*ding*
Welcome to the final objective of your universe's first Quarterly Event.
My hand instinctively lifted up to block the blinding golden-orange sun rays beaming down on me in a flash, before I even realized my body materialized. The system message opened itself in tandem with the blinding light, though its contents remained far clearer than my temporarily blurry surroundings.
[Objective: Kill, And Be Killed]
Eliminate all remaining competitors. There can only be one champion left standing.
*CONSEQUENCES UPDATED*
Upon elimination, the entirety of your Quarterly Points is transferred to your killer. This includes:
All points earned/inheritedAll bonus points earned All multipliers affecting points earned
There is no cap.
I rubbed my eyes, both to clear my vision and to be sure I was reading things correctly. I'm glad we dumped most of our points already, though the thought of our team having skipped the Quarterly Marketplace just to risk losing every single point was nothing short of anxiety-inducing to imagine. I took a step back as my eyes fluttered back open, feeling a rough, jagged crunch under my heel. Before I could investigate however, a new section popped up that looked particularly important.
[Dynamic Death Echo: Active]
When a kill is made, a mana pulse is released from the killer's body.
Color: Encodes killers primary affinity
Radius: 10m + (INT x 0.25)
Visibility: To combatants within a 3 km
A 'pulse'? I guess that'll keep participants close by. Though, this place looks uncannily familiar, especially the glistening red foliage lining the border between itself and this cyan, bioluminescent, coral covered beach side. Still curious at what the constantly pinging updates had to say, and seeing as though there wasn't anyone along my rough, oddly humid beach in sight, I continued skimming through the important parts.
[Vitality Renewal: Active]
->A portion of your vitality will be restored upon kills. Does not heal fatal wounds (anything that would kill within 0.5 seconds.)
Health Restored = (Target Max HP x 0.15) + (Killer VIT x 0.50)
[Mana Reclaimation: Active]
->A portion of mana is restored to your Mana Pool. (Never exceeds Killers max MP)
Mana Restored = (Target Max Mana x 0.20) + (Killer INT x 0.35)
[Domain Overcharge: Active]
->All (Mage)s automatically generate Micro-Domains within 15 meters (minimum).
->Domain Strength scales with INT + affinity diversity.
->All Domains clash or overwrite when contacted with one another.
Seeing the many new stipulations revolving around continuous battle that rewards its victors sent a rush of both excitement and urgency though my body. I tried dropping down to a knee, realizing I was reading all of this while standing completely out in the open. Regardless of the lack of activity, that could easily change, and I'd rather see the closest person to me first than vice versa. A sharp, stabbing sensation jolted me into a squat, my eyes wide until remembering I was standing atop the glowing fractured coral covering the shore. There was hardly any sand visible, though it appeared completely transparent at a glance. My mind was busy trying to calculate my newly-boosted Intelligence and Vitality stats into these new 'Renewal' effects.
Planet: Myzur
Era: N/A
God: none.
Lives: 1
Planetary Objective: Kill everyone.
A series of heavy branches snapping in the distance, as well as a few concussive blasts that rattled glowing coral remains around me echoed from somewhere in Myzur's red and purple forest. One I remember all too well now, given how hard-fought it was beating Aarin to win our System-Curated Placement Tournament finalists rematch. Now, I get to fight a metric fuck-load of people who may never even qualified for the tournament, with some familiarity to this place under my belt nonetheless. A smile creased at the edges of my mouth as Ripple Stride thrusted my momentum up the beachside's steep incline. A bright blue flash of light twinkled through the thick, high arcing foliage, sending another surge of elation through my bones.
Finally, I get to have a little fun.
——————————————————————
The wind whistled through my helm as I glided over the amber fronds glistening over the grasslands. At my side towered one of the many bluffs, covered in purple moss and vines I recognized all too well from the very first Quarterly Event we took part in. The image of Tom and Aerin's final clash ending in a flash of bright blue light played through my head as I scanned the horizon. I don't like having such little cover on the move, and this bluff isn't sloped sharp enough for me to confidently write off any surprise attacks descending from the very high ground I depended on. Willing the hud to display at the top of my vision, a quick scan over how the Event's played out over the first hour and ten minutes proved less reassuring than I'd hoped it'd be.
[ KILL & BE KILLED ] - Final Event (LIVE)
Remaining Participants: 9,349,432
Titan's Path: Northeast (2634.7m)
Eliminations: 0
Time Until Catastrophic Tectonic Shift: 3:49:27
A staggering 110,000+ already eliminated, and I'd yet to see a single other soul. Seeing I may very well have been plopped along the outskirts of whatever amount of this planet the System gave us access to, I turned deeper into the glowing fronds in hopes of eventually finding a new biome. After only a few minutes however, I was instead greeted by several ground-rumbling explosions, as well as a bright red beacon of light that fired up into the bright, cloudless sky.
Wasting no time, I turned my newly upgraded Riverstep, now dubbed 'Tidal Stride' toward the beacon. With any luck, I'd arrive before anyone else was eliminated. That way I'd be finishing off multiple weakened combatants, rather than risking being outnumbered by competent fighters. While we probably weren't dealing with Labyrinth Of Lost Legends-level of competition on average, I certainly recall seeing plenty of competency waltzing throughout our initial 'meet & greet' section of the Quarteries. It'd be foolish to underestimate anyone at this stage, especially after that fucking ice mage caught me off guard at the end of my run at the Phantom Of Unclaimed Treasure's Objective. Besides, Tom's bullshit rant about my leadership struck just the right nerve for an Event like this. Crocodile tears won't be saving anyone from me here.
Another flash of light shot up into the sky as I neared the first beacon's location. Then another. And another. A weak, gurgling voice quickly crescendoed, until finally reaching a full shriek as I burst through into a small clearing. At the center stood a blonde woman, standing over a man who was clutching at the bloody mess at his shoulder blade where his arm presumably used to be.
"-you ff-gucking bi-" the woman slowly placed a single palm on the man's temple. In an instant, a massive blast of mana erupted, blasting through the man's skull. The mangled bottom half of his jaw that remained twitched as his remains fell to the ground. A beam of dark, fiery orange light shot out from around the blonde, erecting seemingly endlessly up to the skies for a few seconds before fading. Unwilling to enter a fight without an ounce of information. The woman spoke as my Identify skill activated, her voice confirming my suspicions.
[Human - Level 12]
"A shame, until now you might've had a real shot. I thought I counted all my targe-" Brigid paused as she turned to face me, her glossy black and gold armor glistening in the orange sunlight.
"Oh, you. Korbin's second favorite pet, if I'm not mistaken? What a treat." Brigid jeered, brandishing a curved short sword at her side. The fuller lining its blade sharply rippled like wild flames, glimmering even behind her shadow.
"Are you saying it's better to be the first favorite pet?" I asked, spinning my bo staff around my hand, placing it out in front of me in my fighter's stance.
"N-uh…what? No, no that's not-." Brigid hissed through clenched teeth, her stern glare insinuating I struck a nerve.
"You must be pretty weird to think that way. So, what brings you here?" I asked, scanning for any other combatants to take into consideration before our clash.
"Why are all of you Elysium-folks so unbearably annoying? Do you people have no sense of self preservation?" Brigid scoffed, twirling her blade once in a circle.
"'Annoying' and 'honest' often sound the same to the self absorbed. Nonetheless, we both know anyone's natural strength's gonna be in their numbers out here. You just learned the hard way last time we were here." I replied, twirling my bo staff and lightly digging the bottom end into the dark-amber soil. Brigid's eyebrow raised, her posture only lightly relaxing as she continued slowly circling.
"My strength is mine and mine alone…but I'm not blind to the boons of superior numbers. The kind that only the weak compensate with." Brigid said, thoroughly scanning me up and down, then quickly glanced at her sides, assumedly checking for any flankers.
"Look, I'm not proposing some traditional, System-inforced bullshit team-up where we can't even hurt each other or something. It just feels natural to assume that a temporary alliance between some of the Quarterly's highest ranking competitors would undoubtedly expedite this entire Objective. And if we reach the top 10, I'd even let you eliminate me." I replied, shrugging my shoulders casually. Brigid's eyelid twitched at hearing my proposal.
"Why? What exactly do you have to gain from that?" Brigid angrily demanded.
"You'll have Tom or Korbin to deal with either way. I'm just helping you get more points by being active in a team than passively creeping about by yourself along the outskirts."
"…how?" Brigid asked, glaring at me skeptically through a narrowed brow.
"Easy. We select an active region, set up a perimeter somewhere hidden, and bait ignorant, power hungry fighters into 2 on 1's. Traveling should be no issue given the immediate numbers deficit every single other fighter should suffer. Not to mention how easy group fights would be to third-party when both of us can coordinate an approach. If nothing else, the mere threat of another faction finding one another could be enough to turn the tide should be all the argument necessary." I explained, mostly concocting the idea on the spot. Though, I'd decided to try my chances at creating a tenuous allegiance with one of the only people Korbin's ever told me to truly worry about. Brigid's tense shoulders slowly began to relax.
"Do we have a deal?" I persisted, extending an open palm. My eyes remained trained on her every move, in case Brigid wanted to violently refuse. She took a hesitant step forward, her hand slowly opening to accept my handshake. Then, just as we got within a few steps from one another, her wary, frantically analytic expression twisted into a devilish grin.
"..no."
A cloud of glimmering soil kicked up into the air between us as Brigid kicked the brush from its roots. Tidal Striding around the screen, my Bo staff barely rose in time to deflect away her extending open palm. Parrying her hand away, a deafening bang sounded directly next to my ear causing my vision to tilt momentarily. Brigid followed up with two quick punches, both of which I ducked around but failed to snag at the wrist each time. She feigned a third strike, instead leaning to the side posturing for a leg kick at close range. Seeing my opportunity, I tilted my knee out to check her kick and raised a counter-strike with my staff.
*thunk*
In a blink, her knee twisted incredibly quickly, curving her heel under my knee. Her then foot looped up and clanked into my armor, though the impact still ripped through my rip cage. Brigid continued with another flurry of strikes from wild angles, faking a punch just to handspring into a leaping spin kick I had to duck under. In one fluid motion, she spun through the air, landing into a Superman punch on one leg. My elbow bashed into the inside of the pit of her own, choking up the punch before it could reach. Another massive blast surged from the end of her fist, releasing a pulse of pressure that separated us. Her heel buried into the soil, immediately shuffling back into melee with her blade twisting through the air.
Brigid twisted and shifted from side to side, constantly changing her angle trying to get around my guard. Her blade oddly enough was the least threatening, as my staff often found purchase against her wrist when she tried close ranged slashes, or the top of her blade whenever she lunged for long ranged stabs. Her hands and feet however, spun and spiraled around like gravity was meagerly gesturing she adhere to their rules from somewhere afar.
"Really?…nothing at all?" Brigid asked through heavy breaths, unleashing another barrage of blows and keeping me on my heels. My eyes remained locked on her midsection, ensuring no appendage went unaccounted for. She was fast, but…she's not Tom fast.
"Read my mind." I shot back, taking a single crossing Water Step backwards. Tom had pulled this bullshit on me countless times, and the prick owed me a free one. Brigid's closed fist hesitantly pulled back as she watched my footwork. Seeing my first chance, I summoned my Fluidic Ripple from behind my back and channeled it along the bottom of my back foot. Snapping from the stupor, Brigid immediately lunged forward aiming her blade at the gap between my lower back and hips. Twisting, the full volume of my Fluidic Ripple spiraled along my hips and arms, pulling my body to the side and away from Brigid's short sword. The warm familiar finish spun over my hands before the edge of my Bo staff slammed into Brigid's armored ribcage, fully returning the favor with weighted interest. Brigid shuffled to the side, wincing subtlety before dashing back into melee range.
Deflecting her strikes became significantly easier with Fluidic Ripple active, the weight of the skill pulling my body even quicker than I already felt after receiving my Labyrinth Title. My staff sheathed another slash as I prepared a counter elbow strike, when she suddenly let go of the sword entirely. My hand lunged downward expecting an opposing force, knocking me off balance and consequently dispelling my Fluidic Ripple. I barely caught my balance in time to evade her swinging palm, an explosion sounding overhead as I prepared to deflect her follow-up punch. Tidal Stride pulled me back several meters as her strikes grew harder to track between the flashes of her concussive affinity. Korbin told me they fought initially at a fire arena in the Placement Tournament, yet I felt a tinge of doubt that was the only affinity she was wielding. The mana her flurries released into the air felt nothing like the Magistry mages from the Until The Last finals. The mana she expelled felt far more…familiar.
Before I could find any useful answers however, a flash of blue light whizzed by my face as I frantically backpedaled through the fronds. Brigid's unending combination of leaping strikes finally came to a rolling halt, landing smoothly into a brisk walk. Another blue ball of like streaked over her ducking head before she dashed to the side. My eyes struggled to trace her blinding speed, Brigid's hand dexterously slithering over a shielded warrior and snagging his neck.
*Bang*
A mess of red mist puffed out from under the heavily armored warriors helm, pouring onto the fronds before Brigid dashed away. A crunch alerted me to the mage sneaking behind, aiming his jagged silver and blue wand at me. Before I could even react however, Brigid's boot smashed into the cloaked mage's skull.
*Bang*
Blood sprayed across my armor as the man's body fell limply to the soil.
"What's the matter, princess? Don't tell me it's getting real now?" Brigid growled, immediately pacing toward me before the man's corpse stopped twitching. I shuffled to the side in hopes to change angles and go on the offensive this time, instead leaping away from her lightning-quick kick aimed at my skull. Her leg flew past my face in a blur before slamming back into the soil. My eyes shot wide open realizing what she'd set up, though Tidal Stride didn't activate in time to pull me from her second kick to the chest. The impact bent my armor tighter before the explosion sounded, firing me back like a cannon ball. Bouncing several times off the ground, I finally managed to gather my footing to locate Brigid's descending kick aimed for the top of my head. Rolling to the side and Tidal Striding away, the explosion at the bottom of her foot shot Brigid into a full sprint through the cloud of dirt and foliage.
The clashing of steel echoed feintly in the distance as Brigid's fists, blade, and kicks sheathed off my staff, knees and forearms. Her sheer speed felt like it was only increasing as she continued her ruthless barrage, making it impossible to block or evade every single strike. Luckily, one of her explosive hits landed thus far, though a back fist to the nose isn't exactly fun.
Turning hips, I dashed further into the fronds and avoided another horizontal slash from Brigid's short sword. Glancing ahead, dozens of glimmering blades and shields clashed under the light beaming through the silver-grey forest. Ducking under Brigid's slashing sword and Tidal Striding in a back pedal, I braced my shoulder and slammed through one of the fighters trading blows with one another. The man was much shorter than me, and his lithe figure flopped loosely on impact onto the silver moss-covered forest floor. Brigid casually slapped away the second combatants' longsword, snagging the man's wrist with her free hand and kicking him in the mouth.
*Bang*
Both the warrior's hand and head popped in rapid succession. Brigid exploded off the tumbling corpse into a spinning aerial head-kick attempt, forcing me to slide under her twisting figure and continue onward into the strange new forest. With any luck, she'd wear herself out either mentally, given how short tempered she's already proven herself. Or she'll burn out physically, since I couldn't help but notice a lack of Stamina being mentioned among the mana and health replenishment stipulations of this Objective. As of now, my 625 points of Stamina and 493 Mana point pools have hardly felt a dent from evading Brigid's constant pressure.
On top of a reliable resource pool to stay moving, the collective boosts from my armor set raises my toughness to 53, making even Brigid's explosive strike to my chestplate only result in the loss of 47 hp. Not great with a 325 point Health Pool, but certainly preferable to the gruesome death everyone else she's hit suffered. Then again, she hasn't hit me in the face with one of those explosive strikes quite yet either. Yet, even as I dash behind the smooth, grooveless silver-grey trees avoiding her nonstop attacks, her speed is still subtly increasing. Her fist ripped though the smooth tree bark, both of us leaving it tumbling down to the forest floor as we continued our violent game of cat and mouse.
"Sit…STILL!" Brigid demanded, ripping three consecutive explosive strikes after another. Each pop sent a rush of urgency through my veins, recognizing how close each hit came by the pressure exerted by her concussive blast waves. Pivoting to continue further toward the distant booms humming at my backside, my eyes shot wide open noticing her missed punch naturally spinning into a heel kick hurtling for my face. Thankfully at my keeping it active, Fluidic Ripple spiraled down the length of my bo staff as I dug it into the dirt. Halting my momentum, I barely lifted my inside leg into to get a boot on top of her calf, blocking the spin kick attempt. Brigid's boot erupted with another concussive blast, though she reacted to my block with a shaky base, as if she'd assumed that the last strike was going to land. Without hesitation, my hips twisted hard as I smashed one end of my staff into the back of her knee. Tracking her head as she tipped backwards from the impact, my hips flipped inversely, slamming the other side of my staff onto the top of her head.
Brigid's head snapped back as the shot sent her reeling two steps before her footing stiffened. Blonde hair frayed out from her ponytail, which she quickly shook out, covering her face as she stood motionless.
"…you…" she growled. Unwilling to give up the offensive upper hand, I pressed forward feigning a swipe with my staff and stepping to the outside, hoping to get around to her back. She didn't even flinch at my fake, instead extending her fist straight into my jaw from her hip in a blink. As her knuckles cracked into my cheek, I braced for an unceremonious death expecting her explosive strike. Instead my head simply snapped back a little, the hit hardly doing more than 12 points of damage. Brigid however, looked up at me with a fire in her eye that glimmered through her messy blonde hair.
"…aren't better than either of them." She continued, taking a step toward me. A bassy rumble shook ground as a battle waged on somewhere over the short incline glistening with silver moss at my backside. Seeing she clearly had too much left in the tank for my liking, I resumed my speedy glide towards other competitors. Brigid immediately leaped after me, leaving massive explosions behind her with every step that catapulted her through the air. She landed sideways against a tree, blasting its smooth colorless bark into tiny shards and launching herself after me. Her flagrant use of that skill greatly increased her movement speed, forcing me to wind and serpentine around the many trees using Tidal Stride en route to join the fight ahead.
Several angry battle cries quickly grew loud as we both flew off what ended up being a rather steep cliff face, sending Brigid and I into a free fall over the mountainside. My eyes locked onto a pair of duelists clashing steel, one with two short swords while the other one bulky longsword. Seeing an opportunity at some cushion, I tucked my head down hard into my chest and flipped forward, orienting myself to land feet first.
*CRACK*
The lightly armored duel wielding warrior crumbled instantly as I stomped atop his face and collarbone, crunching through the bone before tucking and rolling to mitigate some of the impact.
*ding*
A jolt of warm relief instantly washed over every muscle, no doubt from the Vitality and Mana refills we get from eliminations. Swirling blue light erected into the sky, the cone of pure mana surrounding me well beyond arms length. I heard Brigid's body smack off the ground as she let out a pained groan on impact, excited at the chance to catch her off her feet and in a possible grapple. Before I could turn to capitalize however, the edge of a blood-stained longsword whizzed over my shoulder as I ducked under the flanking strike. The knightly fighter stomped over the dead, colorless brush creating a loud crunching sound as he approached, making the evasion easy enough. The end of his blade plunged into the dirt as I slid beside the fighter, slamming my boot down on his sword's cross bar. He refused to let go, jerking his head straight down into the same knee, smashing into his chin. His thin helm flew from his face as the knight's head snapped back, leaving his neck wide open for my forearm to snake around. He was more than a few inches shorter, which made slinging him over my hip and onto the floor that much easier.
*b-BANG*
I leapt back at the sudden consecutive booms, just barely avoiding Brigid's blurry figure zooming by. She slid across the dead foliage, stopping beside the down fighter.
"No, n-no NO I KNOW YOU, PLEASE DO-" without looking, Brigid swung her boot high in the air, then drove her heel straight into the man's face. Oddly enough however, she didn't bother using her explosive skill and instead opted for piercing her short sword through the dazed fighter's throat instead.
"That was sweet. A friend of yours?" I asked, still backpedaling toward a mess of flashing, multicolored whistling beams and explosions. Brigid's eyes remained locked with mine, her shoulders rising and falling heavily.
Good, FINALLY, she's getting tired.
Then, all at once, they stopped the exaggerated rise and fall. I paused in my tracks, halting barely close enough to still hear her rather controlled tone.
"Do you intend on tuckering me out with all this waste of dna?! I implore you to continue!" She calmly hollered before blasting a hole in the dirt dashing after me. Reading the hate in her expression and not buying the bluff, I slipped around a pair of acrobatic kicks and beelined toward the flashes of battle. A beam of cold, white mana spiraled past me as I looked back toward Brigid, who easily tilted her head out of its path. Looking forward, several robed figures circled one another from several meters away while launching barrages of spells at one another. The nearest, white-cloaked mage was immediately surrounded by snow that melted and formed around him as he shuffled through the increasingly blackening bog.
Shuffling past the mage, I bashed the back of their knee and rolled under a large arching ball of stone hurtling overhead. A pair of blasts, one fiery orange and the other a bright violet, blasted behind and ahead of my path. The mage I legged was ripped to shreds, his corpse squelching under Brigid's boot as she emerged from the dirt cloud. I prepared myself for another wave of her enraged flurry of blows when a streak of blue light crackled through the air, ripping into Brigid's shoulder.
My head whipped around in search of Tom's afterimage dashing through the mages, instead finding a bald, Ruby-skinned man clutching a jagged, twisting metal scepter that glimmered with a bright blue orb at one end. The man's eyes locked with mine as he lunged the end of his scepter in my direction. Knowing better than to watch, I Tidal Strided toward another mage actively spewing flames at her pursuing warrior.
*bang*
My knee slid behind the mage as I snatched the warriors back foot, gripping their ankle under my arm and torquing hard as I stood up. The warrior's knee popped several times in my hands, the ferocious worn expression on her face now contorted in pain as she swung both her short axes at me. Evading both swipes with two shoulder twists, I noticed Brigid remove her short sword from the mages neck behind the warrior. Releasing the shattered ankle in my grasp, I twisted back pressing my boot into the off balance warriors spine sending her hurtling toward Brigid.
*bang*
The warrior's head whipped forward violently as her body flew through the air right back at where I'd just relocated away from, bouncing lifelessly off the floor. A surprisingly small beam of dark red light erupted up from Brigid Yet again, Brigid launched past one of her victims just as fast as they fell, her wild eyes trained on me. I faked one way and dashed the opposite direction, barely evading her first exploding kick. Before she glided by fully, a single punch clashed into my side.
*BANG*
The force from her explosive strike spun me on one leg, nearly knocking me fully off my feet. My vision twisted to face Brigid in time to deflect away two slashes from her short sword. The second strike was too fast to block cleanly, causing my arm to give out on impact. Another fist bashed into my face, followed by a shin blasting into my ribs. My arm fell toward my side in response, then wrapped tightly around her calf feeling she hadn't dropped it back down yet. Brigid leapt up and let loose a kick, whiffing over my head as I yanked her up over my shoulder.
In one fluid motion, I spun back and slammed Brigid down headfirst into the bog, sending a splash of muddy water across my face. Sliding around Brigid's snapping feet, a series of explosions ripped behind me as I fought to real full control. She's surprisingly strong, and the force from her blasting kicks launched her knees up into my side. Holding her downs like trying to contain an active piston, with far jarring more headbutts to the nose between pass attempts. Finally, getting my body sideways across hers, I landed three hard elbows to the side of her skull. Her head jolted back, giving me enough space to pin my forearm into her throat with all my weight. Her hand reached up to push me away, exactly how I'd hoped it would.
Snatching her by the wrist, I kicked off her chest and pinned her elbow between my legs. Brigid immediately knew the arm bar was cinched, ripping an explosive punch into my thigh. It was too late though, I'd already felt her elbow snap against my leg before she could blast me into a spiral on my back. I scrambled to my feet and ran over to finish the job, when Brigid kipped up into a head kick that landed flush with my chin. The force shoved me back into the bog, falling knee deep in muddy water. My tongue tickled the back of my molar as I debated…no, no not yet. The faintest steady crashing of rushing water reverberated through the mud, nearly distracting me from Brigid's heavy breathed approach.
"FINE! You want to be treated like a threat?!" She hissed, her voice splitting into two tones. One natural, the other far deeper and constantly reverberating on the air. Both pupils swallowed her eyes in a blink, her veins bulging from her skin glowing a mixture of molten whitish-yellow and dark purple. Her hair drifted up in the sky as if she fell underwater, then ignited in a ball of amber-white flames bordered with a glowing purple light. Fire erupted from her eyes and mouth as she let out a guttural screech into the sky, revealing a pair of curved horns protruding from her temples toward the top of her head. The purple bordering her burning hair spread across her body, flickering in and out of vision as if constantly extinguishing and reigniting. I climbed back out of the bog, slowly backing deeper into the dead forest, refusing to take my eyes off the monster wafting pure infernal mana Brigid's became. Her eyes beamed with amber-white light, with only vertical slits devoid of all color at the center. She smiled, taking a step forward that caused the floor to pop like fire crackers under her boot.
"Congratulations, you're truly worth killing."