The Pinnacle Warrior

As the sun rose overhead, Astrid collapsed into a pile of armor, limbs, and sweat on the outskirts of Neverwood’s borders. It was a testament to just how hard Liora had pushed her that she was tired at all, given the passive benefits from Physique.

Even as exhausted as she was, Astrid was able to see as Liora’s transformation was dispelled. In a smooth, continuous flow, the body of the lindwurm collapsed in on itself, growing shorter until, when it was only about three meters long, Liora pushed her tail underneath herself to stand upright. Then, the tail split into two stubby legs that lengthened and grew as the rest of the body compressed down, and then the older woman was standing there.

Coming out of the influence of her Skill, Liora was completely naked, and Astrid met her eyes as the older woman reached under a nearby stone and pulled out a loose robe. As she put it on, Astrid couldn’t help but see that, despite her age and apparent reliance on her transformation to fight, Liora’s body was covered with ripcord muscle. In fact, her body lacked any of the softness that most women carried. Her hips were narrow and her breasts mere suggestions. As soon as the robe was on and tightly tied all the way up to her neck, the older woman tied her hair back into a bun on top of her head, maintaining eye contact with Astrid the entire time.

“Would you believe that I’m more comfortable as a draconic beast than a human?” Liora asked the question, her face showing the barest hint of a smile. “If I was to guess, I would not be surprised if my current state is largely due to my youth spent wishing to be another.”

Astrid, unsure of how to respond to that, just nodded as she struggled to her feet. Her legs felt like jelly, but, dismissing her armor back into her Skill, she started lightly massaging her thighs and stretching. Somewhat uncomfortable silence settled over them until, as Liora was walking away, she said something that made Astrid slow down and think.

“I’m not going to tell you what to do, but maybe you should consider getting a real finishing Skill once again.”

Astrid turned and squinted at the older woman. Liora didn’t wait to see if Astrid had understood what she was saying, or agreed, simply continued walking.

“I have a finishing Skill,” Astrid protested. “I’ve used it several times.”

“You have a very versatile Skill that strengthens your ability to kill and destroy,” Liora corrected. “I would also guess that, once, it was a finishing Skill in truth. However, it is no longer. This is a finishing Skill.”

As she said it, Liora’s right and left leg merged from the bottom of her open robe, the barbed tail of the Lindwurm reappearing. The tail swelled before darting forward and smashing into the ground in front of Astrid. In the same instant that the tail struck the stone, an organ-shaking pulsation of mana exploded from the strike zone. Though Astrid only stood a meter away from the strike and she could feel the potency of what was happening there, she also was in no danger. Stepping forward, Astrid peered down the hole, half a meter wide.

Even drawing on Acumen-aligned mana, Astrid couldn’t see the bottom of the hole, but she knew it was at least ten meters deep.

“A single strike that will nearly guarantee a kill. That is a finisher.”

Liora didn’t speak any further as she continued walking, her tail reverting to two legs.

“How can you use a Skill like that without exhausting yourself here where there’s so little mana?” Astrid asked, jogging after her instructor. Liora, having obviously wanted to finish the instruction at that display, walked with her hands behind her back and didn’t stop moving.

“This is your last question for tonight,” she glanced up at the taller Astrid. “The mana comes from within me, as the fuel for most Skills does for all people. For Skills that draw on or are influenced by ambient mana, however, the simple truth is that their effects are weakened while outside of a location with dense enough mana to support their activation. A key part of any fight held in a mana-starved location at higher levels is maintaining control over what is around you and depriving your enemy of using it. It’s a tactic that is used commonly among people of your tier and above in warfare.”

“But how do you survive using that much mana right now?” Astrid asked. “You’re probably using only the dregs of your reserves to continue moving now.”

Contrary to what Astrid wanted, but exactly in line with what the old woman had said, Liora didn’t answer her question and instead simply vanished from Astrid’s view. She could feel that it wasn’t just quick movement, but something more than that, but she had no way to tell how the old woman disappeared.

Regardless of if she got her answer yet or not, Astrid was too tired to press anybody for anything. Instead, after a night of fighting and struggling, she was ready to get some sleep. She remained in the comfortable clothing she wore under her armor and walked towards the inn. With a thought, she used a charge of Physique to recover, and her legs stopped shaking with every step. She loosened her spatial pouch and took out her waterskin, drinking deeply and looking forward to another bath, the second in about twelve hours.

Before she could get to that, though, she walked into the inn’s main room, where every other member of her party sat, eating their breakfast.

Astrid felt her cheeks warm as she remembered her farewell that she’d given Skandr, but hoped that she’d be able to avoid any conversation for now. Surely he wouldn’t have had time to talk to anybody else about it yet, would he?

Going off of the way that Skandr looked at her, it wasn’t going to be an option to avoid the conversation forever.

In vain, she waved hello at everyone as she walked towards the baths. Before she could get far, she could feel the pulse of Muti’s mana before she reappeared in front of the Champion.

“If one is to find a mate, one must quickly establish who the harem will belong to.” Muti, as always, cushioned no blows and pulled no punches. “You already know his weaknesses, and he would struggle to stand against you, even if you were not prepared. Quickly, determine a day to establish your dominance.”

Despite herself, Astrid felt a gag involuntarily leave her throat as she glared both at the Barbarian and the rest of her party. Felix looked unconcerned, Benedict smirked, Skandr seemed half mortified and half justified, while Muti maintained painful eye contact with Astrid while attempting to give her “mating advice.”

“It would appear that, before I can have a bath, I need to have a personal conversation with Skandr over here,” Astrid said through gritted teeth. “Would you come to my room, Skandr? Now?”

He let out a long sigh as he stood. Then, with a gentle smile, he started walking after her.

“That’s what I wanted anyways, so I guess I can’t complain.”

Astrid had to fight to keep her pace normal as she went up the stairs and directly towards her room. She didn’t have to try to stretch her attention to hear Benedict stage-whispering all sorts of suggestive things. When she got into her room, she left the door open and looked around her space.

Where would she sit? At the desk? No, this wasn’t an interview. But sitting on her bed might invite him to sit next to her on the bed, and she certainly wasn’t ready for that.

There was nowhere else for her to sit, so instead, she ended up leaning against the wall next to her window.

Skandr let himself in and closed the door before meeting her eyes. Like most days, he was already wearing his equipment, all of it. Without the benefit of an equipment Skill, he had long since made the choice to keep himself prepared for battle, just in case. Since he was going to be doing research today, it wasn’t surprising that he definitely wanted the attribute bonuses the equipment would give.

His eyes, Astrid realized, were lighter now than when they first met, now a light blue almost bordering on gray. The face, once so haggard with stress and a lack of care for himself, had filled out and was healthier, almost handsome, but too sharp and narrow to be called traditionally good-looking. He had recently cut his hair short enough to make sure it wouldn’t get into his eyes, while he was allowing the beginning of a beard to come in. Just above that beard was where she had pressed a kiss against his cheek just the night before, and Astrid felt herself blush deeper.

He smiled again and said, “I hope you aren’t too upset that I asked for advice. It kind of spiraled out of control from there.”

Astrid forced herself to calm down and, after a handful of seconds, said, “I’m not happy that you started talking to other people about it when I’m not sure what exactly ’it’ is. Especially since I wasn’t a part of the discussion.”

“Well, I wanted to talk to you, but you disappeared out into the forest for an entire night,” Skandr said with a shrug. “Obviously, you weren’t ready to talk about it right when it happened, so I was willing to give you some time to come to a decision, but then you literally ran away.”

“It’s not like I was actually going to go anywhere for longer than the night,” Astrid protested. “You could’ve just waited until morning, you know, like right now?”

“Yeah, I could’ve, but I want to talk to my friends about what’s happening.”

Astrid scoffed and then realized that she was, maybe, being a little unreasonable. She let out a sigh and leaned her head back against the wall for a second.

“I just... I don’t know. I like you as a friend, I like being around you, and I thought maybe I might want to try dating. At least, something casual? I don’t want to be as committed as Felix and Muti seem to be, but I want to see if I even want to try romance. But, even though you and Benedict are basically the only real options nearby me, I don’t want to ruin our friendship either. But I also think it might work if we try it?”

Skandr stood there, waiting for her to finish, and Astrid awkwardly crossed her arms and stared at him as her stomach twisted and flipped over itself.

“What?”

“I don’t mind trying—wait,” Skandr immediately cut himself off before he made a reply. “I don’t like the way that sounded. Astrid, I think you’re incredibly brave, beautiful, and I respect you greatly. If you’re actually wanting to try to engage in some relationship with me, I would be more than happy to begin some form of courtship, whatever it is that we end up calling it or however we do it. However, I don’t want to enter a relationship like that with different understandings of what we’re getting into.”

Astrid’s heart, something heavy in her chest, seemed to drop.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Skandr said, shrugging, “I’ve had something of a crush on you for a while. I catch myself stealing glances at you when you’re comfortable enough to undress near me, and I’m really attracted to you. If you wanted to and offered it, I don’t think I’d be able to get myself to say no to having sex with you. I respect you, and I like you, but if we were to cross that line together, I can tell you right now that I’m going to fall in love with you. I won’t be able to have this be some casual thing after that, and if we start some sort of relationship that you think is casual or you’re just testing out what a relationship is or what it feels like, I might end up getting my feelings hurt or being offended when you treat it that way because I want it to be something more.”

They stood in silence for a few seconds after that, and Astrid couldn’t help but avert her eyes. She was looking at the ground as she said, “I don’t think I’m at a point of necessarily wanting to do that with anybody. I want to know what it is to fall in love with somebody and see if maybe I want to fit that into my life.”

“I’m happy to try to make you fall for me,” Skandr said, a smile working at the corner of his lips. “I’ll try hard to sweep you off your feet and to make you think it’s worth it if we decide to court. I’m telling you right now, if you let me really try, though, and it fails, or you’re not interested, or you fall in love with somebody else, I don’t know how much of a relationship I will be able to have with you after that. It might hurt too much for me to be spending most of every day around you.”

He laughed mockingly at himself at that.

“At least, that’s what people say about love. Benedict and Felix seem to think that that’d be the case. That when you get told no, it can be hard to be around the person who doesn’t want your affections. I am not sure if I would be like that, though.”

“Was it a mistake for me to kiss you yesterday?” Astrid asked, her voice soft.

“I don’t think so,” Skandr shrugged. “But if it is, it’s a mistake that’s been made. It’s a door that’s been opened, an arrow that’s been shot, and you can’t close that door or unpierce that target. If you want to take more time to sort out what exactly you meant by that and then get back to me, I’m happy to give you as much time as you need. If you end up deciding that it might be too risky to walk through the door that’s been opened, that you don’t want to put the risk in our relationship that attempting courtship inevitably would, I’m happy to step back.

“More than anything, Astrid,” Skandr said, stepping forward and looking up into her face, “you’re my friend. You will remain my friend forever, barring you and I both changing quite a bit from what we are now. We have a comfortable relationship, where we respect each other, and I might sneak a glance at you when your smile can’t be contained. I’m happy to stay comfortable.”

Then, Skandr took both of her hands in his. White faded scars patterned over the back of her hands, a testament to the life she lived, and he gently kissed the back of each of her hands.

“If you need more time, I’m happy to give it to you.”

At that, he smiled, turned, and walked out.

***

True to his word, Skandr treated Astrid much the same as always, and evidently, he’d said enough to get everybody else to shut up about it as well, as they said nothing else over the next two weeks as the party continued practicing.

Astrid was immensely grateful for that, as, with Liora’s departing words, she should have begun to wonder if she needed to adjust her expectations of what she would be doing moving forward.

“What you might be looking for is to get either an aura or a finishing Skill,” Gabriel said, kicking the outside of Astrid’s knee and making her buckle as she went through the motions of attacking him. “Then, do a whole lot of work on the Skill you get as well as the other one you didn’t. After all, what you’re looking for right now is to complete your build. Once you evolve, what you’ve got going to change, and you might as well broaden your horizons for whatever is offered to you at that point.”

“That seems counterproductive to everything that Liora has been telling us,” Astrid said, fixing her stance.

“Not at all,” he grunted. “You’re looking to get a Skill that functions to truly specialize you as a finisher and a substitute frontliner. You’re thinking that having a better aura, or more auras, as well as a Skill that’ll toughen you up or make you a better finisher is what you’re looking for. All of those are Skills that you won’t necessarily get right now but will be able to slot in in Mithril. Right now, you have a cap of seven Skills; after you evolve, that’ll go to ten. Deliberately laying the groundwork for various different Skills right now will ensure that, however long down the line it takes for you to get there, you have even better foundations.

“You’ve been stuck thinking about doing the work for a Skill right now as only being for right now. You haven’t had the viewpoint of decades that most people at your level and beyond have. That has resulted in immensely powerful Classes and Skills, but even if you don’t slow down, your toolkit is going to grow much larger and more diverse from here on out. Right now, you need to focus on making sure that when those diverse options are presented to you, they’re good.”

Astrid nodded slowly, mulling over things as she attempted to change her viewpoint about the rest of her path forward. Could she anticipate getting levels as quickly as she had been as she got into new tiers? Of course not.

Before she could continue to think more deeply about what Gabriel had instructed her with, Muti appeared beside her.

“Olafson has returned,” the Barbarian said, excited.

With the Craftsman back, the party had plenty of things to request of him. Astrid nodded her goodbyes to Gabriel, who grunted and waved her off, before following after Muti back into Neverwood’s borders.