Time Since Reckless Self-Endangerment: 0 Days 17 Hours

Goal: Kill 'Baby Boots'

By the time he arrived at the poison grove the sun was well above the hills and Nic was well and truly late. He’d paused-

Well, he’d intended for it to be nothing but a short excursion. He wanted a fragment of shell from one of the giant turtles. Following his rough memory of where he’d encountered a dead one, he managed to find his way back, but the actual harvesting proved difficult.

Hacking, sawing, drilling, biting- all proved ineffective. It was only when he reinforced a tiger’s tooth from his pack with Hunter-Gatherer Petroglyphs that he could slowly scrape through and break away an oblong segment as long as his arm.

By the time he was done there was no choice but to run full-speed towards the grove.

The monkeys screeched as they saw him coming. In moments the trees were full of hooting and howling. “Yeah yeah, I know!”

A guide scrambled down from the trees at the edge of the grove’s toxic influence, waving for him to follow. They left the river and took a course around the grove, finding the stream again on the far side where it rose up into a series of short rocky waterfalls, full of splashing water and heavy croaking toads.

Numerous caverns entrances split the rock, leading downwards from the small pools that grew at the top of each waterfall.

Dozens of insect-faced apes were arranged in a warband with the weapons he’d made for them. It was a true war camp. There was drinking from pouches of crudely fermented, rotting fruits, and gambling as they made a pair of carrion lickers fight at the center of their circle.

All the favorite hobbies of an army.

At the back was the Thief, watching over all this with his wrinkled, dark eyes.

They stared each other down. Nic waved. The monkey bent back his lip and smiled. The inevitable betrayal hung in the air between them.

“Does walking into this count as suicidally reckless?” Nic asked the air. For some reason he’d decided that Sofia lived on his right shoulder, and looked that way when he spoke to her.

“I feel as if you should know the answer by now, but I’m willing to let this one pass. You’ve done enough to prepare for the risk that I won’t hold you back. Every cultivator has to wager their life sometime.”

“Alright.” Turning back to the Thief he pointed towards the cavern entrance. The gibbon nodded and screeched to its men, and altogether, mustering up into a crude force, they began to pour down the cavern entrance.

There was no chance for stealth or deceit with these numbers. Nic was caught in the tide of bodies and pushed along, but he managed to sneak a glance backwards at the tunnel. About eight of the monkeys had broken off to slide their way into the trees overhead.

So they would ambush him there, he was guessing. Once the battle was done and tearing out his Shards was more valuable than keeping him around.

The caverns were damp and dark, the walls grooved with twisting patterns like they’d been formed by the tracks of a million snails. With every step they took the monkeys grew less organized. They arrived at the creature’s den in an unruly mob that spread out, striking their blades against the earth and screaming with bloodlust.

“Are they…”

“Intoxicated? Yes. They’ve likely been using small doses of the poison spores as a battle drug.”

At the far edges of the cavern there was a small lake of still, dark water. It shifted from below and the beast emerged.

A white horse with emerald-snakes for a mane whinnied and stamped its hooves as it came up front he waters, a constellation of Shards visible along its sides. The serpents in its hair hissed and spat out thin jets of venom as the beast began to stalk forward.

Venom-Mane Kelpie. F-Class (Peak) // Sapient. First born from the blood of a drowned god, kelpies are a mysterious breed given to mystical powers and transformations. This degenerate offspring interbred with hydras and snakes, giving them crude offensive power in exchange for losing much of their spiritual ancestry.

One of the monkeys reared back and flung a stone.

The horse exploded into motion. It shot forward like a wave, and dozens of ghostly echoes formed out foaming water appeared to either side of the charging beast. The crowd scattered in all directions and Nic ran for cover, barely escaping as the ghost-horses smashed into the wall in a pulverizing wave of dark waters.

Not all the monkeys were so lucky. Several broken bodies lay in the receding waters.

With a furious howl one of the warband leaped forward, axe lifted, ready to strike.

The horse snorted and turned. One of its serpentine heads unhinged its jaw and spat a pressurized jet of water. The razor-sharp spray cut through the monkey’s arm and neck, sending a decapitated body tumbling to the ground.

Nic had to move. There was no choice now, not unless he wanted to lose all his allies in the first moments of the fight. The fact that letting their numbers thin would advantage him in the long run only mattered if they won the battle and got to see the long run.

Thrusting the spear forward he conjured a spike of stone. The horse twisted aside and reared up to evade, but Nic unslung a spore-lob from his pack and flung it across the ground. The bamboo canister rebounded off the floor and bounced upwards to burst in a spray of yellow spores and wooden shrapnels.

The beast slammed its hoof down and a waterspout burst up, washing away the worst of the poison pollens.

Nic grimaced and struck again, flicking his spear through the air to conjure two more spikes as he advanced. The monkeys were spreading out, stones bouncing off the creature’s flanks and head as they hurled whatever they could grab.

Which left Nic to face down the beast head on.

As his stone spears rose from the earth the kelpie’s mane of snakes counterattacked, smashing them apart with jets of water. As he prepared to strike again they twisted, sending two long sprays cutting across the earth towards Nic.

Leading with his spear he rushed headlong into their path, modifying the trick he’d used to kill the Wintertusk. As his spear stabbed at the air a spike formed from the wall in front of Nic, serving as a step for him to kick off of and vault over the waterspouts. His feet clad in adhesive aura, he ran higher along the wall and leapt down, vaulting downwards to swipe his spear down in a brutal arc.

It cleaved a pair of serpents from the beast’s head and ripped down across the neck in a splatter of ruby blood.

The kelpie reared up. Foaming water blades shot from its mouths and stabbed down at Nic as he darted and ducked to evade them. His spear flicked out again to stab into the beast’s side and draw blood. It slammed its hooves down and a wave of water swept him off his feet.

He collided with the wall in a brutal, dizzying impact and rolled feebly, trying to keep in motion. As he came back to his feet he saw the monkey horde had finally stepped in.

Five of their warriors were hacking and striking at the beast from all angles. They used their numbers to disorient, two darting forward while the others retreated back. The moment the beast turned its attention they swapped positions, the attacker it tried to focus on darting back while one of the three hanging back shot forward to make a shallow cut across the horse’s legs.

The only problem was- they were slower than the kelpie’s writhing serpent hair. One by one, they were being cut down. From five to four. Four to three. Blades of water turned red as they slashed into flesh.

Nic’s spear was almost exhausted of its powers. There was maybe one good earthen strike left in the runes, and he had to save it for an evasion rather than spend it trying to chip away at the beast. Its hide was already stained red as small cuts and gashes joined the spear-strike he’d managed to sink into its ribs, and unlike the boar, stamina wasn’t its overpowering strength.

Those wounds would bring it down if Nic could just stay in the fight.

He spat onto his spear, combining adhesive aura and poison mist into a glob of black venom. Advancing, he slashed through the air and drove the kelpie back.

It eyed his spear with clear fear in its gaze. For the first time Nic hesitated.

So far he’d only killed invaders who would return to their home world, or fought in defense. Something else started a fight with him, and Nic was the one who finished it. Simple. Clean. Close to moral.

He'd already made one uneasy exception today to kill the boar and save Shane.

But this? This was an assault on the kelpie’s home.

Nic wavered for a moment. A monkey launched itself towards the kelpie’s back, intending to try the same trick Nic had used against the boar. Instead it caught a water-blade as the serpent hair twisted and spat. The too-brave warrior’s head toppled across the floor, followed by its body.

Nic’s grip on the spear tightened. He was losing with every moment he hesitated. He could win this fight now…

And deal with the moral fallout later.

He plunged forward and immediately the horse retreated, slashing low with an arc of water meant to hold him back. It was a dance. One step forward, one in retreat, then two more forward when the kelpie’s ability to hold him back faltered. His spearpoint jabbed out once, twice, failing to meet the beast’s hide both times.

Stones and sling-pellets whipped against its hide, making the beast falter and cry out. He had it caged in now. The end was near.

The kelpie knew it too.

As a monkey warrior crept forward and whipped his axe into her hindlegs, she stumbled. Instantly, Nic reacted and threw his spear forward, summoning an earth spike not to attack but to block her retreat. The poison speartip spun through the air towards her flank.

Water burst from the earth and surrounded the horse. It swirled over her pale fur like armor, drawing away streamers of red blood from her countless wounds. Her eyes glared at Nic with the fury of the nearly-dead.

He had no weapon.

She cried out and the water surged from her into a phantasmal horse of foam and fury that smashed Nic across the ground and dragged him over the hard earth. He tumbled and rolled, almost drinking in water before his instincts kicked in and his gills opened.

The water-ghost slammed him hard into the cavern wall. All the consciousness left his body for a split second as his head knocked against stone. He slumped down and, even then, began to climb to his feet on instinct. Half-unconscious. Eyes blinking and seeing nothing but fading white lights.

As he shook it off and stumbled forward he saw the monkey horde finally seizing their chance. They’d been waiting for the kelpie to exhaust herself by using the water phantasms again- which clearly came at a deep cost as she’d only employed them once before.

With her best defense against the horde gone they closed in. Axes swept down, spears shot forward like asps. It was a hideous sight. Like watching ants devour a caterpillar whole.

And at the very moment before they brought her down, the horse wrapped herself in emerald light. When it faded she was human. A dark-haired, tan-skinned woman, middle-aged but strongly built. Her Shards worn in a slave tattoo that traveled from the top of her brow down to her chin.

Her lips were drawn back in a snarl of hatred. “Animals!” She cried out, whimpering as the monkeys ripped her legs out from under her. She sprawled down to all fours. “You’ve become- animals!”

Nic froze. Just for a moment.

But what he didn’t see was a disembodied hand emerging from the floor to grab his fallen spear. It pulled back down with the weapon in hand, traveling through the stone like there was an invisible doorway there.

And in the next moment the spear shot up from beneath the woman and punctured her throat.

Nic flinched at the sound of her dying gasp, a kind of weak, sharp gurgle that carried more clearly than any scream. He turned in time to see the old gibbon drawing its weapon out of the ground. Blood soaked the tip of the stolen spear. In its other hand it held a bell made of transparent pink crystal.

Instantly, the monkeys turned from one enemy to the next. They encircled Nic and began to beat their chests, hooting and howling. They hadn’t hesitated for a moment to kill her.

And they wouldn’t hesitate to put him on the menu next. That was the world he lived in. Had always lived in.

But he'd forgotten for a second.

The gibbon flipped up his lip and smiled.