Despite her somewhat desperate situation, Reysha was having the time of her life. The insides of the tree may as well have been lit by the midday sun, all her senses were awake again. Like the mold around a freshly cast sword, the dullness had broken away and left her sharp and glowing with remaining heat. They felt more accurate than ever before, although that may have been the simple high following the long period of monotony.

The light of her blessed hunters came closer, basking the walls around them. Although it had interrupted her meal, this chase was a great way to commemorate her renewed sense of life. An even better way would have been to fight, but she wasn’t insane enough to believe that she could take all three of them head-on.

“Very good!” the deep, dumb voice of a nearby Archwood Maggot commented, warning Reysha of its presence and rough location. The first fork in the winding path she fled on presented itself to her. Without further consulting any other senses, she followed her ears towards the voice. “Hello! Thank you!” the voice continued as Reysha passed the creature.

Camouflaging itself as part of the walls, a plate on the head resembling a carved piece of bark, the Archwood Maggot stretched outside of its burrow. It was a simple creature, a long, segmented body as white as a boiled egg, largely featureless aside from the six legs underneath its mandibles and the hooks it used to stay inside the walls.

It had a simple hunting strategy, trying to lure adventurers towards it with its distorted voice and then jumping them by suddenly expanding like a spring. As a beginner friendly monster, this strategy was as imperfect as they came and very few people had actual problems or were surprised by them. Reysha, in this particular case, had even wanted the maggot to attack her.

For the reason why, she was a whole lot faster than it could react, long passing the half-meter body of the wiggling beast. ‘Perfectly good food… oh well,’ the tiger girl thought as she turned around on her heel and flawlessly kicked the monster in its unprotected side. Ripped out of its burrow from the impact, the Archwood Maggot became a fleshy, squirming projectile that hit the Warrior leading the chasing trio.

The weight of that thing alone wouldn’t be enough to majorly slow down the towering man full-plate, but, as confused as the creature was, it did locate that it was on something living and thus did its best to go from the assaulting stage of its hunting strategy to the part where it gnawed the targets face off.

“Get off, you!” the Warrior thus had to slow and then stop completely, wrestling with the wormlike creature that had hooked its legs into chinks in the armour. It was a foregone conclusion that he would win out in the end, one of the many swiping motions would throw the maggot off and give it an ending of exploding insect guts under the heavy boot of the Warrior. As a timewaster, it was absolutely successful, however.

The Rogue and Mehily continued their chase; Reysha simply stood her ground. “Let us talk!” the Priestess requested in that ‘holier-than-thou’ tone that pissed the tiger girl off something fierce. The Rogue was more practically minded, trying to grab her. His motions were quick, the light that increased their speed and endurance still filling the party.

Jumping back two steps, Reysha narrowly avoided the hand, feeling it brush over the swirling strands of red hair that followed her motions. “I don’t give a fuck about anything you have to say, leave me alone!” the tiger girl threw back.

“You are on a dark path!”

“I know, isn’t that the greatest?!” she laughed out loud, yet again narrowly avoiding the Rogue’s attack. Her instincts told her it was not yet time to attack and she trusted those deeply. Whatever spontaneous thing dominated her awareness would surely work out if she just twisted and tried hard enough. A way of thinking that was awarded this time around, as the third attack of the Rogue came.

The moment his hand was stretched out towards her, about to catch her by the shoulder, the light finally burned out. With an ecstatic giggle, the tiger girl suddenly launched into her own attack. The stiletto she was still holding whirled around in her left hand, the steel thorn pointing away from her thumb.

Being a left-handed person was pretty advantageous in a lot of hand to hand combat, Reysha had long since learned. Particularly when the enemy was presenting his own, dominant right so openly. The stiletto broke through the leather glove and the skin underneath, then Reysha doubled down on the motion with her entire bodyweight, pressing her right against the bottom of her weapon’s hilt. The result was a tormented outcry from the Rogue, as his hand was nailed against the splintered wood wall.

“You bitch!” he shouted, trying to grab his dagger with his left. Like all Rogue’s he was trained to be ambidextrous to some degree, an important skill to have when using tricks, dirty or not, in combat. Against anybody else in his level bracket, the quickness and skill with which he wielded his dagger would have probably allowed him a quick retaliation.

Reysha was, however, the right combination of merciless, insane, and explosively spontaneous to get ahead in the counterattack by delivering a frontal kick to the Rogue’s groin. Adventurers were advised to wear loin protection and the Rogue had taken this warning seriously. There was only so much a hardened piece of leather could do to shield from an impact, however.

The combined pain of his manhood getting crushed under the tiger girl’s heel and the hole in his hand growing wider, his body getting thrown backwards from the kick while still being nailed to the wall ripping the flesh, caused him to stop in the motions. The thrust of his dagger became a pitiful forward motion, barely enough to cut the surface of Reysha’s full-body suit.

In desperation, the manaless Priestess flailed her arms towards the woman she had banned from this very group. Her goal to save her from the darkness was momentarily forgotten over the want to save her new party member. “Stop, you beast!” It was not an unfair description, very few people could hurt other humanoids with no hesitation whatsoever. That took either a deranged person or someone who was already used to doing so.

“NOW you are talking like I remember you!” Reysha grinned madly, taking the pitiful strikes by the dirty blonde. At this low level, the strength gap between a female Priest and Rogue was not yet far wider than between normal people, but Reysha had become pretty adapt at ignoring pain.

First, Mehily’s fist uselessly drummed against the arms and shoulder, a worthless attempt to try and get Reysha to release the stiletto. Eventually, she drew her fist back so far that it couldn’t be more clearly telegraphed that it was an attempt to strike a powerful blow at the tiger girl’s face. With glee, the target thusly dodged narrowly and than sank her sharp canines into the soft meat around the thumb.

Although trained to remain tranquil at the face of any danger, the Priestess was not often hurt herself. Even that little bit caused her to flinch for a second. Pulling her like a wild beast by throwing her neck and entire body back, Reysha threw Mehily off-balance with her teeth. Then she let go of the nail that kept the still squirming Rogue pinned. A whirl of motions ensued, the dagger on the tiger girl’s back being drawn and pressed against the Priestess’ throat just as the Warrior finally succeeded in killing the Archwood Maggot.

“What kind of fucking moron are you?” Reysha ridiculed, “extending beyond your dumbass of a horny meat shield?!” She laughed, drunk on her own power and success. She felt so incredible alive, had just beaten the entire party that had ousted her on her lonesome. “Now you are my meat shield, isn’t that great?!”

“Let her go!” the Warrior demanded, taking one step closer.

“Oh?!” Reysha let out an unsteadily toned sound, before licking the Priestess ear, “I don’t think you are in any position to give me a fucking command, dumbass. Back-off or I will bite your cock-tease a hole for ear decorations.” Her teeth were already stained with monster and human blood, making that threat beyond credible. Hesitatingly, the Warrior took a step backwards, but Reysha’s mind was already jumping along. “Then again, if I just off your healer, between you and the one-armed bandit over there, I can kill all of you.”

“You… you wouldn’t,” Mehily’s shocked voice was pure music to her happily standing ears. “Reysha, you can still turn from this dark pa-“

“Oh, shut the fuck up!” Reysha snapped her teeth next to Mehily’s ear, while the sharp edge of the dagger created a thin red line on the Priestess throat. “Dark path this, dark path that, how often do I have to tell you that I don’t care what you think?!” Mehily made the mistake to gulp, only causing the wound to widen. The pain was immense, but aside from that one, foolish movement, her body was still. Only her legs quivered, her bladder in immense danger to stain her white garments in the colour of urine.

In Reysha’s blue eyes reflected the disdain she had for the Priestess and her overly moral words. Just murdering all three of them here sounded like a very attractive way to get done with this. They had interrupted her in the first proper meal in weeks and she hated their guts anyhow. Right now, she felt like she could do anything. Whatever she wanted to try, Reysha was certain to achieve somehow. The taste of victory was a rush.

She began moving the dagger.