Yahime's Conscience

Did that stupid Dusk really just run away?!

I threw myself behind a tree before a salvo of crossbow bolts pounded into the trunk.

So much for taking care of one another.

My heart pounded in my ears, drowning my thoughts. I wiped the sweat from my brow and fought the urge to throw my cloak off. I was burning up, but I couldn't afford to be hit by the [FREEZING] debuff. There were at least six people ambushing us, ME, and all I had was a single spear to defend myself.

I hadn't been too worried when they'd first attacked. Instinct and muscle memory had kicked in and treated it like any other monster or animal attack. I'd ordered Yahime into the fray and followed behind to support her. I hadn't expected her to run after killing the first person.

"What are you doing? Why are you just standing there staring?!"

After cleaving the first ambusher, a scrawny looking bandit with a hatchet, into thirds, Yahime had frozen in place and stared down at the body. At the same time, torrents of fear and anxiety flooded our connection, nearly getting me shot. I just couldn't understand it. I knew the feeling; it was a feeling I knew I would have to face myself. Despite all the death around me, I'd yet to personally take another person's life. I still didn't know if I'd be able to do it. But why had Yahime harbored the same feelings? She'd killed dozens without blinking an eye.

Then, she'd run. Disappeared, really. Not that the result was any different.

I might be screwed. There's no way I can fight multiple people while being shot at. She could have at least stood nearby as another target!

My fingers whitened around the shaft of my spear and I swallowed dryly. I couldn't tell how close the ambushers were, couldn't tell how many were closing in. A single peek could get me shot in the head. What was I supposed to do?

***

"What are you doing? Why are you just standing there staring?!"

Blood? She stared down at the grotesque black clawed hands covered in viscera. Then at the eternal wide-eyed stare of the dead man at her feet. The man she'd killed.

She ran. She didn't know from what, only that she needed to escape, to not see anymore. How could she have killed someone? Her throbbing skull muddled her thoughts. Isn't that what she was supposed to do? It wasn't the first person she'd killed, was it?

She couldn't remember. Life had been a hazy drunken stupor for so long, fragmented like a disjointed dream. Who was she?

"What about Yahime?"

Yahime? Was that who she was? She slowed to a halt. No. She was someone else, something else.

The fox girl. Bixey? She pressed her black fluid hand to her chest trying to remember. Was she Bixey? Or had the fox's soul just awoken her?

What about the human? Aurelie? No. Not Aurelie. Kyomi. A human from somewhere else. Weak. Scared. Vulnerable.

"We'll be fine as long as we take care of one another."

"care…"

Like every other word, it was foreign, something that she shouldn't have been able to say or understand.

ALERT

PACT HOLDER AURELIE OUT OF RANGE

ALERT

PACT HO…

The message looped, growing louder and louder with each passing moment. She had to go back. Had to protect her master. Protect Aurelie. Protect Kyomi. If she didn't…

***

"Fuck!"

I kicked the bandit in the groin and bashed the side of his head with the butt of my spear, knocking him to the ground. He was dazed, though barely. Not that it mattered when his friend had already put me on the back foot with a flurry of rusty sword swings.

Like the man Yahime had killed before disappearing, the men fighting me were filthy and gaunt. There was a desperation in their movements and I didn't miss the countless cuts and scars scrawled over their bodies. Were these really bandits?

"Just stop so we can talk this out!"

"Shut yer trap, human!" the bandit spat. I hadn't realized it before. He was a beastfolk. And all the scars were in places animal characteristics would have been found. "Just die!"

"No thanks."

I blocked the man's haphazard cut with my spear and rammed my shoulder into him. A bolt hit his leg a second later and I was beginning to understand the situation.

These aren't the actual bandits, or at the very least, they're not the ones in charge. The fact they're still shooting at me despite using their friends as cover is proof enough. Not to mention the scars…

My blood boiled. I doubted other beastfolk had carved them up. Still, it wasn't an excuse. Victim or not, they'd come for blood. It might actually be worse if they took me alive.

"I'm sorry," I muttered before slamming the top of my head into the beastman's chin and kicking him away. "But I can't afford to die just yet."

Enraged curses I couldn't make out came from the distance. Can't afford to die? It had sounded meaningful in my head when I'd said it, but the reality was I was barely standing. If it hadn't been for [HEALING TOUCH] I'd already have been dead from blood loss. I hadn't taken any direct hits, but nicks and shallow cuts add up and I was almost out of mana.

There's always [OVERDRIVE]…

I'd been avoiding my final skill like the plague. Despite being a quick way to turn the tide of the fight, the drawbacks were worse.

[OVERDRIVE]

SIGNIFICANTLY BOOSTS USERS STATS FOR SIXTY SECONDS. USER FEELS IMMENSE PHYSICAL STRAIN ONCE EFFECT ENDS. REPEATED USE CAN LEAD TO DEATH.

Sixty seconds in return for agony on par with the moment [SECOND CHANCE] had worn off. I'd tested it at camp the second night after the wall. The high from the boost had been euphoric; I'd felt invincible. The recoil had been hell beyond words, like getting sliced into a million stands that were being wrung dry only to be boiled and wrung out again.

"Where the hell are you, Yahime?!"

Blood curdling screams answered, making my heart skip a beat. I could feel it without even seeing her. She'd come back!

"About damn time!"

"sorry…" Yahime said in her monotone voice as she appeared at my side.

"We'll talk about it later. For now we need to get rid of these idiots. Did you kill the archers?"

"no… kill…"

"What?" I wanted to slap the Dusk. What was the point of having a familiar that wouldn't even do its job? "Then what were those screams?"

"put… sleep…"

"Good enough," I sighed. At least she was thinning their numbers. "Did you see anyone who looked like the leader? Or were they all like these beastfolk?"

She shook her head. I wasn't surprised. Unless he was some hulking barbarian looking guy, I doubted I'd be able to pick out a leader either.

"We'll do this just like with the monsters. You take the lead and I'll follow. Keeping them alive might be helpful anyway."

It was child's play from there. Like a well oiled machine, we subdued the bandits, crippling and incapacitating them. Not that they would all live. Despite not wanting to "kill", Yahime didn't seem to understand certain injuries like a dismembered arm were essentially a death sentence in the wild. Which made [HEALING TOUCH] the best interrogation skill at my disposal.

"That's a nasty broken leg," I said to one of the bandits who'd been shooting at me. He was a geriatric old man and even with his missing animal parts I could tell he was some sort of canine beastfolk.

"I don't need yer pity, human," the old man said, spitting in my face.

My face burned as I wiped my face with my sleeve. I'd still managed to avoid killing anyone, but I was considering.

"It's not pity," I said through gritted teeth. "It's a trade. And that goes for the rest of you still conscious. Answer my questions and I'll try to heal you. Otherwise…"

I let the implication linger.

"State yer demands."

"Just tell me why you ambushed me, who you're working for, and where you came from. Three easy questions."

"Don't tell her anything!" a younger bandit clutching his stumped elbow. "She'll just feed us to her monster either way."

"You won't live long enough to find out if you don't shut up."

The man grunted, clamming up and avoiding my gaze. That was better.

"Here." I healed the old man's leg just enough to slow the bleeding. "A token of my good will."

The tension in the beastman's body lessened and he sighed.

"We don't know much. We just do what our masters say to survive."