Obviously, nothing like that happened.
Nicklas eyes out of the corner of my eye. Sure, that’s another sentence that ca out wrong. At least Valeria isn’t smart enough to notice sexual innuendos. Or maybe she just can’t fathom ever having sex with a lesser. Or maybe just in particular. I’m not hurt—she’s a Human. I reciprocate by not entertaining such an idea.
Stop thinking that I’m coping. I’m not fucking coping. So people have ideals that persist through delusions. More like ideal singular; my unbridled enmity for Humanity is the only dogma of mine that I truly feel connected to.
Valeria’s upper uniform is off—there’s a black tank top underneath, of course. Disinfectant floods the grievous wound. She stares down, all peeved as I deftly wrap a tight bandage around her shoulder.
"Who taught you this?" she looks up at as I work.
"Myself." When you get stabbed so many tis, you pick up a thing or two, no?
"Who taught you how to fight?"
"Myself." Along with the experience of Shacktown, and of course, the ever-helpful Master Nero.
"And how did you manage to get Imprinted?" Valeria’s eyes etch the jagged lines of my Imprint, barely visible from underneath my sleeves.
"By killing obnoxious upper nobles who made the mistake of prying."
"Murdering Favored is illegal, you know," Nicklas interjects.
I give Nicklas the ’you are a retard’ stare before finishing the bandage, standing up, and dusting off non-existent dust from my hands.
Valeria flexes, testing my wrap like she wants it to fail so she can get mad at sothing. It doesn’t. Of course.
"Good?" I ask.
She grunts, trying extrely hard to act unimpressed.
"Fantastic. We’re moving," I say, eyeing Cossa. He blinks through the shock’s hangover, jaw clenched in stoic agony. Noble resolve looks the sa as constipation nine tis out of ten. I just hope he didn’t actually shit himself.
"Moving where?" Nicklas asks.
"Back to the village." Holy fuck, I’m going to fucking kill this clueless bastard.
"So soon? I really like this area really..."
"We don’t have ti for sightseeing. We ca here for a job, and now that job is complete. We can’t have our package spoiling, or turned over to the enemy who are hot on our heels."
"But... but the Corrup—"
"Shut. The fuck. Up." I don’t care about his Corrupted sightseeing. We have bigger problems, believe it or not.
"Uh..." Nicklas’s shoulders sag. "Alright..."
I turn to Valeria, motioning toward Cossa. "You’re carrying him. So choose a shoulder."
"Why do I have to carry him?!" Valeria snaps.
"Why... hmm... why? Why the fuck do you think?!"
"I don’t know, that’s why I asked!"
"Hells, have you tried thinking it through at least?"
"Auren, you said... I thought you said that we were in a hurry," the weasel interjects once more.
"No, no, I’m seriously interested in the ntal processes of her hollow skull."
"Is it because I’m stronger than you?" she dramatically taps her chin in faux thought.
"Wow, you knew the answer the whole ti," I roll my eyes. "Do you just enjoy being a dense retard or what?"
She finally cracks. An upper noble can only take so much disrespect, of course.
"Fucker," Valeria angrily grabs by the collar with vicious swiftness. "Look, lesser bastard! The only reason I haven’t buried you—"
"Is because you’re nothing without ?" I smirk, talking over her.
"—is because of Leara. I don’t give a shit if you’re on my team, or a so-called ’ally’," Valeria sneers in contempt. "You’d be jawless in a hospital cot without her. Rember that."
I’d murder her if she ever tried to seriously co at . How many ’accidental’ student killings can I get away with?
"Let go," I rival her angry lupine eyes.
"Or fucking what, lesser?"
"Hah," I scoff, looking to the side with a deprecating, amalgamated smirk.
THWACK.
My open palm crashes into her sternum. Valeria the giantess feels the full force of Empowered, fueled by half my remaining Essence. She spits up the air in her lungs like a deflating balloon.
Valeria is flung a dozen feet into a nearby stack of bushes.
But she rises just as quickly as she fell, staring at in angered confusion, like I’ve committed so grave cri by laying a hand on her.
I straighten my collar and prepare so form of de-escalating speech.
Until she charges .
In the blink of an eye, the hulking bull has closed the gap. Shit. Must have been her Quick Step Skill. She’s by far the fastest, as well as the strongest.
Regardless, I’m fucked. There’s only one option
Essence goes through channels on my feet. Misty Step, the spoils from the now-dead Henri, is finally used.
My body turns light. I move faster than the blink of an eye.
Valeria crashes through afterimages projected within a faint haze.
I stand untouched a few feet away; it’s hyper-efficient when used in short distances like this, though my Essence reserves are still cooked from my frequent Empowered usage.
"How many tricks do you have, deceiver?" Valeria spits, then starts pacing, circling with hungry eyes. She’s getting too far into it.
"Stop ssing around," I sneer.
"Is eradicating a rat from our ranks ’ssing around’?"
"Guys..." Nicklas tries to break through to us. Standing off to the side with Cossa, he looks like a child watching his divorced parents have a brutal back-and-forth.
Valeria doesn’t bat an eye. In fact, she gets even angrier. Thanks, Nicklas.
We’ve already progressed to psychotic argunt points. I’m not a damn rat; I make this fucking team work.
I unsheathe my sword. "Sure, let’s see how far you’ll take this tantrum."
"Till you’re dead!" she slobberily snarls.
"Cute, but when Nicklas and I return without you, I’ll be forced to tell her that I removed every limb from your body because you couldn’t handle a bit of na-calling," I tighten my stance.
Tremors is at the ready.
Then the trees around us start to... talk.
Our guards lower a bit as we gaze around.
It’s not a sound. It’s a dozen whispers of claws on bark, husks peeling, wood quickened into chitter.
A dozen turns into fifty, then a few hundred, till the entire forest sounds like a cicada orgy.
"Oh shit."
My Luck stat is at the lowest possible rank, actually. Because not only are we fucked...
But Nicklas was right.
And that’s far worse.
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