Jill P.O.V

Jill screamed as she woke. Her memories overwhelmed her as she regained consciousness. In a panic, she scanned her surroundings, and images of the creature’s attacks seared into her mind. Her blond hair fell across her face, but she could still see through the gaps. She couldn’t move her body; something was holding her arms and legs in place. However, she was free to turn her neck. All of her items and belongings had been removed, and she felt the cold touch of stone on her bare back. It didn’t even bother her. Her body felt cold from the presence of the monster looking down at her.

All of the monster’s eyes were staring at her, and she winced as the otherwise human face grinned at her. She had teased Mash about his horrific eyes, but she didn’t think it would ever bother her again. This creature was infinitely more terrifying than Mash, each of its eyes made her skin crawl. The monster’s mouth opened slowly, revealing that it had many more teeth than normal. Plus, there was a disturbingly sweet scent that wafted into the air. Its breath made her feel like the monster only ever ate the sweetest foods. The wrinkles on the creature’s face bent oddly as it tried to speak.

It was clearly speaking words, but none that she could understand. It had stripped her of all of her items, including the translation device. She had no idea what to do. Jill tried to speak, to communicate with the strange being.

“Please, I’m sorry. Just tell me what you want.”

Jill’s words sounded pathetic to her, but she would beg if it meant that she could survive. Fear overwhelmed her, and she struggled to keep her words calm. She felt tears start to build up and blinked furiously to stop herself from crying. As the first tear streaked down the side of her face, she couldn’t contain her sobs any longer. It was pathetic, and she hated herself for crying like a child. She couldn’t stop though, and she continued to beg for her life.

“Please spare me. I don’t…”

Her voice broke as she struggled for breath. Every word made her feel worse. Every second that passed let her see how pathetic she was. Something shifted as the monster’s expression softened slightly. She was still frightened, but her tears had stopped. Instead, she felt some resolve sinking into her mind, and she started controlling her breath.

The sudden change made her realize that the being was controlling her emotions somehow. She couldn’t do anything to resist it either. The monster was still grinning, as it reached one of its hands to her. Jill tried to teleport, but nothing happened. She had no mana, the shackles on her wrists and ankles were draining her mana rapidly. They were also stopping her skills too, and she shivered as the monster's bony fingers slowly descended on her. The creature had long nails that Jill hadn’t noticed before. Slowly, the monster's finger tapped Jill's head. It was big enough that it covered most of her head. She had to shut her eyes. The finger was cold and hard. It was as if the creature had serious calluses. Its skin hardened from years of repetitive work.

The monster’s finger stopped on her head. Jill didn’t know what to expect, and the pain had caused her to scream. She wasn’t able to prepare or block the monster’s magic. Its magic seemed to pour into her mind like boiling water, and it felt like her brain was burning. Tears formed again, as the pain grew.

Screams quickly filled the space, as she needed to vent her pain. She needed to release it and tried to move her body. Her back slammed against the stone several times as she tried to free herself from the shackles. She couldn’t move her head with the monster’s finger there, but she tried, nonetheless. Eventually, the pain reached a tipping point, and it felt like her mind broke. She felt disconnected from her body and reality itself. Bubbles of nothingness filled her vision and mind as her mind went blank. Then she was consumed, and everything vanished.

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Red P.O.V

Red scanned her surroundings, trying to figure out the best way into Krall. She didn’t think she could just walk in anymore. From the information her family had gathered, the only people being let into the city freely were beastmen. Everyone else only ever entered in chains. Then she realized that would probably work for her. She could slightly alter her appearance with her magic and could pay someone to get her into the city.

The problem with a city that had recently experienced a revolution was that it would be vulnerable to crime and corruption. People always thought that revolutions left people feeling more unified, but from her experience, she knew that was rarely the case. The military would be more unified, but the common man would be far more desperate to find work and money. Too many resources get wasted in large-scale events like a revolution, and this city was no exception. While the winners slowly siphoned more wealth and food, the majority would grow more desperate. It would be easy to find someone who would be willing to bring her into the city.

She looked at her map and saw that she was near River Ridge. It was a village a little to the south of Krall and was a common place for illegal trade. Finding someone who would take her into the city should be easy. Money wasn’t really something she worried about. Missions her family gave her would be funded by them, which essentially meant that she had much gold as she needed. The real problem was figuring out the details for the remainder of the plan. She had been given a lot of information regarding the situation outside of Krall, but her family knew nothing of the internal politics of the city. Finding Ellis would be hard and assassinating her would be even more difficult.

The road made a sharp turn up ahead, and she put the map back into her storage space. Most people in a place like this wouldn’t have any valuable magical items. She stored most of hers within her storage space and let the bracelet slip into her body. One of the advantages of having a body that was mostly just blood was, that she could easily hide items within it if needed. The mana cost was negligible, and she regained more passively than the skill used. It used more for the bigger change she made, but something like this used very little mana.

Almost as if on cue, several people stepped out from the surrounding tree line. She counted five of them, three men and two women. They wore black robes and stared at Red with poorly held contempt. She didn’t recognize them but knew that they were bandits. Bandits appearing outside of a city like Krall wasn’t surprising. They would be too focused on internal affairs to do something like patrolling their surroundings. She chastised herself for using her storage item so openly. She should’ve expected bandits.

Seeing their faces, she realized that it didn’t really matter. While some of the bandits only looked at her with greed, one of the men clearly wanted something else. The realization made her gag. She considered killing them all but remembered how she had felt after executing that man. Instead, she tried to scare them off. She didn’t know if she could attack people without killing them. Her skill said her strikes would impart inevitable death, and she doubted these bandits would have any healers among them.

“Just go. If you leave now, I will forget that I saw you.”

Red’s voice was cold but revealed some of her conflict. It shook with a mixture of anger and confusion. In her mind, these people deserved to die, and she wouldn’t weep for them. However, she still felt wrong for killing the man earlier and wasn’t in the mood to do it again.

She wasn’t really worried about them attacking her either. If these people could actually hurt her, then they wouldn’t be acting as common bandits. No, these people were weak, and she knew it. The five bandits didn’t back down, if anything they seemed to grow more confident. They probably assumed her shaking voice had been caused by fear and that she was attempting to lie to cover it up. One of the men stepped up to speak, his voice twisted by eagerness.

“I don’t think you understand anything sweetie. We are going to “

She didn’t let the man finish and jumped towards the group. Bloodshot from her hand, small needles piercing the man in several locations. After advancing she had spent a week and a half at home learning how to best utilize her skills. She hadn’t aimed much with her attack, and the needles just spread out in front of her. They spread from her entire body, and none of the bandits had been prepared for the attack.

Some raised their arms in defense, others lifting weapons. However, she noticed each of them took at least one hit. Just like that, she knew that the fight would be over. In a single attack, she had consigned all five of these people to death. She stopped moving, and simply let out a long breath. Her head slowly raised as she looked up to the sky. The bandits didn’t realize what had just happened, and one of them spoke with misguided confidence.

“That was it. Did you really think you could hurt us with something like that? We are over level fifty; it will take more than a few needles to hurt us.”

Red didn’t bother looking at them. Instead, she just walked forward, planning to pass by the bandits without worry. The man who had spoken swung at her with a long curved blade swinging for her torso. She didn’t bother blocking or even trying to stop the attack. She could have easily blocked it by hardening her body, by reinforcing the blood at the location. However, she didn’t even need to do that much, and the blade passed through her torso. The bandit’s confident face broke as the blade passed through without actually doing anything. The weapon was magical, and the man had obviously used a skill, but it didn’t really matter. A physical attack like that was something she could avoid easily. It cost a lot less mana than making blood armor too.

The bandit looked shocked, but only had a moment to process what had happened. Her Aura of Infection had a small range, though it had a potent effect. This bandit had stupidly entered the range, and his skin turned black where her needles had pierced his body. He fell to the ground, a sheen of sweat visible on his forehead as he fell. One of the other bandits screamed, rushing at her in a blind fury.

The bandit didn’t even make it to her, and Red watched as the bandit fell to her knees. The bandit had daggers in each of her hands. She dropped her weapons clutching her body as she pleaded.

“Please make it stop. I can’t…the pain…”

The bandit’s voice trailed off. She was obviously in a lot of pain, and Red noticed tears staining the ground beneath her. Red couldn’t do anything though, and her aura was only making the pain worse. It was also exasperating the negative feelings the bandit was experiencing. Red didn’t know what she could do but she couldn’t keep looking at the women. She stepped away, letting the bandit get out of her aura’s range. The bandit was able to regain some control of her body, and Red watched in horror as she raised the dagger up to her own neck. The blade passed through quickly, a skill used to send let the blade cut cleanly through her neck. Everything felt like it slowed down as she watched the bandit's head slowly fall to the ground. The other bandits died soon after, and Red was left standing among a group of corpses.