Who Killed that Dramon?

"Your ponytails! They're like a donkey's!" the tallest boy of the gang laughed at the small girl in front of them. They were all wearing small bags with superheroes or princess pictures on it. It was one of those days where I was late for school, but I didn't expect to see bullying take place right in front of my eyes. In fact, before I moved to this school for my primary years, I had seen bullying only in movies.

The tall boy handed over his Spiderman bag to his friend and pulled out the rubber band of the girl's hair and spread it all around her shoulders. He broke out laughing and took out his phone. "Boys, look at her real self! Not a donkey, but a yak!" The others started yapping uncontrollably like idiots.

My glance went to the girl who was quietly standing and letting this happen to her. I totally respected her, as she was able to be strong through this. The boy clicked a few photos and was about to remove her bag too when I couldn't stand back anymore.

"Get away from her!" I screamed into his face, standing in front of the girl in a flash.

The boy looked surprised. His yellow hair looked dull in the sun as his surprise slowly turned into a confident smile. "We got another donkey, hahaha! Time to start a farm!"

The others broke out laughing again and took a photo of us. I groaned and snatched the phone out of the friend's hand and slammed it to the floor. The tall boy slowly turned his head to look at the mess, so did the others. They all fell silent and the friend started to cry.

The next second, my collar was bunched up in the tall boy's hands and he was shaking me.

"Run away!" I shouted to the girl and she bit her lip and ran away. Relief flooded through me before the boy threw me onto the floor.

"Just who do you think you are?" He spat on my face. His rest of the friends had fled too. It was almost time for the first class.

"Stop bullying her!" I stood up despite the hurt in my arms and back.

The boy growled and his neck snapped to the side as he saw the light shadow of the principal approach us. He looked back at me with a warning. "You got lucky this time, show yourself in front of me once more and I'll kill you." He huffed and released me before he ran back into the school building for class.

I dusted my hand off and noticed something on the floor. I bent down and picked it up. It was an ID card-- that tall boy's. He was smiling in the ID card and wore an expensive looking shirt. I read the name and tossed the card to the garbage bin before running to class too. Thank god the principal was a slow walker.

But that was the day I met Goren Cheng. Even though I stood up to him every single time, nothing in this world scares me more than him.

* * * * *

The Dramon squirmed in front of Tiara's eyes and fell down into the soil with a whimper. She let out a gasp as her hands uncurled from the sword that was lodged inside the monster's belly. Light blue liquid spurted out from the wound. Her hands trembled and she looked at Percy whose jaws were hanging open.

He yelled and struggled to get up on all fours. "What the hell did you just do?!" He raged and ran towards the Dramon Tiara killed. He fell on top of the body and scampered for something. Tiara narrowed her eyes. What was he looking for now? Her eyes flew to the side and she saw an opening in the side of the belly where something blue shone brightly. Without making a noise, she lunged for it, but Percy caught that movement faster.

"Move!" he yelled as they both lurched for the Core of the Dramon peeking out of its belly. Tiara screamed from the adrenaline rush and wrapped her hands around the core. Percy curled his hands on top of hers and pulled, and the Core came rolling out. It rolled away from them and hit a tree. Tiara stumbled and clawed at the soil before taking off running towards the tree. Percy screamed in frustration and jumped over the Dramon's body to get to the core first.

Tiara reached first and grabbed the Core. She hugged it and smiled. 'Phew, I got it.' She opened her eyes and wondered why no notification for killing the Dramon successfully wasn't coming.

She yelled as Percy swiped at her legs and she fell face-first onto the soil. Her hands lost balance and the Core rolled out of her hands. Percy swiftly bent down and grabbed the Core. Before she could grab it back again, he crushed the Core open before a notification screen appeared between them.

[Congratulations Percy! You have killed your first Dramon! May the twine powers bless you!]

[Task 1 out of 3 complete]

[+20 exp!]

[Qi gained.]

[Error: Cannot absorb gained Qi. Level up to gain Qi of slayed creatures.]

Tiara groaned and slammed her fist down onto the soil. She was this close to getting that! 'Percy that jerk…'

"Are you happy?" she asked sarcastically. He looked up from his Player screen and smiled wide. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I meant," she tried to get up, "Are you happy freeloading off my effort? Anyone would know that I was the one who killed that thing. Not you." She was trying to get her dignity back, but it looked like a lost fight. This guy… was starting to finally piss her off.

Percy tilted his head and swivelled the notification screen to her face. "But the system doesn't think so." He smiled evilly, clearly knowing what he was doing. "You're perhaps not so useless after all."

She screamed and got up and grabbed the sword from the Dramon's belly. Trying to steady her stance, she walked towards Percy, sword in hand. He didn't seem fazed. "What?" he asked like he was used to me doing weird things. 'I'm going to kill him. I'm going to fucking kill him,' Tiara thought devotedly.

He raised his eyebrows. "Are you planning on stabbing me with that-" He let out a whimper and looked down at his abdomen where she had stabbed the sword deep. She smiled in satisfaction at the blood coming out of the wound.

Then a laugh emanated from the man. She looked up at his face and it annoyed her even more that he was actually laughing! "What the hell…"

He gave her that same smile. "At least don't use my own weapon while killing me," he tipped his head back and laughed. She stepped back and raised her hands in shock. 'What did I just do? Stab a person? But this is a game… still. Did I just intend to kill a person?'

What surprised her more was how Percy effortlessly took the sword out of his abdomen and touched the tip to the wound and the blood evaporated into the air.

This time, she was the one watching in shock.

He slipped the sword back in its sheath. "If you had the sense to read the basic rules of this game, you would read about [Weapons] and how any weapon can hurt a Player except his own weapon. Oh wait, you're just a kid." Then he placed his palm on his chest. "Leave the reading to the adults."

'Why did this feel worse than Goren's bullying?' Tiara thought. 'It feels like he is torturing me with the truth.' Because she knew very well that she would never have thought of reading the rules and manuals even if she knew they existed. She was just a kid who hadn't gotten used to how things work in the world, She clenched her fists tight. She needed to get better. Killing that Dramon convinced her that she had it in her, but it hadn't fazed Percy one bit.

In a way, she was thankful for having a person like Percy to be her partner. That way, the day she makes him respect her would be the day she knew she was ready.

She pulled up her own task list and saw three active tasks shining in front of her.

1) Collect 50 Azure Lover Flowers

2) Kill a Dramon

3) Purchase food from the Market

She closed the screen and stopped walking. Percy felt that and he stopped and asked normally. "What happened?"

Tiara would never understand why boys sounded so insensitive all the time. But keeping that aside, she looked up at him. "Go to the mountains. I'm going to the Inner Swamps of Distentope."

"Tiara, I told you. That place is a danger zone right now."

"I know. But I need to kill a Dramon too. So I'll be going there and collect the flowers too. We will meet at the Market." Tiara turned around and went north towards the swamps. She felt Percy's hand hold her wrist tight and hold her back.

"Tiara, listen to me. I'll do the fighting for both of us, okay? Don't go to the swamps."

Tiara pried her hand out of his hold but he leaned forward and held her again. "Is this about taking credit for killing the Dramon? Okay then I'm sorry okay? Now please, come to the mountain with me."

'Oh wow,' Tiara thought, 'Now that he fears losing his Partner and his only way to Dream, he says sorry. What a total jerk.'

"Sorry doesn't cut it, Percy." She said and took off running. Before Percy could get a hold of the confusion inside his head, she was gone. Percy held his forehead, fear creeping into him. "Shit, she can die in there!" He dropped to the floor and checked the map. Like before, it still showed the swamps as [Danger Zone].

He didn't expect her to react this way. Since she was technically a kid, he thought she would just brush it off and continue to have fun inside the game. But now things seemed to be changing. "You're growing up," Percy sighed and held his head. "Shit, I'm sorry. Tiara come back."

But the only person who heard his words was the spirit of the empty forest.