Her hand stretched in front of her, attempting to walk against the pressure. She took one heavy step after another, her legs sinking into the ground every so often.

Flying was a near impossibility. It was far worse than she had anticipated. Lightning, torrents of fire, flying boulders, trees, and carcasses of dead beasts made each step a tortuous process, and that was the easy way.

She was a fool to think Fusion Energy would not be found here. In isolated pockets of the storm, Gravitational Energy attracted Thermal and Electrical Energy into tiny spots the size of a small rock. The pressure would keep increasing as more mass would increase the Gravitational Energy, causing a further increase in Thermal Energy. Ludicrous temperatures were reached, and all it took was a spark of lightning to hit the highly concentrated area, and Fusion Energy would be released.

A field of unfathomably high Thermal Energy would be released from the Fusion process, turning everything into dust in a range few meters to a dozen, and then collapse just as quickly as it stretched.

Simply said, not a part of Kara would be left if she was caught in one of those.

And, to top things off, the lighthouse which presumably exists was nowhere in sight.

Or in... hearing.

After sufficiently cursing herself, Kara closed her eyes and listened. She spent the few precious moments hunting for her Dancer’s tune--his signature, in a way. Each person released a different set of vibrations, and that was a tune.

At least, that's what she thought it was.

It's a frisky thing. Anxious and unsettled, constantly shifting directions. Quite but sharp. Desperately clinging on like a fading Note.

Describing the tune made it easier to distingue from the different Sources around her. The moment Kara caught the familiar throbbing of his beats, she was able to zone in on the position.

Previously struggling, Kara now parted the winds as she tossed herself across the air. Her Soul, now with a set destination, stayed firm and strong. Even the bits of her that separated moved towards her Dancer’s tune.

Everything became a blur as the ravaged ground under her flashed by. Then, as quickly as she got there, Kara suddenly stopped.

She quickly looked back, finding herself to have traveled an enormous distance. Fast travel occurs once a destination is set.

Below her the dancer lying down below, sleeping without care. Beyond the cover of the tree, however, were a group of humans battling it out against some type of... goblinoid creatures? They had abnormally long arms, much longer than their legs and squat bodies, allowing them to attack from below with some funky angles with their swords.

The warriors stood in a circle with their backs against the trees. Other humans laid around them-- a different party-- and some basic guesswork let her know that these goblins crashed the party.

Is that...Caldain? How is he here? He’s well beyond level 50, and there are six in this party, not five.

A class skill, then. She heard of skills that reduce one's level, but she didn’t know Caldain had it. Must be a rare one, considering that it let him add an extra member to a party.

He was in the center of the warrior party, parrying and slicing. He kept his body low, almost on a crotch as he fought with the two goblins.

He provoked a strike by stepping forward with his shield and instantly stepped back before the monster even struck. Once the monster swung at empty space, he went in with precise thrust at the creature’s neck.

If only one of them swung, then Caldain simply blocked the strike with the shield, and thrust his blade at the other.

Now that’s what I call being a step ahead of your opponent.

The other warriors did not fare as well. They had not yet learned the art of fighting multiple opponents, and were barely holding on.

Now that’s what I call being a complete amateur.

The goblins played around with the tank in a fashion much similar to Caldain, using their mobility to strike bleed him from below and around the protection of his shield.

One Warrior was obviously low on STM, while the other, though lacked the technique, did have a decent sense of the battle. He dodged strikes through pure reaction skill and held his own fairly well against two, and sometimes even three different goblins.

The Rogue and the Ranger on the flank had some decent teamwork, as well. The Ranger fired arrows from the back, and whichever goblin attempted to charge him down was harassed and focused by the Rogue, constantly using his Speed to engage and disengage until the Empowered arrows did their job.

Interesting how Caldain got into this round, but not what I came here for, Kara thought as she floated back to her ticket to freedom.

Blond hair, small lips, and high cheekbones, and a couple more years on him from the time in the cafe.

His Disguise skill is pretty powerful for a level 20, considering that Grasping Eyes couldn't breakthrough. It must have worked in combination with whatever protects him from my mental attacks.

Kara floated down, placing one hand on his shoulder and sneaking her lips onto his ears

She wasn’t planning on using Requisition again, but his knocked out condition might work in her favor.

She hummed, gently at first, and then let it grow in intensity. She closed her eyes and allowed her Soul to enter a soft stage, one that can easily be altered. Soft and flexible.

It was a period of extreme vulnerability, but was the only way she knew how to enter.

Are you certain you want to become one with the Dancer?

No, Kara replied.

She had to repeat her action a good amount of times until the system changed.

Are you certain you want to combine with the Dancer?

No. You can do better than that.

It did. After a dozen more tries.

Are you certain you want to dominate the Dancer?

This is the last notification change you will receive.

Fine, but none of that nonsense with me. Find someone else to waste your time.

To hell with you, humorless dingus.

The System had a notoriously bad sense of humor. Tales of its absurdities and wordings were not unheard of.

You are in the process of possessing this body. Maintain control until the Soul submits to exert dominance over their body.

Be warned that if Death Siren’s Requisition is successful, it will permanently damage your Dancer’s ability to be impacted by your Songs.

The moment she entered the body, she half-expected him to jolt awake screaming and fighting, but even when Kara opened her eyes from within his body there was no reaction, no resistance to her.

Almost as if he's occupied somewhere else. This is no normal nap in the middle of a deathmatch.

She could feel his Soul residing in the deepest parts of his body, and Kara had no plans on prodding it.

The residing Soul has entered the Soul Trials, allowing you to gain temporary control over their body until their return.

That’s...unfortunate for him.

Soul Trails were a somewhat rare case that occurs when someone reached the boundaries of death, but not just quite.

It will be up to their will as a person to come back.

Kara didn’t know what happened for him to fall in such a state, but considering that he was with Caldain, there were a couple of possibilities.

The first was that in a fight against Caldain, he was knocked out, and thought that he would certainly die as he fainted. Knowing how soft Caldain was, he probably took pity on the young kid and took him along.

The second, more unlikely case, was that someone else knocked him out with an intent to kill, but left him to die naturally--possibly by the inching storm or other monsters.

The first situation was more likely to occur, but the Soul Trials were too rare to activate in such a common situation. The second, and more unlikely case, is probably what happened, considering how inexplicable it is for him not to die in that situation.

It did not matter what the reality was, as much as what the person believed. Soul Trails could even happen for someone with an existential crisis.

Regardless, the best-case scenario is that he would stay there for the rest of its miserable existence, never able to pass whatever Trial awaits it, which was usually what happened.

Worst case her Dancer would come back with a Title that will give Kara some real trouble. It was one of the few ways to receive a Control Zone.

What about his character sheet? Surely, if he was able to resist my powers, then he must--oh spirits above, this guy is shit.

General

Stats & Parameters

Level

20

Strength

8

Species

Human (Shape-Shifting)

Agility

17

Class

Player Killer

Endurance

14

Profession

Death Dancer

Constitution

13

Age

7

Soul

12

HP

74/130 (+13/Hour)

Present Brawn

12.25

STM

140/140 (+7/Minute)

Present Speed

19

Overall STM

370/700 (+280/Day)

Present Armor

13

Life Force

96/120(1.2/Minute)

Present Spirit

12

Energy

83/120 (1.2/Minute)

Power Rating

56.25

Skills

Greater Disease Resistance (Racial Skill)

Iron Stomach (Racial Skill)

Murderous Lolie (Unique)

Player Killer (Epic)

Shape-Shifting (Unique)

Seventh Sense (Unique)

Desperate Endurance (Uncommon)

Gourmet Initiate (Uncommon)

Minor Bleed Resistance (Common)

Short-Breath (Uncommon)

Dodge (Common)

Kara was not able to see the details of the skills or class, but from her extensive studies that any self-respecting power ranker would perform, she knew most of his skills.

The Player Killer class was astoundedly great when active, and entirely too useless when it was not, and more often than not, it was not. Players were a rare sight. Monsters, bandits, and a stray arrow or skill was the largest cause of death.

Players were only a problem for people like Kara, who are likely only matched by other Players. The issue with the Rat was that he was too weak to contest any Players.

Because of his low level, the buffs were largely ineffective in comparison to the Players, and because his class was useless in hunting monsters or humans, he would be effectively classless while under-leveled.

She had heard of a time where the Player Killer class was called the Great Equalizer, a thing which only the strong feared, but with her Rat’s current condition, achieving those tales is but a myth.

But then why did the system allow him to be a Dancer? Why did she choose him as her Dancer?

He has the Shapeshifting skill.

It was a unique, albeit not a very useful skill outside of political assassinations. She didn’t know much about it, but it was a famed disguise skill able to perfectly copy a person, blood, bones, DNA and all. She really wanted to find out how it worked, but the status screen wouldn’t give her any information on any of the skills.

When Kara heard footsteps coming towards her, she laid back into her original spot.

If Caldain was going to carry this body with him, she might as well take the free ride. She still needed time to get a hang of the situation. Were they allies or foes?

“Damn it that was a wash,” a young man said. Kara did not open her eyes, nor leave the body, but it was fairly obvious who was who from their voice. She hadn’t spent much of her time with the regiment, but she knew most of the decent soldiers.

“Wash clothes?” the Guardian said incredulously. She could almost imagine him placing his hand against his lips in surprise.

“He meant that it sucked,” the one warrior said, her voice bitter and frustrated.

“Such things happen more often than you would like,” Caldain said nonchalantly. “The lesson here is that life sucks, and that you always have to be prepared when it really wants to tear your day up.”

Good. Make jokes. They took a bad fighting, and this is the point where everyone starts blaming each other.

“Did… did you just make a pun?” the Rogue asked, incredulous. “What type of curse were you inflicted with to sink that low?”

“Oh, I get it!” the warrior said, chuckling. “It’s because the Thalls wanted to tear us up with their swords, and they were short-- low. Nice, both of you get spear points for those clever puns!” he said, pointing both his fingers at Caldain and the Rogue.

Spirits help me, all of them are idiots. Especially him. I’m going to call him Meathead from now on.

Whatever her Dancer's actual race was, Kara soon discovered as her nose bounced off the bottom of the Meathead’s shoulder blades, it was able to discern through all the different disgusting scents to a reliable degree.

The Meathead Warrior had a variety of different scents on him; Ghoul blood, Bearl blood, Crone blood, Thall blood, grass, mud, two different flowers, his sweat, her Rat’s sweat, a strangers sweat, and his own blood.

Combined with the merciless hops, jumps, and trippings that made her guts bounce on his sharp shoulders, as well as when the branches struck and poked it her, really tested her patience for not outright murdering the sucker.

She almost did hurt the bastard when his hands got too frisky, but a glance from Caldain froze her in her tracks.

She had been humming out of habit. These past few days she had gotten used to seeing and hearing everything around her, eyes open or closed, that she had not noticed.

“Had fun babysitting the child while we fought for our lives, Yan?”

“I did better than you if I recall,” he replied.

Meathead did do better than you, Rogue.

“That’s because you were the only one that didn’t fight two battles in a row, idiot.”

Oh, that makes sense.

“That’s…” the Warrior hesitated for a moment, causing Kara to wince as his shoulders sunk into her guts.

“Stop, Aron, you foolish,” the Guardian said.

True. Caldain’s attempts, and my suffering, to lighten the mood is going to naught because of you.

“Teasing the kid is just too easy, you know.”

I feel you.

“Then don’t, Aron. You’re not helping him or us,” a female voice said. Lia, if Kara’s memory was correct, the one that cut that guy’s handoff.

He’s helping me get revenge for the last few minutes. Keep it coming!

“Alright, I’ll give the kid a break. Here is the deal, brat. Criminals are bad. We soldiers are good. Good soldiers kill bad criminals. People who would have been killed by bad criminals now happy. Follow?”

“No, I do not follow!” the Meathead snapped. “We don’t know what they did, whether they stole bread or murdered men. Who are you to decide that they should die for you to get points?”

“Ah, the classical words of a coward. Missed a spot? Maybe about how they have daughters and mothers waiting for them at home?”

Fight! Fight! Fight!

The meathead chuckled heavily, his grasp tightening around Kara’s hips. “If that was the case, then my level wouldn’t be higher than yours, so fuck off, prick.”

“You’re avoiding the subject, coward. We’re not asking you to murder, we’re asking you to defend yourself from humans.”

He’s about to have to defend himself if he doesn’t hold me better.

“You’re hunting other people for your own greed, Aron. No shit they’re going to defend themselves if we attack them! It’s straight murder, and I am not going to become lik-”

“Will you two ever stop butting heads? Lia said. “You’re waking up the kid with your crying.”

I am seriously going to inflict great damage upon his face if he doesn’t take his hands off.

“Funny,” the Rogue said with a mocking chuckle. “It’s cus’ it’s supposed to be the other way around, huh? You think you’re so clever, like how you wasted your skills to be flash-”

“Aron!” Caldain barked. “Stop projecting your insecurities on others. Lia is right, you chastise Yan for not being useful, while you, yourself, is no better off, lowering the team’s morale with your toxicity.”

Ouch.

Everyone stopped in their feet, staring at the Rogue. He too stood still, his eyes wide and his teeth bared as he panted.

After a short pause, the Rogue flinched. “I’ll scout ahead,” he said quietly, lowering his eyes to the ground as he quickly walked ahead.

“Enough distractions. Let’s move on,” Caldain said, his voice flat.

Soft as always. People like Aron tear parties apart better than they do for the enemy, and there is always one of the bastards in every party. Kicking him out would be the safest best.

As time passed nothing of importance occurred. Caldain avoided every fight, conserving their resources.

With nothing to do, Kara’s attention soon returned to her Rat’s character sheet.

Seventh Sense was an interesting one. She'd never heard of senses beyond the sixth, and if her hunch was correct, the skills Greater Senses (Rare), Sixth Sense (Rare), and Seventh Sense (Unique) were a skill combo. The product must be a Legendary skill, if not a part of one.

And why did Murderous Lolie sound like a joke from the system? She’s never heard of it before.

The guy did have a lot of unique skills, she had to give him that. He’s lived an odd life, but what she didn’t understand is why he didn’t have any Life Force skills. Even the most basic Empowerment skill was absent from his skill list, and before she used the Energy in his body, it wasn’t active.

Wait...his age…7 years old? That’s impossible.

Monsters aged at the same rate, and while some mature faster than others, 7 years old was a child for all intelligent races.

From the way he fought and the skills he had, it was obvious that he must have been fighting for years. Decades, even. It was not easy to accumulate that many skills in between Games. Either he had a skill that prevented aging...no, that was not correct either.

It was tested before. The Age number in a status screen was not the years of aging, but how much time has passed.

That only left two possibilities: either he was truly 7 years old, or he was created in a place where time did not pass, and both of these situations seemed unlikely.

He’s...level 20 and already MAX. Oh no, he’s a goblinoid.

He must have been. His level was capped at 20, the cap for rank D races. There were no intelligent races that had a similar level cap.

This was good and bad. Good that he’ll be easy to manipulate, bad that he’s weak.

There was one menu that she had not yet opened, and at this point, it was the most important one--His evolution tree.

She didn’t know much about Sirens, but she knew she would be the laughing stock of all Sirens and history if she forever had a goblin as her glorious Dancer. Not every monster had the ability to evolve. With time and material consumed, some have higher chances than others, but some lower-ranked monsters races are capped.

Like goblins.

Please be rank C. Please be rank C.

Evolution Path

(A) Shapeshifter

Oh, okay.

The evolution and characteristics of monster races pre-rank A were not Kara’s strongest aspects of her education. Simply put, anything that harbored no danger to her kind, and was thus of no use. Her research into monsters, classes, and skills below that was limited to her curiosity's sakes.

Shapeshifters, however, was a race she was familiar with due to their anomalous existence in the monster world and their high rank.

Little was known about the requirements of being a Shapeshifter, and the different variances of Shapeshifters, as there was no way to identify them. Records from Games in the past were not clear at how they were able to identify and study Shape-shifters, as any that die while using their Shapeshifting skill maintain their disguise through death.

While all Shapeshifters had the Shapeshifting skill, not all that who had a variant of a Shape-shifting skill were Shapeshifters.

It was said, however, that they could become any race if they meet the requirements, and not just in looks. Racial skills, like a Lordan's Dual Source, determined entire builds.

Meaning that, ultimately, if I place my cards correctly, I could get him to be…Oh, the possibilities.

Might she even be able to turn him into a Lordan?

It was a shame that she could not access the screen further. It might have given her more information about how to attain the race.

As time passed, the only thing left, as she was occasionally by interrupted her rough traveling, was for Kara to find out which skills she could use. Back when she took control she was fully able to use Kinetic Energy as well as Third Movement: Deviation and Fourth Movement: Amplification.

That still left the First and Second Movement, Equilibrium and Application. Anything above that required the Fifth Movement’s activation, True Equilibrium, and for that, she needed equal parameters for the exception of one, something that was a long way out of this body.

Life Force was a trickier thing. She had to wrestle it from her Rat’s Soul to Empower her fists, but with it being in a dormant state, things would no doubt be different to then.

Her passive skills did not seem to be usable here, either. Considering she was a 10th Ranked Kinetic Mage, the cost of channeling Kinetic Energy should have been substantially easier. At the very least, using his Energy did not have the same multi-cast penalties as using her Energy.

Most likely, whenever she used his Energy or Life Force, the process went through her Dancer's skills rather than hers.

Not quite a blank sheet, but... Kara thought, nearly tearing up. She swallowed that lump of emotion. Not everything was set in stone.

“What should we expect?” the Ranger said ahead.

I would like to know that myself. Kara tried to dim the excitement growing in her heart, but it was too much.

A body. She had a body! A second chance! It was almost perfect.

Almost.

“Not sure. I can’t see anything, and I’m guessing you can’t either,” Caldain replied.

“What will we do?” he asked. “I can see a couple groups ahead. Some of them are fighting. We can crash the party, but that will leave-”

“-Us vulnerable to attacks from other parties,” one of the Warrior finished, “We know. Our HP is too low because of that last fight. Most of us got minor injuries. Guessing we‘ll give a pass?”

“Those Thalls messed our plans up. We gathered a decent amount of points and orbs. Probably worth a few skills with add-ons. I’m sure you all know how much I hate gambling?” Caldain said.

I don’t need to see your eyebrows twitching to know that your bullshitting them, Caldain.

“Too much risk, alright reward. A gamble,” the Guardian replied.

“We’ll stick to the edges of the storm,” Caldain decided. “Rest up. We have a dozen minutes or so before it ca-”

“Quiet!” the Ranger hissed, causing everyone to drop to the floor.

That included the Meathead, who was carrying Kara at his shoulder. The sudden descent caused her to slip off and to strike the ground face first, but not before her left-hand shot towards the sword that was tied down to his waist, holding the hilt for a second, and pushing it on its axes.

She was not able to clutch it, though, and was forced to let go of the sword as she smacked into the ground. As the belt snapped the sheath towards the front, however, the blade thrust out of the sheath of its own accord, causing no sound and hovering in the air a few seconds as Meathead walked away.

Kara stretched her hand backward as she tiptoed out, the blade floating towards her left hand.

Rare Life Force Infused Steel Longsword

Slash: ★★★★

Thrust: ★★

Blunt: ★

Durability: ★★★★

An old but well-crafted sword, the steal has gained the special ability to trap and boost the Life Force inserted into it.

A fine weapon. Guess I can still use Life Force.

It felt like dragging mud instead of water, and it cost abnormally high, but it was doable. A simple Levitation channel cost her 5 Life Points, roughly triple its actual cost.

There were three possible reasons for this: a penalty was applied because she was using Life Force that was not hers, a penalty was applied because this body doesn’t have any Life Force skills, or a penalty was applied because her Dancer's Soul was in the Trails.

What was odd, however, was that those same penalties were not applied to Energy.

Why, Kara did not know. Was it because he never used it before, and now she is creating the appropriate channels in which the Energy travels from the Soul? That was one theory, and the most beneficial one for her.

The Life Force usage needed a fix.

Sneaking away, Kara found a spot to rest in. She did not bother hiding her tracks, as neither the Ranger or Rogue could pose a problem to her.

Not that they would have a reason to, anyway. Caldain was a sweetheart, but really, the only reason he chose to take her Dancer with him was that he did not want a child’s blood on his hands. She could see why the Rat chose a young kid. It really did give him a lot of leeway.

With her escaping, his consciousness would be cleared. I tried, he would say. I did what was required of me. Ask no more, condemn me no longer!

Kara did, however, conceal the pulsing of her Life Force. There was no cost to this beyond it being stressful on the mind, like wearing tight lairs of clothing from toe to eye, but the rewards were worth it. Not only would she be invisible to most low power Scout skills, but she would also be less likely to be spotted by any monsters that use Life Force Detection skills.

Considering it was a skill she learned in the top 100 levels, she was quite likely safe. She did use 6 Life Force points in order to Empower her eyes. Not only did it increase her eyesight, but things with Life Force also glowed through walls.

It did not take her long to figure that it is uneconomical to use skills in this body.

Fighting without buffs, without Life Force and a tiny amount of Energy...

She was a slightly higher than average soldier that could be found in any ditch, or a supersoldier for a few actions before they had to drop into that particular ditch.

Not too bad. I should be vastly overpowered by everything here, but my experiences should make up for the difference.

Monsters weren't purely leveled based on their Parameters and skills, but also in how difficult they are to fight. An intelligent creature would have fewer openings than a dumb and fast one.

Before she could confirm the differences, however, she needed to have a couple of fights. It was disorienting how weak this body was, and nothing would get her used to it better than a few feisty sword fights.

Nodding adamantly, Kara promised herself she would not be so abundant with her Life Force and Energy use. She didn't have an upward of two thousand and supply of gems and Epic equipment to make up for her short-comings.

But then again, she did have a body, and that was worth losing everything for.

She pulled up the evolution menu, eyeing the Shape-Shifter option again.

Kara did not know when the Rat would wake up, and whether he would even cooperate. For some reason, he did not evolve already. He couldn’t be that foolish.

She had a sinking feeling that the Rat did not evolve on purpose.

Maybe its self-conscious dies when it evolves into a different species? She was not familiar with the psyche of monsters.

Unable to venture forward, lest she would get caught by Caldain’s crew, trekked at an angle for a short while. She had waited a sufficient amount of time as she meddled with her Rat’s character sheet.

From the storm’s progression, she figured there were about five to seven minutes.

That pushed it a bit, as some fights or situations might extend long enough for the storm to make a person do foolish things in a fight.

Kara began to walk in a straight line. From the looks of it, it was the final stage. The forest before was mostly bleak, but this area truly seemed a place for the dead. The sparse trees which stuck out of the ground were like dry sticks. The ashen ground under her seemed to be depleted of its life, as if something was actively siphoning the nutrition from the ground.

The open field allowed Kara to sight the various other parties moving forward. Everyone seemed to mostly stick to themselves.

It’s a bit sad, that I won’t gain anything for killing monsters. Hopefully, the Rat will in my stead.

It was something to hope for, as the first contestants already appeared.

They were actually waiting for her in ambush, but for her, they might as well be dancing in circles.

There were three of them. Kara shrugged. It wouldn’t make a difference for her.

She walked straight into the ambush, yawning for dramatic effect, and then walked out, without any of the monsters reacting.

Stupid Ents can’t detect those that conceal their Life Force while underground.

The Ents, camouflaged as trees, remained underground. From the signature of their Life Force, Kara estimated them to be seven feet each, half as wide, and hovering around level 50.

Some type of Ent Boss was likely if the minions gave any indication.

No action yet, but this encounter did reveal to Kara a few vital things.

First, monsters in this Mission did not scale with the number and neither with power rating, as the Phases always do. They might be random encounters, or just based on luck.

Secondly, anyone that could not detect Life Force would be in for some unexpected trouble. She did not doubt Caldain, or even for the Ranger, to have Scouting skills which will help them.

That could be used for her advantage, however.

Those Ents would probably decimate a clueless group of fighters, and there were many clueless fighters roaming the wasteland. Poor logistics and a lack of care by Dlair did not allow enough time to carefully create well-balanced parties.

Hell, just from that alone told Kara that the Animus had little desire in building on this kingdom--they just needed the short in-come.

Five parties were in the open. The open ground ensured that everyone was able to keep a tab on each other.

Imagine one party that wanders into the ambush. The one over will pounce of the opportunity, only to fall to a different Ent lair. The chaos will be a joy to watch. quite clever.

Thx

Ignoring that foolishness, Kara kept an eye for any party that was not aware of the Ents. The ones that knew were quite obvious, as though Kara could not see too far out with her Empowered eyes, she was still able to see them scuttle around certain areas.

After finding a party which fit her descriptions, Kara began to jog towards them, a stray thought wandering into her head as she neared.

What would happen if Kara got General Ronda to pop all the Constrainment Crystals? Caldain and her Rat would score the highest, courtesy of all the wretched souls.

Though there were those of a royal bloodline from the Anima on house arrest, leveling with the prisoners.

She put aside the humorous thought for a later pondering, and instead focusing on her next prey. The closer Kara got, the more horrendous their features grew. Deforming scars, missing limbs, and the generally uneven flesh on their faces was a sight to behold.

Their scents, she also learned, were too convoluted even for a goblinoid’s precise nose to tell apart.

Poor criminals and deserts, basically. She knew herself to be exaggerating, but much like Caldain in this regard, she needed the excuse.

It was difficult to kill a man without dehumanizing him first.

“Watcha’ doin’ brat?” the oldest of them said, spitting the side. “Mommy ain’t here.”

Why does every one of them spit so much? Kara thought, shaking her head. Humans.

“Not here for my help. I’m here for yours,” she said nonchalantly, eying the group. Four warriors and one Bowman. Average level 40.

“Ay? Here to shine mine shoes from all the shit and muck? Or mine nails with your kitchen knife?” the man said, lifting his feet and then wiggling his arms forward. It was an amazing feat of dexterity, as he seemed to be in his fifties, his skin tattered and overlapping on itself.

The men next to him chuckled, but their fatigue was obvious, as well as their wounds.

“Your nails, ankles, and a decent portion of your ugly face,” Kara said with a nod, putting her sword up. “It will increase your chances of wooing the Ghouls. No promises, though.”

This time, the laughter was genuine. Even when the old man glared and glowered at his men, their snickers did not cease.

“Alright, alright you pretty mutt. You got a clever tongue. Go away now, before I come over and spank you. Shoo, shoo!” he said, waving his hands dismissively.

“What? I’m challenging you pricks to a fight. Are you seriously going to cower from me?”

“Wait, you were being serious?” one of the younger men said, his chuckles still escaping his lips.

“Does this seem like a joke?” Kara replied, genuinely baffled.

“You actually thought we’ll charge you, thinking your easy points? Best case scenario its a trap. Worst-case scenario we get a dumb child’s blood on our hands,” he said.

“Bro, take it easy. He’s just a kid. Doesn’t look older than 16 to me.”

“Nah, probably older. Seems to be using some type of skill; the way he moves and speaks is too odd. Probably a Disguise skill and from a well-off family” one of the others said, scratching the beard on his chin.

“Seriously? Must be great with the ladies, if he can do that.”

“Family probably groomed him for the Games, probably,” the bearded man said, shrugging. “Suck’s he’s an idiot though, if he thought we would just charg’ in.”

Blood began to rise to her cheeks. “Well… I just thought...you wouldn’t think much about it…” Kara said awkwardly. What. Is. Happening?

“Yea,” the old man said, putting a hand on one of his teammates. “You not wrong about that, mutt. These fools are top clowns. They would have shat with you if it weren’t for me, Dylon save mine sad soul.”

“Let the bastard Dylon take all of you,” the Bowman said, nervously glancing over his shoulder. “We have a storm coming. How about we kindly bugger off?”

“Right. Good riddance, mutt.”

“I know it’s hard, but try not to make an ass out of yourself,” the younger man said, walking with away with the rest of his teammates.

Kara stood in place, unsure of what to do with her limbs. She had been fully prepared for a fight to the death, not a scene that would embarrass her to death.

“Um, I wouldn’t go that way,” Kara said somewhat uncomfortably. She did not like the sound of this body.

“Pulling on our leg again? What is it this time?” the young man said, turning one shoulder to her. He cleaned his ear with his pinky, not looking particularly interested.

“Narlam, you prick. Stop wasting time on the brat. Monsters could pop out anytime!” the Bowman yelled again.

“I hear you! Stop hollering! Just stay alive for a few more moments you irritating dickhead,” Narlam said, but when he noticed Kara staring, he bowed down. “Sorry, your great highness for the vulgar words.”

“Forgiven,” Kara replied, waving her hand dismissively. “You see those trees over there. Looks suspicious, don’t you think? The spaces in between them, and the dirt under. Almost as if trees can wal-”

“Damn Ents!” Narlam said, slapping his head. “We are idiots. Oh, shit. You were going to lure us towards them, weren’t you? Probably get a ton load of points for getting us killed.”

Kara withheld her answer. It was only natural to play the Game the way it was meant to play.

“Don’t feel bad about it,” Narlam went on, “I would have probably done the same.”

It was a lie. She didn’t need her Notes to tell her that. The only wounds they had was from hunting monsters. From their reaction towards her, they purposely avoided any conflict with the others.

“Narlam, damn it! Whatcha idling for? I don’t want to be caught by that damn storm!”

“I’m coming! And I got news! Better pay me a silver if you want to live,” Narlam said, facing away from Kara.

She could have caught him down right then. A small burst of Life Energy into her legs, or even tossing the blade at his back.

“See you, kid,” he said, walking away. “Luck be with you.”

Kara scratched the back of her head, wincing when her fingers felt the crunchy sensation of the lice.

Seriously. What the hell?