“Kyra you made it! I told you jumping would work!” Horny Red calls to me, laughing as she pulls the guts out of some sort of sentient insectoid alien, “I’ll finish this and join you in a bit!”

“I really wish you wouldn’t.” She just laughs at my reply.

It’s all so entirely alien a sight that the disturbing violence of the scene doesn’t quite hit me. I do realize that I’m watching a person slowly dying as their insides are made their outsides, the yellow innards still pulsing as the organs try to keep working, and the being continues screaming, but I don’t quite feel as horrified as I likely should.

“Catch!” Red says, cutting the head off with a flick of her knife before throwing it at me.

I’ve barely good enough instincts to sidestep the chitinous head as it spins around splattering yellow blood all over my face. The blood fucking itches too.

“Could you fucking not?!” I yell at her as she keeps on with her slaughter, ignoring me.

“Fuck,” I wipe the blood away and thankfully the itch starts to fade.

I lean against the side of a mostly fallen tree as I watch the slaughter and try to figure out what the hell is going on. It’s been something of a busy day for me between the kidnappings, brain chips, crashing ships and freediving.

The constant screaming sort of makes it hard to focus on my thoughts, so I put my hands over my ears to try and quiet the sound.

Someone grabs me, a chitinous hand pulls at my arm as a woman whispers to me in a panic, trying to pull me into the forest. It takes me a while to recognise her as the waitress who served my food just a little while ago.

“Hey now, don’t go dragging my new pupil out into a dangerous forest. You’ll get her killed.” Horny red appears beside us, lifting a knife up to the rather human looking neck.

“You can’t,” I say, meeting Red’s eyes.

She blinks in surprise, before laughing as she lifts the knife up nearer to the girls throat.

“And why can’t I?”

“She’s the best waitress I’ve ever met.” I mindlessly reply, quickly realizing that I’m senselessly rambling, but not stopping myself, “I mean, you can’t just kill talent like that. I’m sure she won’t cause any trouble, will you?”

She nods her head vigorously, cutting herself a little on the knife.

“A waitress?” Red looks over the dress, “Well I suppose she can’t cause too much trouble then, just no wandering off, okay?”

She runs off to continue her slaughter as we stand there trying to process everything. A few moments pass before she falls into me, her arms wrapping around me as she cries into my shoulder trying to speak but failing to find any words.

I quietly pat her shoulder, ignoring the tingling sensation that comes from even her. If everything hurts to touch, then maybe the problem isn’t the world, but me.

That’s not a nice thought.

“What’s your name?” I ask, hoping to get the waitress to recover a little. She looks up, then over my shoulder, her lips quivering and her teary eyes shine. They’re pure black, shining with movement as if fragments inside are shifting around.

“Look at me,” I say, twisting her neck with a bit of effort, “What’s your name? If you don’t tell me I’ll have to make one up, and let me tell you I’m bad at naming things. Horny Red over there’s a great example.”

“Ho-horny Red?” She responds, her eyes starting to focus on me.

“Yeah, she has horns, and she’s red.” I explain, “And she wouldn’t give me her real name, so I won’t hear any complaints.”

“I… I’m Nel, my name is Nel.” She repeats in something of a daze.

“Well then Nel, we’re going to be okay. It’s going to be difficult, but I’m sure we’ll survive so stay with me, okay?” She nods, whipping away her tears and standing tall.

I turn to look at the wreckage of the ship, most of the slaughter is finished leaving corpses strewn everywhere and blood of all shades soaking into the splintered wood.

“How did you come out of the ship?” I ask Nel, “Can we get in to help the other students escape?”

“That way,” She says pointing to the side of the ship, it looks to be roughly where the door and ramp used to be. The same escape I used, but I was well ahead of everyone else.

The sight is certainly something to behold. I’d thought that the ship would just evaporate upon crashing, but instead the hull was strong enough to carve into the ground. Not well enough though, as the decks crumpled into one another.

Nel and I carefully navigate the splintered wood and debris as we head for the vague sight of the hole in the side of the ship.

“Hello down there. That was one hell of a trip, huh? Do you think everyone’s okay?” Vii dives down, her wings flapping gently as the wind around her pulls her above the ground.

“You made it out?”

“I followed you.” She laughs, a little bit of mania leaking through, “Crazy, mad move that. It was smart though. It would’ve taken me a moment too long to have the idea if I didn’t follow you.”

“Jeez, why didn’t you try and catch me?” I ask her, laughing to distract from all the other emotions that definitely aren’t stirring about inside ready to burst.

“I tried!” She says in a panic, “It’s just that you fell so fast and hit the ground before I knew it. Then everything else was going on, and I was trying to decide between sticking around and running away.”

“Well, you might still want to consider running.” I suggest quietly looking around for Red, “If any of us could…”

“Nope. Nope. Do you know how bad this place is? I mean sure the mana isn’t that dense, but it’s a wildlands world! Beasts everywhere and each civilisation you come across is a gamble for whether they’ll eat you, kill you, or sacrifice you for some ritual.

“If you’re real lucky, you might find some people who are actually people.” As she runs through her panicked explanation we get to the side of the ship. The darkness inside is far less welcoming than the same room was a few hours ago.

Though, was it really so welcoming back then? That’s when the stinging started, and this madness truly started taking off.

“Oh, are we taking a peak inside?” Red joins us, simply leaping over all the distance between with an effortless hop.

Nel huddles beside me. She’s surely older than me, but I guess I can’t really blame her, Red seems to be treating me far nicer than the rest.

“Yep, are you planning on killing everyone in here too?”

“Only the teachers, welfare officers, and maybe the staff, depends on how I’m feeling really.” She says, “Oh, and I heard you that you were calling me names. Courageous.”

“Not really,” I reply taking a step into the dark, “I mean fuckheads like you don’t seem like the sort to give a shit about that sort of thing. If I wanted to piss you off…” I pause and think a moment as I look about the room and the cowering people.

“That,” I say pointing to the frog boy whose laying himself flat before the sight of Red, trembling when I point at him, “I’d do something like that. Then again, who knows you might get off to that sort of thing.” I shrug grabbing the frog by the hand and pulling him up.

“Stop being so pathetic, yeah.” He nods his head, but I’m not sure he even knows where he is right now. The glaze in his eyes might be a species trait, or it might be a knock to the head rattled a few things loose.

“Hah, no way. I know a few good people like that, but it’s not my thing.” Red sneers, looking between everyone, those slowly gathering, and those cowering around. Of the teachers and the staff that are still around, none fight, and most cower.

“Nel,” I turn and make sure that I have her attention, “Can you led him out of here. We’ll send the others out after you, just make sure no one goes running off, okay?”

“Yes, I’ll do that!” She says, her waitress attitude leaking through as she confidently leads the stumbling frog boy out through the torn-up door as if taking him to a table.

“Vii, do you want to join her?” I ask, but she stays by my side, wide eyed and cautious.

“I’ll stay.” She murmurs weakly.

“It would have been better for her to watch this next part.” Red says, no longer smiling but still confident and far from reticent, “It would give her some backbone.”

“You aren’t good with people, are you?” I ask with a sigh.

“I’ve no problems with the people worth knowing. That’s why I have so much hope for you.” She says slapping my shoulder.

I practically fly a metre forwards, catching myself a moment from getting impaled by the leg of an upturned table.

“Once more, could you fucking not?”

“You are weak,” She laughs, “We’ll fix that up, so long as you survive.”

“In other news, so long as I don’t die, I’ll still be alive.” I shake my head and start shoving some of the despondent students from the room.

A teacher walks over, trying to come out through the same exit but Red softly catches them, pressing a hand against their chest as she looks down at them rather viciously.

“A welfare officer? It’s always a pleasure to find your lot.” She’s quick, a few quick knife thrusts and they fall.

At this sight the students either run for the exit or cower deeper into the shadows. The teachers and staff all choose to cower.

Red’s slaughter continues, slow and deliberate, catching all the victims that would run from her. I have to hope that the students that escape her don’t run too far when they escape. I can’t imagine that Nel would be able to stop them.

“I’ll just do my own thing then…” I mutter, trying to look away from the slaughter. I could just leave, join the others outside but I don’t think it would feel any better being away from the slaughter.

Vii stays close to my side, scanning the room alongside me.

I carefully step around the sharp splinters where the wood split or where the deck has crumpled. A few corpses are scattered around, but it’s not as bad as I’d thought it would be. Not until I find my fellow humans, or rather the bits and pieces that remain of them.

For some reason, while most corpses have only a few serious injuries, the humans were totally crushed and cut through.

“Hey, you, help me.”

I turn to the voice, it’s an elvish girl. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a leg crushed beneath a massive timber.

“Are you okay?” I ask, hopping and skipping over blood and corpses.

“Do I freakin’ look… never mind just help me get out from under this piss-stained fucking-grah.”

“I hope it’s not piss-stained…” I check over her briefly, but she doesn’t seem injured at all but for her leg.

“Leave the wounded, they’re not worth the effort.” Red calls out to me, likely finished with the teachers.

“Screw you, shit-fucker dick-stick.”

“Woah, a lively one.”

I take a nearby stick to leverage the pillar up, like in the movies and tv shows. It fails terribly. My weight isn’t enough to shift it even slightly. Vii hesitantly tries to help, but she’s lighter than even I am.

“Red, you do it.” I point to the downed pillar.

“Why?”

“You know it’s not particularly charming playing hard to get. She’s the sort you’re after, and I’m sure she can recover. So, are we going to stand around stroking your ego, or are we getting on with this?”

“Fine, fine.” With a single hand, she lifts the pillar up and the elvish girl squirms her way out. Her leg is worse than I thought. The bone is clearly broken and everything below her ankle is mangled.

“Got any healing magic, or potions, or something?” I ask.

“Nope, might have something back at camp, but I’m not carrying her there.” She shrugs, leaving us behind, “Don’t take too long.”

“Piss-fuck-nugget,” She spits all sorts of words that translate into violent swearing as she pushes herself up, trying to stand.

“Okay, then.” I kneel beside her and meet her eyes, “I’m going to try and help you walk, but I’m delicate as shit. Don’t fuck us both, okay?”

“Yeah, fine. Thanks.” She hangs her head.

I lean down and pull her up from the side of her crushed leg. Her arm clings around me, but after squeezing too hard for a moment she relaxes.

The swearing under her breath doesn’t give any of the same pause.

The pins and needles that I feel pressing against me from her arm and where I’m holding her up is frustrating but not unbearable. She does feel slightly more heavy than she probably should but not as much as I was expecting with all the rest of the weird physics going on.

Vii walks ahead of us, clearing a path with gusts of wind so that we don’t have to deal with the splinters at least.

I focus on that itching pain, as I step past the bodies, ignoring the quiet weeping and moaning. I consider for a moment to end their suffering, but I just don’t have the strength. I stumble on.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

“Eshya,” She whispers, the only sound that isn’t translated into some form of swearword.

Outside, Red is giving a speech to the gathered students along the line of ‘obey me, or you’ll die’ though with her own cheerful flavour to it.

“The wild beasts around here will tear you limb from limb, it’s wonderful for entertainment. That said, I’m putting some effort into rounding you up and training you, so I’d rather not too many of you die.”

Nel is right by my side in moments, sweating and nervous, but smiling professionally the same as I saw first meeting her. I’m worried for the moment that smile slips.

The elf hanging off my arm doesn’t pause in her swearing, managing to keep her passion in it every difficult step.

Before long we start to march.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Classes & Skills

~Fire Magic: Grade 1

Current Goal: Complete a mana-fire conversion.

Warning: Your mana form is too underdeveloped to take the next step in this class.

~Mana Form: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop your mana form.

Current mana density: 0 units