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Oh man, everything is all dark again. Why am i always blacking out. Hmmm. I feel a weird tingling sensation in my head. It’s actually quite nice, like a very soft massage for my brain. Huh? It’s getting stronger. And i can see a light now. Ugh, the light is starting to burn my eyes and this tingling is starting to hurt. Was this the headache Mira was talking about, i guess it’s not too bad in exchange for using up all my mana.

………………………….

“Raaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhh! Sweet merciful jesus, this fucking hurts! Oh god, my brain feels like a million knives are stabbing it, Raaaaaaagh!”

Just as i had come back to reality, my brain had felt like it was being stabbed over and over again causing me to spasm all over the ground.

“Master, are you alright?”

“Mmmmmmmhr, yeah…..i’m good Ruby.

After a few excruciatingly filled seconds pain, i finally started coming back to my senses and take a look at Ruby who was worryingly looking at me.

“Wooo, that was one hel of a wake up. God damn, Mira, was that the headache you were warning me about?

“The would be the one. You actually held up better than others. Most would have blacked out after using up all of their mana reserves and woke up at the brink of insanity with blood pouring out of every hole of their body…...every hole.”

“Well then, i’ll take daggers to the brain over that. Well now that that’s over, let me get a good look at you now Ruby. How’s the new body holding up?

“It’s fantastic master, i’ve never felt this strong before, i feel like i could take on a dozen jungle wolves!”

“Heh, let's not get a head of ourselves now, don’t want you doing anything dangerous just because you evolved now do we?”

“Hehe, yes master.”

“Righty then, humph.”

I lift myself from the ground. I guess i fell when i got that bad headache. Weird, you would think that after experiencing something like that, i would still be feeling some effects from using up all my mana.

“Yo Mira, what's up with the headache, not that i'm complaining, but i don’t even feel it anymore. I know you should that i’m lucky that i'm not bleeding from everywhere, but shouldn’t i feel something more than just a quick headache after using up all my mana?”

“That’s a question that i have the answer to my friend. The thing is that the previous gods have enhanced your body to be better at handling mana and the like. In fact, i’m pretty sure you mana levels have increased a bit because of this. One of the little upgrades they put in you was that under extreme circumstances, your body will evolve to allow you to survive a life threatening event. So in this case, having a life threatening after effect from using your full mana reserves cause an immense change to happen to your body in order to make you survive. In this case it would be an emergency increase to your mana reserves to make you have just a little bit of leftover mana. Though with each forced evolution, your body will go in i guess you could call a cooldown. You can’t keep making your body go through forced evolutions. After a while, even the special trait that the gods gave you will fail at some point. So just try to keep the life threatening actions to a minimum, k?

“Heh, right. I’ll keep that in mind. Huh wooooooo What to do now?”

Now that Ruby has evolved to a second tier monster, we should be able to fight a little easier, plus i could increase my strength. Or i could go off to see what this whole monster alliance thing is. Hmmmm.

*HOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWL*

Huh, guess that answers my question. Let’s get killing!

“Better get used to your body quick Ruby, cause we got a fight on our hands.

“I’m always ready for a fight master.”

“Hey, what do you think you’re gonna do?”

“Well isn't it obvious, we’re gonna hunt us some wolves!”

“Are you nuts, you almost didn’t survive fighting one of them, let alone a pack of them!”

“Well that's a first, never thought you would get that worried about me, and it's fine, don’t ya remember that special skill we gave Ruby? Hey Ruby, you think you can use that skill when the time comes for it.”

“Absolutely!”

Right see, no problem, now then, let's go find those fuckers, my body feels all tingly just thinking about tearing some shit up!”

“Ugh, fine, just don’t do anything reckless alright, i don’t wanna end up in some wolves stomach.”

“You worry way too much, now ssssshhhhh, let me concentrate on sneaking up on these fuckers.

While having a mental talk with Mira, i had already begun crafting a few more makeshift spears while tracking where the pack of wolves were. It didn’t take too long due to all the howling that was going on and the bloodshed that was left on all the grass and leaves. It looked just like when i found Ruby, except worse. There were wolve corpses everywhere, both standard and corrupted types. There were limbs all over, on the ground, against trees, in the bushes, for god sakes there were wolf heads stuck in the branches in the trees. All this gore was getting me pumped. Every foot step i took, there was a soft Squish sound from how blood soaked the dirt was.

As i came closer to where the fighting was happening, i could hear meat being torn and the yelps from what i would have to guess are uncorrupt wolves from what i could remember from my last encounter with a corrupt wolf, they didn’t feel much pain so something else must have been yelping from pain. I hid behind a bush and saw what i would have to call a slaughter. Left and right, jungle wolves were being ripped apart by the corrupt versions of themselves. There had to be at least 4 jungle wolves and what could possibly be a variant jungle vine wolf. Surrounding them were 10 corrupt jungle wolves, all with their dark purple eyes that were just filled with uncontrollable rage and bloodlust. I looked around to see if there was any way for me to get an advantage. I spot a big bush off to the left side of the corrupt wolves and motion for Ruby to go over and hide by them. She responds by silently sneaking off to the bush i pointed out. If she wasn’t one of my followers, i would have been scared shitless by that piercing gleam she had. The cute adorable Ruby i knew wasn’t there anymore, only a monster ready to kill on my order. This just made me get a sinister grin on my face. These poor things wouldn't know what hit them.

I move over to a large bush over to the right of the corrupt wolves. As i moved over, i could see that the jungle vine wolf was doing everything it could to keep the corrupt ones at bay long enough for the others to catch a breath. It was using its species signature trait of vine control to whip up a makeshift barrier between the two. It wasn’t the strongest defense since it would be torn immediately by a couple of wolves, but it allowed him to push them back long enough to build another. It was working for now, but i could see that it was starting to tire out from doing it over and over, who knew how long it had till it was out of mana.

I observed the corrupt wolves closely and was able to identify their levels. 4 of them were lv.13 while the other 6 were level 12. Heh, so these weren’t gonna be as strong as the last one huh, perfect.

I finally got in position behind the bush i had found and pulled out two of my spears. I wish i could make a mental link with Ruby so i could give her precise order while mid fight and not have to yell out orders.

“I could fix that, just give me a second and…….done.”

“Ruby, can you hear me?”

“I hear you loud and clear master.”

“All right, on my mark, you use that special skill i gave you, alright?”

“Yes sir!”

From behind my bush, i could see two large ruby eyes piercing over from the other side. Once i give my mark, a second blood bath was gonna begin.

“Alright, on 3…..1…….2……..3!”

On three, i charged right into the two nearest two corrupt wolves and managed to stab them both in the eyes with my spears. I could hear an audible squish as i twisted the spears into their eye sockets making sure to make their eyes as useless as possible. Instead of pulling the spears out, i simply left them there and pulled out another and pierced the wolves bodies over and over and over and over until there was something similar to a fur wrapped sack of meat with blood spilling out of it. It had taken another 3 spears to finally put down those two wolves, but i still had plenty left to take on the rest.

As that was happening, a bright light came shooting out of the bushes, piercing straight into the skulls of 2 wolves who just so happened to have their heads lined up in front of Ruby. As the bush burned, Ruby jumped out and tore out the throat of another wolf that was stunned by the sudden sneak attack. Before the other wolves could react, ruby had killed her third wolf and had already locked her sights on another and shot off another blast from her horn. She was using the new skill i gave her, Ruby Stream. By the time 5 had been killed, the corrupt wolves had just realized what was going on and began their counter. They could recognize that Ruby was a much larger threat to them than me, so they split into two groups, 3 to fight Ruby, and 2 to fight me. What they forgot to take into account though was that they had turned their backs to their original targets, and if there's one thing you never do in a fight, is to turn your back on your enemy.

At that moment two vines had come from the trees above and yanked one wolf from each group and slammed them repeatedly against the trunks of nearby trees and the ground till the broken bodies of the wolves were no longer making anymore sounds. While that was going on, the other 5 injured wolves began attacking the 3 remaining corrupted wolves. They may have been injured, but as prideful creatures, they would never allow their injuries to keep them down in a fight. With our combined force we were able to quickly take down the last few wolves.

I was once again covered in purple putrid blood, filled to the brim with adrenaline. I wanted more, more fighting, more killing, and that's exactly what i got. From behind a bush came a wolf much larger than the jungle vine wolf behind me. As i observed, what i observed both shocked and excited me. It was a lv.29 Corrupted Jungle Vine Wolf. It was on the brink of evolving for the wolf species, and it looked like it was ready to use us to get that last needed level up.

This was gonna be fun. I finally activated Monster shapeshifting and grew my ruby horned and to my surprise, it had changed along with Ruby. Not only did the horn grow longer than usual, i could feel the nails on my fingers warp into ruby claws.

“Ohohohohoh…..This is gonna be good. Ruby stay out of this one, this big fella is mine. Hehehehehe.”

I ran straight for the wolf, and it attempted to use it vines to ensnare me in them. It would have worked...had i not activated headbut and just charge right passed them. Even if they came close to catching me, i just lashed out at them and tore right through them like a hot knife through butter. I rammed right into the wolf, knocking it off its feet. As we rolled on the ground, we were tearing into each other. When i had rammed into it, i had jabbed my horn right into its chest and used that to make a hole that i could use to grip onto while i used the other hand to either tear deeper into it, or make another gash. Somewhere in our fight it had torn my harness with my spears off, and managed to cut off two of my fingers from my left hand and make a gash below my rib cage, but i still kept attacking. I first gouged out one of its eyes, and from its empty socket i kept stabbing its skull till i was finally able to pierce it and feel for its mushy brain. It kept clawing at me and even managed to get a vine wrapped around my leg to pull me off. But each time i would just snap it off with my claws and keep at it with its brain. After a few moments more, i was finally able to make a hole big enough for 3 of my fingers and began digging its brain out. After only a single scoop of brain matter, the wolf had released me and began spazzing out on the ground till it finally stopped and blood pooling all around it. As i stood up and stared at it, a wild grin appeared on my face. Even though i had lost two fingers, couldn’t see very well out of my right eye because of what i would think is a heavily bleeding gash right about it, and possibly a broken arm, i was excited. I just had what i would have considered a BOSS battle and won.

“Roooooooooaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrr!”

“Hehehe, take that you overgrown piece of shit.This is gonna be my island from now on, and nothing's gonna stop me from taking it, especially not some purple goo slobbering overgrown mutt.”