I took a deep breath, but it didn’t calm my heart as I toughened my skin and prepared to take another heavy blow just in case. ‘I’ll finish this without letting either of them touch me, otherwise, how will I be able to hold my own in the deeper floors.’

 

The skeletons swung at me at the same time. I had no choice but to use my left arm as a shield, taking the hits with the metal plates that were protecting it.

 

Metal clashed against metal as I deflected their blows. ‘I’m not going to take a hit this time… I’m going to win without a gambit!’ I jammed my sword between the knight's armor and weaved it through a hole in the shabby tunic, shoving it and pinning it to the ground on its back.

 

‘Next is…’ Ducking to the side I slid just under another swing, flipping my dagger to my right hand and using it to parry the follow-up before cleanly slicing straight through it as I stepped past. The bones crumbled to the ground like dominos. ‘That’s better.’ My feeling of victory was short-lived though, replaced with panic as I realized the other one had already gotten up by breaking its own ribs to let the sword’s cross-guard pass through it. ‘Its core is protected by the tunic, and even more by that metal plate… How am I going to beat this one?’

 

It was calmly facing away from me. At first, only its head turned around, spinning like an owl, making me take a step back again, but then its body followed, and it picked up its friend's sword.

 

‘I should have just killed it right there… I missed an opening…’ I gritted my teeth, kicking its head, only making me flinch again. ‘Why undead… Couldn’t we go to a dungeon that featured slime or something?’

 

My heart was racing even faster, and my breath was short, but I knew I could win. My nerves built up inside me, and instead of waiting, this time I was the one that charged.

 

It blocked my first attack from my sword, and my second from my dagger, but as I kicked its leg out from under it the bone snapped and it fell to the ground, leaving it wide open for me to finish it, sliding my knife into it’s rib cage through the whole along with my entire hand, and then jamming it upwards into the crystal.

 

‘It's over… Wait!’ Just as I started to calm down, I felt like lightning struck me. ‘No, there was another one… The archer, where did it?’ I panicked and turned around, looking for it, but it was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my back. I twisted to slash at whatever stuck it there, nicking its crystal core. The entire right half of the skeleton fell to the ground and it became almost motionless. From the slight nick.

 

It tried to jab at me, pulling an arrow from its quiver, but there was no power behind it. With a quick thrust, I finished it off.

 

‘Now it’s over…’ I looked around at all of the bones under my feet as I started to feel exhausted. The adrenaline all left at once making me crash so hard I started to feel my blood moving through me like a rushing river. ‘Well, I won a fight, and I’m still standing, I guess that’s still better than the usual…’ I kicked some of the bones, putting my swords away through the pain and going over the fight in my head. ‘I made what… 23 mistakes? It’s like my mind goes blank the moment the adrenaline hits…’ I slowly reached up to my shoulder. ‘Losing the feeling in my arm really scared me for a moment.’ I turned back to my “team,” ‘I wonder how many mistakes my father saw.’

 

“Siya. Good job, are you ok?” Air ran up to me and grabbed my shoulder. 

 

I flinched in pain, quickly brushing away his hand. “I said hands off the shoulder!” I growled. ‘Why are all my injuries in the same spots…’

 

He took a step back. “I think you’ve got bigger worries right now.”

“What, is something wrong?” ‘I should be fine, I mean, my armor is good enough to block the arrows, so they didn’t actually pierce my skin.’

 

“You got stabbed Siya.” He said bluntly, clarifying.

 

My father just waved his hand like it was nothing. “She's fine. A jab from a weak skeleton using an old stone arrowhead couldn't do much to anyone.”

 

Airsidh picked me up, turning me around so that he could see my back. “No, It's really in there.”

 

It felt the same as the bruise I was sure was on my chest from the arrow I took from the front, but his words weren’t giving me any confidence it was the same.

 

“You don’t mean… it got through my armor?”

 

I flinched, feeling the arrow move inside of me as he touched it, sending chills through my whole back and chest. “Nope, missed your armor entirely, got in through a crack. Since he took you by surprise he could sneak it between these plates pretty easily.”

 

‘Fairy dust… Lu was right.’ “How bad is it?” I asked timidly.

 

“Oh it's huge, the arrow broke off too.” It was Airsidh talking, so it sounded half like a joke… But I couldn’t tell, and I was already nervous.

 

“She’s going to be ok right?” Zu asked.

 

My worry started to show as my voice got louder with each word. “Not exactly instilling me with confidence guys!”

 

Keigan groaned. “You’ll be fine, come over here and let me see.”

 

‘Well I’m glad somebody thinks so… But hearing it from you doesn’t actually help at all either…’ “You and Mom don’t really use that word the same way…” I muttered.

 

 He grabbed my shoulder, turning me to the side before letting out a grunt. “That's a lot deeper than I thought it was.”

 

 ‘I knew it… I'm going to die down here…’ I suddenly felt cold and found myself holding my arms close to my chest.

 

He just let out a sigh. “Well you're not exactly uninjured but I still wouldn't call it that bad. We will have to treat it though. This goes without saying but try not to move your arm for now… Let’s make camp. Zu, pay attention, this will be an important lesson for you.”

 

Finally turning back to me he grabbed me, made me face straight towards him, and looked me in the eye. “Siya, what was that? You let yourself get disarmed, took an arrow to the chest, let yourself get snuck up on from behind, and made countless other mistakes.”

“I-I–” ‘He was counting after all… He noticed all of them… I don’t even know what to say… It’s not like he’s wrong… As much as I’m mad at him for not helping, if I didn’t screw up I wouldn’t have gotten hurt…’

“And when you dodged the first strike, who taught you to dodge like that?”

 

“I was just–”

 

“Never dodge a strike if it can be blocked and it means you're putting yourself in danger. That dodge separated you from your opponent and gave the archer a clear line of sight.

 

“Sorry…” I apologized when I didn't feel like I should have, slowly feeling something between anger and wanting nothing more than to curl up and hide. ‘If anyone should be apologizing it’s you... you said you’d have my back and didn't even come close to stepping in. Not even after I got stabbed…’

 

Still, I wasn't all that angry at him. He wasn’t even letting me down anymore because I didn’t expect anything from him. In the end, I was only mad at myself. ‘I shouldn't have to apologize for trying not to get hit by a monster…

 

He sighed, almost like he was unsure how to respond to my apology, turning away in silence.

 

He was cruel and mean, and just a generally unfriendly person. That was nothing new if I thought about it… What really bothered me was why my brother didn’t step in to help either… ‘Am I just overreacting? Maybe it wasn’t actually that dangerous?’ The muscle in my back began to twitch, only making the wound ache and giving me more chills. ‘I’ll just forget about it for now… I’ll ask Mara when I get back if “I have your back,” which means “I’ll let you get stabbed in the back and not lift a finger.” I bet she’ll have something to say about it. At the very least she’ll be pissed that I have to waste time nursing an injury instead of training…