Drip. Drip. Drip.

A rain of black blood fell from the still floating ketrokoa corpse, drenching the woman that clung to it. Her torso was a mess of puncture wounds that spilled the same dark coloured liquid. All around her monsters fought in their own private battles, dying and eating. Their struggle had not been a unique one in this place of combat unending.

The darkness once only at the edges of Kola's vision grew to cover all but the centre. The pain from her wounds faded to a fuzzy numbness as her senses began to fail. She could not feel the ground beneath her feet. She could not smell the sulfuric scent of their blood. She could not hear the constant screeching of those around them.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

She could, however, hear their falling blood. It was calming. It made her want to just… let go.

As she completely lost control of her body, it began moving autonomously. Prompted by instincts recently gained, her near unconscious form began tearing at the slain ketrokoa, stuffing its flesh into her mouth even as the blackness in her vision overtook the last visible points.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The soft pattering sound of rain filled Kola's ears. It was pleasant, and soothed her pain free mind. The numbness dissipated, and her senses returned one by one. She heard two people speaking to each other in a dramatic manner. She felt surrounded by warmth and comfort. She smelled home, or at least what she had called home for half a year. And finally she saw: Lasora's apartment.

Kola sat on Las's beige couch, enveloped in a fluffy, red and white blanket. Across from her the television played a show she had watched many times before. It was about a group of demon hunters. The monster of the week was a ketrokoa, and looked rather comical. Who would be scared of a bright orange balloon?

The confused but happy woman felt shifting beneath the blanket. Familiar arms encircled her underneath, and pulled her into them. Las's arms. Las was next to her. Smiling at her.

Kola smiled back and leaned into her friend. The two snuggled together, watching a group of plucky young adults beat up a ketrokoa. She felt amused by how slow it was. Clearly the writers had never seen a real one.

Minutes passed, and the episode ended with the main female lead falling through a misty red portal. The next was all about the group discovering she had been sent to some otherworldly place called Thoroughfare. It had to be the worst episode of the season. The missing girl wasn't shown at all. She was the best character!

They watched episode after episode. Though Kola was focused more on her friend than the show. It felt like it had been so long since she had seen her. Like she had lost her. There was something relieving about being here with Las. More so than usual.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The rain was mesmerising. If she concentrated on it for too long she started to see… things. Creatures that fought and ate under a hidden sky. Blades that reached up from the ground to stab at anything which didn't belong. Kola made a mental note to make sure she got more sleep. After tonight. Tonight felt too special to miss.

As she forced her attention away from the rain, Kola noticed Las looking at her with a raised eyebrow. Opening her mouth to question Las led her to realise that she was chewing the air.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Struck by a moment of lucidity, she grabbed onto Las. This was real and she wasn't going anywhere. The sound of rain washed over her, making it harder to feel her friend's warmth.

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It was like waking from a dream. She could feel both the comforting embrace of Lasora and the pain of her wounds. Kola tightened her grip, trying to keep hold of the wonderful falsehood.

Maybe it would have worked. Maybe she could have lived in her imagination. Instead she was roused by a more urgent pain. It wasn't any worse than what she already felt. It was new however, and thus distracting.

Fully awake now, she froze, thinking of what had been lost. Kola almost cried, but catching sight of what had woken her turned grief to frustration. A slimy sostroki was gnawing at her ankle with tiny teeth. They wouldn't let her go, would they? This place wanted to keep her.

With a calm anger, she sat up from her prone state and reached out to grab the creature in one hand. The other patted the slope for a suitable weapon. This turned out to be more difficult than usual as her hands had changed once more. The lingering taste of monster flesh and apparent disappearance of the ketrokoa made the culprit obvious.

The new changes were much more extensive than before. Kola's wrist now connected to two short and thick "fingers". They were very inflexible and could only barely move in any way other than directly towards or away from each other. Extending from each one was an almost semicircular pale green blade. The blades were 20cm long (if discounting the curve) and razor sharp on both sides, with the inside edge also sprouting wicked barbs.

She considered how difficult picking anything up had just become as the sostroki was bisected in her grip. Without armour, her pincers sheared through its flesh like a knife through butter. A cold knife that is. She still had to put in some effort and clench her not really hands.

Her frustration became anger as she tried to imagine using these in daily life back home (doorknobs would be impossible). It seemed that vision was growing further away already. What would Las think of her? Would she see her to be as monstrous as the giant spider? Even if she was accepted, she couldn't touch anyone without hurting them. Making a meal. Dressing herself. Using any kind of technology. These hands were fucking useless! The only thing that could be done with them was cut things.

Kola stood up, pointedly ignoring the other changes, and looked about. She wanted to break something and, hey, since this place had given her weapons she may as well use them to relieve her anger.

Higher up the slope, on the edge of where the dust shrouded further sight, the more irregular (and more dangerous looking) monsters fought in a massive screaming melee. Nope. Between that and her was the Orange Wobbler. It was being eaten by the spider, and as much as she normally liked watching arachnids, getting herself eaten by one didn't sound fun. Double nope. A bit further away was the sostroki-ketrokoa free for all. That was tempting, however, looking at it had given view to an even better target. The swarm of slimy non-armoured sostroki that rushed up the slope from Kola-is-about-to-know-where.

Smiling in a manner that failed to make her look any happier, which was fitting for her current emotional state, Kola began to run down the slope. She ignored how the air cut at her already injured torso. She ignored how running was so much easier. She ignored how she was naked but for a few scraps of fleece that stayed on more because they had stuck to her blood than due to structural integrity. Actually, that last one she didn't even notice. Anything she normally preferred covered had been torn apart by the ketrokoa anyway. Which cetainly added to the pain, and in turn, her anger.

Kola sped downwards, using the backs of her pincers to cut at any creature she met on the way (which happened to be exclusively slimy sostroki). She went unopposed, these sostroki being the least of their kind. A few ran comparatively slowly after her, but most either continued upwards or stopped to eat the dead.

By this point she was more falling than running, and had to intersperse a leap every now and then to avoid tripping. The first time she did this came as a great surprise to her. It had been an automatic reaction to her almost going head over heels. In panic she had flexed her plantar muscles and shot into the sky. It took a great effort to avoid examining her feet, but she was moving way too fast for that to be safe. Instead she continued on.

Soon the dust was broken by a new feature, a forest of tall spires formed from polished stone that followed the local area's colour theme. The central part of each was a massive column that rose in a tight spiral. Numerous small branches drooped from the columns, every one ending in a flat, rounded panel. Slimy pods in various stages of growth sprouted from both sides of the panels. Occasionally one would burst open and drop a sostroki to the ground. A few unlucky ones landed wrong and splattered, whereupon they were eaten by another. Each spire produced about ten a minute. Together they created a never ending army that showed remarkable restraint in not turning on itself immediately.

Kola's smile became genuine as she prepared to decimate them.