Kar’s armor was thick now. He didn’t bother dodging strikes, or stabs, or anything else these cryst-soldiers threw at him. Why should he? Anywhere his armor cracked, he Forged over.

  In his left hand, Kar held a long, crystal chain, and on his right forearm he bore a shield. He whipped his chain toward a cryst-soldier brave enough to inch toward him, its spear leveled. The last few links wrapped around the cryst’s ankle and that was all it took. The cryst-soldier collapsed in spasms and Kar drained his fill of Energia. He used that power to Forge additional links in the larger chain he’d dropped over the wall’s edge, then peered over. That chain was almost to the ground now, within reach of Kar’s companions. Just in time too, the Cryst below had begun to advance on them.

  One by one the members of his party began the ascent. Kar checked again that the chain was well secured and saw the others were out of danger now, climbing quickly. Then he planted his feet and stared down the remaining defenders still up on the wall here with him. They cowered in fear. Part of Kar reveled in that. The rest of him recoiled in horror. After a few tense moments the cryst turned and fled.

  Immediate threats gone; Kar raised his faceguard and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He walked to the interior edge of the wall, intending to scout things out. A lone figure drew his attention.

  It was a Valorcryst, striding out of the palatial central hall that occupied the heart of the Fortress. Dress robes flowed behind her as she walked into the middle of the courtyard below; a pair of metal blades glinting in both hands. She unclasped and dropped her robe, then stabbed both swords into the ground. She took a knee, waiting.

  The rain had stopped, and rays of scattered light peeked sporadically through the cloud cover above. The Valorcryst lifted her head and stared directly at Kar. From this distance he couldn’t see her features, but he knew—this must be Melisdra.

  Kar’s right arm throbbed compulsively. He looked down at the chain in his hand. From the reverential way Tharn and Erio spoke of her, Kar knew she wasn’t to be underestimated. And yet, what could she do to him? With his new-found powers Kar felt strangely confident; uniquely equipped to face any cryst threat. He could end this Trial, right here, right now. Without endangering anyone else in his party.

  Kar stepped back to the chain he’d tied off and checked on the other’s progress. Aldwin was about three quarters of the way up the wall’s face, the rest following close behind him.

  This was the right choice.

  Kar turned, ran, then leapt off the wall. He blasted his way towards where Melisdra knelt, left arm rigid and palm splayed in his awkward style, more of a stuttering fall than smooth flight. He landed upright on the stones of the courtyard before her, then lowered his faceguard and raised his shield.

  He approached the Valorcryst woman cautiously. She didn’t move at first but rather left her hands resting on her thighs while those blades stood partially sheathed in stone before her. “I did not think to see another Marked before the end. Tell me, boy, what is your name?”

  Kar felt a chill on his neck but didn’t respond. Distant shouts from up on the wall behind him told him the others must have made it over the battlements.

  After a tense moment of silence between them, the Guardian stood. A thick braid of crystalline hair hung over her shoulder. She flipped it back, then grabbed hold of her blades and withdrew them smoothly from the stone. “I am the Guardian Melisdra,” She raised and pointed one of her blades toward him, “and I know what you are. Do you?”

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  Kar cleared his throat, suddenly nervous, “I know I don’t belong here,” he answered, “and neither do my friends. We just want to escape this Vault without dying.”

  Melisdra chuckled, “Oh but you do belong here. For you are Marked. And yet, you dare to walk with Shadow in my Domain?”

  Kar ignored her, “I don’t want to fight you, but I will if I have to.”

  “This trial is simple,” she said, a hard edge to her voice, “Had you come to my gates peacefully you would have been permitted to challenge me here in this courtyard without obstruction. But you assaulted my walls and defiled my soldiers. That is telling, I think.”

  Kar lowered the chain in his left hand, ready to strike. He blinked and lost sight of her. Something struck the side of his helmet, hard enough to make him drop his shield and knock him to the ground. There was a dull ringing in his ears as Kar rolled with the momentum of his fall and pulled Energia through his shard pouch to heal himself.

  The ringing stopped.

  Kar rose up on one knee and whipped his chain in an arc around himself. There was a dull ache in his side, he realized then, looking down he saw blood leaking from a puncture in his armor. When did that happen? His helmet had come off too.

  Melisdra paced lazily just out of reach of his chain. She held her two blades lightly. Two blades. She had struck him in the head and stabbed him simultaneously. Kar shook his head and stood, purposefully not blinking. He whipped the chain toward her. She leaned back, just out of reach, having accurately measured its length. Kar Shadow Forged, lengthening his chain mid-flight. It struck her in the shoulder and Kar triumphantly started to draw on the Energia within her.

  He was too slow however; she’d already whipped one of her blades up and knocked the chain aside before she could be paralyzed by spasms. Kar cursed and crept to the side in a shallow crouch.

  “Clever,” she muttered.

  Figures raced up to the edge of the stone pavers along the courtyard’s edge. Erio and Tharn. Kar glimpsed the Hunters and Lore just behind them as well.

  “Do not interfere!” Melisdra commanded, turning toward those newly arrived. Her voice was a whip, her glare an icy gale.

  “You must not kill him Melisdra!” Erio pleaded, “He is the last of the Marked. The Source told us itself.”

  Melisdra turned back toward Kar, leaning her head to the side. She looked disturbed. Contemplative. Then she stalked towards him regardless. Kar whipped his chain towards her again. She snapped an arm up and caught the chain on the flat of her blade. Its links whipped in tight circles around the weapon, binding it tightly, but she casually ripped her other blade up and through the chain, severing it neatly. What kind of metal were her swords made of?

  Kar jumped back, cursing, then Forged his chain anew. He frantically cracked it at her again, but she easily side-stepped. Kar had badly miscalculated, he realized now. She was so much faster than him—as she had already displayed—yet she advanced on him steadily and slowly, as if daring him to try and stop her. Kar dropped the chain altogether and forged a lance in its place which he thrust at her. Again, she dodged it, but he had expected that. As she side-stepped, he snapped the lance to the side, trying to just lay the shaft of it against her cryst skin.

  Her blade was there to hold him off and prevented it from making contact. She was anticipating his every thought and movement.

  Kar’s shards were nearly out of Energia now. Melisdra was his only remaining source. In desperation, he lunged, his shadow arm extended towards her. There would be a cost—he knew—but if he could just touch her, he could still win this.

  With blinding speed, she knocked his hand away with one blade, then brought the other around in an upward strike that traveled alongside his chest and up and under his shoulder. There was a shearing tug, and then Kar watched numbly as his severed Void-cryst arm spun away from him across the courtyard where it landed with a hollow click.

  He’d dropped the lance in his left hand and the Focusing he’d begun to craft a moment before went off, blasting from his ring into Melisdra point blank. The Guardian was knocked violently off her feet as Kar collapsed to his knees. He tried to clench his right hand involuntarily, but there was nothing there. The horror he’d felt at losing it the first time returned, only now the loss felt greater, somehow.

  Kar’s vision blackened and his hearing faded. A terrible rush tore through his body. It felt like every fiber of himself was being tugged apart at the seams. He opened his mouth in a silent scream—and watched in disbelief as his shorn Shadow arm reformed itself.

  From what? Kar thought hazily to himself. He had no Energia left…

  He didn’t realize he was even falling until the side of his face struck the stone beneath him.