This was just like the barn all over again…how the Realms do we get in situations like these? wondered Jexnog anxiously as he tried to occupy himself form the oncoming fight whilst walking into the circle. And how is this master going to heal everybody here? Do we have to drag ourselves back to the village? Heck I’d never be able to manage to drag Methilda back with her shin all bust up like that… Realms how am I going to get myself back to the lodge?

Even with his nonsensical deliberations the tall youth still automatically got into his usual battle stance. His feet as spread apart at the same width as his shoulders with him presenting a side profile to his adversary. But today he was leading with his right foot and arm, with the long limbs being slightly cocked and pointed at the Elite.

Usually he worked in tandem with Methilda, who was classed as a ShieldBulwark and therefore their front liner whilst he himself normally opened with Flurry of blows from the side.

Long ago he had realized that being a Hebdican meant that he automatically benefited from a natural growth in mind-related stats and perception, both of which barely benefited him as a brawler. But he still tried to make it work with careful thought put into every attack and every stat allocated. Whenever he could, he would always try to shore up his Str and Agi with every free point whilst he relied on the bonus to End,Vit and Dex from his class. All in all this left him with his stats pretty even across the board but leaving him with nothing in particular shining out.

But what he lack in numbers, Jexnog made up with skill and his phenomenal Hebdican eyesight .

His only two skills were Flurry of blows and Zone of control of which he planned to use to full effect even with his handicap.

It didn’t matter to him that he was about to get the snot beaten out of him because it was already something that naturally came with his fighting style. The only thing he feared today was that he didn’t particularly want the Chitpulka to hit him in the torso and possibly give him another hernia again.

Now lets see if its coming from the left or the right? He wondered as he trained all four of his eyes on the creature that was beyond his right fist that was shaking more than usual.

The monster casually walked in before turning to his right, so he followed it with his fist whilst shuffling his feet ever so slightly.

Then the creature shuffled to his left, so he continued to follow it with his guard.

It then put on a burst of speed before screeching out an angry hiss as it shot to his right, with the prior leftwards approach being a feint.

But the speed that it normally deployed to catch everyone else off-guard was nothing to Jexnog as all four of his eyes started to faintly shine in the morning light as he activated his racial skill.

Watchful eyes!

….

Chopeck had felt since two fights ago that these bouts of combat were beginning to turn into a dull and monotone exercise.

This new tall one that now entered his kingdom to be surely slaughtered, was no different for sure. If there was anything to look forwards to, it would be when it was the turn of the Green-egg-thief again. For even as tired as he was feeling, Chopeck relished how he was able to properly exert himself in his kicks against the creature’s thick skin.

On the other hand this new twig-egg-thief and the new-little-thief at the edge of his kingdom just didn’t really seem to measure up to the Great and Mighty Chopeck’s standard.

With surety he had felt the exhilarating rush of power surging through him multiple times already after his consecutive wins, but it was still tiring to fight a whole onslaught of foes. He didn’t really have the option of backing out either with his females all in attendance to watch his mighty performance.

Chopeck did allow himself the pleasure of admitting that he enjoyed how his mind was getting sharper and his body faster and mightier after all of his recent conquests. But all this fighting would surely tire him out. Maybe even so much that he would not have anything left when it came to the time to mate with all his females after he had emerged the victorious conqueror, as per usual.

Then there was worrying issue of the Danger-Thief that as of yet had not shown its claw or fully joined the fray.

If it was this Mighty Chopeck, then I would tire out such an impressively virile and mighty foe such as myself.. by throwing all these chicks into the fight, before swooping in for the kill in the end, he surmised with an indignant hiss. He had to admit that it was such a beautifully wicked plan, of which he himself would never be able to deploy.

Such a shame… it could’ve maybe worked against the Big-Hairy-Egg-Thief.

Thinking back upon his two recent fights, the new weaker-green-egg-thief was nothing in comparison to the other one he had fought before and the fight with the two tiny-green-egg-thieves was just ridiculous.

Like comparing a dead lifeless grub to juicy and plumb worm that fought for its life, he mused to himself with another small sad hissing slurp.

Well.. might as well end this one quickly, he thought with a exasperated slurp before lightly trotting forwards.

But something was off.

The twig-egg-thief was somehow blocking most of his vision with it’s upper-legs. The limb was constantly following his mighty greatness even as he turned left and then right.

It was very annoying how the closer he got the bigger the upper-foot seemed to be.

Good trick… but it won’t be enough! He hissed before displaying an explosion of spped by quickly kicking off his right leg and shooting towards the creature’s left flank.

But much to his surprise the creature seemingly was still able to follow him, even whilst he was nearly at his top speed.

The creature’s upper-foot was a constant pain as it doggedly continuing to be trained onto him and with his closer proximity to it, the creature’s extended limb was now fully blocking Chopeck’s sight.

The mixture of shock at this seemingly weak foe being able to react to him so fluently and his complacent approach into this fight left him sorely ill-prepared for the twig-egg-thief’s oncoming opening salvo.

….

Knowing full well that his guarding fist would block the creature’s line of sight and thus give Jexnog a tiny element of surprise, he threw out his first attack.

He launched his left fist outwards at an upwards curve that terminated into a satisfying hammer-fist as he simultaneous activated his Flurry of blows. Thankfully he had correctly attacked with his fist parallel to the Chitpulka’s quills and thus negated the creatures sharp defense. It did momentarily flit through his mind how unnaturally dense the Elite seemed to be whilst his extended fist continued to be naturally guided by his skill.

His fist quickly curved downwards in an a tiny semi-circular arc even as the Elite was abruptly smashed into the ground with a satisfyingly THUMP!

Then before the creature was able to get it’s foot under itself and re-align, Jexnog fired of two quick straight punches as if his arm was some sort of Tinkerer’s piston.

The Elite was still unable to react to his attack as it only let out a muffled and surprised hissing sound with each punch he landed.

Then in the final moments of his budding Keen Eyes skill, where time seemed to slow to a crawling pace, Jexnog threw out one last attack in his Flurry of blows combo. He quickly pulled his left arm back before arching it to the right and beside of the not-so-prone Chipulka before smashing it outwards and directly into the Elite.

His attacks all landed perfectly with them having been delivered with such speed and ferocity that the Chitpulka wasn’t even able to flare out it’s quills in defense or react in any meaningful way.

The final attack sent the creature rocketing along the ground like a mishappen toy-ball that was kicked by a exuberant child. Then Elite careened into one of the craters that was created in one of the previous bouts, where the living-cannonball smashed through the opposite lip of the crater along with a loud concussive explosion of force. The Elite then was sent tumbling along the ground as bits of Delmar landed all over the courtyard in a conical blast-zone.

….

Gazelle was once again left in shock for the second time that morning as she began to proclaim with a “Whoaaa….”

This was due to the fact that the unassuming and meatless Hebdican youth had turned out to be quite the capable fighter, even with his handicap of having to use his weaker arm.

She quickly surmised as to how he had perfectly controlled his movements with the aid of the Pugilist tin-ranked passive skill of Zone of control and simultaneously followed the Elite’s approach with the use of his racial skill to great effect.

But she quickly worked out the flaws of using such a combination of skills. It was undoubtedly an all-or-nothing type of attack considering how it was impossible for anybody to use any active-type racial skills in quick succession.

And seeing the Elite that was quickly getting up it was definitely a nothing for the boy.

What was more concerning was how Gazelle could easily feel the bloodlust that the little black Chitpulka was radiating like the heat from a raging last-harvest Hastendink bonfire.

She immediately demarcated the youth mentally as the target of her bastion skill before shouting out the skill of the same name to activate it “Bastion!”

Then in the next breath the Elite was gone like a whisper from its previous location, whilst Gazelle immediately started feeling the worrying backlash of a multitude of attacks as she tanked for the Hebdican youth. The creature had kicked the boy off the ground and was awesomely delivering a whole barrage of attacks against the petrified boy who did not even fully register what was going on.

Gazelle knew right then and there that the boy would’ve surely died if she had not activated her skill.

In the next heartbeat her left open palm smashed into the Elite and pummeled it into the ground, not so gently, as she suppressed the creature with her overwhelming might.

“Not bad kiddo, that’s a pass, now get your ass out of here,” she hissed to her side at the surprised Hebdican boy what was flat on his ass with a aghast look of abject terror in all four of his eyes.

The boy who was unscathed but surely shaken by the harrowing expeirience quickly scampered off before hopping the fence and running towards the house in the distance.

“Now I’ve still got two more boys that need to practice this morning.. so how about you calm down and get back in line?” Gazelle hissed before letting some of her bloodlust leak out to easily suppress the Elite’s.

The effect was instantaneous as the creature that was fighting furiously under her grip became immediately cowed in terror. She then softly grabbed onto the torso of the now-limp creature before throwing it a few man-spans away where it scampered back onto its feet.

It left Gazelle feeling slightly disgusted with herself after she had bullied an innocent animal in such a way. Toying with the kids was just fun and games, but what she just did to the weak little creature was just cruel.

Thankfully and much to her surprise, instead of having its will instantaneously broken and turning into a paralyzed and catatonic state, the creature somehow was able to stoically stand up back onto its feet and stare at her defiantly.

Even if it did so whilst pissing itself, it was still worth commending the creature for its brave nature in the face of what would have undoubtedly seem like a premonition of death to the innocent monster.

In her mind, Gazelle’s impression of this little Chitpulka just went up by a whole number of notches. Shame it was just a monster… but maybe in the future Delm’s older boy can unlock another slot and befriend it?

….

Chopeck felt terror like he had never before in his entire life as he defiantly faced his demise.

He was brought low by a surprise attack from the Danger-Thief… No he wouldn’t even have been able to face the creature even at his prime with his claws unblunted by the Big-Hairy-Egg-Thief.

It shamed him to conduct himself in such a disgraceful and craven way by soiling himself in front of all his females, but even with that cowardly act Chopeck still would not go down without his snout held high.

He had thought that he was already getting used to getting cowed by the Big-Hairy-Egg-Thief. But that was because he had never felt so close to death like he had just a scant few seconds ago, as he was powerlessly held beneath the grip of the Danger-Thief.

With his heart beat in his chest like a rutting male, Chopeck stood and watched as the Danger-Thief spoke in its unintelligible language.

Then shockingly with victory in its grasp… it seemingly backed off before making guttural noises back towards another one of the waiting egg-thieves.

As the new-little-thief walked forwards, it occurred to the Great and Mighty Chopeck that his life was somehow seemingly prolonged.

If only to fight some more with his battered body and nearly broken spirit.

Chopeck made up his mind as pain flared from internal parts of his body that was unknown to him, By all the juicy grubs, this Mighty Chopeck will not go down without a kick!