Unfortunately, surprise attacks notwithstanding, fighting a team of adventurers with such a huge experience gap was not a simple or easy task.

Raymond withdrew her sword. Two down, two to go.

Despite keeping her eyes focused on Bill and Suzy, she wasn’t quite able to keep track of Bill’s motion. An arrow struck her in the chest, piercing her heart. She stumbled back, mostly from the force of the shot. She grabbed the arrow and yanked it out, her vision darkening slightly.

But she did not want to end the fight here. She would not.

Raymond ran forward, holding the sword like a club. She’d never wielded a weapon before and had no idea how it was supposed to be done, but she figured it wasn’t exactly complicated. If the point or edge cuts someone, it hurts them. If it cuts enough or the right places, the ‘someone’ will die.

Unless that someone was her, of course. Then it was just inconvenient. She already had an appreciation for what Immortal Body did - she’d be dead without it after all. However, she was truly beginning to understand how beautifully amazing of a skill it was.

Another arrow pierced her right shoulder and one pinned her foot to the ground. She simply continued forward, stumbling in her stride yet still breaking the shaft of the arrow in her foot. She pulled the other out with her left hand.

Bill steadily backed away from her as he continued to pull arrows seemingly out of thin air. Suzy, for her part, had started to channel a spell and an aura of white filled the air around her. She finished amassing energy and then smiled, focusing her angry gaze on Raymond.

“Divine Retribution!” she shouted, her voice cracking slightly as her laughter filled the battlefield.

The hail of arrows paused and Raymond hesitated, unsure of what to expect.

A huge yellow-white ball formed over Raymond’s head. She looked at it uneasily, bending her knees slightly. The ball of light bent and twitched, stretching and shifting. With a sudden burst of blinding light, a pillar of energy descended and lit up Raymond’s form, causing her to scream as she burned. She wanted to move but her body was held in place. She couldn’t even fall - the energy held her body as she writhed in pain.

Interestingly enough, she was unaffected externally. Her clothes showed no signs of being damaged and her skin held. Despite this, blood poured from her mouth, eyes, nose, and ears and she screeched. This was nothing like a normal, physical pain like being stabbed or cut apart. This was Divine Retribution and it was pure agony.

The beam slowly faded and Raymond fell to her knees. Unconsciousness beckoned, but she refused its call. She had no time to sleep - only to destroy those who dared to make her suffer so.

She rose to her feet unsteadily, raising her eyes to meet those of Suzy and Bill. Suzy was frozen in shock, her expression a cross between confusion and fear. Bill had a grim look as another arrow appeared in his hand.

“W..what are you?” Suzy half-whispered, “For Divine Retribution to do so much… no normal being could have committed so many sins… and then to still survive…” her voice trailed off.

Raymond snarled in response. Her vision tinted red slightly and she crouched down, holding the sword in front of her as she prepared to leap.

“Suzy,” Bill said calmly, “Run. Tell the guild and get a higher rank team out here.”

“B..but…”

“No buts. There’s no time. If we have to wait to respawn to tell them, she’ll get away. Go. Now!”

Suzy turned, her aura of light fading as she ran down the path, heading towards Cairel.

Bill drew the arrow back, aiming.

“Now it’s just you and me.” he said calmly.

Raymond leaped. He released the arrow and her arm blurred as it flashed red.

“Deflect!” she growled, swiping at the arrow. However, the skill difference was too big, so she couldn’t deflect the arrow entirely, but she could slightly alter its course. The arrow, aimed at her left eye took her in the left shoulder instead.

That was fine though, she didn’t need her left shoulder right now.

Bill calmly took a step back.

“Disengage.” he said. A small green disc appeared underneath his feet briefly and then he was flying backward and to the right, shooting another arrow at the approaching True Vampire girl.

Raymond landed where he had been standing and swatted another arrow. This one was aimed at her throat and pierced her in the stomach.

Everywhere that Raymond had been wounded itched as the injuries slowly healed. She continued to pursue Bill as he leaped off the path to the right and into the trees dotting the mountainside, but the arrows that continued to pierce her were very annoying. A few of them glowed. One of them exploded, blowing her left arm off while another froze her feet in place for a moment. It had been simple to break out of, likely due to her increased strength.

One time, she’d received a notification.

You have been poisoned. Effectiveness of poison decreased by Endurance.

-0 hp per second.

She waved the notification away. She was just being led in circles while he slowly took away her options. She needed a new plan, fast.

She looked around the somewhat bare mountainside looking for something she could use. An idea started forming in her head. Whenever he leaped away with that skill, she’d noticed that he always jumped to the right.

She slowed, her sudden change in momentum causing the next arrow to miss. Bill hesitated, sensing a change in the flow of the fight as he aimed another arrow.

Raymond reached into the Bag of Holding, depositing the sword and switching it for a magic rope. She activated it and the rope wound around her chest.

She leaped after Bill again, willing the rope to move. The little green platform launched him to the right as he fired another arrow.

Raymond grinned. The rope latched onto a tree and she pulled, shifting her momentum. She rotated around the tree, flying roughly towards Bill’s airborne form. Another arrow struck her right knee, but that was fine. She didn’t need it anymore.

She willed the rope to release from the tree and it rapidly retracted. As she passed underneath Bill, she willed the rope to latch onto his leg.

They fell to the ground, Bill’s left arm bending unnaturally as his body crushed it. Raymond landed a few feet away, her body crumpling against the ground. Bill screamed while Raymond inwardly cheered. The pain of her injuries demanded her attention but went unanswered.

She licked her lips, baring her fangs as she grabbed the rope and pulled his flailing body towards her. He reached with his hand, scratching furrows into the hard, rocky ground as he slowly drew closer.

“D..demon!” he shouted, his voice cracking. “Get away from me you abomination!”

When he was close enough, Raymond released the rope, pushing herself up and onto him while placing her good knee on his chest to keep him pinned. He tried to punch her, but she caught his fist with her right arm, pushing it down into the ground.

He struggled to free himself, but she was just physically stronger than him.

She ignored the fear in the man’s eyes as she took a brief moment to enjoy the feeling of power and control.

It was fantastic.

Raymond slowly leaned forward, her lips brushing Bill’s neck as she bit.

***

I was speechless. Throughout the entirety of the encounter, I’d been watching, prepared to intervene with the full extent of my meager power while knowing full well that I probably couldn’t do much. I was impressed when Raymond managed to assassinate the Warrior and amused when she pulled off her mental trick on the Healer and the Rogue.

Now, I was outright amazed. The Ranger had kited her for a few minutes and in that time she’d found a way to capitalize on his patterns. Despite receiving injury after injury that would each put down a normal person, she endured and came out on top.

Incredible.

“You seem to have chosen a worthy Tether. I am impressed.” Auto said.

I nodded. “How is she still moving? When the bird took off her arm, she fainted. She’s taken a lot more damage this time and still going.”

“That is because she applied her ridiculous amount of Endurance this time.”

“Oh?”

“It would be simpler to show you. This is what she would see if she examined her stat table closely.”

Endurance

A numeric estimation of an individual’s:

1. Vitality (Maximum Health)

2. Willpower and the mind’s control over the body.

3. Resistance to extreme temperatures.

4. Ability to resist the effects of status ailments including:

Fatigue, Hunger, Poison, and Disease.

5. Ability to ignore pain.

(Effect negated due to *System Punishment*)

*Replaced with ‘5. Ability to endure pain.’

“Her ability to control her body with her mind is both the reason she fainted after losing only an arm to the Lesser Roc and the reason she did not faint at all in this fight. Unless suffering an injury which incapacitates her, she can continue until she no longer wills it.”

“Huh. What about this *System Punishment* part?”

“Normally an entity with maxed Endurance would no longer feel pain. Instead, she has an enhanced ability to endure and act despite feeling pain. It seems to be a penalty from the ritual she performed on the highest peak of the mountains.”

Interesting stuff. It seems that stats in this world worked a little differently from stories I’d read. At least, Endurance covered a lot more than I was expecting.

I returned my attention to Raymond, watching as she finished draining Bill of blood.

Wait a second. What the hell?

When Raymond had started drinking his blood, she had been a torn apart mess. Now she was casually reaching down, pulling arrows out of her body as the pieces that had been stuck inside her from broken shafts seemed to eject themselves from the wounds. Her left arm had already almost finished regrowing.

This was much faster than when she had recovered before.

Auto, as if sensing the question, answered before I asked.

“It’s because of her new racial ability Vampiric Bite. It imbues her teeth with the Vampiric enchantment.”

“Which does?”

“A Vampiric enchanted weapon siphons life when in contact with an enemy and returns it to the wielder.”

“So if she drinks blood, she heals really fast?”

“Affirmative.”

Nice.

***

Raymond slowly wiped the blood from her face using the edge of Bill’s shirt. She stretched out her newly healed arm, smiling.

It was a good day. Probably because it was still night and not morning yet.

She’d half expected to gain a few more levels from killing Bill, but she was a little disappointed instead.

Fighter class has already reached the maximum level. Please visit a class trainer to advance to a Tier 1 class.

You have met 3/3 requirements to unlock the Thief class.

- Unlock the Sneak skill

- Successfully Sneak Attack and defeat an opponent of equal or higher level.

- Steal an item of high value relative to the level of your target.

Accept? Y/N

She mentally pressed the ‘Yes’ option and was further disappointed.

*Error* Total class slots exceeded. Unable to grant class ‘Thief’

Damn it.

And then finally a welcome notification.

Vampiric Bite has reached level 2!

+5% more hp per point of damage inflicted.

Current ratio: 1.05:1

Raymond waved the screens away, moving back towards the bodies of Jonathan and Johnny. She needed to drain them of blood to advance her True Vampire Lord pathway, and then she had to chase after Suzy. The fight against Bill had taken about fifteen minutes and Cairel was three hours away. Furthermore, Raymond figured she was much stronger and had much more endurance, so catching up shouldn’t be too difficult.

She was right.

Draining the two bodies had taken roughly fifteen minutes and had finished her full regeneration. She caught up to Suzy after another forty-five minutes of running. The white-robed idiot had strictly followed the path, so Raymond didn’t need to worry about tracking her through the forest.

As she approached the girl from behind, Suzy finally noticed the sound coming from behind her and turned. Absolute terror dawned on her expression as Raymond leaped forward, slamming into her and smashing her into the ground while simultaneously pinning her.

Suzy screamed.

Raymond hissed, baring her fangs menacingly. Suzy stopped screaming and closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable end.

It didn’t come. A few moments later, she slowly opened one eye. Raymond hadn’t moved, though her fangs were now hidden behind a dangerously cute smile.

Suzy shivered.

“I have some questions for you.” Raymond said in a low, quiet voice.

Suzy nodded frantically.

“How did you all come back? I saw your bodies on the peak.”

“Obviously we came back. We’re the chosen of the gods, unlike you mons....”

Raymond punched Suzy in the nose. Crunch. Blood ran down Suzy’s face while tears filled her eyes.

“Lose the attitude. This monster just destroyed your little party of ‘chosen’.”

Suzy sagged, her body seeming to lose its strength as all resistance went out of her.

“We… humans have Overseers. When we die, we ‘respawn’ in the Temple.”

“How does that work? Is it the Temple itself or an object inside the Temple that draws in your souls?”

“Don’t know, don’t really care. What matters is that no matter how many times I die, I will keep hunting you forsaken vermin until you’re extinct…”

“How long?”

“Huh?”

“How long is the interval between death and respawn.”

“Three to four days, give or take.”

“Should be plenty of time.”

“For what?” Suzy asked. Raymond ignored her as she reached into her bag of holding and withdrew the sword.

“Time to test another ability. Rend!”

“Wha…” Suzy’s voice cut off abruptly as Raymond swung the glowing red sword down, severing her head in a smooth motion.

Fighter class has already reached the maximum level. Please visit a class trainer to advance to a Tier 1 class.

“I don’t care!” Raymond growled, swiping the screen away. She drained the body of blood, feeling a rush of energy run through her as she did so. Then she slowly started searching Suzy’s body, looking for a bag. She found it tied to Suzy’s belt and smiled.

As the sun finished cresting the distant horizon, Raymond started examining the contents. While she looked, she began walking towards Cairel, a slight skip in her step.

Maybe mornings weren’t so bad after all.