Etta heard the rumbles stop long ago. She has been holding Apita in the basement crying for over than five hours. Two dry tear streaks ran down her face, her eyes were dry completely empty of any tears. She her mother was dead, her mother didn't keep the promise of returning to her.

“*Hick, hick* Mom……….” She hiccupped as she muttered her protector. She had sacrificed her life for her daughter. Etta is already missing her warmth. In just a matter of a couple minutes, everything had gone wrong. From a peaceful day being concerned with the cold snow and drinking hot cocoa had suddenly turned into the worst day of her life.

“W-What was that thing…” She feared the monster yet she also was furious at it. Furious for it taking everything from her. Why… Why did it have to be her.

Heading upwards towards the basement door she pushed. “Eghh” She grunted, struggling and failing to open the door. It was stuck, there must be debris atop the door. Reversing, she lowered her stance readying to force the door open no matter what.

Summoning the wind and earth to bolster her steps, she dashed forward. *Thuck!* The door burst open, breaking completely. Dust flew to the wind, with a simple minor wind spell she blew away the dust. The view was horrible.

The previously happy village had been left as a desolate ruin. The houses were destroyed, melted and collapsed. The few still standing walls had giant holes in them. The previously white snow now had big stains of red from blood and purple from neutralised noxious acid.

She walked forward, to the middle of the small village. The nearer she got to the centre the more of the battle’s aftermath revealed itself. Destroyed spikes of earth. Walls of fire. Streaks of melted snow and mud. Cracked ground. And even the giant and numerous needles of black, originally from the monster.

If it hadn’t been already more than an hour it would be lethal to even be walking around. Just previously a red and purple smog of venom was floating in the air. Melting the lungs of every person that inhaled it.

*Tap, tap tap* There was no noise other than hers since she got out of the ruined house’s basement. No children were crying, no parents were calling out to their kids, and no warriors crying out in pain. Everyone was dead.

“DAD! DAD! Are you there!?” She walked forward, searching for her father. She hoped to find him fine and well, even though deep inside she knew it wasn’t going to happen. ‘Please, please at least dad’ she cried and hoped he survived, at least him. Tears that were previously gone suddenly reappeared, reigniting the river of tears. Looking at the object before her all hope was lost.

An axe engraved with her father signature. Its wooden handles drenched in blood, human blood. Its blade was covered with blue insect blood. It was her father’s, her father’s lost story.

She grasped its handle and hugged the dirty weapon. The weapon shed a dark green mass of mana, it slowly turned a shade light blue. She didn’t notice of course, she was too busy grieving. Of all people, why her. Why her.

She kneeled on the ground, her head turned downwards letting out stream after stream of tears. Her eyes bloodshot out of fury and grief. As the story imprinted to its owner it slowly vanished. The girl’s body supported no more by the axe collapsed.

In the overwhelming grief she had passed out

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“Hey! There is a survivor here!” A rough voice came from a bulky man, a pipe sticking out of his mouth.

“A child?, how did she survive? Quick get her to the doctor’s carriage she’s severely dehydrated! We cant let her die we need to know what happened!” A merchant looking woman gestured to the man towards a group of carriages.

“Ay ay, haah….. I don’t get paid enough.” The mercenary picked up the brown hair, bringing her towards a carriage with a recognisable plus sign. The sign of health workers all over the continent.

“Guys! Make sure to find all evidence of what monster was here! The government is going to be on our tails if we can’t prove it wasn’t us.” The woman yelled, she seemed nervous at the thought of the king hunting her and her party.

“And there’s going to be extra pay if we can prove it was a monster!” Another man yelled half amused, garnering a cheer from all the mercenaries. The vice president of the party knew it was truly a monster that had done this its discovery would be worth a pretty penny.

A mercenary touched some dry blood, it must have been a couple days before they got here.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Hm? Where am I?” The girl sat up feeling the vibration of the vehicle and started examining the interior of the carriage, her were still blurry due to excessive crying. But she had calmed, even by a small margin.

“Ah! You’re finally awake. Drink some water, you’ve lost lots of water. Probably by crying judging from those tear streaks. What’s your name?” A slim man answered, he wore a beige coat and had a balding head with a wrinkly face.

“My name is Etta. H-how are you” The girl said softly, her body fatigued and dehydrated.

“I’m this party’s travel doctor, you’re with The Northern Wind merchant troupe. We’re going to Elygria’s capital. We found you in the middle of your village passed out. The village was destroyed, do you remember what happened?”

“Y-yeah, a giant centipede monster came and destroyed the town. T-They all died… I hid in the basement before coming out.” The girl answered in between sips of water, her voice shaking still traumatised.

“I see, are you okay? you’re voice is shaking. Don’t worry it is normal to grieve, you must have gone so much.” The doctor hugged her softly, letting her continue to grieve the loss of her family. She wanted to cry, but she needed to be strong. It was what her family would want.

“You’ll need to tell the guards what you’ve told me. The city will need to know, maybe we will find out where it is.” The balding man said to her trying to comfort her even a little.

“Oh okay…” The girl felt melancholic her mind drifting away to her now deceased family. She missed them even if their departure from this world only happened a couple days ago.

‘Why me’ she thought, in this world of billions of people why had a monster coincidentally appear in her village’s vicinity. Why had it coincidentally gone towards their village’s location and not deeper into the forest. Why didn’t this troupe arrive before the centipede. Why hadn’t the giant centipede met another monster.

Fate. Fate was a jerk, it was uncaring, unrelentless, and unmerciful. Its cruel grasp on this world indomitable, and this time it had manifested its power to bestow a traumatic tragedy upon an innocent five-year old and her village.

The carriage vibrated very subtly below her, even though the path outside was very uneven, rocky and even a bit muddy. The carriage had no business being as stable as it is right now, but that was to be expected from a magical carriage, every carriage of this party was magically enhanced. With the widespread magic it was more common to see thing like this rather than normal carriages.

She watched from the carriage window as the carriage moved away from the plains they were previously in into an unfamiliar forest. She lived near a forest before but she never seen these kind of trees. It must’ve been a biome she’s never seen before. The trees were more like willows instead of the oaks that she was used to.

The ground were wetter, and more variety of small insects, frogs, and other such creatures were going about. Clearly there were much more biodiversity here. However the forest gave the impression of a more hostile home to a more hostile variety of creatures.

She saw a Thinsel bird digging out worms happily. It was irritating seeing a bird was happier than she was. She suddenly had an itch to kill the bird by ordering the fox to eat it.

‘No, I shouldn’t mom and pops would be disappointed’ But alas her memory of her parents won. There was no use inflicting pain to an innocent bystander.

As the bird flew away the troupe suddenly stopped. Then a commotion of voices ensued.

“Goblin tribe ambush! Get ready!.”

“Quick into your positions! Defend the carriages! We can get nowhere without them.”

“Don’t get worried kid, a goblin tribe hardly poses a threat to us.” The doctor said with a smirk sensing the girls unease.

She watched as the soldiers lined up and defended against waves and waves of goblin, the troupe handled them with relative ease, except for some mistakes that lead to minor injuries. The bloodshed in her emotional state right now was mesmerising.

All the blood flowing and splashing around led to a sight that somehow calmed her down. Especially since it was monster blood, the same kind of being that killed her family. Suddenly in a fit her trauma manifested, as the sounds of cries of pain and suffering suddenly appeared from the depths of her imagination she entered into a curious state.

People entered flow when they were in the perfect ratio of anxiousness and boredom. But she, she had entered into flow’s sinister sister. In the middle of a perfect ratio of fury and fear her mind was calm yet oh so bloodthirsty.

She pushed the door open while manifesting the axe unconsciously with her righthand. She rushed forward to the a group of goblins that were readying for a second ambush at their flank, she was ready and primed to kill.

Wielding her father’s ex-story now hers just like how her father taught her to. With one dominant hand, the other for spells. Her left was covered with velvet flames she called forth from her shoulder down to her hand. “*Shiing!* Blood spilled and covered her as she took her first life.

In a rampage she butchered and slew and killed the creatures before her. Their blood rained and their throats screamed out for help. Serenading her first battle. The soldiers were already done their work and was now gathering around the commotion and viewing amusedly at her fighting style.

Her left burned any goblins that stepped into her range, throwing flames of such heat that they evaporated her burning meat sack victim’s blood. Her right moved with vigour and smoothly, following the teaching of her father. Though her footwork was a bit clumsy since she was trained standing still, and her father didn’t get to teach her footwork before meeting an untimely demise.

The goblins tried to throw their spears and rock towards her. But only a few hit her, only creating small wounds that were healed by the red velvet flames that licked her injuries. All the other were either burned away, parried or completely dodged altogether.

She didn’t let out even a single grunt, she was too encompassed by the battle. Embracing mother bloodthirst. Sounds of metal rending flesh asunder echoed as she cut two goblins down at once. She felt free, released from the restraints of morality and wise thinking.

“*Ting!*” The sound of metal hitting crude metal rang out as her rampage was stopped. There it was a hobgoblin standing before her wielding two crude shortswords. Its eyes were focused and calm yet bloodthirsty just like hers. It stood in the field of blood and goblin bodies as it readied a stance. All the other goblin were gone to intervene. It was a duel.

Both of them rushed forward, her refined yet clumsy bloodthirsty style versus the hobgoblin’s tribal yet elegant style. Again and again metal hit metal blocking each other. The battle raged across the field of blood, splashing blood into the air. It was as if they were participating in a dance of death and fury.

She pushed back the monster, then it pushed her back. The pattern repeated itself countless times, the balance seemed unbreakable. Both of them couldn’t overcome the other, at least before she learned.

In this sinister flow she became less clumsy, to defeat this monster she learned from it. Imitating and incorporating useful moves that she could use in her style. Her one handed style reformed itself around the new information. Turning to an unorthodox refined tribalness. Her moves slowly became more smooth and efficient as elegance seeped into her systematic moveset.

The brown hair gained speed as she gained momentum, infusing her attacks with even more lethality and force than before. The hobgoblin grunted in pain as blocking and parrying her attacks just made its arms hurt and ache. Trying to escape unfruitfully this rhythm that will lead to its demise. It added more unorthodox moves, added new stances, used new tricks, and now even starting to dirty itself as it rolled and splashed the bloody mud to dodge and hinder her sight.

Every time it improved she learned and adapted from it. Her skill increased leaps and bounds. The hobgoblin’s movements were agile, it learned from living in such an uneven and hostile jungle. Swinging from vine to vine, from tree to tree. And now the she-beast was learning how to that from it.

The girl now looked like a beast from her style of fighting. Jumping, rolling and swinging from tree to tree, from vine to vine, just like how she had learned from the monster. As she slipped deeper and deeper into this flow and insanity she improved even faster. Her instincts fighting against an equal enemy was getting honed. Getting used to the hobgoblin’s patterns she now even dodged attacks while not even looking at them, already knowing where they’ll come from.

And finally with a swing empowered with both hands she sheared through both of the monster’s short swords and cut it in half.

Clapping rang out from the crowd waking her up from her stupor. The mercenaries cheered her victory as she walked towards them covered in blood.

“Go get cleaned kid, the tub is over there. We’ll be stopping to clean up and sharpen our weapons before moving again.” A green haired man with a stubble for a beard spoke. Motioning to a carriage that was embraced by blue water mana and was without any windows or openings for privacy.

“Okay…” The kid answered not knowing what to do but follow his orders.

“And I’ll send someone over to give you some actual clean clothes. And meet up with me during tonight’s stop, I’ll teach you how to actually move. Your footwork got me cringing.” The man was already heading somewhere else. Probably to get a drink or two of alcohol.