She didn’t move. We’d agreed that she would charge her, but Rachel didn’t move. Bere slowly, very slowly began to inch toward the figure in white armor. But she seemed to be a mile away.

  I still had the monocle in.

  ‘Knight Captain Wen, First of the Word,’ was what it said. Then it had six skull-and-crossbones after. Last time I saw the skulls, it was two. And he almost killed me and Bernie. Six was a lot.

  We’d be fine. She was damn near six feet of steel pted violence, but she couldn’t be that bad, right?

  “Hello, Rachel,” she said. Her obsidian bck eyes sweeping across the tavern cooly.

  Her eyes had a monolid, and her hair was swept back from her face with a boyish haircut. A streak of gray ran from the hairline over her right eye to tuck behind an ear. She retty.

  The gore didn’t seem to phase her.

  She wore head to toe pte armor that gleamed in gold and white. Her greatsword rested easy on a pauldron. She took a wide and sturdy stance, but I could see the twist iorso that meant that she was ready to explode into viole any moment.

  Captain Wen ughed.

  “And you’re all together,” she said. “How wonderful. You know, I don’t need all of you alive. I only need one for the trial.” Her eyes flicked over to Bere. “Maybe you first? Or the boy.”

  I didn’t like being called ‘boy.’ Nobody did.

  “I don’t know why I thought we could do this,” Rachel muttered. She turo me. “We o run.”

  I’d leveled up. Rachel was tough. Maybe we could take her.

  “Ocultarse!” I yelled, flourishing my hand at Bere.

  She disappeared instantly, like somebody had pushed the backspace key. I snatched up the magic crossbow, and fired. The bolt flew wide.

  Bernie appeared behind Wen, and lunged for the exposed portion of her neck, the part opposite the greatsword. Of course, that was exactly what Wen was expeg. Her hand reached up and grabbed Bernie’s sword arm.

  She spun, dragging Berhrough the air like she was a rucksack, and threw her into the wall 30 feet away. The wall cracked.

  And then Wen moved, fast, like way quicker than I’d ever seen someone move, and brought her sword down on me. I threw the crossbow up to shield my face.

  When I tell you that holding that crossbow up saved my life, it’s also with a little bit of bitterness, because she absolutely shattered it, and there went probably the best on we had. But then her sword kept going, shearing through the mail, then the gambison. I didn’t evehe cut at first. Just the hot spray of wet against my ned chest.

  I fell to my knees. She raised the swain.

  Suddenly, Rachel had her arms around Wen’s waist. Her hands locked into each other, and she pulled her into the air. I know it wasn’t in slow motion, but that moment of Rachel holding her up in the air seemed to st forever. Then Wen smashed her armored elbow into Rachel’s face, probably saving me from a killing stroke.

  Rachel suplexed her over her shoulder, and smashed Wen into the floor. Her armored body went straight through the floorboards, falling into the basement, sending debris flying.

  Bere slid across the floor, and grabbed Rachel by the ankle before she could topple into the hole after Wen.

  “Not today,” I muttered to myself.

  “Bere, I need you!” I shouted. Then I pulled Rachel standing, spping a cure lesser wounds on her shoulder. None of us could take another shot from Captain Wen, or else it would be over. I knew resurreagic was a thing in the Game, but I wasn’t high enough level yet.

  I’m also pretty sure that I only had one sed level spell slot left, and that was it. I wao save it for an invisibility.

  We didn’t o talk. We ran. I grabbed two crossbows on the way, and handed oo Bernie.

  Outside the taverwo guards. Bernie slid her sword across the throat of one, and Rachel kicked the other across the street.

  “South!” Rachel said.

  Her and Bernie we, and I went right.

  “This way is South,” Rachel added.

  I turned, and ran after her.

  We didn’t get very far, when the wall of the tavern belched debris into the street, and Captain Wen came barreling out of the cloud of dust.

  I didn’t have my backpa, Rachel had grabbed it, so I could ruy fast. My ls got me to catch up with them, easily. Then Rachel put on the gas, and she broke ahead. Her shs could still move faster with the belt p her.

  I felt wind on my back as Captain Wen sliced through the mail. I dared to gnce behind me, and saw she was rearing for a sed swing. This one was surely going to kill me.

  Bere and Rachel glowed blue when I activated Adrenaline Rush. The tinkling of mail again told me that she’d sheared right through it. I was just out of reach.

  “Rachel, Bere, I believe in you!”

  They ran faster.

  I had no idea where we were going, but Rachel led. We turned down an alley. I heard Wen slide on the gravel o the street. She was fast, but it had to be hard to turn in all that pte mail.

  The sed I exited the alley, Rachel grabbed me by the front of my tabard, mail bung in her gloves, and she threw me into the air. I flew just above the roof of the adjoining building, and came down hard on my feet. I wasn’t light aher was the mail. I felt something twist wrong, but I didn't have time to feel the pain, as I scrambled not to fall.

  Bere flew over me. Like some kind of miracle or fluke, I reached up and grabbed her foot before she sailed over the roof. She nded hard oomach with an audible grunt of pain.

  I got to my feet just in time to see Rachel grab ander Wen’s sword arm, as she pushed her across the fgstoreet. Rachel twisted, pulled the sword free, and threw it off into parts unknown.

  ander Wen didn’t seem to like that, and pushed Rachel into a wooden beam with a bsp; Rachel pushed back with a roar, veins standing in her neck, and starlight whisping off of her shoulders. She was starbound. Right.

  As they wrestled, I looked for where we should go . Right across from us was a guard tower. It was just o the adjoining building across the alley. The alley didn’t look like a difficult jump but the dder leading up looked much farther from that sed building.

  But not impossible. If I had enough momentum from a running jump I could probably make it. I’d have probably 240 pounds of armored Zachary behind my momentum, so grabbing onto the dder would not be easy. But what else were we going to do?

  A crossbow bolt streaked from the guard tower, and nded iile at my feet.

  I shot back, hitting the guardrail of the tower, but f the man to duck his head.

  “Cover me!” I said, handing my crossbow to Bernie. She fired hers, hitting a man who’d kept his head up too long, then crouched down to load the ons.

  I fished my ste from my belt, opening my spell list. I had one first level spell, and one sed level spell. All my abilities were on cooldown. So, no Inspiring Word or Adrenaline Rush.

  I g Rachel who was bleeding from her nose and mouth, just a line of red from her nose, past her lips and down the front of her chest. I sent a healing phrase to her, then looked down at my spell list.

  Sleep was really the only offensive spell I had. Would it even work on such a high level enemy as Captain Wen? I mashed the tooltip to see how it worked.

  Another crossbow bolt hit the roof o me.

  Bernie fired again, and the guard tumbled from the tower.

  Okay, sleep. It basically had a certain pert ce to work, uhey were immuo it. My hands shook as I read.

  Helpfully the tooltip said Captain Wen was not immune, being a human, and not an elf. Good! It also said that because she hadn’t dropped below 90% health, and her stitution score was so high, that the spell had a 0.001% ce of success. Not so good. But if it worked, she was guarao fall asleep, and be unscious for a full minute. Or until someone woke her up.

  Bernie loaded the sed crossbow and fired, missing, but getting them to duck again.

  I poio Captain Wen, and I sang the phrase.

  “Go to sleep! Go to sleep!”

  Captain Wen backed away from Rachel, fell on her butt, and slumped over. Rachel looked up to me.

  “She’s just asleep, so we gotta move!”

  Rachel nodded, and did a standihat looked more like being unched from a on than jumping, and nded right o me, crushing tile in all dires.

  “Guard tower?” she asked.

  “Yep.”

  We ran. Bernie handed me my crossbow. I fired it at the tower, and struck a guard in the shoulder.

  Here came the alley. I leapt, nded on the building, and rolled.

  I got up a running. I heard Bernie and Rachel nd behind me.

  Then came the edge of the building. I stopped, unsure if I had the momentum to make it.

  Rachel didn’t ask. She just picked me up, and threw me again.

  I was over the street, approximately 20 feet in the air, and it felt like I was there forever. I looked down, and memories of jumping off the top of the boathouse bae came rushing to me. This was higher. And the street was not water.

  My heart dropped into my stomach, and I felt bile rise in my throat.

  Then I smmed into the dder with enough force that it khe breath from my chest. I grabbed onto the handrail of the dder with everything I had, tried to suck air, but got nothing.

  Breathe again.

  Nothing.

  For several agonizing seds I tried to get a breath, but couldn’t.

  “Gah!”

  I could breathe!

  I started climbing. A man ducked out of cover above me, and fired a crossbow bolt. It missed. I kept climbing.

  Bernie nded above me, and immediately tossed a dagger. It struck the man in the fabsp; He fell forward, past Bernie and crashed into me.

  One hand slipped free from a rung.

  The other held.

  I just got my hand bato the rung of the dder when Rachel crashed into it below me, shaking the ehing.

  I held again.

  I got this. Not hard. Just climb the dder.

  Bernie ran up the tower with spiderwalk, and reached the nding. Just then, I heard a door sm open.

  I had to climb faster.

  I heaved myself onto the nding of the guard tower, just in time to see a man his arms around Bere, and pick her off the wall.

  Shit.

  I grabbed a dagger from her leg sheathe, and drove it through the top of his head. Bernie shoved him off, and drew her sword. Fuards y dead at our feet, and two more ehe tower from the door that led to the walls.

  She tossed her sword to me. I caught it! Thank god for 10 dexterity.

  Bernie drew a fighting dagger, parried the axe that came swinging in. I stepped in, and stabbed behind his swing, right above his armpit. He flinched.

  That was all Bernie o punch her dagger right through his mail, and into his heart. He fell bato the man behind him. Berossed a dagger that struck the sean in the neck.

  The guard threw the dead man off him. I puhirsting Thht through his armor, and he fell too.

  I felt a rush of healing, and suddenly my ankle didn’t hurt so mubsp; Nice.

  Rachel heaved herself over the lip of the tower and scrambled o us.

  “Nice of you to get here, finally,” Bernie said.

  “You’re wele,” Rachel replied with a growl, soft starlight twinkling all around her.

  “After you,” I said.

  Three more men ran across the walltop at us. They didn’t stand a bsp; All three were thrown from the walls with ease. We made it to the stairs down, and we pounded doweps.

  Once we hit the ground, Rachel kicked the exit door from its frame. Outside was fresh air and trees. We ran into the forest and didn’t stop.

  Viusic pyed just over the sound of us crashing through brush.