Lucille stepped to the side, using her momentum to its fullest as she dodged a swipe of one of the spider’s massive forelegs, the taloned limb missed but Lucille didn’t retaliate, she continued running until she was positioned directly next to a spot between two of the spider's legs, the monster tried to turn- either to defend or to attack again but she didn't really care either way, - but Lucille was faster, she dashed forward and jumped before plunging her Pledge into the spider's hairy chitin, she felt a bit of strength seep into her Pledge once the hit connected and that pretty much confirms it- she did have a Sanguine Pledge.

She can grow stronger-

“Webbing!” Lucille heard Nickos call out and she dodged just in time, moving a second before a thick line of viscous webbing spread through the ground where was at moments prior, she turned back to her friend and nodded at him in thanks before running back to the spider and preparing for another attack, she circled the monster and went behind it- when the spider’s abdomen was clear for her to strike, Lucille ran forward and gave the creature a clear hit.

She laughed as she jumped back, “this is much easier than I thought!”

A whole lot more easier than her fights with the guard captain in her village in fact.

She laughed as she dodged another line of webbing then darted to the side before going forward and hitting the spider on its left flank, another wave of strength filled her then and Lucille grinned, not just from the feeling of becoming stronger, but from the adrenaline pumping into her veins at this exact same moment. After seeing that the monster didn't even bother turning around after she struck, Lucille hit it again for good measure.

It let out a high pitched screech that made her wince but otherwise did nothing else.

Lucille buried her blade into the spider for the third time before finally jumping back as the monster was starting to get irritated, enough for it to start moving quickly.

It being an ambush predator means that it does have the potential for speed but only for short bursts- such as right now where it suddenly used its limbs with such dexterity and speed that it betrayed its slow movements throughout the entirety of the fight, using its newfound agility, the spider extended leg after leg, pushing them to the limits of their reach in feats of speed that forced Lucille to dodge or else she gets hit.

She moved herself back again and again, weaving from hit after hit that threatened to stomp her down, she was quicker, far quicker and her speed allowed her to continuously dodge- she saw something white emerge from the spider's mouth and without thinking, she pulled on her Light and quickly made a pair of socks that she put into her soles, giving her a small burst of speed that lasted for a split second.

And a split second was enough to save her life because she jumped back just as the webbing shot out of the spider’s mouth.

Finally, after that one last- clearly desperate, - attack, the spider’s quick paced-movements stopped.

She heaved, “okay- wow-” she quickly said in a fit of adrenaline before darting forward and stabbing the tired spider in the eye, then when the tip of her Pledge met flesh, she quickly moved back because she knew that no matter how exhausted the monster is, being that close to the spider's mandibles is just a death sentence.

She repositioned herself and moved to the sides again, and this time, she prioritized the spots that she struck before, moving towards bleeding wounds before plunging her Pledge deep into them, spewing more blood and giving her more strength- she pulled out her knife and twisted it into a reverse grip, stabbing directly to her left where she hit the first joint of the spider's legs, the spot that connected its legs to its body- the screech that followed after her attack made her feel disoriented enough that if it weren't for the bell toll that followed, Lucille would've been stunned by the sudden burst of sound, stuck in place and ready for the spider to easily kill-

“I only have one last toll left,” She heard Nickos say and she committed to her attack, pulling out her Pledge before stabbing again and again- four times, she stabbed four times before jumping away from the spider and repositioning herself.

Good news, the spider is now starting to limp but bad news: It's starting to form more and more webbing, it started to fire and she dodged over and over again, roughly at first, with the white webbing firing in short, continuous bursts that almost struck her down but as time went on, she managed to dodge more easily as time gaps started to form between each shot of webbing.

She grit her teeth, will the spider ever stop- wait, no, she read about this thing's weaknesses from the monster book that the princess donated to her village: these things can only make so much webbing before it starts to tax their body, possessing their own internal reservoir that uses their own… fat? Yeah- fat- the webbing uses the spider's own fat and food to make webbing and if it continues to spew it out relentlessly like what it is doing right now, then it's gonna start to exhaust itself.

Now… what did the princess write in that book about the sign that the spider is about to run out of webbing?..

Just then, a strand of her hair got stuck to her lips and she spat- that's it! Like saliva, the spider's webbing gets thicker and drier the more it runs out, and looking at line of webbing that's coming out of the spider's mouth… the fluid is starting to dry and the spider’s pedipalps are clearly starting to put in effort in order to weave its own webbing which means-

It fired again and Lucilled tilted her body to the side, not bothering to dodge with her legs, the resulting shot missed and she rushed forward, she jumped just as a new line of webbing formed on the spider's mouth- the spider didn’t manage to shoot it out and she safely landed on its head and started stabbing, hitting the spider again and again with the pointed tip of her Pledge, she prioritized the eyes and the more of the black orbs she struck, the more the spider screeched but luckily for her, there was thick webbing directly in front of its mouth, the same one that it failed to shoot out, it muffled the otherwise stunning screech of the monster.

Still, it was worrying that she didn't think of that particular attack when she got close, and she was lucky enough that the spider had its own webbing stuck to its mouth, if it didn’t… she probably would’ve been stunned and gotten herself killed. Nickos would’ve probably intervened but… she probably shouldn’t get herself in this situation again if she could help it.

She stabbed the spider again and it shuddered before toppling over from its wounded leg unable to support its weight, despite laying down like this, it tried to fight back but Lucille kept stabbing- really, it was unfortunate that it couldn't move quickly any more thanks to its leg being wounded, and not to mention, flailing around is no longer an option for the monster thanks to that exact same reason.

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When the spider stopped moving and finally died, Lucille plunged her blade into its body one last time and watched its corpse shrivel up from the vampiric effect of her Sanguine Pledge, its yellow blood stopped seeping out from the wounds across its body as strength filled Lucille until finally, there was nothing left of the spider but an empty husk.

She sighed and stood up, “Okay, I do have a sanguine Pledge,”

She chuckled, mostly out of relief borne from her victory over her first kill.

She lifted her dagger. She already knew what her Pledge actually is when the princess told her about it, and she trusted Neophyte wouldn't lie, it was why she was willing to go into the forest to find monsters to slay, because she knew that it would strengthen her. Otherwise? She wouldn't even bother going here, unless not until she had combat training within Pledge Academy.

And… maybe better control over her Techniques as well, maybe in the same vein as the princess- who can seemingly use her Light and cast Techniques in the span of a second, as for how someone can even do it, Lucille didn't know, but she hoped that she can study about it while at the Academy and figure out how.

“You okay?” She heard Nickos say and she nodded, he sighed, “you almost got me to use the last of my tolls you know?” She heard him chuckle and felt him sit right next to her, crushing the now softer chitin of the spider with his weight, “so how was it?”

“Thrilling,” Lucille grinned, “I never knew that fighting monsters could be so fun!”

Nickos chuckled, “well, now you do,” he said before bumping something hot against Lucille's arm, she turned and saw the basket full of food they brought and smiled, Nickos waved it around, “hungry?”

“You bet!” Lucille pulled on the cloth covering the top of the basket to reveal a moderate amount of bread for her and Nickos to eat, she grabbed one and bit down, the soft flavor of bread as well as the creamy taste of cheese filling her mouth, “ughhhh-” she moaned, making Nickos chuckle, she gulped it down, then ate again, repeating until the bread was gone, she sighed, “so good~”

“Your mom makes these all the time, and you always look like it's your first time eating them,” Nickos chortled, mouth halfway full, “but yeah, they're pretty good,”

She took another bite, “Hwight?!” Lucille nodded in agreement and her childfood friend eyed her fondly.

“Right.” He said simply, “you know, I've always thought that it wouldn't be so bad to eat this everyday,”

Lucille gulped, “then you can!” She said happily, “you're always welcome to stay in our house!”

“... what if I want to stay there till I grow old?” Nickos asked.

“Then you can!” Lucille grinned in response and she got a fond smile from her friend in reply.

“Soon.” He said.

“Eh, why wait?” Lucille grabbed another piece of bread before starting to bite, “I mean, it's not like we don't want you there,” she shrugged, “mom thinks you're a good guy and dad doesn't really mind, so why wait?”

“Hm.” He hummed, “I want to see if I can pass the Academy Exam first then I'll tell you,” he smiled at her, “will you listen to what I say?”

“Yep!” Lucille smiled, “anything for you,”

Nickos only smiled before grabbing another bread and eating. And that's what Lucille did as well, grabbing her own share and eating till she was stuffed, she washed everything down with water before placing the canteen back into the bag her friend was carrying and standing up, “now come on, we need to hunt more monsters, I want my Pledge to at least be strong enough to cut iron before the school year starts,”

Nodding, Nickos followed after her and stood up with a grunt, she picked a random direction and started walking, moving from spot to spot with no monster encounters in between save for… corpses, a whole slew of them, when they passed by their third corpse, this one being a Ground Shaker whose body had been downright turned into mincemeat, Lucille started to feel worried, the monster was as tall as a small tree, what the hell managed to do that? To it? She met Nickos’ eyes who shook his head, Lucille got the message, that they should run away but-

“We need to find out what did this first,” she told him and her friend reluctantly nodded, she didn't know what killed these monsters, but if an Omegafauna calf somehow found its way into the forest then they needed to identify what it is and tell the chief of their village, “when we find the Omegafauna calf,” she started, certain that the thing responsible for killing the monsters is in fact a calf of an Omegafauna, “we find out what kind of Omegafauna it is, and then we run for our lives, if you’re too slow, drop the bag,”

Literally, because as slow as the standard adult Omegafauna is, their young is pretty quick. Or at least quick compared to non-pledge-bearing humans, or ones who haven't trained their physical limits yet.

Slowly, she and her partner in crime- her Dad is gonna be pissed at what she's doing but it's for a good thing! He'll understand. - made their way across the forest floor in complete and utter silence until they heard the sounds of fighting, Lucille eyed Nickos, “okay, so we found the possible source of the corpses now, we just need to see what it is, then we run,” Nickos nodded and Lucille jogged her mind for what it could possibly be, there were a lot of Omegafaunas, and the ones that she knew about didn't have claws or blades that could cut apart a Ground Shaker like that, leaving behind nothing but chopped bloody bits.

When they got near, Lucille finally saw the source of the corpses and her breath hitched- “no way,” she covered her mouth to hold back her screech of excitement, she turned to Nickos excitedly, the same Nickos who had his eyes widen from the sight in front of him, “Are you seeing this?!”

He nodded, mesmerized, “I- I am, she's so fast.”

Lucille removed her hand from her mouth and accidentally squealed, “I know!” She went back to observing the fight between the princess and the large number of monsters with an excited grin, Lucille is now personally seeing the person she admired the most fight half a dozen Iron Tusks and over 20 Grisly Spiders with the ease of an expert Slayer, she moved between their ranks like a fish swimming through water and released slash after slash that seemingly got delayed or struck twice, regardless of the delay, all of her attacks didn't fail to spew blood and cause bloody chunks to fall out.

“She- how can she even do that?” Asked Nickos, “she's not using Light!” He said like his worldview got shattered, “I- how?!”

“It's the princess, obviously she can do this much without light, duh,” Lucille pointed out, how did he not know that princess Neophyte is a monster when it comes to battling? That was literally what people talk about whenever they mention her name, “but you gotta admit, she is pretty cool right?”

“She's… more than that actually,” Nickos said and Lucille nodded at her friend's words and started stalking forward, she felt his hand drop onto her shoulder, “what are you doing?!”

“To help her!” Lucille argued.

“Does she look like she needs help!?” He emphasized his point by gesturing towards Neophyte and the slain monsters around her, “you'll just hold her back! Or get yourself killed!”

Lucille waved him off, “it's fi- I wanna fight alongside her! There! I admitted it, you happy?!”

Nickos let her go, “... fine,” he said, “but don't regret it,”

Nodding excitedly, Lucille started moving, not at all noticing the cylindrical monster hanging from a tree branch to her right fall to the ground and start burrowing, she moved past it as well as several others of its kind and into the range of Neophyte's battleground, Lucille readied her Pledge and as she was about to jump into the fight and join the person that she admired the most into battle, she heard a shrill scream and quickly turned back- that voice-

A whirlwind of air passed by her and a trail of white danced in circles around Nickos, chopping up all the heads of the Dirt Poppers before they even had the chance to bury themselves underground, and there, standing in front of her red-faced friend was the princess, she clearly used a Technique to pull that off just now- wait that’s not important-

Lucille weaved a thin fabric over her body and ran as fast as she could, the timer of her Technique ticking at the back of her head- she stopped when she was directly facing Neophyte, how was she so clean even after being near so many monsters? There wasn't a speck of blood on her white uniform, which remained pristine despite all her fighting.

Her gauntlets and especially her boots- the pieces of clothing that Lucille would at least think would have blood due to their proximity to the monster corpses or her attacks didn't have any- wait, why was she ogling the princess? She walked forward and bowed, just in time to hear a few of the princess’ words, “-ou shouldn't be near areas that are forming monster hordes,”

“We're sorry!” Lucille bowed, what great timing there’s a monster horde about to form! Goddess she almost got herself killed! If it wasn’t for the princess- and Lucille didn’t know she exterminated monster hordes, - she and Nickos would’ve been dead.

“I- I didn't know that there's a monster horde forming around here so it's all my fault because I wanted to grow my Sanguine Pledge!” Lucille straightened herself and closed her eyes, then she giggled, why was she being so serious? This is the princess for Goddess’ sake! She's so kind and so approachable that even when acting as an examiner, she keeps her kind smile and easy going demeanor no matter what! “Ehehe~" she giggled, “sorry, I was being too over excited, it's just that you told me that my Pledge can grow you know? So I got too excited and wanted to go here,”

She opened her eyes- really, she shouldn't have because instead of expecting the heroic smile of the princess and her casually saying 'oh, no! Don't worry, I'm happy that my words helped you! It's what I do after all!’ or something along those lines, instead what she saw was-

Was-

Why does Lucille's heart feel like it's breaking apart into a million pieces?

She really didn't think that she could handle the princess’ expression right now-

Why was Her Majesty’s expression of shock and dawning horror-

Tears ran down the princess’ cheeks and that was when the Dam broke for Lucille-