Luke's face fell. He wanted to scream the archer's name but his opponent was following him, closing in.

Nikola soared back in Green's direction, but he had spent his time preparing for her backswing. He skipped skillfully away and didn't allow her attempted second slice to find him.

Ven was still on villager duty, keeping their numbers down by forcing them to eat Silver Spikes and hitting them with AOE spells. She saw that a horde of them was descending on Luke and sprinted over to him, initiating a Waterfall spell that exploded from her wand in a column of water. It surged forth and crashed into them in a thick wall.

While her spells weren't high level, they were enough to drive the NPCs away.

They waved their arms and screamed out bubbles as the water washed them into the distance.

"Easy as pie," the dark swordsman said with a chuckle, and he and Green both shared a grin. That the grin was about Violet's pixels exploding into the ether made Nikola growl in her chest.

It was still Phase 2, so Violet wouldn't be dead dead, but she would be back in the Copper Citadel. If this had been in one of the Dungeons and Challenge Rooms, she would have been erased in her entirety. Gone. Nikola would have to get better at defending her teammates rather than assuming they could handle themselves. Were there better formations they could be taking? Should she handle the close-ranged enemies while Violet stayed on the outskirts of the battlefield and fired into the fray? She had her own logic, but no experience in ensuring another person's safety.

The Black Swordsman, as she had named him within her own mind, was cradling his [Crippled] arm tenderly. He put on a brave front, but even after using a potion the arm didn't repair itself, and his expression soured.

She thought it was high time to finish the job. She rose her trusty cleaver into the air and began to draw with it, forming a shining line in the air. She closed the distance between herself and the man who had felled Violet with a decisive charge and finished the gesture for her [Sever] skill directly into his already ailing arm, which fell from his body and hit the walkway with a dull thump.

His jaw dropped.

He took a minute to look from his suddenly missing arm, and to the one on the ground. Blood began to bead where his limb used to be, and then to gush.

He screamed bloody murder and stumbled away from The Butcher.

"She-- she cut off my fucking arm--" His face paled and he toppled backward, presumably falling unconscious because his sword dropped from his one remaining hand during the fall too.

Nikola didn't know if she needed to render the Village Leader unconscious or needed to kill him fully for Sweetstay to be relinquished to them, so she knelt down... but then, she heard the twanging of a string.

Fuck.

Green still existed.

She looked in his direction just in time to see that he had loosed an entire handful of arrows into the air, and they were streaking through the sky in his direction. She slipped the edge of her blade quickly against the fallen Black Swordsman's throat before deftly hopping away, allowing the arrows to pepper the space around Green's comrade as his body slowly fizzled away into the wind.

"Easy as pie," Nikola said loudly enough that Green could hear as she used her fingers to wipe the blood off her cleaver.

"Oh, you'll fucking pay for that one." The fae pulled an arrow back with a sneer that wrinkled his face, and let loose arrow after arrow in her direction.

The Rogue wondered why her simply repeating what his friend had said warranted her having to pay. She side-stepped the first arrow and the second caught her cape, ripping a hole in it as it passed through. She could hear the others zip past, whistling as they cut through the air near her but didn't hit.

"I don't think I got a notification when he died," Nikola noticed aloud, and the remaining winged male sneered again.

"That's because I'm the Village Leader, not him. And you'll never take me out, so you may as well turn back now."

The former NPC began to walk toward him. So all she needed to do was kill one single faerie? He couldn't be worse than a lion that breathed spikes. And then, as if on cue, her Spray of Thorns ability became available again. She took it as destiny and allowed the next arrow Green fired to hit her square in the chest so she would be in the right position.

She puffed out an explosion of little silver daggers all in his direction, catching him in the middle of her cone. At the same time, his arrow bored into her breastbone, leaving an admirable dent in her armour.

The tiny spikes pierced into his skin like a swarm of bees, each one coaxing a trail of blood from his body. Since he'd taken the brunt of her breath weapon head-on, he became painted in lines and lines of red and swore as he started to flail and shake them out again.

"These are so fucking annoying, you know that?" He groaned and used a potion, but Nikola didn't allow him a chance at the recovery he desired.

She got in closer and kicked him straight in the center mass, using the bottom of her boot like a hammer against a bed of nails.

A hideous scream poured from his lips, just like the blood that gushed from his deepened wounds. He keeled over and dropped to his knees. "Wow, you're actually going to do it. You're actually going to take Sweetstay from us."

Instead of using yet another arrow to shoot at her, he just spat at her instead. The Rogue's nose wrinkled in disgust as she felt the warm liquid paint her face.

Nikola made sure warm liquid also painted his face as she [Cleaved] straight into the side of his head, his dumb Archer body exploding outward with the impact. A ding went off in her mind, confirming that he was in fact the Leader as he said he was.

In the very same moment, Luke gasped out a defeated grunt as his higher-level opponent finally bested him. She looked over to their battle just in time to see the shield-bearer's sword wedge into his already bleeding ribs. There wasn't a spot on him that didn't look battered and bloodied as he faded away, fighting for each breath. "Nikola, kill thi--"

But before he could finish delivering his message, he was gone.

Ven was handling the NPC villagers well enough on her own, but Nikola saw the sword-wielding elf's eyes fall on her next.

Oh, no he fucking didn't.

Nikola sped from 0 to 10 and bowled over somebody carrying an armful of flowers as she charged, daisies bouncing from their basket and scattering into the air.

He broke out into a run, headed straight for Ven just as her weak-ass little Mage arm was ensnared by a villager.

Nikola collided with elf with all of her body weight in the final moments before he sliced her, catching him just as he swung.

His blade flailed hopelessly through the air and they both hit the ground.

Luke had obviously drained him of his potions, because he didn't even try to recover before the edge of Nikola's cleaver split his skull.

The Butcher fell a short way as his body poofed into dust underneath her. The Villagers, now without a Leader, began to look around and wander aimlessly back to their default paths. A few of them apologized as they padded dreamily away, confused, including the one who had grabbed Ven.

The Mage rubbed her wrist, blinking at the horde of people as they all walked away in unison.

"They're leaving," she noted.

"Yes. They must be returning to their lives now that they are without a command to control them."

Ven blinked, and then blinked again. Then, it dawned on her-- they had won. They had won their fight for Sweetstay. "We have successfully conquered this land," she said. She could feel the words spreading her face into a peculiar shape.

Nikola watched as Ven's expression changed into what almost looked like a smile. It was like somebody who had never seen a smile trying to smile. It looked goofy on her, or forced, or wrong, but also beautiful in its own way. Too many of her teeth were exposed, making her attempt look strikingly menacing.

"Yes. We have conquered Sweetstay, Ven. You performed admirably in your first real battle and vanquished many with your spells." She reached out and attempted physical contact, laying her hand over her shoulder.

The red-haired girl stretched her arms out and touched one of the tips of one of the white fences.

"Nikola?"

"Yes?"

"This is mine," she giggled as she ran a finger over the jagged fence-edge.

"It is."

"This is mine," chortled the girl as she stepped on a particularly beautiful rock in the path.

"That is correct," Nikola confirmed, tucking a strand of her own hair back, neatening it now that the danger had subsided.

"I have never owned anything before now," she blurted, grabbing one of the daisies from the ground and sniffing it, "everything belonged to the Violet Queen. Not even my blanket was mine. They switched it out with a new one each month." Her sort-of-smile faltered.

"This is yours," Nikola stated softly as she gestured to the Sweetstay house adorned with the most red flowers, "but this is only the beginning of our reign. We will be the new Queens of anywhere you wish to conquer."

"Can you show me the insides of more of the houses and tell me what everything does?" Ven cocked her head, her face returning to its usual placid state bit with a hint of curiosity.

A ting went off inside of her mind, and then another one.

Ting, ting, ting.

She pulled up her Red Box after making a 'just a minute' gesture in the Mage's direction.

[You have defeated the Village Leader of Sweetstay. Would you like to take over as its new Leader?]

There were also messages from Violet and Luke waiting, but what intrigued Nikola most was that her Dungeons and Challenge Rooms button was flashing.

When she clicked on it, a map unfurled on her screen and a scarlet arrow was pointing to a spot just outside this quaint little village they had just taken as their own.

They were right in front of the next Dungeon or Challenge Room. She could see a pillar forming in the sky, shooting downward-- but Violet and Luke were a day's travel away.