The vast canvas of the sky stretched infinitely, a brilliant cerulean punctuated by fluffy, cotton-ball clouds. High above the mundane world, a symphony of uninhibited joy echoed, a chorus of delighted shouts and unrestrained ughter. The source of this jubint noise was Bathilda, a newly-evolved vampire, her voice ringing out with a giddy energy that only the boundless expanse of the heavens could contain.

  Her companion, Hiro, sharing a simir, albeit smaller, form, drifted close by, a silent observer in her aerial ballet. He sought soce in the gentle caress of the wind, attempting to detach himself from the boisterous spectacle and bask in the hard-earned peace they had finally attained. The relentless battles, the custrophobic confines of their previous existence, were momentarily forgotten, repced by the serene tranquility of the open sky.

  "Look, Hiro! This is what they do!" Bathilda excimed, her ughter bubbling forth like a spring of pure delight. She unched herself into a series of acrobatic maneuvers, mimicking the graceful undutions of a dolphin. Instead of water, she used the voluminous clouds as her pyground, diving in and out of their ethereal depths, her form a fleeting shadow against the radiant backdrop.

  She cimed her impromptu performance was an educational endeavor, a demonstration of some obscure natural phenomenon. But the truth was far simpler: she was utterly captivated by the sheer, unadulterated joy of flight, the freedom of the open sky, and the novelty of her newly-discovered abilities.

  "Hey! Why aren't you watching, Hiro?" she called out, her voice tinged with pyful indignation as she emerged from a cloud bank, her hair tousled by the wind.

  Hiro, his small frame almost lost against the vastness of the sky, sighed. "Because I've been watching you for the st half hour, Bathilda. Now that we're finally in the sun, free from the threat of being crushed or eaten in some dark hole, I just want to rex. Soak in the quiet."

  A sudden, chilling revetion shattered the fragile peace. "I'm really gd that we're able to go in the sun. Vampires from my world are notorious for setting on fire and burning to ash when daylight's involved," Bathilda announced, her tone casual, almost conversational.

  Hiro's already pale complexion turned an arming shade of white. "Wait, what? Is that why you stopped ascending before we broke through the clouds? I thought you was letting me on purpose. But now… Did you make me go through the clouds first on purpose? Just in case I burst into fmes?" The casual mention of spontaneous combustion in sunlight sent a shiver down his spine, obliterating any sembnce of rexation.

  "Well, I can't come back to life like you can, though," Bathilda reasoned, her voice devoid of malice, but equally devoid of empathy. "It only makes sense for you to be the guinea pig. And in all fairness, this was my reincarnation, you know?" She reminded him of their shared, precarious beginning, the strange circumstances that had bound them together. Hiro, forced to acknowledge the logic, however unsettling, bit back his retort.

  "What's a guinea pig? Is it like bait?" he asked, his voice ced with suspicion.

  "Well… sort of," Bathilda conceded, hesitant to eborate. "Guinea pigs are actually these little, adorable creatures," she said, carefully avoiding the word 'pet' to prevent further agitation. "People use their name as a reference for someone who… participates in activities first."

  "Adorable?" Hiro repeated, the word ced with disbelief and a hint of dread. His expression was a mask of resigned acceptance, far from the delight Bathilda had anticipated.

  "Yeah! C'mon, Hiro. I even bought the [Clone] skill specifically for you, just so you could have a body. Now, you look like a natural beauty," she beamed, her eyes sparkling with genuine enthusiasm. But her compliment fell ft, failing to elicit the desired response.

  "I don't want to be a girl!" he excimed, his voice filled with frustration.

  "Sorry, Hiro. There's nothing I can do about that yet," Bathilda replied, her tone apologetic, but her eyes already drifting towards her skill list. She had been too preoccupied with survival to examine her newfound abilities, but now, with a moment of retive calm, she was eager to explore her potential.

  Three skills shimmered, almost at level ten, a silent promise of power. She imagined another evolution, a surge beyond the familiar. Her fingers, ghost-like against the ethereal interface, danced across the options. Level five skills, poised for ascension, offered branching paths: [Clone], [Iron Body], [Swift Wing], Identify], and the unexpected [Paralysing Stare]. When did I use that? A flicker of unease, then a shrug. A gift was a gift.

  The sky, once a canvas of serene blue, the fluffy clouds, and even Hiro's reassuring mental presence, all dissolved into a pinpoint of intense focus. Each upgrade selection weighed like a physical burden, a potential divergence in her very essence.

  After a tense, silent deliberation, Bathilda made her choices. A tremor, a ripple of pure satisfaction, pulsed through her. The world snapped back into sharp focus, the air itself seeming to hum with the subtle, yet profound, alterations to her power.

  [Identify] remained stubbornly static, its promise of deeper information the only change. [Iron Body+] and [Swift Wing+] didn't exhibit fshy transformations. Instead, they revealed a more insidious evolution: their percentage boosts, previously a modest 5% per level, had doubled to 10%. Currently, she enjoyed a formidable 50% increase to both defense and speed from both passive skills.

  [Clone+] proved more visually dynamic. The base strength of her duplicate had noticeably amplified, and, surprisingly, she could now conjure a second clone. Said to possess a degree of autonomy, as well as efficient obedience, they would executing her commands with unwavering precision.

  [Paralysing Stare+] was the anomaly, a phantom skill. Bathilda couldn't recall actively using it, yet it had undeniably leveled up. Had she subconsciously deployed it against the Barts? The skill's description painted a vivid picture: a predator's gaze, an irresistible force, an inescapable doom. She wouldn't question its origins; she would simply weaponize it.

  A wave of potent confidence washed over her. Closing the skill list, she descended, breaking through the cloud cover. Her path was clear: find civilization, whatever remained of it. Rejoin the fractured remnants of society in this monster-infested world. The problem? She was utterly lost.

  An endless, verdant ocean of trees stretched in every direction, the familiar peak of her reincarnation mountain nowhere to be seen. The vampires, it seemed, had drifted far further than anticipated during their aerial sojourn.

  Deciding to maintain their current trajectory, she flew above the dense canopy, searching for signs of life. Eventually, she found it, though not the kind she desired.

  Two colossal beasts cshed in a brutal, earth-shattering duel. As she approached, the very trees trembled and swayed, their immense forms bowing before the sheer power radiating from the combatants. These weren't mere animals; they were titans, dwarfing the tallest trees, locked in a struggle that tore at the very fabric of the forest.

  From her vantage point, even at a considerable distance, Bathilda witnessed the devastation. Each blow nded with the force of a seismic event, ripping chunks of earth from the ground, extinguishing swaths of the surrounding flora. The air thrummed with the thunderous echoes of their battle.

  Suddenly, one of the titans, a reptilian behemoth with a shell like a mountain, unleashed a searing ser beam from its maw. The goril-like creature, its muscles rippling with primal power, deftly dodged the deadly ray, retaliating with a thunderous right cross that connected with the turtle's massive head. The impact, however, redirected the still-active ser, sending it hurtling directly towards Bathilda.

  The wave of self-assuredness that had buoyed her moments before evaporated, repced by a chilling dread. She plummeted, leveraging the enhanced speed of [Fly+], desperately attempting to evade the incandescent beam. She narrowly succeeded, the ser scorching the air where she had been a fraction of a second prior.

  Instinct screamed at her to flee, to put as much distance as possible between herself and the raging titans. But fate, it seemed, had other pns. As she turned to escape, she found herself face-to-face with a third, even more terrifying monster, a predator that had silently stalked her approach.

  "Oh shit!"

  A wave of icy terror washed over her as the monstrous creature, a gargantuan crocodile with a maw that could swallow her whole, opened its jaws. Rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth lined its cavernous mouth, promising a gruesome demise. In a desperate, reflexive act, Bathilda raised her arm, a futile attempt to shield herself from the impending doom.

  Then, a miracle. [Wing Ssh+], a skill she hadn't consciously activated, responded with lethal precision. A bde of pure energy, born from her panicked gesture, sliced through the air, bisecting the crocodile's head with surgical accuracy. The top half of the monstrous maw vanished, the bottom jaw hanging limp, severed from its connection.

  "Woah!"

  "Insta-kill."

  "Hiro? How did you die?" Bathilda's voice trembled, her gaze frantically searching for her companion's spectral form.

  "I got caught in that yellow fsh of light and was dead before I realised what it was."

  "Don't worry about it." A surge of adrenaline coursed through her veins, a potent mix of fear and exhiration. "All of a sudden, I'm feeling kind of powerful. Seeing how that st monster went down like a sack of potatoes, let's see what kind of revenge we can dish out on those two." A predatory grin spread across her face as she summoned her clones, ready to turn the tables on the titanic combatants.