There were eight humans all around her, each wearing gear that was clearly not the standard Tutorial equipment. She used <Identify>, and was shocked by something she hadn't seen before.

{Human (F+) (lv 15)(MAX)}

They were all level 15, but that wasn't the surprising part. Somehow, level 15 was their max level. Each and every one of them had the exact same situation, <Identify> giving identical responses to scanning each of them.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Teresa yelled, using <Dash> to avoid another arrow. They didn't even have bows, they were using strange crossbows with a contraption Teresa hadn't seen before. The string pulled back automatically, and a blue arrow materialized out of nothing onto the barrel of the weapon. Blue streaks of light shot at her, and she couldn't dodge them all.

Teresa grabbed a skeleton shield from her <Inventory> and held it in front of her, blocking two shots from her ambushers. Unfortunately, they were not as incompetent as a Tutorial monster, and the arrows began shooting her legs. The chainmail of her pants were strong enough to protect her, but the impact was still incredibly painful. If not for <Facilitated Restoration>, her legs would have broken by now from the force alone.

She activated <Embers> and fired a stream of flames at one of the archers, but two shields of light appeared in front of the man before Teresa's spell could cook him alive. Her spell burnt through the first barrier and was putting in good work against the second, but it still gave the archer enough time to reposition and take cover.

Another arrow shot into her waist, the blue construct disappearing after a moment. The initial barrage while she was stuck in the mud had consisted of actual arrows, and Teresa felt incredibly drowsy. Were they poisoned? Shit, Teresa activated <Purify> and used it the way it was intended for the first time, slowly combatting the poison within her.

A woman sprinted at her using <Dash>, swinging a club at Teresa's head. Teresa managed to duck the attack just in time, pulling out her kitchen knife and attempting to counter attack. The woman darted away, making Teresa strike nothing but air. These people were only level 15, what the hell was going on?

Teresa activated her own <Dash>, sprinting at the woman who just attacked her hoping to land a surprise attack. Before Teresa could do anything, her stomach churned as the air pressed down around her. She stumbled and lost balance, falling to her knees for a moment as Mana did something around her she had never seen before. Was that gravity magic? Who the hell had gravity magic?

The speedy woman with a club approached and slammed her weapon down on Teresa's shoulder, dislocating it and making her drop the kitchen knife. Teresa used <Embers> in her spare hand, actually managing to incinerate the woman's leg at the hip before another arrow shot into her good shoulder.

Teresa tried to use <Healing Touch> to fix her injuries faster, but she was getting hurt faster than she could heal. Despairingly, she realized if these people wanted her dead, she would be already.

The woman with a missing leg didn't even grunt, showing no signs of pain as she hopped away. Teresa managed to stand up despite the gravity magic, but just as she did so the gravity magic disappeared. For the first time, she got a good look at the people around her.

There were eight in total. Three of them were archers with crossbows, two of them appeared to be mages, two of them were tanks, and the woman was the only light warrior type among them. None of them seemed to display any emotion whatsoever, as though they had done this hundreds of times.

Teresa couldn't just stop, it seemed the gravity mage had already used all of his Mana in that one spell. She charged another instance of shotgun <Embers> as fast as she could, but she could barely move either of her arms. It was a miracle she was even able to walk at all, considering the amount of times she had already been shot.

She activated <Dash> and took cover behind a tree, avoiding another arrow as it whistled past her. Why the hell were people attacking her? She popped her shoulder back into place and yanked the poisoned arrows out at long last, but she wasn't given any more time to rest before the tree was blasted apart by a high pressure jet of water.

Teresa was sent flying into another tree, feeling multiple bones crack. The water disappeared after a few moments, leaving Teresa absolutely baffled. Despite being lower than half her level, they were kicking her ass. Every opponent was incredibly specialized. The archers were landing most of their shots which were strong enough to injure her, their mages had incredibly powerful spells considering they were level 15, their light warrior had been just as fast as Teresa.

She had only managed to severely injure one so far, and that was also in part thanks to their tanks. They weren't using <Taunt> at all, but their light shields that could be remotely deployed were going to be incredibly annoying. What was she even supposed to do in this situation?

Run. The answer was run. She activated <Dash> and made a break for it, only to immediately be stopped. A shield of light appeared in front of her, and she nearly crashed into it going top speed. Thankfully, she had learned from her time in the Tutorial against the skeletons and was able to avoid this sudden barrier, pivoting and turning <Dash> off and on again like a wifi router.

Teresa scooped up her kitchen knife from the ground in a single, fluid motion as she ran back towards the settlement. Another conjured blue arrow shot her in the back, but she kept running. <Facilitated Restoration> was running on empty at this point, so she refreshed both <Facilitated Restoration> and <Magic Wellspring> on herself. She fired her shotgun <Embers> she had been charging behind her, fire blasting out in a wide area.

A single light shield blocked a sizable portion of the attack, but the gravity mage and the injured light warrior on the ground were both covered in what was basically napalm. Teresa grabbed her poison staff from her <Inventory> and began pumping out as much poison as she could behind her.

She was going to get away. There was no chance they could catch up to her now, their fastest member was pretty much done for. Teresa needed to tell the others at the settlement about this, there were people in the forest looking to attack other humans. There were so many questions to be asked about this situation. Why were their levels capped at 15? How did they have such bizarre and advanced skills? Why does it feel like she was fighting against trained opponents?

Before she could keep thinking about the situation, her movement was suddenly halted by a knife stabbing directly into her gut. Teresa gasped, trying to scream but finding herself unable to as a man appeared from seemingly nowhere in front of her. Fuck, there was a ninth human, and it looked like he could turn invisible. What kind of bullshit was that?

Teresa tried to stab him back, but he caught her wrist and twisted it. Thankfully, he was not strong enough to overcome Teresa's own attack, and she was able to overpower him and stab him in the chest. Warm, red blood spilled out of the man's chest, coating Teresa's hand. She had experienced that sensation plenty of times before, she had killed multiple monsters in hand to hand combat. Hell, she beat a bunch of ogres to death with her fists.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

But they hadn't been human.

Teresa stabbed him again and again, not wanting to let the moment go to waste. Her mind was beginning to blank, or was she panicking? Somehow, she was thinking at a million miles an hour and completely spacing out at the same time. The man didn't make a sound, his facial expression barely even changed as he fell to the ground beneath Teresa.

In movies, books, shows, whatever, they always made a point about how the light would leave someone's eyes very quickly after death. That was bullshit. There was a moment of acceptance in the assassin's face that was almost imperceptible, and then he stopped moving. The light didn't leave his eyes, it was just as glossy and reflective as it had been moments ago.

The only thing that had changed in the man's demeanor was that his movements became wrong. It was like his body was tensing up. Was that rigor mortis? No, that was supposed to happen hours after death wasn't it? Not immediately at least, what the fuck was going on? Teresa had thought she was prepared to kill someone if need be, and she had only been right in a sense. She hadn't hesitated to burn that woman's leg off or set two of her attackers on fire, but to stab someone repeatedly up close? That was different.

<Healing Touch> fixed up her own gut wound, but she was getting light headed. She tried to activate <Dash>, but immediately felt gassed. She didn't have enough Stamina, despite the short length of the fight so far. Was it the poison? It had made her feel incredibly drowsy, and she hadn't used <Purify> on it until after it had already started to take effect. Was the poison too strong for her skill? That might have also been a factor.

She started stumbling away, trying to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Her pants helped her to regenerate Stamina quicker, but it wasn't quite enough to overcome Teresa's exhaustion. She used <Purify> on herself once more just to be sure the poison was gone, all while still activating the poison staff's ability to make deadly gas.

She had once thought she wouldn't use the poisonous gas against another person if she could help it, but this definitely felt like a reasonable situation to dabble in war crimes. Fuck the Geneva Convention, Teresa didn't want to die. Not anymore, at least.

Teresa put her knife away in her <Inventory> and began using <Embers>, sending the stream of fire anywhere the poisonous gas didn't cover. She got a notification letting her know that the light warrior woman and the gravity mage had both been killed, and she was given experience. It was far more experience than what a wild monster would give her, but it was still a rather small amount as they were level 15. She was pretty close to a level up, but she wasn't sure how much of a difference that would make right now.

An arrow shot through the smoke and collided with the poison staff, penetrating through it and destroying one of Teresa's most reliable weapons. They were catching up, and Teresa could only run so fast on low Stamina. Her Mana pool was still doing fine, so she dropped the broken staff and continued using <Embers> behind her.

Additionally, she pulled out her boomerang and began charging it with Elemental Mana, figuring she ought to use every tool in her arsenal. As soon as it was ready, she threw it at one of the archers. A light shield appeared to block the strike from directly hitting the archer, but Teresa activated the weapon's ability causing a large explosion of flames to burst out in a ring around the boomerang.

The attack melted the water mage in half, as she had not been protected by the light shield. Teresa caught her boomerang, but lost her footing as a smaller light shield had appeared just above where she was about to step. She tripped over the spell, immediately trying to orient herself and stand up to continue running away. She didn't get the chance.

An arrow shot her in the spine, completely paralyzing her from the waist down. She yelled out in pain as she flopped down to the ground, desperately waiting for <Facilitated Restoration> to heal the injury. She tried to use <Healing Touch>, but she couldn't orient herself correctly in time.

She had a good run. Teresa had taken out both of their mages, a light warrior, and a secret assassin. Four out of nine wasn't great, but they had surprise attacked her. They were fully competent, trained individuals who must have planned this out. Was that man who told her about the hardware store in on it? Maybe, Teresa would never get the chance to find out.

One arm slowly raised as she tried to muster the Strength to keep herself steady, but one of the tanks grabbed her arm and pinned it back to the ground. He began punching Teresa in the face, his metal gloves leaving horrific gashes across her skin. Teresa barely even felt it anymore, her vision was fading. By all means, she should have passed out by now. Was she still awake because of her Fortitude, or was it her mental stats? It didn't matter, there was nothing to be done now.

One of her attackers said something in a language she did not recognize, but <Translate> picked up on a single word.

Royal Soul.

Okay, that was two words, but in whatever language they were speaking it was only one word. Semantics. Were they going to harvest her Soul or something? Kidneys weren't enough these days apparently, had to go straight to Soul snatching. Teresa snickered despite her situation, she activated <Embers> but the other tank simply stepped on her hand.

Her vision finally started to fade, but she wasn't hopeless. Wherever she went, so long as she had access to her spells she would be able to kill these fuckers. If not today, then tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then the day after.

More blood dripped onto Teresa's face as an arrow pierced through a tank's forehead, stopping the repeated barrage of punches. Huh, the assassins had friendly fire. A white cut made of some sort of Mana sliced through the air, cutting off the hands of an archer. Another archer attempted to return fire at the mysterious third party, but a light shield appeared directly in front of their crossbow, completely blocking the attack.

Another arrow shot into the third archer, then another arrow. Dang, how fast were these guys shooting arrows? The remaining tank stood up and pounded his shield with his fist, causing a shockwave to be sent through the air at the newcomers. Teresa couldn't see exactly what was happening, but a bunch of white hot sparks shot into the tank's face, scorching his eyes and blinding him.

That's right, the light shield had a cooldown. Teresa had kind of forgotten about that, but she wasn't exactly given the time to strategize. She had no real experience fighting actually sapient opponents, this entire battle had been a wakeup call that she wasn't all powerful. Another white cut of Mana glanced off the tank's shield, but Preston was able to use his <Dash> to attack from another angle.

Teresa felt a pair of hands on her, and she looked up to see the healer from the party that had gone out with her own to destroy the Monster Spawners. She forgot his name, it was Theo, right? No wait, the tank was Theo, the healer was Leo. Why did their names have to rhyme? She would make an effort to memorize their names accordingly after this, as they had clearly just helped to save her life.

"I'm healing her right now, but she's already got a spell active that's healing her just as fast as I can. I want to say it's <Facilitated Restoration>, but I don't know." Leo called as he used his <Healing Touch>. Teresa heard Jake confirm that it was probably <Facilitated Restoration>, and the group converged on the remaining three enemy combatants.

The archer with no hands was shot and killed by either Sarah or Chloe, the other ranger. The other archer tried to fire off another shot, but was tackled by Jake who proceeded to crush their head in with his axe. All that was left was the enemy tank, who was being tag teamed by Preston, Amelia the light warrior and Noah the mage.

Leo was the healer, Theo was the tank, Amelia was the light warrior, Noah the mage, and Chloe the ranger. Leo, Theo, Amelia, Noah, Chloe. Alright, she was pretty sure she had it down now, mostly. She repeated it a few times in her head to make sure it stuck, and after a few moments the last enemy was on the ground bleeding from multiple injuries.

Preston had managed to stab him through a weak spot of his armor, rendering the arm holding up his shield useless. The tank was still alive, but in terrible condition. Sarah approached wielding an arrow, and she squatted down in front of the man and began slicing his ear off.

Holy shit Sarah.

"Who the fuck are you!" She screamed, dragging the arrow across the man's face. Preston grabbed her and pulled her off the man, kicking and screaming about the things she was going to do to him.

"Whoa hey, calm down, we're okay." Preston said soothingly, but it had no effect.

"Look at what they did to Teresa! He'll be lucky if I let him keep his damn teeth! If we hurt him too bad we can just heal him up and go again, you fucker! I'm gonna take this arrow and shove it up your di-"

Note to self, never, and Teresa meant never, piss off Sarah.

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