Something cracked as the giants palm hit her, causing pain to shoot through Alice's body.

Her feet left the ground.

Alice activated Soul absorption feeling the warmth shoot through her body. Nothing seemed to change.

She was flying through the air, crashing through the trees, branches glancing off from her armor.

Alice changed gear, instead activating Undead constitution. Immediately, her body went numb. She could tell that something was wrong, that her entire right half was messed up, but for now, it didn't matter. She could move and fight.

She realized that was her only chance. There was no way for her to run away now. The Gorilla could just continue cutting her off, and even if it didn't, it was faster than her.

A fierce determination rose up in her mind. One of them wouldn't come out of this alive, and she would do everything to ensure that wouldn't be her.

Alice jumped up and checked her equipment. The armor was mostly broken after having done its job. Her shotgun was still slung over her shoulder. She quickly reloaded, then looked around for her ax. Luckily it had ended up inside the terrace.

Alice looked around. She stood in the middle of the circular terrace, paved with a mosaic of broken concrete slabs and fancy tiles with little pictures on them.

Looks too much like a boss arena, Alice thought drily.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Level Up!

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Why now? Ah! The asshole that distracted me! Must have finally died. Took long enough.

She could already see the Gorilla turning towards her through the trees. She had seconds at best to decide what to do with the level.

Skill? Too much of a risk, just because she got lucky twice, didn't mean it would happen a third time.

Skillpoint? She didn't have any Skills that would help her fight. Not directly, at least.

That left her with one option.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Reward: +5 Stat points

+5 Muscle-density

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

She didn't feel any change. She could only hope now that it would make the difference she needed it to make. Her time was up.

With a crash, the Gorilla broke through the trees, one of them breaking and almost falling onto Alice. She jumped to the side, lifting her gun as she began to walk in the direction of her ax.

BANG BANG BANG

Her shotgun roared, shot after shot, as the remaining six slugs hit the monster, this time properly aimed at its head. The target was large enough to hit easily, and it had proven already that bullets in the chest didn't seem to bother it much.

Alice dropped her weapon and looked at the result.

The first shot glanced the side of its head. The second had made a mess of its jaw. The remaining four projectiles had shredded the left arm it used to shield itself.

She ducked down and picked up her weapon. Then, she ran. Not away, but at her opponent. She couldn't waste the moment while its sight was still covered as it waited for more bullets to come.

There were only two meters left when it dropped its arm, immediately swinging its right one at her. Alice dove forward, under its swing and through its legs.

She looked up, immediately barrel-rolling out of the way when she saw the monster sitting down. It was clear that she wasn't the first one to try this stunt.

She jumped back up, immediately noticing that she had lost her weapon.

The Gorilla noticed that it hadn't squashed her. Just barely, she managed to evade the arm it was flailing behind its back.

Her right hand found her belt, pulling out a flip knife and opening it. Compared to the monster, they weren't much better than a toothpick. But now that it was sitting down, that didn't matter quite as much anymore.

Alice evaded another arm, the monster being limited to twisting its upper body back and forth, making it easy to predict the attack. Then, she jumped onto its back, gripping a fistful of fur with her hands and pulling herself up.

With one hand on its shoulder, Alice reached around its head, just about reaching far enough as she started to stab it blindly in the face.

Alice pushed off its back, jumping back just in time to evade its hands, reaching for the knife she had left behind.

Roaring, the monster slumped forward, its fists slamming into the ground. Alice jumped to the side, barely evading the first spike. The second, however, was much thinner and faster, piercing her in the left side before breaking off.

With a heave, the Gorilla stood back up, sluggishly stumbling forward as it came to its feet.

Taking the opportunity, Alice ran to her now accessible ax, ignoring her newest injury. She could deal with that later.

Suddenly, a black form streaked by, leaving a knife stuck halfway in the monster's neck.

It roared, clawing at the injury.

This was her chance. Alice ran at her enemy, jumped off the ground, and pushed off again from its slumped back, gaining the height she needed.

With a roar rivaling the monsters, Alice brought her ax down on its head with all her might.

CHUNK

As if time had stopped, the monster's movement halted. When it started up again, the colossus fell slowly forward with the sound of a mountain collapsing, Alice standing triumphantly on its back.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Level Up!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Level Up!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"Are you okay!?" The redhead asked panickedly as she appeared next to Alice.

"I'm pretty sure half the bones on my right side are broken. I have a stone-spike in my left side, and I'm currently dead. I'm going to collect the souls of these fuckers, and then we get back to base pronto.

Also, no more splitting up in the future. We have a pretty bad track record with that," Alice joked drily, only noticing her mistake when she saw her friend's face.

"H-how can you be like this!? You almost died. Again! Because of me. AGAIN!" Ava was almost crying.

Alice could see how guilty her friend felt, feel it radiating from her soul. She had to say something, or the girl would cry again. Somehow, seeing her friend like that felt more painful than any of her injuries would, were she alive to feel them at the moment.

She wanted to console her like she did back at the high school. Sadly, there was no time for that.

"Listen. It's not your fault. I miss-identified what we were up against. And you did exactly what I asked you to do, dealing with the monsters inside the house," Alice tried her best to calm her friend down at least a little.

"That doesn't change the fact that the girl I love almost died again! And again, just when I wasn't th..." realizing what she just said, Ava's mouth screwed shut, a furious blush spreading over her cheeks.

"Wait... What?" Alice got completely blindsided.

Have there been any signs? Did Ava ever hint at this?

Her mind raced. Alice thought back at all the times they were alone, all the times that Ava got closer to her than strictly necessary. The times the girl had been more open with her than anyone else. And most importantly, the fact that the redhead seemed to be always around her, despite having a lot of other friends. Friends that, for some reason, were almost never around when Alice was with Ava.

Am I an idiot? Is it my fault that I never noticed? Also, how come I never noticed how cute she is when she is embarrassed?... Right, I've never seen her embarrassed...

"Okay... Ehmmm... Let me think about that. In the meantime, we should get back to base and get me patched up.

Also, that big bastard got me the first time because the monkey out here managed to distract me for a moment. Had you come out here, and the monkeys had come after you, this shitshow would have turned into an even bigger mess, one where you could have gotten hit. And you don't have a Skill that allows you to come out of it alive," Alice tried her best to tide over the awkward pause.

"Also, also, I will be honest with you. I very much doubt that this is going to be the last time I come out of a fight looking like this, or even worse. The important thing is, it won't kill me. Not permanently, at least."

Judging from Ava's expression, that hadn't made it any better.

"Let's just get going..." Alice quickly decided before she could make it any worse.

Quickly, Alice went from corpse to corpse, collecting the monsters' souls, topping her off her soul energy. It gave her a fifty minutes deadline, and just as Ava had said, if they had used the bikes and gone farther away, the risk of not getting back in time would have been exponentially higher.

While the two of them ran back the way they had come, Alice was lost in thought.

Do I like Ava? Absolutely.

Do I trust Ava? With my life.

Could I get closer to her?

For a moment, she imagined it. If she weren't dead, she was pretty sure she would have blushed. The picture came to her surprisingly easily, and it certainly wasn't one she disliked.

Was there any reason NOT to try at least? Hmmm... I'm straight? Or am I?

"For fucks sake! I've never even been in love! Who am I to say if I'm straight or not!?"

Ava flinched a little at Alice's sudden outburst, looking around panicked.

Realizing what she might have done, Alice quickly put her attention on her soul sense, finding that there weren't any monsters in the vicinity. "There is nothing," she reassured her... friend?

"Then," Ava began timidly, "is that a yes?"

"I guess? At least we can try," Alice answered her girlfriend's question.

Alice could still feel the worry, the anger, sadness, and all the other emotions roiling and tumbling around in the girl's soul. But from one moment to the next, all of it got overshadowed by an intense warmth. Not the boiling temperatures of hatred that could be hot as fire in one moment, and cold as ice in the next. No, it was the all-encompassing, all-consuming warmth of a fireplace driving the chilling cold of winter out of her bones. A winter Alice hadn't even realized she lived in. With every second, Alice realized that she had made the right decision.

"So... You have never been in love before?" Ava finally asked.

"Nope. Never."

"Never been in a relationship? Not even a crush?"

"No... Well, there was that one time," Alice conceded, deciding that she might as well share this embarrassing little story now.

"Tell me more! I wanna know! Was it a guy? Or... "

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, WAIT! Let me finish... So, we had just moved to Colorado, and of course, I had to enter a new High school, in the middle of the year. So, I was trying my best to fit in, which really isn't easy when all the groups are already established, and especially at that age. So, it turned out that pretty much all of the girls had a crush on that one guy. Good looking, football team captain, an absolute overachiever, and most of all, he was actually pretty nice. So I did the obvious and joined in.

Week later, the same guy actually comes to me and asks me out.

Cue the most awkward week of my life, ten minutes of hand-holding, the most anti-climactic break-up in history, and an entire month of every girl in the school calling me either slut or whore. Then, we moved again. The end!"

"You... could have at least tried to make it a little interesting," Ava pouted.

"And you? Any interesting stories to share?" Alice asked curiously. Now that she thought about it, they had never talked about stuff like this, and now she had a good guess why.

"Not really? A few boyfriends here, some girlfriends there. Once even both at the same time, with the consent of both obviously. Nothing ended horribly, but none worked out for long either.

Then, you happened, and I realized how hard it is to be the one confessing, especially if the other person is a dunce who can't read hints," Ava explained, grinning happily.

Alice groaned. So it really was her fault for not noticing. Rather, she probably would have noticed had she ever tried to look for it. Fact is, she never did.

"Ah, we're there," Alice brought the matter to an end.

She ran at the wall, not wasting her time with the ladder, she vaulted over it, landing on the inside next to the group of elderly on guard duty.

"Oh, you're back al... Go get treated, NOW! Ava, report!" Michael greeted her when she entered through the front door.

"I will be fine," Alice told her partner, who was reluctant to leave her side, "You go talk to him."

"... Fine. Don't you dare die on me now!"

"Then don't be an idiot and jinx it!" Alice shot back, running towards the east wing where the nurses were.

Already halfway down the corridor, Alice waved at one of the two girls. Jenny, if she remembered correctly. The one with the Skill that gave information about injuries.

"Hey! I need some healing!" she gave one of her most intelligent greetings.

"Come over here and let me take a look. How bad is it?"

"Pretty damn bad. Have a stone spike in my stomach, and I'm pretty sure half the bones in my right side are broken."

"Then how... Right, you could turn... Undead, was it? Come inside and let me take a look," the young woman held the door to their improvised medical room open for her.

Alice quickly entered, already starting to take off her body armor before the door was even closed behind her, only to realize that it got stuck on the stone spike. The armor was ruined either way after doing its job, so Alice made a decision. A decision with which the nurse was already ahead of her.

Half a minute later, the armor lay on the ground, cut open by a pair of scissors at the side.

Quickly, the woman put her hand on Alice's chest, immediately shaking her head, "Yeah, you're proper dead right now. My Skill doesn't work on you. I won't be able to heal you like this."

Alice thought quickly. She had no idea how bad it would be once her Undead constitution came to an end, and she didn't want to waste all of the healer's Mana either. "I think I can at least fix the hole up myself, so can you pull out the spike for me?"

"Whew, okay, pull the magical stone-spike out of someone's body while they heal themselves. No need to be nervous," the woman murmured nervously.

After a few moments, she put her hands on the spike and slowly started to pull. Meanwhile, Alice put her hands next to the entry and exit wounds, shuddering a little at the slick layer of blood. She had no time to be squeamish now.

She closed her eyes, fully concentrating on the feeling of her own flesh as her Skill began to work its magic. Like the first time, she began with piecing back together the little bits and pieces of her flesh that still fit, like an especially gruesome puzzle. Only now did she realize that she had gotten lucky. The spike had just glanced her spleen, but besides being a bit squished, no other organs had been injured.

Immediately, most of what she healed got ripped open again, as the stone was pulled out of her body. Alice changed her approach, waiting for the tip of the spike to enter her body, as she began fusing together the places where it had left already.

Quickly, she was running out of Mana. Collecting the five souls had left her with only ten Mana, and so she turned two of them into more Mana. It was just about enough to close the wound as the spike left her body.

With the time it had taken to get back and the two soul energy she just used, she was left with only five now.

"Okay, turn off your Skill, then I can take a look at your side."

"Ehm, you might want some help to hold me down. Turning this Skill off isn't exactly fun," Alice said, remembering the last time she did that. It was definitely not a memory she was fond of.

"Okay, right… I might need some help healing you either way if it's as bad as you said," the woman said before opening the door, "Lucy, Max, I need your help here!"

It took only seconds before Alice could hear two sets of footsteps and a few more before all three of the nurses were in the same room.

"Good to see you came back. Is your friend..."

"Yes, Ava is fine," Alice answered Max's question.

"Come, help me hold her down," Jenny instructed the two others, already pushing Alice's shoulders into the stretcher she was lying on.

Without asking questions, Lucy pressed down on her legs while Max leaned over her body, putting weight on her arms.

"Harder," Alice commented, causing the nurses to put more weight behind it.

"Oh god, I hate this..." Alice made one last comment before she put her temporary existence as a zombie to an end.

The pain came immediately and a lot worse this time around. Especially her right side and the place where she had gotten skewered burned like her blood had turned into napalm. Somewhere behind the red haze, she realized that what she was feeling was everything she missed out on compressed into a few seconds.

Her entire body started twitching, causing the nurses to redouble their efforts as Alice almost threw them off. Jenny was basically lying on her head, trying to keep it from banging into the headrest.

Alice screamed, and then, it came to an end.

"Ouch!"