Sarah was running through the woods, trying to find the tiniest trace of Dennis and his companion, Vanessa.

She still vividly remembered the rage in Andrew’s normally neutral face. When he asked her to go, a strange and fierce urge to help him rose from within her.

This feeling had ebbed down by now, and she started to wonder if Andrew might have a skill that let him influence other people's emotions. That would explain a lot of the things that had happened around him. And also why she had such a craving to please him.

She was very, very sure that this wasn’t what she would usually be like. Even if he was one of the few humans she had talked to since waking up in this strange world.

If he really had done that, she would have had to have a rather intense talk with him. But still, she couldn’t just ignore the group of people who had accepted her. They have at least seemed pretty nice so far.

Suddenly, Sarah’s head turned around like it was pulled by a magnet. There were traces. A way was carved into the undergrowth and pretty violently on top of that. Animals didn’t do something like this.

Like a specter, Sarah sped silently through the dimly lit forest. After a few minutes of full speed running, she heard voices.

With a triumphant feeling, she was looking forward to bringing back the lost people. That would enhance her social standing, and maybe even Alex wouldn’t scowl the whole time while looking at her. One has to have dreams.

With one last jump, she flew above some tall bushes and landed near the voices. "Your savior is here, Dennis!" she shouted while landing graciously.

She looked up with a confident smile, only for it to freeze on her face. Three men were sitting next to each other on a fallen tree trunk and were in the middle of eating.

One of them looked at her with an open mouth, the dried meat half-way inside it. The other two apparently forgot to chew as they stared at her for a few moments.

The moment didn’t last long, as they sprang up simultaneously and pulled out weapons from their backs.

"Puff youw hawds in we aiw!" screamed the biggest and ugliest of them all, while spitting out big chunks of food. He had greasy and dirty skin and a very nasty aura around him.

"So gross." Sarah stated this while her face contorted in disgust. "Have you never heard of closing your mouth while eating?"

"Shut up!" screamed the big and ugly one, now with an empty mouth. "Who are you?"

He looked at her more closely and went pale when he looked into her eyes. He froze for a moment before being able to speak again. This time, his voice didn’t sound so confident anymore. "Answer us if you are sentient! We are armed and ready to use violence if necessary."

Sweat was running over his greasy forehead. The two smaller guys next to him didn’t fare any better. They looked at her in utter horror, gripping their weapons tightly.

Sarah crossed her arms and looked at the thugs with contempt. "I am sentient sweat-face. There's no need to get violent. I am just looking for someone."

She was actually pretty surprised. There were other people in their surroundings, that didn’t belong to the caves.

The three guys exchanged quick glances, and the biggest one swallowed nervously. Sarah looked at them with squinted eyes, not quite sure what was happening right now. "What are you…" she began to ask, but was interrupted by a sudden system prompt.

* Kill your enemies

* Run away

* Fall to your knees and beg for mercy

* Die

Rewards are based on which option you choose.>

"What the..." Sarah let out confusedly, but was interrupted by a large stone that was suddenly hurled at her.

She noticed she was too slow and got hit on the side of her head, even though she tried to turn away as fast as possible.

A dizzy spell nearly made her fall down. But she gritted her teeth and focused on the men in front of her who were running towards her.

"Guess it's the first option."

She raised her arms just in time to block the first two hits. They hurt pretty badly. But her arms were so extremely sturdy that the two clubs bounced back like they had hit solid rock. The two smaller guys whined in pain when their wrists got sprained from the unexpected resistance.

The bigger guy, on the other hand, tried to grab her and lift her up. He didn’t expect her to be as heavy as she was, given her objectively slender build. But he couldn't have known that Sarah had mutations that made her bones and muscles extremely dense and heavy.

He grunted in exasperation and only managed to lift her up a little before tumbling to the ground. The problem was that she was also falling down.

She tried her best to use her invasion skills. But the injury from the stone stopped her from utilizing it properly. She couldn’t connect with their minds.

Burried under the colossal guy, two clubs started hammering down at her head. They mostly hit her arms and horns, but it started to hurt more and more.

She desperately tried to free her tail, which was buried underneath her. But the guy was too heavy to lift without her arms.

Intense rage bubbled up inside her over this ridiculous situation. With a roar, she grabbed the thick head of the ugly guy on top of her, and twisted it around. Ugly cracks and snaps could be heard, and the man died immediately.

The two clubs, which were still on their way down, hit one of her horns in quick succession. A crack appeared in it, and with it, unimaginable pain in her head.

The two guys roared in anger and fear when they saw their comrade die such a gruesome and quick death.

Sarah dizzily grabbed the man on top of her and threw him off of her. Before the other two guys could pummel her again, she sprang up and created some distance between them.

She had some difficulties staying conscious with the pain of her fractured horn, but she had been through worse than that.

One of the two guys tried to circle her back, but she wouldn’t let that happen.

With a mighty jump, Sarah was on top of the one who stood still in front of her, and she punched with all she had into his chest. With a loud cracking and popping sound, the man flew back some distance and didn’t stand up anymore. He was barely breathing and coughing while bloody bubbles came out of his mouth.

The other guy screamed in terror and tried to run away. But he was so slow that it didn’t take her much effort to catch up with him. She grabbed him by the neck and pressed him down into the mud until he passed out.

With an exhausted sigh, she let herself sink to the ground and tried to wipe the blood out of her face. She had no idea if it was from her or one of the other two guys.

The dizziness calmed down after a while to a stinging headache. So she stood up and lifted the unconscious man onto her shoulders.

With tired steps, she returned to their little encampment. For a moment, she looked at the two motionless bodies on the ground. The other one had apparently died in the meantime.

Somehow she knew that she should feel guilt or something similar. But she only felt the same thing she always felt after having survived a brush with death: elation and excitement.

They tried to kill her and paid the ultimate price for it. And she would live another day.

She quickly looked over the corpses to see if she could find anything useful. But their clothes were even more rudimentary than her new ones. And their clubs were just rough-cut wood.

The only thing useful were their sacks of provisions, which she planned to take with her.

Suddenly, she heard a soft whimper. At first, she thought that the guy with the caved-in chest still lived for some reason. But the whimper came from another direction.

She cautiously stood up and approached the place where the sound came from. It came from behind a bush.

She carefully pushed away the twigs to sneak a peek behind them.

A woman lied on the dirty ground. Her hands and feet were tied together behind her back with what seemed to be the remains of her ripped clothes. Her naked body was covered with bruises, and she was sobbing quietly.

Sarah looked back at the last living guy with murder in her eyes. But she held back. She had some questions for him. The other two definitely died too quickly.

Sarah sat down next to the woman, who was most likely Vanessa, and lightly touched her shoulder. She immediately started to scream and sob, probably thinking that Sarah was one of the guys. Her eyes were so swollen that she couldn’t see anymore.

"Everything is fine." Sarah spoke in a soft and soothing voice while gently untying her. "The men are incapacitated. Andrew sent me to save you and Dennis."

Vanessa held her breath for a moment and started crying afterwards. "Thank you." She mumbled through her swollen lips and grabbed Sarah with her now-freed hands.

"You’re safe now." Sarah told her while holding her in her arms. "Tell me, where is Dennis?"

Vanessa tensed up in her arms and tried to steady her breath a little. "They beat him up brutally. I don’t know how far from here, but he didn’t look good when they… We need to help him." While saying this, her voice became steadier.

With a nod, Sarah stood up again and grabbed the man by his clothes to lift him up with one arm before returning. "I’ll give you a piggyback ride." She told Vanessa while crouching down next to her.

When she was on top of her, she let out a frightened sound. "What is with your head?"

"Ah, it’s just a special hat. Don’t mind it." Sarah answered, still with her soothing voice.

The woman on her back started repeating "It’s just a special hat", while Sarah started to run through the forest along the trails of the trio.

It didn’t take long, and she found the scene of their assault on Dennis and Vanessa.

Dennis lay on the ground without moving. She could feel with her magic sense that he wasn’t alive anymore.

She stepped closer to inspect him. And immediately regretted it. His body was horribly mangled. If she didn’t know that this should have been Dennis, she would have never been able to tell.

She looked down in disgust at the unconscious man in her hand. What kind of monster would do something so cruel?

"Did you find him?" asked a weak voice from behind.

Sarah didn’t know how to say this. She opened her mouth a couple of times without any words coming out.

"He’s dead, right?" asked Vanessa again. Her voice was still soft and quiet, but there was some slight vibration in it.

"Yes." Sarah just said and heard Vanessa start crying again on her back. "Can you hold on by yourself? I need both arms to carry one guy each now." Vanessa didn’t say anything, so Sarah took it as an affirmation.

With some hesitation, she grabbed Dennis' already somewhat stiff body and started going back to the caves.