A hand emerged from behind the tree and gripped around the neck of the hiding Whooke. Oddly enough, the creature didn’t shriek until its neck was twisted sideways. But by then, it could only shriek at death.

The hand dropped the Whooke and revealed an expressionless Adrianne, who turned fuming in the next moment.

“Dammit! This isn’t the one either!”

Adrianne didn’t bother skinning the animal. Novus said that even he wouldn’t carry the Whooke’s defenceless hides. She turned to another forest area and wandered off, aggressively chopping through the brush.

Behind her, Novus scouted out with his Divine Sense and gauged Adrianne’s presence-concealing training.

She learns fast. It’s only been an hour, and she’s getting the hang of controlling her emotions enough to blend into her surroundings. If it weren’t for her temper flaring out, I wouldn’t be able to track her with this body’s terrible senses.

“Come out, Whookes!”

Adrianne’s shout made Novus sigh, but he didn’t bother admonishing her since there weren’t any Whookes nearby.

I wonder what they took that made her so furious.

…

Time passed as Novus and Adrianne travelled their way to a rough path of wolf-like making. Upon seeing the grooves in the ground, Adrianne felt a sense of both fear and anger welling inside her.

“Is this from when you went on your rampage?”

Novus questioned the obviously frazzled Adrianne, and she nodded her head with a slow strength.

“Yeah…”

As he traced his finger along the sword marks slashed against the ground and trees, Novus bent down. There were marks of battle everywhere as Adrianne must have fought against all the wolves in the forest.

That’s strange. If we were in the wolves’ area, the whookes wouldn’t have dared to venture near this place. Did the wolves flee after Adrianne passed through here?

Adrianne also knelt beside some sword marks. Unknown to her, a flaming presence sparked in her eyes that just as soon disappeared with a blink. Then, a hand clapped her arm, bringing her up to her feet.

“Ah!”

“Come on. We have some work to do, remember? No time to be dwelling on something you’ve already overcome.”

Adrianne nodded her head. Novus was right; she had already overcome it. It was time to move on and keep pushing forward so she could get strong enough to stay sane.

“My guess is that we are almost at the den. That should hold all the Whookes and the items they’ve taken.”

Adrianne's stronger resolve shone in her eyes, and she followed Novus’ lead.

…

The pair followed the battle scars and the Whooke’s combined path until they reached a cave opening that led deeper underground.

Something made Adrianne shiver, but with Novus’ reassuring presence, she made her way into the cave. With Novus making sure Adrianne kept her presence hidden, the two remained undetected as they entered deep into the cave.

Where are the Whooke sentries?

The center of the cave answered Novus' question. On a ledge that put them far above any of the gathered whookes below, Novus & Adrianne watched with mixed feelings.

For Adrianne, a memory bubbled up to the surface. The cave center was very familiar. It was the same cave where she fought a life and death battle with a wolf twice her size. With her mind preoccupied, Adrianne nearly let her concealed presence slip as she looked at the group of Whookes all dancing around the center creature of the cave.

Who! Who! Who!

WHO!

Compared to the lithe figures of the common Whookes, the center Whooke in the middle was four times the size and thrice as wide. Its fatty skin bounced along with each dancing movement as the gathered treasures on its skin bounced alongside each beat of messed-up Whooke music.

A Whooke Chieftain? This place hardly has the mana density to support one of these creatures! How did it get here?

Novus’ question was unexpectedly answered.

??? says to embrace the challenge.

Of course.

Novus would sigh if it weren’t for him trying to hide his presence.

Novus first sent out his Divine Sense to look at how many creatures there were. Unlike Identify, Novus found that it wouldn’t alert the creature being scanned unless their instincts were trained or their mental capability was near Novus’ own capability. At least, that was the case so far.

A dozen red-dot whookes and one black-dot whooke chieftain. I should be thankful none of them have evolved past their primary stages.

Novus hushed his voice as he spoke to Adrianne, which awoke her from her daze.

“We attack from two sides. I have a trick that should gather their attention enough to let you sneak attack them from behind. Can you get to that ledge over there?”

Adrianne looked to the high, lighted ledge and affirmed in a small voice.

“Yeah, I should be able to do that.”

“Perfect, while I distract them, you launch the attack. Target that big guy. If we can get rid of or even weaken him now, it’ll be easier to kill off the rest of the whookes.”

Before Adrianne could speak, Novus was already sleuthing to a spot where he could launch his surprise attack. Adrianne bit her lip before moving to her spot.

Who! Who! Who!

WHO!

WHO-Oh?!

The whooke chieftain uttered a startled cry as it sensed a threat appear. Its sharp owl-like eyes stared over a corner of the open space as a small crimson flame burned in its eyes. The whooke chieftain, and all the other frightened Whooke’s, had their attention drawn in as the small crimson flame danced and grew. As the crimson flame’s size increased, details appeared that slowly formed claws, arms, and a mouth filled with teeth.

Roar!

The crimson flames surged around the threatening creature’s roar, shaking the Whookes into a stunned state.

WHO!

The Whooke Chieftain shook as it felt a sword pierce into its leg. Its fat rippled as numerous slashing marks appeared in moments. However, the creature merely swiped at the fly-of-a-sword and launched itself at the flaming creature manifesting in the cave.

Unbecoming of a creature more fatty than muscular, the Whooke Chieftain arrived at the creature with astonishing speed. It only took a few moments for the two to meet, and the flaming creature suddenly disappeared with the Whooke Chieftain’s singular punch.

Slightly shocked, the Whooke Chieftain didn’t notice a figure drop down from above, and a rusty sword pierced into its eye.

Novus quickly dropped back with his sword in tow as the Whooke Chieftain tripped over its own pained leg and fell to the ground, clutching its bleeding eye.

WHO!

Who! Who! Who!

The Whookes, initially stunned by Novus’ Crimson Aura distraction, shook back into action by their leader’s cry. But not before Adrianne’s swords made quick work of half their numbers. Then, Adrianne battled with three Whookes, and the other three came tumbling towards Novus.

Slash!

Novus’ sword, fresh with the Whooke Chieftain’s blood and now layered in his Crimson Aura, raced to the Whookes' unprotected necks. In one slash, he took out a whooke and gained the correlating word box for the experience. However, in the next moment, his sword was stolen from him. His hand darted towards the Whooke holding his sword, but the other Whooke took priority as its claws raced towards Novus’ face.

Meanwhile, Adrianne faced a similar threat as she had taken out two of the whookes and faced another holding both of her swords. The Whooke threw one sword at her as it approached with the other and slashed at Adrianne. She evaded the thrown sword, opting not to try and catch a sword flying in the air, and attempted to disarm the Whooke that hardly knew how to wield an oversized sword.

Adrianne disarmed the Whooke at the expense of a sword slash landing on her armour. She crunched the Whooke’s neck with her boot as she rushed to pick up her other thrown-away sword. As Adrianne picked up her other sword, a furious cry shook her ears.

WHO!!!

Wielding Novus’ sword in its hand, the Whooke Chieftain didn’t care as it squashed the Whooke beneath its feet and swung the sword at a smirking Novus.

WHO!!!

The Cursed Villager’s Sword reacted just like Novus thought it would as bleeding gaps appeared on the Whooke Chieftain’s hand. In pain, the sword was let go mid-swing and dropped towards Novus, who intercepted the sword and slashed at the Whooke Chieftain’s injured leg.

Snap!

Thud!

The Whooke Chieftain’s leg collapsed as the muscle keeping it standing was severed. Unwilling to let go of such an excellent opportunity, Novus levelled another slash at the whooke chieftain’s neck but only hit shoulder muscle as the whooke chieftain’s necklace shone in a defensive light.

WHOO!!!

The cry shook Novus and Adrianne’s ears, and the Whooke Chieftain looked at the two with burning rage. Its necklace crumbled from protecting against Novus’ slash, but it had prevented the vital neck area from being attacked. Unfortunately, the Whooke Chieftain hadn’t managed to get a protective eye patch.

However, Novus and Adrianne’s sneak attack went impressively well, considering the common Whookes were dead, and the Whooke Chieftain was already down a leg and an eye.

Adrianne visibly relaxed before Novus’ shout rocked her mentality.

“Don’t let up! Get over here and fight!”

Thud!

The Whooke Chieftain’s pounding fist against the ground brought Adrianne back to her senses as she saw Novus barely evade. They had taken away the whooke chieftain’s mobility, but the jiggling fat hid enough strength to dent her protective armour.

It wasn’t until the sneak attack was over that Adrianne dared to use her Identify skill on the creature.

Whooke Chieftain, Stash - Lv.2

The leader of a small band of whooke thieves. The accumulated stolen treasures have all gone towards this greedy creature, resulting in an explosive growth that recently evolved the creature beyond its initial form.

Rank: Black Iron (High Tier)

Body Aspect: Black Iron 78

Mind Aspect: Black Iron 54

Soul Aspect: Black Iron 72

Skills: Steal Lv.11 (39%), Treasure Bomb Lv.1 (37%)

Abilities: Reinforced Claws Lv.5 (???%), Dimensional Storage Lv. Max

Adrianne felt goosebumps as a pair of damaged swords magically appeared in Stash’s hands. Soon, they were flying towards the attacking duo.

Boom!

The black iron-rank junk that the Whookes had gathered for Stash exploded upon contact with the ground, and Novus & Adrianne dove for dear life.

The ground lightly shook as Adrianne watched Stash begin to pull out more items, and she dove again for cover.

Their sneak attack had done significant damage, but the fight was hardly over for Novus & Adrianne.