Rén Lei ve Cardon Voss

 

Part One

          Rén Lei reached into their beige sweater’s pockets and took out a small magic pocket watch while they jogged through the unnaturally extreme maze of cliff faces. Their light combat boots’ echoes were drowned out by a sudden violent wind surge, and Lei took shelter behind a protrusion in the wall while they focused their intent on the arcane trinket. 

          Reacting to their will, small glowing hands appeared on the device and gradually wound down to the 12 position. The small sliver of light in between the hands told Lei that they had less than ten minutes left until the start of their fight. 

          After waiting for the wind to die down and taking a gulp from their waterskin, Lei exhaled a dry breath and sped up while they tried to assuage their growing sense of embarrassment. Even after leaving for the cliffs an hour early, they still somehow ended up running late. Lei would’ve blamed it on monsters blocking their path, but nearly all of them were down in the mines under them, preventing any and all attempts at reclamation of the mana-rich ores. Not that that had stopped Nova from trying, leading to some very expensive technology being buried. 

          At first Lei had decided against bending the rules about starting the fight early, and refrained from linking to any animal before the fight. But after the first twenty minutes of getting lost in this barren wasteland, they eventually gave in and tried to go back the way they came to find a bird in some nearby grassland. That decision led to them getting even more lost for the next twenty minutes, leaving Lei with only a third of an hour to escape their earthen prison and find the damned lake. All the while, the words of the council echoed ominously in Lei’s ears.

          “...Following your phenomenal performance in the Selection, you have won the approval of Nova Ordo to represent us all as one of our best combatants in the fighting tournament against the Sage Coalition. 

           “Your first fight is scheduled to occur at 5am three days from now, in the area surrounding Lake Ghiza. Yours will be the very first fight in the tournament, so your performance will also decide the first impression of all of Nova Ordo. Do not disappoint us.”

           Merely thinking about it was enough to make Lei want to sigh. Did those idiots honestly not realize that making their mind-focused fighter feel stressed and pressured was a bad idea? Hell, the leader didn’t even send them off with a ‘good luck.’ It was obvious to Lei that he was much more confident in that job-stealing assassin robot. Though, Lei’s coworkers and family more than filled in on the well wishes department. 

           It’s fine, it’s just a spar. A challenge to see how I’ll deal with an unknown champion of a century-old evil organization. It’s not necessarily a death match. Or at least, I hope not.  

           Being a spy, Lei had experienced tense situations in the past, but to say one got used to the pressure was nothing more than a phrase to boost one’s confidence. If you were stressed, you were stressed. Being ‘used’ to stress didn’t make it go away, nor was it healthy.

           After catching their breath and waiting for another wind gust to pass by, Lei stepped out from the small cave and was about to pick up their pace when their blood suddenly froze. In front of them was a small path that they’d noticed previously but hadn’t traveled through; it was a small opening of a natural arc created between a diagonal earth pillar and a large jagged cliff wall. Or at least, that was what was supposed to be there. Instead, a cow sized boulder was firmly lodged in the previously open space.

           The biting wind barely even registered to Lei as a nervous sweat dripped down their underarms, and the previously slightly too thin jacket felt stifling. 

          Lei’s focus sharpened to a fine point and all of the pieces clicked together while they made sure not to stare at the boulder too long, and continued jogging down a different path as if nothing had changed. Whoever their opponent was, they could see Lei while they couldn’t see them. Even when they activated their mind sense, there was nothing picked up other than the rare creatures that bothered living on or near the surface, or had homes extending up here. Despite their tension increasing tenfold, the only visible reaction they allowed themselves was the movement of their nose as they let out a silent but deep exhale. Anything further might alert the enemy to the fact that they realized the situation.

          Lei had been an idiot. Even when charging into a battlefield alone against an unknown enemy with hostile intent, they had almost completely let their guard down. They had always had a nasty habit of ignoring and forgetting mundane details, but there were no such things when battling against unknown magic. 

          Because they had been too lost in their own world, they couldn’t remember very many exact points on their trek, but there had been several moments where something felt slightly off before. Lei mostly passed them off as them being dumb or confused because they didn’t even think doing this before the battle even began was allowed in the rules. They only remembered that stone arc because it reminded them of when a tree fell onto the student dorms and crashed through the window of one of Cemile’s bullies. Their opponent was lucky that they’d gotten pitted against someone so air-headed; It had taken nearly an hour for Lei to realize anything, and even that much was a fluke.

          I guess that I’m the only one of us who actually cared about skirting the rules. Thanks for that, dad…

          To see if anyone was tailing them, Lei continued running and mind linked to a surprisingly massive Tunneler Slime deep under a nearby boulder; that was bad for mind sense range, but it would be good for money if they made it out of this. They waited a few seconds for the mind sense shrank to a useless range before they gave up on the trap and began searching for a new monster. After visibly checking their pocket watch in case their pursuer was watching, Lei picked up the pace. 

          Nearly a full minute of running passed until Lei was finally rewarded for their attempts to use monsters as free spies. A small Desert Rock Spider that they’d connected to suddenly began panicking, and the boulder it’d built its home under lifted into the air before floating over to block a path they had just left a few turns back. Through the spider’s more magical senses, they could also sense no vibrations in the air nor earth other than the breeze and their own footsteps thirty meters away. A surge of accomplishment washed through Lei’s mind for only a second, before they realized just how deep they had wandered into their opponent’s trap. 

           Lei had moved toward the lake for the first third of the hour, then tried to travel back and got even more lost in the second third, and now in the last third their opponent was once again blocking the paths they’d come from. The enemy was completely boxing Lei in before the fighting had even begun, and they had been none the wiser the entire time! It was to the point that they named their mysterious opponent Trapper in their mind.

Fully processing the fact that someone had been stalking them for almost an hour straight suddenly filled Lei with a chilling sense of vulnerability and paranoia that made them want to crawl out of their skin. 

Now that they were looking for it, multiple paths that they had seen before were suspiciously cut-off with multiple boulders from person sized to carriage sized, and they even recognized a few of the boulders used to do it. Such obvious changes to the environment made it even more baffling that the opponent had managed to stay hidden until now. All Lei could deduce was that their opponent was either not tailing them on foot, or they possessed powerful magic abilities that both hid them from the spider’s mind sense, vibration sense, and mundane senses, while also silently moving huge boulders.

Hm… Running any more is pointless for now. What I need is a solid plan. 

           Lei thought for a moment before checking the pocket watch again and moving to a moonlit corner of the cliff face. They quickly dropped their bag and opened it before donning their gear. They slipped on the leather breastplate and archery chest guard, but Lei only pulled their helmet half out of the bag for a second before leaving it in. To the opponent, it would look like their guard was down enough to think they could just put it on quickly when the fight began. They also left the camo cloak hidden inside.

          When they were done, Lei took a moment to sit on the cold stone and catch their breath while assessing the situation. Their ass decided it did not like that decision, so they quickly sat up to a low crouch, but that just made their pants stretch uncomfortably around certain areas instead. Lei resisted the urge to punch something as they settled with freezing their knees on the ground. 

          …This entire situation is fucking bullcrap…

          There were a limited number of ways that Trapper could be tracking them. It was unlikely that the Sage Coalition was hosting any trump cards like the pugilist hero that punched these cliffs into existence; they’d more likely send in more disposable opponents like Lei, and to an extent, the stupid assassin robot. So that meant that the opponent was most likely either flying, very deep underground, or watching from up on these cliffs. 

           Lei’s scanning of the area left them with nothing, and the spider had sensed nothing under them with its vibration sense. So that meant that Trapper was most likely either using a spyglass from one of the taller pillars that seemed to touch the clouds, or they were silently jumping cliff to cliff. There seemed to be nothing flying in the sky other than a pack of wyverns in the distance, but that was also a possibility.

           So, I only know a few things definitively. Trapper can move boulders silently, they aren’t tailing behind me, and I’ve nearly confirmed that they’re not under me. 

            Lei wracked their brain trying to find a solution while they adjusted their knees. After a bit of thinking, they came to the conclusion that since Trapper wanted to keep them wandering around the extreme cliffs area until the time was up, they might be able to win the fight as soon as it started with those huge boulders. The idea that they had played straight into Trappers hands from the very start made Lei’s hairs stand on end, so they instead concentrated more on their sense of indignance and competitiveness. 

            Hm, if you have such an advantage out here, then I’ll just have to even the odds out a little.

            There was only one way Lei could see themselves getting out of this, and it all relied on the monstrous snake beneath their feet. If Trapper possesed long ranged earth control and sensory abilities, they would be playing even deeper into their hand, but if that was true then Lei was already doomed the moment the location and opponent where chosen. Besides, the more they thought back on it, they had manipulated boulders from far away locations multiple times where it would’ve just been faster to mold the earth itself. It was more likely that Trapper had some form of general telekinesis.

            With seven minutes left on the clock, Lei resignedly closed their eyes and pretended to sit back and rest for a moment while they reached out with their mind. The connection slid into place, and Lei began molding their psychic energy to enact their most hated and cherished technique.   

            After a few seconds of intense concentration, Lei felt the psychic construct of consciousness that had been so firmly attached to their body get pulled downward, deep into the body of rock and breaking past the psychic barriers of the snake monsters’ consciousness. 

            …After a moment of disorientation and sensory deprivision, Lei reopened their eyes to find an endless white void and a black, textureless floor. They were no longer wearing the leather armor crafted from berserker buffalo hide and tight combat boots. Now they were dressed in a neat outfit that consisted of a black suit jacket that extended down like a robe to the ankles and split at the side of their leg like a typical Jingzhu dress. Under the suit-dress they wore tight black pants, a white undershirt, and a black tie, giving them a professional but also unnoticeable feeling. The whole outfit made the bright red lotus in their chest pocket stand out like a sore thumb.

          Across from them lay the target of their psychic Domination technique; a coiled shadow black snake with beautiful rough scales and blank white eyes, who was poised to strike in the wrong direction and flicking its tongue in confusion. 

          Just as it turned to face them, it was suddenly pelted with an arrow of white flame representing Lei’s willingness to play dirty to help themselves and their loved ones. The bow in their hands, however, was that of their simplest instinctual desire to survive and be happy.

           Concentrating on their most personal emotions, Lei summoned a bracelet infused with their sense of perseverance in the face of impossible odds. While they were busy, the three meter long snake fully absorbed the white flame and grew small humanoid hands, before quickly cloaking itself in a sharp black aura of safety in hurting others before launching forward with untrackable speed, but Lei’s bracelet quickly projected a glowing barrier of willpower to shield them.

           While it was stunned, Lei manifested a silhouette made of their memories of Cemile behind them, which quickly shot a sunset golden arrow of companionship, wisdom, and trust toward the monster. The snake twisted and morphed into a naga-like mental avatar with a scaled female humanoid form, before trying to fight back by summoning a spear of what Lei could sense as the desire to grow and reproduce, created out of a similar light to Cemile’s arrow. 

          The impossibly fast spear broke through Lei’s shield of willpower, but spiked chains of great expectations and fears of disappointment quickly yanked back its arm. These exchanges continued back and forth for what felt like half an hour of Perceived Time, with the snake gradually taking in Lei’s identity and molding it to fight back against them. 

          With just a few minutes it transformed into a lamia with a more human-like upper form with claws, and then gradually lost half of its femininity as it morphed to become gender neutral like Lei. Once it got to that stage it started landing a few clean hits on them, but as they were mostly using aspects that were molded from Lei’s own, so they didn’t morph too much; it mostly only gave them fangs, a few scales on their cheeks, and a slight urge to bite the snake. 

          The battle ended when the snake started to get confused. It began looking at Lei strangely, then down at their hands, and shifted its focus to clumsy defense. Even then, it was starting to copy some of Lei’s own techniques like creating wings of independence to add to its agility. Only two exchanges after that, and Lei finally felt a mental click as their minds became so similar that they’d automatically linked together. In the end, the snake looked almost exactly like Lei, only it had a forked tongue, a few skin colored scales, and completely white eyes.

            This was just one of the reasons Lei hated using this technique offensively; it felt like a violation of something that was supposed to be sacred and irreplaceable whenever they ‘Dominated’ anything, let alone another person. The full name of the technique, some sciency name that essentially meant mind-spirit domination, was horribly inaccurate. That was because to seize full control over something else, there had to at least be something else to control. 

             This technique did not just ‘dominate’ the opponent's mind, it changed them in a way that they could never, ever forget. The snake had quite literally become an imperfect copy of Lei, in every aspect except their body and most biological instincts. It would return to normal eventually, but the consequences of it happening at all go far beyond that, especially for other people. 

             “I…I really am sorry…”

             Lei’s mental voice wavered as they spoke an apology to their copy.

            “...I know. And so do you. Go now, we don’t have much time.”

            Lei nodded and opened their original eyes to the cold starry sky, taking it all in for just a moment before sitting up to check their pocket watch. Only, something seemed to be wrong with it because the twelve mark was flashing on and off. Where was the sliver of light showing how much time they had… left…?

            “Fuck.”

            A wet splatting sound reached Lei’s ears as a giant glob of crimson blood splashed next to the path they had previously been running to. They quickly scrambled to their feet, and just before they turned around, they caught a clear glimpse of the pool of blood rising and bubbling. Looking up, all they could see at the top of the cliff was a dripping blood stain, but they had no time to properly look for Trapper.

            They sprinted down the exact path they’d just traversed, but it didn’t take long for a boulder to slam down in place in front of them, its face marked with a large brown bloodstain. They processed their options in a split second before running up the boulder using their forward momentum to its fullest, and crawling over the rest of the way while taking the chance to look back. The blood was dexterously crawling on the walls of the canyon as if it was a corrupted sludge demon, but its speed was slightly slower than Lei’s ki-empowered sprint. Their other half was already slithering down the tunnels of earth with the same speed as the snake’s mental avatar, feeling the exact same sense of urgency as their original body as if it was one mind split into two. Due to the nature of Domination, it was able to act and use Lei’s talent and experience in psychic powers as if they were its own.

            Lei prayed it would speed up as a taller boulder slammed into place ahead of them, and they reached out with their mind sense to connect to a nearby stray ant to see that a different path was clear. Another boulder tipped over the cliff that made up the wall to Lei’s right, but it miraculously fell in a way that got it wedged above with a grinding thump before it could completely block their path, letting them duck under it. 

            Their other self finally squeezed out of a crack into the mines below, landing on a rail system. Multiple monsters and magic beasts lurked within the walls, floors, and ceilings, but Snake-Lei was able to avoid them all with mind-sense as they sped in the same direction as their original body at the speed of dusk’s shadow passing over the world. There was a strange artificial structure along the way that might be useful later, so they quickly connected to a nearby lizard so they could memorize its location while they slithered away. Such attention splitting was just one of the benefits of having two minds at once, though Lei couldn’t handle any more with their psychic limit. As it was now, they were positively magic-drunk and starting to feel a bit sluggish. They could only be grateful they weren’t hammered to the point of losing all sense of balance. 

             Lei’s original body zig-zagged as much as possible within a narrow corridor when bloodied fist-sized rocks began raining down on them, homing into their helmet with the force of banging their head on the underside of a table. As they made it out of the corridor, one lucky rock managed to slam into their backpack, creating an audible snap as many of their arrows snapped under the impact.

            Lei ignored it and continued their sprint, ignoring the burning in their lungs and chill in their throat and face. The drunkenness caught up as they finally stumbled and landed on their hands and knees before scrambling back up again, but they were almost there. 

            Boulder after boulder rained down and cut off their paths, while the blood rode the wind to propel itself through the air and easily over the obstacles. The fact that that same wind helped boost them forward was only a small blessing. 

           It was when they tried to block another round of high-speed projectiles from hitting their face, when they belatedly realized that their hands had gone numb. In fact, they had been ever since Lei had to scramble over the boulders caked in dried blood; the magic not only allowed them to control rocks, but also gradually paralyzed them on contact!? Lei cursed themselves; if not for having to split their focus over multiple minds, they would have noticed the effect immediately. 

            Speaking of which, none of that mattered because they were finally there! Snake-Lei was, at least. Now all that was left was for Snake Lei to do their job while Human Lei ran to the spot, but the fucking boulders had detoured them way too much; they needed to get on the other side of the cliff to their left! That was when Lei looked back to realize the blood was actually a lot smaller than before, and further behind. It was probably slowing down as it dried up, thank the gods. Looking at the cliffs’ height in front of them, and the boulder about to land some distance away, Lei decided to take a risk. 

            They crafted an illusion for the normal snake behind them, making it think that the blood was a scurrying desert scorpion, and suggested that it hadn’t had a meal in a while. The blood pool behind them, Lei turned to the boulder that just cracked the ground in front of them and sent up a spray of dust. They ran up the surface just like before, except this time they jumped higher and clung to the wall to their left. The last bits of feeling skin on their bare hands stung when gripping the freezing cold rock, their combat boots stumbled for grip, and their gear was nothing but dead weight.

          The adrenaline running through their blood didn’t give a shit about that and they scaled ten meters of sheer cliff face in thirty seconds, enough to give the blood a chance to lick at the sole of their foot before they quickly pulled up. 

            Lei wasted no time in running over to the opposite side of the cliff and scrambling down, only sparing a passing glance at the lanky, eerily still figure gazing down at them from a nearby peak with a shadowed expression. They could have used the opportunity to take a shot, but Lei’s trained instinct told them that would only be a waste of time. Instead, they mind linked to a random lizard and reached out through their mind sense to effectively place a mind tracker on the man. 

           That was a mistake, because Lei immediately stumbled from the instinctual sense of danger screaming at them as if they were a toddler facing down a growing tiger. They’d met a few ageless beings before, but the scale-breaking vastness of Trappers’ forced them to completely rehaul their common sense in less than a second. It was only now at this current moment, they felt, that Lei truly understood what it meant to be an immortal.

            Forcefully tearing their eyes away from the shadowed god, Lei called out to their snake self for help. Their second mind focused every bit of their willpower into creating a self-Suggestion to overpower their frozen legs and scramble over to the ledge, but they could only spare enough attention to give a brief mental shove. Lei rode the momentum to scramble the rest of the way toward the ledge, praying to whatever gods were watching that whatever that existence was, he liked to play with his opponents.

            As they finally crawled down, a boulder below lifted up to meet them halfway, but Lei only felt a small wave of relief as that just made their exit a bit easier. They quickly dropped down the rest of the way to the floor, not rolling with the fall since they had their bow and arrows strapped to their pack. The gods above must have been benevolent ones, because the immortal entity only seemed to feel mild amusement as he leisurely walked toward the cliff’s edge. After sliding off their pack and holding it in front of them, they were able to quickly jump into the hole previously hidden by the boulder, and enter the newly widened nest of the tunneler slime.

          Ancestors, watch over me…!

 

          *** 

 

          The expressionless human had been asleep for nearly six whole minutes now. Honestly, it was nothing but an insult that the champion sent to battle him of all people would be so disappointingly pathetic. Surely not all of the warriors they had to offer would be lacking in basic survival instincts? Over the course of the entire hour, not once had the mortal ever noticed any change in the surroundings that it found itself, quote, ‘lost in,’ even after voicing their confusion out loud multiple times. 

          It’s been far too long since I’ve had a decent battle; perhaps that’s raised my hopes up too far.

          He hadn’t been expecting anyone on the same level as the bitchy girl, of course, but it wasn’t like him to set such an elaborate trap two hours before the fight. Yes, he’d been anticipating far too much out of a group of disorganized rebels. If it was just that, he wouldn’t mind holding back a bit to have some fun, but the mortal’s complete lack of agency was starting to grate nerves. Just as he started to consider heading down there and ending the fight early, the human finally stirred. They stared at the sky with an unreadable expression for a moment, before checking their cheap trinket and immediately cursing out loud. 

          Hah, that’s the most emotion I’ve seen out of them. I doubt I’ll get anything useful from feeding on this one, so how about a bit of control practice?

          He smirked and unhesitantly slit his wrists using a hardened fingernail, pulling a large volume of blood from his veins and directing it to leap down the cliff, impacting the ground right where the mortal had been traveling too before. To the mortal’s credit, while they did break their usual neutral expression, they didn’t scream and showed zero hesitation in fleeing at the sudden turn of events. Finally, the game had begun in full. 

          He effortlessly leaped from cliff to cliff and watched as the human struggled in vain to use their minor body enforcement to traverse his obstacles, just barely outpacing his blood. Only, it wasn’t far into the chase that he realized that something wasn’t quite right. 

           This human… they aren’t surprised at all by the boulders.

            It wasn’t only that; while the mortal did seem scared to be chased, they never once appeared to feel any sense of panic. That wasn’t entirely unusual in and of itself, and there were about one in a hundred humans that remained calm or even thrived in emergency situations. It was mostly the small details that felt off; moments when the human seemed all too sure of which path to choose or detour too, the fact that they hadn’t surrendered yet, and the strange stumbles in their movements that were a bit too large to be panicked mistakes. Before he had even realized it, he had begun to watch closely in anticipation of what the human might have been planning. He even began darting his eyes around on the lookout for any unseen attacks.

             That was when it finally happened; a snake suddenly lashed out at his pool of blood, buying the human time to scale the cliff next to them. It was a moderately impressive feat considering they had a pack and multiple weapons weighing them down, and he had to push his blood to the limits to even graze the human’s boot by the time they reached the top. Deciding on a whim not to hide from the human, his eyes met their own determined gaze for the first time since he’d seen them. Seeing those fiery eyes, he couldn’t help but grin in satisfaction that his judgment of the human was proven wrong. How long had the mortal known of his plot, simply continuing to act clueless as they planned their response? 

             It didn’t end there; rather than pull their bow and uselessly attack him, the human must have sensed something because they immediately stumbled and froze. For a single second that felt the longest that time had felt to him in a long time, the mortal gazed tensely up at him in a way that made him feel as if his very soul were being read like a book. 

             But all things must come to an end, and the human somehow unnaturally jerked away before running to the other side of the cliff in an almost panicked manner. He couldn’t explain how he knew other than instincts from a long life, but he was left with the impression that the human was one of the first in a while that actually understood their position in relation to him.

             While they descended the other side of the cliff to flee, he took two seconds to connect to the blood smeared on a boulder nearby. Wanting to bring the human back to him, he tried to move the boulder under them, only for them to jump the rest of the way down. 

              He lost sight for a moment, but as he walked to the ledge and peered down he quickly realized that there was a small tunnel that had previously been hidden under the boulder he lifted. Seeing that the human had been planning this escape for the entire chase, he couldn’t help it. He broke into a wide smile and chuckled darkly under his breath.

             I suppose this one is worth feeding on after all. I’ve been building up a bit of stress lately, I bet it’ll feel wonderful to let loose…

            

  

---

  

           Part 2

          The air quickly grew wet and cool as Lei carefully slid down the slimy tunnels, holding their breath to not inhale the acidic air. Their hands quickly turned red as they navigated the twists and turns, and they spent as much time fixing their sweater and dislodging their bow as they did making actual progress. What felt like half a minute passed crawling down into the darkness, making Lei’s ‘daring escape’ feel substantially less victorious than it had initially felt. Just as they’d begun to hit their limit, desperately resisting the urge to inhale, the dark tunnels finally gave way to a gut-wrenching fall. 

           Lei collapsed on the floor with a gasp, followed by a frantic coughing fit as they’d still managed to inhale some toxic fumes. Even just a few seconds later and they would’ve been dead or extremely poisoned, but small details like that were nothing compared to the massive wave of relief washing over them.

           Haha…! I did it. I actually fucking did it!

           Not wasting time, Lei quickly flipped their bag over and brought out the waterskin, pouring it over their face, hands, arrows and bow. They’d packed enough for a day, but by the time they finished there were barely three gulps left to drink.           

          After walking a few paces away from the slime tunnel’s brand new exit, testament to their other self’s hard work, Lei slumped down next to a wooden support beam on the wall and let out a huge sigh. They nearly shat themself back there when they looked down to see the blood literally grazing their feet. Just how close were they to dying there? They’d completely forgotten about the option to surrender, but even then, would the blood have paralyzed them too fast for that? A wave of laziness began to wash over Lei, so they quickly stood up before they found themselves unable to do so.

          …Alright! So I escaped a creepy ass puddle of magic blood by crawling through the nest of a huge ass blob of living acid. And now I’m stuck down here with a bunch of hungry monsters…What now?          

          Any plans they tried to come up with felt terribly rushed and their thoughts stubbornly refused to stay still on any one topic, so it was probably best to just clear their mind for now. While Lei waited for their breath to slow down and resisted the urge to brush off their clothes and re-cover their hands in slime, they let their mind drift to the ambient sounds of the monster-infested caverns.

Low, alien mating cries bounced off the cold stone walls and mixed with each other to the point that they couldn’t tell the origin of any single sound, but it was also remarkably silent for the amount of minds they were feeling. It was to the point that the weak squeals of the hive-minded rats were the most notable cries of the bunch. 

            It wasn’t a calming winter rain by any means, but the background noise felt like a warm bath to their muddled thoughts.

            While Lei gradually calmed down, their other self finally returned from where they had been keeping the mother slime distracted in a side tunnel. The poor thing was covered head to tail in the burning slime, even if their scales protected them from the brunt of it. Lei didn’t hesitate to use the last bit of water to wash their enslaved companion’s face off, using the snake’s heat vision and minor manasense to guide them. After a moment of hesitation, Lei fed some of their rations to it too. 

           As they crouched there, petting their other body’s head and waiting for it to swallow the salty meat and stale bread, the last traces of adrenaline finally wore off. Looking through the snakes’ eyes, Lei could see their own body temperature shift as their expression contorted with regret. It was a small mercy that it was dark enough that Lei couldn’t look into its eyes.

           ……This wasn’t worth it.

          Lei lowered their head in shame; this was exactly what Cemile was talking about when she said they had impulse control issues. Once they got focused on one thing, everything else just disappeared into thin air. The worst part of it all was that they hadn’t paid more than a single fleeting thought to the consequences before using mind-spirit domination. 

          Lei initially thought they had used the technique because they were scared of dying, but looking back on it, while that was one reason, what they were far more scared of was losing control. Scared of being so easily beaten before the fight had even begun, and of the gut-wrenching disappointment they would’ve felt when they proved to everyone that they were a waste of time. Most of all, they would have proved that even after training for hours day after day, Lei still couldn’t even dare hope to protect their family from the Sage Coalition, and by proxy, the shitbag emperor that hunted them down in Jingzhu.

           …Fuck.

           The boss was right; Nova should’ve just scraped together another assassin robot to participate instead. A pile of gears remained focused, and completed the task in the most logical and efficient way possible without stupid things like stress and insecurity getting in the way. A pile of gears wouldn’t get lost in their head while walking into a battlefield, or underestimate the amount of time needed to complete their technique and almost lose the fight instantly. A pile of gears could be reliable, and wouldn’t need to make the same mistake a thousand times before they finally learned, and wouldn’t go against their promises just because it felt convenient at the time.

          “Gods fucking damnit! Fuck…!”

          Lei cried out but immediately shut their mouth once the monsters around them tensed in fear and the ambient noises died down a bit. Their shout echoed down the tunnels for what felt like an eternity, and only once the surrounding noises returned to their original volume did they let themselves relax again.

          The psychic burnout had muddled their critical thinking to the point that they’d grown dangerously reckless. Their eyes were teared up, so they stood up from petting Snake Lei and began blinking rapidly; they’d rinsed their hands of most of the acid, but it would be stupid to rub their face without properly washing. Lei hated staying still so long in the middle of a fight, but they needed to logically process all of the emotions flooding from their psychic limit before making any important decisions going forward. The blood would unlikely make it past the mother slime without a fight now that it wasn’t being distracted by Snake-Lei anyways, and Trapper was still leaping from cliff to cliff looking for a natural mine entrance judging from the general direction of the Mind Link. Not that Lei felt comfortable connecting to otherworldly senses to confirm it though.

          Lei breathed in… and breathed out… concentrating on the beating of their heart, and the expansion of their stomach. Their snake self did the same.

          Now that they were calmer, the still-going reverberation of their voice down the mineshaft reminded Lei of the robots’ actual name again; Echo. They didn’t have any personal grudge with the thing aside from a few stolen jobs, but its existence alone was always somewhat of a trigger for them. It was for a stupid reason, really, but whenever Lei thought of Echo, they couldn’t help but think back to the sects’ misguided stigma regarding emotion, and the way that their parents wanted them to be the ‘perfect daughter.’

         Lei smirked; after the shapeshifting potion, that had long become half-impossible. Now, what was the actual reason they were upset? Lei felt disappointed that they had broken an unspoken promise to use Domination in only emergencies. Okay, so why were they upset to such an extreme intensity? Because of psychic bullshit, but they were also afraid that they didn’t deserve to be loved, and using Domination ‘proved’ that. And why did they feel that way? Because of their childhood, as always.

         The explanations didn’t solve the problem, but nothing could reverse what had already been one anyway. Controlling a wild animal that would’ve been game to any random hunter anyways wasn't as big of a deal as they were making it out to be, plain and simple. The real source of their unhappiness was much deeper than the snake.

         …Okay, that’s the psychic breakdown dealt with for now. Now that I’m thinking more clearly, where should I go? 

         Trapper couldn’t use any boulders to attack Lei while they were in the mines, and his remote control was most likely limited because otherwise he wouldn’t need to be so close to the fight. That meant he most likely would come down here in person where Lei could finally put on a counter offensive. The only trouble was that Lei didn’t know where the nearest exit was. In order to utilize the narrow tunnels to set up an ambush while also keeping an escape route ready, they needed to find that as soon as possible.

          I practically have less than one percent chance of winning, sure, but it’s not like I’m a stranger to impossible-looking odds at this point…

         Without anywhere else better to start, Lei backtracked through Snake Lei’s memory to find the strange area again. In the process, they let their mind wander back to what they had seen of Trapper’s powers. First off, Trapper was a tall man, and he had the ability to control what was probably his own blood. If he could control others’ blood, he’d have been wearing a huge pack filled with the stuff, and the blood pool didn’t seem that large either. His blood also inflicted numbing, which in Lei’s experience usually led to paralysis in large amounts, and he could use it to control boulders and rocks.

          Lei paused and checked the bottom of their boot with the snake’s smell. Did that stain mean he could track them? Or control their boot? That sounded bad at first, but Lei could use it to lure him into a trap, or even lead him on a wild goose chase by influencing several wild monsters and-- “Ow!” 

          Lei cursed as they almost tripped and face-planted. Even though they’d trained in this kind of travel, moving without their original body’s sight on top of the psychic fog in their brain took an annoying amount of concentration. They were determined to win this battle, but however they did it, they needed to end it fast. If Lei stayed for long, it was unlikely they could make it out of the mines before Trapper caught them. 

          They could hide and recover mental energy while preparing a trap if they retracted both of their bodies’ mind-senses, but holding Domination made the recovery rate much slower. There was also no way to know if the man was simply waiting for Lei to come to him, which sounded like the most effective strategy for him now that they thought about it.

          There were many interesting and dangerous monsters in the whole cavern, ranging from hive-minded rats to rock mimics, but nothing good enough to waste energy controlling. It made them feel somewhat helpless, in a way. How could they honestly win when they were mentally and physically exhausted, covered in acidic slime, and they didn’t even know how to get out of this place? Just as Lei was thinking about that, they caught sight of a metaphorical and literal light at the end of the tunnel that Snake-Lei remembered.

           The ever-so anticipated ‘strange structure’ turned out to be…a regular minecart filled with fluorescent mana-ores. Disappointment began to wash over Lei, but a gut feeling told them that these were no ordinary ores; the glow was pure transparent white, a kind that was unmistakably different from snow magic, light magic, or any other powers in a way so subtle that it was impossible to describe. It was on the tip of their tongue, the feeling was just like…

           What the-!? 

           Lei gasped sharply and rapidly backpedaled, landing firmly on their tailbone and curling up in pain. That reaction could be expected of anyone who managed to land their eyes on Crystal Gold, impure it may be. It wasn’t much, but the pile in that blue, scratched up minecart- obviously reinforced magisteel now that they were paying attention- was worth enough for Lei to live decently for half a month if they paid attention to market prices! Even without advanced knowledge on the topic, they could feel it at the very core of their existence; These ores were somewhat corrupted, but their make was undoubtedly that of pure mana crystalized into minerals. That was, if they were protected from any more outside intent by the time they could sell it.

           The mine was originally only used for some magic metals before its closing; what on Ardant was this even doing here…!? Lei wasn’t a merchant by any means, but if knowledge of a relatively untouched mana-fuel site got out, they were pretty sure the amount of explorers and investors looking for the infamous crystals might even shift the whole energy economy in Ibina! Snake Lei, whose physical instincts were somewhat less reactive to their emotions, slithered to the other side of the minecart to investigate, and noticed a huge and obvious break from the piece of the cart that they figured was supposed to attach to another cart.

           Shuffling along the walls away from the pile of highly reactive ores, which they only now realized was turned into a nest of hundreds of magic insects, Lei passed the cart and continued walking along the railway. The corridors were occasionally dimly lit by some pale yellow mushrooms growing from wall cracks or off of old monster carcasses, so Lei picked a huge torch-sized one to walk with. 

They navigated by feeling the rails with their feet and using Snake-Lei’s body, and figuring out which direction the rail turned at each cross-section. It took a while due to a few hostile-feeling monsters living in the ground where the rails led to, but they eventually came across a small trail of metal bits, some dried magic fluid and some kind of… skin?

            “Oh… Holy shit.”

            It was only a few paces later that they reached the source; and it was freaking Echo torn apart on the ground! 

           No, hold on, it obviously isn't Echo, but the body’s of a similar make. Or maybe all clockwork androids just look like this…?      

           Dried dark purple stains extended around the humanoid, obviously once sprayed out of its severed limbs and crushed waist long ago. The androids’ face was frozen in an expression of terror, easily discernable despite half of its flesh being torn off and one eyeball hanging out. Their mind sense told them that most of its intelligence was stored in its chest similar to Echo, but its mind was far different than its…their future counterpart. Something about the android’s expression told them that their mind was much more sapient than Lei initially thought.

            This must be the ‘lost technology’ destroyed in Nova’s reclamation efforts… but how have I not seen any more artificially sapient people around if they’d already figured it out long ago? Echo seems like a downgrade from this…Right?

            Lei hesitated before moving on. Artificial minds were strange to their senses, but as one of the worlds’ best psychics alive, the difference between a dead and an inactive mind was as clear as night and day. Rather than sleeping and conserving energy but still performing complex functions, an inactive mind was more like you had a perfectly functioning brain, only it was just… not doing anything. Could Lei possibly save their mind and bring them back to the surface?

            Lei noted the landmark monsters in the walls and continued down the path for now. They needn’t have bothered however, because not three turns away and they spotted another ruined automaton, only this one's chest was crushed and their mind was…shattered into pieces. Lei felt chills even just sensing the poor soul; how would that even feel, if they were conscious enough to comprehend what was happening to them? This one was holding a dusty shotgun in their still-attached arm, and P-022 was visibly tattooed on the synthetic skin over their neck. A dim light shone from down the next tunnel, and Lei followed it to a minecarts’ worst nightmare.

           Tipped over, smashed, scratched and even devoured minecarts lay ripped from their railway, and the valuable corrupted mana crystal laid haphazardly scattered along the ground! There were four mangled humanoid corpses, too. 

           Ha-ha, very funny, me. You aren't the ruthless ‘top ice beauty’ of the academy anymore, read the mood already…

           Three of the bots’ minds were intact, though two of their chests were partially ripped open to expose the large cubic cores that powered and programmed them. It was near-certain to Lei by now that these automatons were part of the lost technology that had been used in Nova’s reclamation efforts, but now that that mystery was solved…

           What now?          

           They could use the pure-ish crystals to recharge their ki and mental energy to an extent, which would give them an edge in battle, but that helped nothing if they couldn't find the exit. Lei could dismantle the androids and carry the mind-crystal things in their pack while they tried to escape, but they were scared they might accidentally damage something. There were also no evacuation maps written on the bots or minecarts, and it wasn’t like Lei could just reactivate the robots’ minds and ask for directions… right? 

            I don’t have any batteries, but the timer I was given didn’t require any either. Don’t tell these things that are simple enough that I can just…?

           The signal from Trapper descending below ground told them they had no time left to stand still and wait for a solution to pop up in their head. Lei walked over to the nearest Echo prototype and gently pressed their fingers against its exposed core, focusing to make their intent as pure as possible. It took a good chunk of energy, but soon with a stuttering flare of light the served upper torso jolted back to life. A surge of accomplishment washed through both of their minds, but their celebration was cut short as the android’s expression remained frozen and their voicebox rang out in monotone.

           “A-cc-dting: gncy slf dstruc-.”

           “Wha-?”

            Both of Lei’s bodies slammed back into the wall as the metal pistons pressed against the core, shattering it irreparably before releasing a powerful shockwave of white light followed by an ear-piercing high pitched scream. As soon as their fingertips left the core its movements halted and the robot fell limp again, but the horrible squeal continued for several seconds until Lei found their tiny voice chip and ripped it out. 

           “Fucking, what the hell…!?” Lei hiss-whispered, holding the back of their head painfully. Snake-Lei took the sudden impact a lot worse, but it was just barely within the walk-it-off zone fortunately.

           They couldn’t help but stare listlesly at the shattered crystal remains in shock while their snake self mind-hopped around to check for threats. The monsters nearby mostly seemed to freeze in their homes or run away, thank the gods, but Trapper on the other hand…

           “Crap.” 

            Lei needed to set up that ambush and escape route fast, and they had no time to remain frozen in horror and guilt. Nova implemented the androids with a feature that would blow up their mind, and Lei had no idea of knowing that. It’s not as if they were unaware of the darker sides of the ‘poorly organized’ organization, but this…

            Lei sighed and shook their heads. They didn’t have the wiggle room to deal with another psychic breakdown. Thinking practically, they still had zero clues as to the exit, and activating the androids normally could lead to them dying horribly. How could they keep the android partially deactivated but still communicate with them? There was one way to do it but… ah, fuck it, they didn’t have any better ideas. Lei grabbed one of the androids that looked like it died protecting another and dragged them a safe distance away from the others, before jogging down another fork of tunnels to find more glowshrooms. Through their innate connection, S-Lei immediately understood their task; they slithered up to the chosen android, designated P-028 by the neck tattoo, and touched the exposed core with the end of their tail. 

             S-Lei easily Linked to the core’s inactive mind, and after a few tense seconds of concentration, they pushed energy into the core and simultaneously dived deep into their artificial psyche. Their connection to the original rapidly faded and muddled as their snake-senses faded away…

              Opening their eyes, S-Lei once again found themself in a vast void of black and white; the realm where their consciousness had truly been reborn. Lei’s memories told them that this was not the first time they attempted Domination with a turned mind. Not that they’d remember those details when they turned back, but Lei’s natural curiosity was also their own at the moment, and exploring the original’s memories was incredibly interesting. Not to mention the mechanics and ramifications of this experimental technique, or whether or not S-Lei should be feeling existential dread at the moment…

              S-Lei shook their head and tried not to get distracted any further. Confirming through their connection that they had succeeded, S-Lei finally turned their attention to the android that had been glaring at them this whole time. P-028’s avatar was that of an intact artificial body reminiscent of Echo, aside from differences in proportion, clothing, hair style, and expression. Not to mention the chain-like puppet strings extending upward from every limb and fading away into the sky. S-Lei mentally blushed; they had been completely zoning out when they should’ve been explaining things to the rightfully confused android.

             “Sorry! I got distracted for a moment. My name is Bai Bao, and I’m a mind magic specialist from Nova Ordo that accidentally stumbled upon your body in the abandoned Ghiza mines.” S-Lei half lied.

             28 re-scrutinized the surroundings as well as their own body, and S-Lei quickly realized the problem.

            “Ah, sorry. This is the mindscape, it's not a real place or realm. I tried to…I was scared that if I activated you fully, you'd self-destruct, so I only gave you enough power to dive into your mind.” 

            28 didn’t need to hear how they’d accidentally killed one of their friends. Not now while both Trapper and a random unknown scary monster were chasing them down, at least. The android seemed to mull over their response before finally speaking for the first time in a somewhat human, but overall digital female voice.

            “I see. Is there any method to which you can prove your authenticity?”

            Hm, that was interesting; the older model was actually better at talking than Echo was? Though that made sense since they seemed much more emotional… 

           S-Lei shelved the thought and proceeded to list a slew of facts about Nova Ordo’s organization that no outsider could know, and even some secrets that Lei wasn’t  actually supposed to know but wasn’t technically forbidden from ‘discovering’. Lei also knew a few tidbits that were certain to launch an investigation on them if Nova found out, but S-Lei was smartly blocked from those bits of memory. They would almost never do anything the original wouldn’t do, but it was a safety precaution nonetheless. 

          “That information… It's been years since my party and I have been reported ‘missing’ if what you say is true. Your recounting of Nova Ordo’s recent history appears to correlate to my own limited knowledge. I will assume your claims true until further notice.”

          “Thank you for trusting me.” Lei smiled in relief. “This may seem sudden, but I don’t have infinite mana so I’ll get to the point; could you please show me where the nearest exit of the mines is from the position you were last deactivated? I’m lost and alone right now.”

          S-Lei hid their desperation as best as they could, but 28 ruthlessly ignored their request and cut straight to the drake in the room.

          “Before that, tell me something as well; what you intend to do with me and my party?”

          S-Lei let out a breath but did as they asked to just get this over with quickly. They pushed their raw feelings of conflict, hesitance, and honesty in the direction of 28 the best that they could to convey their authenticity. It was mentally taxing, but wasting time slowly persuading the android might be even more draining, or even devolve into combat if they said the wrong things.

          “Sigh… I’ll be honest, I have no idea. If I can extract your mind-crystal things I’d carry you all in my backpack but I don’t know how to do that safely. The only thing I know for sure is that I can’t bring you back to Nova Ordo after realizing that they left you for dead here.”

          28 subtly flinched back at the sudden empathy and blinked at them in bafflement when a wave of soft golden light manifested to represent S-Lei’s emotions. Maybe it was because of the psychic-burnout, but they just couldn't resist the urge to tease 28 a bit at that reaction.

         “This is the mindscape, 28. Emotions and intent kind of come with that package.”

         The android opened and closed their mouth in an astonishingly human fashion before answering.

         “...I suppose that is true. But 28 is just part of my identification number. I have decided that my casual name will be Taylor.”

         “Ah, sorry Taylor. If it’s alright, can I also know if you want to be referred to as a woman?”

         “I am unsure, but you may refer to me as either ‘they’ or ‘she’...”

          It was difficult to read Taylor, but it didn’t take a psychic projection to see she was more bothered by the thought of being left behind than artificial gender identity at the moment.

          “You and the one you were protecting still have both legs, do you think you guys could carry your other two intact party members away using the crystal ores as makeshift batteries?”

          “Ah, so only four of us are salvageable, then…?” Taylor frowned, but was thankfully able to move on. “It doesn’t matter anyways; I am in doubt that you have the knowledge or skills to make such a battery, and we were given specific orders to immediately signal or return to Nova Ordo after the mission.”

          S-Lei narrowed their eyes and brought their hand to their temple in confusion. This must have been what Cemile felt like interpreting them in the early days. Taylor’s expressions were almost all subtly off, and she talked about being left to die like describing the weather.

          “...Considering all of these factors, I would appreciate it if you break my core and leave me. Judging from your description of Echo, if I am to return my code will be repurposed and my identity will cease to exist as it is now. I am unsure of the others’ opinions, but I do not want to live this fate.” 

          “You…Damnit, what the fuck is wrong the assholes who made you!?”

          S-Lei flicked their forked tongue in frustration, glaring at the marionette-like chains surrounding Taylor’s avatar. Those most likely represented Nova’s programming ingrained into their mind. In a way, it was similar to how mind-spirit domination corrupted the others’ mental avatar to become more like their own, asserting complete control over the others’ psyche… 

          “Wait, hold on a second.”

          Taylor opened her mouth to interrupt S-Lei, but they held up their hand as the gears began turning in their head. If they could just override the parts on Taylor’s mental avatar representing Nova’s control with their own identity, wouldn’t that override their programming? And if Taylor could impart their mechanical knowledge on S-Lei… 

           Original Lei paused in their mushroom hunting, considering the idea. They’d never tried anything remotely this wild with domination before, and the idea of all of the variables interacting in a catastrophically horrible way made them more than a bit squeamish. But there was simply no time; Trapper had already crossed a fifth of the distance to Lei’s area by now, and he was running into exactly zero dead ends, leading them to believe he’d scouted the place or had some sort of system for finding his way.

          It was a tempting offer to leave the androids to Trappers’ whims and escape to the surface where they could surrender in sight of the Observers, but… Lei just couldn’t bring themselves to do it. They’d ignored Echo for so long and never gave thought to even the possibility that they might have been enslaved. Everything with mana had a force of will in some form, and anything that displayed intent formed some kind of mind; Lei had been so wrapped up in their insecurity that they’d overlooked one of the most basic laws of parapsychology.

          It’s an impulsive risk taken to assuage my own guilt. It’s also beyond stupid to risk my life for a bunch of androids that practically died years ago, and Cemile would kill me if I died in the first match of the tournament that I’d said would be safe… 

          Lei grinned and jogged back to the tunnel where they’d left their snake self behind.

         …But Zheng would beat the crap out of me if I abandoned these poor souls to their fate.

 

---

 

Part 3

 

         It was annoying to travel without the light of the moon, but he was used to traversing dark terrain. Glowshroom in hand, he barreled forward toward the faint tingling sense of his bloodstain on the human’ boot, not at his full speed, but as fast as he could without crashing into the twisting tunnels. That was, about as fast as a mundane carriage.

         Echolocation was not a skill unique to subterranean monsters or bats; even a human could learn it with enough time and effort, though it wasn’t as accurate as species with innate instincts. Thus it was trivial to ascertain the rough direction of the ear-piercing explosion, which appeared to come from the same direction as his blood sense. It could be a trap, of course, but it would be an extraordinary feat if any tricks from what he’d seen of the human so far could mortally wound him.

            Some kind of environmental awareness, a kinship with monsters, and some minor body enforcement seemed to be the extent of their capabilities. Magic was such a volatile thing that it would be near pointless to agonize over the possibilities from only what he’d seen so far. Whatever it was, he’d just figure it out personally; scouting ahead with sanguimancy would just be a pointless drain of energy since it could only sense touch.

             Thankfully most monsters just stiffened and scurried deeper into the cracks in the wall to avoid him instinctually, but all good and bad things come to an end eventually. When he had crossed about half the distance to the human, an annoying Trick Spider seemed to work up enough courage to drop from the ceiling and sink its fangs into his face. The venom capable of paralyzing an adult rhinoceros within seconds only served to annoy him, and he merely wrenched its eight iron-gripped legs off of his head and crushed the arachnid in his palm. 

          Wiping the viscera off on a nearby wall, he ran deeper and deeper into the caverns, with the sparse glowshrooms growing in number as the air grew as wet as it was cold. He was approaching the center of their habitat. His sanguimancy’s blood sense was exponentially more accurate at this point than it had been on the surface, and it only continued to rise as he closed in on the unsuspecting mortal. Or, they were supposed to be unexpecting, at least.

          He sensed it before he heard it; the bloodstain suddenly began moving away from him at a startling speed, faster than the human had sprinted on the surface, and the sound of rusted machinery quickly reached his ears. After a split second he put the pieces together, and immediately dropped to the ground and pressed his ear up against the rail tracks shamelessly desecrating Ghiza’s grave site. A ping of rage surged through him at the thought followed by a deep depression at the everyday sacrilege of mortal life, but he quickly shook the emotions and returned to the present.

         The sounds on the rails confirmed it; the human had somehow managed to find a powered minecart that still functioned years after the mine collapse. A dark chuckle escaped his lips as he surged forward with a renewed sense of purpose. That spider back then was actually a scout of theirs, just like the snake that attacked his blood, wasn’t it? The pale skin of his mouth pulled upward, spreading his already thin lips into a sneering grin as his salivary glands began to produce an excess in anticipation.

          Since the human’s preferred greeting was that of sinking their fangs into his flesh, it would only be fair if he returned the favor, no?

***

 

          Seeing Trapper fail to avoid the spider and that he needed to press his ear to the rails, Lei determined that the man’s senses were only above average for a human, as extraordinary as he’d seemed at first glance. That was just about the only point going in their favor at the moment.

          They hadn’t expected too much, but seeing that the Trick Spider’s venom had literally zero effect on whatever species he was, and sensing the casual annoyance from his mind when it suddenly latched onto his face was enough to make Lei second guess their life choices for the third time this week. They’d had this whole schtick planned with setting up the glowshrooms if they’d just had enough time… 

          Well, it didn’t help to cry over spilled milk. They’d just have to play with the hand they were dealt. Lei didn’t plan anything too complicated precisely because of this unpredictability, and the information gained from the spider was almost as priceless as it’d been if it actually succeeded anyways. They should be grateful that S-Lei was able to use their powers anyways, with them needing to take on roughly 18% of Taylor’s consciousness to gain her technical knowledge.

           Damnit, stop stalling already. You don’t have any more time!

           Lei chided themselves and quickly connected to Trappers’ eyes and ears before they could hesitate any longer. The echoing roar of rusted metal grinding against the tiny bumps and imperfections of the railway now assaulted three different sets of ears managed by Lei, though it was a small mercy that S-Lei was hiding far away from the fight. It wasn’t long before Trappers’ eyes locked onto the silhouette of a powered soulsteel minecart trudging forward in the middle of a long and narrow mineshaft peppered with various side tunnels. He didn’t have much time to squint in the dim glowshroom lighting to see more details though, as he was quickly distracted by an arrow flying straight at his face.

           Despite the arrow crossing the distance in just a single second and in poor lighting conditions, Trapper effortlessly bobbed his head to the side within a centimeter of the trajectory, and the second aimed at his abdomen met a similar fate. 

           Fuck, what the hell is this guy!?

           Lei had expected Trapper to have centuries worth of experience, but even taking body enforcement into account the man’s practiced reactions were so perfect that they almost couldn’t believe they were possible without some sort of magic at play. To make things worse, his mental reactions were practically the exact same as the spider; a casual annoyance as if what he was doing wasn’t even that big of a deal! There was also a hint of something else too, but they couldn’t describe it with words no matter how hard they tried. 

          Lei sighed in their mind. Whatever it was it didn’t matter, because Trapper was now completely confident in his ability to dodge, and arrogance had always been Lei’s favorite weapon. While Trapper continued his pattern and dodged the third shot with ease, what he couldn’t see was the arrow launched from a tunnel split behind him, aimed at his lower back-

         Trappers’ ears twitched at the sound of an arrow shaft violently splitting the air, and he immediately sidestepped to avoid the red arrow that sailed past him before implanting itself in the mass of camouflaged cloth over a backpack inside the minecart with a soft thump! Now that his eyes were looking closer, it was obvious that Lei was nowhere to be seen in the minecart. Immediately stopping in his tracks, Trapper turned to scan the dark tunnel that the arrow seemed to originate from, and caught a flash of movement as a camouflaged figure attempted to subtly hide a bow behind their back.

           “…Hah! That was a neat trick, human, but- !?”

           A clear and amused voice reached Lei’s ears as the man began to gloat, but he was suddenly interrupted when an arrow from the minecart’s direction pierced into his lower back. The arrowhead tore straight through his spine, and emerged through his stomach, dripping bits of blood and intestine… 

           Both Trapper and Lei froze as they tried to process what had just happened. Lei had been sitting in the minecart the entire time, and the arrow to Trapper’s spine was the only one they ever shot. The entire sequence had just been one giant plot to get Trapper to turn his back. Lei felt a flood of almost manic joy amplified by the psychic burnout, and they burst into a fit of hysterical giggling before S-Lei informed them that something was wrong. Their laughter immediately died as if they just flicked down a switch, and Lei’s euphoria was replaced with an overwhelming mass of fear and dread.

           Wha….How the fuck is he still standing!? He shouldn't even feel his goddamn legs!!!

           Trapper’s eyes glanced down at the wound, which ceased bleeding almost immediately, before turning to face the real Lei, who had remained in the minecart the entire time. His expression remained the same as he began jogging forward, but beneath that facade Lei could feel nothing but pure vengeful indignance and a gut-churning bloodlust that was somehow unique compared to their past opponents. 

            Who the fuck... what the fuck is this guy!? Lei looked back over their shoulder, seeing the injured figure of Trapper sprinting towards them, gaining on the minecart. 

             He isn't a trapper, he doesn't fight like a warrior either. The way he acts, like some kind of Monster... Oh ancestors, protect me!

             Lei felt a buildup of pressure accumulating around their temples as the psychic burnout entered the third stage; they’d been pouring everything left in the tank with that last trick. Gritting their teeth, they began leasing their arrows in rapid fire towards the silhouette of the monster sprinting after them, no longer caring to shy away from his torso. They had the guidance of their mind link, but Lei’s body moved as if they were trying to pull their limbs up with puppet strings and their eyes kept falling out of focus. S-Lei panickedly searched for surrounding monsters, but they just couldn’t find the right opportunity no matter how much they tried.  

            Judging from Taylor’s map I have less than two minute left until I hit the end of the tracks, fuck, fuck, fuck…!

            Their small fortune lay in the fact that although Monster was able to run, whatever magic he was using was far less controlled. Despite Lei’s poor aim, he wasn’t able to dodge nearly as well as before, and constantly grazed against the arrows. The only ones that fully hit were assisted by S-Lei’s illusions, but be it his ribs or his lung, he barely even slowed down. The only area they couldn’t hit was their heart, since he was holding his hand up to protect it at all times despite the poor running form.

             It wasn’t long before Monster drew close enough for Lei to catch glimpses of his figure against the sporadic lamplight-esque glowshrooms, and so too could he see their movements as they notched their arrows. They couldn’t see all of him at once; a flash of his pale face and grinning teeth, a glimpse of shredded and bloodied black clothes, arrow shafts half broken off or pulled out.

             Every arrow became a small flower of hope; one more small chance at overcoming death, one more chance at gaining the right to return home and eat a warm meal with their loved ones again. Thus they reached down to their pack-quiver and notched the arrows one after another, one more chance, one more shot, one more-

             Lei pulled out a broken wooden shaft, memories of a rain of bloodied rocks rising back to the front of their mind. Lei reached for another, another, and another- held the pack up to the light and felt each arrow, finally finding one last intact red arrow. 

             Hoooly shit. Venerable Ancestors, pray for me…!

             Monster laughed in schadenfreude, at the sudden let up in Lei’s attacks, shaking their mind even further. Their attacks had done nothing, he wasn’t bleeding out, and it looked like his legs were impossibly regaining their feeling over time. Lei couldn’t just dive into a mind that vast, they couldn’t hurt him physically, all they could do is sit back and wait to die-

             -No, no. It’s okay, just, breathe, just fucking breathe…

             Concentrating on the thick air filling and leaving their lungs, forcing themselves to breathe through their stomach, Lei’s hands gradually steadied their shaking. Monster had a clear view as Lei slowly brought up their bow, and while his absolute certainty in his victory burned as bright as his mind was vast, he still had enough sense to feel caution towards a talented human who was pushed into a corner. It made him fall behind, but he began running in a zig-zagging pattern in anticipation of whatever last resort they had in mind. 

             Lei took this all in and inhaled as they pulled the bow into full draw, where they held it for five whole seconds. The blood, the constitution, regeneration, pale skin and the fact that the fight was scheduled at night. What did all of that information suggest? How could they win the fight with a single arrow?

            A medium sized cluster of glowshrooms passed by on their left side, and half a second after it revealed Monster’s position, they released.

            Monster stepped to throw himself to the left, when suddenly a mental force strong-armed for control over a certain portion of his body. His perpetual grin fell for the first time since the chase began as he was caught off-guard, and a Lei took hold of that weakness to direct his thoughts away from his usual reaction to drop for cover. Instead he continued his momentum and leaned to the left as S-Lei forced down the arm that was guarding his heart. He froze for less than a second, but that was more than enough.

           All background noise fell away as a meaty thump resounded throughout the tunnel. The vampire collapsed to the ground, his mind in complete shock, and Lei finally let go of their breath.

           Monster struggled to move, and snake Lei quickly Suggested multiple monsters to swarm the man, aiming mostly for his face, head, and heart, but he quickly surrendered before any damage could be done. Finally processing the fact that they’d won, Lei robotically threw down the brakes and powered down the cart, before slowly sinking down to the floor and hugging their knees. Soft crying and sniffing could be heard echoing across abandoned mineshafts. Meanwhile Taylor and her partner stepped out of the darkness carrying the crystals of two of their party members, the both of them witnessing the light of the sunrise for the first time in several years.