The light in Lacey's eyes slowly returned after a few minutes. Saro had continually whispered affirmations and words of consolidation to her.
Following the immediate shock and panic, Lacey's mind swam with regret and fear. Saro's words broke through the haze of fear-fueled regret, sending her into another full spiral. Her mind snapped and all logic and reasoning had begun to reforge itself into something twisted.
'Lia.Lia.Lia.Lia.Lia.Lia.Lia...She did this for me. She did this all for me. She wants me to walk alongside her. I was worrying her about my weak behavior. I was weak and my heart needed to change. She pushed me towards that. We only slept together, and yet She's done so much for me? How could I ever repay her? I couldn't. If she hadn't taught me this valuable lesson to me, I would have been killed by some shit-head bandit. I would have been torn from Lia. THEY WOULD HAVE TORN ME FROM HER!'
Her mind slowly began to settle, its thoughts were darker, and yet she felt as if she saw the world more clearly. 'I was living with tinted glasses. The world will get in the way of Lia and. I will remove anything. I'm sorry it took this much for me to see the truth, Lia.'
She began to wriggle out from Saro's grip. Saro let her go.
Lacey stood up, her eyes darkened as she saw the other man lying there. She picked her sword up and began walking toward him. 'If they want to get in the way of us, then they aren't worthy of living. They aren't even worth looking at.' Her voice was dark and sounded twisted as she spoke.
Saro's eyes widened in realization. 'I've broken her.'
Lacey stabbed the sword into the man's throat. Her movements were clumsy, and it took a few consecutive stabs to accomplish the task. Eventually, he died.
Blood covered Lacey's torso, this kill had been messy. She had a small smear of blood across her face as she turned back towards Lia and smiled. "I won't be weak anymore."
Saro smiled and put her hand atop her head. "I need you to be strong, Lacey."
Lacey smiled in response, her body relaxing at Lia's soft touch. Saro relinquished control, allowing Darkova to return.
'Saro, what the hell is wrong with you? I...That was cruel. That was unnecessarily cruel.'
'Yes, but it needed to be done. Lacey would have remained too weak if I hadn't stepped in. We both know that eventually, she would have suffered a horrendous fate. Stop worrying about it, it's already been done. We have more pressing issues. We have a woman to hunt.'
Darkova thought, walling her thoughts from Saro. 'Yes, but at what cost? Ugh, whatever, we need to continue the search.'
Lia looked down at her mirror. According to her rank, she was in third place with seven kills. First place had ten, second place had eight, and fourth place had five. Lia didn't care so much about her place so long as she stayed in the top 150. She turned to Lacey. "What rank are you currently?"
Lacey wiped the bloodied blade on her shirt. "Umm, let me check." Pulling the mirror out, she let out a sigh when she saw. "178th."
Lia nodded. "We have to play catch-up for you then. I'm currently third."
The two of them began zipping through the forest. Lia's initial plan to create and establish an area for herself was thrown out. They needed to find the cloaked woman and eliminate her.
.....
A woman wearing a long black coat stood atop a tree branch. Her red hair peeked out from beneath the hood. Hopping down, she moved swiftly and wielded her spear with carefully perfected movements as she swiftly eliminated her latest opponent. 'According to this one, two people are hunting me. I wonder. Oh, it's probably that girl who slipped away from me. Hehe..this is going to be fun.'
.....
Lia and Lacey moved swiftly through a dense forest. They had found and eliminated one more person, which boosted Lacey's rank to 160th.
According to their last target, the black-cloaked woman was heading in this direction. He had seen her toying with another contestant and ran for his life.
The new biome was difficult to traverse, the trees left little room for movement along the ground, and Lia had taken to the trees. She jumped from branch to branch while Lacey followed as best she could along the ground.
A voice interrupted their movements. "Oh. Wow, it's third place."
Lia's head swiveled to find a man sitting a little bit away. He was resting on a tree branch. Lia quirked an eyebrow up in response. "You sound rather confident."
The man jumped from the branch he was on. His figure remained barely out of sight, hidden within the shadow of a tree. "I am, well, I was, but there's no way I'll fight you. According to my Intel, you're brutally unyielding. I've been trying to find you though, Name's Saf."
Lia jumped down from her branch and stood a little bit away. "I suppose you must have spoken to Yura at some point. I did quite a number on her. Any reason why you're looking for me particularly?"
Saf chuckled. "Indeed. You very nearly killed her, she's lucky to have contacted me for healing. She wouldn't have survived much longer than half a day with those injuries."
Saf paused. "I heard you were looking for someone. I've got most of the intel on where people are, and I'll give it to you, for a favor."
Lia raised an eyebrow. "And if I just torture the information out of you?"
Saf shrugged. "I guess you could, but you'd lose a very knowledgeable contact."
Lia began to think. 'Hmm. I see, so he's looking to start some kind of..arrangement. I wonder what he wants.'
Saro spoke to Darkova, her voice was confident. 'I know people like him. He probably wants you to kill someone for him. He's the definition of a shrewd merchant. It'll be beneficial to hear him out.'
'I agree Saro. Although there's likely a catch. I want the information though, so we'll play along.'
Lia spoke to Saf. "Fine then, what is it you want me to do?"
He walked out from the shadows, revealing himself. His face was sleek and feminine. His eyes were soft, and he held a smile that didn't quite reach them. His long blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail. "I just want you to kill fifth place for me. I know their exact location, so you needn't worry about tracking them down. Once that's done, I'll contact you with the information on 'Second'."