THE ATTACK, BLOODIED DAWN

The forest hummed with the brittle stillness of a held breath. Liora walked ahead, her red hair catching shards of sunlight filtering through the canopy. Nadine's dagger glinted as she scanned the shadows, while Ivy clung to Mira's arm, her laughter strained.

"Stay close," Liora warned, her voice calm but edged with urgency and seriousness. "The Church favours ambushes near—"
A crossbow bolt whined through the air.
Ivy screamed, shoving Kael sideways. The arrow meant for his heart struck her shoulder instead, tearing through fabric and flesh. She crumpled, gasping.
Six robed figures emerged, blades drawn. Nadine moved first—employing all of Sister Kat's teachings. She had trained all of us on defence and basic attack, from the memory I recovered. She had a saying that this world was cruel and full of secrets and things above human so we should learn to be able to protect ourselves from some things. Well, Nadine was the quite talented at this as you can notice as she disarmed a soldier with a brutal twist, his wrist snapping like dry kindling. Mira, was sometimes tying with Nadine but also sometimes able to hold her stand down so she was second. She hurled a smoke pellet, its acrid fog masking her sickle's arc as it bit into a second attacker's thigh.
Liora vanished. A scream echoed as a Church scout stumbled into her tripwire, his throat meeting her blade. "Focus, Kael!" she barked.
A soldier lunged at him. Kael stumbled, parrying clumsily with a fallen branch.
[Host!] Elia's voice cut through his panic. [The Codex is yours. You must use it to survive this ordeal!]
[Imprint Awakened: Swordsman (Word)]
Golden light flickered in his mind. He deflected the soldier's strike, but the branch splintered.
The leader—a hulking man with a scarred face—stepped forward, great sword humming. "The Broken God claims you to his eternal embrace."
Kael's strikes were frantic, unpolished. The leader batted his blows aside, grinning. "Is this the Church's great mythic threat? This is so disappointing but it is also quite rewarding. I can't wait fore the promotion I will get when I bring your head back to the church."
[You're drowning in fear, Host] Elia hissed. [Breathe. Adapt. Do not let the fear control you. Control it instead. If you can't it would be the end of us all and all those you hold dear too.]
A slash grazed Kael's collarbone. Pain sharpened his focus. Heeding Elia's advice, Kael focused on the battle once more. The Codex flared again, etching cleaner stances into his muscles.
[Imprint Evolved: Novice Swordsman (Line)]
He feinted left, pivoted, and drove the shattered branch into the leader's knee. The man roared. Kael seized his sword, the blade trembling in his grip.
"This is for Sister Kat," he whispered, plunging it home.
The leader fell, choking on his own blood.
Silence.
Ivy lay against the boulder, the arrow still lodged in her shoulder. Mira retched into the dirt, her hands shaking. Nadine knelt beside Ivy, her stoicism cracking. "Stay awake. Look at me."
Liora crouched next to Kael, her tone softer than he'd ever heard it. "Your first kill?"
He nodded, staring at his bloodied hands. He felt sickened and distraught.
"It never leaves you," she said, pressing a cloth to his collarbone. "But it gets quieter and less impactful next time."
Mira wiped her mouth, tears streaking the dirt on her face. "Three. I killed three."
"You saved us," Nadine said bluntly to Mira, while yanking the arrow from Ivy's shoulder. Ivy whimpered, her laughter brittle.
"I'm dying right? S-Sister Kat always said I'd die doing something stupid. Well at...cough cough least I didn't die doing something stupid this time, right Nadine?"
"Not today, Not ever Ivy. You're not going to die, and I'm not going to let anything happen to you, alright?" Nadine said, binding the wound with torn fabric.

"Yeah, Nad" Ivy said with difficulty.
Liora scanned the trees. "The main force is more dangerous and an elite force. They track by scent. We have to move. Now."
Kael staggered to his feet. "Ivy can't walk—"
"I'll carry her," Mira said, hoisting Ivy onto her back. Ivy's blood seeped into her shirt.
They trudged through the night, the forest swallowing their footsteps. Ivy's feverish whispers haunted the dark.
"Why'd you push me? It was reckless" Kael asked, gripping her hand.
"You're the one with the magic book," she rasped. "I'm just… expendable."
"Don't." His voice broke. "You're not. You're just as important as me"
"Thanks. That makes me so happy, hearing that from …cough cough...you" Ivy said
Liora glanced back, her expression unreadable.
By dawn, Ivy's skin burned. Nadine forced water down her throat. "Stay with us."
"Trying my best to, Nad....ine. Besides you're not being exactly gentle right now" Ivy mumbled.
Dawn brought sleet, the forest floor a slurry of mud and rotting leaves. Ivy's wound festered, the skin around it blackening like burnt parchment. Mira stumbled under her weight, cursing.
"Close," Liora muttered, though her jaw tightened with every step.
The village emerged from the mist—a clutch of stone cottages hunched around a crooked well. Villagers peered through cracked shutters as they passed. They followed us with their eyes like they were scanning us for danger.
"That was, a unique welcome" Mira muttered.
Liora ignored her, leading them to a barn loft reeking of mildew and hay. "Rest. I'll trade for medicine."
Kael caught her wrist. A fresh cut up her forearm, too precise to be accidental. "You're hurt. You should rest"
She pulled free. "Bargaining requires collateral or something of value which I am sure you have none."
That night, Kael found Liora on the rooftop, her gaze distant.
"You never told us you knew how to fight like that, I was worried about you during the ambush" he said.
She smiled faintly. " I'm no damsel in need for a knight to save her. The world is a cruel place, Kael. It can shape and destroy you in a heartbeat and whim. I learned it the hard way after the Church killed all I can call family in this world. It etched into me that only those with power or its equivalent or those that have something the world needs is qualified to live in this world."
"Why help us?"
Her eyes met his, holding something that one couldn't quite decipher, well at least not for Kael. She traced his jaw, her touch colder than the snow. "Because you're the first interesting investment I've seen in years. And I'd hate to lose my stake… not yet. So please, don't die too early on me."
Before he could reply, she stood up and started to walk back into the house.
"Was that a confession, or am I taking it wrongly? Probably, I am taking it out of context." Kael said to himself before he stood up and walked into the house also.
Ivy's fever spiked at midnight. Her whispers dissolved into delirium.
"Sister Kat… I'm sorry… I couldn't save them…"
Mira gripped Kael's arm. "She's getting worse."
Liora returned with a hooded healer, her sleeves dusted with ash. "The Church's scouts have lost our traces, for now."
The healer peeled back Ivy's bandage. The wound pulsed, veins blackening.
"This isn't infection," the healer said. "It's cursed. She has been cursed."
Nadine's and Mira's face paled. "Impossible. The arrow was clean—"
"No." The healer pointed to Ivy's trembling hand. A faint Broken Crown sigil glowed beneath her skin.