Kayla stared at her in surprise. “I… what? Your name is-”

“Pale, for short,” came the response. Pale looked around, her eyes narrowing. She began to thumb shells into her shotgun, then pumped it to chamber a round. “We need to move. Any allies that man had will have been drawn by my gunfire.”

Her gaze turned to the man she’d just killed, her brow furrowing. “That red light… what was it?”

Kayla blinked. “...You mean his Berserker Rage?”

“His what?”

“His Berserker Rage,” she repeated. “It’s a magical trait that some of the Berserkers from the north have. When they would otherwise be killed, they instead get a second wind that lasts for up to a few minutes before dying. It allows them to shrug off even lethal blows.”

Pale stared at her her for a moment, but then shook her head. “We’ll discuss that later. Come with me.”

Pale offered her a hand, and Kayla accepted, allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. As soon as she was upright, Pale heard footsteps behind her, resounding against the stone pathways that lined the town. She turned around, shouldering her weapon as she did so, and was just in time to see another bandit approaching, a two-handed sword in his grasp. He made it a single step before she cut him down with a shotgun blast to his head. Curiously, unlike the last bandit she’d shot, this one simply fell to the ground, dead.

Next to her, Kayla let out a small whimper, clutching at the wolf ears atop her head.

“Gods…” she managed to gasp out. “What is that weapon? It sounds like someone casting explosion magic…”

“Worry about that later,” Pale insisted. “Can you fight?”

“I know some offensive magic-”

Whatever that was supposed to mean, Pale had no idea of knowing. Still, she figured it was better than nothing.

“Whatever you can do, I need you to back me up,” she replied, topping off her shotgun with fresh ammunition. Her weapon held six shells in the tube and one in the chamber, but she knew from the information stored in her data bank that it was vital to keep combat shotguns topped off whenever possible. “We’re about to see more of them.”

Once her shotgun was fully loaded, she chanced a look around once more. There was a nearby two-story house that, while pillaged, had managed to remain standing; Pale wasted no time in taking Kayla by the hand and pulling her into the house. Both girls charged up the stairs, and once they were at the top level, Pale posted up with her shotgun leveled at the front door. From their vantage point here, she could funnel any bandits that chased after them into a chokepoint, then take them out one by one as they filed in.

More footsteps from outside caught her attention, and Pale tensed, her grip on her weapon tightening. Moments later, the first brigand appeared, bursting through the front door. Pale put a load of buckshot into his chest, and he fell backwards, but was soon replaced by several more, all trying to force their way upstairs. She pumped and fired her gun as fast as she could, uncaring of how Kayla yelped at every gunshot. Every shot was another fallen bandit; before long, there were over half a dozen lining the staircase, all with missing heads.

Her shotgun finally ran dry, and Pale let it hang from her sling as she unholstered her .45 and scanned the area. It was completely silent, however – there were no more bandits pushing their way in. Pale took the opportunity to reload her shotgun, then turned to Kayla.

“I think it’s clear,” she said. “Let’s get going.”

Kayla blinked. “You mean… past the bodies?”

Pale didn’t dignify her statement with a response, and instead advanced down the stairs, moving past the corpses she’d made without a care. Kayla followed behind her, retching the entire time. When they finally made it back outside, Kayla doubled over, her hands on her knees, dry-heaving the entire time with tears in her eyes.

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“Gods…” she breathed, her voice shaking with emotion. “This is a nightmare…”

“Calm yourself,” Pale said to her. “Are there any more?”

Kayla shook her head. “No… no, I think that was the last of them. The others will have left by now, I believe.”

Pale scanned the nearby area. There didn’t appear to be any further signs of life, at least from what she could see, and Kayla didn’t seem to be lying to her. Still, she wasn’t about to let her guard down any time soon.

“Talk to me,” Pale ordered. “Where am I, and what happened here?”

“I… I’m sorry, it’s just-”

“Kayla,” Pale interrupted. “I need you to focus. It’s important that you answer my questions. Do you understand?”

Kayla gave a shaky nod. “Y-yes… okay. U-um… this town is called Green Grove, on the continent of Aruris.”

Her translator seemed to fail on the last word, for some reason. Pale couldn’t help but tilt her head, confused.

“Repeat the name of the continent.”

“Aruris.”

Again, the word wasn’t picked up by her translator. Pale wasn’t sure why; it had picked up everything else so far without issue. Still, that was something to ponder later.

“And the planet?”

“The planet…?” Kayla asked. “Why would that matter?”

“Just answer the question.”

“This planet is called Sjel.”

Pale couldn’t help but frown. Sjel did have meaning, from what she could find from a quick scan through her data banks – it translated to ‘Soul’ in Norwegian. Still, that didn’t explain why it wasn’t properly translating over.

“Is everything alright?” Kayla asked.

Pale nodded. “Continue. What happened here?”

Kayla bit her lip. “...The brigands came a few days ago,” she said quietly. “They came out of nowhere – surged into town in the middle of the night, coming through the nearby forest. We had no warning at all – they must have completely bypassed the other towns to get to ours.”

“There must have been a reason for that,” Pale pointed out. “If they just wanted to pillage any town, they wouldn’t have bothered moving past the others to get to yours. Did this town have anything of value that they may have wanted?”

Kayla shook her head. “No… I have no idea why they would have bypassed everything else to come to us, unless they just really hated my kind.”

“Your kind?”

“Beastkin,” Kayla said quietly. “You know… people who look like me.” She motioned to her ears and tail.

There was a history lesson there, Pale knew, but that could come later.

“You said they had your father,” she reminded Kayla. “Did they take anyone else?”

“They did,” Kayla confirmed. “Him and a few others. Everyone else was murdered.”

“But you escaped.”

“My father hid me just in time. We had a small spot under the house I could fit in – I stayed there for a few days before I finally had to leave, and that was when they found me. It was a good thing you arrived when you did, because otherwise…” she trailed off, tears filling her eyes. She let out a small sniffle. “...I shouldn’t have hidden, I know – I should have stood and fought. Maybe then my father wouldn’t have been taken-”

“You have no way of knowing that,” Pale said sternly. “Don’t blame yourself.”

Her ears flattened against her head. “Easy for you to say…”

“Do you intend to sit here and lament what happened, or do you want to get him back?”

“Get him back…?” Kayla echoed, shock crossing her face. “I-I can’t! I’m just one person!”

“Do you know where they could be taking him?” Pale asked.

Kayla hesitated. “Y-yes, but-”

“And you mentioned earlier that you know a little about how to fight, yes?”

“I do…”

“Then we should go after him.”

“We…? You mean you’d-”

“I am new to this planet, with no way to return to my own people as of now,” Pale informed her. Kayla’s eyes widened at that information, but Pale didn’t give her a chance to ask whatever question she may have had. “You are currently the best chance I have of learning more about this world, and possibly finding a way off it.”

“Me…? But I’m just a regular girl, I can’t help with that!”

“Hm. Then I suppose my time is wasted with you.”

Pale turned and began to leave, only for Kayla to reach out and take her by the hand.

“W-wait!” she implored. “I-I mean… if you’re willing to help get my father back, I suppose I could do whatever I can to help you, too…”

“Excellent.” Pale turned back towards her. “Tell me everything. Who are these bandits, which direction did they go, and how much of a head start do they have?”

Kayla seemed a bit taken aback by the sudden onslaught of questions, but recovered quickly.

“...They’re… mercenaries, from the northern continent across the sea. They take what they want, when they want it. As for the direction… I believe they headed north towards the sea with their captives. That was a few days ago, and they were on horseback-”

“So they more than likely have already reached their destination,” Pale surmised. Kayla’s face fell, but Pale was unperturbed. “Do not be discouraged – from the sound of things, they wanted captives, not corpses, otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered taking a few people.”

“So… he could still be alive?” Kayla asked, hopeful.

Pale nodded. “It wouldn’t make sense to take him only to kill him shortly soon after. That being said, we don’t have much time. We will need to set out immediately if we are to catch up to them.”

Kayla bit her lip once more, but ultimately nodded.

“Lead the way,” she said softly.