Arianna was angry. No, furious.

They had just killed the giant bear. No one was seriously hurt. But that was no thanks to Cassis. The image kept playing in her mind, over and over: Cassis, sword lodged in the bear's belly, bracing himself as an earth spike surged from the ground straight for his chest.

He could have died.

She hadn't been fast enough to stop him. She was too far away, still too slow, and she knew she wouldn't make it in time. But the fox had moved. Thank the stars for the fox. She had tackled him out of the way with enough force to send both of them tumbling across the battlefield. Arianna didn't know if she wanted to hug her or punch Cassis harder for needing saving in the first place.

And now? Now, after the bear lay dead, Cassis was scanning the battlefield for his next enemy. His posture was tense, wary, as if he expected the fox to turn on them next. The paranoid bastard.

Arianna narrowed her eyes and stomped toward him, fury pounding in her chest. If he thought he could casually glance around like nothing happened, he had another thing coming. She wouldn't surprise him, she wasn't that reckless. He was still in full alert mode, and catching him off-guard could end poorly. So she made her steps louder. Deliberately loud.

He tilted his head just slightly. He'd heard her. Good. She picked up her pace and hissed through clenched teeth, "What was that?!"

He didn't even glance at her. "What?" he asked absently, eyes fixed ahead. The fox had returned to her cub, both flanked by Felicia, Matteo, and Marcus. All of them alive. All of them safe. Felicia was even smiling, a grin so wide it looked like her whole soul had been healed.

But Arianna wasn't about to be distracted. She shoved Cassis. He didn't budge, probably didn't even notice. She shoved harder, really shoving him this time. He had to take two full steps back to catch his balance, and finally, finally, he looked at her properly. His expression wasn't apologetic. It was confused. As if she was the unreasonable one.

"I asked what that was," she hissed again, lower this time, trying to keep the others from overhearing. No need for his family to witness this. It was private. Embarrassing. Infuriating.

"What do you mean?" he asked, genuinely baffled.

She clenched her jaw. "Why would you take an earth spike to the chest! You could have died!"

His eyes finally sharpened in understanding, not because he agreed, but because he now knew what she was referring to. She could read him that well, knew his thought process that well. And this understanding only made her more furious.

"I wouldn't have died," he said calmly. "It would've hurt, but you would've healed me. It was more important to finish the fight quickly. The fox overreacted."

Arianna let out a short, strangled scream and fisted her hands at her sides. He was worried now. She could see it in his eyes. At least he was finally paying attention.

"You. Could. Have. DIED!" she repeated, slower this time, each word a punch.

"I wouldn't have," he said again, voice maddeningly flat.

Arianna closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. Then out. In. Out. No, she would not explode. She would not cry. But she was so close to doing both. When her voice was finally steady enough, she said, "There was no reason to take that risk. It wasn't a desperate fight. I was still up, still healing. The team could dodge, could take hits. There was no need. None." Her voice cracked at the end, and her vision blurred. No. She bit the inside of her cheek, hard. Not now.

Cassis didn't soften. "Maybe," he said, "but you never know in a fight, especially a fight like this. The faster we killed it the better. And I told you, it would've just been an injury. You're a great healer, you would've had me back on my feet in seconds. It wasn't a real risk. I'd rather take some pain than risk anyone else getting hurt or dying. The bear had more skills, more mana than should be around at this time. The longer it lived, the more danger we were in."

He didn't get it. He didn't understand that the moment she'd felt that spike and seen him not move, something had broken open inside her. Raw, consuming fear. Cassis wasn't just her teammate. He was her best friend, her constant for the past ten years, her partner in every way that mattered. And maybe—maybe—something even more than that.

Arianna realized she had two choices. Scream and cry and hit him now… Or walk away. Cool down. Talk later when she could do it without the threat of bursting into tears or actually hitting him with her mace. It would be easy to summon it back from her inventory. She clenched her fists once more and stepped back. "We'll talk later," she said quietly. Then she passed him and walked away in the direction of the fox before he could see the tears she was holding back. Because he needed to understand: when he played with his life, he wasn't just risking himself. He was risking her, too.

Cassis tried to speak again—soft, cautious words—but Arianna just shh-ed him sharply. Not now. She couldn't do it right now. If she opened her mouth, she'd either scream or cry, and neither option appealed to her in front of his entire family. Later. That conversation would happen later.

And there were more pressing matters to address. She'd levelled up from this fight, putting her at level 20 (+1). Her shield skill as well as her warcry spell had ranked up to Beginner, while her water shield had gone up to Intermediate. She really needed to use warcry more often. It didn't take a lot of mana and had some pretty good results. The better she became at it, the more powerful her buffs would be.

As she had learned from the few times she had used it, the power of the buff and it's effects were affected by how much mana she put into the warcry but also the direction she gave the mana. So if she thought she wanted everyone to be faster while releasing the mana soundwave that was the warcry, the groups' speed would be boosted. So she needed to analyse exactly what was required in the fight since she couldn't release consecutive warcries. It had a cooldown. There was no exact number, but she thought it was around an hour.

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Other than levels and ranks, she'd also gained quite a few CP. 240 CP for killing F-rank monsters, 100 CP for healing mortals, 20 CP for killing the giant bear and 100 CP for saving a sentient E-rank monster and its cub. Now that she was almost E-rank herself Arianna felt that she didn't get as much CP for killing F-rank monsters as before. Maybe the CP she got was also awarded according to how hard the task was? Then it would make sense that saving the fox gave more CP than killing the bear, though both were E-rank. Killing the bear was mostly Cassis' work, and it had been a lot harder to convince Cassis to save the fox, than to kill the bear. Healing the fox had also been difficult at first. So the CP she got changed according to the difficulty? That was an interesting concept. Her inner scale was also finally balanced again, not leaning to either side. She was glad she had managed that. Now she just needed to keep it in balance.

She wanted to ask Cassis about his gains, but just the thought of talking to him was too much. So they silently walked towards the place where the fox and her cub lay curled together. Danielle and Marcus were already kneeling in front of Felicia. They had wrapped her in a hug, but their faces were a mixture of relief and stern concern. Matteo stood beside them quietly, though Danielle was also holding his hand in a death grip.

"You can't just wander off like that," Danielle said, still holding onto Felicia like she might vanish again at any second. Felicia nodded solemnly, the image of contrition. Bright girl, too bright sometimes. But she understood, at least in theory.

Then Marcus asked the question on everyone's mind: "Why did you walk away while we were fighting?"

Felicia hesitated. Then she reached for her ever-present notebook and scribbled quickly. "I heard her cry for help." Arianna blinked. Her? There was no mistaking who Felicia meant. She was staring at the fox, now nuzzling and licking her cub, the two of them tucked close together.

Arianna had assumed the fox would run after the battle. She was skittish, as she'd noticed earlier when trying to heal her for the first time. The fox had resisted her healing mana, had fought it, actually. That had been something Arianna hadn't known was even possible. It hadn't been because she was a monster either. When Arianna had healed her again later, it had worked just like healing a human. So it had been the fox's will interfering the first time, not some magical incompatibility.

Smart and cautious. Definitely not a typical mutated animal. The others were all aggressive and attacked them whenever they got near. The fox was different from those monsters. They could communicate with her and she was smart enough to fight beside them, not against them. She was watching them now, her eyes intelligent and alert even as she cuddled her cub. Curious. Guarded. Calculating. But also… maybe trusting?

"How did you hear her call for help?" Cassis asked aloud, echoing Arianna's own question. Felicia just shrugged, then held up her notebook again.

"I can just hear her in my head. She wants to bring us to a safe place. Animals that eat dead things and other monsters will come soon. We won't be safe here for long."

Arianna's eyebrows lifted. Fascinating. A telepathic link, maybe? Or something closer to an empathic bond? Either way, it was a mystery worth exploring. Felicia was young, but not clueless. She was sharp, unusually so, and clearly sensitive to more than most people noticed.

Felicia then walked over to Arianna and Cassis and wrapped them both in a hug. Arianna froze for a moment, startled, until it clicked. She knew. Even as young as she was, Felicia understood who had made the choice to fight. She also knew who had convinced Cassis. It was Arianna's and Cassis' responsibility to keep everyone safe since they were the strongest and had the necessary knowledge. Felicia was perceptive, almost too much for her age. Was that why she could hear the fox? A mind open in ways adults had forgotten how to be?

Then Cassis, ever practical, spoke up. "I agree we should leave soon, but it would be a shame to waste the bear's materials. We should skin it, take its fangs and claws, and the meat. I've heard bear meat is delicious. I wanted to do the same with the wolves, but they're too far off now. Let's at least make use of this one."

His family looked at him like he'd grown a second head. Arianna couldn't blame them. For people raised in modern cities, the idea of harvesting materials from a freshly slain enemy—even a monstrous one—wasn't exactly second nature. But this was the apocalypse. The bear's fur could become armor. Its fangs and claws might be useful for some other crafting profession. The meat could feed them for days, and would be useful for someone aiming for the chef or cook profession.

They just needed the right people to make use of everything. That was a project for later: Finding the necessary professions for a small community to survive and maybe even thrive. Hunters, farmers, tailors, crafters, alchemists. They'd need them all, eventually. But first, everyone needed to reach at least level ten. Right now, aside from their group and some others, not many had.

Cassis was already at the bear, working methodically to skin it. Helen joined him without a word, and together they moved with practiced efficiency. It was a little unsettling how good they were at this. Arianna knew Cassis had done this thousands of times in the other timeline, but seeing it firsthand was a little disgusting.

Liam, watching them, asked Cassis blankly, "Where did you learn how to do that?"

No one questioned Helen's skill. Of course she knew how. But Cassis? Without missing a beat, he lied smoothly, "Helen taught me." Helen twitched—just a tiny eye spasm—but didn't correct him. And somehow, everyone bought it.

Arianna gave a soft sigh. Cassis really was too good at lying. Just how had he ended up alone, with no team, no allies, only her for company in the other timeline? Sure, she'd mostly seen him during fights in her dreams but he always fought alone. So she'd just assumed he was terrible with people. Especially because his people skills had been so lacking when he talked with her back then. Had the shock of losing his family and friends really made him into such a different man? No, not different. He had had the same core of strength, the same determination to survive. But he had been so much harsher.

Arianna was glad he could find his gentle self again after time turned back for him. Having back his family had to be balm on his wounded soul. She thought she knew him, but he still surprised her sometimes. In both good and bad ways. She was glad to be here with him, to actually know him, not just watch from the other side of a screen.

Once the materials were gathered—fur, claws, fangs, and as much meat as Arianna could store in her inventory—they agreed to move. Felicia pointed after the fox, who had been watching them closely the entire time. She wanted them to follow.

Cassis was against it. "We should split paths. Go our own way. It's safest."

Felicia turned her wide eyes on him. Her lower lip trembled. Tears gathered at the corners of her lashes. Arianna almost bought it. But then she caught Matteo glancing away, hiding a grin.

Oh.

Felicia was acting. She knew how to weaponize those big eyes and baby tears. And it was adorable. Not just because it was so well executed, but because she was only using her powers for good—for staying close to the fluffiest and most trustworthy monster Arianna had ever met.

Cassis didn't stand a chance.

He sighed, shoulders drooping slightly, and nodded. "Fine. We follow the fox."

Nobody objected. Not because they all agreed, but because nobody wanted to be the one to make Felicia cry. Not after all they'd just been through. And so, led by a monster fox and her cub, the party packed up and headed toward a safer place—wherever that might be.

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