When we burst into the arena's waiting room, all hell had broken loose.

"So weak!" Kalnari screamed as she whirled a guard by his ankle, fighting off her enemies with her makeshift club.

When the guard tried to swing his sword at her, she heaved and swung him at the floor. The man yelped right before his head bounced off the ground, and he was still.

"They can't use the collars on all of us! Keep it up!" The Count was fighting off two guards and a handler with his bare hands. The handler's magic was snaking into his collar, but, outside of the strain evident on his face, it didn't seem to be affecting him too badly. In fact, within seconds, he'd snatched an axe from one of the guards and had the handler bleeding out on the ground at his feet.

Davik was in the corner, shield raised, defending the peasants, who were assisting him with spear thrusts. "Hey, Alex!" He thrust a sword through a guard's gut. "Your fight was amazing!" Another guard charged him from the left, but both Marcus and Elena caught him with their spears before he could strike.

"Girls, party up!" I willed the system to do the thing.

"On it," Tristan said behind me.

Na-Tristan, Groveborn Human-Elf Acolyte of the Tower 16, joins your party.

Damn, she'd been training hard. I was proud of her. And she was an elf now, too? I wondered what that meant.

"I don't know how!" Vral said through a snarl as she cut open the nearest guard's jugular.

"What do you mean?" Tristan asked.

"I'm a goblin! We don't know anything about all this Goddess shit you losers use."

"Are you serious?" I knew she was talented, but she just straight-up didn't have levels? Or did people gain levels even if they couldn't visualize the system? I'd have to ask Arden later. "That's wild!"

"Don't judge me, dick!" She glared at me before parrying a spear thrust. "I don't need that bullshit to kick ass!"

I laughed. "I'm not judging you! I was just thinking how incredible you are." I stepped in front of Tristan before a guard could strike her head with his club. Raising my shield, I wondered if defending her would make my talent trigger.

[Rampart]

It did! A ghostly shield appeared in front of my real one, both wider and taller than the real thing. When the guard's club hit it, his weapon shattered.

"Thank you." Tristan said to me as she followed up the block with a mace to his face. "And you really are, Vral!" Tristan called out to the goblin as she fell in next to me.

A quick glance over revealed the stars in her eyes, and they weren't all for me. "Down girl!" I nudged her with my elbow, laughing.

"Never!" The quarter-elf giggled.

The goblin's ears turned red. "About time I get the praise I deserve!" Her daggers flashed, and the guard she was fighting's spear fell to the ground, followed by his hands. Another guard rushed forward and raised his axe above Vral's head.

Tristan whispered words of power under her breath.

[Barrier]

A ghostly shield appeared around Vral, and his axe broke in half.

The goblin's eyes smoldered as she turned to face him. "You think a cheap shot like that could end me, fucker?" He tried to backpedal, but she wasn't having it. She leaped. In a flash, her legs were wrapped around his neck, and her blades were sending blood flying in long, thick streaks.

Some shouting and the sounds of combat echoed from behind the northern door, the one that led to the training grounds. An instant later, the door flew open, and a dozen hooded people rushed in, weapons drawn. A dozen more were behind them, fighting off what looked like knights out in the training ring.

"More of 'em!" Khadrel shouted. The newcomers distracted the Count long enough that he took a club to the knee from one of the two remaining guards he'd been fighting. With a grunt, he fell to one leg.

"Let's move!" I darted toward the doorway, sword high and shield forward, ready to stop the flow of new enemies and fuck shit up.

[Bless]

White light appeared around my body and sank into my skin. I felt stronger.

Kalnari roared and swung her makeshift club, taking out three guards with a single swing, but before she could recover, five of them attacked her.

[Intercept]

I vanished, then reappeared directly in front of her. "Not today, assholes." With as much strength as I could put behind the short sword Maven gave me, I slashed horizontally. The blade glinted in the glowstone light, and I felt the blade connect.

The nearest guard's eyes opened wide, and she tried to speak, but instead of words, a thin line appeared on her neck, and her head fell off.

"It's the Sentinel!" The man next to her screamed. "Everyone, to m—" Before he could get the word out, the air behind him blurred, and Vral's daggers sank into his throat.

"Got you, boy toy!" She grinned and vanished again. Somebody across the room screamed, followed by another.

A guard to my left screamed, "The slasher's here t—" Tristan's heavy mace crushed his head.

Pressing herself to my side, she said, "I've got you too, love."

"You always do." I looked over and smiled at her. She was so beautiful when she was kicking ass. As I blocked the shittiest sword thrust I'd ever encountered, I wondered if it was fucked up to think my lover was beautiful when she was covered in blood and fighting for her life. With a laugh and a shrug, I parried the next thrust, drove the short sword into the guard's chest, and decided that, if it was wrong to feel that way, I didn't want to be right.

I tried to remove the short sword, but it was stuck. Letting go of the handle, I snatched up the guard's much longer sword before it clattered to the ground and turned back to Tristan in time to see a guard trying to thrust his spear into her gut.

[Intercept]

I vanished, then reappeared on her other side. Catching his wrist and halting his attack, I slammed my shield into his face and caved in his entire skull. His teeth rained to the floor before he fell to the floor, gurgling.

[Barrier]

A ghostly white barrier appeared around me immediately before a club hit the back of my head. The wooden weapon shattered, and its wielder yelped.

"Bad idea." Vral appeared behind the guard, her eyes promising death. A slash to the back of the guard's leg sent her to her knees. The next tore out her throat, and the third found her eye.

Just like that, she was dead.

"Keep it up!" The Count had gotten back to his feet and had found a hammer, but he'd taken more than a few hits when he fell and was badly bleeding.

[Intercept]

My vision swam as I vanished. An instant later, I appeared in front of the dwarf just in time to catch a heavy slash.

[Rampart]

My ethereal shield appeared again, but this time it was offset to my right. It caught a second attack I hadn't seen before it could land. I didn't know my talent could do that!

"Thanks, lad." Khadrel panted next to me. "I needed the help." He heaved with his hammer and took out two guards in a single sweep.

"Of course." I was getting tired, but I had to push through. At least [Grit] kept me from getting completely exhausted. Even after drinking those shitty stamina potions, I didn't know how Vral was functioning at this point.

I heard a noise coming from the southern doorway. That one swung open, and more people began pouring in. "More incoming!" I shouted.

"Wall up!" Khadrel shouted, and all of us Pit fighters began closing in around him in the center of the room.

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Looking at the newcomers, I saw that these people didn't look like the guards and handlers I'd gotten used to these past six months. They looked more like thugs and general riffraff. I wondered if that meant Elise really had caught the whole Crimson Kingdom gang in the Pit by using Vral and my match as bait. That certainly would make it easy to clean them all up in one go. I had to hand it to the noblewoman: she really was shrewd.

"A little help here!" Davik's voice called out from beside us. Looking over, I saw that he'd gotten cornered by several guards and was struggling to push past them and defend the peasants at the same time.

I shouted to Tristan and Vral, "Girls, help Davik!" Realizing Tristan might not know who he was, I added, "The knight!"

"Got it!" Tristan said beside me.

[Barrier]

"Already there!" Vral shouted from across the room. An instant later, she was beside him, daggers flashing.

Turning back to the flood of new enemies entering the room from the south, I closed ranks with Khadrel and wondered how the hell I was going to stop them?

"Push 'em back! Keep 'em from getting to the others!" Khadrel shouted as he pressed into the line of thugs. Judging from how little they hurt him with their strikes, it was clear these people weren't much, but they still had numbers. We couldn't let this go on.

Blocking a pitiful axe strike from the nearest guard, I scanned the room, looking for anything that could help, but what? Blocking another axe swing, then a club, I found what I was looking for: a heavy decorative spear hanging on the far wall. "Kalnari! Throw me that spear!"

"Anything for Sentinel!" The Orc leaped across the room, ripped the spear and its brackets from the wall, and threw it like a javelin. It struck the axeman in the chest and pinned him to the nearest wall.

Ripping the spear out of the dying man, I turned to Khadrel and grinned. "Lance charge?"

A grin split his face. "You're mad." Wrapping his massive hands around the spear, the two of us reared back and charged the line of people flooding into the southern doorway. With nowhere to go, the enemies couldn't get out of the way in time. One by one, we skewered a good six of them and managed to push the entire line back to the entrance of the waiting room.

"Looks fun! Kalnari wants to do this too!" The orc landed behind us. Roaring like a lion, I watched as her body began to grow. When she'd doubled in size, she ripped the spear out of our hands, shook the skewered thugs off like they were nothing, and charged. Singlehandedly, she pushed a dozen people into the room beyond, where the knights were just starting to advance.

"Don't fight the knights!" I shouted to her.

"RRRRUAAGGHH!" The massive, raging orc was dual-wielding thugs now.

"She'll be alright, lad. Help me with the other side."

Turning, I saw that Davik and Tristan were finishing off a small group of guards. Behind them, at the doorway, Vral was fighting off three more and, by the look of them, she was overwhelmingly winning. Past her, many of the other Pit guards who'd entered the waiting room were fleeing back through the northern entrance and into the training grounds beyond, where a group of knights was waiting, swords drawn.

That made me smile.

The bastards would rather take their chances with Elise's knights than fight the champions of the Pit, huh? Good. Let them be afraid. Bastards.

As I watched that melee break out, my blood froze. I saw a familiar face slinking through the shadows on the far side of the training hall. Moving from shadow to shadow and using some kind of chameleon spell to mask herself, she was slowly making her way to the cell blocks.

I'd been right.

She was trying to get out of Lady Varga's [Anchor] spell's range by sneaking into the cell block.

"Aerell..." Without [Hawk Eyes], I knew I'd have missed her, but, luckily, my helmet had survived that mage's spell... and now... My frozen blood boiled over. Now, I was going to end this.

"Count, take over!" I screamed and charged north. "Girls, let's move!"

"I need to heal Marcus!" Tristan shouted.

"Once I'm done carving up these chumps!" Vral added, her voice filled with bloodlust.

I wanted the girls with me, but I wasn't about to wait for them. I'd be fine alone. In fact, maybe it would be better if I were alone. Then, I wouldn't have to carry the weight of them seeing what I was about to do to Aerell.

A Pit guard who'd been dawdling turned just in time to catch my shield to his jaw. As he crumpled, I ran past him, through a clump of knights and Pit guards, and through the training ring.

"Alex!" I heard Elise's voice call out to my left.

Glancing toward her voice, I saw her standing in the same spot I'd first met her, but this time she was beside Amira, and a dozen more knights were behind her, swords drawn.

"We'll talk later!" Rushing past the large brawl in the training ring, I watched as Aerell's eyes locked on mine and grew wide.

She knew I was coming for her.

Whipping around, she ran hard and fast away from me, toward the double doors that led to the cells. Throwing them open, she disappeared into the narrow hallway.

In five strides, I was in the hallway; then, each cell whizzed by as I took stride after loping stride. Aerell was halfway up the cell block, but I was easily gaining on her.

"Aerell!" My voice cracked as it echoed off the stone walls. I hardly recognized myself in the sound.

She screamed and ran faster, but it wasn't enough.

She was five strides ahead.

Three strides.

One stride.

I reached out. Grabbed for her blonde hair.

Almost there...

My fingers passed through her hair like it was nothing. That's when I realized my mistake.

As her illusion dissolved, I heard Aerell's voice echo behind me. "You really are far too direct, you know. You need to learn some finesse."

I whipped around just in time to catch a dagger to the gut. I doubled over, and the floor rippled. An instant later, a stone column rose out of the floor and struck my jaw.

My sword clattered to the ground. My eyes filled with stars as I staggered backward, holding the dagger with my empty hand. She'd gotten me good.

The evil woman had her usual grin on her face as she flicked her wrist. Green energy flashed from her fingers and into the earth. Right after, the doors at the end of the cell block slammed shut, and the stone above them crumbled, sealing us in with a loud thud.

Pulling the dagger out, I felt blood begin to pour out of me. "Good try, but you're not leaving, Aerell." So what If I died? She was coming with me.

She cackled. "Who'll stop me?"

"Me."

She stuck her bottom lip out. "And after everything I did for you? All the good times we've shared? You won't take pity on little old me?"

"No. I won't." The stars in my eyes cleared. I threw her dagger to her feet, reached down, and picked my sword. Standing tall, I held my shield forward and sword high. "I'm here to put you down."

Aerell snickered. "And here I thought all my sob stories would have softened that big old heart of yours. Seems you're harder than I realized." She flicked her wrist, and two columns of stone speared out of the walls, aiming straight for my head.

Hopping backward, I easily dodged the spell, then took a high, light stance. "I feel for you, Aerell. I really do." Slamming my shield into the columns, they shattered and sprayed stone fragments across the ground between us. "I know you didn't wake up one day as a young girl and choose this life, and for that, I'm sorry. You deserved better." I needed to get her talking.

Her smile faded, replaced with that sad look I'd seen in her eyes only a few times before. "You're right. I did deserve better. I still do. And I'll have it. You just wait and see."

"You were a victim. No one deserves to go through what you did." If I could just get her distracted enough, I'd be able to attack without taking a spell to the face again...

A hint of that smile played on her lips. "So why not let me go? I'll just disappear. You'll never have to see me again."

"I can't do that." My face was starting to tingle. I was losing a lot of blood. I needed to end this, and soon.

Her eyes searched mine. "What if I promised to not hurt anyone else? What if I promised to live a better life? Find a new path?"

I shook my head. "You were a victim once, Aerell. But that's the distant past. You're accountable for your actions now. You're not a child."

"Can't people change?"

Laughing, I said, "Maybe? Sure. But I don't really care if they can. I'm not here to philosophize about the ethics of it all with you, and I'm not smart enough to understand the scales of justice and all that shit. All I know is that some people are too far gone, and you're one of them. I won't take the risk. Not on you."

"Some hero you are."

"I never called myself a hero." My hands were shaking now, and I felt cold. "All I know is that you chose this. Time and time again. You chose to hurt us. You enjoyed it, too. And at no point did you ever feel bad. You never felt remorse. Never felt guilt. None of it. No humanity, ever." I stepped closer. "That doesn't just go away, Aerell. You're broken, and I'm not about to set you loose. I'll never let you hurt anyone else." My heart pounded in my ears. "It's my job to protect people. The Goddess herself says so. She made me a Guardian. So that's what I'll do."

"Alex!" I heard Tristan's muffled voice from behind the large stones and the cell block's doors.

"Help us open these doors, you fucking idiots!" That was Vral screaming.

It didn't matter. I didn't need them. I could end this. It was my job.

Aerell's shitty little smile fell, replaced with a deep frown. "Why wasn't anyone ever there for me when my own father beat me half to death? Was I not worthy of compassion? Of justice? What's so wrong with me? Why don't I get protection, huh?!" Her eyes were burning.

Those words hit my heart. I hated her so much, but she wasn't wrong. She deserved more, once upon a time. Every single person in every world deserved to be protected when they were most vulnerable. And if I had the power, I'd do it. I'd find a way. "If I'd been in Reial, I'd have been there for you. I'd have saved you."

Tears welled in her eyes. "Well, you weren't, and you didn't."

"No, I wasn't, and I didn't. Sorry about that."

She blinked away the tears and sighed. "And I'm sorry about this. You really do have a big heart. I wanted more for you." She snapped her fingers, and the stone above me groaned. Another snap of her fingers sent a line of stone hurtling to the ceiling, walling me off from her. Only a small hole let me watch her as she pulled a scroll out. "This should be far enough." Grinning at me, she said, "Watch closely, now. I wouldn't want you to miss your failure before you die."

I watched as her scroll began to glow a bright blue and started to crumble. As it did, her eyes began glowing the same color.

With one last shitty smile, she said, "See you later, Alex." The air around her shimmered as shards of stone began raining on top of me.

"RRRUUAAGGHH!!!" A bestial roar echoed through the entire block as the stones at the end of the hallway exploded.

Aerell whipped around. "What the hell?!"

Out of the dust, Kalnari appeared, mouth frothing and eyes wild.

[Holy Light]

A beam of pure-white light shot past Kalnari, thrummed down the hallway, and struck Aerell in the chest, throwing her backward.

"I'll fucking kill you!" A screaming little green blur was rushing down the hallway, quickly closing the gap.

"You're too late!" Aerell screamed as her body began to fade away.

Reaching through the hole she'd made in the wall, I grabbed her collar and pulled her until her body was locked against the wall. Holding my shield above my head to brace the ceiling, I said, "I told you. You're not leaving."

She tried to pull free, but she couldn't. "Let go!"

"No." The shimmering that had surrounded her extended up my arm. As it did, I felt her magic struggle to take a second target.

"Alex, plea—" Her voice turned into a gurgle as metal flashed across her throat. Then, metal flashed again, and again. Five times. Ten times. Twenty. Thirty. In seconds, she turned from Aerell, the untouchable, horrible torturer who'd made my life misery for six straight months, to nothing more than a blood-soaked corpse.

"Bitch." Vral's voice was cold and hard as she wiped her daggers on Aerell's clothes.

When I was sure the woman was dead, I let go of her body and exhaled.

It was over.

You complete the quests [Deserving Something Better], [A Lover's Oath: To Stop at Nothing], [A Black Oath: The Sword's Shield], [Unleashing the Mean Green Beast], [You Can Count on It].

You reach level 36.

+5 Strength, +5 Resilience, +5 Agility, +5 Power, +5 Will

The second the Goddess's words entered my head, my ears rang, my skin went cold, my eyes went black, my legs buckled, and the ceiling fell on top of me.

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