Just as I stepped inside the outpost, the blade of a battleaxe came swinging out from behind the wall, straight at my face, and collided right into my nose.

You have been sliced. 56 damage.

Your Health is 624.

You have been inflicted with Burning Blood.

For the next 10 seconds, you gain the following effects:

You lose 1 Health every second.

Whenever you take damage from a physical source, that source deals an additional 50% damage, up to a maximum of 25 additional damage.

“Agh!” I shouted, stumbling back from the force of the swing. I was wearing Dark Plate, but that didn’t mean my visor could stop anything meant to hit me. Thankfully, though, my Health was more than capable of doing that. With my Stats, even a powerful swing like that didn’t draw blood.

Well, it still hurt like the fucking hells. And would probably bruise me pretty badly. But hey, didn’t split my head in two.

The moment I was attacked, Erani and Sylvie leapt back, preparing to fight back, and Ainash drew her own weapon. I almost charged in and unleashed the full extent of my Spells on whoever just swung the axe, but then I looked at the notification again.

“Wait.” I frowned, holding my hand to keep the rest of them back. “I know that curse.”

“Huh?” A voice came from behind the wall, and someone walked into the doorway, still clearly on-guard with her battleaxe held high. The massive, muscular woman looked at me with the same recognition that I looked at her with. “Oh, hey!”

“Ripley?” I asked, staring at her. “The fuck are you doing here?”

Bon looked between the two of us from the back of the room. “Oh, thank the flamin’ gods. You two know each other? You’re friends?”

I cocked my head to the side. “...Effectively.”

“Yeah, for sure we’re friends!” Ripley walked toward me and wrapped a muscly arm around me, bringing her head close to my ear and whispering, “Do they know who you are?”

“Yes,” I whispered back. “Well, they know some. But we still have company who don’t. Archer behind me, the one you don’t recognize.”

She stepped away, speaking up again. “Well, I’m sure as hells surprised to see you three. Er, four, I guess. I’d have thought you would have fucked off further north into the empire days ago.”

“We’re working on it,” I replied. “But I’m just as surprised to see you here. You said yourself you’d be fleeing from the border, right?”

“I did. Then I came back. Trust you know why?”

I frowned. “I don’t. What’s going on?”

She glanced around. “Not sure that’s the sort of info either of us want getting out in present company.”

“Hold on,” Sylvie said, walking up to us. “What in flames is going on? What are you two talking about?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Ripley spoke first.

“I’d imagine you’re part of the present company that, uh…” she looked at me. “...Sorry, remind me of your name, again?”

I blinked, realizing I’d never told her my fake name. I was just glad she assumed I’d have one and didn’t say who I really was in front of Sylvie. “I’m Annor. And, uh, I did get your name correct, right?”

“Yep. Still Ripley.” She turned back to Sylvie. “Anyway, doesn’t seem like Annor knows you too well. And I don’t know fuckall about you, so I sure as hells am not gonna trust you with my very exclusive, very valuable, very dangerous information.”

Sylvie turned to me, incredulous. “Did you know this woman was going to be here? How do you even know her in the first place?”

“We’re, uh, both fugitives from the kingdom,” I said. “Met a couple times when fleeing.”

“That’s one way to put it,” Ripley muttered.

“Anyway, I didn’t know she’d be here. Actually, Ripley, I should probably ask you about that. Uh, what the fuck?”

Ripley took a breath. “Honestly, yeah, you could probably help me out with this. Come on in, sit down with me.”

“W-wait,” Bon said, slowly standing from his seat. “L-lady, you said you would leave soon. We told you what you asked, we cooperated. You can’t just go inviting more people in. Especially not…him.”

“I was here to see you, anyway,” I said, strolling through the doorway. “Don’t worry, none of you are in trouble. I just wanted to ask you some stuff. But, uh, yeah. I’m still definitely going to enter your home. Sorry if it’s an inconvenience.”

Jannin clenched his hands, visibly shaking and leaning back more and more with every step I took into the room. “P-please don’t hurt us.”

Ripely stared at me. “The fuck did you do to these poor guys?”

“Yeah,” Sylvie said, still standing outside the outpost, “you never actually said how you know them. Did you, like, torture them or something? Doesn’t seem like they’re missing any fingernails, though.”

“I didn’t torture them. Haven’t done anything to hurt them.”

Index said something in my ear, to which I mentally responded with Ooh, good idea.

I turned to the guards and, saying it in the menacing tone that Index had helped me practice in the past, growled, “...Not yet, anyway.”

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Erani and Ainash stepped inside while we were talking, and Ripley looked over at them, stepping up to Ainash. “Ah, hey, it’s, uh…the pet thing. Forgot what you were.”

“Her name’s Ainash,” Erani said.

“Oh, are you new, too?” Ripley said, turning to her. “Damn, Annor, you sure know how to pick the creepy-looking ones. First your armor, now this girl? Actually, are you even a Human?”

“You do know me,” Erani said. “Look more closely.”

“Hm?” Ripley squinted, leaning in. “...Oh, wait. Oh! Oh, that’s fucking clever. Nice. What happened to your—”

“Yeah, that’s Eita,” I interrupted before Ripley could finish, having seen her eyes go to Erani’s missing arm. Then I sat down, waiting for the rest to make their way in. “So, Ripley, what’s up? Why are you here? I know you said some of that information is something that’s only for specific ears, but presumably there’s at least something you can tell us, right? Or should we just move on to what we’re here for?”

“I can talk a little bit,” Ripley responded, taking a seat in a chair against the wall. “So, just west of here, there was a group of guards, like these guys. They disappeared recently, and—”

“Oh, we do know about that,” I said. “There’s a bounty to find them. So we’re here to try and claim it.”

“Hm. But do you know the…” she glanced at the guards and at Sylvie before looking back at me, “...circumstances behind that disappearance? Who caused it?”

“Wait, it’s a who?” Sylvie asked, practically jumping up at Ripley’s words. “Hells yeah, that’s great information! Are the guards dead? Alive? Do you know where we can find them?”

“Don’t know that. Quite frankly, I don’t give two shits about whether those fuckers were killed or not. But Annor, you can assume who I’m talking about, right? If they’re disappearing some guards, that means they’re probably trying to get in here. Not all of ‘em, not yet. Probably just some splinter squads, trying to poke around, test the waters and see what bites back. I’m here to let ‘em know there’s a shark in this pond.”

I nodded slowly. “The Demons.”

At that, Sylvie actually did jump to her feet. “Woah, woah, woah. Wait. Demons? They’re trying to enter the empire?”

“Might not actually be Demons,” Ripley said, “it could be Humans paid by the Demons. But it’s definitely their soldiers. My guess is that they squashed the guards and buried ‘em somewhere to make room for their squads to sneak through. Could have already come all the way in. But my hope was that they’d come to this outpost, since…y’know.”

Since we’d come through here. It made sense. If the Demons wanted to find me, this place would probably be their first stop to try and get some info out of the guards.

“W-wait,” Bon interrupted, “Demons? Coming here? Are-are they on their way already?” He quickly stood and rushed to the windows, peering outside. “Jannin, Poppins, c’mon! Get some defenses up!”

Jannin stayed seated, still not having taken his cautious eyes off of me.

Poppins also continued sitting at the table, gazing between each of us. “I-I think these people are good enough protection. If they aren’t enough, then…”

“So,” Sylvie said, clearly ignoring the guards’ words, “if we can capture one of these Demons—or one of their hired soldiers, or whatever—then we can question them about the missing border guards, right? They’re our obvious ticket to the money.”

“That’s only if you don’t die fighting them,” Ripley said.

“You said you could beat them, right? I’m around Annor’s Level, so if you’re around that point too, then—”

“I never promised I could beat ‘em.”

Sylvie stared at Ripley, who was in turn staring at a divot in the stone walls. Then she turned to look at me. “You get mixed up with some weird flamin’ people, man.”

I just shrugged.

“Well then,” Sylvie turned to the door. “Guess that means we’re leaving? At least, I’m not sticking around in some box full of people waiting to die. Annor, you want to set up a trap? Maybe we can observe the fight from afar and see how it goes. Though, honestly, if we’re looking to fight, it’s probably best to go back and at least grab Entismo, if not also look around for Aliss and Boy to tell about the Demons, too. Honestly, it might be good to get word out to as many people as possible. Let them know there’s—”

“You’re not telling anyone else about them,” Ripley interrupted.

“What?”

Ripley shook her head. “You’re not gonna tell anyone about the Demons. Not while they’re still in the empire, at least. And definitely not while I’m still here.”

“What are you talking about? Why?”

“Don’t want people finding me. Once my job is done and I’m gone, feel free to tell your war stories. But I don’t want people to come looking.”

“I can’t just keep this a secret. If-if the Demons are actually invading like you say they are, people have a right to know. I mean, half the entire population of our town is made up of people who moved over here to help protect our country from a Demon invasion! And now that it’s happening, you want me to stand by and let it happen?” Sylvie started walking for the door. “Nah, that’s flamin’ bullshit. I’m telling people.”

“Sylvie,” I said. She stopped and looked at me. “Bringing more press to this issue is not necessary. We can handle it.”

She frowned. “What?”

I sighed. Bringing her along had clearly been a mistake. I didn’t have any idea this shit was going to end up leading back to the Demons—and, thus, back to me. If more people knew about the Demon forces, then more people would come out here looking to fight them. And if someone else managed to capture the people here to find me, they’d probably hear more than enough about me to be able to identify me despite my attempts to hide myself.

Though, of course, I couldn’t say any of that to Sylvie.

“It would lead to unnecessary deaths,” Erani cut in for me. “Many of those people are unprepared. We aren’t. We’re high enough Level to take them on, and we have the experience to know how to fight these things. If other, lower-Level, less experienced people came down here, they’d just get needlessly killed.”

“Well, what if I just told Entismo? Maybe Aliss and Boy, if I find them. They’re strong, too. And you know them.”

“It’d take too long,” I said, trying to think of an excuse to prevent her from going and getting more people. Honestly, I’d have preferred she wasn’t here either. Bringing in even more people to worry about would just cause more problems. “If you leave, you’ll be isolated on the road for a while. Too easy to ambush.”

“But—”

“Let’s cut the shit,” Ripley interrupted her argument, hefting her Enchanted axe and taking a step toward Sylvie. “If you leave this room, I’ll kill you.”

Sylvie’s eyes grew wide, and she looked over to me for help.

I didn’t say anything.

Erani spoke, though. “Ripley, maybe calm down some. We can handle it. No threats, especially not against allies.”

“Sometimes an ally needs a good threat or two. Keeps ‘em in line. And this girl seems like she needs to be taught not to argue.”

“I don’t want a fight,” Sylvie said. “I was just trying to say—”

“If you don’t want a fight, then you drop the topic, and do what I say. Arguing won’t get you nothing but an axe in the face. If you want to leave, then go ahead and pull out that bow of yours and take a shot at me. I could use the practice against you Archers, anyway.”

Sylvie stood, frozen at Ripley’s words. I saw as she barely moved her hand toward the bow on her back, clearly not sure what to do.

But before she could make that decision, Bon turned away from the window he’d been staring out of. “Hey! Someone’s coming.”

“Demons?” Ripley asked.

“No.” Bon quickly closed the stone shutters, sealing the window off. “People. I didn’t get a good enough look to know who. But, uh…”

“Well, let’s prepare for battle, then,” Ripley said, calmly taking a stance by the door so that when it opened it’d hide her behind it—probably the same stance she held when she ambushed me during my own entrance. She pointed to the border guards. “You three, sit down at the table like you were before.”

Bon frowned. “B-but, didn’t you say to prepare for battle? Shouldn’t we draw our weapons?”

“No. You need to look like nothing’s wrong. We don’t want our visitors suspecting anything.”

I walked over and stepped into the bathroom, Erani moved into the bedroom in the far corner, and Ainash ducked behind the kitchen counter, so that we were all out of sight.

Sylvie was left standing in the middle of the room, looking at all of us like we were completely insane. “Did you guys practice this or something?! Where do I go?”

“Come in here with me,” Erani said, peeking her head back into the main room and waving Sylvie in her direction. “It’s best for us ranged fighters to be further back when the fighting breaks out.”

Sylvie took a deep breath before ducking into the room. With that, we were all hidden, the only people in plain sight Bon, Jannin, and Poppins, sitting at the table with sweat beading their foreheads.

I leaned my head against the wall in the bathroom. Index, I want you to tell me if there’s something important going on in the room that I can’t see.

“On it. Just to start you off, there are five people approaching the building currently. You don’t know any of them, by the looks of their faces, and…wait, what’s up with their limbs? Four of the five are…what in the…

What is it?

The door opened before Index could respond.

Bon spoke up, his voice shaking, “W-who are you?”

A man replied, the sound of his boots thudding against the stone floor as he walked in, “Hi there. I hope you’re doing well, and I really do not mean to intrude. We’ve just stopped by to ask you some simple questions about who you might have seen coming through this checkpoint. My name is Jon Mourn. May I have your own names?”