When the windows reopened, we were in an underground tunnel, framed by ghoulish blue lights.

  “This is an odd place,” I stated.

  The centipede made a chirping noise, moving faster. Now that it had better footing, we could pick up our pace, until the blue lights were flashing by in a blur.

  After a couple hours, Sern fell asleep in Axel’s lap, drooling onto the floor. Axel moved her a little away from the rest of us, keeping both her and himself by the exit door.

  I couldn’t blame them for being skittish. Last life they’d all been killed in a cultist attack.

  If I wanted to keep them alive in this life, despite my current weakness, then I’d have to stay vigilant and alert.

  I fell asleep shortly afterwards, only waking up when the centipede had started slowing down.

  “Sir?” Rose asked, gently shaking me by my shoulder. “Sir? We seem to be arriving.”

  “I…told you to call me Grind…” I murmured, blinking hard to focus my vision.

  Junior sat nearby, his gaze flicking skeptically between the two of us. Eventually, he threw his hands in the air, walked over, and smacked me across the face. “HEY GRIND! WAKEY WAKEY!”

  I jolted up, slamming my head against a cupboard, which I could’ve sworn hadn’t been anywhere near me before.

  Rose started shouting at her brother, who shouted back at her Even though Rose’s voice was—theoretically—suppressed, she was just as loud if not louder than her brother.

  Sern stirred.

  “AXEL!” Axel barked, blowing the strands of hair out of his face.

  The two froze, then continued arguing in a hushed whisper.

  “Axel Axel,” Axel grumbled, gesturing toward me.

  Sign language.

  That was American Sign Language.

  Since when did he know how to do that?

  Axel glanced at me, then down at Sern.

  Unfortunately, I did not know American sign language.

  Axel threw his hands in the air.

  Now that my brain was waking up, I realized that I’d been moved to where Sern was sleeping, instead of next to the rest of them.

  Axel poked me on the head, huffing to himself, before shoving me away from the door.

  “You’re an odd one,” I chuckled.

  From what little I could tell, Axel always wanted to be around, keeping an eye on Sern and, to a lesser degree, Junior. If he was adding me to the people he kept protected, then that was certainly a good sign.

  That or he kept me close so I wouldn’t try anything.

  It was always hard to tell with Axel. There was a story in his behavior somewhere, but I hadn’t worked up the nerve to ask him or Sern about it.

  “Hey Grind,” Junior asked, looking through the window at the branching tunnel. ‘Capital station’ had been marked in steel above it. “Are we supposed to get out—”

  The centipede jolted, and we started moving again.

  Rose hesitated. “Is that supposed to happen?”

  “Hold on,” I said, checking the window.

  The bug was inexplicably moving away from the exit tunnel. It had completely changed direction.

  Junior rolled his eyes. “The dumb bug’s gotten lost.”

  Rose started talking with Junior, and Axel muttered something.

  They turned to me with growing concern.

  But I felt something different.

  I felt the force of a presence, lurking ahead of the tunnel.

  “Get out.” I said.

  Rose stopped in her tracks. “What do you mean by—”

  {Grind}

  //150 Hp 132 Str//

  A metal stake tore through the centipede, blurring as it shot toward the back of Rose’s head. Instead it connected with Crapshoveler, deflecting away. Rose and Junior tore through the window’s mess, landing on the tunnel floor, dazed, but alive.

  “GET OUT OF HERE!” I shouted, pointing back toward the station.

  Axel nodded to me, scooping Sern in his arms and hopping out of the window.

  The metal stake had landed harmlessly inside one of the chairs, piercing a couple feet through, but no further.

  These were strong bolts, but they weren’t anything ridiculous.

  They weren't what I was worried about.

  No, I was far more concerned with the murky, bloody presence that hung in the air, pushing back against every breath.

  A chuckle echoed through the tunnel. “What do we have here?”

  The front of our Centiride blew apart, revealing the figure of a man. Where he walked, the lights flickered out.

  “Analyze,” I said, and a screen appeared, emitting pale red light.

  ~TheOutcast~

  {Barcov}

  [Peacekeeper]

  [Copper]

  [506 Hp 608 Str]

  [No other information can be analyzed]

  He flexed, and the last few bulbs went out, abandoning the tunnel to absolute darkness.

  I sucked in a breath of air.

  “AnalyzeAnalyzeAnalyzeAnalyzeAnalyzeAnalyzeAnalyzeAnalyzeAnalyzeAnalyzeAnalyze.”

  Red light engulfed the train.

  “Ooo,” he chuckled, bringing a dagger to his mouth and licking the blade like exactly the kind of healthy and rational person he was. “Very clever.”

  “Do you and I have a problem?” I asked.

  The man giggled. “We’re about to. I’m probably not supposed to killll players…but you see awfully ooey gooey with those monsters of yours.” Barcov furrowed his brow. “I don’t like monsters. And I’m going to take your money! And your slaves! And then I’ll kill you!”

  “Very impressive.” I nodded to the bug behind us. “How’d you do that?”

  He nodded, pulling a small brown pouch from his pocket. Instantly, a smoky, sickly scent wafted through the air. “Dried Nettle Cactus.” Barcov stated. “Centirides can’t get enough of the stuff. It’s quite basic equipment for those interested in attacking convoys.”

  “This is what, the third time somebody’s tried to kill me?” I sighed. “I’ll be honest. This is not a good look on the second area.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The man clasped his hands, and between them, metal formed. “One hit, and you die. Surrender your control of your party, and I’ll let you live. I have no interest killing people.”

  The last part of what he said was so obviously a lie it took him several moments to say each word without cracking into a smile.

  “What is wrong with you?” I muttered.

  He frowned. “Is that a no?”

  I shattered his skull with the blunt side of Crapshoveler’s blade, before twisting back, flicking his corpse into the air.

  He hit the ground with a dull thud.

  {Barcov}

  [(-132) 376 Hp]

  Barcov staggered to his feet, shouting at me.

  I hopped down and repeatedly swung Crapshoveler at his face until he stopped moving.

  {Barcov}

  [(-132) 244 Hp]

  [(-132) 112 Hp]

  [(-132) -20 Hp]

  Rose peeked her head out from the side tunnel, her eyes widening. “Did you do it?”

  I frowned.

  “Sir?” she called.

  He was dead, obviously, and yet, the ominous pressure hadn’t gone away. If anything, it was getting stronger.

  “Ah, beans.”

  Rose blinked. “Sir?”

  “You should start running again,” I said. “There’s something else coming.”

  “But Sern can’t leave you,” Rose started, initially protesting the order.

  “Her and Axel will be fine,” I said. “Besides, her range is much larger in the second area. Right now I need you to get your brother and go.”

  Her eyes flashed white, and she vanished from my sight.

  I let out a sigh.

  I used a command again.

  Fine.

  There wasn’t time for questions.

  Considering that my senses to power were rather lackluster, and considering that I myself had a considerable amount of mental fortitude, anything that had this kind of reaction on me wasn’t something to take lightly.

  The tunnel shuddered.

  Then, one by one, the lights relit, flashing ghoulish blue light, illuminating a monster only a foot away from me, crouched over the body of Barcov.

  He wore a well-kept red and black suit, made from some sort of fine silk, and likely worth more than most first-area buildings.

  I would have thought he was a human, if not for his skin. It was such a ghostly pale it seemed almost translucent.

  The monster chuckled, gently pushing the face of the cultist toward him.

  [What a desperate young man.]

  And he can talk. That is not a good sign.

  Then he glanced toward me.

  [You know, that was awfully rude. I go through all the trouble of stalking a psychotic megalomaniac and you go and kill him.]

  The monster’s face was perfectly smooth, without even the hint of features.

  [Pleasure to meet you.]

  “I can’t say the same,” I stated. “Who are you?”

  The monster hesitated.

  [Banana. Apple. Polenta.]

  I blinked. “Eh?”

  [You. Heard that?]

  “Read it. But yeah.”

  He jumped in the air, clapping his palms and feet together. [CONVERSATION! YES!]

  The monster landed on his back, kicking up a cloud of dust. He lifted his feet into the air and pretended he was walking on the ceiling for a good minute, before he looked toward me.

  [You don’t even know how long it’s been since I’ve had real communication. What say I give you a head start, huh? Five seconds?]

  He was suddenly standing inches from my face.

  [Know any jokes? Make me laugh and I’ll tell you a secret.]

  “You’re…weird.”

  [That’s not very funny.]

  “Are you going to try and kill me now?”

  The monster thrashed back and forth.

  [HA! *wheeeeezing* Very amusing. You made me laugh, funny man.] He leaned closer, until I had to push him back with the flat of my shovel.

  The monster reached into his chest and pulled out a massive white crystal, glowing like a star.

  [I’m a Core.]

  I rubbed my eyes. “Seriously?”

  [Just shedding my dungeon, actually,] the Core uttered. [And I gotta get some fresh Exp, so let’s make this snappy, alright?]

  He slapped his hands together.

  [Do you want to die?]

  “No.”

  [Oh.] The core cradled his knees to his chest, rocking back and forth on the ground. [Oh. That will make things harder.]

  I shrugged. “Fine.”

  At this, his face stretched out, as if he’d raised an eyebrow. [So you’re insane. LOVELY!]

  “Quick question. How many times would you have to kill me? Before you’d leave me alone, I mean?”

  [Times.] The Core hesitated. [Times. Several. Eungh?]

  “I’m immortal,” I stated. “It’s a thing.”

  [It’s a thing?]

  “It is.”

  The Core tapped his noodly hands together, contemplating. ]

  [Weirdo.]

  “Glad we’ve worked that out.”

  The Core huffed. Or he seemed to huff. His whole body kind of sagged and his lungs moved, but there wasn’t an actual flow of air.

  [Look. You’re a nice psychopath. I am too. We’ll play a game. I’ll hit you as hard as I want, and then, you can hit me as hard as you want. We’ll keep playing until one of us dies. Sound good?”

  “Yeah that sounds alright,” I said. “So long as you can’t move or dodge while it’s my turn to attack. Obviously, I wouldn’t be able to either. And you can’t go back on your word, alright?”

  [I literally cannot disobey my own commands, as long as you follow them as well.] the Core appeared to have chuckled. [It’s a game mechanic]

  He rubbed his hands together, then sprouted a hundred more, each of which sprouted hands and arms of their own, branching off in the hundreds of thousands until they were each such a dense cloud that you couldn’t tell where one appendage started and the other ended.

  Throughout this entire attack, the presence of his mana hadn’t so much as wavered. This wasn’t even his strongest attack. If anything, it was like a flick.

  Perfect.

  [Oh, did I mention I’ll be going first?] the Core asked, perking up. [I know it’s awfully rude to just assume it without a little discussion but you weren’t going, so—]

  Blood sprayed on the ground.

  I glanced at my right arm, and saw only air. From my shoulder down, the entire thing had been erased.

  A scalding, excruciating pain followed next, crackling into my entire body. I shoved that pain into a box, and started to smile.

  [Oh come on, not even a scream?] The Core grumbled. [Stupid.]

  I tore the ends of my jeans off, wrapping them around the blackened stump, cutting off the blood loss.

  Then I allowed myself to start laughing.

  As I’d hoped, the Core chose to toy with me, erasing only one arm when he could have easily eviscerated my entire body.

  And now it was my turn.

  [Go on,] the Core said, motioning me forward. [You seem so confident. Do you have an exponential poisson effect, by chance? That just so happens to be my one and only weakness. Except for fire, of course. Or maybe a black hole in one of those pockets?]

  “Nope,” I said.

  I began walking away.

  [What…are you doing?]

  I smirked. “My attack just takes a while to get ready.”

  A complex expression paced over the Core’s blank face.

  [How. Long.]

  “Oh, three to four years.” I shrugged. “Possibly longer. You know how special moves are.”

  The Core just watched me.

  “Oh come on, you know my attack won’t do squat without a couple years of training.” I glanced back. “As following the rules of our duel, you have to stay in place until the attack lands. No moving or dodging. See you in what…three years?”

  [I could attack you.]

  “It’s not your turn,” I stated. “That would be cheating.”

  [I could attack your friends.]

  “Mmmmmhhhhhh…nope,” I said. “You can’t attack unless it’s your turn. It is not your turn, and thus you cannot attack. As in you cannot attack anyone. That sound about right?”

  The Core remained still.

  “Anyway,” I continued. “Have fun!”

  [Funny man.]

  “Thank you,” I said. “You’re an unexpectedly polite Core. All things considered, I’d say this encounter went rather well.”

  The Core started shaking. [Very very clever you are. Very clever indeed.]

  There was a flash of energy, and red light bathed the tunnel.

  ~Unmasked~

  {Gauntlet of the body}

  [Tungsten]

  [10 Hp 10 Str]

  I waved goodbye and wandered off.

  // {Notice} //

  Hi! Author here. Want to fight human trafficking? Whether you’ve got money or time there are two organizations I wholly recommend.

  Race Day — Thirty

  Donate - Venture