“Which of you smells like shit?” The gremlin spits, his ember red eyes glaring between us. “You’re making our home smell bad! Our home should smell like our shit!”

The others behind him jump and shout in agreement and rage. While the meaning behind his screeching is certainly humorous, his offense seems to be entirely genuine.

We’ve pissed on his tree, and he’s not impressed.

“Is that all?” I shout towards them, hoping that they have translators. “If it bothers you that much, I won’t stop you from spraying your shit wherever you want. Just do it when we’re not here.”

“No! Our land! You are ours now!” He screeches. “All beasts here are ours!”

“Greedy little shit.” I say, “If any of you idiots want to live, I suggest you turn around and start running.”

“No run!” The leader shouts at us, “You die!”

“Ready. Now.” Red messages us. I level my pistol and take the shot, aiming for the lead gremlin with only a dozen point of mana in the gun. I miss, blasting a large root and signalling the start of the fight.

As I fumble with the reload, Red is charging in. The knife in her hand takes on a slight glow as she cuts right through the throat of the nearest gremlin. The sounds of its dying screams are quieted under the raging tide of screeches coming from the rest of its brethren.

Red doesn’t leave it to die in peace, grabbing it firmly with a thumb piercing into its eye socket, and fully decapitating it using her knife. It’s other eye swirls around with lingering life, moments before Red throws it at another of the gremlins.

There’s a loud crack as the two skulls collide and the second gremlin falls.

Korgan’s charge is a few seconds slower, as his short legs rush to keep up. One of the grey skinned bandits leaps at him, trying to stab at him over the shield, but he’s no pushover. He slams it with his shield with enough force to send it tumbling into those behind it, catching a knife in the back.

The other gremlin just screeches as it pulls its dagger out of its sibling, glaring at the dwarf before it starts cautiously circling us.

Arn shows his true strength as he beats at his chest and slams his fists into the smaller grey figures. What he lacks in technique is made up for in pure strength and determination. The first punch causes the gremlin to stumble, the second forces it to the ground, the third dazes it, and the continuous pounding of fists after smooshes it into the earth. When done, he leaves behind a flattened corpse crammed into a depressed hollow formed of the broken roots beneath it.

Bessy is the most violent of all. Dozens of new tentacles are born from out of her inner fluff, as she lifts up higher into the air and starts grabbing and crushing the nearest gremlins with little effort. Some aren’t even dead when she greedily presses them into her body, consuming them while still alive.

This slaughter is somehow not enough to frighten the rest away, and many others circle around our vanguard, likely thinking us in the back to be easier prey. Some charge right for us, while others quietly watch from the shadows behind.

A screeching grey-skinned beast charges at me with a bone knife, dripping with some sort of brown liquid, stealing my attention. Pressing a few dozen mana into the pistol, I aim for its chest and fire.

There is no recoil from the gun, but the beast’s screams do grow louder as its shoulder pops and its arm droops, attached now by only a few torn tendons. As it cowers in fear and pain, those gremlins behind it charge right over his body, stomping over him without a care in the world.

Eshya thrusts with her sharpened blade, injuring one gremlin after another as the tide starts to flow against us. Her blade glows brighter the more wounds she inflicts, and she spills blood with every strike. After a moment’s hesitation, she finds her focus, and begins dancing between the bestial gremlins that simply can’t keep up with her step.

“How many are there?” I shout, shooting another and trying to reload without turning my eyes away from the gremlins pouring out of the forest around us.

“Lots.” Vii shouts, waving blasts of wind down at the crowd, trying to stem the tide, if only by a little.

Working together we can barely hold them back, my unusual abilities are not enough to save us this time. Even if I were to launch the largest of my attacks, I would take out maybe half a dozen considering how they’re spaced, then I’d have to survive with low mana until I can recover.

I need to get stronger, and more efficient in my fighting style.

A pair of gremlins sneak past Eshya’s blade and reach for me, their vicious bone knives wet with the same brown liquid as the last, likely a poison. I only just shot my pistol, and I don’t have the time to load it again.

Without wasting a moment, I push closer to them, punching the nearest in the face with a fifty-point fire burst punch. His face explodes and his head is knocked back. The knife, already in motion, lands on the leather of my armour, sliding off and costing me only a little mana.

The other gremlin is already upon me as I’m turning to face it.

Its knife is thrust in my face, stopping as it catches on my veil and burns through my mana. The reactive enchantment is enough to save me, but it costs me more than I’d like.

I catch the gremlins knife hand, twisting it around and using my rather limited grappling training to disable the creature. My mana drain pulls the life from the beast for every second I’m touching it. It screeches and scratches at me with the claws on its other hand, but my enchantments don’t even activate and my armour can still block the pitiful attacks.

“Just die already.” I say, punching at its head with stronger and stronger mana burst punches. Its face burns away strike after strike until it finally stops screaming.

I let it drop just in time to see another group of four come running for me. I nervously raise my hands, and check behind me, but Eshya’s still barely managing to keep my back protected.

A moment before the gremlins reach me, Rare dives from above spitting fire over their heads. They drop their weapons as they try to put out the dragon fire, but they’re not given the chance. Slan, the snake-man, whips his tail out at their legs, knocking them all to the ground before coming back around to stab at them with their own fallen daggers.

“Thanks!” I shout to them, spinning around to find the next threat.

Red dives into another group that has come close to us, cutting through them with her usual ease. Apparently, she’s been keeping the worst of the battle away from us, it’s just that they’re flooding down to us faster than she can kill them.

It’s the gremlins around Bessy who are first to turn and run, their screeching reaching higher notes as they scatter into the dark forest to try and escape from her clutches. A few aren’t able to make it, tripping over purple tentacles that wrap them up and crush them.

One particularly unlucky pair are caught in the same trap together and are crushed into one another before being thrown into the endless fluffy expanses deep inside our Bessy.

By the time the last few manage to escape us, the ground is already soaked with blood, and littered with mangled corpses. A few hateful voices turn to screech back at us, but they don’t show their faces.

“Scouts, where are they going?” Red messages, as I realize that our scouts stayed hidden the whole length of the fight.

“They’re scattering.”

“Same on this side.” The two message back.

“Watch closely, they might be up to something.” Red sends back before turning to the rest of us.

“Injuries?” She asks simply.

“Scratches,” Arn says before chuckling heavily. “Poison is meaningless to me.”

“Anyone else?” I encourage, looking Vii and Eshya over in case they were scored by one of the poisoned daggers without knowing. They confirm that I’m safe too, though with my armour I was never in as much danger.

“That was good.” Red says, looking between us. “We’re fighting trash, but it’s good do see no one died a stupid death.”

“I have a question.” Eshya asks, looking into the shadows around us rather nervously.

“Go for it.” Red replies, more relaxed than any of the rest of us.

“They were talking about owning this territory, but they’re clearly not the strongest things around.” Eshya says, “Are they just lying, or is there something more to this?”

“That’s a good question.” Red replies, “If you figure out the answer, tell the rest of us, would you?”

We gather back into formation and start moving again shortly after, Bessy eating the fallen gremlins since no one else was game. I do drain my fair share of mana out of them first, but there’s no point in lugging them around when it would be much better to hunt something a little more meaty when it comes time for lunch.

“What do you want to do with our new neighbours?” Red asks as we walk. “If those little grey freaks are the biggest bother around here, what’s your plan?”

Her question sounds like a test more than casual conversation.

“There’s a chance they were just a bunch of dim-witted raiders.” I say, “We can’t make our mind up about their entire species so quickly, that said I certainly have bad impressions. If they’re all like that, then I can’t see us being neighbours for long.”

“Oh? And what would you do with them?” Red asks, her deep eyes watching me closely.

“Well, let’s just see how nice their home is.” I say, “If they have a few guest rooms ready, I might re-evaluate them. If their entire species is altogether rude… well, I’ve never much been one for sharing.”

“I knew you were one of the good ones.” Red says with a barking laugh, “So many from the ‘civilised’ worlds just don’t know what it takes to survive. No, to thrive.”

“They don’t have to.” I say, “I was the same until you decided to crash the damn ship I was on.”

“It sounds like you should be thanking me.” Red laughs, “I’m glad that some of you were able to adjust to reality.”

“Is that what you call it?” I ask, “I have a few other words that could describe your ‘training’.”

“We were on a military base with no spare food and I had barely any time to make something of you lot.” Red hisses, “I also couldn’t bring you all along with me when we left. Killing off the weak was necessary. It’s not like you have room to talk with that corpse pile you left behind for the others to look at.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I say shrugging her off, “Shit circumstances for the both of us. Let’s just see about getting strong enough that we don’t have to traumatise people anymore, yeah?”

“With how weak you are now, that’ll still be a while away.” Red says. “Even with that fancy armour, I could kill you in one blow.”

“If I tried, I might be able to manage the same to you.” I reply with a shrug, “Don’t underestimate people, I’d rather not get killed because you look down on an enemy the same as you are with me.”

“If you’re really that strong,” Red says with a growing smile, “Ready up!”

“Monsters. Big, big, beasts, coming fast!” The message comes from both Shy and Lui. I can hear tremendous footsteps racing towards us, and even the ground beneath my feet quakes with every impact.

“If you think you can handle it, you can deal with whatever’s coming from behind.” Red says, “I’ll take the front. The rest of you watch the sides. Look out for those grey skinned fucks, you can be sure they’re behind this. They’ll take a stab at you when you get distracted by the big beasts.”

A chorus of affirmative replies and nods sound out as the first beasts start to become clear through the tangle of roots above and beyond us. I focus on the beast at the rear of us, lifting my loaded pistol and weakening my hold on the mana inside me so that I can force it all into the one shot.

“I’m watching your back.” Eshya says from beside me, her sword out and ready.

Pale white flesh stands apart from the red leaves and the brown roots that make up the forest around us. It roars loud and long before hitting the ground hard enough to cause the network of roots to tremble beneath our feet.

A few gremlins stalking through the shadows near us throw something at the pale white monster, goading it towards us. Before we have any chance to stop them or, better yet, kill them, the beast rushes us.

It crashes right through a thick root, shattering it as the little gremlins scatter in a panic. Their screeching fills the air as they run in every direction one even stumbling its way to us before falling on Eshya’s sword.

The monster stands as tall as a two story building and is built up with enough muscle and mass that it still manages to seem wider than it is tall. It’s two arms and legs are bursting with large muscles, scattered with visible veins and arteries. Its big torso makes me think of it as some distant relation to a gorilla, though at least gorillas have enough hair to cover up their ugliness.

That and gorillas don’t have long, meaty tails trailing behind them.

Its mouth is larger and wider than any gorillas would be, and it has a set of tusks protruding from its upper jaw. Its rounded head looks wrong to me, there should be hair of some sort on this thing. Did someone play a prank on it and shave it bald?

For a moment I think that the naked gorilla might focus on the gremlins, but not a moment after they disappear from sight, it turns to us instead. Maybe it can’t tell the difference between us and the gremlins. Maybe it’s just territorial. Maybe it’s just trying to let off some steam after it was pelted with gremlin shit—Yes, its pale skin is painted brown in places strongly suggesting that that’s what the gremlins were throwing.

Whatever the reason, the naked ape turns its rage filled gaze towards us instead.

A stupid mistake.

It roar is loud enough to hurt my ears as it lifts its muscular arms up above its head as if to slam them against the ground.

Not missing the chance, I load most of my mana into my pistol and aim for the head.

My hearing grows fuzzy, and my sight blurs a moment as I get used to my suddenly lowered mana. Even so, it’s impossible to ignore the blast that splatters the apes head, leaving nothing at all above its shoulders.

Nothing much lost, it was stupid enough to pick a fight with us, so there couldn’t have been much of a brain in there anyway.

The headless body falls forwards, landing with a crash and crushing a few smaller plants. Blood spurts out of the gaping wound of its neck, splattering over us before it starts forming a crimson puddle.

While other powerful beasts start their assault on the rest of our formation, I rush to the corpse of the naked ape.

A gremlin jumps up from the underbrush, leaping at me to try and catch me by surprise. Eshya cuts it down without a moments pause.

I touch at the sickly pale skin of the large ape. It doesn’t take very long to squeeze out enough mana to fill myself and my armour. Once done, I retreat into the centre of our formation and watch the rest of the battle unfold.

Red’s fight is already over, she killed her beast near as fast as I did mine. Her foe, a large caterpillar/spider thing, is unmoving and bleeding out into the dirt at our feet. She’s already moved on and is now hunting down the little gremlins that are still scattering to escape her.

The others are struggling a little with their beast, but it does look like they’re going to steal a victory.

Rare’s fires burn away at the praying mantis’s eyes, blinding it as the others push the offensive. Arn is taking the chance to smash at its arms, but he’s not having an easy time of it. Korgan has leapt in to try and protect him from the other scythe that’s swinging violently about, but his shield is ringing with every strike, and I’m not sure he’ll last for long like this.

Slan is keeping the gremlins away from the others, struggling against great numbers, but somehow holding them back.

Bessy takes a moment to think before she sneaks around behind the distracted insect. The moment she’s gotten behind it, her limbs unfold and grip the beast by every joint in its body. Like a starving man tearing into a boiled crab, she snaps away its limbs before slurping them down.

Perhaps thinking that something can be done with the bladed scythes, she leaves them uneaten, while the rest of it disappears into her void. It’s a good thing that she can feed herself because I do not think I could pay her food bill.

The remaining gremlins turn to flee but quite a few are struck down before they even get the choice. Lui stabs the gremlins with stolen weapons, while Shy, on the other side of the battlefield, is cleaning up in the same way. Though, she uses her hands and her claws rather than stolen weapons.

A few of the grey-skinned gremlins still manage to escape, but not many.

“Did anyone get themselves stabbed this time?” Red asks.

“Me. Again.” Arn says, stumbling down away from the fallen scythes, all that remains of the beast he struggled against.

He shows his wounded belly as easily as a child showing off a splinter. Unlike that splinter, I can see ribs and a few pumping organs inside of Arn as he pulls apart both sides of his flesh.

“Here.” Vii rushes over with a potion, “A healing potion. It’ll help.”

Arn’s eyes open wide and sparkle brightly as he looks down at her and the small bottle she holds up for him.

“Thank you.” He says, almost reverentially. He takes the potion in an incredibly delicate grip before pulling out the stopper and drinking the contents.

“It was delicious.” He says, smiling as he hands Vii back the empty bottle.

I watch carefully as the mana travels into him, wrapping through his body and burning away just as quickly. It’s not as mana dense as the spell that we found in Fluffy Butt’s den, and that’s made rather clear soon after, as his injury doesn’t fully heal.

While the internal organs and bone are now hidden away again, the large gash is no different from before.

“Better.” Arn says happily as if it’s something as minor as a papercut.

“So long as you’re happy.” Red says, “Everyone good? Now’s a good chance to make off with some food. That thing looks like it’d make for a good meal.”

She points at the ape that I decapitated.

“I told you I can kill things.” I say.

“It’s impressive,” Red says sounding unimpressed, “I’ll take it into account from now on.”

“Incoming. Many enemies. In formation! They see me!” Lui sends the message in a hurry as I see his strange shifting form racing back towards us.

I load my pistol and ready for a fight while Red leaps over us to be at the front of this new engagement.

From the same passage that the naked ape forged comes a marching infantry block. Spears are raised over shields, each steady and firm, even as they jump over tall roots and manoeuvre over uneven ground.

The people are hidden by their own shields, but I occasionally glimpse their webbed feet as they move. It’s rather clear that they’re much smarter than anything we’ve met so far down here, but that’s no guarantee that they won’t try to kill us.

“Hold up.” I call out to them, “You guys come in peace, right?”

Red snorts, laughing my way without turning away from the threat. She, however, doesn’t stop me from making an attempt at diplomacy.

“We’re new to these parts, you couldn’t give us some directions, could you?” I ask, as the formation comes to a stop a dozen meters away from us.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 121 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Skin 5% 28% Muscle 33% 33% Mind 20% 65% Cardiovascular 11% 11% Misc. 10% 10% Efficiency 79% 79%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Mana surge punch

-Reactive mana skin

-Infused delayed Casting

-Fire burst punch