Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

Jin was rather pleased with their group performance during the round of circling the area around their base to hunt. Basima had cut herself up pretty badly from falling into a thorn bush, and Hadia had gotten a nasty bite on her arm from another demon rabbit, but Karam had fixed them up easily enough.

They ended up with three more small monster carcasses to show for it, which Hadia helped show her how to dress once they got back. It was definitely gross enough that she thought it might be better to just deal with the meat loss and loot them going forward.

The group also got lucky by finding some berry bushes that Alim confirmed were safe to eat, but also some mushrooms that were exceptionally poisonous, and he informed them not to risk even touching them.

Jin was really hoping they could find some fruit or nut trees or something soon to help supplement their new monster diet and be able to plant something within their protective bubble. The berries would definitely help, but she had no idea if the tower would protect them from getting food poisoning or dying of malnutrition.

They slept in shifts, taking two-hour watch rotations, and luckily, nothing attacked them in the night that time. When Jin awoke in the morning, she was surprised by the updated tally that happened at Midnight.

Apparently Antoni had either found a pack of monsters to slaughter, or he had kept hunting through the night to retake the lead. Jin noticed that no other Fighters had nearly the same point lead so she was only left to assume that either they were feeding him the monsters or he was actively kill-stealing from the group.

She guessed it was also possible that he was just talented enough to go off and solo things on his own. She assumed that was exactly what Pax had been doing, considering he apparently murdered his own teammate… At least he appeared to be making good on his claim of doing crazy things for the sake of some underground rebellion.

On a whim, Jin decided to double check the shop as well to get an idea of what items might be available now on the third day.

She sighed, grateful that she had purchased her Knowledge Tome when she had the chance. It was nice to see some cheaper options might become available as well and that the Rations Kit might be remaining as a constant option for a while. She wondered if it would be a permanent one but felt it was too early to tell still.

Hadia and Karam were still sleeping at the moment, and Alim had gone outside to try and plan for potential gardening locations. Basima had surprised Jin by requesting to still share a bed to sleep in and in her own pitiful weakness she had agreed. They kept their hands to themselves, but it did make Jin wonder if Basima was fine knowing that she reminded her of Phoenix.

Pushing that dangerous thought from her mind, she turned to the blonde, who was trying to light the fireplace the way Hadia had shown, and asked, "Is there extra points or punishment potentially for killing a teammate?"

Basima actually dropped the flint and steel she was holding to snap her head up and stare at Jin. She slowly slid herself further away as she replied with her own question, "Why do you ask?"

It took Jin a second to figure out the odd behavior before shaking her head. "I'm not going to kill you, Bas. I just saw that a Whisper had killed another Whisper."

"What?!" she replied in shock, quickly pulling up her own display to confirm it. "Oh. My. Gods!" she exclaimed, putting a hand over her mouth. "I haven't heard of that happening since that Fighter went berserk. Most of the Sects are completely loyal to their own. There's usually not enough of a benefit to sowing massive distrust like that unless it was some weird act of self-defense."

"Good to know," Jin noted. "They basically make themselves a team of one going against six others at that point, don't they?"

Basima nodded. "Exactly. There's no real punishment from the system for it, though. It's treated just like killing any other Champion."

She returned back to trying to get the fire started, and Jin asked, "What happens when they leave the tower? Assuming they live and it wasn't self-defense, that is."

The blonde tilted her head to the side in thought before slowly saying, "They'll likely be executed for treason by their Sect leader. Potentially exiled to the desert instead. At the very least, they won't be kept in the Silence Sect anymore."

Jin felt her jaw drop in surprise by that. Pax was throwing his entire life away… on the chance she would help them?

Once Karam and Hadia joined them downstairs, Jin went to retrieve Alim for a quick breakfast before they began their day-long trek back to the wall. By their estimates they had made it to the cabin in about four hours total that first day. Jin thought it would take them longer if they were planning to take the time to search the ground for lost loot instead of fleeing for their lives.

"Are we sure this is the right way?" Hadia asked again, looking around the moderately dense forest. They had already been moving for a couple of hours and were slightly spread out from one another as they searched the underbrush. Jin had been using her spear to score marks higher up on trees to note their path, not wanting to get lost or hope the bracelets would guide them back to the base they had already claimed. She didn't think they would at this point when it hadn't triggered again.

"No, but it's not like we're exceptionally pressed for time either," Jin pointed out. "We've got twelve weeks before we're forced to the next floor, right? Or can we just stay on this one forever? Might not be a bad way to survive this thing."

"The floors close when their original time runs out," Karam answered from a few yards behind her. "They want all the Champions to keep climbing even if some are slower about it."

"That's unfortunate. It would have been nice to—"

Her words cut off as her eyes fell upon a stranger darting behind a tree as they broke through the mist from the direction she had planned to go in. Raising her spear, the others noticed her action, and she used the whisper signs they had all been going over to give very basic instructions to everyone. "One stranger. Caution. Be Ready."

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"We saw you," Jin called out. "Come out, and we might not shoot you."

"Might?" Basima mouthed at her with a raised eyebrow.

She just shrugged in response and refocused on the potential enemy who peeked out from behind the tree. "Don't shoot!" a feminine voice replied. "I don't want to fight all of you."

"Then turn around and go back to your own base, or tell us why you're here."

"I, um… was just exploring for food," the woman replied, and Jin caught a glimpse of long brown hair. "Do you happen to have some I could trade some points for or something? I'm, um, really hungry and haven't been able to find anything edible yet."

Jin frowned and glanced at Hadia, who shrugged in response. She turned to the side to sign specifically to Alim. "Make sure your shield is fresh and have Hadia go with you. We know where the berries are, so maybe trade her some, but be on alert."

Then she said aloud for Hadia and the stranger's benefit, "I'm sending two of ours over. We have a little, and it'll let you know what the edible kind looks like. We've seen bushes around in a handful of places so far."

"Oh, um, thank you!" the nervous-looking woman replied as she stepped out from behind the tree a bit more.

Jin gestured for Karam to move closer to the others as well so he could react with his mist if she turned out to be aggressive, and waved Basima over to quietly whisper, "If she attacks, you shoot her right in the face. Got it?"

The archer's eyes went wide at that, but she nodded, not voicing any argument.

It was when Alim and Hadia reached the stranger that the trap Jin had been half-expecting seemed to get sprung. It just wasn't from the direction she had anticipated.

Jin's shield shattered like glass as a heavy ax landed on it from behind. The effect made Basima yelp in surprise and trip backward in her attempt to put distance between herself and the unexpected enemy behind them.

The attacker only seemed to be momentarily caught off-guard before pulling back the large battle ax to swing at her again. It was enough time, however, for Jin to react, dodging the heavy swipe before thrusting her own spear in retaliation.

The man she was now facing off with seemed at least competent at battle and managed to twist his body to avoid the thrust. She didn't stop, though, triggering her [Piercing Thrust] with a thought and managing to hit him in his shoulder.

He cried out from the pain and seemed to activate his own ability, suddenly spinning madly in place with his ax, creating a whirlwind of destruction around him. Jin had seen that kind of attack before, though… in a video game. She almost laughed at how ridiculous it looked in real life, but the current adrenaline and threat to her life kept her from losing control.

Jin took the brief respite as she backed off to help Basima regain her footing and ordered her, "Shoot him! He's basically wide open."

"I…" Basima hesitated, looking distressed for a moment before stammering, "That's Speaker Yeter. He—I can't attack him!"

"What?" Jin replied in utter confusion. He was attacking them. How could she possibly not want to defend herself? "He's the enemy! Shoot him before he kills us!"

"I can't!" she whined, covering her face with her hands and shrinking slightly. "My parents serve under his mother! They'll be punished!"

A growl almost escaped Jin's throat as she realized a new disadvantage the Servants had in this twisted game. Even if they tried to win, they would lose.

Another shield appeared around Jin, and she glanced back to see Hadia chasing down the enemy girl while Alim was trying to return to the group. She really needed to get him some kind of actual weapon instead of just a wand. At least he seemed to be making good use of what he had as he seemed to mouth the words to an exceptionally long incantation.

She didn't wait to find out what it would do, though, as Yeter finally stopped spinning, and Jin decided to trust in Alim's shield. Aiming for the middle, she was both pleased and disgusted when her next [Piercing Thrust] managed to shatter the man's sternum and completely impale him through the heart.

He didn't scream that time. The shock only came out in the form of a gasp as he fell to his knees with her spear still running through his chest. As his eyes fell on her face, they turned from the glare it had been to simple fear as he managed to say his final words. "Sorry, mom…"

Jin's surprise turned into a mixture of pity and rage. Fuck this game.

A high-pitched scream drew her attention from the corpse that had just finished its fall to the dirt, and Jin's gaze searched for Hadia and the other enemy. The rest of the group followed her, and they found Hadia standing over the woman's body, raising her mace to strike.

"Please! I'm sorry! He made me!" the woman wailed, her hands raised to try to block the oncoming strike.

"Wait!" Jin called out.

Hadia didn't turn to look at her but snarled, "This bitch deserves to die."

"Maybe, but we need information, too," she replied, coming up beside her to stand near the prone woman's head and potentially block Hadia's impassioned attack. Hadia didn't strike but gave a single nod, keeping her eyes fixed on the enemy. "Who are you?" Jin asked the begging woman.

"Speaker Katrina," she replied through tears. "I swear, Yeter made me be the decoy! He wanted the bounty points!"

"That's a lie," Hadia said through clenched teeth. "I know who you are and the games you play. You told everyone that Jay forced himself on you and got him executed. I grew up with him, and there's no way he would have ever done something like that, you liar."

"I didn't lie! Everyone knows Lovers only have one thing on their minds!" she yelled back, then looked around as though searching for a way to escape. She glared up when she didn't find one and asked, "And how would a Servant even know who that boy—"

"I was a Lover! He was my friend! He told me how he turned you down because he didn't like girls, you dumb—"

Jin did have to move that time to stop Hadia's swing from crushing Katrina's skull.

Hadia actually glared at her for the interruption and yelled at her, "Back off, Jin! I'm not letting her go."

She tried to be calm. The twisted fury on Hadia's scarred face actually helped her to do that. Slowly, she nodded and said, "I know. I understand what you're saying, even if I can't understand what you're feeling right now. We need information first, though. It'll help all of us survive longer."

Hadia seemed to calm down as she spoke but didn't relax at all, instead giving a curt nod.

Jin tried again to interrogate the Speaker. "Where is your base?"

"I can't tell you that," Katrina replied with a glare. "Even if you let me go, they'll kill me for telling you."

"Well, then, I guess you're useless to me," Jin replied with a shrug and took a step back to show that she wouldn't block the next strike.

"Wait-wait-wait—I'll tell you!"

Jin took another step forward to resume her protective position. "I'm listening."

Katrina looked back and forth from Jin's completely blank [Poker Face] to Hadia's unmasked rage. Trying to calculate her odds of survival, Katrina asked, "Will you promise me sanctuary with your group for telling you? I can even lead you there if you promise to let me live."

"No prom—"

Jin cut off Hadia's decline and rhetorically asked, "What guarantee do we have that you won't try to kill us in our sleep? No, we won't let you that close to us. Tell us, and potentially risk the wilds or die before you can stand."

The woman glanced between them again before giving a shaky laugh that turned into a sneer as she spat at Hadia, "Jay was a soft coward who couldn't satisfy anyone. The only thing he managed to do right was be entertaining when he wailed for his daddy to save him as they fed him to the tower. You should have seen his tears as they—"

Hadia didn't let her speak more, and Jin didn't stop the mace this time.

Screams of rage and pain filled the eerie forest as Hadia took her revenge out and then some, making the Speaker unrecognizable over the next couple of minutes landing blow after blow.

Jin couldn't stomach it and rejoined the others, who had all silently agreed to give their enraged teammate space. Instead, they all went back to the other corpse she had left behind in the dirt.

"I forgot to ask if you looted Daren and Celia this morning," Alim signed to her. "You explained what happened with the tree getting 'stored' to make loot better later. Did you try that with them?"

Jin grimaced but nodded and signed back, "Yeah. I figured it would be better than having actual items or those Bit things. I didn't want to feel… attached to whatever they gave."

"Good point," Alim agreed, nodding as well. "I think you should do the same to this guy, then try spending it all on the other girl. I'm curious how good it will be."

Jin could admit she was curious about that too and bent down to loot the corpse essence of Speaker Yeter. The body seemed to wilt slightly, but no other outward sign was apparent that anything had happened, and she asked Alim, "Should we bury the body?"

He shook his head. "Not worth the time. It'll decay faster now, or a monster will take care of it."

She sighed and nodded in response, signing for the others to wait there while she went back to Hadia. It was a weird sort of feeling in the pit of her stomach that she couldn't quite put a name to when she saw Hadia kneeling in the dirt, sobbing next to the feminine body with a bashed-in head. Jin wasn't sure she really believed the warnings people would often give about revenge feeling hollow. Either way, she didn't think she would regret not preventing Katrina's death.

In an effort to return the favor she had received the night before last, Jin moved to kneel beside Hadia and gently rubbed her back. She hoped it would help reassure the woman that she wasn't alone, much the way Jin had felt after her first kill of a person.

After a couple more minutes, Hadia managed to finally say, "I'm not sad she's dead."

"I know."

"She deserved it."

"I know."

"I just… I wish I hadn't wanted to do it so badly in the first place," Hadia quietly admitted, her face sinking further into her hands as she wiped away the tears.

"You wish your friend was alive again."

"Yes," she replied, finally turning towards Jin and resting her forehead on Jin's shoulder. "He didn't deserve to die just for saying 'no.'"

"I know. I agree," Jin replied, still rubbing circles on her friend's back. "At least she won't get the chance to kill anyone else with her lies."

Hadia nodded against her but didn't speak again.

"May I loot her now, or do you still want to punch her some more?"

A snort of laughter coming from her made Jin smile a bit as Hadia replied, "Go ahead. I think I got enough in."

Jin leaned forward just enough to brush her hand against the corpse and agreed to the prompt to use her stored-up loot essence this time. On the ground in front of her, a miniature shield appeared that was softly glowing, and she asked, "I don't remember a shield being an option in the prep room. If that's an Aspect, why would she give that one?"

Hadia blinked a few times at the item before giving a smirk. "Well, she could have really used one a few minutes ago."