafe demanded.

She shook her head.

“Nay, it has not the appearance of such. A campfire, I think. Might be friendly, might not. But these things are what we’re here to discover, yes?”

Rose tossed the wooden practice sword to Rafe and hurried to fetch her blade. I tossed mine to him as well.

“Amelia, you and I will scout ahead and find out who’s making camp. The rest of you hide yourselves and keep quiet. We’ll return as soon as we can.”

Strangely, Rafe had suddenly become the leader of our entire troupe, and everyone obeyed him unquestioningly, and before I knew it, he and the red-headed archer were gone.

Barnabas came to my side and murmured softly, “We are barely into Creshey, Sir Paol. If this is indeed part of the invasion, it has already sallied deep into our territory.”

I rolled my eyes.

“How many times do I have to tell you? It’s just Paol. I’m no knight.”

“Yes, my lord,” the young man answered stubbornly.

I felt a whisper of what felt like a cobweb fall over me, and I jerked around. Clara was whispering softly and waving her hands in an oval above her head before she blew out her breath all at once and an odd shimmer fell down upon all of us. Everyone abruptly looked fuzzy and out of focus.

“Take yourself out of the sunlight,” she whispered to me. “If you make no sudden moves, the glamour should hide you.”

I wiggled my fingers at myself and saw faint flutters of blurry light spread from them and dissipate. From what she said, it sounded as if we weren’t invisible--not like what my Ring of Lesser Invisibility could do--but my ring only worked on me. She had cast a spell that hid our entire group.

My stomach twisted in apprehension. We could be going into another fight. Once again my life would be on the line. Or maybe it wouldn’t? This strange incident of spawning after dying was so confusing. Should I no longer fear death? I knew that it was still painful. And if I died I’d still…

Oh no! I had forgotten the blue stone that Kyrie had given me. I hadn’t used it to reset my spawn point. What better place could I have set myself to than the king’s castle? Instinctively, I reached into my Bag of Holding to check that the stone was still there when a roar from behind me caused me to spin in reaction, and I put my hand on Veritas to draw her when a huge green paw smashed into my side, hurling me ten feet away. I felt something crack.

Troll hits you for 54 damage. You suffer from cracked ribs. Roll for Pain Endurance failed. The pain from your fractured ribs slows your movement by half until you are healed.

I groaned in pain, trying to ignore the sharp flickers of agony from my side as I struggled to sit up. I fumbled for Veritas’s hilt, but my fingers seemed thick and unwieldy. Striding towards me was a humanoid figure, massively muscled and wearing only a loincloth. The creature was at least ten feet tall and almost as wide. Each lumbering step seemed to shake the ground, and the stench of its unwashed body foreshadowed its presence. Puke green skin and warts beyond counting--sometimes even warts on top of warts--adorned this terrible creature.

Appraise.

Troll. Level ???

Oh great, question marks.

Suddenly, fireballs hissed through the air to slam into the troll’s chest, driving him backwards and away from me. I turned to Clara in gratitude, and she gave me a quick nod in acknowledgement. The smiles were gone from the impish woman’s face now as she spun first one hand and then the other, calling up a fireball with each spin of the hand. As soon as they arrived, they darted away to smash into the Troll. Fireball after fireball exploded against the Troll’s chest. After another dozen fireballs, the Troll finally fell to its knees and crashed face down into the dirt.

I shook my head against the pain, gritting my teeth and holding my side. With a hiss of effort, I forced myself onto one knee and then to my feet. I opened my mouth to speak when one of Duke Benedict’s men came flying through the air to land stunned at my feet.

Three more of the filthy creatures screamed in unison before rushing forward to attack us.