Even with the number of bruises and scrapes Silva had suffered, she didn’t look like she was in too much trouble and I still had over half my Astral Power and Stamina. With that in mind, I decided that we would try to fish for more. I had no idea if there would be Shattered of similar power to the one I had just knocked off the building in the area or if the Shattered were somewhat territorial but given that we needed EXP, it seemed prudent to use the set-up we had to its greatest effect.

“Silva, let one in, I’m done here,” I told her as I started to cast a thee-rune Ice spell. Just as before, Silva stepped aside and I used Observe on the Shattered that had been up-front, trying to get past her, only to repeatedly get knocked back by the canine, or get its legs ripped out from beneath it. This Shattered was level six, so nothing too special, an assessment that amused me to no end when I remembered the survivor group I had seen earlier. Level six, nothing too special - but also the strongest member of their group.

As planned, the Shattered took the opening, pushed past Silva and started to charge at me, only for its already damaged leg to get utterly destroyed by my hailstone. By now, I was getting really good at disabling their limbs without dealing too much damage to their flesh or spilling their blood. I didn’t want to kill them with my attacks, just disable them so I could drain them later. It was grimly amusing that I had to actually try to keep them alive, but it was also a point of pride for me, that I was getting powerful enough to stand tall. Or as tall as someone below five feet could stand. Maybe that was why I enjoyed kicking my enemies off buildings. It allowed me to look down at them.

For the next ten minutes, Silva and I started to carefully take the Shattered out one by one, until I could see the end of the throng. Once there were only two remaining on the stairs, I started to drain the first one and kick it off the building, ripping its Astral Power out of it before it could hit the ground.

One by one, I tossed the bait down, creating a thick could of miasma while using the Astral Power I freed up to cast runic spells on any Shattered that approached. I didn’t manage to kill them outright, but I could break a leg or shatter a shoulder, making our job a lot easier once they got up here.

Soon, a dozen Shattered were stacked on the sidewalk in front of the building and it was then that I noticed a Shattered approach with greater speed than the rest of them, roughly as quick as the one I fought earlier. A grin appeared on my face and I immediately began casting a five-rune spell, trying to get as much strength into my opening strike as I could.

With Overflow active, I spiked the runic spell as much as I could, imbuing it with the entire Astral Power of a Shattered that immediately followed its friends down the building, and launched my attack. My Ice Magic latched onto the flying hailstone, not trying to truly control it but possibly give it some direction. As it turned out, I shouldn’t have worried too much. The Shattered was so focused on the delicious miasma that it didn’t even try to dodge before getting struck in the chest by my hailstone, the attack strong enough to cave the chest in and send it to the ground. When the hailstone bounced back, I took control of it and used my Ice Magic to strike again, this time targeting and destroying the head, successfully turning the flames in its eyes off. The combination of Rune Magic and direct magic manipulation was a wonderful tool, easily my strongest weapon.

Sadly, that one particularly powerful Shattered was the only worthy prey we managed to draw. The rest of the Shattered were, quite frankly, nothing special, just enough to add some much-needed EXP to the tally. Not enough to get me to level seventeen but most of the way there. Though, again, the biggest chunk of that was from the two higher-levelled Shattered, the second one clocking in at a respectable level fourteen.

In addition, the fight had been quite beneficial for my Blood Magic, the continuous use enough to bring it to level eight, while my Dual Blades levelled to two, I hadn’t used them much, and my Ice Magic to thirteen. All in all, an excellent haul, especially after I healed Silva up and gained a point in Blood Rune Mastery, bringing it to eleven and making me realise that I had barely healed anyone since the change. It simply had never been necessary, most of our fights had ended before the enemy could get to either of us, thanks to the combination of stealth and powerful magic. That the Shattered were neither the quickest nor the most perceptive of enemies made the whole thing only easier.

Not that I believed that would last, at some point, things would get dicey. Maybe I should look to find another meat-shield, someone I wasn’t attached to, though I doubted that would work. Not only did the Lone Traveller Trait prevent me from cycling through allies, at least if I wanted to keep things efficient, it also meant a certain investment into those allies. I hadn’t figured out what it meant to “mark” a person, even after the number of possible marks ticked from zero to one the moment I hit level ten, but I doubted it would be something I’d ever be willing to do casually. Maybe looking into summons would be a wise idea, I was relatively certain that the Remnant Spirits I had used on Mundus at the end wouldn’t count as “people”, no matter what metric was used. Sadly, creating such constructs, to say nothing of the spirits to inhabit them, would be difficult, unless I deliberately made them temporary. Something to look into, but later. For now, I wanted to get to Mrs Wu’s gym and hopefully link up with them.

And if linking up with them was impossible, I wanted to give her, and her husband, their well-deserved rest, not let them wander around these streets as a Shattered caricature of themselves. They deserved better.

Silva and I continued on our merry way, the few Shattered that shambled into our way dispatched in an effort to improve Silva’s skills further. I noticed that her movements were getting a little sharper, though I wasn’t sure if that was simply from increased attributes, if she even got those, or if her actual skills were improving. If she had those…

Not being able to have your teammate respond to you was a bit of a hassle. I had been explaining the system to her from day one, but whether or not it worked the same for her, I didn’t know. Maybe I would, at some point, be able to regain the ability I once had been granted from my bond with Lenore, but I wasn’t holding my breath. Even if those abilities had been incredibly useful.

Thinking of my avian friend, I wondered if I would be able to regain my ability to wield Death Magic. I doubted I retained the affinity, but that merely meant my efficiency and ease of use would go down, not that I wouldn’t be able to use it at all.

Driven by curiosity, I disabled the next Shattered we came across, before placing a hand on the body. Mentally reaching out, I tried to get a feel for its life force. That process was somewhat similar to my Blood Magic, it might even be an adjacent skill, but I wasn’t trying to separate out the Astral Power that dwelled within the Blood, bound into the life force of the target, I was merely trying to feel it.

The moment I felt that force, I focused on my Astral Power. Remembering how I had wielded Death Magic on Mundus, I pushed my Astral Power outwards, trying to extinguish the life force, pitting my own power against that power.

Astral Power was draining from my body at a rapid pace, leaving me panting from the strain, but I could feel death ripping through my foe. Sadly, I could also feel death ripping through me, luckily at a much lower rate. Death Magic had always been a bit of a double-edged sword, only an individual's affinity keeping it from destroying the caster alongside the target.

But it had some unique properties and when I shifted my focus away from the expired Shattered beneath me, I could see a blue box telling me that I had gained the skill, just as planned.

Controlling the breath that was flowing out of me, I pushed myself to my feet, staggering a little from the strain.

“I’m okay, girl,” I assured Silva, petting the concerned dog. “We’re almost there, you know?” I added, looking around the area. We were almost at the bus station I normally used, just a few minutes away from the gym. Still, just because we were almost there didn’t mean that we could relax. Shaking my head, I slipped back into the darkness around us, continuing on my silent prowl.