2.17 You Made Me Remember!
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Her limbs, her short hair, her armor and even drops of sweat slowly creeping down the forehead were heavy, unbearable. The tip of the glaive was trembling hectically between the two wolves in a dozen-two meters away. The beasts had torn a partially disappeared snake and were busy consuming it, looking askew at the girl from time to time.

Bamp! Sounded metal striking stone and Alice jumped in fright, the dull end of her glaive had just run into a boulder.

"Huff, huff..."

When did she withdraw so far?

The beasts were unconcerned with her, little prey. They postures seemed to say: you can run if you're willing to try. And she was too afraid to try. Alice never really feared snakes, tigers, ants, centipedes of the dungeon. Nothing close to sticky-cold fingers of foreshadowed death caressing her skin from the inside.

Invisible pressure was tying her up and down, rendering her feeble and defenseless. It wasn't the field modern humans used to tread. It was something ancient, primal. Devoted terror for true monsters. The kind that lives in fairytales of old when children learned from a young age to rever what lurks in the darkness, what comes and slaughters and scoffs. From times filled with blind fear, with superstitions and obscure forces of nature.

Bum, bum, bum. Heartbeats were growing stronger.

Only heartbeats...

"Don't think of it, dear."

Alice almost heard long-forgotten words said by a familiar voice. Abnormally calm tone, remote and almost cruel. Many would take it as cold, if not heartless. Many failed to read through her mother's expressions, discern sadness.

"Say what you want, wish bravely, dear. Don't be afraid to live happy, until..."

No matter how strange she had been, even Olivia Branson wouldn't end this phrase. But little Alice was smart back then. She watched her doctors' eluding eyes, saw tears of her brothers, the stoic face of her father. She figured it out...

"Ah."

An old memory sparked and lighted up the emptiness of her mind.

With an especially loud echo from the heart, something changed inside her.

The grey wolf growled, broke a few snakes bones with his large teeth and unhurriedly paced on his way to the girl. There was certain majesty in his movements, in the dim shine of his fur, wigglings of his tail.

Alice watched him, frozen still, with half-closed eyes itching from dippings of sweat. Gears moved into their rightful places, interlocked and bound her everything forever. When the wolf was just a meter away, she noted that his head was just slightly lower than hers. What a size, truly a monster.

He stabbed at her lazily with his tail.

The dark curved dagger cut the air, drops of poison falling from the tip.

She caught it.

The muzzle of the wolf was marvelous truly. Incomprehension and anger... as far as a monster was capable of.

"I admit, I am a bit unusual," Alice told him. Her strange serenity was observing the river of memories.

The wolf yanked his tail, but the girl held it tight, the dagger part between her fingers and the tail itself in the left palm. He pulled, yet it was still as stuck, even though Alice's arm silently shouted in pain!

With a low roar, the beast pushed against the ground, utilizing all his muscles. This strength was far beyond her capabilities if the girl had tried to contend... so she let the scorpion tail go and the wolf retreated two awkward steps.

"Burn."

Three bright drops in her heart combusted at once, the whole body raged with power; life energy rose like an unstoppable tide. The aura escaped from the boundaries of the girl's body, slammed the air around and rocks under her feet!

The carefree wolf's eyes changed. A little rabbit became a lioness ready to pounce at him! Yet, having acted recklessly, in exactly this split moment he was out of balance!

Swoosh! The glaive pierced the space, calling low thunder onto its path, the target was a point between the beast's eyes. Alice turned, investing every bit of strength into her right hand, all to push the glaive a bit further, a bit faster.

Unnaturally, with force, the wolf jerked his head out of the way. The blade's point shifted alike, pierced his left eye, entered deep into the head. Split apart the skull, the brain.

The monster was slain, just like that!

Alice fell on one knee, weak not psychologically now, but physically, for real.

> Attention! Strength limit breakthrough.
> Endurance limit breakthrough.
> Agility limit breakthrough.

[+1800 EXP, +720 BP]

> All basic attributes exceeded the maximum for the human race!
> Hidden attributes being revealed in your status.
> Congratulation! One of the conditions for a template upgrade was reached. Achieve level 10 for detailed instructions.

It was really easy, break the limit. Only needed to wish for it...

Alice berated herself with smile-not while every single muscle in her body cried in agony as if separated from the bones and was being bisected right here and now. She had really put everything in that thrust. Her full speed, triple blood boost – and for the first time, too! – not sparing herself at all. The only reason she was feeling as being skinned alive instead of actually having fresh slipping down the bones was for it lasted short.

Her skin had some cracks here and there, though.

The next second, a sound wave hit her, a howl of wrath and murderousness. It raised dust, overloaded her hearing with a particular kind of pain, and it was still relatively easy to bear. The girl's eardrums would have surely burst out just a week before.

These monsters are bad news for Earth...

Her hand fetched two life potions at once and the girl literally forced flesh on the tips of her fingers to part with her essence and the red liquid to enter her bloodstream through it.

Not they are too strong, or too fast, no, my countrymen have plenty of weapons...

The howl evoked supernatural terror, a desire to shrink into a wad, hug knees, hid under a blanket and pray, and pray the monster to go away!

If not someone like me...

Alice clenched her teeth and willed herself to stand up and face the speeding beast. If it was not someone like her they would be killed regardless of their abilities and arms!

This Apocalypsis is no joke...

Barely affected by potions thus far, the girl agitated herself and bolted from under the beast's jaw and claws when it pounced at her above his kins' dead body. His tail swept, aiming at her precisely.

No joke!

The tail was met with a side of Alice's lift palm. She pushed it away softly, borrowed the energy to dodge by a breadth of a hair. For the first time in the dungeon the girl executed not a system's skill, but entirely her own.

Focus.

A paw grabbed the air, missed, broke out stones from a rock. The shiny glaive's blade slashed back fast and weak, scratched skin on a wolf's side. In exchange, the tail stabbed, too accurately to parry. Alice had to catch the tail-dagger directly like its brother's, only now it contained much greater force behind and almost pinned the palm to her own chest.

Steel plate screeched, the girl's rib cracked, her timely jump backward absorbed some of the energy and so Alice put some distance between them for a small price.

Focus!

The glaive rose up into a primal spear stance and the wolf paused as the blade looked right between his eyes, unreasonably giving Alice time to breathe.

Like a spear. Like a spear... level up.

Walking to left, circling from the right, the wolf tried to bypass the glaive. The blade always followed. He might not understand her words, but he knew the weapon before was dangerous.

"I don't fear you," she bluffed. The wolf, the mosnter was scary regardless. More dangerous in some ways when not in frenzy.

Yet still, Alice was plenty angry herself, and she knew the monster wasn't one of the unstoppable legends. She drew his blood. She slew his kin.

"I spent years just to move on, and you made me remember it!"

Inhale, exhale. Yes, like that. Her breathing now normalized. The monster was both too smart and not enough.

He struck out with its tail, probing. The glaive flourished, left a scar on the solid carapace with a ring. He growled, brandished a paw, retrieved right before another collision, glanced at the girl unkindly.

She used this gaze to fuel her anger, to nourish her life energy and push it to circulate faster and faster.

"You made me remember how I am always different."

Not special. Many people are special, maybe all.

Different was rare.

Alice stepped forward and stabbed with her glaive, making the wolf retreat this exact step. A turn, right hand lunged forward and the blade marked the sturdy black fur with a second cut.

"My own parents waited for my death!"

Children know no death. Even facing it many won't recognize and later would readily forget. Such was childlike bravery and innocence. Alice had had it, too. She had grown up from it, like all, only her process was as horrible as it was long.

Her scream was full of bitterness and aimless hatred few would understand. Full of pain. Insatiable pain that will never go away.

Scarlet budded in her eyes, filled the irises completely. They seemed to emit light.

"Don't be afraid to be happy."

"Until you die!"

I installed myself the BlockSite plugin that really helps my lack of concentration. Right after I accidentally lost half-finished chapter and spent three hours looking into memory dumps to retrieve it. And failed, ofc. So also installed form history saver, to never again!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed.

 

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