Amelie’s and Liz’s bolts of magic turned to dust as the visible green ripples of Savannah’s wail reached them, and Ember’s powerful, thick jet of fire was reduced to flickering flames, much like those of a candle.

  For Ethan, it felt like he’d just been subjected to a wave of sapping energy.

  It was deeply unpleasant. It made his soul ache, but none of his forms faltered. When she saw that, Savannah flicked her wrist and a nearly-white crescent shot out of her wand right as Ethan swung his dagger. The magic slammed into his stomach with an audible crack as if she’d swung a giant bat through his midsection, but it wasn’t enough to get through his scales. Once more, the spell threw him back, but not nearly as much as last time. Even though it had been significantly stronger than earlier.

  Whatever that gem’s doing, it’s boosting her magic. Way more than my horns are empowering mine.

  Ethan landed on his feet a couple of yards away and winced at the pain radiating through his torso, but he wasn’t the only one who hit the mark. Savannah didn’t even look at it, but a thin stream of blood was now trailing down her collarbone and even though the wound looked superficial, it was enough for the magic mark to find purchase.

  She’s tough.

  Ethan had put some weight behind the stab, but the dagger had not gone as deep as he thought it would and maybe unconsciously he hadn’t tried that hard. But to be fair, it wasn’t as if a little stab would kill her. He hoped it’d give her pause and force her to reconsider, but clearly, she didn’t even seem to feel it.

  In any case, whatever happened next, she was marked by the Harvester’s Dagger.

  He swallowed and readied himself for the next onslaught. He hoped she wouldn’t cross the point of no return, but if he was honest, she was already stepping on it. Trying to kill Ember and openly attacking them like this was enough for him to fight back, but he could still picture the smiling woman in the bus. Ethan could understand if she were extremely distraught and lashed out, and it might be possible to pull her back from the edge and even if he felt he didn’t need to, he wanted to give her a chance. For her sake and his own.

  “I don’t know what your problem with Ember is, but she’s done nothing to you. Stop this and leave us be. Or we’ll be forced to defend ourselves.”

  She glared at him with bloodshot eyes. Tears dripped down from the corner of her eyes, but it was as if she wasn’t noticing them. Ethan hoped she would back down, but her expression only twisted further, and Ethan knew he couldn’t hold back anything anymore.

  Not if he didn’t want to regret it.

  Her green-hued dagger shot at his chest right as he flared out a blaze of fire from his frontal scales. The dagger still sank through the burning orange flames, but its tip barely cut through the scales. In exchange, Ethan blasted her with two streams of scorching fire. Even though she raised her shield on time, it wasn’t enough.

  Savannah screamed again, a sound full of pain and rage, and Ethan felt something drain out of his chest as his flames weakened. As if he was running out of mana. Which should not be the case.

  Before Ethan could figure what was happening, a crescent of green-tinged light came at him once more. It looked more real than the ones before. More substantial, as if the earlier ones had been made of loose smoke while this one looked almost liquid. He expected to hurt like hell so he braced and flared his protective flames around, and thought of his counter-attack.

  Then the green crescent made contact.

  If the earlier spell had been like a bat to the stomach, this one might have been a literal giant swinging a tree-sized club into him.

  Ethan went flying. Wind rushed around him, whistling in his ears, and he couldn’t tell which way was up for a few seconds as he was sent tumbling head over heels through the air for god knows how far. For a second, his forearms and stomach were numb before the pain made itself known. Still groaning from the impact, he hit the ground hard, sending clumps of dirt flying and then he proceeded to roll and skid as he tried, until his momentum was spent and he finally came to stop, back against the soil.

  He stared at the cave ceiling for a second, waiting for the disorientation to hit, but it never did. He was in pain, especially his forearms, which had dug deep into his stomach and sides when he was hit, but it was already fading into the background.

  Ethan had never been kicked by a horse before, but he imagined this was pretty close.

  He jumped to his feet and groaned as the world oscillated a couple of times, then he sprinted back to the group. The other had been fanned out around him, thankfully, or he would have probably hurt one of them, and as he eyed Savannah from across the battlefield, he could only notice how the gem in her chest had dimmed. It was slight, but he was sure of it.

  She’s storing her magic in that thing. Somehow.

  That was the only way her insane strength could be explained. She was only two levels up on him and maybe she’d completed a couple of extra hidden quests than he did, but that couldn’t explain the difference in magic.

  That last spell had been empowered by her reserves, and she will eventually run out. It also again confirmed how dangerous she was. She might not be able to keep this level of fighting prowess for long, but she could do some real damage with it.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Savannah turned her wrath on Ember once more, spittle flying, teeth gritted as she threw spell after dagger after spell, but the cat was extremely slippery. Ember kept hopping away, kicking off the air, dodging seamlessly and slowly pushing further and further away from the group, luring the dangerous assailant away. Any stray attack of Savannah could do some real damage. But his companions weren’t cowed and as he sprinted back toward the battle, Ethan was shocked at how savagely they fought back for the cat.

  Liz and Amelie peppered her with spells and bolts, with Audrey standing grimly in front of them, but Savannah held shield high and managed to block most of them. Those that slipped through barely did any damage, bouncing off the green-veined skin. One or two had seemingly found their mark, but they barely broke skin, and that was enough to get on Savannah’s nerves.

  As Ethan pumped his legs to get back to the fight, he knew he had to go all out. Savannah wasn’t backing down in the slightest and the longer this fight lasted, the higher the odds someone was going to get hurt.

  And where’s Gerald?

  Ethan’s questioning was cut off as Savannah shot her remotely-controlled dagger at the cat and within the same movement, she swished with her wand. She missed Ember, but a white-crescent shot at a furious but relentless Amelie. The healer saw the spell coming at her but she refused to relent, either too mad to back down or she fully believed in her sister. Audrey jumped forward and put herself in front of the spell, and the pale crescent hit the shining metal like a gong. Audrey was violently hurled back, slammed into Liz and both hit the ground hard.

  Liz screamed as Ethan’s legs ate through the distance separating him from the unhinged woman as fast as he could. An orange haze had started forming around him as he sprinted, but he couldn’t run in a straight line so it kept guttering out. The terrain was uneven and just as he found the right angle, a water monitor lunged at him but he clipped it with a knee, without even realizing it had tried to stop him and kept going.

  Savannah whipped her wand once more, this time at Amelie. The girl was running toward her downed comrades to check on Liz while Audrey struggled to get off the ground, but she still continued to shout and curse the unhinged woman.

  The crescent flew at the three girls, and Ethan’s heart dropped, only for Ember to jump in front of the attack and practically explode in blaze of fire. The wall of force hit the flames and was stopped, but it still sent Ember flying out like an uncoordinated smoking comet.

  Ethan grit his teeth. He was almost there. Only a couple more seconds but every one of them felt like minutes.

  The dagger flew after the cat, tracking her to hit her right as she hit the ground—and Gerald stepped out of thin air, right behind Savannah, and thrust his sword through her guts.

  The dagger faltered mid-flight and fell to the ground, as the woman took a shuddering step. Then her features tightened before she whipped around and elbowed the man hard enough to send him rolling.

  Gerald tumbled a few times and when his momentum stopped, he didn’t get up, but she couldn’t finish him off.

  The sword had stabbed right through her stomach and even as the blade dissolved into motes, the site pulsed with green light, and the jewel in her chest dimmed even more, as if it was barely lit by an inner candle instead of the bright shine from before and aside from a grimace of pain and a subdued trail of blood that seeped into her grimy t-shirt, she looked fine.

  But she won’t be in a second.

  Savannah turned to see Ethan take one final step and leap up at her, a corona of orange light surrounding his form. Ethan kicked the kite shield with both scaled feet and felt the metal deform under his feet. The shield–and her elbow–dug into her side. Something crunched and snapped as he body twisted around his legs and the next thing he knew, the thin woman hurtled away from him.

  Ethan fell on his back and instantly got up. With a hand, he tracked the rolling ball of metal and limbs, hesitated for a beat as he glanced around. He saw Liz still screaming and gritting her teeth. Her leg was bent the wrong way. Audrey was stumbling. Gerald was still passed out, and Ember’s was picking herself off the ground.

  His eyes firmed, and looking back at Savannah, he saw her getting back up. So he let the fireball fly and turned to the healer.

  “Amelie! If they’re good go check on Gerald,” Ethan shouted as he ran at the explosion. He readied the flames around his arms as he approached the dissipating dust and smoke.

  Savannah stumbled out. Panting. Soil and soot stuck to the trail left by her tears, and blood seeped out of her mouth. Somehow, she looked paler than usual. Gaunter, as well.

  Ethan wasn’t underestimating her, but he still gave her another chance though her once rage-filled eyes were telling him she wasn’t looking for any.

  She looked tired. Done. With everything.

  “Stop. Please.”

  She took a step toward him. Then another. Her clothes were smoking and smoldering, and, finally, the gem in her chest completely dimmed, and dissolved into motes.

  Ethan exhaled, and readied himself to dodge if one of those green crescents showed up again.

  Savannah’s legs failed her.

  The woman’s knees shook for a second and then she fell to the ground. Blood gushed out the stab wound, seeped through the burnt-holes of the polyester and cotton. Wordlessly, she tried to raise the shield stuck to her left hand, but it was too heavy, and only her shoulder moved. Her lids were growing heavy, and tears continued to stream down her face.

  She looked up to him, silent, then she looked back down and her bleeding stomach, as if it was someone else’s body. Savannah sighed, and her shoulders relaxed.

  The shield disappeared, and as she closed her eyes, she reached to her side and sunk her hand into a small leather pouch attached to her frayed belt. A second later, a pink backpack appeared in her hands.

  Ethan didn’t move, but he let the flames gutter out. It was over.

  Savannah hugged the bag to her chest with her unbroken arm. Her features relaxed, and she closed her eyes, then sighed.

  The calls and roars in the mushroom forest continued as always. They seemed a bit lesser, now that a good portion of the water monitor died in this improvised battlefield and only moments later, as the others approached the still standing Ethan and the kneeling woman, a message appeared in all their interfaces.

  You have defeated [Human (I) - Level 47]

  You have reached Level 46. 1 stat point awarded.

  Main Quest: Gain access to the second floor within 4 days, 15 hours, and 12 minutes.

  Click here to join

  If you want to support me and read ahead, there's 10 advanced chapters.