Krvavy softly bites the inside of her cheek, gncing from wagon to carriage to wagon again.

  She hardly pays attention to the fluffy clouds hanging in the sky far, far above. Those pillowy masses are slowly drifting through the air, passing by this convoy and the barbarian alike as they head in the direction she just came from. Towards her hills, her cave, and her home.

  Is this a fight that Krvavy can win?

  Maybe...? It isn’t like she is a stranger to combat. She isn’t inexperienced. But... how many times has she actually fought fairly? How many of her fights have actually been head-on, not ambushes or sneak attacks where she was able to get a good hit off, or even a kill, before her opponent could properly react?

  Thinking about it... There was that very first encounter she had, against those Orcs. She yelled and got their attention before charging down a hill at them. That is pretty direct. Then there was, uh, the bandit chief? He shot Krvavy with a crossbow before she really registered his presence. So yeah, that counts.

  Which makes two.

  And both of those fights were fairly close for her. Which is rather worrying, considering how... simple... they were. A one-on-one in a cramped tent, or even going against two unprepared Orcs, doesn’t quite compare to attacking a caravan defended by at least five armed and armoured men. Professionals who are literally paid to stop idiots like her.

  So... Krvavy will... She’ll hold back on this one. Maybe she would win. Maybe she wouldn’t. It isn’t worth the risk. Frankly, Krvavy is lucky to have not died already, what with how she keeps stumbling into encounters that are a bit above her level...

  Besides, those wagons have way too much stuff for her to carry back home, backpack or not. And would they even be transporting loot that she’d want to keep? The experience alone would be pretty nice, yeah, but... she isn’t bored enough to put her life on the line just for a couple sacks of flour.

  Shaking her head, Krvavy turns away from the road and the caravan driving down it.

  A strong gust of wind races over the hills, whistling between the trees and blowing... straight into her face. A chill runs down the Drakling’s spine despite the warm sunlight caressing her pale white skin and soaking into her bck scales.

  The whinnying of horses and the stomping of their hooves just barely reaches Krvavy’s ears, those sounds struggling to travel upwind. “What in the –?!” A male voice raises the arm. “The horses! They smell something! Some sort of beast!”

  “We can’t take any chances!” Another man shouts back, his tone rough and deep. “Find and ki–!”

  “Over there!” A third voice calls out as Krvavy ducks behind a tree just a moment too te. “I saw something!”

  “Get moving! If it can scare the horses like this, then we can’t let it roam freely! Find it or its tracks! We’ll send a party to hunt the beast down if it gets away!”

  “Yes sir!” “Yes sir!”

  The barbarian’s fingers clench around the bone-handled haft of her crude axe. Her teeth grind together as a grimace fills her face.

  That was just about the worst thing that could have happened. These men sound professional. Disciplined. Dangerous. The element of surprise may have given Krvavy the advantage... but she has lost that now. And she can’t just flee either. Her inhuman and bestial feet don’t do her any favours here. Her tracks would look more like those of a monster than a person. So even if she could shake them off... how far would they follow? How much effort would they put into hunting her down?

  Dammit!

  She doesn’t need anyone scouring the woods for a monster! She doesn’t want anyone getting near her cave, her home!

  Why did the damn wind have to suddenly shift?!

  Krvavy sharply exhales. Time is ticking. She can’t flee. Would talking work? Probably not. Even if it turns out that Thea is just extraordinarily racist by human standards, the savage nature of Krvavy’s equipment and the naturally aggressive look she gave this body won’t make for a good first impression. Especially not since she’s hiding next to a road while armed. That has some implications. Ones that wouldn’t exactly be incorrect to assume...

  Which just leaves one option. Fighting. That is the only way Krvavy can get out of this. If she wins, then she wins and all this worrying was for nothing. If she loses... if she dies... then these men won’t need to track her down. Her girls will be safe, and she can respawn in peace.

  Taking a deep breath, the barbarian steels her nerves before stepping out from behind the tree.

  A little bit ahead of her, just a short distance down the hill, is one of the guards with a sword in his hand. Seeing Krvavy suddenly pop out in front of him causes that man to freeze in pce, his eyes wide in surprise.

  Krvavy hesitates for the briefest moment. Should she...? No. She is outnumbered. She needs to take every advantage she can get. Without wasting another second, the barbarian lunges forwards, swinging her axe down at this man’s unarmoured head.

  Her sudden movement snaps him into action, and just before the axe strikes the guard, he dodges to the side. But he isn’t fast enough to fully avoid Krvavy’s axe. Her crude and barbaric weapon sms down into his left shoulder with a sickeningly loud crunch.

  Critical Hit! 195.34 Damage dealt to [Guard One]

  The guards left arm hangs limply at his side as he bites back a scream of pain. He grits his teeth and lunges forwards, aiming the tip of his sword at the pale abs right in front of him, bare and undefended.

  -10.73 Health

  His attack was obvious enough that Krvavy was able to twist her body slightly, so that instead of stabbing into her the sword just leaves a shallow cut across her belly. It still stings, but is far better than being skewered.

  The guards eyes go wide with panic as he stumbles forwards, having put too much of his weight into the thrust while on this uneven terrain. Pulling her axe back and stepping to the side, Krvavy lets him fall to the ground before bringing her weapon down onto him.

  385.11 Damage dealt to [Guard One]

  [Guard One] has been sin!+220 Experience

  “Ryhor!” A voice shouts out in rage, drawing Krvavy’s attention to the other guard charging towards her, also wielding a sword.

  This first guard was surprisingly easy to take down, which bolsters Krvavy’s confidence. She can do this. The barbarian tears her axe free from that corpse and charges to meet the second man head on.

  20 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]

  Surprisingly, he is able to block her strike with his sword, though his wrists twist a bit in the process. A slight fsh of light as Krvavy pulls her axe back gives her an idea on how he did that. Some sort of magical ward, it seems.

  25 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]30 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]35 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]40 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]

  Wailing her axe down on him as fast as she can, Krvavy doesn’t give the guard a chance to strike back. Each hit does more damage than the st, with faint cracks of light spreading out through the air while the guards arms become shakier and his reactions slow.

  “Siarhei! I can’t hold this for much longer!” He shouts, fear dripping from those words.

  “Down!” A strict, gruff voice calls back, prompting the second guard to immediately throw himself to the ground.

  -42.92 Health-34.34 Health

  Two icicles embed themselves into Krvavy’s right shoulder and arm before she can react, while another few fly past her harmlessly.

  The guard on the ground takes the chance to roll away before jumping up to his feet, having put some distance between himself and Krvavy. The tip of his sword isn’t pointed as high as it was before.

  An icy cold numbs the pain that Krvavy should be feeling, keeping it tolerable and helping to hold off the haze of mindless rage threatening to take away her control. She hasn’t gone berserk just yet. Though she is still furious. And she puts that anger to good use, smming her inhuman foot down with the force of an earthquake, sending a roiling wave of soil and debris towards the guard who stands in her way.

  14.8 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]

  His eyes widen as he almost loses his bance, barely having enough time to raise his sword up in defence.

  Krvavy’s axe crashes against his magical ward, sending more fractures through the air. The sound of gss shattering rings through her ears as the rge axe continues on, only slightly slowed. It collides directly with his sword and scrapes along the metal length, getting deflected straight towards the guards fearful face.

  Critical Hit! 472.6 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]

  [Guard Two] has been sin!+240 Experience

  She doesn’t have any time to celebrate the kill, as a hail of icicles fly through the air towards her. Having twisted her body during the killing blow, the shards of ice puncture all along her right side and that half of back, digging deep into her flesh.

  -21.46 Health-26.62 Health-48.28 Health-40.24 Health-20.37 Health

  “Form up!” The strict voice calls out, as the remaining three guards arrange themselves ahead of Krvavy. All three have swords, but the one with slightly better armour and who was driving the carriage also has a ball of cold blue-white mist floating above the palm of his left hand. Evidently, he is the one unching ice at her.

  And speaking of ice, the magical icicles only seem to remain in her body for a few seconds before fading away into a cold mist. That would be helpful if it didn’t leave a bunch of small holes in her body, holes that are now leaking blood. Seven identical notifications pop up along the edge of her vision, though she quickly dismisses them.

  You have been inflicted with a Minor Wound: Light Bleeding. You will lose 0.25 Health per minute as long as the bleeding continues. x7

  Gritting her teeth, Krvavy decides to quickly test out her new spell, Knit Flesh. Searing pain shoots out from her wounds as her flesh crawls back together, closing up the bleeding holes with ugly lumps of scarred flesh. But despite the moment of agony, it didn’t cause her to take any more damage.

  +42.5 Health

  She used up almost all of her mana to heal back the health lost by a single one of these magical icicles. But at least it stopped the bleeding. So it wasn’t a waste. Besides, she has other ways to gain more mana. To top her reserves right back up.

  Thick and viscous blood flows up her bone-handled axe and towards her hands, fading into her weapon and becoming mana before it can fully come into contact with her skin. In just a few seconds Transmute Blood is able to bring her mana back up, though only to just over 180. It isn’t quite full, but it is good enough.

  The three guards balk at seeing the blood of their comrade flow up her weapon, his body shrivelling into a dried and desiccated husk. What remains of that corpse’s face withers, jaw stretching open in a silent scream as its skin shrinks and pulls tight. “It’s a d-demon!” the guard on the left cries out in utter terror.

  Smiling cruelly and with adrenaline coursing through her veins, Krvavy raises her axe back up, ready to strike once more. The blood-drained remains stuck onto that crude weapon slip free at around the height of her waist, tumbling down to the ground like a limp doll. She takes a step forwards, approaching her three remaining foes.

  The armoured ice mage snaps out of that shock first, barking out an order in his gruff but steady voice. “Advance! Hold the abomination back!”

  The other two guards hesitate for a moment, but are spurred into action as their superior thrusts his sword into the ground and begins to channel his frozen magic with two hands.

  Which sends arm bells ringing in Krvavy’s head. She can’t risk getting bogged down fighting these two, as that gives this ice mage free reign to pelt her with magic. That feels like a death sentence. She needs to get past them, and she has a vague idea on how to do that. Hopefully it works.

  Krvavy barrels forwards to meet the charging guards. Each step she takes is a stomp, her cwed feet smming down and sending rippling waves rolling through the solid ground as if it were the surface of a pond out in the rain. Chaotic, unpredictable, and unstable.

  24.6 Damage dealt to [Scared Guard]17.76 Damage dealt to [Other Guard]

  Krvavy targets the far more terrified guard, barely getting nicked by their bdes as she sms into him, sending that man flying as she continues past them both.

  -5.36 Health-6.44 Health

  56.91 Damage dealt to [Scared Guard]

  The magic wielding guard steels his gaze and quickly moves his hands. Abandoning whatever spell he was casting in favour of another, he aims down at the ground in front of him. With a cold crack a solid wall of ice bursts up, putting a barrier in Krvavy’s path.

  That is a bit of a surprise for Krvavy, as she had expected something to be unched at her. But because of that this ice wall is hardly more than an inconvenience. She simply lunges to the side and does a rge horizontal swing around it.

  Critical Hit! 231.63 Damage dealt to [Icy Guard]

  Her crude axe crashes into his armoured back with a unpleasant crunch, but the guard just grits his teeth and raises his hand up, aiming back and bsting some magic into her face.

  -1.07 Health-0.54 Health-1.61 Health-1.34 Health-0.80 Health

  Tiny shards of ice, almost like slightly hard snowfkes, collide into her. It is more of an annoyance than anything, as even those that get in her eyes do little more than sting before melting away with a blink.

  56.3 Damage dealt to [Icy Guard]

  Krvavy forces her axe forwards, grinding it further into his body and pressing him up against the wall of ice that he summoned. With the guard mostly immobilized, Krvavy moves one hand from her axe to snatch his sword from the ground, bringing it up and then back down towards his neck.

  Critical Hit! 783.91 Damage dealt to [Icy Guard]

  [Icy Guard] has been sin!+600 experience

  Level Up! You have reached Level 9. As a Drakling blessed by a divine power, you have 5 attribute points to allocate and have gained +2 to Might & Toughness. If not allocated by the time you fall asleep it will be done automatically.

  Blood flows from that fresh corpse, topping up Krvavy’s mana as the wall of ice begins to crumble away.

  The drained corpse of the guard falls to the ground with the st of its desperate icy defence, revealing the final two guards standing ready on the other side. The scared one takes a step back, looking like he wants to do nothing more than turn and run off. But the other guard doesn’t share those fears, or is at least disciplined enough to ignore them, as he immediately lunges towards Krvavy.

  Dropping the razor-sharp sword to grip her axe in both hands, Krvavy raises the bone-shaft up to block the incoming strike, which bites deeply into it. The guard tears his bde free and swings it at her again, though she easily bats it aside with the haft of her axe. Keeping the momentum, Krvavy bashes the end of her crude weapon directly into his face, knocking the guard back.

  56.12 Damage dealt to [Other Guard]

  This fight was much easier than she expected it to be. The only one of these guards that really felt like a threat was the icy one, and that was only at range. She is feeling really confident that she can win this right no–

  -80 Health

  A thunderous crack booms out as a searing pain spreads across her upper back. Getting around the wall of ice had put the wagons and carriage behind her, and it would seem that whoever was in the carriage has stepped out of it.

  The bloodied face of the guard in front of her beams triumphantly as he quickly pulls back.

  Krvavy hears a crackling sound from behind her and only has a moment to react. These two remaining guards are the least of her problem right now, so she twists around as fast as she can and brings her axe up defensively.

  -57.43 Health

  The rough iron head of her axe glows red with heat as a fsh of light fills her vision. She blocked the attack, but that didn’t seem to fully work, as a searing pain still travels down both her arms.

  As the light fades away Krvavy has only a moment to see this new foe. It is an old man with a thick white beard. He is wearing a bck robe and a matching cylindrical hat that trails a veil of sorts back over his shoulders. In his hand is a bck cane topped in silver, pointed right at her.

  -57.22 Health

  A bolt of lighting arcs from the cane and collides with her thigh before she can even hope to react, scorching the scales and burning her flesh. This is bad. She can only take a few more of these hits before she’ll run out of health. And desperately casting Knit Flesh doesn’t seem to be restoring any of her health, just lessening the pain.

  With no other option, Krvavy charges towards the carriage. The old man is clearly a mage, so if she can bring her axe down on him then–

  -28.61 Health

  Those thoughts die in her head as bolts of lighting burst from the air around her, simultaneously arcing towards her body. The lighting burns as it coils around her, binding her into pce mid stride.

  -3.58 Health-4.29 Health

  The crackling white magic twists into solid cuffs that burn as she struggles against them. She is hardly able to move at all with the electric bands binding her wrists, calves, biceps, tail, neck, and even her horns and axe to the air.

  Another figure suddenly emerges from the carriage, deftly nding onto the ground beside the old man. This new figure is yet another man and looks to be in his forties or fifties, with slightly greying bck hair and a neatly trimmed beard. Krvavy can hardly perceive his clothes as pain burns through her mind. He is cd in bck fabric, regal and militaristic, and has some sort of silver sash hanging across his chest. A sabre is secured onto his hip, sheathed and not even close to being drawn.

  “What do we have here?” He asks the old man, sounding disinterested.

  “A lone ice lizard,” the lightning wizard responds with a hoarse voice, “likely feral.”

  “It made short work of my men.”

  “They are just newbloods.” The old wizard rasps out. “We left–”

  “Yes, yes. I know. It was my decision to leave the Guard behind to not raise suspicion.” The militaristic man offhandedly states.

  -10.01 Health

  Krvavy struggles against the electric bindings, to no avail. The pain and failure infuriate her, and she finally lets the haze of rage overtake her.

  -14.31 Health

  The extra strength from her anger is just enough to break free from the cuffs, taking a step forwards and bellowing out in rage. “WIZARD!”

  -21.46 Health

  She is immediately wrapped up in even more coils of lightning, which sear her flesh. She doesn’t know how much health she has left, and she isn’t in any state to check, but she must be close to death. This might be the end.

  “Wait.” The militaristic man orders. “Don’t kill it. The beast can speak.”

  The searing pain suddenly comes to a stop, though the lightning remains. Her whole body freezes up as electricity spreads across her, locking up her muscles and preventing her from moving. Even breathing is a struggle.

  You have been inflicted with Enforced Honesty. Magic dampens your temper and compels you to tell the truth.

  The old lightning wizard nods once to his superior, who steps towards Krvavy. “Beast, how long have you been in these nds?”

  “O-ver a w-eek...!” The words force their way out of Krvavy’s lips. She didn’t want to answer the question, but she still did.

  The militaristic man frowns and steels his gaze. “Have you come across any bandits in that time?”

  “Y-e-s...!” The magic forces Krvavy to answer, but it wanted her to say more. She can’t keep herself from talking, but it seems that she can still resist that unwanted urge a bit.

  “Were they led by a man with a... powerful crossbow? You do know what that is, yes?”

  “Hnnngh!” Krvavy tries biting back her answer, but she ultimately fails. The taste of blood fills her mouth. “Ye-sss...! A-nd y-es!” She doesn’t like where this conversation is going. Why does this man want to know about the bandits she killed?

  “Where are they?”

  “G-g-gone!” She growls out. That is technically the truth, which seems to be enough to keep the magic from forcing her to say any more.

  The militaristic man scowls and turns his back to Krvavy. “Those rats. We had a deal! Where could they have gone?!”

  The magic tries to force the answer out of her, but Krvavy resists as much as she can. She is just barely able to stop herself from talking, and only because that question wasn’t directed at her, but even then she can feel it creeping down her tongue. If only she can hold it back a little bit longer...

  Her eyes go wide as that sudden thought brings her to a realization. She had just levelled up.

  Taking the gamble, Krvavy grits her teeth and hastily dumps all five attribute points into Willpower, bringing it up to twenty. “Go fuck yourself!” She growls out, the haze of rage returning to her mind along with the extra strength it brings.

  -11.44 Health

  With an electric crack Krvavy partially breaks free from her lightning cuffs, swinging her axe down at the back of the regal man.

  -28.61 Health

  But her axe doesn’t bite down, as she should have expected. Crackling lighting engulfs her limbs and binds her back in pce once more.

  “Dovoryn...” The old man slowly shakes his head. “Be careful around the beast.”

  Spittle flies from Krvavy’s mouth as she struggles against the searing cuffs, straining her body as much as she can and trying to power through the pain.

  “It is no longer of any use to me. Put the thing down.” The militaristic man orders as he begins to walk back to the carriage.

  -14.3 Health

  Krvavy’s mind is immediately filled with an indescribable searing pain as the magical bindings begin to force lightning into her body. Time seems to slow down to a crawl as electricity arcs across her skin and scales, charring her with each little leap.

  -14.3 Health

  She can feel her flesh bubbling, smell herself burning.

  -14.3 Health

  Her vision goes white as her axe turns to ash and sg in her charred hands, crumbling away along with her fingers.

  -14.3 Health

  Her insides sizzle and cook, and though she can no longer hear it she can still feel the steam force its way out through her throat as one st gasp.

  -715.3 Health

  An excruciating bolt of pure pain pierces her chest, and spreads across the remains of her body in an instant, searing it all away.