If you have a penchant for those brave, just, and kind characters, then Nara is not for you. She's everything that type of protagonist lacks: ambitious, cynical, manipulative, distrustful, and treacherous; those are some of the adjectives that descr...
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The putrid stench of mud mixed with feces permeated the muggy rainforest. Nara walked cautiously, drawn by the disturbance a few meters away, but her footsteps stopped when her keen sense of smell caught a subtle but familiar odor.
"Why are you stopping?" The woman hiding behind her asked nervously.
Nara focused on listening to what the voices were arguing about and after a few seconds she understood what had happened without needing to get any closer.
"Do you wanna go check it out?" Nara tilted her body to let her pass, but the girl with tangled blonde hair didn't move.
"I'll go." Himero made his way past them and slashed the huge leaves of the plants that were in the way with his dagger.
Eris glanced sideways at Nara, who still had that slight provocative smile, and then at Himero, and concluded that it was safer to stay with the man than to stay behind. A spark of amusement shone in Nara's eyes as she watched the two of them dash away until they disappeared as they rounded the side of a slope.
With no intention of moving from her spot, she began counting on her fingers. As her fifth finger rose, a woman's shrill scream echoed in the distance, eliciting a low chuckle from Nara.
One down? Or two down?, she thought casually, even though she was referring to other team members.
While waiting for the others to return, she went through her bag once more, calculating her supplies and checking that all her things were in order. This was a quirk she couldn't help, even more so when she was surrounded by dangers both internal and external.
Three minutes later, she heard the sound of hurried footsteps and peered through the foliage.
One, two, three, four... To her satisfaction, the counting stopped there.
At the front was a tall, dark-haired man called Hybris, and behind him was a stocky dark-skinned woman who followed him without difficulty. About three meters behind, the red-haired Himero was carrying Eris on his back, who had apparently collapsed after witnessing a grotesque scene.
Nara readied herself and as soon as the first two went past her, she nimbly sliped behind, filling the empty space between the front and rear group.
"Phagos and Ergia are dead." It was Hybris who informed Nara about what happened as they ran. "We took care of that thing, but the stench of their bodies will soon attract more."
"I see," she replied calmly. "And we're supposed to be the dessert?" Nara's gaze drifted to Hybris and Lita's bloody clothes, wrinkling her nose at the strong stench they gave off. "Nothing better than playing hide-and-seek to amuse those things."
"...Let's go to the river," Hybris said with obvious annoyance in his voice and then took another path.
"Great idea, captain." Nara praised him in a sardonic tone.
