"Fly!" Ghoti shouted. Nothing happened. She knew she could fly using magic, but testing her GM commands was first on her priority list.

"Noclip!" Her hand touched the tree beside her like normal.

"Spawn... greater basilisk!" Nothing.

"Giveitem... divine ring of insight!" Again, nothing.

She plopped down on the ground, defeated. Nothing was working. It looked like GM commands didn't come with her transformation into Ghoti, or at least, she didn't know how to use them. Her magic came to her so easily though.

"Summon greater basilisk!" She cried, extending her hand. She felt an expenditure on her mana pool as before her, a massive, armored lizard appeared, resembling a Komodo dragon. She could even feel that summoning undead by using bodies, or elementals by using their respective element, would be more mana efficient than outright summoning a living creature.

She gave a wave with her left hand and the basilisk disappeared. With the same hand, she grabbed her long, black ponytail and brought it in front of her face. With a thought, the color of her hair changed to red, and then to blonde, then green, and then back to black. She let go of her hair, and watched as her olive colored hand morphed into the claw of a bear, and then back to a hand. Her eyes transformed into those of an eagle's and her sight had never been better, then back to her regular green eyes.

It was bizzare. Her doppleganger powers worked, her spells worked, and she could feel them all just fine. Where were her GM commands? Without them, traveling to the surface blind could be dangerous. She would need to collect some information first.

"Clairvoy-" She stopped before casting the spell. What if there was someone who could detect her clairvoyance spell? She would need to be more careful than that. Some standard protective spells should be enough.

"Counter detection." She spoke, waving her hand in the air. Magic particles floated along her hand as a small burst of blue light followed. "Fake cover. Detection contingency. Mitigate detection." After casting a few more spells, she was ready.

"Clairvoyance, crystal monitor." A glowing window appeared in the air, showing the surface of the world. The area it showed was unfamiliar to her. Rolling hills surrounded by a forest, with mountains in the distance. On one of the hills was a man with dark hair, dressed in black armor. He turned his head and gazed straight at her, a grin appearing on his face. She cancelled the spell immediately, falling on her butt in shock. That armor seemed pretty low level in terms of Yggdrasil... was that man just a regular fighter? Able to see straight through her spell? Before, she hadn't been worried about especially strong beings, but rather, being outnumbered and caught of guard. Her character was pretty powerful, after all. After seeing him though...

She stood and readied herself. She couldn't stay up here forever, that wasn't an option. She had to figure out what was going on. If that man wasn't evil, perhaps he would give her some information. She had to approach carefully, but peacefully.

"Portal." She waved her hand as a deep blackness appeared in front of her, in the shape of a half-oval. She hid her weapons away, out of sight, as she walked through.

Carne stood tall, basking in his own pride and glory. He laughed manically at his conquest.

"You all fear me!" He shouted, raising his arms at his side, obsidian claymore in his right hand. "Carne, the Dread God!" He could feel the citizens of the kingdom cowering dozens and hundreds of miles away as his voice invaded their minds. "There is no hiding, there is no escape. I will come for you, I will find you, and I will flay your very souls!" He erupted in deep, ominous laughter once again. "Where are your gods now?! Where are your demons?! Where are your heroes?! They all cower before me, or rot in the ground!"

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Something was wrong. Someone was watching him... but he could barely sense it, hidden behind layer upon layer of protective magic. In the end, all of that effort to hide was no use. He turned to the source of the feeling and grinned. It immediately vanished and he laughed again.

"Futile." He whispered. "I do not hide, watching me from afar will bring you only dismay." A thin, yet deep blackness burst forth and protruded from the earth. A door to another world? Through it stepped a small, beautiful woman wrapped in a sage green cloak. Under the cloak she wore simple, black clothing and leather padding.

"So you were the one watching me?" He smirked, feeling great power from her.

"Yeah, sorry about that." She smiled at him sweetly. That couldn't have been... did she not know him? "I'm Ghoti." He didn't see any weapons on her, and didn't sense any fear or ill intent.

"Where are you from, Ghoti?" He didn't bother offering his name, he didn't believe for a second she was so ignorant. He could sense her hesitation.

"Um... Kamishima? Do you know of it?" He had never heard the name before. A foreigner, from a distant land. What was she doing here?

"Ah, Kamishima..." An innocent smile crossed his face as he sheathed his blade and walked towards her. "We get visitors from there every now and then." She squinted her eyes suspiciously, and her smile vanished. Had he made a mistake in his ruse already?

"Who's 'we'?" She asked. He spread his arms out and looked around,

"The Re-Estize Kingdom, of course! You do know where you are, right?" The split second that she hesitated with her response was all he needed to know she was hiding something.

"Oh, of course." She offered, "I thought maybe you had friends nearby." Carne got excited. She was sizing him up. Seeing if he had reinforcements. The power he felt from her along with her sharp wit had his heart pounding with anticipation. She must have been the Kingdom's secret weapon. A last resort for times of ultimate crisis. He felt honored.

"I've never been to Kamishima myself, Ghoti. Where is it?" He went over their encounter thus far in his head, wishing he had played it a little differently. Perhaps he should have acted more surprised about her portal, giving her false information about his knowledge and power. She hesitated with her response yet again. 'Kamishima my ass', he thought.

"Well, I couldn't really give you directions. I used a portal to get here." She was staring into his eyes, gazing into his mind. What was she seeing? He wondered how much she could read from him. How accurate her assessments were. Did she know he was going to attack the moment he got into range? He was closing in. It would be seconds now before the fight began. He hoped she was as powerful as he thought.

"That's a good point, but it brings up another question. Why come here? And why use a portal of that magnitude?" At that moment, he saw her left arm retreat into her cloak. She was grabbing a weapon, no doubt. There was no point in hiding it. He put his left hand on the hilt of his claymore casually. "In a rush?" His smile turned into a grin once more as he dashed towards her, striking at her neck. His blade cut through the air as she ducked, ramming her shoulder into his torso, knocking the wind out of him. He flew back over 30 meters before landing on the ground with a thud.

She was fast.

In less than a second, she was on him. The tip of a strange looking sword was heading straight for his face. Without even thinking about it, he deflected it with his claymore, but she was quick to turn and kick him in the head, sending him flying another 15 meters. Her speed was unreal. His heavy armor and massive sword were useless against her, he would have to switch to another tactic.

While flying through the air, he waved his hand, "Earth Elemental!" He shouted. A massive hand erupted from the ground as the earth golem pulled itself out of the dirt. A mere distraction as he reached for his shortsword, but he heard her voice repeat his.

"Earth Elemental!" She shouted. Unreal, she could cast such magic and yet move so swiftly? He couldn't help but giggle in excitement. It had been decades since such a fine warrior revealed themselves to him. He would make the most of this battle.

As he drew his shortsword, she was on him again. He was fast enough to parry her first blow, thrusting a dagger at her chest in the process. As the blade made contact with her skin, it began to disentegrate. He heard her muttering the words of a spell he didn't know could be cast with such speed in the middle of combat.

"Disentegrate weapon." She used the momentum gained from his parry to spin around with another slash, aiming for his legs. He jumped in the air, but was caught by a massive fist made of stone.

"WHAT?!" He screamed. He looked beyond her to see their two earth elementals fighting eachother, then turned his head to see yet another earth elemental holding him in the air. "When did you summon the second one?!" Her face never stopped analyzing him as she answered.

"With the first one. It's not that hard to summon two at once." She jumped up to him, landing on the outstretched palm of her golem. "You never told me who you are." She stared right through him, but her eyes widened as she jumped backwards before he answered.

"The dead have no use for answers!" He shouted as the fist of the earth elemental shattered into a million pieces. Such tactics were pointless to his martial skill, Shattergrasp.

"Greater Ability Boost!" A redness envoloped his body as a new strength flooded him. He used the forearm of her golem to kick off of, flying towards her at great speed.

"Pace of the wind!" As he zipped past her, he felt his blade slice into skin, and heard a small grunt. Before landing, he looked at the blood on his shortsword and smiled. First blood was his. He knew better than to let his guard down though.

"Invulnerable Fort! Reinforce Hide! Strengthen Perception!" As he was falling in the air, activating as many martial and magical boosters as he could during his short time frame, he looked back at her. She was muttering her own spells, strengthening herself as she flew towards him.

Flew? So she knew flying magic as well, huh?

Something was off, though. All of her enhancers were magical. None of them were martial. It was clear she was an experienced fighter, not just a magic caster. Was it some special tactic? Whatever it was, he would take advantage of it.

As he landed, she was on him yet again. This woman was relentless. A quick parry of her first strike followed by a duck to dodge her roundhouse kick. It was too late when he saw her palm facing him.

"Grasp Heart!" She shouted. He had never heard of a spell like that before, but the pain in his abdomen was unfathomable. In Ghoti's hand she held a heart, and somehow, he knew it was his. Carne grimaced, raising his blade, but he was too late. Their his heart was, crushed in her hand. He fell to his knees, stunned, looking up at her. She loomed over him.

"Impressive. You're alive after being hit with a 9th tier spell." If Carne had been breathing, he would have stopped the moment she claimed to have cast a 9th tier spell on him. "If you can still speak, now would be the time to say your last words." Her gazing eyes and searchful expression never faltered, even now. With the breath that was left in his lungs, he managed two words.

"Replenish... Form!" His body recovered from its injuries, even her so called '9th tier' spell. She leaped back, throwing two daggers at him which he easily caught.

The two stood their, staring at eachother for a while.

"You're... very strong." He managed. She seemed pleased by his assessment.

"I don't have a frame of reference to judge you on, but back where I'm from, I would say you're pretty strong too." Unsure if he would come out of this alive, he knew of one way he could get back at her for killing him... if that came to pass.

"Really? I'm only about average here." That squinty eyed look of suspicion crossed her face again. He didn't know if she called his bluff, but he hoped he at least made her fearful of this world. Anything to mess with her head.

Reassessing his situation, he made another snap decision.

"Would you like to team up?" He asked, hand held out to her. She seemed genuinely shocked. It was about time something phased her. "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, and I love that cold gaze of yours. Stay with me." She scoffed, and yelled,

"Summon Grand Dragon God!" Above the two began forming a dragon so immense that it cast a shadow over everything in their sight. It seemed to be forming slowly. "You may have recovered from a 9th tier spell, but how will you fare against a 10th tier summon?"

...10th tier?

This woman was insane.

Or insanely powerful.

Regardless, Carne now had a time limit. He had to kill her before that dragon finished forming, or he was done.

So be it.