This is insane. What am I doing?

Discordant thoughts echoed through Faye’s mind as she prepared herself for the mad dash that they were about to launch into.

Her breath was loud in her ears as she stared at the protective [Ice Wall] that Gavan had erected before her.

“I’m ready,” the mage said.

Faye nodded without looking around to check what Gavan looked like. He had already said that he was not particularly happy with this plan. She could hardly blame him for thinking that. From the blurred shapes and colour, they could see through the distorting protective walls, the fight was in full swing.

“Remember, leave them unless they target us, then we blast through them.”

He acquiesced, then she said, “Now!”

Instead of the [Ice Wall] dissolving into its constituent motes of mana, as she had expected, Gavan instead used a different spell to blast open the wall at ground level. The blast caused an explosion of shards of razor-sharp ice to erupt outward in a swath of destruction.

For twenty paces all around the opening, there were jagged pieces of ice embedded in the soft soil. There was even one of the changelings, face down, with a back that resembled pulverised meat.

Faye surged through the opening Gavan had created, and the moment she was in the open she drew her blade and kept it down by her leg as she ran forward.

Trusting that her friend would keep close, Faye made a beeline straight ahead. No one stood in front of them, so far, but she saw someone off to her right turn to her.

She was not sure who they were or what they wanted, but she was not going to let them attack without retaliation.

Igniting the flames on her sword, then letting loose a casual swing of her blade allowed her to activate [Blades of Flame], the arc of fire launching away toward the person who had turned.

They scrambled away from the incoming fire and abandoned whatever they were aiming to do. Faye led Gavan onward, letting the flames on her weapon snuff out. She was not being the aggressor, and she hoped that by leaving her blade regular steel there would be reprisal…

Damn it, she swore internally. Spoke too soon.

Another pair of people had emerged out of a depression in the land. They wielded spears and round shields, the shields themselves painted with interesting designs. Faye had no time to appreciate the artistry, however, because the man on their left hefted his spear and threw it. Faye realised with a start they were not holding spears, but instead sported javelins.

The sun shone off the metallic head of the javelin as it arced through the air must faster than she had expected. Veering off the line they had been following, turning to their right, Faye lifted her left hand and threw out a series of [Fire Dart]s that, strong arm though her opponent had, were much faster than even the javelin.

She did not pause to see whether she hit her mark, instead scouting the area before them.

They had made it a good distance away from the [Ice Wall] protective shelter. On the other side of the walls, she could still hear the occasional arrow striking the ice. She grinned. The more they were distracted by that, the better.

Of course, that still left an entire half of the enemy party to deal with at once.

The changelings were not standing idle. She saw more than one of the attackers fighting hand-to-hand with the beings.

Suddenly, an [Ice Wall] appeared from thin air to her right, and a high-velocity arrow slammed into it, causing a small explosion of force energy to rapidly expand in a wave. The wall stopped the majority of it, but Gavan had been unable to negate everything. Instead, they were thrown sideways.

Another javelin streaked through the air where they had been standing a moment later. Faye blew out her cheeks and rolled over to point her hand toward the spear-throwers. As she let out a small barrage of [Fire Dart], Gavan sprayed the pair with [Ice Shard]s that spread out in a narrow cone.

Congratulations! Your group has defeated two [Skirmisher]s.

Experience shared.

“Keep moving!” Gavan called out. More arrows were hitting the [Ice Wall], and chunks of ice were flying off it with each hit. It seemed the attackers were focusing their arrows on them.

Faye saw a small trench-like depression that seemed to flow away from the site of battle, so she crawled to her feet and darted toward it. Barely pausing to see what she would land on; she threw herself down the short few feet fall and splashed herself with the watery mud that lined the floor of the trench.

A moment later, Gavan tumbled into the space, landing on his side rather than his feet.

Faye was about to laugh at him, but then she saw the arrow emerging from his arm.

“Shit!” she exclaimed, ducking down to ensure the enemy could not see her.

Gavan was grimacing but was awake and alert. “It hurts but won’t stop me moving. Let’s keep going.”

“We should deal with this…”

“Not yet,” Gavan gasped out, “it hurts but I’ll just bleed more when we take it out. I don’t know if I want you to use your new spell on me just yet. Save your mana.”

Reluctantly, she agreed with him. The most effective spell she had, but its mana cost was prohibitive, to say the least.

Instead, she went to Gavan’s other side and took hold of him. “This will hurt but ignore it and get to your feet. We have to keep going or they’ll come get us.”

“Exactly!” came a voice from above them.

Though the trench was not deep, it was deep enough that Faye had to stand on tip toes to see out of it. Standing just above her eye-line, then, was one of the attackers. He pointed a spear at them both.

“Now, come with—”

Gavan jabbed a finger at the newcomer, and a [Fire Dart] sprang up and hit the man in the face. Faye followed that up with one of her own. This hit the man in the groin. The two [Fire Dart] spells together provided enough force to fold the man in half and dump him on the ground. He moaned, and without a notification they knew they had not taken care of this thug, but there was no time to stick around.

Crouching low and following the ditch, they made their way away from the fight. They kept an eye on their rear, making sure that none of the other fighters were coming their way. It seemed that they had successfully disengaged and discouraged the others from following.

Except, fifteen minutes later, it was clear they had been followed.

Almost soundlessly appearing above Faye, the shadow falling across her was the first she knew that someone had come out all this way with them being unaware.

Faye looked up in alarm but was greeted not by the sight of a weapon, but the long face of one of the horses the changelings had been trying to drive.

“Hey there, big fella.”

A snort. She turned to see the other horse behind her.

“Oh! Hello! It’s good to see you both.”

“Did they follow them?” Gavan asked, looking around the ditch as well as he could without being seen.

The horses seemed calm, so Faye did not think any of the attackers, nor the changelings, had followed but it was a good idea to check. Climbing her way out of the ditch was harder than jumping in. The walls of the ditch were further back than they seemed. Grasses shielded the line of actual soil and when Faye put her foot there to climb up, she simply created a long divot in the soft, loamy ground.

“Damn,” she muttered. She reached up to grab some of the grass nearer the top of the lip of the ditch, and that gave her a tenuous method to emerge. She was almost out when she felt herself slipping back. But, with a snort, one of the horses lowered its head and seemed to pull Faye onto solid ground.

The horse snorted.

“Thank you,” she replied, absently. She was already glaring around at the area to see if anyone had followed. She could not see anyone.

She helped Gavan escape the muddy ditch. They were both covered, but it was better than being dead. Faye was concerned about the arrow that still jutted from Gavan’s arm.

“Let’s get you healed up. We need to be in top condition if there’s a chance, we’ll be attacked by anyone we come across for not being in the same guild.”

“I don’t know if it is quite that bad…” Gavan replied.

“We were attacked without warning by a random group. No talking, no identification. That’s a big problem.”

“Yeah, guess you’re right…” Gavan said with a grimace. “Think you’re right about the arrow—”

“Of course I am!” she exclaimed. “Let’s see how far we can get before we have to stop, though.”

Gavan looked a little green at the prospect but nodded and moved to walk in the direction Faye had indicated. But, as he moved, she saw a shape behind him.

“Drop!” she shouted, whipping her sword from its sheath. Then, a flare of power through [Mana Sense] told her that something was coming from the right. Instead of waiting for Gavan to respond, she jumped forward, colliding with the fragile mage and pushing him down. He screamed in pain.

Someone else emerged from some kind of veil ability, because suddenly they were standing beside the pair. Before they could do anything, though, two hooves the size of dinner plates collided with the side of their head. They flew sideways, their face crumpled.

“Oh my God,” Faye cursed.

Others were coming out of the woodwork, too. But something about the way they were dressed told Faye that they were not quite the same group as the ones that had attacked before.

One of the people stepped forward and shot a glare at the horse that had killed the man.

“Your god cannot help you here,” the woman said. She had short, black hair that would not have looked out of place on a soldier. Her voice was deep, pleasingly so, but she sounded mean. “I’m going to hurt you for that.”

Faye looked at where the woman pointed. The man’s body had dropped with somewhat stiff limbs, and his face was unrecognisable. She looked back with a blank expression.

“Why punish me for what a horse did?”

The woman did not respond, but she ran forward with two long daggers in her hands.

Faye scrambled backward, trying to rise to her feet properly. She had still been crouching over Gavan’s trembling form.

As the woman came for her, Gavan let out a pained shout and loosed another cone of razor sharp [Ice Shard]s that ripped the charging woman apart everywhere she had no armour on. Faye tried not to flinch, and instead she pointed and slammed a [Scorching Lance] into the woman’s chest. The heat of the beam tore through her armour, which seemed to be some kind of lightweight leather, and the woman dropped to the ground.

Congratulations! Your group has defeated a level 17 [Black Rose Rogue].

Experience shared.

Faye’s sharp intake of breath was echoed by Gavan, but he also moaned in pain.

“Kill them!” shouted one of the other Black Rose operatives.

Faye ignited her blade and swung it in wide, flashy arcs that in a swordfight were useless. But, when you were able to launch burning arcs of flames at your enemies based on your sword’s trajectory, became a rather effective method to keep them guessing where the next one would come from.

Faye threw out a few [Blades of Flame] as the Black Rose operatives charged for them, desperation tinging her thoughts.

Out of the frying pan…