I sat on the edge of the bed as the grogginess from my sleepless sleep slowly drained from my system. Orange had been true to her word and was going to teach me how to fight.

And she did not go easy.

“You look rough.” Shadara sat next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I chuckled. “You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been through in my sleep.”

Shadara glared at me. “Try me.”

You asked for it. I took a deep breath. “You remember how I learned to walk basically overnight?” She nodded. “Well, that’s because I did spend the night learning to walk, but it was all inside my head. It’s kind of hard to explain since I don’t really know the details all that well myself. I spent the time in my dreams practicing. That’s the easiest way to explain it.”

Shadara nodded and hummed. “That makes some sense. So you can control your dreams and use that to train. That’s quite useful. Let me guess, you can’t teach others to do that too.” She smirked. “Because others would kill for that kind of efficiency.”

I shook my head. “My nanites let me do it. But during the night, my nanites taught me unarmed combat styles.”

Shadara blinked her eyes slowly as her mouth gaped. “Your nanites…taught you? What? How?”

I held up my hand. “When I let Gary gather information on me, my nanites took the opportunity to gather all information from him on how to fight at the same time.”

Shadara shoved me back to the bed. “So that’s why you were fine with him stabbing you through the hand and studying you. You were out for information of your own. That’s a sly move if I’ve ever seen one.”

I pushed off the bed and giggled at the panther woman’s pout. “So that’s what I’ve been doing all night—learning to fight.”

Shadara held out her hand. “And? How did it go?”

I rubbed the back of my head. “At first, I went through some simple kicks from different stances. Afterwards, the same with punches. My augmented muscles make controlling them frighteningly easy. Then I practiced hitting a punching bag in different spots with my nanites simulating targets randomly.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad.”

I hung my head. “That was only the first hour.” I rubbed at my arm blade. “The second hour was trying to do all of that as fast as possible. The last three…”

I shuddered.

Shadara placed a hand on my shoulder and tilted my head to face her. “Why would you put yourself through something you obviously hated?”

I clenched my fists and pulled my head away from her hand. “Because I need to. It wasn’t like it wasn’t something I already hadn’t done. It was just more intense than anything I had ever done. My nanites pushed me further than I had ever been pushed before. It started with me using what I had learned to fight bav’varsts.”

I squirmed away from Shadara as the memories of what followed the first few creatures were literal nightmare fuel. "Then, to make me faster, my nanites had me fighting more bav’varsts. I got to the point where I could handle six of them pretty safely. But then there were ten, then a dozen, then fifteen, then twenty, then thirty, then forty.”

With each number, Shadara flinched. “No way! You were fighting forty of those creatures on the last floor by yourself in your dreams? Do you enjoy inflicting that kind of suffering on yourself?”

“No,” I answered with a slight shake of my head. “And do you know what the worst thing about it is?” I looked into Shadara’s emerald eyes. Before she could answer, I said, “It worked.”

I stood up and walked around the room three times before she turned to face me. Orange told me that I had successfully reached her goal for me. My mind has caught up to my body.

Shadara slowly turned to watch me. “That’s…pretty fast. But could you really take on forty of them at once? And how did fighting that many make you this fast?”

I snorted. “Nah. I could get close to handling thirty of them, though. My nanites decided to use pain as last night’s motivator. My objective after any more than fighting ten became trying to stay alive as long as possible. It pushed me to move faster and more efficiently while trying to think one step ahead.”

“That’s barbaric,” Shadara said with a grimace.

I nodded. “Yeah. I’m probably going to have more nightmares when I sleep…” I turned my head and mumbled, “If I’m allowed to sleep.”

Shadara raised an eyebrow. “What?”

I sighed. “Don’t worry about it. I won’t have to go through anything like that again.” You promised Orange. I will remember that. And the cookies weren’t nearly enough of an apology. You’re going to give me at least a week off from training, unless I say otherwise.

We agreed.

I waved at the door without looking at it. “So, wanna get some breakfast before we head to the sphinx? I ate quite a bit last night, but I imagine you’re probably hungry.”

Shadara held up a finger. “Let me show you what I got last night first. The bow wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be, so I picked up some armor too.”

I watched the panther beast woman skipped to a wrapped bundle and pull out a beautiful bow. It was made of black wood with a gold inlay. The string slowly pulsed with a soft blue glow.

Shadara held it up like the prize it was. “This baby creates the arrows it shoots. No more worrying about having enough arrows again. On top of that, each arrow ignites when it flies through the air. It was supposed to burn like…”—she lowered the bow and stared at it—”phosper…fopourios. I don’t remember what he called it.”

“Phosphorus?” I asked.

She snapped and pointed at me. “Yeah, that’s the one. Phosphorus. Got it, thanks.” She put the bow on a dresser. “And I got this."

Shadara reached into the bundle again and pulled out a sleek, midnight-hued leather breastplate with more gold inlays. She put it on and tightened the straps. Then she clipped on two shoulder guards, each with engraved golden cat eyes.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Next, she slid her arms into metallic arm guards that covered her wrists, forearms, outside elbow, and biceps. The metal was a dark, almost black, blue with gemstone embellishments. And she put on a pair of leg guards that matched her arm guards. They protected the entire front of her legs but left her feet noticeably unprotected. It must be hard to get shoes that fit when your feet are more like paws.

She also had a leather skirt that went to her knees and had a hole for her tail. All around the skirt, pleats of thicker sections of leather weighed it down and provided extra protection. The armor didn’t restrict her movements, and she even did a backflip to show off her range of motion in it.

The panther beast woman twirled, her skirt flaring slightly as she did. She struck a pose as she grinned. “So, whatcha think? Pretty cool, huh?”

I tapped my chin and smiled. “You were pretty before. Now that armor makes you look beautiful and awesome at the same time.”

Shadara’s grin grew wider. “It’s even a little magical too. It will absorb the ambient mana in the area and repair itself, and if I feed it some mana, it will repair even faster. And it’s so light, it’s like I’m not wearing anything at all.”

I nodded. “Nice.”

She picked up her bow. “Now, we gotta get you something this cool too.”

I tapped my arm. “If I need more armor, I’ll just grow my own.”

Shadara grimaced. “You don’t have to do that. I know that your ‘augments’ can do a lot for you. They got us past that sphinx. But part of me feels like there are better options for you.”

I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets after I put it on. “You do know that only four people have ever succeeded at climbing to the top of the Nexus, right?” Shadara nodded. “Something Bark said was concerning, and he used it to justify his actions. He feels that those four had something unique to them, that using the Nexus’s system alone will not be enough to reach the top.”

I then put a hand on my chest. “This is my something special. What Bark did was still wrong, but I feel that he was right that I have to use these nanites as much as the system to achieve my goal. Now more than ever.”

Shadara frowned. “You might be right, or not. We won’t know. Do I like that you keep replacing yourself piece by piece? No.” She walked over and put a hand on my shoulder. “But I won’t stop you. Just promise me, no matter what you do to yourself, you remember who you really are.”

I put a smile on for her. I wish I knew who I really am. My friends would say I’m kind. It’s likely because I don’t try to be mean. But does that make me nice? Is it alright to ask your friends what they think about you? Or does that make me sound too egotistical or desperate for validation? I should ask Shadara. She should understand that I don’t know how all this friendship stuff works.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and headed to the door. However, sitting on the dresser, kicking her legs, was Elara. She waved at us. “Hi there.”

I froze. Maybe I should’ve remembered she was here earlier. “Hi,” I answered, drawing out the response.

Elara giggled. “Don’t mind me. You two were having so much fun, and I didn’t want to ruin the moment. And Shadara, you look lovely.” She winked at the panther woman. “But if you’re going to go eat before you leave, you might want to move this first.” She rubbed her hand on the top of the dresser.

Shadara pointed to it. “How did you move that without waking me up?”

I shrugged. “You’re a pretty heavy sleeper?”

Shadara rolled her eyes as she pulled the dresser aside with one hand. How strong is she? That thing was heavy last night. Right, I’m the speed; she’s the power.

Elara led us back to the dining room, and suspiciously, nobody else was around. My eyes darted around. Even Elara looked surprised.

“What’s going on?” Shadara asked.

Elara floated ahead and continued to look around. “Don’t know. But something isn’t right.”

I swallowed hard. “The purge didn’t happen, right?”

Shadara shook her head. “Nope. We’re still here. Is everyone still sleeping?”

Elara spun around as if that would summon someone else. But the room remained empty, apart from us and the tables. “That doesn’t make sense. Someone, anyone, should be here. There are no set schedules for anyone. So where is everyone?”

Shadara’s stomach growled. “This is creepy. But can we still get some food?”

Elara’s eyes darted to every corner as she nodded. “Yeah, sure. Any special requests?”

Shadara headed for the nearest table. “An omelet with chicken, cheese, pork, venison, rabbit, and squirrel. And water to drink, please.”

Chicken in an omelet? That’s got to be on some level of wrong.

I took my seat across from Shadara. “I’ll take something simple, like scrambled eggs with cheese and whatever normal toppings you have. Oh, and you can stop at a couple of plates. I’m still good from last night. With orange juice to drink, please.”

Elara never acknowledged our orders as she headed off.

Shadara leaned on the table. “I know. This feels too coincidental after everything we’ve heard. But what do we do?”

I rubbed my hands together. “No idea. Do we just leave as soon as we can? Is this a sign that something big is about to happen and we don’t want to be a part of it?”

Shadara tapped a claw on the table. “Or do we want to be a part of it? Maybe there is something really special going on, and we don’t know about it.”

I shifted in my seat. “I’ve got a bad feeling about all this. My vote is we leave sooner rather than later.”

Shadara stopped tapping her claw and nodded. “That’s fair. We’ll go once we finish eating.”

We sat as we silently waited for Elara to bring the food. She pushed a small cart with four plates on it.

She put the food in front of us. “The cooks said that you’re the first people to order food for a little while now.” She stood next to us, wringing her hands. “And I can’t find any of the other maids or butlers either.”

We need to leave now. I locked eyes with Shadara and nodded. She nodded back. Immediately, we both leaned forward and began shoveling the food into our mouths as fast as possible.

The food was still perfectly warm and full of flavor. I finished both plates before Shadara finished half of her first one. I used my orange juice to force my eggs down faster.

A loud belch erupted from me as I could feel the nanites not keep up and let the food settle in my stomach for a moment. I couldn’t hold back a chuckle. Am I fast enough for you now, Orange?

Your progress is exceptional. If you wish to remain as focused on your speed as you are, we recommend placing more points in quickness in the future.

I frowned. Party-pooper. Only you would say “well done” before telling me to get faster.

Elara stared at me with an almost horrified look. “H—how? I know I saw you move faster. But did you even chew? Did you even taste it?”

I nodded. “Yes, and it was delicious. But it’s harder for me to slow down now than just do everything quickly.” We are going to figure out a way to fix that, Orange.

We have a few options, but you have insufficient funds.

Yeah, you said that last night. I wanted to roll my eyes at Orange, but instead, I turned and gave Shadara a quick smirk. Her eyes flashed with what I assumed was jealousy, but then turned to sympathy.

So I waited patiently for Shadara to finish eating. She still didn’t take long, but for me, time moved at a crawl, and I started regretting my decision to focus on speed. Too late now. I made my bed, now I lie in it.

Elara seemed quieter, and her hands kept fidgeting. Just before we walked out, I cleared my throat. “Is something wrong, Elara?”

She hung her head. “Where do I begin?” She turned around slowly and bit her lip. “First off, this whole nobody here feels wrong on several levels. Second, you two will be leaving soon, and well, that means more time spent in basically purgatory until another group comes through when I’m at the front of the queue.”

Her lip quivered as she hugged herself. “It’s not fair for me to ask, especially after what you said Gary told you, but I want to ask you to help me find everyone and see if they’re okay. And maybe if you stop whoever is planning to harm the sphinx, then you could stay longer.”

Shadara took a deep breath. “If we could help you, we’d consider it. But if someone can challenge one of the sphinxes, what hope do we have?”

I reached out to grab Elara’s hand, but she slipped right through my fingers like water. “You’ve been a good friend and a wonderful host. Honestly, I don’t want to leave, but I don’t want to die more. But this isn’t our fight, and I’m really sorry about all of this.”

Elara sniffled. “You’re right. You’re here to climb the tower, not solve its problems. Let’s go.”

I shut my eyes as she opened the door and floated out. Stupid. That was a stupid thing to say. Now I sound like a selfish brat. Things aren’t just about me anymore. I need to take my friends’ needs and desires into account too.

I followed her into the hallway. Before I could say my apology, I froze as I saw a person lying face down in a large pool of blood.