“John, what the hell are you doing!?” Jessica yelled.

  It was bad enough she was endangering herself for the morkal, but now John, who was just as helpless, was also trying to get himself killed.

  “I-I was making sure you were alright! You seemed worried, so I—”

  The morkal drew back up to its original height and unsheathed its serrated claws.

  “Wait, no! He’s not an adventurer! Don’t attack him!” Jessica said.

  “It is not him we are concerned about,” the morkal replied, gazing toward the opposite side of the valley. In the time they had been talking, Akuhara’s party had drawn close enough that Jessica could make out the fuzzy fox ears of Akuhara’s harem member. And if she could see them, then they could definitely see the seven foot-tall monster woman.

  “We need to run,” Jessica said. “I saw a barn on the way here that doesn’t look like it’s been used for a while. You could lay low there.”

  “We will not flee from invaders,” the morkal replied.

  “You don’t understand, I saw this guy, Akuhara. He’s clearly spent a lot of time leveling. He’s not like me with my stupid little acid pot. I don’t have a clear sense of power scaling yet, but I got a bad feeling from him. He probably has some kind of cheat skill.”

  “We will defend our home, or we will die,” the morkal said. “You may flee if you wish.”

  Though it didn’t open its mouth to speak, a smooth slit where a mouth ought to be opened to reveal two rows of spiny fangs. John yelped in fear. Jessica shuddered. She couldn’t help but think how obscenely grotesque the morkal was for what was otherwise an escapist fantasy world.

  Of their own accord Jessica’s feet began to walk away, preparing her to run. But as she turned, the morkal’s words to her on their first meeting came back to her:

  “You will live as the rest of us do, as someone who cannot escape their entanglement with other living beings.”

  Jessica willed her quivering legs to stop. If she died here there was no guarantee of reincarnating, but if she fled, she would be fleeing back to a world where adventurers could use and abuse everyone and everything to their heart’s content. The morkal’s situation was no different than hers. They were entangled. And if the morkal could make a stand, so could she.

  “I’ll stay,” Jessica said, “but John, you need to go.”

  “Absolutely not! Ma didn’t raise me to abandon a woman in need!”

  “She didn’t raise you to die for no reason either! You’ll just be getting in the way.”

  John shook his head and was about to respond when he was interrupted by laughter.

  “You lying little bitch.”

  Akuhara strode toward them with a sneer of amusement. The three women at his side—the fox girl with a slave collar, the scantily clad dark elf, and what Jessica was still praying was a halfling—all looked prepared to lay down their lives for the fearless Japanese teenager.

  The fox woman held a dinky short sword in both hands while the dark elf held what was probably a spell tome. The halfling just had a slingshot, though Jessica assumed it had some kind of special ability.

  Jessica swallowed. “I didn’t— okay, I did lie, but only because she doesn’t bother anyone! That’s no reason to kill her!”

  Akuhara’s eyes flicked to the morkal.

  “And? The quest didn’t say, ‘only bring back her head if she bothers anyone.’ It said bring back a morkal’s head. Period. Do you know how rare quests are these days? I take what I can get now and I’m not passing up the opportunity to be first. If I don’t scoop up this reward, someone else will. That’s how it works. Be glad I don’t feel like wiping you out too, chonkasu.”

  “What?”

  He scoffed. “What do you mean what?”

  “I don’t know what that word means.”

  “It’s what you are!”

  “American?”

  “Enough,” he said, drawing his swords.

  Jessica was just beginning to think she might need to dodge before her face was plowed into the dirt. She heard the sound of metal clanging and grinding. Sparks rained down from Akuhara grating both blades against the morkal’s claws. Flecks of ichorous black blood fell beside Jessica, sizzling where they landed.

  “Move,” the morkal told Jessica.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Jessica rolled, narrowly avoiding a fireball which scorched the tip of her hair. Dry grass and leaves went up in flames. Jessica popped to her feet just in time to duck a blade thrust by the fox girl.

  “Hey! Hey, wait! You don’t have to fight for that dork!” Jessica said, holding her hands up.

  “I would fight to the death for Jun-sama! He saved me from slavery!” the fox girl yelled.

  “Girl, you’re wearing a collar!”

  The debate was ended by another sword slash and a projectile, both missing Jessica’s face by inches. Whatever the projectile was, it exploded and shattered the morkal’s boulder door and rocked Jessica to her knees. The fox girl raised her sword over Jessica’s head like an executioner and was about to bring it down before a rock caught her in the jaw.

  “Gotcha!” John yelled.

  “John, get down!” Jessica screamed back.

  One of the slingshot rounds detonated against the edge of the cliff, shearing the tip off and sending John careening to the ground below. When the dust cloud cleared Jessica could see blood spattering his legs and torso where his clothes had been torn. Her heart boomed and time seemed to slow until John slowly and achingly raised his thumb.

  “M’alright!” he croaked.

  A shockwave blew Jessica’s hair over her face as Akuhara’s blades collided again with the morkal’s claws. This time the morkal was ready and wrapped her entire hand over the blade. Ignoring the blood, it wrenched Akuhara forward and bit down into his shoulder with its spiny maw. He let out a scream.

  “Jun-sama!” the fox girl yelled.

  Akuhara grunted. “Stay back, Vix!”

  The dark elf held back the fox girl from rushing to Akuhara’s aid. Jessica wondered briefly if they had choreographed this, because Akuhara proceeded to grin through his wound and say, “don’t worry, I’ve got this!” He followed this corny line by pulling his sword free and slicing the morkal across the chest.

  “Blade typhoon!”

  Akuhara spun in mid-air, turning into a vortex of garnet-colored after-images pursuing the morkal who took the attack directly to its forearms. Black blood flung from them like a topless blender.

  “Nice, Jun-sama!” the fox girl yelled.

  “I’ll heal your wound, master,” the dark elf said, conjuring glowing green energy over his bitten shoulder.

  “I’ll get the others!” the halfling said.

  Realizing she and John were ‘the others,’ Jessica yanked John from the rubble and sprinted for the morkal’s cave. The two made it just inside before an explosion sent debris raining down on them.

  “What’re we gonna do!?” John said as they ran.

  “I don’t know!” Jessica replied.

  Jessica skid to a halt in the inner chamber. The cauldron from last time had been moved to a crevice with a glass screen bolted to the wall. The makeshift fume hood, no doubt. And then meant she had hydrofluoric acid to work with. There had to be something else here, she just needed time to think.

  “I’ll hold ‘em off as long as I can,” John said.

  “With what!?”

  “Um…” John looked around. “Those!”

  He pointed at a rack of potions hanging from the ceiling. With no other option, Jessica put her trust in him and focused on searching the chamber.

  The trouble was that nothing was labeled. Minerals, herbs, body parts, and other ingredients were all heaped haphazardly in barrels and jars. Panic was beginning to claw at her until, by pure, dumb luck, she found her holy grail: A clay pot of metal flakes.

  “Oh… Oh! Oh baby, we’re onto something. John, how are we lookin—”

  The corridor erupted with popping and sizzling like soup and a spoon were sharing a microwave. Whatever the potions were accomplishing, it wasn’t enough to stop the halfling from firing a slingshot round through the opening and exploding morkal’s oversized bed. Wooden shrapnel shot across the room, slicing Jessica’s back and arms.

  “Hold her off just a few more seconds!” Jessica shouted.

  While John hurled more mystery potions, Jessica snatched a bundle of empty vials and shoveled the metal flakes into them. She had no idea what the metal was, so the vigor of the reaction would just have to be a surprise.

  Vials filled, she made for the fume hood and the muriatic acid she knew was inside. On the way, however, another bottle caught her eye. This one was actually labeled and written on it were the words ‘Aqua Fortis.’ Jessica giggled maniacally and grabbed it.

  “John, we’re getting out of here! Stay behind me and keep clear of the red clouds!”

  “Gotcha!” he yelled back. “Oh, and I turned the little girl into a toad!”

  Jessica ran to his side and saw there was now a toad hopping around the corridor.

  “Fabulous. Hold this please,” she said, handing him all but one of the vials.

  Jessica kicked the toad aside and sprinted for the cave entrance. Outside, the morkal was backed up to the cliff edge. Her claws were held up in defense, but one of her fingers now ended in a bleeding stump. Akuhara swaggered forward, blades flicking like a cattle driver’s whip. Fireballs from the dark elf licked the morkal’s pale flesh.

  “God, you are boring!” Akuhara said. “You’re so mediocre! I can’t even fake an aura moment. What’s the point of being reincarnated if the monsters suck ass!?”

  Jessica dumped the nitric acid into her vial of metal flakes and corked it. The vial bubbled and filled with red-orange clouds.

  “Jun-sama!” Jessica squealed in a high-pitch voice.

  His head whipped around. “What!?”

  “Howdy from Ohio.”

  She hurled the bottle at Akuhara and it rolled to a stop at his feet. He burst out laughing.

  “What was that supposed to be!?”

  The vial exploded.

  A plume of rust-colored nitrogen dioxide swallowed him whole. The fox girl and dark elf had no time to react before they were pelted with their own gas grenades. For good measure, Jessica had John hand her the remaining vials and gave each a second dose.

  By the time the clouds of nitrogen dioxide were being whisked away by the wind, the party lay curled up on the ground, choking and gasping for air.