Alyx paced the storeroom as Pellen triple-checked the runes of her teleportation array.

  They were as close to the seal space as they could go. Cass was in the space on the other side of the back wall.

  Marco leaned up against the room’s only door. It was open just a crack to let the guardsman watch the hall.

  “Okay,” Pellen said as she pushed herself back to her feet, brushing chalk dust from her hands. “The array is ready. But, um, are you sure you want to do this?”

  “Cass is over there, right?” Alyx pointed at the back wall.

  The little mage nodded. “But it isn’t too late to get supplies from the academy and use a different method. I think I could get us a talmen core for Breach 87. That’s a much safer, well-studied spell. Or—”

  Alyx put a hand up to stop the mage’s increasingly panicked rambling. “We don’t have time to go across the city for supplies. You wrote this spell, right?”

  Pellen nodded.

  “And it will get me to Cass.”

  All of Pellen’s eyes squeezed shut. “I really think we should consider the success rate. Its only—”

  “Pellen,” Alyx interrupted before the little mage could spiral into another whirl of doubt. “Yes or no, can it get me to Cass?”

  Pellen nodded again.

  “Then let’s do this. Send me to Cass.”

  Pellen took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. Stand in the center.”

  Alyx stood as she was directed.

  “You sure you want’a go first?” Marco asked.

  She clenched her sword’s hilt. “I need to be the one to do this.”

  He nodded. “Then go.”

  “Last chance to change your mind.” Pellen knelt at the array’s edge.

  “Send me, Pellen.”

  Pellen whispered the activation words, and space shifted around Alyx. One gut-twisting moment later, she found herself in a green-walled hallway. In the distance, the sounds of conflict—shouts and sword strikes—echoed down the halls.

  A roar shook the space.

  A dragon’s roar.

  It was here. And it was feral.

  Her hand clenched around her sword’s pommel.

  Feral dragons were things of distant wild places of the world. Cursed beasts as tragic as they were dangerous. They had no business in the basement of Velillia’s Temple.

  But, knowing Cass, that would be where Cass was.

  Alyx ran down the green-glass halls of Fortitude toward the sounds. Ran directly into a paladin.

  Copper Crescent Paladin (lvl 31)

  [The enemy of your mother and your people.]

  Alyx was lower leveled than this man at level 30, but not that much lower. And she was the Major Blessing Holder.

  And he was one of the ones who killed her mother.

  Her sword was out before he’d even noticed her.

  Heaven’s Strike struck him between the shoulder blades before he could turn. Her amber aura sliced against the metal of his armor.

  But his armor was hard. Her Heaven’s Strike flickered as she struggled to keep her aura flowing through the skill for another second.

  Metal shrieked against metal as her aura melted away. As the bare blade scraped along his armored back.

  She drew back for another strike as he turned, his sword rising to block.

  She couldn’t charge Heaven’s Blade with her aura long enough to cut through his armor and Fortitude.

  But his armor couldn’t be invincible. There would be weak points, joints her blade could slip through, places he’d traded defense for mobility. She just had to find them.

  Aura coated her blade as she prepared her next skill.

  He swung at her, no skill on the blade beyond the Mastery skill he might have wielded it with.

  She parried, pushing his sword off line and sliding her blade into the gap she’d created. Her glowing amber blade struck his armor again, her aura gouging a scratch in the metal plate.

  He slapped her sword, attempting to stop its tip from digging deeper into his armor.

  But Alyx engaged another sword skill as their blades touched: Shadow Strike.

  The bare metal of her blade was pushed aside by the paladin’s attack, but her sword’s shadow—her glowing amber aura—remained pressed against his armor.

  While her aura blade pierced through the metal and into the Fortified skin underneath, her physical sword whipped around, driving at the joint where his armor plates met.

  He grit his teeth and rolled his shoulders back. A wave of green aura flowed off him. Her aura blade melted, and she was shoved back down the hall.

  But the tip of her blade was crimson with his blood.

  Alyx grinned at him. Her aura accumulated along her blade again.

  He didn’t return the grin. Instead, he charged her, the aura on his shield and sword growing with each step.

  Alyx let him come, her amber aura growing to more than match his until the entire hall was awash with the amber light.

  He stepped into range, his sword swinging at her.

  Her sword slammed down into the glass. Her aura exploded out with her skill Radiant Aura. Her aura filled the hall, drowning out his green. Drowning even the green glass of the floor and walls.

  He stumbled back.

  Alyx raced forward. She kicked his chest before he could recover.

  He toppled over.

  She raised her sword, again glowing with her aura, and plunged it down in Heaven’s Strike.

  It drove into the divot she’d cut earlier, bursting through the weakened metal, sliding between the chain mail beneath, slicing into his chest.

  She hit something hard where his heart should have been.

  She roared and funneled more aura into her blade’s tip.

  He struggled beneath her. His sword scratched at her armored legs, but from his angle, there was no strength behind the attack.

  He couldn’t stop her.

  Radiant Aura.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Her aura exploded. Exploded inside his chest.

  His whole body jolted. But the energy couldn’t escape his Fortified skin. Instead, it ran rampant inside his organs.

  He gasped. Blood spurted from his open mouth. It oozed from his nose. From the corners of his eyes.

  Alyx pulled her blade from the corpse as the experience for the paladin’s life was absorbed into her body. A slender smile slipped across her lips.

  One down. How many would it take to satisfy her mother’s memory?

  She flicked the blood off her sword, intending to sheath it again.

  Before she could, another paladin turned the corner onto the hall with her.

  Her smile spread into a grim grin. She sprinted down the hall.

  One fight turned into two, turned into three. Every fight brought her a little closer to the roar of the dragon. Every enemy she slayed was one also headed in that direction.

  She didn’t know exactly what trouble Cass was in, but she was confident these were just as much Cass’s enemies.

  Another paladin and another fell before her. But each one was easier than the one before. They all fought the same way, unafraid to take her hits, too slow to hit her in return. Their hearts were all hard. She didn’t know why, but the rest of their organs were plenty susceptible to blasts of Radiant Aura from within.

  Another fell without contest.

  Level Up!

  + 1 Str

  + 5 Free Points

  A new level filled her with renewed energy. She spread the Free Points between Str, Dex, End, and Frt. She’d need the physical stats now.

  She drove onward.

  Another paladin died. Another.

  Ahead, a pair slowed her.

  Paladin (lvl 33)

  Priest (lvl 27)

  This was the first priest she’d seen. He wasn’t armored like the paladin woman before him but wore simple green and copper robes.

  “Another intruder!” the priest shouted, pointing at Alyx.

  The paladin woman raised her shield, a green aura growing on its surface. An aura bash, if previous fights were anything to go by.

  How would the priest change the fight dynamics?

  Better to kill him quickly before she could find out. If she could get to him. The paladin placed herself firmly in between.

  Alyx burst forward, her sword glowing amber as it trailed behind her. She swung up at the paladin, intending to shove her aside with the upward sweep of Heaven’s Strike.

  The paladin took the skill-empowered attack without flinching. She shot the aura bash at Alyx.

  Alyx sliced the aura attack in two, slipping between the waves of dispersing energy with a returning slash of her own.

  The paladin slashed at Alyx. Alyx parried. The paladin’s sword pushed Alyx’s wide before it could exploit any opening.

  Alyx grit her teeth. This one’s sword skills were the best so far. There was no way around her to reach the priest.

  They exchanged a flurry of strikes, each slash and stab pushed aside by their opponent.

  An opening appeared on the paladin’s left. Alyx snaked her blade into it. The paladin tried to close it, but it was too late. Her armor would probably stop the worst of it, but Alyx’s aura would damage that in preparation for the next strike or the one after that.

  Her sword didn’t connect.

  A green force field appeared over the woman’s armor instead.

  The priest’s hands were out, the whisper of a spell on his lips.

  He’d protected her. Alyx glared at him.

  Realizing she hadn’t been hit, the paladin quickly redirected her sword after Alyx.

  Alyx grit her teeth and turned her attention back to defending herself. She pushed aside strike after strike, harrying the other woman in turn. Neither of them expected any of these to go through. All were an attempt to draw the other’s sword out of position.

  There!

  Alyx stabbed into an undefendable opening.

  The paladin didn’t even try to defend it.

  A green force field snapped into place over her armor. Alyx’s sword struck the force field, her aura doing nothing to the surface.

  At the same time, the paladin’s sword returned the attack, swinging for the opening Alyx’s attack had created. The paladin’s sword sliced across Alyx’s breast plate.

  Alyx activated Forceful Exit, her dodge skill.

  She flickered out of existence for a fraction of a second.

  By default, the skill would drop her to the side of her attacker, but with a little extra application of Focus, she could pick a different nearby location.

  Like directly behind her attacker, between the priest and the paladin.

  The priest didn’t have time to shout. Alyx’s sword slipped into his chest as she rematerialized. His body was far tougher than any unarmored person should have been, but no amount of Fortitude could make simple cloth resist the full force of Alyx’s Aura Blade.

  And, unlike the paladins, his heart wasn’t made of steel.

  He was dead before the paladin could turn.

  The paladin screamed when she saw him at Alyx’s feet, throwing herself at Alyx.

  Alyx parried, attempting to push the paladin’s sword wide.

  Instead, the paladin’s blade crashed into her, their swords clashing with resonating steel and unbelievable force.

  Alyx was pushed back. Pain radiated up her arm from the impact. There was way more Strength in that attack than any up to this point.

  A rage skill?

  Alyx grimaced. Perhaps killing the priest first had been a mistake.

  The paladin lunged at her, her sword flashing.

  Alyx turned the attack aside, returning with a strike of her own. It glanced along the paladin’s armor.

  She blocked another strike. The force rippled down her sword and up her arm, numbing the muscles and sending aches through the bone.

  The paladin swung again. And again. And again.

  Alyx was tiring. How many paladins had she already fought?

  How much Stamina was left?

  Stamina: 38/141

  About a quarter and dropping, and it was showing in her speed. Her arms moved like lead to block. Her body screamed for rest.

  Alyx ignored it all, summoning Aura to her blade to compensate for her lower Strength and fleeting Stamina.

  She swung with all the force of Heaven’s Strike, her aura trailing off the attack in an amber arch.

  The paladin took the strike head-on, letting the aura crash on her chest plate. Letting crash as she stabbed back at Alyx.

  The paladin’s sword slammed through Alyx’s defenses. Sword tip punctured armor.

  Pain bloomed in her lower abdomen as the blade parted organs and flesh.

  Heaven’s Strike broke, her aura fading.

  Alyx staggered back, blood trailing from her guts.

  She couldn’t fall here. She grit her teeth, her hands clenching tighter around her sword’s hilt. There wasn’t time to be tired.

  These were the people who had killed her mother.

  They killed dragons for fun.

  They’d taken Cass.

  She could not stop.

  She had to—

  Skill Earned: Endless Assault

  [Some fights are battles of skill. Others are battles of attrition. You will never lose the second.

  Gain temporary Endurance the longer a fight continues.

  Gain temporary Strength the longer a single exchange of blows continues.

  Gain temporary Dexterity the longer you attack others without being attacked yourself.

  Temporary stats decay while not being stockpiled.

  Modified by End]

  Power coursed through her as her new skill settled into place within her.

  A grin spread across her face as she lunged at the paladin.

  [Endless Assault: + 1 Str, + 1 End]

  Her sword scraped against plate metal. The paladin swatted the sword aside, returning with a strike of her own.

  Alyx parried, her arm shaking under the force of the other woman’s Strength. She twisted the parry into a stab of her own. It slammed into the paladin’s armor.

  [Endless Assault: + 1 Str, + 1 End]

  Their swords clashed with a resounding crash of metal on metal. Exchange after exchange.

  [Endless Assault: + 1 End]

  [Endless Assault: + 1 Str, + 1 Dex, + 1 End]

  [Endless Assault: + 1 Str, + 1 End]

  [Endless Assault: + 1 Str, + 1 End

  Total Temporary Stat change:

  + 5 Str

  + 1 Dex

  + 6 End]

  The paladin was struggling now. Her redirected strikes were pushed further out of line. She stepped back when their swords locked.

  And Alyx’s Strength kept increasing.

  [Endless Assault: + 1 Str, + 1 End]

  Alyx swung. The paladin attempted to parry. Heaven’s Strike went right through the woman’s sword instead.

  The paladin stumbled backward, Alyx’s sword chasing her.

  It slammed into the woman’s chest. Alyx’s aura burned through the armor, the amber scorching the green and copper. Her sword sunk into her body.

  Alyx drove through her, shoving her into the wall. Her sword tip hit the steel heart.

  Her Strength ticked up again.

  Alyx shoved her sword forward again, Heaven’s Strike burning brighter with her aura than ever before.

  It sliced through.

  The paladin gasped and fell still.

  Alyx’s body vibrated with power.

  [Total Temporary Stat change:

  + 6 Str

  + 1 Dex

  + 7 End]

  Endless Assault has increased to level 2.

  Endless Assault has increased to level 3.

  Alyx pulled her sword free and sheathed it.

  [Total Temporary Stat change:

  + 5 Str

  + 6 End]

  Her hands shook. She didn’t have time to waste here. The more she fought, the bigger the buff she could build, the better state she’d be in to rescue Cass.

  Alyx looked up and down the hall. Ahead, she could hear the sounds of conflict and dragon roars. She ran toward it.

  She was coming, Cass.