Nico didn’t fight the monsters this time, but he felt exhausted and worn just the same. He shrugged. “So I can do the mature thing and tell you, or I can be a fool and treat you like you treat me, and just walk the away and fuck both of us. What do you think I should do?”

No answer, no reaction. She stared on as she always did, closed without a hint to go off of. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking or what she was feeling. He was talking to a wall.

He turned around and walked towards Luna. Fuck you, then. If this is the way she wanted to do things, after all of that, then fine, he’ll play her game. He finally knew something she didn’t. He had negotiation power now. “I’ll explain to you when you start explaining things.”

Kara caught the Locust by the wrist, stopping him.

“What happened?” she asked again.

“What?” He said, his eyes rapidly looking from her face to her reddening hand.

“What are you doing,” he said, yanking the Locust back. It was pointless. Her fingers wrapped around the Locust wrists. He couldn’t break free. “You’re burning yourself.”

“What did she do?”

“I’m not going to answer you,” he said, his heart pumping. The smell terrified him. He was shaking, and he didn’t know why. She wasn’t threatening him, so why did he feel pressure closing in on all sides? Why was he so horrified?

“You will. We all have our weaknesses. This is yours.” There was life in her voice, a tone that he hadn’t heard before.

He faced her, feeling dizzy and unsure of himself. His mind betrayed him and stopped working at the last moment. “She can transmute light,” he said, after not being able to think of anything else. His mind went silent, the only words being the ones that Kara wanted. “She absorbed the light and turned it into heat. I took some of it and that’s why the Locust is hot.”

“Heal me,” she said suddenly, opening her palms towards him.

He stepped back, his breathing getting tighter.

They were scotched. His guts lurched inside him, and he remembered what acid felt like. “I…I can’t,” Nico said. “I need Energy.”

“Go ahead,” she said, lowering hand. She turned towards the Doomie, then turned back towards Nico when he didn’t react. “This does hurt. I need it healed quickly,” she said, but with her usually placid tone.

“Y-yes, sorry—I mean I’m not…I…” he stopped talking. He ran over to the Doomie, feeling like his limbs weren’t his. The beast was still alive, and though it could barely move with one foot its neck was still long and flexible. It screeched at him, spurting boiling blood and burnt metal. It was going to fight until its last breath.

That paused his mind. He sat aside the problems, the incomprehensibleness of Kara, Gaia’s puzzling words, his suspicions of Luna, the doom that waited the family he barely knew anymore, the insanity of their world, and for a moment, he even forgot whether he had a future in it all, all so he could do what he did best—figure out how to win.

It was going to stab him the moment he entered its range. Even though it was an intelligent 3-star Elite, its size and weight meant it only had to do front stabs and charge through enemies to survive. If that worked until now, then why do anything else?

That was the typical behavior of at typical Doomie. But this Doomie isn’t typical anymore. For the first time in its life, it fought something stronger than it—much, much stronger, so now it lost its leg and its dying, it must know fear. That means it was going to be more cautious, or it was going to be rabid. He would know when he would enter its range.

He entered its range, fully prepared to step out. The Doomie didn’t stab. It pulled back its head, luring him in.

I see what you’re trying to do, and it’s cute, but it’s not going to work. Nico took another step in and stepped out.

The Doomie stabbed at his foot, the closest thing to it. That surprised him, but not too much. He raised his leg and stomped down on its head, holding it in place long enough for him to bring his axe across its neck. He learned from the Vogrant this time and jumped at the same time. It screeched and swung its legs to the side, hoping to sweep him off his feet. He swung his axe again at the same spot, making a heavy dent in its neck, and jumped forward over its body.

It followed him with its broken neck, but by now it was far too clumsy. He caught it with the Locust and wrestled it until it was on the ground. He hacked at its neck, hitting the same spot until the axe pierced through. Hot steam and blood burst from its neck, falling back to its metal plates and sizzling off it. Slowly, it came to a halt.

“Good,” Kara said behind him. “You didn’t rush, and you didn’t underestimate it. You predicated its movements and acted accordingly.”

“What are you doing,” he said, Siphoning it. A prompt appeared, informing him the Locust as able to evolve.

“Because what you know, you know because you guessed, not because you were taught, and that makes you uncertain. It makes you slower. My injury,” she said, showing him her palm. “It didn’t make you rush. Why?”

“I forgot,” he said, making a health shell. He handed it to her. She took it within her injured hand and crushed it. She let him see how the yellow gel reformed her hand. It made him breathe easier. “That’s not what I asked. Why are you teaching me?”

She nodded. “You can’t be conscious of everything, but be aware that while instinct increases your speed, it has a pattern in the same way consciousness does. Be aware of your state of mind, and your opponent’s state of mind.”

“Hey,” he said, holding his head. She walked towards Luna and he followed. “I’m…I’m not following.”

“You’re startled,” she said, bending down next to Luna. Her usual bright yellow and white figure was now colored in red and bronze. Her skin, usually yellow and shining, was a dull gray, just like the rest of them. Kara slipped a hand behind her back and helped her sit up. With a groan, Luna began to wake up. “You’ve learned how to handle pain, but you haven’t learned how to handle the pain of others.” She pointed towards Luna’s hand with her chin.

“No…I mean, you’re right, I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it that way,” he said, pressing a health shell to Luna’s palm. He didn’t crack it. “I was asking why you’re teaching me anything.”

“Some things you learn, somethings you must be taught,” she said, as Luna began to wake up by herself. “Be wary of her.”

“I don’t trust her,” he said, though he supposed he was impressed.

“But you’re starting to care about her.”

“How could not anyone?” What was more admirable in the entire world than suffering for the benefit of others? Saving strangers went against their own biology, their own instincts to make as many off-springs and pass on as much as their genetics. It was an act of rebellion against their coding, and dare he says, love. It was one of the few acts of irrationality that made him feel like there was something good in people. It was opposite to everything he was.

He pressed the shell against her hand. She flinched as the gel sank into her hands, tensing, before her face and shoulders went lax. She opened one sleepy eye at them. Her gray skin slowly regained its yellowness. “Hello,” she said, to Nico, then turned towards Kara with a surprised look. A moment passed before she said anything. “And hello to you.”

“You’re exactly what I need,” Kara said, standing up. She helped Luna to her feet. They stood face to face for a moment, Kara slightly taller, and Luna slightly wider. “For that reason, know that I will never trust you.”

“That’s fine,” Luna said, smiling. “Or something?” She tilted her head. The liquid in her eyes moved as well. “If you can’t trust me enough to share your plans, then how will I steer them in a way that would benefit me?”

“Figure them out,” Kara said, patting her shoulder. She walked ahead of them.

“Are you okay?” Luna asked.

“Huh?” Nico said, eyes rapidly blinking. He forgot what he was thinking about. “Are you okay?”

“I vaguely remember what happened, but it’s like a dream,” she said. “You seem out of it. Did something happen?”

“Not a nightmare?”

Luna shook her head.

“That’s good,” Nico said. “Let’s go.”

Luna walked alongside him. She leaned in and whispered. “Was that you attempting to avoid an uncomfortable conversation?”

“Yes,” Nico whispered back.

“You can just ask me next time.”

“But that would make it even more uncomfortable,” he said, still in a whisper, which was not a good idea considering that Kara didn’t trust either of them. He wouldn’t know how to feel if this made Kara think they were plotting against her.

“It’s like saying awkward,” Luna said. “Even if the conversation wasn’t awkward, it would have become awkward by saying it.”

“I feel like that supports my point more than it does yours—can we discuss this later?”

“Perfect,” she said.

It wasn’t the intention, but he took it.

Nico felt strange. He didn’t feel like he was himself. All thought of skills and the possibilities that Luna opened to them were put on hold. It was a sort of a blank emptiness in his head, a small feeling at the back of his head that something was wrong.

He set it aside, turning his attention to the Locust.

You have Harvested the 3 required Souls to evolve the Locust Flower into ★★

Would you like to begin the evolution process?

Hell yeah I do.

You have unlocked a Rank II function and a unique skill to the Locust. This skill will not take any slots, but it may not be used as a Base or as an Augment. Its effects will change based on your personal skills.

Choose a Function

Boss Reprocessing

Convert a Boss’s Soul into a Blank Card of an equivalent Rank. This Blank Card will contain skills of equal rarity. Bias is increased towards gaining similar skills when applicable.

Cannibalistic Machines

Absorbs an Augmenter for a chance to steal one of its Functions. The chance will be dependent on how difficult it is to repurpose the Function.

Each Function you add this way will increase the chance of the Locust to malfunction by 1% every time it is used with varied degrees of catastrophe.

Precise Measurements

Reveals 1 skill of every target within your Life Sense range skills every 3 seconds. If all skills are revealed before the target dies, you will gain a +1 to your rolls and 50% increased Siphoning effect. If there is only one target, one skill will be reveled every 1.5 seconds.

Bone Skewer

Fires a spear like point made of bone from the Locust up to 10 meters. The spear will transform into a grappling hook on manual activation. After firing, you may set the Bone Skewer to Extend, allowing the bone to stretch up to its maximum range, or Retract, pulling the bone to return.

Using a Heal will also Heal the Bone Skewer.

Cost: 1 Energy

Charge: 1 second/2 meters. Max charge-5 seconds. Charge may be held for up to a minute before needing to be released.

(Elite Bonus) Ostrich Of Doom: You may use 2 Heat to cast Bone Skewer. This ability has a 10 second cooldown.

You know, after all the random non-sense I’ve had to deal with, I could use a few easy choices.

Precise measurements would be a life saver against higher ranked monsters that are more likely to have rarer and more dangerous skills, but that wasn’t going to happen until they regularly fought monsters higher than Rank IV. Cannibalistic Machines made Nico’s mouth drool, not only because it was a rock star’s band, but at the sheer number of possibilities it opened up to them— but they were just those—possibilities. Augmenters were harder to find than Bosses, while Boss Reprocessing guaranteed something they needed.

Bone Skewer

Fires a spear like point made of bone from the Locust up to 10 meters. The spear will transform into a grappling hook on manual activation. After firing, you may set the Bone Skewer to Extend, allowing the bone to stretch up to its maximum range, or Retract, pulling the bone to return.

1st skill interaction: Using a Heal will also Heal the Bone Skewer.

Cost: 1 Energy

Charge: 1 second/2 meters. Max charge-5 seconds. Charge may be held for up to a minute before needing to be released.

(Elite Bonus) Ostrich Of Doom: You may use 2 Heat to cast Bone Skewer. This ability has a 20 second cooldown.

Choose an upgrade for Bone Skewer

Transmuter Upgrade

Manipulator Upgrade

Striking a Shield will cause the Bone Skewer to turn into a sticky material. Requires the equivalent of a Rank III to tear off.

Allows you to control the Bone Skewer with simple commands. This may be done mid-flight or before firing.

The Bone Skewer Transmuter upgrade made it useful against every enemy, not just non-shielded ones. With that upgrade, the only targets that wouldn’t be a good use for Bone Skewer were naturally armored ones, which were quite rare.

With all of his choices locked in, he went through with the evolution.

The Locust Flower will finish evolving in 20 minutes.

The words vanished and nothing happened. The Locust didn’t feel any different. He tapped it, then felt himself stupid for thinking that would do anything.

Now, they really didn’t need to make one step into the city to keep Ranking up. All they needed were Bosses. Nico looked up at the mountain. One day. One day he’ll be more than a pawn in someone’s game.