“I spy something… green.” “Your hand?” “Nope.” “Well darn me for not going for the obvious answer. The grass?” “Bingo. Your turn.” “I spy something big… big, bright, and white.” “Your eyes?” “I tried looking into my own eyes when I was a kid, the shock from the sensory feedback reduced me to a puddle for a month. Try again.” “The sun?” “That’s a new record, two wrong guesses in a row. Want to try for three?” “The clouds?” “Ding, ding! The prize, to keep standing on my slowly melting shoulders.”

After three days of incredibly cautious travel, Yohan and Alzolami passed the halfway point on their journey to the northern half of Ualiqula. Their path is currently taking them through an uninhabited plain of wild grain so tall that Alzolami had to stretch a few extra feet to see the way ahead with Yohan standing on her shoulders.

The jar of illusion was the name of the monster they had killed on their first stop, a B rank artificial fairy beast that brought many towns to their knees in the distant past and did in hundreds of guardians. The list of monsters specified that it hadn’t appeared in over a hundred years and that they shouldn’t worry about encountering it. Yohan wanted to collect the shards so they could turn them in for HCs back at Helgram, but Alzolami astutely pointed out that they shouldn’t weigh themselves down any more than they need to.

Yohan looked at the horizon ahead of them with anticipation. “Nick’s really missing out! If he would’ve had the decency to accompany us and kill that jar, he would’ve become seriously overpowered!” “Yeah! Who needs him? I want to be next to a guy I can depend on. Like you!” Yohan laughed. “Oh, has our relationship finally progressed past playful mockery to flirting?” Alzolami wobbled beneath Yohan as her eyes sparkled in bashfulness. “Well… Uh… Sure you’re not very tall… And not very strong… but a girl wants a lot more than that from a man…” Yohan laughed under his breath. “Maybe we should focus on any possible romance after we become Masters.”

Alzolami cleared her throat. “Speaking of which, what kind of Master do you want to be? Every Master’s got to hunt something.” “Huh… never really thought about it. What are some of the perks of being a Master?” “Oh, there’s all kinds. For one, you get immunity from all laws, and as long as you don’t do anything too heinous, another Master won’t try to capture you. Next, you have a right to a levy on any profits made from anything you were the first to discover. You also get unlimited access to the largest and most comprehensive databases of information. Any bank or financial institution will treat you as a first-rate customer and loan you any amount of credits, no questions asked. Masters can go to even the most high-security or access-restricted areas and locations. As long as you can provide the necessary materials and/or finances, any Artisan will craft, repair, or modify whatever you request at the top of their waiting list. Do those make a good argument for becoming a Master?” “Those… are definitely perks that make going through the ordeal of the Master’s Academy worth doing. Are there Masters who hunt credits?” “There are, but they’re not held in high regard by the greater Master community.” “Why’s that?” “From what I understand, Masters consider credits nothing beyond a means to an end. They’re not special and they don’t require any real talent to acquire and accumulate.” “But what about my uncle?” "To Masters, people like Mohan O’Mann are trillion to one anomalies that crop up every century or two. People born in poverty tend to stay in poverty, and if they do work hard to get a better place in life, odds are life will hit them where it hurts and send them back to square one or worse." “My uncle says that anybody that works hard and makes the right decisions can be successful.” “Some would say that and believe it, but one could argue that it’s an excuse to not give aid to people that really need it. At least that’s what my dad would always say whenever the subject would come up.”

The turn the conversation had taken left a bad taste in Yohan's mouth. “What about you? What do you want to hunt when you graduate?” “I’m caught between two paths. Part of me wants to be a Bounty Master, to live life chasing, beating down, and locking up the worst the universe has to offer. The other part of me wants to be a Poacher Master, to spend my days observing and cataloging the wonders of the rarest animals and organisms in the most exotic locals of the cosmos, and when someone with greed in their heart comes up looking for an easy credit, I’ll rip them a new face!” “That’s a… passionate outlook for your future.”

To their left, Yohan could swear he saw a disturbance in the grass. He wrote it off as wind, but raised his guard just to be safe. Suddenly, something a few feet in front of them lept high into the air and dropped down towards them. “Getdown!” Yelled Yohan, and with practiced grace Alzolami shrunk down into the grass as Yohan rolled off her shoulders. As the unknown figure sailed past them, it disappeared into the grass, barely making a sound.

Alzolami looked at him, eyes softly burning with a cautious tension. “How good are you at scanning with Aura?” “I can scan in a circular radius, but I can only detect bodies, location, and motion, not shapes or sizes.” “Good enough. Throw it up!” Yohan took a crouched stance and willed his Aura into a disc-like shape that extended several dozen feet around himself. Suddenly, something quickly approached from the side. “Incomingtwoo’clock!” Alzolami took a stance at ready. As the figure leapt up and dove towards them, Alzolami shifted her arm into a spear-like shape and skewered the figure mid-drop.

Alzolami retracted her arm so they could get a better look at it. Its body was the size of Yohan’s entire leg. It had a flat head with whisker-like protrusions, a mouth full of needle-like teeth, and two large dark eyes on opposite sides. Its body was covered in many small scales, had a tailfin at the back, and four long fins spaced around the circumference of its midsection. As it flopped dying on Alzolami’s arm, it changed random distorted colors. Yohan pointed at it with a shaky finger. “Even I know what that thing is! Grass fang. Rank D fish beast. They can swim though tall-growing plants like a normal fish does through water. They can read the air flow and vibrations in the plants they inhabit to locate prey which they attack by leaping into the air and using the force of the fall to tear out chunks of its body. They’re known to inhabit crops and can’t be killed with traps because of their potent spatial awareness.” “Well, at least the monster didn’t get the drop on us this time."

“Butbutbutbutbut…” “Aw man, I hate it when you forget to pause between words. You know something I don’t, do you?” Yohan paused, closed his eyes, and swallowed. “Grass fangs tend to make… large swarms.” “How… large?” “Depending on the size of the field they inhabit, a dozen to… a hundred.”

Alzolami just stared for a moment, her eyes very dim. When she spoke, her voice was low and quiet. “Can you maintain your scanning Aura while moving?” Yohan thought for a moment. “I don’t think I can if I’m walking myself, but maybe If I’m being carried I can.” “I have an idea for how we might be able to keep moving while remaining vigilant. It might be a little weird and awkward, but I think it’s our best option. Do you trust me?” “You haven’t steered me wrong yet. Go for it.”

***

Alzolami’s idea in action was an odd sight to behold. It wasn’t every day one saw a humanoid shadow with two spear-like arms extending forward carrying a small green man in four extra arms protruding from their torso in a manner akin to a baby harness while strolling through a field of tall monster-infested grass.

After about thirty minutes of keeping a steady pace and constantly scanning, Yohan got a feeling that he’d gained enough proficiency to talk without compromising his scanning. “So… have you considered maybe growing a few extra arms for spears too?” “Nice idea, but have you considered that I might have a good reason for not doing that? It’s pretty much the same reason why all humans can’t break concrete with their bare hands despite the fact that they invented martial arts. All demimans can control their general shape, size, and weight to an extent, but it takes years of diligent training to do anything really extreme or intricate, even more so in conjunction with PK. At my current level, I can only use my Powers with up to two limbs at once or my entire body.” “Good to know, good to know. Since we’re on the subject of your Powers, I’ve been meaning to ask: you’re always able to morph into blades and spears, but I’ve never seen you get cut or stabbed beforehand, why’s that?” “Well… every day at dawn… I sort of… jab and cut my fingers with a knife and needle so I have Red Shadow Girl loaded with something good if I need it.” “Huh… If you were anyone else, I’d be worried.” “Now you know why I’m so apprehensive about telling anyone about it.”

After a period of somewhat awkward silence, Yohan felt a strange mix of relief and terror when he sensed something approaching them at a rapid rate. “Threeattwelveo’clock!” Alzolami shifted her stance at ready before three grass fangs catapulted into the air, spread their fins wide at the zenith of their jump, and sailed down towards them with their fang-filled mouths gaping in a basic V shape. Before they were halfway down, Alzolami thrust her arms to intercept, one once, the other twice. After bringing their tips closer to her, she flicked the dead monsters off and held them at ready once more.

Minutes later, Yohan felt more bodies approach at a similar speed. “Twoatnineo’clock-twoatthreeo’clock!” Almost in formation, all the monsters emerged from both sides one at a time. In the same order, Alzolami thrust her arms at their would-be predators, cleanly dispatching and discarding them in a series of rapid yet fluid motions.

Almost instantly, Yohan felt an even greater number of them approach from the rear. “Sevenatsixo’clock!” Right as the fish beasts lept from the grass, Alzolami turned her head around in a complete one hundred eighty degrees and practically whipped out her weaponized appendages, creating two monster kebabs in several almost rhythmic motions.

“I can see why they’re only D rankers.” Spat Alzolami as she discarded the carcasses and reoriented her head. “They’ve pretty much only got one attack and they go down real easily.” “Overall lethality and staying power doesn’t always translate into a higher rank. Nick once told me his father used to tell him stories about monsters that would easily be ranked at A if they weren’t so sedentary. Speaking of which, they’re starting to gather all around us en masse, but it looks like they’re just circling at the moment. Watching... Waiting…”

“You seem to know quite a bit about these things, what are some of the ways people tend to get rid of them beyond confronting them head-on?” “Well, I know a lot because they can infest the farmlands in my home dimension. My uncle usually just sends for some mercenaries to take them out, but in really bad cases, we often have to resort to lighting the fields on fire. Sometimes we can even save the fields before they completely burn up because the monsters get extremely disoriented from the flames’ effect on the air flow which they use to read their surroundings, leaving them vulnerable to traps and such.” “That gives me an idea, a reckless and even crazy idea that’s just as likely to really hurt us as much as it can save our lives. Still got that lighter you used to start the cooking fires?” “Yes but… wait, really? Even if we tried to do that, there’s no way it’ll be big enough to…” “You’re right, it won’t be big enough. Unless you use it to singe one of my arms holding you.” “Oh. Oh… So that’s how you did that thing the time with Nick. I’ll get right to it!”

Yohan dug his hand into one of his pockets, searched around until he felt something metallic and rectangular and pulled out his lighter, one of the cheap but useful birthday gifts from his uncle. Like most appliances, tools, and weapons in the modern universe, it was crafted in a way to constantly replenish itself, in this case the inside was full of a slime mold that created a butane-like gas as a byproduct. He used his thumb to flick the hinged top off and with a precise turn of the wheel-like flint, lit a tongue of fire before lowering it to lick one of the small but strong hands supporting him. Alzolami made a small, imperceptible grunt in response to the sudden burning heat before retracting both her arms and beginning to concentrate. In the briefest of moments, she focused on the impulse response-based memory and pictured the sensation paired with it being contained in a bubble. Then she pictured the bubble travelling to her arm and bursting to fill it with an indescribable substance that reacted with the ethereal matter in it that composed the rest of her body to take on new properties. In a span of less than a second after the flame touched her, her left arm became a long mass of black fire that she quickly extended in a radius around her that ignited the grass surrounding them in real fire rather than the imitation making up her arm that she quickly returned to normal with the slightest concentration.

“Brace yourself Small-Fry! We’re taking the express route out of here!” Before Yohan could ask her What’s that supposed to mean? he felt the bottom of his stomach lurch as the world below him fell and grew smaller. Alzolami’s legs had extended more than ten times their length before she swung her left leg out to take a stride an athlete running at top speed would have difficulty keeping up with. After several dozen paces, the edge of the field leading to a plain of much shorter grass appeared on the horizon, which Alzolami increased her pace to cross before shrinking her legs at such a speed that caused her to practically fall on the ground, leaving Yohan to roll off her now nonexistent extra arms.

Alzolami made her next statement between gasps. “Never grew… any part… of my body… that big before!” After a few moments of almost constant heavy breathing, Alzolami was able to sit upright. “Had to use a ton of Aura just to keep my legs from liquifying!” Yohan was standing already, but still trembling. “Well, you’ve probably increased the potency of your two best assets at least, but next time… Warnmebeforedoingthat! Or anything like that too!” “Great idea! I’ll definitely remember to do that the next time we’re surrounded from all sides by deadly fish creatures that thirst for our flesh! Now how about you use that bright, hot, painful lighter of yours to start up a fire and cook me something to restore my energy reserves, or was sitting on my chest like a newborn too exhausting for you to do anything else today?” “Oh don’t worry your pretty little amorphous head about little old me! What do you want? I could whip up some nice, tender smoked fish if you’re willing to get off your sorry amorphous tuchus and spear us something from that field back there!”

They both stared each other down for several minutes before snickering and bursting into full-on laughter. “Amorphous tuchas? Again? Really? And you know I’m a vegetarian, even for monster meat!” “Fish technically isn’t meat, and I hear some people eat nothing but monsters!” “I just can’t stomach anything that had to die to get on my plate! When I found out vegetables were alive at one point too, my dad had to get the best child psychologists credits can buy to get me to eat anything! I even lost the ability to make a mouth for a while!” “Well it couldn’t have been all bad for him then!” Alzolami stopped laughing and her eyes blazed. Then her eyes seemed to spark and she started laughing even harder than before.

After her laughter died down, Alzolami stood up. “Well, we’d better put a few miles between us and that fire. We certainly wouldn't want to end up in the path of something or someone that wouldn’t be thrilled to see us.” “I’m certainly right behind you, especially after exhausting all my Aura!”