The fifth floor’s sun was directly above their heads when Gwyneth spotted a Hyene scout. The hills around them had mostly flattened out, and an almost endless expanse of shoulder-high grass surrounded the trio. Ahead they saw nothing but green and yellow plains, dotted with wide-canopied trees. Victoria slowed and pulled out her map. According to the notes, the hyena warrior patrolled the region since it acted as a border between the two territories.

The party accepted straight away that stealth was not an option. There were new trees for them to hind behind, and the light breeze had changed direction half-a-dozen times during their walk. Since the Hyenes had senses of smell and hearing much better than a human’s, they had the advantage in the tall grass. Gwyneth had discovered that her eyesight sharpened with her spirit’s luminosity. So, she summoned the lamp and left it at its average brightness.

Victoria had a new trick too. She pressed her vine-wrapped arm to the ground, and four green snakes broke off from it before scattering in every direction. “If anyone gets within ten feet of us, they will get their ankles tangled, and I’ll know.” Bunty would’ve preferred a more active defence, but it was the best they had. If he weren’t trying to keep his distance from Victoria, he would’ve asked about her spirit’s spells and summons. Once upon a time, he had dreamt of getting a vine spirit and suspected it had the potential for trap-work.

When Gwyneth sighted movement, Bunty thought it best to summon the gauntlet. He hadn’t used it in battle yet and looked forward to the opportunity. Victoria’s eyes widened as the summon formed around his left hand and merged with his coat’s padded sleeves. The combination was a surprise to Bunty as well. The gauntlet’s segmented plates replaced the gelatinous texture.

The trio spotted a large tree ahead and made a beeline towards it, hoping Gwyneth would be able to spot whoever was stalking them. Victoria suspected it was a deer that had run past them, but Bunty didn’t want to take any risks. He worried that the DeLawney escort had made her complacent. Besides, the grass around them was much too quiet.

The Hyenes were close, Bunty could feel it in his bones. Perhaps it was the Core upgrade. Gaia hadn’t warned Gwyneth about her enhanced eyesight. Bunty hoped she’d done something similar to him besides the increased brainpower. There was no literature to back it up, but Bunty was sure that the Slime Lord had a sixth sense. It had detected Gwyneth’s location despite having no sense of sight or hearing. All it had was touch and taste. Maybe, the Slimeskin coat and gauntlet were using a combination of the two to make him aware of hostiles.

Once at the tree, Bunty extended a tentacle up into the branches. It provided Gwyneth and Victoria with an easy climbing method. As soon as they were in the safety of the branches, he retracted the inky appendage. After a whispered argument, he declared that he’d stay on the ground. Unlike the other two, Bunty’s spirit didn’t give him any long-ranged abilities, but he had enough mobility to retreat at a moment’s notice.

The first attack came after Gwyneth and Victoria had settled in their perch. A javelin came flying out of the tall grass and bounced off the floating lamp. Moments later howls and cackling sounded from all around them.

“I see them, Bunty!” Gwyneth exclaimed. “There’s at least a dozen of them all around.”

Victoria went on the offensive straight away. A long green bolt grew out of her vine-covered arm, and she drew it like it were an average arrow. Then the Core below her bow’s grip lit up with red and golden light. A similar glow enveloped her projectile before she fired it. A canine yelp sounded from within the grass, followed by more cackling. Bunty had read about hyenas before and recounts of how their calls sounded like people laughing gave him nightmares. The Hyenes were likely to do the same.

The summoned coat and gauntlet together used half of the spirit’s inkwell. Since he still had plenty of ink to spare, Bunty ran around the tree hacking the grass with his axe. Then he splashed the black fluid all over the trunk. “Stick,” he whispered under his breath and was relieved to see his experiment succeed. If any Hyenes got past him, they’d struggle to climb the tree now. Bunty turned around just in time to see two warriors emerge into the rough clearing.

Climbers rarely ventured far from the hub like they had. As a result, there weren’t many records of the humanoid canines. The two Bunty had encountered in passing called them ugly and terrifying. Neither of the recounts did justice to what he saw before him. The humanoid canines came up to his chest but stood with hunched postures. If not for their humps and angular necks, they’d be taller than him. The creature’s faces were just as ugly as the drawings but made more intimidating by the countless scars that covered them.

Unlike the tribal societies Bunty has encountered so far, the Hyenes wore armour. It was little more than hardened leather, but it suggested that they had the skills to perfectly skin a beast and then treat the hide. Fortunately, stone-tipped their weapons. Once they figured out metallurgy, the Hyenes would blossom into a significant threat.

When neither warrior approached him, Bunty decided to strike first. He swung his gauntleted hand while releasing a Slimeskin tentacle and managed to send it whipping out towards the beast to his left. He doubted it would successfully wrap around his target due to the range, so Bunty instructed the appendage to stick. The Hyene yelped, surprised by the sudden attack. Bunty ran around the trunk, putting the trunk between them and dug his heel into the earth. Then he called the tentacles ink back into the inkwell.

The Hyene proved heavier than Bunty assumed. They were pulled towards one another. The warrior slammed against the tree trunk, but Bunty managed to press a boot against it and arrest his momentum. Its friend charged in after it, but Bunty reached the fallen Hyene first. He swung his axe down onto its bleeding face and then used his gauntleted hand to block the second warrior’s spear thrust.

“There’s more coming from behind us, Bunty!” Gwyneth exclaimed. Moments later a blue wisp floated down to his axe blade, charging it.

“I’ve got this,” Victoria said. “You concentrate on the one’s that get too close.”

Bunty didn’t have time to respond. “Relax,” he whispered, softening the gauntlet’s curved guard. Instead of blocking the following thrust, the spear attack passed through the gelatinous section before grazing the segments protecting his forearm. “Stiffen.” The curved guard hardened around the spear’s shaft just below the head. When the Hyene tried to retrieve its weapon, the splintered wood snapped.

The warrior tried to scramble back into the tall grass’s cover but tripped over its own feet. Instead, of chasing the humanoid canine, Bunty lashed it with a tentacle and pulled it to the tree trunk. Then a two-handed swing to the neck finished the job. The Hyenes had too big an advantage outside of his circle. He knew better than to fight them there.

Bunty jumped when lightning crackled above his head. Gwyneth hadn’t used her attack spell since facing the slime. “Do you see the big guy?” Bunty asked, putting his back to the tree trunk. He couldn’t see anything past the waving walls of green, but the periodic yelps suggested Victoria was making short work of the ambushers.

“I see her,” Gwyneth said. “She’s almost twice the size of the rest.”

Then Bunty remembered. Hyenas lived in a matriarchal society. The Hyenes probably followed a similar system. He was sure the specimens he had just put down were male and most likely weaklings sent for testing the waters. The true warriors were yet to come, and they’d be bigger and stronger.

“Get ready, Bunty!” Victoria exclaimed. “She’s too fast for me to hit.”

“I just missed her too,” Gwyneth said, sending another wisp to refresh the charge on his axe. “Try to disable her, Bunty. Then I’ll hit her directly.”

The longer Bunty waited for the monster, the more horrifying she got in his mind’s eye. He couldn’t decide on a defensive stance and was sure the same tentacle techniques wouldn’t work on the Hyene. The previous specimens were more or less his weight. Positioning and quick thinking had helped him come out on top. If Bunty tried lashing something much heavier than him, he’d be at a disadvantage.

Deep breathing helped Bunty keep calm. He relaxed his body and prepared to use the tree trunk for cover. Repeated collisions would make life difficult for Gwyneth and Victoria above, but they’d manage. The pair were working surprisingly well. Victoria continued to shoot vine arrows at her targets, and Gwyneth blocked incoming javelins with the lamp. A couple of them rained down around Bunty while the rest got stuck in the branches.

The giant Hyene charged into the clearing on all fours and pounced at Bunty. Not expecting a bestial attack, he dropped his axe and leapt away to the side. She landed on all fours and skidded past him and the tree trunk. As soon as the warrior stopped, she spun around, holding a stone-headed axe as long as Bunty’s leg. Then she came at him again.

Instead of trying to block or counter her attack, Bunty lashed the tree trunk with a tentacle and pulled himself out of his way. The axehead struck the earth with a loud thud and bit deep into it. Victoria’s bow continued to twang over his head, but none of the arrows were to assist him. Bunty guessed she was much too busy with the warrior’s followers. Gwyneth helped, though. She struck the giant Hyene with the lightning attack spell. The warrior dropped the axe she had just picked up, and Bunty ran in.

First, he punched the warrior’s ugly, scarred mug with his gauntleted hand, then slipped through the gap between her legs. The slide carried him to his axe, and he swung the head at his opponent’s foot. She recovered from Gwyneth’s spell much too soon and hopped out of the way. It wasn’t just Bunty’s attack that missed, but Gwyneth’s follow up also.

“How the hell is she so fast?” Gwyneth asked from above. Bunty neither had the time nor know-how to respond. She came at Bunty again, swinging wildly. He wasn’t quick enough to dodge or lash himself away. So, he tried blocking instead. The gauntlet protected his vitals, but the force knocked Bunty off his feet, and the axe out of his hands. He landed painfully on his side but the soft padding around his chest, shoulders and back protected his ribs. “I’m coming down to help—”

“No!” Bunty yelled, coughing. Instead of getting up straight away, he rolled away from the tall grass towards the tree trunk. Spears burst from the foliage, striking the ground where he’d been moments ago. The giant warrior came at Bunty again, and he threw up his gauntleted forearm to shield her attack. It kept the stone axe from rending flesh and breaking bone but sent painful shockwaves through his body. The blow knocked all the air out of his lungs once again. When the warrior raised her weapon to strike him once more, another attack spell hit her.

A shadow landed next to Bunty and raised its right arm, pointing it at the Hyene. When Bunty’s vision focused, he found Victoria standing over him. Vines burst from her arm, hitting the beast like a battering ram. She was thrown backwards into the tree trunk. Then Gwyneth leapt down from the branches and stumbled onto her knees. Instead of standing up, she unleashed another attack spell. The lightning struck the Hyene’s chest, and she collapsed in yelping.

“How isn’t she dead yet?” Gwyneth asked, panting. She had already unleashed four attack spells. Bunty doubted she had more than a couple left in her.

Bunty didn’t have an answer for her. His entire body groaned as he climbed back onto his feet. “Watch our backs, Victoria,” he said, taking Gwyneth’s spear. Then he charged at the stunned Hyene, lowering the weapon as he approached. Bunty ran her through, driving the spearhead into the creature's chest and the tree trunk behind her. For good measure, he raised his left hand and released a Slimeskin tentacle. “Stick,” he said, plastering it over the creature’s head. The warrior had already shrugged off multiple lightning spells. He didn’t want to risk her surviving impalement too.