The screeching feedback was almost enough to send the rage bubbling beneath <Born Nihilist> soaring to the surface. I ducked my head, grimacing, trying desperately to stay focused and keep my place behind Nick. 

I reached out and placed my off-hand on his back, using him for balance as we pushed across the bridge. There was a flash of motion, followed by an icy sting. Something warm trickled down my face. 

They’re shooting at us

An arrow had grazed me, inches from my eye.

A cold, muted terror mingled with the rage still roiling in my gut. Ranged attacks were a massive problem. Nick only had one shield, and with the way this was developing, they had too many vantages for him to shield us all. I searched for the source of the projectile. There were five figures in all. Two swordsmen, a large brute wielding an axe towards the center, and two archers positioned at the back of the circular platform. 

“Buff me!” I held my saber back towards Sae. 

“Ice or poison?” Sae yelled back. 

There’s insect theming. Poison resistance is more likely than frost. 

“Ice.”

A spiderweb of blue clouded my previously reflective blade, dulling its shine. 

“Archers are top priority! We need to—“ I bit my tongue from the impact as Nick bowled full force into the single swordsman restricting access to the arena. Then, with an ungodly amount of force, he swung his shield arm out. The swordsman flew up in an uncontrolled rag-doll, arms pinwheeling in the air. It landed head first, its head impacting the ground and immediately jutting sideways at a sickening angle. 

Before I could even process what happened, Talia jumped off Nick’s shoulders, landing full force on the axe-wielding figure and sinking her teeth into his neck, yanking her head back and forth in an attempt to rend flesh free. 

The sudden brutality of it was paralyzing. Of all the situations I’d been in, the closest to this in terms of chaos was the aftermath of setting the Gnolls against each other. The difference was, I was in control then. 

Do something. You had a plan. Stick to it.

I slingshotted around Nick and sprinted towards one archer. I was far slower than I would have been normally. The platform was circling just fast enough that any quick movement was difficult. <Awareness> flared. 

I bent my knees and leapt as high as I could. 

A double-sided axe-head swung low, blisteringly fast, cutting a horizontal swipe where my knees were only moments before. The resulting gust of wind spun me, and I landed hard on my back, wind knocked out of my lungs. 

The axe-wielder had ignored the larger, stronger enemy tearing at his throat and targeted me instead. It made no sense, unless…

They know Talia is a summon. 

I hadn’t wanted to use the hand crossbow—it was a niche weapon: both bows and true crossbows offered better range and damage for Users specced to use them. If I eventually gained notoriety as an Ordinator, even with the Allfather’s Mask, it was the one piece of kit that might give me away. 

But as the massive blurred figure wielding the axe loomed over me, ignoring the wolf tearing at his throat, it became all too obvious that I couldn’t afford to hold anything back. 

I pulled the crossbow and fired. The bolt sunk deep into the axe-wielder’s chest, and he staggered backwards. Talia attempted to capitalize on the sudden shift, releasing her hold and dropping to the ground, only to tackle the axe-wielder, pushing him towards the hole in the center. 

She’d somehow missed the critical piece of information Nick and I had noticed at the beginning. 

“Don’t bother trying to push him in. I don’t know how, or why, but they’re not really standing. They’re floating.”

Talia’s mental voice lashed back at me, heavy with frustration. ”How am I meant to fight, then? They do not bleed. When their flesh is torn, it simply dissipates and reforms.”

”Just buy time and trust me. I’ll figure it out.”

I received a reluctant affirmative, just in time to roll out of the way as an arrow ricocheted off the ground where I’d just been laying. 

Across the arena from me, I saw Sae slide beneath an archer’s panicked punch, tagging his ankle with an overloaded frost buff. The lower half of his body froze quickly, immobilizing him. Sae threw herself to the side as Jinny pelted the frozen sections of the archer with hardened crystal. His left leg shattered first, sending him plummeting to the ground. 

It was a good combo. And against a more standard enemy, I could see how devastating it would be. But <Born Nihilist> murmured in the back of my mind, reminding me it didn’t make any sense. 

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The creatures weren’t really standing, they were levitating somehow. 

Losing their legs shouldn’t cause them to fall. 

It was a feint.

Sae pushed the attack, leg raised in preparation to stomp. 

No.

I broke through Sae’s mental defenses with <Suggestion,> all but screaming for her to get away. 

She heeded the warning just a second too late. The downed archer vomited something on the ground, composed of the same blurry material that formed its body. It stretched forward and latched onto Sae’s retreating foot. She fell to the ground immediately and screamed. 

“Nick!” I yelled, trying to locate him in the chaos. He didn’t hear me. He was still dealing with the two swordsmen and had a shaky upper-hand. One of them was on the ground, being pulverized by repeated strikes from his blade, while the other circled, trying to get clear of his shield. 

Even if he had heard me, he wouldn’t make it in time. 

Golden sparks rained down over both Sae and her assailant before the archer, now standing, could line up a kill shot. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jinny panting, leaning heavily on her staff. 

I was at a loss. If I went for Sae, the remaining archer would shoot me in the back. If I went for the archer, Jinny’s spell would fade, and Sae was dead. I could try for a lucky shot, but I was far out of the effective range.

Jinny and Sae can both overcharge their spells at the cost of mana. I’m not a traditional caster, but I have access to spells. The same principle should apply to me.

The slightest nerve, hesitation, or doubt could ruin everything. I sunk deep into <Born Nihilist.> Suddenly, everything lost its edge. It didn’t matter if I failed. I reached out to Nick with <Suggestion,> imparting as much calm into the spell as I could as I sent him the image of Sae on the ground. 

Then I turned and faced the remaining archer. He was already pulling the bowstring back. I couldn’t see his eyes, but if I could, I imagined one of them would have been squeezed shut. 

How long had I spent living in fear? Before, it was fear of sickness, fear of failure, fear of being trapped forever in a life I loathed. But things were different now. Whether as a stroke of luck or a turn of cruel irony, I’d been given the ability to change fate. To stack the deck in my favor. 

I reached out with <Probability Spiral.> But instead of releasing the spell, I held on to it. It was almost imperceptible, but there was a tightness in my hand that grew warm, then unbearably hot. My vision swam. 

The archer released his arrow. 

I could see everything. 

Where it would hit, the velocity, exactly where it would land. 

The split-second extended onward into eternity as the arrow spiraled toward me. 

I took a half-step to the side and brought my palm up, its shaft grazing against my glove as I adjusted the arrow’s trajectory ever-so-slightly and released the spell.

Time sped up again, blisteringly fast compared to the snail’s pace just moments ago. The arrow flew directly towards the axe-wielder, who had just dislodged Talia, and was in the midst of a massive backswing. The arrowhead pinged off his axe at an angle, now twisting wildly in the air like a fumbled football, arcing over the center gap.

Finally, the arrow’s serrated point sunk deep into the head of the archer standing over Sae. 

But it wasn’t over yet. 

Jinny’s magic faded away. The second archer screeched and released his draw, the shot going wide and landing with a thump in one of the swordsman’s back. 

My vision tunneled to a pinprick as I gasped for air, throwing myself in a staggering run towards the archer before he could nock another arrow. 

/////

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