Spectral Waltz
Warrior of Lewd
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- May 1, 2017
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Little does she realize she's just created so much more work for herself, but at least now it's quantifiable.
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Mostly Dead Means Slightly Alive [YGO/SAO FI ft Nihilo]
- Thread starter Spectral Waltz
- Start date
Everdistant Eternity
Becoming a bear(Animal) is also Transhumanist
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- Sep 24, 2023
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Probably right. It's a system, having an excuse to add definitions for these... Things... Was probably like a thirsty human drinking a glass of water.
Anyways, nice chapter. Interesting to see how in-flux things still are with Helewise, too. Especially with the NPC's reacting to her Duel Monsters.
Chapter Seventeen
New
Spectral Waltz
Warrior of Lewd
- Joined
- May 1, 2017
- Messages
- 4,798
- Likes received
- 25,875
"...You sure we gotta go in there?"
Jonah's nervousness as he peered from the tunnel mouth -carefully staying beneath the overhang that shadowed it- was understandable. They'd begun by making their way towards the closest point Helewise' stunt had revealed, quickly determining that it seemed to correspond to somewhere in the middle of the largest mountain at the rough center of the range, a massive former volcano that peeked above even the other summits.
In the course of their approach the harpies had grown denser, and now that the massive slopes were in view the monsters could also be seen patrolling the area around its spire in twos and threes. Tightly grouped enough that a misstep could draw more than one pack if they weren't careful. With how many cave entrances they could see at different levels on top of that, finding the right location might prove tricky even with the minimap's help.
[Time Remaining: 1:31:49]
"That place screams 'Area Boss' to me, and we don't know if the locations are connected to Seiko-san." Diavel shook his head, more and more he'd been growing less afraid of showing a certain amount of knowledge and experience. "We should circle around and check the others first."
"Let's see… Otejima can't go that far from me, we figured out that much in the woods." Helewise muttered more to herself than anything else, before eyeing the rope bridge and sighing with a shake of her head, "Yeah, nah, Reg could maybe try to scout but he'd get picked off. Circling around it is."
The sigh of relief was hard to miss, and Jonah took a few steps back from the opening, rejoining the group. "Let's go then, yeah? No time ta waste."
Without a further word, they turned back from whence they'd come, hurrying through the tunnels, past the smoking firepit and makeshift structures that had been a kobold camp a few minutes prior and turning down another tunnel, emerging onto another ledge and a trail that wound down into a dip between two peaks. Reg was first out the opening, shambling at a surprisingly respectable clip before a Harpie dove down to accost him, a flurry of claws and beating wings tearing a third from his remaining health before Duke barreled into the mob with a yell, long knife flashing out into the twin cuts of a Side Bite that seemed to genuinely hamstring her, legs and talons going suddenly limp as she screamed.
Helewise' Sonic Charge buried the point of her Naginata in the harpie's throat before she could take flight again, cutting her voice off with a nasty wet gurgle before she shattered, dissolving into polygons.
Reg groaned, Duke scanned the skies, then offered a gloved fist.
They ran on.
Another series of caverns, another bridge, this one surprisingly well-cared for compared to some of the others they'd crossed. The far side bore a broad open ledge with a cave at the back, a massive shelf of rock forming a wide entrance that had been artificially narrowed by what looked like wooden barricades. Diavel's eyes were already glowing green as he held up a hand to signal a halt, squinting at the darkness. "'Searching' everyone, I see movement over there."
Helewise's own weren't far behind. "Aye, I see 'em."
At this distance little more than different shades of darkness, but the way they shifted left little room for doubt. Two shapes pacing awkwardly back and forth, a third came into view after a few seconds, pausing, before turning back and retreating from sight.
"More Kobolds?" Tokoyami whispered curiously.
"They don't look like Harpies," FlowerFae muttered back, "so probably."
"Ya know they can't hear us all th'way over here right?" Jonah chimed in.
Both flushed at that, embarrassed, while Duke had a thoughtful hand on his chin. "There's probably more behind the barricades, javelins or something, since bows and crossbows don't work in here."
"For now, at least, given the rate at which we're getting patches." Helewise muttered. It only took a few people getting archer types from cards and Cardinal would once again grumble and do her thing. At least, she imagined the AI was not happy with all this. "Do look out for nastier throwables, doesn't take much to put a bunch of awfulness in a crude baked mud pot and toss it at someone."
Both parties collectively winced at that, a couple of them winced again.
"You're worried about bombs?" Diavel sounded somewhere between impressed and appalled.
"Maybe not explosive bombs, but something that breaks into toxic sludge or blinding powder? Yea." Helewise grunted, grimacing at the historical source of toxic munitions.
Namely, dipping your arrowheads, javelins, whatever in dung to make people die of sepsis.
"I… I wouldn't expect that from first floor mobs, but I wouldn't expect a lot of things." He answered after a moment, clearly grappling with himself in an effort to work out his answers. "I don't remember hearing–, seeing anything about Harpie Ladies in these mountains during the Alpha."
He took a moment, clearly thinking, then nodded. "We're running out of time. Zeero and I will lead, your Zombie-" he nodded to Helewise, who gave him a thumbs up, "–just behind us. If we need to storm the opening we want shields first and undead mobs are supposed to be immune to poison."
"I'm out of health potions," the other tank's expression spoke of determination though it didn't quite reach his eyes or voice.
"I gotcha." Jonah materialized a bottle of red liquid and passed it over. "Don't waste it, okay? S'my last one."
"Do or…" Tokoyami trailed off as he realized what he'd been about to say, "ahah… Sorry, sorry."
He muttered something that sounded like '...can't just say that' under his breath. Duke and FlowerFae were visibly psyching themselves up, the former's dagger gleaming as he brought it in and out of a sword skill's pre-motion while the latter bounced on the balls of her feet, hands clenching and unclenching.
"Spears behind shields, daggers ready to switch in from the back." Diavel continued, grimly focused on the far side of the bridge. "If they come out to meet us, spread out, don't get surrounded."
A few glanced nervously up at the distant harpies fluttering around the high peak in the distance. Helewise' eyes flicked to the timer ticking seconds away one after another.
[Time Remaining: 1:14:08]
Breath in, breath out, let the lungs work like bellows. Focus on why she did this, why she put one foot in front of the other, why she stuck out her neck. That inextinguishable ember of no, I refuse. Her fire flared, flames licking at her neck all the way from her chest, scale patches smoldering like burning paper where they met pallid skin.
"Let's go."
Each of the first thirty seconds crossing that bridge felt like they could have been a minute. One quarter, then one third, then halfway… They watched the Kobolds getting clearer and clearer, dark scales gleaming in the light reflected from outside. smaller movements on the peripheries of the entrance. One more behind each barricade, then two, yellow eyes luminous in the shadow of the overhang.
Two thirds, then at three quarters the wind brought them a familiar cry as the mobs suddenly turned, pointing and jabbering.
Blades rose as the tanks hefted their shields. "Charge!" "Banzai!"
–only to falter as their voices overlapped, glancing at each other for a beat. Then Diavel huffed while Zeero smirked, and wordlessly they moved to make good on their declarations.
The bridge groaned underfoot as they went from a walk to a jog, then to a run. Boots clattered on the boards, Reg going into a strange shambling lope followed by Jonah and Helewise.
Four Kobolds scrambled up from behind their barricades and hurled crude short spears that fell just short of the shieldbearers, three clattering off stones to tumble into the abyss while the last one managed to sink into a patch of dusty earth before toppling over with the wind of Zeero's passage. Five more kobolds spilled out of the gap between the fortifications as the hurlers ducked behind their walls, almost certainly grabbing for more ammunition.
Two were familiar, mobs they'd already fought across a half dozen little mining encampments. The other three were bulkier, not just better armored but thicker in a way that suggested muscles, wielding short spears and raising leathery shields in a crude mirror to Zeero and Diavel's tactics.
Two of those three met the charging tanks while the third made the mistake of leading with its spear instead, charging at Reg. The crude weapon took the zombie in the gut, punching through him in a single furious thrust, only for the zombie to simply keep going even as his HP dipped into the red. Unwilling or unable to let go of its weapons the kobold screeched and flailed, Reg's health falling lower and lower even as he kept the foe pinned.
To the mummy's left and right shields clashed, Diavel's straight sword hastily forcing aside a stone spear aimed at his exposed head while Zeero was not quite so lucky with the one that went for his thigh, only managing to turn the thrust into a glancing blow that left a line of crimson pixels on his thigh.
"Tristan!" The axeman forgot himself in the heat of the moment, angling towards Zeero and forcing Helewise into a half step as he cross her path.
"Jonah! Auh-!" Planting his feet, he shoved at the Kobold's shield with a furious cry, pushing it back a step. "Switch!"
The spear snaked back out in an emerald Linear as Jonah brought his axe down, blade glowing red in a heavy Vertical. Zero ducked to one side in the instant of freedom, getting out from between them just fast enough. Had the Kobold aimed for the blonde teen's axe itself the two attacks could have deflected off each other but the AI hadn't switched its targeting yet.
A stone spearhead dug into Jonah's side, taking another chunk out of his health, an instant later the axe came down on the Kobold's collarbone, and while the Vertical lacked the sheer power of something like an Avalanche, the monster had no room to even attempt a deflection.
Behind the barricades, the hurlers were standing back up, readying for another volley. "Incoming!"
Cold calculus ran behind toxic green eyes, a lonely little island of sense in the roaring inferno building up inside Helewise's skull. Trajectories, times, angles, vulnerabilities.
"Reg!" She called with both fanged maw and her soul, already in motion as her tail coiled like a spring and released its force in perfect sync with her legs. Her boot found itself cradled in a mummified and near-skeletal hand that endured with all the strength and stubbornness of the undead, the impression of a soldier's red grin at duty done to the bloody end ringing across their bond from their point of contact. Reg couldn't speak, not truly, but one didn't need words to convey the sentiment of 'go get 'em, boss' as he hurled her forward in the same stroke as she activated Sonic Charge to become a virulent violet comet.
Light. Sound. Bright and loud, too much for the Kobolds to handle even before the stunning shockwave tore through the hurlers. It forced all of them to turn to her, even when they were horribly indisposed to do anything about her. Carried by the skill, the tip of her weapon had found one kobold's mouth and punched out the back of its head while the shockwave bowled the one next to it over, sending it tumbling. The other two on the far barricade were stumbling, shaking their heads as a hint of dark mist swirled in their eyes, Blindness status.
Otejima slotted in like a missing puzzle piece, completing the shape the party made, perfectly in tune with her as she slid out of the post-motion delay into a Horizontal shrouded by ghostly flames and swung by two overlaid pairs of arms. The downed hurler went still as the stroke crossed its throat before coming apart. The other two yelped as blue-purple fire lashed out, beating at the flames that licked at their scales and clothes rather than making another attack.
Her mana was draining like water, and each attack in this state was tearing further chunks from it. Reg's HP hit zero, his presence in her HUD flickering before fading out as the battle outside quickly turned in the wake of her explosive intervention. Sonic Charge was still on cooldown, but she hardly needed its boost to cross the gap between the barricades. Mid-leap, she caught a glimpse of the fight outside, Jonah fallen back from the front, Diavel and Zeero pressuring the remaining two guards while Duke lashed at their flanks. Then she was on the other side and driving a Linear for the third hurler's chest, violet flaring at the tip of her glaive to punch straight through the leather jerkin and out the mob's back in a spray of crimson pixels.
The mob fumbled, swiping at Helewise weakly before it shattered. The one behind it switched targets and a javelin hurtled her way from point blank range an instant later, punching into her shoulder and taking another chunk from her HP. The bar turned a sickly green as a Poison status took hold, a creeping sense of not-quite-nausea suddenly tugging at her stomach, but the hurler had disarmed itself just beyond her reach.
A single step transitioned into a smooth linear, crimson visual aberrations mingled with the azure trail as it cut across her foe's chest, burning through armor and biting deep into bone.
By the time the post-motion released her, the mob was still reaching for the cluster of javelins. Its grasping fingers came apart into shards before ever touching another weapon.
Outside, Tokoyami was pressuring one of the two Kobold scouts with a series of swipes and stabs, his dagger whittling away its HP while shimmering golden barriers guarded him in the moments of stillness between attacks. Mystic Elf trailed serenely in her summoner's wake, the constant precise motions of her fingers the only sign of any sort of effort as she glided through the battlefield. Jonah was at the back downing some sort of potion while Diavel, Zeero, and Duke were now ganging up on the last of the Kobold guard, carefully rotating to keep themselves from taking any hits as they took it apart. The other scout was glittering dust on the wind around Flowerfae's fists as she slowly straightened from her crouch and took in the battlefield.
That was all the attention she could spare them before she had to get back to work. Flashy stunt or not, she still had a part to play here.
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Jonah's nervousness as he peered from the tunnel mouth -carefully staying beneath the overhang that shadowed it- was understandable. They'd begun by making their way towards the closest point Helewise' stunt had revealed, quickly determining that it seemed to correspond to somewhere in the middle of the largest mountain at the rough center of the range, a massive former volcano that peeked above even the other summits.
In the course of their approach the harpies had grown denser, and now that the massive slopes were in view the monsters could also be seen patrolling the area around its spire in twos and threes. Tightly grouped enough that a misstep could draw more than one pack if they weren't careful. With how many cave entrances they could see at different levels on top of that, finding the right location might prove tricky even with the minimap's help.
[Time Remaining: 1:31:49]
"That place screams 'Area Boss' to me, and we don't know if the locations are connected to Seiko-san." Diavel shook his head, more and more he'd been growing less afraid of showing a certain amount of knowledge and experience. "We should circle around and check the others first."
"Let's see… Otejima can't go that far from me, we figured out that much in the woods." Helewise muttered more to herself than anything else, before eyeing the rope bridge and sighing with a shake of her head, "Yeah, nah, Reg could maybe try to scout but he'd get picked off. Circling around it is."
The sigh of relief was hard to miss, and Jonah took a few steps back from the opening, rejoining the group. "Let's go then, yeah? No time ta waste."
Without a further word, they turned back from whence they'd come, hurrying through the tunnels, past the smoking firepit and makeshift structures that had been a kobold camp a few minutes prior and turning down another tunnel, emerging onto another ledge and a trail that wound down into a dip between two peaks. Reg was first out the opening, shambling at a surprisingly respectable clip before a Harpie dove down to accost him, a flurry of claws and beating wings tearing a third from his remaining health before Duke barreled into the mob with a yell, long knife flashing out into the twin cuts of a Side Bite that seemed to genuinely hamstring her, legs and talons going suddenly limp as she screamed.
Helewise' Sonic Charge buried the point of her Naginata in the harpie's throat before she could take flight again, cutting her voice off with a nasty wet gurgle before she shattered, dissolving into polygons.
Reg groaned, Duke scanned the skies, then offered a gloved fist.
They ran on.
Another series of caverns, another bridge, this one surprisingly well-cared for compared to some of the others they'd crossed. The far side bore a broad open ledge with a cave at the back, a massive shelf of rock forming a wide entrance that had been artificially narrowed by what looked like wooden barricades. Diavel's eyes were already glowing green as he held up a hand to signal a halt, squinting at the darkness. "'Searching' everyone, I see movement over there."
Helewise's own weren't far behind. "Aye, I see 'em."
At this distance little more than different shades of darkness, but the way they shifted left little room for doubt. Two shapes pacing awkwardly back and forth, a third came into view after a few seconds, pausing, before turning back and retreating from sight.
"More Kobolds?" Tokoyami whispered curiously.
"They don't look like Harpies," FlowerFae muttered back, "so probably."
"Ya know they can't hear us all th'way over here right?" Jonah chimed in.
Both flushed at that, embarrassed, while Duke had a thoughtful hand on his chin. "There's probably more behind the barricades, javelins or something, since bows and crossbows don't work in here."
"For now, at least, given the rate at which we're getting patches." Helewise muttered. It only took a few people getting archer types from cards and Cardinal would once again grumble and do her thing. At least, she imagined the AI was not happy with all this. "Do look out for nastier throwables, doesn't take much to put a bunch of awfulness in a crude baked mud pot and toss it at someone."
Both parties collectively winced at that, a couple of them winced again.
"You're worried about bombs?" Diavel sounded somewhere between impressed and appalled.
"Maybe not explosive bombs, but something that breaks into toxic sludge or blinding powder? Yea." Helewise grunted, grimacing at the historical source of toxic munitions.
Namely, dipping your arrowheads, javelins, whatever in dung to make people die of sepsis.
"I… I wouldn't expect that from first floor mobs, but I wouldn't expect a lot of things." He answered after a moment, clearly grappling with himself in an effort to work out his answers. "I don't remember hearing–, seeing anything about Harpie Ladies in these mountains during the Alpha."
He took a moment, clearly thinking, then nodded. "We're running out of time. Zeero and I will lead, your Zombie-" he nodded to Helewise, who gave him a thumbs up, "–just behind us. If we need to storm the opening we want shields first and undead mobs are supposed to be immune to poison."
"I'm out of health potions," the other tank's expression spoke of determination though it didn't quite reach his eyes or voice.
"I gotcha." Jonah materialized a bottle of red liquid and passed it over. "Don't waste it, okay? S'my last one."
"Do or…" Tokoyami trailed off as he realized what he'd been about to say, "ahah… Sorry, sorry."
He muttered something that sounded like '...can't just say that' under his breath. Duke and FlowerFae were visibly psyching themselves up, the former's dagger gleaming as he brought it in and out of a sword skill's pre-motion while the latter bounced on the balls of her feet, hands clenching and unclenching.
"Spears behind shields, daggers ready to switch in from the back." Diavel continued, grimly focused on the far side of the bridge. "If they come out to meet us, spread out, don't get surrounded."
A few glanced nervously up at the distant harpies fluttering around the high peak in the distance. Helewise' eyes flicked to the timer ticking seconds away one after another.
[Time Remaining: 1:14:08]
Breath in, breath out, let the lungs work like bellows. Focus on why she did this, why she put one foot in front of the other, why she stuck out her neck. That inextinguishable ember of no, I refuse. Her fire flared, flames licking at her neck all the way from her chest, scale patches smoldering like burning paper where they met pallid skin.
"Let's go."
Each of the first thirty seconds crossing that bridge felt like they could have been a minute. One quarter, then one third, then halfway… They watched the Kobolds getting clearer and clearer, dark scales gleaming in the light reflected from outside. smaller movements on the peripheries of the entrance. One more behind each barricade, then two, yellow eyes luminous in the shadow of the overhang.
Two thirds, then at three quarters the wind brought them a familiar cry as the mobs suddenly turned, pointing and jabbering.
Blades rose as the tanks hefted their shields. "Charge!" "Banzai!"
–only to falter as their voices overlapped, glancing at each other for a beat. Then Diavel huffed while Zeero smirked, and wordlessly they moved to make good on their declarations.
The bridge groaned underfoot as they went from a walk to a jog, then to a run. Boots clattered on the boards, Reg going into a strange shambling lope followed by Jonah and Helewise.
Four Kobolds scrambled up from behind their barricades and hurled crude short spears that fell just short of the shieldbearers, three clattering off stones to tumble into the abyss while the last one managed to sink into a patch of dusty earth before toppling over with the wind of Zeero's passage. Five more kobolds spilled out of the gap between the fortifications as the hurlers ducked behind their walls, almost certainly grabbing for more ammunition.
Two were familiar, mobs they'd already fought across a half dozen little mining encampments. The other three were bulkier, not just better armored but thicker in a way that suggested muscles, wielding short spears and raising leathery shields in a crude mirror to Zeero and Diavel's tactics.
Two of those three met the charging tanks while the third made the mistake of leading with its spear instead, charging at Reg. The crude weapon took the zombie in the gut, punching through him in a single furious thrust, only for the zombie to simply keep going even as his HP dipped into the red. Unwilling or unable to let go of its weapons the kobold screeched and flailed, Reg's health falling lower and lower even as he kept the foe pinned.
To the mummy's left and right shields clashed, Diavel's straight sword hastily forcing aside a stone spear aimed at his exposed head while Zeero was not quite so lucky with the one that went for his thigh, only managing to turn the thrust into a glancing blow that left a line of crimson pixels on his thigh.
"Tristan!" The axeman forgot himself in the heat of the moment, angling towards Zeero and forcing Helewise into a half step as he cross her path.
"Jonah! Auh-!" Planting his feet, he shoved at the Kobold's shield with a furious cry, pushing it back a step. "Switch!"
The spear snaked back out in an emerald Linear as Jonah brought his axe down, blade glowing red in a heavy Vertical. Zero ducked to one side in the instant of freedom, getting out from between them just fast enough. Had the Kobold aimed for the blonde teen's axe itself the two attacks could have deflected off each other but the AI hadn't switched its targeting yet.
A stone spearhead dug into Jonah's side, taking another chunk out of his health, an instant later the axe came down on the Kobold's collarbone, and while the Vertical lacked the sheer power of something like an Avalanche, the monster had no room to even attempt a deflection.
Behind the barricades, the hurlers were standing back up, readying for another volley. "Incoming!"
Cold calculus ran behind toxic green eyes, a lonely little island of sense in the roaring inferno building up inside Helewise's skull. Trajectories, times, angles, vulnerabilities.
"Reg!" She called with both fanged maw and her soul, already in motion as her tail coiled like a spring and released its force in perfect sync with her legs. Her boot found itself cradled in a mummified and near-skeletal hand that endured with all the strength and stubbornness of the undead, the impression of a soldier's red grin at duty done to the bloody end ringing across their bond from their point of contact. Reg couldn't speak, not truly, but one didn't need words to convey the sentiment of 'go get 'em, boss' as he hurled her forward in the same stroke as she activated Sonic Charge to become a virulent violet comet.
Light. Sound. Bright and loud, too much for the Kobolds to handle even before the stunning shockwave tore through the hurlers. It forced all of them to turn to her, even when they were horribly indisposed to do anything about her. Carried by the skill, the tip of her weapon had found one kobold's mouth and punched out the back of its head while the shockwave bowled the one next to it over, sending it tumbling. The other two on the far barricade were stumbling, shaking their heads as a hint of dark mist swirled in their eyes, Blindness status.
Otejima slotted in like a missing puzzle piece, completing the shape the party made, perfectly in tune with her as she slid out of the post-motion delay into a Horizontal shrouded by ghostly flames and swung by two overlaid pairs of arms. The downed hurler went still as the stroke crossed its throat before coming apart. The other two yelped as blue-purple fire lashed out, beating at the flames that licked at their scales and clothes rather than making another attack.
Her mana was draining like water, and each attack in this state was tearing further chunks from it. Reg's HP hit zero, his presence in her HUD flickering before fading out as the battle outside quickly turned in the wake of her explosive intervention. Sonic Charge was still on cooldown, but she hardly needed its boost to cross the gap between the barricades. Mid-leap, she caught a glimpse of the fight outside, Jonah fallen back from the front, Diavel and Zeero pressuring the remaining two guards while Duke lashed at their flanks. Then she was on the other side and driving a Linear for the third hurler's chest, violet flaring at the tip of her glaive to punch straight through the leather jerkin and out the mob's back in a spray of crimson pixels.
The mob fumbled, swiping at Helewise weakly before it shattered. The one behind it switched targets and a javelin hurtled her way from point blank range an instant later, punching into her shoulder and taking another chunk from her HP. The bar turned a sickly green as a Poison status took hold, a creeping sense of not-quite-nausea suddenly tugging at her stomach, but the hurler had disarmed itself just beyond her reach.
A single step transitioned into a smooth linear, crimson visual aberrations mingled with the azure trail as it cut across her foe's chest, burning through armor and biting deep into bone.
By the time the post-motion released her, the mob was still reaching for the cluster of javelins. Its grasping fingers came apart into shards before ever touching another weapon.
Outside, Tokoyami was pressuring one of the two Kobold scouts with a series of swipes and stabs, his dagger whittling away its HP while shimmering golden barriers guarded him in the moments of stillness between attacks. Mystic Elf trailed serenely in her summoner's wake, the constant precise motions of her fingers the only sign of any sort of effort as she glided through the battlefield. Jonah was at the back downing some sort of potion while Diavel, Zeero, and Duke were now ganging up on the last of the Kobold guard, carefully rotating to keep themselves from taking any hits as they took it apart. The other scout was glittering dust on the wind around Flowerfae's fists as she slowly straightened from her crouch and took in the battlefield.
That was all the attention she could spare them before she had to get back to work. Flashy stunt or not, she still had a part to play here.
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You can read two chapters ahead on Patreon.
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