"Nexus!" Fei yelled. She ran forward and caught Nexus right before she hit the ground.

 

"What's wrong with her?" Arya asked.

 

"I don't know," Fei said. "She's ice cold but her HP is perfectly fine."

 

"Hmm. . ." Leston said. "I'm not sure. We do need to keep moving though, so how do we bring her?"

 

"Simple," Ariel said. "I'll carry her."

 

"I have some rope," Tiran said, pulling a length of rope from his pack. "We can tie her to your back, if that's alright with you."

 

"Yeah, it's fine," Ariel said. Leston and Shun got Nexus on Ariel's back and Tiran tied the rope around her. Then we continued walking through the forest. I felt a swirling power inside me.

 

"Experience Threshold met," The system suddenly said. "[Soul Counter] has risen from [2] to [7]. [Level] has risen from [Level 2] to [Level 3]"

 

"Oh, neat," I said.

 

"What?" Shun asked.

 

"I leveled up," I said.

 

"Cool," He said. I opened up my status.

 

[Kanata Renxandt]

[Level 3] [Awakened Darksoul]

HP: [80,000/80,000]

MP: [70,000/70,000]

SP: X

[Spd: 108] [Str: 6,000] [Atk: 2,000] [Mag Atk: 1,800] [Def: 5,000]

 

"What the actual fuck," I said. I showed my status to the others.

 

"That is. . ." Leston said, at a loss for words.

 

"That is ridiculous," Arya finished for him.

 

"Just how powerful am I going to get?" I asked.

 

"More than that," Shun said. "You're only [Level 3]."

 

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" Arya asked suddenly. We all stopped to listen. A strange sound that was almost like music was drifting through the forest. It sounded like strangely distorted singing.

 

"That's the Bladesinger's song," Leston said. "That means we're close. We need to be extra vigilant."

 

As we walked, the trees steadily got taller, thicker, and more spread apart. Eventually, they were all the size of redwoods, only they were pitch black. The very little light that was on the forest floor came from bioluminescent vines and flowers; the light from the sun couldn't reach down this far.

 

Then I saw a shadow dash from one tree to another. I froze.

 

"There's something here," I said. Arya immediately knocked an arrow and pulled it back. A shadowy figure emerged from behind a tree and stood in front of us, underlit by the vines. Their arms and legs ended in sharp points instead of hands and feet. A strange bone-white mask with teardrop-shaped eye-gaps covered their face and long dark hair hung down to their waist.

 

[The Bladesinger]

[Level X] [Hollow Vessel] ♀

HP: [1,600,000/1,600,000]

MP: [800,000/800,000]

SP: X

[Spd: 100] [Str: X] [Atk: 1,000] [Mag Atk: 200] [Def: 0]

 

I immediately took note of her stats. Her HP was ridiculously high, but her MP did have a limit, unlike the Troupe Master. Her Str was infinite, which didn't bode well. The few upsides were that her Mag Atk was low and she had no Def.

 

She then suddenly dashed forward. Shun already had his sword at the ready so he barely managed to block. Leston attacked and missed. I knew that most likely none of them would land a hit. The Bladesinger's Spd was only lower than mine.

 

I rushed forward and struck. The Bladesinger was pushed backward slightly. Arya released her arrow, which the Bladesigner dodged. But then she was hit by a blast of magic from Fei in the arm.

 

Then Leston attacked at the same time I did. His sword struck the Bladesinger's shoulder and slid off as my hand struck her back with an electrical current. She was frozen for a second and Arya chose that moment to fire another arrow.

 

Everything seemed to slow to a crawl as I saw the arrow hit the bone mask and knock it off.

 

The Bladesinger made a strange sound and reached out to try and grab the mask. Fei caught it neatly from the air before it hit the ground.

 

Then the Bladesinger looked up.

 

Shun, Arya, Fei, Ariel, and I all gasped.

 

Other than the pitch-black skin and glowing cyan eyes, her face perfectly resembled our classmate and my girlfriend from Earth, Kiri.