Nico’s feet dragged on something. He stuttered for a few steps, almost regaining his balance before falling face first into frozen dirt. He meant to get up, but his body wasn’t responding. His muscles felt like they were liquefied, and the Nightmare was warm and heavy, like a blanket. The trees were still like a roof above him, the jungle a near pitch black save for a few precious moon rays. He began to slip into sleep.

The Nightmare flinched when he went still. After a pause, she rolled off of him.

Nico tilted his head at her, not having the physical or mental capacity to lift his cheeks from the ground, much less open his mouth.

She folded her arms under her head and crossed her ankles again, looking far too comfortable for someone that almost got eaten by 6 different types of monsters.

Calling you Nightmare is silly. He looked past her through the narrow openings in the trees towards the sky. It was hard to miss the Deep when it was so close. It was shorter than the City’s walls, but the City’s walls didn’t move nor did it eat people and make monsters. Its unfathomable size made him feel queasy.

“How are you feeling?” he said, rolling on his back. It felt like it began to glue itself to the ground. Even though he didn’t feel pain, Nico still felt discomfort and exhaustion. He hasn’t figured out how to remove those yet, or whether he should in the first place.

She didn’t answer. Nico sighed. “Why aren’t you working with me here?”

She turned towards him. Just like Riguel, he didn’t understand why she did that. He barely saw her face, and even then it only varied from mostly expressionless to slightly annoyed. “Why didn’t you take the sword?”

“Why didn’t you take the Locust?” Nico asked.

She looked up. “I made a mistake.”

He huffed and sat up. “Then take res—”

She caught him by his shoulder yanked him back to the ground. “Quiet.” Her hand tightened on her hilt.

Nico slowly lowered his head back to the ground. Half a minute later a sharp gust of wind blew by. Nico only realized she had slashed up when a few grass blades fell on his face. There were two thuds straight ahead of them. The House Of Iron? Nico couldn’t sense them. They died before the Locust could identify them either.

At first he thought another one was going to fly by, but when he glanced at Kara he found her arm folded behind her. She rested her head on her scabbard again. They’re not organized. The sudden monster surge must be posing a problem for them.

Nico waited for the full minute to pass before he tried again. “Please explain.” He nudged her shoulders, shaking her slightly.

“You’ll get your answers once you take the sword,” Kara said.

“Let me take a wild guess—you wanted to use this in the Games,” he said, poking her cheeks with the Locust, “but you got cold feet when you found out it was attached to a kid—and a super cute one at that. Do I have this right?”

She turned towards him again, probably glaring or something.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear this—I’m actually not a kid. I’ve been 18 for a while. I’m legally an adult.”

She stood up, using her scabbard as a cane. She limped on one foot.

“You shouldn’t move. You’ve drank too many health potions in too short of a duration.” It was rather impressive how terribly she’d messed up her body. Not even his health shells healed her fully. Kara ignored him. She stood behind a tree in striking form. Nico crawled after her, staying in the grass. “I mean, come on, considering you destroyed the strongest city in the world and killed dozens of thousand of people, what’s one life to that?”

“Quiet."

Nico closed his mouth and focused on all his senses as best as he could, both physical and Life. The wind was constantly blowing, with it the grass and the branches above. The only thing he heard was Kara’s body dashing forward, knocking aside grass.

He poked his head out, looking to the left, right, then left again. It was too dark to see where she was, but when she lunged the grass had been torn. So fast. How does her body even handle that? Probably doesn’t. It explained the health potion reliance thing, plus the way she kept spinning to reduce the damage to her body. If she only swung once and stopped, her arm would probably detach and fly away.

But if she has something like the Locust? That wouldn’t be a problem. So it is meant for her. Imagining what someone like her could do with the endless possibilities the Locust offered spiked his inner battle nerd. Catching a spear mid-flight, or dodging two attacks and attacking two different people in one move with only a single skill to her name, now that was something special.

I still need more information. Nico didn’t know anything about her or her involvement with the Irons. He made his way towards one of the more whole Hunters that was just missing his head. Nico found it in a nearby bush. He plopped it against his neck and smashed him with a health shell. The yellow gel lit up around the cut skin, connecting them. His neck stitched together. He opened his eyes, looking at Nico then around him. It took a few more seconds for awareness to dawn on his face.

“Hello,” Nico said, holding on to his shoulder, keeping him in place as he tried to crawl away.

“P-p-lease,” he said, flinching to the side. “I have a fam—”

“We all do, but it’s okay, because as long as you answer my questions, you’ll—”

Kara stepped past Nico. With a light, cool breeze, the Hunter’s head slipped off his neck.

Nico scratched his chin. “Um, I wanted to talk with him a bit because a certain grumpy lady won’t— It’s actually really important…so if you don’t mind,” He reached for his head, putting it back on with a sigh. Kara had her sword against the poor dude’s neck.

“I’m not letting him go.”

“He doesn’t know that.”

“Leave him.”

“I get it, I get it,” Nico said, raising his arms up in the air. “You got rules, they’re really dumb and wildly inconsistent with your actions, but you got them, and I respect that—but this is my decision, not yours.

Kara sheathed her sword. She pulled Nico to his feet and pointed him in the direction of the City. “You either take the sword, or you stay out of my way.”

“Not taking the sword, because bad idea, duh, and I can’t stay out of your way, because I’ll die, also duh.”

“That’s your problem.”

“You know, it looks—pardon—it sounds like the Locust is meant for you, so if you didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be here. That make me your problem.”

She walked away. With a shrug he followed her.

“Stop following me,” she said, walking faster.

“Uh-huh,” Nico said, walking in front of her. “SToP FollOwiN—” she kicked his butt, sending him jumping with a yelp. “Watch it!” He did not expect that.

She took a step forward and collapsed. Nico caught her with his back. She was shivering. When she coughed a heavy liquid hit the grass. He felt her slack.

That he expected. He struggled forward, stepping as gently as he could.

While he would have liked to lie down too, he had to put as much distance as he could from where she used her Howl. Monsters occasionally came within hearing distance, but even when Nico was in their range, they still went past him without much heed. They were still agroed by Kara’s previous attack. Depending on how much agro the skill generated, one or two people might not divert the monster’s attention.

But a full team? That was enough. If the Iron House is up in full force, then they’ll be decimated by these monsters. The teams that were sent after Kara must have gotten caught up in it too.

After some time, a flock of fireflies flew by, lighting up a decent spot to rest at. A few trees fell, making natural cover from the wind. Scorched wires stuck out of their trunk, creating weak sparks.

Nico walked inside, bending as far as he could. He lowered Kara against a fallen trunk, then returned outside to search for grass. In a couple minutes he dragged a good bundle inside. He got her lying down on it without any complaints.

She breathed quietly with long pauses in between, her chest barely raising and sinking.

Nico sat in front of the entrance with his legs folded beneath him. There wasn’t anything to do but wait and think. Sleeping was too dangerous.

It was going to be a long night.