I forgot how much I loved this series and these characters. I missed these characters so much. I like that this took place at some point during the trilogy rather than before or after, but maybe I'm biased since we got enough of that in the headcanon series lol. I would guess just before the third book takes place? It's hard to say but that's why I guess it was called chronologically ambiguous. Based on their relationships I would guess that, like the banter between Alastor and Kwin was amazing as usual.

I liked that we got to see most of their strengths in action too. Like Kwin is obviously SUPER intelligent, but it's one kind of intelligent, so Lindsay ends up stealing the show at the end, which is great because I feel like you might sometimes forget that she's skipped a grade and everything. Maybe not genius, but they're all clearly pretty smart. Plus I just always like seeing Lindsay kick ass? Canonically I'm pretty sure her strength puts her on Alastor and Kwin's level, way above Kai. It's not the same kind of power and they're both geniuses but I mean, she literally blew up an entire city on top of killing the one sea monster all the others combined couldn't. That said, my favorite ever is still Kwin. This novella was a great example why. She beats the murder mystery by killing her own friend, and then she set the whole northeast part of the entire continent on fire to win the Deadlands challenge.

ALSO. The fucking twist that the bonus quest was finding the horseman, with Alastor over the moon about it, had me laughing my ass off. I love these guys so much. I'll always love coming back here.

For sure if Lindsay had some proper training she would be on Alastor and Kwin's level. Kai got some personal training from Alastor which is great, and he's pretty tough, but Lindsay is on another level and I WISH they had dedicated some time to training her too. And sure the threat had ended before she started really discovering her power but they still could have gone back and done more! She was kicking ass during the Deadlands challenge, even though I think it's also really cute that Elvia is trying so hard to protect her.

ANWYAY LOL. I loved the bonus quest. UNTOLD REWARDS! Poor Walt though. First the tree, now the horseman, he just can't seem to find anything. And that's with Alastor just being an accidental genius because most of the time he's goofing off. Imagine being a totally serious person and taking part in the tournament of blades or something and you get beat by this dude who just kind of stands there making silly comments while the girl who doesn't exist just kills everyone.

I love thinking about the differences between Kwin and Lindsay. Maybe Kai? But once we find out Lindsay is just so much stronger he's not as impressive lol.

Kwin is definitely the more analytical thinker, her brain works really fast and she has an eidetic memory so there are lots of ways she can show off her power. I think the fact that she seems to work about five times as fast as everyone else gives her a huge advantage, but if you notice, she's got a lot of the same tactics, they don't change much. She uses what works, and when they don't work, it throws her off and she has a hard time adjusting.

Lindsay on the other hand is a lot more creative. She zapped the sea monster into submission, she destroyed an entire capital city using the underground river it was built on, water spouts in the deadlands challenge, it's like every time we see her fight she's doing something new that seems to fit the situation a lot better. I think her only problem is confidence, she wasn't trained by the pros like Kai was, but she's already holding her own above his level anyway. It's REALLY cool. I honestly think that after enough time training she could go toe to toe with Kwin.

Also I love their sisterly relationship? Lindsay started out terrified of Kwin but now she'll get stern with her about things like walking alone at night. And then during the deadlands challenge Kwin saw that Lindsay was panicking, so she just went and demolished the entire last level, which was harder than all the others combined, by blowing up half the continent. Just, by herself. Because she didn't want Lindsay to be scared anymore. I love these two so so so much.

I know one thing's for sure, I would love to see Lindsay after being trained and confident going and fighting Semyaza. The only trouble is I think she's not quick enough to react. She can do a ton of damage if she has time to build it up. Even Alastor and Elvia combined weren't enough to get Semyaza and their weakness was that he was too flashy. I don't think Lindsay would get the buildup she needs. It took Kwin's speed to beat Semyaza and even then the latter caught up eventually.

The other thing is the poor girl doesn't need to go through any more than she already has lol. But I feel like in the right situation it would be a hell of a fight. Maybe Lindsay could beat Alastor.