Oh. She was dead.

  Or she should have been. Before the claws could reach her throat, Jer-kal threw herself between them. Her chest plate cracked with a deafening clang, and she was sent flying, crashing hard into the ground.

  The force of the lunge knocked Vernisha off balance as well. She tumbled alongside Jer-kal and landed with a thud.

  But instead of crying out in pain, Jer-kal shifted, placing her hands over Vernisha’s ears.

  Vernisha barely had time to react before the reason became clear. Jer-kal’s fairy shot high into the air and screamed.

  The sound was devastating. The earth trembled beneath them, the air itself vibrating with the intensity. The shafeline reeled back, howling in agony.

  Good. If it could keep this up, maybe it would be enough to knock the beast out.

  Then Vernisha noticed the blood. It trickled from the fairy’s ears. Not just the fairy’s. Jer-kal was bleeding too. The pain had to be unbearable. After only a few seconds, the fairy stopped screaming.

  The shaking stopped just as fast.

  Jer-kal muttered something under her breath. She was frustrated. Vernisha did not need to hear the words to understand. The fairy had not absorbed enough ether from the monster’s organs. Not yet.

  Vernisha did not know how long it took to recharge, only that it was more time than they had.

  Jer-kal tried to get up, but her body wobbled, like she could not tell which way was up. With burst eardrums, her sense of balance was gone.

  The shafeline cloaked itself in flames and pounced.

  The fairy barely dodged. It turned into a deadly game of tag, and the shafeline was gaining.

  Vernisha turned her attention to Mon and commanded it to attack. It spat fireballs, but they were slow and weak, nothing more than sparks against a storm.

  She knelt beside Jer-kal and tried to lift her.

  She was heavy. The armor alone had to weigh over four hundred pounds.

  But she had to try.

  Her muscles screamed. Her legs trembled under the strain. She pushed, forcing herself to lift just a little more.

  Her foot slipped on a pebble. She crashed forward, her chin slamming into the ground. Pain exploded through her skull.

  Then she noticed something. Jer-kal’s ears had stopped bleeding. Her wounds were starting to close.

  Vernisha snapped her gaze to the fairy. Its body shimmered with a white glow. Ether. It had absorbed enough to heal itself, and through their bond, it was healing Jer-kal too.

  The fairy stayed low. Vernisha wondered if it was afraid the monster would go after them instead.

  Either way, the healer was back in action.

  Jer-kal pushed herself up weakly. “Get to cover…”

  “What about you?” Vernisha asked.

  “Don’t worry about me.”

  “And the villagers?”

  “There should be some alive. I made sure of that…”

  Her voice was calm, but there was a subtle crack in it. A flicker of worry beneath the armor. Vernisha realized Jer-kal was not as cold as she appeared. Hating someone was not the same as wanting them to die in agony.

  Still, there were other monsters out there. Vernisha could feel it.

  She had a way to confirm.

  She focused on Mon’s senses, its hearing and its nose.

  The scent hit her like a punch. Blood, feces, urine, sweat. Then faint growls, too low for human ears. Three of them. Closing in.

  They were hunting.

  Vernisha knew what she had to do.

  She sent Mon ahead and followed close behind.

  The first time she fought a monster, she nearly died. This might have seemed reckless. Heroic, even.

  But it was not heroism. She was not fighting for a noble cause. She had once thrown her life away without a second thought. When someone did not value their own life, fearing death became difficult.

  This was different.

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  There was a spark now. Fear, yes, but also excitement.

  She wanted revenge. She wanted the monsters to suffer. She wanted them to feel pain. And she wanted to save those people too.

  She spotted one perched on a rooftop, peering down at a boy hiding behind a house with his father and another person.

  The monster leapt.

  She gave the command.

  Mon dashed forward, kicking up dust as it sprinted. Vernisha locked her eyes on the creature. Just before it could reach the boy, a fireball roughly the size of a tennis ball slammed into its face.

  “QUAA!” the monster screeched, thrown off mid-pounce. It crashed to the ground right in front of the terrified group.

  “What the hell?!” the man, likely the father, shouted.

  There was no time to waste.

  Vernisha ordered Mon to bite down on the monster’s throat. There was a sickening crack as the beast flailed in panic.

  She was already moving, circling toward its blind spot.

  Her ribs throbbed with every step.

  The monster’s claws were buried deep in Mon’s side. It struggled to break free.

  Vernisha reached its back, unseen and unnoticed. With both hands gripping her sword, she plunged it into the spine.

  She could not aim for the throat. Mon was in the way.

  The blade sank deep, but the bone was solid. The monster roared and thrashed, trying to throw Mon off.

  She kept stabbing the same spot. Again and again. Her hands shook.

  Finally, the monster’s lower back went still. A moment later, Mon finished the job, ripping its brother’s throat clean open.

  Personal Level: 4

  Shuralene Level: 9

  This was the first time Vernisha had ever felt something like this.

  Her whole body felt stronger. She assumed it was the result of gaining three levels at once.

  She glanced over at the family. They looked terrified, as if she had not just saved them. Maybe it was the brutality of the fight. Maybe it was the blood covering her, both fresh and dried.

  Or maybe it was simpler than that.

  She was working with a monster, one of the very creatures that had likely killed their friends and family.

  Vernisha left without a word. She had hoped to keep her identity as a Vlandos hidden, but at this point, it did not matter.

  Now that she could upgrade her body, she was not sure what side effects it might bring. Fatigue, or something worse. She needed to be cautious.

  Only use what she was confident in.

  She made Mon rip open its brother’s abdomen so she could retrieve the EPO. She held her breath and ate it.

  It still tasted disgusting. The texture made her stomach twist, and her eyes teared up again.

  She could handle this.

  They moved on and found another monster inside a house. It was sniffing the ground, creeping toward a room like a starving hound.

  Its head snapped up. Vernisha felt irritation spike. This was just great. A deep snarl rumbled from its throat, and then it charged.

  Mon leapt to meet it, and they clashed violently. Claws ignited with power, tearing through fur and flesh. Mon slashed across its chest, but the beast retaliated, gouging deep into his side.

  Vernisha moved faster than before. Maybe twice as fast. It still did not make her a match.

  The monster sensed her coming. Its tongue lashed out like a whip. She ducked, barely dodging as it cracked against the wall and splintered the wood.

  It lunged at her, fangs bared.

  Mon tackled it from the side, jaws clamping down on its shoulder and yanking it away. The monster shrieked, thrashing to throw him off. Blood sprayed, but neither of them backed down.

  Vernisha circled around and struck low. Her blade slashed deep into its hind legs.

  The beast staggered but did not fall. It pivoted, swiping at her with a massive claw.

  She barely dodged in time. The blow glanced off her arm, sending a sharp jolt of pain through her.

  Gritting her teeth, she lunged again. She brought her blade down toward its throat, but the monster twisted at the last second. The blade struck its collarbone instead of something vital.

  Mon took the opening.

  He surged forward and sank his teeth into the creature’s neck. It thrashed violently, but Vernisha did not hesitate. She adjusted her grip, raised her sword, and drove it into the base of its skull.

  The monster spasmed, gurgled, and went still.

  Mon released it, breathing heavily, blood dripping from his wounds.

  t.Level: 5

  It must have been low-level. Not that Vernisha could really tell.

  She healed Mon, restoring him to near full strength. Most of her own wounds faded as well.

  Then the thoughts came.

  Kill. Kill. Slaughter.

  She winced.

  Mon’s thoughts were bleeding into hers. The barrier between them was thinning.

  She could still tell their minds apart, but it was getting harder. The strain was setting in. Her head throbbed.

  She turned to leave the house, heading toward their last target, but something felt wrong.

  She could not smell the third monster anymore through Mon’s senses.

  That left Jer-kal.

  Not that Vernisha could do much to help her.

  She looked toward the fight. It had not improved.

  The Shafeline had its tail wrapped around the fairy’s leg, swinging it through the air like a weapon. The force made the air whistle.

  Jer-kal struggled to keep her footing. Vernisha could not help directly, but maybe she did not need to.

  A distraction would be enough.

  She opened her mouth. “Mon, fire spit—”

  Before they could act, a massive cone-shaped rock slammed into the Shafeline’s chest, knocking it to the ground with a heavy thud.

  Lo’jul, or Lo as Vernisha preferred, and Jim had arrived. They rode their monsters, a massive tree-crab and a four-meter-tall beast that looked like a mix between a dog, a gorilla, and a shark, but not in a Frankenstein way.

  Jim glanced at Lo’jul. “Nice shot.”

  “Always.”

  Vernisha felt irritation flicker. It took them long enough.

  The Shafeline hesitated, lifting its head to the sky. Its mouth began glowing white.

  “It’s about to flash again!” Vernisha shouted.

  The tree-crab monster raised its pincers. Vines exploded from the ground, one slamming into the Shafeline’s jaw with a booming crack.

  It screamed, trying to leap away. Lo’s monster punched the ground, collapsing the earth beneath it. The beast fell into the hole, and the ground closed in like a trap.

  Jim dismounted and approached Jer-kal. “How bad’s the bleeding?”

  “Bad, but I’ll live. Honestly, thought you were going to let me die.”

  “I considered it,” he said with a grin.

  She rolled her eyes. “I’ll make sure my death haunts you forever.”

  Her fairy hovered above the trapped Shafeline, singing a strange, chaotic tune.

  Vernisha did not know its purpose, but the Shafeline clearly hated it. It locked eyes with the fairy, shaking with rage.

  Strangely, Vernisha felt the same reaction. It had to be a taunt.

  The beast shattered the rock trap and charged toward the fairy. Mid-leap, the gorilla-dog monster caught its leg and slammed it to the ground.

  The tree-crab clamped one pincer around its neck and the other around its waist.

  Jer-kal covered her ears. “Blow its head off.”

  The others did the same. Vernisha had Mon return to her seal and blocked her ears.

  The Shafeline fought the restraints, lifting the pincers off the ground through sheer force.

  It was not fast enough.

  The fairy inhaled deeply, then unleashed a thunderous sonic boom.

  The air rippled violently, causing the ground to crack. Nearby houses collapsed.

  It was too much.

  Vernisha felt wetness on her hand.

  She staggered, dizzy. The world spun. Something was very wrong.

  She collapsed forward. Her ears hurt. They really hurt.