Chapter 258: You never studied me
[You have received a new quest: The Pack Hunts Together.]
The window expanded before Alexandra could dismiss it.
[The Pack Hunts Together]
[Create five Shared Openings with San Kumoe.]
[A Shared Opening is created when one partner creates or forces an opening and the other lands the next successful attack.]
[Shared Openings: 0/5]
[Defeat the Beastslayer.]
Alexandra read the conditions once.
The quest had not repaired Kumoe’s injured leg or given either of them a new skill. Bloodscent Lock continued pulsing through their wounds, keeping them open no matter how much restoration the middle head poured into them. Torn Tendon still waited to punish Kumoe whenever she changed direction too sharply, while the crimson stakes surrounding the road held firm.
NineLivesLeft remained between them and the boundary.
Nothing had changed yet.
He noticed the brief shift in Alexandra’s attention and smiled.
"You accepted something."
Alexandra closed the window. "You’re starting to sound needy."
"I want to know the conditions."
"You want me to explain my class quest while you’re trying to kill Kumoe?"
"I’d explain mine."
"You already did. You murdered Nyxshade and received a collection of excuses."
His smile tightened.
Kumoe pressed against Alexandra’s side. The curious head bared her teeth at NineLivesLeft, while the middle continued sending green light through their wounds. On the right, the winner of Head of the Day watched Alexandra instead of the enemy.
Those orange eyes remained calm and focused.
Alexandra understood what she was waiting for.
The quest required them to create openings together. That meant they could not return to the arrangement that had nearly gotten Kumoe killed. Alexandra could no longer stand in front of her and demand obedience, nor could she expect Kumoe to follow every movement without understanding what they were trying to accomplish.
They had to fight as partners.
Unfortunately, NineLivesLeft had spent the entire battle studying them.
He knew what each head did. He knew how long Alexandra’s Pride Marks lasted, how Kumoe could refresh them, and how fear changed Alexandra’s decisions. Every time they adjusted, he watched, calculated, and prepared another answer.
That was how he approached everything. Once he understood the mechanic, the living creature behind it stopped mattering.
Alexandra loosened her fingers around the grips of her swords.
There was still one thing he had never bothered to study.
She stepped in front of Kumoe again.
NineLivesLeft’s eyebrows rose.
"Kumoe, stay back."
The curious head tilted in confusion. The middle whined softly, but the right head remained still, her gaze fixed on Alexandra’s face.
NineLivesLeft laughed. "You received a class quest and immediately went back to body-blocking?"
Alexandra ignored him. She raised both swords, allowing her right hand to shake badly enough for one blade to tap against the other.
The soft ring of metal carried through the rain.
Her breathing quickened. Every few seconds, she glanced over her shoulder at Kumoe, taking her eyes off NineLivesLeft a little too long.
He watched each nervous movement.
"You almost figured it out," he said. "That’s the sad part."
Alexandra swallowed and backed up until her heel touched Kumoe’s front paw.
"I told you to stay behind me."
The middle head whined again.
That sound was real. Alexandra had not warned Kumoe about the performance, and hearing her worry almost broke Alexandra’s concentration.
The right head continued studying her.
NineLivesLeft lowered his stance.
Alexandra had spent years learning how people watched fear. Directors wanted trembling hands, desperate glances, uneven breaths, and voices that cracked at exactly the right moment.
Most performers made panic too obvious because they were afraid the audience might miss it.
Real fear usually hid inside someone’s effort to appear calm.
Alexandra tightened her jaw and raised one shoulder slightly higher than the other. She shifted too much weight onto her rear foot, ruining the balanced stance NineLivesLeft had already mocked earlier.
He took the invitation.
His first step carried him toward Alexandra’s left. Bloodscent Lock kept his attention on her wounded arm, making his approach obvious enough for her to read.
She reacted late on purpose.
One hook caught her sword and dragged it wide. The other curved toward Kumoe’s curious head.
Alexandra threw herself across the angle.
"Kumoe!"
Before the hook reached the wolf, NineLivesLeft switched targets. His boot struck Alexandra’s stomach, knocking the air from her lungs as his weapon dropped toward her shoulder.
Exactly where she had wanted him.
The right head barked.
Kumoe moved beneath Alexandra’s falling arm instead of retreating. Her curious head snapped at NineLivesLeft’s exposed calf and forced him to twist his leg away.
Alexandra’s unsteady posture vanished.
She planted her rear foot and drove one sword across the side he had turned toward her.
The blade opened the damaged seam in his anti-beast armor.
[Pride Mark: 1]
[Shared Opening created.]
[Shared Openings: 1/5]
NineLivesLeft rebounded from the road and landed beside a tree. For a moment, his face showed nothing. Then irritation sharpened his features.
Alexandra straightened.
The shaking left her hand, and her breathing settled with the ease of an actress stepping out of character the moment a director called cut.
Kumoe’s curious head looked up at her, clearly confused.
"Sorry," Alexandra murmured. "I should’ve warned you."
The right head gave a quiet huff.
"I know you understood."
Her second huff sounded far more judgmental.
NineLivesLeft stared at them. "You faked the regression."
Alexandra smiled. "Did it look convincing?"
"You abandoned a clean defensive position."
"I gave you the position you expected."
"You let me hit you."
"You’ve been doing that all afternoon. I thought you might enjoy feeling useful."
His gaze moved to the Pride Mark above him, then back to Alexandra. He could not see the quest window, but his expression made it clear that he was already trying to reconstruct its conditions.
"That counted."
Alexandra said nothing.
His interest returned despite the blood running through the torn side of his armor. "One partner forces a reaction, and the other attacks. Something close to that?"
"You’re doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"Trying to turn someone else’s experience into your guide."
NineLivesLeft pushed away from the tree. "You only got that opening because I believed the panic."
"I know."
"It won’t work twice."
"That scene won’t."
His hooked blades rose again.
Alexandra lowered herself beside Kumoe instead of standing in front of her. The curious head watched NineLivesLeft, the middle stayed ready to restore them, and the right kept part of her attention on Alexandra’s swords.
NineLivesLeft’s slit pupils narrowed.
"You’re not scared anymore?"
Alexandra glanced at Kumoe’s wounded leg. Fear still twisted inside her, sharp enough to make her want to wrap both arms around the wolf and never let another weapon come close.
She no longer needed to pretend that feeling had disappeared.
"I’m terrified."
The simple admission took some of the confidence from NineLivesLeft’s face.
Alexandra continued before he could answer. "That’s why the performance worked. I didn’t invent anything. I showed you the version of my fear you already wanted to see."
Kumoe’s middle head pressed gently against her shoulder.
NineLivesLeft adjusted his grip on both hooks. "You’re still trapped."
"Yes."
"Kumoe is still wounded."
"I noticed."
"The zone is still active, and I only need one successful kill."
That was what he believed. Whether the system would reward him after his own death remained unconfirmed, but he had already committed himself to the gamble.
Alexandra raised her swords.
"And now you know I can lie to your face."
He charged.
Alexandra and Kumoe moved together.
NineLivesLeft shifted toward Alexandra, expecting the curious head to attack his leg again. Kumoe stayed where she was and allowed Alexandra to meet both hooks alone. When he tried to wrench her guard aside, the right head barked toward a branch behind him.
Alexandra glanced up.
NineLivesLeft followed her eyes for less than a heartbeat.
There was nothing there.
Kumoe’s curious head lunged for his weapon arm.
He tore himself away before her teeth closed and rebounded into the trees. Alexandra pursued only far enough to drive him from the nearest branch, then returned to Kumoe before he could circle around them.
NineLivesLeft landed farther down the road.
His smile was gone.
Alexandra rested one sword against her shoulder.
"You watched my fights," she said. "You never studied me."