Janeth clenched her chin as she was forced to once more evade the ice breath hurled her way.

  She had outdone herself by jumping over the railings, now her legs ached bitterly, and she couldn’t get herself to keep her stance for as long as she was supposed to. If Instructor Taehyun saw the way she was now he would smack her at the back of her head. She was pitiful. Unable to move as her days of training required of her.

  And to make matters worse, her absence from camp would have definitely been noticed by now. If she didn’t achieve a good result here, her morning ps would be doubled—no, tripled. She had snuck out; only by defeating the Ice Wyverns could she have even the minuscule chance of being spared from punishment under the pretence that she was good enough to act however she pleased.

  But, as, her performance was poor.

  Really. What a pitiful excuse for a Warrior she was.

  Another ice breath came seeking Janeth from the dark sky above. She immediately tightened the fist of her arm resting just above her waist, behind her back, and danced out of its way, sending the gentle stroke of a cleave. The ice breath was cut in half, just like she had intended, but this time it was a lot more shallow, and few of its fky specks made it through, freezing her shoulder just for a bit.

  Janeth winced and her poise finally faltered completely. But she couldn’t afford to give her attention to the pain for too long. A Warrior was made by their focus in battle. No matter the pain, or what hurdle they had to face, they couldn’t let it bleed into their minds.

  Unlike Mages, they were not blessed with the liberty to fall back and cast ranged spells, they were the ones who took the monsters head on, who fought knowing in a second their lives could be snuffed from them. They were the vanguards, and the vanguards never buckled.

  Janeth had had this notion drilled into her from the very first day she’d stepped into camp. She was not letting it depart from her at this moment—not in battle.

  She gritted her teeth and regained her stance. A loud screech reverberated through the sky then; the eyes of the Ice Wyverns glowed with a blue intensity that showed they’d had enough of her, and she wouldn't deny that she’d had enough of them too. The shore of Han river had turned to a hellscape of patches of ice. If she hadn’t stepped in in time, someone would have definitely died.

  Or had anyone?

  Janeth spared a brief gnce over her shoulder, and sighed in relief when she didn’t find a single body frozen or ying dead. Then she saw Merlin a couple of meters away engaging a couple of people who were still close to the battle scene and felt relieved. She had not meant to keep who she was a secret from him, or from Nora, she had never just really been the type to put everything about herself out there at once. Apologizing when all was done was definitely the right thing to do.

  Her mind flew back to his confession a moment ago and her heart shook; however, she swiftly discarded that thought in an instant. She did not have the liberty to bring another person into her life the way she was. Her world was unsettled, and bringing anyone else in would only throw them into a turmoil they were most likely not expecting. At the end of the day they would leave. It was better to save them the stress.

  She tightened her fingers around the hilt of her sword and narrowed her eyes at the Ice Wyverns. She’d counted them, they were twenty strong, which was too much for her to handle; and they were C-Rank monsters. She was not yet powerful enough to cut them in a single strike, and she couldn’t depend on Merlin for help. He couldn’t cast magic, and from what she’d witnessed during his training with Nora, he seemed more like a support type who needed to be in the midst of those far stronger than himself for his anti-magic to work. She wasn’t that type of person. Even if he was able to stop the ice breaths of the Wyverns, she was unable to cut them down. She couldn’t involve him.

  This whole situation is bad. But all I have to do is hold on until help arrives. You can do it, Janeth Park. You can’t die here. Think of all you have to lose if that happens… You have to become a full fledged Warrior!

  An Ice Wyvern moved ahead of the rest of its crew, its wings fpping and creating gusts of cold wind under them as it dived towards Janeth.

  Janeth didn’t take a step back. No. She moved forward. No matter what happened here, she had to win.

  The Ice Wyvern screeched and reached for her with its talons; she danced out of the way and moved her bde, its burning steel carving its mark into the wyvern's feet. The beast cried out in pain, and its companions answered. They all lunged forward, all nineteen of them. Janeth was unsure how she would escape the onsught, but she didn’t run away. There was no one else behind her. She was the st line of defense here. If she lost, people would die.

  Instructor Taehyun had always said that a Warrior’s strength came from how well they were attuned with their artifact, and attuning was dependent on one’s willpower. The artifact she held in her hand had been her mother’s, and it had been passed down to her. It was only expected that she bonded to it quicker than any other Warrior to their artifact. After all, it was the only thing she had to remember her mother by, and it was the only thing that reminded her of her mother’s warmth.

  To her, it was her mother.

  A wave of warmth bled out of Gramr and soaked itself in Janeth. Her heart beat faster, her blood rushed wilder, and the bck scales that had stretched up to her elbow, climbed further until it got to her shoulder.

  Janeth took a split second to be amazed. She had achieved partial attunement.

  The Ice Wyverns announced their closure and their intent, drawing Janeth’s attention back to their presence. This time, however, they did not come with ice breaths or their talons, it was something different. They opened their mouths, and a blue circle of intricate markings appeared. Out of their circles jutted out rge shards of ice, and despite the fact that they could very well hover in the sky above and fire them, they flung at her regardless, obviously determined not to miss and give her room to escape.

  Janeth remained unfazed, however. And as the Ice Wyverns got to her, she released all the tension in her body, offering herself up to her inherent survival instinct. The ice shards shot at her, and she moved. Her eyes glowed with the same fiery bze as her sword, Gramr, her dress rippled like it was made of water, and in the space of a second, she had weaved her way through the attacks hurled at her and brought herself before the beasts. For a moment there, she thought she saw the Ice Wyvern closest to her wearing a look of fear, but she didn’t let it bother her.

  Guide your bde like you’re a choir master and it is your wand. Cleave, cut, pierce. Those were the only words that remained in her head at this moment, hammered into her being from countless drills.

  She dropped her right foot, angled her left, and as the Ice Wyvern before her fpped its wings preparing to take flight, she cleaved through the bst of wind its wings produced, preventing it from sending her back, and lunged her forearm forward. Blood red bde connected with scales made of ice, and a hole blew itself into the Wyvern’s chest. The beast screamed, but it was a different scream from the previous one Janeth had heard. This one was louder, harsher, and filled with unbearable pain. A second of thrashing about ter, it fell sideways, eyes open, but bnk. Where it y became a bnket of ice, and Janeth had to jump back.

  She had managed to kill one. A C-Rank monster.

  A smile crept on her lips, but it was stopped before it had fully bloomed as pain swarmed her body. She looked down and found out that she had not escaped unscathed. Her thigh had been pierced and she was bleeding. She gnced at the dead Ice Wyvern, one of its talons covered in blood—her blood.

  Darn it…

  Janeth turned pale instantly, not because of the blood loss, but due to the fact that she suddenly felt extremely exhausted. Her attack had taken a lot out of her. And that notion was proved correct as the scale of Gramr that had stretched up to her shoulder crawled back down.

  Her attunement had returned to its basic form.

  Janeth pinched her expression, tore off a piece of her gown and staunched her wound; then she gnced at the nineteen Ice Wyverns that remained. They had all taken flight, safe for the one she had killed, when she had approached them.

  There was nothing much she could do here now; it had taken everything out of her to strike down just one, there was no way she could take on nineteen more. And the Ice Wyverns knew this, because they resumed their approach, this time with a lot more oomph.

  However, she couldn’t just roll over and die. It was a Warrior’s duty to protect the masses, and that duty she would fulfill.

  Janeth bit away the pain coursing through her thigh and retook her stance. But as the Ice Wyverns closed in on her, she realized that her body was no longer responding to her the way she wanted it to. Her eyebrows drew together as it dawned on her that if she remained where she was, she was definitely going to die. She had to move, strike, draw an arc in the air with her bde.

  No. That was the wrong option. What she had to do was roll out of the way.

  The eyes of the Ice Wyverns glowed blue, becoming enormous orbs of pressure as they filled her view. The cold hands of fear gripped Janeth suddenly. Her muscles trembled, but her fingers could not let go of the sword in her hand. She could run—she should. But then who would die in her stead? Those she was obligated to protect? Merlin? She bit her lower lip. She had to fight. She had to—

  The Ice Wyverns screeched, and shards of ice flew at Janeth, throwing the rest of her thoughts in disarray, leaving only one as clear as daylight…

  Ah… I’m going to die here.

  Just before the ice shards could connect, however, Janeth’s body moved. But…not of her own will. A figure fshed to her side, and before she could register what had happened, she was carried away by firm hands to at least fifteen steps away from where she had been a moment ago.

  What happened? Janeth’s heartbeat raced as she was let down by whoever had swooped in to save her, the cold air that had come about as a result of Han river’s shore turning into a mini nd of ice, spreading across her face.

  “Are you alright?” a voice asked—but not an unfamiliar one. She knew this voice.

  No way…

  Janeth looked up slowly from the ground where her gaze had been anchored in disbelief. Before her was Merlin, his fists glowing with the same red hot warmth as Gramr. She wanted to ask: how had he saved her? How had he moved so quickly? But her lips couldn’t move. She still didn’t want to believe it. He had blinked her out of danger. She had only seen one person move as fast as that. And that person was Instructor Taehyun, a Gold-Css Warrior.

  What did this mean? That Merlin was as fast as a Gold-Css Warrior? That was absurd to think. And, yet, that was what had just happened.

  Merlin took a deep breath and exhaled, a visible puff of air escaping his lips. It was almost like winter had come early.

  “You can take a break,” he said, raising his fists, his mana around them swirling ever so gently they felt welcoming. “I should be able to hold them back for how long is left until help arrives.”

  Janeth bit her lower lip. How pathetic would she look? He was a Mage without magic. She was the one who was meant to be protecting him, not the other way around. She couldn’t remain on the ground and take a break. If anything, they would fight together.

  “No. I’m fine,” she said, enduring her pain and standing up. “I’ll fight.”

  “I see…” Merlin said, his eyes solidly pced on the beasts hovering in the sky, not sparing her a gnce.

  Janeth was gd he had not tried to talk her out of it. She limped as she walked up to him.

  “Do you have a pn?”

  “No,” Merlin replied. “At least nothing extravagant.”

  Janeth raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

  Merlin smiled. “My pn is rather simple: I’ll pummel them.”