Mathew

Starting his day by taking his pants off was something he'd planned but felt very awkward about doing. Other than his pants, he had shoes and the rags of a shirt from Earth. Maybe it was stupid but it held sentimental value. No need for him to take his flammable pants to fight laser slimes.

Still wearing nothing but his bone armor still left him feeling naked. Because he was, sure his package was sealed away where even the vents didn't allow a straight line of sight. Actually, that was it. That was what bothered him. Having all of himself enclosed in bone armor. Until now, he could pretend it wasn't full-body. Now it was on display with no questions. Nevertheless, logic prevailed.

With the care and ability his newly redesigned hands allowed him, Mathew folded up his clothes. Tucking the corners in tight without worry of his claws. Setting them down inside the tunnel that he was eating out of the mountain, he left them behind.

In the main room, Mathew found Amber gearing up. Leather pauldrons covered her bare shoulders, moccasins with laces tied up each leg. And she was adjusting the strap for a quiver of arrows. With arrowheads the size of a D-cell battery for her to carry any significant number of arrows meant the quiver was oversized. More like a full backpack.

"Can you even use that monster?" Mathew asked.

"Guns and condom logic," Amber answered.

"I feel like I should know this one.," Mathew said. "Care to fill me in?"

"Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it." Amber shrugged. "Guns and condom logic."

"That certainly explains sleeping with a Glock." Mathew laughed.

"Damn straight!" She smiled.

"Hey," Mathew turned serious. "If I go down, I want you to get out of there. Grant and Ben can sneak away to some degree they also have more health than you. So if I go down, you get out before you are left behind as bait."

Amber stared at him.

"I'm serious," Mathew said.

"If you fall, then your opinion no longer matters," Amber poked his armor with an arrow. "So you better not, okay?"

Mathew shook his head. Not that he expected anything different, but his words could keep weight off her shoulders if worst came to worst.

Hand on the door to the outside, Harper stopped him with a hug from behind. "Come back, Mathew. Bring them back with you."

"I will." try, Mathew responded.

Leaving the prison Mathew found Ben with a primitive wheelbarrow. Loaded to the brim with bloated guts, it wasn't the worst thing Mathew had seen since his transition but it was close.

"I bet that was fun." Mathew grinned.

"Ah, ha, ha ha. Very funny, you should quit your day job and become a comedian." Ben deadpanned.

Grant was also waiting outside. Equipped with a shiny shield and a gnarled club, he set an imposing figure. While Mathew may have the older man beat in durability, there was no doubt that he dwarfed him in every other stat.

"I presume Harper is not coming along then?" Grant asked.

"No combat skills. She'd be a liability," Mathew answered.

"Agreed. Ben, would you be so kind as to draw the cart while I speak with Mathew?" Grant matched pace with Mathew as they walked in a circuit around Night Stalker spire.

"I couldn't help but see that you are a Hybrid now and that affords you the ability to level faster." Grant was casual, Mathew knew that was how you could tell he was serious. "A great many of the writings from the Ruins speak of Hybrids. Only so far, they have been exceedingly rare. Of the few hundred Earthlings I've seen, only one was a hybrid."

"You don't say. What were they like?" Mathew asked.

"Regretfully, I wasn't afforded much of an opportunity to find out." Grant replied.

"On account of your being abrasive," Mathew said.

Grant chuckled. "Yes, exactly so."

"What's your real question then?" Mathew was never a fan of word games. Part of the reason he hated the high-class business life.

"What are the side effects like?" Grant asked. "The other hybrid I met wasn't doing well mentally, I suspect from the trauma of her transition. This left me unable to truly reconcile the many writings I've had access to with a life and blood example."

"The beast that makes up my Hybrid side is an ambush predator. If anything, the patience from its side has mellowed me out. I can have a short temper." Mathew found it strange he was enjoying talking to Grant. "Not violent, though. My anger has always been about cutting ties and standing up for myself... Now when I do get angry, it's violent."

"So you'd say it made you better then?" Grant nodded.

"I'm not sure to be honest. Having it be the cornerstone of my class makes it hard to separate where my being better comes from." Mathew hedged.

"Your class? Could you tell me more?" Grant clarified. "None of the writings mentioned a Hybrid class. In fact, many of their recordings spoke otherwise. Assuming, of course, that one can only have a single class."

Mathew read his notification out to Grant. He'd send over the notification itself but didn't know what could be done with that level of information. Maybe there was a way to extract more information from a shared notification and until Mathew knew one way or the other, he would play it safe.

"Thank you. You've given me much to think about. Before you go, you do know that you are the leader of the Hub?" Grant wore a grim smile. "If you didn't, I'm dreadfully sorry to burden you so. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but it's better if you step into the role rather than ignoring the reins. Good day."

Grant moved to aid Ben in drawing the wheelbarrow.

They walked in silence until they could all put eyes on the Ruins Territory. Glossy obsidian formed rolling hills out of which a scattering of truly alien plants grew. Roots breaking the slick finish of the volcanic rock into sharp shards, the plants came in two varieties. Dark as a light fruit tree leaf, they thrived in the heat and sun. The other type was almost entirely transparent. Like the glass slimes, only the organs on the inside were visible.

Mathew found plants with internal organs rather than just different plant parts were the unnatural icing on the fucked-up cake. Something about this land was just wrong.

"Ben, Grant you've scouted here before. What do you recommend?" Mathew surveyed the rolling hills. They were like dunes constantly closing in line of sight unless you stood, exposed, on the ridge.

"I say me and Grant scout forward flanks and make a beeline for the Ruins themselves." Ben pointed in a direction and Mathew did his best to lock that into his mind. Then Ben splayed out his fingers.

A map appeared displaying the Ruins Territory. Blips glowed in a cluster where they were and maybe five miles away was a collection of buildings inside of a high wall. As Ben had plotted the path, all the blips moved in a line to the destination.

"A fine option," Grant beamed. "I've taught you well. While I agree with the premise, I'd also like to point out that it would put us in the concentration of Monsters. As an alternative, we could arc around and use this water channel as a fallback."

Mathew thought about it, his accelerated mind drawing conclusions he knew he wouldn't have before. "But getting close to the border raises the chances of fighting the neighboring monsters. Risking a fall back into the flames." He wished there was more information on how difficult they would be to vanquish now that they were more prepared and leveled.

You know what, that's not a bad plan. Mathew thought.

"We engage them a few times and see how the fights go. If it's too much, we avoid the center at first. If we can handle it, we keep going." Mathew looked at each of them. "Sound good?"

With that, they continued. Two parts of Mathew fought each other. One that was happy to be the boss in charge of plans and the other was afraid of bringing others down with himself. It only took a few moments to silence the second fear. The situation was pretty straight forward and even with good leadership, people could die. So yeah, he'd enjoy being 'the man' for once in his life.

Moving from the grey stone of the Night Stalker spire, he crossed the visible boundary into the Ruins approach. Foot slipping down the polished stone, Mathew slid on his ass down the slope. Nothing of the process bothered him. Even the impact of his exoskull hardly registered. Sliding upside down up the other side of the slope, he waited for his momentum to stop.

Setting his foot against the obsidian, Mathew activated his sure foot award. There was an intelectus formed but it was a tiny, almost pleasant weight. Using his anchored foot, he stood up and looked back. Amber was snickering but the other two just caught up.

Taking steps, Mathew found the award intelectus responded eagerly. Each step was easy and even sliding his foot across the ground worked to deliver on his intentions. While he couldn't get this type of contact on dirt, this landscape made his movements feel solid.

Grant and Ben split off ahead of them. This left Mathew with the burden of the water balloon cart. After Amber landed on her ass twice, she grabbed ahold of Mathew's arm.

Pushing a cart up and down hills humbled Mathew's improved sense of self. Water is heavy. If it wasn't for his sure foot skill, he wouldn't be able to push it up the incline. Huh, how did Ben do it?

Now that he thought about it he didn't really know much about what Ben or Grant could actually do. He'd have to fix that.

At the top of a rise Amber bunched up her shirt and squeezed out sweat. Between her exposed midriff and the way her top clung to her when she let it go, Mathew had to tear his eyes away. Stars and stripes in a wet shirt contest were very much his thing.

"How are you doing this?" Amber glowered. "I'm sweating like a pig here."

Thinking about for a moment, Mathew responded extra casually. "Yeah, it is kinda warm."

She hit his arm and winced.

"It's my durability and having Ripper equipped. I can handle a pretty good deal of heat. At some point in time, I should test to find out how much but I sort of have other priorities." Mathew focused on the nearby ridges. Being in the open line of sight made him nervous for Amber. "Ready to keep going, soldier?"

"Aye aye, General." Amber saluted while putting her other hand on the wheelbarrow.

"That's the Navy." Mathew poked.

All she mustered in response was a grunt. He could see it though, a shift in being reminded this was a raid or even an extermination mission into enemy territory.

Lapsing into silence, they weaved up and down the hill for at least a quarter-hour before Ben returned. Materializing by their side as if he'd been there all along.

"Four headed our direction, one melee type and three ranged like before. I say we set up an ambush on the next ridge and hit them with water at the bottom. Amber can take some shots at whatever one gets furthest up the slope. Give the water time to work, then drop on them like a hammer." Ben punched his open hand.

"Grant?" Mathew called out.

"He's watched them in case they change course or do anything else unexpected." Ben provided.

"Okay, we do it your way but let me go first and draw as much attention as I can." Mathew's felt his heartbeat reverberating. If his hands weren't gripping handles they'd be shaking. Visions of lasers he couldn't fight cutting holes in holes in his body, were forcefully replaced with images of others taking the attacks instead.

"Let's go," Mathew growled and pushed the wooden wheeled mass to just below the end of the rise.

Amber set up against the wheelbarrows to keep from slipping. Ben grabbed two handfuls of guts and faded from view. Taking his own handfuls, Mathew ducked his pearl armor down out of sight.

The waiting triggered instincts within him. From his Carrion Beast side a craving for flesh to consume and power mixed with the endless patience of a grudge. Having better things to spend his willpower on than maintaining perfect mental shape, Mathew conserved himself.

Tinkling of glass on glass were his first indications, followed by the meeping he'd heard before. Mixed in this time was a tortured grinding yowl. Ears tuned to the tiniest details, Mathew's improved mind noted the undercurrent of breaking shale. How close are they?

"Now!" Ben barked.

Stepping head and shoulders over the edge, he started throwing before targeting. Adjusting, he threw both at the closest while scanning.

[Test 4-2X

A slime bonded to silicon glass into the bio-form of a Field Cat. Can coordinate psychically.

Improve skill to learn more]

Throwing his will into mental attack, Mathew worked to stifle any mental emanations. This time when the monster pinged out for support, he easily suppressed it. Between the improved stats, 25% bonus perk and knowing what he was doing, Mathew didn't even miss his Alpha phage aid.

Trying to keep time and grabbing a new set of guts, Mathew slung them into the pit. One overshot in his hurt and the other unrolled, spilling water down the slope.

Using this snapshot, Mathew saw the field cat had frost growing from its chest. Nevertheless, it was sprinting up the slope like the predator it was.

Diving over the hill and into the claws, fangs, and lasers of danger, Mathew managed to scan the ranged slimes.

[Test 4-2X

A slime bonded to silicon glass into the bio-form of an Eastern Grand Salamander. Can shoot high-powered lasers outside the visible light spectrum.

Increase skill level to learn more]

Channeling digestion magic through the channels from his mouth to his eyes, he protected himself from going blind. Though this severly reduced his vision. Digging further into his mental attack skill Mathew dug into the Glass Field Cats sense.

Watching a human bone monster with billowing black eyes attack at his perspective was as useful as it was disconcerting. Mathew just knew that he couldn't have coordinated this information before his two level-ups.

Mathew read the attack in the slimes mind, both blade arms dropping down to cleave him. He chose to ignore them. This entire expedition relied on his ability to draw fire, and if he couldn't plow through and press the backline, someone could die. This is my ground!

Blades of glass struck his shoulder and compacted him to the limit of his interlocked plates. Breaks spread from the exoskeleton of both shoulders, but they held. He held the line. He also had an opening.

Forgoing the bestial instinct to stab Ripper, Mathew swung his sword with both hands at the belly button height collection of anger issues. Carving through its leg at chest level, the Cat dropped against the slope and skid down the embankment. Breaking rock under its extraordinary weight.

Throwing himself forward, Mathew felt the lasers land against his shell. One to his thigh and another his chest, the warmth was drawn into his whole mass with every heartbeat.

The urge to scream a battle cry broke against his digestion magic still funneling out. Probably the better idea anyway. Sprinting down the slope his enhanced agility kept his feet under his full tilt rush. Full body tackling the Cat as it stood on three legs, Mathew felt its frozen chest shatter under the blow.

Mental attack stopped feeding him information in time for a force to slam into his legs and drive him to the ground despite the adherence of his feet.

Weight climbed on top of him and Mathew expelled digestion magic to better see what was occurring. A salamander was on him and trying to drive its sharp fingers into his body. Ripper was pinned under the bulk of the Cat, so he switched to another attack.

Ramping up conditional ambush, Mathew started predicting from his mind reading. While this never worked against a person in a real-time reactive fight, that wasn't his plan this time. Mathew leaned into trusting his armor and built up his prediction combos. Taking the abuse, his armor cracked and heated as bone regeneration repaired the damage. Still, he charged power.

When the salamander raised up to body slam him, his worry about withstanding the damage won out. Releasing his skill, Mathew overcharged the nearly effortless counterattack. Chained to his skill at every fiber of his being, he moved without regard for leverage, wielding power and speed far beyond what physics he understood would allow.

He slid out to the side. Lifted into the air. His body twisted. The fist slamming into the side of the salamander was greeted by the sound of catastrophic destruction. Where he struck shattered down through its tail, above Mathew's fist to its nose, the wet slime rippled and ruptured.

Dismissing his digestion magic, Mathew looked around, evaluating the remaining danger.