“Absolutely not!” Harith exclaimed, his tone brooking no argument.

In different circumstances, Ayah would have considered his words, would have even listened to him, seeing as he’s more experienced and way more of a seasoned warrior than her. He was born in this world, when she had stumbled into it, and into her fledgling powers, just a couple weeks at most.

“I’m going back to kill the serpent,” she said simply.

“I don’t allow it.”

She put her hands on her hips, raising an eyebrow at him. “Good, ‘cause I’m not asking for your permission.”

He took a deep breath, then exhaled, closing his eyes for a moment. He opened his eyes, his face stern and brows furrowed into a determined look. He took hold of his armor and proceeded to put it on.

“What are you doing?” Ayah asked.

“Didn’t you say you were going? We should hurry then, while I still have a good grasp over my powers.”

She took a step forward, into Harith’s personal space, and reached out to grasp the front of his uniform, forcing him to look down at her. “You’re not going. I will tie you to a tree and leave you here, if I have to.”

He raised an eyebrow at her, taunting. Can you really? He seemed to say.

“If you don’t agree, I will tie you up and leave you here myself,” he threatened.

The forcefulness of his voice sent a shiver down Ayah’s spine. She gritted her teeth, fighting the urge to argue more.

But, well, he was stronger. The likelihood of her winning against him was slim to none. Scratch that, it was nonexistent.

Finally, she loosened her grip.

He paused, throwing her an unreadable look before he took a step back and resumed donning his armor.

Ayah huffed. Why was he so stubborn? She was merely trying to help him.

“How many times have you helped me? It’s about time we even things out.”

“This is not a contest,” Harith said simply. He sent a last glance at his sword before sheathing it in its scabbard. “Let’s go then.”

This man… was so infuriating…

Why couldn’t he take a step back for once and let others help him?

All of this was her fault. If she hadn’t suggested they go to the lake, he wouldn’t have gotten hurt. And if she had told him she was immune before, he wouldn’t have put himself between her and the poisoned projectiles.

[Laila sent a request to join your party.]

[Accept/Reject]

Ayah turned to look at the warrior, surprised by the system’s announcement.

Laila put a fisted hand over her chestplate. “Allow me to accompany you,” she announced.

“Are you sure?” Ayah asked.

Of course Ayah would love to have her join the fight, anyone who could help really. But didn’t she have her little brother to protect?

Laila gave a sharp nod. “Let me repay my debt. I will be able to rest easy knowing I failed to answer a call of help from my benefactor.”

“Thank you.” Ayah sent her a grateful look. She nodded. “Yes,” she said more to the system than the king’s guard.

Her name appeared under hers and Harith’s. So even if they fought together, it didn’t automatically make them a member of her party. There needed to be a desire to fight alongside each other to trigger the request, Ayah mused.

The other contestants looked to the side, avoiding her look.

“We… eh… we need to go. Good luck.” The only healer in the group sent her a furtive glance, nodded, then turned to Harith. “May fortune favor you, your highness.” He bowed, then started walking. The others followed behind, avoiding her stares.

Harith didn’t acknowledge his words, not even with a glance.

Ayah watched them go. It wasn’t like she was expecting them to help. She sighed, her gaze turning to a frowning Harith. His eyes were fixed on his injured arm. He clenched and unclenched his hand, as if trying to test something. When he noticed her staring, he stopped and brought his hand back to his side.

“If anything happens, head to the wall,” Laila instructed her brother, who nodded with a wavering expression on his face. He seemed on the verge of bawling. His lower lip trembled as he tried to compose himself.

Ayah felt a trickle of guilt gnaw at her chest.

“System, can I send invites to others?”

[Player is free to add as many members to her party as she wishes.]

[Player is advised to choose members that would aid in her quest.]

[According to player's current skills, player is a warrior.]

[Player is advised to recruit a seasoned mage, a healer, a tank, and a damage dealer.]

Ayah frowned at the screen. “Aren’t I a warrior? Why would I need another damage dealer?”

[Player’s level is too low to deal significant damage.]

[Player is advised to level up both her stats and skills.]

Was the system mocking her?

Ayah marched towards the kid, ignoring the system’s advice about how to choose a party member.

She smiled down at him, trying to appear as non-threatening as she could. “Would you like to come with us?” she asked him. “You won’t fight. But I would be more at ease than leaving you here alone.”

Adil glanced at his sister who nodded.

“Okay,” he muttered.

[Adil has accepted your request to join your party.]

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Ayah nodded, her smiling widening. Good. Now she could fight without worrying about the kid. She could just check his health bar with a mere glance.

Harith offered to lead them to the serpent, as the only one who could sense its mana. Ayah quickly shot him down. She had the system set the shortest route to the lake and led them through the trees, her mind reeling, trying to come up with a way to stop him from fighting.

Their fast pace was soon turned into slow careful steps as a strange sight welcomed them. Thin silvery threads fell over some branches like silk. They fluttered to the gentle sway of the wind, shimmering under the sunlight. The webs increased in size and amount the deeper they ventured into the forest.

“Arachnes,” Harith clarified. “They must have escaped from their hiding places yesterday.”

One of the webs covered the tree from the upper canopy to the exposed roots. Ayah shivered as she thought about the sheer size of the spider to build such a huge trap.

“Do not touch any of the threads. It will alarm them of prey.” Harith fisted his hand into the back of the kid’s shirt and yanked him away from a loose thread.

Adil yelped. He brought his trembling hands to his chest, staring at the descending web of silk, then jerked away as another split thread swayed dangerously close to his face.

“Move carefully,” Harith instructed.

They moved slower, much too slow for Ayah’s liking. She threw an accusing look at the screen. It might be that the system wasn’t aware of the arachne’s existence, and the monsters might have just recently relocated here after yesterday. But− Ayah glanced at the network of webs − they were too many and too huge for all of them to have been weaved in a day.

Their number lessened the closer they got to the lake. Then, as if afraid of the monster lurking under water, they too vanished.

The lake’s surface looked undisturbed.

“Don’t use your mana,” she insisted, shooting an accusing look at Harith. “You have to promise me you won’t− under no circumstances− use it.”

He remained quiet.

“I would know if you did,” she said. “It’s one of my special abilities,” she added as an afterthought.

He looked at her, searching for something, for a hint of a lie, perhaps. Then he sighed. “Fine. I’ll keep it to a minimum.”

She shot him a glare, but didn’t say a word. She knew when she was facing a losing battle. Arguing with him would only delay them further.

From the corner of her eye, Ayah could see Adil inch behind an overgrown shrub, sending fearful glances at the tree trunks surrounding him.

Just a couple hours ago, the poor kid had to deal with walking trees, and now, because of her, he had to get closer to another monster.

“System. Alert me if there’s any changes to Adil’s Stats,” she instructed.

[Understood]

She would make sure the kid was kept safe.

She glanced at the clear water. Where was the monster? Should they draw it out?

But she didn’t have to wait long, the water surface broke and the giant serpent darted up, twisting in the air as its slit eyes surveyed them. Its two heads danced around, their movements fluid and smooth. They towered over them, silent, before they let out a loud shriek. They leaned further back, coming to their full height, then spit a black liquid towards them.

The acidic stench broke them out of their trance and they jolted into action. They jumped back, away from the acid. Its venom hit the ground making it sizzle and smoke until the grass had been eaten away, leaving behind a patch of darkened dirt.

“No matter what you do, don’t cut off its head,” Harith instructed.

Ayah nodded. The more they cut it off, the more it multiplied. They needed to find its core if they wanted to defeat it. She glanced at its glistening obsidian body. There was only one place the core would be.

She launched herself towards the serpent, evading its heads. She cut into one, but not deep enough to separate its head from its body. Then slid from its neck towards its tail.

There, she thought.

She brought her sword down, hard. It clanged loudly, but not even a scratch appeared on its hard scales. She cursed under her breath. Unlike the heads, which were easier to cut into, almost as if the monster was inviting them to do so, the tail was sturdier, the scales hard under her feet. They shifted as the head turned towards her. She darted away from an incoming maw, the fang cut shallowly into her cheek, and the system’s ding announced the purification of her wound.

She jumped back, away from the flailing heads. The slit eyes zeroed in on her, rage and fury darkening the golden iris.

Harith did the same. But unlike her, his sword managed a shallow cut into the tail.

She glanced at the party screen. And true enough, he had used his mana.

“System,” Ayah called. “Can you assess the remaining time till the poison takes full effect over Harith’s body.”

The system remained quiet for a moment. Just when Ayah thought it wouldn’t respond, a ding sounded.

[Time remaining till death : 34 hours.]

Ayah stilled, her eyes wide and sightless. She felt like someone had dunked her into an icy bath. Her heart stopped for a moment.

It hadn’t been more than five hours since he had been poisoned. Which meant, he should have had 43 hours more.

Nine hours had been shaved off his remaining time because he had used his mana. Once.

She cursed loudly. Angry at him for being reckless, but more at herself for being weak.

“Stop!” she yelled at him when he raised his hand again.

“You said we needed to kill it. I already located its core. You were off by a couple feet. But you had it figured out,” He said, his smile plastered to his face like it had been painted there.

Ayah gritted her teeth harder. “Its death is no use to me if you kill yourself in the process,” she replied, a sharp edge to her tone.

The serpent's heads opened their maws wide, and a load of projectiles hurled towards them. Laila called up a wall of rocks to intercept them. It helped, but many broke through her defense.

Ayah saw Harith hold his sword up, ready to face the oncoming wave. Her body moved before she could make a conscious decision to act, cold air expelling itself from her lungs as she flung herself backwards and in front of Harith, intercepting the poisoned projectiles. She slashed her sword, deflecting most of them, but one. She flung her arm, embedding it into her forearm. She clutched at her shoulder and fought back a scream as pain lanced up and down her arm. It was white and had a slight shine to it. A bone. The serpent was throwing thin, sharp bone fragments at them. She took it out and threw it to the side, wincing.

“What are you doing?” Harith hissed.

The system dinged, announcing the use of her immunity skill.

“I’m immune,” Ayah gritted through the pain. It hurt. A lot. But feeling the searing pain as the poison tried to eat away at her flesh was better than reducing the survival chances of the self-sacrificing idiot. “I won’t die. So let me be useful for once, dammit!”

When she looked back at him, she found his eyes narrowed, angry and intense. She frowned, wondering what it was she’d said that infuriated him so.

She bared her arm towards him. The slight discoloration that had started painting her skin, had started fading away. Only the small wound remained. But Ayah knew that soon, it would fade too.

“See? I’m not lying!”

He didn’t reply, though, just clenched his jaw slightly, his forehead creasing and the frown deepening across his mouth.

The serpent snarled at them. Ayah jerked away, one of the heads following her movement.

[Party member : Adil, has used his mana stat.]

Ayah jerked her head towards where she last saw him hiding. His head was peeking out, his hand held in the direction of his sister. A tower of rock, smaller than the ones Laila summoned, was slowly rising a few feet from her. She breathed a sigh of relief. He was unharmed. He was too far from the fight. She allowed a small smile to pull at her lips at his attempt to protect his sister, then turned back towards the screen as another stat bar decreased, her lips pressed into a thin line.

Another cut, slightly deeper, appeared into the dark scales of the serpent’s tail.

“System,” Ayah called. “Is there any way to stop a member’s mana usage?”

[As the party leader, player has the ability to momentarily control the mana usage, and at an advanced level, to lock and unlock skills of other party members.]

Ayah glared at the screen. “Why not say so from the beginning?”

The system refused to respond.

“It’s like you’re trying to get him killed.”

As expected, the system remained silent.

Ayah gritted her teeth. “Prevent him from using his mana for as long as you can.”

A screen popped into existence, red unlike the usual blue.

[Mana Stats Locked : 14:59 min remaining]

The countdown started.

Harith stilled, his hand extended in an attempt to call his sword back. His eyes widened, glancing at his hand then back at his sword.

Ayah sent him a silent apology. He didn’t leave her a choice. It was the only way to keep him alive for the remaining thirty hours. He could be furious with her all he wanted, later.

She now had less than fifteen minutes to kill the serpent, if she wanted to save him.