“Yes. He’s right,” Darrow added, scratching the back of his neck.

  “That’s why I want you. You managed to injure the creature, and your cautious,” she finally said, and just as the words left her mouth, there was laughter that sent a ripple through the crowd.

  The crowd shifted, and an elf in slick-looking armour stepped forward. His blond hair was like his sister's beside him, and he wore fine silks under that.

  “Ursa, are you recruiting bronze ranks into your party?” the half-elf, Nolis, asked.

  Ursa turned then, noticing who it was. She grimaced. She knew the other scions of the Brassthrone would be here, and she shouldn’t have been surprised by Nolis’s antics.

  It was expected from the four houses of the Brassthrone, and it was always a competition to see who would sit on the artefact throne, one of the most powerful artefacts on the entire continent.

  To the side, and not standing with them, were the two elven siblings. Jorand stood with the other human Scion of the Brassthrone. It seemed like they would be working together to hunt the unique dungeon monster.

  Jorand and the other Scion seemed to deem it useless to get involved, so they sat on some crates and watched silently.

  “They are the only ones who managed to injure the beast so far,” Ursa straightened, defending her position.

  The murmurs rippled in the crowd, and Nolis saw this, then grimaced, his jaw tightening as he watched all eyes turning to the brothers.

  “Then you won’t mind if I test them,” Nolis said, and the sound of the sword leaving its sheath stung the air.

  The crowd reacted instantly at the sound of the blade song. They cleared a path and yipped as adventurers shifted, forming a wide ring around the twins and Nolis.

  Damian looked to the side at Rellina, but to his shock, she stepped back, and she had a calculating look in her eye that he had seen in her the first time they had met, the one of the noblewoman.

  Rellina wanted to know if the two brothers could handle themselves, or whether she was placing coins on the wrong cards.

  Damian and Darrow stood out in the centre of the shifting ring. The crowd had formed around them.

  “That’s unnecessary,” Damain began, but Ursa was quick to cut him off.

  “I’m sure they are strong enough,” she said, looking at them, then back to her fellow scion.

  Everyone knew that Nolis was a silver-ranked adventurer, and him facing two bronze ranks was sure to be quite the spar. But what they did not know, what Elora suspected, was that Damian and Darrow each had two classes.

  And like anyone with two classes, sure, it was hard to level, but you also had to keep in mind they had the same number of skills or more, depending on how they levelled their classes. Sometimes they had even more skills.

  Damian touched his sword, but he didn’t draw it, while Darrow raised his hand and tried to calm the situation, or de-escalate the situation, or he tried to.

  He didn’t get a chance.

  Nolis appeared a foot away from him and thrust his elven sabre at him. If Damian hadn’t been there, the rogue would have been stabbed through the shoulder.

  But Damian was there. He moved, pulled his sword still in its scabbard, and blocked upwards, parrying the blow and holding it.

  “A duelist. Draw your blade. Show us all how you made the monster bleed,” he yelled, then he pushed and jumped back.

  Nolis closed the distance again. He stabbed for his chest, but whenever his sabre came close to touching Damian, he found it being parried to the side, or that Damian was able to keep up with him.

  Nolis’s jaw clenched. No matter how he looked at it, no one of Damian’s level was supposed to keep up with him. His nose flared, and again he used his skill.

  He closed the distance with Damian and cut him down, but to his surprise, Damian also moved just as fast as him.

  Damian used his newest skill, [Quick Step]. He sidestepped the downward cut, twisted, and then he twisted back in the previous direction, hitting him in the shoulder.

  The half-elf went flying to the side, then stopped only to swing his sword around.

  Damian raised his hand, and he blocked the sword with his hand. He held its sharp blade in his barehand and his [lesser strength] skill helped him grip it in place. Any slower, and his neck would have been sliced open, and he would have found himself bleeding on the ground.

  The crowd gasped, and Darrow’s eyes widened in disbelief.

  Damian grabbed his hand. Blood flowed between his fingers and dropped onto the cobblestone.

  Damian frowned, and when he looked up, Nolis was smiling. There was a smug look on his face.

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  “I thought you were better than this,” he began, but Darrow was on him the next moment, moving just as fast as Damian and punching the half-elf scion right in the mouth.

  Nolis didn’t see it coming, but halfway through the attack, of taking the force of the blow. He twisted away and moved to cut Darrow’s shoulder open as well.

  He moved impossibly fast, and his sword swung downwards, but Damian appeared by Darrow’s flank and blocked the strike.

  Darrow twisted around Damian. He pulled his dagger out, but Nolis blocked it to the side.

  The half-elf turned to bring his sword around, but Damian didn’t give him the time or space to adjust. He used his sheathed sword more like a club and sent Nolis stumbling back.

  Nolis tried to counterattack with a thrust, but he didn’t get the time or space to step in again. Darrow was already there in his face with the dagger.

  Nolis ducked, and the dagger grazed him on the cheek. Just as he thought it was done, Damian used [Piercing Thrust] and closed the distance, hitting him with his padded weapon and sending him to the ground.

  [Skill evolved: Piercing Thrust — Double Strike].

  Damian stepped forward to end it, but before he could do anything else, anything that could have even more dire consequences, Ursa stepped in.

  She placed her spear between them, and Damian froze. He narrowed his eyes at the Goliath half-giantess.

  “That’s enough,” she said.

  The crowd murmured, and their voices grew louder. They looked around and hesitated. By the time this whole situation was done with, Damian was sure word about them was sure to spread among the adventurers.

  Damian’s eyes moved through the crowd until he finally landed on Rellina. She gave him a nod, and his expression changed. First, he was confused. He frowned, brows knitting, then he sighed and stepped back.

  Ursa lowered her spear. Then she turned and lowered her hand to help the elven scion to his feet, but he slapped her hand to the side, getting up himself.

  He glared at Damian and Darrow, but Ursa barred his path. He looked up at her, then turned and walked away.

  The scions of the Brassthrone were just as erratic and fickle as their parents. They were willing to fight amongst each other for dominance and would readily put their rivalry aside to fight against any threat from the outside.

  After Nolis had walked back into the crowd, Ursa finally turned to them.

  “So will you join my hunting party?” she asked again.

  —

  The politics of New Calvassan were always like a light rain drizzling on the commers from the skies above. Nobles, whether they be merchant lords, adventurer lords, or noble lords, were clustered by alliances across the continent.

  Their Power was measured by the artefacts they held in their vaults, the number of dungeons they had cleared and most importantly, not by the number of individuals they had, but by the very few high-level individuals and artefacts they kept by their side.

  And even that was a vague way of describing it, if you did not account for legacy, the bureaucracy and the ancient histories that the nobles kept to themselves

  Rellina understood this. The more high-level individuals she could call upon, the better chance she had to rebuild her family’s legacy.

  She reached into her robes, and a wand slid free as she pulled it into her hand, and it gleamed in the dull light of the courtyard.

  The wand glowed with white light, and healing magic wrapped Damian’s arm. The blood vanished, and his pain receded. It flowed onto Darrow as well, and soon their sliced skin knitted closed, and their wounds disappeared.

  Damian turned his hand around. He looked at it, then exhaled.

  Rellina lowered her wand and looked at them. She considered apologising, but then thought better of it. She was a noble, and she couldn’t show such weakness.

  “Thanks,” Damian said. His voice was rough, and he was still trying to determine whether to be angry or calm.

  He looked at his sword, turned it around, and tsk-ed at the damage on his blade.

  Rellina followed the sword in his hand toward the notched and worn blade. She looked over to the side and noted Thovack standing by.

  “Give him your sword,” she ordered — or it was more like a request.

  The half-giant stepped forward, drew his sword, much to Damian’s surprise, and handed it over by the hilt.

  “Ah, won’t you need it?” Damian looked up at the Goliath.

  “No. I can find another, and if my lady wishes you to have a weapon to fight the beast, then it is my duty to provide one,” Thovack said, bowing and stepping back.

  “It’s a mana-forged sword. You can use it to cast spells as well.” Rellina said as she watched him inspect the sword that glinted with a slight blue hue.

  “And what will your knight use?” he asked, looking back up at her.

  “What she means is that you should return it.” Thovack said after seeing his charge hesitate to reply.

  Looking at it this way, Damian hesitated to accept the notion. The fact that she was telling them not to die and return was something that allowed him to feel a bit at ease.

  “And your daggers,” she turned to Darrow.

  Darrow looked down at his waist, then at the belt across his chest.

  “No, I am good,” he said, and patted his sides.

  She nodded, and that was when Ursa uncrossed her arms and walked over.

  “Have you come to a decision yet?” the Goliath scion asked as she looked from one brother to the other, and seeing how confusing that was getting, she settled on Darrow’s face.

  She liked the rogue.

  Damian and Darrow looked up at the tall girl. Then the silence stretched among the refugees in the courtyard.

  Rellina had said that they would be fighting for them — the people of Mistwall.

  They looked around, and the citizens leaned in. Finally, they both sagged internally. There was no refusal here.

  “Think about these people. They need you,” Rellina pushed, and that seemed to push Damian over the edge.

  It was dangerous fighting something like that unique monster, but Darrow knew that Damian wouldn’t refuse to at least try.

  “Fine,” Damian said.

  It wasn’t long after that when Scion Jorand approached their small gathering. They turned to him, and he began his argument.

  “I must insist one of you comes with me and my soldiers.”

  “Why would we do that?” Darrow put his hands on his hips.

  “You have experience fighting the monster. I think it should be this way,” he said, and looked at them.

  Rellina and Ursa also looked at them.

  “Respectfully, I only trust him to watch my back.” Darrow pointed his thumb back at Damian.

  “We don’t split up,” Damian said more straightforwardly.

  They stood there for a moment before a shout cut through the tension and caused them to look toward the gate.

  “They found it. They found the dungeon monster!” the scout in black leathers yelled in panic.

  The mention of the beast had the courtyard exploding into action.

  The adventurers, already sweaty from spars and filled with excitement after a long time of doing nothing, rose to their feet.

  The adventurers surged forward, frenzied from the sparring. They drew weapons, their armour clattered, and their eyes were filled with hunger.

  Hunger for the levels they would get from killing the beast. Hunger for fame among their fellow adventurers. Hunger for the wealth and power that came with adventurers like them.

  Everyone moved, and this time the brothers didn’t have to be told twice.

  They followed Ursa and her warriors, caught up by the fighters that surrounded them, all headed toward the barrier.

  But just as they reached the faintly shimmering line, they came to a stop, looking down at it.

  One step outside the barrier, and the monster would head straight for them.

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