Despite my unwillingness, nothing bad happened, My Angel sat next to me the entire time while Echo looked me over and told me the back of my head and back had massive welts along with a nasty wound on my shoulder.

She stopped the bleeding with the contents of the syringe and gave me a separate medicine to reduce the swelling to help me move better.

She also mentioned how surprised she is at how I'm still coherent with how bad of a head injury I should have and the amount of blood staining my hair.

I mentioned that my hunger skill probably healed me to the point I could function again, and she said that at least it wasn't an all bad skill with a smile.

With that, we left the bathroom, and it seemed Pulse recovered from whatever was bothering her in the time we were in the bathroom.

They went about leaving to the bunker since they didn't have the right people to put down a rootcap, I expressed concern about the hawks trying the same thing they did at the bar before they exited without telling them it because I heard the hawk saying it.

And that brings us back to the present.

I watched as they got ready. Pulse coiled up 2 whips, 1 in each hand, ready to use at a slight shift in grip, and HighJack was refastening their armor, Echo was checking on Den, specifically his hurt arm, it had a large white pad that was stained a crimson red on his forearm. I'm so hungry... no, I'm not.

They decided to form a marching order this time instead of a loose group to stop me from getting taken again. HighJack was in the lead with Pulse shortly after, I was in the middle with Den behind me and Echo in the back.

We left the building ready for the 20 or so hawks that swooped down for me in a very tight cluster.

I raised my axe to greet them, but 4 long white and black strings whipped out from behind me did so instead.

They glinted in the light as they passed through the tightly packed hawks with no resistance before vanishing. "Huh, what happened?"

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"Sever connection." A shiver went down my spine at the chilling whisper lingering in my ears that was followed by a strange ripple from the now cut into pieces hawks.

"What..." I stared in complete shock as the chunks fell to the ground with a splat. I looked behind me to see who did that.

Echo clenched her right hand. Her arm was lit up with glowing white tattoos that were slowly dimming.

Echo turned to me and must have seen my shocked face because she smiled a bit and told me about what she did. "That was an active skill I have. They have powerful effects but are taxing to use for an extended period of time."

"For instance, I can use 30 more strings before I need to rest, while Pulse has an active skill that she can only use a few times before she passes out." Echo gestured to Pulse, who blushed and turned away.

"Don't tell her that!" Pulse whined from ahead of us and started pushing HighJack forward, we followed.

"Hey... why did you struggle against those people who attacked from the shadows, then?" I asked, expecting a reluctant answer, but they looked confused instead.

"What do you mean? Oh, you mean the shades... those were fractals, Mera." Echo replied with a hint of realization.

"Shades?"

"Yes, shades they're... a..." Echo slowed to a stop mid sentence, I glanced back and saw that she was grimacing.

"What's wrong? Why did you stop?" I verbally prodded, hoping I wasn't hitting a sore spot of her past.

"It's something I can't talk about in detail. Sorry." Echo said dully as her expression went back to her soft, caring smile.

That's a bit unnerving. And she didn't tell me why. The talking lulled as we made our way to the bunker. I kept glancing around, expecting something to attack us, but nothing has yet.

After 15 minutes or so of silence, Den awkwardly coughed and spoke to me. "So... how much did you spend on that?"

"What?" My face scrunched up at how bizarre what he asked was. Not an apology for being forceful earlier or a question about myself but about 'that'? I got irritated more than I thought I should've at that.

Den pointed at the wolfen battle axe that I was gripping in my right hand. "The axe your hold. It's saint equipment, right?"

"Oh. yeah, it is. I used a ticket to get it." I said flatly. I wasn't interested in talking to him anymore. My chest burned with raw feelings of annoyance and disdain.

"Really? Tickets are some of the best things the system gives out. What did you do for it?" I glanced at him as he talked to me, and the disdain bubbled up in my chest.

At least apologize, you annoying owl- I shook my head as I snapped back into focus, the disdain vanishing, and my thoughts shifted.

Den talked, but I wasn't listening to him.

"What? What?!" I mumbled and covered my mouth with my left hand.

I stared ahead as I tried to forget what just happened. It wasn't working.