“The forces of the demon god,” Echo said, shaking her head. “This vilge was not prepared for their attack.”

  Sure enough, the vilge before us looked like it had seen better days. It didn't look particurly modern, but I hadn't expected it to be after everything else Echo had shown me about this world. It fit roughly what I imagined a medieval vilge with a touch of magic would look like—farms, taverns, and one or two major buildings that I guessed were governmental once. There was one problem with that: half of them were on fire.

  Echo didn't exactly run towards the vilge—I wondered if she could even run at all, given that she appeared to have entered this world in high heels of all things—but she did walk towards it with some speed. Not knowing where else to go, I followed her. As we got closer, however, I saw what was attacking the vilge. An unpaved road ran through the center of the pce, and from the other end had come a caravan of what looked to be horse-drawn carriages.

  They’d left those carriages near the entrance of the vilge, where they remained, skeletally thin horses staying unnaturally still.

  Before I could properly think through what kind of bone-headed tactic involved leaving your only form of transport empty and unguarded at the edge of town, I saw the invaders.

  Echo clicked her tongue. She sounded disappointed more than horrified, which… I guess it tracked with her behavior.

  This was my first time seeing something like this, though, and adrenaline shot through me at the sight.

  This vilge hadn’t been empty. As buildings burned, men cd in leather armor trampled through the streets, crushing grass and the ashes of those buildings. Every now and then, one of them charged into a building, smashing through a weakened door. Each time that happened, it was quickly followed by the sound of high-pitched screams.

  There wasn’t as much blood as I would have expected, but I realized pretty soon why that was.

  They weren’t killing the people inside. These brutish soldiers were pying with them, taking them outside and throwing them down in the streets. I caught glimpses of people—all women, I realized—being shoved along brusquely, carried by the scruff of the neck, dragged by the legs, all moving towards what I assumed was the city.center.

  None of them had noticed us yet, mostly because we were coming perpendicur to where the carriages had come from. This area of The Vilge had already been devastated and rgely cleared of people. The soldiers also weren't looking for stragglers on this side, which meant we were rgely in the clear to move closer.

  “I count a dozen,” Echo said. “There must not have been a guard set at the city. They are simple warriors. We should stop them. Desecration of one of my vilges cannot be permitted.”

  I bit my lip to keep myself from asking how she thought she knew this was one of her vilges, but I couldn't hold myself back from asking another more important question.

  “You know they have swords, right?” I asked, trying to keep myself from accidentally ending up in the line of sight of one of those armed and armored men. “Our sum total of equipment is a t-shirt, jeans, and whatever that thing you're wearing is.”

  “Don't call this a thing,” Echo scoffed, straightening her skimpy robes. “This is the garb of a goddess, and you would do well to respect it.”

  “Stop trying to distract me,” I hissed. “What are we going to do about this? You clearly don't have the magic to kill someone, and I don't have a weapon.”

  “Jumping straight to killing, are you?” she asked. “You mortals. Don't you know it's better to make someone serve you than to end them?”

  I stared at her, jaw agape. “Do you hear yourself right now? Look, I think it's probably better if we try and—”

  Honestly, even I wasn't sure how I was going to end that sentence, but I never had to. Heavy footsteps interrupted me, and both Echo and I turned to face the sound.

  One of the dozen she'd spotted had heard us arguing and had come stomping out past a half-colpsed inn to look for us.

  We stood there, frozen like deer in headlights, and the soldier, who I noticed was significantly rger than me, looked at me with a knowing grin on his face.

  “You cimed this one, eh?” he asked. “Don't bme you. She's a looker, all right.”

  He leered at Echo, who scoffed in his face.

  “You haven't tied her down,” the man said. “We’re gathering the rest of ‘em in the city center to be shipped off, but if you want to take some time with this one, feel free.”

  What the fuck was wrong with this guy?

  I could understand the implications of what he was saying pretty well. This was obviously some kind of a capture mission for a bunch of human traffickers, which was horrifying in itself. More than that, however, I was confused as to why he was so quick to accept me as one of them. I didn't look close to one of the men there, and I obviously hadn't come in on the same set of carriages as them. Was he blind or something? No, that couldn't be it—he'd been able to tell us apart, and he just called Echo a looker.

  Before I could figure out how to respond, my mind working a mile a minute in an attempt to find a way that we could get out of this, Echo spoke. Her voice was dripping with the same arrogant derision that had made me want to sock her in the face any number of times already.

  “Mortals cannot y a cim on me,” she said. “You should kneel at my feet, Warrior. Prove your worth to me.”

  The Warrior stared at her for a couple of seconds before bursting out ughing. “You picked a funny one, initiate. She has a mouth on her. I bet you can think of better ways to put it to use.”

  “What are you insinuating?” Echo asked, apparently completely oblivious to what this man was suggesting. “This boy does not control me. He's my companion. I—”

  I could see the man's expression getting slightly more suspicious of us as the goddess continued talking, digging our own grave. Seeing the writing on the wall, I took two quick steps in and swept my leg out while he was still distracted.

  He was heavy, but I knew how to use that kind of weight to my advantage. In a single moment, I completely screwed over his bance, and he tumbled to the ground in a crashing heap. I cringed at the sound, hoping that the screams elsewhere would drown it out.

  I didn't second-guess myself the moment I started. I'd always had a talent for that. Once I committed to something, I didn't stop. Though the man was armored, he had left his face open. With a single motion, I got on top of him, pinning him down with my weight and his own, and I punched him in the face with all the power I could manage.

  His head snapped back, hitting the ground with an audible crack, and I felt something give way under my fist. Hot blood spurted out from the impact.

  Had I always been this strong?

  I didn't question it, and I hit him again. Again, another crack. His hands filed, trying to find purchase on me, but I went for the same spot one more time. This time, there was a wet squelching noise in addition. My fist hurt, but I could feel the devastation those three punches had unleashed. The man went limp.

  You have killed a [Soldier].

  New achievement! [First Blood] - You took the life of a sapient being. Reward: Skill Gem [x1].

  Level up!

  Energy surged through my body, the cuts and bruises on my fist resulting from the heavy punches disappearing and mending themselves in an instant.

  I’d killed the man? I had meant to take him out of commission for a bit. As much as Echo was getting on my case, I hadn't wanted to just charge in guns bzing and sughter everyone here.

  But this was a new world. I was a new person—the power of my fists alone was proof of that, not to mention the game-like system in front of my eyes.

  I was going to have to adapt.

  A brilliant red gem shining with the colors of the blood leaking from the man's skull rested over his chest. That definitely hadn't been there a second ago.

  The system message had told me that I had just earned a skill gem. As I picked that ruby-like mineral up, my guess was confirmed. More messages appeared in front of my eyes.

  Skill Gem [Common] - Activates a lv. 0 skill.

  I did need that. While Echo had said that skills like mine might be able to be awakened inside a vilge, I had a sneaking suspicion that the rest of the soldiers here weren't going to stand by and let me find out how to do that, especially once they found the body of their comrade.

  “You did well, mortal,” Echo said, still not a care in her voice. “But I had that under control.”

  I very nearly did punch her there, but that probably would have resulted in a lot more damage than I would have liked. Besides, I had more pressing concerns.

  Focusing on the gem like I had on my system screen, another prompt popped up.

  Choose the skill to activate: [Awaken lv. 0] or [Command lv. 0].

  Given my recent frustrations with her, I really wanted to pick Command. This situation seemed to call for something else, though. I couldn't read a description of either of them, unfortunately, but just going off the name, I could tell that Awaken was significantly likelier to be something useful. I could command Echo all I wanted, but what would that give me? Making her shut up would be nice, but she didn't have anything that could help in a fight right now.

  Awaken it was.

  [Awaken lv. 0] -> [Awaken lv. 1] - Awakens one [Common] skill in a bound divinity. Only one skill can be awakened at any given time.

  So skill rarities were a thing. I couldn't find a way to see mine, but that really wasn't important right now.

  “Echo,” I said. “Are you going to do this to everyone we meet?”

  “Of course not,” she replied. “I was buying you time.”

  I wasn't sure if I believed that, but at least she could recognize that prociming her virtues wasn't going to be the path to victory here.

  In that case…

  I focused on my new skill, mentally pushing on it, and energy burst out from me.

  [Awaken] targets [Echo, the Goddess of Chaos].

  [Echo] has one valid potential [Common] skill as a target.

  [Echo] has gained [Lesser Chaos Bolt - lv. 1].

  The effect was immediate. A wave of light suffused Echo briefly, and when it subsided, she was grinning.

  Before I could suggest a way for us to approach this or even confirm what she could do now, she strode off into the vilge.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I mumbled, following her in a crouch, making sure I had cover.

  I was a bit of a ways behind her when I saw her walk into the middle of a clearing where two soldiers were currently manhandling a petite brunette that looked like she could be a barmaid at a Ren Faire—assuming she had all her clothes on, that was. One of them was holding the struggling girl down while the other was in the process of stripping himself.

  “Don't defile my pce of worship, demonic scum,” Echo snarled. She pointed at the soldier holding the girl down, and a brilliant multi-colored beam of light exploded out of her extended finger, accompanied by a crack that sounded most like a .22 going off.

  I almost expected it to not do anything, but I watched it tear straight through the soldier's chest, obliterating it in a shower of gore. The girl under him screamed but had the presence of mind to get up and start running away as the body hit the ground.

  A blinking notification alerted me.

  [Echo]’s Mana: 0/1

  She pointed her finger at the second soldier, who was struggling back into his armor. I couldn't see the expression on her face, but I could assume.

  I also saw her posture defte as she realized the same thing I did.

  She could only do that once.

  And the sound of hitting the first one had brought every other soldier running toward her.

  I almost wanted to just leave her there, but I saw what the soldiers had been doing. Even if Echo was a complete bitch, I wasn't going to leave her to this fate.

  Still, my chances against, what, 10 more soldiers? Each wielding a sword, spear, or something simir? I didn’t like them.

  But Echo was just standing there as they got closer.

  Fuck it, I thought. Here goes nothing.

  Before I could make a potentially suicidal rush to save her, though, more magic fluttered into existence behind the soldiers. Door-like rectangles formed, the colors of the night sky reflected in them before they resolved into images of another vilge.

  No, I realized. Not images.

  There were people in there, and they were moving. A green-haired woman leaped out through what I now realized was a portal, carrying a sword taller than she was. From the other portals, cloaked figures carrying weapons of their own joined the fight.

  This city hadn’t cked guards.

  They’d just been te.