I don't know how long I was out, but I didn't wake up under open sky surrounded by corpses. I woke up in a wagon. The canvas roof overhead was a dead giveaway. To my left was a pile of familiar belongings. I was pretty sure this was the same wagon Selina had been sleeping in. I'd only caught a glimpse of the interior before, so I couldn't be certain — but the faint scent of her perfume lingered in the air.

  The last thing I remembered was desperately trying to purge the blood I'd swallowed before my body fully absorbed it. Then came horrific pain, and… nothing. Darkness. Most likely I'd just blacked out from shock.

  I tried to sit up but quickly changed my mind — way too painful. And this kind of pain was much harder to block than the usual stuff. The only real cure for it was blood, and that wasn't an option for me.

  "Awake?" came Selina's familiar voice, but the warmth and kindness were gone. All that remained was anxiety and, probably, fear. She pulled back the wagon flap and stayed outside, not daring to come closer.

  "More or less…" I croaked. My throat was drier than a desert. "Can I get some water?"

  "Hold on," she said after a brief pause, then set a canteen on the edge of the wagon. She was too wary to approach me directly, so I had to fight through the weakness and drink on my own.

  The water helped a little, but full recovery would take time. At least my throat wasn't sandpaper anymore.

  "Are you undead?" she asked, point-blank.

  "You mean a vampire?" I clarified, trying to get myself into a sitting position.

  "I don't care what it's called," the girl snapped, her voice pitching high enough to make me wince.

  "Yes and no. It's complicated," I said, feeling my stomach growl.

  "Which is it — yes or no?" she demanded, making a very distinctive gesture with her hand. The kind she usually started spellcasting with.

  A threat? Tch…

  "I'm a halfblood. My mother was human. My father… well, you get the picture."

  "That's impossible," she said flatly. "Vampires can't have children. They can turn ordinary humans, but they can't give life."

  "Lesser vampires can't," I nodded, confirming she was right. "But Ancients can. If they choose to."

  "An Ancient? You're saying your father is an Ancient?" That seemed to genuinely shake her to the core.

  I just shrugged. It is what it is.

  "So how are you different from a regular turned vampire?"

  "How about you feed me first, and then I'll talk?" I practically begged, feeling my stomach start to digest itself. I was ravenous — which made perfect sense given the situation. The sooner I filled it with normal human food, the better. Otherwise the vampire side might take over.

  "I'm not giving you my blood," she narrowed her eyes and took a step back.

  "Until today, I'd never tasted blood in my life," I said with a humorless smile. "So leftover stew will do just fine."

  After thinking it over for a moment, the girl nodded and left. She was gone for a while — long enough for me to drift off again.

  "Here," her voice came, a touch calmer this time, though her eyes still watched me with fear. "There was no stew. I cooked what I could find."

  The bowl held cold porridge and a chunk of stale bread. But given the war raging in my stomach, I attacked it with ferocious appetite. Except after just a couple of spoonfuls, I nearly threw up. It took every ounce of willpower to fight down the nausea.

  "Damn…" I coughed once I'd wrestled my stomach into submission. "Getting back to normal food is going to be a lot harder than I thought…"

  The sorceress stood at the wagon entrance while I struggled to eat, watching in silence. And the longer I choked down that porridge, the more her expression softened.

  "Thanks," I said, handing the bowl back. The nausea had subsided — so you could say I'd won this battle against my own body. "Why did you save me?"

  "I don't know," she said, lowering her gaze. "At first I was terrified. I ran through the forest until I realized I had nowhere to go. I don't know these lands, and all my money was still in the wagon. So I swallowed my fear, came back, and found you writhing on the ground, vomiting blood… I don't even know why I decided to help you. You're a vampire, after all. But you could've killed me just as easily as the rest of them, and you didn't… so I… well… you get it."

  "Thank you," I said, and I meant it.

  "Just start talking. I'd rather not regret saving you."

  "How I'm different…" I thought back to the question. "Quite a bit, actually. We're not afraid of sunlight, garlic, or silver."

  "Seriously? So halfbloods don't have typical vampire weaknesses?" Selina looked skeptical. "If I gave you garlic right now, you wouldn't choke?"

  "Doesn't stop me from hating the stuff. But no, nothing would happen. There are some caveats, though."

  "Such as?"

  "Hang on," I slowed the overly curious girl down. "There's something else I need to explain first. I already told you — until now, I'd never drunk blood. Ever. That's what sets halfbloods apart from regular vampires. We get to choose our path. If a halfblood starts drinking blood, over time they'll fully transform into a regular vampire. Complete with all the standard weaknesses."

  "And if you don't drink?"

  "Then the halfblood becomes an ordinary human. Well, almost ordinary. We're a bit stronger physically, wounds heal faster. Better pain management and mental control."

  "That's not much," Selina mused. "So… you were living as a human before?"

  "Yes," I confirmed. "It was a conscious choice. Until I was twelve, I lived like a normal person. Then my mother died. That's when my father offered me a choice — become a full vampire, or keep living as a human. And so I'd fully understand what I was getting into, he gave me a glimpse behind the curtain. I saw the vampire world for what it really was, and I knew I wanted no part of it."

  "And your father just accepted that?" Selina looked surprised. At this point, she'd stopped keeping her distance and sat down on the edge of the wagon. I noticed she wasn't wearing her usual traveling outfit — just a simple linen shirt.

  "Of course," I nodded with a joyless smile. "Though I haven't seen him since."

  "And you grew up completely alone?"

  "Not exactly. My father bought me an apartment and assigned me a 'guardian' — a man named Boris Ivanych. He's a decent guy. I'd probably call him a second father."

  "So he raised you?"

  "To one degree or another. I technically lived alone. He'd just stop by from time to time, handle various things — like parent-teacher conferences."

  "What are parent-teacher conferences?" the girl asked, scooting closer. She was sitting by my feet now, and the old fear in her eyes had almost entirely faded. Also… I noticed she wasn't wearing pants. Her shirt barely reached her knees, giving me a rather nice view of her slender legs.

  "Well, look at that — you must be feeling better. Already staring at my legs," she said with a faint smile.

  "Sorry about that," I replied, a little sheepish. I really was feeling significantly better — vampire metabolism working overtime. I'd probably already half-digested the porridge. "Does it bother you?"

  She used to act a little differently.

  "Normally, it probably would," she said, then tapped a slender finger against her temple. "But right now I don't really care. It's probably a side effect of the magic blocker. It dulls your emotions, makes the world feel less vivid. Like a sunny day suddenly going overcast."

  "You still haven't gotten it off?" I only now noticed the bracelet on her wrist.

  "It's not that simple. Only a mage can remove it. A different mage, I mean. Don't worry — if we make it to Vularian, they'll help me get rid of it."

  "Let's hope we don't run into more bandits on the way."

  "So what are parent-teacher conferences?" The girl circled back to the question.

  "Long story, and not that important. I'll tell you some other time," I promised, returning to the previous topic. "Point is, Boris Ivanych basically took my father's place."

  "You know, it's remarkable. Vampires are usually described as cold-blooded and cruel, but your father gave you the freedom to choose. He could've just forced you to drink blood."

  "Yeah, I've thought about that too sometimes. So — have I satisfied your curiosity?"

  "More or less. I still don't know if I can trust you, but your story sounds plausible."

  "Can I ask you something in return?"

  "Go ahead."

  "Where are your pants?"

  The girl blinked in surprise, looked down at her bare legs, then back at me.

  "Gone."

  "I can see they're gone. Where did they go?"

  "Don't know. Disappeared somewhere."

  "Are you messing with me?" I smirked.

  "A little," the beauty confirmed. "They say humor is the best way to defuse a tense situation. Did it work?"

  "Eh. But seriously — it's overcast and chilly today, and something tells me you're a bit cold without them." No surprise there — the girl had been shifting from foot to foot the entire time we'd been talking.

  "My jacket and blouse got shredded — you saw that yourself. And the pants were soaked in blood. Not without your help, I might add. Wearing them was… not an option."

  "You don't have any other clothes?" I asked, surprised.

  "I do, but it's my Academy of Magic uniform. Wearing it out here isn't something I plan to do. It's… not safe. So you'll just have to keep looking at my legs."

  "I'll survive the hardship," I smirked, noticing the girl's gaze toward me was warming up. And the relief I felt was hard to put into words. I really, really didn't want Selina to look at me like I was a monster.

  "Alright, I think you need more rest, and I'm getting cold," she said, glancing briefly at the campfire nearby. "Get some sleep. I'll bring more food closer to evening. I wish I could help you with magic, but…"

  "I understand," I nodded, glancing at the bracelet.

  With that, the girl left, and I settled into the wagon as comfortably as I could and quickly fell asleep. When I woke, I felt much better. My arms had more strength, but my stomach was grumbling again, demanding another round of food.

  No surprise there — the metamorphosis my body had been forced through required an insane amount of energy.

  I climbed out of the wagon on my own and immediately spotted Selina sitting by the fire. The sorceress was staring into the flames, looking a bit lost. I didn't announce myself right away, taking a moment to look around instead. It seemed we were back at the old campsite.

  "How are you feeling?" she asked, almost normally, when I sat down across from her by the fire.

  "Getting there. Did we… go back?"

  "Yes. Unfortunately, we only have one horse left. Three were killed by crossbow bolts, and the rest scattered."

  "Why go back, though?" I didn't get it.

  "I don't know these lands very well. Plus, there might've been more of those bandits' friends waiting ahead. And you looked terrible — we needed a proper campsite with a water source nearby, and I don't know any others. So I figured it was better to come back."

  "Makes sense," I conceded. Dragging a wounded person forward into unknown territory was a terrible idea.

  "Hungry?"

  "Starving."

  The evening passed quietly, though we barely spoke. The girl was lost in thought, and I had no idea what was going through her mind.

  When nighttime came, the question of sleeping arrangements arose. I wanted to suggest sharing the wagon, but held back. Let her have it, I decided. Sure, no campfire warmth in there, but she'd have a proper mattress and a warm blanket. Despite all her objections, I sent her off and laid my bedroll out by the fire.

  The night passed uneventfully, though in the morning, the girl looked like she hadn't slept at all. Was she worried I might attack her?

  I felt great by morning. Side effects still lingered, but the muscle aches were gone and my stomach had stopped rebelling against normal food.

  "You look almost normal today," the beauty observed.

  "Yeah, I really am better. I'd even say I'm stronger and faster than before…"

  "What do you mean?" she didn't quite follow.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  "After I drank the blood, my body started restructuring. Now it's going through the 'rollback.' Yesterday was the painful phase. Now it's the passive phase. I'm not as strong as a real vampire, obviously, but my reaction speed, reflexes, and physical strength have all noticeably improved."

  "That's great," she smiled.

  "It's temporary. Soon my body will realize there's no more blood coming and decide maintaining these new abilities is too costly. Then the regression will happen pretty fast."

  After breakfast, we discussed our next move. We agreed the best plan was to press on to Vularian. If we left at dawn tomorrow, we'd reach the city before sunset. For today, though, she wanted to go back to the battle site and look around. She didn't hide that she wanted to recover the money she'd paid the caravan for protection.

  "Don't get the wrong idea… but despite my magical talent, I'm up to my ears in debt right now. Every coin counts," she said guiltily. "And you'll need money too. So…"

  "Alright," I nodded. "Probably for the best."

  We set out for the battle site almost immediately after breakfast, bringing the one remaining horse along.

  Despite not wanting to see her dead companions, Selina steeled herself, and I respected her for it. Maybe the bracelet's emotional dampening was helping, but still.

  Surprisingly, the battlefield hadn't changed much in our absence. I'd expected wild animals to have dragged off half the bodies, but no. A couple showed bite marks, but our arrival must've spooked off whatever cowardly scavenger had been picking at them. Didn't look like anyone else had passed through either.

  But the worst part wasn't the sight — it was the stench. Under the baking sun, the bodies had already started to decompose, and a thick swarm of flies buzzed everywhere. The reek of rotting flesh hit so hard that Selina had to cover her face with a rag. It barely helped.

  "You can hang back if you want," I offered. "I can search on my own."

  "I'm fine," the sorceress insisted stubbornly, and I just shrugged. If she wanted to wander among corpses, be my guest — she was a grown woman. For me it was easier. A vampire's sense of smell is far sharper than a human's, but since we're classified as "creatures of darkness" — sometimes even "undead" — the stench of death doesn't repulse us the way it does normal people. It still stung my nose, though.

  First order of business — I went through every corpse and collected anything of value. Coin pouches, trinkets, jewelry, whatever.

  "What are you doing?" She frowned.

  "Looting," I answered honestly, seeing nothing wrong with it. "You're the one who said we came here for money."

  "But I thought we'd only take what was in the wagon…" Selina trailed off.

  "Yeah, you're right. Sorry. But I hope you'll…"

  "Share?"

  "Yes…" she said, embarrassed.

  "Obviously," I smiled, continuing my search.

  In the end, the bandits yielded twenty silver coins and around fifty coppers. According to Selina, it wasn't a fortune, but enough to get by for now. I also found two rings and a chain, but looking at them, I doubted they'd fetch any reasonable price.

  Next came weapon collection, on Selina's advice. Blacksmiths would buy them, even if not for much. And indeed, the quality of the thugs' weapons left a lot to be desired. I didn't want to deal with blood-soaked armor, so I stuck to bladed weapons and crossbows.

  "Well now, what do we have here…"

  "What is it?"

  "I think I found treasure," I said with a grin, drawing the sword from the bandit leader's scabbard — the one who'd been Brand's relative. This blade stood out from all the others. The metal had a yellowish sheen that said this was no ordinary steel. Strange script adorned the crossguard, and the edge was impossibly sharp. I nicked my finger just running it along the flat. And the grip — it fit my hand like it was made for me.

  I gave it a few experimental swings, then decided to keep it. Way too nice to sell.

  "Hmm… Elven," the girl noted, examining the blade up close. "Interesting. How did a bunch of common bandits end up with this?"

  "Valuable?"

  "Probably worth a gold coin, at least," the sorceress mused. "It's made of tentrullite — a special metal — and has a complex artifactual structure. The problem is it hasn't been activated."

  "Meaning?"

  "If you were an elf, the blade would be black, and it would be sharp enough to cut through stone."

  "But I'm not an elf."

  "But you're not an elf," she confirmed. "So it's just a very good sword."

  One gold equaled fifty silver, and one silver equaled a hundred copper. Which meant this sword was worth twice as much as all the bandits' money combined. A treasure indeed.

  "How do I look with it?" I asked, giving it a couple more swings. The weapon felt incredible in my hand.

  "Not bad at all," she nodded tiredly. I grinned and strapped the scabbard to my belt. I'd have to practice with it later.

  Then came the worst part — we had to deal with the bodies. Selina agreed we couldn't just leave a massacre out in the open. So, armed with a small axe, I started gathering wood for a funeral pyre.

  I'd originally planned to just bury them, but the girl objected. In the Free Counties, burying the dead was only permitted in designated cemeteries or burial grounds. Burials outside those places gave necromancers the chance to raise the dead later.

  I was extremely skeptical about this, but didn't argue. This was her world, after all. Maybe corpses really did come back to life around here. So if burial was off the table, burning it was.

  Building something resembling a proper funeral pyre took about three hours. I did it off the road, on a small clearing I found nearby. Not big, but it would serve.

  I hauled the first bodies myself, rigging up a makeshift stretcher from a couple of sticks and a piece of cloth. Selina stood off to the side in silence, unable to overcome her revulsion. Eventually, though, she pitched in.

  We decided on two pyres. The bandits got dumped in a heap on one. On the other, we carefully laid Ficht and his soldiers — minus the traitor, of course. Brand's body was tossed in with the rest of the pile.

  Actually getting them lit was the real ordeal. The burning alone took more than half the day. The sun was rolling lazily toward the horizon by the time we finished. As for the dead horses, between the two of us we managed to drag them to the roadside, where scavengers would likely strip them clean soon enough.

  Looking at the finished work, I was grateful the "degradation" had only just started. In my normal state, I couldn't have built two pyres and hauled all those corpses in two days, let alone one. And even after all that, I still had plenty of strength left.

  The last unresolved matter was the merchant's wagon. I let Selina inspect what was worth taking and whether we could haul any of it. Our one remaining horse could only pull a single wagon, and I wasn't strong enough to drag one to the city on my own.

  "Max, look at this…" the girl said in a strange tone, climbing out of the wagon with a small chest in her hands.

  "What's that…?" I said, immediately on guard.

  When she opened it, I let out a quiet gasp. The chest was full of colored gemstones of various sizes. Did I say something about treasure earlier? Well, the sword was nothing compared to a box full of precious gems. What was it worth? A hundred coins? A thousand?

  "Max, do you realize?! This is… this… There are gems worth several hundred gold in here! Maybe even a thousand! We're rich!" The girl confirmed exactly what I was thinking.

  "Yeah, I realize. But you're not going to like what I'm about to say."

  "What?" She tensed, catching my tone. There wasn't a hint of joy in my voice.

  "We can't take them."

  "But you said yourself… and we need the money…"

  "I did. But there's a difference between pocketing a few coins off bandits who attacked you, and this. Where does a simple merchant get this kind of wealth?"

  "So what do we do with them? Leave them here?" She was stunned.

  "No, of course not. That merchant must've had relatives. Or business partners. At the very least, we report it to the authorities. Let them figure it out."

  "But… this is a real fortune…" She was practically in tears, staring at the chest, her hands trembling so badly it looked like she might drop it. "Just think — a couple of these stones could pay for an entire year of my tuition! I could buy rare magic books I can't afford. I could move my mother and sister to Trisent! Max, I…"

  "It won't bring us happiness," I said, reaching out to touch her cheek and gently turning her face toward mine. She flinched but didn't pull away. So, seizing the moment, I wiped the forming tears with my fingers.

  "But…" Selina still wasn't ready to concede.

  "I don't know whose these are, but they literally reek of blood. Trust me — you don't want any part of this."

  She lowered her eyes to the gleaming gems, promising a life free of want. From the fragments she'd let slip, it was clear Selina came from a poor family. They'd gone deep into debt to send her to the Academy when her magical talent was discovered.

  And here it was — a chance to fulfill every dream she'd ever had! But there was a sinister smell clinging to those stones, far stronger than the stench of the corpses. And I had a gut feeling that if she kept them, something terrible would follow.

  "You're right, Max," she said through gritted teeth, closing the chest. I could see how much that decision cost her. "We'll deliver it to the Merchants' Guild. Let them deal with it."

  "That's the right call," I smiled.

  There was nothing truly valuable inside the wagon beyond that. Just ordinary household goods — the kind any village would gladly buy. Even Selina found it suspicious how basic everything was, with nothing expensive besides the gems.

  As the girl explained, the chest had been hidden inside a barrel of millet, lightly covered over. She'd only noticed it by sheer chance.

  "We'll take this barrel and put the chest back where it was."

  The girl nodded, though she kept stealing mournful glances at the fortune slipping through her fingers.

  "Alright…" I sighed, grinding my teeth. I walked over to the chest, plucked out one of the smaller stones, and placed it in her palm. The beauty looked up at me in surprise.

  "But you just said—"

  "Yeah… that's the kind of thing idiots say, but… 'one missing stone won't be noticed.' Just promise me one thing."

  "Okay. What?"

  "Don't try to sell it until you're back in Trisent. That's where you'll have the least chance of it causing trouble. If I understand correctly, it's weeks of travel away, and you'll probably be safe at your university."

  "Deal!" She beamed, and leaning in, kissed me. This time it lasted longer, but she still pulled away before I could really get into it. "It's getting dark. We need to head back to camp — we've already lost too much time."

  After a moment's thought, we hitched the horse to the merchant's wagon and headed back. We'd go through the goods one more time before bed and consolidate anything worth keeping into one of the wagons.

  On the way back, I asked the sorceress why we hadn't seen anyone around. According to Ficht's men, there should've been plenty of settlements nearby, but in the two days I'd been in this world, I hadn't seen a single soul on the road besides the bandits.

  "That's easy," the sorceress answered. "This is the old road. It's a bit longer and less convenient. There's another one to the north — shorter, with inns along the way. Almost nobody uses this one."

  "Then why did your caravan take it?"

  "I don't know. That was Master Shari's decision. He chose the route. Captain Ficht didn't understand why either."

  "Suspicious…"

  "When you put it like that, it gives me the creeps too," the girl frowned.

  Back at camp, we quickly lit a fire and got to dinner. I was starving by then. My altered body demanded massive amounts of nutrients, and not only was I pushing it to the limit, I was half-starving it on top of that. Not ideal.

  "Selina?" I called, looking up from my bowl. She was lost in thought again, staring into the fire, and the silence was starting to weigh on me.

  "Hm?"

  "What are you thinking about?"

  "Nothing…"

  "Still the gems?"

  She just pressed her lips together in frustration.

  "Yeah, they're tempting. Are you sure you don't want to keep them? If we split them, you could start a good life in this world. Go to Trisent, rent a house, make connections, get settled."

  "We've been over this. Those gems smell like blood."

  "Ugh… Fine. I shouldn't have brought it up again."

  "No, I asked. Selina, just don't let greed crawl into your head. We'll make it to Vularian and hand over the gems. The money we get from selling the wagon's contents will be enough for the trip to Trisent. You said so yourself."

  "Yeah… Alright. Let's drop it."

  After that, the conversation finally shifted. We actually started talking, and Selina told me about Trisent, the capital of Trilor. It was a massive city ruled by three Councilors, with Judges serving under them — something between a legislative and executive branch, though I didn't fully grasp how it worked yet.

  Then Selina switched to stories about her university — funny anecdotes from her life, magical mishaps during her studies. By the end of the evening, she'd relaxed completely, as if the pile of corpses, the gemstones, and everything else had never happened.

  "Time to turn in," I said, preparing my spot by the fire.

  "Max?"

  "Mm?"

  "I know this is… well… a little awkward. Want to sleep with me?" She nodded toward her sleeping spot.

  "With you? In the wagon?" I couldn't hide my smile.

  "Yeah…" She smiled back, bashful. "It was cold sleeping alone last night. And you obviously aren't getting any rest on the ground."

  I could've pointed out that we had two wagons, and the second one also had a bed that had belonged to the merchant. We could both sleep comfortably. But I think the girl knew that perfectly well.

  "Well… if the lady insists, how could I possibly refuse?"

  I woke to a strange sound close by — something between a rustling and a growl. Lifting my head, I saw Selina sleeping beside me, her head resting on my chest. I looked around, saw nothing unusual, and was about to drift off again when the horse let out a terrified whinny.

  "Selina…" I whispered.

  "Hm? What?" she mumbled sleepily, but I immediately pressed a finger to her lips.

  "Shh… I hear something."

  The girl heard the frightened horse and instantly understood.

  "Where's your sword?" she asked, and I grimaced.

  "By the campfire…" Idiot. The girl beckoned me over and I'd left everything outside. How many times do heroes in books get caught off guard while sleeping? Countless times. You'd think I would've learned to keep my weapon close…

  "It might be a demon," she said, and that was zero percent reassuring.

  Moving as quietly as I could, I peered out of the wagon and spotted a strange creature near the fire. If it was a demon, it was about twice the size of the one that had attacked me. Covered in spiked armor plating, with a hideous toothy maw. But the strangest part — its eyes blazed red, like twin torches.

  Even the horse had gone silent, too terrified to make another sound. The demon could clearly see it but wasn't attacking. Odd. Wouldn't it make sense to pounce on helpless, tethered prey? But no — the demon had walked up to the campfire and was sniffing around it.

  Looking for us? For humans?

  Selina peeked out from behind me to look, and barely stifled a scream.

  "What is it?" I whispered, pulling the naked girl back inside the wagon.

  "That's… a d-demon…" she stammered in horror.

  "Yeah, I figured that much."

  "No, I mean it's a callar demon. It's far more dangerous than the small fry that attacked you."

  "Can we scare it off?"

  "No…" she said, her lips pressed tight. "Once it's caught a human scent, there's no scaring it. It's a demon, not some wild animal."

  We needed to deal with this.

  "I'll try to get to the sword."

  "Are you insane?! You just said you've never fought with one!"

  "We don't have a choice. The longer we wait, the weaker I get. And if the demon eats the horse, we're walking to the city."

  "I'll try to create a distraction," the girl said after a brief pause.

  "Good. But not yourself. Throw something off to the side. When it goes to investigate, I'll make a run for the weapon."

  "Okay."

  I pressed myself against the side of the wagon, waiting for the girl to hurl a clay plate toward the trees. There it was — a whistle, then the crash of shattering pottery. The demon heard the noise, snapped its ugly head up, and charged toward the sound with surprising speed for its bulk.

  Without waiting for a signal, I leaped from the wagon and sprinted for the sword lying by the makeshift seat near the fire.

  Unfortunately, the creature figured out the ruse fast and spotted the human-shaped figure running in the open. It changed course to cut me off. I barely managed to grab the weapon before the thing lunged. I drew the blade, flinging the scabbard aside, and parried a swipe of its clawed foot. But the sword left nothing more than a pitiful scratch on the monster's armor.

  Selina's magic would've been real useful right about now… But all the girl could do was watch helplessly from the sideline.

  The demon struck again, with such force that blocking it sent numbness shooting up both my arms. I had to jump back and catch my breath.

  It bared its fangs and charged again, and this time I did something unexpected — I vaulted over it. The demon hesitated, trying to figure out where its tasty snack had gone, and in that split second I drove the sword's point into the gap between its armor plates on the hind leg.

  Didn't cut through. But the elven blade slipped past the plating and bit into bone. I doubt I could've managed that at my normal strength. After that wound, the hellspawn slowed down considerably, and I shamelessly exploited it.

  I couldn't land another clean hit like that one. Mostly I was just scratching the monster. Without the elven sword, I probably wouldn't have left a mark — the thing's armor was ridiculous.

  And I'd been too hasty writing off Selina's usefulness. The girl did find a way to help — she grabbed a crossbow and took a shot at the demon. The bolt just lodged in the armor plating, though. Either she needed something heavier, or she had to aim for the gaps.

  But luck doesn't hold forever. When I went for my dirty trick again — trying to cripple the second hind leg — the creature finally caught me. Claws raked across my chest, tearing out small chunks of flesh.

  "Max! Be careful!" the girl shouted, loosing another bolt. But she missed, and it buried itself in the dirt nearby.

  "Argh!" I snarled incoherently and slashed the demon across its toothy face. And right at that moment, searing pain tore through my shoulder.

  "Max! I'm sorry!" Selina screamed in panic, but at that point I didn't care. I'd have words with the cross-eyed genius-beauty later.

  I fell on my back, and the demon instantly seized the opening, sinking its razor teeth straight into my leg. Yes — that leg. The one that had just barely healed.

  The demon started mauling the limb. I hacked at it frantically with my blade, but couldn't get a proper angle from the ground. Then, in the chaos, I spotted a strange fold in its armor near the neck. Out of options, I just drove the blade in.

  The demon instantly released my leg and let out a howl so loud my eardrums nearly burst. I kept pushing the sword deeper and deeper until the creature went limp and collapsed on top of me with its full crushing weight.

  "Max?" Selina called cautiously, approaching with the crossbow at the ready.

  "I'm okay. Well, almost. Help me get this thing off."

  But instead of helping, the girl cocked the crossbow and shot me point-blank in the chest. She'd aimed for the heart but missed by a hair, puncturing a lung instead.

  "Se… lina…" I wheezed.

  "I'm sorry, Max," she said calmly. "You're a good person. Noble. To be honest, I wanted to kill you in your sleep." A guilty little smile. "Either way — even without the demon, I would've slit your throat before dawn."

  "Wh… y…?" By the time I got the word out, she'd reloaded and fired again. I jerked, tried to wrench the sword free from the demon carcass, tried to free myself — all useless.

  "Money, of course. If you'd agreed to take the gems and split them, I wouldn't have had to do this. But…" Here, her eyes welled up. "But you decided we couldn't. And I need that money! Do you have any idea how badly?! But… I could see it in your eyes. You weren't going to let me keep them. So I had no choice, Max. I'm sorry."

  "Bi… tch…"

  She fired twice more, deliberately targeting my forearms. My arms went limp, useless on the ground. She leaned over me, kissed my forehead, and with that same sweet smile, drew a blade across my throat.

  Scum.

  Then she tried to pull the sword from the demon's carcass. She couldn't. I'd driven it in good and deep.

  "Don't hold it against me," she said in parting, and walked away, leaving me to slowly bleed out.

  Filth.

  How badly I wanted to rip her throat out with my teeth… I should've torn her head off along with the bandits…

  The last thing I saw was the wagon rolling away with the girl on it.