—Sally—

  I watched the corpse stand up, pond scum pouring off its body to reveal the rotting feminine form underneath. It had a roughly human shape, its nakedness partially covered up by patches of thick matted brown fur, pasty copper-coloured skin poking out from beneath the patchy hide. While its hands were pretty standard human, the feet had been replaced with hooves, similar to how I’d imagine a satyr’s feet would look.

  But the weirdest part about the body was its head—it looked as if someone had grabbed a taxidermied deer head off the wall and shoved their skull into it. It was an abrupt change from the—mostly—human features below its shoulders to a thick and girthy deer neck. Looking past the thick brown fur that covered its elongated head, I saw the nigh-pure black eyes on the opposite sides of it. The orbs had no sclera, and were coloured a uniform glossy black, but marred by a white, milky glaze that coated them in a rough, gooey texture. It kinda looked like a failed experiment of Frankenstein’s, but the mismatched Minotaur-deer parody aesthetic it had going on was the tamest thing about it. What made it scary was the rotting.

  I could smell the sickly-sweet scent of rotting wounds wafting off of it, the flesh that I could see between the fur had spots of what looked like mould. Some of its skin was peeling off, the meat underneath had a strong grey tinge to it, and the fur on its head had also fallen off in clumps the skull underneath exposed to air. Its already ruined eyes had immediately started weeping white pus-like tears, carving sticky paths through its fur.

  If I was still on earth, I would've dismissed it as a few days old roadkill. If—y'know—I wasn't on a different planet, or if I hadn't just watched it start moving again, jerkily lifting itself out of the water.

  A shocked noise left my mouth as the monster twisted its neck forty-five degrees with a single snap, all of its movements jerky and abrupt. It was like a piece of machinery with its joints obstructed, lurching violently just to make a simple change.

  I heard the loud cracking of joints as it finally straightened its body upright. It turned its head and focused on us with its opaque eyes,

  I gasped, the sight and stench of the foul thing overwhelming me for a moment. Is the world I ended up in one of those dark gritty ones—dare I say souls-like—where there’s no hope, with eldritch horrors around every corner? Cause I hope not, for the sake of my continued survival.

  [Using [Appraisal – Lvl 1] on: Cursed Deer-woman]

  [The cursed remains of the Deer-woman – Level 18 aberration

  [An innocent wept, for the threat kept.]

  The sun and moon? Who cares? I don't want the lore drop, and the murderous corpse doesn’t either. Though the body belongs to a Deer-woman? I suppose that explained the two rotting sandbags attached to its chest.

  But my stupid joking was interrupted when it took a step towards us, opening its mouth to let out green-brown bile leak out, dripping into the similarly coloured water below.

  Orion reached into his jacket and pulled out the golden dagger that I’d taken out of him, holding it in front of him in what looked like a well-practised stance. The corpse started moving faster now, jerkily running towards us with an uneven gait, perfectly resembling the classic shambling zombie.

  I clutched onto Orion’s hair as tight as I could, my claws poking his scalp, and prepared for my palisade to start moving much faster than what I was comfortable with.

  As soon as the monster got within two metres of Orion, he lashed out with the dagger, pressing the button on its hilt as he did so. In the middle of the swing the blade went from thirty centimetres to well over a metre. So that instead of missing the zombie like it would've without the enchantment, it sank into its neck, slicing through its hide until it hit the bone. Instead of retreating or even moving out of the weapon's path, the corpse threw itself forwards, surprising the Ranger. It unknowingly took advantage of Orion's misconceptions about its self-preservation instinct and slammed itself into him.

  I let out a—manly—scream as I hung on for dear life, Orion sliding around wildly on pond floor as he was pushed back, barely keeping his balance. But Orion pushed it back, using the dagger—which stubbornly refused to budge from its neck—to create some distance between it and us. The Deer-woman’s snout swerved towards him as he tried to move away, the previously herbivoric maw now straining at the opportunity to get a bite of Orion. He grabbed the short handle with both hands and strained with all of his weight to keep it at bay, using the blade like an inverted leash. The corpse's claws were only kept centimetres away from cutting Orion.

  Then the dead eyes of the Deer-woman flicked to the blade, like it only just realised that a weapon was embedded in its neck. With a muffled groan it jerked its head backwards, trying to dislodge the blade like a bucking bull. But instead of getting the dagger out of it, it yanked the blade out of Orion’s grip, the weapon staying in its victim rather than its user's hands.

  With what I could only assume was a curse, Orion retreated a safe distance backwards, while the Deer-woman kept pawing at the dagger like a dog in a cone.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  I watched in abject horror as the monster continuously sliced the palms of its hands into ribbons as it tried to pry the blade out of its neck. It uncaringly wrapped its fingers around the edges of the dagger until it gave up with a wet grunt, its dead eyes returning their focus to Orion.

  Its jaw creaked open once more, letting out another mouthful of that disgusting water as it started chasing after us once again. The way that Orion had to constantly dodge backwards would be funny if I wasn’t the one relying on him for my continued survival.

  It went on like that for a full minute as the Ranger continuously slipped the attempted grapples of the zombie, but it didn’t last forever. On one of the Deer-woman’s wilder swings, Orion ducked underneath, one hand securing me to his head as the other grabbed the hilt, clicking the button at its base and retracting the dagger out of its neck.

  With his weapon retrieved, Orion tried to make some distance between him and the corpse as it swung its arm at him. But it slammed into his side, the Ranger was too close to the Deer-woman to easily dodge it. Him also tripping over something in the water definitely didn’t help either.

  With a pained grunt Orion was sent stumbling, and fell into the water. The same attack sent me flying, and dunked in the water as well.

  A few seconds were spent desperately flailing about, my brain immediately panicking about how I only learned to walk less than a day ago and that swimming was a step too far, too soon. But scraping the stone floor with my claws while failing to swim helped me realise that the water was shallow enough to stand.

  Once I collected my scattered brain cells, I planted my feet and stuck my head out of the water, only my head and part of my neck able to escape the muck.

  Right in front of me I saw Orion also covered in the pond scum, barely able to wipe the muck out of his eyes before the Deer-woman struck again. Forcing him to dodge by throwing himself to the side at the very last moment. With a wet cough he peeled himself out of the water, barely able to get to his knees before the Deer-woman was on top of him again.

  In what I could only assume was an act of desperation, Orion activated the dagger again, the blade piercing into the monster’s sternum like a spear tip, digging around ten centimetres into its flesh before stopping. But the corpse didn’t even react, throwing itself onto the blade—and Orion by consequence—without hesitation, its weight forcing Orion onto his back and his head under the water.

  I watched in abject horror as the monster tried in vain to bite Orion’s face off, the dagger holding it up and off of Orion, but its weight unintentionally kept his head under, drowning Orion. Every few seconds I could see him struggle to get his mouth just above the water line, only barely able to get a choked breath along with some water into his lungs.

  That’s when I realised that Orion was probably going to die, if I didn’t try to do something at the very least. I glanced to where I saw the exit to the arena, the option to just ditch Orion and continue on without him was extremely tempting. It's not like I owe him, in fact he still in debt from the last time I saved his life. I have all the street/story cred I need to ditch him without any consequences. Him getting revenge later, guilt, or anything else, were things I don't have to worry about.

  But then again, he's proved himself a useful pawn already, he's a great meat shield, and his head has already become my favourite mode of transportation.

  Ugh, fine. I'll save him, I can always use him as a disposable distraction later. That's something I can do! A distraction!

  I lowered my head until it was just above the waterline, sneakily circling her until I was behind her and out of her sight. While avoiding the thrashing limbs of the corpse and the soon-to-be corpse, I got within striking distance of the Deer-woman and bit its ankle as hard as I could.

  I almost let go because of the foul taste that flooded the inside of my mouth, but I held on, even clamping down harder. I felt hopeful and giddy when the monster’s leg moved, obviously trying to kick me off of it. I thrashed and tried to rip what I had in my mouth off of it, following what my body wanted to do until it succeeded, and I propelled myself backwards with a bit of zombie flesh in my mouth. I spat out the disgusting tasting chunk and excitedly looked at the battle to see how much I’d helped.

  … It wasn't even looking back at me. The Deer-woman had continued to attack the drowning ranger without so much as acknowledging me. It probably hadn't even noticed me attack it at all. With a shiver I moved away from the unfeeling corpse, feeling silly for even thinking that I could change the flow of the fight.

  I started scrambling backwards, the chill of the water seeping into me as I was taught once again that I wasn’t the one in control. From what happened to my new parents until now, I've never had a say in the matter.

  As the despair took root, Orion started his final struggle, twisting and writhing under the monster's chest, trying slip out from underneath the monster. But it was relentless, refusing to give up as it threw its weight upon the blade, slow sliding down it through sheer determination to impale itself. Its lack of intelligence—below even a bestial level—and disregard for self-preservation becoming its advantage.

  But then Orion stopped moving for a moment, and the dagger abruptly shortened, Orion slipping his head out of the way of the descending maw with a last-moment dodge. While clutching the dagger in one hand, he wrapped his arms around the monster, locking its head—and by extension its mouth—behind his head, the long snout unable to position itself to reach Orion.

  With what must've been an inhuman amount of strength, Orion grappled the corpse and flipped it over, twisting and moving with a fluidness I hadn't seen from him before. He then forced it under the water by leveraging his weight, choking and gasping the moment he got access to water-free air. It didn’t make it easy for him, broken and ragged nails clawing at his back, the digits easily cutting through the jacket, the ranger's blood pouring into the water.

  Orion then shoved the monster down, forcing it under the water and freeing his arms for a moment. He then aimed the golden dagger at its head, and with a click the instrument shot forward, going right through its left eye and out the back of its skull. The raw force behind the dagger's magic propelling the deer head off of the floor as the tip of the weapon pushed against the floor.

  The ranger slumped with exhaustion as the Deer-woman's corpse spasmed underneath him, its body held partially out of the water by the dagger holding its head up by its hilt. The monster sporadically twitching until it eventually began to slow until it stopped moving altogether.

  After I stopped… shivering from the cold, I sullenly started to move over towards him, my excitement from earlier all but extinguished. But my foot got caught on something before I could reach him. Driven by a burst of morbid curiosity, I scooped out the obstruction with a claw and inspected it, idly wondering what sort of thing would be left at the bottom of this cesspool. After the dirty water poured off, I could see that hooked on my talon was a piece of twine with a stone wrapped around the end. A rustic and surprisingly well made variation of a simplistic necklace made with things you could find in nature.

  [Killed: [Cursed Deer-woman – Level 18 aberration]]

  [Experience reduced due to lack of participation.]

  [Gained experience nullified, no [Class] to define Class XP gain.]

  [Experience received: 0]

  With a grunt Orion got up, scooping me out of the water on his way to the exit, and I felt unsurprised that this system had found a brand new way to screw me over. But I was too mentally exhausted to even struggle against either thorn in my side as he dumped my limp, soaked to the bone, body onto his head.

  He moved towards and then stepped into the tunnel with squelching boots, the two of us barely moving more than necessary as he continued down the path. I’d barely done anything more than necessary today, but somehow being stressed about life tired me out more than actually moving around and living it.

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