The screen flickered, showing a truth far more common but no less devastating than sabotage: Betrayal. Allan watched, his heart sinking into his stomach, as a younger Lina kissed another man, her eyes closed, “her choice made while he still believed she was his.
A single tear rolled down Lina’s unfocused, human eye. "You... weRen’t... suppOSed... to see... that..." she rasped, her voice a chorus of glass and gravel.
Allan’s shoulders dropped. The dragon-fire in his eyes flickered and died, replaced by the hollow defeat of a man who realized his loyalty had been met with a lie. He didn't move. He didn't fight. He just stood there, defeated.
But Marcy didn't.
With a surge of sass and courage she never knew she had, the tiny pink bunny stepped forward, pointing a shaking but determined finger at the half-dragon titan.
"Look at you!" Marcy screamed, her voice echoing in the ruined street. "You let yourself be corrupted because of your own cowardice! You were so lost in your guilt and your secrets that you didn't even care what the System would do next!"
Lina flinched as if Marcy had struck her with Wulf.
"You’re a fool!" Marcy continued, her whiskers twitching with fury. "Do you think the System would have stopped there? It would have used you to kill him! You would have eaten Allan alive, Lina! Do you not understand that?!"
Lina looked at her twisted, scaly hands and began to sob. She hadn't thought that far ahead. She had wanted "more" than Allan. He was safe, he was good... and to her corrupted mind, he had been too good.
"How dare you tell me to take care of him," Marcy spat, her voice cold. "He deserved to be seen for what he was—He deserved someone who saw him. I did."
The words stung deeper than any ice spike. Lina’s mutation surged; another horn tore through her temple as she began to give up.
"Run away again, then!" Marcy challenged. "If you become a monster, I swear I’ll hunt you like one! Fight back and fix your mistakes... or become the beast you think you are!"
The System window popped up next to Marcy, a smug emoji ?? appearing on the screen.
WELL SAID, LITTLE PINK MONSTER! SHE REALLY HAS BEEN EASY TO MANAGE. AND OH? YOU WANT THE DRAGON FOR YOURSELF? SUCH A SPICY LITTLE BUNNY!
confession always accelerates corruption!
"Shut up, you disgusting Window Troll!" Marcy screamed. She swung Wulf in a blinding frenzy, slicing the System window into digital confetti again and again.
Marcy turned back to the trembling creature. "Lina...?"
Lina looked up. For a brief, flickering second, her human eye was clear and full of grief. "I... I held on..." she sobbed, her voice barely a whisper. "I can't stop it... it’s going to fight you. Please... help me..."
Then, the human eye snapped shut. The slitted, reptilian eye pulsed with a frozen, murderous light. The Frost Dragon was in control now.
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With a roar that shattered the nearby windows, she charged.
Lina moved with the terrifying efficiency of a monitor lizard-low, quick, and relentless. She snapped at the air where Marcy's head had been a millisecond before. Marcy jumped, countering with a strike that made the beast hiss in rage.
Then, the horror escalated. The monster stood upright on two legs, its scaly hand forming a jagged blade of pure ice. It began to swing with a murderous rhythm, forcing Marcy into a desperate retreat.
Allan was gone. He was physically there, but his mind was trapped in the past. Flashbacks hit him like physical blows: Lina coming home late; Lina flinching when he hugged her; that whisper in the dark... "I don't deserve you".
He was paralyzed by the realization that his entire life had been built on a foundation of sand.
Marcy was dying out there.
She was used to being the setup for Allan's finishers, but now she was the only line of defense.
Even Wulf's tactical advice was being drowned out by the sheer ferocity of the Frost Dragon's assault.
Then, a familiar golden star flickered in her vision.
NOTICE: SHARED EXP DISTRIBUTED FROM PREVIOUS COMBAT.
LEVEL UP! LEVEL UP! LEVEL UP! LEVEL UP! LEVEL UP!
CURRENT LEVEL: 12
CLASS EVOLUTION DETECTED. CHOOSE YOUR PATH:
[Morsel]
[Novice Apex Descender]
Marcy didn't even read the first one. She was done being anyone's snack.
She slammed her mental hand onto the second option.
A pillar of blinding white light exploded from the center of the street.
Lina screeched, shielding her reptilian eyes, but charged into the light anyway-only to be met with a massive, sweeping strike from a much longer, heavier version of the blade Wulf.
Lina was sent tumbling back through a brick wall.
As the smoke cleared, Allan snapped out of his trance. Standing where the tiny bunny had been was a figure that commanded the very air around her. She stood 6'2", draped in a tattered scarlet cape. Ornate armor covered her shoulders and legs, and her face was hidden behind a dark, gothic helm. Through the shadows of the visor, two eyes glowed with a vivid, piercing gold.
The System window appeared, shaking with a terrified emoji.
H-HOW THE HELL DID YOU... HOW ARE YOU... GETTING THIS!? I DIDN'T APPROVE THIS!
Marcy didn't argue. She reached out
grabbed the digital window
CRUUUNNCH!!
and crushed it in her armored fist like a piece of dry parchment.
She vanished.
Lina spun around, looking for her target, but Marcy was a ghost. Suddenly, from the left, a heavy blow from Wulf caught Lina squarely in the head. One of her jagged horns shattered into dust, and she went flying across the pavement.
"MARCY!" Allan screamed, finally finding his voice as he saw the raw power of the new bunny-knight thing. "Don't kill her marcy! Please!"
