Aiden moved through the trees, sidestepping the focused rays of light that slipped through the canopy above. He moved cautiously, feet carrying him in a rhythm as the Order had taught him. He kept himself crouched low, his center of gravity adjusted.

His head bobbed to the side. An arrow missed him by an inch. He tilted slightly to the side, bending at the waist in a boxer's weave. Another arrow missed its mark.

In a normal setting, dealing with a crowd of enemies like this required some level of stealth for best efficiency. In the silence, you would steal into them, dispatching them one by one. A slit throat here, a slit tendon there. A broken neck here, gouged eyes there.

They would never know what hit them.

He ducked at the last second, his heightened perception picking up on the arrow before it slipped through the air where his eye had been.

[Precision shot]? He wondered. More than three times now, arrows had come flying straight for his eye, and he still wasn't seeing his attackers.

Maybe I'm not making enough noise, he thought.

So, he darted forward, stomping deeper into the forest like a gorilla attempting at grace. His footsteps were loud in his ear. He ducked another arrow. Tucked himself into a roll and came up in front of a tree.

His opponents weren't using any skills. It gave levity to the possibility that they were all steel-boned. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

On one side, he wasn't sure how he would fare. The steel-boned he had killed in the town would probably be easy pickings for him now, but he knew enough about the tribe to know that there were levels to the steel-boned.

Aiden caught sight of the first assailant not long after. He was a short man in a white gambeson. He had flowing pants that billowed in the forest air and scraped against the fallen leaves.

Surprisingly, Aiden saw him before he saw Aiden. The man's skin was on the lighter side of brown. He held his bow with a nocked arrow pointing downwards, waiting as he moved. Aiden's steps carried him forward. He continued to be loud about it, moving from side to side in large strides.

The man's head perked up suddenly. Aiden knew the reaction. It wasn't a reaction to sound, not really. The man had been waiting, not listening.

His senses lit up and he ducked into another roll. It was a casual thing. He almost heard the arrow cut through the air as he came up. The air filled his lungs and played with his hair. His hand snapped out, catching an arrow that would've taken him in the shoulder.

The man he had been seeing had been the one to release the shot. Their eyes met. The man's mouth moved, wide and big.

"He's here!" he called out. "HE'S OVER HERE!"

Good.

Aiden rushed him.

He held his sword in a reverse grip in one hand as he slipped through the space between them.

Come on. Use a skill. Show me you're not steel-boned.

The man knocked another arrow with great speed. His hand simply blurred and there was an arrow in place. Aiden continued to approach him. He kept his eyes on the man but his ears on everything else.

The arrowhead tinged blue, then turned blue, then it grew bright.

A skill, Aiden noted with relief. [Power shot] or [Piercing shot]?

It scarcely mattered. He knew what he wanted to know.

[Dash] carried him forward. He let the ground trip him halfway through the skill and tumbled straight into the man. Somewhere behind him, the sound of a tree shattering filled the air as he knocked into the man's leg.

Aiden felt the weight of the man but not the pain of crashing into another person. The man went to the ground almost immediately. His bow fell from his grip—a rookie move.

Aiden scrambled for it with his free hand.

The man got to it first.

Aiden reached him almost immediately. He cut upwards with his sword. The man blocked the blow with the edge of his bow. He was trained in the use of the bow in melee attacks.

Has to be an [Archer] class.

Spinning, he struck from the side, his blade cutting a path through the air. The man ducked the blow instead of blocking it. Aiden followed through with a cut to the shoulder. This time the man leapt back.

Aiden imitated him, leaping back as well. A spear shot through the space between them and traveled on like a fired bullet.

A slight frown crossed Aiden's lips. He heard more footsteps coming. His eyes darted between the man in front of him and an exit.

He feinted left, then darted right. The exit was in the other direction.

"No, you don't!" the man snarled, speaking one of the many tongues of Mba-Chukwu.

Aiden was glad to find that he understood the language. His knowledge of languages had carried over to this life. His skill [Tongue of the Visitor] didn't have to relearn them.

The man released another arrow and Aiden's sword blurred a little too fast to cut it in two before it reached him. The man hesitated for only a fraction of a second. If he was adept at combat, he would know that the level of skill Aiden had just displayed in stopping the arrow did not tally with what he had displayed when they'd clashed.

More footsteps, Aiden thought.

Ted had said that his familiar had spotted around twenty men. He heard at least a dozen pairs closing in on him. He hoped his counting wasn't wrong.

He charged the man once more.

I need to pull in more people.

Bow raised in a defensive stance, the man met him head-on. Aiden pulled up short in front of the man, caught sight of another opponent just over his shoulder, and darted left.

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He fell into a jog, zigging and zagging, body kept low. He slipped between trees as he moved. A slight panic ran up his spine. He was turning his back on an archer—a stupid thing to do. But he trusted the trees between him and the archer. Coupled with the fact that he had been stopping the man's arrows easily, he knew one simple truth.

There would be no steel-boned in the group. There would also be no one powerful in the group.

Just as he had expected, these men were here to catch runaways not out chasing him and the others. These were men set aside to catch people too weak or scared to fight to the death for their town.

They are weak.

More pairs of footsteps slipped through his ears, heightened perception picking them out. Aiden counted more legs. Now at least fifteen people were hot on his tail, arrows snapping into the shield of trees behind him in loud thwacks.

Just a little farther, Aiden thought, leading them away from the direction of the others. Just a little more.

He slowed his steps but kept a steady jog. He turned, moved with his back to his destination. He could pick out ten people now. They rushed forward. Nine with bows and one with a large spear.

Aiden's eyes darted out to the sides as his ears picked out more footsteps.

Three, he counted on his left. On his right? Five.

They were flanking him. Aiden turned, concealing a smile, then ran faster. Anyone remaining that didn't follow him was a number that would easily be taken care of between Ted's familiars and Valdan's violence.

He ducked, another arrow wheezing past him. Then he came to a stop. Jogging slowed to a quick walk which slowed to a stop.

The men did not arraign themselves in front of him like characters in a bad movie. They flanked him carefully. No one spoke. No orders were given or thrown around. Aiden wasn't surprised. They did not expect him to speak their language.

Still, everything was clear.

Violence, after all, was a universal language.

Careful not to kill anyone, Aiden.

…

"How much farther?" Feira's voice cracked through the air. Anyone listening could hear the panting in her voice, the fatigue.

Valdan kept his head up. "Ted?"

"Left," Ted answered easily, hand extended, finger pointing.

"Trees?"

"Ten."

Valdan veered off from the group. He didn't go far, only three trees away. He watched and heard the group move farther, unrelenting or unwilling to stop.

Trust Aiden to get me into a war I have no business with, he thought. Surprisingly, he found himself smiling. He couldn't remember the last time he had complained about the stressful situations Aiden had gotten him into.

It had boosted his level after all. Even now, in one night, he had gained six levels. Not many people could boast that.

Well, you've been killing people, though. So there's that.

Valdan slipped the thought to the side. He drew his sword from its scabbard and swung it in a horizontal arc with all the force he could muster.

[You have used Class skill Aura Strike]

Come on, he thought with a frown as the yellow arc cut through the air. It was only a matter of time before it ran into a tree. Ted had said ten trees away. Had he been—

A woman slipped out from behind a tree, charging forward in quick chase. The arc slammed into her side, tossing her through the air.

She hit the ground in a tumble, rolled a few extra feet before coming to a stop. Valdan did not get a notification of a kill.

[You have dealt Obinka a Fatal blow!]

The woman, Obinka, tried to rise to her feet. She struggled a little before falling back down. She wasn't dead, just too weak.

Finish her? Valdan contemplated. He shook his head a moment after. He did not have the time.

Sheathing his sword, he turned and ran after the others. He wondered if Aiden would call him weak for leaving the woman alive. He could easily argue that going through the process of finishing her off was a waste of time.

It didn't take long for him to catch up with the others.

"Any other, Lord Lacheart?" he asked Ted.

Ted shook his head.

"Another one caught up to us," Zen said helpfully.

"Then a big monkey caved his head in with one blow." Feira shivered.

Ted gave her a look. "Big monkey?"

Not too far away they could spot the stream. If they followed the flow, they would come up on the river.

"It looked like a big monkey, but without a tail," Feira replied to Ted, undaunted.

"Lord Lacheart," Valdan said quickly, interrupting them. "Gorillas are not common in this area from what I know."

"And not everyone is quite educated," Fjord added.

Feira's lips twisted in a frown. "I'm educated."

They came up on the stream, pulling to a stop as Zen said. "Not educated educated. Not Lord educated."

Feira's frown deepened, but she didn't argue. Commoners got the basic and necessary education required to cater to their daily lives and be useful to the community. In Valdan's experience, only nobles slaved over books learning things like calculations and maps and languages.

Such things were a waste of time for a commoner. Of what use was the map of Nel Quan to a citizen of Bandiv who lived in a small town and was most likely going to grow old and die there? Why did such a person need to know how to speak the language of those who lived in the south or in another kingdom?

"How did your brother know about the stream?" Feira asked, changing the conversation.

Ted shrugged. "My brother is omniscient. All-knowing."

Feira paused.

Valdan walked up to her, looking across the stream. "Lord Lacheart has a map. We looked at it before entering your town."

Feira glared at Ted.

"What?" Ted protested. "He's omniscient, too."

"And strong," Zen added with a touch of interest in his voice. "Really strong."

Ted turned to Valdan. "Left or right?"

"Right takes us to the river," Zen said.

Feira nodded. "Your brother said he would meet us there, right?"

Ted nodded, turning. "Right it is."

Everyone followed him. In a moment, they were all running again. Zen and his sister were still breathing hard, fighting for air.

"Breathe through your mouth," Fjord advised them. "It makes it easier."

Zen was already breathing through his mouth. Feira was not. With Fjord's advice, she still did not.

"Why aren't you worried about your brother?" Feira asked, catching up to Ted in front.

Zen chuckled. The sound came out as a terrible thing. Between his lack of breath and breathing through his mouth, it wasn't surprising.

"Did you miss the part about him being strong?" he asked, tone light.

"Strong is not invincible," she choked out, breathing heavily.

Ted didn't look the least bit bothered. "He's fine."

"Lord Lacheart is right," Fjord supported. "We should be more worried about the people he went to meet."

"That," Ted agreed, "and I have a familiar on him right now."

Valdan was impressed by that. The distance between Ted and the familiar would be extremely large. Not many with the [Summoner] class had such connection range at his level.

…

Aiden slipped under a swinging spear. He came up on the side of the man quickly, fast enough that the air whistled in his ear. He caught the man's outstretched arm and slammed his fist into the exterior of his elbow.

The man screamed in pain as his elbow bent the wrong way. His spear dropped from his hand and Aiden slammed a fist into his ear. The man emulated his spear and dropped to the floor.

He turned his attention back to the others. The ground was scattered with bodies of groaning warriors, fallen bows and spears. Nobody was dead, only unconscious or groaning in pain. Aiden hoped to keep it that way.

Five men remained, now. They positioned themselves to surround him.

They were hesitant. Through their entire tussle, he had either broken, caught, or evaded their arrows. Only one person's skill had struck true, and his coat had borne the brunt of it.

They were justifiably worried.

"Turn and run," Aiden said. Two of the five men stiffened in surprise at his use of their language.

Aiden sent an orb flying from his pocket at one of the shocked men. His interface lit up before the man could regain his composure, and Aiden followed after the orb.

[You have used Orb of Lesser Binding]

The orb shattered and tendrils of mana snapped up from the ground. They reached out, five becoming eight. The man only had the time to react to the tendrils, shoving at them before Aiden's flying knee cracked his skull.

He fell with a thud and the tendrils tied him to the ground.

Aiden turned to the others. "Then there were four."

The air whistled from miles away. His attention snapped suddenly. Aiden stopped, dropped, and rolled. Quick as he could.

Something whistled loudly through the air. In truth, to call it whistling was an understatement. It crashed through the air. Then there was an explosive boom. It was followed by the splintering sound of wood breaking.

Aiden turned in the direction of the sound and found two trees with a chunk of their stems destroyed. The first one had lost so much that it was already teetering on what was left of it, falling.

The second tree did its best to keep standing straight, but it would eventually fall.

The third tree in the distance had an arrow embedded in it. Aiden swallowed nervously. The arrow shaft was as large in width as his head.

A small voice rumbled as an amazon of a woman stepped out into the open, not very far from them.

"Then," she said with a cocky smile, "there were five."

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