Henry lurched forward, sinking the flame wreathed spear in his hands through the last guard’s stomach and out his back, spearing him into the wall.

  Quickly releasing his spear and leaping backwards, Henry dodged an explosion of fire that covered the guardswoman he had previously killed. His eyes flickered upwards, and he found his attacker to be a flame archer of sorts who notched another flame wreathed arrow at his head.

  But just as she released the arrow, Henry’s right arm became a blur, flicking in her direction, and not a moment later, the flame wreathed arrow flew past Henry’s head by mere millimeters and landed in the grass below, scorching it. The flame archer fell backwards off the wall’s hallway and into the camp with a dagger firmly embedded in the front of her skull.

  Henry ignored the blaring alarms and shouting coming from Kate and Brian’s camp, instead grabbing a blade embedded in one of the guardsmen’s throats and stepping over the bodies of the ten other guards that lay below him, gurgling on their blood.

  Gripping onto the spear firmly embedded in the log drawbridge gate, Henry flooded his mana and stamina into his right foot before smashing a large enough hole to step through, sending a barrage of splinters and kicking up a storm of dirt.

  But instead of walking through the entrance, Henry backstepped and leaped over the thick log walls and atop the walkway on the walls.

  While the thought of setting the walls ablaze with his flame, roasting everyone inside, and using the chaos as a distraction to find Maria crossed Henry's mind, he quickly dismissed it. For one, Maria could be anywhere, and such an action might harm her even more than she already was. Secondly, the logs were enchanted to resist both rain and fire—especially fire.

  Rushing forward, Henry dodged under a wide swipe at his head and lunged his right arm forward, sinking his sword through the neck of his attacker. Not wasting any time, Henry left the sword through the guy’s neck and twisted his arm to grab the two daggers the man had by his thigh before kicking off the ground and lunging forward towards the three archers who aimed their arrows at him.

  Henry’s mind went a mile a second, seemingly calculating what he needed to do, and just as the arrows were fired from their respective bowstrings, his arms became a blur.

  He flung the two daggers coated in dark mana at two of the arrows wreathed in poison in an upwards manner before launching his spear forward. His daggers split the arrows in two before they caught flame and turned to ash within seconds, and the spear crushed the ice-tipped arrow and speared through the archer’s bow and body, sending him flying over the camp walls and to the ground below.

  While his daggers destroyed the arrows, their trajectories were shifted just enough to whizz past the two other archers who rushed towards him with their daggers in hand.

  Swiping his right hand forward, overloaded with mana, Henry muttered, “Darkarc

  Rushing right past their split bodies, Henry let his arms fall behind him as he ripped out their back satchels and quickly searched through them, dodging the arrows and magical attacks sent his way.

  Tossing out poison vials one by one, Henry found a singular Mana Potion that he quickly downed, clicking his tongue at the revelation that it was an F-Grade one.

  Henry complained as he leaped from the wall’s walkway into the camp below. Ever since he received his new Class, all of his previous class skills had evolved.

  And while that was a good thing, evolutions were great, especially with the ones that he got, he was unable to use most of them without depleting his entire mana reserves. Even the least consumptive skills took at least 200 mana to work, not to mention the whole issue with his affinities.

  Henry ripped out a knife, which he had stabbed into the head of one of the swordsmen that charged at him, and ran straight into the heart of the camp, his eyes locked onto Kate’s panicked form getting into her armor and grabbing the giant warhammer she wielded.

  Apparently, he needed to combine his newly gained Dark Affinity with his Flame one to form a Dark-Flame Affinity, but with his rush of trying to get back to his fiancée, he wasn’t able to form it during the trials. What he was able to do was create a bootleg version of it that heavily drained his mana every time he used a skill that called on his bootleg Dark-Flame Affinity.

  Only when he properly formed his Dark-Flame Affinity would his skills’ mana costs shoot down, but that was something he would do once he got Maria back.

  Henry pushed aside his thoughts and charged forward when a loud shout told him to duck. The familiarity of the voice made him follow the instructions almost instinctively,

  Ducking and lunging to his right, he narrowly avoided a stab from a seemingly floating sword that had suddenly appeared in midair. But before he could react further, the one who had warned him lunged forward, slamming their sword against the floating weapon.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  As if by magic—ironically enough—the sword clattered to the ground, and a man appeared, his invisibility skill fading. Without missing a beat, the one who had warned Henry ripped their sword free from the attacker and finished the movement with a well-timed kick.

  Pushing himself off the ground, Henry turned to face Mr. Jensen for only a brief moment before the older man shoved a Mana and Stamina Potion against his chest and pushed him forward.

  “Go!” Mr. Jensen shouted. “We’re doing our part too!”

  Rushing forward, Henry quickly downed the E-Grade potions. Almost immediately, his ears popped, and the clarity he had unknowingly lost returned. The battlefield around him seemed to expand, his previous tunnel vision fading.

  Only now did he realize that a revolt had erupted without him noticing. People from Liv’s camp—those who focused on their Professions—were fighting back against their kidnappers. Alchemists, chefs, builders, and others had joined the fray, attacking the enemies Henry had ignored in his single-minded focus on cutting down anyone in his way.

  While the people who focused on their Professions were weaker than their captors, the sheer number of them and the panic from Henry’s arrival gave them the leverage they needed to fight back and catch them off guard.

  Kicking the butt of a spear he saw on his right; Henry launched it through the side of one of mages about to strike down a group of downed people who failed at catching the man by surprise. The spear tore through the man’s unprotected side, canceling the lightning spear he was about to launch at the abductees and sending him airborne momentarily before crashing into the ground.

  Henry continued to rush forward, clapping his hands together before tensely pushing them apart as arcs of Dark-Flame emerged between his palms.

  Once his palms were a foot apart, Henry grit his teeth as he pushed his palms together and compressed the Dark-Flame mana together before pitching it at the distracted face of Kate, flying past the heads of the many guards around her.

  

  Shrill shrieks were echoed within the camp, Kate’s voice being the most prominent of them as she flailed in pain. As the guards turned in panic from the shrill screams of their leader behind them, Henry swiped at the unguarded heads of the guards in front of him before he grabbed onto the Dark-Flame wreathed leather armor of Kate and flooded his stamina and mana to his feet before disappearing from view and appearing atop a solid looking shack, twenty meters away.

  Wiping away the blood that seeped from his nose and spitting out a wad of blood, Henry absorbed back the Dark-Flames that covered Kate’s body.

  Her shrill shrieks and violent thrashing still persisted even as the flames disappeared, her body covered in fourth-degree burns.

  Reaching into his barely hanging-on back pouch, Henry pulled out a Health Potion and tipped it in her mouth. Minutes later, her injuries started to repair themselves with the excess vital energy that the Health Potion left within her.

  “Where is Maria, my fiancée?” Henry asked, his steeled eyes locked into her cowering ones. “She wears white robes, auburn hair, a Healer. I know you took her.”

  "F-Fuck y-you," Kate spat out, trembling.

  "Wrong answer," Henry said coldly before grabbing her quivering right arm. Dark-Flame ignited along his palm, engulfing her limb in searing black fire as she thrashed and screamed in agony.

  A solid minute passed—sixty long, excruciating seconds of her writhing and shrieking—before she finally broke.

  "I-I’ll te-ll you!" she gasped, her voice hoarse from screaming.

  Henry extinguished the flames and watched as she vomited on herself, her entire body twitching with lingering pain.

  "Well?" Henry asked, his tone devoid of emotion. "I can do it again if you like. Brian gave up after just one round—you want to set a new record?" he mocked.

  Her malformed face twisted with a mix of fear, hatred, and desperation before she finally whispered, "She’s b-by the healer tents… in one of the cells."

  Henry's expression turned to stone. Without hesitation, he drove his dagger into her chest and rushed toward the healer tents, not sparing Kate another glance.

  Dashing through the camp, memories of his time in the Trials of Ragnar flooded his mind, merging with the chaos around him.

  He had been thrown into countless towns and villages, each brimming with humans, beasts, and creatures that wanted nothing more than to tear him apart. Each time, the System had given him an objective—a task to complete before the timer in the village square ran out, the amount he did, he did not remember.

  Times varied, the things he fought varied, and the situations he found himself in were ever-changing.

  It was hell.

  But for Maria, for his child, he would walk through hell with a smile.

  And that’s exactly what he did.

  Bursting through the last healer tent, Henry found himself surrounded by cages. Rows of them.

  He rushed past the empty ones, his eyes scanning frantically for Maria. The prisoners inside reached out, their desperate voices filling the air, pleading for freedom.

  He ignored them all.

  He only had one name on his lips.

  "Maria!"

  He called it again and again, his heart pounding as some tried to claim they were her. He ignored them all, his focus razor-sharp.

  "H-enry," a voice uttered, barely a squeak, causing goosebumps to flare across his back as his head whipped towards where he heard the voice.

  His hand grabbed onto the cell door and yanked it open, ripping it off its hinges and letting it fall on the ground. Going to his knees, his arms tentatively reached towards Maria’s muddied and bruised face, caressing her face gently as he stared into her eyes.

  The voices and sounds of battle around him vanished as he held her.

  “O-our baby,” Maria muttered, her voice hoarse, clutching at Henry’s back. “Our Fiorellina.”

  “I know,” Henry whispered, rubbing her back. “I’m here for you, my love.”

  Henry lifted her into his arms, carrying her out of the cell without a second thought, uncaring of the voices begging him to free them.

  Pushing aside the tent flaps, he sprinted toward the walls, his eyes darting in every direction, ensuring no stray attack found its way to Maria.

  With a powerful leap, he cleared the wall, landing in a crouch before breaking into a full sprint. Ahead, the Assistant village still stood, its gates now open as the first rays of sunlight crept over the horizon.

  He needed to reach Solin, the Healer’s Assistant, to have Maria checked and to hear confirmation that Ragnar’s words were true. That their baby still lived.

  They still had a chance to get back their Fiorellina.

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