High up in the sky, the shouts and laughter of a giddy Vampire are heard only by her hitchhiking companion.

Hiro, however, is trying his best to be one the wind and is enjoying the blissful reprieve they've earned themselves.

"Look, Hiro. This is what they do. I swear to god!" Bursting into another fit of laughter, the newly-evolved Bathilda has been doing her best impressions of a dolphin swimming. Instead of water though, she's been using the clouds beneath them to leap in and out of.

Bathilda claims she's trying to educate Hiro, but it's really for her own gleeful satisfaction.

"Why aren't you watching me, Hiro?" she calls out from below.

"Because I've been watching you for the last half an hour. Now that we're finally in the sun and don't have to worry about a confined death, I just want to relax."

"I'm really glad that we're able to go in the sun. Vampires from my old world are notorious for setting on fire and burning to Ash when daylight's involved," Bathilda smiles.

"Wait, what? Is that why you stopped ascending before we hit the clouds? I thought I was just faster. Did you make me go through the clouds first in case I caught fire?" Bathilda's all-to-brief history lesson on her knowledge of Vampires shatters what's left of Hiro's relaxing vibe.

"I can't come back to life like you can though. It only makes sense for you to be the guinea pig and in all fairness, this was my reincarnation." Reminding Hiro of how their journey together started, Bathilda's words hit home and Hiro lowers his head in reluctance.

"What's a guinea pig? Is it like bait?"

"Well... Sort of. Guinea pigs are actually little-adorable creatures," Bathilda refrains from using the word pet. "People use the name of the creature as a reference for someone who... Participates in activities first."

"Adorable?" Is the only word he repeats from her sentence.

"Yeah! I even bought the clone-skill specifically for you, just so you could have a body. Now, you look like a natural beauty," she smiles. Unfortunately, Hiro isn't as happy at Bathilda's last sentence as she thought he would be.

"I don't want to be a girl!" he shouts.

"Sorry, Hiro. There's nothing I can do about that yet," Bathilda says whilst browsing her skill list. She hasn't checked them recently and some of her skills are even ready for upgrades. Three of them have reached Level 10, maxing them out for their first evolution.

Bathilda works her way through the skills that have a plus symbol next to them first. They all appear to have stopped growing at level 5. She improves each one through the multiple choice system and feels confident with her choices once she's done.

Clone+ Level 5: Create an identical copy of the user. The duration of this spell is dependent on the mana supplied during casting. The Clone will begin with 60% of the user's stats and has capacity for growth. Certain skills and magic are restricted and unusable by the Clone. Limit: Two Clones

Iron Body+ Level 5: Each level of this skill raises the user's physical defence by 10%.

Swift Wing+ Level 5: Each level of this skill raises the user's movement speed by 10%.

Identify+ Level 5: Each additional level of this skill adds more-detailed information to the user's database.

Paralysing Stare+ Level 5: Incapacite multiple enemies for 60 seconds. Each additional level of this skill increases the chance of paralysis taking effect on the target.

"When did I use Paralysing Stare? Maybe it works on its own whenever I look at a monster? I don't know. I'm not going to complain about a free upgrade though." With her midpoint skills finished, Bathilda moves on to her first set of max-level skills.

Wing Slash has evolved into Reality Tear Level 1.

Flight turned has evolved Gravity Manipulation Level 1.

Chomp has evolved into Obliterate.

"I don't know how I got so lucky with Chomp, but I'll take that upgrade!" She chuckles in glee.

Obliterate: Using your strength, you can destroy anything you lay your hands on.

"That sounds like a seriously messed-up skill. It's leagues above the other option though, Crushing Fang. Anyway, now that I'm done, my skills are actually looking good!"

Feeling positive, Bathilda closes her skill list and descends below the clouds. In her mind, it's obvious what her next step will be.

Finding people!

Rejoining society, or at least whatever constitutes society in a world full of monsters.

Trees cover the earth as far as the eye can see in every direction. The cave where Bathilda was reincarnated is nowhere in sight as the vampires have been steadily travelling above the clouds.

The tree-trunks rock and their branches sway. Neither of these occurrences are due to the breeze that Bathilda and Hiro have travelled on since leaving the cave.

Monsters, taller than the largest-trees themselves, are engaged in a fierce battle far away from the two child-sized Vampires. Their blows rip the soil from the earth and every one of their movements clears out large sections of nature as they clash repeatedly. Each attack rings out with the sound of thunder beating through the air.

As she watches the fight play out, one of the titan-sized monsters fires a laser from its mouth directly at its opponent. The gorilla-like creature manages to evade the deathly beam and lands a strong right cross of its own. Incidentally, this attack is right on the side of the turtle monster's face. This causes the still-firing laser beam to be redirected directly into the path of a spectating Bathilda.

The positive confidence that was present moments ago has completely vanished in the face of annihilation and Bathilda barely avoids the dangerous attack.

Bathilda decides that her best option would be to quickly vacate the extremely-dangerous vicinity of raging beasts. As she turns around to do so, she comes face-to-face with a third, and even-deadlier monster that has managed to approach her unnoticed.

"Oh Shit!"

Fear courses through Bathilda's entire body as the overly-large creature opens its ridiculous-sized maw in front of her face. Hundreds of teeth line the inside of the creature's mouth, signalling death for anything that might end up inside. Due to Bathilda's recently-acquired instincts, instead of flying straight up to escape any type of deathly scenario on her part, the first thing she does is attack.

Wing Slash, or Reality Tear as it was named after its upgrade, is the first skill that enters her mind and fortunately enough, is the only one needed. In just one movement, the large-reptilian's head is severed and only the bottom half of its jaw remains attached to the body.

All that happened, with no more than a swing of Bathilda's arm.

"Holy shit!"

Insta-kill.

"Hiro? How did you Die?" Hearing her companion inside her head, Bathilda quickly scans the area for his body. The only sights that she can see are the gorilla and turtle engaged in battle and the remains of the reptile slowly falling toward the ground.

I got caught in that yellow flash of light and was sent back here before I realised what was happening.

"Don't worry about it. All of a sudden I'm feeling kind of powerful. Seeing how that last monster went down like a sack of potatoes, let's see what kind of revenge we can dish out on these two." Bathilda smiles and re-summons her clone.