A thin line continued towards the horizon, slicing columns along the way. In his single strike, Dallion had formed a perfect circle. This time, the attack was entirely his doing. Harp hadn’t helped, but had been an instrument of his attack.

The air shattered, forming thousands of glittering fragments, as if dozens of invisible windows had been broken. However, those weren’t windows, they were the illusions that gleam had created.

TERMINAL STRIKE!

Damage dealt has been increased by 1000%

GLEAM has been defeated.

Barely had the rectangles appeared, that Dallion fell to his knees. Even here, within the safety of his realm, the attack proved taxing. His entire right arm was shaking to the point that he could barely hold to the harpsisword.

Maybe I overdid it, Dallion thought.

You think? Gleam asked, but this was the real gleam—the shardifly that was currently somewhere else within his awakening realm. You’ve never done a line strike before and you go straight for a full circle?

Nice to have you back, Dallion smiled as he split into six instances. His most dangerous opponent had been defeated, but that didn’t mean that the trial was over. Nox remained hidden somewhere within the battlefield, patiently biding his time.

So, what did you use? Gleam asked.

Huh?

The attack that got rid of Lux. I’m curious.

Some things never changed. Clearly, the trial echo of the shardfly shared her curiosity.

Attraction, Dallion said. The first hit got Lux to stick to the harpsisword. After that, I just had to be fast enough to hit him into the ground and leave the blade to do the rest.

Ha. The anticlimax was felt in her voice. Well, good luck with the cub.

Somehow, that felt as typical as a curious teenager suddenly losing interest. Attitude aside, Gleam was right, though.

Using every last ounce of strength, Dallion pushed himself back up to his feet. He had huge qualms using the harpsisword as a shield, but Harp insisted that he do it. At the end of the day, this was just the awakening realm representation of her, not the actual weapon. Unsummoning the armada shield, Dallion grabbed the weapon with his left hand.

Now was a good time to be ambidextrous. Come to think of it, Dallion had never tried fighting with his left hand. Even in the few times when he fought with two weapons, his right always was the leading one. Now was a good reminder that it was high time he did something about it.

Where are you, Nox? Dallion looked about. Given the cub’s ability to disguise itself as a crack on a surface it was impossible to find it. The only hope was for Dallion to catch a hint of the emotions coming from the creature.

I really had it easy, Dallion thought. In the past, it had been Nox who had helped him locate other cracklings. Now it was a matter of who finds the finder?

“Nox, I’ve taught you better than this,” Dallion said, infusing his words with as much honor as possible. “Sneaking gives you an advantage, but the proper thing to do is face me head on. I’m not that weak to fall asleep and give you a chance to attack.”

As expected, there was no reply. However, Dallion had taken advantage of the fact that he knew the frequency with which to establish a music link with his familiar. Even without seeing Nox, there was a pretty good chance that his words had affected the creature.

Gritting his teeth, Dallion took a step forward. His legs felt like lead, but still obeyed his command. He had gone beyond exhaustion at this point. The only thing keeping him standing was pure stubbornness, and the knowledge that he’d have to go through the entire fight again if he failed.

The minutes passed like years. Or maybe they were years? In the realms, one could never be sure. Dallion felt the numbness in his body subside, replaced by pain. It was as if every fiber of his body yelled in agony. Combat splitting in this state was beyond extreme. While the act itself was still possible, the pain was compounded, forcing Dallion to rely on three instances, just like when Vend had started teaching him for the first time. It was natural that Nox would choose this point to act. What Dallion didn’t expect was that the crackling would actually go all out. Three cubs leaped out of different piles of rubble, each targeting a different instance. In all the cases Dallion suffered a significant wound, however, in one of them, he managed to destroy his attacker. Given no choice, Dallion had that become reality.

It was one against two. Both cracklings dashed into nearby rubble with the goal of disappearing among the natural cracks. At that point, Dallion decided to risk it. Using his athletics skill, he threw the harpsisword at the spot in which one of the Noxes had vanished. Almost instantly, a red rectangle appeared.

In his mind Dallion cheered, yet his chest and mouth muscles didn’t have enough energy to convey the thought into existence.

Keeping his guard up, Dallion summoned his dartbow in his left hand. One shot was all he needed. A few moments later, he summoned the kaleidervisto in his right hand as well. Slowly and painfully, he lifted the small object to his face and looked at the spot at which the last remaining Nox had vanished. It wasn’t a surprise that the cat wasn’t there.

Dallion looked around, gradually increasing the area of interest in spiraling fashion.

“I take it you won’t accept a draw?” Dallion asked. The lack of answer told him that the crackling had its pride.

The difficulty of the situation aside, Dallion was quite proud of the creature. He knew that this wasn’t Nox, but the things it did would be the same, and that meant that the crackling had grown a lot since it was the small cub Dallion had taken with him in Dherma.

Unable to bear the weight, Dallion relaxed his hand, letting go of the kaleidervisto. It was difficult to maintain even two instances, but he kept doing it. His health had been reduced to dangerously low levels, and there was no telling whether the next successful attack wouldn’t be the end of it.

If I were Nox, what would I do? Dallion concentrated on his zoology skill. The crackling was small and weak, although fast, and a good attacker. The logical thing to do was head directly for Dallion, but in such a way so as not to risk a counterattack. With two instances of himself back-to-back, such an attack was difficult to achieve. Dallion had made sure to cover all his blind spots, precisely for that purpose. Or had he?

Suddenly, a thought came to mind. Once again, he summoned the kaleidervisto, but this time, instead of looking around the battlefield, Dallion focused on the ground beneath his feet. Less than half a dozen steps away, he found it—the familiar who was just as determined to win as its owner. Seeing that the game was up, Nox leapt out of the ground, deciding to go for it. It was a good tactical decision—Dallion was weak and was still holding the kaleidervisto in front of his face.

Claws sliced through clothes and flesh, dealing the final blow to one instance. The other, however, managed to raise the dart bow before that could happen.

It’s a pity, Dallion thought. Technically, one might call it a draw. However, he chose the version in which he had won.

NOX has been defeated.

“Finally.” Dallion collapsed to the ground.

THIRD WIND

(Body +2)

It was a draining experience, but you endured through pain and exhaustion to achieve your goal. Once is good. Just be careful, it doesn’t become a habit.

Rectangles floated Dallion’s face, paying no notice to his semi-conscious state. The sudden boost in body granted him just that infinitesimally small amount of strength that made it possible for him to wave the rectangles away.

You have broken through your barrier

Your level has increased to 36

Choose the focus that would serve you best

Body, Dallion thought as he reached up.

Moments later, everything lost color, fading to black. Next thing he knew, Dallion found himself in a soft bed. Initially, there was nothing strange about that. The bed felt familiar, more importantly, it was comfortable. Instinct made him turn to the other side. Only then did he realize that he had never gone to bed. The last thing that Dallion had done was to defeat Nox in an awakening trial.

“Good morning,” a familiar voice said. Dallion could easily tell that the voice belonged to his girlfriend. To his surprise and relief, she didn’t sound overly upset.

“You did something stupid again, didn’t you?”

“I went through two trials,” Dallion replied directly.

“That’s a yes. Good thing you did it here. Get up. You need to eat.”

The first few moments Dallion didn’t feel hungry at all. After realizing that he hadn’t eaten for over a day, not to mention had completed two awakening trials, hunger struck with a vengeance. The only issue was that when Dallion tried to get up, he found that his body still felt heavy.

Pushing through the sensation, Dallion went to the other room. Clothes and pieces of armor were everywhere. The gorgon had clearly taken the opportunity of Dallion being out to get some work done. The food he had brought from Hannah’s was still where he had left it, although part of it was missing.

Dallion gobbled down what was left. The sensation of taste was almost lost as his body demanded energy. The hunger didn’t vanish completely once he was done, but it was at a lot more manageable level.

“How is Hannah?” Eury asked, adding leather to the inside of a neck guard.

“She seemed more or less fine. The inn is back to what it was—mostly empty. You should go sometime.”

“No. Things between us go deeper than you think.”

“She told me something interesting about Jiroh,” Dallion continued. “That she had found a way to go home.”

Euryale froze for a moment. If Dallion’s perception had been any lower, he would have missed it.

“Is there a way?”

“There might be. If anyone could find it…” she left whatever she was working on and turned to face Dallion. “Ji isn’t like us. She never talks about her world, but I know she had a much worse life there than here. Even being a thunder fury wasn’t enough to get things going for her. If anyone would be happy to have arrived in this world, it would be her. And yet, she isn’t. Ever since I met her, she’s been trying to find a way back to her world… And I promised to help her.”

“Why?” This was impossible to believe. From everything Dallion had seen, Jiroh had everything one might want here. She had friends, people who respected her, as well as family. Among her race she was even considered potential royalty.

“Because this isn’t her world.” The gorgon sighed. “It’s not my place to understand. That was her reason I became a hunter—to help her find what she’s looking for.”

She prefers to go back to a place that’s worse just because it’s hers? Dallion was unable to understand.

“Never tell her you know. That will only make things more difficult. One day Ji returned from a solo job in the wilderness escorting a caravan. She wasn’t even a hunter back then. The job had failed, but she was so sure she had found a way to return back to her own world. The answer lied in the city she was awakened. Ji never told me the details, but she insisted it was possible. That was the same day that she stopped using her awakened powers.”

Dallion blinked. There had been so many times during which he had wondered whether she had her powers sealed. Apparently, that had never been the case.

“She used to say that since there was no such thing as awakened powers in her world, she might as well get used to not having them. That’s the level of dedication she has. And that’s why we must help her.”

Dallion nodded.

“And we will.” Once I get a little bit stronger, we will.