Marisol didn’t need telling twice.

  With a sharp twirl, she started skating back the way she came, hurtling down a particularly long root as the crab-headed men screeched behind her.

  She refused to turn around and look, but the rustling of the gargantuan forest behind her told her the men were pursuing.

  She chewed her lip as she skated down a root and launched into the air for a brief moment, landing on another root.

  the Archive explained calmly.

  the Archive said plainly.

  Right as she slid off a root and prepared to jump onto another one, she heard a rustle in the shrubs next to her. She turned. A pair of bright orange pincers snapped at her neck, forcing her to jerk her head so far back that she almost lost her balance. She managed to keep skating along the forest, though, and the crab-headed marauder cursed in his foreign tongue.

  If she’d been a fraction of a second slower, her head would’ve been snipped off already.

  the Archive said.

  Her heart hammered in her ears as she kept her eyes focused on the roots ahead, trying to map out her escape route before she was skating on top of it. There were around twenty marauders at the outpost, so if all twenty were chasing her right now, and she was trying to run on home turf…

  She gnashed her teeth together and forced out a grin, glancing behind her to count the number of vaguely humanoid shadows charging through the forest. Thank the Great Makers their chitin were bright orange and their throats were loud like barbarians. She could hear them screaming and shouting curses from half the forest away, and were it not for that, she wouldn’t be able to tell where they all were.

  On water, she didn’t think she’d lose in a battle of speed, but on land? She was more than happy to see just how fast she could glide.

  She’d just have to take the Archive’s word for it. Eyes flickering across the roots, she eventually found one that seemed like it’d bring her west, so she put in all her effort as she felt herself moving up—actively swinging her arms, controlling her breaths, picking up her skating rhythm. She could actually see the top of the cliff peeking through the canopy fifty meters overhead, and to her relief, she also heard the roar of the waterfall slamming into a basin close by. All she had to do was get up to the very top of the cliff.

  Easier said than done, of course.

  Without warning, the moment she started routing through the forest and skating up a steep slope, the marauders fired. The projectiles weren’t like the bullets fired from the Rampaging Hinterland Front’s rifles, nor like the mortars the Attini Empire’s Forward Armies used. One of them grazed her ear right as she made a sharp turn, and she winced without touching her wound. She’d lose her momentum otherwise.

  Besides, she saw the fizzle of steam where the projectile slammed into a nearby bark.

  They were shooting ‘blood’ at her.

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  —the Archive explained, plucking the question out of her mind. have them spit their own highly dense blood instead of seawater, though… The result has far more punch than normal seawater—]

  she mumbled in her thoughts.

  the Archive interrupted,

  ‘It better be worth dying for’ was what she wanted to say, but the Archive probably heard her thoughts anyway. If the Archive had a better use for sixty whole points, then she’d put her trust in it for just a little while longer. She narrowly dodged streams of blood, leaped over more chasms, and skated like the desperate, flailing girl-out-of-water that she was.

  Eventually, she skated out of the woods and emerged onto the top of the cliff overlooking the entire rest of the island.

  For a moment, she lost herself in the breathtaking sight. So high up above the sea, the air was fresh with the scent of herbs and mint, salt in the winds. The island was more ‘round’ than she’d expected. Without clouds above, the pure blue sky really was something to marvel at as well—and then the Archive snapped at her to focus, dragging her back down to cruel, uninviting reality.

  She understood immediately. Before any of the marauders could burst out of the forest and corner her at the edge of the cliff, she picked up the small boulder—it was surprisingly light with her enhanced strength—and immediately tossed it over the edge. She’d like to watch the boulder plummet the horrifying sixty meters down to the large basin below, but she had no time to spare. She heard the first marauders screaming through the forest and grabbed onto a few vines, sliding herself right off the edge of the cliff.

  She started falling.

  Then her vines snapped taut and she stopped falling, slamming back into the cliffside.

  Dangling next to the roaring waterfall, she held onto her vines like her life depended on it. Freezing water sprayed into her face and made it difficult to breathe, so she gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, praying the marauders would overlook her.

  A second later, she heard the massive of the boulder hitting the basin below her. A second after that, the sounds of disgruntled chatter from the marauders washed over her. Brain freezing, hands slipping, she continued gritting her teeth and counting the seconds as they passed by—one by one by one until she heard the marauders cursing out loud, racing back into the forest in an attempt to catch her at the bottom at the cliff.

  She’d done it.

  She’d made them believe she’d jumped down the waterfall.

  the Archive interrupted.

  Her eyes were still squeezed shut and her teeth were still chattering from the sheer cold and weight of the waterfall. She couldn’t afford to look at her status screen and see what the Archive was talking about.

  And it took a while after that, but, over the course of what felt like three or five, or even ten minutes, it was like someone had thrown a blanket over her to protect her from the waterfall.

  Her skin felt warmer.

  Dryer.

  She gradually peeled her eyelids open and saw ‘magic’ before her eyes—the sprays of water that’d been pummeling her body were now bouncing away from her, like she was being surrounded by an invisible barrier of wind.

  A status screen popped up next to her head as she wiped water from her face, gasping hard for breath.

  [T2 Core Mutation Unlocked: Basic Hydrospines Lvl. 1]

  [Brief Description: You have grown microscopic spines that you can vibrate to create an extremely thin hydrophobic barrier across your skin. Your entire body can now repel water slightly. Subsequent levels in this mutation will decrease the stamina drain from vibrating your spines]

  [Aura: 513 → 563]

  [Points: 61 → 11]

  …

  Clenching her jaw, she reached an arm through the waterfall, and she watched with wide eyes as she parted the falling curtain of water.

  All she had to do was focus on vibrating little ‘hydrospines’ across her skin, and she could repel water.

  the Archive added.

  [Basic Hydrospines Lvl. 1 → Basic Hydrospines Lvl. 2]

  [Aura: 563 → 565]

  [Points: 11 → 9]

  Grinning weakly, she felt around the back of the waterfall until she felt dry air behind it. There really a hidden cave of sorts, so she kicked the cliff, gathered some momentum, and then swung right through the waterfall.

  Her hydrospines weren’t one hundred percent water-repelling, so the waterfall still smacked her face as she swung through, but… she landed hard on her back. She’d done it. She was in the hidden cave.

  She let go of the vines and lay sprawled out inside the cave, panting for breath.

  For a brief few seconds, she thought she was in one of those fairy tales her mama used to read to her in bed. It really quite magical seeing sunlight refracting through the waterfall. It cascaded in glimmering sheens of golden-orange light, illuminating only the mouth of the cave. Slowly, she panned her head to the side and saw the cave seemed to lead somewhere deeper, somewhere darker. Frankly, though, she couldn’t care any less about where it led.

  Her stomach was growling.

  Her throat was parched.

  And most important of all, she still hadn’t gotten a good night’s rest since integrating with the Archive.

  [Objective #3 Completed: Run from the Blackclaw Marauders before they turn you into crab bait]

  [Reward: Survival]

  she thought, shaking her head softly.

  the Archive said, and she let out a huge sigh of relief hearing it say that.

  She jolted when she heard legs skittering from the dark, unlit end of the cave, and somehow managed to find the strength to sit up straight.

  Squinting at it now, there was nothing moving at that end of the cave, but she she heard something skittering past like crab legs.