{Six Years Ago}

{Sara}

"Faster!" Her father called out, as Sara's mentor slashed toward her. Sara, seeing the wooden sword coming for her head, ducked under it and, with her own, she stepped forward, trying to smash it into her father's abdomen.

Instead, he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her, flipping her in the air, and throwing her down.

"Agh!" Sara choked up, as the wind was knocked out of her lungs.

"Stop!" Her father called out, and her teacher instantly stepped aside, bowing. Then, Sara's father, clad in black armor, walked toward her, his metallic boots clanking against the ground. "Are you okay?"

That was the first question he asked. As disappointed as Sara knew he was in her, that was always what he cared about the most. Even as she lagged behind the others, even as she failed to improve at the same rate that everyone else was, forcing these late sessions, he just wanted to know she was doing okay.

She nodded, of course.

Sara wasn't angry, Sara wasn't sad. She was just disappointed in herself.

"Let's call the session here," her father stated. "We'll resume tomorrow."

"Leon," her teacher called out her father's name. "You know she needs more practice. You can't keep coddling her like this."

"What my daughter needs is rest. You know how important rest is to an enari. Tiredness dulls your techniques, slows your hands. She'll resume tomorrow."

He said that with all of the finality that only an enari leader could muster. Sara's teacher bowed, then, and simply walked away.

"Now, Sara," he knelt beside her. "You sure got your ass kicked."

Sara nodded. Silently, she sat up and hunched over a bit.

"Eh, don't be too hard on yourself," he put a hand on her shoulder. "You're still improving. Come. We'll get some food to put in that stomach. You're looking a little thin these days."

Together, the two walked out into Sara's home village of Valencia. A few of her neighbor's children were recklessly running through the muddy road, as old men and women dragged heavy goods from one place to another. Every now and then, Sara would see a person dressed in that same black armor her father was wearing, and she'd receive a small hint of a vision into what she was supposed to be.

What she wasn't sure she could become.

"Aye!" Leon greeted a man who was handing out strange desserts on the side of a road. "I'll have one."

"Blessings upon you, enari," the man bowed as Leon tossed him a few silvers. "Ah, is this your daughter, sir?"

"That's right," Leon answered, putting a hand on her shoulder proudly.

"As precious as a puregem from the Abyss itself," he told him and Leon laughed heartily.

"Let me tell you, one day," Leon said, "Sara, here, will swing her sword with more elegance than any of the enari grandmasters. That, I believe with all my heart."

As they spoke, Sara looked around. Valencia was so small, one could traverse the entirety of this place in just an hour. As far as she knew, no one cared about this village. It wasn't on anyone's mind to the far west and the merchants who came here would often only come, sell their things, and leave to find a better land as soon as they could.

But, to Sara, it was her home. And, even if she was bad at it, she would train to be able to fight for it.

---

{Now}

As Sara fell, from being stabbed in the back of one of her legs, visions of the past flashed in front of her eyes.

Her throat felt tight. She felt like, if she focused on the sounds around her, she could see those same monsters that had caused the scars her heart still had to this day. However, a voice cut through to her.

"Sara!" Her ally, Rin, yelled out, and suddenly, a pair of hands were under her own, and Sara was being pulled back.

Dragged back, was more like it. Past many undead, swinging their weapons recklessly, Rin moved with a speed and strength that Sara didn't associate with her.

When they reached the fortress' doors, and Rin cried out in pain as she dropped Sara on the ground, Sara understood why.

[She used Essence,] she realized. [Was I in that bad a position?]

"We can't have you fucking up like that!" Alea said, quickly placing her hands on Sara's injured leg as she cast her healing spell. "Don't be so reckless!"

However, despite how loudly she told her this, Sara was barely listening.

In the back of her mind, all she could see was fire and blood. The guttural moans the undead were giving off reminded her of the same pained cries her friends and family let out during their last hours. And, the sharp pain in Sara's leg made her feel just as weak as she had been on that fateful day.

As that pain was soothed away, though, Sara shook her head, looking down at herself. Her wound had disappeared.

Noting that, she stood up so quickly that Alea flinched.

"Thank you," Sara told the girl quietly.

"... Whatever, just be careful," Alea replied, standing up.

Then, taking her sword up again, Sara allowed the anger festering in her heart to fuel her next actions. Ahead, her amber-eyed teammate, who, earlier, had made the strain on her body obvious with those pained sounds, was trying her hardest to hold off several undead soldiers at once. All, of course, because she'd gotten careless. If her father could see her now, she was sure she'd be scolded for that.

All she could do now, though, was make up for it. So, once Alea was done healing her, she ran forward and quickly slashed off the head of an enemy that had been about to attack Rin from her left side.

"Sara!" Rin said, smiling as she realized Sara was back in the fight, with a certain gratitude in her voice that she found confusing.

After all, she was only doing what she was supposed to. It had been her own mistake that caused this brief interruption to begin with.

[You need to be better.]

That was all she could think right now. And that same self-hatred was what spurred her on, as she cleaved through one enemy after another.

In the middle of each skirmish, Sara gritted her teeth and scolded herself.

[You are too slow,] she thought. [If you were faster, everyone would still be here.]

As she stabbed through a monster's gut, past its armor, and her ancestral sword failed to push all the way through, Sara bit down on the insides of her cheeks.

[You aren't strong enough either. You're pathetic.]

"Agh!" Tearing her sword out, she quickly transitioned into another slash aimed at the monster's neck, and its head fell off just like those of the other monsters she'd killed so far.

Then, a sword pierced through Sara's right shoulder, from behind.

"A-" Her breath caught in her throat as she saw the weapon emerge out from in front of her. She pushed herself off of the blade, and her right arm went limp as a searing pain spread out from that spot.

With her off-hand, she turned and killed the undead creature that had done this to her.

Then, as quickly as she could, she ran back to her mage ally.

Wordlessly, as Rin managed to kill more undead on her own, Sara paused in front of her.

Alea quickly drew a circle in the air and immediately, the pain was healed away.

Maria, though, spoke up, still sitting near Varyn.

"Sara," she said. "Calm down. You're not thinking things through out there. Just take a second to breathe."

Sara's hands clenched around the hilt of her sword.

Maybe that was wise, maybe her teacher was right, but she couldn't allow herself to do that. Anger and vengeance were solely what had been driving Sara to improve for years. She couldn't just do away with that now. Not when she was finally on her path to becoming the monster slayer her people had needed before, and maybe others would need in the future.

So, ignoring Maria's words, Sara ran out and did the same as she'd been doing before.

She only managed to kill a few creatures though, before she noticed a few things. Firstly, the number of undead was decreasing, and second, Rin had stopped, looking at a different enemy.

That was when Sara's eyes fell on the approaching skeleton. It was different from all the other enemies around them, carrying a heavy greatsword and wrapped in dark armor, quite like Sara's own. The glowing red beads in its eye sockets hinted at some hidden power, that made Sara pause.

Rin was in a fighting position, looking like she was about to take it on.

Sara looked around. There were still so many undead left, aside from this other one. If Rin intended to fight it, Sara needed to keep the others from getting involved. If she managed to clear them out before the fight ended, she could join, and between the both of them, with Alea's help as well, she guessed they could win that next battle easily.

[You know what you have to do,] she told herself. [Just do it already.]

Putting Rin out of her thoughts momentarily, Sara got to work. She charged toward the nearest creature, stabbing straight through its nose. Another one swung an ax at her. Sara deflected its weapon before cutting its legs off and impaling it as it fell to the ground.

One quick kill after another. Minutes passed, and by now, Sara had lost herself in the fight. Between her blade and the spherical projectiles being cast out toward the weaker undead, she and Alea managed to put crowds of them down with ease.

The more she killed, the easier it got, as there were fewer enemies surrounding her. She decided she could leave a few of them standing, for Alea to finish, and focused on the bigger one who had arrived earlier.

With that thought, she heard Rin struggling against the skeleton just a short distance away. Sara turned toward her and inspected the ensuing fight.

Rin wasn't really getting any offense in. All of her efforts were focused solely on avoiding attacks that were coming much quicker than Sara thought was possible, from an enemy of that size, wielding a weapon that was just as impressive.

After just one short second to catch her breath, Sara ran up to help.

Just as she arrived, the enemy's greatsword swung at Rin from the side, at an angle that Rin couldn't move away from. The girl stumbled back, and Sara stepped between her and the enemy's sword, blocking the attack herself.

"Agh!"

Sara's hands shook as her weapon clashed against the skeleton's own. Its attack was so strong, it made just blocking this attack sting.

Still, determination alone made it so that Sara took her sword up and tried to attack this thing.

Swinging at it three times in quick succession, the skeleton blocked all of Sara's attacks so easily that it made the girl let out a frustrated grunt, trying to will her body to move faster.

She did, however, pause to make sure she and Rin weren't being flanked, when, she realized something.

[There are no other enemies left,] she thought, surprised, as she saw many piles of ash on the ground, evidence of Alea's successful killing spree. [This is it. If there was a time to use Essence, it would be now.]

And so, she leaped backward, pausing a short distance away from the skeleton. Taking a deep breath, she quickly let Essence run all throughout her, as Rin stood nearby, ready to fight.

Behind them, Sara saw Alea jogging over to them out of the corner of her eye. She looked exhausted, which was a testament to just how many spells she'd been casting. With all three of them here, Sara paused.

[It's time to end this.]

With her Essence running through her, boosting her natural strength and power beyond the amount that was already considered impressive among the students, she ran behind the skeleton. Getting its attention, the creature turned to face her, lifting its weapon in the air. Then, fire surged out from Alea's palm and covered the entirety of its body.

Spotting an opportunity, Sara lunged forward. With her sword outstretched, she went to stab its head, but the monster swung wildly at her, and she stopped in her tracks, narrowly avoiding getting cut in half.

Rin leaped up, spinning in the air and landing a kick onto the skeleton's head from the side. Again, the skeleton swung wildly, turning toward her, and Sara found the opening she needed.

In a flash, she moved up, jumped, and stabbed straight through the monster's skull. Pushing the creature down, as the flame ceased covering it, Sara removed her sword and found that the monster was finally dead.

As soon as she noticed that, Sara looked from one side of the battlefield to another, trying to make sure, one last time, that there were no more opponents. Indeed, there weren't any. They'd won.

...

{A couple of hours later}

"Holy crap, we did it!" Rin said, raising her arms as everyone walked behind her. "We- ow, ow, crap." She held herself. Sara was feeling the same way.

Rin seemed quite happy, though. As soon as things had been handled, the group left the fortress, and were currently on their way back to Libera, as the sun was beginning to retreat past the horizon.

"Good focus," Maria told Varyn. "Although so much chaos was unfolding, you managed to remain concentrated on the ritual. You show a lot of promise."

"Thank you," Varyn replied, with a respectful tone.

"Uh, hello?" Alea said, annoyed. "Really? No one is gonna talk about how I kept all of your asses alive? I literally wiped out at least forty of those things!"

"You did very well, Alea," Maria added then. "Your prioritizing was on-point. You were quite impressive."

At that, Alea went silent.

"... Thanks."

As for Sara, however, she remained silent.

Her hand was kept wrapped around her sword's hilt. Sara's eyes remained low, and as the group walked, all she could think about was the mistakes she made all throughout the mission.

The injuries she'd sustained, the attacks she hadn't seen coming. Marks of an amateur warrior, something she wasn't supposed to be, this far into her journey. It made the resentment she felt, aimed at herself, continue to build up in her heart.

[I am pathetic,] she thought. [I need to be better. I need to-]

Right up until a hand fell on her shoulder.

She looked to her right and found Rin there, with a smile on her face.

"Hey," she said. "Good job back there. How did you get that good at fighting?"

"..." Sara didn't comprehend her question. She'd performed awfully. "I-I..."

Without being able to think of anything, she looked away, hoping Rin would leave her alone.  She didn't though. The amber-eyed girl was still looking at her, waiting for an answer.

"I trained," Sara replied softly.

"Okay," Rin giggled. "I know. How did you train, though?"

"..." Sara took a deep breath. "At home."

"Oh, like, with your family?"

Hearing that, Sara felt a stabbing pain in her heart.

She nodded, incapable of producing any words there without her voice cracking.

"Sounds cool," Rin told her.

[... This girl's presence,] Sara thought, as she looked away, feeling embarrassed to have such big eyes fixated so purely on her. [It's... Too much for me.]