Unbound

The Oathbound Dragoon was a captain by the marks on his uniform, as well as a veteran of many skirmishes. His chin was grizzled with gray hairs that he rubbed worriedly as the two of them stood in the cleared circle between their two forces.

"Are you sure about this, Lady Vess? You could name any of your people to stand in as champion in this duel."

"So could you, captain. Would any suffice?"

"No. Even if they did, I wouldn't let them. My Oath burns to kill you, Lady Dayne. I'll not have that on their shoulders."

"Just so," she said with a nod.

Little Dragoon, this is reckless, Yin warned her. You dance upon the edge. If that Human strikes you, I—

Will do nothing, she sent back. Promise me, Yin, to not interfere.

I...promise. The Drake growled and the Oathbound gripped their spears harder. A foolish risk!

If I cannot sacrifice myself for my people, then what use am I as a ruler?

A warrior cannot live without honor.

Bah!

"Are you ready, Lady Dayne?" the grizzled veteran asked.

Vess spared a single glance for her Companion in the crowd. He was busy glowering at her opponent. "I am."

Off to the sides, an Oathbound slammed their spear into the ground with an echoing boom. "A duel! The winner, by death or submission, will claim the loser and their company as prisoners of war." He lifted his spear again and slammed it down. "Begin!"

The veteran blurred forward, wind swirling about him as his feet moved in a complicated pattern and his spear lead the way. She dodged, flaring her Agility to stay ahead of the more experienced man's weapon.

He leaped over her, and Vess held her guard, opting to watch his movement rather than attempt to anticipate him. Once he was above, he kicked off the air and pivoted to her right, slashing downward with his spear at the same time.

She caught it on her shaft and turned it aside, spinning her glaive around into a thrust of her own. The man twisted, letting her strike slide past his shoulder so he could chop at a downward angle. Vess took the blow to her pauldron, unable to escape in time, and it struck harmlessly off her arcanite armor.

Technique will almost always trump stats. Vess could almost hear Harn's voice in her head as the older Dragoon pressed his advantage. He had her beat in terms of mastery; the Skills he employed had been drilled for so long that they were part of his every movement. He flowed with an incredible grace and his spear was a ceaseless beast at his beck and call. He wasn't faster than her, or stronger, but his technique allowed him to take advantage of openings she couldn't even detect.

Shoulder, wrist, knee. Places where she should never have been struck were bashed into by shaft and blade, and only the incredible defenses of her arcanite armor kept her from being seriously injured.

"Relent, Lady Dayne," the Oathbound said, his voice rough. "I do not wish to kill you."

"Relent? So that the Pathless' dogs can kill us instead?" Vess scoffed as his spear drew a sparking line across her helmet. "I would rather save you."

The veteran grimaced, and his Spirit sang in anger. "Save us? We are Oathbound! We cannot save ourselves!"

The man burst into the air, wind and flame coiling across his legs as he did so, before he spun his spear in a windmill so fast it appeared to be a solid disc. He dropped hard, forcing Vess to take the blow across her vambraces. The spear tip slammed into her forearms and white-green and orange Mana surged across her arms and torso. Her Health dropped by a full twenty percent.

Surmount the Peak...evolved form of Pierce the Sky, and...Brightwing Devastation, evolved from Dragon's Descent.

Through the pain and frustration, a piece of her Mind easily recognized the Skills that she was once promised. Evolutions of her basic Skillset learned so long ago...the one she had abandoned.

The veteran, unable to pierce her defenses, engaged Step of the First Dragoon again—an evolution of Dragoon's Footwork, and it was everything she once was promised. He flowed with air Mana that swirled about his limbs, each step a dance meant to confuse and distract.

Yet she had not abandoned her old ways for lesser copies.

On The Wing!

Spectral wings formed across her back, startling the veteran and drawing sharp gasps from the crowd. Vess leaped, changing position herself as the wind obeyed her every command, and her glaive slashed with thunderous precision.

"Spear of Tribulation!" the man cried out, and twenty silver Spears manifested around him before launching themselves at her.

Vess brought her own to bear, maneuvering them with the expert force of her Will and Intent, but she was outnumbered two to one. Spears tangled, impacting here while parrying there, a whirling dervish that spun around their struggling forms like a cyclone of silver-edged wind. Over and over, the Oathbound's Spears struck home against her back and legs and shoulders.

"Your strange power will not win the day, Lady Dayne," the man said, and there was not a single shred of malice in his voice. Only regret and frustration. "If you do not stand down, you will die."

"Then I will die on my feet."

"Shadow cannot swallow the Light!" Mivun raged, and the array around him trembled...but held. The arcanite it was inscribed within was strong—it could take abuse for a moment.

Moment enough for Felix to engage a Skill.

Astrum Ascendence!

Cosmic flame surged forth, fed by Mana and Essence as it fed into the shadow Mana provided by the inscription on the arcanite disc. The cloak of night that descended on the priest became a shroud of liquid tar, thickening around the man and smearing against the polished floor. Suddenly, the Hierei wasn't fighting an array, but directly opposing Felix's Will...and splitting his own.

The Authority holding him down weakened, ever so slightly, and Felix pushed himself up on trembling legs.

"You are not enough, Nevarre!" The shadows roiled beneath the Hierei's fury, and light shot through burst bubbles across its surface. "The Strength of Order cannot be smothered by fetid night!"

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Astrum Ascendence bucked in his grip, the cosmic flame somehow weakening within the shadow array, but Felix forced more Mana and Essence through the Skill. It sang, a shrill cadence like distressed steel and nails on a chalkboard. His control over everything wobbled as the priest engaged him in a game of tug of war...and Felix was losing.

A surge of Authority grew in the Hierei, gathered from countless Oaths and distant Territories, all bound within his iron grip. Panic drove spikes of adrenaline into Felix's arms and legs, forcing them to quiver all the more.

Black tar bubbled and popped, revealing Mivun's furious expression beyond the array. The man's skin had turned to white stone, and it crawled across his nose and eyes even as Felix fought to remain standing. "By this alabaster armor, the Pathless' Purity is displayed!"

Hands clad in white stone and molten gold erupted from the sphere of black, tearing thick globules of it free. "By these hands of gold, the Pathless' Strength is proven!"

His shaping Skills sang in sympathetic harmony with Astrum Ascendence while his Mana dwindled faster than he could regenerate. Yet that harmony felt...Felix swallowed, a desperate idea burning through his Mind.

System! I want to use my last Skill evolution!

The shadow array blasted apart, liquid spattered against the polished floor, as a behemoth clad in white stone and molten gold strode from the center. Eyes like spotlights fixed onto Felix, setting his clothes aflame in a single glance. “By His Will, Order is made!”

The Hierei lunged forward, golden hands outstretched.

Choose Your Skill To Evolve.

Stone Shaping!

Felix flared every ounce of his Intelligence and Perception, forcing his Mind to speed up to unbearable speeds. The Hierei appeared to slow to a near stop, his golden hands less than a foot away from Felix's throat—while within his chest, the Skill thrummed with sudden, unbearable intensity.

ERROR!

Stone Shaping Is Affected By Astrum Ascendence!

Its Evolution May Have Unintended Consequences—

Do it anyway!

System energy flashed through him,

He still held Astrum Ascendence active, and its cosmic flame reverberated through every single one of his shaping Skills, even though they weren’t active at all. It flowed through Stone Shaping the most now, but Felix didn’t deactivate either.

He flared them even harder, spiking its pattern across all of his shaping Skills.

ERROR!

WARNING!

Evolution May Have Disastrous Repercussions!

Resonance With Shaping Array Indicates—

Just do it!

Title: Born of Will Is Active!

Title: Forge Of Cardinal Thunderflame Is Active!

Title: Tyros Of The Unseen Tide Is Active!

Evolution Has Begun!

Vess fell back, blood dripping down her right arm to patter against the rough stone flooring. The Oathbound was good. Too good. Her armor was scratched and torn at the joints, where it was weakest, and the man had not relented in the slightest.

Her ability to fight was matched by the veteran. Matched and surpassed. He was too talented. Too driven.

So she employed new tactics.

Matriarch's Lament!

The Dragon's head that covered her own was so detailed as to be mistaken for real, and it startled the Oathbound as much as the haunting cry that poured from between its jaws. A deep, harrowing sorrow spread into her opponent and all of the people beyond him,

Dragoon Captain And Fifty-Three Others Are Ennervated!

Duration: Twenty Heartbeats

Matriarch's Lament is level 92!

The man sagged, his gaze overwhelmed by confusion as that sorrow soaked into his very bones, sapping his Vitality. Vess seized the advantage.

Spear of Tribulation!

Her glaive described and arc of violence, slamming into his armor where pauldron met gorget, and her summoned Spears swept in from the sides. Shaft, not spear blades smashed into the captain, pummeling him as hard as she dared and with a precision born of long practice and mercy.

Spear of Tribulations is level 95!

Her hits were too fast to block, yet before the eighth landed the Oathbound mustered his own Spears against her, catching the final two shafts on them. His eyes were glazed over and his body barely standing, but his Will was untouched.

Twenty Spears whirled on her, no longer seeking weak points or subtlety—they slashed with a desperate, vicious strength that even Harn’s armor couldn’t blunt entirely. Instead, all she could do was fight back.

Spear of Tribulations is level 96!

Spears whirled, catching shaft against shaft as blows were parried or blocked outright. Gleaming silver and gold flashed in the magelights, a frenetic dance where a single misstep meant her life, yet Vess did not falter. She bled and ached, but it only fueled her focus and fanned her resolve.

She batted aside Spears with her glaive over and over, her feet bringing her ever closer to the Oathbound’s slumped body. She knew that if she could but reach the man before her Ennervation wore off, she could bring him low with a single strike.

Then it would be over.

On The Wing is level 99!

She slipped between Spear thrusts, spectral wings flapping to divert their eager edges, and brought three of her own down upon two others that thrust for her throat.

Spear of Tribulations is level 97!

Vess rolled, coming to her feet just beyond a storm of burning spears, each one fingerspans away from her back—before fetching up against the Oathbound’s body, glaive to his eye. “Yield.”

The Spears paused, a few of them mere handspans from her own head. They retreated, but did not dissipate.

“I said yield, captain.”

“I cannot, Lady Dayne.” The man swallowed. “You must kill me.”

“You—”

The Stars Burn.

Stone Trembles.

A Choice Must Be Made.

What is this? The words pounded at her like a Master Tier shouting in her ear. For a moment, the duel and the Oathbound captain faded entirely from her senses. What choice?

The Ascendent Refuses To Kneel.

Ouranic Law Bends To Breaking.

Light Turns To Shadow.

Order To Chaos.

Felix? Vess knew no others that could force the System to send her messages like this. Is Felix in trouble?

Peril.

A Spear caught her across the chest, scoring her armor and hurling her back a dozen strides with several bruised ribs. Vess spat blood, and watched the captain stand tall once again, the Ennervation finally worn off.

I do not have time—! What can I do?

Linked Hands Beneath Burning Stars.

Worlds Within Worlds Bound By Choice.

Let Sing The Bonds Of Fellowship.

What does that mean!?

Sudden pain shot through her chest, spiraling down into her core and back again through her arms and legs like electricity. Vess gasped involuntarily, and again when the notifications began flooding her vision.

Synergy Detected!

The Influence Of The Grim Nightshade Resonates With Your Spear Of Tribulation (L)!

Do You Wish To Evolve?

WARNING!

Evolution Requires Great Stores Of Energy!

If Chosen, The Process Will Continue Until It Is Complete Or You Die.

WARNING!

The Stars Burn.

Their Influence Is Yet To Be Determined.

Proceed?

Y/N

Yes!

System energy gathered in the vast distance, but Vess had to throw herself aside as the Oathbound captain shook his limbs. “You should have ended me,” he said, his tone apologetic. “It would have been over.”

“I will not kill you,” Vess said. “You are not my enemy.”

Around him, his Spears ignited into whirling lances of wind and flame, lighting up the haggard lines upon his face.

“Yes. I am.”

Without hesitation, the Spears came for her throat.

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