Matheus nervously waited for Sophie outside of the city.

  She would be too dangerous near the townspeople. He wouldn’t be able to stop her from killing them, and he couldn’t allow that.

  He was doing all this to save them, and that meant fighting far from the common folk.

  He had been there for some time, almost completely exposed. He knew if Sophie decided to shoot him from a distance, he probably wouldn’t be able to react in time.

  But she needed him, she said so herself. She wouldn’t just kill him on sight.

  Or at least he hoped. Matheus had learned long ago to accept the things he couldn’t control, and focus only on things he could impact the outcome. This was no different.

  If he was wrong, then he was wrong.

  “You are braver than I thought,” Sopie said, appearing from behind a tree some dozen meters away from him, “Or maybe dumber.”

  Matheus shrugged. “Probably both.”

  “I thought you would be hiding far away by now.”

  “Truth be told, me too.”

  “Does this mean you’ll help me?” she asked, and Matheus could swear he saw her face tremble a little as she said it.

  “I’m sorry, the answer is still no. I could lie to you but I’ve always been a terrible liar.”

  “Then what the hell are you doing here?” she asked angrily.

  “Sophie, you should leave,” he said firmly.

  “What?” she said incredulously.

  “Go to the next city. What you did to Dylan and the others is unforgivable, but that doesn’t mean we need to make the situation worse. If you go and don’t murder anyone else, I won’t stand on your way.”

  She laughed like Matheus had just told the funniest of jokes.

  “Are you serious? You are, aren’t you?” She asked, laughing more. “I’m guessing that would also mean me leaving without completing the ritual?

  “Yes,” Matheus said flatly.

  Sophie stopped laughing and visible anger showed on her face. “Definitely dumber. Do you know how many times I could have killed you those last couple days?”

  Matheus felt a chill on the back of his neck. The last couple days? How long had she been watching him?

  “Dozens,” Sophie kept going, “There were so many times. And it wouldn’t even be difficult. If I wanted, I could have simply let those spiders eat you. I saved your life instead.”

  “Why did you?” he asked, genuinely curious.

  “Isn’t it obvious? Because I’m not one of the bad guys. I don’t want to be a murderer. You are the one not giving me any choice.”

  “You are wrong,” Matheus said, taking a deep breath. “If you do this, you are one of the bad guys.”

  Sophie stared at him, face impassive.

  As long as she only considered them two as real people, there was no reasoning with her. He’d known that before. Was he a fool for still trying to talk her out of it?

  “I deserve my perfect life,” she finally said, pain in her voice, “and I’m going to get it.”

  “Sophie, I…” Matheus started, but the look she gave him silenced him.

  Sophie stretched her hand, finger pointing forward. Matheus got ready to defend himself, not sure of what she was doing.

  A pink mist was released from the point of her finger, covering the region in front of her then dissipating completely.

  Now, what the hell was that? She hadn’t done that before.

  He waited, unsure. Nothing happened, but it could be some type of trap. Sophie gave him a large smile, all hostility gone from her face.

  Then she picked an arrow and shot it straight at his head.

  Matheus immediately took one of the crates he stored on his inventory and made it appear right in front of him.

  The arrow struck the wood and the impact was enough to throw Matheus back a few steps, feeling like he’d been punched, but it had worked. He had blocked it.

  “Really?” Sophie asked with a mocking tone.

  He started running, and Sophie kept shooting more arrows. He ducked as one flew right above his head, then another well timed crate saved him from being impaled.

  “Dark nimbus,” he bellowed.

  A dark cloud appeared floating a few centimeters above Sophie’s head, raining. She tried to move away, but the cloud followed her every movement closely, soaking her completely.

  She stared at Matheus angrily. “Are you kidding me?”

  She snapped her fingers and suddenly Matheus was stumbling on the air itself, falling face to the ground.

  Before he hit it, he clapped his hands as hard as he could, and an arrow aimed to his head struck the ground beside him. He hadn’t seen her shoot, but he knew she wasn’t the type to waste an opportunity.

  He stumbled, dizzy. When he got on his feet, she was already ready to shoot another arrow.

  The second clap came just in time, taking Sophie by surprise. It made her trip and release the arrow in the sky.

  “I really hate that skill,” she growled at him.

  The moment she turned her face, she was hit by a bubble ball almost as big as her, taking her to the ground again and making her lose her bow.

  The next claps kept coming, a little weaker each time, now more a slightly annoyance than anything else. But they had already done their part.

  Finally close enough, Matheus stabbed the puddle of water, unleashing an electric current through it.

  She fell on her knees, teeth clenching and whole body trembling.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  This was his chance.

  He ran towards her, knife raised, ready to… to what?

  Was he going to kill her?

  He faltered for a second, and it was enough for Sophie to snap her fingers and make him lose the grip on his knife.

  “Darkness,” she said, and then everything turned black.

  He felt her fist connecting with his mouth, and fell to the ground.

  Before he could react, she kicked him in the stomach, making him yelp in pain.

  When the mist finally dissipated, Sophie was above him, holding his arm against his back, pressing mercilessly. Her grip was as strong as iron. She must have spent a lot of stat points increasing her strength.

  Matheus held her back and spun, throwing her over himself. She fell with her back on the floor, him on top.

  “How did you get so strong?” she asked angrily while trying to get away. “It’s because of your skull skill, isn’t it? What did you do, fill your inventory with human skulls? And you dare judge me for having gone too far?”

  “They were already dead,” he replied, trying to justify himself. Still, Matheus couldn't help but to feel a little bothered with the whole situation. Adding human heads to his collection wasn’t something he wanted to do.

  Nonetheless, he had no choice.

  Sophie left out a sharp laugh.

  “You are just like me, willing to do what is necessary to win. Deep down you know I’m right.”

  He heard a roar coming from behind and turned to see a Porkulogos running towards them.

  Matheus stared dumbstruck. That was the first time he saw a monster so close to the city.

  He was suddenly engulfed by a pink mist, then felt Sophie’s knee connecting with his torso. He let her go, gasping for air. She gave him a vicious smile, and went running to her bow.

  The Porkulogos completely ignored her and jumped straight at him, fist up and screaming. Matheus retreated, knowing well the power of those punches. He kept his distance, barely avoiding the storm of blows.

  He splashed its face, and before it could recover he slashed it, cutting a straight line on its neck. The monster fell raging, blood splattering everywhere. It wasn’t dead, but it was severely hurt.

  Slash has reached level 5!

  Matheus turned to see Sophie pointing her bow to the sky and releasing an arrow. With horror, he watched it getting higher and higher.

  He knew what would happen when it started falling.

  Matheus put all he had left of his mana in another bubble ball and unleashed it right below him while he jumped away. The force of the water was enough to launch him just as Sophie’s enchanted arrow came crashing down, completely destroying the Porkulogos body.

  Matheus stayed on the ground, panting. This one had been close.

  He felt a kick to the back of his head, then another at his ribs.

  “Why couldn’t you understand?” Sophie asked, standing over him. “They are not real. None of them are. Didn’t you notice how slowly they develop compared to us? It’s because they are not supposed to get too strong. They are background characters in our stories, nothing else.”

  Matheus only moaned in pain in answer. She kicked him again.

  “They can’t even have soul abilities, did you know?” she continued, then grinned. “But you haven’t gotten your first one, have you, Matheus? Are you curious about what they can do?”

  “Don’t…” he said weakly. He needed to do something, but what? He’d lost his knife, and wasn’t even sure when it had happened.

  A dark flame enveloped her right hand, so hot Matheus had to look away. In seconds, it burned away and a black arrow remained.

  She took aim, and fired it to the sky. The arrow went above the city, going ever higher.

  When it got to the top of its trajectory, Matheus watched in awe as a ripple appeared in the middle of the sky, like someone had slashed the air itself.

  In horror, he saw dozens, maybe even hundreds of arrows coming from the ripple, all of them engulfed in flames.

  They rained in the city, starting fires in many buildings.

  How could she be this powerful?

  How many had she killed just now?

  “See? The city is pretty much ruined either way. There is no point in trying to avoid it.”

  Matheus threw himself at her, enraged. They both fell spinning, one on top of each other..

  “Stop murdering people,” he screamed.

  He had no weapon and most of his skills were in cooldown, but with the skull bonus he was stronger and Sophie couldn’t get away.

  He headbutted her as hard as he could.

  He did it again, stronger this time.

  His forehead screamed in pain. Matheus had never headbutted someone before, and he wasn’t expecting it to be so painful.

  He got ready to hit her another time, then he felt something pierce his belly, and he let go of Sophie yelping in pain.

  There was a knife hanging from his body, blood dripping from his wound. He fell on his back, breathing hard.

  “Over there,” someone shouted, and Matheus saw a few of the city guards coming in their direction.

  Sophie slowly got up, her face a complete mess of blood.

  She watched the guards coming, fury in her eyes.

  “Stay on my way again, and I’ll kill you,” she snarled, kicking him on the head.

  The last thing Matheus heard was someone shouting his name before he passed out.

  And then, everything turned into darkness and nothing more.