Moving through the night made our speed terrible, but we stayed ahead of Max’s group the whole time. With the invisible jaguars in the forest, every step needed to be deliberate, and every sound made us halt and wait.

  Thankfully, the attack seemed to be a coordinated and isolated one. When half the night had passed, we’d encountered only three of the beasts and dealt with them quite easily.

  For now, the system had thrown more numbers at us than actual difficult fights. Except for the goblin abomination and the kobold chieftain, we hadn’t had much trouble handling the enemies. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that our days like this were numbered.

  We kept moving toward the rectangular shape I assumed was one of the dungeons the system promised existed. With every step, the forest grew rockier, and the slope started to incline beneath my feet.

  It didn’t take long for us to find a cave near a minor slope. The place was muddy and humid, but the foxes sleeping inside didn’t mind running away to give us space.

  We took turns sleeping as much as possible, the threat of an invisible enemy looming over us.

  When the sun pierced through the canopy, we were all relieved.

  Except when I opened the minimap and saw three dots close to where I believed the dungeon was. I woke up the others and urged them to move.

  We were still one day away from the dungeon’s location, but while we rested, three others had moved ahead and were now closer than us. And by the way they were moving on the map, they were much closer.

  At that moment, Max became an afterthought. We needed to get stronger, and dungeons were obviously one of the best ways to achieve that. Besides, how had they passed us without us noticing?

  After an hour of walking with a few ounces of jerky in our bellies (how I missed grilled fish), we noticed the three dots had stopped.

  When we were about a mile away, we halted and crouched on the ground.

  “It could be a trap,” I whispered, and they nodded in agreement. “I’ll go ahead with my skill, and you stay here. If I whistle, you rush to help me. If not, just wait until I return.”

  “I have to go with you,” Tress said firmly. “The bond…”

  “No, you don’t,” I replied in the same tone. “Having a tall, armored myriad who looks like a model at my side is the opposite of stealth.”

  Mary chuckled and looked down.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing!” the shorter woman raised both hands to the sky. “Go ahead and be a hero.”

  “The last time someone said that to me, the world ended, and I was thrown into an apocalypse game,” I muttered, already turning and moving toward the three dots.

  The world changed as I became one with the shadows, my steps growing silent, my presence fading into the ambient. As I trudged through the trees, I noticed a figure not far away.

  Above a muddy rock, a black jaguar slept without a care in the world.

  I can see other invisible beings if I’m using the skill, I realized, considering the possibilities. I let the beast keep its sleep and moved toward the three dots.

  It didn’t take long to find them. Two figures lay near the edge of what seemed to be a hole in the ground.

  Both were Arahaktar, and from what I could see, they were female. Unlike the males of their race, or Elk, they covered their bodies with simple brownish cloth. Still, they left plenty of room to show their physical prowess.

  It wasn’t common for women on Earth to be that muscular, but I’d seen some very similar to the Arahaktar before me. They had well-defined thighs, biceps, and six-packs that made me envious. They had no hair on their heads, but their curved horns adorned their faces in a way that was strangely beautiful.

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  They crouched near the edge, deep in thought.

  I approached a few steps closer, and they remained unaware. I finally stepped forward and looked inside the hole. A human woman was in the middle of it, sinking into the ground, the quicksand only a few inches above her ankles.

  “I’ll try to buy a rope and throw it to you,” one of the Arahaktar said, and she actually did it. After a few seconds, she was throwing a thick rope toward the woman in the quicksand, but she couldn’t reach it.

  I could see the despair on her face.

  “Calm down, Elisa,” the other Arahaktar called. “A warrior doesn’t fret in the face of danger. We’ll figure this out.” She spoke with confidence, but when she looked at her friend, she didn’t seem as sure.

  I rushed back to my companions as fast as I could without drawing attention.

  Explaining everything to Elk, Mary, and Tress, it was hard to read their expressions. Mary, as always, seemed the most pained of them all. She wanted to rush in and help the woman immediately but knew we needed to discuss it first.

  Tress stayed silent, waiting for me to say something, but in turn, I was expecting Elk to speak.

  “Females will probably not try to kill me on sight, and if they’re helping a human, they’re probably fine,” Elk rationalized with a shrug. “Do you want to help them?”

  “They’re heading toward the dungeon, and they’re obviously faster than us. Saving them could be leverage.”

  “Letting one of them die as well,” Mary said what everyone was thinking, and it clearly pained her.

  “They clearly have a skill that makes them faster, but we don’t know which one of them have it,” I argued. “It could be the one in the quicksand, but we can’t know. Being as rational as possible, we’d be taking a 33% chance. I vote we help them but prepare for a fight.”

  They nodded in agreement, and we started to plan.

  Why did she need to step inside that hole? Kira’La thought for the millionth time.

  Everything was going exactly like they planned before she stepped in that damn hole.

  Emilia had concluded that the rectangular space between the slopes would be a good way to get stronger without having to fight for one of the city stones, and the damn human had the annoying habit of being right.

  They would only need to keep getting stronger and avoiding conflict with the male Arahaktar until they had power enough to face them. Getting inside a dungeon was a nice way to do it, wasn’t it? But Emilia had to step on the quicksand and Vart was on the verge of tears for not being able to help the human.

  Vart couldn’t stop shaking as she tried to throw the rope toward Emilia.

  Why, in the name of the dragons, did she have to be so soft? Kira had enough to worry about. A male could come for them at any moment, and that thought alone sent a shiver down her spine.

  Helping a human had been hard enough, but having her only true ally be a soft-hearted female Arahaktar was too much.

  “Are you going to cry?” Kira hissed, and Vart jolted in place. “Do as you were told. Aren’t you a warrior?”

  “I am,” she replied, but there was no confidence in her voice.

  How could she be confident?

  What did being a warrior even mean back home? Preparing the males to kill each other while working their ass off to look like a damn goddess?

  If nothing else, at least she was prepared to fight in this sick game—unless the challenge was against another Arahaktar.

  She could still feel her horns being grabbed, her body lifted from the ground.

  She couldn’t let that happen again. That wouldn’t happen again.

  And fucking Emilia, a human of all people, was the smartest of the bunch. And now she was sinking in quicksand like a hornless in hell.

  “What am I supposed to do?” Kira muttered, scanning the horizon, suddenly aware that one of those invisible beasts could be lurking nearby.

  What in the dragon’s name were those monsters anyway? No scales, no shells, only fur like human body hair. Disgusting.

  Just as the thought crossed her mind, she noticed something in the corner of her vision.

  Someone was coming her way. Three people.

  One of the big ones—Myriads, as the woman on the magic screen called them—a shorter woman (with a disgusting appearance), and… a hornless.

  There was a hornless in the Dragon’s Trial. Kira couldn’t believe it.

  They all carried weapons in their hands. Were they going to attack?

  Just my luck, she thought before activating [Rogue Dash].

  Her hooves moved fast across the ground, faster than anyone could notice.

  The trio ahead of her didn’t even flinch—she was probably invisible to their eyes.

  Vart said something, but Kira didn’t hear. The thrill of battle rushed through her veins. So many years wanting to lash out, so many years staying silent while others chose for her.

  She would choose today. And she choose violence.

  She flowed across the ground with her dagger in hand, feinting low to make the leaves fly, then was suddenly behind the Myriad—the one she considered the strongest.

  Kira pressed her dagger to the Myriad’s throat and felt… nothing. No metal against flesh, no gasp, no cold armor against her body..

  Then her own throat tightened.

  Cold metal pressed against her skin.

  “You won’t believe me, but we actually want to help you,” a masculine voice whispered in her ear, making her shiver from head to hooves.