I rushed over to Roland’s side as he collapsed. Daisy said something, but I couldn’t hear her. It didn’t matter anyway. Roland was dead. He’d plunged the dagger right into his heart. Even now, the weapon was still pulsing with magic.

Curious, I reached out to grasp the handle, only to hiss in pain. The thing was red hot, yet there were no burns on Roland’s hand.

It must have been something his god had given him. But why use it on himself?

I looked around for more information. There was no sign of the Bellicose Hammer’s shrine, though Roland had stated before that he didn’t need one. That the god could just talk directly into his head. The hair on the back of my neck stood up at the realization. What if the god had messed with his mind and forced him to do this?

Persephone had told me to come here. Did she want me to stop this from happening? I couldn’t see the significance in Roland’s suicide, but maybe it had something to do with the weapon he’d used.

Even though it burned me, A selfish part of me still wanted the magic dagger. It pulsated with a power that I was envious of.

I tried to loot Roland’s body for it by touching his arm and got burned again. His whole body was heating up from the dagger and no loot option appeared.

I shook my head. More strangeness from these gods.

I felt bad leaving his body there, but there wasn’t time for anything else. Still, the opportunity of being in the church wouldn’t go to waste.

I scanned the shrines quickly until I found one of a deceptively young-looking man with long hair tied back in a ponytail. It was of a swordsman kneeling in a meditative pose, and taking it felt like the right thing to do.

Samara had taught me how to conceal my memories, and I sensed that there was more that I could learn from Yakeshi. Not to mention the fact that I could play them off of each other. Due to the competitive nature of these gods, if one of them tries to push the mind telepathy thing onto me, I could simply go to the other god. With the two of them competing to be my patron, I could keep either from having a complete claim to me.

I tried to loot the small statue and was once again denied.

*Item identified!* [Portable Shrine 2.0] – While this shrine can make unlimited requests for an audience, they cannot be placed in an inventory. Note: every request is subject to the whims of the god in question. The System makes no guarantee that calls will be answered.

I tucked the shrine under my arm and gave Roland’s body a wide berth as I left. Steam was now rising off of it now as it continued to heat up, though they appeared to be no outward signs of damage.

“We need to go!” yelled Daisy. The long handle of the scythe appeared in Daisy’s hands and the blade snapped up into position. She was outside of the church, watching as three armed figures came over the hill.

“Woah! Hey, let’s not fight them if we don’t have to,” I said, trying to deescalate things.

Daisy snorted. “You realize we’re the smaller, weaker group. Why would they bother listening to us?”

“Because we have more to offer them than being some lackey in a big army.”

I couldn’t be sure if they could already hear us, but just to be safe, I went into party chat and sent Hugo a message.

Lucas Hudson: Whatever happens, I need you to stay out of it. Do not join the fight.

Hugo groaned behind me. He was up on top of the church roof, but the wind had elevated his displeasure.

Hugo: I never get to have any fun.

Compared to the others, I was too underleveled. If it came to a fight, then I needed to be the one that gained the experience. I refused to be some helpless burden that the others would be forced to carry.

Lucas Hudson: Elise? Is your group at the location?

Elise Evans: Yes, we’re all at the cove. Is there a problem?

Her tone sounded almost angry. But this wasn’t the time, so I ignored it. They were at the agreed upon meeting point and were stuck waiting for us. We should’ve been there by now and sailed away in Hugo’s boat.

Lucas Hudson: Just a slight delay before we make our way over to you.

Hemi Smith: Sounds good!

As the three men came closer, I had to resist the urge to draw a weapon. In some ways, Daisy was right. It would just be simpler and faster to fight them.

Upon closer inspection, the three men were actually two men and a stocky woman with a shaved head. She wore a red scarf around her neck and carried a set of familiar looking hatchets.

“They’re tower climbers from different companies,” Daisy said.

The woman clearly belonged to Carina’s Marauders. The two other men also had distinctive looks to them. One man held a mace and wore the black and gold of the Golden Serpent company, while the other man wore all brown pirate clothes and a tricorn hat. He carried a seemingly ordinary looking cutlass in one hand while looking bored. He must be one of Kristoff’s rats.

“Bet you two of them go for me,” Daisy whispered with a smirk.

“I have the map. I’m clearly the target,” I whispered back.

“Yeah, but I’m the bigger the threat.”

I scoffed and stood relaxed while waiting for them to close the distance.

“Look, I know we may have our differences…” I began. My speech was cut off by the woman throwing a hatchet at my head. I dodged it and sighed. “Fine, we’ll do things your way.”

Sure enough, once they were closer, the Golden Serpent man and the Marauder woman broke off to target Daisy. She threw me another self-satisfied smirk while I rolled my eyes. Her two attackers then burst forth with tremendous speed and she had to focus. She fended them off by twirling her long scythe and using its impressive reach to keep them from getting too close.

That just left me with the Rat pirate. The cutlass he held didn’t look like anything special and, considering Kristoff had the weakest crew of all the groups, he might not even be a tower climber.

I summoned my Viper Fang knife and gently threw it at him. The man batted it aside contemptuously and sneered. “Is that all you’ve got?”

The knife wasn’t meant to cause injury, but it did get me the message that I wanted.

*Player Identified* [Alan Peters, Class: Intrepid Swashbuckler, Level: 65]

I tried to brush past his name as I read the notification. I still remembered too many names of those that I’ve killed. Some of whom weren’t bad but had just chosen the wrong side to fight for. At least the message confirmed that he was a tower climber, though ten levels above me were a concerning number. That was a lot of stat points that he’d have over me, which means I’d have to outthink him.

Alan was reading a similar message about me when I rushed him. “What the hell is a Blood—”

While dashing forward, I formed a blood sword and lunged. Alan’s cutlass swept up and deflected the blow with incredible speed. It would have been a killing stroke if not for his superior dexterity. I immediately backed off in case he followed up with an attack, but Alan instead stared at his sword, surprised at what he’d done.

Hmm, could be a passive skill or his instincts taking over to protect him?

It was always good to attack while an enemy was talking. Easier to take them by surprise that way, but he wouldn’t fall for it again.

I risked a glance at Daisy, who had started casually whistling as she spun her scythe. Her weapon’s edge caught one of the hatchets head on and sliced through it like it was made of paper. The woman would’ve lost her hand too had she not let go of the handle and resummon a fresh hatchet from her inventory. How many of those things do the marauder’s carry? Is it like a uniform Carina forces them to have?

Alan thought that I was as distracted and so he made his move. Which was stupid. He had a sword, and he saw me holding a sword and so he imagined a sword fight would commence. Whereas I could end this fight with one simple move. One that I’d never been able to pull off before.

Alan was no swordsman. His swings were lazy, and he put too much of his shoulder into it, like he was trying to chop through me. Had we been on the same level, this wouldn’t have even been a fight. But he leaned heavily on his superior strength and a speed that almost exceeded my own to keep me on my toes.

When my blood sword parried his and as our blades connected, I reached for the blood stored in my bracer. I pictured it coming out and forming a knife in my free hand. A second controllable source of blood so that I could form two weapons at once.

But no such knife appeared.

I cursed.

There had to be a way to improve my blood powers, but this fight wasn’t the place to find them.

Alan laughed, thinking he was getting to me. “You can still surrender and give me the map,” he offered.

I said nothing, and we traded a few more blows. He hit hard and with good speed, but I was better with a blade and I wasn’t even close to running out of moves. With neither of us giving ground, the clash of our fight lulled him into a false sense of security. He’d forgotten what my true weapon was.

I lunged my sword at his neck. Like before, Alan’s sword swept up to block and as it did, my blood sword returned to its liquid form. Alan’s momentum was thrown off. His cutlass passed through the line of liquid and continued traveling up, leaving his neck open. My sword solidified and I struck.

He died frowning. Not fully understanding what had happened. But then again, that was the risk of fighting a tower climber. You never know what their abilities could be.

*DING!* You have slain [Alan Peters, Intrepid Swashbuckler] Level 65 – Experience Points Acquired

*DING!* Class: [Blood Reaver] has reached level 56 – Experience Acquired. 

*DING!* Class: [Blood Reaver] has reached level 57 – Experience Acquired. 

*DING!* [Sanguine Projection] Increased to Level 2

Huh, even though I couldn’t hold a second source yet, I’d still pushed myself hard enough in the fight by turning the blood from solid to liquid and back again quickly enough to improve the skill. I have to push myself harder. I’m not on Tanis anymore with the brutal feline taskmaster. It’s up to me again to train and get better. Still, a two level jump was much appreciated as it brought me that much closer to closing the level gap with the others.

I looted Alan’s body next. He didn’t have much in his inventory except some camping supplies, but I needed his blood for my bracer, and this wasn’t the place to drain him.

Meanwhile, Daisy was still fighting the other two. If you could call it that.

“Would you stop toying with them?” I asked.

Time was against us and who knows what they’ve said in party chat about us. Reinforcements could be on their way.

Daisy nodded and smoke burst forth out of the scythe and covered their heads. The pair stumbled around blind for a moment before Daisy cut them both down with a single swing.

Lucas Hudson: We ran into a little trouble, but it’s over. We’re heading over to you guys now so we can get the hell off this island.

Elise Evans: Okay

Daisy: Actually, we might be a little longer than that.

She pointed. There were lights in the distance. Hundreds of them. All coming up over the hills from every direction.

Residents and tower climbers alike were marching with lanterns and weapons. It looked like Jason and the others had mobilized every remaining person left in the town to come after us.

Daisy and I looked for a way around them, but they were coming from all sides, effectively trapping us on the cliff.

Lucas Hudson: Yeah… you may need to come to us. How fast could you magic carpet over here?

Hemi Smith: I need a few minutes to prepare and then a few more to fly around the island.

I told him we could hold out until then, but I was lying. They’d be upon us soon and there were too many of them.

“Any ideas?” I asked.

“We could fight?” Daisy suggested. Her eyes sparkled at the insurmountable challenge.

I shook my head. “It would be suicide. Even with Hugo helping, we can’t fight this many at once.”

“Well you better to decide soon because they’re getting really close,” she replied.

Hugo, upon hearing his name, flew to my shoulder as we started backing up. When we were close to the cliff's edge, I looked over to see a four hundred foot drop that led to jagged rocks. Even if we jumped and miraculously survived hitting the water at a speed that make it feel like concrete, we’d still be impaled on those rocks.

The angry mob was getting closer, and I realized that even if they pushed us off the cliff to our deaths, the System wouldn’t allow the map in my pocket to disappear. It wouldn’t let this game end so quickly. No, more likely we’d die and the map would miraculously remain undamaged, floating on the surface. Hell, in this darkness it might even start glowing if the people here have a hard time finding it.

We couldn’t fight and we couldn’t just jump. Negotiation might work.

“I’m willing to make a deal for the map!” I yelled out.

They stopped for a moment.

“Whoever kills him first gets a reward!” somebody in the crowd yelled.

The others cheered and resumed advancing.

Daisy’s cocksure grin was gone. Her eyes darted back and forth over the crowd. “Come on. What are we doing here?” she whispered.

“What’s this we business?” Hugo asked smugly. “I can just fly away. That’s the perk of having wings.”

“Lucas, does the walking KFC meal have to talk?” she asked me sweetly.

“That’s a dumb insult,” Hugo sniffed. “I’ve never even been to Kentucky.”

“That doesn’t matter. The recipe is from there.”

They continued arguing while the angry mob was almost upon us. I let them in and blocked out their voices. It was just their way of coping with the stress. Hemi and the others were still too far away to help. It was up to us to get out of this.

Hugo started talking about the superiority of birds when I had an idea.

“Daisy, do you have any flying or levitation powers?” I asked her.

She arched her eyebrow. “If I did, do you think I’d still be here?”

I nodded. “Just checking. I need you to grab onto me and to not let go.”

She smiled. “I usually don’t move that fast on a first…” Her smile froze. “Wait, are we going over the edge?”

I nodded. “I have a plan. Hugo be ready. This one is on you.”

Hugo frowned. “Look, I know I’m a higher level and all, but I can’t carry both of you and fly. Hell, I couldn’t even hold one of you and glide.”

“I know. Just be ready,” I said before telling him what to do in party chat.

We stood on the edge and Daisy held onto my waist. I tried to look confident. Tried to pretend like my heart wasn’t threatening to burst out of my chest. But that would be a lie. I was terrified that this wouldn’t work.

I grabbed Daisy and jumped.