"Naris, are Nara's mana channels purged and repaired, and can you switch back to her while she is still unconscious?" Sam asked. She was starting to formulate a plan. She planned to wake up Nara and get as close as possible to the least congested tunnel. If Nara ran out of mana or couldn't keep up, Naris could take over and help Sam fight through until they were in the tunnel, which she could hopefully collapse behind them. She intended to keep both Nara and Naris with as much energy as possible and use their strengths in each situation. Sam had noticed Naris was faster and more flexible than Nara. In contrast, Nara was a good bit stronger and more acrobatic. Sam thought it was strange, considering they were using the same body, but just figured it was something the System was doing.
"Yes. But I still have a lot of Void energy," Naris said. Then, after a moment, he added, "I don't think that will be a problem. It is filtered, and her channels are purged."
"Okay, then do it now while you still have energy in case you need to break out again," Sam ordered. Naris closed his eyes to change, but Sam stopped him quickly, "Wait!" He opened his eyes to see her holding out two arcane daggers hilt first. Sam explained, "Put these in your inventory; they are fully charged. I know your claws are fierce, but these things pack a punch." He took the weapons without a word, and they disappeared into their shared storage. Sam swore she saw a smile cross his lips right before he changed. Sam almost missed it when he switched with Nara, but what she saw was weird. “What the fuck just happened?”
Sam didn’t know what had happened. She tried to make sense of it as she caught Nara’s limp body with her mana threads and lowered her friend to the ground. "I almost didn't see it, but I could swear he turned into pure energy for an instant, and then there was Nara. Hmm, I'll have to ask them how their change works later." Sam was still fighting off Whitlings during her musing, but she had set up several shields to create a choke point that forced the creatures to come from a singular direction. It worked well, so she turned her attention to her unconscious friend.
***
Naris didn't know what to think as he checked on Nara's core and began siphoning her neutral mana build-up into himself, taking care not to mix it with the volatile Void energy. Filtered or not, the Void was not to be mishandled. He did it all subconsciously. He was thinking how forgiving the monster— Sam had been. "Either she is naïve, or she truly fears nothing…maybe both? She gave me weapons! I have tried to kill her twice in less than a week, and she gave me weapons!" Shaking his head in bewilderment, he tended to Nara's core. A smile was on his face, “I cannot wait to use those daggers.”
***
Sam wasn't having the pleasant thoughts Naris was; it was quite the opposite. She had checked Nara with her repair skill repeatedly without finding anything wrong with her friend that she could heal. However, the Tenarian still wouldn't wake up. Sam even gave her a couple of light slaps on her cheeks, then a few slightly harder slaps. Nothing. Then a powerful slap…nothing. When shaking her didn't help either, Sam was starting to worry; she could hear the Whitlings chewing through the protective layer of mushroom caps above her, with a few already breaking through the canopy and racing straight toward her.
Sam almost shouted for Naris but tried one last idea. She pulled out her endless canteen and dumped its contents onto Nara’s peaceful face.
***
Nara was enjoying a delicious thirteen-course dinner at a restaurant where she had never dined. She had no idea how she had gotten to the restaurant, nor did she care. "Thirteen courses of dessert! How have I never been here before?" At this moment, she finished the seventh offering. A deliciously light flan paired with a light and slightly fruity drink that tasted like…water? "What is this?" Nara held up the glass to the waiter, who smiled, hefted an entire barrel of water, and dumped its contents over her head.
***
Nara sat up, spluttering.
"Took you long enough!" Sam shouted over the screeching of hundreds, if not thousands, of Whitlings, punching holes through the giant mushroom caps. Sam was launching blades, spikes, and bolts of arcane death in all directions, but more Whitlings were pushing through every second.
Nara surveyed the chaos around her briefly before jumping up and pulling a torch, flint, and steel from her inventory. She crouched down and started franticly trying to light the torch.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Sam shouted, "We have to try and make a run for it!" Even as she said it, over twenty flying creatures slammed into one of her barriers, which cracked under the impact but thankfully held. "Come on, Nara! I didn't wake you so we could sit by a cozy fire!"
Nara ignored Sam's shouts, and her next strike lit the torch. Jumping up with the torch and flinging water from her face from her recent bath courtesy of Sam, Nara franticly shouted, "Give me your sword!"
Sam was too occupied to argue. She complied by using a mana thread to deposit her arcane sword in front of the frantic woman. Nara snatched the sword out of the air and sprinted to one of the giant mushroom stalks a few meters away. She sliced a long vertical gash in the mushroom, which spit open with a pop, exposing its gooey orange insides. Nara rammed the burning torch into the hole and sprinted back to Sam, tackling her, screaming, "Shield now! It’s goi—"
Their world went up in flames. Sam felt like the moment was in slow motion while falling backward from Nara's tackle as a gout of white-hot flame shot straight up the stem of Nara's lit mushroom. The instant the flame reached the mushroom cap, it detonated into a fiery… mushroom cloud. “This is going to hurt, isn’t it?” Sam thought right before she slammed into the ground from the force of the detonation.
Sam barely managed to close the magic shield bubble she conjured when a chain reaction started, and every mushroom in the entire forest went up in fiery explosions; devastation spreading from their position at the epicenter. White hot waves washed over them for what felt like an eternity as Sam struggled to keep her protective barrier in place. She could see steam coming from Nara's hair as the heat intensified to an almost unbearable degree. Each explosion threw flaming debris in every direction, and since they were surrounded by the exploding mushrooms, the fiery chunks buffeted the shield from all sides, forcing Sam to expend additional mana to tether them to the ground with spikes attached to her threads.
The fiery cloud of death and thunder lasted for an eternity of seconds before subsiding. At least a thousand kill notifications were scrolling across a corner of Sam's vision where she minimized the annoying distraction once she figured out how. She looked up into Nara's blue eyes and smiled.
Nara smiled back as her blue lips cracked and bled from the intense heat, "Hi—"
Sam threw Nara off and to the side right when a giant ball of flaming scales broke through her shield bubble. Sam tried to get another barrier up but needed to be faster. The Brood Mother, flying in like a blazing rocket of fangs and rage, clamped her jaws around Sam's torso, sinking the long fangs deep into her body and snatched her away.
Nara watched in stunned horror as the smoldering creature flew off through the smoke and flames with Sam in her mouth.
"Let me out. I can catch them!" Naris screamed into Nara's mind. Without hesitating, Nara switched.
Naris bolted toward the Brood Mother, barely able to see her mana signature through the thick smoke in the air. He leaped over shattered mushroom stalks and ran through piles of flaming bodies, never once taking his eyes off his target.
The Brood Mother aimed for one of the tunnels higher on the cave wall, but one of her wings gave out from severe fire damage moments before she reached it, throwing her off course. The monster slammed into the cave wall with Sam first.
As he chased after the retreating monster, Naris could see Sam struggling a little, but she went limp when the Brood Mother slammed into the rock wall. Her body hanging from each side of the creature's mouth at wrong angles.
The impact knocked the Brood Mother to the ground, and she released Sam when she landed hard on the cave floor.
Almost in range of the giant Whitling, Naris yelled, “Bow!” And activated the switch letting Nara take control.
Nara appeared, the bow hitting her hand instantly. Three arcane arrows were already on the string as she drew back and released in one fluid motion. All three arrows hit their mark, and the monster screeched in rage at the attack. She was within ten meters now and had the monster’s full attention. A predatory grin spread across Nara’s face, and she dismissed the bow.
Naris closed the gap separating him from the raging beast even as it turned toward him with a deafening screech. Sam's daggers appeared in his hands, and he deftly dodged past the snapping maw of the beast, raking two shallow gashes in its neck before leaping up and kicking off its back, propelling himself to the cavern's wall. He didn't slow down and ran straight up the wall using all the agility at his disposal. Over ten meters up the wall, Naris kicked off into a backflip.
Nara started launching arcane arrows into the Brood Mother's back as she sailed above the now frantic creature. It used its one good wing to leap up to snatch her out of the air.
Naris kicked off the beast's snout just before its jaws snapped shut on thin air. He lacerated the good wing as they sailed past each other. Hitting the ground, Naris rolled to the side, getting clear of the mother monster's landing zone. He jumped to his feet.
Nara managed to get two more arrows into the Brood Mother’s side before it hit the ground. The beast roared and lunged for her.
Naris dodged under the lunge and sliced into the enraged beast's stomach as it passed, landing a few meters away.
Two magic bolts shattered scales from the Brood Mother's back as Nara ran toward the monster, firing her spell as rapidly as possible. She hit the creature with five more before they engaged in melee again.
Naris ducked under a clawed strike to cut through the soft scales under the monster's leg, taking a tail swipe for his trouble. He was tossed away like a rag doll, striking the ground hard before rolling to his feet.
Nara closed the gap again, firing magic bolts at the charging Brood Mother, shattering scales and blasting off chunks of seared flesh. The Brood Mother swiped at Nara with its giant claws; she didn’t even attempt to dodge. She smiled briefly as the claws sliced right through her incorporeal form. Naris was there with his blades when the claws came out the other side.
Their dance of death went on like this as they slowly whittled down the beast's defenses. Both Nara and Naris realized something, well, several things. They realized they were quite lethal when fighting together, but even more surprising was they were enjoying the goink out of it, as well. They also discovered when they switched control, they became incorporeal for a fraction of a second, and although that didn't seem like a lot of time, it was more than enough to use the switch as a dodge due to the speed high-level beasts could attack with. And finally, they both liked and wanted to protect Sam, primarily because she was the least judgmental person they had ever met. At no point had either of them felt her judging them for what they were. Sure, she was pissed when Naris tried to kill her, but even then, she had given him another chance, one that he intended not to goink up. Sam was also fun to hang out with and talk to. She was always smiling, looked whoever was speaking to her in the eyes, and stayed actively engaged with the conversation most of the time. However, they did have a sneaking suspicion Sam could do multiple things at once in that brain of hers and simple discussions weren't high up on the ‘difficult to focus on’ list.
***
Nara and Naris were starting to slow down. They had been at this for minutes, but the blasted Brood Mother wasn't going down for some reason. They had each tried draining her, too, but she was too fast for their siphon skill to do any significant damage.
“What level is this thing?” Naris asked as he tried to put some distance between them and the giant lizard. He switched with Nara.
"I don't know, but it has to be high," Nara responded with a hint of fatigue in her voice. She fired two magic bolts at the beast, but her aim was slightly off, and magic bolts merely deflected off the scales of the lizard's hind quarters.
They were trying to keep their distance from the Brood Mother. The battle had been going on for too long, and Naris was fatigued. He would only be able to make the switch a couple more times before having to rest, so once they had some distance, Nara took control and tried to kite the monster with seemingly bottomless health and stamina reserves. They hoped Sam would join the fight soon, but they hadn't seen her nor had time to look at their party menu to check her status.
The giant lizard suddenly glowed with a skill activation and sped forward far faster than previously, catching Nara off guard. Still, she managed to activate the switch with Naris. Right then, the beast stabbed out with its razor-sharp claws, each as long as a spearhead stabbing forward.
Naris looked down in surprise at the four claws embedded in his chest. The damn monster figured out their trick and, instead of swiping at them, stabbed into their incorporeal chest and stopped waiting the split second for them to switch. Looking back to the monster, he was just in time to see its jaws snapping forward. Then, something hit the creature from behind, causing it to screech in pain and whip around, flinging Naris from its claws.
Nara was flung through the air, leaving a trail of blood behind her from the gaping wounds in her torso as the Brood Mother struggled with something in its tail. Nara, struggling to stay conscious, could only watch as the creature struggled, kicking up ash around it. Then the Tenarian slammed into…a soft fluffy mass of… “Mana threads!” Nara’s head whipped around in time to see Sam catch her in her arms.
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Sam smiled down at Nara as she lowered her to the ash-covered ground. She said, "You two did an amazing job. Thanks for giving me time to recover." She looked to the struggling Brood Mother she had staked to the ground with several harpoons. Looking back to Nara, she handed her a health potion and said, "Now it's my turn."
***
Ten minutes previously:
Sam felt the venom being injected into her body the instant the jaws clamped down and the dozens of sharp teeth sank deep into her stomach and chest.
You have been injected with necrotic venom -5hp/sec for 176 seconds. You are weakened. All actions requiring stamina will be significantly more difficult until the venom has been purged.
Fighting through the pain and trying to pry open the jaws of the creature trying to kill her, all Sam could think was, “What is up with this planet and toxins?”
Sam was too low on mana to do anything but heal herself, so she relied on her significant strength to try and get out of this situation. Still, the Brood Mother kept shaking her head while flying erratically due to a damaged wing. The jerky motions made it nearly impossible for Sam to get a firm grip on the monster's jaw.
Then the damn thing hit the cave wall, and Sam felt and heard her back break. She managed to stay conscious even after the beast released her when it hit the ground, although just barely.
When no follow-up attack came, Sam didn't question it and focused all her energy on healing herself, diving deep into meditation, and drinking a couple of health and mana potions using her mana threads to speed things up. She could now hear Nara fighting the creature and could only hope her companion could hold out long enough for her to heal. Trusting Nara to handle herself, Sam closed her eyes and meditated, tuning out everything but her core cycles; a few things were starting to click into place in her mind that she needed to think about.
***
Coming out of her meditation, Sam witnessed the last few minutes of Nara and Naris fighting the Brood Mother together and was impressed. "Wait, are they fighting it together or separately? I mean, they're together but separate…" Pushing away her ridiculous thought, Sam hurried with her final preparations as much as possible because Nara was getting tired. Also, she knew Naris couldn't have much energy left either.
Preparations complete, Sam ran to join the fight. She was at the wrong angle when the beast stabbed its claws into her friend so, she did the only thing she could from her position and staked a harpoon through its tail to pin it to the ground, hoping to get its attention.
"That worked better than I thought it would," Sam thought as she watched Nara get flung from the creature's claws. Slamming two more harpoons into the ground to tether the beast in place, Sam took off after Nara, catching her at the last moment.
***
Present time:
“Now to see if this works.” Sam thought as she mentally prepared to engage the thrashing beast. When she was meditating, Sam had put a few things together; from overheard conversations to seemingly innocuous statements and her own internal musings, she was getting a better handle on how magic worked in this world or maybe even the whole verse.
Sam dashed forward, strafing to her right, trying to flank the Brood Mother. She couldn't help but think, “This is probably the dumbest thing I've done yet, but hey, if it works…" She caught herself from getting distracted, "Okay, stay focused. It can't hurt me if it's filtered, and what better way to filter it than through a skill. Just like Naris said, his skill did." With that thought, Sam reached into her magic to form an arcane bolt, but she didn't let the spell have contact with the vibrant violet arcane magic flowing through her channels. With an effort of will, she channeled and forced the spell to link to the Void trickling out from her core. She carefully isolated the Void energy as the spell form latched onto it, and it entered her mana channels. She did this by stopping a single pulse of her arcane mana from traveling down the specific channel she would push the Void through. Then, with little guidance from her manipulation skill, the spell did the rest. All she had to do was mentally direct the Void with her manipulation skill to send the black mana to the channel she had purged, which was sucked right in by her spell.
The blacked-out part of her mana bar receded slightly when Sam's spell pulled on the Void in her soul, showing some had been used. She also noticed the black area in her health bar increased, reducing her available vital energy. She knew she needed to dig into that further, but right now, she didn't care because a crackling Void Bolt was floating above her palm. The notification came an instant later.
'Bing' Congratulations! You have created a new spell, Void Bolt [Level 1]. You tore a hole in your soul, surprisingly having Void energy inside. To make matters even more interesting, you did not die from the Void energy leaking from your soul, which you most certainly should have. Instead, you managed to somehow cobble together enough knowledge about magical powers to grasp the slightest fraction of an idea about how to control your newly discovered energy. And it worked! You have formed an energized bolt of Void using an unknown source in your soul. You have permanently torn the pathway into your core, granting you the spell Void Bolt. You may now cast the spell Void Bolt at an unknown mana cost. Continued use of the spell may increase its efficiency and power, or conversely, it may kill you. Experience has been awarded for creating a spell you should not have been able to by using unconventional means. Good job! You may have broken your path to becoming a true sorceress. Only time will tell!
“Yes!” She thought, "But what the hell is up with that message? Is the system being snarky again? This could kill me? Only time will tell? Aww, screw it!" she launched her spell into the Brood Mother’s side.
The Brood Mother must have sensed the danger in Sam's attack because it broke free of its restraints and tried to evade the Void attack. It wasn't fast enough, and the small bolt of Void punched right through the protective scales with a popping sound, blasting a fist-sized hole in its side. The bolt must have caused severe damage because the monster roared in rage and attacked. It opened its mouth, and a stream of green venom sprayed from its fangs.
Sam jumped back, trying to get clear of the spray, but some still landed on her arm. It burned like an acid but thankfully didn't poison her. She retaliated by firing another Void Bolt at the creature, which it managed to dodge this time. So, Sam decided to stop playing around with her new toy and went all out with her tried and true overkill method. She dashed forward, turning herself into a meat grinder of death.
Sam touched her arcane sword where it lay among the ashes with a mana thread as she ran, depositing the weapon into her inventory and then immediately retrieving it into her waiting right hand. She was already holding her shield in her left hand and using all her free threads to launch magical projectiles at the Brood Mother, which was charging toward her with a bestial roar.
The two met head-on. The Brood Mother snapped down with her powerful jaw, intent on crushing Sam in them again, but Sam smacked the creature in its face with her shield so hard she shattered teeth, and the two of them were knocked back from the impact; Sam was impacted more than the giant beast simply due to being the less bulky of the two.
***
Nara was shocked at how powerful Sam was suddenly. “How is she so strong all of a sudden?” She thought.
Nara knew Sam was strong especially after seeing what happened when the Pathfinder headbutted the poor young paladin, but she hadn't seen that strength level again until now. Looking closer at Sam's mana flow, Nara figured out what had changed. “She’s infusing her body with mana…when did she learn to do that?”
***
Sensing Nara's gaze on her as she fought the monster and hearing the Tenarian's thoughts through their chat function, Sam smiled, “Someone forgot to mute their mic.” Sam knew exactly why she was so much more powerful suddenly.
During her recent meditation, while healing, Sam focused on how she could see Nara and Naris infusing their bodies with magical energy to make themselves stronger and more resilient. Sam was sure she had done it once herself when she nearly killed the little boy paladin, but she hadn't been able to recreate the skill until today. Because it wasn't a skill. She had been doing it all wrong. When she thought back to how Nara's legs looked in her mana sight during their run to Helms Peak and her fight with Naris, how his mana flowed back and forth through his body as he moved and attacked, she initially assumed they were using a skill. However, she didn't remember seeing that skill or ability displayed on Nara's status page in their party menu. That's when Sam had a breakthrough; her bread and butter was mana infusion, which she did for virtually everything magic-related. She was constantly infusing mana. Every single one of her skills and abilities required her to infuse some mana into them for them to activate. She had taken it all for granted and assumed she needed an ability or skill to infuse magic energy into her body. But she had it backward; she was the catalyst, the battery that fueled her magical abilities. This was how it always had been, but it had taken her until now to grasp the concept. With magical energy constantly flowing through her channels, it had been a simple task for Sam to push the energy into her muscles and skin. The only difficulty she had encountered was making sure the mana stayed malleable. She had to break off and quickly regrow a finger when she accidentally crystallized it by infusing too much mana too fast into the digit. But she quickly got the hang of it and could now use mana to bolster the strength and density of her muscles. The only drawback was that it created an exponentially higher stamina cost directly related to the amount of mana she used. She wasn't good enough at controlling her mana to move it around her body. Naris and Nara could do this which thus, limited the strain on their stamina. So, until she figured that out Sam just infused everything all at once and dealt with the strain.
“I bet I am a nightmare to fight,” Sam thought as she stood her ground, matching blows with the giant lizard bat. Sam attacked six times for every strike her opponent made, using her mana threads to bombard the creature from its flanks with every attack in her arsenal. Bladed disks, mana spikes, harpoons, and energy bolts struck the beast simultaneously, causing it to grow increasingly aggressive. Sam knew the attacks weren't doing much damage, mostly because her sword only left shallow cuts when she got in the occasional blow. "What is this thing's level, ninety-nine?" She thought when she missed seeing a tail swipe and was thrown into the cave wall several meters above the cavern floor.
Sam channeled her inner Moonblight and contorted her body mid-flight to hit the cave wall feet first. Before she could fall off the wall, she pushed as much mana as she thought safe into her legs and kicked off; a spiderweb of cracks appeared on the wall an instant before she launched herself like a missile straight at the Brood Mother, leaving a shallow crater in the wall behind her.
Sam's arcane sword was depleted of mana, the last strike draining it fully, turning it into a blank crystal vessel more than an actual weapon. This is what Sam had been waiting for. She infused the blade with Void as she flew toward her prey. The monster tried to run when it sensed something different, but Sam was upon it instantly, slicing down with all she had. Her sword cut through the creature's hind quarter like butter, severing its tail and a hind leg.
Sam's momentum carried her over and past her target, and she lost her grip on her sword when she hit the ground at an awkward angle and tripped, rolling end over end for another twenty meters or so. Losing her sword was the only thing that saved her because it exploded mere moments after she dropped it, sending shrapnel in all directions.
"Damn, that hurt," Sam groaned as she got to her feet, healing a hole in her leg left by a piece of her shattered sword. "That was worse than getting hit by a bus, I bet."
"I still don't know what a bus is, but that was incredible!" Nara said, running up. "Naris wants to know how you're using the Void and says to save some for him." Sam laughed at that statement as Nara got to her and gave her a hug. Looking into Sam's eyes, Nara said sincerely, "Thanks for not dying."
"I do my best not to most days," Sam chuckled. Then, pointing at the Brood Mother through the smoke and ash still in the air, she said more seriously, "I don't know what that thing's level is, but it is tough. The only attack that even puts a dent in its—what is it doing?"
"I have no idea…" Nara said, her voice trailing off as she stared at the monster.
The Brood Mother ignored them and hurriedly ran around on her three good legs, nuzzling and digging through the nearby ash piles. She was eating something in the ash, but Sam had no idea what it could be.
Nara suddenly shouted, "Shit! She's eating the cores!" When Sam looked at her dumbly, Nara summoned her bow and took aim, saying, "She is probably close to evolving! That's how monsters evolve, Sam! We have to stop her! We won’t stand a chance against an evolved beast! I doubt we will even be able to outrun her!” Nara released her arrow toward the Brood Mother.
Sam didn't need to be told twice and was already dashing toward the scavenging creature before Nara finished speaking. She wasn't going to make the same mistake she had when she let the alpha wolf turn into the Lupine Bloodmorph to satisfy her curiosity.
Nara's arrow struck the Brood Mother in one of her broken wings, but the creature only flinched and kept eating the cores of her children. Sam was in range and attacked just as a second arrow struck the monster in the side of its head. Sam tried to get a Void Bolt into the monster's ear, but it heard the loud crackling of the attack and dodged away, slashing out with a clawed foot at Sam.
Sam leaped over the swipe and stabbed a spear construct into its back. She tried to push the spear in deeper with a mana blast, but a flap from the creature's wing knocked her off its back. The monster half flapped, half hobbled to another ash pile, snatching the whole pile into her mouth, throwing her head back, and swallowing. Sam formed a spiked glove on her hand as she closed on the creature again. This time, she would punch the spikes through the tough scales and then send the spikes deeper with a mana blast. Or at least that was her plan.
Sam was only a meter away and swinging her spiked fist when a sphere of green and white energy expanded outward from the Brood Mother so fast it knocked Sam back at least twenty meters. Landing on her feet, Sam was prepared to attack again when Nara's voice came through their party chat.
“Sam, we have to run! That's System protection for the creature. While it evolves, you cannot penetrate it! It will take her a few minutes to evolve, so we have to move now!” Nara’s voice was fearful.
"I thought you said we couldn't outrun it," Sam responded, running back toward Nara, who was already running toward her, pointing at a small tunnel closest to them.
“We can get in there and collapse the tunnel entrance. We might have a chance if we don’t bring the whole mountain down on us!”
"How long will it take her to evolve exactly?" Sam asked, slowing down to a stop and looking back to the green and white shield surrounding the evolving boss monster.
Nara reached Sam and grabbed her arm, "I don't know for sure, maybe five more minutes, ten at the most. Please tell me you aren't considering fighting an evolved beast, Sam. She will be exponentially stronger when she emerges!"
Sam turned and grabbed Nara's thin shoulders, so they were facing each other. Looking into Nara's deep blue eyes, she said, "This is because of me, Nara. You should run. I'll collapse the tunnel behind you." Nara opened her mouth to protest, but Sam stopped her, explaining, "I think the System is curating dangerous situations for me as an experiment." Nara just looked at Sam incredulously, so Sam asked, "Do you know of anyone who has encountered dozens of powerful foes, two evolved beings, an ambush by high-level bandits, and fought a blight all within about two weeks?" Nara shook her head silently. Sam sighed in resignation, "This is my fault, Nara, all of the recent troubles we have had. Danger and death just follow me around. I can't say for sure it's the System doing it. Hell, it could just be a hidden perk of my class, but what I do know is no matter where I go, I always seem to be fighting for my life, and you don't deserve that."
Nara looked at her and slowly nodded her understanding. Sam sighed again with a mixture of sadness and relief. She turned back toward the evolving creature with resolve, saying, "Thank you for being my friend, Nara; tell Naris bye for me."
Nara stepped up beside Sam. When Sam looked at her confused, Nara snapped with heat in her voice, "Fuck you, Sam! Do you really think you can get rid of us just like that? We're staying with you!" She crossed her arms in defiance and stomped a foot, then added a little less defiantly, "I really hope you have a plan, though, because we are definitely going to die otherwise." Her eyes went vacant for a moment, then nodding to herself she finished with, "Naris agrees; we are going to die."
Sam wasn't surprised so much as taken aback a little, but she was also proud at the same time. Not because Nara was staying; that was an exceedingly stupid decision. Anyone in their right mind should be fleeing for their life. No, Sam was proud for a different reason. She told Nara as much, "Aww, you used 'fuck' in the right context. I am so proud of you I could pinch your cute grey cheeks." Then she said happily. "Of course, I have a plan. I'm going to overclock my core again." She grinned, "It is totally going to suck!”