46. The Innocent
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L's grip on the hilt of her sword loosened and tightened a few times. V sighed deeply. This sucked. He massaged his forehead as the little fox girl watched them, confused. V looked down at Eika. She looked back at him, her ears drooping and her bottom lip pushed out, pouting. "Ya. Ya, I know..." He started to turn his head toward L, but decided he did not really need to see her face. Surely it was twisted in some awful combination of disgust and hate. "Alright look. I'm not a monster. Either J over or under estimated me, depending on your point of view. However, what are we going to do now?" Eika spoke up, "She is so sad looking! Eika never looked that dirty as a slave..."

V started to turn away, placing his hand on L's shoulder "Let's just go. We will have to find another way. I suppose I’ll just have to use the E we have. I promise to try to get you another one Eika-" Eika grabbed V's hand and tried to pull him back around toward the girl. "Nooo! Eika will be angry at you forever!" However, as she spoke V detected no anger. In fact, she sounded... excited? "Eika will offer you a deal." Eika was clearly using her entire willpower to keep herself calm. Her ears had shot back up, she had a weirdly sly grin on her face. This was amusing, V wanted to see what Eika was trying to pull. "Oh? Let us hear it then." Eika gestured toward the girl, "I'll let you use that E we have, Eika will not even be upset! In return... letstakecareofthecutefoxgirl." Eika started hopping up and down as she spoke. Her last few words were spoken so quickly V had trouble making them out, but her meaning was clear. V looked toward Eika and then at the fox girl and then at L, who shrugged. "It's your decision. I don't really know if we have the strength or resources to care for what amounts to a war orphan. Nor is it our responsibility to protect another participant of this game. However, I will admit, she is sort of pathetic."

V stood there, adding together all of the factors involved. Eika's anger or disappointment should they leave the girl behind, the risks involved in walking around with another Champion. He obviously could not kill the girl, but she did not look like much help either. Additionally, it's not like Eika or L would accept him bullying her into surrendering, so if they took care of her, she is basically joining as dead weight. V looked at Eika, her face was the definition of hopeful. V sighed again, he really thought this was a bad idea. As he debated, the girl’s eyes took on a strangely reflective property for a moment, it was so quick, that only L noticed. She gripped her sword hilt again. "Uh... sir?" The fox girl took a step forward timidly. V tightened up his stance, she was a champion after all. Perhaps they had underestimated her. "If you let me come with you, I can uh... carry your bags... and stuff?" The way she phrased it was clearly a question. How was this girl still alive? Were they the first champions to come across her? That seemed unlikely. V shook his head, banishing the thoughts from his head, "I guess you can accompany us for the time being. But it’s only a trial period, understand?" The girl nodded and was about to say something when Eika crashed into her. "You're so cute though! You're even smaller than me! It’s like I have a little sister now!" Eika was hugging the small girl, as well as dusting her off. V shook his head again; this was going to be trouble. "Stop dusting her off, it’s never going to help. We will get something on the way back to the hideout.

The girl quickly followed them out of the noble quarter. "Hey Mr, are you going to make me a slave, like those two?" She pointed at L and Eika. V slowed his pace and checked both Eika and L's status. Had L forgotten to hide her status as a divine slave? He furrowed his brow, both Eika and L's status had the appropriate parts hidden. Eika's dredge collar would give her status away, but L had no outward markers of her occupation as a Divine Slave. "Hey Mr. what does the blessing the mother goddess do? That seems strange, you’re a guy! I think." As the fox girl asked another absurd question, it became quite clear that she could see hidden statuses. Ignoring the girl for the time being, V spoke to L. "So, she can see statuses? That seems helpful, if she is willing to help us it could really come in handy." L nodded "The girl seems stupid. I get the feeling she has no idea what is going on. If she did, she would not casually talk about blessings in the middle of a public street. I am not sure how much help she will actually be." As V and L discussed the girl, Eika was walking right next to her. "Shhhh you can’t say things like that!" The girl looked shocked. "Oh... sorry. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to talk..." The girl walked silently for a few moments before Eika spoke up again. "Well, no, you can talk. You just can’t say certain things. They are secrets!" The girl looked at Eika, confused.

As V was inside a tailor shop acquiring clothes, Eika was trying to get the girl to understand the difference between secrets and normal conversation. "Why is your name a secret?" The girl asked, her confusion only growing. "Well, Eika's name is not a secret, but your name and V and L's name might be." The girl tilted her head "But you just said their name. Is it ok to talk about secrets after all?" Eika stomped her foot, "No its not! We know their names so it’s not a secret to us! It’s a secret to everyone who does not know it yet..." The girl made a "hummm" sound for a few moments. "This secret stuff is difficult." Eika nodded "Ya Eika knows! But you have to get good at secrets. You’re a Divine Champion after all!" The girl looked at Eika in wonderment "Really? Divine Champions need secrets? I should get some... You are very wise!" Eika rubbed the back of her head "Ehehe, Eika is learning from V!" Before the girl had a chance to respond, L moved toward Eika. "Keep your ears up, stop playing around. Something is wrong. V is in danger." L was standing casually, but her voice was low and serious. Eika nodded "Should we check on him inside?" The fox girl raised her hand "I’ll do it! It will be a secret!" and before anyone could stop her, she ran inside. Eika muttered under her breath "That's not how secrets work..."

L scanned the area around them, keeping her stance casual. Her new blessing had been indicating V's imminent danger since she had acquired it. She was starting to think it was referring to the generic danger they were all in all of the time. However suddenly it started feeling oppressive. It was like the weight on her mind had suddenly increased tenfold. L was certain something was going to happen in the next few minutes.

"Hey sir! We need to get going now!" The girl called as she entered the tailor shop. V had just finished swindling the owner out of a new set of clothing for her. The girl jauntily walked toward V. "We got to leave now. It’s a secret!" V stared at her blankly for a few seconds. "Right well. Thank you for the clothing, apparently we need to get going." The fox girl gestured toward the door, "You can go first!" V nodded slowly and headed toward the front of the store. He nodded to L and Eika as he walked through the door, exiting the store. Suddenly, and without warning, V was certain he was going to die. There was no time for a response, no time for regrets, his death had come for him. As his brain simply accepted the fact that his life was over, a blade flashed under his arm, and a growling noise came from behind him. It took a few moments for V's brain to reboot. Eika was backing away from V, a look of utter horror on her face, the fear of someone who has run up against their ultimate nightmare. L was stabbing something behind him, her blade going in between his arm and abdomen, a gap of only a few inches. As V's sense of self-preservation slowly rebooted, L withdrew her weapon and kicked V to the side. Behind him stood something more beast than man.

Eight feet tall, four arms, a tail resembling a scorpion, its knees were bent backwards. Its skin was grey and chitinous, in its head sat five eyes, instead of other facial features, it was simply smooth chitin. In two arms it held weapons, a saber and a dagger. The other two arms had some sort of strange black spike coming out of the middle of the palm. It growled, although no one could tell where it was creating sounds from, "You are the first in an age to survive my strike..." His gaze turned toward L "The true strength of your group..." As L and the beast squared off neither moving, Eika had simply started flat out running down the street, away from the monster. The fox girl opened the door behind the beast. "Oh wow. You're scary looking huh! No wonder! Blessing of the Apex Predator! Predators are scary...Oh no!" The girl suddenly looked like she was about to cry. "Was that a secret?! I think I messed up again... I’m sorry!" She started running after Eika "I think I messed up! Come back! I need more help with secrets!" V's brain was shaking off its resignation to die, and he started pulling himself up off the ground. His thoughts were a little muddled, but he was quickly putting the situation together.

L was grateful to her blessing, there was no way V would have survived otherwise. There was no warning, no sound, the beast simply materialized behind him. L was unsure if he was invisible or if he teleported, but the instant before he appeared, her blessing guided her hand, she knew V was about to be ambushed from behind. Her first strike however, had seemingly only provided the beast with a small injury. It’s extremely thick, black blood was running down her sword. Although she had little time to focus on it much, she had noticed the blood was running along the purple "cracks" in her blade, rather than downward, as gravity would dictate. Both L and the beast could feel the threat emanating from the other. They stood a few feet away from each other, waiting for the other to move. People on the street had started screaming and running away. A few of the city guard stood watch, not wanting to get involved in what was clearly some form of Champion business.

Without warning, the beast jumped upward, grabbing the wall behind him. Kicking off of it, he launched his entire body at L. For her part, she realized immediately that his strength and speed outmatched hers. She was unable to dodge to the left or right, the incredibly short distance between them made sure of that. She dropped to the ground, her right shoulder taking a small wound from the saber, the stinger on the beast’s scorpion like tail passed within centimeters of her as he flew over her. She quickly rolled left and jumped up. The beast however was already upon her. V, for his part, had almost recovered. Standing up, he checked himself. He seemed unhurt. The sense of death might have been related to this beasts blessing. This beast's presence also confirmed something V had been wondering since he arrived to this world. Were champions only "civilized" races? Although this beast was still humanoid, it was clear that it was unlike any of the "normal" races of this world, this left the door open for anything to be a champion. Perhaps even animals.

L was defending herself to the best of her ability. The only thing going for her at the moment was that his tactics matched his appearance. It was rough and brutal, little in the way of tactics or refinement. Less primal than O's assault, the beast was certainly a practiced predator, but he was still a beast. His five weapons were a problem however. L had already taken numerous minor wounds in the first few moments of their engagement. As her blood mingled with the beast’s blood on her blade, a will not her own entered her mind. It craved the beast’s blood. It wished to sip upon the life essence of this primal horror. Rather than being distracting, this second will seemed to help her focus. Openings she was too busy defending herself to notice began to seem obvious to her. V, who was trying to figure out the best way to assist L, suddenly had an absolutely insane idea. To be honest, if L was not clearly in extreme danger there was no way he would ever even vaguely consider this idea. However, L was bleeding heavily at this point, and she had clearly only gotten a few slashes in on the beast. If L went down, V wagered he would be killed in all of one second by this monster. He sighed, steeling himself as he muddled around with his status for a few moments. 

As L parried a blow from the spike wielding arms, the beast was able to sink his dagger deeply into her left arm. The pain was excruciating, however the second will within her mind refused to let her arm fail. Somehow, through the pain and damage, L continued to effectively wield her sword. She managed to spot V creeping up behind their duel. She desperately hoped he was not going to try to hold a knife to this things throat like he did with O, that was certainly not going work.

V licked his dry lips. This was such a bad idea. In other circumstances he would have simply left while the fight was going on, gone to ground, found another option. L had been a bad influence on him. He had switched his class to Divine Weapon Master, as switched the agility from A to S. This was never going to work. Worst case scenario he gets stabbed to death, best case... he was unsure what the best-case scenario even was, but he was too close to the beast to change plans now. At a moment where the beast was striking out at, V figured that was when he was most unable to dodge, he launched himself toward the beast scorpion tail. By some miracle, he was able to grab a hold of it with both hands. He immediately activated his ability Forceful Use.

What happened next, V could never accurately explain the feeling to anyone. Yes, the scorpion tail was a weapon. It was being used as a weapon, and V considered it a weapon. It was also highly likely that its owner, the beast, considered it a weapon as well. However, it was also a body part. V felt the scorpion tail. Not just in his hands, but... as a part of his body. The connecting point was his hands, but it still felt as a strange new tail. The beast stumbled backward, V was unsure what the beast was experiencing at the moment, but it clearly caused him some sort of major issue. L took this one moment of weakness to stab the beast through the chest, hoping that his chest contained something important, a heart if she was lucky. V with a combination of physical force using his hands, and his attempt at "using" the scorpion tail, managed to stab the beast in the back with the scorpion tail. A roaring, chittering sort of noise came from the beast, he managed to throw V off, which turned out not to be great for V. When his hands broke connection with beast's tail, it felt as if a body part had been ripped away from him. As V lay in the street groaning, the beast retreated away from L, who was advancing on him. Once he had managed a few yards of distance, the beast fell to his knees vomiting from a crack that appeared in his faceplate. V assumed the tail poisoned him, he doubted the beast had much fight left in him after being poisoned by his own tail, and being stabbed through center mass. V felt the beast activate multiple blessings at once, he could not make out how many, and the beast fell down onto the cobblestone, unmoving.

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