High up in the sky, the shouts and laughter of a giddy Vampire were heard only by her hitchhiking companion wearing the same, if only smaller, body.

Hiro, however, was trying his best to be one the breeze and was enjoying the blissful reprieve they had earned from the fighting.

"Look, Hiro. This is what they do. I swear to god!" Bursting into another fit of laughter, the newly-evolved Bathilda had been doing her best impression of a dolphin swimming. Instead of water though, she was using the clouds around them to leap in and out of.

Bathilda claimed that she was trying to educate Hiro, but in reality she was having way too much fun in the open skies to care about anything else.

"Hey! Why aren't you watching me, Hiro?" she callsed out from below.

"Because I've been watching you for the last half an hour. Now that we're finally in the sun and don't have to worry about a cramped, confined death, I just want to relax a little."

"I'm really glad 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 informed Hiro, whose face turned paler than it already was at the new information.

"Wait, what? Is that why you stopped ascending before we broke throug the clouds? I thought I was winning, but now... Did you make me go through the clouds first on purpose? Just in case I burst into flames?" Bathilda's all-to-brief history lesson on her knowledge of Vampires shattered the remains of Hiro's relaxing vibe.

"I can't come back to life like you can though. It only makes sense for you to be the guinea pig and in all fairness, this was my reincarnation." Reminding Hiro of how their journey together started, Bathilda's words hit home and Hiro bit his tongue in reluctance.

"What's a guinea pig? Is it like bait?"

"Well... Sort of. Guinea pigs are actually these little, adorable creatures," Bathilda refrained from using the word pet. She didn't want to annoy him anymore than he already was. "People use their name as a reference for someone who... Participates in activities first."

"Adorable?" Was the only word he repeated from her sentence. Not that he looked happy as the word left his mouth.

"Yeah! I even bought the (Clone) skill specifically for you, just so you could have a body. Now, you look like a natural beauty," she grinned. Unfortunately, Hiro wasn't as happy as Bathilda's thought he would be.

"I don't want to be a girl!" He shouted.

"Sorry, Hiro. There's nothing I can do about that yet," Bathilda said as she began browsing het skill list. She hadn't checked them since before her battle with the King Slime, but some of her skills were even ready to be upgraded. Three of them had reached Level 10, maxing them out for their first upgraded.

Bathilda worked her way through the skills that had the plus symbol next to them first. They all appeared to have stopped growing at level 5 unlike her others. These skill improved through a multiple choice system that she had to choose herself. Which she did. Afterwards, Bathilda felt confident she had made the right decisions.

Spell (Clone+) Level 5

Create an identical copy of the user. The duration of this spell is dependent on the mana supplied during casting. The Clone will be created with 60% of the user's stats and has the capacity for growth. Certain skills and magic are restricted and unusable by the Clone. Limit: Two Clones

Skill (Iron Body+) Level 5

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Each level of this skill raises the user's physical defence by 10%.

Skill (Swift Wing+) Level 5

Each level of this skill raises the user's movement speed by 10%.

Skill (Identify+) Level 5

Each additional level of this skill adds more-detailed information to the user's database.

Skill (Paralysing Stare+) Level 5

Incapacite multiple enemies for 60 seconds. Each additional level of this skill increases the chance of paralysis taking effect on the target.

"When did I use Paralysing Stare? Maybe it works on its own whenever I look at a monster? I don't know. I'm not going to complain about a free upgrade though." With her midpoint skills finished, Bathilda moved on to her first set of max-level skills.

Skill (Wing Slash+) has evolved into (Reality Tear) Level 1

Skill (Fly+) has evolved (Gravity Manipulation) Level 1

Skill (Chomp+) has evolved into (Obliterate)

"I don't know how I got so lucky with (Chomp+), but I'll take that upgrade!"

(Obliterate)

Using your own strength, you can destroy anything you lay your hands upon.

"That sounds like a seriously messed-up skill. It was leagues above the other option though, Crushing Fang. Anyway, now that I'm done, my skills are looking good. Real good!"

Feeling positive, Bathilda closed her skill list and descended below the clouds. In her mind, it was obvious what her next step should be.

Finding people!

Rejoining society, or at least whatever constituted society in a world full of monsters. The only problem was that she had no idea where to look.

Trees covered the earth in every direction and as far as Bathilda could see. The mountain in which she had first reincarnated was nowhere to be seen and it seemed the vampires had travelled much further than they thought while they were leisurely floating above the clouds.

She decided to keep heading in the same direction they were on and as she travelled above the forest, she eventually encountered life.

It was not the type of life she wanted to see, however, as two gigantic monsters faced off in a fight to the death. As she neared, the trees swayed and rocked due to the pressure they gave off. It was not a normal occurrence, yet Bathilda was drawing closer.

Taller than the largest-trees in this part of the forest, were two beasts engaged in a fierce battle. They were still a fair distance from the two child-sized Vampires but both could see the damage they created. Their blows ripped the very earth from the ground and with each attack, large sections of nature were extinguished as they clashed repeatedly. Each attack rang through the air like the sound of thunder.

As she watched the fight play out, one of the titan-sized monsters fired a laser from its mouth towards its opponent. The gorilla-like creature managed to evade the deathly beam and even landed a strong, right cross of its own. Incidentally, that attack was right on the side of the turtle monster's face. This caused the still-firing laser beam to be redirected directly into the path of the spectating Bathilda.

The positive confidence that Bathilda was exuding moments ago completely vanished in the face of total and complete annihilation. Dropping at an increased speed thanks to the recently acquired (Gravity Manipulation), she just managed to avoid the attack.

Bathilda then decided that her best option would be to quickly vacate the extremely-dangerous vicinity and far remove herself from the raging beasts. Unfortunately, life had a different idea and as she turned around to flee, the Lesser Vampire came face-to-face with a third, even-deadlier monster that had managed to approach her unnoticed.

"Oh Shit!"

Fear coursed through Bathilda's entire body as the ridiculously-sized monster opened its even more ridiculously-sized mouth, ready to swallow her whole. Hundreds of teeth lined the inside of its mouth, signalling death for anything that ended up inside. Out of instinct, Bathilda threw her arm up to shield herself from the incoming maw instead of trying to escape.

Thanks to luck, or more so to (Wing Slash+) for upgrading, a slice out of reality was desecrated in the direction Bathilda's arm took. Fortunately, the trajectory traced a line through the crocodile monster's mouth and everything along it was shredded from existence.

(Wing Slash+), or (Reality Tear) as it was now named after its upgrade, hadn't even entered her mind due to how close the monster was to closing its jaws on her. Fortunately enough, it was the only skill needed. In that brief movement, the large-reptilian's head was severed horizontally and only the bottom half of its jaw remained attached to the body.

"Woah!"

"Insta-kill."

"Hiro? How did you die?" Hearing her companion inside her head, Bathilda quickly scanned the area for his remains. The only sights she could see were the gorilla and turtle, still engaged in their battle, and the remains of the reptile slowly falling toward the ground behind her.

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

"Don't worry about it. All of a sudden I'm feeling kind of powerful. Seeing how that last monster went down like a sack of potatoes, let's see what kind of revenge we can dish out on those two." Bathilda smiled confidently before re-summoning her clone.