* Sickick – Infected (Barren Gates Remix) *

***

‘I really hope you girls can be trusted, I wouldn’t have risked it if I didn’t need to practice this. I have a strong hunch that I’ll need everything I have to have an edge over the monsters, if I wanted to leave this place with Maria and Maya that is.’ Raven thought to herself.

‘Heck, we’ve been here for a day or two I think and no monsters appeared, that’s not comforting at all. Are they preparing a strong surprise attack or what’s the play here?’ she’s already heard of the intelligent monster, or alien, and that didn’t help calm her nerves one bit.

*sigh* she didn’t want to show off this specific skill of hers but then again, these girls have saved her life. A small secret shouldn’t be such a huge issue, right?

Standing up, with her hand covering what needs to be covered while holding the oversized jacket a little closer to her tiny body, she sent a pulse of energy into her shadow.

She was about to summon her armour, when she realised that now, that it felt different than before.

She could feel the shadow’s every twist and turn before it covered her body to form her black armour.

The shadow wrapped itself around her body making sure the armour fit her perfectly.

Looking at herself, Raven was now covered in black stockings and a black tight fit top that ended in a high thick collar around her neck.

On top of that, she wore a dark silver armour top that extended to form a miniskirt on her front, and stretched down more to cover just a little bit above her knees on the back side. The last touch included kneehigh black armoured boots.

‘Am I wearing the same armour the princess, or rather my little sister in the trial, was wearing?’ Raven was quite confused by what was happening, so far, since the moment she’s woken up, everything would be better described as a dream. ‘But then again, I seem to have taken her form for some reason…’

Looking at the girl in front of them, the others gasped at her majestic aura and the dominating air around her. Along with her now missing shadow of course. But still, none commented.

‘ok… from what I could tell, the cause of this design is the trial, maybe Kayla made it easier?’

[Negative. Kayla provided no help whatsoever. The current design is the default one. It can be changed manually by Raven’s will.]

‘Pft of course! you’re USELESS why would you h- *cough* I mean useless in being useless… You’re the best AI voice in the head I could ever ask for, thanks for the explanation.’

The girl in her mind kept her emotionless face as she wasn’t affected by whatever Raven said.

‘Err, ok let’s try to remove the gloves slowly and see my current control.’

Thinking about it prompted the shadows around the gloves to disappear slightly as her shadow fists took their old place on the floor next to her. Of course, the others didn’t miss that fact.

Along with the other evidence Camilla had seen, she would’ve been able to identify her as the assassin, only if she knew of the assassin’s existence. After all as an S ranker, she was concerned about global issues rather than some part time assassin cleaning up the city.

Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Rain. “WRAITH! YOU’RE THE WRAITH!” she yelled as her expression was that of amazement rather than fear, which surprised Raven.

Everyone, including Joey who rushed to the cave the moment he heard the scream, were rather taken aback by her enthusiasm.

“Err, yea, that’s me…” Raven said with a forced smile. “Why are you so happy though? I would’ve expected more… fear, I guess?”

“Hello I’m here and I don’t understand sh*t.” Camilla raised her right hand and spoke rather bluntly.

“You don’t know Wraith??!” Rain was amazed and her voice loud.

‘Holy sh*t though, she’s the same girl I saved before? The change from super shy to over enthusiastic is kinda… creepy, for the lack of a better term.’ Raven thought in surprise.

“Wraith, *cough* I mean Raven here, is a well known assassin in the city and the surrounding areas. She’s killed more than a few thousands!” she said happily.

*facepalm* ‘Rio poor Raven’ thought Maya.

*facepalm* ‘Oh My! She messed it up didn’t she…’ though Maria.

*facepalm* ‘Oh, um… f*ck…’ thought Raven to herself.

Joey was still confused as he didn’t quite understand what was going on. Camilla wasn’t in a better condition.

“Ah…” Camilla muttered looking at Raven, then back to Rain. “And you’re happy because…?” She wasn’t as surprised that the girl was an assassin since she’s got skills that were way above her rank. She knew something was off the moment they met.

Joey however, had the same look but for different reasons. Although whatever the case may be, he wasn’t going to raise his weapon against the prince-ss.

“Oh…” Rain’s enthusiastic voice quieted down all of a sudden, “So, umm, let me explain…”

“To put it simply, she’s like the extreme version of Spiderman in our city. My dad is a cop and he always tells me stories about Wraith. A rough assassin that’s killing dangerous criminals left and right. After ‘his’ appearance about 2 years ago, crime rates went down drastically. But still, most idealistic cops love law and stuff so they want criminals to be judged by the court, rather than by a rough law enforcers like her.” She said the last part and pointed at Raven.

‘Uhm,’ Camilla looked back at Raven and nodded, she was glad her saviour wasn’t a weird criminal mastermind. ‘Sure she takes lives which is considered… ‘bad’ and would guarantee you a life sentence in prison if not worse, but I personally am ok with killing criminals. She must have a reason for that though, and I’d like to know it.’

“Hey Raven,” said Camilla to Raven who looked calm to everyone, yet was stressed inside.

“Aha?” she replied in a neutral voice, as she was about to either have a loyal S ranker friend, or a strong enemy that she might as well lose her life fighting.

“Why do kill?” Camilla asked, her smug aura replaced by a serious one, the same she used to intimidate possible alien threats. “Personal gain or personal reasons? Or something entirely different?” she continued as she let loose of a small amount of her killing intent.

Feeling a small part of an S ranker’s killing intent was enough for Kayla to consider the situation an emergency.

[Hostile killing intent detected.]

[Would Raven like to activate the bracelet’s hidden safety measures?]

While Kayla asked in a robotic tone, a small stream of knowledge about the bracelet in Camilla’s hand was suddenly clear.

The real Kayla had made sure not to trust strangers too much and that’s exactly why she made sure that Camilla’s bracelet had a ‘plan B’ in case she turned her fangs towards her, or her allies.

‘Put it on stand by, Kayla,’ Raven replied to her system in a serious thought.

Each one of the bracelets was made with an energy signature, preventing others from using it if their energy signature didn’t match. And Raven had access to all of them as their creator, meaning she could turn off the bracelet’s effect if she wanted to.

Camilla’s, however was special for two reasons. One is that it was locked, meaning it requires Raven’s permission to activate. Second, it had a hidden function to absorb the energy around it like a starving beast.

‘I won’t count on the amount of energy the bracelet devours, but rather the surprise of it happening, a split second should be enough to blow her face up with one punch.’ A portion of Raven’s killing intent flared as she thought about that, surprising everyone but Camilla.

She wasn’t trying to show off by one hit KO an S ranker, but rather because one good hit was all she could afford in her current condition.

‘However, I should be wary of Joey and Rain as they’re still uncertainties… I can’t risk anything happening to Maya and Maria.’ thinking about that, her eyes were completely cold and void of emotions, just like when she used to murder whole gangs without batting an eye, even though she knew most had friends, parents, brothers, sisters, and loved ones.

The group shut down for a second as some were curious, while others afraid of the answer. Camilla was of the ones that were afraid, as during their time together, she’d fallen in love with the group and didn’t want a small matter to ruin everything. ‘However, I can’t deal with a psycho and pretend everything is ok…’ she thought to herself.

Before Raven could answer her initial question though, Joey stepped in between the two girls, surprising everyone.

“Prince-ss, please take the girls and run away, I’ll cover for you,” he said as he readied his sword that came out of nowhere. “you can trust Rain, she’s a good girl,” he said with a smile. He then looked at Camilla and flared his own killing intent as his white aura covered his body and sword.

“Oi, Camilla, was it? Feeling almighty harassing an injured girl who just woke up from a comma? Or it something S rankers like to do often so they feel better about themselves?” he asked with a smile, even though he was almost shaking in his shoes.

Raven didn’t know why he did what he did, yet she found it to be worrying, since the boy had absolutely nothing to gain from protecting her. ‘why did he call me princess though? Wait, could it be…’

Biting her lower lip, she put a hand over Joey’s and shook her head.

Camilla who was at a huge disadvantage at the moment wasn’t phased. Taking on a bunch of A rankers would be a piece of cake for an S ranker, and the kids in front of her were way less than that.

“I don’t kill because I like the feeling, if that’s your question.” Raven said, finally answering Camilla’s question.

“No, the question I asked was why, please answer it fully.” she said as her aura’s strength went up a couple of notches, making others to have cold sweat running through their spines.

Raven increased her own only as much as needed to cancel her effect on herself, Maya, and Maria.

“Personal reasons,” Raven answered with glowing golden eyes that matched her majestic aura. “Anything more is off limits for you.”

Maya and Maria knew why Raven did what she did, so they respected her choice and kept silent. All they could do was back away so that they’re not in her way, obstructing her.

“Tch,” Camilla clicked her tongue. “At least tell me this, do you take money for your jobs?”

“Absolutely not.” Raven shook her head.

*sigh* ” It’s alright then, I can work with that.” she said as she retracted her killing intent, but that only made Raven more nervous inside, she wasn’t going to turn her back at an uncertainty and wish for the best, no matter who she was up against.

‘Kayla, can we activate a forced contract with the skill Contractor?’

[Affirmative, however-]

‘Make it work!’ she cut her system off. ‘Activate the bracelet, now!’

She activated Scanner Rings to watch her enemy’s aura flow, and prepare for any surprises.

Camilla had already let her guard down since she wasn’t expecting the kid in front of her to contest it, so the sudden decrease in her mana by the bracelet almost shocked her. Almost.

She raised her guard up as a small barrier started form in front of her like a shield. However, Raven’s already predicted as much, especially with her azure scanning rings at work.

BOOM!! BOOOM!

That’s why she’s already sonic jumped behind her target and concentrated all of what she could afford of her killing intent to freeze Camilla for a split second, and Mana Manipulation to condense her energy in her right palm.

Using Shadow Manipulation, black shadowy chains erupted out of Camilla’s shadow and held her in place, surprising everyone in the cave.

‘Now!’ she screamed in her mind to Kayla. Getting Raven’s signal, she activated the skill Contractor.

A crimson red dragon eye appeared on the back of Raven’s armoured glove as she palm struck Camilla’s back, sending her crashing against her own barrier and wiping the cave floor with her face.