Once she was close enough, Alk lunged at Kada, wrapping her hands around her neck. She didn’t hesitate when trying to choke her, even digging her nails into her throat. Before they could break the skin, though, Kada managed to jerk her body back enough to create a gap between them.

Apparently it wasn’t a moment too soon, as a blade flashed in front of Kada’s eyes, swiping upwards. But no, it hadn’t come from Alk’s hands. That metal tip was poking out of Alk’s boot.

On top of everything else, this woman was extremely flexible. Alk’s leg remained in the air above her head as Kada quickly scrambled away to get some distance. But now, Alk gave chase. It wasn’t the same slow, heavy steps as before. She was gliding across the ground, extremely light on her feet. It now made sense how she’d gotten very little mud on her shoes.

Kada kept backing away, doing her best to dodge Alk’s kicks. She still didn’t want to fight the girl if it could be avoided. Hopefully, if Kada remained non-confrontational, Alk would eventually see the futility of her pursuit.

This did give Kada some time to more calmly assess the situation, since she just had to stay out of kicking range. But Alk didn’t make it easy. She was quite good at closing the distance, and spinning her body in ways Kada couldn’t predict. Each swipe of Alk’s boot got harder and harder to dodge.

Yet, her moves looked familiar somehow, and Kada blurted the first thing on her mind. “Ballet?” It was an activity that Kada herself had never actively participated in, but something she had still followed closely for a time—pretty women performing incredible and strangely-flexible dances and moves in tight clothing may have piqued her interests a bit.

“One of the only things I can thank my zjik father for,” Alk was surprisingly talkative on the subject. “He always made sure I attended my lessons, and made sure I was giving it my all, so that he wasn’t wasting his money.”

An interesting choice of moveset for someone who looked like they despised all things girly. Yet now that Kada understood what she was up against, it made it that much easier to predict. More than anything, Kada just really wanted to keep some distance. Alk’s questions had been weird, but they had a pattern. It must have had something to do with her Curse. Kada hadn’t figured that part out yet, but staying away seemed to be a reliable course of action.

So far, they’d managed to stay in the more open area of the playground, but Kada bumped up against a tunnel for kids to play in that was in the shape of a giant hollow log. She quickly vaulted up on top and ran to the other side. Alk followed and easily closed the gap again, not perturbed at all by the unbalanced surface.

Just as she was about to kick again, Kada melted the log underneath herself and slipped into the tunnel. Carrying the momentum of the fall, she melted the inside of the tunnel a bit just to reduce the friction and shoot out the other wide. This created the most distance yet and gave Kada enough time to form a proper sentence.

“Come on, Alk, this is all just a big misunderstanding. Let’s calm down and talk about this rationally.”

“No.” Alk denied her request bluntly, but it at least did sound calm and rational. “Even if it is as you say, your existence annoys me. You may as well serve some use as a test subject and participate in my clinical trial. All the other Fiends I’ve met, I actually like. You’re the first Fiend I’ve really wanted to stab with my needles. So let me just stab you a bit and make some concoctions with your body, you shameless airheaded bimbo.”

What the hell had Kada done to piss this girl off so much? It seemed her just being alive annoyed Alk to no end. Whatever. Since there was no progress being made with words, a bit of brute force was needed. Kada was done dodging, and met Alk head on once the girl pursued her again.

All that hand-to-hand combat training with Phon and Nachi had paid off, and Kada was able to block Alk’s incoming flurry of kicks by meeting her arms with Alk’s shins. This continued for a while but got them nowhere. The tragedy of being Fiends meant neither would run out of steam any time soon.

There was one close call. Apparently, Alk could extend the length of the blade poking out from her boots on command. Kada had managed to block it just in time so that the extended reach didn’t knick her, but it had been ass-clenchingly close. With her Curse not at the ready, Kada would have taken the hit, but would have been able to stop it from stabbing any deeper into her.

Still, she was fed up with these literal steel-tipped boots. It was best to remove them from play entirely. Alk was now performing an impressive spin on one heel that was sending her other boot straight at Kada’s side. Kada activated her Curse, ready to take the hit and melt the boot away. Then, she could grab onto Alk’s leg and hopefully pin her to the ground and end this nonsense.

As expected, the boot turned to useless goop on impact, but there was a sharp pain in Kada’s side anyways. It had caused her to flinch enough that she completely missed her chance to grab her attacker’s leg, and Alk quickly pulled it away. To Kada’s surprise, Alk didn’t play on the advantage for a followup attack, and now skirted away on her own to create some distance.

“My friends advised me that I should trim my nails like this, just in case I ever ran into you specifically.” Alk held her leg up, her knee bent down to show off her foot. Kada’s silver blood was dripping off the woman’s toes, and it took a second before Kada could see what she was talking about. Her nails had been trimmed into fine points, sharp enough to jab into Kada’s unprotected waist. Oh, and they were of course polished black.

The wound hurt a little, but it’d heal soon enough. It made no sense why Alk fell back, and why she seemed so giddy about it. In fact, there was even a bit of a gleeful mad laugh that was mostly muffled by Alk’s mask. “You know what they say about recovery, right?” Alk posed a weird question. “It often gets worse before it gets better!”

It hit Kada all at once, the unbridled pain unlike anything she’d ever experienced. Even as a human, even when the hexadillos clawed her to the brink of death, it was nothing compared to this. Her side was on fire, but that didn’t quite cut it. No, it was closer to having lava poured straight into her open wound.

The agony was endless, like she was being stabbed a million times a second in the side of her waist. She doubled over in torment, and collapsed on the ground. The pain was so excruciating that Kada didn’t even care what came next—the pain stopping, or death. It didn’t matter which happened at this point, she just prayed that one would come soon.

She’d lost all wherewithal to process anything around her, but her other senses slowly returned when the pain finally subsided. It was completely gone not too much later, but Kada felt like a withered husk. She was drenched with sweat, and her entire body still felt limp. It took so much effort to even summon the strength to stand.

“Damned Fiend regeneration. It ruined the fun too quickly. And yet it’s completely unreliable when it’s needed the most,” Alk couldn’t help but let out a few more coughs. “So, how did you like my Curse? You probably have a faint idea of how it works now.”

Kada did in fact. All she’d managed to glance at the description earlier was the word ‘symptoms’. It seemed Alk had the ability to exacerbate someone’s bodily symptoms to an extreme degree. Now it made sense why she’d asked all those questions about Kada’s health earlier. She was looking for a weakness to exploit.

“I’ll tell you what,” Alk lowered her guard a little. “That display satisfied my annoyance, so I don’t feel the need to torture you any longer. But you’d be foolish to think I’d let a valuable opportunity to test my skills on a Fiend’s body slip me by.”

“If you agree to let me use your body to incubate some of my experiments, I promise not to use my Curse again. Hell, I’ll even make the experiments completely painless so you won’t feel them at all. Though, I can’t speak how any after effects will make you feel. Do we have a deal?” Alk held out her hand as if to shake from across the playground.

“Yeah, I’ll pass,” Kada struggled to say even that much. She wasn’t really upset that Alk had so mercilessly inflicted pain on her. Kada had lost the exchange after all. But she knew better than to trust someone called The Plague Doctor and let them experiment with her body. She’d heard Farians tales of Alk’s victims. Most of them were pretty horrific.

Plus, there was the whole new issue of not letting any Fiend blood be taken. If needles were stuck inside of Kada, it’d just be asking for blood to be drawn. Something so important couldn’t be left in the hands of even another Fiend. The lie they’d told the others, and the rumor that Chorus had purposefully leaked to the rest of the world, was that Fiend blood had been discovered to be toxic to humans. They didn’t know how long it’d last, but should keep interest away for a while.

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Kada finally unmelted her anchor. She’d need to subdue Alk to end this and felt a little less bad about inflicting some injuries now. Her anchor was meant for monsters, not humans. It was too heavy and sharp, and could do some serious damage. But this opponent warranted her full might.

Based on what she’d said, it appeared that Alk knew Kada pretty well, or at least her abilities. She wouldn’t be caught off-guard if Kada suddenly melted away the asphalt. And with how light on her feet she was, Kada doubted she could capture Alk by trying to cement her feet into something like she had with many others. If she was going to try and use her Curse in that way, she’d have to make sure Alk couldn’t escape first.

“Fine then. If you don’t want to take part, then at least let me brew you a parting gift!” Alk pulled several syringes out from the back of her pouch and jabbed them into her own arm. Each syringe was filled with a different colored liquid that Kada couldn’t even begin to identify.

She flung her anchor, hoping to stop whatever this madness was before it could come to fruition, but it was too late. Alk had managed to squeeze them all into her arm, and then hid her arm behind her back so that Kada couldn’t see what was happening to it.

Ugh, whatever. Just don’t let her get close, and she can’t do whatever she’s planning. Kada reassured herself with a basic tactic as she reeled back her anchor. Kada thought briefly about reattaching her old chain to the anchor that she kept in a separate orb in her purse. However, she doubted its effectiveness in being able to wrap up Alk in it to capture her.

Instead, she was going to aim for that damned pouch of hers. Without it, Alk would lose all of her medicinal tricks, and would only have her body to fight. It actually didn’t take long before Kada got a two-for-one. She threw a feint, causing Alk to dodge, but then kada redirected her anchor into Alk’s hip. It sliced through the strap holding Alk’s pouch and also gave the girl a considerable gash that was squirting dark-teal blood.

Yet, Alk didn’t even flinch. Even the strongest Fiends would groan in pain after receiving such an injury. Alk merely glanced at it for a second before ignoring it entirely. The blood also stopped flowing way faster than it should have, even for a Fiend.

Alright, a change of tactics, Kada quickly switched her anchor to its launcher mode just as Alk started sprinting again. To her surprise, Alk abandoned the pouch and started running around the playground. She began picking up those loose syringes that Kada hadn’t melted earlier when they’d missed her entirely.

This time, she made sure to melt it properly so it couldn’t be used again when Alk threw it at her. Of course it was made of randomized materials. She’d really done her homework on Kada and knew how to counter most of her Curse’s usage.

Now, Kada reciprocated with a ranged attack of her own, launching one of her sparking orbs that emitted an electric cloud. For even a Fiend, it’d be like being trapped in a swirl of static that should immobilize them and feel like their skin was lightly kissed by dozens of tasers.

Yet it had no visible effect on Alk, at least to her ability to keep moving. The effect on her skin and clothes was noticeable, singing them slightly, but she showed no reaction herself. What the mawhg? Can she not feel pain?! Maybe her Curse didn’t just exacerbate symptoms, but could alleviate them too. If that was the case, Alk could prevent herself from feeling basically any pain at all.

More syringes were pelted through the air. Kada made sure to melt any that came close, wanting to remove them all as an option since Alk must be running on short supply if she was scavenging for them.

While dealing with that annoying peppering, Kada continued to fire whatever she had at Alk, but none of it proved effective. She wasn’t going to use any of her explosives but used just about everything shy of it. Even one of the literal brick walls didn’t do anything. Kada kept a few to try to pin in monsters. She made it spawn directly in front of Alk as she ran, and Alk careened straight into it, but shrugged it off and skirted away before Kada could place another.

The restrictive foam Kada had used to take down a CP helicopter once didn’t do much either. Thanks to some inconveniently placed monkey bars, Alk had been able to pull herself free easily.

“You really shouldn’t have melted that one!” Alk stopped in her tracks after Kada’s most recent deflection. A new strange substance was coating Kada’s entire body now after she melted the syringe.

Damn, I thought she was only throwing empties. Kada realized now that it had all been a ruse to get her to melt this particular syringe. Alk stopped her frantic scrambling and held out the arm she’d been hiding.

Holy zjik… Fear swirled in Kada when she saw what the crazy Draz had done to herself. Her arm, it—well it wasn’t much of an arm anymore. All of her skin and most of her flesh was just completely gone from her forearm. There were absolutely parts where only bone remained. Kada frantically tried to scrub the new liquid off of her, but nothing of note was happening just yet.

“A flesh eating bacteria I made just for you,” Alk informed her, clearly not perturbed by the state of her own arm. “I had to increase the symptoms in order to cultivate it quickly, but I removed all pain so I haven’t felt a thing. Unlike other Fiends, I can actually control the speed of my own regeneration.”

It wasn’t immediate, but within just about a minute, Alk’s arm was back to normal. Kada hadn’t been able to pry her eyes away. Watching the flesh, muscle, and finally the skin stitch itself back together had been mesmerizing. “I’ll admit, that was pretty exhausting, but it saved me days of recovery. I wonder how long it’ll take you to recover after I leave you as a husk on the brink of death. I’ve been so kind as to not let it attack you right away, but get ready.”

Kada did what she could to brace for the pain to come, but there was nothing anyone could do to prepare for that kind of torture. It started as a slight tingle, a numbing of the skin all over her body. But then it kicked it, the grating pain of her skin being eaten away. It was like her entire body was being attacked by an endless barrage of cheese graters.

While utter agony, it actually wasn’t nearly as bad as the earlier wound at her waist. Perhaps that higher threshold of pain was stunting how bad this should be, or hell, even her experience with the hexadillos had been similar so she had gotten someone accustomed to this kind of pain. Regardless of the reason, she was able to stay much more aware.

Kada had collapsed to the ground on her back, just letting the torment run its course without resisting at all. She was really tempted to melt the ground beneath her and submerge herself to see if that would alleviate her situation. But not yet. Maybe she could still turn this around.

“Huh, you’re still conscious,” Alk huffed in disappointment as she bent over her victim. “Either you’re stronger than I gave you credit for, or I’m too weak right now to aggravate it further. You look terrible, though. I felt you should know that. I’d take a picture to send you later, but I don’t want that repulsion in my phone.”

“Well, anyways, let’s not let this chance go to waste, then.” Alk stratled over Kada and put the pouch she’d retrieved down on her stomach. “What should I brew in your body? Maybe make a disease that will leave you ugly and bloated for life so that you’ll never dress so shamelessly ever again.” The crazed ‘doctor’ pulled out a new fresh syringe.

“I’m well aware that you may be able to use your Curse to an extent, so I won’t risk trying to stab you directly with this. However, you can’t melt living things, right? Well then, I just need to get this needle inside of you without letting it touch your skin.” Alk curled a finger on her newly remade hand. She jammed the tip of the syringe’s needle into the back of her knuckle, and pushed it all the way through the finger until it was almost bulging out of her fingertip.

Damn, this chick’s hardcore, the insanity Kada had just witnessed briefly distracted her from the pain. She guessed Alk was going to puncture her body with that finger like she had with her toenails and then be able to inject whatever she pleased. It was definitely something Kada couldn’t let her get away with if she could manage it.

She only had enough strength to move her limbs a few times at most, so she’d have to make it count. First, she needed to throw off Alk enough to lower her defenses. There was something that bothered Kada from the get-go: the mask Alk wore. She didn’t seem like the kind of person to actually wear it out of concern for others' health.

Given her title as The Plague Doctor, Kada guessed she wore it virtually all the time—enough to give people a false impression. Why wear it if there was nothing to hide?

Alk was certainly caught by surprise, flinching like crazy when Kada’s hand swung for her face. Kada’s fingers caught onto the mask and let gravity do the rest of the work for her, pulling it off of Alk entirely. Her face was regrettably unblemished, and Kada felt it was a bit too cute to match the rest of Alk’s personality.

However, there was something to hide after all. Kada could just barely glimpse it in Alk’s mouth which was wide open in shock. It was her Curse Mark, imprinted on her tongue; a bottle of poison, dripping a few drops down to the tip. The mask made plenty of sense now, since anyone would easily spot the Curse Mark any time she spoke.

But this did the trick, unexpectedly so. Alk seemed so shaken that her mask was gone that she reeled back and looked like she entirely forgot what she was doing, her eyes wide and almost scared. Not foolish enough to fall for pitying the girl, Kada wrapped her legs around Alk’s waist, squeezing with every remaining bit of strength.

Then Kada’s Curse took them. They both submerged into the asphalt and then dozens of feet further down. Ever since she’d had too many close calls with drowning, there was now something Kada never left home without. Her purse was still wrapped around her, and Kada managed to finagle the small device out from inside.

She put the rebreather into her mouth, so she’d be fine for hours to come. The goggles attached to her visor automatically flipped down when it sensed they were underground. She was now able to watch Alk struggle, but not for much longer. Her stamina was actually kind of sad compared to how strong she was otherwise, and she stopped moving before long.

The pain on Kada’s body had immediately relieved a bit the moment they’d entered the liquid. Now with Alk unconscious, her skin only felt like it was itching slightly. It seemed her Curse required some concentration to stay effective. Kada was now able to move freely, so she grabbed Alk’s body and swam back to the surface.