Useless

The ground trembled violently as a terrible battle still continued on outside the confines of the small wooden dome.

Dozens of humans and beasts were all huddled together in close proximity under the protection of the wooden structure. There was no light, but it wasn't like it was really needed, you could still make out basic shapes and people's faces.

Each of the humans were cowering in fear as they stuck closer together. They were the survivors, the ones who had made it through that terrible war.

...For now, anyway.

It was vastly different to any war that had been on Earth. Majority of wars on their home planet lasted for years and also had politics involved in them in some shape or form, but it was nothing like that here.

They could barely do anything against those horrible abominations, they weren't strong enough for that. There was some that managed to kill a few, but majority could only hide and pray that they wouldn't be attacked.

And even with that horrible attack that four armed being had done, the one that obliterated a quarter of the forest. How were they meant to survive that? If it tried it again, even everyone inside the dome wouldn't be safe, they were like pigs for the slaughter.

The inside of the small wooden dome was basically split in half, half being occupied by moon beasts while the other half was occupied by trembling humans.

Every time an explosion rang out or a shockwave hit against the dome only fueled the fear that the people felt. They were not built for a battle of this calibre, what could they possibly do in this type of situation?

Noelle sat back against the wall of the dome, a blank expression on her face. Her scimitar was still in her hand, but it felt so different compared to how it felt a few minutes ago.

It felt so... useless.

It was meaningless, there was no point of the blade anymore, she had accomplished her goal. She had gotten revenge on the man who wronged her, the one who took her parents, who took Gabriel, it could even be tenchincally said that it was him that took her uncle, but Noelle didn't think that, she had to accept it was her who took her uncle's life.

But what now? If they survived, what would even happen to them?

Would they just have to keep going through tutorials while leveling up? To keep having to fight tooth and nail just to stay alive?

Noelle didn't want to have to fight.

But she also didn't want to have anyone try to control her.

She sighed anyway, its not like she had anyone left. Everyone was dead, that was the truth. Basically everyone she had ever known was all in one place.

Well, except Rashik, he was most certainly rotting in the deepest depths of hell.

Should she just join them? She did say that she would kill Rashik before she took her own life, and she had accomplished that.

Should she just kill herself?

Maybe death wasn't such a bad thing, in fact, that option sounded quite appealing to her-

A red haired woman with a bow on her back slowly walked over to Noelle, as if knowing what she was thinking.

She sat down beside Noelle and sighed, she then dismissed the red bracers on her arms incase she accidently cut the poor girl with the sharp blades on the edge.

"How are you doing?"

Another explosion rang out outside the dome, but Noelle was more focused on Sofia's question.

Well, maybe not more focused, she just paid it more thought than the explosion.

Noelle stared blankly down at the grass between her legs. The ground was constantly trembling, sending small vibrations up her body at every moment, yet her mind was still numb.

"I don't know." Noelle mumbled, she then looked weakly at Sofia and asked:

"How should I be doing?"

Sofia winced painfully at that. Even though she was the one that asked that question, it's not like she actually had an answer. She just wanted to distract Noelle, but she didn't actually have a game plan in mind.

"You should be feeling good." Sofia responded. "You beat Rashik, you've done what you wanted to. I'm sure your family would be proud, I'm sure Gabriel would be proud."

Noelle's smile flickered as she lifted her head and looked into Sofia's eyes.

"Would they be proud?"

Sofia's heart couldn't take it anymore. It still tormented her, the fact that she could have saved the broken girl before her so easily yet chose to abandon her. Why had she even made that choice? It was the opposite of what her mentor had taught her.

He said that life was important and should always be cared for. If you see someone in trouble, be kind and help them, never abandon them.

Yet that was exactly what Sofia had done, she had abandoned Noelle for her own selfish revenge, all so she could get some petty revenge on her mentor who went and...

Sofia winced and blocked the thought, she didn't want to remember him, not now.

Slowly, Sofia wrapped an arm around Noelle's neck and pulled her in closed, tucking the olive-skinned girl's head into her chest. Hiding the tears that were welling up in her eyes, Sofia started softly stroking Noelle's short hair, her fingers slowly moving down through the black strands.

"Yes." Sofia's voice cracked. "I'm sure they would be proud, so proud of you."

Sofia then bit her bottom lip to stifle any noises that could have escaped her mouth.

Another shockwave hit and the dome shook, making some of the people inside cry out in panic.

Noelle didn't really react to the shockwave, or the hug, she was still in her own world. The feeling was nice though, it had been a while since she had last been hugged.

As if sensing the sadness, another being slowly made its way forward to the two women.

A pitch black wolf with soft yellow eyes trotted forward while looking sadly at Sofia and Noelle.

Slowly, Umbra made her way to the two women and rested her head on Noelle's lap. She then softly whispered as she looked up at Noelle's blank face.

Noelle's hand moved instinctively as she pet the wolf's soft head. Dogs were good after all, dogs were nice. Even if Umbra wasn't really a dog, she was a dog to Noelle at this moment.

But then Noelle frowned as she rested her hand on Umbra's soft head.

If Umbra was here, then where was...

"Where's Kai?"

Noelle's sudden words snapped Sofia out of potentially crying. Confused for a moment, Sofia loosed her grip on Noelle and asked:

"What?"

Noelle lifted her head to look up at Sofia.

"Where's Kai? Umbra is here, so where is he?"

Sofia bit her bottom lip softly while she glanced around.

"If the wolf is here then I'm sure that he's in here somewhere..."

But the more she looked, the more worried Sofia got. She couldn't spot that red headed brat anywhere.

There was no way he was dead, right?

"Umbra, Where's your owner?"

Umbra glanced up at Sofia sadly, she then let out a depressed whimper as she turned her head to the wall of the wooden dome, as if looking through it.

"No..."

Panicking, Sofia scrambled to her feet and quickly made her way through the crowd of humans so she could reach an authoritive gray wolf who was standing in the middle between the two groups.

"Mr wolf, there's still someone out there, you have to let him in!"

Aldred grunted darkly.

"I cannot."

Sofia's expression darkened.

"What do you mean you can't? I thought you were super powerful or something."

Aldred turned his head to face Sofia, a tired expression haunting him.

"I cannot influence the dome around us, only Failure can. And besides..." Aldred's expression darkened. "The Catalyst has made his choice."

A look of shock made its way onto Sofia's face as she looked at the gray wolf like he was insane.

"Bullshit! What the fuck do you mean Kai's 'made his choice'? He's a damn child! A damn child who's trapped out there in the middle of a fight between two fucking superbeings, he will die if you don't let him in!"

Aldred remained silent for a few moments before finally answering.

"It is not up to me to decide."

Just as Sofia was about to really lose it, a new notification went off in her head.

Warning...

Sofia's eyes widened in shock as she threw a glance back at Noelle, who seemed to be reading the same message that she just got.

"Imminent destruction of tutorial? What the hell is going on out there?"

Sofia was about to yell at Aldred to let Kai in, she got another notification.

Exit tutorial?

Yes/No

Sofia's whole act changed.

It was over, they could leave.

"We can leave?"

"I- Is this real?"

"Oh my god... I survived!"

The sound of realisation rang out behind Sofia. The humans who had all been trembling in fear just a moment ago were now all invigorated. They were finally done, they could go home now.

Not even three seconds after the notification, someone disappeared from where they were sitting.

They had chosen to exit.

And it was lucky they had chosen to exit that early, as at the next moment, a familair horrifying roar rang out as a third of the wooden dome was obliterated by that insane move of that abomination, completetly erased from existence.

All the humans scrambled to get away from where the attack had it, all of them screaming and panicking.

Some of them were even dumb enough to look up and accidently catch a glimpse of the moon, causing them to fall to the ground and start screaming and writhing in pain. Then again, it's not like they knew the moon was cursed by a God.

But Noelle and Sofia caught sight of something else.

A figure clad in brown armour floated slightly to the right of where the attack landed.

The brown armour was coated in blood and the figures left arm was completely gone, as if it had just deflected an attack that would have wiped out every being inside of the wooden dome.

But Noelle and Sofia weren't focused on that, they were moreso focused on the colour of hair of their floating protector.

Sofia swallowed as Noelle slowly stood up, both of them in shock as they spoke.

"Kai?"