Karolina stared at the dead orc. It turned out that monsters were easier to deal with when you have a large group with you. You got a lot less experience, though. They had happened to run into another orc while heading to the camp, and Karolina hadn’t even needed to help fight it.

They had managed to catch the orc by surprise due to Ada, so all the ranged combatants were able to kill it with one massed strike. It made Karolina feel a little useless, honestly, but maybe it was good for her to save her strength. She would be the one in charge of negotiating Weber down when they reached the camp, after all.

She was the most important member of the camp on this expedition. Both Aaron and Selena had chosen to stay in camp. Aaron didn’t want to leave the camp undefended, and he wanted at least one healer to remain in camp. Everyone else who had come to the meeting during the storm yesterday was with her.

As she was looking around the group, her eyes fell on Thomas. This was his second time leaving the camp after he had decided to stay in the camp indefinitely. Last time, she had been too busy trying to figure out Natalia to talk with him, but now she had a chance. She was worried about him, about how he was handling everything.

She walked over to her friend, doing her best to not slip on the wet grass. The storm had disappeared just as suddenly as it had arrived, but that didn’t mean that it hadn’t left anything behind. The grass was already drying, thankfully. She didn’t want to have to deal with an environmental hazard if it came to a fight.

As she got closer to Thomas, she tried to come up with the right way to start the conversation. She didn’t want to just start off by telling him she was worried about him.

“Thomas, I wanted to thank you again for coming along. I know you’ve been worried,” Karolina said.

“I’m not wrong to be worried, am I?” he said rhetorically. “I mean, so many people have died, and I’m sure at least some of them were around my level. All it takes is for me to get unlucky once, and I’ll die,” he said somberly.

“That’s not completely true. We have healers, so if you get injured you should be able to be healed,” Karolina said. Even as she spoke she knew that wasn’t what Thomas was talking about.

“Look, you and I both know that healers aren’t enough. They can’t heal the dead. All it takes is one stab or bite in the wrong place, and I’d be dead before anyone could heal me,” Thomas said.

“That’s true,” Karolina sighed. “That’s why we have to work as a team and be careful. It's still possible to fight monsters and be safe.”

“Maybe,” Thomas said.

“Look, I’m just going to be blunt. If you’re so worried about dying, why did you leave the camp at all? I mean, I’m really glad you came, but I wouldn’t have been mad at you if you’d stayed behind,” Karolina said.

“How could I stay behind? The one time you went out without me, you killed someone,” Thomas said.

“I didn’t mean to—” Karolina said. She hadn’t talked about the killing with Thomas. After the meeting with Natalia and Aaron, she had never brought it up again, and he had respected that. Now he was throwing it in her face.

“I know! Even before Ada told me about what happened, I never believed that you would kill someone on purpose. That's what I’m saying! If I was there, you would have had more options. He might not have died. I need to be there for you when you need me, or what kind of friend am I?” Thomas asked.

“Even if you don’t leave the camp and just stay safe, you’re still my friend. I don’t want you to feel obligated to come with me. That man’s death isn’t your fault, it’s mine,” Karolina said.

“It’s not just that I want to help you guys. Just staying in camp isn’t safe either, remember?” Thomas said softly.

“I remember,” Karolina said. She didn’t think she’d ever forget the experience of passing all those bodies as she frantically traveled through the camp, or the sight of Buckley lying in a pool of blood.

“Also, are you really trying to convince me to stay in camp? Who are you, and what have you done with Karolina?” Thomas joked.

“I just don’t want you to feel pressured,” Karolina said.

“I don’t. Or rather, I do, but not because of you, if that makes any sense,” Thomas said.

“Strangely, it actually does,” Karolina replied. They walked in silence for a little bit. Just when Karolina thought the conversation was over, Thomas spoke up again, a little hesitantly.

“So, I wanted to ask for your advice. How does Ada deal with the danger? How do you deal with it?” Thomas asked.

“I think there’s just something wrong with Ada,” Karolina said.

“Well, obviously,” Thomas laughed.

“More seriously, I don’t know. You’d have to ask her. For me, I don’t know. I guess I don’t think about it much? And when I do, I trust the people I’m with to keep me safe, and focus on how fighting is the only way to get stronger and achieve my goals. I don’t know how helpful that was,” Karolina said, feeling a little embarrassed.

“It gave me something to think about at least. I think I’ll have to find my own way of coping, though,” Thomas said.

“Whatever you need to do,” Karolina said. Before she could say anything else, Ada came up to her.

“We’re getting close to the camp. You should probably come to the front with me,” Ada said.

“Okay. Talk to you later Thomas,” Karolina said, before following Ada. The scout was right, within another minute or so they had reached the edge of the forest and the other camp was within sight. It looked the same as it had two days ago, except George’s body had been removed. She shook off the reminder of the man, trying to focus on what she was doing now.

Okay. How was she going to do this? She wanted to start off non-aggressively, to maximize the chances of Weber stepping down quietly. Maybe she should approach the camp alone? No, she needed everyone else with her if it came down to a fight.

“Okay everyone, we’re heading towards the camp. Warriors and Ada in the front, archers and magicians in the back. Make sure to stay behind me, and don’t make any threatening moves or attack unless I tell you to or they attack first. Let’s go,” she said.

She started walking towards the other camp, but they barely got out of the woods before they were spotted. Apparently a group of fourteen people was easy to notice.

A gate at the edge of the wall opened up, and a man wearing glittering chain-mail armor stepped out. A group of twelve people filed out after him. She inspected him, and wasn’t surprised to find that this was Lucas Weber.

Lucas Weber: [Human (F) / Sergeant] - Level 24

Her first thought was a silly one; she hadn’t expected him to be handsome. Somehow, she hadn’t thought that murderers could be attractive, but he could have been an actor or something.

He had blond hair and a muscled, rectangular frame, and was wearing a jovial smile. At first glance, she never would have expected that this man had murdered multiple people.

The twelve people he had brought with him all seemed to be about level fifteen. Interestingly, most of them were warriors, with only two archers and one magician. He had also brought out his healer, a reedy looking man wearing white robes who was hanging back near the gates.

Karolina stayed where she was and let Weber come to her. The farther they were from his camp and possible reinforcements, the better. After a minute or so, Weber’s group had gotten close enough to talk.

“Hello. Who might you be?” he asked calmly.

“My name is Karolina Grant, and I’m the person who helped Natalia to escape. My friends and I are here from another camp. We would like to help your camp, but we can’t work with you. We need you to be removed from power so everyone else is able to work together to get through the tutorial,” Karolina said.

Weber let out a laugh. “Remove me from power? What gives you the right to even request that?”

“What gives you the right to be in charge at all? Nothing. Now, are you going to come with us or not? We’ve prepared a very comfortable cell for you,” Karolina responded. She wasn’t actually very confident in said cell, but she kept that uncertainty out of her voice. She had tried out the cell before leaving, and she was sure that she could break out of it, so it made sense that Weber also could.

Her people shifted behind her at her direct statement. Karolina could already tell that there was no way this person would step down voluntarily. It would have to come down to a fight, but she didn’t want to start it yet. Maybe she was wrong.

“Why would you even want me to step down? I’ve been a good leader,” Weber said. He seemed honestly confused.

“You call killing people who disagree with you being a good leader?” she asked.

“Ah, I see. You’ve been getting your information from Natalia. She would have quite a skewed perspective on this matter, I suppose. It’s unfortunate that she was the first person from my camp you met. Let me clear up any confusion. If I might ask, how many people have died in your camp since the start of the tutorial?” he asked.

“Around eighty,” Karolina said, deciding there was no harm in telling him. Everyone she brought with her already knew the numbers, after all.

“Eighty?” he let out a small hum. “Do you know how many people from my camp have died since the tutorial began? Twenty-one, and most of those deaths were from before I took complete control. My methods could be construed as… extreme, perhaps, but they work. They’ve kept my people alive.”

He was telling the truth about the number of casualties. Only twenty-one deaths… was he right? Was he actually keeping more people alive by being the leader? It took her a second to realize how wrong he was. He wasn’t keeping people alive at all.

“How many of those twenty-one did you kill?” she asked. He didn’t seem to like that question.

“Look, you’re not getting it. I am the best leader this camp could have had. Everything I did, I did for the greater good. So some people had to sacrifice their freedom, or even their lives, to keep everyone else safe. Those were sacrifices I was willing to make because I wasn’t afraid to make the hard choices,” Weber said.

“It’s easy to talk about acceptable sacrifices when you don’t have to sacrifice anything. You’re a murderer and a tyrant, and you’re going to come with us so that you can’t hurt anyone ever again,” Karolina responded firmly. “If you’re so concerned about the safety of your camp, you’ll come with us. It would benefit your camp far more to have an entire camp’s worth of support rather than just you. Look, we want to help the people in your camp, but we refuse to work with you.”

“I see that I’m not going to be able to get through to you. Natalia has poisoned you against me too thoroughly. I suppose I'm going to have to kill her. It’s a shame. Having a spare healer is important, but traitors deserve no quarter. I’m sorry it had to come to this,” he said. Despite his somber tone, his soul showed nothing but excitement at the imminent fight. He was glad that he had an excuse to hurt people.

She activated her Mana Armor when Weber drew his sword. Negotiations had broken down, just as she had thought they would. From the start, there had been no way that Weber would agree to step down peacefully. She might have been too blunt, but there was no reason to dance around their demands. He always would have either agreed or disagreed, no matter what she said.

Before Karolina had a chance to say anything to her subordinates, Weber charged forward. Gray growths started to form on his skin, completely covering him within a second. An arrow bounced off of him right before he crashed into their front line.

Karolina rolled to the right, barely avoiding Weber, but one of her warriors wasn’t so lucky. She heard a grunt of pain and the sound of cracking bone as Weber slammed past him. She turned and saw that one of her people was lying on the ground with a broken arm. At least he wasn’t dead.

She had expected Weber to target her, but he was running towards the back line instead. Was he trying to take out her ranged support first? She glanced down at the wounded warrior, but turned to run after Weber instead of staying with him. She couldn’t do anything to help him right now.

She charged after Weber, incensed. As she started to catch up to him, a fire bolt and two mana bolts hit him in the chest, but didn’t seem to affect him. Just before he was about to reach Thomas, she tackled him to the ground.

She started to activate Soul Strike, but Weber rolled them over so he was on top of her before she could activate the skill. She grunted at his weight, surprised, and then felt her armor start to crack. She barely managed to get out from under him before her armor shattered.

She got up and raised her fists threateningly, but didn’t reactivate her Mana Armor. Even though she felt naked without the skill’s protection, she couldn’t afford to use it again and also use Soul Strike. Weber got up more slowly, smiling, his gray visage making the expression look horrifying.

A water bolt slammed into Weber’s head, making it snap to the side. As she watched, the gray tinge to his skin started to slowly fade away. Apparently water bolt had more uses than just putting out fires.

For the first time since the fight had begun, Weber’s soul had a small amount of fear in it. He seemed to be taking them seriously now. He turned towards her magicians and archers and waved his sword towards them. A wave of earth formed up in front of him and crashed into them, knocking everyone off of their feet. No one seemed seriously hurt, but everyone looked disoriented.

Before Karolina could reach Weber, he was among her fallen allies. Thankfully, he wasn’t just slashing at everyone with his sword, he seemed to have a specific target in mind. He yanked Natalia up by her robe just as Karolina got to him.

“Stop moving or I'll kill her,” Weber said, panting slightly. He was holding his sword at Natalia, the point of the weapon pressed against her chest. The gray was starting to disappear from his skin faster and faster, although she didn’t know if that was due to the water bolt or just the skill wearing off.

“Okay, okay. I’m stopping,” Karolina said, raising her hands up calmingly. She wasn’t surprised that Weber was stooping to taking a hostage, but she was disappointed in herself for not stopping him first. If she had used her skill just a little faster, he wouldn’t have gotten to Natalia.

“Well, I would ask you to drop your weapon, but…” Weber said, laughing a little. He seemed to have caught his breath, and was starting to enjoy himself again now that he had control over the situation.

“So, taking hostages now? I thought you were supposed to be a good leader?” Karolina said. She couldn’t believe that he found this situation funny.

Natalia looked more angry than afraid, but Karolina could see how scared she really was. She really thought that she was about to die. She tried to silently signal to Natalia that she was going to get her out of this, but she didn’t think she got the message across.

“I am a good leader! I’m simply acquiring leverage to ensure we can have a civil discussion. Look, my people haven’t started attacking yours. This can still end peacefully. Take your people and go. You’ll have to leave Natalia with me, of course, but she’s no great loss,” Weber said.

Karolina turned and saw that he was indeed telling the truth. Weber was the only one who had actually attacked, and the rest of the people who came out with him still weren’t attacking. Besides the one warrior, none of her people had been injured.

She briefly considered Weber’s offer. Would it be worth appeasing him right now, to make sure that everyone got away safely? No, they would just have to come back later, when Weber would be more prepared for them. Right now, Weber was on the back foot, and this desperate maneuver was proof of that. Also, Karolina was certain that if she just left Natalia with Weber he would kill her. That wasn’t acceptable.

“No, we won’t be leaving. You staying in charge, continuing to hurt people, is an unacceptable outcome for me. Even if we were to leave today, we’d just come back with more people later. Look, you’re right that we can resolve this peacefully, but first you need to let Natalia go,” Karolina said.

“Well, I guess it was a long shot anyway,” Weber said calmly, before sliding the sword into Natalia’s stomach. He yanked out the sword with a disturbing squelch, before raising the sword to behead the healer. His soul was bright with sadistic pleasure.

Karolina let out an inarticulate yell and charged forwards, but she knew she wouldn’t make it in time. Just as Weber started to swing his sword, an arrow sprouted out of his arm. His fingers spasmed, causing him to abort the blow and almost making him drop his sword. Natalia collapsed to the ground now that Weber was no longer holding her up.

Karolina turned to see that Jasmine had managed to get back up. She gave the woman a thankful nod as she continued running towards Natalia. Karolina had a potion in her pocket, so even if Natalia wasn’t able to heal herself she should be able to help her. She had to be able to help her.

Weber had backed up towards the forest, looking uncertain. He looked at the group of archers and magicians between him and the rest of his forces, and then at Karolina who was still charging in his direction. He seemed to consider his options for a moment, and then turned and sprinted into the forest.

Karolina found it hard to care about the man at the moment, though. Not when Natalia was dying. She rushed to Natalia’s side and frantically unstopped a healing potion, and then poured the potion down her throat. The healer was still conscious enough to swallow, at least.

She anxiously watched Natalia, looking for any signs of improvement. Her white robes had a huge red stain on them, but the stain didn’t seem to be getting any larger. She pressed her hand to the wound, feeling it close up slowly. She continued putting pressure on it until the wound had completely closed up. She didn’t seem in any imminent danger of dying, but the woman had slipped unconscious at some point.

Now that Natalia was looking a little better, she looked around to see what was going on. Weber’s people seemed uncertain without his presence, and still hadn’t attacked. That might change at any moment, though. She had no idea what orders Weber had given them or if they were even going to follow his orders.

They couldn’t be her main concern, though. Karolina stared at where Weber had disappeared into the forest. If she let him get away, he would just come back to his camp and resume his reign of terror. All of this would have been for nothing.

“Thomas and Jasmine, keep watch on them. Try your best to deescalate the situation. Keep me apprised," she said, tossing a communication crystal at Jasmine. The woman already had one to speak with Aaron, but they hadn't planned on splitting up so she didn’t have any way of communicating with Karolina. "Ada, with me. We’re going after Weber.”

After she got a quick agreement from Thomas and Jasmine, she set out into the woods with Ada at her side. Weber wasn’t going to get away. She would make sure of it.