The chest the two Bogoli sisters had in their camp didn’t look like a System generated treasure chest, at least not one Morgan had seen before. It was long and shallow, more like a toolbox than a chest, crafted from a shiny dark wood with bronze metal corner plates. No runes were apparent on the chest, and Issa spent a long time staring at it from all angles. Finally, she felt comfortable enough to lift it from one end and look beneath it. Not finding anything alarming, she shrugged and said, “I don’t see any traps or anything.”

“Alright, I’ll open it. Stand back a bit.”

“Wait. I think we have a smarter way of doing this kind of thing. Why not use your guard ability on me, and I’ll open it. Then, if a dart shoots out, or it explodes, you’ll take half the damage that you would have taken if you opened it yourself.” After she spoke, Morgan opened his mouth to argue but couldn’t think of a problem with her logic. He just nodded and backed up a step, then activated Guard Ally on her. Issa nodded and leaned forward to lift the clasp on the chest carefully. No fireballs were forthcoming, and she didn’t cry out in alarm, so Morgan moved forward to see what was within.

Nestled in the burgundy-colored cloth lining of the chest was a rapier with a beautifully wrought silvery basket hilt. The silver and black leather sheath hid the blade, but Morgan could feel a wave of cold Energy emanating from the powerful weapon. Next to the sword sat a polished cherry scroll case. Finally, resting in the folds of cloth was a heavy-looking leather pouch. “Looks like you got another new sword, Issa.”

“Oh, no, Morgan, I already have this nice rapier that you gave me!”

“Well, check it out; maybe it’s better,” Morgan said, reaching into the chest to pick up the scroll case. He opened it to see the scroll within while Issa picked up the sword. The scroll was tightly wound around a cherry scroll rod, and when he studied the header, he saw that it was written in plain text: “Whispering Death Style.”

“Morgan! This sword has a spirit within it. When I sent my Energy into it, it spoke to me!” Her voice was high with excitement.

“Did you bond with it? Be careful; Tiladia told me that intelligent items with spirits might try to dominate your will.”

“Yes, I felt a little struggle, but I concentrated my will and felt it calm down. It called me ‘mistress’ and said it was happy to have a strong new master. Morgan, it told me its name was Icicle!”

“That’s cool! Hah, get it? Cool?” Issa just looked at him with an arched eyebrow. “Well, anyway, here - it’s a sword style, I think. I don’t want to learn another while I’m still mastering the Fighting Crane Style.” He handed her the scroll case and then leaned over to pick up the pouch. He felt the familiar clicking sound and the satisfying weight of lots of Energy beads. He opened the top of the pouch and saw that the beads were just standard non-attuned beads, but there had to be more than a hundred of them.

“I can’t use the scroll yet. It says ‘requirement not met - advanced sword mastery.’ I guess I’ll need to keep it for later.” Issa tucked the scroll into her pouch and then went to work fitting her new sword sheath to her belt.

“Good idea - Tiladia says that intelligent items don’t like being in dimensional containers.” Issa nodded while she buckled her belt.

“My father taught me that. Since I’m making out like a bandit with this new sword and the potential sword style, you should keep those Energy beads.”

“Alright, but it’s not like I wouldn’t share anything I own with you.” Morgan put the beads into his ring. “What do you think? Should we go see who the next challengers are?”

****

***Congratulations! You’ve achieved level 23 Vortex Duelist. You have gained 8 Intelligence, 8 Agility, 6 Will, 6 Dexterity. You’ve learned the class skill Vortex Lance - Basic.***

***Vortex Lance - Basic: Prerequisite: Vortex Class Core. You are able to project a vortex of Energy from your weapon to strike distant foes. While potentially devastating, this attack has a slow build-up and requires a sizable Energy investment. This skill scales with the rank of your Vortex Core. Energy cost: 350, Cooldown: Medium.***

Morgan and Issa stood panting and covered in blood over the corpses of the eleventh pair of challengers. They’d had a relatively easy time of the ninth and tenth, mainly because they’d each been large, brutish pairs of combatants wielding deadly but slow weapons. Issa and Morgan had easily countered them with their debilitating attacks and ability to wear them down. These most recent enemies, though, had been a real challenge. One had been an Ardeni man with a sword and shield, and the other was an older Cadwalli fighting with dual slender scimitars.

In the end, though, they’d prevailed. Morgan had used Guard Ally on Issa and absorbed a dozen or so slashes from the Cadwalli on his armor. The Ardeni had actually clinched their victory for them: he’d sucked in a tremendous breath, and Morgan had instinctively dropped into The Crane Defends the Nest. When the Ardeni belched forth a massive gout of flames, it had largely been deflected by Morgan’s Energy-enhanced parry and proceeded past him to ignite the Cadwalli’s fur. After that, Issa had finished the Cadwalli, and then it had been a matter of mopping things up. Still, they had painted the cobbles red with blood before it was over, much of it their own.

“I leveled and got a skill. What about you?” Morgan asked Issa, still breathing deeply.

“Ancestors! I still haven’t gained another level! Your damned affinity lets you apply a lot more of the Energy from your kills to your growth.” Issa’s face, still red with exertion, had grown clouded, her eyebrows pulled down in a glare.

“Hey, it’s not fair, but we’re on the same team. Don’t get pissed at me!” He reached out and gently squeezed her shoulder.

“Oh, I’m not really mad, just frustrated. How can I complain? We won again, and this sword I’ve earned has been amazing. I feel like I’m learning a lot with each combat, and Icicle even said that she thinks I’m getting close to improving my proficiency to advanced!”

“She? Hah, I didn’t know your sword was a girl. She talks to you that much, huh? Well, my sword hasn’t given me any glimpses into the future since I dueled Swent, so, yeah, I’m a little jealous of your blade. Plus, you do ice damage with each stab!”

“That’s true, and yes, Icicle is a girl!” She beamed, cleaning her frosty blue blade off on a piece of ragged cloth and sheathing it. “Well, should we see about the final challengers?”

“Aren’t you tired?” Morgan stretched, actually feeling pretty good after the considerable influx of Energy from their victory. If only the Energy cleaned the blood off, as well, he’d have nothing to complain about.

“Not really. This was our first fight of this ‘day,’ and I’m anxious to see what’s next.” As if on cue, Yan walked up from where he’d been watching the fight.

“Looks like you two are down to the final spot. Tal-dak and Shinra aren’t to be trifled with. That’s their tent over there.” He pointed to a large blue canvas tent. Morgan and Issa had already surmised it was the campsite of the leading pair of sword wielders. It stood on its own on a slight rise in the valley floor, and the other tents had all been accounted for - they’d either defeated the occupants or met them to accept their forfeits.

“Alright, might as well strike while the iron’s hot.” Morgan started walking up the slope toward the high blue tent. Issa walked to his right, and they were about twenty feet away when a tall, imposing figure stepped out. He had the deep red skin of the Shadeni and wore heavy, black-plated armor. His head was helmed, but enough of his face was exposed for Morgan to see the sinister smile exposing his exceptionally long canines. Gleaming, sky-blue eyes stared out of the grill of the helm, and his voice rumbled across the hilltop.

“You should stay content to wait behind us for the guardian. No need to throw your lives away.” A massive, black two-handed sword appeared in front of him, point-down, and he leaned lazily against the hilt. The sword had to be six feet long with a straight, double-edged blade that was at least as wide as Morgan’s hand.

“Tal-dak, I presume?” Morgan tried to keep his voice steady, betraying none of his thoughts. Internally, he was feeling a little stressed. Tal-dak emitted a strong aura that weighed heavily on him. He decided to try to “flex” his aura to see if it would remove some of the pressure. As he let his Energy flow into his limbs and pushed his aura out, he added all the weight of the deaths he was responsible for; he pushed into it the Yovashi Bane title and the gravity of their plight at his hands, and, above it all, he drove forward his rage at the implicit threat to Issa that Tal-dak’s words carried. Suddenly Tal-dak didn’t seem quite so large or imposing, and he flinched back for a moment. Morgan noticed black steam rising out of the corner of his eyes, and he saw that Issa was channeling her Battle Chant, getting it ready.

“My, my,” said a sultry voice from their right, and Morgan turned to see a Shadeni woman standing there. She was tall and slender, wearing a shiny round silver shield and wielding a gleaming broadsword. “Is your bite as bad as your bark, doggy?” She walked forward to stand next to Tal-dak, and he stood up straighter, his grin widening. “Well, you don’t have to answer that. We’ll find out in a moment, I’m sure.” She and Tal-dak walked down the gentle slope to the road, waiting for Morgan and Issa to follow.

“I didn’t like her talking to you that way, Morgan!” Issa hissed as they watched the two walk away.

“They certainly seem disdainfully confident.” Morgan summoned his sword and whipped it through the air a couple of times in pent-up aggression. “We need to be on our A-game, Issa.”

“I’ve never heard that term, but I know what you mean, Morgan. I’ll haste you at the start - you should try to destroy one of them as quickly as possible, and then we’ll work on the second.” Morgan nodded, and they began to descend the slope toward the waiting pair of Shadeni. Morgan could feel Issa’s Battle Chant building, and she started to hiss a discordant, buzzing sound that made his muscles jittery and his sword feel light. Morgan, for his part, began to push Energy into his limbs, priming them to spring into any of his sword forms.

When they reached the pair, they bowed, and Morgan and Issa did the same, and then Morgan briefly felt Issa’s hand on his shoulder, and a surge of Energy flowed into him. He swore he could hear everyone breathing like slow motion bellows and his singing muscles leaped into lightning action as he launched himself at Shinra while activating Guard Ally on Issa at the same time. Shinra somehow brought her shield up in time to block Morgan’s first cleave, and Morgan was thrown off balance by the wave of force that reverberated out of the shiny metal. It was like his blow had been sent back at him. Distantly he heard Issa’s Battle Chant rise in volume, and he heard the great whooshing sound of Tal-dak’s sword as he swung it with terrible force again and again.

Morgan regained his balance and launched a flurry of blows with The Crane Flutters its Wings - with haste and his style active; the swings were just a blur of black smoke in the air. Morgan was sure he’d get through Shinra’s guard this time because her shield was low, and she moved much too slowly to get it in position to block. However, just as he was about to make contact with his first terrible slash, she seemed to waver like a mirage, and then she was twenty feet back from where she’d been. Morgan cleaved the empty air four times before he realized what had happened. He started to walk toward her, but then he felt a crushing blow across his shoulder blades, and he stumbled; Tal-dak had hit Issa, but his Guard Ally had saved her. Even with only half the damage hitting him, he felt his scale armor strain to contain the blow, and the force of it nearly knocked him to his knee.

Twice more, Morgan closed in on Shinra, sure to unleash a devastating attack only to have her shimmer and appear twenty or more feet back from where she’d been. Morgan kept circling her, trying to make her stay near the other two combatants, but she was quick in her own right, and he had a hard time keeping tabs on Issa’s fight while defending against her. Finally, in frustration, Morgan pushed his way close to her again and worked to set her up for another flurry from The Crane Flutters its Wings. Before he attacked, though, he activated his Circle of Combat skill. He knew it was a bit risky - he wouldn’t be able to help Issa until he’d finished with Shinra, and it cost a lot of Energy, but he was tired of her cat and mouse games and was worried that Tal-dak would wear Issa down.

He’d never used the skill before, and he was almost caught off guard by it - a black whirling wall of Energy shot up around him and Shinra, leaving an open area about twenty paces across in the middle. As soon as he saw the wall come up behind Shinra, he unleashed his style, and Shinra wavered and reappeared directly against the wall of his Circle of Combat. More than that, she seemed to have slammed into it because she stumbled forward, a look of shock on her face, only to be met with Morgan’s flurry of blows. She nearly recovered enough to get her shield up, but not quite, and Morgan’s first cleave took her arm off at the shoulder. She screamed and flailed with her sword, but Morgan’s subsequent three arcing cuts tore terrible gashes in her body and took her other hand off at the wrist. She fell to the ground, unmoving and the black walls of his circle faded away into smoky mist.

He turned quickly to where he could hear the clang of steel on steel and saw Issa circling Tal-dak, her rapier licking out and mostly being rebuffed by his armor. Morgan strode forward and pointed his sword at Tal-dak, channeling his new skill, Vortex Lance. It took a few heartbeats for the Energy to gather in his sword, but then a smoking, glowing projectile erupted from his sword, leaving a whirling pattern of force behind it. The sound it made was like a high-powered rifle round ripping through the air without the percussive blast of the explosive to launch it. A flash erupted from Tal-dak’s back shoulder plate, and a wave of force visibly rippled through him. He stumbled forward onto one knee and roared in pain and rage. As he struggled to his feet, Morgan could see the deformation of his armor plate and the sheet of blood running down his back and side.

Issa didn’t stand idly while her opponent stumbled; she lunged forward and gave him two painful punctures at his armor joints while he struggled to his feet. As he roared and lifted his sword, Issa used her Hexing Shriek, and he stumbled back from the sound but then swung his sword wildly at her. However, Morgan had closed the distance and smashed his sword against Tal-dak’s damaged rear shoulder plate, shearing through the deformed, rippled metal. His blade sliced through muscle and tendon and bit deeply into bone, and Morgan pulled with Energy Drain as he ripped the sword free and backed off. A torrent of shimmering Energy flowed out of Tal-dak to him, and Tal-dak roared again, flailing madly with his sword. Morgan could see that he was having trouble aiming his blows, though, with his right shoulder so severely wounded. “Back off, Issa,” Morgan called while he started channeling Azure Burst.

Issa backpedaled, and Tal-dak turned on Morgan with a furious snarl, only to be sent sprawling by a concussion of blue flames. He slid on his back toward Issa, and she neatly stepped forward and thrust her rapier between the grill on his helmet, burying it six inches into his eye. Tal-dak violently twitched once and then lay still. Dense motes of Energy accumulated on the two corpses and then flowed into Morgan and Issa.

“Finally, level!” Issa said, picking her sword up from the road where it had fallen as Tal-dak’s corpse disappeared.