Christoph jerked backwards, his limbs freezing as memories of pain crashed over him. Regaining his stance, he forced his mind into the present. How had she found him? Besides that, she’d managed to climb the tree and get this close without him noticing. He raised his right hand, ready to draw his sword if need be but in no hurry to give away his weapon if she didn’t already know about it.

“Relax,” she said. “I’m still deciding whether to kill you for the quest reward or take you back to the village as a prize.”

“Neither of those sounds particularly appealing,” Christoph replied.

“I suppose so,” Emilia said. “Well, it would be a bad idea to start a fight while those fools are down there. They’re planning to kill you either way.” She grunted in annoyance, peering down at the members of God’s Compass below. “I didn’t expect you to still be here when I climbed up the tree. I’ll tell you what, why don’t you start running now? I’ll give you a head start, and I promise not to kill you if I win.”

Christoph rose to his feet, aware of the danger of falling from the massive branch. “There’s no way I’d agree to that,” he said. “I’d have better chances of getting out of here if both of you get involved.”

“Oi,” she warned him, also taking to her feet. “Are you trying to get killed? That was a pretty good deal for you, you know?”

Christoph frowned over at her. “Slavery doesn’t sound like a good deal to me,” he said. Actually, her offer had been more than tempting. There was next to no chance he could beat her in a fight in any case, so at the very least staying alive was better than nothing. Even his grand plan of escaping into the beast lands had been proven idiotic.

Still, if there was some way for him to get out of here, he had to try. From what he had seen of Emilia fighting, her speed was incredible, and she only seemed to get faster and stronger as the fight had worn on. If he wanted to take her out, he had to do it before she could channel her mana to full strength.

“Oh?” Emilia said. “It’s not like I’d be selling you off to the mines like the dwarves would.” She opened her arms and took a regal pose. “You should consider yourself lucky to serve me!”

In an instant, Christoph’s sword appeared in his hand, his ever-present hunger deepening as he channeled his mana into the crystal. The blade flowed from his bones, forming the familiar shape of the unicorn horn as he lunged across the gap between them. Although he would have ordinarily held reservations about making a surprise attack on a woman, this particular one had already done the same to him before. A moment before his sword would have pierced her ribs, Emilia managed to deflect the sword with her dagger. Christoph immediately moved into another attack, swinging his weapon around to cleave down onto her leg from above. Emilia flickered bright with energy before catching his blow with her dagger, but even so the edge of the crystal blade bit into her thigh.

Feeling the sudden warmth of blood as it soaked into his blade, Christoph hungrily absorbed what mana he could before Emilia knocked his weapon back. The sword had cut into her for only a moment, but her aura had darkened greatly around the shallow wound. Christoph felt the mana flowing through him from the sword, and he attacked her again with a flare of hope. The crystal blade was more useful than he had thought!

From that point on, however, Emilia was able to avoid all of his strikes, pushing herself to evade even the tiniest nick of his sword, moving as Henry had during their duel. Eventually, her aura recovered from his attack, and she shined as bright as she had before Sierra had broken up the fight. Backing away for a moment, she scowled over at him.

“You’re just full of tricks, aren’t you?” Emilia said. “I’ll admit that weapon is something interesting, but don’t think you’ll defeat me with just that.”

Christoph grunted in frustration at her words. “I wasn’t counting on it,” he said. “But it couldn’t hurt to try.”

The words had barely left his mouth when he felt a sudden shock slam into his left shoulder. He saw Emilia’s eyes widen, and looking down he saw the feathered shaft of an arrow which had seemingly sprouted from his arm. Christoph reach up to pull it out, but before his fingers could close around it, he was wrenched off his feet, falling to the wooden surface before being dragged off towards the edge of the branch. Just before he could slide off to the forest below, Emilia’s hand clenched around his right arm. Gritting her teeth, she swore as she yanked him back onto the branch, slamming her dagger into the wood to use as a handhold.

Reabsorbing his sword to make a dagger, Christoph did the same. From where it pierced into his arm, the arrow continued to pull him down. Looking over at the wooden shaft, he saw a thin line of mana connecting the arrow to Sierra as she held her staff up from far below. Cliff stood next to her, another missile arcing through the air to narrowly miss Emilia as she dodged. Reaching down, she grabbed at the arrow protruding from Christoph’s shoulder, pulling it out in one go and tossing it off of the branch. Instead of the string of mana falling free, however, it remained stubbornly coiled around Christoph’s upper arm, the beast-woman’s fingers passing through it as she tried to pull it free.

“Shit,” Emilia said. Backing away from the edge, she pulled her dagger free and swiped at his hand, dislodging his own dagger from the tree branch. Turning away, she leaped towards the tree trunk as a blue light flashed over his body. There was a sudden tug from the line, and Christoph was pulled over the edge and into the forest air. The light grew as he fell, and a moment later he slammed down into the rocky ground below.

Blinking to clear his vision, he moved his arms and legs, feeling little pain. Was he strong enough that even such a massive fall didn’t do much damage to him? Quickly rising to his feet, Christoph looked around. Rather than the dull lit rocky ground of the forest floor near the stream, he was greeted by the bright dirt clearing of a town square, buildings surrounding him in every direction. At his feet, a chunk of wood lay where it had been torn from the tree branch. The teleportation spell had dumped him far from the forest once more.

Adventurers filled the square, and a circle of onlookers had formed around him as he appeared. Turning around, Christoph was greeted by the armored form of a knight a second before his sword stabbed into Christoph’s chest. The crowd of adventurers gasped and backed away as Christoph sunk to his knees, blood bubbling from his mouth. Raising an armored foot, his attacker kicked him off the end of his blade before reaching down to pull at his hair, lifting him up for a second blow.

“Dane?” Christoph managed through his coughs. The last member of God’s Compass, he had been sent to the town to gather food.

Dane ignored him, leveling his sword to take off Christoph’s head with one heavy swing. He didn’t manage to complete the cut, however, Christoph’s right hand rising to block his blade with a thunk. Dane grunted, pushing him back down and standing over him. Christoph felt his hunger rise as his mana was used to heal his damaged body. His right hand had been cut open to the bone, crystal bones glinting in the sunlight until the blood had obscured it.

“Hold him,” Dane said. Footsteps sounded from behind Christoph, and two men pulled him to his knees, pushing down on his shoulders and securing his arms in their grip. Behind Dane, the crowd grew larger, the adventurers showing mixed reactions to the sudden execution.

“I’m sorry,” someone said, and Christoph turned to see Coin holding firmly to his right arm. “I didn’t want this,” Coin said. “But I can’t go against it, either.”

Dane held his sword up to his forehead, mana gathering in the large crystal set into the crossguard as he prayed. Soon, the entire blade began to glow with magic. To Christoph’s left, Quester held onto him grimly.

“Quester, you bastard,” Christoph said. “Do you know how much I suffered because of you? I don’t even have any memories of those weeks besides the pain.”

Dane lowered his sword to point at Christoph once more, the previous wound having closed over now, the stream of blood drying on his bare chest and staining his ragged shorts once again. “If you have any final words,” Dane said, “now is the time to say them.”

“Final words?” Christoph stared up into Dane’s eyes. “Go fuck yourself.”

“So be it,” Dane replied. Thrusting forwards, he gripped his sword tightly in both of his gauntlets and braced his feet for the blow. His sword lunged towards Christoph’s heart, plunging through his skin and between his ribs. The blade, however, no longer glowed with magic as it had a moment before. Instead, a crystal sword had appeared in Christoph’s right hand, the tip of which was currently lodged into the crystal of Dane’s own weapon.

Christoph smiled as he felt the accumulated mana flowing through his sword and into his body. Twisting his arms free from Coin and Quester’s grip, he shoved them back as Dane withdrew his sword, pushing them to the ground with his sudden burst of strength. Dane made to attack him again, but Christoph’s crystal blade swung towards him, the adventurer barely fast enough to block the blow. The force of the slash pushed Dane from his feet, and he skidded on the dusty ground for several meters before coming to a halt.

Before any of the adventurers could retaliate, Christoph leaped to Quester’s side and pulled the surprised adventurer to his feet, holding his blade to his neck. Blood splashed against Quester’s back, the stream fading away as Christoph’s wound healed over at the expense of his mana.

“Don’t move!” Christoph called. Even before he spoke, though, it didn’t seem that the crowd was about to interfere.

“You should start running,” Quester said “Before the church gets here.”

Christoph swore inwardly. Adventurers might be after him, but they just wanted the quest reward. If the church was involved, it might be better for them not to interfere. Whatever forces the church had, on the other hand, would probably have enough authority to come after him without any consideration of the guild at all.

“Calm down Christoph,” Coin said, rising to his feet. “The guild isn’t prepared to die for this, and neither are we.”

Dane’s limp form lay where he had fallen, his breastplate dented where Christoph had smashed past his guard with his attack. His sword had landed nearby, the crystal on the crossguard shattered and hollow. The pommel stone, however, remained whole, and Christoph suppressed his frustration as it began to glow, no doubt signalling for aid.

Before he could come up with a way out of his situation, Christoph saw the familiar swell of mana being gathered by a mage before they cast a spell. Among the adventurers gathered in the square, there was exactly one magic-user willing to attack Christoph at that moment.

“Regal?” Christoph asked dumbly. Of course Regal would be here if the others were. Blood flashed as Quester slashed into Christoph’s arm with his large knife, breaking free as Christoph lowered his sword for the moment. Taking advantage of his moment, there was a glow of mana and a fist-sized rock shot out from the crowd to crack into his chest. The impact sent Christoph flying through the wooden walls of the cabin behind him, his last vision the sight of Regal, the friendly adventurer’s head bowed as he raised his staff high into the air.