The group of visitors fell humorously silent. They obviously hadn’t been expecting someone to randomly pop out of the tunnel they had just been discussing sending a pro-murder member down. They blinked at her, the world seeming to move in slow motion before shock and violence rippled through the aether.

Emilia had enough time to dive out of the way before a blade of some sort shot through the place she had just been standing. Luckily, V had had enough sense to not immediately emerge from behind her, and she wasn’t about to waste the chance that the group hadn’t realized he was there. Her {Blood Armour} tensed over her limbs. One moment she was near the mouth of the cave, the next she was in the middle, {Blood Dagger} already in hand and striking up through the air.

Silverstrain Girl’s throat split apart, and if Emilia had thought it would be strange seeing someone who so resembled her real body falling to the ground half-decapitated, it wasn’t—which was concerning. Probably Payton doing something, touching the genes that affected her empathy a little too closely again.

The world felt blurry and far away. These weren’t real people she was killing—they would simply return to their bodies, knowing they had been bested by another hero. It wasn’t real—would just be a touch of violence and fear across their souls—but she should have felt something more, right?

The child shrieked, tiny legs taking them too quickly to the exit as they wove their way through the shocked adults. Grumpy Man, who had been the one to throw the weapon, was the first to reach her, feet heartlessly tramping over the Silverstrain Girl’s quickly reddening locks. Her body convulsed. Neither of them spared her a glance as another red blade collided with her {Blood Dagger}.

He was strong, her single-handed hold on the weapon not nearly enough to stop his weapon coming down on her. For all his strength, however, the man either had no formal training or hadn’t been in the right headspace to use it. Emilia swerved under the weight of his strike, shifting around him and pulling a {Blood Needle} out of her pocket.

Unfortunately, as much as her armour had spots for storing many of her blood weapons, they were covered by clothing, and she’d been forced to choose between improvising ways to grab the weapons or using different ways to store them, and walking around half-naked. She’d chosen the former option, not only because her state of undress would attract attention, but because enemies not knowing she had armour under her clothes could be useful. While she had so far successfully dodged most attacks from Grumpy Man—as well as a near hit to her back from someone else—the fact that she could be more erratic with her moves, trusting the armour to protect and support her, was a boon.

“Kill her!” Cheeky Girl screamed, her voice cracking like she truly was sad her sister was temporarily dead. Perhaps she was—perhaps the idea of being unable to talk to each over for several weeks was too much for her.

“Livia!” their mother hissed. “Get after your sister!”

Cheeky Girl—Livia—hesitated a moment, her eyes flicking between Emilia and Grumpy Man’s fight and the route their sister had gone. Emilia rolled out of range of another attack just as the girl screamed, the sound distracting Grumpy Man long enough that Emilia surged backwards, letting her {Blood Needle} fly through the air. It collided with the man’s head, and she rolled behind the closest rock.

The shrapnel of an exploding body rocketed through the air, more screams erupting along with Gangly Boy’s deranged laughter.

“We got ourselves a fighter, eh!?” he drawled, voice suddenly thick with an accent she couldn’t place. She’d known countless people in her life, met thousands of people from the Free Colonies and every corner of Baalphoria. Nothing in her memory was anything like the voice Gangly Boy was adopting, the intonation not even scratching against her mind in lost remembrance the way V’s words and accent occasionally did.

Something flicked. Something else whistled. Things collided, and V’s voice yelled across the screams of Livia. “Go right!”

Emilia bolted to the right, muscles and {Blood Armour} sending her flying across the room.

“Another fighter, I see~” Gangly Boy laughed, eyes manic as he turned on V. His head cocked, a predator sizing up prey who, Emilia realized in horror, had thrown his main weapon in order to keep her save. Between her and the boys, V’s {Blood Spear} lay across the ground, some sort of boomerang shaped weapon lying several feet away from it.

V blinked disinterestedly at Gangly Boy, one of the {Blood Needles} she had given him twirling between his fingers and dragging his opponents' attention towards it.

The boy’s eyes flicked between the two of them. “You two sharing weapons? Tell me, whose is it? Who killed and got such a lovely weapon?” he asked in that same lazy drawl of drawn out vowels.

“I did,” Emilia said, edging herself slowly to the left so she could make out the moving shapes of the other living members of the group.

The mother was hovering near the door, pushing Livia violently through it even as the girl threw vengeful looks back at Emilia.

“But mother!” she was screaming, tugging ineffectually at the arm her mother had caught. A bloody gash had been ripped through her cheek, the wound slowly healing as blood dripped back into it—blood that was splattered over her mother’s hand.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The woman raised her bloody hand, red bracelet glinting as she drew her hand back and—

“No!” the girl shrieked, backing herself up into a wall. “I’ll go! I’ll go!”

“You will,” her mother said darkly, hand still raised in threat. “Your brother,” she said, practically spitting out the word, “will avenge the siblings the silverstrain whore killed.”

To her credit, Livia seemed to find issue with her mother’s words, her eyes sliding to her sister’s barely discernible fake silverstrain hair. Whatever their mother thought about using the irregular deviation as an insult, it seemed that her daughters may not agree.

“Go,” her mother spit out, hand raising once more in threat. Her bracelet caught in the firelight, and even from so far away, Emilia could see the spikes etched over it, each spike a blade that the woman wasn’t afraid to wield against at least one of her children.

Livia’s jaw tensed, and she sent Emilia another hateful look. “You better let the bastard kill you,” she sneered, nose tilting up in a move that certainly didn’t fit her state of filth and revealing clothes. “You do not want to see what I’ll do to you for this.” Her short brown hair puffed upwards with the force of her turn out of the cavern, her steps somehow delicate over the stones and sending an echo of familiarity through Emilia.

She didn’t have an opportunity to dwell on running into yet another person who scratched against her memory, however, not when Gangly Boy was surging towards V, manic grin plastered over his face. V had been expecting the attack and dodged out of the way, but he didn’t have any items for close combat. Even if he hadn’t sacrificed his {Blood Spear} saving her from the boy’s attack, it wasn’t suited for a fist fight, which was what the boy seemed to be going for.

“Is this a weapon?” the other visitor had asked the night before, as the two of them lay twined together in bed. His fingers had run over the ring Zach had given her, stilling when she had laughed and explained what sort of devastation the {Blood Ring} was capable of. “And I had that thing near my cock?” he asked, shuddering in mock horror, before his hands had begun to wind through hers.

Emilia had hummed in confirmation and tucked herself closer to him, sleep slowly pulling against her mind. “You should be careful, not to let people touch you.”

“Unless I’m sure they ain’t gonna blow a hole in me?” V had laughed, leaning in to whisper about how Emilia had certainly blown a hole in his soul with everything they’d done that night.

V dodged out of range of another attacks, bolting far enough back that when Emilia sent another {Blood Needle} shooting towards their opponent, she had no worries about him potentially being caught in the explosion.

Unfortunately, the boy wasn’t stupid or unobservant. He dropped to the ground, knees colliding heavily with the cavern floor. Emilia’s {Blood Needle} whizzed past him, shattering into a wall.

The room shook and Emilia rolled behind another rock as debris was sent flying by the needle’s explosion. V’s shoulder collided with hers as they hid, the boy behind them howling in amusement and pain as Emilia forced more of her weapons on her friend.

“Such a fun weapon~” Gangly Boy laughed, voice suddenly too close. “Is there a limit to how many there are? Should we find out together?”

V was better at manipulating weapons—they’d learned that last night as well. Perhaps it was his previous experience with manipulating his core, perhaps he just had a more vivid imagination. Regardless, when Gangly Boy skirted around the edge of their rock, his boomerang shaped weapon already pulled back, just a wrist flick from slicing into them, V was the one who wrapped his hand around the {Blood Vial} tucked away in one of her pockets.

Blood shot out of the vial, a thousand branches twining out of it towards Gangly Boy. His eyes widened, his grin split wider, and he let his weapon fly. Sharp, strong waves of violence split through the {Blood Vial}’s branches, sending splatters of red across the area.

“That ain’t gonna be enough!” Gangly Boy laughed as he pulled back his weapon and brought it down again, again, ignoring the fact that one wrong move—one strike too weak—and the {Blood Vial}’s tree would reach him and slide effortlessly through his body. A thousand spires reaching for him and barely stopped.

They were stopped, however, and the {Blood Vial} was limited by how much blood it contained—although that amount seemed to be augmented by the system, else it would have run out long ago. They’d refilled it with their own blood that morning, but every new reach of limbs was quickly running it dry, and then—

Emilia rolled to the side, leaving V holding the weapon. A sheen of sweat across his forehead glistened in the shimmering firelight. One moment of lost concentration and the tree would fall, V would die, and she’d be left fighting this guy alone.

This guy and Quiet Boy who—

She looked around, searching for the only person she hadn’t seen leave the cavern. He was nowhere to be found, even the energy she sent spiking into hidden spaces behind rocks and debris coming back with nothing.

Apparently, he had also left his brother—that bastard—behind to fight them alone. He hadn’t even said goodbye.

Emilia heaved up V’s {Blood Spear}, twirling the heavy weapon in her hands and willing it smaller. She could have used her {Blood Dagger} to fight the boy, but the last thing she needed was to accidentally get hit by the {Blood Vial}’s tree because she got too close—or worse, leave them both without close range weapons.

The boy’s eyes shifted uneasily towards hers before he brought another slash down on V’s expanding attack. His smile flattered, even if just slightly. “Gonna off me?” he asked, another attack punctuating his question.

“Yes,” Emilia said matter-of-factly, arm pulling back as energy wound through her. “Perhaps you should use the time to get away from your obviously shitty family.” She had no idea if the guy was actually in a situation he could get out of—let alone if whatever those interactions had been reflected what the family was like in real life—but it felt like the thing to say.

Sil was always complaining about people chatting, rather than killing, in virtual raids. Sure, it could definitely lead to problems, give your opponent time to dodge an attack or escape, but Emilia was between him and the door and—

“Watch your fucking mouth!” the boy snarled, twisting and charging at her.

V’s attack sliced through Gangly Boy’s arm, all but ripping the limb off his body. The boy hardly seemed to notice as he charged at Emilia, her own eyes focused as she let the {Blood Spear} fly, and it collided with… a wall.

Emilia blinked into the space Gangly Boy had just been standing, catching V popping back up out of the corner of her eye. “Uh… did you see which way he went?”

V shook his head, eyes searching the area. “No?”

They blinked at each other, confused for just a beat too long, apparently. Blood crackled around them and suddenly V was tackling her, throwing her over his shoulder and bolting towards the cavern’s exit, natural light sliding out of the distance.

The room shook, the entire aethernet seeming to vibrate with it, as the blood of three people began to scream through the air.