“And we went out to watch a movie only it wasn’t exactly a movie because it was in 3D so it was more like a play which was cool and all but the movie itself was kinda boring because it dealt with the classist struggles of some sort of farmers who couldn’t fight back against a bigger group who was cutting into their profits but the bigger group couldn’t actually do anything much to them because apparently destroying their stuff just had it grow back a few minutes later which I didn’t know about but it seems to be a great anti-griefing measure built into the world’s system but when I said that people started looking at me funny and trying to explain how the…”

Row shook his head and interrupted me. “Stop. I get the point that you’re excited but you need to breathe. All I asked was how things were going with your mom’s attempts to get you a friend your own age. I don’t need all that.”

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. I was acting childish, I knew it, but sometimes I just don’t catch myself in time to not act like a foolish child. Probably because I was still a child. “I did find out about something else which made me have a question for you.”

“What do you have for me?” he asked while still leading us farther out into the wilds.

“Well, I found out about ‘buff foods’; specifically that foods can give you bonuses to your stats and other such things. It seems mostly in the form of resource bonuses, resistance bonuses, and other minor boons. It kinda makes sense, both with how games work and what my Mom had said about me having enough energy so not wanting to feed me. But then I remembered eating that monster squirrel before and wondered why I hadn’t gotten anything then. I mean, I could have just not been paying attention, but still.”

Row stopped just ahead of me near where a group of evergreens made a small hidden spot among the sparsely populated forest. “That’s because your Da is a bad cook. He insisted that his method would have things perfectly edible, but apparently that was only ‘edible’ according to his undiscerning tastes. The bonuses were pretty low so I’m not surprised that you missed them.”

I came and sat myself down next to him. “So why didn’t you cook it yourself if my Dad is so bad at it?”

He made an amused noise. “Because I’m smart enough to not even try. I know where my talent lies, and where it most definitely does not.”

Honestly, I think he just isn’t interested. He would probably make a great cook if he really put his mind to it.

“Enough of that.” Row spoke up, “You remember what we are out here for, so lets review.”

I nodded. “Hunter teams always have three positions, though they may have a lot more. You have the Tracker, who is focused on finding and identifying the any surprises the prey might have. You have the Sustain, who is the one who keeps everyone fighting fit and can help them avoid unfavorable battles so that everyone can be more fresh for the real thing. Finally you have the Coordinator, whose job is to keep everyone from hurting each other and often directs the battle. People often have other positions or have more than one, but those three are always there when people go out in a group.”

Row nodded back. “That’s right. My position is Sustain. I heal and I do short jumps away from enemies in that capacity, but I also take the role of a front line brawler. I’m usually a solo hunter, though, and so I have other ways to help take up the slack. Sheela, for instance, is a tracker. Also I don’t need a Coordinator when I’m alone because of how personal essence works.”

I nodded in understanding. ‘Essance’ or ‘mana’; different people seemed to use the words interchangeably for the same thing that powered most of the really crazy stuff that people did. One property of it, that I had learned early on, was that your own mana couldn’t hurt you; at most it would just push you around. That same property didn’t hold true for your allies, though, which was why the Coordinator was important. The need for a tracker to find your prey or some form of sustain on a long or difficult outing was self evident.

“So what about the others? Who’s coming and what are their jobs going to be?” I asked, mainly to make conversation.

“Mayhu is our Coordinator. She’ll also play the part of Crowd Control due to how, er, Coordinator abilities work. Our Tracker is Simon and he also runs as a Scout and an Ambusher.”

Some of the words made sense but still threw me off considering how close the concepts were to my old world but still very different. Crowd Control was not a debuffer, literally their job was to control the crowds of scavengers that appeared during a fight; usually by killing or badly hurting the interlopers. Apparently fighting dropped energy crystals, which were money, but were also food for various creatures like monsters and elementals. An energy crystal, even a small one, could advance the growth of some of these creatures by weeks or months. Needless to say, there were always more than a few things that tried to sneak away with some of our loot.

Mahu supposedly did her job with her dozen adorable little death creatures that she could make appear at will. I don’t know where they go, but I’m pretty sure there are no poké balls involved. They were all cute and cuddly looking, per the ‘adorable’ descriptor, but were also absolute horrors to fight. I couldn’t even defend against the things without getting knocked out, let alone trying to fight back! It was disorienting but also fun! It gave me a new appreciation for how much more powerful I could become.

The Scout role was exactly what it sounded like, someone who would sneak ahead to see what was around. The Ambusher, however, was more what I thought of as a 'Rogue' without the lock picking/trap finding stuff. Their job in a fight was to suddenly appear near an opponent, usually one that was particularly problematic or a hard-to-crack target, and deal loads of damage before disappearing again. I kept thinking Rogue, but that apparently referred to someone who was more of a kill-stealer than a member of an actual team. On another somewhat related note, apparently people going out to sabotage people’s jobs was sometimes a thing that happened with the more high end requests. Apparently the more Nobles get involved the more likely it is that a rival Noble will want to stop a job for the sake of pissing off the first Noble.

“I met those people before, right? They came to see us during our training?” I asked, bouncing as I thought of our objective.

He nodded. “That’s right. They are good people and they should give you a decent idea of how a team works to bring in a target. Also, you can calm down. This isn’t so exciting as you’re thinking.”

We were going after a giant worm monster! If we are talking ‘Star Wars’ terms than it wouldn’t be an Exogorth (the asteroid worm that tried to swallow the Millennium Falcon) or even a Sarlacc (the sand worm whose hole they bad guys tried to throw Skywalker into), but it was definitely supposed to be bigger than Jabba the Hutt (the slug/worm that froze Han Solo)! This was a real-life Mongolian Death Worm! The easiest way to categorize it would be a mini Sand Worm, compete with the ‘eat you in one gulp’ attack. I mean, I might be more worried if it were some Chest Burster worm or a Head Worm or a Doctor Who Memory Worm, but it isn’t. With all the cool fictional worm monsters how could I not be excited about getting to see one in real life?

How come Row didn’t have the same enthusiasm for the ‘giant mutated earth-worm monster’?

I was still thinking about it when Row shushed me and waved me over to look out of our hiding space with a pair of binoculars. Apparently those are a thing on this fantasy world. What I saw seemed like nothing more than a field of rabbits. Only, when I looked, one sparked with electricity and another seemed to be burning with a gently hushed flame. As I searched closer it became clear how many had similar signs of elemental shenanigans. Most of them had swirls of unnatural wind moving around them and a few left puddles behind as they moved.

“Is that entire group filled with rabbit monsters?” I asked, still watching the horde.

“No, just normal rabbits.” Row answered from behind me.

“I thought that monsters formed when animals took in elemental energy, that it changed them into something else?” At least that was what I thought he had said.

“It happens when they eat that elemental energy. Everything absorbs a small amounts of it over time, depending on how much is in the air. Those creatures must have been here a long time to be displaying their elemental nature so openly.”

“What’s the difference?” I asked. Eating, absorbing; it seemed like taking it in was a bad thing if it would turn the creatures into bloodthirsty monsters that would generally attack on sight if they thought they had a chance. Also, two of the bunnies had come together and were nuzzling each other. It was so cute!

“The difference is that some things want more than they are meant to have. For hunters it is a given that a certain number of those rabbits will end up as monsters, the important part is why they make that decision. Has the fluffle gotten too big and mating is an issue, are they being overhunted and it is more about defense, or is the land not able to support them and they are starving? There are half a dozen reasons why an animal might take that step, and they result in different type of monsters.” I was momentarily distracted by his casual use of the term ‘Fluffle’ in a serious lecture, but managed to not get drawn too far off track.

Yeah, what he said makes sense. Monsters don’t have set species so something has to account for the divergence, what the monster wants is as good a reason as any. Why it works like that still confuses me, but it fits with the whole theme of ‘magic’. Still, one thing is bothering me; something I cannot ignore. “So… What’s a ‘fluffle’?” I asked with a note of suspicion in my querry.

There was a pause. “That’s a group of rabbits, why?”

“How do you know that?” I said, looking away from the cute bunnies cute frolicking. “I mean, sure, you can use the old ‘I’m a hunter so I know about animals’ excuse. But, come on, how often does something like that come up in normal conversation?”

“You might be surprised,” spoke up an unfamiliar deep voice from behind me. I spun around to see Mayhu and some other random guy. “Watching groups of normally peaceful herbivores can give you a lot of information about the conditions within the area, so rabbits and deer and squirrels are some of the first things that hunters keep their eyes out for.”

Mayhu gave me a smile and a small wave. She was a quiet girl until you got to know her with loud and colorful tastes in clothing, mostly consisting of mismatched pastels with lots of flowing additions over a more practical form fitting under suit. I didn’t like her, mostly because she thought I was ‘cute’ and not in the handsome debonair sort of way. The other guy had a relaxed smile and might have fit in with however many people on the street despite him being several inches above average height. Mostly he didn’t stand out too much except for a couple very important things.

“Are you an evil genius?” I blurted out without thinking.

The man froze, then got a confused look on his face which only got more confused as the seconds ticked by. “Why would you ask me something like that?” He finally replied, sounding slightly more amused than confused.

Well, I’ve dug myself into a hole with my inability to keep quiet, I might as well make a break for China! “Well, you are a skinny guy with a goatee and you aren’t angry. Therefor you must be an evil genius.”

“What? Why?” The confusion was back. Mayhu was trying to hide her laughter at the situation. Row wasn’t even trying to hide his schadenfreude. He also seemed less surprised by the situation; it was almost as though he had gotten a bit more used to it by now.

“Look, I don’t make the rules. I just point them out.” I made a ‘what are you going to do’ gesture as I spoke.

“Look, but…” he began, then broke from his stammering and continued with the definitive nature of someone who expected to catch their opponent off guard. “What if I was fat?”

“Bloatmage.” I answered back immediately and definitively.

“Or angry?” He tried, less confidently.

“Then you are in an action flick, so you could go either way. It really depends on why you are angry, and there really isn’t a good reason to be angry right now. So… yeah…” I shrugged at him helplessly as I let an amused smile break through. He, in turn, looked helplessly confused.

Row chose this point to break in. “Right, who are you and what are you doing here?” he asked, keeping an eye on the man but taking a que from Mayhu that nothing too bad was going on.

“I’m William Fredric Cody, but I go by Freddie.” He answered, and something about that name seemed odd… Right! Buffalo Bill! Don’t blame me for wanting to be a cowboy when I was a kid, my parents liked to watch the old westerns. Why was this guy stealing his name? No, it is probably just a coincidence. Those do happen, right? He nodded in a friendly greeting toward Row before continuing. “The guy you had for Tracker got into some sort of trouble and couldn’t make it so I came to fill in.”

“Hey!” I called out. “We have the same first name! Going by your middle name doesn’t exactly make me trust you any more, though. Please tell me you don’t use some sort of claws as your weapon.”

Row ignored my attempted interruption. “Right. We aren’t playing around out here and I don’t know you from anyone. I’m not sure it would be wise to go on with this hunt. Why didn’t you contact me before you left?” That… wouldn’t be my first choice. I’d been looking forward to this trip. Still, everyone told me ‘safety first’ and ‘you have to trust your companions’, so I could see why Row would be unhappy about this.

“I just assumed that someone from the Agency would pass it along to you.” He spoke but quickly continued. “Look, I know you can teleport but we can’t. It took us over four solid days of travel to get out here and it will be the same to go back. Have some sympathy for the week we’ve dedicated to this. If not for us than for the kid?” Freddie attempted.

Row looked in my direction and I shrugged. If we had to go back then we would. It would be sad but I’m sure we could reschedule. Row then turned toward Mayhu and gave her a look.

“Sorry boss,” she answered with some embarrassment. “I thought he had talked with you about it. Everything seemed pretty above board from my perspective.”

Row looked like he was going to say something but Freddie spoke up. “Look, I’m good at my job. I can do it. None of us want to waste our time and, even if you don’t care about disappointing the kid, going back with nothing to show for it would be an embarrassment in front of other interested parties.” He glanced back toward the town with a worried look on his face. Looking back toward Row his face took on a look of determination. “Just give me a chance. We can get to know each other while we look for the target. Let me prove to you that I get the job done.”

Row made a face but didn’t disagree. “Fine. We will give you a try. Just follow directions and we’ll see how everything goes.” On the one hand I was happy that we didn’t have to give up already, but some part of me wasn’t sure what to make out of this entire situation.

Freddie must have noticed because he decided to address me in the most condescending way possible, getting down on one knee and talking in a ‘kiddie’ voice. “Aren’t you glad to hear that we will be continuing on? This way you will get to watch us fight a real life monster! Won’t that be fun!”

My eyes went wide at his words. “No way! I’m supposed to be helping! There is no way I want to stand off to the side while you people have all the fun!” I demanded as commandingly as I could, despite my unfortunate size.

He gave me an amused look but quickly covered it in a smile when I scowled at him. “Now, now. We wouldn’t want you to get hurt. This is a big deal for you to be allowed to come along at all! You should be happy to get this chance!”

I was about to start yelling at the guy, trying to get him to listen, when Row spoke up. “Actually, the boy is right. He’s going to be working with me to tag-team the target. Your job will be to help Mayhu with keeping away the scavengers. There shouldn’t be any outside interference, the target is needed for an ore processing facility and it’s an open contract. It’s an easy job but annoying to do.”

Freddie looked like he should be at a loss for words, but spoke up anyway. “What? But. How is that possible, the kid can’t be past four!”

Mayhu interjected herself. “William is a natural. Even if his stats are a little low, he thinks like a fighter; Quick on his feet and follows through with his plans. Don’t ask him where he got his fighting experience, though. That is a whole other headache.” She was baiting him to ask, it was just so obvious. I could respect that.

“My reflexes have been honed by years of Video Games!” I informed him. “The mental reflexes, at least. Exercise was never my strong suit before.”

His look of confusion only grew. “What’s a ‘video game’?” he asked under his breath. Then, seemingly thinking it would be better to not know, he changed gears. “So we just escort him to the target and you two go crazy on it?”

Mayhu seemingly hadn’t had enough. Bless her heart. “Actually, if we come across anything weak enough then the child gets first shot at it.”

He looked to Row for confirmation and got it. “Anything power level four or below the kid gets to try. We’ll finish up if things start taking too long, though.” Row gave me a look as he spoke. There would be times when they would have to take over due to how I can be a bit slow taking things down. It can take me a while to beat though the defense on some creatures.

Freddie gave me an incredulous glance then looked to Mayhu of all people for reassurance. Had he not met her? She can be as big a troll as I am! I decided to throw him a bone. “Look, it isn’t that big a deal. I’m four myself, so fighting something else that is the same level should be a fair fight.”

Freddie seemed even more confused, especially once Mayhu gave her nod of approval. He then looked back at me. “That isn’t even a little bit how power levels work. They aren’t the same as growth levels at all.” Hu, that was news. I knew that power levels determined how powerful monsters were but hadn’t thought too much about it beyond Row’s basic explanation that ‘four’ meant they were ‘weak’. He was kind of distracted at the time when he told me, though.

Mayhu apparently still hadn’t quite had enough and decided to see if she could leave the poor guy gaping like a fish. With an playfully evil gleam in her eye she spoke up. “Now don’t get too excited. You wouldn’t want to upset the client that brought us all together, now would you?” She gave me a pointed glance in full view of her personal target for her games.

He looked at me, then at Row, then back to her. “I thought his father set everything up. Isn’t that why you are here?” Ok, so he knows about my father. I guess that explains why he was so eager to do this mission. Too bad Dad already said he was taking a hands off approach to this side of things, so no favors from him would be incoming.

Row seemed to have had enough of this conversation but there was no way that Mayhu was going to let him ruin her fun and he was smart enough not to try. He did try to add his own bit in while he had the chance. “Simon was coming as a personal favor to myself. Mayhu there wanted to see the kid ‘wrestle a giant worm’ because she thought it would be funny.” Mayhu shrugged at the description but didn’t argue. “And no, none of us are actually going to try to grapple the target, she was being herself when she said that. Also, when we get back we split the bounty three ways and then go. We won’t be seeing The Professor at all.” It seems like Row noticed him mentioning my Father as well. Also ‘The Professor’ was a really weird nickname for someone who is so bad at teaching.

Freddie looked to Mayhu and she shrugged. “Row’s right, none of us are here for that old geezer. We’re here for Row and his student. Aren’t you glad you insisted on being a part of this group? If only you had mentioned things sooner I could have told you!” She gave him a look of pure innocence. It looked wrong on her. “Nothing for it now. Time to prove that you can ‘do the job’.” She gave him a smile and then walked off. Ok? So she apparently was holding a grudge against him for lying to her about having okayed everything with Row? Well, he did bring it on himself. Hell hath no fury, and all that.

Freddie glared at her back but got a calculating look in his eye as he glanced from Row to myself. Row was following Mayhu forward but I was still watching everything play out. He seemed to notice me watching him as his face was quickly masked in neutrality. He gave me a smile and then started forward to direct us toward our goal.

The rest of the trip to this empty clearing had been mostly uneventful. There were a couple of monsters that attacked but nothing particularly interesting. Right now I was waiting with Mayhu while the Freddie set up some sort of contraption that was supposed to draw out our target and Row cleared the area of anything that would hinder our fight. Apparently the clearing wasn’t big enough so several good sized trees were up for the chopping block, though more in a ‘minecraft’ than a ‘woodsman’ sense. He was just punching the trees as though it was no big deal; but, with that magic punching thing, it probably wasn’t. I decided to take the moment to ask Mayhu a question. “So Freddie knows where the worm monster is, right? So why aren’t we just chasing it down to where we know it is going to go? Row said before that even worms have to come up for air from time to time.” On the one hand that had been surprising, I had just assumed that worms didn’t need to breathe or something.

She leaned back against a tree as she summoned another creature in a glowing light with lots of glittering sparkles. The light show somehow fit her. “We could, but that would be a lot of work and they could easily just run away. While other creatures can keep growing and live nearly forever if they don’t have bad luck, monsters always tend to either self destruct or find their niche and become king. You can hunt down one that has become comfortable or chase them forever, which seems to be what you want to do, but nobody has time for that! Short of getting lucky the best way is to lure them out.” She gave me an eyebrow wiggle when she said the words ‘getting lucky’. Calm down lady; I’m four, not forty.

I gave her a look but decided to not make something of it. “I get that. But Row mentioned that they have certain areas that they go to regularly, so why not just find one there?”

She snorted as she sent out the creature, continuing her job as we spoke. I couldn’t tell if the latest one was a monster or a chimera just from the shape. It looked like an angry jellyfish floating in the air with an ominous red glow and two tenticles that looked far more vicious than the others. It joined the two puma/wolf looking monsters, those I knew were classified as monsters, that were making a ring around our hunting ground. “What? And fight them on their own ground? I’m not dumb enough to try it and you shouldn’t think of it either. Despite their power and aggression monsters can end up finding an uneasy peace with others of their type. The ones on top bleed the ones below them but are far more aggressive to those that might threaten their easy pay day. If we had more power then we might try it, but we are here to catch a giant mutated worm, not clear out a dungeon.” Wait, there were dungeons on this world? Why hadn’t anyone told me about it?!? So the most powerful monster would be the dungeon boss, would there be a dungeon core in there as well? What about floor bosses? Would there be a dungeon theme? Could someone become the dungeon administrator?

She continued as though she hadn’t heard a word of my internal monologue, probably because it was all internal except for what showed on my face. “No, the best way to catch a specific monster, if you aren’t just insanely lucky, is to take advantage of the habits that make it a monster. Go to the kind of places where they hunt or follow its prey. Or, in our case, dangle a lure in the open to draw it out.” She pointed over toward Freddie who was still working on that box of his. “That is a lure, it puts out a signal like we are weak but mana rich. The better ones make it seem like the lure is injured or can be set to seem like something else that the target wants. That’s one reason why monsters attack humans so much, we are literal fountains of mana but not all of us are offensively powerful. I hear that in the old days hunters would bring kids with them because it would work like a natural lure. What do you think of that?” She gave me a smile and a nudge.

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help smiling back. “It sounds like the monster wouldn’t be expecting me to fight back. That might make it a bit easier to take down.”

She openly laughed at my response. “Only you,” she mused before bringing herself back to the previous topic. “But seriously. Be careful. The monster may be focusing on you personally.” Her voice lowered conspiratorially, “and I don’t just mean the mutated earthworm.” She looked pointedly toward Freddie then back to make sure I had seen.

I considered what she was insinuating. Freddie had shown up unexpected and uninvited but had managed to get Row to give him a chance anyway. He had tried to talk with me privately several times during our journey but Row had always put a stop to it, and it had happened enough times that my teacher seemed even more cautious of the newcomer. The man hadn’t actually done anything obviously bad since I met him, other than lying and manipulating to get into the group, but anyone who made the other adults this nervous was someone for me to watch out for. And, while I didn’t completely count him out because of his name, or the fact that he used actual honest-to-god claws as his weapon, or that he looked like a supervillain mastermind, or the fact that his name seemed fake; those things did still weigh on my mind. If this were a story than something would have to happen before we got back. But, since I was still small enough for Row carry with him as he teleported back, it would have to happen before we cleaned up from this fight. In fact, it would probably happen near the climax of the battle because that would be even more exciting.

Yeah, I probably shouldn’t pretend that I didn’t see this coming from the moment that I blurted out about him being an evil genius. You know, assuming that anything does actually happen. But really, what are the chances of that? It’s not like some random person who showed up that hasn’t been vetted is just randomly going to act like a monster just because we are talking about monsters and he is a little bit suspicious. Nope! Feel my burning sarcasm! Because something like that would be too completely random and unexpected for anyone to rightly expect!

I sighed and decided to accept the inevitable. “Mayhu, if anything happens during the fight can you let my parents know that I’m all right and that I’ll be back as soon as I finish pissing off an asshole. If he gets angry than he won't be a 'Mastermind' anymore and all his plans will fall apart.”

Her train of thought visibly derailed as it collided with the station where it was supposed to be offloading passengers, setting fire to the unburnt coal and her baggage. “Er, uh… what? Or, I mean, is that really the type of language that a young child should be using?”

I gave her a look. I really didn’t like being treated like a child. Yes, even though I recognize that I technically am one.

“Well, adults too. Even adults shouldn’t use bad words unless it is really important.” She tried backpedaling.

I rolled my eyes and decided to bring us back to topic. “Look, we were talking about monsters. And what makes a monster different than a normal animal? They are willing to corrupt the very nature of what they are in order to get what they want. They get what they want through destruction and perversion rather than hard work and talent. And then we start talking about that guy,” I waved a hand in Freddie’s direction. “So when he eventually follows through on his inevitable betrayal I want my parents to know that I’m ok and that I already know how to ruin his plans. Ok?”

Her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. It took her a couple seconds of silence before she answered. “Look, I know I said some bad things about Freddie, but he really isn’t all that bad. He may have gotten into the group through questionable methods but he hasn’t really done anything bad since then. Maybe you should try to give him a chance.” I sighed. Good to know that all her jabs at him were nothing more than her being petty. She took my eye roll as an answer and continued. “Look, nothing is going to happen. We all know our jobs and are pretty good at doing them. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.” She smiled encouragingly.

I refrained from rolling my eyes again. Could someone make themselves dizzy if they did that too often? I gave her a disbelieving stare. “Still, if anything does happen, can you pass the info on to my parents? They have a tendency to worry. Especially my Mom. I don’t want her to rush out here trying to track me down and yell at me.”

She dropped her smile and looked at me more pensively. “If you are so sure that something is going to happen than why go through with it at all? Why not just call the whole thing off and avoid the entire headache?”

I shrugged, trying to figure out how to say that I needed to see the drama play out. It might not make sense, because I seemingly know how this type of storyline will end and what type of pitfalls I need to avoid, but I needed to experience it all for myself. Perhaps it was that I needed to see for myself that I wasn’t going crazy and that things were really progressing as they seemed. Perhaps it was that I believed that avoiding the problem right now would turn it into a long and drawn out affair. Some dark part of me even wondered if I didn’t let it play out due to my desire for excitement or simply novelty. All of this was true and more, at least to some degree, as well as things that I had no words to express.

My facial expression as I struggled to put my thoughts into words gave her enough pause for me to find something to say. “For me the ‘monster’ I’m hunting is the firsthand experience of knowing if my worries are real. I know you think I’m making too much out of nothing, and maybe you are right, but I have to see it through. I have to see if these nagging feeling are right. And, who knows, maybe you are right and nothing is going to happen.”

She took a moment to process what I said before a wide grin pulled itself across her face. “Damn, for a moment there you almost had me convinced that something was going to happen! To be able to figure out stuff like that, it might make you a bigger monster than that thing we are hunting.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to be anything like that, I just want to see how far I can go and maybe do something more with my life.”

She gave a frown. “The word ‘monster’ is too indistinct. We use it for anything that is more powerful than it seems like it should be possible, but that is only in my language… and probably yours,” She conceded. “A better word to use from another language is ‘corrupted’.” She spoke a word that seemed to twist uncomfortably from her mouth. “In truth not all ‘corrupted’ are ‘monsters’. In fact most of those that go corrupted, beast or otherwise, fail to make anything of themselves. We call all the corrupted monsters, though, because only the monsters have any real impact. We think the small ones are immature monsters that would become real threats in time, but many of them, in trying to go beyond their limit of growth, have put a limit on their growth.”

I nodded. “Like those bunnies I was watching before. They were more powerful than most rabbit monsters but it took a lot longer to get like that!”

“Exactly.” She nodded with a big smile. Then she frowned. “I guess the other reason we call them ‘monsters’ has to do with the worst way that the word is used.” All mirth drained from her as she spoke and a seriousness that I could never have expected from Mayhu settled over her like a cloud. “Monsters are cruel and untrustworthy and horrible to everyone and everything around them. Depending on how corrupted they are, in what way and to what degree, it can get really bad.”

So wait, cruelty was because of some sort of corruption? That didn’t make sense. “What about regular animals than? Animals can do really cruel stuff even if they aren’t corrupted.” I worked to try to say that strange word but it didn’t come out perfectly. Fortunately she seemed to get my meaning.

“What is the difference between a wolf and a dog?” she answered quietly as though it were some profound thought. “Perhaps everyone and everything is a little bit off, even we don’t go full on corrupted. Just remember, all ‘corrupted’ are ‘monsters’; and not in the way that ‘monster’ can mean ‘powerful’. This is a fact of life, no matter how good they are at hiding it.”

I thought about it for a moment. There was a mythological creature that I knew of that was said to be a messenger of the gods but had twisted, and you could say corrupted, itself into darkness and destruction and cruelty. At least, they were believed to be cruel according to the original source materials; some stories had tried to give them a ‘bad boy with a heart of gold’ or ‘bad boy who likes to have fun’ sort of air. “So, like Demons?” I asked.

Mayhu suddenly went stiff, then began laughing away what I had said. “No, no. It is nothing you have to worry about.” She answered, then quickly changed the subject. “I still say you are making too big a deal out of this. You are a kid! Do kid stuff! No need to get all serious on me!” She poked me in the side, finding a ticklish spot that ruined my entire composure and left me struggling not to laugh. “And smile! Just like that! I promise that nothing bad is going to happen. Ok?”

I scowled at her in an attempt to keep from laughing but before I could say anything else Row starting yelling for us all to group up. I immediately forgot about getting on to her for treating me like a kid because we headed over toward Row to get ready for the main event. The two others were standing over the eight inch square box as Freddie messed with the internals through the open lid. I couldn’t see what he was doing and there wasn’t really enough room to poke my head any farther in without getting in his way, so I decided to ask about it. “So why the giant box? Aren’t lures usually a lot smaller than that?”

Freddie was the one to answer me. “Generally, but I don’t really want to be eaten by the target. I will give the lure enough power of the right type of mana to draw the attention of the closest giant worm, but when it comes up it will try to eat what it senses and I don’t want that to be me. The box is thick enough to survive digestion while still transmitting. In this way the monster will still think there is easy prey around and try to find it rather than running off. You just focus on doing enough damage to it that it can’t get away and Row there will claim it once you have gotten it worn down.”

He activated the box, using some sort of magic that I couldn’t make out, and quickly stepped away. Immediately there was a mutated howl from what sounded like a hell beast. It sounded like the one noise warbled and split as it sang out.

“Some sort of wolf monster.” Row informed me. “They like to make their prey run so that the other scavengers will be left behind and so that their target will be fatigued.” I shivered at the thought.

It was a few moments before the foliage well beyond our clearing broke and an earth elemental came tumbling forward. It was far larger than the one I had fought and shaped like a boulder with tiny arms and legs poking out haphazardly. Mayhu had one of her beasts fire a blast of acid in its direction, wounding it and bringing it to a halt. Before It could set out again three more creatures piled upon it. One was a chimera with the ‘uncanny valley’ proportions of a giant bird and the others were monsters; what had once been a squirrel and an even larger bug.

I quickly lost sight of the first battle as several more erupted immediately. After the first wave there seemed to be a bit of an equilibrium that established itself: Only the incredibly dumb or desperate would throw themselves against Mayhu’s army and the others would content themselves with waiting to pick off whatever was left after those confrontation. A few tried to sneak around and a few others were torn apart randomly for no apparent reason, but things calmed down considerably. The Chimera backed off substantially and so the crowd was made up of mostly earth elementals and the deformed sight of monstrous wildlife. Of those that pushed forward the elementals seemed to do it out of stupidity. The monsters who ran forward, if the look of despair and emptiness I saw in their eyes held true, were borne forward by desperation.

Suddenly there was a silence that came over the horde. Then I felt the rumbling beneath my feet. A number of the scavengers took this as their que to run off. I glanced over toward Row, standing near the center of the clearing, just in time to see the ground sucked down in front of him and a pulsating tube of flesh pull out of the hole. The creature was as big around as a vehicle, with its head standing two stories above the ground, and the lure was gone. It shrieked and made to dive down underground but was knocked to the side by a punch from Row that sent the forward section careening off to the side. The earthworm had no eyes or other discernable characteristics other than a mouth, but it still somehow seemed to stare Row down. There was another rumbling and a tail emerged, several times longer than the forward section, and it crashed to the ground where Row had been standing moments before he dodged.

The creature was intimidatingly large and left huge gashes within the earth from each failed attack, but seemed less and less threatening as I watched the fight play out. It could bite and take out huge sections of the ground with its mouth, it could bash with its tail, and it threw up dirt and rocks around its body whenever it moved; but beyond that it was defenseless. Furthermore the first two attacks couldn’t strike next to the body and, while the place where the tail emerged had a lot of damage surrounding it, the place where the front end came up was generally very still. I would have imagined that Row could have parked himself right next to the creature without worry if he weren’t focused on keeping its attention and deflecting its attempts to disappear underground. Just because he couldn’t use it didn’t mean that I was under the same restrictions.

Timing my approach till both the head and tail were busy was the hardest part of my plan, but suddenly the time was right and I rushed forward with my borrowed spear. Apparently if I brought my own spear it would be limited by my stats, but even without that artificial limitation the weight of it slowed me down greatly. Throwing myself forward and heaving the weapon with all of my weight I sent it slamming into the center of a segmented section of the worm’s hide. There were no sparks or a rain of blood, there was barely even an indentation made in the creature’s flesh. I stumbled over my uselessly reckless charge that had done nothing and swore at myself to do better and to be less impatient.

From there the battle became much more pedestrian, almost boring. The worm generally ignored me but I did have to watch out for a stray tail or the debris thrown up by the body’s movement. Meanwhile I worked to find a way to pierce its flesh. Hitting the center of the bulk was worthless, even with all the strength I could muster through completely unbalancing myself, but so was attacking in the center of the joints. I got hit a few times by debris, and Row sent one of his healing orbs to clean me up, but by now the area around it was mostly clear of debris other than a few rocks that were too large to be easily thrown up and some sediment holding them in place.

At this point I had tried almost everything I could think of. Attack the joints, attack the joints when bent open and extended, slide in between the joints before the sections close around my spear, try to beat on one of the solid sections to weaken it for an opening; nothing worked. My best attempts to pierce the creature were left with me being brushed aside like a complete lightweight. At one point I was even knocked over into the indentation at the base of where the creature emerged from the ground and was only saved from being crushed by the spear I carried; it was far tougher than I was and left enough room behind it to hide when wedged sideways. After that close call I quickly climbed from the ditch.

That, of course, gave me an idea. I couldn’t push through the flesh and I couldn’t even hold against the thing attacking me. But, if I could brace my weapon against the ground, I could stabilize the weapon enough that it could shove the spear in by its own strength. Holding back cautiously, I waited just outside the hole until an opportunity presented itself. I needed to have enough time to jump in the hole, set the spear so it wouldn’t just be shoved into the dirt, and hold it pointed so that the worm would shove the point in if it leaned in my direction. Hopefully I could even aim at the one of the intersections between segments for some extra penetration.

My chance came when the head swung forward, causing Row to back off and then the head stabbed forward in an attempt to catch him off guard. I immediately jumped forward, moving as fast as I could go, disappearing into a hole as Row called out toward me. I ignored his cry and set my spear against a rock I had already spied out and waited. My plan worked like a charm and the creature lifting itself to its full height forced my weapon deep into its flesh.

Two problems quickly became evident. I now no longer had a weapon, though that was mostly expected due to the fact that if I couldn’t stab inward I didn’t expect to be able to pull my spear back out. Also the worm took great offense at being shanked in the back by something that it had previously ignored. It twisted and thrashed and only the fact that the spear inched inward every time the body moved in my direction saved me from being crushed. Apparently it didn’t want to stab itself. I almost made it out of the trench before it threw off all caution to crush its body in my direction. On the up side I made it out with three out of four limbs intact and a crushed leg hurt way less than I expected it to. On the down side running with one leg would be a problem.

Fortunately Freddie showed up at that moment to help, pulling me up into his arms and rushing away from the worm’s retaliations. Surprisingly he didn’t stab me with his claw hands.

“What the hell do you think you were doing?” he asked somewhat angrily.

I gasped for breath and my adrenaline calmed, bringing out a half crazed laugh from my lips. My leg suddenly hurt. I hadn’t ever felt pain so sharply and overwhelmingly potent before. But I still laughed at tears fell from my eyes. “I did it. I got the thing. I stabbed it straight through its thick skin.” Why hadn’t I felt this pain earlier? And why was I still laughing like a crazy person with tear clouded vision?

Freddie got a calculating look in his eye as he looked at me. “No way…”

Suddenly the worm let out a pained screech and crashed to the ground. I wiped my tears away to see the creature lying helpless on the ground before Row. Somewhere in the back of my mind I also noticed that the scavengers had made a renewed push to swarm the fallen creature. Row knelt down beside the fallen monster and placed the palm of a single hand onto the worm in a solemn moment of silence in the midst of screams of those being kept at bay. Then he began to claim the monster in almost the exact same way that I had claimed my clothes or how Mother had instructed me to claim some bit of ownership over our house. The monster let out a plaintive noise but did not otherwise move.

It was surreal to watch.

“It’s done.” Row said, sending out some healing toward the monster with one hand as he reached down to pick up crystals from the ground. “First we need to…”

His words cut off as the ground began to shake, much like when the worm had first appeared, but this time the shaking only got worse and worse. He tried to say something else but the words were lost in the noise as a second and a third monstrous worm shot out of the ground. One of them aimed themselves for the area near Row and he had to dive out of the way. The second smaller one, thankfully, went after some of the scavengers nearing the outside of the clearing.

“Back! Retreat! Get to the fallback!” Row yelled as he dodged around the second monster, and this time I heard him. Before I could think Freddie had me under his arm, my facing backwards, and was firing something from his palm as he tried to get away. I caught a glimpse of Mayhu, a look of panic on her face as she raced in our direction from the opposite side of the clearing. But that none of that brought me to a panic like one simple realization; The tremors on the ground hadn’t stopped. More of them were coming.

On another note my panic laden brain no longer focus on my half a mangled leg. Instead it focused on the two more that popped out of the ground just as our target worm fled the scene, a suspicious spear still hanging out of its side. The new monsters were focusing on the ground around where Row’s battle had taken place and the three of them had slammed into him several times; the strikes seeming to be no more than an incidental hazard rather than intentional aggression. I saw Row heal himself thrice that I could be sure of, but it was hard to see clearly as he was forced to back away in the opposite direction. For him it was that or force himself further into the feeding frenzy. The majority of my attention was spent attempting to watch his desperate fight.

Even so, I kept getting glances of Mayhu as she continued trying to move toward us around the central melee, but she seemed to be having trouble keeping to her feet despite being wholly ignored by everyone. More worms had appeared, but keeping count had fled my mind as I watched my companions be overwhelmed. I watched as Mayhu was losing ground in her pursuit and as a look of rage replaced her earlier panic. She eventually caught my direct gaze as she finally moved to where she had a direct line of sight to me, a look of realization in her eyes and a falter in her step. Then, with nothing near her that I could see, she just dropped. One moment she was moving toward us, stumbling every third or fourth step, and then she wasn’t. Half a second later her body began dissolving into white light, much like what I had seen in that alleyway so long ago. Then, a few second later, she was just gone.

And there I was, carried under Freddie’s arm as he finished blasting his way through the stampeding crowd of scavengers, and we disappeared into the woods.

Great, so now I’ve been kidnapped. Well, at least I confirmed that the world follows weird story conventions and that my thoughts on that aspect of how odd this place is are entirely accurate. So… yay?