Escaping is the best course of action, a tiny voice twitched inside my mind. While carefully moving away from the scene...
Of course, self-preservation is paramount — especially saving ourselves from this unwarranted situation. You did your part in saving as much as you can, so escaping now is justified, my mind continued, rationalizing every step backward. I put down a wandering skeleton littered on my path with a casual stomp. Simple. Clean. Efficient.
But then—
That crazy dude attacked this village because of me. The thought hit like a cold bucket of water. It was hunting me. Destroyed. Killed. And continues to kill others because of me.
Owwww, brain, I hate you, I thought, pressing my palms against my skull. Why does guilt always arrive exactly when I'm trying to escape? It's like a personal paparazzi.
Now Adelaide rushed to my aid with the others to stop it for me, and I'm just escaping alone, saving my neck. What a hero, my thoughts continued, dripping with self-loathing.
I stopped on my tracks with a sigh that rattled through my battered ribs. "I don't like where this is going!" I complained aloud.
"Huh? What? Where are we going?" Kala startled beside me, his single eye widening. He looked around alarmed and moved closer, his pupil constricting as he figured out what I was saying. His tentacles waved nervously.
I pivoted sharply. "Let's go back and fight that monster with the others," I said, fixing my blade diagonally in front of me. The morning sun caught the steel, making it shine like a beacon of terrible decision-making.
"Are you crazy? She told us to leave, and now you're going back?" He asked sensibly, already shaking his head. "And have you seen their numbers? They'll subdue him anytime now. No use in endangering yourself… Us both unnecessarily," Kala corrected himself, emphasizing the plural with alarming accuracy.
"Kala, they're fighting that maniac because of me. I can't just sit back and do nothing!" I couldn't believe I was trying to convince Kala to go get killed again. Of all the days to be noble. Not today, cowardice. Today we ride. Or walk. Stagger, really. My body felt like it had been used as a dodgeball.
"I got this village in danger, and I am just walking away!"
"So what? You are not the one who attacked and destroyed the village. Also, you didn't ask those people to help you?" He snapped back, logic cutting through my guilt like a hot knife.
"I…" I paused. Hey, he's got a point there.
While having an argument with my familiar fading into the background, we didn't notice that the surrounding was beginning to shake. The ground trembled beneath our feet. The sound of giant footsteps grew louder and louder — each impact sending ripples through the earth like a heartbeat of destruction.
"Peek-a-boo, I found you!" An eerie voice bellowed, layered with something that sounded like multiple throats speaking in unison. It echoed off the burning ruins like a nightmare lullaby.
My heightened awareness flared instantly. A red dot appeared under my feet, expanding quickly across the ground like blood spreading on marble.
Heightened Awareness tagged: Blood Golem Leap Stomp
"Quack!" I blurted — my emergency word, my panic signal, my soul screaming silently. I grabbed Kala in a bear hug and activated Force Dash to my left while Kala shrieked, "Eek!"
The golem's foot crashed the ground diagonally where we'd stood a millisecond before, creating craters deep enough to swallow houses. Cracks exploded outward from its impact point, spiderwebbing across the earth with a crushing, roaring sound as it skidded on its immense weight, popping rocks and debris like popcorn.
After I zipped with my Force Dash, I did a roll and jumped backwards as far as I could, landing in a crouch and facing the beast — not giving it a blindspot for even a moment. Whoo. It felt good having better moves and better control of my body in this Isekai world. Just thinking of it gave me a tear in my eyes. Kiko, you are awesome! I patted myself on the back, proud despite everything. Progress, baby. Bloody, bruised progress.
The fleshgolem skidded further, then — using its left arm to brace against the ground — pivoted with terrifying grace. It faced our direction fully, and its eyes were hollow, inward spirals of human and animal parts: bones and flesh arranged like an empty void staring over us. A menacing cold aura rolled off it in waves, chilling the air itself.
Fireballs, arrows, and magic missiles ensued — a barrage of elemental fury hitting the monster with little to no damage. The explosions from magic pitted some parts of the monster's flesh, but it constricted back together like living clay, sealing wounds that should have been fatal. Regeneration on hard mode.
"Yeehaw!" screamed the lich — like a manic cowboy with layered voices adding mysterious effects. The sound was wrong, distorted, like hearing your worst nightmare through a broken radio. The lich eyed us with searing glee and pointed its staff directly at me.
"Walls of the Underdark, keep my prey still, oh hear me and heed my call!" He commanded, diagrams circling the tip of his staff in complex geometric patterns that hurt to look at. Meanwhile, his golem sped toward us, crashing through ruined huts with its pivot — wood splintering, bone barriers shattering like glass.
Red lines appeared like a 2D box closing in, and I was at the center. My heightened awareness tagged the skill immediately.
Heightened Awareness tagged: Bone Flesh Prison
"Kala, we are being trapped in a box — let's dodge now!" I commanded, voice tight with urgency.
"On me! I'll give you a boost!" He barked back, hovering seven feet high and two meters away from me. He offered a tentacle, determined and ready, quivering with anticipation.
I didn't think twice. I leaped and grabbed his tentacle mid-air. He spun using my initial velocity — momentum building, building — and threw me upward and away. Then he ascended swiftly, rising above the battlefield like a falling star reversed.
Although we'd just met a few chapters back, our chemistry was on point. Seamless. Instinctive. I began to trust this little guy — and he to me — which was reassuring in a world where everyone kept trying to eat or enslave me.
The bone flesh prison rose from the ground — made from… bones and flesh, what else? It swiftly erupted upward, peppering rocks and dust, trapping nothing. An empty cage for empty prey. The illusion shattered as I realized it was meant to corner, not capture.
"Not so fast!" The lich growled, his voice dropping octaves into something guttural and ancient.
The golem headed straight at me, its massive form blotting out the dawn light.
"Graaaaaw!" A hero berserker screamed — equipped with twin axes, registered on my peripheral vision running wildly. He wore little more than pants and boots, runes shimmering on his torso and arms like living tattoos. He dashed to the golem's foot and slashed multiple times in a row, creating arcs of killing energy that skidded past through to the other side.
What's up with these characters, lacking garments and stuff? I asked myself in a split second. Is this a fashion choice or a budget constraint?
The berserker's attack made the golem stumble — just slightly — but it easily maintained its balance by using its gigantic arms to crash down to the ground, stopping its advance with earth-shaking force.
More heroes and humanoids joined my location, tagged by my awareness skill accordingly. A gnoll knight — furred, armored, snarling — and a human paladin stood in front of me at the ready, creating a barricade of tower shields that gleamed in the scattered sunlight.
"Are you okay?" asked the paladin, wearing full plate armor etched with holy symbols.
"I guess," I answered, testing my legs. They held. Barely.
"Good," he replied simply, already turning back to face the threat.
Three archers dropped from behind our position, landing in perfect formation. A human mage joined us moments later, staff already crackling with arcane energy.
"Archers, target the lich on his shoulders — limit his casting ability!" The Paladin commanded, confident and authoritative. "Mage, create a barrier! Tank with me!"
"Yo, got it," the gnoll agreed, nocking an arrow with practiced ease.
The archers wasted no time, shooting elemental arrows toward the lich — who was now being protected by the golem's oversized hand, curled around him like a monstrous glove shielding its master.
A stringed instrumental sound plucked and echoed — vibrational, filling the surrounding air like golden threads weaving through smoke. My body felt lighter. My energy being replenished slowly, like warmth returning to frozen limbs.
Then a bard emerged from two ruined burning huts, skip-walking while performing an intricate solo on his lute. He looked like a life-sized Peter Pan look-alike — leather tunic, feathered cap, gleefully skip-walking toward us with impossible cheerfulness in the midst of apocalyptic chaos.
Then the minions of the lich joined the standoff. Greater skeletons roared — silent roars that vibrated in your chest. Zombies danced the thriller, their movements jerky yet synchronized, unnervingly coordinated. Skeleton mages sizzled magic in their hands, sparks dancing between phalanges. And at the back, towering over everything, was the golem — a mountain of stitched-together nightmares.
Zooming out the perspective, the landscape painted itself into a portrait of the enemy in front of us — a symphony of darkness arrayed against a handful of hopeful survivors. Kala hovered down to my side, tentacles wiggling back to his body, his single eye scanning the battlefield with calculated assessment.
We were outnumbered. Outmatched. Out of options.
But we were also standing our ground.
And sometimes, that's enough to start with.