Phoenix looked out over the half-frozen ke where she had battled acid-spitting puffin monsters, poorly named Icespitters, with her party just the day before yesterday. Had it really only been two days? Not even that. The sun was only just beginning to rise behind her, causing the snow to sparkle. She looked down at the charred stone in her glowing palm. It had been a failure… just like her.

  As she stared at it, another emotion began to rise up inside her, one that she had noticed more often since her first encounter with Murinah outside of Warrior’s temple: anger. She recognized it now. She also knew why she felt it, as well as what and who it was directed towards.

  She was angry at herself. Angry that she never seemed to be strong enough. Angry that she needed to be defended all the time. Angry that she had been too na?ve, too timid, too ignorant about how the world worked. Angry that her only redeeming factor was her mobility and portability, but when her life was at stake, she couldn’t escape. Angry at her many, many weaknesses and mistakes.

  Phoenix pulled her arm back and threw the stone into the ke. Then she turned around and began to hunt. She was angry, and she really, really wanted to stab something.

  For the first time, she found herself oddly grateful for the blood moon because it didn’t take long for her to find another pack of snolves. They were a common Crystal Caste monster on the tundra, and she was gd for the outlet as she flung herself at the beasts, tearing through them with her [Night Bde] in one hand and her new Caustic Floe sword in the other.

  There were only six of them, and when the fighting ended, she found herself wishing there were more. So she continued hunting.

  She also continued practicing moving with her [Ruler of Retivity] ability. The more comfortable she got with this method, the more ground she could cover and the more monsters she could fight. It needed to become second nature; she couldn’t let herself be caught again.

  As Phoenix ran through the snowy forest, she fought a pack of frobbits, which were annoyingly mobile creatures with white fur, bulging eyes, rge hind legs made for jumping, long ears, and long tongues that would sh out like whips.

  Her clothes were torn, but she didn’t care. More skin showing meant more [Starlight Q to regenerate her mana and stamina and help keep her going. There were still more monsters out there for her to turn into dust.

  Phoenix started to get frustrated after the third pack of monsters was eradicated, which were some weaker Mundane slorrels that were small and extremely slow. She had been hoping that her book would give her another quest that would grant more Spirit Gems or some kind of cheat item, but even after ying eyes on her fourth group of monsters, it remained conspicuously absent.

  Hours passed, but the thrill of battle energy, the consumption of potions, and Ta’s glitter bombs of regeneration kept her moving.

  As the sun began to set and darkness settled on the forest of evergreens, more threats made themselves known as the nd became bnketed in crimson light. Phoenix bsted her aura out, calling the challenges to her. Her [Moonlit Eyes] Passive made the dark not a detriment to her in the slightest as she saw clearly through the shadows.

  Monster after monster, she honed her skills. Her strikes became faster, and her reactions became quicker as she better predicted enemy attacks and movement.

  When she ran out of mana, she drank a potion.

  When her stamina became dangerously low, she drank a potion.

  When her body had taken too many hits, she cast her healing spell… and drank a potion.

  When the potions ran out, she tore off her sleeves and pant legs and shone like the stars above her before converting that light into a combo potion.

  The next day came and went, and the next, and the next, with her leaving a trail of monster ash in her wake. She began to reach the limits of what potions and her natural regen fueled by Crystal Mana Bits could do, as her mind and very soul became exhausted. She was starting to feel a bit better emotionally, though. Knowing she had been able to vanquish so many monsters without needing her party to protect her or Paul to step in and save her had boosted her morale considerably.

  On the seventh day, Phoenix was about to portal herself back to finally get some sleep when she thought her aura sensed something nearby. It felt… distorted. Odd. She moved cautiously towards it, but nothing seemed to be around in the rocky area she currently found herself in.

  She pushed her aura senses harder, trying to figure out what it was she was sensing when the snow in front of her began to move. Recognizing that it had been detected, the stealthy monster burst from among the icy rocks and charged towards her.

  In a poor choice of timing, her [Guide Book] appeared in front of her, and she cursed it for attempting to get her killed once more with its blinding position, especially when she hadn’t needed to read it like this for weeks now.

  New Quest: Lurking Threat

  You have been attacked by a Sapphire Caste monster!

  Objective: Defeat a Frost Lurker.

  Reward: Rare Crystal Caste Spirit Gem.

  Bonus Objective: Don’t die.

  Reward: Rare Crystal Caste ring.

  Phoenix grinned at the quest, finally getting one after days of trying to trigger it, and then she had to do a double take with her eyes to make sure her aura had read that right as she said incredulously to the book, “Wait, ‘Don’t die’?! Why is that showing up again now?! Just because I can come back doesn’t mean I want to– oh shi–” She used her gravity ability to push herself away from the absurdly faster monster as it tried to tackle her.

  “Gaze into the abyss,” she incanted, attempting to curse the higher Caste creature with her new [Call of the Abyss] spell, but she could feel it resist and shrug off the Bane.

  She shed out with her weapons, feeling them rake against the monster with little effect, but they were able to nd their own debuffs, [Mana Siphon] and [Acid Burn], against the vaguely humanoid creature covered in ice and snow.

  After the initial rush attack, she realized the creature was actually rather slow and that it most likely ambushed its prey once they were nearly on top of it. It had only been her overpowered aura that had triggered the attack early and saved her from an instant death.

  Phoenix continued to push herself backward across the terrain, trying to get some distance between them and come up with a pn. At Sapphire Caste, it would most likely resist her direct spells, and the attacks from her Crystal Caste weapons could only wound it so much. It was rger, about twice her height, and its slow speed made it more likely to have higher Fortitude and defenses to compensate.

  She noticed the ice on it was acting more like armor pting, and there were points between the ptes where she might have a better chance of damaging it.

  Phoenix focused on one of these points specifically and made her dagger fly towards it, the gravity effect acting like a homing missile as the bde slipped into her target, eliciting a roar from the monster. She heard a rumble from behind where the Frost Lurker had emerged from and saw more piles of snow start to shift in response.

  She paled at the knowledge that during a blood moon, the monsters that would normally spawn alone did not adhere to the normal rules. While she might have been able to handle the single slow Sapphire monster, there was no way she could take on multiples.

  Phoenix turned and began running, the Frost Lurker trudging after her. After a few seconds, though, she remembered that her quest had only told her to kill one of them. She double-checked with the book following her, and sure enough, it hadn’t changed the requirements.

  She clenched her fists around the hilts of her bdes and found the resolve to fight. Against the odds and all her doubts screaming at her to keep running, she would kill this monster. She flipped around, focused on its leg, and pulled herself towards it at a speed that rivaled the lurker’s own surprise attack.

  After some trial and error over the st couple of nights, she had discovered that she could use her [Ruler of Retivity] ability to focus on certain points of a target rather than the whole, which had vastly expanded her tactics and increased her mobility. She practically flew around the giant lurker like she was using omni-directional mobility gear to fight a Titan, all the while kiting it away from the other Sapphire Caste threats.

  This monster must have been some kind of Troll variant, as it quickly regenerated the little damage her cuts were doing. As her heart sank, her rage rose. She moved faster, pushed herself harder, and took more risks. She tried walking on a knife’s edge and felt it was only a matter of when, not if, she would slip from it.

  The Frost Lurker was not intelligent, and it focused on brute strength attacks, which was also simir to a troll and most other monsters. It roared its own frustration when she continually slipped out of its grasp. As the creature’s rage increased with her own, the fighting became more wild and frantic as she chipped away, trying to out-damage its regeneration.

  “Let dreams become reality,” she incanted, triggering her [Lunar Dream] ability and creating a small flock of birds to fly around the monster, distracting it in its blind anger and swiping at the annoyances.

  “Gaze into the abyss,” she tried casting her Bane again, and this time, she felt the spell take hold. With renewed hope, she realized that it was taking the retributive damage from her ability with each roar of pain it gave each time it annihited one of her illusions with an attack.

  “Ta, can you give me some cover fire?” she asked, and the little bird emerged and began one of its own attacks that she hadn’t really seen up close before –mainly due to her fear of the little bird getting destroyed in a single hit from being too close to melee range where she fought– but now was not the time for cautious half-measures.

  Name: Ta

  Species: Cosmic Phoenix (Familiar)

  Mythical creatures not of this world that are attuned to Dimension, Fire, and Radiant magic.

  Caste: Crystal

  Can cast the breath attack [Star Fire] against nearby enemies.

  Attacks dealt by the talons or beak inflict additional Dimension damage and can affect incorporeal entities.

  Star Fire (elemental, magical, dimension, fire): A wide-area attack that inflicts a combination of Dimension and Fire damage and inflicts [Burning] and [Vulnerable].Burning (bane, elemental, fire): Inflicts ongoing Fire damage.Vulnerable (bane, elemental, stacking): All Elemental resistances are slightly reduced.

  When merged within the summoner:

  The summoner shines and slowly stores [Starlight Q generated from absorbed starlight. [Starlight Q can be completely drained to unleash a burst of mana and stamina regeneration to allies in the area. The amount replenished is determined by how much [Starlight Q was spent.

  Both Phoenix and Ta flew out of the range of the enraged lurker, and it was quickly engulfed in searing blue fmes. She gave a feral grin as she saw her chance, and her bdes tore into the creature’s joints as she moved her way up to its neck, cutting into it.

  Her luck seemed to run out as it finally managed to get its grip around her body, but she had almost managed to shred her way through the thick muscles of its neck. She ignored the giant hand, triggering [Ruler of Retivity] to drag herself back in range of her goal, and continued hacking away as [Star Fire] washed over both of them.

  She grimaced at the pain of being slowly crushed when the [Sun Shell] around her shattered, but she ignored it in a desperate attempt to finish the monster while it was blinded. She felt her ribs break and clenched her teeth so hard she feared she might break her jaw as well.

  The creature screamed in fury as it recovered from the blinding debuff but was still covered in fmes, and it threw her at the ground.

  The Frost Lurker was a ragged, burnt mess, and its head was half decapitated, hanging on by a thread. With her st bit of mana, she aimed her sword at its remaining neck and used her gravity ability one more time.

  Her sword sped through the air and starlight fmes to bury itself deep into her target, but it wasn’t enough as the creature brought its rge foot down on top of her and crushed the remaining bones in her body.

  You have died.

  All equipment has been returned to your collection.

  [Waypoint] has guided your soul back to your designated location.

  You have been reconstituted to a state of full integrity.

  Twenty-four hours remain until this effect can be triggered again.

  Quest: Lurking Threat

  Objective Complete: Defeated a Frost Lurker.

  Objective Reward:

  [Wrath Spirit Gem] has been added to your collection.

  Bonus Objective Failed: You died.

  Completion Reward:

  10 [Sapphire Mana Bits] have been added to your collection.

  Phoenix stared at the message for a moment and began ughing.

  Apparently, the retributive damage of crushing her into powder was enough to finish killing the monster. She was already in her bed, so she conjured her sleeping clothes and gnced out the rge window to gauge what time it was.

  I really needed a watch or something, she idly thought when she noticed the sky lightening in preparation for a new day.

  She almost jumped out of her skin and flung herself from the bed when the door to her room smmed open. It took her a second to recognize the looming figure of Paul standing in the doorway, staring at her with his golden eyes.

  “What happened? Where have you been?” he asked gruffly, and she could tell he was angry.

  She gred at his tone, still mentally on edge from the battle she just left, and the anger from her failure to not die fred up, “You know it’s rude to just barge into someone’s room without permission?”

  His presence seemed to fill the room as he growled, “You’ve been missing for a whole week! Why were you gone? Where did you go?”

  She ground her teeth and said evasively, “I went hunting.”

  He blinked in surprise and asked incredulously, “Hunting? In the wilds? Alone? During the worst blood moon in recorded history?”

  Phoenix shrugged and started moving back towards the bed, “Yes. Now, I haven’t slept since the st time you saw me, so I’m going to bed now. If you’re satisfied with your interrogation, I’ll come find you once I’ve rested, like I told you before.”

  Paul was next to her side before she could process he had even moved. “I am not satisfied. Why would you do something so incredibly stupid and reckless?”

  She gred up at the taller man and tried to put more space between them by shoving her way past him, “I needed to stab something, okay? I needed to prove to myself that I don’t always need you there to protect me!”

  “It’s my duty to keep you safe,” he began firmly, but she cut him off.

  “You’re not actually my father, Paul, so stop it!” She moved towards the door to her room in an effort to escape the confrontation.

  “Listen here, young one,” the Wrath Bde sternly said as he grabbed her shoulder to halt her retreat.

  In an instinctive reaction, Phoenix flinched at the contact and spun around out of the threat’s grasp. She conjured her dagger in a fluid motion as she brought it down at her perceived attacker’s chest.