Vernisha was jolted awake by the chatter of the three men.

  For some reason, the carriage door was wide open, despite the lizard still moving. She was certain one of them was responsible for it.

  They huddled together, leaning out to catch a view while exchanging nonsense.

  "You think you can beat a vlandos in a fight with a knife?" Merkerthy asked.

  "Would they be weaponless?" Tom inquired, rubbing his chin as though considering it carefully.

  "Yeah. They also can't make the first move."

  Tom nodded, deep in thought. "Depends. Is it a chick or a dude?"

  "What difference does it make?" Julun asked, confusion evident in his voice.

  Tom grinned, as though he was revealing some secret technique. "If it's a chick or a gay guy, all I gotta do is take off my shirt and start doing the Cha ma la dance and song. Gonna be singing like, 'She/he got my heart in her/his trap. I wanna break free. I wanna break free.' And they’re gonna love that. So while I’m singing, I’ll move toward them in a sexy way. And then, I’ll make them fall in love with me. I’ll spend, like, three weeks love bombing them. Then, when they’re asleep, I’ll slit their throat, or hope it can be slit."

  Julun nodded, grinning. "What if they kill you as soon as you start singing with that rusty voice of yours?"

  Merkerthy burst into laughter. "I can’t even imagine him getting those giants to find him sexy. Might as well go all out and drop to your knees, ask them if they want a free sucky-sucky at that point."

  Julun shook Merkerthy, laughing. "That reminds me. You ever seen that mag, Lost Fert Gets Seduced by Lost Vlandos Maiden?"

  Merkerthy began smiling even before hearing the punchline. "Yeah, yeah?"

  Tom, seemingly already knowing where the joke was heading, muttered, "Un-fucking-believable."

  "Remember when he was on his knees, locked on her crutch like it was a sacred relic? Then she dropped her panties, and the smell hit him so bad, he started having vivid memories of his ancestors going to war. That’s gonna be Tom. He’s gonna be running away, screaming, 'Abort mission! Abort... Quaa!'" Julun collapsed to the side, laughing uncontrollably, slapping the ground.

  Merkerthy joined him, chuckling. "I forgot about the PTSD thing. Holy..."

  The crude humor reminded Vernisha of the random mean jokes her friends and she used to make back in high school on Earth.

  She wiped the saliva from the corners of her mouth and groaned inwardly at how tired she felt. It really seemed like she had only gotten an hour or two of sleep.

  The silo ahead began to rise, signaling morning was approaching. It was about five o'clock, judging by how little light there was.

  Natasha shifted to the opposite side of the carriage to get a better view outside and gestured for Vernisha to follow.

  Vernisha did, asking, “What’s going on?”

  Natasha pointed at the distant ruins of what must have been a massive building, maybe a hundred meters away. "See it?"

  "The ruins? Yeah. What about it?"

  "It was a factory for ether batteries."

  "So, an accident happened?"

  "Monsters were drawn to all the ether. They ran out of their zone and trashed the place to absorb the sweet, sweet nectar."

  "Damn. The Governing Trustees must’ve been fuming."

  The Governing Trustees were basically the world’s version of a board of directors.

  "Probably. Anyway, I thought you might find it interesting."

  "It is."

  As they passed by a village with around thirty small buildings, some with small gardens or animals, the carriage suddenly jolted and began moving erratically.

  A powerful voice bellowed from ahead, "Run!"

  Vernisha wondered what the hell was going on.

  Suddenly, the lizard cried out, a monstrous, deafening sound filling the air.

  Claws ripped through the front of the carriage, and a red, shark-like beast with six limbs stared at them, its eyes full of pure malice. It looked at them as if contemplating how it would make them suffer.

  Bahmos stumbled back, trembling. "No fucking way..."

  The beast's mouth opened wide, and heat rippled through the air around its jaw. Then its eyes snapped to Natasha.

  It just stared.

  Vernisha thought it might want to kill Natasha first.

  Unfortunately for it, it was met with a massive black war hammer to the face, jerking its head to the side with a guttural growl.

  A three-meter-tall crab, made of wood and grass, clamped its pincers around the beast's neck.

  "Kill it!" the war hammer-wielding man demanded.

  Without hesitation, everyone scrambled out of the carriage.

  Vernisha picked up Ulah, while Natasha grabbed Caren’s hand, quickly adjusting her grip before using all her strength to drag him out.

  The carriage lurched and swayed as the monstrous shark continued to thrash.

  It fixed its scornful gaze on the adventurer before unleashing a screech that sent a burning, blinding light flashing across the space.

  Vernisha’s eyes.

  She instinctively dropped Ulah, her hands shielding her eyes from the searing pain.

  The four guys screamed, but she heard no sound from Natasha.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Then she heard him again, his voice unmistakable.

  “SHIT!”

  It was the war hammer-wielding man. The same guy she had met in the market. Jim.

  His voice, thick with rage, followed. “Come back! Come back and fight me!”

  He continued yelling, his words cracking under the strain. Then he muttered, “What a coward…”

  The same person said to them. “Give it an hour or two, it will clear out.”

  “Holy shit, you’re an adventurer?” Tom cried, rubbing his eyes.

  “Yeah. Lucky you, right?”

  Bahmos groaned, still in pain.

  The Vlandos spoke again, surprised. “Oh, it’s you two. Didn’t expect to meet you so soon.” He shouted in a different direction. “Jer-kal-thuli-mal, it’s the farmer girl!”

  Natasha was suddenly defensive. “How do you know her?”

  Vernisha reached for Natasha’s hand to calm her, whispering, “I met them in the market square. That’s all.”

  “Yeah, I bought some pink-terras from her and saw… um, that man on the floor.”

  He continued, “Don’t worry, we’re adventurers sent to deal with this monster, so you can relax a bit.”

  Vernisha held Ulah with one arm, retreating behind Natasha for some semblance of safety.

  “Damn, I guess I scared you…” Jim said.

  Vernisha was not hiding from fear. She was hiding behind Natasha to heal her eyes without drawing attention.

  She touched her eyes with her glowing left hand. After a short while, the darkness receded, and her regular vision returned.

  She knew this would raise questions, but she wondered what conclusions he would draw.

  No Vlandos had the ability to use skills, not even through the system, which could grant all manner of powers.

  She was an exception. Unless he was senile, he would have to come to some other conclusion about her sudden recovery.

  Vernisha stepped out from behind Natasha’s protective stance, rubbing her eyes as she spoke. “I think my eyes are getting a bit better…”

  She took in the sight of him, clad in black iron armor, standing confidently. Behind him, the massive, tree-based crab monster remained completely still.

  He asked, “You can see already…?”

  “Yeah,” she replied. “I turned away from the flash and closed my eyes in time.”

  He nodded slowly. “Quick. Anyway… how are you?”

  His voice carried the tone of a student trying to distract a teacher.

  Vernisha wondered, but from what?

  “Please… kill me,” came a faint voice from behind the adventurer.

  The adventurer muttered a curse under his breath as Vernisha instinctively looked behind him.

  Had the monster done all this?

  Corpses were scattered across the ground, bodies torn apart, intestines spilling from gaping wounds, some torsos split in two, others with only heads, their bodies nowhere in sight.

  She swallowed hard, the knot in her throat growing tighter.

  She saw Lo'jul, the Punchio guy, the one who had given her the knife. He was moving from corpse to corpse, draping them with a black blanket pulled from an air-water eclipse that followed him.

  Her stomach churned.

  Everything she had eaten came up in a rush, and she vomited on the road.

  One of the bodies being covered was burned down to the skeleton, the ground blackened beneath it.

  Jer-kal, the pink-gum-skinned woman, the Julioes, was running from one mutilated body to another, attending to the injured.

  A massive, fairy-like monster, about Vernisha’s size, hovered beside her. Its glowing yellow hands touched those with missing flesh, and new tissue formed, healing them.

  She could heal. That meant she could probably heal Ulah.

  And Caren.

  The Punchio guy barked, “Jim, get your ass back to guarding!”

  Jim, the one who had spoken with Vernisha earlier, sighed. “Sorry to you all. But for—”

  Vernisha rushed to ask, “Can your friend heal my brother and father? They’re really sick, like, badly sick.”

  “Oh. Um, yeah, once we’re done here.”

  She wanted to tell him it was urgent, but she held back. What was happening here was more pressing.

  Jer-kal stood, her face grim. “Lo’jul, this one just died on me.”

  She moved to another wounded person, and Lo’jul, the Punchio, covered the newly deceased body with his blanket.

  Lo’jul shook his head, his voice heavy. “This is going to be a lot of work for the cleanup crew.”

  Jer-kal moved toward a man, his lower body bleeding heavily. His eyes were fixed on the sky, his face stained with tears. Despite the slow blinking of his eyes and the faint rise and fall of his chest, it seemed like he was already dead.

  Jer-kal spoke gently, “You’ll be okay in—”

  “Kill me,” he interjected, his voice weak and desperate.

  Jer-kal showed little reaction. “Sorry, I can’t do that.”

  He repeated, “Just do it…”

  Biting her lip, Jer-kal responded, “Give me a second.”

  She tapped a small pyramid communicator near her ear. “Operator ‘Sharcoi,’ answer.”

  There was a brief delay before she spoke again. “The monster victim here is a fifty to sixty-year-old human male. He’s requesting assisted suicide due to the psychological harm caused by the monster’s assault. He’s mortally wounded, but I can save him.”

  Jer-kal nodded slowly. “Understood.”

  With a detached, almost inhuman tone, like a professional receptionist, she relayed, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have permission to assist with your suicide. However, an adventurer is on his way to erase your memories of what occurred today. You will forget it all.”

  He didn’t respond, but the fairy hovering nearby began to sing a strange lullaby, coaxing the man’s eyes closed before healing him.

  Jer-kal glanced around, hearing more moans of pain. That’s when she saw Vernisha.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Great. She hadn’t heard Jim.

  Vernisha blinked a few times, struggling to find her words. “My… my…”

  Damn it, Vernisha. Just say it. But all she could think of were the blood, the chunks of flesh, the intestines.

  Jim interjected, “Her family’s sick. I’m guessing they were heading to Sundawn for professional care.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  As Jer-kal moved toward Vernisha, an injured man shouted, “Where are you going? My leg is still fucked up!”

  She called back, “I’ll be with you very soon, sir.”

  “What? Then at least make your monster heal us while you go talk to your friends!”

  “That’s against protocols.”

  “Oh shut the hell up! We’re dying here! You get paid to help us! Our fucking tax money!” He pointed at his leg. “It’s broken, and you don’t want to help me? You know what’ll happen to you once I report this to the adventurers’ guild?”

  He breathed heavily. “Jail. Fucking jail.”

  Jer-kal’s hands clenched, and beneath the friendly expression she wore, Vernisha could sense her simmering anger.

  Jim walked over to her, his arm going around her shoulders. He whispered something in her ear, but she didn’t react.

  She was still staring at the man.

  He then said, “Look, I’m speaking the truth. You’re in Terrafall, and you work for our government. You have to follow our rules. That’s just how it is.”

  When in Rome, do as the Romans.

  Lo’jul, who had been observing from the side, spoke up. “Do us a favor and shut up. You don’t like us, fine. We don’t like you either, that’s understood. So just let us do our job. My friend here was just going to help someone who’s just as much of an emergency as you. But now you went and pissed her off. You pissed off a Julioes, of all people.”

  The man took a shaky breath. “Okay, okay. Sorry. I went over my head.”

  Natasha muttered, “Good luck with that.”

  Vernisha figured she was referring to Jer-kal accepting apologies. There was that stereotype, or maybe it wasn’t just a stereotype, that Julioes didn’t know forgiveness. They chose to ignore hurt if there was something to gain from doing so.

  Whether it was a biological trait or a product of social engineering, Vernisha didn’t know. And frankly, she didn’t care.

  Jer-kal brushed Jim’s hand off her shoulder and walked toward the man, who now seemed full of fear. In all fairness, she was huge, 6’9” and armored.

  “Hey, hey. Stop your friend!” he shouted.

  Jer-kal responded coldly, “I’m not going to kill you. Damn Prerfamaetgsquan.”

  What was that? Must be Juriop, her native language.

  Jim groaned in disappointment. “You know the operator’s going to write you up for that, right?”

  “I’ll call him one in his face, too.”

  Jim made several facial expressions, as if to ask if she was senile, but he gave up with a resigned sigh, like someone appeasing an angry partner.

  Anyway, Jer-kal healed the man, though he resisted at first, thinking she was going to kill him.

  Now, the people around were staring at her oddly. When she was done, she came to Vernisha.

  She asked, “Him?” referring to Ulah, who Vernisha held.

  “Yes, please,” Vernisha replied.

  Without a word, her fairy monster drew near, and then nothing.

  The fairy’s fingers tensed, and it began to groan in pain. Jer-kal, too, seemed to be in agony, her eyes wide.

  Natasha grabbed Vernisha and pulled her away quickly.

  Jer-kal kicked the monster, and suddenly it transformed into a white mass of light. Then her feet absorbed the light.

  She gasped, falling to her knees, sweat dripping from her face. “Fuck… me. I’m tired.”

  Jim approached Jer-kal with concern. “Take your rest. You did well.”

  Jer-kal sighed. “I think you’re going to need to carry me. My brain feels like it’s going to split.”

  “Yeah, I got you.” Jim lifted her onto his back. “Lo, how many more minutes you got left in you?”

  “Maybe thirty?” Lo’jul answered, his gaze on the humanoid monster in the sky. It had four faces, each facing a respective cardinal direction. Below its neck, it looked like it wore a black religious habit, but that was likely part of its body, considering how it moved.

  Jim then turned to Vernisha. “Sorry, kid.”

  Vernisha knew she really had shitty luck.