“I’m not trying to hurt her!” shouted Artyom. “I’m not even going to turn her in, she never even hurt anyone!”

  “As if I’d believe you!” Lensa shouted back. “And even if I did… I’ve abandoned my duties to the goddess more than enough, I can at least find some redemption in killing you, the true thief behind the armor piece.”

  “What are you-” began Artyom as he cut through two of the newly summoned undead. These zombies were wearing armor, including a metal collar around their weak point, and moved twice as fast even with the extra weight.

  “The goddess finally showed me the culprit: you. She led me down here where you were attacking her servant Sister Elery, and I bravely stopped you and saved the day.”

  Artyom looked at her and grimaced at the smug look on her face. It was obvious from the way she said it, her series of events wasn’t something she believed either, it was just what she was going to tell everyone after she killed him.

  If she killed him.

  Artyom didn’t spare words for someone who’d shown herself time and time again the enemy now revealing herself true. His mind simply jumped into high gear as he took in the information before him.

  “Sister Elery got back her energy, her eyes are full of sheer hatred, and her summoning is much stronger than before. Lensa must be influencing her with some kind of buffs to her Skills and some kind of emotional manipulation. She’s also a priestess, so the buffs are even interacting with the goddess’ System directly.”

  Artyom collected his feelings and desires of mercy towards Sister Elery and directed them as an aura of right at the woman in question, but she didn’t even react when it hit her.

  “How strong is Lensa’s aura… wait, I didn’t even get any resistance, it just didn’t work at all. What Lensa used isn’t aura at all! Whatever it is, it’s completely overriden Sister Elery’s emotional state, it’s probably related to the magic she used to curse me when we first met.”

  But through his strategizing, one thought popped out in his mind more than anything else; the thoughts of a predator. Sister Elery was sitting in front of him, only one zombie between her and Artyom. He could go around it and end this whole fight right now.

  But who knew how much force it would take to knock her out with Lensa’s buffs? Artyom knew how much force it would take to kill her: everything he had.

  But he couldn’t do it, wouldn’t do it. Even if this wasn’t Earth, he found himself caring about the kids here. He wasn’t going to destroy their entire world.

  Sister Elery regained her bearings and activated her hide and seek Skill, teleporting away.

  Artyom didn't know if she was just behind another pillar in the room again or if the Skill was strengthened enough to send her somewhere farther away. It didn’t matter to him because at the other end of the basement was a much more appropriate target for his aggression.

  The previously summoned undead didn’t get the bonus the new ones had, making it trivial for Artyom to carve his way through the horde towards Lensa.

  When he reached her, she didn’t look surprised, and simply raised her staff in a defensive posture.

  “Too slow!”

  Artyom was already behind her by the time she lifted it all the way up, and delivered a Gravity Blender to the back of her neck.

  The magic made contact and activated, seemingly bending space itself around the impact point into a singularity.

  And then…

  Lensa swung her staff.

  When the Gravity Blender hit, Artyom knew nothing had happened. Space had warped around the point of impact, but Lensa’s flesh did not. He tried pouring even more magic into the ongoing attack, and when he saw the swing coming a mile away, he decided to block it with his arm.

  Crack

  Artyom screamed in pain as he grabbed his left arm and jumped back.

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  It was broken, he knew it. A clean fracture.

  But how was she even physically stronger than that boss monster?! She’s a priestess of all things, he’d expect that kind of insane strength from one of the others, like Daisy!

  Artyom mapped out a path to the exit and switched his armor spell to an even stronger version of his speed spell. He would need all the speed he could get to get out of there if Lensa was…

  She completed the follow-through of her swing and slowly turned to face Artyom.

  Slowly…

  Artyom knew if her speed matched her strength, he would already be dead. But thankfully the two almost never scaled up at the same rate, with the former ironically being outpaced by the latter. But still never to this degree.

  That reality was keeping Artyom alive right now, but also made him underestimate Lensa in the first place. A tradeoff Artyom wished he knew enough about from the beginning to have never made the one he did first place.

  Artyom’s mind began racing again, this time towards Lensa’s potential weaknesses. He hadn’t had a chance to come up with one earlier with how little he knew about her skillset beyond how she cursed him and cut off the Crystal Kobold Crossing boss from his healing, but he had more material to work with, and yet…

  He had even less of an idea.

  “Internal attacks? I could trick her into monologuing and throw a Gravity Lance into her open mouth. Or maybe get her to hit herself? She could be like the Nemean Lion from Greek mythology whose hide could only be pierced by its own claws. But it was killed through blunt force trauma, and my spell should have bypassed any external defense!”

  Artyom didn’t get a chance to think further, as a ring of undead began to rise all around him, cutting him off from an easy exit.

  He readied himself to jump into the air or cut through them, but another voice echoed out before he could commit.

  “[Orderly March]!” shouted Sister Elery from somewhere both near and far at once, and the already fast undead began to move twice as quickly.

  One of them grabbed Artyom’s leg as he tried to jump, and another his good arm. The rest made to attack with claws, teeth, and rusting weapons he was sure would now hurt more than ever.

  Artyom prepared a series of spells to break out and destroy every one of the surrounding undead, but it would cost him almost a quarter of his current magic. Quick and dirty magic to destroy everything in the area and keep himself protected.

  But before he could unleash the magic, the zombies holding him in place loosened their grip, and Artyom managed to shove them away before jumping to safety. As he re-absorbed the magic he was about to cast, he saw those same two undead begin to fall over, once again lifeless. A knife-sized hole was poked through their metal collars.

  “Took you long enough,” said Artyom with a smile. “Which one of us three did you follow down here?”

  Neitra appeared behind Artyom, her back against his. She threw him a potion he quickly downed, and felt his broken bone immediately mend. “Three? I followed Lensa down here after she came after you. Who were you following?”

  “More threats to the children. More mouths to silence,” whispered Sister Elery, venom dripping from each of her sparse words.

  “Sister Elery is the culprit?!” exclaimed Neitra. “But she’s so nice, she wouldn’t say or do something like this!”

  “Yup, she’s the culprit, but she stole the armor piece and summoned the undead to get Tommy to stay here longer. She wanted to convince him to do something about all the warbands that have been attacking villages.”

  “Well, that doesn’t sound so bad, and nobody’s gotten hurt. Why can’t we just let her go?”

  “I told her I wanted to do just that, but Lensa here put her under some kind of curse that’s making her act this way.”

  “She’s part of our team, why would she do that?!” Neitra exclaimed again, with even more shock than before.

  “Probably because she and the others besides Tommy are evil.”

  “They’re trying to stop the Dark Lord, there’s no way-”

  Lensa fired off two orbs of light from her staff at impossible speeds that struck the pair.

  “I’m not sure how you wiggled your way out of the last ‘blessing’ I gave you, but this curse doesn’t need your permission to take effect!” shouted Lensa as her magic began to meld with Neitra and Artyom’s bodies.

  And then the two blinked.

  “Is… is this some kind of prank?” asked Neitra. “Because it feels more mean than funny. But the others usually treat me that way.”

  “No, that was definitely Lensa trying to curse us, it’s way too similar to what she did to me when I first met all of you. Do you feel any different mentally?” asked Artyom.

  “Nope, everything’s the same. I still think this is just a really mean prank.”

  Two dozen more enhanced undead began to rise out of the ground and quickly began to attack the duo.

  But thanks to Artyom’s own reinforcements, they were quickly dealt with. Neitra’s knife pierced through their metal collars like a hot knife through butter to strike their weak point with perfect precision.

  “[Steel Piercing Stab],” she said to Artyom. “It also works on other metals too, but I guess the name sounds cooler this way.”

  “I guess so,” mused Artyom. “But do you believe me now?”

  “I mean… Lensa, are you trying to kill us?”

  “Come on, Neitra, she isn’t just going to admit-”

  “Of course! I should’ve done it a long time ago, but I can at least redeem myself to the goddess for all my sins if I do it now!” shouted Lensa. “And what better tool to use than what’s been holding me back in the first place?”

  Neitra looked at Artyom with a wry grin.

  “In all fairness, nobody ever monologues like that in real life.”

  Neitra’s smile only grew. “But I’m glad she did, because that means I don’t have to feel bad about finally fighting back!”