The gnoll's blow was hard enough to shake Allana's arms, her spread legs and straight back the only thing that let her catch the descending blade with her crossed daggers. Anything less than a perfect block would've let the gnoll's heavy curved blade crash past her weapons and into her skull.

She disengaged with a tight flourish, throwing one arm to the side and letting the gnoll's own weapon slide away from her body, while her other dagger flicked out, a few quick jabs of the knife enough to keep the gnoll from trying to follow her too closely.

When they had first started plunging into the Arboreal Wastes, Adel and Ken had warned the four younger adventurers that the gnolls they would face within the Wastes were different from those that so often plagued the rest of the heartlands.

The gnolls that the four had fought previously were known as raiders. Poorly equipped, undisciplined, and ill-trained, gnoll raiders were little more than distractions and fodder compared to true soldiers, like the gnoll regulars the group was even now fighting.

Merrik called regulars like these "heavy infantry," though Allana just thought of them as heavies. They were stronger, taller, faster than gnoll raiders, and instead of the mottled leather armor and crude witchglass weapons common to the weaker gnolls, the heavies wore breastplates and carried weapons of heavy, dark iron, both studded with witchglass, which acted as spikes on the armor and serrations on the back of their weapons.

The regulars still lacked any true magical abilities, but they compensated for that with skill and teamwork exceeding even that of the raiders. Allana herself was dancing between four heavies–two carrying brutal curved swords, two-handed weapons with the sheer weight of a maul behind them, and two wielding long polearms that ended in both a heavy bladed end and a curved spike of witchglass–halberds, Olivia had called them.

She had only managed to kill one of the four so far, a knife in the neck ending one of the halberd wielders in the opening moments of the fight, before they had figured out how to counter Allana's Trick Step. Now, the heavy with the remaining halberd hung back, ready to threaten the rogue if she tried to go after either of the swordgnolls from behind. Only the occasional Pattern had kept the trio of gnolls from ganging up on her, but now, slowly, inevitably, the fight was starting to turn, the poison Allana had inflicted with her earliest attacks taking its toll on the trio of heavies, sapping their stamina and slowing them down.

Across the glade, Olivia fought three heavies of her own. One carried a round, spiked shield the size of a wagon wheel alongside a morningstar, both made of the same dark iron and witchglass as the other heavies' weapons. That one stayed in the knight's face, keeping her from focusing any attacks on the pair of gnolls in the back, each of whom were armed with thick, heavy longbows. Fortunately, a Poison Cloud early on had nearly blinded the two, forcing them to focus only on the closer of their foes, and reducing their accuracy even when aiming at Olivia.

There was no sign of Cadence and Tenebres, though Allana knew they were hypothetically nearby. While Olivia and Allana occupied these gnolls, the other two members of their cadre were in another phase of this same glade, fighting a Chained bramblespawn.

The sword heavies came back in, the halberdier close behind them, and Allana blew out a breath. It was about time to end this.

The frontmost heavies swung their swords in unison, a pair of horizontal cuts coming from each end with the intent to slice Allana into three even pieces–but they missed, slicing through empty air.

The halberd heavy took a pair of quick steps back, ready to impale Allana as soon as she reappeared from her Trick Step–but it was looking in the wrong place. Allana hadn't tried to teleport behind the coming attacks. Instead, she had jumped straight up, her enruned boots combining with a pair of air-imbued anklets she wore on each foot to send her nearly ten feet into the air.

When Allana had first gotten her new armor, she had been awkward and clumsy in it, not used to the feeling of moving about with her weight reduced, unsure of how to compensate for the odd energy of the enruned boots–but that had been nearly two months ago. Spring had warmed to summer, and Allana had long since adjusted to her new gear.

The rogue came down in a rush, landing on the broad flats of the two swords, sending them crashing into each other and the ground. One gnoll released its blade in time, but the other tried to hang on, getting pulled off balance in the process–just long enough for Allana's dagger to sink in through its eye and into its brain.

She left that dagger buried where it was as she spun around, one hand flicking down to her pocket and grabbing a small chunk of glass. Imbued with air and enruned by Olan, the glass had sat in the bright noon sun for three days, soaking in that light until it glowed like a torch. Allana spun it in a light toss at the halberd heavy, who predictably batted it out of the air–and shattered it.

Allana had closed her eyes even as she tossed the chunk of glass, but the light was so intense that it burned through her eyelids. Still–she was in better shape than the gnolls. With the halberdier blinded and the sword heavy disarmed, it was child's play for Allana to put the closer of the two out of commission–and that left only the dazed, polearm wielding heavy to fight Allana.

Halberds were wonderfully flexible and dangerous weapons, Allana had found, but not so great in a close-ranged fight.

"Well," Allana said. "That wasn't too bad." It had gone better than some of her early fights in the Wastes, at the very least, back when she'd expected all gnolls to be similar in threat to the raiders she had fought before.

She looked back to Olivia's fight. The heavy with the shield was down, a third of its shield, one of its arms, and half of its skull all cut through with the clean lines of a Critical Strike. That left only the two archers, who had switched to shortaxes in a desperate attempt to hold off Olivia's shining sword.

Even as Allana watched, an axe crashed down on what should've been Olivia's bare left arm–only to instead clang against an ornate silver shield, the astral silver manifestation of her Argent Order insignia, a conjured weapon worth more than a full manor.

Well. Clearly Olivia had that fight under control. Olivia's gifts, offensively focused as they were, had grown far faster than any of the rest of the group during their time in the Arboreal Wastes, and even as Allana inched towards Adept, Olivia was all but charging towards Initiate level.

Allana decided to leave the remainder of the fight to the knight-errant. Instead, the wraith turned back to the downed enemies, ready to harvest some enhancement magic from their witchglass armaments before they had to go and help…

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Wait.

Why were there only two bodies?

Allana had barely finished asking herself that question before one of the brutal curved swords slammed directly into her side with enough force to cut her cleanly in two.

There was an instant series of sharp little cracks, all so close together that they sounded like a single noise, like a windchime being smashed against a wall. Charms Allana had spent months crafting, imbued with life and metal and earth and enhancement magic, spread all over her body, were all triggered at once by that single attack, reinforcing her armor, undershirt, flesh, and bones simultaneously.

They were, barely, enough to keep her alive, though the raw force of the sudden attack sent her flying, her body going limp and boneless, right until she crashed into a tree and everything went black.

#

Allana came to moments later, her resilience boon combining with the lingering life magic of her now-expended charms to get her brain and body at least functional–if not much more than that.

She blinked blearily, and managed to focus her eyes. Somehow, Olivia had managed to dispatch both of the remaining archers she had been fighting, and now faced the last heavy by herself, runeblade and astral shield all but shining as she met attack after attack neatly, matching the gnoll's raw power with her own.

"Son of a bitch," Allana muttered to herself. The heavy Olivia was fighting was the one with the dagger in one eye. Apparently, it had survived what she had thought to be a lethal attack and gotten back up while Allana had been distracted finishing off its friends.

If not for the abundance of charms she had made in an effort to grow her gift of the tinker, if not for Oli being able to jump in, if not for the stamina poison she had dosed the gnoll with early on, she'd probably be dead.

"I've gotta get on the ball."

She watched Olivia release a sudden Gust Blast, a burst of wind expanding out from her body in a tight circle. The gnoll had the sheer muscle to ignore the elemental attack–but it also only had one eye. When the wind blew dust into that eye, it had no chance.

Olivia pivoted to one side and her runeblade flicked out in a smooth thrust that went through the heavy's neck, finally ending it.

In the aftermath, Oli was left panting over the bloody corpse, the knight-errant pushed to her limits by the fight. Allana just stayed leaning against the tree, already not savoring the idea of needing to get back to her feet.

And gentle, smug applause filled the glade.

"You're kidding me," Allana heard Olivia say under her breath.

And then Allid emerged from the same trail they had entered the glade from, his cadre behind him. He kept clapping, even as he looked over the carnage the two adventurers, knight and rogue, had made of the gnoll heavy infantry.

"That was impressive, Dennan!" Allid observed. "That bit there at the end? Vicious one-on-one, you tired, your opponent wounded, your friend's life in the balance? That was brilliant. Couldn't ask for a better show."

"It's Argent," Olivia reminded Allid through clenched teeth.

"And I didn't see you trying to leap in to help," Allana told the arrogant noble with a scowl.

Allid arched an eyebrow at the wounded rogue, and she felt her lip lift into a snarl. "Now you," he said, rather than responding to Allana's accusation, "were less impressive. Didn't even think to check on your kill, did you?" The noble shook his head, making disparaging tut-tut sounds. "That's just… arrogant."

"What do you want, Allid?" Olivia asked. She flicked a hand, and her silver shield vanished. "If you haven't noticed, we're a little busy right now."

"No," Allid pointed out, "you were busy. And I, out of kindness and good etiquette, chose not to interrupt you while you were otherwise occupied. Now, however, I don't see that you have much to do."

"Besides maybe spending some time resting," the redheaded girl to Allid's left said, frowning with false worry. "Those big bad gnolls left you all beat up."

That was enough. Finally, Allana staggered to her feet, hating just how difficult that was, how deeply she winced from the motion. "I'll show you beat up," Allana snarled at the girl.

"You already are," she said frankly, laughter bubbling in her tone.

"Allid," Olivia said, her voice tight. "Shut your mouth. You just admitted to me that you willingly watched two fellow sentinels nearly die without intervening. That's a criminal offense."

Allid tilted his head. "Hmmm… I don't remember it that way, Argent. I think you'll find that my companions and I only made it here after the fight ended."

"An excuse by the accused," Olivia responded sharply, "is not valid evidence when compared to the testimony of an Argent Knight."

"Oooh, I think you'll find both my excuse and your testimony only as valid as my father decides they are. It's too bad, really. Your precious mentor never gained much ground controlling the Court, did she? I suppose that's why you stopped bothering to attend the assemblies."

Olivia's hand dropped to her sword, and Allana took a sharp step forward, her anger enough to ignore the deep throb in her side that the motion provoked. "You little…"

Immediately, the blocky wall of a man to Allid's right rolled forward, placing his bulk between Allid and the two adventurers. He rolled his head, a sickening set of cracks echoing through the glade, and Allana found her fingers tensing, ready to pounce.

"Enough, Allid," a soft voice drawled tonelessly. "You've proven their point and won your points or whatever. Now let me heal them."

Alana arched an eyebrow at Olivia, who shrugged, apparently recognizing the quiet, monotone voice as little as she did.

Allid shot a look over his own shoulder. "Dillen," he started to protest.

"You know Alyssia put me in charge whenever she's scouting."

"In charge of our safety," Allid protested.

"Which is exactly why I'm intervening. Now be quiet. Slate, move."

The massive man blinked in obvious surprise–but after a moment, he did as the emotionless voice ordered, and stepped out of the way, letting the speaker emerge from the back of the group.

Dillen…honestly reminded Allana of Tenebres. He was short, with similarly soft features, large eyes, and his messy hair was bright white–though it was shot through with pitch black highlights.

His dark eyes should've been expressive, but instead they were half-hooded, as if the boy was half asleep. His skin was paper-white, pale as if he had never seen the sun–and at a glance, Allana couldn't decide for the life of her if he was a wraith or just a pasty little mage.

His gray robes, which all but concealed his body, made his general role clear enough, but he still clarified, in that same emotionless tone, "I'm Dillen. I'm the healer for this cadre. Please allow me to see to your wounds, as a fellow sentinel."

Olivia and Allana traded another look. The knight seemed as confused as Allana, neither sure if this was some sort of extra plot to embarrass them, but after a moment Allana simply just let herself fall to the ground.

"I hurt too much to argue," she announced. "Go for it, Spooky."

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