Karolina hurried through the forest, following right behind Ada. The scout seemed like a better choice to lead the way because she could actually track down Weber. As they ran, Karolina kept an eye out for any monsters, hoping that they wouldn’t run into anything that would prevent them from getting to Weber.

Karolina’s mind kept turning over when he had held Natalia hostage. Was there something she could have done that would have prevented him from becoming violent? She had basically provoked the man, even though she had been trying to talk him down.

No, there was nothing she could have done. Weber had already stated his intention to kill Natalia. If she had given in, he still would have stabbed her, but Jasmine wouldn’t have been there to prevent him from finishing the job and Karolina wouldn’t have been there to give her a healing potion.

She hoped that Natalia would be okay. When she had left, the woman hadn't been getting worse, but she hadn’t been getting much better either. She didn't know what she'd do if she died.

A voice suddenly came out of her pocket. "They retreated back into the camp. They didn't seem to really want a fight, especially with their leader running away like a coward. I'll let you know if anything changes," Jasmine said.

"How is Natalia?" Karolina asked. She was worried about what she might hear, but she needed to know. There was a terrifying few seconds of silence before Jasmine replied.

"She hasn't improved, but she hasn't gotten worse either. Thomas says drinking too many potions too fast can have some nasty side effects, so it looks like she's going to remain unconscious until we can get her to Selena. It's very lucky that you got to her as fast as you did," Jasmine said.

"Thanks for letting me know. Tell me if anything changes," Karolina said. Lucky? That was the one thing Natalia wasn’t. Karolina shouldn't have even brought the woman. She had suspected that Weber would harbor a grudge against her, but the woman had insisted on coming along. She deserved so much better than being killed by Weber.

"Any idea how close we are to him?" Karolina asked Ada.

“We're getting closer, but I'm not sure how close we are exactly. I could run ahead and find him, then come back and lead you to him. I am very fast, you know,” Ada said.

“No, we have to stick together. He almost killed Natalia. I don’t want you to get hurt. You’re too important to me,” Karolina said.

Ada looked a little embarrassed, but she didn’t argue with her. That was one small victory, at least. Before long, they ran into a beheaded goblin. For a second, Karolina imagined Natalia in the place of the goblin, her head lying on the ground, before she shook the gruesome image off. Natalia was going to be fine.

"We're getting close," Ada said.

"What was your first clue?" Karolina asked sarcastically.

"No, I mean I just caught a glimpse of him. I think he's starting to curve back around towards his camp. Scout's Eye, remember?" Ada said. That was the name of Ada’s skill that improved her vision and let her see things far away.

“You really saw him?” Karolina asked.

“No, I’m lying just to annoy you,” Ada deadpanned.

Karolina sighed. “Okay, that was a stupid question. Anyway, when we get close let me handle him. You can jump in if you see an opportunity, of course, but I’m hoping to disable him fast using the element of surprise,” she said.

“Sure thing, boss,” Ada said, a small smirk on her face. Karolina looked at Ada, really looked at her, and realized that she really was as carefree as she was acting. She didn’t seem at all bothered by Natalia’s near death, or by the fact that they were hunting a hardened killer through the woods.

Now wasn’t the time to talk with her about it, but she definitely needed to address this with Ada later. She cared about Ada, and she thought that the other woman cared about her, but Ada’s lack of concern about Natalia was making her doubt that. Would Ada be more concerned if she or Thomas had almost died?

She continued following after Ada, making an effort to be more quiet. She winced whenever she stepped on a twig, though thankfully it didn’t happen that often. Ada didn’t seem to be having any trouble at all keeping quiet. Karolina wondered if it was a skill, or if Ada was just naturally good at sneaking through the woods.

Finally, Ada turned around and put a finger up to her lips. They were close to Weber. Karolina looked around, trying to catch sight of him, and saw a flash of shiny metal out of the corner of her eyes. She turned towards it and saw Weber, hurrying through the trees, still wearing his chain-mail armor. He didn’t seem to have noticed them yet.

Karolina quickly hid behind a tree that was close to Weber’s path. She waited anxiously, sure that he would see her any second, but he didn’t seem to be paying close attention to his surroundings. Given how inattentive he was, he must think that there was nothing in the forest that could threaten him. Karolina was ready to prove him wrong.

Karolina lunged out at Weber right as he was passing her tree. She had a hand on his shoulder before he had time to react. He let out a startled shout and started to use his gray skin skill just in time for her Soul Strike to activate. Weber froze in place, his mouth still opened awkwardly wide as his soul went unnaturally still.

She stared at the frozen person, abruptly realizing that she hadn’t planned beyond this moment. If Weber were a monster she would just kill him, but she couldn’t do that to a person. She only had a few seconds to come up with a plan.

She hurriedly forced him onto his knees, easily able to move his paralyzed body. She grabbed his sword and tossed it to the side, before yanking his hands behind his back and then slamming his face into the ground. The skill wore off just as he hit the ground.

Weber gasped out a breath, the gray spreading over all of his skin. He struggled to get up, but Karolina had much more leverage than him. She pressed down harder on his back, and even though he didn’t seem to feel pain right now he still got the message. After a few more seconds of struggling, Weber gave up and let himself lie flat.

“Okay, you’ve captured me. I get the point. Could you let me up now?” he asked, voice muffled. Karolina considered him for a moment. Did she trust him to not try to escape if she allowed him to get up?

“No,” she said. She did let him raise his head up, though. She wasn’t an animal.

“Let me up. I promise not to try and escape,” Weber said. She watched his soul carefully, and was surprised to see he was telling the truth. She carefully let him up, backing away slowly.

He remained on the ground for a second, and then got up, brushing the dirt off of his armor. While he was doing that, the gray tinge faded away from his skin. Now that she was closer to the effect, she could see that the skill seemed to work by covering his skin in a stone-like substance. They were very lucky that Thomas’s water bolt had interfered with the skill somehow.

After Weber was as clean as he could make himself, he looked Karolina directly in the eyes. He didn’t seem to notice Ada standing silently behind him.

“That was rude and unnecessary. What did I ever even do to you? I’ve never even touched someone from your camp,” Weber said.

“You’ve killed people. You almost killed Natalia. Why on Earth should it matter where they were from?” Karolina asked.

“Didn’t you listen to a word I said? I needed to do what I did, to protect everyone else in my camp. I shouldn’t be vilified because I made the hard decisions, I should be celebrated!” Weber exclaimed.

“That might be what you’ve been telling everyone else. It might even be what you’ve been telling yourself. I’ve seen the truth of you, though. You like it. You like hurting people, killing them,” Karolina said, disgusted by the man. She could still easily picture how excited the man had been when he thought he was about to kill Natalia.

Weber kept silent for a moment. “I can see that you’ve made up your mind about me, even though you’re completely wrong. What comes next?”

“We have a nice cell prepared for you back at our camp. Don’t worry, you’ll be comfortable, even though you don’t deserve to be. Don’t even think about trying to escape. I could easily take you down again,” she bluffed. She didn’t have anywhere near the mana she would need to cast Soul Strike again any time soon, but he didn’t know that.

"Okay, okay, I'll come quietly," he said, still as confident as ever. She stared hard at him, but he seemed to be telling the truth. Why was he still so confident?

After thinking about it for a few seconds, she had a better question. Why wouldn't he be confident? There was absolutely no guarantee that the cell could actually hold him, especially given his ability to move large amounts of earth. Even if he was stuck in the cell for the rest of the tutorial, that was only about three months. Then he’d be free to travel the new world, free to continue hurting and killing people.

“Do you have any regrets? Would you make all the same choices again, even if you knew it would lead to this outcome?” Karolina asked softly. A dangerous idea was percolating in the back of her mind.

“I’m not sure what you’re asking,” Weber said, starting to look a little uncomfortable. “Looking back, I might have made some mistakes, but I always acted in the best interests of the people I was protecting.”

“What were those mistakes?” Karolina asked. “Do you think locking Natalia up was a mistake? What about killing people for disagreeing with you?”

“I didn’t kill people just for ‘disagreeing with me’, no matter what lies Natalia fed to you. I punished traitors who were trying to disrupt the order of the camp. They were trying to overthrow me during the most dangerous situation we’ve ever been in. They were basically working with the monsters!”

“I see,” Karolina said noncommittally.

“I’m also not going to apologize for protecting a valuable camp resource. People are stupid and almost never make the right decisions. The only way to get people to listen is to force them to,” Weber said. It took Karolina a second to realize that Natalia was the ‘valuable camp resource’ he was talking about.

He didn't seem to regret any of the choices he made. He had killed people, and he would continue to kill people no matter what she did. Unless she—a head cracked open on a rock flashed across her vision.

She didn’t know if she could do what she was thinking of doing. She briefly thought through how her allies and friends would react. She knew Aaron wouldn’t care; she was pretty sure he had suggested this exact course of action. She didn’t think Ada would care either, given the woman’s lukewarm response to George's death. Natalia would thank her. The only person she was worried about was Thomas. She didn’t know how he would react. In the end, though, she had to do what she thought was right.

“Whatever,” Karolina performatively grumbled. “Let’s just get you to your cell.”

She walked up behind Weber and patted him on the shoulder. Before he could turn around, she put her arm around his throat and started tightening her grip. Gray spread across his skin again, but it didn’t matter how tough he became, he still needed to breathe. After around thirty seconds, he was finally unconscious. She let him drop to the ground.

She stared down at his limp form. Could she really do this?

“Hey, what’s the plan? I thought we were gonna throw him in a cell back at camp,” Ada asked, wandering over. She’d stayed silent during Karolina’s conversation with Weber, which Karolina appreciated. Having a one-on-one conversation with Weber had helped her to make her decision.

“I think that I’m going to kill him,” Karolina said. She felt oddly lightheaded.

“Say again?” Ada asked.

“If he doesn’t die, he’s going to hurt more people. He’ll either escape or just wait out the tutorial. You heard him! He doesn’t regret anything he’s done, justified it all to himself somehow. I saw his soul, I saw how much he loved hurting people. He’s too dangerous to be allowed to live,” Karolina said.

She stared down at Weber’s unconscious body, and raised one of her fists. Her hand was shaking. She kept seeing George’s body, his head splattered open on a rock. She remembered how she had felt after killing him, and that had been an accident. How terrible would she feel if she killed someone on purpose?

“I can’t do it. Why can’t I do it? It’s my fault, now. Everyone he kills after today, it’s my fault,” Karolina said.

“It’s okay,” Ada said gently. “You don’t have to. Are you sure that he deserves to die?”

“Yes,” Karolina choked out.

Ada carefully walked over to Weber and crouched down. She grabbed his hair and pulled his head back, looking at his face for a moment. Then she punched her dagger straight into his eye socket.

Even though she had been halfway expecting it, the sudden motion still startled Karolina. She stared at Weber’s body dumbly. His soul had disappeared almost as soon as Ada had stuck the weapon in.

You have slain [Human (F) / Sergeant] - Level 24.

Experience has been awarded.

You have leveled up. You are now a level 21 [Human (F) / Monk].

She dismissed the screens as soon as they popped up.

“You didn’t have to do that. I didn’t mean for… I’m sorry for making you a murderer,” Karolina said, staring at Ada.

“Look, whatever you need, remember?” Ada said.

“I still didn’t want—” Karolina started.

“It’s fine. I already told you, killing is inevitable in this new world. It doesn’t really bother me, anyway. He deserved it,” Ada said. Karolina desperately checked Ada’s soul, and found that the other woman was telling the truth. She really wasn’t bothered by what she had just done.

Any other time, she would have been worried about the implications of that. Not now, however. Now she was just thankful for Ada.

“Thank you for dealing with him,” she said. She stared down at the corpse of the man she had basically murdered, and felt a single tear slip down her face.

“Hey, you’re okay. We did the right thing. It’s going to be alright,” Ada said, obviously concerned about her.

Earlier, she had worried about Ada. She had wondered if the woman would even care if Karolina or Thomas died. Now she could see how stupid that worry had been. Just because certain things were easier for Ada didn’t mean that she didn’t care. The opposite, actually.

Ada cared about only a few things, but she cared a lot about them. That was why she had been so hurt when Thomas had said he couldn’t help them fight anymore. It was why she had always been so supportive of everything Karolina wanted her to do. She couldn’t believe she had thought that Ada didn’t care about them.

“I know. Just give me a minute by myself,” Karolina said. Ada shrugged and wandered off, although she didn’t go too far.

Karolin stared down at Weber’s corpse. She didn’t know if they had done the right thing here, but she knew that they hadn’t done the wrong thing. Weber wouldn’t have been stopped any other way.

Even though she was thankful that Ada had stepped in, she shouldn’t have needed to. Karolina needed to adapt to their new reality faster, or she was just going to drag down the people she was closest to.

She stayed there for a few minutes, just staring at Weber’s body, before she pulled out one of her communication crystals.

“Jasmine?” she said into the item.

“Yes, what is it?” Jasmine asked.

“Weber is no longer a problem. Ada and I are on our way back. See you soon,” Karolina said.

“I understand,” Jasmine replied, her tone even. Karolina wished she was face to face with the other woman so she could actually see how she reacted. She was relying more and more on her soulsight every day.

“Okay, let’s get going. Remember this spot. He deserves a proper burial, if nothing else,” Karolina said.

“Whatever,” Ada shrugged. They both started walking back towards the other camp.

She didn’t know how this would change things with her friends and allies. Hopefully it wouldn’t, but she had no way of knowing what the future held.

She did know that there was a whole new set of problems in front of her now. A camp without a leader, a dead man left in the middle of the woods, and an army of monsters that she still had to deal with. At least she had people she could rely on to help deal with them.