Dust filling the air settled down on the streets of Abaskan.

  The last thing Taisia saw before shutting her eyes tight was a beast of horror rampaging towards her. Before her mind connected the dots, her legs moved towards the boy on the ground and covered him with her entire body, in the hope that at least one of them would survive. Then everything went silent.

  A moment passed, and Taisia wasn’t sure if she was dead or not. But she still felt the faint vibration under her along the weeping, and only then did she open her eyes ever so slightly. As her blurry vision cleared and her hearing came back to sense, she evidenced Foreigner standing in front of her, soaked in blood and with a scalpel in her left hand, and the beast was screeching an outcry as it splashed a black, thick fluid all over the place from the middle eye on its left side of the head.

  It crawled on the street at an uncanny angle and rubbed the spot where its eye used to be on the ground in a horrifying attempt at easing the pain. As it did so, the blood splattered on the walls of the building and soaked the ground of the village. Taisia always wished to see the village in a different form, a different color. But this. This was too horrific.

  “Taisia! Get to safety, now!“ Octavia yelled out as she rushed to the battlefield with her rifle and her eyes lying behind the scope.

  Taisia felt her entire body petrified as the panic still lingered inside her, but the moment the boy grabbed onto her in his own way of survival, the sense came back to her alongside the responsibility. She quickly rushed to where the villagers headed with the boy in her arms and shouted at Octavia as she ran by her.

  “Don’t be a hero. You should run away with us!”

  But she knew Octavia wouldn’t. As such, she ran away without her, praying that she would be okay.

  Octavia approached Foreigner with her rifle never being lowered. She keenly observed the beast as it tried to stand back up on its legs after trampling around the village in agony. It had been some time since the day she was born, and she was confident in her past of having seen all kinds of things this world had to offer. But even to her, the creature crawling in front of her eyes was just too unreal.

  She heard about something like this from the drunkards, but that’s what drunkards do: spitting out delusions. Until now, she treated those strange sightings as a fairy tale told by incompetent adventurers without an actual story to tell, but she started to wonder how many of those stories were true.

  Octavia sided her eyes at Foreigner, who seemed to be oddly calm even with the blood splattered all over her face. She thought of pulling the trigger at the beast, but usually an animal would run away after a fatal injury, and any more agitation only extends a meaningless fight. Hoping the common knowledge works for this beast, she instead used the moment to check on Foreigner.

  “You've got some skill on your back, I see.“

  “Pure luck.“

  Foreigner replied in a quick breath. In reality, she wasn’t sure what just happened. One moment she saw Taisia running towards the beast and the next moment she was in front of a beast screaming in pain. Based on the blood dripping from the scalpel in her hand, she must have inflicted an injury with it, but there was no memory of doing so.

  But Octavia saw it with her own eyes. It was not luck or coincidence for Foreigner to be standing here. She clearly aimed at the eye of the beast with a swift yet calculated movement, and struck the weak flesh without hesitation. And she finished her move by stepping away from the beast throwing a rampage to maintain a safe distance after a critical blow.

  If this entire chain of events were something to be treated as pure luck, the world truly would be an unfair existence that must be purged clean. If anything, it would make more sense to think that Foreigner could have been a well-trained soldier, or perhaps even an assassin. But to Octavia, one thing for sure was that she was not the only force available to repel the abomination out of the village. And she was assured a bit by that.

  Eventually, the beast found the balance once again and rolled the remaining eyes of it. Unlike before, they moved in a synchronized pattern to see the only thing that mattered to them: Foreigner. Once the eyes snapped onto her, a terrifying howl released from its mouth, with the bottom half of the jaw dangling from the top half with a string of flesh. And as soon as it was done with the ritual, it charged towards Foreigner along the gallops that shook the earth.

  Calmly, Octavia fired a round at the beast rampaging at her. A blasting sound splintered the air and echoed throughout the space, but what followed was a bullet dropping on the ground powerlessly after hitting the hard skull of the abomination. Strangely enough, the head of the beast moved erratically as if it were actively trying to protect its weak spot from the attack.

  One, two, three and more empty cartridge cases fell on the ground without any damage being done. Some of them landed on the flesh that consisted of what seemed to be the body of the beast, but they soon fell on the ground alongside the pus continuously leaking out of the rotten skin. She fired the last shot in the chamber as she dodged the assault, but even that went in vain without a fruit to bear. However, unlike how she expected, the beast did not stop and chased her back. Instead, it continued the rampage towards Foreigner, as if it never cared about anyone else in the first place.

  It was at this moment she realized that this was not a normal beast without a mind. No matter how strong an animal may be, what divides them from civilized beings is intelligence. Animals do not have a goal other than survival, and their first instinct is to run away from a fight that they cannot win, and the second is to attack the immediate threat.

  But this abomination was something else with a clear intention of visiting this village, and that intention was Foreigner. A wild animal, if that thing could be called an animal, looking for a mysterious amnesiac person. It sounded crazy, like those stories her granny used to tell her when she was young, but it was happening right in front of her eyes.

  “Dodge!“ Octavia cried out to Foreigner, hoping she would have control over her body.

  Luckily, Foreigner threw her body to the side to avoid the direct impact, but it was too late and she got struck on her left shoulder, losing the grip on the scalpel. Alongside the small blade clanking on the ground, she rolled three times before coming to a stop while releasing an agonizing shriek with her arm hanging on her shoulder.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  But that was not enough for the beast. It turned around the street in an arc in order to maintain the momentum and prepared for the second round of assault. Octavia was too far to grab Foreigner and run, and Foreigner was not in a state where she could save herself.

  After reloading her rifle, Octavia released a stream of bullets through the barrel. But none of them were fatal, even though they should have been. She was sure that she landed all of them on its flesh and guts that were pulsating on its body exposed to the air without a hide to protect them. For any living thing, a direct hit to the internal organs would be the end of the game, but this creature was not following that simple rule. It was as if the organs were not part of its body and merely a decoration to mimic the lifeform.

  Octavia was stunned, but she still had a card in her hand. She dropped her rifle onto the ground, as it was only a burden in this fight. With her hands freed, she drew her illegally modded revolver from the back of her hip and aimed it at the beast’s head. Even though she understood the risk of pulling this piece of amalgamation, there was no other way but to try her luck. After all, her lips were incapable of hiding the light smile at the enthusiasm of firing it after a long time of slumber.

  As she pulled the hammer back, the cylinder rotated and made a clicking noise, signaling that the primer was ready to be struck. Once again, the beast moved unpredictably as soon as Octavia’s eyes were focused on its skull, as if it understood what she was doing. But none of that mattered any longer. So she pulled the trigger.

  A sharp sound of metal piercing through the shroud of space violated the vicinity. At a speed far exceeding that of the rounds fired from her rifle, the small metal went past Foreigner’s ear and straight for the center of the beast’s head where the hard skull was located. However, in the last fraction of a second before the connection, the beast adjusted its head to gaze upon Foreigner, and the bullet went past through the uppermost eye on its right side of the head, penetrating through the flesh and leaving a straight line of hole in its body.

  Blood ruptured from its eye socket, and the terrifying shriek echoed within the village. With a loud thud that vibrated the earth, the abomination finally fell to the ground. A second passed, and two, and three. When the clock ticked for the fourth time and there was no movement from the body of the beast, Foreigner released a sigh of relief and almost lost consciousness, but the sharp pain coming from her arm denied her from doing so. She looked behind to show a huge victorious smile at Octavia, who had just stowed her revolver back into the holster.

  “Stay still. Let me help you—“

  Within the blink of an eye, Octavia saw the beast opening its remaining four eyes once again and leaping towards Foreigner by sacrificing its legs. Even with the lower half getting macerated, it still had its vision fixed on Foreigner with its mouth wide open.

  Octavia quickly pulled out her revolver again, but she did not have a clear sight with Foreigner in between. If she fired right now, that would mean shooting through Foreigner. If she didn’t, who knows what this beast could do afterward. The cylinder still contained the bullet. With her eye on the scope, Octavia pulled the hammer and placed her finger on the trigger.

  Foreigner was sitting on the ground with her left arm hanging on her shoulder from dislocation and fracture. She saw the beast charging at her, and she could see the guts pulsating inside its mouth. And she knew that would be the last thing she would see in this new world.

  It was way too late for her to dodge the incoming attack, and it would certainly be the fatal blow. As she desperately tried to deny the looming death, she felt a cold metallic object under her left hand, and it was the scalpel she had dropped earlier. But what could such a thing do in this situation, when she cannot use it? Foreigner wondered if everything was a terrible joke falling from the heavens above. And she accepted her fate by closing her eyes. As that was the only thing that made sense to do.

  At that moment, a rush of energy flowed into her veins.

  A blinding light illuminated from the back of her eyes, and the echoes ringing in her ears cleared out at once. She opened her eyes abruptly, and the beast was still in front of her with its legs in the air. However, everything flowed slower — the beast, the air, and time. There was no longer any pain in her left arm, and she had enough moment to turn her head to the side to see her arm recovered into the correct position then returned her head to the original position, only for the beast to move a fraction of distance.

  Foreigner stood up and stepped to the side of the beast. As she did so, time started to flow at the normal speed, and the beast rushed forward, missing her barely by the nose. But that was enough for her to see the vigorously beating flesh within its mouth. And her body moved by itself as if it knew what must be done. By lifting her left hand with the scalpel and thrusting the flesh with all the might circulating within her body.

  The torrent of black blood erupted out of the mouth and the beast thrashed around the street in agony. The cloud of dust rose in a hurricane alongside the erratic movement of the beast, and despite all it was going through, the beast still attempted to fix its gaze upon Foreigner. But fortunately, it did not have the will enough to overcome the tearing pain, and it bought some time for Octavia to make her shot.

  She pulled the trigger of her revolver once more, and the bullet passed across the air with Foreigner on the side. It traveled on the street until it reached the mouth of the beast and struck the scalpel stuck on its pulsating flesh. As the small yet sharp blade went deeper into the inside, a stream of red river flowed from the gaping wound. Soon, after releasing a brief scream of agony, the beast crashed onto the ground and formed yet another cloud of dirt to shroud itself. What followed was a flinch or two, then the silence.

  “Ahh…You have finally arrived…“

  Just before the beast closed its eyes, they made contact with Foreigner’s, and she heard a voice in her head. A gentle voice that sounded relieved yet regretful. But soon after that voice rang in her head, she felt a pain like something was splintering her skull from the inside out and fell on her back. If it weren’t for Octavia, who rushed and grabbed her, she would have collapsed head first.

  “Octavia…I hear a voice…“

  Foreigner spoke to Octavia in a dying voice. Her eyelids were heavy, and her heart was beating slower with every cycle of blood rushing through her body.

  “Don’t listen to that; stay with me. You’ll be fine soon. Doc, quick.“

  Octavia slapped Foreigner’s cheek rather forcefully, and suddenly, Foreigner felt the energy rushing through her once again. She stood up, even to her own surprise, and looked around with a clear vision. There was a beast in front of her, completely inanimate. Octavia was on her left to finally take a moment to sit, and on her right was a buffoonish mask of Pafnuty, way too close as always and with crossbows in both topmost hands and a bag that was about the size of him on his back.

  “Hmmm, interesting. It seems like you are highly susceptible to this experimental medicine. Truly, I must research you, my foreign subject!“ Pafnuty was cheerful than ever before.

  “Pafnuty?! Where were you until now?“ Foreigner questioned him, while feeling her eyelids growing heavy once again.

  “To my den, of course! I brought out my tools I’ve been working on to research this creature, but dear god, you were on the brink of death! So, I gave you a shot to help you a bit.“

  Pafnuty casually spoke while slowly shaking his crossbow sideways. It was only then Foreigner noticed that there were two needles stuck in her thigh. She wondered what those were, then realized that the same needles were loaded in Pafnuty’s crossbows.

  “What did you inject into me?!“

  “Mmm! Do you truly wish to know? Though I doubt that you would be able to understand even if I told you. Very well! I need to give you a counteractive substance, or you will die, but if you insist on learning about the science, then so be it!“ Pafnuty waved his arms in a weird dance-like movement as he got eager from the topic.

  “Whoa, whoa. You are going to give her that thing she needs to survive now.“

  Octavia interfered as Foreigner was visibly impaired from the medicine and seemed to have lost the ability to properly reason with. As Pafnuty complained in a low voice and injected the purple-colored substance into Foreigner’s vein, Octavia saw Taisia running in her direction within the darkness. She waved her hand at Taisia, but when she saw her face, she froze in place.

  “Octavia! Pafnuty! Foreigner! Get inside my house. Now!“