Six wulves shot up, straining their legs as they literally slid to encircle us. “Ignore dogs! Take her down!” I yelled at my warrior and gulped down another agility potion. The sound of Katherine's heavy footfalls echoed through the night as she charged towards the Bandit Leader, causing wulves to falter and allowing her to pass.

Our enemy wiggled her staff and created two bright yellow runes, but I couldn’t interpret them because she immediately changed them in an energy, which enveloped the leading Wulf galloping to intercept Katherine. That bright energy merged with its red fur, resulting in a painful growl.

With a sudden power surge, the Wulf dashed three times faster, preparing to snap Katherine’s neck. My favorite streamer adjusted her shield and crashed at the sprinting wulf at full speed.

Despite her energy, the summon didn’t budge, and one slash of its paw sent Katherine flying back. That was all I saw, because while Katherine was getting their undivided attention, I slipped around the left side and quickly dashed behind the leader.

She was playing with her staff again and sent another buff for her Wulf, turning her back to me. Before she could power up her summons, I swiftly aimed and struck her with a single slash. She let out a piercing shriek like an angry Irishman and stumbled forward, her magic sputtering.

Herer muscles tore off, accompanied by a deafening sound that almost forced me to stop. Almost. I wasn’t green. Ugh. After another slash, she wailed at the top of her lungs, which sounded almost like torturing. “Shut up, stupid bandit!” I yelled and reminded her it was only her fault to feel the pain, and added one more slash.

Without me pointing it out, Katherine raised her sword and pulled all wulves at her yet again. With nobody to aid the bandit, I gave our dear enemy another taste of my whip’s bloodied end. Battling humanoids always felt too real to me, which is why I disliked it.

The poor Bandit Leader tried to raise her staff, but I reacted fast, moved my hand and the whip instantly tore her muscle under her sleeve. Not closing my eyes was hard, but it was necessary to disable her.

It was easy to destroy stings of wasps, but doing the same to a sentient being? As she crawled under my legs, I stood still, watching her every move, raising my hand again. Another slash left her left hand hanging lifelessly, and desperation showed on her face.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, more to myself. “I gave you a chance.” Once slash later, and her feet stopped moving. “Call off your wulves,” I said, mimicking the iciness in the voice of Irwen. “Or you’ll lose your life.” Nope, I wasn’t enjoying it. Lucy used to be better than me in this, probably still was. Such trivial things didn’t disturb her. Alas, my heart sank as I saw her robe in tatters and felt my face stiffen.

“Yes! Fall back! Don’t attack them!” she complied and as soon as she said that, the red wulves vanished. “Please, please don’t kill me! I- Hunger! Regaros was smuggling dust. He bad, I wanted to rob him! Only him!” Her tears gushed out, and other words got lost in her sobbing. Katherine stumbled towards us, her breaths coming in ragged gasps, but she was silent, only touching my shoulder. No killing. I shook my head.

“Hey, enemy.” I glanced at the beaten girl on the ground. “In the name of a God of war, you are my prisoner.”

“I accept,” she said weakly, but that was enough for the god. White light flashed for a single moment, and a white twisted line bound me and my prisoner, before it vanished as if it was a lie. My tense expression eased as I created runes to heal us.

Woah, how could I achieve that again? Was I now an expert rune crafter? Despite my inner delight, I left a stoic expression on my face. Sadly, the gentle light wasn’t enough to heal my prisoner, because my whip’s wounds were deep and scary, and healing them took three dedicated healing spells. Not completely, but enough to let her move.

“Why not eff her?” Katherine couldn’t stay silent for long and was pacing around me like a hungry Wulf. Still focusing on another healing rune, I glared at her to silence her again - in vain - because she wasn’t backing down. “Tenth level’s close! She’s a bandit!”

“Kit. No.” Before I explained to her this reality wasn’t any different from ours, I remembered one insignificant detail. Tiny one - she was new to the game. I let out a sigh and prayed that everything was going to make sense to her soon enough.

“What’s your name?” I turned to my prisoner. Instead of explaining it to Katherine in plain words, I wanted to show it to her.

The now healed girl scrambled up and was warily observing Katherine. “I’m Tera.”

“So Tera,” I said and gesticulated to Katherine, who finally stopped pacing around, and we created a triangle at two feet apart under the gorgeous moons. “Please tell us how you end up here, so she knows who’s she killing.”

“What do you mean? I told-” Tera’s confused voice agitated Katherine, who drew her sword while wincing. “Wait! I was living in the village nearby. Peacefully, I swear!”

Katherine snickered and took one step forward. “Phaf, you evil, Bandit Leader.”

“Let her speak.” Quickly catching Katherine’s shoulder, I gave it my all, despite my low strength. Thankfully, the warrior stopped on her own. “Besides, if you kill her, I have to go to God of War temple to explain my sin. She’s my prisoner, you know?” Gesticulating to Tera, I raised my voice, “Speak!”

“Peaceful life - that was my thing. Profession’s huntress. I only hunted animals.” Katherine took another step towards her. Oh, come on! My prisoner shared my fear and blubbered, “On my mother's grave, I swear!”

“Like ya have mum! Charlie, just eff her.”

“I do!” My captured bandit backed away from the scary warrior. “I’ve killed no one!”

“Let me explain it in plain words then, Tera. Katherine, this is a world like ours. Every local has a history, aspiration, feel, pain - exactly as us. There is not much difference between us. We are visitors in her land, and bad ones at that.”

Katherine finally calmed down and sheathed her sword with her eyes fixated on my mouth. I must’ve piqued her interest. “See her? She was the first one we replaced. Players are hunting anything that moves and sell it at dumping prices.”

“Exactly,” Tera interrupted me. “You came, my job no more! I gathered wulves, and I hit innocent - wrong I know. But I hit Regaros! He bad!” She hesitated, but decided to not tell anything else, and diverted her gaze to moons.

Katherine was nodding, so I relaxed, which was a wrong move on my part, because she said, “Liar. We came last week.”

“Does it matter, Kat? We got-” I opened my mouth and tried to reason with her. Too late. She didn’t give her any chance to fight back - my friend smacked her head with the pommel, stunning her. I moved, but her sword was already in Tera’s stomach. Then she tore her sword out, Tera’s blood gushing everywhere, and she scored a critical hit with another move, aimed at heart.

“Stop!” I created a rune for a healing spell, but I didn’t have to stop her - she did it on her own. After she pulled her sword again, something snapped inside her and she stared blankly at my prisoner, who was now unconscious, splattered with blood on the ground, but alive after my healing spell succeeded.

Kat glanced down at her bloodied hands. “Monsters bad, but ‘tis… She’s like alive…”

“Stupid Kat, why?” Grabbing her shoulder, I shook her. “Why? She’s my prisoner! And you attacked her after she told you her history! Killing anonym’s easier, you know?”

Her eyes looked so unfocused, as if she was staring at me through a whiskey bottle. “Easy, ‘cause she’s enemy. Can’t end her tho. Wat now?”

What now? Repay all my debts, which were piling up like glasses during a drinking contest. Although, no, friendship with Lisa was more important than trying to score a few thousands golds. I checked her position.

Sadly, she wasn’t in the game. Strange, I could swear she was online when I checked last time. “Forget about all this and go to the dungeon as we planned. But Lisa’s offline. I don’t know where to meet her, so we could go near the entrance?”

“I’ll call her!” Katherine offered me her signature smile, full of sadness, which always stunned me. It worked this time too, and it urged hugging her and tell everything will be fine. She seized her opportunity and disconnected before I could stop her.

When I realized what was going on, I only snapped my hug at the empty air.

Damn charming streamer! Perhaps dissecting an elf shaken her - everyone remembers their first. Although she didn’t kill her, so she was about to go through it again. Game’s ptsd was a hard thing to shake, even if players killed only monsters.

Our fight messed the place under the moons up. There was a lot of blood everywhere and our battle scattered parts of Wulves around. Magic always claimed these things and restored the landscape, returning it to the state before we clashed. Not yet though, and my prisoner lay on the ground in the middle of it and breathed - which was a good sign.

“Wake up.” I squatted next to her and poked her with a handle of my whip. “I know it’s bad, but please wake up.”

At my urging, she slowly opened her eyes and glanced around. At first she only stared at me with a dumb expression, but then she jumped up and checked her body - I healed her fully by now. “Is she gone?”

“Yup, I release you. We have a truce, and you are free to go.”

She patted her formerly wounded body and nodded. “Thank you.” Her mad dash towards trees was funny, but she even stumbled and crashed a few times before darkness prevented me from seeing where she was going.

Next time I can’t forget to ask Katherine for her log-out token. I was staring at the place where she logged off.

Katherine was out for over half an hour, and I was getting bored despite that I was practicing Princess’ Grace. Sadly, my new spell was hard, and I couldn't cast it without the system’s aid. It wasn’t only the runes, but their position in a circle was trickier than it should. Or perhaps that was intentional. How could I know? It was magic; not swords.

With a bang, Katherine was back. “Hey!” My friend waved at me. “She won’t come and said she’s sorry. Dmitry pwned her.”