…

‘’Do- you want to unite our groups?” The men asked

Although it was simple, this question shocked the entire group.

Join humans?

Throughout their adventures, they had long since disassociated themselves from the image of “humans.” It could be said that they saw themselves as beings of the wild. Especially since they gained abnormal attributes.

As such, they were quite shocked seeing other humans. In fact, they were more surprised seeing some than not.

Before answering, Guillaume’s group regrouped around Jonathan and the injured Hugo. After leaving Hugo to Rana’s care, he stepped to the front with Guillaume.

“I was rude, I should’ve started by this. Nice meeting you.” The men extended his hand to Guillaume. He had short black hair and a beard. He was of about average height and had a slightly athletic build. He had nothing special except for his charismatic air.

“Likewise.” Guillaume strongly shook the man's hand.

After that, the man also gave a handshake to Jonathan, who had to conserve his strength to not crush it.

“First of all, I want to thank you guys for helping my two comrades, they would’ve been in trouble if you didn’t come.” Guillaume started the conversation,

“Nono! I’m sure you guys would’ve been fine. You look like you’ve gone through a lot.”

“There is no need to be humble. I truly would’ve had to make compromises to get a half-decent outcome in that situation, thank you.” Jonathan honestly thanked the man. He had a very good impression of him since he was humble and looked like he was full of good intentions. “But before we can do anything related to an alliance, we have to at least know who you are.”

He didn’t blame the men for rushing the situation. In a place like this, number was a strength that could balance the odds. It was natural to want to pull in others before thinking about other things.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I was too hasty. I guess that I should introduce myself. I’m Yves and you’ll meet the others shortly. We were walking when we heard the animals from afar. Although we aren’t at starvation, a substantial food source like this is hard to come by, so we decided to attempt to hunt. Then we saw your group and I knew what to do when I saw this young man in trouble.”

“Hmm. It really is tough to live out here. My name is Jonathan. We were also quite excited when we met this horde of moose. We all have experienced the somewhat the same struggles, so why not talk about how our groups were made.” Jonathan was the one leading the conversation while Guillaume simply stood by him. Truth be told, he looked more like a leader then Guillaume with his much taller and imposing body.

“Yes, that’s a great idea.”

“Since you were the ones helping us, I’ll explain our groups situation first. We were all part of a much larger organization that got teleported here. Guillaume, our coordinator, Alex, our strongest man and Rana was superior in that organization and stuck together. Unfortunately, we got ambushed by wolves, so the large group and to split. Guillaume met with Julien, the small guy over there and Hugo, the injured one, and they took them in. Stephanie, the girl over there and I escaped and met with Guillaume. We were all lucky enough to escape from the ambush.”

“An ambush? This can’t be a coincidence, we have about 6 people form our group that got separated from a school in an ambush.” The man, Yves, pointed to a group of people behind him. There was one adult and five children. Jonathan recognized two amongst them, but he only waved at them before continuing his conversation.

“We were in a group of about thirty people, but conflict appeared very fast. Unlike your bigger group, we had 0 source of unity, so that was to be expected. We split in 3 groups of ten. Thankfully, no one died. We then met the others and now our group is sixteen. Here is Justine, there is Ivan, there’s also…” Yves introduced everyone in his group.

“We have been pretty well off with 16 people, so I’m sure with your guys added we'll be able to join hands to have a much better outcome.” Yves sounded very honest in his speech, but Jonathan didn’t let himself get influenced.

“It’s not that we reject the outside, but we barely know you guys. As such, we can’t start sharing everything we have. Although we have a link between us, the group of survivors from our group, you said it yourself. With no strong unity, we are bound to break.”

The man seemed disappointed hearing this, and he wanted to say something. Yet, he knew that Jonathan was totally right.

“But… We can form an alliance. Our two groups will help each other but not be dependent on each other for survival. If things turn for the best, we could unite after.”

Hearing this Guillaume nodded with a slight smile.

Yves also smiled hearing this.

“Great! Everyone has already been introduced to the other group so this will work out great. Is it possible for use to know what are your roles in your group so that we can better communicate?”

“Sure. Stephanie and I are long range attackers while the rest are close range attackers. Julien doesn’t fight but he can come to very insightful conclusions. Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to kill this many moose.”

Guillaume didn’t spread the details of their attributes. In fact, it didn’t look like anyone in the other group had an attribute, or if they did, it was one like Julien’s. When the time was right, he would tell them.

“Speaking of moose kills… We have only killed one, but we hope that —“

“I already know what you want. Without you injuring the other one, it would not have been easy to kill, so we will give it to you. We can’t easily transport three moos since Hugo is injured, so we’ll offer you 30% of another one if you help us move it. If not, we’ll just burn it here.” Guillaume’s tone was decisive, offering no space for discussion.

“Of course, we'll help!” Although Yves wanted more, he didn’t have the

“Then we should move now since the smell of blood will attract predators.”

“Agreed! Boys, grab our catch!” He ordered men from his group to grab a moose. There were nine guys, including him, and they successfully carried the moose with three people for one moose.

As for Guillaume, he grabbed a moose with Jonathan and let Alex take the other one alone. Rana carried Hugo.

Seeing this, the other group was shocked, especially when they saw Alex who grabbed a moose alone. Even though it didn’t look like it was easy for him, he was still doing a three men/boy job alone.

…

The group moved for about 30 minutes and decided to settle down at an open spot. They both worked silently, building basic shelter and starting a fire to smoke meat. The two groups obviously wouldn’t start being overly social, since their union was only because of the need of support.

Jonathan’s group didn’t need that support, they only needed to know what the situation with other humans was. Once they got what they wanted, they would leave as quick as they came.

Jonathan was always one of the chefs, so he set up a meat cooking station with long thin rocks. Even if he didn’t find that specific form, it wasn’t impossible for him to split rocks with a few hits with another rock.

While he was smoking meat, a girl came and sat by him. She was an Arabic girl with black hair that reached her shoulder. She was quite the beauty and was popular at his school.

“We’re from the same school you know?”

Jonathan quickly glanced at her then continued his task of cooking.

“Sure … Yamina right?”

“Ah! So you remember. I noticed you a few times in the hallway since you were so tall. Since we’re in this together why don’t we become friends?” She was staring at Jonathan straight in the face.

“Friends … there isn’t much time for developing friendship I’m afraid.”

“No, you’re wrong. There isn’t time to make friends, but there is time to make a friend.” She said that as a smile still hung on her face. She also moved her body closer to Jonathan’s.

Jonathan was no idiot, he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“Sure, there’s not a lot of people here, so why not? You seem like a good person, always looking so flawless and composed.”

“Oh you think so? Haha.” She made a little girlish laugh. “Thanks. You aren’t so bad yourself you know? Look at your arms! Where did you get them from?”

She started touching Jonathan’s arms, which were more muscular than before because of his strength attribute.

“These? It might sound weird, but as long as you eat an animal that is a predator, you’ll be able to get something. Although you won't necessarily become huge, you’ll still have benefits.”

He didn’t feel alarmed revealing this, as this was a secret that his group would eventually have to reveal. In fact, he had already heard Guillaume talking about it to others. As long as he didn’t say which attributes he had hidden, he would be fine.

“Predator?” She was quite puzzled when she heard that.

“Yep. Eat something like wolves and you’ll probably recover your former body.”

“Former body? That would be great. There are so many things I can’t do in a small body like this.”

“True. Who knows you might even become prettier than before … as for the things you’ll be able to do when you recover your body … I’ll look forward to them.” Jonathan said that as he blinked at her.

Her face blushed when she realized what he meant.

“You sure are dirty-minded … we’ll see when the time comes.”

They then proceeded to talk about diverse things for a few minutes. Her little laugh could be heard by many. This type of sociality made it easier for the others to talk to each other. Soon no one was alone doing something.

“I have to leave since Yves will get mad it me. By Jonathan, talk to you later!”

“Bye, talked to you later.” Jonathan waved at her.

The moment she turned her back to him, his expression turned blank again.

“I hope that you won’t—“A girl suddenly appeared behind him and started talking to him.

“You already know I don’t get involved with people like that. She wants to use me, then I’ll do the same. Then, I’ll throw her away.”

“So no matter where, you’re still heartless.” Stephanie shook her head.

“Heartless? No. If I loved you, then I would act like I did. If I’m just interested in using your body, then I’ll act like I am. It’s not like she wanted something more, so it’s not being heartless.”

“But she wants something out of you and you won’t give it … meanwhile you’ll take something from her.”

“She can only blame herself from treating me like an idiot. There’s nothing worst then a snake that thinks that it’s a dragon. With people like that, giving them attention is enough to satisfy them.”

“Whatever, don’t come at me if there’s some big drama.”

“Drama? Small things like that can’t touch me. And if they happen to be able to, I’ll just evaporate into thin air.”

“One day you’ll meet something that won’t even let you the time to vanish.”

“Then it will be on that day that I will know my limit. Till then, I’ll continue on…” Jonathan flipped over the meat.

“I don’t know if I should call you too mature or too immature.” Stephanie wanted to say something back, but she had no words.

“Well, tell me when you’re qualified to. Hahahaha.”

“Shut up.”

The two continued talking. Although they insulted each other a few times, this was part of their routine.

…

“So what’s up with him?” A boy sitting on a rock asked. He was cutting some wood with a bit of difficulty.

“I think he’s interested.” Yamina answered

“Then that’s good. Continue leading him on. Then, we’ll be able to rise in authority in the group due to being close to him. His group was already strong enough to hunt predators, so they’ll pass some to you for sure. Then, we’ll be able to get our old bodies and some of the “attributes” they were talking about.” The boy answered.

“Yes, that would be great.” Yamina seemed a bit hesitant but agreed.

“Then, we won’t need him anymore. If we are smart about it, we’ll be able to use him to our advantage then use him to divert attention from us in a critical moment.”

“It’s OK to get the predator meat, but is it really necessary to try to scheme against him? Can’t he be an actually ally … I think that it would be great to have him on our side.”

The boy frowned when he heard this.

“You have you caught feelings for him?” He stared at Yamina straight in the eyes, as if she had betrayed a part of him.

“I … no it’s just that he seems like a really good person. Strong and interesting. We could try to trap someone else maybe.”

“So you really did fall in love at first glance. But remember, love is just an emotion. You won’t be able to love anything if you are dead. Our survival is the priority.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

The boy didn’t answer and continued cutting his wood.

Yamina solemnly starred at the handsome boy cooking meat, hoping that things wouldn’t have to turn like her friend said.