Muscles flexing sharply I found myself crossing the distance towards the brat in a heartbeat, arm outstretched with a flicker of blue over the nails as I primed them to carve out his chest. It would be over in an instant, and even the sound and sight of the tree branch I stood on falling to the ground from the force of my leap was hidden under the illusion I cast on the camp. And once he was dead? I'd just make him vanish and move to the next!

That was the plan, a damned good one at that.

Or it would have been if, at the last second, the kid hadn't turned his head to look at me. There was no mistaking that look in his eyes, he saw something - saw me!

The brat's eyes widened, pupils dilating into pinpricks, while his body gradually began to flinch backwards away from my claws. And normally that wouldn't have done a damned thing. But that look in his eye? The fact that he could somehow see where I was when nobody else in that shit hole could?

It made me hesitate just enough for my arm to miss the mark.

So instead of burying myself up to the shoulder in his heart and lungs I just ended up ripping his arm off.

In a flash his limb detached with a spray of crimson, the damned thing smacking me in the face once before hitting the ground as I scrambled to reorient myself. The moment my feet hit the snow I dropped and tried to spin around using the Hydro claws I'd formed to finish the rotation and a plume of white powder shot up from under me from the force of my landing. In the back of my mind I was already trying to pull up a good enough illusion to cover my fuck up.

I was too late.

Before I could even get myself into position to jump at the little shit he'd started screaming bloody murder, holding onto the new gouge in his torso with his face puckered up into a horrified rictus of pain and fear. Even more than just that, the other fuckers were taking notice - either from the displaced snow or from the little shit's screams!

Already I could see a group of them rushing up to him and some more shooting off towards where I stood. Though, unlike the kid they weren't staring directly at me. They were just looking around my general area, and from that I already knew that they were just following the snow I upturned. Meanwhile off near some of the more distant tends some people were edging away from the action.

Well, that wouldn't do now would it? None of these fuckers could live if I wanted to have a real shot against the baby and his damned traitor pet. Even with that group protecting the kid they couldn't really stop me.

Because even if they were strong enough to hold me off? They still didn't know where I was or what I was doing.

And it wasn't like I had to kill the brat first.

With a vicious grin I pushed energy into my legs and lunged forward, another spike of powdered snow shooting up from where I once sat, as I raked my claws through the throats of the closest two males. Their heads fell before their bodies even began to drop and even before that I was already gearing up for a second jump, a plan of attack forming even as I pushed forwards again towards the next in line.

By then a few of the fuckers seemed to catch on to what was happening, though it didn't stop the unlucky dipshit I had, by then, put my fingers through the skull of. The screams started to pile on to join the brat from before, some angered and some terrified, while more men and woman began to rush to the aid of those near me.

One of the morons had a spear in-hand despite the shaking of his twiggy little legs and the sight damn near had me purring in delight. With a flick of my wrist I sent the body I was holding onto flying into the gathering crowd, smashing into them and sending them all tumbling into the powder while they struggled to keep any sort of footing.

Another jump and I was directly on top of spear-guy where he, in his surprise, took a jab at me. By then I'd realized that I must have dropped my technique but I was having a bit too much fun playing around, and it wasn't like they could do anything about me anyways regardless of if they could see me or not.

In a heartbeat I snapped out and wrapped a hand around his leading wrist, side-stepping the panicked poke easily, and twisted it making the bones instantly crunch under the pressure - his grip falling to pieces at nearly the same time. The spear dipped down where it met with the tips of my Hydro coated toes, sending the thing flying off ass first into the eye-socket of the woman trying to lead a kid into the forest.

Celestia above, how I missed this feeling!~

Without sparing spear-guy another thought I back-handed his neck, nails ripping through his throat with ease as I lunged to the next soon-to-be corpse in sight.

Lord Zapolyarny hadn't let us fight like this in so long, our god more than sure that his hold on the north was as solid as it ever could be. Even in that other shit hole I wasn't allowed to just go all in! No, instead I had to wait back like a good little girl while sister took care of that deer fucker's followers so he wouldn't have my scent.

This time though? Nobody was there to tell me no, and so long as I killed the lot of them then nobody could complain either.

By the Abyss, maybe our Lord would even reward me for being so thorough! Most of the chumps that made up the baby's followers use to be part of his following after all, so as far as he should be concerned it would just be a few more traitorous heads on the pile!

The smile on my face was starting to ache and yet even still I refused to let it drop due to the thoughts running around in my head.

Maybe he would even let me be one of his concubines? He hadn't sired another demigod in, what? Two centuries? Maybe more? I was sure I could give him at least one, at least.

A pleased sigh left my lips as one of the little shit-stains found himself decapitated and his body was put to use as a beating stick to take out a different moron, said moron being forced off his feet and through a tent by the force of my swing as the damn thing collapsed around him. I'd have to go check on that one in a second, he could have still survived that even though it was a clear blow to the head.

With a casual toss of my hand the body I was carrying flopped to the ground, the mushy remains being way too fucking soft to do any more damage. Now then, who was next in li-

A line of red-hot agony ripped through my back, just shy of my spine, drawing a hiss from my lips before I jumped back.

Standing where I once had was a short-haired blonde woman with a flat chest, bitch was covered in black stains and had angry red marks all over her hands and arms. Held in her twitchy little fingers was…a dull grey stick? It was bent and scuffed in weird places like someone had taken a rock to it a few dozen times.

The thing almost looked like someone had shaped a rock into an actual branch with a pointed end.

And running down the edged side of that stick was a dark blue substance that dripped into the snow below. A quick run of my fingers along the stinging line had the appendages coming back into view with a very similar looking liquid clinging to them.

Anger easily overtook the confusion I felt as a venomous growl tore out of my throat. The little bitch thought she could cut me with her fancy rock, did she?

More energy pumped into my legs as I burst towards the cunt, claws glowing brighter than ever due to my rage. In the back of my head some part of me was still questioning how a rock of all things was able to hurt me if those spears that everyone liked to use couldn't do more than scratch me before, but unfortunately I was a bit too pissed off to even keep that line of thought.

By the time the little bitch got her rock back up by her waist I was already on her, arm ready to tear that pretty face of hers right off the bone. The way her eyes widened in shock as my energy closed in on her cheek made my angry snarl fall a bit as the surety of my kill filled me once again.

Only for some dumb fuck to tackle me mid-air, probably the only reason one of those unskilled fucks were even able to move me in the first place.

The moment I hit the ground I immediately pulled the fucker off of me by his blond hair and caved his face in against the dirt. At that point I was sure that I was almost at the point of foaming at the mouth, could these little pricks be any more annoying?! Why couldn't they just be good little bitches and die!

A huff of frustration fought its way out of me as I made to stand back up, already doing my best to find that bitch with the rock again.

Except I was forced to duck out of the way of another of those fucking sharp sticks as it closed in on where my throat was a second ago, its teary eyed brown haired bitch of a wielder already winding up for a follow-up swing. The woman's face was one of pure fury as she kept trying to cut me up with her weird ass weapon despite the tears running down her face.

Another snarl tore from me as I planted a foot deep into her chest, the bitch's eyes bugging out before she was sent skipping off like a stone on a lake - taking that damned stick with her.

Another small stinging sensation drew my attention down to my arm, where a long gash ran down from the elbow to the wrist. I couldn't help but stare, dumbfounded. What the fuck was going on here? Where did those morons find weapons that could hurt me?! That fucking baby god stabbing me with a piece of wood was one thing, that bastard had more than enough strength to make it work, but a fucking human managing to hurt me…WITH A ROCK?!

Forcing myself to take a deep breath I tried to find any more of those things scattered in the thinning crowd of bodies. Once I finished up with every last one of them I would have to take those sticks back with me, Lord Zapolyarny needed to see them.

A crunch of snow from behind had me twisting around to find that the blonde bitch had somehow gotten closer while I was distracted. She was already in mid-thrust with the pointed end aimed at my heart and probably would have even managed to if she had been just a bit quieter.

Sadly for her I wasn't in the mood to let the bitch get what she wanted. Whipping around with a quick boost of Hydro energy I wrapped my arm around hers and broke the damned thing with a sharp push upwards. She screamed in pain as the stick fell and I pulled my arm back for an easy kill, aimed directly for the little bobbing bit in her throat.

But before I could even manage to move my wrist a shout from the right had me ducking out of the way as the brown-haired cunt swung her stick through where my arm was. How was she already back up and running?! I was sure I put enough power into that kick to cave her fucking chest in!

Jumping back to keep some distance between us I ignored the sting in my right arm, I needed to kill them fast. If just one of them got lucky then I might not be able to get to everyone before they escaped.

Except the little bitch followed me! A hoarse scream came from her as she ran at me, her left arm limply dangling in the air while the right raised her stick to cut me down. Fuck it! I only needed one of them intact anyway to show my Lord, so this one would just have to break!

I lifted my arm up just as she closed the distance, that look of anger from before even more apparent now despite the shit ton of bruises and cuts all over her visible skin. All I had to do was block the fucking thing with Hydro and snap it in half, if I did that then I could just kill her no problem! Her weird durability aside, the little bitch wasn't any stronger than the rest and that tiny blonde wouldn't be able to do a damned thing on her own.

But when I raised my arm the rest of the way, perfectly positioned to grab her pretty little weapon, I found myself suddenly out of breath as shock ran through me.

Because where once sat a full - perfect - hand was now just half of my pointer finger and a full thumb while a river of blood ran down from the wound to my elbow.

"What-"

Before I could even process the fact that I was so badly injured the stick fell through the remainder of my hand, taking flesh and bone with it before digging into my shoulder and sending waves of agony through my chest. On instinct my energy bubbled up in the wound, stopping the thing from going any deeper than nicking the bone.

My breathing was ragged and I was barely holding back a scream as I pulled back and punched the cunt in the face.

The stick yanked free as she was forced away, the jagged edge of the thing ripping hard against my Hydro coated skin and taking another small chunk of me with it.

My agony filled screams couldn't be helped as I saw bits of my own flesh sticking to the damned thing as I distantly viewed the blonde getting closer, her own much better looking stick in hand and an deep bleeding score on her face.

—Kamu—

My body was starting to hurt less the more I kept working at it, in spite of how much it burned to use my energy, which I took to mean that I was making progress! Eventually I might even be able to start walking on my own again. Oh I couldn't wait.

Honestly I wouldn't mind getting a ride all the way home like I was already but I was kind of concerned Kadoc was getting annoyed with me. He'd been pretty nice so far so I really didn't want to piss him off any more than was expected for hanging around a prick like me.

Still, either way it probably wouldn't be much more of a walk back to the tribe, Kadoc was way faster than we had been on the trip over. Maybe another day or so at most before we would be near the outskirts.

Funnily enough I had kind of assumed the journey back would be harder or something. Normally in stories or games you wouldn't be able to go multiple days like we were without something coming up to fuck with you. Perhaps we managed to luck out and nobody decided to follow us?

Seriously, by that point Indrik should have caught up to us…or hell Vera should have been hot on our heels at the very least. Maybe she just knew she was outmatched?

Oh well, it gave me plenty of time to practice and get ready for the next threat to come along.

Whenever that would be.

Hopefully not for a long time, but the world is kind of a bitch and likes to take its pound of flesh out of the people that call the place home so…eh? Fingers crossed.

Well whatever the reason was, the two of us were making good time. Probably even good enough to meet back up with Ivan and the hunters, wherever they were. Kadoc assured me that they had gotten out of Perekrestok well before we had so my best guesses on why we hadn't met up with them yet were either that we passed them or that they were still ahead of us.

I was hoping for the latter.

And if not? Then I'd have some time to get Kadoc integrated into our group, make people at least a little used to him being around.

A smile worked its way over my face as the burning ache in my lower intestines subsided, now more of a dull thrum of pain than feeling like someone was going to town on them. I was really going to have to introduce the others to my new powers once we were home.

In a world like this one the ability to heal others was stupid good. Cuts and bleeding wounds that took weeks or months to heal could be dealt with in a matter of minutes and more serious injuries could even be brought around to a non-lethal status with just a bit more energy smushed into the wound.

I'd be able to take care of the tribe like they cared for me. A fitting repayment in my mind. They healed me and let me stay so I'd take care of any and all injuries among them in turn. That would make us even, right? I could even learn to hunt from Ivan and help on on the food front as well.

Actually, were we able to plant crops in Snezhnaya? Did actual-Russia have crops? Like, I knew that not all of Russia was a frozen hellscape all of the time so maybe they just grew shit in areas like that? It would probably have to be strictly monitored to make sure everything was growing properly…then again, we did have a Dendro user on our side now, didn't we?

Maybe Kadoc could grow crops without proper conditions being met…if so then we'd be in business for sure. Just needed to ask him-

An unpleasant tingle worked its way out from the center of my chest in a pulsing wave.

Immediately stopping my healing technique I instead tried to observe the afflicted area, finding nothing amiss no matter how closely I looked.

Frowning I kept looking. That wouldn't have just happened without something causing it, the sensation felt entirely too unnatural for it to have been something my body would just…do. So I kept searching for the cause as more and more of those pulses beat through my chest, some feeling deeper than others.

It kept on like that for a full minute and a half before taking a long pause. I waited for the next one to come through, more for observation purposes than any real concern now as I eventually realized that it wasn't anything immediately harmful to me.

Eventually the last one came.

And accompanying it was something that sounded like a gut-wrenching scream, one filled with so much heartbreak and anger.

Then came the vision.

Suddenly I wasn't on my traveling partner's back, instead I was side by side with Maria who looked a bit taller than she normally was. In her hand was…well…it looked like a really funky, bastardized sword that looked more akin to a lump of sharpened metal.

We were running towards the center of camp near my tent where it looked like a crowd was forming. Maria was saying something with a panicked look on her face, blood clinging to her arms and a subtle trembling in her fingers.

The spear in my right hand passed to the left and my hand wrapped around hers comfortingly as we met the outer edge of the crowd. We would have already been at the front if her and Lev hadn't gone to go grab those new weapons of theirs from the weapon smith's tent. Even still it took us no time at all to push our way through, the suspiciously thin group of bodies yielding easily to our passage.

As soon as the last person moved out of the way I realized why there were so few still standing as we witnessed a man, Igor, be decapitated by a feral looking woman with blue hair. That same woman would go on to use his headless corpse to beat down three more people who tried to gang up on her before tossing it aside with contemptuous ease.

What the hell was going on? Where did she come from?!

I turned to tell Maria to run, that I would find her and her brother later once we were out of danger, only stop as I saw Lev of all people swing his new weapon at the woman's back. She jumped away with her back to us as she took in the man before her and there, running side by side with her spine, was a thin line from where she was struck.

My eyes darted down to the similar looking weapon in my lover's hands and then up to the point of my spear. She could be injured then. We just needed to be smarter about it and take her by sur-

I saw her lower herself as a weird blue looking haze started to form around her legs, her hand glowing a similar color around her dangerously sharp looking nails. I understood in that instant what she was planning, having already seen her take the head off a much more sturdy man with those very same nails not even seconds earlier.

Letting go of Maria's hand and ignoring her frantic shouting for me to stay I rushed forwards with every last bit of my strength.

By the time I reached them the blue haired demon had her hand just past our weapon maker's nose.

There was no time to think, no time to plan, no time to put any of my training under Ivan to use. Just enough time to act. So I lunged, arms spread as wide as I could make them, and tackled her to the ground while trying to get control over her arms.

Then her hand snaked out and grabbed the back of my head.

Fear gripped me as I felt the hand tense.

And then she pulled me down face-first into the snow, pushing through it immedatelybeforemyfacehitthegroundand-

I gasped for air as my eyes flickered around in a panic. Kadoc had already turned his head around to stare at me but I ignored him as I tried to calm down. I was hyperventilating, nearest I could tell, by the way my body just refused to use any of the oxygen it was taking in. I felt light headed already even as I just barely managed to curb my rapid intakes.

What the fuck was that? Did I just die? And why was I back at camp, why was I with Maria and who was…

Vera.

I felt myself going pale as I recognized the blue haired woman that killed me. It was fucking Vera. The absolute bitch was in MY camp and killing MY people.

It could have just been some freak daydream. Could have been. Probably was.

But to hell with taking any chances on that being a certainty.

"Kadoc." The man was still staring at me silently as I tried to get back some measure of calm. "How fast can you get back to camp?"

He let his solid black eyes roll a little in what I assumed was thought. "A few second. If I were on my own. It would be no issue. With you riding on my back? An hour."

An hour?! I grit my teeth hard enough for them to creak. "Can't you get us there any faster than that?!"

"If I threw you. Then perhaps half of that."

Thirty minutes then…I shook my head. That was too much time. He said he could be there in seconds on his own then? If that was the case…fine. I was going to hate it but…"No. Drop me and get there. Go to where my tent is - I know you know where it is - and scope the place out. If Vera is there, then gut her."

Kadoc blinked at the blatant anger on my face as he took a second to process what I was saying. Eventually I saw his eyebrow dip the slightest bit in what was possibly the greatest amount of human emotion I'd seen on him so far. Finally he squatted down and let me slide off of him, my ass crunching into the snow as he stood back to his full height.

Without even sparing me another look he approached one of the nearby trees, swiftly merging with it without much preamble. Once again I couldn't help but be thankful that he was on my side. I honestly had no idea why he was so willing to do whatever I told him, especially when I'd been nothing but a sheer pain the in the ass for him the whole time. But, no matter the reason I was going to count it as a blessing.

If what I saw was real then he'd be saving my people yet again.

A few seconds after he was gone and on his way I let out a breath of air that formed a heavy white cloud in front of me. Fighting to steel myself for what I would have to do next, I gradually calmed the shaking of my hands. I couldn't just sit around and hope for the best, not with the possibility of what I just saw being a reality.

So I began molding Hydro energy into my body, infusing it into every centimeter of my flesh and even into my musculature.

It was going to hurt like a bitch, and I was probably going to be down for the count again once I stopped using it but it would be worth it.

After all I may not be able to get there in time to deal with her, but I could sure as hell help mitigate the damage she dealt to those that still lived.

Hydro energy flickered around my body in an instant, practically looking as though it was being generated from my pores as it once again formed that weird skin-tight suit. Already I could feel the burning ache it brought as I pulled more and more energy to the surface from the near-bottomless well I knew was deep inside.

Pushing myself to stand and finding it easier than ever to force my body into doing whatever I wanted it to, I found myself silently marveling at the sheer power wrapped around me. Honestly it was probably more like I was forcing it to move via Hydro energy rather than the muscles within doing what they were designed to do, but whatever worked in the end.

I looked off into the direction that we were traveling in only moments before and turned my 'radar' up to full blast, ready to catch the exact second I got close enough to sense my people.

Then I started running and the world blurred by as my bones creaked.