Get the bastard!

  As the demon once again made its escape into the trees, the Wayfarer’s command rang through Ana’s mind. Ana was way ahead of the goddess, already pushing herself to her feet. She was fed up with watching it hurt one of her people, only to disappear and strike again a few minutes later. Soon they’d have to stop and make a stand, or they’d be nothing but a train of stretchers and their bearers, And then, she was sure, the demon would start actually sticking around to make sure of its kills.

  Ana wouldn’t let it get that far. It was time to end this.

  As Ana got up she locked eyes with Messy, and Messy understood immediately what she intended. She didn’t protest that it was too dangerous. She didn’t even shake her head. While others realized what was about to happen and called out for Ana to stop, to wait, to let the demon come to them again, Messy quickly bent and grabbed Rill’s sword from the ground. Then, with a shout of “Go!” she threw it to Ana.

  Ana caught it. She caught it by the damn blade, but between her several layers of harm reduction it didn’t even cut her skin. She nodded her thanks to Messy, and then she was off, following the demon vanishing into the distant forest.

  Gods, the thing was quick. It moved across the uneven terrain, through bushes, over gullies and hills, like it had been made for it. Like they were barely even there. In her state, Ana didn’t think she could have run it down. But she didn’t need to. She still had minutes left on her wings. They didn’t rely on anything so feeble as flesh, and she was far faster in flight than she was on her feet.

  Ana set off after the demon like an arrow. Or perhaps a bird of prey would be a better comparison, as the sum of all her System features let her weave gracefully between the trees and pass untouched over and under bush and branch. The demon had a headstart of a few hundred feet, and she chased it down in ten seconds flat.

  Even as fast and nearly soundlessly as she came, the demon still reacted. Just like it had when she’d prevented it from running down Deni a few days before, it somehow knew when she was almost upon it. Only this time, instead of leaping into the air and spinning to face her, it flipped around horizontally, digging its toes in so that she would overshoot, and it would be moving in the opposite direction, back toward the others.

  Last time, Ana had been taken by surprise. This time she expected it to do something; what, she didn’t know, but something. She’d been flying low, at shoulder height on the demon, and leading with the tip of the sword she carried. And when it performed that low leap, spinning around so that it was facing back toward her, she did the first thing that came to her.

  Like a charging lancer, she dipped the point of the sword. The demon, having no contact with the ground, couldn’t do anything to dodge. It slapped at the blade, but it was too late. Rill’s sword slipped into his stolen body to the right of his neck, right behind the collarbone. The loss of momentum and Ana passing over the stricken demon guided it down through the chest to exit under the ribcage and deep into the soil. Ana allowed the blade to wrenched from her hands as she passed, throwing up her wings to brake and leaving the demon pinned to the earth like an insect behind her.

  It wasn’t enough. It didn’t kill the demon. With how obscenely resilient it had already proven to be, only a fool or a ridiculous optimist would have thought so, and Ana was neither. She braked, and she turned, and when she settled to the ground, she did so ready to fight.

  The demon wanted none of it. It pushed itself to its feet, sliding the blade out of the soil. It was about to start running again, the sword impaling it be damned, when Ana pounced.

  “Not this time, asshole,” she growled between gritted teeth as she again landed on the demon’s back. This time she didn’t wrap her legs around its waist. She pinned its left arm with her own, grabbed onto the hilt of the sword with her right hand, and stretched her legs along the demon’s. Then she heaved back, pitting her Strength against the demon’s in an attempt to bend it backwards.

  The demon won. But that didn’t matter. It was stronger than Ana. Fine. It wasn’t strong enough to run, not with her fighting it like that. It staggered around, snarling and hissing as it tried to shake, buck, and even grind her off against a tree before Ana flapped her wings on a stagger, and it finally stumbled and fell.

  It kept fighting her. It fought like, well, a demon. But the grapple was what Ana was made for, and she wasn’t letting go. She was bruised and bleeding, but she wasn’t going to let anything shake her off. The demon rolled and jerked. It tried to turn its head to bite her, and to kick her legs loose. But Ana could hear her allies coming, crashing through the undergrowth, calling to her and each other. All she had to do was to keep the bastard in place.

  Then the demon heaved backward, and somewhere inside it Ana heard the blade snap. With the backward force she was putting on the hilt, a third of the broken blade slid out of the demon’s shoulder in a small fountain of blood, leaving Ana without one of her points of control. Then, with a sudden, tremendous jerk the demon twisted around in her grip, trapping both their arms underneath it and leaving Ana’s face far too close to all those sharp teeth.

  The demon’s ice-blue eyes were absolutely mad. The face they sat in was almost unrecognizable as Rill’s twisted as it was in hunger and hate. The too-wide mouth opened on a hissing “Eat!” and all those teeth lunged for Ana’s face.

  With an embarrassing shriek, Ana jerked back and reflexively slammed the broken stump of Rill’s sword down. It took the demon in the mouth, driving so deep that it came out the back of its head, pinning it to the ground with the guard wedged the long way between its jaws.

  Even that didn’t kill it. It didn’t even paralyze it, though Ana was sure its spinal cord must have been severed. Disgust and horror threatened to overcome her as it thrashed and gurgled around the steel in its mouth, but she didn’t let them. With one hand clamped down on its wrist so hard that the bones creaked she kept its arm trapped beneath it; with the other she put her full weight on the handle of the sword, fighting to keep it in place. It bashed at her with the stump of its right arm, but it could only bruise her—maybe break a few ribs. Nothing she hadn’t been through before. But nothing it could do would loosen her grip. She wrapped her legs around the demon’s, and then she held on until the others began to arrive a few seconds later.

  Aaspiyah was first. Her hair was wild, the ribbon holding her bun in place having been lost in the scuffle, and her dress was torn. She saw Ana struggling to hold the demon in place and didn’t hesitate. She wordlessly knelt, grabbing its stump arm in both hands and forcing it to the ground, then put her whole weight on it to keep it from striking Ana again.

  The next several people to arrive just milled about, not sure what to do with Ana laying across practically the whole demon and Aaspiyah holding its arm down. Someone tried bashing it in the head with a mace, but the weapon just bounced off its skull after breaking the skin. They started talking. Discussing, while Ana’s frustration grew. Kaira was there, saying that she couldn’t hit it in the head without the risk of charring Ana’s hand to the bone. Talleh and one of his mercenary Earth-mages suggested they may be able to raise a stone spike very carefully through the back of its head. One practical voice suggested using a saw to decapitate it.

  Ana didn’t care how they did it. She was about to scream at them to just fucking kill the thing already and not worry about her when Messy arrived, glaring in outrage at the dozen-and-a-half Delvers and mercenaries who’d made it there before her.

  “Gods have fucking patience,” she spat angrily, drawing the Ascender’s dagger as she slowed her jog to a determined stride. Then she knelt by the demon’s head and stabbed. It took two tries. On the first she pierced one of its hate filled eyes; on the second the blade stuck. After that Messy held the dagger in place, and hammered on the pommel with her palm until she’d driven the blade in to the hilt.

  The demon jerked and shuddered. Messy grabbed the dagger with both hands, and wrenched it sideways. Then she did it again, and again, and again, until the demon stopped gargling and jerking. A moment later it stopped moving altogether.

  When the demon finally stilled, no one spoke. Ana just lay there, panting and trying to ignore all the little annoyances that didn’t exist while she was in combat, while those who’d run to her aid gathered around her in silent awe. Then Messy leaned down, and in a soft voice she said, “We did it, Angel. First an Ascender, now a sapient possessed. We did it!”

  Ana’s face was pressed into the demon’s chest as she caught her breath. No one could see her tired grin until she let go of the demon’s wrist and the sword hilt and rolled onto her back. Then she laughed. First a single sharp bark, then full laughter, tired and relieved and incredibly painful, but she didn’t care. She grabbed Messy by the neck of her armor and pulled her down, kissing her fiercely before letting her up and shouting, “We did it! We fucking did it!”

  Her voice muffled by the cheering that broke out, which was triumphant to the point of being almost manic, she whispered to Messy, “We did it. Again. You and me.”

  “We had help,” Messy admitted wryly, glancing at the Iron Warrior who still knelt panting beside them. “Not like I took that arm off. But, yeah. We did it.” Then she snorted. “You hold, I stab. It’s a good system.”

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  “The best,” Ana agreed, grinning up into those bright eyes, ringed with black so thick as to be warpaint. “We’re goddamn unstoppable.”

  “Goddamn nauseating, more like,” Aaspiyah muttered under her breath, but Ana didn’t miss the brief hint of a smile on her face, nor the complete lack of any actual disgust in her aura. “Good job,” she added bluntly as she pushed herself to her feet and walked away to join her chief and her companions.

  You did well. Both of you. Bloody entertaining, too. The Wayfarer’s voice came warm and full of approval, with a sense of soft laughter. Tell your darling that she has my blessing to court my Chosen.

  Too late for that, Ana replied as Messy helped her to her feet. But I’ll tell her.

  And tell her to save this one, just in case. She’s unlikely to get another.

  What? Ana asked, and was met with only amused silence.

  “What’s that look?” Messy asked, leaning in and whispering softly. “Your mask slipped.”

  “Not a mask right now,” Ana replied, letting her triumphant grin return.

  “So? What’re you so surprised about?”

  “The Wayfarer wants me to tell you that you have her blessing,” Ana whispered back. Messy’s breath caught in response, her entire body stiffening in surprise. “To court me,” Ana continued wryly.

  “As though I need it,” Messy laughed nervously.

  “Right? She also wants me to tell you to ‘save this one, since you probably won’t get another.’ Didn’t explain what she meant by that.”

  “‘Save…’” Messy’s voice trailed off, only for her to gasp softly, the air coming out as a barely audible, “Oh!”

  “What?”

  “Ana, look at your notifications.”

  Ana did, and no wonder Messy gasped the way she did. Not only her, either. All around them, people were cheering, laughing, talking animatedly with each other, or standing around with vacant or stunned expressions at the notification they’d all received some variation on.

  The first half of her notifications were a solid haul. It would have been nice to get another Ascendant Crystal for the demon, but so many people had been involved in wearing it down over the past two days that it wasn’t less than fair. A Supreme and a Greater were nothing to scoff at, either, and another Greater from Unarmed Combat was more than welcome. Especially with how close that Skill was now getting to Level 20, and another Perk.

  Long Blades almost made her laugh. Getting 3 Levels in one go was… it was something. And again, it wasn’t less than fair. It was the sword that had let her stop the bastard, and it was the sword that kept her face intact and the demon in place until the others could arrive. And that Perk, well, Ana couldn’t argue with that. She did have a developing pattern of stabbing things in the mouth. And then breaking her sword, unfortunately. The less said about that, the better.

  But those weren’t what had people so excited, even if everybody had likely received a high-Tier Crystal of some sort. No, it was the Achievements that did that.

  The Long Blades thing had almost made Ana laugh. What she now saw shocked her to short-live silence, before she actually did laugh, pulling Messy into a crushing hug. “Hold onto it!” she demanded. “We’re getting you to Level 50. I don’t care what it takes. We’re both getting there, and we’re both Ascending. You and me, untouchable, together for as long as you’ll have me.”

  A gentle pressure on her chest made Ana pull back far enough that she could see Messy’s face. There was apprehension there, and doubt, and when she let herself, Ana could feel both in Messy’s aura, weak though it was. But there was also hope. Hope buried under a layer of anxiety, as though Messy didn’t dare let herself feel it.

  “Me?” Messy asked. “Ascend?”

  “Yeah,” Ana replied, standing firm in the face of all that doubt. “You and me, to Level 50 and beyond. Together for as long as time will let us.” But Messy’s doubt was contagious. A little piece of it took root in Ana, and she added, “If… if you want to, that is.”

  “I do!” Messy replied hastily, her face coming alive with a need for Ana to believe her. “I do, Angel, I just… Ascension? I never— that’s not something that happens to people like me.”

  “But it does to people like me. Mess, the Wayfarer has basically confirmed that Ascending is the only way I’ll survive. And with what she had me tell you, I think she wants you to do the same. You wouldn’t disappoint your goddess, would you?”

  “That’s not fair. And I’m not saying I don’t want to. I’ll always be by your side, as long as I can! I just… I don’t…”

  “You don’t think you have what it takes to Ascend? You?”

  “I was a Jeweler until a few weeks ago. Before then I was an Apprentice Steward,” Messy objected weakly.

  “And now you’ve killed an Ascender and a possessed sapient with your own hand. With the same damn dagger, in fact. You have what it takes, Mess.”

  “You think so?”

  “Yeah. And so does your goddess, judging by that message she had me pass along.”

  “Our goddess.”

  “Sure. Our goddess. So?”

  Messy lowered her head, pressing her forehead to Ana’s. “Alright.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. You and me. Level 50 and beyond. If fate wills it.”

  There were a few new Levels that day. One of them was Messy's, putting her at Level 13. There weren’t as many as Ana had expected, but then, a lot of people had only struck a glancing blow or none at all against the demon. Doing nothing despite trying was rewarded, but not by much.

  As far as she could tell, though, everybody got Hunting Party V and Kerecide. Most of them had never even heard of an Ascension Point—Drisa was very busy fielding questions—and nobody ever looked down on a bunch of free Advancement Points. Despite their dead and wounded, there was an undercurrent of excitement among the large group. But most of them kept that excitement under control until they got underway, because they had a final solemn task to carry out before they could return to the outpost and put the whole sad business behind them.

  They burned Rill’s body with all the sober respect of any funeral. Those who’d known him said a few words; Ana spoke of his good humour, his courage, and his reliability. Not even the Wayfarer could say if his soul had been trapped inside the demon, but if it had been, he was free now.

  They burned him with the shards of his blade on his chest, but when they went to retrieve his bones for a cairn they found the steel untouched by the flames, though the wood and leather of the hilt had burned away. Ana expected them to bury the shards with the bones, but her allies had other plans.

  “You should take it,” Pirta told Ana openly, in front of almost the entire expedition. “Regular steel going untouched by flames that burned as hot as our Fire-mages could make them does not happen by chance. This is fate, or direct intervention by some deity. Take it to a smith. A high-Level one with the Craft of Metal should be able to reforge it.”

  Ana didn’t protest. Leaving the blade with its original owner seemed the thing to do, but she wasn’t the sentimental type. If they said it could be repaired, well, maybe she’d see what she could do. She’d liked the feel of it, though she hadn’t really known what the hell she was doing.

  I’m gonna guess you had nothing to do with it, since you haven’t said anything, she told the Wayfarer as she wrapped the broken pieces up in the same blanket as Waller had given it to her.

  None at all, the goddess confirmed after some time. I have better things to do with my power than spend it preserving mundane weapons.Things are getting ugly out there.

  Of course they are. Ana sighed audibly, then had to reassure Messy that everything was alright.

  She wanted her old weapons back. The Engravings had been a gift, and she’d been growing attached to them. They were presumably still out there in the forest; she even thought she might be able to find them. But before she could go look for them, she needed to get back to the outpost. She needed to rest for about three days straight and do absolutely nothing except eat, sleep, and cuddle with Messy.

  She had forty-one days left. Forty-one days until the cycle ended, and the Waystone aligned with the Primes. She needed to be ready for anything when that happened. But that was six weeks in the future. For now, for just a little while, she could afford to rest.

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