Kara jumped to her feet straight from her roll. She stretched her arm to the side, catching Nico by his chest. One touch was all it took. His feet touched the ground gently.

One mushroom after another exploded just a few feet away from him. Two waves of flesh melting shockwaves blasted the Vogrant. It fell back, the front of its body turning a bright purple red. A thick layer of its flesh was gone. White bone showed on its knees and throughout its ribs.

Nico ran forward. He stomped his foot into its stomach and swung his axe with both hands, striking the Vogrant in its face. It felt like he struck rock. Before Nico swung again another explosion resounded, from its back this time.

It flew upward with its fist swinging in full motion, half growling, half gurgling on its own blood. It struck Nico straight in the chest, denting it and sending him flying past Kara. He crashed into the belly of the still alive alligator, waking it up in the process. It wrapped its tail around his leg with enough force to crush it and tossed him away again.

He hit the ground on his right shoulder, breaking something. His axe slipped out of his hands at some point. The crocodile charged him down, opening maws large enough to swallow him whole. Its gums were a slimy beige.

Nico wanted to make a Kinetic Shell, but his hands were too busy digging into the dirt and pushing him away from death. He placed one foot against its jaw and the other on its jagged upper teeth, hoping to keep it at bay. It scuttled forward, repeatedly snapping its maws shut on empty air like some grinder. Each time Nico pulled his feet back and pushed against its mouth.

He almost lost a foot when the ground under him rose. The croc pushed him up the mound. When it went for a big chomp Nico yanked his legs back to a crouch and kicked off the ground. He rolled on its head down the three lines of pointy scales on its back, making a Kinetic Shell. He jumped to the side, then jumped again as its tail swiped for him.

It caught his foot. He fell face first into the ground then felt the air swish against his ears as he got swung. He smashed against the tree with his back and felt all his breath leave him. His skull might have cracked as he slipped down to his butt. His sight was gone, but he didn’t need to see. He sensed, and even smelled, the croc open its maws in front of him.

Nico flicked the Kinetic Shell in with his index finger. Hot air and blood shot out of its eyes and nose, spraying him in the face. It slumped to the ground, its V shaped head fitting neatly in between his legs. With a groan, he wiped his lips and eyes. A combination of blood and mucus got into his nose.

Kara was standing in front of him, waiting. When he Healed and got his eyes open he saw the Vogrant and the other Rider were both decapitated. They’re bodies transmuted into mist that went into her sword.

He pushed the croc’s mouth away, Siphoning it. It brought him up to 3 Energy. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said, swallowing, then immediately regretting it. He doubled over and began heaving. He wasn’t sure which tasted worse—the dirt, buggers, or mushed brains. He seriously pondered temporarily ripping his tongue out. “This is the closest I’ve gotten to getting a blowjob.”

“Stay behind,” she said.

“I should,” Nico admitted. He didn’t understand why he charged in. If she hadn’t caught him he would hit by two Life Blasts. Underestimating the toughness of the Vogrant’s skull was another mistake. It probably had Kinetic Mushrooms on its back too, something he should have checked for.

Before Nico got to his feet, he felt a squad of monsters coming towards them. “Shit,” he said, looking in their direction. There were four to five behind the mound. “We need to go.” He got to his feet and went the opposite way. He stopped before he hid behind the mound.

Kara didn’t move for a bit. Finally, she turned his way and walked at her leisurely pace. Nico’s mouth gaped open. He had half the mind to run back and give her a push. Just as she stepped past him, the fairies came into sight.

Nico got a quick look and pulled his head back into cover, breathing out. Their team was quite balanced. There were two Bruisers, two Rogues, and one Ranged.

Bruiser Fairy ★★

Trait: Rubber Flesh (Common)

1st Skill: Life Shield (Common II)

Consumes 1 Energy to provide 3 Shield.

Cast-time: 3 seconds

Duration: 1 Minutes

Cooldown: 1 minutes

2nd Skill: ?

Rogue Fairy ★★★

Trait: Rubber Flesh (Common)

Class: Kinetic Transmuter

1st Skill: Kinetic Burst (Common II)

2nd Skill: Transmogrify (Rare II)

The Rogue fairies were smaller than their 3-star evolution, the Hunter. It was more toned than the Ranger fairies, around Nico’s size, with bright wings that can propel them forward.

“I’ll wait there,” she said, pointing ahead. “In a minute line up as many of them as you can.”

Nico turned his attention back to the fairies as Kara skulked off. He watched them eat what was left of the Riders as he thought about what they were doing. Hunting monsters with just two people might have been more insane than going solo, and it’ll get harder before it gets easier.

They’ll need a real squad, all Ascended, if they planned on entering the Deep, and even then they wouldn’t know what they would fight against. I can’t tell whether she’s serious about it, or whether she’s just trying to scare me.

Nico counted down until just below a minute. With an axe and a Kinetic Shells in the Locust, he ran past the fairies.

Just a few seconds out a couple beams came his way. The Rogue fairies broke into a kinetic boosted sprint. Their acceleration was immediate, and their top speed was beyond Nico’s.

The instant Nico sensed one lung he jumped and spun around, leading with his axe. It blew a mushroom on only one wing, dodging to the side. He blocked the second fairy’s claw with the Locust then kicked the other fairy before its claw reached him.

The Bruiser Fairies running right behind. The Ranger fairy couldn’t fire without hitting its own ally.

Nico spun around and tossed a Kinetic shell in between the two Rogue fairies that leaped for him with a Kinetic Burst, snarling in the way monsters do before a bite. Nico’s shell touched the ground first. It sent one of Bruiser’s flying forward with flailing arms while it blew the other one to the side.

Kara’s sword left two green circles, one after another, with a Rogue being inside each one. The Bruiser fairy’s head was at the intersection between the two circles. It still lurched forward, its arms swinging widely as if its head didn’t drop behind it.

Nico met its empty neck with his axe. He got a foot down its chest before it tackled him to the ground. They rolled together until he kneed it in the stomach and kicked it away. They got up at the same time. It leaped towards him.

Nico stepped to the side. It crashed into the ground and started smashing it.

Last Breath (Uncommon II)

Upon receiving fatal damage, your physique will double. Die after 3 seconds.

Brutal. He turned to join Kara. “It has last Breath.”

He saw her swing her hand before the Bruiser punched with its right hand. She slapped it from the side. It changed the direction far enough for it to miss her shoulders. When it reached with its other arm Kara moved forward, elbowing it from the side. In the same step she head-butted the fairy in the face. Its arms came back, trying to catch the back of her head, but she ducked below it and stepped back, left hand on her hilt and right on her scabbard.

The fairy stepped after Kara. A green line went across one of its ankles a moment before it touched the ground. The timing was beautifully on point. It pressed its leg down and collapsed.

So she’s using her Kinetic Sense. But that was pretty much equivalent to Nico using his life sense to fight, which was pretty vague. It only let him know where someone was, and what limb they moved if he really focused. If someone threw a punch at him, he would know that they did, but he wouldn’t know where the punch was exactly.

Nico thought it was borderline impossible to fight with such little information. It was hard to tell what she was like before she lost her eyes. Probably stronger, but by how much? She’s already pretty damn strong.

Half of the credit did go to the Sword Of The Lost Cow, a most badass name if Nico says so himself. He wasn’t sure what a cow was, but it had an ominous tone to it.

Charge Weapons were rare, not because they were hard to make, but because they were generally terrible weapons. They dealt heavy damage when unleashed, but they required a long charge-timer, had a long-down time because of how quickly the weapon ran out of Energy, and spent so much Energy that it made the hunt a net-loss.

They were even more terrible in duels, where pre-charging a weapon or skill was not allowed.

But with the Energy problem solved, and given enough time, the sword could quite literally one shot anything.

It also allowed her to never run out of Energy, but that wasn’t exactly a big advantage in short fights, where running out of it was unlikely in the first place. It did cut the down-time in between their battles, making them hunt faster.

No matter how much the Ranger fairy tried to maneuver, the Bruiser was always in between it and Kara. Seeing Nico run towards it made it point its wings towards him.

By now Nico got the timing pretty well. When the yellow liquid on its wings reached the quadrant, Nico squatted until his butt touched his ankles, then kicked off the ground so quickly a few of his hairs got annihilated by the bottom of the beams. He tucked his chin against his chest and covered his face with the Locust.

A wave of Life Force blasted him, taking a layer of flesh off and slowing him down to a stagger. He brought his feet down, healed, and continued his sprint towards it.

It wasn’t the same as before. He wasn’t in pain, he had a monster killing axe, and more importantly, he was mentally prepared. As a last-ditch effort, it lunged forward as Nico swung down. The axe reached it first. It struck down its skull, splitting it to the neck and smashing it to the ground. There was a gratifying crunch to it.

He raised his axe and swung down its spine until a skull icon floated out of it. He turned around and ran at the two Bruiser Fairies Kara was fighting. Both lost their heads. They reached blindly for her.

Nico jumped up and swung down with both arms, catching one from behind and ripping a tear down to its buttocks as if he was unzipping a coat. To his surprise, even with one foot, the other fairy jumped towards him.

In a rush he stepped back and collapsed. The fairy leaped above him, so majestic with its wings he thought it was flying through the sky. It landed on the dead fairy’s corpse and mauled it. It died by its self moments later.

Nico was still on the ground, feeling dizzy and panting. He hadn’t realized how much he pushed his body.

Kara rested her shoulder against a tree facing him. She waited, he thought, for him to catch his breath. “How much experience do you have fighting in a squad?”

“Wow, that was like your longest sentence yet,” Nico said. “I mainly did one versus ones in tournaments until I became of age, then I solo hunted in the 1st Zone for a while before stuff happened. Long story. Lots of words. It’s not inter—”

“It’s a good thing we’re resting here, then,” she said. “And you like words.”

“With people than to, and generally not in a monster infested area, but yeah,” Nico said. “So I fought against a Rank III thermal user in the 40th Games. I was Rank I with my healing skill. No Shields. People thought I would die, so they told me to forfeit. I didn’t. So we fought, and I killed him.

Some people liked it, because it’s usually Rankers that slaughter Rats in these tournaments, and some people didn’t, because murder bad, violence is not the answer, don’t fight fire with fire—lots of variations, really. Anyway, fast forward two years and they burned my brother in return. An opportunity was presented to me, and I took it.” He gestured around him. “And here I am.”

“Did you know that would happen?”

“I don’t know,” Nico said.

“Do you not know, or have you forgotten?”

“Why does that matter to you, Mrs. Mysterious?” Nico said, a harshness in his voice he hadn’t intended for.

Kara shrugged. She walked ahead.

Nico struggled to his feet. He spent a Heal and Siphoned everything he could Siphon. He went in her direction, his body rejuvenated but his head still painfully throbbing. His Heals were supposed to recover stamina, but the growing fatigue felt like it was sinking in his bone marrow.

He found Kara sitting down on a mound, facing in his direction. Her right hand was limply hanging over her raised knee, holding her scabbard from the middle. Her left leg was stretched in front of her, and her arm rested on the grass palm up with stiff curled fingers, like a dead spider.

There were blisters growing on the callouses of her palm. They’d been rubbed off, revealing raw pink skin underneath. It was torn, bruised, and bleeding. It mixed with the uneven splats of dirt and old crusted blood, giving it a mucky texture.

Nico raised the Locust in front of him. He traced the dark line on its palm with his index finger. There wasn’t a single scratch on it. It was smooth, flawless, and seemingly indestructible. It would allowed Kara to use her sword without having to deal with her shoulders dislocating or her palms ripping.

The circle opened. It pushed out the gold ball. Nico walked up to her, freezing with his foot up in the air.

Past the mound, around 5 to 7 mounted monsters were walking by. Any closer and making the Healing Shell might have alerted all of them. He glared at Kara for all he was worth, though he couldn’t muster up any anger or disappointment, just sadness and inexplicable frustration. She could have just pointed, or mouthed a warning or two. She did neither. It’s like she didn’t care.

He stayed where he was, staring at her hand. He gritted his teeth and set his foot down. He took one step after the other, moving as quietly as he humanely could. Each step felt like a mile. Sweat ran down his eyebrows.

He bent in front of her, reaching for her hand with the Locust even more slowly than he walked. The closer the Locust got, the more scared he grew. He touched her palms with the shell and pressed down.

The shell didn’t burst. He pushed, trying to crush the shell under his weight, but nothing happened. Even though he grunted and his boots sank into the ground from his effort, not even the dirt under her hand stirred. He felt like he was pushing against a wall. The wall. It was futile. He would have better chances striking down the other half of the moon.

He looked at her face just a few inches away and became scared again for reasons he still did not understand. “You’re hurt,” he whispered. His voice was shaking. His shoulder throbbed. He wanted to scratch it. “You’ll keep the callouses, and…and it’ll give you a better grip,” he added, unsure of whether she heard the weakness in it.

The shell burst, creating a cold, bubbling yellow gel to cover and then sink into her hand. He moved aside the Locust to get a better look.

The blood and dirt vanished, leaving her hand bare. On her palm and scattered across the entirety of each finger were white nail sized patches of thick flesh. They looked like bone.

He touched the ones on her fingers with his index, and the ones on her palms with his thumb. They felt less like skin and more like harsh sandpaper. How many years did this take? 5? 10? 20? How many hours a day? How much rest in between? How much of it did she spend with her hands like this? What about the wounds he couldn’t see? Why didn’t she just ask for a heal? Was he supposed to notice?

Some crazy part of him made him rest his palm on top of hers. Her fingers were so much longer than his that it really did make him feel like a child.

He pulled his hand back when the last monster passed them. He looked at her face and waited with slacked shoulders.