Chapter 7

　　Fluffy Bunny: The Zombie Bunny Master

　　Whoosh!

　　Congratulations: You are the first person on your planet to battle for a node. Due to your planet being so young, you had to be summoned to a planet that already lost its immersion process, but still had Tier 1 monsters to fight. This created a slight disparity between relative power levels, as such compensations have been made.

　　World First Notice: First Trans-Dimensional Mover

　　Title: First Trans-Dimensional: You were the first of your planet to be teleported across the boundaries of Space and Time, as such you are immune to the normal status effects associated with both volatile elements.

　　World First Notice: Master Level Necromantic Combatant

　　Title: Master Level Necromantic Combatant: Your first challenge has placed you against a master level Tier 1 Necromancer from a different dimension of space and time. Due to the disparity in starting powers, you have been made immune to all Necrotoxins. Now go out there and fight.

　　That was it, the sign that Maria had first entered an alternate dimension, and a sign that she was now going to be in the battle of her life. Who was her adversary? What was her adversary, these were questions that she had to answer, for knowing your enemy was just as important as knowing yourself. From the messages it was clear that Maria was neck deep in it, fighting a Necromancer? Maria didn`t remember much about the battles, especially not the final battles, there were thoughts, distant memories of how tough a few of the battles were, but those were just the after images. She remembered the charred and blackened pillars of fire that burned from where devastating attacks were seemingly burned into her retinas and her very soul. She remembered the charred markings of the earth that were left after the battles were over. She remembered so many things, but they were always the afterimages, the memories of how tired she had been after each encounter, nothing about particular encounters stood out.

　　Now it seemed she was going to enter her first true encounter of the whole event. If the messages she was receiving were to be believed, these were the first encounters by anyone, as she and she alone was the only one who had begun to experience these events.

　　Whoosh!

　　The first thing Maria noticed about the environment that she now found herself in was that it was completely saturated with ambient energy. Then the next thing she noticed was the way the world seemed to be a warped and corrupted environment, one where grass grew, but there was an odd energy to the different stalks that stood up in the air. There were also bushes and trees, all of which grew, but with a semi-corrupted feel to them.

　　Then she felt the moment the boss monster appeared. One second, she was there feeling the natural high of being submerged in a world with excessive mana and energy around her. Then the next she felt the weight and force of an oppressive monster suddenly appear out of nowhere. The weight and force of the monstrous killing intent of the creature that suddenly appeared was undeniable. The killing intent was so intense that she almost didn`t quite recognize the creature that was producing such a violent killing intent, until it moved.

　　Thud. Rumble.

　　Six massive hair covered legs moved forward, as they moved, the ground shook as if in recognition of the power and sheer magnitude of the creature before her. The beast was massive, easily ten feet tall at the shoulder, and this was while it was hunched over walking on all six legs equally. Two massive fur covered ears arose from an additional four feet in the air from the beast`s head. Then of course there were the giant black orbs for eyes, and the two giant buck teeth that could barely be fit into a giant fur covered maw. The worst thing of all, was just how fluffy the creature was, as the thick fur easily added extra protection and girth to the beast that clearly towered over Maria`s smaller frame.

　　The monster she was facing off against, the first monster that would set the course of all current and future battles for the sake of the world was against a giant Necromantic Bunny, complete with six total paws, indicating that it was at least 50% more lucky than standard bunnies found on Earth. Worse was the fact that the bunny all but oozed with magical energy and killing intent that was expressed by the way the massive bunny voraciously chewed at a giant stalk of mana infused grass and Maria knew it would take everything she had to win this fight. First, there was the thick layer of fur and padding that all but guaranteed most force damage would be negated. The second, was the fact that microscopic spores seemed to have been woven into and throughout the beast`s fur. Looking at these tiny spores that all but glowed to Maria`s supernatural senses indicated that these were likely the necromantic spores that her recent title provided her immunity to. However all of these paled in comparison to the third and most devastating weapon at this necromantic bunny`s disposal, the fact that it was just so darn cute and fluffy. Looking at the beast, Maria`s heart cried out in sorrow at the mere idea of having to fight against such a specimen of the bunny family.

　　Of course, Maria`s final concern about not wanting to harm the cute creature were all dispelled, once the overgrown creature made its first attack.

　　Mew-skra!

　　"Ohh." Maria cried out, as even its death cry was cute, in a killing intent from a giant necromantic bunny that needed a bath kind of way, but still cute if only for the extreme novelty of it. Then she saw its necromantic powers in act, and the cuteness she had been so enraptured by a moment ago was quickly replaced by revulsion as corpses began to rise.

　　Not just any corpses arose, but massive bunny bone corpses began to rise. Loose and decaying fur clung to ears; lifeless dead eyes stared out vacantly into nothingness. Some even seemed to be chewing at the air in some attempts to defiantly chew at nothing, even in death. It was as if every rabbit killed off of every highway in America had been summoned and brought back as giant decaying versions of themselves, all with one goal in mind, revenge. Maria almost wanted to protest such an act, killing zombies was too far, but having to re-kill giant zombie rabbits was a bit too much. Still, it was what the world required of Maria, and as such, she would rise to the occasion, regardless of how terrible the event she was now experiencing was, losing here would be a far worse fate for her world. Maria imagined what could happen if this rabbit was allowed to emerge into her world, what would happen to Mr. Fluffers, and all the other bunnies that lay buried in their backyard. It was for him that she dug down deep and decided to go on the offensive, to strike out and attack the shambling horde of rotting rabbits before her.

　　What happened next was a battle too gruesome to document properly. Even while performing many of the kicks, strikes and decapitation events, Maria hoped that one day this event too would be something she could remove from her memory, something that she too could move on from. Unfortunately, she knew she would not be able to deal with this any time soon.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

　　***

　　Anita searched for her sister, unable to find where she had gone off to. Practice had been over for an hour, but Maria was nowhere to be found. By now even Juan the delinquent brother had joined the search for the missing Maria.

　　"Have you tried tracking her phone?" Juan asked.

　　"I have, her phone is still in our room." Anita said, looking down at the phone.

　　"Do you think this is just her trying to get back at dad for taking the phone?"

　　"I don`t know. I would like to think not, I mean she did get the phone back, so this would just be a way of forcing her to keep her phone on her more than anything." Anita said, still searching the fields. By now it was beginning to start to get dark out and Maria was still nowhere left to be found.

　　"Should we just go home and see if she is there?" Juan asked, a slight tremble taking over his body as the night air slowly took away more and more of his body heat.

　　After a moment, Anita shrugged, "I guess."

　　With that, Anita and Juan both left the school grounds, unaware that the first battle that would determine the fate and likely course of human history was occurring at that very moment in an alternate pocket dimension that connected the realm of Earth to the forgotten fallen planet.

　　***

　　The battle raged on for hours, but to Maria and her unconditioned body it felt like days, or an eternity of battle. She had decapitated bunnies by grabbing onto their ears and twisting their rotting heads off. She had grabbed fluffy tails the size of pom-poms and used them to hurl one shambling corpse into another. She had destroyed more legs than a team of veteran sports enthusiasts working in tandem during the Super Bowl at a local wing stop. She had been covered in rotting tufts of fur, broken bunny ears, and bile of the worst kind, yet despite it all she kept fighting. For this wasn`t just her fate that she was fighting for, but the fate of the world as well.

　　Finally, she had managed to deliver the death blow to the source of the necrospores, the giant necromantic bunny that was the cause of all this pain and undeath. The death came unexpectedly, as she charged forward, she let out as fierce of a war cry as possible, one where she called forth the full power of her blossoming qi and killing intent. With that killing intent she harnessed it into a mental knife, one that she wielded out in front of her as she let out her death cry.

　　"AHHHH!"

　　The blade of killing intent was enough apparently, as the bunny, long since used to living a sedentary life felt true fear for the first time in millennium, as a tiny creature came running towards it, covered in the blood, guts, and viscera of its family and fallen victims alike. So much killing intent radiated off of Maria, that when she charged forward, the killing intent she wielded had been enough to frighten the oversized necromantic bunny to death.

　　"Eep."

　　The massive creature cried out, as its massive frame toppled over, causing its body to kick out once, twice, and then die.

　　Maria saw it too, the minute life left its beady black eyes, causing a slight thin sheen to appear, distorting the image of the beast.

　　Even in death, Maria realized the bunny died as it had lived, cutely. If only it had lived a good life, this would never have happened. In another world, in another plane of existence, they could have been friends, and if not friends, at least beloved companions. Unfortunately, this was never to be, for this was not the case of the world, not now, not while her planet was in the process of being indoctrinated.

　　Honestly, the entire thing seemed a bit anticlimactic, her first major enemy dying by an apparent heart attack. Still she would take it, as it meant that the world was one step closer to being saved.

　　World First Notice: First Boss Battle: You fought and won a battle against the first noted boss of your world. Bonuses have been awarded as the boss had to be summoned from an alternate dimension. In so doing you have forever claimed the ownership of the Nexus node. Rewards: Can Choose the type of energy released by the Claimed Nexus Node. Title. Crafting Supplies.

　　Title: First Boss Battle Winner: Gain a permanent +25 to all attributes. Strength, Speed, and Endurance increased by an additional +5%.

　　Those were huge, but what stood out to Maria most of all, were the crafting supplies she had received.

　　Crafting Items: Lucky Rabbits Foot (X2) (Unique): A rabbit`s foot that can be added to any charm, magical item, or potion. Can be kept in base form for a total set bonus of +50% to luck.

　　Note: The power in these paws has shrunk down to be at a more manageable size.

　　Just as Maria had suspected, the additional set of legs did make the rabbit just that much more lucky, a luck that would now follow her wherever she decided to go.

　　With the battle over, the temporary zone that Maria and her boss monster had been forced to battle in slowly dissolved.

　　Whoosh.

　　Despite not being affected by the shift in balance across Space and Time thanks to her Titles, Maria still found herself stumbling into and falling down in a drainage ditch that was at the far end of the practice field.

　　Getting up, she felt disoriented at first. The first thing she did was try to find out where she was. She was still on the practice field, just on the far side. The first thing she did was notice that the energy being released by her newly conquered node seemed to be a direct reflection of her newly enhanced Spirit attribute, this was great as it meant that the longer this node remained in effect, the more powerful Maria could become just by being out here.

　　A quick glance around showed that despite multiple warnings that the integration of the planet would be happening soon, it was clearly not today.

　　"Maybe, I changed destiny by preemptively gaining titles?" Maria mused to herself.

　　For a moment she felt lost on what to do, but she did know she had gained a lot of energy and experience from her recent battle. Since she was now a cultivator, Maria knew that needing sleep and food were now two things she could go without. While she couldn`t go without either indefinitely, the direct need for such luxuries was greatly reduced. What was required however was her taking the time right after battle and meditating, the correct way, and solidifying the power gains she had gone through during her battle.

　　With her need to solidify her substantial gains, and not really feeling the pressing need to go anywhere, Maria began walking home at a slow and sedate pace.

　　***

　　"How could you do this!" Mother screamed her rage at father.

　　"What do you mean, this is the school`s fault. They lost track of our daughter. She clearly had a concussion and they left her unsupervised out there on the practice field." Father said defensively.

　　Anita had never seen her parents so distraught. For her part Anita and Juan just sat in the couch, their backs pressing as far back into the cushions as was physically allowed by the whole concept of the conservation of mass and two items not being able to occupy the same spot at the same time. Regardless, the two were still doing a good impression on trying to physically disappear from visible sight.

　　The cops had already come and left, having taken a statement from Anita, Juan, and then the two parents.

　　Father had wanted to go, but he was stopped by mother. Not that mother actually stopped him from leaving, rather he noticed the state she was in, so he decided to stay with her while they all waited for something to happen. For her to call, for the police to come back with more information, something.

　　What they had not expected however was for a dirt and grime covered Maria to come waltzing through the door, as if she had been out for little more than a midnight stroll.

　　"Aye, my Maria. What has happened to you. You are a mess." Mother cried out, as she ran to go hug her daughter, but then stopped herself when she was just a foot away. Mother acted as if she had been physically struck by just being so near her. Father too was stopped when he got close.

　　"Are, Maria, what happened?"

　　"I got lucky." Maria said, holding up two small items that were still clearly bleeding.

　　"What is that?" Mother Alvarez cried out, as she covered her mouth in horror at the sight and the disheveled state that her daughter was in.

　　"Rabbits feet. Well lucky rabbit`s feet to be precise." Maria said, as she brushed aside a dirt and grease covered strand of hair from her face. The move, caused a giant smear of grease and viscera to cover her face.

　　Seeing the act, Anita felt her own stomach tremble from the disgust she now felt. Yet, despite the disgust she felt, Anita felt herself rising to her own feet, as she couldn`t help but also want to get closer. She only made it to about six feet, before the stench of rot, death, and decay pierced her nose and caused Anita to also stop going to greet her twin sister. Juan, intelligently just stayed put, still trying to become one with the couch cushion.

　　"Where were you?" Anita asked, "we looked everywhere for you."

　　"Oh, right. I awoke in the ditch at the far side of the practice field." Maria said.

　　"In the ditch? Oy mio." Mother said, a note of pain and concern filling her. This time she forced her way forward, and grabbed at her daughter. "Come on, let`s get you cleaned up." Mother said, comfortingly as she forced her clean hands to clamp down on the dampness that covered Maria`s school uniform. Then with a practiced grace that only a mother could pull off, she guided Maria down the hallway to take a shower.

　　As she left, she made eye contact with Anita and Juan both, "as for you two. You should be ashamed, letting your sister lay unconscious in a ditch, while you came home."

　　"But we&"

　　"No buts! I will speak to the two of you, later."

　　Then with that, father made another call to the police. At which point Maria who had been about to take a shower, was urged to stop, as officers came back took a picture of her. Noted that she appeared to be safe, if disoriented, and then made note she awoke in the ditch and walked home. After that, the police investigation was effectively closed, however, Anita and Juan`s night had just begun.