I lean back on my hands, feeling the pebbles of the street press into my palms. I cross my legs as I look at the destruction we had caused with Nicolas’s little fire.

  In a way, it feels too… easy. I mean yeah, it had gotten out of control, but still, this level of destruction is insane.

  The poor buildings around us are little more than smoldering silhouettes of what they once were. Only their metal frameworks stay standing. I turn my gaze away from the buildings and towards the remains of the spider web that had spread across the city. Corpses of spiders lie in the ashes, giant hulks, larger even than the ones we’d been fighting. There are twelve corpses in this area alone, before the road twists out of sight.

  I don’t believe that we’d killed all of them, as in the far distance, I see the telltale explosions of the local military, and other Beta Testers.

  I take my attention away from the burnt hellscape to look at my fellow Beta Testers. Most of the others are distracted by the burnt surroundings. Nicolas lies on the ground where the spider had stabbed him, and Hans holds up a magical shield that stops the leftover smoke from reaching us.

  “What now?” I ask.

  “We don’t need to do anything.” The usually quiet Asian man says. I turn to see him sitting right next to me, cleaning the pieces of his sniper rifle and placing them back in his case.

  I uh, hadn’t realized he was right next to me.

  He looks up, meeting my gaze. “No one will beat our point total at this point.”

  I smile at him, showing all my teeth. “I guess you’re right.”

  I pull out a piece of ice cream I’d nabbed from the Korean convenience store, and take a bite. It’s good, honestly better than American ice cream.

  I wonder how Rose is doing? Wait, I have the skill for this, don’t I?

  “[Apply Mark Of Protection To Rose Demor]”

  The spell comes into effect, and I feel a tugging on my consciousness telling me that Rose Demor, a very cute girl, is somewhere in that direction.

  That’s nice.

  We rest for a little while longer before I start to feel bored.

  I stand up and stretch. Time for awesome Battle Plan #2 Ice Cream for Everyone!

  I throw my fist into the air, “Come on guys! Let’s eat ice cream together!”

  “What is she talking about?” Hans asks Isabelle.

  “I have no bloody idea. I can’t translate American.” Isabelle says.

  “I believe she’s offering all of us some ice cream.” The Asian man says.

  “I’m right here, you know.” I say, shaking my head at them. “And yeah, I grabbed a bunch from the convenience store. Do y’all want some?”

  Groaning from Nicolas grabs all of our attention before they respond. Still, Isabelle shoots me a thumbs up, so I hand her a treat.

  Nicolas places his hand where the spider had stabbed him. There’s still scarring there from the fire, but the wound itself should be gone.

  His eyes flutter open, immediately focusing on the blue screens that must be in front of him.

  “It worked?” He asks.

  “It worked.” I say, “A little too well, if you ask me.” I look at the burnt city around us.

  “Devouring Flame.” He says, “It’s a weapon ability. But uh, I don’t exactly have control of it.” He continues to read his notifications. “Th-that’s a lot of points.”

  Almost as if to compliment his words, a couple screens appears in front of all of us.

  The rankings continue on for a while, but I skip them in favor of the next screen.

  As I watch, the number of Beta Testers killed by other Beta Testers increases by two. I frown and move to the next screen.

  I stare at the screen in annoyance. Those fucking bastard gods. The warning isn’t a warning at all. It’s an incentive.

  I look up to see the other Beta Testers finish reading their screens.

  Everyone takes a step back from the center. Hans’s shield disappears as he stops supporting it, allowing smoke to blow through our group

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  I don’t move.

  Quiet settles over the place as everyone wonders who will make the first move.

  I clear my throat. “So about that ice cream. Do you guys prefer vanilla or chocolate? Personally, I’m a vanilla fan.”

  Anton points his gun at me.

  “Shit.”

  I barely manage to get my gloves in front of me as a gunshot rings out.

  I go flying back. I fly through the metal frame of the building behind me. I cough out blood as I don’t stop flying. My momentum is stopped by a brick wall.

  My vision goes black as the wall crumbles on top of me.

  He had seemed like such a nice Frenchman too.

  Cadet! What is the diagnosis?

  All systems are critical levels captain. The host Elena Trudeau is currently unconscious.

  Damn it all! Activate procedure one eleven five: plot armor.

  Aye aye, Captain. Preparing neural cortex interface. Ready when you are sir.

  Begin.

  The Captain opens the host’s eyes, slowly getting used to the body it inhabits. The Captain opens her mouth, the taste of blood filling her taste buds. A feminine voice speaks softly, “[You Better Heal Right Now]”

  Wounds all over the body, which had already been healing thanks to the power of her gloves, disappear in moments.

  The Captain stands up, pushing the bricks and rubble off of her.

  The Captain studies the situation with wary eyes as the sounds of battle are heard from the other side of the wall the host had broken through. “[Enhance Body]”

  Calmly picking her way through the ruckage, she looks through the hole she’d made in the building. Anton lies dead where he’d shot the host, his head lying a few feet away from the rest of his body.

  Isabelle battles the Asian man, her sword bouncing off of the case of his sniper rifle as he moves it to block her attacks.

  Nicolas lies dead in the street, having been stabbed through by Hans, the large man still standing over his body.

  Hans turns around and advances on Isabelle, who is too distracted by the Asian man to notice his approach.

  The Captain makes a split decision, and labels Isabelle as a possible ally based on the host’s intuition.

  There’s no time for hesitation. “[Unmatchable Speed], [Force Of Many Blades]” The captain appears behind Hans, and punches towards his spine, hoping to disable him in one move.

  Something must have warned the man, because with speed rivaling his size, Hans jumps out of the way of the punch.

  The Captain follows up her first punch with another.

  Hans twists around to see the second punch, and brings his arm up to block, unable to move his sword in time.

  The Captain’s punch lands on the arm causing the bone to snap with the force of her strike. A split second later, invisible blades cut through the skin and muscles in a series of strikes until the arm is fully lopped off.

  Hans roars out in pain. The roar washes over The Captain, shutting down all of her psi abilities. She stumbles from the force, and barely brings up her gloves to block Hans’s sword.

  Despite the shield of her gloves blocking the strike, the force behind the sword travels through her gloves, fracturing bones all across her body and cracking the earth under her feet.

  The Captain’s gloves work overtime, immediately healing her fractured bones, as she recasts “[Unmatchable Speed]”.

  She slips around another sword strike, and twirls until she’s right in front of him.

  Hans’s eyes widen as he stares at her.

  Her fist strikes out, every one of her abilities working in concert as she hits him in the throat.

  Her power rushes forward, but before permanent damage can be done, Hans fades from in front of her, the bracelet on his remaining arm disintegrating into dust as he disappears.

  The Captain looks around, prepared for another strike, or a surprise attack. Nothing happens.

  Captain! The Host is beginning to wake up.

  The Captain nods in acknowledgement, unable to directly speak to the Cadet.

  “So you lived, huh?” A female voice speaks from behind the Captain.

  The Captain turns to face the other Beta Tester.

  Isabelle looks over the Host’s body with a haunted expression. “I’m sorry love.” She says, her eyes hardening as she flicks blood off of her sword.

  The Captain purses her lips, not liking the look in the other woman’s eyes.

  Isabelle raises her sword and stabs forward.

  The Captain starts to move, but at that very moment, Elena Trudeau wakes up.

  ***

  I wake up as a painful feeling explodes from my chest. I look down at the bloody sword in me with confusion. I raise my eyes to Isabelle’s face.

  “I’m very sorry, love. I didn’t mean for it to turn out like this, I really didn’t. But I was warned that if I didn’t kill you, you would come hunting for me.” Her eyes never leave mine, a dead empty look in them. “And you would, once you find out what I’ve done and who I am. You would have no choice but to come for me.”

  She slides her sword out of my body, and I fall to the ground, the last of my strength failing me.

  My gloves glow, trying to repair the damage that had been done.

  “I can’t have you healing through that, now can I?” She says, stepping over me. She raises her sword above my throat. “In another life, I would have liked to get to know you better. You seem like a fun girl.” A bitter smile spreads across her face. “Do you want to say anything before you die? I owe you that much.”

  I nod, coughing up blood. I’m barely able to speak, let alone move. “In my house, in the US, I want…” I cough, the taste of iron filling my senses. “I need you to get on my computer… on there, is a file called ‘private’”

  Isabelle hesitates, “I don’t think this is the time for-”

  “Shhh.” I interrupt her, “Listen. It’s important to me.” I continue in a whisper, my voice hoarse. “I need you to open that file. Do you understand?”

  She nods, raising her sword.

  “Wait, I’m not done yet.” I say.

  She pauses, her eyes narrowing, “What else?”

  I look into her eyes and see the real reason she is letting me speak. She doesn’t want to kill me. “When you open that file, you will find another file in it labeled-” I cough, and spit out some more blood. “Labeled ‘homework’. I… I want you to open that file.”

  “Look, I really don’t think-” She starts, but I interrupt her.

  “Once you do that, there will be two more files, one labeled ‘more homework’ and another called ‘crazy homework’.” I cough again and blood dribbles down my lip.

  “What-” She starts again.

  “I want you to ignore the ‘more homework’ file.” I pause in thought. “I mean you don’t have to ignore it, but wait to open it for later.”

  She pulls her sword up, ready to stab down. “I don’t have time for-”

  I reach up and grab the edge of her sword with my glove, stopping her from stabbing down. “Can’t you listen to a dying girl’s last word?” I ask, barely a whisper as I widen my eyes in a begging look. I cough up some more blood, adding to my pitiful look.

  She stares at me in confusion, not sure how to react to my question.

  I smile a defeated smile. “Once you open the ‘crazy homework’ file, I want you to look for a docs file called ‘Harry x Ron’. Please- please get rid of that, it was a terrible fanfic.”

  Isabelle’s eyes widen in surprise as I finish.

  I push her blade to the side, and punch upwards, my gloves activating to send a wave of force at her.

  She goes flying.

  I’d actually wanted her to delete that fanfic. I wrote some crazy things as a middle-schooler.

  But the fact that I’d healed myself during that conversation was pretty nice too.