"A tank roaming around empty tunnels, looking for me." Katarina's voice echoed in the small tunnel; her target was at least 3 meters tall. In a small tunnel, she had the best advantage.
A shield was thrown at her with such speed that it could cut her in half, but she just stepped next to it.
When the shield started to return to its owner, with swift movement, Katarina jumped on it.
Another shield appeared in front of the tank, big enough to cover the whole tunnel. Using the other shield, she collided with the other one, breaking both in the process.
"You are thinking, what is her weapon?" Katarina laughed as she ran straight toward Marcus. "I don't need a weapon for the likes of you."
Four shields came to life around her like a coffin, in hope of crushing her body. Yet it was futile, as all they got was an illusion of her.
Around her, three new illusions, all with her shape, ran toward her target, but one by one they were destroyed.
"Give up, demon; you will pay for your sins today." Marcus said with a calm tone that even though he wanted to kill her as fast as possible, he knew that looking down on his opponent could have catastrophic consequences.
A small gate came out of Marcus's soul above his head, "Realm of justice."
The world twisted around them as both of them were transferred into a dark circle with a shield covering the edges of the circle. "This place will stand until one of us is dead."
Katarina could feel some strength leaving his body toward Marcus. "This domain favors the upholding of justice, right?"
Marcus said nothing while waiting for her to get weaker and weaker.
"That's your biggest mistake. What is justice? For me it's that the strongest takes it all." Her hands opened into the sky as her mind attacked the structure of the domain itself; after a mere second, the flow was reversed, with her strength returning.
Marcus yelled with a frustrated scream, "How is that possible? What is your magic?"
She summoned her own equipment, a necklace with the shape of a cross. "Hand of God."
Unlike other people, Katarina didn't have a stat in magic; her magic was her mind, and as a result, her growth was faster than anyone else's. With some bonuses from a certain person, her stat in mind was already 1211.
Her equipment name was Cross of Jahoda; it allowed her strength stat to reach her mind stat just for three minutes, and with no one surviving the three-minute mark, she didn't have a problem with the timing.
The sudden surge in power made her blood boil from excitement; her opponent was a Cardinal, one of the rising stars of the military, but his face showed his fear toward her.
"Let's finish this."
Once more, she charged toward her opponent; a coffin of shields trapped her, but this time around she just broke them all with a single kick.
Marcus summoned another piece of equipment; however, Katarina was already in his hand's reach, "Shield of g…"
With all her strength, she punched at his chest. Three layers of shield tried to stop her, but her hands passed them like they were made out of paper; with the impact, she could hear almost all of his bones in his chest break.
His giant figure fell on his knees in front of her. "You didn't die from that; I should praise you." With another strike to his head, half of his head cracked open, and blood and brain splashed on her cloak.
Her mind swallowed anything that resembled her mind in her soul, "1 out of 5."
The small dome crumbled down, teleporting both of them back to the small tunnel.
With the blood of the corpse, she started to write something on the wall:
"I'm coming, Alice."
She observed the lifeless body for the last time and continued on her path. "That's the stupidity of defining yourself in a squad; without your team, you will be just a small fish ready to be slaughtered."
Unlike the trainings of the military, most veteran warriors could do everything a squad does on their own; that made them the most terrifying type. Katarina from the start knew that her opponent was a tank; that meant his attack power couldn't even make a scratch on her.
She massaged Ray: "I killed one of the Cardinals."
No message came from the other side: "Cardinals from underground are way stronger to deal with; wonder how he is doing."
She sat on the ground to take a breath and get ready for the next phase of her plan.
"Let's see how my progress is."
The lust system welcomes you.
Age: 20
Character: Katarina Star
Rank: SSS
Level: 4
Experience: 300/500000
Kinks: Anal, BDSM, Group sex
Magic: Mind magic
Abilities: Mind Eater, Brain of Star, Blink
Equipment: Cross of Jahoda
Your base stats:
Strength: 71
Mind: 1240
Stardust: 1/5
Bond with your past: 100% bonus to mind
"With stardust, I should take another big bonus, then I will be ready for the impact."
Meanwhile, Alice moved through the tunnels in her dreams; everywhere she went, bodies and corpses had fallen on the ground.
Soon, she found the body of Marcus, with the writing on the wall.
Upon seeing her name on the wall, she jumped out of her dream; with heavy breaths, she looked for air to fill her lungs.
Everyone surrounded her to check her status.
"What happened?"
Alice took a deep breath and said, "Marcus is dead. I underestimated her. We should change plans."
"I have already found one of the Cardinals from the underground; they have a fortress as defense. I say we should go to them." Liam had already observed them, but no matter how much he looked, no other Cardinal was visible.
"We can't split up. If we want to go, all of us must go together."
Alice nodded. "Yes, things are getting out of hand, but we don't know if the attackers are from the underground or not. That woman knew my name; that means her roots run deep."
"Wait, what?"
"Above Marcus's body, she had written my name."
Fear rose once more in their hearts; the situation became worse and worse.
Liam tried to calm the others. "I say, all of us go to the mansion; we can negotiate with them at worst."
Jorge raised his shaking hand: "I say we take a vote."
"I agree. Let's take a vote."
What none of them knew was that outside of their defenses, Katarina stood while listening to their conversation.