…
Sasha stood close to Victor, her father, waiting for her chance to contribute.
At the front, Adults with their higher levels battled against the encroaching horde. Their weapons flashed with mana as they sank their blades into the heads or hearts of the kobolds, kicking them back down from the top of the wall.
'Come on,' she gritted her teeth in impatience. 'Let me kill those bastards too.' She wasn't the type to sit back and relax. Earlier, when her father needed to recover his mana, he'd let her take his position on the wall for a short while.
It had left her wanting more. Every slash, thrust, and stab was a step toward advancement. Something that she wanted more than anything.
If the villagers survived this battle, it would work wonders in increasing their levels, opening the path to higher-ranked classes for their Tier Two advancement.
She still needed to unlock plenty of skills to improve her build in Tier One, but those would be easy compared to the final hurdle she had to cross to advance. This battle would make that hurdle easier for anyone who survived.
The sound of steel clashing and human voices shouting reached her ears, and all it did was make her heartbeat quicken in excitement. Sasha gripped her beloved weapon tightly, watching for an opening. The anticipation was killing her.
She wasn't afraid - how could she be? She wouldn't have chosen the Warrior class in the first place if she were afraid of dying. She'd had the opportunity to become a Scholar. Gods, of all things.
Living inside the walls of a library, safe and distant from danger, it wasn't meant for her. Noelle could have that sense of security.
Every Warrior, in her opinion, had to be a little insane. The path of advancement was never simple.
In thousands of years of human history, only three had ever ascended to godhood…yet people still threw themselves into duels with death every day. If that wasn't insanity, then what was?
Their makeshift defences were effectively neutralising the kobolds' numerical advantage, for now. But that wouldn't last.
These greedy little bastards might not have been the smartest of beasts - canine, reptilian, or whatever mix they were - but they wouldn't keep walking into a meat grinder forever. Already, they'd realised it, focusing their attacks on smaller, weaker spots in the wall instead of spreading out evenly.
Sooner or later, they'd pile enough dead bodies in those places to climb the wall with ease.
And when that happened...
Things were going to go sideways for them - fast.
The only thing holding all the non-combat classes together was the wall. Once it was breached, once the monsters were inside the village, everyone would stop thinking about the battle.
Everyone would start thinking about protecting themselves. As her mother used to say, humans were selfish creatures.
And in moments like this... That was truer than ever.
Suddenly, a spot opened up.
Uncle John wasn't quick enough to push the kobold back. The creature slipped past his guard and landed a blow before he managed to kill it, forcing a pained hiss from his lips. But just as quickly as it happened, he was pulled back… Sasha surged forward to take his place.
He muttered a quick word of gratitude before walking back to get healed by Aunt Amelia, even as his health points slowly depleted, to start healing him on their own.
One moment, Sasha was standing behind the protective wall of her father's broad back, and the next, she was facing down a snarling, bloodthirsty kobold. It was a head shorter than her, but easily matched her in weight.
The creature swiped at her with its left claw while its other hand clung to the wooden log of the wall, keeping itself latched there.
Sasha leaned back fluidly, like a phantom, easily dodging the attack before thrusting the tip of her beloved naginata toward the mutt's skull. Her weapon pierced clean through, shattering bone and brain alike, draining the last of its health points in an instant.
A charged kick from her boot sent the dead kobold's body crashing backwards into the mass of its brethren, knocking two more from the wall as they scrambled to avoid the falling corpse.
From the side, another kobold lunged at her, but Sasha was not alone. Her father was already there, his sword in motion before the creature even got close.
Steel bit into its neck, cleaving it clean through. The kobold's body toppled over the wall, its head barely hanging on by a thread of flesh. It might have survived for a few moments longer, but in their frenzy, its brethren crushed its throat beneath their clawed feet.
A fight of this scale was rare, especially in a place as remote as Simon Village. The village lay within the territory of a count of the kingdom. A monster tide happening here, under the safety of the kingdom's inner walls, was unheard of.
This was the sort of chaos reserved for the border territories, the wild frontiers that separated the kingdom from the untamed lands beyond.
Every wasted second here was worth days of training. There was a world of difference between sparring and a real battle. The unpredictability. The ferocity. The weight of a life-or-death kill.
In a spar, the chance of true injury was next to nothing…but here? Every exchange could be her last. And the System knew that.
Which was why it would count this battle as a feat.
Sasha refocused on her task, shoving aside all thoughts except two: kill her enemies, and live. She thrust, slashed, and counterattacked after every parry, as agile as her body would allow. And then even swiftly.
She felt the telltale signs, that distinct response from her skills, answering her call. Skill Immersion. It washed over her like slipping into cold, clear water… sharp, bracing, but invigorating.
It let her go above and beyond what flesh alone could manage. Her level fourteen Spearmanship {Naginata} and level six Phantom Stride worked together in perfect tandem, pushing her past the limits she thought bound her.
They dug deeper into her mastery, wrenching power and precision from her body, whether it could keep up or not. Every muscle tensed. Every tendon pulled tight like drawn wires.
Her naginata flashed, separating a dog-faced bastard's head from its shoulders with terrifying speed, and before the corpse could fall, she tore the arm from another kobold mid-swing.
In that moment, Sasha and her skills moved as one.
And then, she felt it. A presence.
Not the overwhelming, all-consuming force most felt during a Skill High…but something subtler. Feather-light guidance. Like a trusted friend's hand at her back, steering her just so.
Sasha grinned. And through her, her skills grinned.
Across the chaos, her father caught her eye, his brow creased with a quick flash of worry, before turning back to the slaughter. They fought like that for a while longer. Weapons delivering death with every arc, every step, every breath. Until a sharp shout from behind cut through the din, snapping their attention backwards.