Chpt. 9) Training camp

As Mizu led them into the clearing where the rest of the group was, Ford noticed six tents, a few logs around a campfire, and Gimble charging in to give Ford a bone-crushing hug. Before Gimble wrapped his arms around Ford, she pushed Max out of the way and took the full force of Gimble's tackle head-on. It felt like being run over by a freight train, not that she had experienced it.

As Gimble’s hug got tighter, Ford could feel her ribs break, and her HP dropped from one ninety-eight to eighty. “I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!” Gimble yelled through tears of joy.

As Ford’s HP dropped to twenty-five and a suffocation debuff popped up that looked like a head with eyeballs popping out, Ford yelled over comms, “GIMBLE LET ME GO! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL ME!”

Gimble realized how hard he was squeezing and let go of Ford, letting her drop limply to the ground, “Sorry,” he said as he knelt to see if she was alright.

Lilly raced over to see if Ford was okay and was surprised that Ford was healing automatically by regenerating. “How did ye do tha’?” Lilly asked, lowering her staff, “Did you find a skill?”

Ford raised a finger to signal that she should wait a moment. As her last rib reconnected and her lungs healed a minute later, Ford gasped, spat out a glob of blood, and said, “Missed you too, buddy. As for your questions, that’s a long story which I will tell in a moment. There are a few things that need to happen first.”

“Like what?” Farah, Benet, and Morgan said simultaneously.

“First, I need to introduce our newest member, Max,” Ford said, gesturing to Max, who was still lying on the ground frozen by fear that a Giant nearly crushed her with a hug. Ford walked over to her and helped her up; Max then hid behind Ford. Ford pushed Max in front of her and began introductions, “Max, this is Gimble of the snowmen tribe; he’s clearly a hugger. That below him is Benet Benten; don’t let him hug you. Next to him is Morgan Stormfall, the fifth; nice guy, big hammer. The pink person behind Lilly is Farah Bloodtooth; she’s essentially a princess and my second in command. You’ve met Mizu; His identical twin brother Kii is somewhere. You can tell them apart by their eyes. Over there,” Ford trailed off as she looked for Ee, who was standing behind Ford fury across her face. Ford ignored it as she introduced Max, “And this is Ee our guide; she is as scary as she looks.”

“Hi, um, everyone,” Max stammered.

“Max, why don’t you introduce yourself to us,” Morgan said joyfully, “a short story would be nice.”

“Yeah,” Benet agreed, “It’s how we learned about each other.”

“Ummm, okay,” Max started to shake under pressure.

Lilly noticed the same as Ford and said, “Why don’ we give her time to acclima’e a bit, true?”

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Ford agreed and let Lilly lead Max to one of the logs and sat down. Ford turned around and faced the still fuming Ee, “I take it you want to say something?”

Ee took a deep breath and kept her voice under control as she said, “What the hell are you thinking!? One, running off to endanger your life for a person you barely know was reckless and foolhardy. Two, bringing back said person you barely know endangers everyone here. I did not agree to babysit ten children; it was terrible enough to learn the demons were twins, but now you bring a solo class. I did not sign up for this shit.”

Ford leaned to either side and said, “One, you did technically agree to it. Two, I wouldn’t bring back someone I couldn’t trust or handle. Three, as you call her, the solo class is a creation mage and very useful for us.”

Ee took a deep breath and started rubbing the bridge of her nose; then she said, “Fine, but if she kills any of the group. That is on you.”

“Fair enough,” Ford said as she started to walk away. Then she stopped for a moment and asked, “by the way do you happen to have spare clothes?”

“No,” Ee said flatly, “I have materials for one of you to make new clothes. Other than that, I just have hundreds of my robes.”

Ford looked down at her clothes. There were several holes in the left thigh of her pants; there were several tears on the right abdomen of her shirt from the fight with Baba Naga; there was a new hole in the lower hip of her shirt and waistcoat the size of her hand; the left sleeve from the elbow down had been cut revealing a long thin scar; the right shoulder of her shirt had another hand-sized hole in it; not to mention she was covered in blood. Then she looked at Lilly, who had a hand-sized hole in the abdomen of her dress and several smaller holes scattered all over. She then looked at Max, covered in bloody handprints from Ford.

“I’d say we need three of them. Please,” Ford asked nicely. Ee rolled her eyes and waved for her to follow. Ford turned and said, “Max, Lilly, let’s go!”

Max and Lilly got up and followed Ford and Ee. When they reached a tree at the edge of the clearing, Ee snapped her fingers and opened a portal behind the tree in the shadow, “Take what you need,” she said, resigned.

“Thank you,” Max said politely.

Ford pulled Max into the dark shadow before Ee could snap, and they entered a massive dark room full of nothing but black robes. “Well, she said to take our pick. We have black, black, slightly darker black, and black.”

This got Max and Lilly laughing as they grabbed a black robe and put it on. As Ford undressed, Max watched and said, “You have new scars.”

“I do?” Ford said, surprised and looked down. Other than the scar on her left arm, she did have new scars. They were all in the spots that corresponded with holes in her clothes. “I thought healing magic stopped scars from forming?” Ford asked.

“It doesn’,” Lilly said, tying off the robe, “Magic can heal wounds and grow limbs but always leave scars. How did ye get the one on yer neck?” Lilly gestured to the right side of Ford’s neck.

Ford robbed the spot and said, “I don’t know. It’s new to me.”

“How can you not know?” Max asked.

“Umm.”

“Do you want me to tell them?” Wrath said, from somewhere behind Ford.

Ford ignored Wrath and said, “I probably got it during the fight against the angry mob.”

“How did ye escape the fight against an angry mob with only, wha’, three new scars?” Lilly asked.

“Umm.”

“You should let me tell them. It will be much simpler,” Wrath stated again.

“You know what. We’ll discuss it all together around the campfire after I put up my tent.”

“You're ignoring me now, aren’t you?”

Max and Lilly agreed and finished getting dressed, as did Ford. Then she asked, “Hey, Ee, do you have another tent?”

Ee reached into her cloak and tossed the tent at Ford, hitting her in the face, “That’s the last one. I have no more for, Max,” she said, rolling her eyes and emphasizing Max’s name.

“Okay, I guess you’re sleeping in my tent,” Ford said with a smile to Max.

Benet raised a hand, “She can sleep in my tent.”

Everyone in the camp said, “No.” Ford started to laugh, and she and Max began to put up the last tent.

***

By the time the tent was set up, it was nearly midnight, and fatigue had finally set in. her muscles ached, her stomach rumbled, and Ee didn’t have any food for them. Ford sat down on a log with Lilly on her left and Max on her right and said, “So what do you want to know?”

“You know what they want to know. Just let me tell them. It’ll be easy,” Wrath pleaded while nealing in front of Ford and hands clasped.

“How did you survive?” Farah asked.

“Right, umm.”

“I know the answer to that. It was me.”

“Wha’ was the skill that healed ye,” Lilly asked.

“Well…”

“I know all those new skills too.”

“How did you gain so many levels?” Kii and Mizu asked simultaneously.

“How did you know I gained levels?”

“Sniper skill,” Kii said with a shrug.

“Right, umm…”

“How did you save me?” Max asked.

“Uhhh,” Ford began to sweat a little.

“That’s it. I’m taking over. MOVE IT SCRUB,” Wrath yelled as she dove at Ford.

Ford instantly reacted and leaned backward and fell off the log, but it was too late. As Ford hit the ground, what felt like her spirit left her body and materialized next to herself. Then Wrath opened Ford's eyes, and they were red, just like Wrath’s eyes, instead of Ford’s violet and Gold. “Wait, wait, don’t say anything.”

“Too late,” Wrath said with an evil grin, and she sat up.

“Are you okay?” Max asked, “Did you hurt yourself?”

“The only time I hurt myself was when I fell from heaven. Ha, that’s a good one.”

Ford rubbed the bridge of her nose and said, “Oh, Gods.”

Wrath stood and got up on the log, “Hello, one and all, I’m Wrath, and I’ll be joining your adventure. Because you see when Ford,” Wrath gestured to the space next to her where Ford was standing, “went to save Mrs… sorry what’s your last name?” she asked Max.

“Teesey, Max Teesey.”

“When Ford went to save Mrs. Teesey, she hit all required parameters for Grimoire class evolution. Not just any evolution, mind you, she made a brand new Grimoire,” then, with a flourish, Wrath pulled out her Grimoire. The Grimoire lost the seven four-point stars and was now blood red with a pair of crossed axes on it. “As you can see, it is a brand new class. Ford and I will be making new skills stronger with every passing day. As for how we got that many levels, well, I needed to collect some data, which meant killing people in gruesome ways. I’ll leave that up to your imagination.”

Everyone was silent, then Morgan asked, “Why are you talking about yourself in the third person?”

“I’m talking about myself in the first person. I’m Wrath.”

“If your Wrath, then where’s Ford?” Farah asked and stood, clenching her fists.

“She’s right here,” Wrath said, gesturing to the spot Ford was standing.

“They can’t see me numbnuts,” Ford said, “Let me take over the explaining.”

“But I want to talk more.”

“Can you explain why I look crazy right now?”

Wrath looked at the group, “No.”

“Then I’ll be taking over now,” Ford stepped into her body, and a shard of pain shot through her head. Ford started to rub her temples then looked at Wrath, who was now behind her, “You could have told me that it hurts,” she exclaimed.

“Well, then you wouldn’t have let me take control if I had now, would I. Or you. We? A little confused right now. Besides, it’ll pass in a few seconds.”

The pain passed as quickly as it came, and Ford looked at the group and hopped down from the log. “So, where to begin,” Ford began, “I think when I tried to save Max, I somehow broke my brain in one way or another. I ended up splitting my personality up, and this particular personality seems to be my anger.”

“How did that happen’,” Lilly asked.

“No idea, but it happened, and now I have another me living inside my head.”

“How do we tell you two apart?” Benet asked.

Ford turned and locked eyes with him, “If my irises are red, then that’s Wrath.”

“Is there anything else we should know?” Farah asked.

“Yes, I’m exhausted right now and need to sleep.”

“Agreed,” said Morgan, “let’s all go to bed and sleep.”

***

When Ford awoke the following day, she lay there as her body ached from the physical exertion from yesterday. The sun hadn’t risen yet but was starting to come over the horizon. She then looked down to see Max was curled up next to her, using Ford’s chest as a pillow. She couldn’t help but smile at the site.

Ford then focused on her Yggdras system and opened it. She immediately assigned all her ability points to STR, PER, END, AGI, CHR, and WIS. Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: wood; class: Ruler/Sin; Level: thirteen. Abilities: STR: thirty; PER: twenty plus ten; END: thirty; INT: twenty-four plus ten; AGI: thirty-seven; CHR: thirty; LCK: twelve, WIS: twenty plus ten; SOL: ten.

Skills: natural: carry weight: hundred-fifty kg, quick-witted, resilient, strong-willed, cook. Skills: weapon mastery five/five, comms one/five, crystal heart five/five, blood controller two/five, crystal weapon storage five/five, void storage two/five, crystal battle music two/five, blood weapons four/five, regeneration two/five, embracing pain two/five.

HP: three-hundred thirty; STM: three-thousand sixty; MN: thirty-three-thousand two-hundred ninety-three; EXP: zero/three-thousand one-hundred thirty-nine. STM recharge: sixty-nine per second; MN recharge: sixty-six per second; Grimoire progression: zero of one-hundred percent. There are sixty skill points available.

Ford then focused on each of her new skills. Skill: weapon mastery: ability to use any weapon; level: five of five.

Skill: crystal heart: craft a crystal core and implant it within yourself or others in your party; effect: when HP hits zero get instantly healed; effect: can be used to create mechanized servants or crystal weapon storage; requirements: INT: twenty-five, END: twenty-five; cost: forty mana per second, forty stamina per second; level: five of five.

Skill: blood controller: when weapons come in contact with your blood, you get control of them for sixty seconds; weapons that are bathed in your blood then enchanted are under your permanent control; enchantment time: ten minutes; requirements: INT: twenty-five, END: twenty-five, blood essence; cost: hundred mana, hundred stamina per sixty-second use; fifty mana per second, twenty stamina per second per enchantment; enchanted weapons control cost: ten mana, ten stamina per second per weapon; level: two/five.

Skill: crystal weapon storage: store any weapon in a crystal core; one weapon type per core; requirements: INT: thirty, END: thirty, crystal core; cost: five-hundred mana; level: five/five.

Skill: crystal battle music: play any song in your memory at random through a crystal core; requirements: INT: ten, CHR: fifteen, crystal core; cost: volume level equals X mana per second; level: two/five.

Skill: blood weapons: your blood is a weapon; use blood to create swords, spears, daggers, or claymores; requirements: INT: twenty-five, END: thirty; cost: twenty HP per weapon, ten mana per second per weapon; level: four/five. Warning: HP will not regenerate past what has been spent.

Skill: regeneration: regenerate HP, bones, and limbs; will not regenerate head; one point four HP per second; cost: twenty HP per limb; time: two minutes per limb; level: two/five.

Skill: embracing pain: while injured strength is multiplied by two; requirements: END: twenty; duration: five seconds; level two/five.

‘Those are some good skills,’ Ford thought to herself.

“I know, right! Aren’t I the best?” Wrath said.

Ford clenched her fist, trying not to wake Max. Then she turned her head and saw Wrath lying next to her, resting her head on her hand. ‘So, you can hear my thoughts,’ Ford thought.

“Yes, after all, I am in your head,” Wrath confirmed.

Ford sighed and opened up her skill tree and allocated points into blood controller, blood weapons, regeneration, and embracing pain leaving fifty points for later. Then she read the changes to those skills. Skill: blood controller: when weapons come in contact with your blood, you get control of them for five minutes; weapons that are bathed in your blood and enchanted are under your permanent control; enchantment time: two minutes; requirements: INT: thirty-five, END: thirty-five, blood essence; cost: two-hundred mana, two-hundred stamina per five-minute use; fifty mana per second, twenty stamina per second per enchantment; enchanted weapons control cost: ten stamina per second per weapon; level: five/five.

Skill: blood weapons: your blood is a weapon; use blood to create swords, spears, daggers, or claymores; requirements: INT: thirty-five, END: forty; cost: ten HP per weapon; level: five/five. Warning: HP will not regenerate past what has been spent.

Skill: regeneration: regenerate HP, bones, and limbs; will not regenerate head; ten HP per second; cost: ten HP per limb; time: instant; level: five/five.

Skill: embracing pain: while injured strength is multiplied by five; requirements: END: fifty; duration: ten seconds; level five/five.

Once she did that, she looked through the Berserker skill tree and immediately got a notification; no new skills are available, combine existing skills or progress Grimoire to unlock new skills. ‘How do I combine skills?’ Ford asked.

“Spend skill points on skills. You lost most of the skills you already unlocked, so if you repurchase them and get different skills, the Grimoire will automatically generate new skills. Or you can progress,” Wrath explained.

‘How do I progress?’

“I have no idea,” Wrath confessed. Ford furrowed her eyebrows at her. “What?” she said, “I’m only half Grimoire. I just know how to make skills. Not my fault you're ignorant.”

The sun’s light started to shine through the tent’s cloth, and Ford's stomach started to rumble. Ford flexed her pectoral muscles a few times to shake Max awake. She groaned and looked up at Ford, who smiled at her. Max blinked and mumbled, “Five more minutes. Or hours.”

Ford chuckled and said, “You do not get to sleep in after waking me up an hour before sunrise yesterday. Get up,” Ford sat up and lifted Max’s limp body.

Max groaned again and said, “Fine, fine. I’m up. I’m up.”

Ford got out of the tent, put on her shoes, and saw that no one else was up. She stretched and yawned, then walked to the nearest tent to wake its occupants. She patted the cloth and said, “Time to get up. Let’s go.”

Lilly’s voice came from inside, “Feck off!”

“I’d love to, but I can’t. Now get up before I drag you out.”

Lilly groaned, “Alrigh’, alrigh’.”

Ford walked over to the next tent and did the same as before; Benet's voice came from inside, “I’ll be right out!”

Then Ford went to the next tent and saw just a body with a tent over the head. Ford couldn’t believe she didn’t see it before then and tapped Gimble's foot. Nothing happened. Then she drew her dagger and poked the Giant's foot. He sat bolt upright and screamed, trying to take the tent off his head. The scream woke everyone else in their tents, and Farah was the only one who got up looking like she was ready for a fight. Morgan was still half asleep and looked like he didn’t care someone was screaming, and the twins were holding their rifles backward.

Gimble got the tent off his head, looked at his foot, and said, “Something bit my foot.”

Ford looked up at the big guy and said, “Nope, that was just my knife in your foot,” then she turned to everyone and yelled, “Good morning, everyone!” Everyone started to curse at her. Ford turned to the twins, who were struggling to figure out which end was the front of their rifles, and said, “Kii, Mizu. Can you find some extensive wildlife kill for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?”

They yawned and said, “Sure. Give us some time.”

“Great, thanks.”

Farah walked over to Ford and asked, “What’s the plan for today?”

“Well, unless I’m wrong, I think we have about a day and a half to two days till Banzzap’el sends soldiers to find and kill us, and those soldiers will be a very high level. Let’s take today to train a bit, then go into the dungeon early tomorrow,” Ford explained.

Benet asked, “Why not go into the dungeon now?”

“Because,” Ford said, locking eyes with him, “I’m starving, and most likely so is everyone else. Also, our creation Mage Max is behind us in skills and levels.”

“Are you saying I’m a burden?” Max asked, a little offended.

“Don’t answer out of hunger! She’ll kill you in your sleep,” Wrath whispered in Ford's ear.

“No, you’re not,” Ford said, “We just need to make sure you don’t get killed there.”

Four loud bangs resonated through the quiet forest from the north, and the twins spoke over comms, “You failed to mention how loud this weapon is. Also, does anybody know how to gut deer?”

“I’ll be right there,” Ford said, then she started to jog in the direction of the shots.

***

“That was the shitiest gutting job ever. Of all time,” the twins said as they pulled two deer across the ground.

Ford had the other two deer on her shoulders; she panted, “I said, I knew how. Didn’t say shit about being good at it.”

“Can you skin it?” Mizu asked.

“Umm, maybe?”

“That’s reassuring,” Kii said as they walked into camp.

Ford dropped the two dead deer on the ground and said, “Does anybody know how to skin a deer?”

Then darkness exploded from the four deer, and they disappeared. Ford turned around to see Ee standing behind her. “Here,” Ee said, handing Ford a cauldron, “fill that with water, and we’ll have breakfast.”

Ford’s mind took a few seconds to comprehend what Ee just said as she walked by, then she asked, “Do we have water?”

“Ask, Lilly,” Ee called back.

“Lilly! We need water,” Ford called out.

“I don’ have wa’er,” Lilly said, confused.

“Use magic,” Ee said from one of the logs around the fire pit.

“How-” Lilly started to ask but was cut short by Ee.

“You have a flame thrower spell, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Use that, but only put water essence into it.”

“Umm,” Lilly started to get confused as Ford placed the cauldron in front of her.

“It’s a training day, right?” Ee clarified, “time to start training.”

Ford looked at Ee and then to Lilly, then back to Ee, and said, “We’re going to starve to death, aren’t we?” Lilly took her staff and whacked Ford upside the head.

***

After an hour of effort, they finally had stew cooking; Benet found some mushrooms and herbs, Lilly put water into the cauldron and made the fire. An hour after that, they ate and began training in earnest.

Benet practiced with his vanishing dagger with Morgan and Gimble, trying to catch him. Farah got the hand-to-hand skill and practiced with Ee. The twins practiced using their bows for sniping. At the same time, Ford sat with Max and Lilly as they worked on making soul.

While Max was meditating, Ford examined her skill blood controller. ‘What does it mean by ‘bathed in my blood’?’ Ford wondered.

“No idea. Maybe you need to spill a specific amount of your blood to enchant a weapon?”

‘Well, can’t bleed, and even if I take off my necklace, I regenerate faster than what’s considered humanly possible,’ Ford thought.

“OH, I got it,” Wrath said with a snap of her fingers, “stab yourself!”

Ford looked at Wrath blankly, ‘What?’

“Stab yourself. That will be more than enough blood, and it won’t heal until the blade leaves your body… I think.”

‘You think?’

“technically, we think.”

‘WE THINK!’ Ford mentally yelled.

“Yes, WE,” Wrath yelled back, “Now stab yourself before I do it for you!”

Ford stared at her for a moment, “Okay,” she said, then drew her elemental sword, took off the top half of her robe, and let it hang around her waist. She then drove her sword through her stomach. She had to fight the urge to scream as she began the enchantment. She looked at her HP bar, and it had dropped one hundred points, leaving two hundred and thirty points.

Wrath groaned in pain and clutched her stomach, “Good thing we have a lot of HP.”

‘Yeah, so great,’ Ford thought, ‘We need more points in wisdom.’

“Agreed,” Wrath said. Since Ford could only use level four blood control, she had to wait six minutes.

‘Since we’re already stabbing ourselves, might as well do our knives, right?’

“That’s a horrible idea… let’s do it,” Wrath agreed. Then Ford drew Willful dagger and stabbed herself. Even more, pain shot through her as she began the enchantment for the other weapon.

After what felt like an eternity, a notification popped up; blood enchantment successful. Ford pulled the sword and dagger from her stomach, and relief flooded her body as she regenerated. She looked down at the two new scars on her abdomen and thought, ‘Let’s not do that again.’

“Agreed,” Wrath said.

Max opened her eyes, looked at the bloody weapons, and asked, “Ford, why are your sword and knife covered in blood?”

Ford looked at her and gave a crooked smile, “So I can do this,” she said, and with a flick of her wrist, she sent both the sword and the dagger into a tree across the camp. The dagger disappeared after hitting the tree, reappearing in its sheath. Then Ford mentally pulled on the sword, and it came out of the tree and into her hand.

“Right,” Max said, “but how did it get covered in blood?”

“Blood?” Lilly said as she awoke, “Did we get attacked again? And ye didn’ wake me!?”

In surrender, Ford threw up her hands and said, “Easy, easy. We weren’t attacked while you meditated. I was just using one of my new skills; blood control. I can control my weapons after bathing them in my blood,” Ford started to shrink as she finished her explanation.

“Wha’ does tha’ mean?” Lilly asked.

“Ummm,” Ford rubbed the back of her head and looked at Wrath for help; she was hiding behind one of the tents. “It means that when I enchant a weapon…umm.”

“When you enchant a weapon you… what?” Max asked as both she and Lilly started to loom over Ford.

“When I enchant a weapon, I have to stab myself,” Ford finally blurted out.

“WHAT!!!?” Max and Lilly yelled simultaneously.

Then the twins yelled over comms, “RUN FORD, RUUUUNNNN!!!!”

Ford rolled away from the two girls and toward Benet, Morgan, and Gimble, who all stopped their game of catch the Half-ling when the twins told Ford to run. As she ran toward the three, an explosion sounded behind her; dirt flew up and hit her bear back.

Ford looked back to see Lilly shooting lightning bolts at her. ‘That’s not fair!’ Ford thought as another lightning bolt struck the ground next to her.

Then Lilly spoke over the comms, “Attention everyone, get Ford!”

Everyone unanimously answered, “OKAY!”

Ford yelled back, “THAT’S SO NOT FAIR!”

A bullet grazed her hat as the Twins said, “Yeah, but it’s fun.”

“Fuck you!”

Then Gimble came charging in with Morgan riding on his back, wielding his mighty war hammer. Ford jumped over Gimble and kicked Morgan off his back. Morgan, however, managed to grab Ford’s ankle and pull her with him.

“Need some help?” Wrath asked.

“Not right now,” Ford grunted as Benet’s dagger flew in front of her face, and he appeared holding its handle. He brought up his knee and hit Ford in the jaw, dislocating it and dazing her. Luckily, she healed instantly, and she used the momentum from the knee to roll away from him and get onto her feet.

Then a bullet struck her left bicep and took her arm clean off. Her HP dropped one hundred points, then an additional ten as she instantly grew it. “HEY, WATCH IT!” Ford yelled over comms.

“Sorry,” the twins said.

Farah was there before Ford could say anything else, sending a flurry of kicks and punches at her. Ford could barely block and deflect them all as her HP quickly ticked back up to full. Once it did, she grabbed Farah's wrist, swung her in a circle, and threw her at Gimble, who was charging again.

The two collided, and Benet’s dagger planted itself in Ford’s right breast. A second later, Benet appeared, and Ford grabbed his wrist and said, “Hey, Wrath,” Benet’s face paled, and he started to struggle.

“Yes?”

“You want a turn?”

“With pleasure,” Wrath laughed as she took over Ford’s body and pulled the dagger from her chest. “My turn,” she said over comms in an eerie whisper.

“Oh, no,” Benet said as she threw him against the ground, making a loud crack come from his back. She then struck him in his gut hard enough to send him flying toward Lilly’s feet, and she immediately healed him.

Gimble and Farah untangled themselves as Morgan charged forward and swung his hammer at Wrath. She flipped over the swing, landing on her hands and, using her left leg, swept Morgan's feet out from under him, then kicked him in the ribs with her right leg. Cracking a few of his ribs as he flew back and collided with Farah knocking them down. Gimble yelled his war cry and charged forward. Wrath crouched down, prepared for his frontal assault. Then two bullets stuck both her knees, taking off her legs, bringing her HP down to a hundred, as Lilly spoke over comms, “GIMBLE GRAB HER! FORD, THA’S ENOUGH, WE CAN STOP FIGH’IN’ NOW!”

“Alright, tap out Wrath,” Ford said and held out a hand to Wrath.

Instead of grabbing Ford’s hand, Wrath spoke over comms, “Sorry, but Ford’s out of the house for the moment. Can I take a message?” she then spent twenty HP to grow her legs back and kicked the charging Gimble in the jaw, knocking him out. Wrath rolled out of the way as Gimble tumbled and lay on the ground unconscious. Wrath stood and was greeted with a lightning bolt to the gut. Her muscles spasmed, and a paralysis appeared in the top right of her vision.

When the lightning bolt struck, Farah willed her helmet to form around her, and she threw Wrath to the ground and pinned her arms. Once the paralysis stopped, Wrath took a deep breath and dislocated her shoulder just as her HP hit two hundred. Farah let go out of shock, and Wrath stood, allowing her regeneration to relocate her shoulder.

She smiled at Farah and willed her helmet around her head, keeping the red color and showing only her red eyes. Wrath then charged forward and started to strike Farah faster than she could block. As Farah collapsed to the ground, Ford yelled, “Wrath, that’s enough!”

Wrath looked at Ford and said, “You wanted me to have a turn. Let me have my fun,” Then Morgan struck Wrath's lower back, making her stumble forward. She slowly turned around and looked at Morgan, “Cute,” she said.

“You fucked up,” Ford said.

“What?” Wrath said as Morgan drew his hammer back low, and it sparked as he activated double impact. Wrath flew forward face first as Morgan brought up his hammer and struck the side of her face, knocking her out and ending the fight.