“This will hurt,” Luke mumbled, since he didn’t have time to dampen the pain, and knew Curtis could take it. At least the healing was quick, only requiring stitching and destroying some stomach fluid that had leaked out.

  The knight leader took a quick step forward and thrust. Curtis pushed Luke to the left and used the momentum to dodge right, and the blade struck wood, burying itself in the trunk. Then it was Curtis’s turn to go on the offensive, and he once again swung overhead. The knight slapped the blow away with his shield, this time with obvious disdain in his movements, before sending a gauntleted fist straight into Curtis's face. Luke heard the crack of broken bones and saw the force knock Curtis back. Milla healed him from her hiding place behind a tall bush a few strides away. The bone restored itself even as Curtis swung his giant sword again in the same way as before.

  The knight pulled his own blade from the tree trunk where it was stuck, dodged the large blade with ease, and stepped in, readying another attack. Then he froze, as the attack never came. Curtis had put away his large blade and withdrawn a short sword instead, altering the trajectory of the blow to an upward angle. It slammed into the knight’s throat, right between the helm and the gorget. A killing blow.

  Unless a mage healed him.

  Luke focused. Another mage cast that same healing spell. It couldn’t be allowed to reach the knight leader. That man wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice, and even though Luke hated saying it, the opponent outmatched Curtis.

  Focusing for all he was worth, Luke used Weavesense to see the spellweave as it hurtled toward its target. Hitting the timing just right might have been incredible luck, or some talent Luke didn’t know about, but his threads intercepted the spellweave and tore it to shreds.

  The healing spell never made it to its target, and the knight leader died. To Luke’s great satisfaction, the old mage’s eyes widened in surprise.

  Luke pointed at him, shouting, "You’re next, old man!"

  An arrow whistled by, and Milla cried out in pain. Luke spun and saw her on the ground. It had struck her forearm and gone right through the muscle. Leaving Curtis to his own devices, Luke hurried over to his sister, who had tears in her eyes but her jaw set in determination.

  "Break it off," she said, her lips a thin white line.

  Luke grabbed it and heaved, pushing it straight through. There was no time for anything else. More arrows thudded into the trees all around them. Blood poured out of his sister’s arm, and he was about to heal her when she held up a hand.

  "I’ll do it! You help Mateo."

  Mateo, too, was struggling, his movements slow and his health bar less than half full. Luke hadn’t seen what had happened to him, but he had two arrows sticking out of his back, and blood ran down his right arm as well. The knights were crowding in. He’d killed four already, but that left another three who'd joined in the initial assault.

  Zap it, crack it, light the sky!

  Hit them once, don’t let them try!

  Strike again, or else we die!

  "I’m running out of mana," Penny panted, as one of her spells tore another small group of soldiers apart.

  The fire from before was spreading, with the burning branches and leaves falling having started small fires of their own, and the heat was getting difficult to ignore.

  Abraham: "I have to climb down before I'm thoroughly barbecued!"

  Emma: "Same!"

  "Abraham, come down!" Luke shouted.

  "Emma, same!"

  Milla was busy healing herself, and Mateo needed him. Luke threw another mana gem to Penny as he ran to help.

  Curtis had joined the melee as well, drawing some of the attention away from Mateo. This allowed Luke to rush in and make his way to his friend, who was now even worse off. There was a lot to heal, and even as he worked, the mages seemed to have decided the knights’ lives were expendable. Because in that moment, they stopped holding their spells back.

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  Luke destroyed one spellweave before he grabbed Mateo and threw both of them to the ground in a patch grass that had yet to be touched by the fire. "Down, Curtis!"

  Curtis made it behind a tree trunk just in time. The world turned into a blazing inferno, and fire raged through the entire area. Luke healed Mateo as best he could, then muttered instructions in his ear.

  Mateo coughed, his eyes tearing from the smoke. "Glory is for those who seize it!"

  Then he was up and away.

  Luke: "Everyone alive?"

  Milla: "Yes, but I don't like this! It's just chaos!"

  Emma: "I'm fine. Going back and around to get a better line of attack."

  Abraham: "It's rough, but I'm still standing. Thank God for health potions, eh?"

  Emma: "We'll deal with the archers and then target the mages."

  Curtis didn't answer, but Luke knew he was fine because he was engaging the knights who still stood after that blast. The knights closest to the blast were on the ground, cooked in their metal plate armor. Those standing behind were a little better off, having been shielded by their now dead comrades.

  Rather than trying to reach Curtis by shouting instructions, Luke entered the fight. At first, he brought out the two broken pieces of quarterstaff, but discarded them a step later. Wielding a weapon, and such a terrible one at that, was useless against these trained fighters. He'd just get himself killed. Better to use a skill and try to turn this fight a little more even.

  "On your right!" Luke shouted as he ran past Curtis straight at the knights. They stood clumped together and confused after the fire spell. With their focus on Curtis, having the healer throw himself at them out of nowhere was enough of a surprise that they didn't react. That moment of hesitation was all he needed. Luke got in close enough to reach them with Threads of Mana.

  The Healer's Moment froze time for all of them, and Luke went to work without skipping a beat. Needle of Life scrambled the brain of one, sliced through the main mana channel of another, and then he reached for the third's monster core. There was none. Meta-heart. These knights had meta-hearts. Not monsters then, not by any stretch of the imagination. Humans. People.

  Luke pulled the meta-heart from the knight's body and put it into his inventory just as time resumed. He stood and pushed through the disgust he felt. A meta-heart wasn't the same as a monster core. These were people, but there was no stopping now. This was a life and death situation. Instead, he stood and waved for Curtis to follow. It was time they dealt with the mages.

  "Did you just rip the heart out of that man's body?" Curtis asked as he came up to run beside Luke as they approached the edge of the forested area.

  Luke glanced at him and then turned his attention forward again. "Kind of."

  "You deal with the mage, and I'll take the others?"

  "Yeah," Luke said, staring right at the old man as they broke out into the field. "Let's go."

  It was the old man, two knights, and three soldiers standing in a tight group near the edge of the forest. Those enemies weren't the only ones, of course. More soldiers stood at the ready not far off, and several mages were in the middle of casting spells. Roots reached up to grab Luke's legs again, but this time, he was ready for them.

  Slicing through with a thread coming out of his left foot, Luke continued uninterrupted. In the corner of his eye, he saw a different mage unleash a fiery attack that fizzled when a huge arrow slammed into him, straight through the heart. There was no healing that. For the first couple of steps, arrows met the two Integrated rushing across the field, but all but one missed. Luke winced, pulled it out, and healed himself without taking his eyes off the old man. Once they were near enough, the archers didn't let loose any more arrows, probably for fear of hitting their leader. Abraham's constant barrage of bullets and bombs distracted most of them, anyway.

  Rather than continue their assault on Luke and Curtis, the archers turned their attention to Emma and Abraham, who sustained several injuries now that they no longer had the safety of the trees covering for them. A warm glow surrounding them signaled Milla's healing, which meant Luke didn't have to divert his attention.

  The old mage scoffed at their charge and waved a hand in their direction. Within a second, the threads of a spellweave formed over his hand. It all happened too fast for Luke to catch, but he thought he recognized part of the intricate pattern.

  "Down! Fire!"

  With those words, he threw himself onto his belly right there in the field and pulled out a dwarven corpse from his inventory, placing it on top of himself for good measure. An inferno raged over his head, and the organic shield he'd used smelled of burnt hair and horrible charred meat. The moment the attack ended, Luke got to his feet and resumed the charge, relieved to find Curtis right there with him.

  Just as they approached, the mage cast another spell. This one, Luke recognized as the barrier they kept using. While he wasn't close enough to cut through the spellweave itself as it formed, he knew himself capable of doing so once the barrier formed.

  Putting on a bit of a show, he did his best to appear worried and desperate. Once the blue barrier appeared between Luke and his target, Luke sped up, reaching with a thread to slice open the spellweave holding the barrier in place. The look on the old man's face as Luke and Curtis continued their charge was perhaps the most satisfying thing Luke had ever experienced up to that point.

  The knights and soldiers rushed in between Luke and the old man, blocking the path forward. Luke, having expected they would do just that, had kept the thread of mana active and reaching forward. Just as he was about to find himself skewered by swords and spears, he activated Weavestep.

  The weave shifted, and Luke traveled from one spot to another in the physical realm in an instant. It was not an impressive distance, but a little more than two feet was all he needed. With his back to the fighters and the old man right in front of him, Luke threw himself forward, reaching for the mage.

  It was time to end this.