The camp is set and it's time to sleep. “Are you sure that you want to take the first watch, Kyou? I can do it.” Rine asks carefully.

“It's OK. Just go to sleep already. I didn't exercise much today, so the two of you should sleep.” Kyou-san voluntarily takes the first watch. The fire is mostly burned out and only embers remains, occasionally a twig or two are added to keep the cave warm. Night-watch is more than just watch out for enemies, it's also taking care of the campfire.

Rine and I lay down and sleep.

As if.

I have the [Dormurnal]-skill, which allows me to keep track of my surroundings even while being asleep. So I only sleep until Rine's breaths becomes regularly which takes about half an hour.

“Rine?” I ask her to be sure. No reaction, she's asleep. “So Kyou-san. What do we do?” Of course I'm whispering.

“I slipped something into her dinner, so she should be in deep slumber by now.” Kyou-san is talking aloud. She's really confident… She also did it, poisoning her! I didn't even notice. “RINE-CHAN! It's an attack!”

…

… …

No reaction.

“So now we can tie her and...”

*swing*

Suddenly, Rine swings her sword, her eyes half-opened. She looks down, right in front of her. I follow her look and see a single bug-like creature, which is cut in half. Even at this distance, my [Perception] allows me to register that it has the stinger of a mosquito. Maybe it sucks blood line one, too?

What about the one who killed it? “Oh... *yawn* Just a bug.” With a stupid grin Rine's body falls back to the ground, while sheathing her blade. She... she's asleep again.

“Ken, what happened?”

“Erm... a mosquito-like bug tried to suck Rine's blood and she killed it while she's asleep… Just to be sure: RINE!? ARE YOU AWAKE!?”

…

… …

… … …

No reaction.

Hearing my previous words, Kyou-san's eyes opened wide. “But... how? I mean, she should be asleep for at least a few hours.”

“Let's do an experiment.” I take a red-hot twig from the ember of the campfire and throw it in Rine's direction. The moment the twig is within an arm-length, Rine instantaneously draws her blade and swings at it. She splits the twig, causing it to spark only to swing her weapon again to quench those sparks with a fluent motion. “... falling twigs are annoying...” She sheathes her sword and falls asleep again.

“RINE?!” I shout to be sure. Still no reaction. “We know three things now. First, she appears to be able to act like me with my [Dormurnal]-skill, just instead of waking up, she slashes at everything dangerous in reach. Second, she's barely aware of her environment and just realizes what happens after she murdered it. Third: I WON'T GET NEAR HER WHILE SHE SLEEPS!” She would kill me if I try to tie her up! Damn it, Kyou-san can be gutted if she wants to, but I won't!

“Hm... we need to change the plan. Instead of sleep, I'll aim for full unconsciousness next time.”

It might work, since the brain activities are at a bare minimum in a coma. Still, there is one thing which bothers me. “Phew, why are you moving everything up? Didn't we agree before, that it'd be hard to transport her down the mountains?”

“Because it'll be harder to capture her the longer we wait.” Kyou-san is bitter about it, but she's right. The longer we wait, the more opportunities Rine will have to realize what we're after. Of course, there are also our classmates which might close in.

“I need to sleep before I can think of the next plan, you'll watch the fire, Ken.” With these words, she lays down.

“Yes, yes.” Even though it's unfair, I don't have the energy to argue. If I complain about every little thing Kyou-san does to annoy me, I'd have no energy left to do the actual important stuff. It's not like I can't use this opportunity.

After a while, Kyou-san falls into slumber. I'll soon sleep next to her, watching the fire is a task I can do with [Dormurnal], since I'll hear it when there’s no spitting. So we can still grind the WP for sleeping next to each other. Before that though...

Studying the sleeping faces of Kyou-san and Rine, I’ve come to a decision. It's time to leave that cave, go to a lookout where I can watch the entrance and relieve all the pent-up stress in one big session!

―○●○―

Next day.

Luckily, Rine doesn't remember anything when she falls asleep. If anything, she feels sorry that she ended up not doing night-watch at all. In the end, Kyou-san was able to play the 'friendship-card' which proved to be super effective.

We're back to mountain-climbing, but somehow I'm on the edge. It's like something is wrong, even though I can't put my finger on it. I won't tell the girls for now, since it might be only uneasiness. Maybe I feel like that because we're trying to reach a peak? Altitude-sickness?

Oh.

“Ken, why are you looking around like that?”

“...enemies. Three crawling types, can only hear them.”

“Crawling? Maybe mountain-crawler.” Rine draws her sword. “Are you sure? I don't hear a thing.”

There! I run around a man-sized rock. “[Speedthrust]!” With a tearing sound, one caterpillar-like mob is obliterated, guts are flying everywhere.

Two more are lurking there, but suddenly I start to gag. What’s happening?

With a swift motion, Rine overhauls me and slashes the remaining two with a single strike. The guts burst out as well and now she also gagsl. “The guts...”

Ah, I see. So the guts have some odorless chemical, which causes this nausea. Fortunately, it passes quickly, maybe about 10 seconds. Yet a deadly time-frame if you're fighting multiple of them... is that their strategy? Lurking around, ambushing prey and if that fails, the first to die will immobilize the enemy with its nauseating guts?

Thinking of it, that body easily bursts open. Who thought of monsters like that!? How can they survive as a species!?

“These are mountain-crawlers?” I ask Rine.

“No, mountain-crawlers are bigger. These are boak-crawler, I think.” Ah, so the cow-sized ones we found before are the mountain-crawlers. These mountains have too many caterpillar-like monsters!

“Let's wait a bit,” I suggest, “I still feel a bit sick.”

“Me too.”

Kyou-san agrees: “Alright.”

“Ah!” I exclaim and look in the direction of the peak we're aiming at. “Shit.” There are at least a dozen flying creatures, most likely the ones who left the talon marks the day before. Those marks led me to believe that they were very big, but this is between a cow and an elephant! Each of those birds have two pairs of wings and a long, blade-looking beak. This alone is dangerous enough, but it gets worse: “In their talons...” Boak-crawlers, just like the ones from before. Since these bird-creatures have four legs each, it's 48 centipedes on the fly! “RUN!”

Please let those birds be stupid! Please!

While the girls are still wondering what is happening, I’m already on the run. After several meters of a head start, they finally got the hint and start moving. There is a problem though: We've not only been detected, but too are slow as well. The creatures are already catching up!

To make matters worse, the flying bastards are doing as I feared: They're flying right above us and letting the boak-crawler fall. If they hit the ground, they’ll burst and immobilize us with their gut-chemicals!

I change class to [Pikeman] and shout to Rine: “Support my jump! Then run!”

Rine is looking at me confused but goes into position, hands hold together under her stomach. I run at her and jumps on this provisional platform. She propels me even higher, right into the first clutch of boak-crawlers. “[Whirlwind]!”

Guts are splattered around me, but the [Whirlwind]-skill pushes enemies away, so the carcasses are flying even higher, smashing into the second wave of boak-crawler. Nausea overwhelms me and the last thing I thought was 'This will hurt' as I fall without the chance to make it any less hurtful. I can see my HP decreasing at an alarming range. My Max HP has decreased as well, I might have broken something.

The third wave of boak-crawlers is falling right on me and while they burst, I take even more damage. My SP is decreasing as well, maybe because I'm suffocating with all this gagging. I try to stand up, but I can already see three of these bizarre birds approaching. These are the birds that have thrown wave one to three.

Ah, I'm dead. Nonetheless, I won’t give the hell up! Every ounce of willpower goes into my body, trying to move it.

Then, *swing* with a beautiful arc, a sword is biting into the body of one of these creatures. Rine, you stupid idiot! If I say 'run' to you, you should run!

Your aim is also wrong. How could you mess up your one-swing-one-death principle? Must be because she hurried to me. Of course, Kyou-san isn't here, she's smarter than that.

Rine's resistance is short-lived. A fourth wave of falling boak-crawlers falls close to her and sets her gagging as well. You see, that’s why I told you to run! One of these four-wing-creatures approaches her, the one she attacked just now. It looks heavily wounded, but its eyes burn with hatred. I see. She'll die before me because she tried to help me. She's really stupid.

I'm trembling! The world seems to tremble. Why am I trembling that much? Is it regret? Is it self-hatred? Is it pride? I don't know, actually I feel kinda hollow inside.

Wait a minute, the world is trembling! At least the mountain! What... The ground! The ground rises right before my eyes while I'm unable to move! The earth under me is also shifting... I'm rolling in the direction that was uphill a second ago.

The winged creatures fall into panic and try to take flight. Could you please take me with you? We can still discuss all the 'you tried to kill me'-stuff, but I don't want to be left behind when the earth and rocks around me are moving and about to crush me.

Ah, that won't be my biggest problem now. I'm rolling down a newly formed cliff. Well, I'm dead. Seems to be fate. Next life, I want to be a gamer again.

Suddenly, something grabs my collar from behind, choking me: “I got you, Kenta!” It's Rine, who was able to shake off the nausea. Well, mine is over, too, but my body doesn't move. It might be overwhelming pain which is shut off by adrenaline. Or something like that.

Rine is hanging on the still shifting ground and it becomes steeper and steeper. Her fingers dig deep into the earth, but my exact question is: How long until we both fall? “Stupid.” My voice is groaning.

“Huh?”

“Stupid! Let me go and try to save yourself! Helping me is killing you!”

“No!”

“The ground itself is trying to throw me off the cliff! Just behave like the stupid princess you are and act as if you're well-meaning while stepping over corpses!”

“You... you are trying to make me abandon you because we're friends!”

“No, I'm not! I hate your guts! You act all noble and strong, while sacrificing yourself. I hate that!”

For a moment, Rine staggers, but then she embraces her determination: “You just tried to safe Kyou and me by sacrificing yourself as well!”

“I just hate TPKs and especially those players who evoke them by not doing their job! One dead is better than a TPK, especially in raids!“

“TeePeeKay?”

“Total Party Kill, you dumbnut!”

“I have no idea what you're talking about, so I'll ignore you!”

“Immature brat!”

“Beh!” Is she just sticking out her tongue to me!?

“Lift me up, so I can spit on you!”

“Gladly!” Rine enforces her grip on my collar and tries to pull me up, but with a sudden motion the ground beneath us goes vertical. How the heck is that even possible?

For a moment, Rine has to carry both our weights with one hand alone. Then the earth under her hand broke away and both of us are feeling the gravity.

Ah, we're lucky. Beneath us is one of these strange four-winged creatures. We'll land right on it... wait, we're unlucky, we'll fall next to it, almost in reach, but with no chance to get it. My usual luck.

Well, we're dead. The only good thing about it is that the person who I'm currently most irritated at will die as well. Too bad I can't move and shove Rine aside, so we can bite the dust at different places.

Then something unexpected happens. Or more like 'happens again' as suddenly another ground appears and picks the winged creature I mentioned before from the side. I can hear the sound of crushing bones and bursting blood.

On the other hand, we're about to hit that new part of the ground. It’s still about an eight meter (26 feet) free-fall. I guess, it can't be helped. I can muster only a fraction of power, so surviving it is unlikely for me. Rine on the other hand... If I will die but Rine might survive, I may as well let her suffer by doing the following: I use the last bit of willpower, grab Rine's arm, which is still holding my collar, and pull her into an embrace. I will impact first, hopefully I'll die fast. Shielded that way, she will survive and my death will put her through mental hell! Serves you right!

The main-problem is about to happen: The landing... I close my eyes. … … Strange, is the earth giving in? Is it that loose? I open my eyes and see that the ground moved again. We have missed it and we're still free-falling.

“HHHAAAHHH???” A deep sound is echoing all around us.

Another bit of ground appears below the one we missed and... captured us. The impact itself doesn't hurt much, but the fact that I'm getting Rine's knee into my stomach is kinda bad. Oh, who just spat out all that blood? Where do so much of my HP go?

Oh... Blackness engulfs me.

―○●○―

When Rine-chan suddenly turned around, most likely to help Ken, I decided to move forward, propelled by the fear of death. It didn't go well. I was captured by strange bird-like monsters the moment the earth trembled. I'm actually glad that I was not down there at the moment the earth began to move.

Because we weren’t on a mountain. It’s a gargantuan creature made of earth, rock and stone! It was laying there and the so-called peak was actually it's butt!

I don't know what happened to Rine-chan and Ken, but while this mountain-creature was standing up I could get a glimpse of the damage it caused. Several monsters were crushed by some of its minor movements.

Even though I still hold one hope at that moment: 'Please, let Ken die.’ It’s an ugly thought, but seeing the chaos down there from above and my current predicament, this is the only thing I could think of. There is still the possibility that his death will lift the curse which befell me, which might be better than the alternative. However, there was no curse-message-window and the ring is still on my finger, so all I can do is to harbor that wish which stems from too many small things that add up to a final straw.

Yet everything becomes worse. The creature made of a mountain attacks the flying ones and crushes them one after another with its big arms. It's like it’s catching bugs with its hands! Then something distracted the earth-giant, so two of the winged creatures can flee, including the one who holds me in its talons.

Now I just need a way to survive. With a bit of luck, Ken is currently bleeding out, only a few seconds away from dead and the curse will be lifted thereafter, then I’ll find a way out of this situation, and everything will be fine afterward. No curses, no monsters, no need to worry about my life in the present and future anymore.

I might be lucky for a change.