***Tirnanog, Northern Mountain Range***

***Astra***

“Thalia! Magnus!” I called out in horror when both of them were hit before I could do anything.

I grabbed my partner by the arm and Liam sounded the alarm while I tried to pull Magnus into cover before the attackers could shoot a second volley of arrows. Magnus wasn't in any state to move on his own. His eyes rolled in their sockets and he swayed while he tried to form words.

Thalia fell in a heap next to the shelter's entrance while Fox dashed back out of the entrance to see what was happening.

I cursed and pulled one of the poisoned arrows out of Magnus’ chest.

That's when I sensed them with my echolocation! Stepping out of perfectly camouflaged hiding places, eleven figures dropped down from the cliff above us.

I screamed in rage and shot out my filaments in an attempt to stop them, but that was exactly what they wanted. They intentionally entangled themselves within the filaments in an attempt to restrain me! As soon as they landed, they pulled in all directions, forcing me to scream as I felt some filaments being ripped out of me!

One of the figures landed next to me and hit Magnus in the chest, sending my partner flying towards the stream. All I could see was a shower of blood before I took conscious notice that it was Roderick!

I screamed and charged my muscles, unleashing all the power I could draw upon through my filaments.

Fox fought one of the attackers, trying to defend the shelter, but more came down from above and five slipped past him through the entrance. He kicked his current opponent down the slope that led to the stream and chased after the others into the cave.

Then I saw another group charging towards the shelter's entrance from the other side of the stream.

All I saw was red as I picked up a head-sized stone and overloaded the bioluminescence in my skin while I closed my eyes. At the same time, I flexed my muscles and discharged all the energy I could through the filaments.

The world around me flashed in brilliant white and people screamed. My ears rang, and for a second, my whole body felt like I had jumped into a pit of burning coals.

I opened my eyes again and raised the stone. Then I launched it with all my might at Ivonne who was stumbling through the waist-deep stream while she tried to shield her eyes.

The stone went ballistic like a cannonball and struck the bitch straight in the face, but I had no time to gloat in satisfaction.

I tore myself free of my twitching attackers who had just gotten a close-up demonstration of my most powerful ability combined with the largest electricity discharge I had mustered so far.

Dashing for the shelter's entrance, I ignored Liam who was being pulled away by two men. They already had gotten him down to the stream. There was nothing I could do unless I intended to take on the second group alone. They wouldn't be blinded forever and there were more helpless people inside the shelter.

Once inside, I found a scene of carnage. Whatever poison they had used, it had rendered the majority of our combatants unable to fight.

Powell was down on the ground next to one of the dead attackers. His throat was cut and he had several stabbing wounds, but he had taken one of his enemies with him.

Charite was fighting a woman and I lost no time in sending out some filaments to entangle the Thich, which allowed Charite to stab her enemy repeatedly.

Fox was being overwhelmed by two men and I assisted him in the same manner with my remaining filaments.

Charite changed her focus towards the last man who was about to stab one of the figures who were lying on the ground. She threw herself at him with a guttural scream that lacked all humanity, preventing him just in time from delivering a killing blow.

Fox finally gained the upper hand and tore off the head of one attacker before he punched the other one with enough force to have the head snap sideways at an unhealthy angle.

With the shelter clear of enemies for the moment, I turned back to the entrance. “Defend the entrance! Our only hope is to use it as a choke point!”

That's when something stabbed me in the chest!

I reached out lightning quick, moving on mere instinct.

What I caught felt like an arm, but there was no arm.

Squeezing, I gritted my teeth while I forced the hand that was holding a short karambit knife away from me. The outer form of a person blurred and struggled in front of me as he tried to push the karambit deeper into my chest.

Cursing my stupidity, I opened my Second Sight and locked eyes with the Thich who had the ability to go de facto invisible. He was staring at the spot where his knife had just barely penetrated my skin before it had been stopped by instinctively flexing musculature.

Growling, I squeezed further, feeling the spongy bones bend before they snapped.

He screamed.

If I remembered the arena sheet correctly, then this man had nothing that made him stronger or sturdier than the average human with nanotech enhancements.

Feeling numb, I dug my fingers into his throat, cutting off his air. The feeling strangely reminded me of when my adoptive father had used some seeds to make a starch imitation of play dough for me.

It shouldn't be this easy, but it was.

I tore out the man's throat and quickly scanned the room for more people that were there and yet were not. When I found nobody, I hurried towards the entrance to block it.

Thankfully, turning myself into a flash-grenade had bought us more time than I thought.

Charite and Fox joined me with bows and I picked up as many of the readily available stones as I could comfortably hold. Whoever had built this shelter hadn't bothered to remove the rough gravel that remained from hollowing out the living space.

I allowed myself the shortest of glances back into the cave and found two people who were up and trying to tend to the wounded and poisoned. The children were cowering in the furthest corner of the cave.

That would have to be enough for now.

Charite risked a look out of the shelter before she drew back her head, barely avoiding an arrow that plunked off the stone.

“Bastards!” She drew, rose out of cover and quickly fired before she ducked back into the cave.

“What's the status?” I asked, trying to remain calm and busied with something important. I knew that if I had even one minute to think, I would have a breakdown. “I know that Tulkas, Liam, and Thalia were caught outside.”

Charite looked at me. “They have us pinned.”

“No, we have them pinned,” I argued, trying to be positive about the situation. “We still hold the shelter and night is coming. They are caught outside.”

“Liam ordered Ryan and Nina on lookout duty outside. If they didn't manage to warn us, then they got them.” Fox looked back into the cave. “Powell is dead. They ganged up on him when they got in. Aylin and Hailey are up. Sanders, Luciana and Michaela are down due to the poison.”

Hailey picked up a crossbow and approached us. “I can fight. There is nothing I can do about the poison anyway. Aylin isn't doing well enough to fight.”

“You are a sensor!” I growled and waved for her to get away from the entrance. “Just stay back and nail anything that gets past the three of us.”

“Hey, you there in the cave! I think it's time to give up and come out. We have your leader and we know that you aren't doing so well!” a voice called from outside.

I edged forward and took a peek. During the confusion of the attack, I didn't get the chance to count our attackers.

They were arranged in a loose line down at the stream. I counted fourteen people. Several of them I recognized as Thich. They had Liam kneeling in front of them, his hands above his head.

I cursed when I saw Thalia's lifeless body still lying next to the cave entrance. Magnus was also face down in the stream and not moving.

Ducking back into cover, I fought the tears welling up in my eyes. “Those fucking murderers! Do they want to start another war?”

The Thich and the Aerie weren’t friends. A few good-natured assassination attempts were part of a recruitment season, but this was a whole new level. They had never tried something like this as far as I remembered.

“Come on,” the voice called again. “This doesn't have to be any harder than it has to be.”

“Why aren't they just attacking?” Charite asked. “They would have gotten us if they had rushed in with the others. Now they will have to pay a heavy price!”

“I flashed them!” I raised an arm to show her the lacerations on my skin where my bioluminescent markings had been. “They couldn't.”

“They don't know how many of us are still in fighting shape, since none of their people managed to get back out,” Fox growled. “All they know is that you are still alive, and I don’t see them having a partnered warrior down there.”

“And how are there so many of them?” Charite spat. “There are five in here, several bodies in front of the cave, and fourteen are still standing! I don't remember the Thich having that many people at the Old Camp!”

“They bolstered their numbers with exiles from the Old Camp,” I explained. “I saw Roderick among them.”

“If you aren't going to answer, then we will kill him!” the voice called.

“What do you want!?” I called back.

“Give us the two girls and we will leave,” the Thich's leader replied.

“What's our guarantee that you won't kill him anyway?” I asked.

“You have my word.”

“The word of a Thich is worth less than nothing to me!” I replied. “Send Liam to us and we might think about it. He isn't a fighter, so he won't change much if you decide to try silencing us.”

“We could just smoke you out,” the Thich leader suggested.

“Don't do it-” Liam’s voice called out but he let out a scream of pain as someone shut him up.

Fox growled. “These negotiations are pointless. The Thich have no other choice than to kill us because they need the shelter. Their whole attack plan showed that they wanted to wipe us out. Even if we give them the kids, there is no way for them to make the trek to another shelter in time. And there is no way for us to share with them! And even if we would, they can't let us go or we would tell our clan what happened.”

“What else I am supposed to do?” I asked in frustration. I was already on the verge of storming out there to risk one last fight. If it wasn't for the helpless people in here.

***Tirnanog, Northern Mountain Range***

***Magnus***

I slowly breathed the water, trying my best to fight the choking reflex while I played dead. It helped that the stream's water was hiding most of my body from sight since it was milky from the washed-out dirt that came from the mountain.

The poison in my veins still had me dizzy and my chest hurt where Roderick had hit me, but for some reason, the effect was quickly wearing off.

If the others could buy just a little more time until I could move again.

But until then, all I could do was listen.

“I told you to kill her first!” the Thich complained. “She fried ten men with that one attack! Everyone who came down the cliff apart from you is dead!”

“I tried, Jan, but that bastard who is dunking behind us in the water was in front of her,” Roderick defended himself. “And then she used that skill and all the small fry you bought was fried. Hahaha.” He chuckled about his bad joke but stopped when nobody joined in. “I was just as blinded as you guys were.”

“I am paying you to follow orders, nothing more!” Jan replied. “And where is Ivonne!? She should have been there to deal with the tentacle bitch! She was the only one sturdy enough to ignore the tentacles!”

“She was in the stream with us when the light blinded everyone,” a woman replied. “When I could see again, she wasn't with us anymore. Maybe she fell and the water carried her off?”

Another voice refuted that. “The stream isn't powerful enough for that. Maybe if you throw yourself flat into the water. And even if, we were blinded for not more than a minute. She would have made her way back to us by now.”

“Did that bitch get cold feet and run away!?” Jan cursed. “I swear, if she ever comes crawling back I will see to it that she fails her initiation! This was supposed to be nothing more than a simple retrieval mission and we have one fuck up after the other!”

“Nobody could have known that she can turn herself into a human-sized flash grenade,” someone else complained. “We should have never attacked a group with a partnered pair of warrior types.”

“We killed one easily enough,” Jan barked back. “And now quit your whining or I will have your head for insubordination! And how long does it take that invisible bastard to poison a few people!?”

“Maybe he is dead?” someone suggested.

“Only reasonable explanation,” Jan admitted. “Let's give him a few more minutes. In the meantime, get that body. Let's see whether we can provoke her if we defile her mate's corpse a little. She can watch it and we kill the hostage afterwards.”

I felt someone step into the water next to me and grab my shoulder. When I was turned around, I shot up and punched out with my fist. My hand impacted a woman's chest and broke through the ribcage, entering something soft and slimy.

Getting to my feet, I grabbed her by the belt and lifted the body above my head. Then I threw her at the first person who caught my eye.

“Fuck!” The man raised his hands to catch her but was knocked over.

Following directly behind, I was on him and had my hand on his face before he knew what was going on. Then I pressed my fingers down until I felt his eyeballs pop.

“Ayieeeeee!” The definitely girlish scream finally alarmed the rest of the group.

I jumped to the side, barely avoiding another dose of poisoned arrows. Diving into the stream, I pulled myself along the rocky ground until I happened to grab onto a loose stone. Astra's mutations might have given me the ability to breathe underwater, but seeing was still troublesome in this murky soup.

Coming up, I threw the stone at the first target of opportunity and dove back down.

Finally, I reached a larger rock that provided some cover. The first thing that happened once I was up was for me to retch and expel all the dirty water in my lungs. Oh, this would bite me later on, I would take bets on it.

Looking down at myself, I pulled out the two broken arrow-shafts that were still lodged in me. The third had apparently fallen out on its own. It didn’t seem like I had suffered dangerous injuries. The arrows had penetrated the skin and two centimetres of fat and muscles before they had been stopped.

The fist strike that Roderick had delivered was much worse. My chest was aching with every breath I took.

It had practically squished the skin and scraped off the upper layer of my epidermis to reveal black and silver musculature beneath. The individual strands flexed each time I moved, making it abundantly clear that I was no longer a normal human.

“I never wanted to study myself like this, but god bless those little monsters,” I mumbled while I dug in the riverbed for another fitting stone.

“Roderick!” Jan screamed. “Get him! You three too, help him!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Roderick stomped through the river towards me. “Must have some form of poison resistance too, the lucky bastard.”

I launched another stone out of cover, but Roderick wasn't impressed when he simply lifted a forearm and blocked the projectile that burst upon impact. Slowly, I drew the short sword that I always carried on my belt.

There was another commotion when Astra, Fox, and Charite suddenly left the shelter and charged the Thich.

Not seeing how there would ever be a better opportunity, I launched myself into the air and screamed to draw attention away from my people. One arrow was shot at me, but I deflected it with the short sword.

Then I landed in the river, right between Roderick and his helpers.

It seemed like they hadn't yet realized what my ability was – or they would have stayed well away from the water. Howling, I raised the sword, imagining it to be a hammer, and then I channelled Thor with all my might.

The four figures around me dropped when a small explosion of electricity caused the water around my feet to spontaneously evaporate.

Ignoring Roderick for now, I jumped again, aiming directly for Jan and the archers next to him. They had their attention on Astra and the others, which cost them dearly when my blade came down on the first Thich.

There was no finesse in my movements when I split the archer's head in twain like a log of wood and bodily threw myself at another opponent while I channelled electricity.

Then I was hacking my blade into every person whose face I didn't recognize. I blocked a blade and sparks flew before I struck back. The next things that flew were a head and an arm.

Something barrelled into me before I could do more damage and Jan suddenly had his hand on my throat. “I've had enough of you! Who do you think you are?”

I tried to hack at him, but he slapped the blade out of my hand with ease. The man was at least as strong as Gurney and it suddenly dawned on me that I had made a terrible mistake by getting close!

He squeezed and I could feel my throat closing up. I charged my muscles, but all I could do was take another gulping breath of air.

Panicking, I discharged enough energy to make electric sparks dance across our skin, but my opponent was completely unfazed.

“What are you going to do, little fly?” He laughed. “I've killed hundreds on this hellhole of a planet! You are just the latest in a long-”

I growled and brought both legs up, taking his arm between my thighs. I ignored it when my head slammed onto the rocky ground because he couldn't hold me up anymore. My calves landed on his chest and I pulled, flexing my entire body backwards while I held onto his arm.

Jan struggled, but he had lost his chance of getting out of my hold. His free arm could no longer put any leverage onto me.

Though, it felt like one arm was enough to squish my throat. I overextended myself another time, pulling while I bent back as far as I could, then his shoulder popped and he screamed.

He let go and I could breathe again, taking in that precious air!

Then Astra was suddenly above us with a knife in her hand. Screaming like a maniac, she dropped to her knees and stabbed down into Jan's head.

At that moment, I wished that she wouldn’t swing a sharp object so freely right next to my feet.

Finally, I felt Jan’s body slacken, but Astra kept stabbing nonetheless.

Once I was sure that it wasn't a trick, the impression aided by Astra's bloody knife, I relaxed and took a deep breath before I sat up.

Fox was stomping onto a weakly struggling Thich, apparently not caring that he was missing an arm.

Charite was holding a wound in her belly but looked fine otherwise.

Nobody else was up as far as I could see. Liam was lying on the ground. Someone had shot an arrow into the back of his head.

I slowly raised a hand and touched Astra's shoulder. She was crying and dead set on literally defacing Jan's corpse.

Once I was sure that she wouldn't freak out on me, I squeezed harder. “Astra, Astra! He is dead!” I had to focus her on a task. “You have to take care of those who can still be saved!”

Astra looked at me, then back at the corpse and her expression firmed up. “Right.” She looked around and shoved me off the body.

She grabbed the corpse at the shoulders and quickly pulled it towards the shelter.

I didn't want to question what she was up to as long as she didn't go mindless murderhobo on a corpse.

Crawling back to my feet, I slowly walked over to Liam's body and checked on his pulse. There was none, so I simply closed his eyes and forewent pulling the arrow out of his head. That would have likely just made a mess.

I got up and straightened my back while I focused on taking deep and steady breaths. Then I bent over and coughed up a bloody glob of slime. Nope, inhaling dirty water definitely wasn't healthy.

It took me a minute to gather myself, but I got back up. Charite was tying off Fox's bloody stump.

I retrieved my short sword and the spetum that had been left untouched where I had washed my clothes not so long ago. Then I slowly made the rounds, checking on all the bodies that covered the ground. It surprised me that the zippers hadn't shown up yet, but maybe they just didn't like this biome.

I even fished the bodies out of the water – at least those that hadn't been carried off by the stream.

And, oh, wonder behold, Roderick was still alive along with four more attackers who suffered various states of injury!

I gathered them on a sandbank at the stream's side. Then I watched Roderick's unconscious form as I thought and debated with the other four survivors warily watching me.

It didn't take me long to decide.

Astra had told me a little about Roderick, due to me inquiring about him. I had wanted to know whether he would come after me for some reason after I had survived the trial at Starfish Lake. After all, he had tried to kill all the newcomers.

At the time, she hadn't believed that he held any special animosity against my person. He was a simple exile with powerful strength and durability evolutions. It would be nice to question him, but if he woke up, restraining someone like him would be a hassle, if not impossible.

He would be a danger to me and anyone he managed to get his hands on.

I placed the spetum's tip on Roderick's chest, then leaned onto it. It sank in, but not all the way. Frowning, I stepped with one foot on a cross-blade and bushed down, finally piercing all the way through.

The bastard had made me work for it even if he hadn't been awake.

I checked his pulse again and found none.

Leaving the spetum inside him, I drew my short sword and turned my attention towards the other four. “Who wants to talk?”

They looked at each other, but only the one with the broken leg spoke. “There's nothing in it for us anyways. We attacked you, and you are going to kill us. Just like him.” He gestured with his chin at Roderick's corpse. “Just finish us off and be done with it.”

“I killed him because he was powerful and hard to control.” I pointed the short sword at the speaker. “That's not the case with you four. We have until evening to discuss all your reasons for attacking us. I want to know where you are from and who you work for. I want to know how things work in Thich and why they are in such need of two little girls.”

The three men and one woman stared defyingly at me.

“Fine. How did one of my teachers like to say?” I pointed the sword at one after the other with each word. “Ene mene mu, und raus bist du.”