You know, you're getting a lot more chatty

*Not even for your food?*

Alice's eyebrows twitched.

"What's the supposed to mean?"

*Look closely*

Her eyes peered closer, and then she saw, on the floor, facing off against the hydra that was as huge as a building, was Mark, who was badly wounded.

Her eyes widened.

*If you can't think of anything else, any reason why you should fight, then you should at least think of who will give you food if he dies. Go save him, Alice.*

Mark looked like he would collapse at any moment but he was still holding on, trying to survive, facing off such a monster while his wounded mates evacuated the premises.

But how long did he think he could hold on?

"That moron of a boss, can't he just run away like the others? Why is he trying to play the hero or something? I don't even have the power to do anything so what's the point of showing me this?" She said.

Yeah, that was what she thought.

*Alice, open your eyes*

"Open my eyes? What are you talking about? I think I heard you say that the first time I started hearing you in my head. My eyes are wide open so how do I open them more past this, huh?"

*Open your eyes!* The voice went from calm to a furious command, forcing her third eye wide open.

Her right eye emanated a blue light like flame and she started to see things the normal human eyes would never be able to see.

The light of all living creatures.

"What the...?"

The Hydra, though emanating an orange ominous light around its body, looked like an empty vessel, and around the neck, where all necks sprouted from, was its main body. At least, that was what it looked like.

She looked at Mark and noticed he had a glowing light, but unlike the hydra, he was around his heart, which represented him as a human, but that light was fading.

He was pushing towards his limits.

"What the hell happened? What did you do to my eye?"

*Alice, Fight!*

"Just like that? Hey, I still need to weigh if it's okay to give up my life for that guy. You know, maybe there'll be someone else to bring me food like the boss did, so let's not act recklessly here."

*The only reckless one here is you, who wants to run away from the battle in front of you. Fight and win or die trying. You should not run when you have the power to do something*

"You know, you're getting a lot more chatty and demanding all of a sudden. Did you perhaps save your battery for this very moment?" She asked and it called out,

*Alice, focus! You have the power so use it*

"Alright, I get it. I don't know what power you're talking about but since you want me to go in and die that badly, I will. I mean, the worst that could happen is kicking the bucket, right?" She shook her head.

The voice in her head might've been her inner thoughts so maybe she desired death after all. To the point that she was going to risk her life in such a way.

"I don't know if I have the confidence to move in front of that thing, ugh."

She took her stance like someone ready to run a race. Her left foot back, and her right foot forward.

"Well, it's the end of us all, I tell ya. But if I'm going to die," she clenched the handle of the hammer, ready to charge. "...I'd better go down with a bang, right? But I've got to admit, this is way better than a quiet death."

*Just go*

"Sheesh, let me gloat before my death at least." She mustered up strength in her legs, which dug the thick ground as she got ready to run, but instead of running, her body moved on its own, and she leaped into the air. "The fuck! I said you should at least let me gloat at my deathbed!"

*You won't die as long as I'm with you*

"Wow, nice encouragement. You forgot the part where you were supposed to tell me what 'you' are. For all I know, you're just in my head, but... Here I go."

The wind passing through her as she dashed into the air with just a single leap made her feel like she had become a completely different person. It was a different feeling. A great feeling.

Ah, to have her death in such a grand manner, it was awesome.

She stopped in the air, directly above the hydra, whose focus was about but not on her.

Her size was nowhere in comparison to the hydra, she was almost like a speck of dust, even, but she was going to do it. She was going to follow the voice in her head and throw herself at deaths door in such a grand manner.

Her vision peered directly at the Hydra's weak point and she grinned.

"Here goes nothing." She yelled, clenched her hands around the hammer's handle, and descended it on the hydra, dropping a mighty strike from above that radiated enough energy to push the hydra down into the ground.

The Hydra, a creature for its flaw of never being able to watch its back, could not react to Alice's attack.

It had four heads but could not even watch his back with a single one. What a mighty flaw it had.

With a mighty and loud creak, the monster's mouths widened, letting out cries of anguish as it met its end and it finally crashed with a loud bang as her hammer pummeled it to the ground, crushing its neck completely.

Its purple, thick, and sticky blood got all over her prison pants, and some even splashed on her face, but that didn't matter as she was stunned and speechless.

What in the world just happened?

A stunned Alice let go of the hammer and sat down for a minute to process what just happened.

She knew she was being reckless when she leaped forward with an unknown power and had prepared herself for death, but where did all that strength come from?

She just took down a freaking hydra with a single strike.

*The element of surprise* the voice said. *Your strength far surpasses that of the hydra*

"Whoa, really? It's just in my head, right? Cause I don't even feel it. My body feels completely normal." She asked, clenching and unclenching her fists. "Is this another one of those dreams?"

Ah, she finally understood why they were so convinced she was an S-class Awakened.

She hadn't been able to see it all along but it was there. That unbelievable strength and swiftness could never belong to a normal human, no matter how you looked at it.

"Am I really an awakened? One without a system?" She asked but there was no response. Her eyes turned glazed in disappointment. "Oh, so now you choose to keep quiet?"

Well, she had to be. After all, no ordinary human being would be able to land a strike on such a thick-skinned and terrifying monster.

Mark, who had left it all to fate, hoped one of the S-class Awakeneds would be able to make it before his demise, while he still tried to hold on.

Anyone at all. He needed just one and they would all be liberated from this monster.

And then, at the last minute, when he thought it was over, he heard a familiar voice yelling in excitement from above, and lifted his gaze, only to see a grinning Alice descending with a mighty hammer covered in lightning in her hands. His eyes widened.

The power he could sense coming out of her was just so intense. It was crazy.

She had the kind of power that could crush monsters with a single strike. She...

"Hey, Boss, are you alright?" Alice yelled from on top of the Hydra and he snapped out of it. "I heard you can get a lot of money from a monster like this. So, how about it?"

"What?" He answered weakly but she was still able to hear him perfectly.

"Do you think we can afford ten portions of food after selling this? I hope there'll be a lot more left, though, so we can buy more tomorrow and the day after. Well buy a truck full, okay?"