Life was never a choice. Death will always be inevitable. However, at least, we can choose our death by the power of free will. True cruelty comes when that is no longer true.

In front of me stood the monster that ruined the team within a cursory minute, but in the end, it’s a gritter, a title given to monsters too weak for a rank. As if that wasn’t enough, I also have a lightning-based mage of decent strength creating cover for me. If someone who knows of my identity witnessed how much of a try-hard I currently am, they’d probably die from laughter - or more likely, die from me hunting them down for laughing at me.

I placed the oversized shield on my back, bent my body forward and rushed towards Kelvin. With my momentum, I could balance with my upper body almost parallel to the ground, which provided me a turtle shell that protected attacks from above, but limited my vision greatly.

That should cover me from the quickest form of attack the monster could make. It also only left it with two other options – sweep left, or sweep right.

Its choices were inconsequential. Even without sight, all I needed to do was to wait for the sound cue.

It came a little later than I predicted thanks to the effectiveness of Amelia’s support. After a few breaths of time, amidst the noise of lightning and shrieking, I could hear the faint sound of the tail tensing, the rattle of its hard carapace, followed closely by a sudden whoosh.

Since I had no plans to use my Powers, that left only one direction to escape to – up. Jumping straight above would be inefficient, since I’d have the entire weight of the shield dragging me down. Instead, I jumped whilst twisting my body, causing the shield to act like a pivot point. The downside of this was that my jump height was limited, and the technique itself was difficult. It really takes it out on your waist muscles. But don’t worry, the worst has yet to come.

With perfect timing, the tail slammed into the shield whilst it was underneath me, which propelled me even higher into the sky. I shook my body at the forceful impact, and gave a convincing “aaahck!” to my attentive audience. Not sure if they heard it through the metal-denting bang from the blow, but I should keep in character at all times.

The attack may have pushed me up to safety, but it also generated an uncontrollable clockwise spin. I resisted the urge to reposition myself, which resulted in a messy landing that would’ve broken the legs and hips of an average athlete from Earth.

The fall caused me to slide forward in full contact with the ground, the friction grinding away my momentum from before. I can’t worry about any of that though, as I hastily spread my body flat onto the ground with the shield placed on my left at an angle.

The tail retracted just in time, skidding lightly across my shield. I’ve travelled close enough to the monster’s body that the tail, a metasoma originally meant to extend from the monster’s rear upwards into the air, couldn’t reach me. When it attacked from the side, it left a gap between the middle of the tail and the floor, a perfect hiding spot for a weakling.

A quick touch to my chest – dry. The health potion remained safe since I paid close attention to avoid impacting that area specifically.

The hard part was over. I picked myself up and ran towards Kelvin on the ground. The final obstacle was the monster’s mandibles, but it was a non-issue thanks to Amelia’s timely lightning obscuring its vision.

With its legs chained up, it couldn’t drop down on the ground to crush us both like before, nor reach its underbelly with its head or legs. We were at the eye of the storm.

Kelvin was a strong-willed, cool-headed youth that fought to his very last breath when needed. I could tell from his demeanour – he had faith in his sister to rescue him and fought against the pain to remain awake. I could also tell, from his wide-eyed surprise, that he didn’t expect his sister to look like a plain-faced pushover.

“Lay on the ground and disable your ability.”

I took the potion I so painstakingly protected out of the shabby wrapping. After recognising the item, Kelvin did his best to do as I asked, but the pain disturbed his control. In the end, he deactivated it prematurely and fell agonizingly hard onto the floor. Neither the soft soil or the green grass made the heart-wrenching scream any less prominent.

Wasting no time, I cracked up the volume by pouring the red, viscous liquid onto the most severely wounded parts of his body. The good thing about common healing potions was that they increased cell-regeneration, so it didn’t matter whether the monster’s blood was a corrosive substance or a vesicant if the cells in your body regenerated faster than they were being destroyed.

The down side was that the pain reflected the process. Despite the strong painkillers mixed into the potion, it still felt like perpetually stubbing your toe on a Lego coffee stand. A normal person might have died from circulatory shock.

But like I said before – I’m not looking for normal people.

Kelvin’s body stopped squirming about before the 2-minute mark. He even stopped whimpering a minute after. It took less than 5 minutes in total for him to stand.

Remarkable.

This goes beyond pain-tolerance or will-power. It was good decision making coupled with logical reasoning.

At least, that’s what I hope, and not peer pressure from the expectations of myself and the still screaming sister nearby. This kid cared too much about what other people think.

“Can you get out by yourself?”

“… Yeah.”

“Then go.”

He was still confused at why I’m the one who saved him, but thankfully he was rational enough to respond and act properly. He got into a sprint-start pose, then ran with all his might. The monster barely had time to react when Kelvin reached where his sister stood, clutching his shoulders and heaving in pain.

“NOT LIKE THAT YOU MORON, YOU’RE JUST WORSENING YOUR CONDITION IF YOU OVERSTRESS YOURSELF!”

Our odds of success in the next attempt just plummeted. Endangering his own body without fully understanding our healer’s capabilities or limitations could cost him his life.

You know… pretending to be a weakling, no matter how good you are, is a frustrating business. Times like these, I wonder if I should just say ‘fuck it’ and mix things up.

I’ve been handling the stress by venting it during the Occisio, but with every passing week, it’s becoming harder for me not to scream at their idiocy.

Like, seriously - what the hell are they doing? Stop acting like a baiting-ass FPS player who gets their team mates killed so they could potentially act flashy. Even after countless years, I’m still salty at these people, especially since they think they’re the best of the lot by trampling unnecessarily onto the people they should be relying on and supporting.

Hah~. I’m going extra ham at tonight’s Occisio to stay sane.

Meanwhile…

“LISTEN UP. AMELIA WILL TARGET THE TAIL JOINTS WITH HER LIGHTNING. WHEN THE THING ATTACKS, YOU CAN NOTICE PARTS OF THE TAIL BEING RIGID AND OTHERS BEING FLEXIBLE – AIM FOR THE RIGID AREA BETWEEN THE SCALES.

KELVIN, GRAB A LONGSWORD AND RUSH TO THE MONSTER IN A ZIGZAG. MAKE SURE YOU ARE MOVING AWAY FROM THE MONSTER BEFORE YOU ATTACK TO AVOID ITS BLOOD. MAKE SURE IT FOCUSES ON YOU AND NOT ON THE OTHERS.

SCAREDY CAT, GO TO THE HEALER IF YOU ARE STILL SCARED, OTHERWISE, THROW SOME ROCKS OR THAT HANDY FRYING PAN AMELIA DROPPED.

YOU HAVE 11 MINUTES LEFT!”

I lied down onto the ground, ignoring the occasional noise coming from the enraged monster. After shuffling a little, I got into a comfy position like a Nirvana Buddha and waited for the show to start.

The twins understood the obvious intimation of my status and chose without hesitation to, finally, follow the orders of the leader. The two shared amongst themselves how they planned to approach and execute my suggestions. Meanwhile, Callum only managed to understand one thing – there was a healer he can run away to, and so he did. He wasn’t as energetic when he completely blanked out when Amelia rushed off to obtain the shield and potion earlier.

“…”

Here’s another example of why it’s so hard to keep quiet instead of ridiculing them. The airhead had yet to realise that no one could hear her mumbling at a distance where I had to shout my orders. Hina was scared, but also annoyed how I gave zero attention to her in my instructions. After a few seconds, she looked even more indignant at how I’m ‘ignoring’ her.

“FINE! DON’T TELL ME THEN!”

“DON’T TELL YOU WHAT? I DON’T HAVE ENHANCED SENSES TO HEAR YOU MUMBLE-RAP ALL DAY!”

“WELL I SAID – WHAT SHOULD I DO THEN, OH LEADER!?”

Sassy useless bitch.

“YOU EVEN FAIL AS THE EYECANDY FOR THIS CHAPTER SO GET OUT OF THE WAY.”

I’d fucking done her job for her and yet she continued to complain. Though it was embarrassingly immature for me, a god-like hero, to argue and be angered with bratty children in their teens, the ticking in my brain crescendoed the more she spoke.

The gritter, a monster that previously thrashed this team like a dominatrix, was killed by the same group within 2 minutes. The main difference between the two attempts was direction.

Kelvin baited the monster to launch its tail. From their experience, they knew that the monster preferred to stay in position and relied on the tail’s long reach and speed. Its attack pattern was simplistic – a typical marker of a low-intelligence monster. Once it expended its main offensive move, it became just an oversized cockroach.

Amelia’s lightning accurately struck a part of the monster’s tail, stiffening its nerves so that it couldn’t move it properly. Meanwhile, Kelvin arrived underneath its body like before and swung his sword at its legs with a double-handed sword. He left the weapon lodged inside and immediately ran out to safety.

Without the tail, the monster’s offensive became dismal. It couldn’t react to Kelvin’s advance, nor prevent his escape. It’s also completely outranged and outclassed by Amelia’s lightning.

When this process repeated itself for the fifth time, the monster finally fell. Funnily enough, it was Callum who dealt the last blow – he threw a spear with all his might, narrowly missing Kelvin in the process, but luckily punctured through the side of the monster’s head.

It was luck, and it was painful to watch.

“Well done. 2 attempts for your first monster is something you can be proud of. You have 25 minutes to rest before I bring out your second opponent.”

I can see it in their eyes – the excitement brimming brightly from the twins’ eyes as the four approached where I rested. During the battle, the monster moved around a little and thankfully fell not upon my head, but elsewhere instead. Two of the four eagerly awaited my instructions for the next gritter that was being led into the area. One of the four was also eager, but out of fear rather than excitement. The last one was as clueless as ever.

“Why are you lying on the ground like that?”

“To get an anime camera angle.”