Before I left Sycae, I checked the enchanters’ shops for new types of ammunition and other cheap runes to see if there was anything that could improve my current arsenal, but everything was overpriced compared to the ammunition in Perama and nothing I found was particularly helpful compared to the runes I already had.

  Slightly disappointed, I made my way to the waterfront that faced south. I walked out on the furthest dock I could find and then used my Dash. Halfway across the channel, I reached the end of my dash and my momentum stopped completely, but I immediately activated a second dash and sent myself flying all the way across the channel without touching the water at all.

  When I landed on the other side, I was slightly winded and had to take a few deep breaths to recover. Using Dash twice in a row seemed to take more from me than just using it once. I would have to keep that in mind.

  I ran through the city, pushing the limits of my body just to see how fast I could go. I practically flew through the streets, easily running faster than a car could have driven in the city. My endurance let me run without feeling tired, and when I came to a difficult turn that I couldn’t make because of how fast I was going, I used Dash and reset my momentum, letting me stop on a dime. It was a heady feeling, and I wondered if many people had learned how useful Dash truly was. I could sprint full tilt at a wall and dash to the side. The skill would shoot me sideways, completely shifting my momentum, then stopping me perfectly. It was strange to feel the rules of physics bend to my skill so easily.

  A trip through the city that used to take half a day barely took a half hour now. I moved so rapidly that the monsters I passed barely had time to register me running down the street before I was gone.

  I entered the courtyard of my villa, wondering why it hadn’t counted toward my quest to make a home. Maybe because it wasn’t secure yet. I had wanted to find a way to keep monsters away for a while now. Maybe then it would count for the quest.

  I opened the front door, glad to be back home, when I found myself suddenly frozen in place. I struggled to move but couldn’t even force myself to blink. I could hear footfalls approaching from my left, the soft steps across the villa floor echoing around the empty foyer.

  “Well,” a man’s voice said, “that was easy enough. Looks like the information was correct. He did use this as a safehouse.”

  “I told you I could find him,” a weaselly voice replied. “I knew this was his place once I found it. Nobody would bother to clean a house in this area if it wasn’t being used.”

  “Yes, yes,” the other man said dismissively. “I said you were right already.”

  I couldn’t move my eyes to see who was talking, but he eventually walked in front of me, looking me up and down. I could see four men. One of them was the priest I had fought at the docks before. The other was a small man who looked like he hadn’t eaten a good meal in years and had never heard of taking a bath in his life. Behind them stood two larger men, each wearing an armored breastplate with a sigil of a golden flame emblazoned on the front. Both had swords on their belts, and from their demeanor, I was sure they were experienced in using them.

  “Did you think you could kill my compatriot and I would forget about you, Varangian scum?”

  The priest spat in my face. I couldn’t dodge or blink, and I felt the spittle cover my eyes, partially blinding me. My anger rose, and my body echoed the outrage my mind was feeling, pumping me full of adrenaline. I pushed back at the spell that was holding my body, refusing to bend to such enslavement. I had broken the chains they had tried to wrap me in last time. I would break whatever spell held me this time as well.

  “Disarm him,” the priest said. “I want to know what magic he has that allows him to kill one of us so easily.”

  The two guards stepped forward and searched me, taking my belt, my knife, my gun, and my bandolier full of my grenades. I strained at the hold on me as they grabbed and searched me, the violation of my personal space driving me into a rage. I felt something start to give in my mind as I was overcome with emotion. It felt like I was pushing against a wall that had been erected between my mind and my body, freezing me out. The wall felt strong yet brittle, like thick glass. All I needed was to crack it once and it would shatter. I began to slam my anger and rage against the wall in my mind, refusing to accept that it could keep me from controlling my own body.

  I was so focused on breaking the wall that held me that I missed what the priest said as he inspected my revolver. I felt cracks begin to form in the glass, and with a mental roar, I slammed my mind against the glass one more time, shattering the wall and restoring power over my own body once again.

  Before anyone could react, I punched forward with my left hand and activated my Glove of Golem Strength. The golem’s fist covered my own and slammed into the smaller, weaselly man gloating in front of me. I saw the ripple of my fist spread out from his chest, ripping his body apart as my fist impacted against him. With an explosion of gore, the small man that had tracked me was thrown across the room, the other three splattered with his blood and parts of his body.

  “What?” the priest yelled, ducking away from the explosion of blood and body parts. I stepped forward and activated my other fist, slamming the second golem’s hand into the priest’s body as well. I expected the priest to be destroyed much like his companion, but my fist struck a barrier of silver instead of his body. My golem-enhanced punch was strong enough to shatter the barrier, though, sending the priest staggering backward, but he appeared unharmed physically.

  Before I could step forward to attack the priest again, one of his guards leapt forward and grabbed at me. The other guard drew his sword. I blocked the hands of the first guard. I sidestepped quicker than the guard could move and pushed his hands to the side, sending him moving past me.

  The second guard held his sword toward me, and the sword began to glow with a golden light as he activated a skill of some kind.

  I activated Dash and slipped to the side of the room, putting some space between me and the two guards. The priest, meanwhile, had recovered and was pointing at me with a look of concentration on his face. Not wanting to get caught by whatever spell he was casting, I activated Dash again to place myself directly in front of him.

  He finished his spell, but I stepped swiftly to the side as a set of chains formed in the air where I had been standing. They were identical to the ones that had almost captured me last time.

  Seeing his chains wasted, he tried to turn to look at me, but I grabbed his arm, bent it backward, and slammed my left hand down on his elbow, shattering the bones as I twisted his arm further. The priest screamed in pain as I mangled his arm, crippling him, at least for now.

  The first guard that had tried to tackle me had recovered and drawn his sword. The second guard was approaching rapidly, trying to get to me with his golden sword. The other guard, seeing the priest harmed, pointed his sword at him and activated a skill of some kind. I saw the priest bathed in a golden light, and his arm began to heal in front of my eyes.

  “Rude,” I said, turning to keep the priest between me and the other guard. I scanned the room for my revolver and found that someone had dropped it and my other gear on the ground when I surprised them by breaking their spell. I shoved the priest at the guard with the golden sword, entangling them, and then ducked down, snagging the revolver, my belt, and my bandolier. As soon as I had my gear, I dashed backward, landing smoothly at the back of the room. I raised my revolver to shoot the three of them, but the second guard saw me, leapt in front of the priest and his fellow guard, and activated some kind of barrier that shimmered in the air around them. I growled at how difficult these people were to kill, my anger boiling over, demanding I kill them.

  I took aim and unloaded all six of my shots at the barrier anyway. It shattered after just three bullets. The other three struck the guard in the chest, impacting against his breastplate, but they caused no damage to the guard himself. I cursed, realizing the breastplate must be powerfully enchanted or empowered in some way.

  I reloaded quickly, loading six Explosive Bullets. The priest had recovered by now, his arm almost fully healed, and was glaring at me with open hatred on his face. The guard with the golden sword stepped forward, activating his own barrier to protect himself and his companions now that the other guard’s shield had failed.

  “Kill him!” the priest yelled. I backed up slowly, navigating through an open door behind me and into a hallway that led toward the kitchen. The two guards charged forward at the priest’s order, intent on catching me before I could attack further. The barrier from the first guard was still active as he charged, protecting him from my bullets.

  I dashed backward the length of the hallway behind me, creating more space between us. The guard with the golden sword followed me first. As he saw me down the hallway, landing softly on the ground at the end of my dash, he yelled something that sounded like Latin, and large golden wings burst from his back. He took a step and then launched himself into the air, flying rapidly down the hallway toward me.

  He was too close for me to fire Explosive Bullets at him without me hurting myself, so I aimed past him and fired at the other guard who was just coming through the doorway and into the hallway.

  My bullet exploded on the chest of the second guard, sending him flying back into the room with the priest. The fireball rapidly filled the hallway with superheated fire, hiding the second guard and the room from my sight. The flying guard reached me, his golden sword coming down to chop through me like a divine angel smiting an apostate, but I ducked down too fast for him and threw myself under him as he flew over me. The guard surprised me by kicking downward and knocking me down as I rolled under him. He landed behind me and turned, grabbing me with one of his arms. I pushed off the ground, sending us both tumbling backward onto the floor, with me on top but with my back to the guard.

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

  I rolled over, positioning myself above the guard as he struggled to hold on to me and his sword at the same time. Realizing his sword was useless, he released it and grabbed me with his other hand, but I used both of my hands to grab his head and began to slam it against the stone floor of the hallway.

  The first strike had little effect, as the guard tried to grab my hands to stop me, but I was stronger than him and had better leverage. I raised his head and slammed it down again. The guard looked up at me, the anger in his expression starting to fade as confusion came over his face. I didn’t stop, slamming his head against the hard stone floor over and over until I knew he was dead.

  I rolled off the guard and looked down the hallway, disgusted with what I had done, but I refused to go easy on the priest and his lackeys who had tried to capture me a second time. My explosion had faded, but I didn’t see the other guard or the priest. I dashed down the hallway and glanced through the doorway into the foyer, finding the priest and the other guard were nowhere to be seen.

  I took a deep breath, trying to calm the anger that threatened to overwhelm me. After several calming breaths, my blood stopped roaring in my ears and I could hear, very faintly, their steps pounding down the cobblestone street outside my villa. I didn’t hesitate and began to follow. I strapped on my belt and bandolier as I ran, holstering my revolver so I could run faster.

  I sprinted out my front door and dashed through the courtyard, landing softly in the street out front. I couldn’t see the two of them, but my sensitive hearing picked up the sound of their hasty retreat nearby. They were one street over, running as fast as they could across the cobblestones, their boots making enough racket for me to track them easily. It was clear the priest hadn’t invested enough in his endurance because I could hear him panting as the two of them ran, clearly already out of breath. I smiled grimly at the sound.

  Separating us was a large rectangular warehouse that stood across from my villa. It was about two and a half stories tall and had a flat roof. I used my Dash to launch myself upward at an angle, soaring through the air as if I was truly flying. The skill had said I could use it in any direction, and upward was a direction to me.

  The skill worked, obeying my intent as Romanus and Valens had said it would, sending me upward at a breakneck speed. My momentum froze just as I reached the lip of the roof, and I stepped forward, landing perfectly on the edge of the roof as if I had been doing such maneuvers for years. Not hesitating, I took off at a sprint across the rooftop, parallel to the streets, and jumped across the gap to another warehouse with ease, keeping pace with the fleeing priest below. I paced them, crossing the warehouse until I was running on the edge of the rooftops directly above where they ran on the street below. I drew my revolver and jumped off the roof, toward the priest and his guard. Before I could hit the ground, I used Dash to change my momentum, throwing myself forward until my dash ended, placing me down on the street perfectly. I turned to look at the priest, who was skidding to a stop at the sight of me standing in front of him.

  I kicked forward and slammed my foot into his shin before he could stop himself, shattering the bone and sending him catapulting into the hard cobblestone street.

  The guard, reacting a bit faster, turned his run into a charge and tried to run me through with the sword in his hand. I dodged his thrust, my speed faster than his, and then activated my Glove of Golem’s Strength again, having sensed it was off cooldown. I crouched and punched the guard’s thigh as his thrust carried him past me, crushing his leg and sending him spinning to the cobblestones as well.

  The guard rolled several times, screaming in pain as his leg flopped behind him and slammed against the ground every time he rolled over on it. When he finally stopped, I saw he was still conscious, which surprised me. He must have a high endurance to be able to take such punishment. His leg looked like it had been run over by a truck, and he was clearly in extreme pain.

  The guard shook his head, grimacing, and glanced at the priest, who was whimpering on the ground next to him. I rushed forward to kill the guard, but he activated a skill and I saw the familiar golden glow bathe the priest in its healing light.

  I couldn’t help but admire the guard’s dedication, but that didn’t stop me from slamming my other golem-charged fist into his head as I rushed toward him, painting the street behind him for almost thirty feet with his brains and blood.

  I whirled toward the priest, but the healing light had already started its work. The priest had rolled over, his eyes closed in concentration. I activated Dash to close the distance between us, but before I could get to him, he finished his spell.

  “I invoke my pact. Grant me protection!” the priest yelled.

  My dash deposited me directly in front of the man, but before I could strike him dead, a portal opened in the air above him. The portal flickered red and black and began to spiral open wider and wider, hiding the priest behind the opening. I froze, watching in surprise as a large hand, the size of my head or larger, appeared inside the portal and tried to grab me. I jumped back and pointed my revolver at the hand, unsure of what to do.

  The priest carefully picked himself up behind the portal, clearly still wounded. He turned in my direction and leaned out around the side of the portal, an arrogant look on his face. I fired several Explosive Bullets at the ground beneath the portal, eager to wipe that smile off his face. A dark red energy zapped out of the portal and met my bullets as they flew toward the priest’s feet, destroying the bullets before they could explode. The priest’s smile only grew wider at the sight.

  I began to ease myself sideways, trying to get a better angle on the man, when a whip of pure fire shot out of the portal and wrapped itself around my leg.

  I screamed in pain but kept my gun aimed at the priest even as the whip burned through my clothing and began tearing into my leg. Seeing I was still standing, the priest lost his smile and decided he’d had enough. He turned and ran, keeping the portal between the two of us. I grimaced, angry that he was escaping but unable to give chase with the whip entangling me.

  I dashed backward, the momentum of the dash enough to unwind the whip from my leg, but the pain as it spun around and around my thigh almost caused me to black out. I fell to the ground as my dash ended, gasping from the excruciating pain radiating through me.

  I stared at the portal through watery eyes as I struggled to stand. Another hand appeared in the portal, this one holding a burning whip that hung downward, scorching the cobblestones beneath it. A head quickly followed the second hand, and a moment later, a demon stepped through the portal completely.

  The demon was covered in shifting magma that fluctuated between a dark, black obsidian sheen to a glowing, molten red. Two large black horns stuck up from his head, and his knees bent the wrong way. He saw me staring at him and gave me a vicious grin, his mouth stretching unnaturally wide across his molten face.

  I lifted myself up from the ground, hopping up on my good foot, and activated my Dash to get away from the demon. He stalked toward me, snapping his whip in front of himself as he approached. I flicked open the wheel of my gun, dumped the remaining Explosive Bullets onto the ground, and frantically reloaded Holy Bullets, hoping they would be effective against the demon.

  I dashed again just as his whip snapped forward at me. I fired as I flew backward. Each bullet slammed into the demon’s chest, causing obsidian and magma to shear off the monster. The demon grunted as each bullet struck him, indicating the Holy Bullets were doing something to him, but the wounds seemed superficial at best. The magma of his chest was already reforming over the first few bullet holes by the time my last bullet hit him.

  The demon began to run toward me, his large, cloven feet thudding loudly against the cobblestones with each of his steps. His speed wasn’t impressive, but he was rapidly closing the distance by his sheer size alone. Each step he took was three or four feet, at least. I couldn’t run with my injured leg, so I dashed again, sending myself soaring backward down the street until I reached a turn in the road. I stopped there, having put almost a full city block between the two of us, and reloaded more Holy Bullets.

  The demon, seeing how easily I could escape him, roared in anger as he continued to lumber toward me. His whip disappeared from his hand, and in its place, a massive, fiery warhammer appeared as he sped up. I aimed and fired, hitting him with every bullet, but to little effect again.

  “Damn,” I muttered to myself, realizing I couldn’t fight my way out of this problem. I dashed sideways, pushing myself around the corner from the demon. I landed softly but then had to dash backward as the fiery warhammer came careening through the side of the building I had been standing behind. The demon was still around the corner, but his warhammer almost clipped me as it exploded through the wall, sending stone and debris flying across the street in its wake.

  My dash was fast enough that I dodged the worst of it, but I stared in disbelief at the power of the demon. His warhammer continued forward, plowing through the building on the other side of the street. A second later, it returned, flying back to the demon and effortlessly smashing the stone wall yet again on its return. The building began to tilt dangerously, the warhammer having weakened its foundations now that it had passed through the building twice. I dashed again, putting more distance between me and the building as quickly as possible.

  The building tilted more and more until it finally collapsed with a deafening roar, a cloud of dust and debris filling the street in an instant. I coughed as the cloud struck me, covering my mouth and closing my eyes to avoid as much of the dust as possible. As I did, I realized this was my chance to escape. The corner I had just dashed through was blocked by the collapsed building and the entire area was shrouded in dust, making it almost impossible to see.

  Ignoring the pain in my leg, I turned around and used my Dash to launch myself down the street as fast as I could go. I could barely walk, but my Dash didn’t care about my leg. My skill launched me forward perfectly each time and then froze my momentum at the end of the dash, letting me land carefully on my good leg. I dashed as far away from the demon as possible, recklessly flying down side streets and alleys, always moving away from where the demon had been.

  I continued my retreat until I reached the far north of the city, near Perama and the channel that led to Sycae. I paused for a moment at the waterfront, feeling the exhaustion from so many uses of Dash. I felt like I had run a marathon at a full sprint. I was breathing hard, and my body felt shaky from my injuries and my exhaustion.

  I couldn’t remember a time I had ever felt this tired. With a weary glance, I looked behind me but couldn’t see any sign of the demon. I must have lost him a while ago, but I had refused to stop until I was absolutely sure he wouldn’t catch up to me. The power of that monster was significantly higher than anything I had fought so far, and I did not want to fight it now that I was so tired, injured, and had nothing that seemed to damage the demon.

  I had just started to gain some confidence in my own strength, but the demon very effectively reminded me to never get arrogant. If this city was just a safe zone, the rest of the world could be full of monsters as powerful or even more powerful than that demon. If I hadn’t been with Romanus and Valens, the drake and her spawn would have likely overwhelmed me and killed me. And if I hadn’t chosen Dash as my first skill, the demon would have likely killed me as well. I needed to never forget how dangerous this world really was.

  I took several deep breaths and then pushed myself into another dash, launching myself across the water toward Sycae. Halfway there, I used a second dash and felt my body rebel in protest. My vision started to go black and my head began to spin. I felt like I was going to vomit even as I flew through the air in a perfectly straight line. When I reached the far side of the water, I couldn’t control myself enough to land on the dock I had aimed for and instead crashed into the water, barely able to think clearly as the cold water swallowed me.

  I heard someone yell above me, but my mind couldn’t focus. My vision was flickering, and my mind could only remember bits and pieces at a time. I recalled somehow climbing onto the dock, where concerned bystanders came to see if I was okay. I remembered somehow standing and staggering away from the docks toward the inn I had rented, but I didn’t remember getting there.