Sleeping Player (Project Chrysalis Book 3)

was the more dangerous of the pair. Around thirty, he was well-built. He had no gray hair, there was nothing remarkable about his face, and he kept the distance and stance of a swordsman who fought with two swords. LJ’s inner voice always whispered louder in situations like this, sometimes fusing completely with his consciousness. His mind reacted faster than his body. The bracelet started itching.
“I’m going to gut you today, cat. Amaga armor!” Transparent plate armor with barely discernible contours appeared to coat the man’s body. It was quite the ability—magic armor based on a magic shield.
LJ’s intellect took a back seat to his reflexes. In moments of danger, he acted unbelievably cruelly, overpowering his opponents with brute force and dirty tricks. He would retreat, break an arm at the elbow, slam home a kick to the body, and go to town on their face until they stopped moving.
Anger, rage, cruelty, and the desire to kill and break their will flooded through LJ’s mind. That was how his brain protected itself against trespassers. Nobody could say what might happen to LJ if he lost his temper.
It was scary to watch Milisandra fight. When she was attacked unexpectedly, a defense mechanism kicked in for her too: wounds opened up on her body to release terrifying beasts. She wasn’t physically strong, and her opponents used that against her. The first man leaped on her from above to bring his whole weight pressing down on her. He started groping away, and that’s when Millie squealed. A wound opened up on her stomach. Out of it crawled an enormous snake, which wrapped itself around the man’s leg, crushed his bones in its rings, and then sank its fangs into his head. Sensitivity at the clinic was turned up to fifty percent, something the men pawing at Milisandra were only too happy about. On the other hand, feeling your bones break and then a snake biting your head is quite the price to pay for a second of pleasure.
The second man decided to jump her as she was getting up, but LJ blocked his path. He turned and ran. The girl didn’t look good—the wounds on her body caused her pain, as did freeing her pets. She was pale; her face and body bled freely. LJ could feel her hurt, so he licked her and pointed at their fleeing enemy.
“Don’t touch him. The crows will catch him and finish him off.” Milisandra hugged the worried cat. Crows pulled themselves out of her forearms to perch on LJ’s head and shoulders, though it cost the girl an incredible amount of effort to let nine of them free. Her face turned into a bloody mess; her hair turned red.
“Don’t worry—that always happens when I push myself to the limit. My monsters protect me though, and I love them for it. If they’re always with me, I don’t need to worry about losing them.”
Bird, Swamp Crow, Level 415
Lose them? Protect? LJ realized that even if she was a human, at heart, she was just as much a cat as he was. His soul yearned for peace; hers yearned for security.
LJ looked closely at one of the crows. It polished its beak on his shoulder. The bird felt like part of Millie and loved her, doing its best to help. The cat wondered to himself why he understood what the bird was feeling.
“Animals, birds, large fish, and other living organisms with rudimentary intellect are managed by their base instincts and desires. Their primitive minds are cloaked in a kind of protective emotional buffer that lets them feel the emotions of others, something humans also have even if they rarely use it consciously. The buffer boosts the sensitivity animals enjoy, and that’s why they get tired faster. It’s the same with the mental and emotional exhaustion humans experience.”
His inner voice sometimes read off whole speeches like that, but that time something in LJ’s soul stirred. There was something his inner voice was up to…something that wasn’t good.
The crows flew off after the assailant, following the command Milisandra gave them with her mind. The cat slipped the girl on his back and dashed quickly up the mountain. Bounding from stone to rock, running over uneven grown, and crawling up overhanging walls, LJ was like a real cat as he gripped holds and used his monstrous strength. Everything seemed so soothing and familiar that he didn’t even feel the weight on his back. The girl gripped him as tightly as she could, though that didn’t cause him any discomfort. Millie was afraid to scratch the cat until they took one especially long leap—she realized she couldn’t hurt him if she tried. LJ could grasp the sharp edges of the cliff and keep going without worrying about cuts.
At the very top, an enormous eagle lived in a rocky crag. Its wingspan was eight meters, its muscles were knotted, and it was brown-winged with a white head. It was the strongest bot on the island, and the only living thing that could fly away. Milisandra wouldn’t have been able to deal with it on her own, but she had a shot with LJ’s help. A pet like that could help her get off the island.
The eagle perched there, surveying its domain the way it always did. As LJ clambered up the cliff with Milisandra on his back, the eagle noticed them immediately and kept a close eye on their progress. It cared little for Milisandra, but it looked into the face of the cat. In return, the cat listened to its emotions. First, came threat; then rage; finally, it settled on fear.
Bird, Muusan, the King of Fitz, Level 1415
The eagle took fright and flew off, staying at least a kilometer away from the cliff. It didn’t bother LJ, who was more occupied with having found a good spot to relax. Milisandra and her cat spent the