They were in the forest in a place tamers lovingly called route death. She read the name repeatedly on the map while they were preparing to leave.

 

“Partner, if you fall, I’ll avenge you,” Alice said.

 

Zoran grabbed her tail, and if she could blush, she would. Not only did it turn her on, but it showed he was being serious. She wouldn’t let anyone else grab her tail and doing it in public would make other tamers jealous. Not many dinofu allowed their tamers to grab their tail. But how could she deny her tamer.

 

Alice loved her name, the idea of going on an adventure, and most of all, her partner. The look of determination in his eyes and how his dragon power raged made her tingle all over. His admission that they were hunting goblins to save one of her kind, possibly even one of her siblings, was inspirational. She couldn’t think of another partner who would help another tamer. No, it was more like helping others was against a young tamer’s instincts. Helping others only came when a tamer had the power to do so.

 

Zoran abandoned the unsaid culture of his people and struck out anyway. That kind of will meant more to her than a master who was clever or incredibly powerful. Only someone who could turn against convention could partner with a black waifu. That trait she sensed in him had become his line, and Alice wanted to see it flourish. He wanted to be good even though nature demanded selfishness.

 

So, they had made their way through the woods silently into goblin territory. Bone effigies of their rank 3 Ogre chieftain hung from trees everywhere until even a blind idiot would know this was goblin territory. She sensed them moving around, preparing an ambush as they walked further into goblin lands. A fallen boulder or a thorn thicket here and there ensured they could only travel one way. The goblins were hedging their bets. She knew that retreating would only put arrows in their backs, and moving forward would put arrows in their guts. But her partner seemed to move with a purpose.

 

Zoran pulled a gun out of his bag and took out a silencer. She didn’t know how he got those tools, but she was thankful for them. But one gun wouldn’t mean much against an ogre leading hordes of tricky goblins. She changed her mind when he turned his head and fired, looked up, and fired six times before firing once at her 9. She realized then that he could sense the goblins more accurately than she could.

 

Eight goblins fell in a couple of seconds. “At your six Black Breath.” She turned around, sucked in a breath, and concentrated on the mix of night rite and dragon power. The body cultivation of dragon power and the spiritual cultivation of night rite formed black flames in her throat. Then, with a heave from her lungs, a spiraling plume of black flames burned the air 20m before she heard the screams.

 

She felt confident after that; no ambush would matter with her partner moving forward. Even if they had to flee, it would be on their terms.

 

Alice felt the qi of the goblins she killed flow out of their bodies into her. She shivered in pleasure as their power became hers, and finally, she started slowly climbing towards ranking up. It wasn’t as beneficial as a dragon or night attribute monster, but it helped. She needed raw power to rise to the next rank.

 

 

…

 

My heart hammered in my chest as I felt the goblins burn to death. Their pain was so extreme I could feel it. It took everything to stop my hand from twitching after dropping those goblins. It was disgustingly easy, and I felt something fill the air after their deaths and drift towards me. Their qi rose off their bodies and drifting towards me because I killed them. It clung to my body like a red stain even as the dragon power roared in my ears like a revving motorcycle. The qi of the eight flowed into me while the rest flowed into Alice. We both shivered when the qi touched us for what I guessed were different reasons. Alice moaned louder than I’d ever heard her.

 

“Are you hungry? We could feast on their flesh to take in a little more power?” Alice asked.

 

I took my bag out and ejected the clip to reload it. Each bullet was huge, and the silencer barely muffled them. I didn’t want to look at the bodies. Tyrone’s own was a 9mm built for humans; my 1.00cal was built for hunting monsters. It almost didn’t matter where I hit them; their bodies were probably mangled beyond recognition from the force of the shot.

 

My hand kept twitching. Even after bracing myself with dragon power, it wasn’t enough. Worse I felt good. After seeing Professor Cacao kill my mother, I only wanted to kill one person. But I needed to pile up a mountain of corpses to get there.

 

So why did it feel so good?

 

After absorbing the qi from those goblins, my body wasn’t eating itself anymore. The qi acted as a buffer for my techniques. I needed that same qi to cultivate later, and it would run dry after a while. Until then, I would heal faster than ever before. My body started to feel stronger, and I hopped on my toes like I was about to jump into the ring with Alex again.

 

Alice wrapped her arms around me and snuggled against my ear. I stopped hopping and leaned into her comforting embrace. “It feels good to rampage and kill. Let’s do it together forever. I want to rank up and become stronger until nothing can stop us. Power is the only path to freedom in this world.” Alice said.

 

“Then you don’t approve of helping get a dinofu back,” I said.

 

“Only the strong can afford to be passionate. By doing this, you are showing everyone that we are strong. Even if we aren’t there yet, making our enemies think we are when we are weak is a good thing. So, let’s make a show of it, partner and rampage.” Alice said.

 

I nodded slowly and realized she was right and perfect for me. Even if it didn’t settle if killing was right or not, this wasn’t about me anymore. I represented us both, and I wouldn’t disappoint my waifu.

 

“Let’s go kick their ass,” I said, and after she let me go, I began hopping again.

 

We stepped onto the trail towards the ambush when my ankle hit a tripwire. I heard the boulder rumbling before I saw it. Before I knew what I was doing, I grabbed Alice and sprinted downhill. Unfortunately, the boulder was hot on my hills and quickly ate the distance between us. I knew I was running into the real ambush, and if the boulder didn’t squish us, goblin arrows would pincushion us. Still, I ran with all my might to get a little ahead of the boulder.

 

I saw a dip in the road just ahead and sensed goblin archers ahead. The dip led to a steep drop-off. If I wasn’t careful, this could be it.

 

An arrow impacted my shoulder as I threw myself off the dip in the road. We were falling, and Alice was repositioning while I lost strength in my left arm.

 

Alice stabbed her talons in the dirt wall as we fell and grabbed my good arm. I slammed face first into the dirt wall and got a mouth full of dirt for my troubles. “Grab the straps of my backpack. I need to get this arrow out.

 

I knew the goblins probably weren’t far from us either on the dirt path we fell from or at the bottom. I ripped the arrow out of my shoulder and closed my eyes as the pain hit me. Blood flowed down my arm, and I cursed not getting body armor with shoulder pads. The next time I was in a town, that’s what I would buy.

 

The goblins lined up above us with their arrows drawn. I pulled my gun out of my holster and fired six shots. Each shot was louder than a cannon without the silencer, but the goblins fell easy. They weren’t much of a threat with a gun compared to rank 2s like hobgoblins, oni, or ogres. We were fortunately still on the edge of goblin territory. I holstered my weapon and grabbed a root from one of the big trees on the dirt road.

 

Alice raised herself upright and jumped from her root to the dirt road. I sucked in a breath and tried to copy her. But unfortunately, my feet didn’t quite reach the edge of the road. I flailed my hands for purchase before she caught them and hoisted me up.

 

I stared at the wound in my shoulder as it finished healing to clear skin. Those goblins who died on the cliff helped speed up the process considerably. I handed Alice one of their bows and quivers and grabbed a set myself. A band of goblins led by a hobgoblin armored with stolen tamer gear charged over the tree line. The hobgoblin stood back and watched keenly as I pulled the bow back and fired while Alice joined me.