After the negotiations ended Leo-3 picked up McKenzie and they began marching towards the World Boss. Leo-1 and Leo-2 followed while facing Bill to be prepared if he tried anything.

Once they were out of sight of Bill’s group they began talking strategy.

2.”I understand that they were in a shit situation back there, but that’s the reality of the new world. Why’d we stick our necks out for them?”

1.”When she was lying there begging me for help it reminded me of Hannah and the rest was a blur.”

As soon as the other Leos heard Hannah they understood. The pain and self-hate that came after they lost her was too much to think about, even now after all those years.

Leo-3 let out a quick exasperated sigh, ”Welp that settles that then. I can’t believe those guys were quick enough to think of using her as a human shield. But I guess most of the groups we come across will have someone that is quick-witted for them to have survived.”

The Leos nodded in agreement before Leo-3 handed McKenzie off to Leo-4 and stretched his neck and shoulder.

4.”I can’t believe they never mentioned why all of us look identical.”

2.”I doubt that four identical looking people were weird enough to register in their brains.”

3.”Eh, maybe. It sucks we weren’t able to just blast them with Fireball. Looks like that’s the next piece we need to add to our arsenal. A quick and clean single-target strike.”

1.”Yup, I was thinking the same thing. In addition to that we should probably decide on whether or not we should get level 10 and unlock our class before fighting the boss. I think we should, but I’m open to hearing other possible ideas.”

The other Leos put their heads down in thought as they walked. While lost in thought McKenzie awoke startled at her current position. It took her a moment to realize what state she was in but her wits were still about her even with how disheveled she looked.

“P-put me down now!” she screamed as she struggled to get out of Four’s grasp. Four was somehow able to set her down properly before she was able to struggle herself into a fall five feet in the air.

4.”Alright alright, sheesh. You’re free. Calm down, we’re away from Bill and his group. You’re safe with us, alright.” Four said as he tried to calm her down.

“Where’s my sister? Did you guys get her? Where is she?” McKenzie continued, her head swiveling side to side searching for Monica.

4.”Hey, it’s alright. Monica’s still with Bill, but we’re currently going to retrieve something to trade for her. We have a week to get it back to him and we’ll get your sister back.” he said, staring into her eyes as he held her shoulders in place.

“You promise?” she asked, apprehension in her eyes.

After Four nodded his head in affirmation McKenzie’s eyes began tearing up before she completely broke down crying.

“Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you. You have no idea what he was going to do to us.” she said, shaking from recollection of whatever Bill had told her and her sister.

4.“Don’t worry, we have an idea of what he was going to do to you two. We won’t let that happen.” he replied, bringing her in for a hug.

“No you don’t understand. He was going to sell us off to a city of some kind of blood moon elves. The stories of what those sick bastards do to human women is worse than anything I’ve heard of from Earth.”

This new information had brought a puzzled look to all of their faces. 1.’There are more blood moon elves here already? I just hope it’s a different clan or whatever than the Underpants we faced in The Waves.’

Picking up on One’s thoughts, Two posed a similar question to McKenzie.

2.”What do you mean, blood moon elves? Where are they and how many?” Two asked a bit more aggressively than he intended.

“They’re these human looking things with whitish silvery skin. Billy ran into some on the road after he captured my sister and I. It was just four on some sort of mount, but they said their clan’s capital city was just two hundred miles south across some mountain range.”

2.”Shit. Those are not nice people. I just hope the ones we met weren’t too important.”

“Met? You’ve met those monsters before? When? Where?” Mckenzie asked, shying away from all of the Leos.

2.”In the Tutorial, the last challenge was a duel to the death-.” Two was answering before Three cut him off.

3.”Should we really be talking about that in front of her? I know she was in a shit spot, but we can’t trust random people with that kind of information Two. Right, One?” Three stated firmly.

Everyone looked to Leo-1 who seemed to be lost in thought scratching the back of his neck. Leo-4’s tap on his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts and answered Three.

1.”Nope. You’re wrong. We can trust her. I know I was the only one to see her eyes when she cried out for help, but those were the eyes of someone grasping at the abyss for their last chance at salvation. She won’t betray us.” He finished kneeling down to eye level with McKenzie before taking her hands in his gently.

1.”Isn’t that right. We’re a team now.” he said with a smile.

“Y-Yeah, I wouldn’t even think of betraying you guys. Even if you all turn out to be bad people nothing could be worse than Billy or those elves.” she replied, her shoulders relaxing.

2.”Good. Then as I was saying before, we met them in the final wave where it was a death match. Only one group could survive to move on and here we are.”

It took McKenzie a second to figure what he had meant, but when she did her face was a bit apprehensive. It lasted but a mere moment before it was replaced with one of confidence, comfort and lust? Nah. There was no lust there. Leo-1 had just imagined that, too much time in the sun.

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Leo-1 took a moment to peer up at the position of the sun in the sky and saw that it was just about to hit mid day. A good time of day to take leave from their travels and set up camp for a rest. The group had made good ground since leaving their confrontation with Billy and both sides of the road they were traveling were nothing but forests of trees.

1.“Let’s start looking for a clearing to set up camp for lunch. We’ll split up to cover more ground. Each team takes one side of the road. Meet back here in thirty minutes or if you find a good place to camp.”

Leo-3 and Leo-4 looked at each other before shrugging and heading off into the line of trees to the right of the road. Leo-2 had taken a seat and was seated with his eyes closed. Leo-1 inspected the forest floor and saw that it was relatively clear and flat before he turned his attention to McKenzie.

1.”You up for a little hike? The forest floor doesn’t seem too brutal.”

It took McKenzie a moment to register Leo-1’s question but when she did she brushed off her pants and rushed to stand up, stumbling a bit on the way.

“Yeah, I should be fine. I was super drained earlier, but I feel much better now. Thanks, by the way.” She finished looking down, still brushing some dirt from her pants.

Leo-1 could see the sides of her face turn visibly red. Butterflies ran rampant in his stomach until he shooed them away and gave McKenzie a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

“Don’t mention it. She would have killed us if we didn’t help you anyways.” Leo-1 replied remembering how angry she’d get when he didn’t help someone who deserved it.

“You keep mentioning some girl. Who is she and why isn’t she here with you?” McKenzie asked, smiling at the thought of meeting whatever girl who had meant so much to the people who saved her.

1.”Her name is Hannah. She’s our sister, but she was killed right in front of our eyes while I was completely powerless and unable to do anything to help her. She died protecting me and so that’s why I,” Leo-1 paused realizing he started referring to himself halfway through. Then he looked Leo-2 dead in the eyes with seething hatred,”we saved you without second thought. We have the power now unlike back then and we won’t be letting it go to waste.”

2.”That’s right. So you don’t have to worry about your sister. She’s going to be safe.”

“Thank you.” McKenzie replied, more tension leaving her shoulders. “I guess we should get a move on huh. Can’t let those other two win.” She stated casually before leaving the two Leos in the dust as she started weaving in and out of the trees like she had grown up around forests much denser than this one.

1.“Wait! We don’t know what’s going to be in here. And we don’t know your combat capabilities.” Leo-1 yelled as he started sprinting to catch up to her. It was obvious he hadn’t spent much time in forests as every few trees he passed his foot caught on some underbrush or roots of trees.

Leo-2 two soon followed suit and they struggled in their own way deep into the forest. Worry started to settle in Leo-1’s heart as his pace had started to slow and McKenzie was nowhere in sight and she had stopped responding to his calls a few seconds ago. Adrenaline started pumping through his legs which gave him the burst to travel the last little distance to what looked like a clearing in the trees.

Leo-1 jumped out of the tree line into what could only be described as a battlefield. The grass of the forest extended for a few meters beyond the tree line. Beyond it was a wide open expanse of blackened earth and dead matter. There at the edge of life stood McKenzie just staring at the fields of death.

As Leo-1 approached McKenzie he could hear the faint sniffles accompanied by sadness.

1.“Hey, McKenzie. What’s wrong?”

Leo-1 couldn’t see anything dangerous, but he could see a subtle tremble in McKenzie’s shoulders. That was until she raised her finger and pointed at an object so far in the distance Leo-1 thought it may have been a mirage.

1.”What is it? What do you see?” Leo-1 asked as he walked closer to her. He stopped abruptly when he felt a wave of mana wash over him and a bright light blinded him.

“You can look now Leo. I’m sorry I had to lie to you, but since this is here now there’s no point in hiding anymore.” spoke a voice similar to McKenzie’s, but it was slightly deeper, slightly more mature.

Leo-1 opened his eyes slowly, blinking away the pain in his eyes. When his eyes got the first image of what stood in front of him his brain couldn’t process what he was seeing. In place of McKenzie was now a six foot two, green skinned and midnight black haired woman. Her body had slimmed with her increase in height to the perfect point where she had the minimal amount of fat in all the right places to not look grotesque.

1.“Wha-What happened to you?”

McKenzie took a deep inhale before exhaling and turned around to face Leo-1. Her eyes were now a deep crimson red and her skin now had symbols and patterns traced in her skin with what looked like brown living wood. The clothes that she was previously wearing were still there, but were now bursting at their seams with her increased size.

Her arms, taught with muscle, stretched up above her head and then dropped to rest just under her chest. She started walking towards Leo-1 with a look of contemplation apparent on her slender face. McKenzie stopped a few inches away from Leo-1’s body, her body giving off immense heat. Then she wrapped her arms around Leo-1’s neck pressing her bare chest into his and mumbled something unintelligible into his shoulder.

1.”I’m sorry. I didn’t catch that.” Leo responded, awkwardly wrapping his arms around her and patting her on the back.

McKenzie lifted her face from Leo’s shoulder and looked him in the eyes. He could see the redness in her eyes and tears pushing against the floodgates. She wiped her nose and cleared her throat before repeating clearly.

“I’m sorry I lied to you and I know you are under no obligation to help me or my sister, but I must ask for your help in a task greater than even defeating a World Boss.” she asked, with a pleading look in her eyes.

Leo-1 stood there stunned that she had so casually embraced him when they were both naked until Leo-2 cut in and broke him out of his trance.

2.”I’m sorry but what task could be greater than defeating a World Boss.”

“Hah, yeah. Hard to believe right? The truth is, I’m not a human from Earth.” McKenzie answered with a tinge of apprehension.

1.”Wait. Really?” Leo-1 blurted out flabbergasted.

Both Leo-2 and McKenzie just stood there staring at Leo-1 like he had just lost 100 IQ points.

1.”What!? It’s totally reasonable that this transformation thingy is a skill from the System. You should know that Greg, you saw the kind of shit they had available in the System Shop after The Waves.” As soon as ‘The Waves’ left Leo-1’s mouth he sucked in a sharp gasp and just stared at McKenzie hoping she had a stroke and didn’t hear what Leo had just said.

McKenzie unfortunately did not have a stroke and took a few steps back from Leo-1 staring at him with creased brows and a tilted head.

“What did you just say?”

1.”Uhm, nothing. It was just a cough, you know how it goes. Haven’t had anything to drink in a bit, you know.” Leo-1 responded with a fake cough to sell his story.

“No. I heard what you said. I’m just having trouble processing it. You’re lying right. It’s all a joke, right?”

Leo-1 was about to hop onto the out that McKenzie had laid for them, but Leo-2 stepped in to end the farce.

2.”You heard him right. It’s true that we defeated The Waves. Why is it so hard to believe?”

When McKenzie’s brain processed Leo-2’s words her arms started trembling. Leo-1 rushed to her side as her legs gave out from under her. McKenzie’s larger body felt so small in Leo’s arms as she let herself crumple into Leo.

1.”Hey, what’s wrong? What’s going on?”

“You’ve finally found me.”

1.”Yeah. I found you like a couple hours ago. It’s all good.” Leo-1 chuckled trying to lighten the mood.

“Yes. It’s very good now. So good, you don’t even understand how good it is.” she finished, laughing at some inside joke.

She pushed herself up to be face to face with Leo-1 and took his face in her hand and met his confusion with a smile that would light up the deepest darkest cavern, “So good in fact, I won’t have to die anymore.” Her face had this sense of relief like the weight of the world was lifted from its resting place atop her body.