Alice awoke in the chilly dawn of morning. An otherworldly silence ruled the air. The sky had been brushed in the billowing grey smoke that lingered in the area. A towering pillar of it could be seen rising above the nearby town. The last sign of life in her house of darkened charcoal, Alice stood her weakened body up and dragged it to the ashen remains of her home. Alice briefly explored the smoldering pile of ash, it’s still glowing embers on the verge of death. The same could be said of Alice. As she overturned the slightly charred planks of wood, she realized she could do so with far less difficulty than she had thought possible, she also noticed that the orange glowing embers she created with every shifting of the wood carried an odd… heat? Still burning but only if she held them for long enough.

“Odd.” She thought as she continued digging.

Aside from the slightly charred but mostly fine textbook her mother had started preparing for her, there was nothing other than heat resistant cookware and warped cutlery. Alice’s stomach, taunted by the warm pots and the distant warmth of the glowing embers, rumbled bringing with it memories of a hot meal shared in the warm comfort of family.

Feeling tears threaten to surface, Alice opened her status to distract from it.

Name: Alice

Level: 10

Race: Human(Age:10)

Titles:

Mana:100%

Vitality: 20

Endurance: 21

Speed: 21

Strength: 20

Wisdom: 22

Passive skills: [Navigation: Lv2], [Survival skills(Forest): Lvl 1], [Bow proficiency: lvl 1]

Active Skills:[Basic Identification: Lvl 2]

Divine skills:[Protection Of Fate], [Fate Vision(minor)], [Deus ex Machina], [Flames of Vengeance]

It seemed like her new physical abilities were because of her increased level, Alice guessed she was now had the capabilities of a normal un-levelled teenager. Slightly less since it was a quite challenging endeavour to stay at level 1 for so long. She also got a new skill, [Flames of Vengeance], this one seemed to be the liquid flames she used earlier. The thought of testing all her Divine skills passed Alice’s mind for a moment, but there might be a cooldown to them and she might need to use them soon.

Feeling hungry, Alice went into the only source of food available to her, the forest, to find a solution to her food and shelter issues, she knew basic survival skills like how to get clean water and food, as well as how to sleep safely. She would simply have to get one of the many rest sites her dad had set up.

Resolving her self, Alice walked into the thickening mass of trees while trying to remember the route. Times like this made her wish she had gotten to spend more time with her dad.

Alice stood stock still. She had come across three wolves, for now they simply looked at her, gauging her reaction. The correct course of action would be to firmly move forward, like her dad had told her, but to not directly challenge them. They would only attack prey, since doing anything else could get them killed quite quickly, and had gotten them killed by her dad. She should’ve silenced her fear and walked calmly around them.

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Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. Unable to control her fear, she took a step back, while it was better than running away, this was still a huge failure. Stumbling over herself she tried to grab hold of her dad and steady herself, like she had always done. But as her hands firmly clasped around air, Alice fell on her backside and was attacked by wolves.

She kept her eyes on them as she hurriedly got up to her feet. Running was pointless against these natural hunters. She would have to either wait them out somewhere they couldn’t get her, or fight them off. Neither option looked too promising. Alice threw herself to her left as one of the two wolves in front of her lunged for her arm. Landing on the ground she had scraped an arm and a leg, and now that same wolf had turned itself back round and bit at her ankle. She desperately attempted to kick it off but ended up tearing her foot to ribbons. All the while the other wolf ran at her arm.

As it approached close enough to bite her she rammed her fist as far down its throat as she could to prevent it from closing its jaws with its full strength, this had saved her arm from ending up like her leg but still left it a bleeding mess. The wolf that was chewing her arm tried to let go so it could try again, but Alice grabbed it by the tongue, making sure to dig her nails in as deep as physically possible.

With one wolf pulling at her kicking ankle and the other stuck on her arm, there was only one wolf unaccounted for. As Alice was about to search for it, a shadow was cast over her as the final hunter pounced at her chest. She tried to stop it with her remaining arm but was overpowered and could only offer up her remaining arm to avoid having her neck chomped off. In the span of 15 seconds one wrong step had led to her having all three limbs maimed and her foot was about to be severed from her leg.

She could only give up in this hopeless situation. She had been out-skilled, out-classed and out-matched. Her limbs started to lose strength as their flailing slowed down, whether from blood loss or despair couldn’t be known. Maybe this was as far as the story of Alice would go; maybe this was the last chapter. Alice wanted to get up, to fight, to survive, but with the odds so against her there was little hope.

Aside from the strange skills she had been saving. Something told her [Fate Vision] would be useless in this situation. And that [Deus ex Machina] would take too long. With nothing left to trust in…

[Flames of Vengeance]

These words echoed from the depths of her very soul, seeming to fill her mind and her surroundings. She was immediately assaulted by a wave of dizziness and nausea.

Her blood caught on fire. The liquid flames spreading across her bloodied body in an instant. The flames, though intense, were only warm. They seemed to be burning something… more than the physical, like they were burning an intimate part of herself she had never known. When the flames touched the wolves they spread across their fur and into their mouths.

Alice could taste blood in her mouth. She could feel the fire digging blood red nails into her tongue. As the wolves around her had three of their legs shredded and bloodied by the fire. They all stepped away and tried to run. But the flames pulled them towards Alice. The blood they lost also burned turning into more liquid flames, however this fire was incredibly hot. And with every drop of blood the fire scorched, it would grow fiercer yet. And in moments the wolves were nothing but flaming piles of ash and bones. The fire on these ash piles proceeded to crawl along the ground and join with Alice’s cloak of flames. With all her enemies gone. The flames died out.

Alice had survived her first true battle to the death. With her right foot hanging by a single tendon and both her arms unable to move below the elbow.

Putting her hope into the next divine skill she could use Alice tried to activate [Deus ex Machina]. But nothing changed. Begging the one who gave her this skill was the only thing she could do.

“Please goddess, please help me. I don’t want to die. I just want to leave this forest safely.” Alice sobbed as she begged this with her bloodied tongue.

In the next moments a beam of holy light fell upon her as a beautiful voice flowed into her ears.

“I have listened child, spare your tears, and have faith.”

The light washed over her and bathed her in a warm glow.

She fell asleep.