The Stubborn Light of a Dying Flame [Isekai - LitRPG]

"Are you insane?!" Janet pulled her weapon out of her Inventory. It was a sad little sword that she had bartered for because the patterns on the blade caught her eye. She wasn't sure if it would hold up against the Larkin's superior Endurance, but she couldn't fight with a bow at close range.

Even if Kam was unlikely to let the Larkin kill Janet, she wasn't ready to bet her life on that assumption. She would have fought him first if he wasn't the only thing standing between her and a very painful and bloody death.

Fear competed with the anger that coursed through Janet's veins, the two mixing into a bubbling pot of rage-induced defiance. She would not die here. She couldn't, not after everything she had already lived through. She was a secretary for Christ's sake. She had no business holding a damn sword and facing down a demon dog from the pits of Tartarus.

The concerned shouts of her players grew closer as they abandoned the defensive line to come to her aid. The first unfortunate soul to reach them slammed face first into an invisible barrier, his nose smashing into the ward with a painful-sounding crunch.

"Get your asses back to the line!" Janet snapped, trying to inject as much authority into her voice as she could. "The battle isn't over. If any of those monsters get through, they'll tear through the camp!"

Her would-be rescuers hesitated, glancing uncertainly at Kam, who absently kept the Larkin at bay with a few well-timed dagger throws. At least he was giving her enough time to deal with the first problem he created before forcing her to face the second one.

"This is just a training exercise," Janet lied with complete confidence. "I was surprised by the way we got here is all, now go back to the defensive line or I'll have you all scrubbing latrines for the next month!" Janet didn't really have the authority to do that, but it sounded like something a commander would say. Janet's calm façade, coupled with the threat of latrine duty, was enough to shake them out of their indecision. The majority of onlookers saluted her and ran back to deal with the quickly approaching Larkins who were attempting to take advantage of the momentary distraction.

One had stayed: Owen. He was the strongest player Janet had outside of the tutorial leaders who had joined their groups when returning to Ember rather than going back to their homelands. He stubbornly stood outside the barrier, frowning at Janet.

She took a deep breath. "I'll handle this. Send someone to take my place in the watch tower. You're in charge until I get back."

Owen's frown deepened and he hesitated a moment longer before he finally followed Janet's instructions, shooting a glare at Kam as he left. By the time he got back to the line, he was already pointing at players and shouting orders, but Janet couldn't hear him anymore.

The Larkin lunged before Janet was ready and apparently, Kam decided to let it attack. She managed to sidestep the attack for the most part, earning a painful scratch on her arm as she attempted to swipe her sword at the monster's neck. The badly aimed attack barely scratched the Larkin's skin, but it was enough of the shock to put the canine back on the defensive as it reevaluated its opponent.

"Seriously?" Janet snapped at Kam, healing the cut on her arm.

"Never take your eyes off an opponent," Kam said blandly. "They'll take advantage of the opening."

Janet gritted her teeth and dropped below another attack, swiping her sword across the Larkin's chest. It did little damage once again, and Janet tried a different tactic. Opening her mouth, she screamed at the Larkin with as much volume as her Voice Amplification skill could give her.

It backed up a step, startled by the noise, but it recovered quickly, coming at Janet with terrifying speed. She slid under the monster's stomach, taking advantage of its wide attack stance to slice its leg on the way by.

The monster yelped and jumped away from Janet, growling menacingly as it favored the leg that Janet had managed to cut.

"Kam, you've made your point," Janet snapped. "Get me off the front lines. This isn't how we fight. Individuals aren't as strong as groups. This is inefficient and dangerous."

"Everyone fights in Kelinar," Kam said in a grim voice. "Most of us fight alone. If you can't kill this weakling, you won't survive the Dark Age, no matter how many people come to your aid."

Janet growled in frustration. There was no way out of this. She either killed this monster, or she got so badly beat up that Kam decided she had learned her lesson.

She planned on doing the former, but the latter was by far the more likely outcome.

She reevaluated her opponent, trying to come up with a strategy that would give her an advantage in this fight. The Larkin was almost ten levels lower than her, but its Endurance was higher by a significant degree. Cutting and slicing wasn't helping. She could try and find a weak point, but the monster's Dexterity was on par with Janet's, making it difficult to dodge its attacks and think at the same time.

It didn't help that this wasn't Janet's usual fighting style. She preferred to take out targets from the safety of a watch tower or a nearby tree. She didn't fight melee unless she was forced to do so.

Well, Kam was forcing her.

"I can help you get stronger," Kam said. The words sounded almost mocking in the current situation. "This thing would be easy with a few more levels under your belt and a proper strategy."

"Oh yeah?" Janet snapped. "What strategy? The damn thing's three times my size!"

"You can start by activating the runes on your weapon," Kam said.

Janet frowned, throwing a wild swipe at the Larkin to keep it at bay. It was starting to regain its confidence as well as its balance as the minor injury on its leg healed.

"They're not runes," Janet said. "I picked this up from a peddler on the road. It's decorative."

She'd seen runes; they were blockier and separated. Her sword was a mass of interconnected swirls that could barely be distinguished as being a pattern at all.

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"Which one of us has been on Ember longer?" Kam asked, his eyebrow raised. "Trust me."

Janet narrowed her eyes. "In this situation?"

Kam shrugged. "You can take my advice or leave it. But you're not getting through that monster's hide with that butter knife you're using."

Janet ducked a swipe from the Larkin's paw and rolled, coming to her feet closer to Kam and slashing at the monster again.

"Fine," she growled. "How do I do it?"

"Just channel Mana into the blade," Kam said, lazily flicking a dagger to keep the monster back while she focused on the exercise. "The runes control the magic; the wielder controls the intensity. Go slowly at first. If you use too much power at once, the runes might explode."

"Just what I need, exploding weapons," Janet muttered. She actually could use some C4 right about now, but she didn't want a bomb going off while she was holding it.

She took a deep breath and focused on the blade, channeling Mana into it as she would any other item. The runes started to glow faintly, and she poured some more Mana in. The glow got slightly brighter. It was working, but not fast enough.

Janet dug deeper, channeling as much Mana as she could into the blade. A small headache appeared over her eyebrow, but she ignored it, forcing the blade to take more energy.

"Steady," Kam said, a note of worry in his voice.

Janet didn't answer, too busy with the blade to pay attention to the battle. She had the vague awareness that Kam had trapped the Larkin in some sort of invisible box, but it wasn't particularly important to her right now.

She needed to survive, which meant she needed a usable weapon.

The headache grew stronger, and Janet almost gave up before Kam placed a gentle hand on her arm, funneling Mana into her body. Janet's headache vanished and the sudden rush of Mana made her overconfident. She pushed all of it into the blade at once.

The runes glowed brighter, the light blue glow shifting to a brilliant orange blaze.

Then the blade caught fire.

Janet screamed, waving the blade back and forth to try to extinguish it.

Kam burst into laughter. "Stop channeling Mana!" he said. "It will go out on its own."

Embarrassed and more than a little annoyed, Janet cut off the flow of Mana. The fire went out and the runes returned to the faint blue that they had been before.

"A little warning would have been nice," Janet said, gathering from the man's nonchalance that catching fire was a function of the blade and not an undesirable side-effect of using too much Mana.

"Lesson number one: always be careful when activating unknown runes." The note of amusement in Kam's voice made Janet want to chuck her blade at him.

"I don't think experimenting with pyrotechnics mid-battle is wise," Janet said.

"Correct," Kam said. "But now that the blade is active, the strengthening and sharpening runes should help you get through the monster's hide. You certainly funneled enough Mana into it. Try hitting the monster again."

With his words, the barrier holding the Larkin back vanished and the incensed monster lunged at Janet.

She jumped away, aiming a panicked attack at the monster's leg. Her thought was to cause some pain and force the monster to back off again, but it worked far better than she anticipated.

The newly sharpened blade severed the monster's limb at the knee, cutting through muscle and bone like butter.

The Larkin screamed and wobbled, collapsing on the ground as it struggled to balance on its remaining three legs. Janet retreated, barely avoiding being crushed under the unsteady monster's bulk. Taking the opportunity, she ran forward and slammed her blade down on the monster's neck, neatly decapitating it.

Blood and gore spewed from the wound, splattering all over Janet's clothes and shoes. She shouted in disgust, moving out of the splash zone of smelly black blood.

Without warning, Kam grabbed Janet and started running again. For a horrible moment, Janet thought he was going to pit her against another monster. Instead, she found herself back on the lookout tower, standing next to a frazzled Level 20 Mage who looked at Kam with abject terror.

Janet nodded at the woman, dismissing her. She retreated down the stairs without question, shooting cautious looks at Kam as if he might smite her while her back was turned.

He was too busy leaning back in his chair and looking smug. "So, do you acknowledge—ow!"

He glared at Janet, the slight scrape on his arm healing in a split second without intervention. Just how high was his Endurance?

"Was that really necessary?" he asked, his tone annoyed, but not angry.

Janet held the useless weapon ready, too angry to acknowledge the stupidity of challenging the man with a blade that could barely give him a paper cut.

"Don't you ever do something like that again," she said, her voice cold as ice. "To me or any of my people. We are not pawns or playthings. If you're that bored, you can go do that with one of your own citizens."

Kam watched her steadily, his expression unreadable. "My people wouldn't have survived that," he said in a flat voice.

Janet didn't lower her sword.

"Fine. I apologize," Kam said. "I won't force you into a battle without your consent."

"Or any of my people," Janet insisted.

"As if I would bother," Kam said dismissively.

Janet narrowed her eyes.

"Or any of your people," Kam snapped. "For one, I don't want to deal with the fallout. Put that damn sword away, I could snap it like a twig if I wanted to."

Janet waited a beat before complying. She adjusted her position, moving to a spot on the tower where she could watch the battle without turning her back on Kam.

The man frowned. "If I scare you that much, why would you threaten me?"

"I'm not scared," Janet lied. "I'm pissed. If any of my players died during that stunt of yours you won't be allowed back here."

"You couldn't force me to leave if you wanted to," Kam said.

"Try me." Janet didn't turn to look at him, instead keeping her gaze on the battle below. If he wanted to do as he pleased, he would have to be content acting like a tyrant. If he wanted to cling to his benevolent façade, his actions would have consequences, even if the worst Janet could inflict upon him was a cold shoulder.

Kam watched her for a long moment, seemingly unsure how to take this attitude from her. "I didn't mean to upset you, only to demonstrate the error in your thinking."

"I have heard your complaints, now I ask you to respect my decision," Janet said, her voice a mask of cold diplomacy. "If you wish to demonstrate anything in the future, please do so with the consent of all parties involved."

"Even the monsters?" Kam asked, obviously trying to lighten the mood.

Janet didn't dignify the question with a response.

"I will endeavor to ask permission in the future," Kam promised. "Now if you'll excuse me, this is getting boring."

He stood and jumped from the tower, running past the defensive line in the blink of an eye. Janet received another party invitation which she rejected without a second thought. Judging from the way her players were staring into space, they too had received an invite. They looked back at Janet for directions. She nodded. If Kam wanted to blow off steam, she would welcome the spare Experience.

She could tell from the glares that were shot in Kam's direction that not all of her players were willing to overlook the man's actions and join his party just like that, but at least some of them would be gaining some levels today.

A notification popped up in front of Janet and she glanced at it with chagrin, expecting another invite.

Instead, she had completed a hidden objective.

You have advocated for your people despite the overwhelming power of your opponent. Your efforts have been acknowledged.

+50,000 Experience

+50,000 Coins

You are at the maximum level for your Ascension. You will be awarded Coins instead of Experience. Please complete your Ascension in order to gain Experience.

She had gained fifty thousand coins for the Larkin as well. Fat lot of good a coin reward did her with the Store absent from everyone's Menus.

She closed her Menu, allowing herself to relax for the first time since the battle began. There were a few things she would implement if she were given access to the System, not least of which was the return of the forums and a reliable communications network. She had some ideas how to implement that one even without the System's help, but she didn't have the resources to build it at the moment. That would have to wait for later.

For now, Janet was in desperate need of a bath.