Hostilities

"It appears that you have become moderately self-sufficient as of late."

Kant watched as Tau set ablaze the wood she had just gathered.

It has been a week since Tau had arrived in the tutorial world. She had spent a majority of her time examining the logic of the world and formulating viable interpretations so that she may apply her domain.

After quantifying fire, she constructed a schema for water, allowing her to manipulate its flow and density. With little modification, She was able to create a similar schema for air.

Now, with these simple building blocks, she was able to partially recreate Kant's performance.

{Find the fish...}

[Observing water flow… Obstruction detected...]

{Send it flying into the air...}

[Modifying local water flow...]

The lake spat the fish into the air.

{Prepare swords}

[Condensing air… Forming a sheet...]

{Cut it!}

[Maintaining density… Modifying airflow…]

The fish splattered into two roughly cut pieces.

"Figures..." Tau sighed.

"Not too bad, actually."

Kant flew into action, gutting and dicing the fish midair before delivering the meat, neatly arranged, on the flat of his blade.

"Show off..." Tau murmured sourly as she salted and strung the meat, adding it to a growing heap of failed attempts on their food rack.

During this one week, the three of them had been busy building some basic tools to aid in survival. Kant had told Tau that they would likely be in the tutorial world for a good while and that she should learn how to keep her mortal form alive so that she could last.

So, when she wasn't deep in thought organizing the logic of the world, Tau would be doing some sort of physical labor. With a little help from Phi and Kant, Tau constructed a small hut, several racks for holding necessities like firewood and food, as well as simple tools like knives, axes, and clubs out of rocks she found in the forest. Although, she would rarely use any of the tools since Kant would usually handle any job that she would use the tools for.

After she finished preserving all the meat, Tau headed into the woods to procure more firewood. With a wave of her hand, she used wind blades to cut some low hanging branches. However, when she tried to use the wind to gather them into a pile, she overshot, scattering the branches all over the ground.

Tau placed a hand to her head. She was beginning to feel the dull pangs of a headache which told her that she was reaching the limits of her domain stamina once again. Sighing, she went to gather the branches by hand.

[Looking on the bright side, all this exercise has been good for your body. Remember how sore you were when you woke up on day two? Now, despite the increased amount of time you spend transversing the woods gathering wood, we've never been so sore ever again.]

{Sure… but on the other hand, our domain stamina doesn't seem to be improving by much.}

[...Well… I did say: looking on the bright side...]

At that moment, Tau heard a crack of wood and a rustle of leaves as a man in pale woolen clothing crashed through a patch of nearby shrubbery. Tau stared in surprise; After reaching her domain use limit, she had reduced its range to encompass only her immediate surrounding and was therefore not able to sense any approaching entities.

The man was equally shocked to see her. He shouted something desperately at Tau before drawing a dagger from the leather sheath at his side.

{He's afraid…but determined... and he wants us… to run…?}

Although Tau couldn't understand the language, she could feel the vague feelings and intentions of the man before her.

[Run from what?]

Ignoring her faint headache, Tau expanded her domain, searching for other presences in the vicinity. It wasn't long before she found something strange.

It was about the size of a man, but moving too fast to be on foot. Despite its speed and size, it was strangely stealthy. There was no snapping of branches; even the rustle of leaves could easily be mistaken for the wind. Moreover, the figure felt like it was covered in some sort of shadow. Tau didn't know what to make of it.

And then it was upon them.

The man gave a cry as the shadowy figure flew out of the underbrush and collided with him, knocking him to the ground.

It was a corpse, covered with blood from a long slash across its torso and limbs bent at odd angles. Its dislodged jaw quickly tightened around the man's arm, which he had raised to protect himself. With a dull crunch, the bone snapped.

Screaming, the man stabbed the corpse through the throat. The corpse arched back, releasing its hold on the man's arm. Then, with a loud crack, The corpse's hands snapped into place around the man's neck. The corpse snapped its face down towards the man's; they were eye-to-eye. Then, the corpse went limb.

With a cry, the man pushed the corpse off of him and tried to bring the dagger to his own throat. He was stopped by his other hand. After a few moments of struggling, the man looked desperately at Tau.

"Kill me. Please. Quickly."

As Tau watched, the man's eyes became flooded with darkness, and he relaxed.

[Back!]

Tau suddenly fell backward as Neu took control of her legs. Just in time for the dagger to miss her neck and sink itself into a tree behind her.

The man chuckled softly as he floated to his feet. He shot her a twisted smile and started to walk in her direction.

[Fight or run. Pick one.]

Tau immediately felt the dull pang of her headache.

{Running sounds pretty good right about now.}

[Yeah.]

Tau dropped the branches she was carrying and took off in the direction of the camp. With a week of practice using her domain, she was able to move through the forest with much more ease and haste in comparison to when she first came to this world, even with her growing headache.

However, that wasn't enough.

[He's gaining!]

With her domain expanded, Tau could feel the unnatural movements of the man chasing her. He seemed to fly across the ground, taking only a single step to cover the distance that took Tau at least ten.

[3 meters...]

[2...]

[1!]

Tau could feel the man's hands about to close around her neck.

{Screw it. I'm not going down without a fight!}

Tau turned midstep, and, despite her headache, summoned a wind blade to retaliate. However, in her panic, she tripped on a tree root and fell backward. The wind blade shot off at a wide-angle, severing some leaves and flying off into the sky.

Then, with a faint hiss, the man disappeared. It was as though space itself swallowed him whole. Even the memory of the man was ripped from Tau's mind, leaving her confused as to why she ran so far after just finding a shriveled corpse in the woods.

-

Meanwhile, Phi had returned to camp to find Kant lying on the ground.

"It looks like she ran into some demon spawn," Phi said, "I took care of it."

"I see. Sorry to make you do the work."

"Don't be. I know you're feeling like shit right now."

"No, Phi. I am fine."

"Don't lie to me. Your existence… it's so weak..."

Kant couldn't say anything to that.

"Every time I finally start feeling like myself, it's at your expense. Why did you have to..."

"Hush now. We have been over this. You should not waste this precious time while you are whole. Why not meet Tau? You have not properly met her yet."

Phi sat down next to Kant and looked into the sky.

"Next time, perhaps. Everything's starting to get cloudy again."

"Next time, certainly."

Phi closed her eyes and lay down in the sand.

"Hey, Kant. You'll still be there, won't you? Next time?"

"Of course. I will see you again next time."