The barracks smelled like oil, stone dust, and sweat.
Ray liked it.
It was honest and predictable. When you breathed in, you knew exactly what you were getting—none of that perfumed nonsense that clung to guild halls. And it was a thousand times better than the shit smell from shoveling latrines for G-rank quests.
She stood in formation with the others, boots planted shoulder-width apart, her baseball bat resting against her shoulder like it belonged there.
Ven was at the front.
He stood too straight to be comfortable, his spine rigid, his chin lifted just enough to suggest authority even though no one had actually given it to him. His eyes flicked down the line, checking spacing, posture, and alignment.
He didn’t look at anyone directly.
The shape of the world was already decided.
They were expected to fit inside it.
Deyne stood beside him, lips moving in a constant, quiet murmur.
The words were short and fast. Ray couldn’t tell if it was a prayer, cursing, or some frantic hybrid of the two. Her posture was perfect, her hands steady, but there was a tightness to her shoulders that hadn’t been there yesterday. It wasn’t fear… it was something else… like she was holding a spring down inside her chest.
Drosh loomed behind them all.
He leaned on his axe like it weighed nothing, his scarred arms relaxed, his stance wide and immovable. His eyes tracked the instructor pacing across the yard with quiet focus.
Ray had learned to recognize that look.
It was the expression of someone who didn’t need to prove anything.
It was a look she hoped Nick would have someday.
If anybody deserved it in her mind, he did.
Lexi stood just behind Ray.
She could feel her without turning around—the faint tension in her breathing. Chains rested loosely against her wrists, the metal dull and inert.
They were waiting for the instructor to finish barking orders at another squad.
Ray rolled her shoulders once.
Her bat rested against her shoulder, the familiar weight comfortable and welcome. It didn’t feel like a weapon so much as a bad idea she’d grown attached to.
She shifted her grip.
The wood vibrated faintly.
Ray frowned. “Huh.”
She didn’t focus so much as stop trying to. She wasn’t thinking about form or balance or anything that Aldric kept yelling at her about. She just remembered the feeling—when the bat hit the floor and the world had cracked because it deserved it.
That feeling was still there.
She gave the bat a lazy half-swing through the air.
Nothing special happened.
Ray grinned anyway.
Her new mastery skill felt… vague.
=American Weapon Mastery=
-Passive Skill-
->Mana: N/A
->Rank: 1/100
->Description: You choose to fight with ignorantly powerful weapons. Your attacks carry extra doses of freedom. +1% to American Weapon handling, power, and speed.
Speak softly and carry a big stick.
She didn’t know what an ‘American’ was, nor did she agree that her baseball bat was ignorant in any way, shape, or form.
But the most confusing part was the second line in the description.
‘Your attacks carry extra doses of freedom.’
What did that mean?
She had no idea.
Whatever the skill was doing, it wasn’t teaching her anything.
But she couldn’t help but feel like it agreed with her.
The instructor’s voice cracked across the hall like a whip.
“—which means if I see one more sloppy pivot, I’m doubling laps for the entire squad.”
A collective groan rippled through the formation.
Ray shifted her weight slightly, the bat settling more comfortably against her shoulder. The wood hummed again, faint and approving, like it enjoyed the idea of everyone else suffering for one person’s mistake.
Of course, the bat didn’t actually hum, but Ray fancied the idea that it had an opinion.
The instructor stalked past their line, his boots leaving heavy thuds against the stone floor. His eyes slid over Ray, pushed for half a second too long, then moved on.
“Training pairs,” he barked. “Live movement with non-lethal force. If I see blood, you’re scrubbing the armory until your fingers fall off.”
Ray turned.
Ven met her eyes immediately and opened his mouth.
“Formation pairing should follow seniority,” he said, his voice clipped and formal. “I’ll take point with—”
“Incorrect,” the instructor snapped without looking at him. “You don’t assign yourselves.”
Ven stiffened, his jaw tightening by a fraction. He nodded anyway, the motion sharp enough to be a salute. “Understood, sir.”
The instructor’s gaze swept the line again. “You—vampire. And the beastkin.”
Ray blinked. “Oh.”
Lexi stiffened behind her.
Ven’s eyes flicked toward them, displeasure flashing openly this time before he masked it. Deyne’s murmuring faltered for half a second, then resumed, faster than before. Drosh just shifted his weight, his axe still resting comfortably against his shoulder.
Ray turned fully and grinned at Lexi. “Guess we’re up.”
Lexi stepped forward and took her place opposite Ray.
Someone nearby snorted. Someone else murmured.
Ray grinned.
‘This’ll be easy,’ she thought.
They squared off in the training ring. The space felt smaller with Lexi in it.
Lexi drew her sword.
The sound was clean, the steel sliding free with a controlled, practiced whisper.
Ray adjusted her grip on the baseball bat and rolled her shoulders, loose and ready. Her stance was casual. Wrong. Comfortable.
The instructor raised a hand.
“Begin.”
Ray moved first.
Standing still had never once solved anything in her life.
The bat came down like a falling pillar.
There was no finesse to it, no clever trick. It was a swing meant to exist, to remind the space in front of her that Ray was not asking permission.
Lexi moved.
The motion was so clean that Ray almost missed it. Steel kissed wood for a fraction of a heartbeat, just long enough to change its mind about where it wanted to go.
The bat screamed past her shoulder and slammed into the stone yard.
The ground exploded.
Cracks spiderwebbed outward. Dust leapt into the air. The impact boomed loud enough that several trainees flinched.
Ray smirked.
‘That’s right.’
She pivoted and swung again, faster this time, the bat humming as it cut the air.
But Lexi wasn’t there.
She was already moving, her boots scraping as she slid back at an angle, her blade snapping up just long enough to tap the bat aside.
Another miss.
Ray frowned.
She adjusted her footing and brought the bat around in a horizontal sweep, wide and brutal. She figured that if she took up all the space, dodging would be impossible.
Lexi ducked into it.
Not under.
Inside.
The bat passed inches from her back as she stepped through the arc, her sword flicking out—
Tap.
The flat of the blade touched Ray’s side.
“Point!” the instructor barked.
Ray’s stomach dropped.
She whirled, her bat snapping up in a tight overhand strike.
Lexi retreated again, her boots skidding, her sword flashing in small, precise movements that never met the bat head-on. They shaved, redirected, and whispered the weapon of mass destruction away from her body.
The baseball bat hit stone again.
Another thunderous impact.
Another miss.
Ray’s grip tightened.
She could feel it.
She was stronger. She was faster. She felt how easily she could end this if she just. Connected. Once.
So why—
She rushed forward, chaining swings together now, each one faster than the last. Overhead, low sweep, reverse arc—
The yard filled with sound.
BOOM. CRACK. BOOM.
Stone shattered. Dust hung in the air. The bat left grooves in the ground where it missed.
Lexi was everywhere Ray wasn’t.
She slid. She pivoted. She stepped through danger instead of away from it.
Each time Ray overcommitted, Lexi was already there, her blade tapping Ray’s shoulder, ribs, wrist.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
“Point.”
“Point.”
“Point.”
Ray’s breathing grew harsh.
This didn’t make sense.
She was faster.
She was stronger.
Lexi was barely keeping up—Ray could see that much. The catkin’s movements were sharp, but her steps were getting shorter. Her breath was coming faster now, and her chest was rising and falling too quickly.
Ray didn’t care.
All she could see was the scoreboard in her head.
She was losing.
Ray roared and brought the bat down with everything she had.
Lexi didn’t deflect this time.
She ran.
She turned and sprinted, scrambling as the bat smashed down where she’d been a heartbeat earlier and blowing a crater in the stone.
She stumbled.
Ray’s eyes lit up.
‘There!’
She lunged, her bat arcing up from below. The angle was perfect. The timing was perfect.
Lexi twisted.
Her sword slid along the bat’s shaft, tilting it upward—
The bat missed her face by inches and tore a furrow through the wall behind her.
Lexi slammed the pommel of her sword into Ray’s forearm as she passed.
Ray’s fingers went numb. The bat slipped.
It didn’t fall, but her grip loosened the slightest bit.
“Point!” the instructor shouted again.
Ray froze.
Her chest heaved. Her arms burned. The bat felt suddenly heavy in her hands.
Lexi backed away, her blade still raised defensively.
She was breathing hard now. One hand trembled slightly on the hilt before she forced it still.
Ray didn’t notice.
She only saw the distance between them.
She only saw that Lexi wouldn’t go down.
That Lexi was still standing.
That Lexi was better.
Something ugly twisted in Ray’s chest.
She wanted Nick to need her.
She wanted to be the strong one. The shield. The weapon.
But Lexi—
Ray swung again, slower this time.
Lexi moved.
The bat missed.
The sword tapped Ray’s shoulder.
“Point.”
The whistle blew.
“Enough.”
Ray stopped.
She stood there, chest heaving, her bat hanging uselessly at her side.
Lexi lowered her sword.
For just a moment, her knees nearly buckled.
She caught herself, swallowing hard, her breath shaking as she straightened again.
Ray didn’t see that either.
She only saw the result.
She had lost.
It wasn’t against some all-powerful knight commander like Aldric, or some renowned force like the duke.
She lost to a peer.
If Nick heard about this, what would he say?
Did he not come back after he left yesterday because he knew this would happen?
‘That’s probably why…’
Now she understood. As soon as she realized it, she couldn’t blame him.
But she did anyway.
The instructor stepped forward. “That’s enough. Reset.”
Lexi hesitated, then gave Ray a small, apologetic nod.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “You’re… very strong.”
The words hit wrong.
Ray’s fingers tightened around the baseball bat.
‘Very strong.’
Not skilled.
Not good.
Not enough.
Strong—like an animal. Like a wall. Like something you can hit until it falls down.
Before, it would’ve been a compliment, but now?
If she was ‘strong’, then ‘strong’ didn’t decide outcomes.
Ray forced a grin. “Yeah. Guess that didn’t help.”
Lexi opened her mouth, like she wanted to say something else.
Then she stopped.
She bowed instead, formal and precise, the kind of respect Ray had never learned how to return properly.
Ray watched her walk away.
Only then did Lexi’s hand slip.
Just a little.
Her sword tip scraped the stone as she leaned on it, breath shuddering, her face pale beneath the training yard’s dust and light.
Ven, Deyne, and Drosh noticed.
Ray didn’t.
She stared at her bat.
It suddenly felt loud.
Too big.
Too stupid.
Around her, the other trainees murmured.
“She never even blocked,” someone whispered.
“If she did, she’d be dead…”
“Did you see how clean that was?”
“That’s mastery.”
Ray swallowed.
Mastery.
Nick cared about Lexi.
Nick trusted Lexi.
And Ray had just proven in front of everyone that Lexi was better than her.
Her grip tightened until the bones in her knuckles began to protest.
‘If I can’t even win when I’m stronger…’
She didn’t want to finish the thought, but she couldn’t stop herself.
‘…what am I even here for?’
If she wasn’t needed…
Then she was just taking up space.
She stared at Lexi walking away from her.
“…”
She wanted her purpose back.
She wanted Lexi to disappear.
The yard didn’t quiet.
Steel rang. Boots scuffed. Instructors barked. Someone laughed too loud at a joke that wasn’t funny. Life went on with the same careless rhythm it always had.
Ray stood there with her bat in her hands, and for the first time since she’d picked it up, she didn’t feel like swinging.
The whistle’s echo still rang in her ears.
Enough.
Her fingers loosened around the handle without her telling them to. The bat dipped, then steadied again as she forced herself to hold on. She didn’t look up. She didn’t want to see Lexi’s back again. She didn’t want to see the way people watched her go.
The instructor turned away, already shouting at another pair. “Next! Move it, you’re not statues!”
Ray shifted one foot back into formation. The movement felt wrong. Everything felt wrong. The air pressed in on her chest like she’d swallowed something too big.
She stared at the stone between her boots.
‘Disappear.’
The thought hadn’t been loud.
It wasn’t angry.
It just… existed.
A quiet solution to a problem she didn’t know how to solve.
Something tugged at the back of her neck.
Ray froze.
It wasn’t a sound. Not really. More like the absence of one. The yard’s noise thinned, stretched, like it had passed through water. Her ears popped faintly.
She looked up.
At first, nothing was wrong.
The formations were still there. The instructor was still pacing. Ven was still standing too straight. Deyne was still murmuring. Drosh was still watching everything like he always did.
Lexi was walking toward the edge of the yard, sword held low.
Then Ray saw the shadow.
It didn’t belong to anyone.
It slid across the stone at the wrong angle, thin and elongated, cutting through other shadows without touching them. It moved against the light.
Her grip tightened.
Her heart started to pound.
She didn’t know why.
She just knew.
The shadow reached Lexi first.
There was no shout.
No warning.
No dramatic burst of magic.
A figure unfolded from the air behind Lexi.
It was covered in black cloth with a masked face and a blade so thin it barely seemed to exist.
Lexi turned—
Too late.
The assassin moved with horrifying efficiency.
The blade flashed.
Ray moved.
She didn’t think.
She didn’t decide.
Her body chose before her mind could catch up.
She kicked the ground with all of her might and flew.
The bat left her shoulder in a blur.
The impact was deafening.
Wood met steel at an angle that should have shattered both. The assassin’s blade screeched as it was torn off course, the strike deflected just enough that it missed Lexi’s throat and carved a shallow line across her shoulder instead.
Blood sprayed.
Lexi screamed.
The yard exploded into chaos.
“Assassin—!”
“Shields—!”
“Get down!”
The attacker twisted mid-motion, recovering instantly as he pivoted away from Ray’s follow-through with inhuman grace. The bat smashed through the space where the assassin’s head had been a heartbeat earlier.
Ray’s vision tunneled.
There was only Lexi.
She was stumbling now, her sword slipping from her fingers as pain and shock stole her balance. She was alive. Hurt, but alive.
The assassin lunged again.
Ray planted herself between them.
Her bat came up on instinct, intercepting a second strike meant to finish the job. The force rattled her arms to the bone, numbness exploding up her shoulders, but she didn’t give ground.
The assassin hissed—an irritated, inhuman sound—and disengaged, flipping backward as guards surged in from every direction.
Drosh moved.
The axe left his shoulder in a blur, a thunderous arc that split the space where the assassin landed. Ven was shouting orders, his voice sharp and panicked. Deyne had dropped to her knees with her hands raised, revealing glowing holy symbols.
But it was too late.
The assassin vanished.
It was faster than the blink of an eye.
One moment, there—
The next, gone.
Silence crashed down over the yard.
Ray stood there, chest heaving, her bat raised, adrenaline coursing through her veins, urging her to keep fighting.
Lexi collapsed.
Ray caught her.
The bat hit the ground with a dull thud as Ray dropped to her knees, hands slick with blood as she pressed against Lexi’s wound.
“Lesser Heal.” She muttered, activating the detested ability that Nick forced her to learn.
Her hand glowed with a faint light.
The wound began to heal.
Lexi’s eyes fluttered.
“Ray…” she whispered, barely audible.
Ray swallowed hard.
“I’ve got you,” she said, the words tearing out of her. “I’ve got you. I won’t—”
Her hands shook.
Around them, guards swarmed. The world spun back into motion, loud and frantic and terrifying.
Ray didn’t hear any of it.
All she could see was Lexi’s blood on her hands.
All she could think was the thought she’d had just moments before.
‘Disappear.’
She pulled Lexi closer and braced, like she could shield her from the entire world if she just held hard enough.
Her jaw clenched.
“Not like that,” she growled.
She looked up, eyes burning. Her heart hammered with a clarity that scared her.
Someone had tried to take Lexi away.
And Ray had stopped them.
The realization hit her harder than any blow.
Project Knightfall 