Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Myrina led me to her clan’s sparring ring. It was an impressive arena filled with sand, with wooden stands surrounding it. Unlit torches and posts for a tarp overhead covered the area.

If the castle we were in hadn’t made it clear that Myrina was from a warrior clan, this did. The arena was big enough that even if the relatively empty castle Myrina had just walked me through had been full to the brim, there was enough room for everyone to watch a fight, and then some.

“Want a weapon?” Myrina gestured to a rack of wooden practice weapons. Despite being made out of wood, they looked like they would still hurt quite a bit. But the chips and scraps along their rounded edges told me the warriors who practiced with them didn’t care.

Myrina grabbed several practice weapons to outfit herself with. She grabbed a wooden shield, strapped a short sword to the back of it, then picked up a sword in her other hand.

I glanced at the rack. There was a lot more to choose from. Clubs, warhammers, spears, polearms, axes, chains, and a hundred other things I had no name for. On the technological spectrum, they were all strictly medieval. I supposed some swords were long and thin enough to have come from the Renaissance period on Earth and, if made of metal, would have needed to be forged carefully.

But there was no sign of firearms on display anywhere. The closest to such a weapon Myrina’s family had was an old wooden crossbow with padded bolts. It was so dust-covered that it looked like it hadn’t been used in decades.

The only thing I had proficiency in was a sword, which I grabbed.

“A sword. A bold choice,” Myrina nodded to the weapon in my hand.

“It’s the only thing here I’ve ever held before.” I waved to the other weapons with the tip of my wooden practice sword.

Myrina gave me a noncommittal shrug. “No shield?”

I shook my head. “I need my other hand free for casting spells.”

There was also plenty of armor, and Myrina tossed me a bucket-looking helmet before putting one on herself. It was stuffy inside, caked with sweat from who knew how many warrior women. I put it on anyway, and the padding Myrina passed me after. She suited up as well, then tossed me a pendant.

“Here. I’m higher level than you in my race and class. This pendant equalizes things. You’ll have to share your levels with it, but nothing more.” Myrina pointed to the center of the pendant.

I pressed my finger on the spot she indicated, and the magic within stirred to life.

Would you like to share your status screen information with the Level Equalizer?

I accepted yes on the System prompt and tossed the pendant back to Myrina. She frowned when she accepted it.

“Alright, first lesson, Carter. Never provide more information from your status screen than absolutely necessary. The item only requires your race and class levels. You just sent your entire status screen.”

“I trust you. You’ll need to see it anyway if you’re to train me.” I gave her a shrug.

Myrina shook her head. “True enough. But it’s a bad habit. I’ll help you go through your privacy settings later. Since you showed me so much trust, I’ll do something similar for you. The pendant will make it so you’ll get notifications whenever I use an ability. That’s a big advantage in a fight. Use it well.”

I grinned. “You just want to show off your awesome skills, don’t you?”

Myrina cut short a brief giggle before her tone turned serious again. “You saw straight through me, didn’t you? But please keep all my skills between the two of us. I’ll do the same for you. They aren’t secret, but you should never inform enemies about yourself if you can help it. It’s just poor strategy.”

“Your secrets are my secrets, Myrina. I think I promised you that a long time ago.”

“You did. That you did...” Myrina’s voice trailed off as we walked to the center of the arena.

I frowned, curious about something. "Can I ask what level you are at normally?"

"My my, Carter, how forward of you," Myrina laughed. "But sure. If you're curious, go ahead and use Examine on me. You've basically already stripped yourself bare for me, so letting you examine me is the least I can do."

I activated Examine, looking Myrina over for the first time.

Myrina Samhain (Amazonian Warchief - Level 69)

"Level sixty nine?" I asked.

Myrina nodded. "Yep!"

I frowned. Somehow I thought she'd be higher. I'd made it to the mid 30's after just a few weeks with the system. I would have held my tongue with anyone else, but Myrina was probably the only person I could ask something like this.

"Shouldn't you be higher? I'm level 34 and I've only had the System for a short while."

Myrina laughed. "Good one, Carter. You're spoiled by the System. You probably don't know how valuable being part of a newly integrated world is. The System hands out levels and stat points like candy for every little thing. You're already stronger than the average backwoods villager, even in the middle realms like Themiscrya. Granted, frontier worlds like yours tend to have higher levels for the average person regardless. Over time, people tame the monsters and anomalies of a planet and make it safe enough that extra levels aren't needed to survive. And after even longer, the ways to gain levels become monopolized by powerful families and factions. You, on the other hand, are fortunate enough to be attacked by monsters constantly, and thus provided with constant leveling opportunities."

"That makes sense, I suppose." I shrugged. I hadn't exactly considered myself lucky. But now that I thought about it, my Death Curse wasn't attracting any monsters at all to Myrina's family castle. I'd been on the look out for bugs or giant rats thinking they'd slip past the guards, but I hadn't seen any of them. Perhaps they'd all been hunted down and slain for their experience points long before they made it to me.

Curiosity satisfied, Myrina and I squared up against one another. I held my sword loosely at my side. She crouched low in a wide stance, shield in front and spear held overhead. She’d drawn it back to its fullest, and all I could just barely make out was her eyes staring back at me through the gap between her raised shield and her helmet.

I couldn’t help but notice the casual grace she moved with. She walked like she’d worn her equipment all her life. In contrast, I was struggling to keep my helmet from wobbling off my head. I hadn’t adjusted to not being able to see out of the corners of my eyes either. I hadn’t realized how much I’d been depending on my field of view for spellcasting. This would make targeting Myrina harder.

I’d just have to hold off on my spells at first. I’d test her abilities with my own for a bit. My Sword proficiency was nothing to brag about, but the System had given me substantial bonuses. Maybe I could hold my own? I felt Myrina used Examine on me, so I did the same to her.

Myrina Samhain (Amazonian Warchief - Level 29 [Adjusted])

Thanks to the pendant, she was only level 29. That was weaker than the Alpha Wolfman. The pendant must have taken the average of my class and race instead of picking the higher of the two. And it had rounded down at that. I'd been a bit nervous before, but with her level lower than mine I was becoming more confident in pulling off a win.

Myrina probably wasn’t used to fighting at a lower level than she normally was. And the System had given me a lot of unique titles and bonuses for participating in the Integration. I could do this. Hell, I was the strongest person on the Crownhill Shard. The defender of humanity in my corner of the world. I’d beaten the Alpha Woflman in single combat! And Chief Wubwub, too. I would--

“Are you really going to hold your sword like that?” Myrina asked skeptically.

I shrugged, raising the point a little higher in something approximating a ready position. I’d seen Olympic fencers standing similarly. The sword I was holding seemed a little heavy for the stance, but it was all I could come up with.

“I’m ready when you--“

I didn’t even get the chance to finish before Myrina was on top of me. She hadn’t moved quite as fast as she had in her room, but she’d still crossed the distance between the two of us in the blink of an eye. One moment, my sword was in my hand. The next, it connected with Myrina’s shield and flew into the sand.

Myrina was on top of me again for the second time in the past hour, and this time, she had her practice spear pointed straight at my heart.

“How’d you do that?” I asked, voice full of awe.

“Check your notifications. You should see the skill I used listed there. The pendant is sharing some of my system messages with you.”

I looked, and sure enough, it was there.

Myrina has used Celestial Agility (Epic)

Myrina has used Titan’s Strike (Common)

You are disarmed.

“An epic movement skill?” I pulled off my helmet, eyebrows raised. “Impressive.”

“You like?” Myrina grinned as she stretched. “Good. Because there’s a lot more where that came from.”

She kicked the sand where my sword landed, knocking it into the air where it soared end over end for a moment before landing gracefully in her waiting hand.

She tossed the sword to me in the same smooth motion. I fumbled it as the blunted blade rapped against my knuckles, and the sword landed on the ground at my feet.

I grimaced. Perhaps it was time to revise my expectations for this dual downward. Myrina was good. That trick wasn’t the kind of thing she could pull off without spending a whole lot of time fetching discarded swords in this very ring.

I put my helmet back on and pulled my sword from the sand. “Alright, let’s go again.”

“Eager. I like it. You’ll make a good student.” Myrina raised her shield and spear again.

“Ready!” I shouted, and this time, I was prepared for Myrina’s charge. I sensed the notifications coming and realized I could move them to the part of my vision that was covered by my helmet anyway. I read them as in the same moment I conjured an Eldrich Blast and used Eldrich Augmentation. I’d need the stat boost if I wanted to keep up with Myrina’s incredible speed.

Myrina has used the ability Combat Instincts (Uncommon)

Suddenly, Myrina shifted tactics. Instead of a headlong charge, she feinted. From the name of the ability she just used, I suspected it was something like my Exploit Weakness ability and allowed her to find gaps in my attack patterns. Two could play at that game.

Myrina threw a few probing jabs with her spear tip, and I deflected them as best I could with my sword. She was faster than me, though, and it was all I could do to keep up. If I was relying on my sword to win me the duel, I’d be in trouble.

But I was no swordsman. I was a spellcaster.

I activated Exploit Weakness. Her shield was black in my vision. Hitting it with my spell would just be a waste. The same was true for her helmet. She covered her face so well that hitting her there with a spell would be nearly impossible, but my ability led my eyes lower.

Her legs were open. I targeted them. Myrina barely pulled back in time to avoid the blast. It wasn’t a win, but it put pressure on my sword arm, which had been on the verge of failing me a moment ago.

I swapped to a Mana Bolt bolt, casting it twice in quick succession to keep Myrina from closing on me unimpeded.

Mobility and distance were my allies here. Myrina was clearly a melee combatant. If I could keep the fight at range, I’d have an edge. It was the same strategy that had won me the fight against the Alpha Wolfman.

I used Power Jump, catching Myrina off guard as I cleared a quarter of the arena’s length in one massive jump. Between that and Sure Step, I hoped to stay out of reach.

Then Myrina hit me with something I hadn’t expected. It was like being dunked in a frozen lake. My body froze, and I felt like a mouse that had just caught a hawk’s eye.

Myrina has used Killing Intent (Rare)

You are frozen!

I struggled against the ability, shaking it off a moment later. But a moment was all the time Myrina needed to change my position.

She closed on me with her spear again, and this time, I wasn’t fast enough with my spells to keep her back.

Our little game of cat and mouse turned into a melee fight, exactly what I didn’t want.

I turned to run, but Myrina cocked back her arm and threw her spear, cutting off my Power Jump before it could even begin. I realized the only thing I could do was face her. She drew her sword, and I raised mine to defend.

Your Sword proficiency has increased to 25!

Your Dodge proficiency has increased to 23!

I lasted three exchanges before she had her short sword at my throat. The fact that she had a shield meant she could shove my weapon aside while I couldn’t do the same to her.

“Dead.” Myrina declared.

I dropped my weapon, raised my hands, and pulled off my helmet. “Seems so. And you were right. I’m pretty impressed by those abilities of yours."

But when Myrina pulled off her helmet, the jovial smile I’d expected wasn’t there. Instead, there was a scowl.

“You didn’t even use half of your abilities, Carter.”

My own smile fell from my lips. “Myrina... most of my abilities aren’t meant for a practice ring. They’re meant for a real battle. That’s how I earned them, and that’s how I used them. I’ve already shown you the only abilities I can use safely.”

“Use them.” Her glare was like steel.

I stared into her eyes, meeting her gaze with mine.

“You sure? Can we at least get a healer standing nearby?” I asked.

Myrina jerked her head toward the back of the arena. “We have on staff full time in the castle. They’re watching the fight right now from the window to your left.”

I glanced over and saw a shadow standing behind a curtain with her arms crossed.

I grimaced. It seemed I was out of excuses. I didn’t want to hurt Myrina, but I also would not do her the discourtesy of holding back. I put my helmet back on, and we walked to the center of the arena.

“Ready when you are,” I said.

Myrina charged, but this time, I was the one who caught her by surprise.

I clenched my hand. “Blood Sacrifice.”


<Note>

Last chapter of Spellheart comes out Wednesday (probably the day you're reading this) after which we'll switch to this novel full-time!