[Name: Caliburn (Vessel), Nora (Former)

  Condition: Mended

  Rarity: Uncommon Sword (16 ATK)

  Skill(s): Spirit Vessel

  Quest 1: Bind yourself to an owner

  -->Status: Complete

  -->Reward: Cimed

  Quest 2: Recover from 'Battered' condition

  -->Status: Complete!

  -->Reward: Cimed

  [A 'mended' bastard sword, useful for its ability to be wielded with both hands or just one. There appears to be more to this bde than meets the eye… Currently owned by Grail Initiate Romeo.]

  It felt like he had sted several hours already, but Romeo knew that wasn’t true. The moon still hung high in the sky, and it’s twin, the sun still showed no signs of rising upon him, his talking sword and the growing pile of corpses.

  The Fairy dust was every bit as effective Nora had cimed and Ramsey would have hoped. After a while, the weaker monsters stopped showing and stronger more powerful variants begun stepping out from the tree line. Wolves had become Dire Wolves, Goblins had become Hobgoblins, Romeo was still just Romeo.

  ‘You’re about halfway through, Romeo!’ Cimed his talking sword, he’d have preferred if she had instead lied and told him there was just a few minutes left but Nora seemed to be more of an honest spirit that he’d have guessed, ‘Don’t lose focus!’

  The seventh Hobgoblin this night came in swinging low - Romeo sidestepped, deflecting with the ft of his bde before stomping the beast’s knee inward with a wet pop, then finishing with a clean ssh across the throat. Another came from the side, but the initiate pivoted, his bde trailing through the stomach like a scythe through grain.

  A third caught him off guard-his instincts just a shade too slow. The Hobgoblin's axe scraped across his vambrace, throwing off his bance. He retaliated with a shoulder bash, sending the creature sprawling, but the nick across his arm already throbbed. Even through his leather armour, these bastards hit hard.

  It was chaos now, no more silence, no more finesse. Just steel and blood and shouts echoing off the trees. And through it all, Romeo could feel the weight of exhaustion trying to get him to close his eyes, to go to sleep.

  He swung wide, cleaving through a dire wolfs neck.

  Its mate bit his calf. Romeo swung round with the sword and separated the beast in two. Having a relic as a sword was doing him a lot of favours, it meant every single one of his strikes was lethal. Admittedly, without Nora by his side, Romeo wouldn’t have even attempted this revolutionary act against Ramsey.

  Bracing his the newly mended Caliburn against his vambrace, Romeo blocked a particurly rge war hammer as one of the Hobgoblins took a wide swing. Despite releasing mana to soften the blow, the Grail initiate still found himself picked off the ground and sent tumbling through the air. Rolling to a stop, Romeo pulled himself up slowly. He was tired.

  His movements have slowed, his intuition was dulled, and his heart hammered in his chest with so much force that he felt it would break free from its prison of ribs. He was tired. And he wanted to go home. Surely, Romeo told himself, Surely he had done enough. The Grail Knights would arrive tomorrow morning to find maybe half the beasts they had expected. Ramsey would sughter them, but it would not be enough for him to earn any proper favour with the order.

  ‘Not yet.’ Reminded his sword, ‘Fairy dust guarantees one rare ranked beast at the very least, we have to kill it instead of Ramsey, or this whole pn falls apart.’

  A sudden shift in the air made the hairs on the back of Romeo’s neck rise. The night above him stirred with a heavy, leathery flutter, and he looked up just in time to see a massive shape drop from the darkness. The creature resembled a bat but far rger, its wings stretched wide enough to blot out the moonlight as hooked cws reached for his head. Romeo reacted on instinct alone, wrenching Caliburn upward. The descending strike met the ft of the bde with a sharp metallic screech, and he twisted his wrists, deflecting the creature’s momentum to the side as it tore past him in a violent rush of wind.

  The monster wheeled away immediately, beating its wings hard as it climbed back toward the open sky. Romeo lunged forward and swung upward, but the bde cut only empty air. The creature was already rising out of reach, circling above the treeline with slow predatory patience as if deciding when to dive again. Romeo lowered his stance, tracking it with tired eyes, but he knew he would never catch it if it kept its distance.

  He exhaled slowly and lifted his free hand, gathering the st of the mana still circuting through his exhausted body. Heat formed along his palm as the familiar spell took shape, a narrow spear of fire condensing into a burning nce. With a sharp motion he hurled it skyward. The fming projectile tore through the darkness and struck the creature square in the chest, punching through its body in a burst of sparks before vanishing into the night beyond. The bat let out a shrill, choking screech as its wings colpsed beneath it, the corpse tumbling from the sky and crashing into the grass a few dozen paces away. Romeo lowered his hand slowly and let out a breath. “...That’s the only spell I know,” he muttered. “And after that, I don’t have much mana left.”

  ‘That wasn’t it.’ Said Nora, much to Romeo’s horror, ‘The Man-Bat is a strong monster, but it’s not a rare one.’

  Another Hobgoblin lunged and this time the Initiate reacted with ample time to meet its colossal bde with his own cursed sword. It made no difference to this Hobgoblin, as its hulky frame was able to knock Caliburn out of Romeo’s hands. The initiate cursed, if he had rationed out his mana better, he’d have won the csh.

  The Hobgoblin in front of him snarled, colossal sword raised for a cleaving blow meant to end him. Romeo didn’t let the panic he was feeling show. He couldn't afford to.

  Instead, he lunged forward into the Hobgoblin’s guard, stepping past the arc of the descending bde. He smmed his vambrace into the creature's jaw, stunning it just long enough to find a purchase with a rock on the ground and crack it into the monster’s skull.

  Limping over to Nora, Romeo recimed his sword.

  ‘Are you okay?’ She asked, worried for her partner. ‘I’ll be honest we should just flee; we’re not sting another few hours.’

  "I’m peachy," Romeo muttered, “And we’re not going anywhere.”

  Turning too face the sound of rummaging bushes. One more Hobgoblin had arrived. Or maybe it had been here the whole time, watching as Romeo killed its brethren.

  It looked different from the other creatures Romeo had killed. While still keeping the green-grey skin all Goblins had, this one was adorned in shiny grey armour, it’s back shrouded by a flowing white cape seemingly fashioned from the kind of canvas seen on merchant carts. Finally, it’s head was adorned with a third eye.

  ‘A goblin knight.’ Said Nora, ‘It has a habit of underestimating it’s foes.’

  Romeo and the Goblin Knight began to circle one another slowly, the grass beneath their feet fttened and dark with the remains of the earlier fight. The creature moved with an unsettling composure that none of the other goblins had shown, its armoured boots pcing each step carefully as its three-eyed gaze tracked Romeo without blinking. Its axe hung loosely in one hand, the weapon’s weight seeming almost casual despite its brutal edge. Romeo mirrored the movement with Caliburn raised in a guarded stance, trying to keep his breathing steady while watching for the slightest twitch of motion. The battlefield around them was littered with corpses, but the Goblin Knight paid them no attention. Its focus remained entirely on him. Then, as Romeo shifted his weight to step sideways, the wounded calf the dire wolf had torn into finally gave out. His leg buckled beneath him for half a heartbeat, a sharp pulse of pain shooting up his side as his bance faltered.

  The Goblin Knight moved instantly. The moment Romeo’s stance broke, the creature surged forward with terrifying speed, its axe rising high before crashing downward in a brutal vertical cleave meant to split him where he stood. Romeo barely reacted in time. He wrenched Caliburn upward with both hands, the ft of the bde meeting the descending axe with a violent cng that rang out across the clearing. The impact drove him down onto his good knee, the force rattling through his arms and shoulders as sparks spat from the grinding metal. For a moment the two weapons locked together, the Goblin Knight leaning its full weight behind the strike while Romeo strained to keep the edge from sliding down toward his face. His wounded leg trembled beneath him, and every muscle in his body screamed from exhaustion, but somehow the bde held.

  Blood trickled down from his scalp. His left arm was beginning to numb.

  “Damn it.” Said Romeo for the hundredth time this night, although his tone was the most fearful it had been so far. “…I’m going to die.”