At this point, her form had been blackened by blood, ash and mud.
She moved with an unrefined, animalistic poise akin to that of a hungry, cornered beast.
Taking care not to walk too closely to any active battlefields, she made her way east until she the Lingen Bridge came into sight.
She stood next to a burnt and broken truck, which protected her from any strayers that happened to be whizzing by.
From what she could see, both Saintly and Cultist forces had cleared the area around the bridge, leaving their dead and countless vehicles behind.
Standing on the bridge was the source of all the destruction.
Her next target.
Lingering beneath the ever-darkening sky.
Mumu immediately broke into a sprint, getting more and more in tune with her body as she did.
Even after marching across the UOZ and fighting with Cratia, she still hadn’t broken a sweat.
This was what it meant to be a KVL.
To be a weapon.
A weapon didn’t sweat, didn’t cry and didn’t complain.
It did its job, and that was that.
So, Mumu was determined to do hers.
She eventually reached the bridge, and her arrival was immediately noticed by her sister, who turned to face her with eyes that glowed terribly red.
Her long black hair was a dirty mop that stuck to her head, her jumpsuit was in tatters, and she carried a machine gun that would otherwise be mounted on a heavily armoured vehicle or aircraft.
It looked like she had just ripped it off of a vehicle with its ammunition box still attached.
- Name: Bia
- Title: Malignant Aneling [Grants (MAL) affinity, making one take 10% less debuff damage.]
- Race: Kuva?ai
- Age: ??
- Gender: Female
- Class: Heavy
- Affiliation: ??
- Actuality Level: 5
Attributes
- Health Points (HP): 186/186
- Realstone Shards: 1
- Damage Reduction (DR): 25%
- Affinity: (PHY), (MAL)
Combat Statistics
- Physical Damage (PHY): 58
- Fire Damage (FIR): 0
- Frost Damage (FRO): 0
- Divine Damage (DIV):
- Malignant Damage (MAL): 0
- Unarmed Damage (PHY): 19
- Total (not counting debuffs): 58
Skills:
Equipment:
Mumu gnashed her teeth as Bia turned her gun’s massive barrel at her.
Then, before Mumu could even blink, Bia shot at her.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Mumu’s body then, by pushing her body to its limits, dodged the bullet, letting it crash loudly far behind her.
Bia let out a grunt before taking a few steps towards Mumu while shooting her a few more times, expecting to tear her apart instantly, but Mumu rushed towards one of the many ruined armoured vehicles, which was further damaged by the high-speed, solid metal projectiles.
Mumu’s heart jumped with every shot, and her eyes were wider than they had ever been in her life, but she remained focused.
Desperately so.
Bia seemingly realized that she couldn’t just keep shooting at the vehicle, and so, at a speed that would have broken an ordinary soldier’s legs, she dashed towards where Mumu hid, keeping her finger on the trigger and subjecting herself to ground-shaking amounts of recoil.
Mumu dashed over to another armoured vehicle, but Bia kept up the pressure and continued chasing, which was completely fine with Mumu, who was waiting for Bia to run out of ammo.
Bia, however, grew visibly impatient, letting out a roar before shooting at a gap in the armour of Mumu’s cover.
“AAH!” Mumu screamed as a bullet tore through the vehicle and forced itself through her abdomen, leaving behind a palm-sized hole.
- Name: Mumu
- Health Points (HP): 116/160
She reeled forward in pain but immediately crawled to the other side of the vehicle as Bia came around to where she had been hiding.
Mumu had made a mistake by letting Bia control the pace of the battle, and so, letting go of whatever she may have been holding onto, she forced herself onto her feet and, with her axes in hand, launched herself onto the roof of the burnt vehicle where she jumped onto an unsuspecting Bia.
As the two crashed onto the ground, Mumu swung her axes down onto Bia’s skull only for Bia to force her head to the side, letting Mumu’s axes cut off only her right cheek, jaw and ear.
- Name: Bia
- Health Points (HP): 97/186
Mumu tried to drag her axes across what was left of Bia’s face, but the rogue punched Mumu in her gaping wound, sending Mumu screaming to the side as she loudly coughed from the pain.
- Name: Bia
- Health Points (HP): 88/160
Bia tried scrambling away, but Mumu let go of her axes and punched what was left of Bia’s face four times after straddling her.
- Name: Bia
- Health Points (HP): 44/160
Bia’s head jerked limply from side to side as Mumu raised her fists once more, punching her four more times until her HP was at 0.
[Congratulations on beating a Level 5 enemy!]
[You Have Levelled Up!]
[You have gained 1 Realstone Shard!]
[You have acquired The Golden Eyes That See!]
Mumu ignored the fact that her wound had rapidly healed, thanks to her levelling up and continued to punch Bia’s head until all that was left was a pile of flesh and bone.
Her heart frantically knocked on her chest, and not a single thought passed her mind for a moment.
What else could she think about?
Instead, she turned to the east.
Towards her next target.
She got onto her feet and glanced at her stats.
- Name: Mumu
- Title: None
- Race: Kuva?ai
- Age: 20
- Gender: Female
- Class: Heavy
- Affiliation: None
- Actuality Level: 3
Attributes
- Health Points (HP): 170/170
- Realstone Shards: 2
- Damage Reduction (DR): 25%
- Affinity: (PHY)
- Weaknesses: (FRO), (DIV), (MAL)
Combat Statistics
- Physical Damage (PHY): 53
- Fire Damage (FIR): 0
- Frost Damage (FRO): 0
- Divine Damage (DIV): 37
- Malignant Damage (MAL): 16
- Unarmed Damage: 17
- Total Damage (Without debuffs): 106
Skills:
Equipment:
She let out a frustrated groan upon seeing that she now had two skills, but she didn’t know how to use them and didn’t want to recklessly use her Realstone Shards.
So, after setting her stats aside, she continued east.
.
..
An exhausted Lav trudged behind Stician, who silently led him through the patch of trees that encircled a lake.
Littered about were ruined vehicles that were half buried in mud and rotting corpses, which made the boy’s stomach churn, but he bit his teeth, trying his best to keep pace in the dark of moonless night.
“I… I wish I couldn’t get tired like you.” He panted.
“We KVL experience fatigue, just at a significantly slower rate than ordinary humans.”
Lav nodded as the two made their way further south, where they spotted a pillbox bunker which seemed eerily empty.
Stician walked up to a tree and leaned against it before gesturing towards the bunker with a nod.
“See if that soldier’s comrades are still there.”
Lav swallowed before taking slow and fearful steps towards the pillbox’s open doorway, which he trembled through to see four corpses splayed about.
Clad in the tattered remains of their gear, it looked like they had been mutilated beyond belief, and this horrid sight made Lav fall to his knees and vomit whatever little his stomach held.
Stician approached from behind, looking at the boy with unmoved eyes.
“Take their tags.”
Her words rang like a thousand bells in Lav’s mind.
He bit his teeth, knowing full well the nature of the world he lived in.
That the gore before him was but a taste and so, wiping the edge of his mouth with the back of his hand, he crawled onto his feet and stumbled towards the corpses.
He then retrieved their dog tags, bloodied as they were and stood.
“Big sis?”
“Mmm?” Stician sounded flatly.
“I want to help Big Sis Mumu,” Lav said while tightly clutching the tags, and his words finally made a crack form on Stician’s face as her eyes narrowed.
“I know you will. Now, come.”
Stician led Lav out of the bunker, and the two made their way out of the forest.
They then, with Stician making Lav run the whole time, returned to the soldier they’d met, who they handed the tags to, bringing him to tears.
This war was clearly taking its toll on both the land and the people.
It was all so terrible, but Lav knew one person who could change it all.
The person who had saved his life.
The person whom he knew would go on to save countless others.
Mumu.
But he couldn’t just leave her to bear the weight of it alone.
He wasn’t content with just helping her.
He wanted to stand by her side as her equal and hold the eight of it all alongside her.
“What next?” He asked with eyes that burnt with more determination than ever.
“More supply runs.”
.
..
Mumu reached the centre of the forest to the east, where she stood searching for her next target.
The sun had begun to rise, and a thick fog rose from the lake.
While Mumu could still see quite far, it definitely slowed her down a little as she walked along the lake’s perimeter, weaving through several broken-down vehicles and corpses.
She eventually stopped upon coming across her target, clad in thick plates of blackened armour and brandishing a great hammer as she sat on an old log.
The woman, the last of the three rogue KVL, only had one arm and long pointed ears and her long black hair draped from her hanging head until it touched the forest floor.
The woman turned her tired eyes towards Mumu, who stood with her axes firmly in hand, and spoke with a voice that was so weak, it would have been lost if it weren’t for the silence of the forest.
“If you have come to kill me… please make it quick.”