I made quite a few bullets, and eventually got started on what was to be my knife. The rock I started with is approximately the right size, or at least it will be after I magically compress it. I slowly attempted to mould the softened rock into the shape I’m looking for, leaned back looking at it, and sighed. It isn’t straight, it isn’t the right shape, and it barely has an edge.

I stared at it for a bit, and then grumbled as I attempted to shape it again. It isn’t until my fourth attempt that I got something I was remotely satisfied with, and looked at it critically for a bit. I decided it’s good enough for the moment, and began to work on adding the edge to it. It took a few tries, but I was soon left with a stone knife that, while not quite razor sharp, was pretty close.

I carefully put it in my backpack after wrapping it in a spare shirt I didn’t care too much about, and leaned back with a yawn. I blinked my heavy eyes a few times, looking outside to notice the sun was already down, and crawled into my sleeping bag to get some rest.

I woke up without the sound of shouts and explosions this time, which was quite nice. I got out of bed, massaging the aches from sleeping on the ground out of my body, and ate the last of the food I’d brought. I’d need to start chopping up monsters for food now, at least until the gate opened up again. I wondered for a bit if I could just buy the meat from the butchery and have them take it out of the money I’d get from selling the monsters, it was something I had to check out later.

I wandered over to Johnsons, where I’d be meeting up with Will and Sophie, and sat down at a table in the back to wait for them. I wasn’t waiting long, and once they’d arrived, we chatted for a bit before heading out to hunt some more.

We weren’t having much luck, which was odd, because we’d seen plenty of monsters just the other day. I instantly started worrying about another goblin attack, but Will mentioned that there were plenty of other things it could be. Unfortunately, most of those things ended in an attack on the camp by different types of monsters. I shook my head, what did it matter if we were going to be attacked by goblins or some other monsters, it just meant that we weren’t going to have any luck on our hunt today.

We had decided to head back when we finally spotted something moving, and slowly approached until we could get a clear view. Once we could see them clearly, I became quite confused. What we had spotted weren’t monsters, but humans. Unlike all of us at camp though, they wore tunics, with armor atop it rather than the unarmored appearance of the fighters at our camp. They each carried either a sword and a shield to go along with it, which was also unusual, as most of the people I’d seen at camp were using two handed weapons for some reason.

We hailed them, and as they saw us they sped up, and were soon before us. It was a group of two males and two females, and they had what seemed to be a small cart with a small boy riding on it. All of them had some characteristic of a monster as well, clearly having enhanced their mana. Two of them had animal ears, one had slit pupils, and the last one had furred arms up to her elbows. Surprisingly all of them seemed to be reminiscent of the syth, making it seem like they’d all enhanced their mana with syth cores.

The second thing I noticed about them was they they looked terribly worn and haggard. They were terribly dusty, they all had dark shadows beneath their eyes, and their steps were leaden. It was while I was paying attention to their worn state that they greeted me, and it took me a second to realize that I didn’t recognize the language. I tilted my head to the side, asked if they spoke english, and simply got another response in the same language.

I pondered what I’d heard for a moment, and only became confused. I didn’t recognize the language, and I’d heard quite a few before. It was vaguely reminiscent of russian, but I couldn’t think of any language I’d heard that sounded quite like it.

I shrugged as the man seemed to get frustrated, then let out a sigh.

“So what do you think we should do with them?”

Will shrugged. “Lead them back to camp I guess?”

We then started to head back to camp, waving the group of unknowns along, which they understood plenty well. It took a bit, and along the way they chattered in their language I didn’t recognize, so I examined the wagon they had with them. It was self propelling it seemed, but had no engine of any kind, so it had to be core powered. One of the guys was holding onto a rope, which he used to guide it along, easily guiding it around any trees in the way.

I was starting to get a suspicion in my mind, but I wasn’t going to mention it, and only mulled it over as we walked. It wasn’t too long until we spotted the camp, and the relief from the people we were guiding was palpable.

We walked them over to Johnsons, and started to ask around if anyone recognized their language. The search was fruitless however, as not a person could even identify the language, let alone speak it.

They didn’t seem to mind though, and started setting up some very old fashioned tents next to the area where most of the hunters had set theirs up.

After seeing that the group we brought there had gotten situated, Will, Sophie and I decided that there wasn’t much point in going out hunting again, at least until we figured out what was scaring off the monsters this time.

The rest of the day I spent experimenting. I’d thought about making more heavily enchanted bullets before, but I’d used up the entirety of the core I’d bought on making my revolver and rifle, and I wasn’t willing to pay out the nose for another one, but now that I had the spare core from the goblin sitting around, and plenty of charge in my guns, I may as well try to make the different bullets I’d thought of.

The day passed quickly due to my experiments, and I’d had a decent amount of success, though not all of my ideas had worked out too well. I went to sleep satisfied, excited to try out my new weapons tomorrow.

I woke what couldn’t have been more than an hour later to the shrill sound of a whistle, and then the a bunch of shouting. I got up, and slowly dressed, the night not giving me enough vision to do so quickly.

I loaded up my bags on my belt that I refused to believe look like fanny packs, packing them with magazines for my rifle and a few speed loaders for my revolver just in case. Once I’m out, I saw gigantic wolves everywhere. I’m not sure why they’re all around the camp rather than corralled at the gate, until I see the chain link fence basically flattened entirely on one side.

I instantly put my rifle to my shoulder, and started shooting at the numerous targets. Interspersed among the wolves are some groups of our melee fighters, oftentimes protecting the spell casters, the people throwing fireballs and lightning around.

A few of the wolves were obviously victims of said spell casters, burning carcasses littered here or there. In the distance, I heard the sound of explosions, likely from the fireball girl who’d been practicing the other day.

A few of the wolves I shot at drop, but it seems to take a few shots for each of them, and I was soon reloading. Luckily, the wolves seemed to be ignoring me so far, but even so, I started heading to the closest group of melee fighters to have someone stand in front of me. I stop when two of the people we’d found earlier in the day came out of their tent, the other two standing in front of the child who came with them.

At first, I’m a bit worried about them; they’d seemed like they were pretty tired earlier, but then they get to the first giant wolf, and killed it in a fraction of a second. The man’s sword stabbing into it’s neck, and being pulled out to a massive spray of blood, clearly having hit an artery. I thought it was a lucky shot at first, but when he repeats the action with another two of the giant wolves, I started being very impressed.

A couple of the wolves tried to snap or claw at them, but they either sidestepped it with a small motion, or blocked it easily with their shields. At this point, the difference between them and our body enhancement users was becoming readily apparent. While our group struggled one fighter against one wolf, often having to dive to the side to dodge swipes and bites, these people could finish off a single wolf in seconds.

The only one I can spot who could even remotely keep up with them is Sophie, and from what I saw she did it by abusing her massive strength, while these people seem to be using only enough strength to pierce the vital points. I watched, impressed, for a decent bit longer, until I get my focus back and went back to shooting my gun, following after the two strangers in the hopes that they would protect me if a wolf gets close.

I continued after them, putting bullets in any of the wolves that aren’t too close to people, frustrated that it takes multiple bullets to drop them. I got even more annoyed when i realize I didn’t bring any of my new bullets to test out on the monsters, as they could possibly take them down in a single shot.

I kept putting bullets into the monsters, and only had one get remotely close to me while I’m doing so. Eventually, the wolves either run away or are killed off, and the camp slowly became silent aside from a few moans of pain. It’s those moans that made me start to worry. As far as I know we didn’t have anyone talented in healing magic at this outpost, and we were cut off from any hospitals at the moment.

I instantly went going around trying to see what I could do, but I wasn’t of any use. I had no talent in healing magic, and seemingly everyone who was injured already had people helping them, splinting wounds, keeping pressure on cuts, and in one case even sewing up a particularly nasty gash.

My looking around found me something that makes me stop though. It’s a body. There’s massive cuts on his chest, and his arm seems to have been partially eaten. I stared in shock for a few moments before I started to feel sick, gagging a couple times, but not quite to the point of throwing up. There’s a girl beside the body, who was bawling her eyes out, and I have to turn away. I didn’t know the deceased, I didn’t even recognize them, but something about the loss of human life just left me feeling a bit empty, the little excitement I’d had at having beaten back the monsters fading.

Soon, everyone started to go back to bed, but the person beside the body refused to move, and I slowly leave, sad that there’s nothing I could do for her. I was soon back in my bed, but it took me some time to get to sleep, still haunted by the injured, and particularly by the scene of the girl crying over someone she clearly cared about. Eventually though, my tiredness won out and I fade into the blackness.

I woke up in the morning, got out of bed, and saw an impressive scene. The strangers we’d brought back to camp are sparring, and it’s becoming clear that they weren’t using their full strength when they were fighting against the wolves. I could barely keep up with their speed, and I was pretty sure that the blows they’re stopping with their shields could have cut one of those wolves in half. I watch in awe, becoming increasingly aware that they’re massively more skilled and powerful than our melee fighters.

I wondered if the mages from wherever they came from are as skilled compared to ours as well, but there’s no way for me to tell, so I simply shrugged and tossed the thought to the back of my mind, not to be brought up until I can find more information. I watched for a while longer, then found out that the giant wolf bodies have been left where they lay for the night, so I went around finding my kills, but they’re a pain to drag around, even with body enhancing magic, so I head off to the butchery to find out what I should bother harvesting.

I was soon chatting with Joseph, the same guy who was working behind the counter last time I was at the butchery. I found out that the wolf things are usually referred to as wargs, and that their skin, bones, and especially their claws and teeth are valuable. Their claws and teeth are used to create armor piercing rounds, so I decided that I want to keep one and see how hard it is to mould with magic. If it isn’t too hard I’ll be able to create some very useful ammunition. Unfortunately, the fact that so much of them is valuable meant that I had to gather up the entire body. I was soon back outside and moaning about my fate as I slowly dragged the wargs I killed into a nice little section. My moaning soon faded though, as the fate of that one guy crawled back into my mind, and I dragged the rest of the corpses into one area in silence. I then cut off a claw from one of them with my newly made knife to experiment on later before I waited for the people from the butchery.

It wasn’t too long until people from the butchery came out to pick them up, and I sat there in jealousy at their superior talent in body strengthening magic as they picked the bodies up with ease to load onto the carts behind the ATVs. As usual, they had me sign off on how many monsters I hunted, and asked if I’m going to want any of the cores. I tell them no, as I still have the one from the goblin to play with, and I didn’t know enough to know what type of core I’d like to enhance my mana with.

I went back to my tent afterwards, excited to see if I can do something with the claw. I got back, and started pouring mana into it to shape it, and nothing changed. It just sat there. With metal, at least it would get slightly softer, even if it wouldn’t get soft enough to shape easily, I could still shape it. Metals just took way too much mana to soften to that point, but with this claw, I was pouring out as much mana as I could handle just to have it show absolutely no reaction. I kept trying for a while, then gave up. It seemed I wouldn’t be able to do anything with it until I could handle more mana, so not until after I’ve enhanced my mana with a core or ten.

I tossed the claw in my backpack. It may not be useful at the moment, but I’d be able to use it eventually. The rest of the day, with me being unable to pass the time playing with the claw, passed slowly until I met up with Will and Sophie. We chatted a bit about the attack, and I noticed that Sophie had some pretty nasty cuts on her arm, which she got when a second warg jumped into the fight while she was handling another one. The only reason she was still alive was because Will had managed to capture its feet with the earth to restrain it long enough for her to kill the first one.

“So Will is an earth mage then?”

“Yeah, he usually uses it to capture enemies, burying them partially or locking their limbs down with stone shackles, though he can use earth spikes and stuff as well,” Sophie answered

I nodded. Earth magic wasn’t quite as destructive as fire magic, but you could use it to build up defenses quickly or capture enemies, and earth spikes could do some damage. I’d even seen one of the more powerful hunters on viewtube opening up a massive crack in the earth beneath a goblin before closing it over top again when it fell into it.

“So what are you going to do if the gate doesn’t open soon? You have to be running out of vegetables,” I said, looking towards the vegetarian at the table.

“I already told you it’s for health reasons,” Will said. “I can technically eat meat, and I get the feeling I’m going to have to.” He sighed, and I felt a bit bad for him. Hopefully the gate would open soon and he wouldn’t have to ruin his vegetarianism.

We eventually finished chatting and headed back to our tents, me picking up a boar steak from the butchery on the way. As it turned out, they were perfectly happy to give us meat from the monsters. They’d just take it out of what they owed us, and I soon got back to my tent, grabbed my flint and steel, and gathered enough wood to make a fire. I slowly roasted the meat, not happy that this was all I was going to be able to eat if the gate didn’t open.

Luckily, the steak was delicious. Unluckily, the next day the gate still wasn’t open. The day passed with some successful hunting with Will and Sophie, and me finding out that the reason Sophie had seemed so annoyed about syth was because they could teleport for short distances. The next day, we woke up to even worse news. The butchery was full, and so we couldn’t even go hunting. The day passed with boredom, only chatting with Will and Sophie, and was filled with boar steak for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I sighed. It wasn’t like I didn’t like the boar steaks, but having them for every meal was a bit much.

Unfortunately the days continued to pass without the gate opening. There were two more goblin attacks, though both of them were fought back without any major injuries on our side. The next few days, the forest started to be very quiet. While it wasn’t always particularly filled with monsters, before, we used to occasionally hear the howls of wargs, or the screams goblins would make as they charged, or the yowling of the syth, but it seemed all of that background noise had mysteriously disappeared.

I got more and more twitchy through the rest of the day, nervous about what could have made everything quiet down like that. I then start to put things together. The people we’d found and brought to camp had been running from something, and they were far better fighters than we were. My nervousness instantly went from twitchy to almost full blown panic attack. If we were to get attacked by something that they couldn’t handle, I seriously doubted we would be able to handle it.

I informed Will and Sophie about my worry, but they didn’t seem to be quite as nervous as I did, simply believing that it was probably just a lot of goblins or something. Their lack of nervousness only seemed to exacerbate my own, and I loaded all of my experimental bullets I’d made into a magazine for my rifle, and loaded up my revolver with them as well.

I spent the rest of the day pacing in nervousness, but eventually the sun went down and I went to my tent. For far more time than I would like, I lay awake, listening to the silence, but eventually I nodded off.

I woke to something that I really hadn’t wanted to hear, the alarm whistle. I instantly got up, not having bothered to take off my clothing in case of this exact scenario. I load up my gun with a standard magazine rather than the one with experimental bullets, but keep the experimental bullets in my revolver as I ran outside to see what had set off the alarm this time.

My exit from my tent was met by the loudest roar I had ever heard, and it didn’t take me long to spot a massive figure. My face turned pale as I see it. Scales covered it almost entirely, the only portion of the beast not covered by them are the webbing in its wings. Its head alone is over a meter tall, and it has to be at least six meters long excluding its long, sinuous tail. It’s front arms are attached to the wings, and end in reptilian style feet with claws as long as my forearm.

We were under attack by a wyvern. I froze for a bit, but managed to shake it off, we needed to fight this thing. It had wings, and with magic even the heaviest things could fly, so it could probably catch up to any of us if we ran. We either needed to have some people stay behind to stall it and let the rest of us get away, or we had to take it down somehow.

It wasn’t long until I saw fireballs and lightning bolts being flung at it. I even saw earth climbing over its legs and arms, probably Will trying to restrain it. Unfortunately, all of the bombardment only seemed to annoy it, though the fireballs that would stick to it and keep burning seemed to be causing at least some damage. I raised my rifle and started adding my own firepower to the mix, but all I would see is sparks wherever one of my bullets hit. As heavy as my rounds were, they still weren’t getting through the scales.

I finished off the bullets in the magazine, and took a deep breath before replacing it with my experimental bullets. If my new toys didn’t manage to hurt it, I wasn’t going to be of any use, but some of my new toys were quite powerful.

I finished reloading and started to sight down at the wyvern right when the melee fighters reached it. I sighed, I wasn’t going to be able to shoot at it with people in my firing line. All I could do is watch as they charged up, and were instantly crushed. I watched in horror as the first fighter gets literally flattened into the ground by the monsters front arm, then the next one gets cut practically in half from its sharp claws. Another one got his arm bitten off, and it’s then I saw Sophie still getting close to it with a determined expression on her face. I shouted at her to not fight it, but I didn’t think there was any way she would hear me over the screams.

I watched, horribly worried for her, as she swung down her sword as hard as she could onto the wyvern’s arm, only for it to leave nothing more than a shallow cut that slowly dripped some blood. The wyvern roared, and I flinched, covering my ears to avoid the massively loud noise. I could only imagine how loud it must be for Sophie. She seemed disoriented from the roar, leaning to one side as the wyvern swung its arm at her. I was tempted to close my eyes until a stone wall appeared in front of her, surely Will’s doing, but the wall only slowed it down a little. That was all the time Sophie needed though, as she managed to get her sword angled to stop the claws from eviscerating her. She was still sent flying, but at least she was probably still alive.

Sophie was the last of the melee fighters up there though, and when she was knocked away the mages were free to go back to bombarding it. I raised my gun to join them when the wyvern pauses for a second, then opened its mouth and flames came spewing out in a stream towards the mages. I saw some of them burst into flames, the screaming echoed in my ears as Will walled off as many of the casters as he could from the flame. The only reason I was left alive was that I was farther away than the mages were.

At this point I was shaking with fear as I raised my rifle again, but I looked down the sights at the monster, held my breath, and pulled the trigger. The first bullet was simple, when it hits it electrocutes anything nearby, but other than a flash of lightning, it didn’t seem to do anything to the wyvern. I fired the next two, both of the same type of bullet, and with the third one it jerked and started to look around.

It turned to me and I hope it can’t breathe flames again as I fire the next type of bullet at it. This one was pretty simple as well, it simply sucks the heat out of anything it touches. This type was more effective. As they hit, I could see the scales where the shots land crack, and I was sure it froze some of the flesh under the scales, but obviously not deep enough as it started to charge at me.

I was starting to resign myself to my fate as I went to fire the next bullet, only to pause as I see two people rush out to meet it. I soon recognized them as two of the people we’d brought to our camp, and I got a slight hope in my chest. They were far more powerful than our group, and Sophie had managed to wound the beast. They probably wouldn’t be able to kill it, but hopefully they could wound it enough to scare it off.

I took my cheek from the stock of my rifle as I watched them begin to dance with the wyvern. It took swings at them, and one of them was always there to block them, sliding back a few feet each time, but stopping the monster from hitting the other as they chopped at the beast. Each time one of them hit the monster, scales chipped and small cuts appeared in its skin. It didn’t seem they were doing much damage until one of them lands a cut on the spot on its neck one of my bullets had frozen.

When the sword impacted the frozen area, the scales simply shattered under the massive force, and a deep cut, the first serious wound the beast has suffered, appeared in its neck. The beast violently swung its neck, slamming the one who injured it into its arm with a loud cracking noise. The guy simply collapses, and I worry he’s dead, the girl grabbing him and dragging him away from the beast. I contribute the only way I can, I distracted it with my bullets. This time, these bullets seemed about as effective as the freezing bullets, cracking a large number of scales as they simply exploded as they impact. I pulled the trigger until I didn’t hear the crack that should come from the bullet breaking the sound barrier, and tossed my gun to the side; I didn’t have time to reload. I drew my revolver, and waited until it got a bit closer to start shooting. The first few shots only impacted its scales, electrocuted it to no effect, and froze it to small effect, but then an explosive bullet landed where I’d been trying to land a bullet the entire time, right in its eye. It somehow managed to close its eyelid before the bullet impacted, but the explosion blew straight through it, mangling the organ. I looked into its other eye in triumph, noting the curved cross shape of its pupils. My triumph is short lived however, as it got right next to me and my last bullet simply hit it in the wing, shredding a bit of the membrane, but leaving it otherwise unharmed.

As it reached me, I dived as hard and fast as I can to the side I blinded, using as much mana as I can with the little body enhancing magic I can use, and I managed to get out of the way, barely escaping death at it went past me, sliding a bit as it tries to turn to face me again. I was out of bullets, and out of ideas when I noticed that my knife I’d made had fallen out of my backpack from my dive. I laughed in sheer terror and hopelessness, but grabbed the knife anyway, turning to face the wyvern. It was already charging me again, and I started edging towards the unblinded side to bait it, then dashed to the left, every ounce of mana I could muster being used to enhance my body’s strength and speed as I moved to the side of its head and rammed the knife into the wound already present on its neck. Its head reared back in pain, and I was pulled up by the knife, landing on top of its neck. I lost my grip on the knife, but soon regained it and started sawing at the wound as it started to buck, trying to throw me off. I held on for dear life, and thought I may actually have a chance from the massive amount of blood spurting out of the wound when it rolled to the side, forcing me to jump off or get crushed.

I got up again, heavily bruised from my earlier dive and my jump off of the wyvern as it turned back to me. This time, rather than the charging it had been doing, it slowly and methodically approached, and I feel the little hope I had left die. Its steady approach continued as I tried to edge to its blind side, but it was having none of that and simply turned along with me. It soon got in range, and I tried to dodge to the side as it extended its neck to bite off the top half of my body, knowing I can’t move fast enough.

I was resigned to my fate when I saw a speck of light in the corner of my eye which impacted the side of the wyvern’s head right as it lunged. The fireball, rather than turning into liquid flame like most of them, exploded, knocking the wyvern’s head to the side, and I thought back to the girl I’d seen practicing their explosive fireballs.

I didn’t let the thought distract me as I stepped into the space the fireball had created, using the dregs of my mana to enhance my body as I stabbed my knife in as deep as I can into the wound and ripped it down.

Time seemed to slow a bit as the wyvern starts turning its head towards me, but then a massive spurt of blood erupted from the neck where I cut. I was practically knocked down by the flood of the red liquid, and the wyvern only manages one last attempted snap at me, not quite reaching me, before it collapsed.

I stood there, covered in blood, and then made a decision. I cut the beast open slowly, digging my knife between the scales to cut the skin, and had to saw at the bones to get through them. I didn’t know how long it took, but the sun had reached the center of the sky, and the hunters left alive had started to gather around me before I finally reached it. I tore the core out of its body, took a deep breath, then pulled the mana into my own, enhancing it. At first it felt like a rush, I had the most energy I’ve ever had, I felt so alive, and then it turned to pain. I screamed for a second, and then everything went black.