Now, fuck me if I’m wrong, but the system waited until I figured that out to give me the skill? Since when does that happen? Usually, I get skills to help me with things I know little to nothing about. The skill does the teaching. But here it expects me to fill in most of it before it steps in? Calminus must have done a pretty good job hiding the secrets of Energy, because the system clearly doesn’t know much about it…

Which means I’m teaching it. I’m a little worried that I’ll end up giving whoever is running this murder trial bullshit some information they shouldn’t have. But… how would I stop the system from watching?

The Path of Denial. Of course. Can I deny the notifications? Will that keep the system from recording what I do? I really need to talk to that gray mannequin thing again. It seemed to know what was going on with all this, and it had told me that we were going to meet again… just not when. Unlike with whatever mechanism was blocking me from creating a rune, the more mundane skill updates are apparently harder to resist. Either way, I’m going to fill out that path, finally, when I get back home. As much as I’d love to risk it mid-run, that would be a horribly idiotic plan.

“Apparently it matches my Will stat against what it calls ‘deception skills’.”

“The hell does that mean?”

“I feel like you’re implying that this system ever explains anything, which is just wrong.”

“Yeah… we’ll figure it out.

---

The scene we return to is anything but the safety I had hoped for. As we crest the last hill and get a good view of the valley around The Barrows, we find two unfamiliar people having some sort of standoff with Marie, Lynn, and Tom. Making the situation significantly worse is the fact that I recognize several bound and kneeling figures around the two unknown elements: Rav, Samuel, and Dean. Dean looks badly beaten, and Samuel looks like he got off lightly… but Rav…

The sight turns my stomach, and my blade is in my hands without a thought.

“-now this will be a fine repayment for my face! This thing has a huge Mana capacity, I’ll be casting for minutes without breaking a sweat!”

One of the unknowns, who doesn’t appear to have any weapons, hold a large stone in his hand, seeming to be trying to catch the light with it. I feel more than see Lauren disappear from next to me. It seems we have the same thought. The only issue is that our enemies here have three hostages.

The more obviously armed of the two looks in my direction, before breaking into the most fake smile I’ve seen in a long time. “Welcome! Welcome, yes we were just trying to reach an agreement with your fellows. Are you the Anthony they spoke so highly of? Capable of healing, correct? Well, as you can clearly see, we have a rather distinct need for healing! If you would be so kind as to oblige us, we can all be on our way.”

I don’t keep the snarl from my lips. There’s no need. He knows that I know he’s a lying piece of shit, he’s just doing a bit or something.

“I’ll say this once. Leave. Drop what you stole, and go. If I see you again, there won’t be anything left of you to crawl its way to hell.”

The smile breaks, starting to turn into a snarl of his own, but his eyes immediately grow wary. I take a step forward. “Was I not clear?”

“Not another step.” There’s no friendly pretense anymore. He grabs Rav and holds a blade to his throat. “No need to make things ugly. See, I have a skill that lets me tell when people are lying. And, just now, you weren’t lying. You genuinely believe what you said. I’ve heard a lot of posturing in my time, and that sounded just like it... just what, exactly, are you?”

Our eyes lock for several seconds. Not a word is spoken; the only sound is of the wind blowing through the grass.

The bandit breaks eye contact first, with a small smile returning to his face, and I feel something creeping up my leg. Dirt, locking me in place. Jokes on you, asshole, I’ve fought a much stronger ground mage. I step forward, easily breaking the earthen restraints, wiping the smile away and causing the obvious magic user to stagger.

“I told you to stay back!” Panic suffuses the rogue’s voice. “I fucking meant it! Not another step!”

“I told you I wasn’t going to repeat myself.”

“I swear to god, I’ll fucking kill all of them. Drop your weapons and your bag, and start walking. NOW.”

“You know what’s going to happen if you do that. You don’t really want to experience that, do you?”

“You’re not going to do shit- what the fuck? Whatever you’re doing, fucking stop!” The man suddenly starts looking around wildly. How many fucking skills does he have?! He must be detecting Lauren somehow, but it’s too late. He’s wary, panicking, and about to do something stupid. I launch forward, feeling the rush of strength as my Energy burns inside me. I cover half the distance in less than a second, and the rogue starts to draw his blade across Rav’s throat, bright red gushing out. Lauren materializes behind him. With his attention on me, he barely reacts to her presence… but he manages to move slightly to the side, making a sure stab that should have gone straight through his upper vertebrae instead slice deeply into the meat of his neck. An arrow sails into the shoulder holding the knife, causing him to falter slightly; the cut is interrupted. I arrive a fraction of a second later, smashing him directly in the face with enough force to put him a few inches into the dirt.

His bloody knife sails through the air as he loses his grip on it, and probably on his consciousness as well. Rav gives a shuddering attempt at a gasp, the pain clear on his face. I drop my sword, diving immediately into my satchel to grab the emergency healing potion I made all that time ago. I dump the potion into his mouth, trying desperately to hold it in and keep it from flooding out through the gaping wound in his neck. I wish I knew how the potions worked, I should have experimented earlier, I need it to activate as fast as possible but I DON’T KNOW HOW. I hear screaming from behind me; it doesn’t matter. I flood Rav with green Energy, diving as quickly as I can into the horrible picture painted by the glowing lights. I once found them beautiful, but now they just spell out dread. Poison spreads from the cut on his neck, and though I know the healing potion should be doing more, it's almost like the poison is stopping it. The limited healing that gets through isn't enough to stop the bleeding, so I bolster it with my Energy.

I form bandages of solid Energy in an attempt to hold in the blood, but I'm not keeping it in the right places. It's running down his throat instead of staying in his arteries, and the pressure keeps perforating the bandages and leaking blood that Rav can't stand to lose. I do my best to seal the holes, speeding up as the blood pressure weakens and stops interrupting my work as much, but acutely aware of what that means. Blood is compromised, breathing is compromised, everything is going wrong and I can't stabilize fast enough. I can't be everywhere I need to be at the same time.

Something snaps. I'm kicked out of my Energy view. I check, and I'm not out of Energy, so why...? I try again, but I can't see inside him anymore. No matter how I push, nothing happens. No resistance, no counter attack, just… void.

N… No…

I… failed?

My legs feel like jelly, but I stay standing. A sinking numbness falls over me as I stare at the mangled face of the first human friend I made. The man I saved once, and was there for me more times than I care to remember. The man who had helped me feel normal, fit in, and grow in this sick new world.

The man who now lies dead in my arms.

The screaming, which had turned into howling at some point, finally draws my eyes from the horror in front of me. Dean writhes on the ground, but there are no obvious wounds on his body. I slowly pan over to the bandit mage, but he looks frozen in fear. Wasn’t him. I put Rav carefully on the ground and slowly walk over to Dean. With a sickening crack, his skull splits, and a small bone horn emerges. His skin knits back together before my eyes, healing the damage from the slight metamorphosis. His body, once riddled with cuts and obviously broken bones, snaps back together.

A moment of silence reigns as Dean lies on the ground, heaving. Moving faster than I could track, Dean disappears from where he was, appearing instead on top of the unconscious body of the bandit rogue. I back up slightly, dragging Samuel with me, and I can see Lauren also putting space between her and Dean. The bandit’s body flies almost thirty feet as Dean hurls it with everything he has, but before the guy can even land, Dean is under him, snatching his target out of the air and slamming him into the ground. I can’t look away. Dean grabs his arm, trapping the rest of this body underneath his foot, and strains. His muscles bulge in ways I’m positive are incompatible with human physiology. Given how many skills that guy has, and the fact that he didn’t explode in a shower of gore when I hit him with a Fortify assisted strike, I want to say it’s unlikely that even someone as strong as Dean could dismember him with his bare hands…

Which is why I only barely manage to look away when the bandit’s arm gives out. By some small turn of justice, the bandit woke up for this part, but his screams didn’t make me happy. They didn’t bring Rav back. I look at the other bandit, who seems to unfreeze in my gaze. I take a step towards him and pick up my sword.

“N-no, wait, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, look, I can put back the battery, I’m sorry! I’m sorry, please!”

“You stood by.”

“I didn’t! I couldn’t! Y-you saw him! He was crazy! He’d kill me if I didn’t do what he said! He only kept me around because he needed me to… Please!”

“I believe you.”

“R-really? Th-then I can… go?”

“You can keep your soul.”

I doubt he ever saw the blade coming.