The Misfits meet System-san

Alice:

It was morning, five days after they had arrived. Bronsen and Alice had chickened out of doing any exploration and spent most, but not all, of the time inside. They were in their cave accommodation, with the rock door still closed. Bronsen was checking the contents of the refrigerator - err, the pile of crudely hacked lumps of meat, wrapped up in a fur coat, shoved to one side of their cave.

"We're running out of food," he said.

"At least, since it is so cold, even here, it hasn't gone off yet," said Alice.

"That reminds me..." said Bronsen.

He picked up their sleeping bag fur and sniffed its outside, the side containing many traces of meat.

"Yeah, I thought so. It's beginning to go off. Our body heat is warming it up, so it's spoiling faster than the food."

"Also, we should use the warg pelts to make some fur coats," said Alice.

Bronsen's face and tail fell. "You mean I can't admire your body any longer?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Of course you can when we're in here. But, even with cold resistance, it can get a bit chilly outside."

"Ah, OK."

A little later, they were outside. Bronsen had taken the sleeping bag fur and laid it out on a reasonably flat rock.

It was cold, snow covered the ground, and they were naked.

"The cold is bearable, but perhaps I should allocate our spare twenty-three points to [Cold Resistance]?" said Bronsen.

"Wait! Wait! We should have some in reserve. Perhaps make it twenty points?" said Alice.

"Ah, OK."

Ding! [Cold Resistance] is now 41

Since the day was fine and the sky was clear, they spent some time admiring the view. They had already discovered they were on a ringworld.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" said Alice.

"Yeah. And, no matter where you are on this ringworld, you can always see where you are going," said Bronsen.

"Well, only if the place you are going to is more than a few thousand kilometres away. You can't see the local area since we are looking at it from such a low height," said Alice.

"Yeah, yeah, spoil my little saying."

"But anyway!" said Alice.

"Ah, right, cleaning this hide. First, we have to scrap off as much of the flesh as possible with our knives." Bronsen said.

An hour later.

"Then wash it to the best of our abilities."

Half an hour later.

"Then, well, the method that my uncle explained to me was to take the animal's brain, boil it in water until it was mushy, then slather it all over the hide.”

Alice's expression, as she looked at him while slowly backing off, suggested that she was on the verge of calling for the medical staff to tranquilise him and drag him away. Or maybe she wanted the police to arrest him before he could get to her. Suiting her actions, she tucked her tail between her legs, laid her ears back and flattened them against her head.

Sadly, due to no medical or police people nearby, Alice had to cope with the madman alone.

"Excuse me?"

"No, really! The brain contains a lot of oil, which makes leather pliable."

"Oh, I see. But, we didn't keep the brains, sadly."

"Let's put this back into the cave to keep it safe, block the doorway, and go on another hunt?"

An hour later, they were ready.

"Well, the last two days, we haven't found anything of interest." said Alice, "Not even any edible vegetables using our new [Inspect] ability."

Bronsen looked upwards at the twenty-metre cliff face.

"But we haven't checked up there yet! Let's say I climb up and have a look!"

Suiting his actions to his words, he scrambled up. This was easy since the rock face was not quite vertical and had many cracks and rough edges. His newfound strength also helped a vast amount.

Shit! Bronsen! Stop charging off like that. This is so annoying! We don't know what's up there!

But Bronsen, with fantastic speed, was already at the top and hoisting himself over the edge.

I'm alone in a hostile fantasy wilderness, and my only companion has disappeared. Damn this!

Not having any choice, she scrambled to get up there, too.

Think of this as being the climbing wall back at my part-time job. Yeah, that's right, I'm just climbing the wall, nice and safe and sound.

Shit, who am I kidding.

By the time she reached the top and flipped herself over the edge and onto the ground, Bronsen had already skipped ahead.

"I'll hop up on top of that rock mound and have a look!"

Bloody hell, he is still racing ahead.

"Slow down, will you!" she shouted out to him.

But he didn't.

Alice moved towards the rock mound, then slowed down and stopped.

That rock - it looks a little strange - doesn't it?

Bronsen had no doubts; he ran at it and used his momentum to spring up on a conveniently placed side rock and then jump to the top.

At this point, the 'rock' opened its eyes.

Oh shit.

Alice stared at those eyes. And it's head. Yep, that end of the so-called rock was the head, which had been lying on the ground. The creature must have been at least eight metres long. And that long low ridge from the other end could only be its tail.

It flicked its head around a bit, sending off a snow spray, allowing Alice a clear view of its facial expression. It didn't seem all that impressed with being disturbed from its slumber.

Bronsen, now standing on top, was beginning to realise that his rock mound was showing some unexpected attitude. The creature looked back and upwards and had a brief glaring contest with Bronsen.

Bronsen decisively lost and decided to jump back off, but with explosive power, the creature jerked its body upwards. Bronsen cartwheeled through the sky and landed with a thump behind Alice.

"Ouch!"

In normal times, Alice might have patted his head and possibly offered him a bandaid - but she decided to delay all of that. Her sword appeared in her hands, and she ducked and lunged forward - but the animal was even faster.

How can such a big bugger move so fast?

Was a thought that briefly flickered through her mind as it opened its jaws wide, showing a line of gleaming white triangular teeth. They snapped over her arms with precision interlocking as the triangles of sharpness from the top of its jaw neatly joined up with the triangles from the lower jaw. Her arms were securely caught between two separate sets of scissoring teeth. From an engineering point of view, it was a genuinely awesome piece of work, ideal for grabbing and tearing flesh.

Sadly, Alice wasn't in a position to appreciate the finer details of the odontology right in front of her. Instead, she screamed as the pain flared throughout her body.

Ding! [Strength], [Speed], [Toughness], [General Combat], [Emotional Control] have all been increased.

The pain lessened and became tolerable. She managed to get her emotions under control and to stop screaming. Since her arms were trapped and immobile, she kicked her feet as hard as possible. The only target she could reach was its throat, so she aimed her system-strengthened kicks at that. The predator was not pleased and tried to open its mouth to attack Alice again. Only its teeth were locked together.

ShitShitShit - my arms, no, my arm bones, are jammed between its teeth, and it can't cut them or release them!

The pain increased again. Alice started screaming again. The animal collapsed on its side, facing away from the cliff, and tried to use its front paws to wipe off Alice, but her toughened body resisted. The animal got pissed off. It started to bash Alice's body against the ground while grinding its teeth with all its might.

Ahh - it succeeded. With an almost visible sigh of relief, it managed to snap the arms off at the point where they met the teeth.

It took a brief moment of relaxation, possibly enjoying itself watching Alice scream even louder. The teeth had sliced off one arm just below the elbow and the other just above. Alice's world dissolved into a blood and pain-filled haze.