"Step aside everyone. This isn't your fight."
My head turned instinctively.
Xaessiarerich stood at the front of the pack of students, her long crimson hair catching the winter wind. Her cold eyes locked onto mine for the briefest of moments. She didn't smile or speak. Her hand reached lazily to the side, summoning something. A red greatsword took form.
Drought's Fright.
That's her signature claymore that players used to fear whenever her name appeared in MoDS. The sword could strip vitality from anything it touched. I scoffed and stepped forward through the snow until I was at her side. She raised a single brow.
"What are you doing?"
I raised my hand, my strings sparking into existence between my fingers.
"What do you think I'm doing? We need Fluvehearts to increase our bodies, don't we? I'm going to kill them."
She didn't reply. The smallest twitch of her mouth betrayed something though. Was that approval?
I wasn't confident in my skills, not compared to her. Xaessiarerich is a monster in the game and one of the strongest. Even if I was unsteady, I wasn't going to back down. Not with all those Outer-eyes watching. The Fluviums shrieked again as black ooze dripped off their blades. I turned, scanning the students. My eyes fell on Thales Erdict, who had been watching me like a hawk this entire time.
"What about you? You want in?"
He blinked, then smirked like the arrogant bastard he was meant to be. With a casual sigh, he unsheathed his longsword, the steel catching what little light filtered through the gray sky.
"Why shouldn't I? It's better than standing around."
Verdamona groaned audibly, rolling her shoulders.
"Tch. Idiots, all of you."
Her hand shimmered. From her palm unraveled a whip. That was her first signature weapon everyone loved because it fit her fighting style so perfectly. Seeing it here was like watching history write itself.
"Guess we're doing this."
We charged.
The Fluviums lunged first, their bodies moving unnaturally. I stepped forward, the strings flicking from my fingertips. They thickened instantly and snapped out like a net. The first Fluvium didn't even have time to register before my strings coiled around its neck. I twisted my wrist sharply. Its head hit the snow with a dull thud, black blood spraying in the cold air. I shoved my hand into its chest cavity until I felt a solid, pulsing crystal. I ripped it free, black ooze dripping between my fingers, and shoved it into my pocket before moving on.
Another lunged at me but I dropped low, letting its blade swing just overhead, and lashed out with my strings again. This time I combined it with the muscle memory of martial arts of my past life and Phasnovterich's movements guiding my limbs. A sweep of the leg, a pivot of the hip and I brought the Fluvium crashing down into the snow. My threads cut across its torso, slicing it open.
Xaessiarerich moved beside me, and damn is she terrifying.
Her greatsword swung in wide arcs, each strike carrying enough force to split the ground. The black smoke trailing from Drought's Fright clung to the Fluviums like a curse. The moment her blade touched one, its body crumbled as though the vitality had been sucked from its veins. She didn't fight like a student. She fought like a calamity. Her movements were precise and efficient without a shred of hesitation. Fluviums that looked terrifying a moment ago now fell like they were made of paper, sliced apart in brutal sweeps.
Verdamona's whip cracked through the air. Every movement was fluid and elegant, weaving between strikes with agility that made her look untouchable. She snapped the whip around a Fluvium's leg, yanked it off balance, then lashed it across the throat. It shrieked and dissolved into smoke, leaving only its Fluveheart glowing faintly in the snow.
And then there was Thales.
His longsword wasn't flashy but every swing counted. He parried a Fluvium's blade-arm with perfect timing, rotated his wrist and stabbed it clean through the chest. When another lunged from the side, he sidestepped just enough to avoid the strike, then finished it with a single upward slash. His efficiency was maddening to watch, like he had practiced this scenario a thousand times.
My strings thrummed in the cold, severing limbs and necks. Every time I pulled a Fluveheart from their chests, my pockets grew heavier.
"Not bad, brother," Xaessiarerich muttered between swings, her weapon splitting another Fluvium clean in half.
I scoffed, flicking blood off my hand.
"You're one to talk. I can't even tell if you're slicing monsters or carving butter."
Her lips twitched. It was not a smile, but close enough.
°°°°°°
Ten minutes.
That's how long it took before the snow was littered with corpses and the air smelled like Fluvium guts. My lungs were on fire, my arms felt like stone, and my head was pounding like a war drum, but hey, I was still alive. I wiped violet gunk off my face with the back of my hand, and it left a streak like war paint. It felt dramatic, not going to lie. I looked up only to see two hundred and ninety-seven idiots staring at us like we just reinvented breathing.
They didn't say a word. It was obvious. Not one of them could have handled a Class Three Fluvium. And the four of us? We just turned them into confetti. Which meant, we were the strongest of the first years. That's when Verdamona lost it. She snapped, cracking her whip against the snow for dramatic flair. The sound made a few of them jump.
"You useless pieces of shit! You stood there while we were fighting for our lives! You could have swarmed in, outnumbered them and actually made yourselves useful. But no, you just hid back there like scared children. Are you all brain-dead?"
Thales stepped in, his sword still dripping. He let out this low chuckle that made the students shuffle nervously.
"She's right. You think this is survival? We're trapped in here with no food, no water and monsters that don't care about your excuses. You think watching is going to save you?"
He shook his head, muttering something under his breath about sheep.
Meanwhile, Xaessiarerich bent down, tore open Fluvium chests, and dug out Fluvehearts. I stuffed them into my pockets like snacks for later. She however, didn't even bother waiting. She crunched into hers like candy.
I popped one into my mouth. It was weirdly satisfying. So that's how a Fluveheart tastes like...
That's when I noticed everyone staring at us. Two hundred and ninety-seven faces were frozen in absolute horror. Verdamona's voice cut through the silence again.
"Phaser… what the hell are you doing?"
I looked at her, chewing, then held up the half-bitten crystal.
"Eating Fluvehearts."
"I can see that! I mean why?"
I swallowed, wiped my mouth, and shrugged.
"It's an Argemenes thing. We eat Fluvehearts to boost our physical capabilities. It's normal."
"Normal?! You're chewing glowing monster organs like they're potato chips. That's not normal!"
Xaessiarerich didn't even look up from her chewing. She just leaned back on her sword and muttered.
"Mind your business. Not everything's about you, golden girl. Besides, we're enemies. Stop pretending you care."
The tension between those two could have killed more Fluviums than our blades. Thales finally sighed and turned his attention back to the crowd.
"Listen up. You need to stick together, because next time, we're not stepping in. You saw what those things are like. If you outnumber them, you can win. But if you just stand there like statues again, you're dead weight. Simple as that."
A murmur spread among the students, but no one argued. They knew he was right. Thales turned back to us, his blade resting on his shoulder.
"So. What's next?"
And that's when something completely unexpected happened. He looked straight at Verdamona. Her eyes widened a fraction.
"You're… asking me?"
"Yeah. You've got the mouth for it. Might as well use it to lead instead of complain."
She looked genuinely thrown off. For once, no sharp retort. She blinked, then slowly turned to me.
"Should I?"
I shrugged, popping another Fluveheart into my mouth.
"Go for it. They'll probably listen to you better than me."
"Fine. I'll lead these idiots."
And shockingly, they listened. The crowd of nearly three hundred actually shifted toward her voice. While she rallied them, Xaessiarerich sidled up next to me. Her usual cold stare softened just a little. She tore another Fluveheart in half with her teeth and muttered.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For treating you like trash."
Her tone was flat, but her eyes didn't lie. There was something raw there, hidden beneath layers of ice. I laughed dryly, shaking my head.
"It's too late for that now."
"Then can we at least... try to be like we were when we were kids?"
That stopped me. For a second, I almost forgot how heavy my limbs felt. I didn't expect Xaessiarerich of all people to dig that deep. I sighed, rubbed the back of my neck, and looked her dead in her eyes.
"Sure. But no more ordering me around. If this is gonna work, it's on equal ground. And it's going to take time."
She nodded once and went right back to crunching her Fluveheart like nothing happened. I couldn't help it. I smiled faintly. Maybe being the sibling of the so-called villainess wasn't the worst thing in the world. Even though I hated her guts half the time, at least her apology felt… sincere. And sincerity's rare from her personality. Also, I think Phaser's memories are getting into me.
I leaned back on the blood-stained snow, chewed another Fluveheart, and sighed. This is going to be a very long seven day lockdown...