It took five minutes to crest the hill and spot the two remaining human adventurers in the distance huddled together under a massive dome of ice. They were surrounded by a handful of the Ostrich mixed Velociraptors. Had Luin created it? The monsters clawed and scratched at the ice but only seemed to send small chips flying into the air.

I summoned a pair of normal Fireballs and tossed them on either side of the encircling beasts. Feather and body parts flew in every direction. The monster’s kin stopped trying to get into the dome of ice and started to charge in my direction. A Tier 2 Ice Lance hurdled through the air, cutting the head off mid-neck, and traveled into the next, piercing the body. Both creatures slammed into the grass dead.

I summoned my Ice Armor just as the last five grew closer. Materializing another Ice Lance, I swung it around, knocking the first's head to the side and stabbing the lance into the next. I couldn’t pull it free, so I let go and punched the third in the throat, getting a surprised squawk from it.

I felt a claw slam into my chest before sliding down and finding my bare right leg. The claws tore a large gash into the leg, and before I could scream, I slammed a construct together of ice, and it snapped around my leg to keep pressure on the wound.

I screamed in rage as the pain reached my brain, and the crimson red sword that sprouted from my hand slashed down, bisecting the beast in two. I spun around, flicking the sword at the next, its head easily parting from its body to fly into the air. The last two beasts backed up a few steps but kept their eyes on me. I rushed them, Fireball blinking into my open hand before shooting towards the left beast. The last beast screeched and tried to run, but I sped up, taking its legs out from under it.

I stood over the crying beast and slammed the blood-red blade down into its skull ending it and the battle. All at once, the bodies began to turn into green sand and floated for a few moments before a small green round gem lay where each died. I turned around and looked at the ice dome, both adventurers staring at me. Then I saw Luin in the arms of the woman, her hair matted with blood and unmoving.

I heard shouting behind me, but I rushed to the dome, shattering it with my blade. The Great Sword fell from my hands with the hole made, and I stumbled towards the now fearful humans.

“She, She saved us! They came out of nowhere as soon as you left. One of them bit her, but she yelled something, and the damn thing just blew up before turning into the dust, as yours did. Then she cried for us to run. I picked her up as more came from the forest. She yelled something again when they got close, and the ice covered us. I’ve never seen anything like it before,” the girl kept crying as she forced out the words.

Getting close, she handed me Luin, and I could see she was still breathing, but just barely. The wound on her shoulder was already closed though so that was a relief. I reached into my bag and removed an Azure Core, forcing it into her mouth. She didn’t wake up, and her breathing was still labored. I removed another and fed it to her. There was a flash of light that covered her body, and I knew she was about to evolve.

I heard footsteps behind me before I heard Yokota. “We need to hurry back. There is no way there was only…” he stopped talking as I stopped short of the ice dome and looked around. “Where the hell did they go? I watched you kill them.”

He was correct as the forest's edge began to get noisy with squawks coming from many more of the creatures inside the forest.

“I can’t move her asshe’s evolving. Watch over her, please,” I said to the young woman again as I handed Luin to her.

“She’s so hot!”

“If it’s too much, lay her on the ground.”

Without thinking about it, I willed pillar after pillar to raise around us. I walked forward and stopped. Another pillar beneath me rose, taking me into the air. As the pillar reached around four meters in the air, I stopped. Behind, I could hear the rumblings of the last of the pillars shooting into the air, encircling both the ice dome and the section where Yokota and I had stood.

I watched the forest’s edge. I couldn’t count them, but there had to be at least a hundred of the vicious bastards. They seemed to just stand under the canopy of the trees and wait. I looked back towards Yokota. “They are just standing there, not doing anything.”

“Do you see one much larger than the rest? That’s the alpha. They won’t do anything until she gives the command.”

“What are these things? These seemed to be a much larger threat than the Fyrbees nearby.”

“They're called Kaappie, and they shouldn’t be anywhere near Mythtide. They’re typically a Class Aszure threat.”

Screeching from the forest drew my attention back towards the Kaappie, and I caught sight of the alpha as it pushed its way past the smaller ones into the grass field. It seemed to regard me and scanned the surrounding area, before locking eyes again with me.

“Hey, Yokota. How smart are these things? Also, how high can they jump?”

“They are dumb as bricks. The alpha? She’s a very clever girl. She won’t start a fight thatshe knows she can’t win. I doubt they can clear these walls. The alpha, on the other hand, if you can see her, you can make your guess.”

Great. She looked like she could just about skip and get over the wall. The alpha kept watching me for a few more moments before she let out a roar I felt in my chest. Then the entire forest’s edge came alive as over a hundred of them began rushing towards our stone fort.

I began conjuring and tossing the blue Fireballs one after another into the oncoming horde. Large swaths of the grass fields began erupting, dirt and body parts going everywhere. When the dust settled, I could see more than half lay dead scattered throughout the field in pieces. The others ran towards us with more coming from the forest.

The alpha still stood silent and watched as I began tossing more Fireballs. She must have had enough seeing her pack being decimated because she roared and began to charge toward me. Her larger body quickly closing the distance between us. I tossed a blue ball toward her, and she easily dodged to the side before leaping up toward me.

I couldn’t even scream as she spun mid-air, her tail coming around like a rocket, slamming into me and throwing me up and over the stone circle. I landed hard, my chest of Ice Armor shattering as I hit the ground and slid.

I just looked up to see the massive beast coming toward me. I raised my hand to block her mouth of razor-sharp teeth, but they never came. I moved my arm for a moment to see her mouth had snapped shut inches away from me. An odd look crossed her face before she yelled and vanished. I blinked a few times and looked around.

Yokota was now standing outside the stone circle and was looking down at me where the alpha had just stood. I was about to ask what in the world when I heard a crash off to my right. I looked over and saw the alpha Kaappie sliding along the ground, coming to a stop at the side of a small hill. I heard Yokota cough and looked over at his hand extended towards me offering to help me up. I grabbed it and winced as he pulled me to my feet.

“See to your companion. I'll deal with the rest of them.”

I could only nod. The pain in my back and from where my leg got gouged came at me in full force. I walked over and lowered one of the stone pillars before crossing it and raising it back up. I limped over to the hole in the dome of ice and then inside. Luin was now resting on the ground, her head in the woman's lap.

“Is she going to be ok? She’s burning up,” said the male.

“Give her a few more moments,” I replied.

As if on cue, a blinding light flashed before the outline of Luin glowed and then began to grow. I felt my right breast burn, and I guessed the rune just ticked up to five. Luin’s body grew longer, her horns curving back more and stopped around twenty centimeters long. Her legs got longer, and her tail became thicker. As the glow around her dimmed, I could see she was almost the size of a small child now.

I reached into my bag, removed two of my last Azure Cores, and force-fed her. After the second one, she began to groan and blinked open her eyes, then looked up at the ceiling of ice. “Luin did it. Luin protected them like papa would.”

“Yes, you did. How did you know how to make a shield of ice?” I asked.

“Strange memory. Papa on a boat and created it.”

She could see a memory from when I had created the sphere of ice on the boat? But how? My thoughts were interrupted when I heard someone land in the grass outside of the dome of ice. I looked over to see Hokota, who smiled and waved. He walked over to us and looked down at the Luin.

“Congrats on your leveling, young Kobold. Or should I say reincarnation of Gna’zanth? I haven’t seen one of your likes in ages. You guys are safe now. I’ve dealt with the alpha and the rest of the pack. Zeal was it? Would you kindly escort these two back to Mythtide? I’m going to track where this pack of Kaappie came from.”

“Sure, as soon as I’m able.”

“Thank you kindly. You two better thank whatever god you pray to that he came along when he did. You and your companion, who is alive and well, by the way, would have been killed.”

“Thank you, sir,” said the woman who began crying at the news. The male nodded.

Then he was gone. Didn’t even say goodbye. How the hell could he move so fast if he couldn’t keep up with my Speed Aura? Don’t tell me he was barely keeping up without the aid of magic? I shook my head and willed my still intact pieces of Ice Armor to vanish. I looked down at my leg and stared. My leg had healed, but a nasty scar showed red down my outer thigh.

I removed some of the jerky and water skins I still had and passed them out.

“Papa, can we go back and get tasty food? Luin doesn’t want to finish the bee quest.”

I chuckled and stood up. “Sure, let's head back as soon as I finish collecting my drops.”

We walked the twenty-five minutes in silence back to town. I was surprised when we reached Mythtide and saw the metal gates were down and the walls covered with guards.

When we got up to the gate, one of the guards from above dropped down to the road. The thirty-some meter drop didn’t even cause the man to flinch.

“What about the pack of Kaappie?” he asked.

“All dead. Yokota took care of the alpha.” I replied.

“Thank Bast. A hoard of those could raze a small village. Where is Yokota?”

“He said he was going to track where they came from.”

“Good. The Guild will want answers.”

He shouted to the guards on the wall, and the gate slowly raised. We walked the two stunned adventurers to The Guild, where the woman screamed, “brother,” and ran over to hug Jono, who still seemed to be on the mend. I locked eyes with Vylria, who gave me a nod, and we left and headed to our inn.

Both Obbah and Throlk looked at Luin in stunned silence as we walked up and sat on the barstools in our favorite spot. I looked over at Luin and realized she had to come up to my waist now.

“What happened to her? How did she get so big so fast?” asked Obbah.

“Forced Evolution. It’s how she levels up, I guess. We are famished. Could we please get two large dinners tonight? Also, could you let the boys know she’s going to need a bigger tub?”

Obbah chuckled before speaking. “I'd say. It’s a good thing our boys don’t grow like that. I don’t know how I’d keep them fed!” she chuckled as she grabbed me a mug of wine and a mug of water for Luin.

I watched as Luin grabbed the offered mug and began to drink from it. It seemed her dexterity with her hands would allow her to be a bit more civilized. I tried to show her how to use the wooden forks, but she got fed up with it after some tries and ate with her hands. Obbah said it was natural that some races didn’t like using cutlery.

We finished dinner and went up to our room. Once finished with our hot baths, we quickly went to lay in bed where Luin of course went fast asleep and slowly started snoring.

If she grew any larger, I would have to start renting a room with two beds. I turned over and grabbed my magic bag. I pulled out the forty-seven cores I could find in the field of grass earlier and began to pop them into my mouth. If Yokota hadn’t been there, we would probably be respawning in a year. I had to get stronger.

[ System Notification ]

Twenty Three Rank D Jade Cores has given 276 Energy

Fourteen Rank C Jade Cores has given 224 Energy

Eight Rank B Jade Cores has given 160 Energy

Two Rank A Jade Cores has given 48 Energy

5% Bonus: 35

7 Energy converted to 70 Mana

Toxin System: 200/200