Marcy looked up at Allan, her mouth clamped shut. She didn't want to be the one to break his heart or start a fight. But Wulf had no such filters.

  "Your friend said that if she disappears, the bunny should take care of you," Wulf said, his voice ringing out with zero hesitation.

  Marcy’s eyes went wide. "Wulf! Be quiet!"

  Wulf wasn't done. He tilted his hilt toward Allan, his tone dripping with a sword's version of sarcasm.

  "She also called you an idiot, Dragon-boy. And she threatened my wielder by smashing a wall next to her head. She's lucky I'm currently a stationary object, or I’d carve her like a holiday roast."

  Allan’s expression shifted from confusion to deep concern. He looked down at Marcy, his slitted pupils searchingly. "Marcy... Lina threatened you? She actually tried to hurt you?"

  Marcy nodded slowly, looking incredibly guilty, as if the fight were somehow her fault.

  Allan closed his eyes,

  took a long shaky breath,

  smoke curling from his nostrils.

  "We need to find her," Allan said firmly.

  “She left for a reason… and I think she’s losing the fight with herself.”

  "She’s been aggressive toward you," Allan continued, looking at the crater in the wall. "I see it now.

  She’s a predator. And she thinks I belong to her. She thinks you’re encroaching on her 'territory.'"

  Marcy blinked, the realization hitting her like a ton of bricks. Her pink ears twitched. "Territory? Marcy blinked. Her ears twitched.

  You mean... she thinks I'm trying to steal you?"

  Wulf hummed, a low vibration that Marcy felt in her palm. "Precisely. Your growth as a hero and your bond with this lizard has triggered her predatory instincts. She’s protecting her claim."

  Allan nodded, his face grim.

  “If we don’t act", Allan said grimly, "the Frost Dragon is going to swallow Lina whole.”

  We have to move. Now."

  Marcy and Allan were no longer hiding. They were a whirlwind of destruction.

  Marcy was a pink blur, her [Prey Reflexes] evolved into an offensive dance. She slashed at the ankles of lumbering trolls, keeping them off-balance, while Allan provided the cleanup. A day ago, they were trembling in shadows; now, they were fueled by a desperate fear that if they didn't find Lina soon, there would be nothing left to save.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Marcy didn't care that her "rival" might be out of the way—she was a hero, even if the System called her a snack.

  "To your right, bunny!" Wulf shouted.

  Marcy ducked, the air from a troll’s club whistling over her ears. She sliced through its Achilles heel and used [Jump] to vault over its head. The troll’s tiny eyes stayed glued to her, completely missing the half-dragon charging from the flank.

  Allan was going all out. His fist, wreathed in a roaring pillar of flame, slammed into the troll’s chest. The monster imploded into green sludge. Allan landed, smoke billowing from his nostrils, his eyes glowing with a terrifying, reddish determination. For the first time, he wasn't holding back. He let his inner beast run the engine, and it felt... incredible.

  A group of goblins frozen in mid-charge realized too late that they had picked the wrong fight. Allan opened his mouth, and a beam of pure, concentrated dragon-fire incinerated the alleyway.

  Marcy watched the glow reflect off Wulf’s dark blade. The sword let out a low hum. "He had a lot of that pent up, didn't he?"

  But the fire didn't just kill monsters—it acted as a beacon.

  From the shadows of a collapsed parking garage, a scream tore through the air. it was a jagged, horrific sound—half-human, half-beast.

  Lina stumbled into the light, and the sight of her made Marcy’s stomach turn. She was mid-mutation. One eye was unfocused and human; the other moved independently like a reptile’s. A single, jagged horn jutted from her temple. Her left arm had elongated, covered in thick, frost-slicked scales, and ice spikes were physically tearing through the skin of her back. She jittered and twitched, her body a battlefield where 'Lina' was losing to the 'Monster.'

  That’s when Marcy realized the System had been oddly quiet.

  Beside Lina’s head, a translucent window floated, playing a video on a loop. It wasn't a game notification. It was a memory from the world before—a recording of a betrayal.

  Allan’s flames died instantly as he looked at the screen. His face went pale, his heart shattering in real-time. He saw Lina, human and smiling, doing the one thing he never thought she was capable of.