I jumped forward and swung my arms into the skull of the first skeleton, sending it flying.

“You have one hundred sixty-six seconds to kill all the enemies.” Orange’s voice echoed in my head.

I pulled my gun out and shot the spine of the headless skeleton to kill it permanently. I spun on the spot; earning myself a moment of vertigo with how fast I turned. Then I dashed through the nearest skeletons. The first two went down before they could even react. My foot kicked in the breastplate of the first while I fired a shot point-blank into the other’s sternum.

A third skeleton had a shotgun aimed at my chest. I brought an arm up and slapped the barrel away in time to deflect the shot so that it hit another skeleton in the face. That skeleton’s hammer swung into my side.

I felt a dull shock run through my body as I brought the other arm to block another skeleton’s sword slashing down at my head. I pushed off both the skeletons and backed away.

“Are they faster?” I subconsciously rubbed my side where the hammer struck.

“Correct,” Orange answered without showing her body. “Their stats are all three hundred and fifty. This is meant to push you into treating it like something that could occur. And I also threw in a few possible alterations.”

A loud growl drew my attention.

On the opposite side of the courtyard, three zombie wolves the size of me were salivating as they worked their way towards me. A volley of bullets and arrows rained down from the rooftops. I bolted to the nearest building. All the arrows missed me, but a few of the bullets still nicked me. The combination of my armor and jacket left most of me unharmed, but a few of the bullets still hit an unarmored portion, including one that ripped off my ear.

I barreled through the door and tucked into a roll. This is going to be a long minute and a half. I was starting to get used to a minute being a hundred seconds and an hour being a hundred minutes while there were ten hours in a day.

My training attempt showed how I could dash almost fifty percent faster with the improved augments. Given my already impressive speed, that was fast. I was moving faster than a hundred miles an hour, and, with a little practice, could turn on a dime and resume running just as fast. I just needed to stomp my foot hard enough to stop myself.

The repeated sudden movements were jarring on my joints and bones. I could never kill all two hundred in the time limit, but I got a little more than a hundred. My speed made it so I could dodge most everything, but I burned through so much energy. In that short amount of time, I burned through all the energy I had.

I sat on the ground, panting, as the remaining skeletons disappeared. Orange manifested, clapping her hands. “That was impressive for a first attempt. You’re getting better at this.”

I leaned back, lying flat on the ground. There wasn’t a scratch on me, but I was completely exhausted. The energy drain was severe. I had no idea if I could keep up that level of performance for ten minutes. “It looks like it’s still not enough. Ten minutes of that, only for reinforcements to arrive, is torture. We still have to win the battle afterwords.”

Orange waved her hand, and my energy levels returned to their starting values. My friend and my teacher appeared before me. Shadara, with a worried expression, kneeled by me. Killa stood next to Orange, her arms crossed. “You aren’t alone. You had the right idea of using the buildings to mitigate the enemies that could surround you.”

“Your plan was sound,” Orange said. “In a real situation, you can rely on your team. You will have to if you wish to survive.” The visions of my two friends disappeared. “However, that’s all the time we have for now. Your friends want to talk to you.”

The simulation ended, and I could hear a soft tapping at the door.

“Rina, are you okay?” Killa asked.

I stood up and opened the door. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just needed some time to try to figure something out.”

Killa nodded. “Did you?”

I shrugged. “Kind of. It’s still not enough. It seems my biggest problem will be a lack of energy.”

Killa grinned. “I’ve got you covered for that. Your food’s here, by the way.”

As I stepped outside, the aroma of cooked food greeted me. Oh, how I love the food. Even being able to eat impossible amounts of food, while time-consuming and monotonous, still never loses its wonderful taste.

Killa led me to the table where all fifty meals were laid out, and one grumpy-looking wolf woman glared at me with her arms crossed.

“Thanks, Killa,” I said as I sat down at the table, grabbing the first meal.

She nodded. “No problem.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Lorrean huffed as she headed for the door. “If that’s everything you wanted, then I’m going to do something productive.”

Shadara held up her hand. “Wait.” Lorrean paused and turned slowly to the panther woman. “For the best chance to succeed, we need to fight at night. So if we can move the plan up to tonight, that would be better for us.”

Lorrean narrowed her eyes on Shadara before slowly moving to stare at each of us for a moment. “Then I take it you are accepting the terms. Fine, I’ll ask. Until I get back, I’ll leave Naft and Yiff here to keep an eye on you.”

Shadara nodded. As the wolf beastwoman left, she sat down at the table. She pointed to a meal. “Do you mind?”

I shook my head. “Not at all. I figured you’d want two or three of them. But, uh, Killa, do you mind maybe giving me a hand?”

Killa laughed. “I remember when you threw a fit when I offered you a finger.”

I blushed as I lowered my head. “Yeah, well, it’s different now.”

Killa sat next to me with a smile. “I know. Things rarely stay the same, don’t they?” She popped her hand off at the wrist before letting it fall into cubes that she dispersed evenly between all but three of the meals. “There. Now you can enjoy all that food with a little piece of me in each bite.”

Shadara arched an eyebrow. “It sounds a little creepy when you say it like that.”

“Yeah, that’s what makes it more fun.” Killa winked at the beastwoman. She turned to me. “You look like you’ve been through a lot. What happened?”

I chuckled weakly. “Just a little training session with myself. Nothing too serious.” I scarfed down the first meal. “But I know you don’t want to hear this, Shadara, but I do need to be faster.”

Shadara’s gaze softened as she smirked. “I figured you’d say something like that. We’ve already armored you up quite a bit. And unless there’s a gunsmith, I doubt you’d find a replacement for your gun. Based on what it can do, it’ll be more manageable to find someone who can enhance it, really.”

I nodded. “That’s still going to be unlikely. Remember, even Chad couldn’t do it.” Then I tapped a finger to my chin. “But speaking of Chad, do you think he could make something for Killa?”

Shadara forced her next bite down her throat. “We’d have to ask. Hopefully, he made it out of the invasion without getting hurt. Turns out being able to move your store is a really smart move after all.”

Killa tilted her head. “Who’s Chad?”

I held up my fingers to show how tall the little fairy was. “He’s a tiny fairy enchanter who made this coat and boots while enchanting this breastplate. He also made Shadara’s staff too.”

Killa’s eyes went wide. “Oh. He’s quite talented.” Her hand brushed against the gem scales of my jacket. “This is some strong magic.”

I turned to Shadara. “I’m guessing you suggested that we do this during the night because of me and my shadow magic, isn’t it?”

She nodded. “We need to dodge fights and turn it into a series of skirmishes.”

“And let’s be honest, a blob of darkness in the middle of the day is nothing more than a giant bullseye for them to shoot into,” Killa added. “Can we consider leaving a trap with your magic?”

I took a bite of the food, savoring the flavors as I pondered Killa’s question. “Unfortunately, I can’t be too far away from where I leave the zone of darkness.”

Shadara leaned forward. “It’s not a bad idea though. But that only deals with melee situations. What do we do if we run into magic users?”

Killa smiled. “That’s where I come in. I’m quite skilled at disabling others with my magic. All you need to do is use that bow of yours and hit them where it hurts. You can do that, right?”

Shadara scowled as she took another bite.

I face-palmed. Will these two ever stop? “Killa, why don’t you and I go looking for Chad after I finish eating? Shadara, I imagine you’ll need to get some sleep while we’re away.” That’ll separate them for a while.

The panther woman nodded. “What about you? Aren’t you going to need sleep?”

I hung my head as I tapped my spoon on the bottom of an empty bowl I just finished. “Physically, I only need twenty-eight minutes of sleep now. My sleep has been more of me running simulations and training sessions lately anyway.” Orange has been taking advantage of every minute of it too.

Her ears dropped slightly. “Oh. That’s why you’ve always been awake before me. Do you ever stop? Can you dream anymore?”

I let the question mull through my mind. “No. Or well, maybe what I’ve been doing is a very complicated version of lucid dreaming.”

That’s an effective way of looking at it. Simple, yet effective.

When Shadara finished eating, I stood up and took off my jacket. I then started removing the breastplate we got me.

Shadara raised one eyebrow. “What are you doing?”

I took off the plate and set it down on the table before removing the batting underneath. “Giving this to you. For the fight, it’ll only slow me down. And this way, you’ll have a little extra protection too. You won’t have to worry about me getting too much damage.” I waved to Killa. “If I need energy, I can ask Killa for a small part of her to eat.”

I tapped a hand to my chest. “Remember, I also have a layer of metal plates under my skin. If I need to, I can move them up to replace my skin for added defense. So the breastplate is rather redundant for me.”

Shadara flinched but hung her head. “Alright. You’ve been getting faster, and not getting hit is better than relying on armor in the long run.” She nodded to the armor. “Just leave it there for now. I’ll put it on after I wake up.”

Then she stood up and ran her fingers through her hair. “I guess I’ll leave you two to it. Sleep’s gonna be difficult, but some sleep will be better than nothing. Make sure to pick up as many potions of regeneration as you can.”

Killa waved her hand. “No problem. Maybe we can pick up a few mana potions too.” She lounged back in her chair. “I’ll wait until you finish eating.”

So, I sat down and finished eating. Killa and I made our way out with an escort. Yiff, a red panda beastman, made sure he did his due diligence, as he put it, making sure we didn’t try to escape. The two of us wandered around, first off asking if the little fairy Chad had made it here.

Turns out he did.

He was doing so well; we found him at the bottom of a glass of whisky. I gently slid him out of it onto the table. After a few pokes in the side, he finally stirred.

The fairy’s head lulled lazily as he tilted his head back. “Hey, you. Been a while. Got yourself another girlfriend, one that’s a little more transparent?”