As I retreated back from the fighting, I circled Qi from my body. With my Dantian prototypically formed and my Qi aligned with the moon, I could begin to manifest techniques, the first and simplest of those an ability to enhance my senses: dark vision.

Qi circled up to my eyes, spinning around inside of them and dissipating into heat and light as it created the technique. I could see a soft, silver like glow tinged on the inside of the caves— my eyes were themselves emitting light, however small.

And with that I slipped away from the party and into the dark of the cavern, tracing the monstrous footprints in the cave’s floor.

Once the sounds of the fighting had grown distant and quiet, I stopped, stretching and limbering up.

I took my walk to a jog.

Then I took my jog to a sprint.

Qi circled inside me, enhancing every step as I pounded through the caves. The air was humid, pressing on my skin along with the wind I generated from running towards the source of the foot prints. The complex must have stretched for miles, but I didn’t even have to go half of one before I slowed back down.

Distantly, orange light shimmered inside the cave, moving and stretching with the crackle of fire. Two of the monsters stood outside of a hole in the wall that lead to the fire, gripping spears in hand.

They were half asleep. One was teetering on its feet, threatening to fall. I crept along the wall, moving quietly but fast, walking sideways, my blood pumping in my chest.

The beginners first kill. It would be this bodies first time, a christening of blood. I had killed slimes, but those were with a weapons. There was something more real, more intimate about using your own hands or a blade, the feeling of flesh cracking under fist and the sensation of sinew splitting at metal, the feeling of burying your hands in an enemy’s chest or grabbing around their head—

The monster turned towards me then, the little bit of noise I had made alerting it, or the light that I emitted, my eyes surely glowing in the shadow, and I leapt the rest of the distance without more than the noise of a soft landing.

Its scaly mouth started to open, and my left hand slammed it shut.

My right gripped it hard enough that its skin bent where my fingers touched its scaled flesh.

And I twisted.

There was a pop as its spine, still inside of its neck, separated from the force, and I dragged the body to the floor, feet away from the second Kobold, whose eyes were closed.

I shuddered as Qi flowed into me, much more than the amount split between a group. Was it based on contribution? Reduced by the amount of people nearby? I would have to test it.

I descended on the second, killing it before it even woke from its sleep. Two corpses fell to the ground, and I moved to step inside the cave full of fire, creeping in.

I immediately hit a tripwire across the ground, the room coming to life with the sound of clanging metal— one of the oldest tricks around— and then there were two enemies rushing me, scrambling to their feet from beside the fire, knives in hand.

With a simple motion, I disarmed the first, grabbed the horns of its head, and slammed it into the second. They stumbled and crashed to the ground, and I threw the knife, landing square in one eye. The last armed one dropped dead, and the one I had disarmed started to scream, an odd, squealing noise like a cross between a pig and a dog.

I stomped on its head, the feeling of flesh caving and bone bending greeting me, but it just screamed louder, scratching at my leg, and I stomped again. The screaming stopped.

Above the fire a leg roasted, still covered in denim. My eyes widened at that. Who was foolish enough to die to these things?

More approached me still, this one with a make shift spear of sharpened stone tied by torn scraps of cloth to the end of a wooden spear. I batted it aside, punching the monster in the throat. I had to lean down to hit the monsters— it was like killing a bunch of children.

It wasn’t something I did often.

More came, scrambling out of dark corners or messily constructed tents, sliding out of side chambers and rushing towards me.

The sixth fired a sling at me. It loosed two shots before I closed in on it, kicking the sling from its hand and stomping it until it stopped moving. The seventh searched for the sling, and quickly found it around its neck.

It jerked against the leather as I slid backwards into the center of the room, leaving myself an opening away from the Kobolds quickly working to surround me. When it stopped moving, I threw it into the eighth Kobold. The ninth attempted to interrupt me stomping the eighth, and I broke its legs with two quick kicks to its knees, and then threw it into the fire. The eighth died a second later.

By the time I killed the eleventh, the entire camp was on fire from the ninth attempting to crawl away. It died on top of the tents.

Kobolds fled the room as smoke suffocated it, fire burning the original doorway I entered through. I turned. The cave entrances deeper in the room led upwards, and the only other route was through the flame.

If this body was in the Third Realm, I would be able to wade through that flame with little more than damage to my clothes. As it was, though, I sprinted into the side cavern. Kobolds scrambled away, their legs insufficient to gain distance on me, and I stomped one into the wall as I made my way up.

I really needed a weapon.