Liam was crouched down low in the underbrush of the forest. He was at the very edge of his mother’s territory today. It was a beautiful autumn day, and he would have loved to stick closer to home if only to get back faster. His younger siblings were great, and he loved to play with them when he could. Still, he was all the way out here for them in the first place. His youngest sister was currently in one of her primary growth phases to reach adolescence and that was causing her to have cravings for jackletrout.

Unfortunately, the amphibious creatures only lived in and near large streams of water where they could build their underwater burrows. The only stream large enough to house them in his mother’s territory had been hunted of all its residents over the last month. So he had to go farther afield to find the scaly foxlike creatures. It had become quite the nuisance to come out this far every day, but every time he came back with a fresh one and saw the look of joy and adoration in Tasi’s eyes, he knew he would be back out here the next day. He was just happy her growing phase was nearly over. She had a week left at most, probably only a couple days if her twin brother was any measure.

Letting out a quiet sigh, he brought his mind back to the hunt. Only to have his mind taken right out of it again when his left arm lit up with a silvery glow like it always did when Astra was trying to get his attention. Looking down, he read the silvery script flowing over his arm in elaborate, beautifully formed curling letters. Are you still pretending to be upset about having to go out here Li? We all know you love it.

“No, I don’t.” He whispered quietly in response to the teasing words as his arm prickled warmly under the letters as it did whenever Astra was messing with him, “I’m doing this so that Tasi will be able to grow as strong as she can get.” The silvery light forming the words on his arm swirled and reformed once again.

Oh, so that's why you get a huge grin on your face every time Tasi comes running up to you when we get back, saying what a great brother you are and how much she loves you for getting her favorite food. Liam scowled, which looked quite menacing for a 7-year-old, considering the fact that he was already five feet tall, covered in more muscle than a child his age had any right to have, and his body and face were crisscrossed with various scars. Wearing a leaf green shirt and pants that looked to be woven from the plants around him, he blended into the surroundings.

“I do not.” The menacing image disappears as he pouts.

You so do. Ask anyone. It's adorable.

“Do not.”

Do so.

“Do not.”

Do so!

“Alright, I think that's about enough of that. Let's get back on task, yeah?” A gruff, middle-aged man's voice spoke inside Liam’s head before he could respond to Astra’s taunt. Liam let out another sigh, realizing he let Astra wind him up again.

“Gabe says we should probably get back to it, Astra,” Liam whispered.

Boo. Stupid Gabe always ruining my fun.

“Well, most of the time he’s asleep anyway. He only ever wakes up when we might be in danger or when he’s training me.” Liam responded reasonably.

It’s not like I don’t know that Li. He’s just so cranky when he is awake.

“Ah-hem.” Gabe clears his nonexistent throat in Liam’s head.

“Right, right we’ll get to it. You can complain about Gabe once we get back and he goes to sleep, Astra.” Liam says with a smile and a wink toward the silver light, knowing the statement will annoy Gabe.

“Ha Ha. Laugh it up ya freakin comedian. We still need to get the stupid jackletrout and the day isn’t getting any younger. Hurry up so I can go back to sleep. It’s not like I want to be involved with your dumbass life any more than I have to.” Gabe says moodily.

“Language,” Liam responds internally as he gets up from his crouch and begins moving stealthily through the woods, not bothering to respond out loud since Astra wasn’t privy to Gabe’s comment anyway. Disgruntled mumbling was all he got in response. Liam smiled. It had taken a long time and lots of coaxing to get the former hero to stop cursing near constantly. Gabriel Lighborn was not the most personable man, and being trapped in the mind of an infant for years had done nothing to improve his temperament. He had improved in recent years though, enough that Liam was almost convinced the eternally sour soul actually liked him. Finally focusing back outward, Liam sent a questioning thought through his High Telepathy to Vit, who was flying overhead looking for any jackletrout along the river a quarter-mile ahead. Liam had only begun using Stealth so far from the river because he knew that after having hunted out here over the last few days, the jackletrout must be on high alert.

The response he got back from Vit was a general negative and a few images from a bird's eye view of the river showing nothing of interest. Only a few regular tier one animals like various fish and small wildlife that lived either in or near the river. Since Vit was only a tier three lightwing falcon, his thoughts weren’t complex enough for speech yet, but he was getting close. Regardless, having literal eyes in the sky that could give him real-time updates of his hunting grounds was an amazing advantage to Liam. So much so that he sometimes went hunting without his feathery companion just so that he didn’t come to rely on it too much. Today was not one of those days, though. He was on a mission, and he aimed to see it done as quickly as possible.

Traveling toward the river, Liam also picked any plants he saw in his path that might be beneficial for his brothers’ and sisters’ growth. This was another reason why he had been approaching the river at different spots and from different angles every day since he started coming out here. Mainly he did it so that it wasn’t blatantly obvious where he was coming from if anyone or anything tried to hunt him instead, but the plants were a nice bonus. Everything he gathered went into the sack strapped to his back. He had room for quite a lot in the sack, and he hoped to fill it up if he could. The trees were much younger out here, unlike in his mother’s territory, and it allowed a variety of species of plant to grow that couldn’t be found deeper in the forest. Some of them were useful in many ways, such as for healing purposes or as alchemical agents used in physical magic. Not that Liam would know first hand. He only knew about physical magic at all from Astra. It wasn’t something a Beast like his mother would typically use and he didn’t seem to have a personal aptitude for it either. So he only learned what he needed to be able to fight against it if necessary.

Today was looking to be a good haul already, and he wasn’t even to the river yet. He’d found some hellroot, a fat ugly reddish-brown tuber with both fire and infernal elements. It would be helpful for Ziac, a hellhound, and the second oldest of Lorna’s biological children. It might edge him closer to catching up to his older sister. Heather was Lorna’s firstborn and since Lorna was a seventh tier Mana Beast, her firstborn became her successor. This meant that Heather had more or less all her mother’s abilities already, even though she was only tier six. Still, Ziac was competitive and adventurous, so he never passed an opportunity to challenge his sister to a fight. Heather doted on her brothers and sisters excessively (almost as much as Liam, though he would never admit to it) so she ended up humoring Ziac’s requests more often than not. She never went easy on him though. Ziac lost every time, but he never gave up. Liam admired his drive to get stronger. It was a desire he could relate to himself after all.

After almost half an hour of collecting various plants, he was finally beginning to approach the river. Already, Liam's sack was nearly full. He might have gotten a bit overzealous with all the plants along the way. He would have to drop some. B esides being out here to grab a jackletrout for Tasi, he was also searching for any still pools along the side of the river. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of standing water closer to home, and he needed Water Lotus. Lotus was a pretty common plant on its own, but its Elemental variants could only be found in places with high concentrations of a particular Element that was also peaceful. Water Lotus was by far the second most common variant overall, just barely beat out by Earth Lotus. Other variants were exceedingly rare and highly prized, as consuming the Lotus directly or in a specially prepared tea could increase comprehension of an Element directly. The normal Lotus just made for an excellent and very calming tea. Lorelie needed that Water Lotus, but they were unfortunately much rarer than average around the deep forest.

Lorelie was the middle child of Lorna’s seven biological children, and Liam worried about her more than any of his other siblings. As the middle child and a quirk of her own power, Lorelie faded into the background both figuratively and literally. Her older siblings were all a tier or more above her, and her younger siblings were much rarer species than her. The problem was, Lorelie’s greatest talent was literally being able to turn invisible. She was a serpentwolf, so when she wasn’t invisible she was a lovely creature with beautiful azure blue scales on a long slim body with an aquatic tail, built for speed, but Lorelie would rather hide than run due to her variant ability. Her Elemental Pool variant made her naturally passive, and she adopted that behavior wholeheartedly. This Element was also what allowed her to turn invisible if she stayed still for a few seconds. She could hold so utterly still and be so completely silent that even Liam couldn’t find her, which was seriously impressive considering his Enhanced Senses ability was at High 22. And it was a combined ability on top of that.

Liam hoped eating some Water Lotus would either deepen her comprehension of Pool or allow her to comprehend some other aspect of water enough to gain another Element. If only he could make the tea, it would have a greater benefit. As it was, Liam wondered if his shy little sister would wind up stuck in fourth tier just from a lack of confidence. He would never let that happen if he could prevent it. Being the daughter of the queen of the local forest made her life more dangerous, and staying at fourth tier wasn't enough for her to be safe, no matter how well she could hide.

Coming up onto the river itself, he saw a few streams that split off from the river and might lead to some smaller pools where he could find Water Lotus growing. Putting that aside for now, Liam sent another telepathic message to Vit. Thankfully, he had managed to find a nest of jackletrout about a five-minute walk upriver and was currently resting in a tree by said nest, watching over their prey. With a smile on his face, Liam headed upstream. Reaching the area Vit was in, Liam dropped down low to the ground. Unfortunately, the trees and general greenery didn’t come all the way up to the river by the jackletrout nest which, now that Liam thought about it, was probably why the crafty river dwellers had built their nest here. It was certainly going to make sneaking up on them harder. Liam smirked to himself. It wasn’t going to be enough to stop him though. He could go toe to toe with his 5th tier siblings, and no 3rd tier Beast was going to slow him down at all. “Astra, ready.” Liam said so quietly that the words barely made it past his throat. Fortunately, since Astra was tied directly to his flesh she could hear anything he said, no matter how quiet. This combined with the fact that she shared his senses and Gabe in the back of his mind, meant that no matter where Liam was, he had two sets of eyes watching his back.

Ready! Let’s get those stupid fishes. The words scrawled directly across his pupils this time, meaning he didn’t have to look at his arm to see anything Astra wanted to tell him. They would communicate like this all the time, but unfortunately, the magic that allowed the script to manifest also messed with his eyes badly. To the point where if Astra talked to him like this all the time, he would almost certainly go blind. But for a short combat encounter, the ability for Astra to communicate with him almost instantly was indispensable. It might not be entirely necessary in this case, considering how much weaker his enemies were compared to him, but Astra figured it was better to practice for more dangerous encounters, and Liam wasn’t going to argue, considering Astra was way smarter than him, and made all the tactical decisions. With that setup, Liam readied Perseverance.

Perseverance was his highest ranked power by orders of magnitude, being at the peak of god rank. The benefits it gave were tremendous. It allowed him to ignore negative effects. This meant pain, poison, adverse environments, binding magic, debuffs, and even the need for food and sleep. Each increase in level granted a slightly longer duration for which he could endure and a slightly higher amount of adversity he could endure. The higher ranks allowed ever more things that could be ignored and provided massive boosts to duration and amount ignored. At God rank level 100 Liam’s Perseverance meant he could ignore a huge variety of things from massive life-ending injuries to minor diseases. The drawback was that once the ability’s time or damage limit was reached, all that damage he ignored was still there. It didn’t actually get rid of the damage, it just meant it couldn’t limit him. This could be life threatening, because not paying attention to the damage could lead him to taking even more. And once the ability's duration ended, he could very well drop dead. However, this was a low stakes encounter, and Liam needed to learn to pay attention to the damage he took, even at the low end. It was part of the training program Astra had put together for him to learn how to use his skills and abilities more effectively.

This was easier said than done. The nature of the ability was to let him ignore the damage, so trying to pay attention to it went against the abilities on function. It was like actively breathing differently while also focusing on something else. All that being said, Liam didn't plan on taking any damage for Perseverance to ignore in this little scuffle. His Speed and Strength were both at Middle rank, and the jackletrout were unlikely to be higher than Lesser rank in either, a full two ranks below him. Ready to begin, Liam wrapped his right hand around his left forearm and pulled.

Out of his arm came the Core Shard. The small, crude, obsidian dagger didn’t look all that threatening. It was only a half a foot long and didn't appear incredibly sharp. Looks, though, can be very deceiving. Out of all the gifts Liam had received at his birth, this was easily his third favorite. The first two were the ones given by Hemel and Grim, for obvious reasons, but the Core Shard held a special place in his heart as a tool of both great violence and creativity. It was incredibly sharp and essentially indestructible, not to mention its various powerful abilities. Astra said that even it's creator, Aarde, didn't know the full extent of what it was capable of and that the functions Liam had discovered and unlocked were not even a significant part of its true potential. Liam found this hard to believe because the things he could do with it right now were pretty amazing, but he took Astra's word for it. She had never been wrong before, after all. For this hunt, though, Liam only needed its sharp edge.

Crawling silently up to the very edge of the forest, he saw his prey lounging in the river peacefully some twenty to thirty feet away. It really was a wonderful day, and Liam didn't blame the creatures for relaxing in such agreeable weather. It looked to be a large nest too, which may be another reason why all the jackletrout appeared to be so relaxed. Safety in numbers. It was unfortunate that they were wrong. Neither their numbers nor the sunny day would save them. Fortunately for them, Liam wasn't a monster. He wasn't here to slaughter the thirty-something creatures he could see. He only needed one. The rest would just get quite the scare. On that note, Liam picked his target carefully.

On the edge of the group, there were a few that seemed older than the others. Their normally iridescent scales were dull and plain. They also moved about much less than the others. These were his targets. The creatures were already at the end of their lifespan. His reason for targeting the elderly was twofold. First of all, their age would confer more benefits to their meat than the younger ones, as their mana would have settled thoroughly into the flesh. Secondly, Liam held a deep respect for nature and all its inhabitants. So, while he would do just about anything to help and protect his family, he would also attempt to do the least amount of damage to the environment as possible. Taking one of the oldest jackletrout would have almost no effect on the nest as a whole. With that in mind, Liam skirted around the edge of the river clearing, getting closer to the side where the elderly jackletrout were resting. When he was as close as he could get, he sent a signal to Vit.

A loud, piercing shriek sounded out, originating on the far side of the river, almost exactly on the opposite side of the jackletrout nest to Liam. In the same instant, Liam leaped up from his position in the brush and sprinted toward the nest. He covered the thirty-some feet in less than a second and was on top of one of the jackletrout he was eyeing before it could even begin to notice him. Coming up right next to his selected target, he didn't slow. Instead, he brought the Core Shard around with all his momentum, aiming to slip the blade into the jackletrout neck and upward directly into its brain, killing it instantly. Unfortunately, the target noticed at the last instant and started to leap away from him.

Liam knew before he stabbed that he wasn't going to be able to do this as quickly and cleanly as he would want. So instead of going for a clean stab, he swung wide and low with the obsidian dagger actually spinning around with the swing to kill his momentum. It was a lot messier and not nearly as swift a death as he would have hoped, but his improvised attack did what he wanted it to. The Core Shard severed the tendons on both of the hind legs of the jackletrout, as well as cutting deeply through the creature's fish tail. The swing also canceled enough of his momentum for him to come to a stop in the shallow water of the bank. Effectively immobilized, the jackletrout was unable to resist as Liam reached up, wrapping his arms around the helpless creature's head and neck. Jerking hard, Liam swiftly snapped the creature's neck. He sighed. The whole maneuver was sloppy and made far more noise than he had wanted as he flailed about in the shallows.

You did fine. Not everything will go perfectly, Li. It was a great follow up. Evidently Astra had understood his sigh perfectly, as always. Liam huffed, slinging the carcass of the creature over his shoulders and sprinting back towards the woods before the other jackletrout could do more than begin to bark at him.

"I need better control." He muttered unhappily. Liam shook himself slightly. "Also, Astra, I thought we agreed no eye writing in combat unless it's actually about combat.Its your rule." He said, still running full tilt away from the river.

I know, but it's less distracting than having you look at your arm while running. Liam felt a slight pressure wrapping around his bicep in a spiral, Astra’s way of letting him know she was fine waiting to talk until they could stop. After a few minutes, and a few miles covered, Liam felt comfortable stopping. It was unlikely that the jackletrout would try to follow him, their species wasn’t really the vengeful type, but Liam was more concerned about other Beasts.

“Alright, I'm going to descale and gut this guy and then we can talk. Sound good?” Silver light pulsed on his cleft arm, and he felt that pressure once again, like a hand lightly gripping him, letting him know Astra was fine with that. Liam then proceeded to do as he had said, Hanging the carcass from a nearby tree with some string he had brought specifically for that purpose. After all the messy work was done, he looked down at his arm. “So, I need to work a lot more on my dagger skill.”

You do, but Li, you’re seven. It’s not like you need to be pushing so hard. Astra was softly pulsing the script on his arm, massaging the muscle gently. Liam relaxed, realizing he had been tensed up ever since his mistake. He sighed heavily and then flopped down onto a nearby log.

“So? It’s not like you have any room to talk. You aren’t any older than me. Besides, both Heather and Ziac are younger than me, and they’re stronger. By a lot.” he complained.

I may not be older than you but I know a lot more. The skin on his arm prickled uncomfortably. Letting him know Astra didn’t appreciate his bringing up her situation.

“Hey, don’t be mad. I’m sorry. That wasn’t nice, but it's not my fault Hemel was careless.” Liam said in a much more reasonable and compassionate tone. He hadn’t meant to say that. He knew Astra was self-conscious about her existence. When Hemel had placed the Astral Codex in his body, it had caused some strange… complications. The Astral Codex was a repository of all things under the sky composed of pure prana, the power of gods, and starlight. It was never intended to be given physical form, much less that of a small human baby. Liam honestly would have died, had Balthazar not granted him God Perseverance beforehand. The result was… Astra. The Astral Codex couldn’t remain completely separate from its host’s humanity, so to reconcile the difference it formed an infantile consciousness. Astra was born a little less than a day after him, permanently tied to his body and soul. What really made her self-conscious was that because she had a conscious mind, she couldn’t access information like the original Astral Codex could. Instead of having access to everything that the Astral Codex contained, she had to search for information, and she could only hold on to so much information at once.

Liam didn’t care. Not about any of it. He wouldn’t have changed Astra for the world. She was his best friend and irreplaceable partner. Now he felt doubly awful for ruining her constantly positive attitude by bringing up the one thing that made her feel useless when she was just trying to make him feel better about his own problems. He racked his brain, trying to think of a solution to his blunder. Then it struck him. “Hey, Astra, can you search the forest for Water Lotus?” The tingling on his arm stopped.

Don’t you normally want to find that stuff yourself? Astra questioned. It was true. Liam usually didn’t let Astra just find things for him, even though she easily could. He didn’t want to use her like some kind of answer key to all life's problems. Liam would much rather just explore the forest and discover new things together, instead of Astra dipping her mind into a well of near-infinite knowledge and pulling the answer out immediately. But today wasn’t for him.

“Yeah, but it's pretty late. With how long it takes to get home, I don’t want to arrive after dark. Please? We can play with Tasi when we get back.” He said, knowing Astra loved the faewolf as much as he did. His arm began vibrating with Astra’s excitement.

Yes! I got it. I’ll find the one closest to us, and then we can go home! I can’t wait! Tasi will be so happy! Maybe we can play guess the Beast? Liam internally sighed with relief. More often than not when he made Astra angry, she wouldn’t talk to him for hours. He must have lucked out today. He was equally glad it appeared that Gabe was asleep. Grim only knows what he would have to say about their little fight.

“Yeah sure. It’ll be fun.” Liam smiled. Guess the Beast was a game where Astra would draw a Beast on Liam’s torso and Tasi would have to describe it until Liam could guess what it was. It was fun for all of them since Astra could use her knowledge, Tasi learned about Beasts she had never seen, and Liam got to listen to Tasi trying to describe various creatures. Some of her attempts were pretty hilarious. Like explaining a prismatic Deathwing as a “super sparkly chicken.”

Ok, I found one. It's just a couple of miles northwest of here. There are actually a few of them in the pool I found. Liam’s arm was practically vibrating with Astra’s excitement. She really enjoyed being able to use her knowledge. And she enjoyed finding new places just as much as he did. She had once told him that even though she could learn everything about everywhere on the entire planet, it wasn’t the same as seeing it through his eyes.

“Great. Let’s head out. Hopefully, we can actually get back early.” Liam replied, his smile growing wider. All things considered, it was looking to be a really good day. He went over to his catch to make sure it had finished bleeding out. Finding that it had, he flipped the body over his shoulder again. A small arrow appeared in his vision, courtesy of Astra. For whatever reason, small things like this didn’t cause him harm like the writing did. Astra couldn’t figure out why, but Liam was grateful for it. It was really convenient for situations like this, where Astra knew where they were going, but he didn't. Liam took off in the direction the arrow pointed, still smiling, feeling much better about his earlier blunder. Since he was traveling at a much more casual pace, it would take him almost fifteen minutes to get to their destination.

When he was about halfway there the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He paused. Listening carefully, Liam heard a slight rustling in the trees that wasn’t from the wind. Pushing his considerable senses to their limit, he could tell that the sound wasn’t just from one place. Sending an emergency message to Vit, he whispered, “Astra, multiple approaching from all angles. It might be tree monkeys.” There was a flicker across his vision.

Roger, I’m ready. There was only one kind of creature that used pack tactics, traveled by tree, and thought it could mess with him. Arboreal apes, or tree monkeys as Liam was fond of calling them, were a third tier Beast with far too much confidence for their own good. They were stronger than most third tiers, smarter too, except for the fact that they were too aware of their inherent advantages and took them to mean they were a superior species. This meant that the tree monkeys were likely to attack anything they came across without fear. Fortunately, unless this was the worst possible situation, Liam had a way to get rid of them. Just as he heard them getting to the trees just above him, Liam unleashed Menace.

Menace was a skill Liam had learned from his mother and found that he was rather good at. It was something all Beasts had to some degree, a sort of aura that conveyed how much of a threat you were. There was also an active component used to intimidate other creatures. In fact, Astra told him there was an equivalent skill for godblessed races called Intimidation, but Liam had yet to learn it, and Astra didn’t know why. Liam didn’t really care. Using it right now, the rustling above him paused. Just when Liam thought they were leaving, a massive roar sounded out from farther back in the trees to his right. With it, the rustling overhead resumed. Liam let out a massive sigh that ended in a growl. He had been having such a nice day too.

Sorry Li, looks like they have a fourth tier greater arboreal ape variant with them. Astra wrote apologetically.

“I’m going to eat it,” Liam growled, dropping both the jackletrout carcass and his bag to the ground, his positive mood thoroughly ruined and his anger rising. “I’m going to eat it and all its stupid friends.”

“Yeah, kill’em all and eat em. Maybe they’ll have something cool.” Gabe chimed in, apparently awoken by Liam rising bloodlust. With that, Liam did several things in rapid succession. First, he triggered Perseverance, immediately followed by Overload. Overload was a skill that did exactly what it sounded like. It used mana to allow Liam to overload his body and greatly increase all his primary abilities aside from Mana Capacity. At Intermediate 4, that meant his Strength, Speed, Dexterity, and Constitution were all quadrupled. The effect lasted for about five minutes, and afterward, he would be sore and bone tired. Fortunately, Perseverance allowed him to ignore things like soreness and fatigue. So that was convenient. Next, he did as Lorna taught him, and began circulating mana throughout his body. The she-wolf was Master rank in multiple magics, and had begun to teach Liam the basics of Mana Manipulation. It wasn’t very effective, since raw mana was undirected and wild, so the boost from this was minor, only increasing his Speed and Dexterity a little, but Liam was a firm believer that practice made perfect. So he practiced. A lot.

Before he could cast the other spell that Lorna had taught him that focused on his legs and boosted Speed, one of his opponents finally attacked him. Both he and Astra reacted simultaneously. His hearing had picked up the sound of something leaping at him from directly behind at the same moment an arrow appeared in his vision pointing in the same direction. Spinning so fast his opponent was still in the air, Liam got his first look at his enemy. It was a squat thing, only three feet tall mostly likely, covered in mottled green fur that acted as forest camo. Its arms were thickly muscled and reached all the way to its knees, which were short even in proportion to its body. It was leaping at him with its arms outstretched, fingers tipped with inch-long claws, mouth wide open, either to snarl or bite him.

Liam didn’t give it a chance to do either. He leaped right at it, drawing the Core Shard from his arm, and drove the obsidian blade through its skull faster than it could react, killing it instantly. Liam grabbed the corpse and took a big bite out of its neck. This was where Liam’s second favorite gift came into play. His Calling, Life Eater. A Calling given to him by Grim, and unique only to him. Firstly, it meant that he could eat almost anything safely, and secondly, it meant that he drew out any mana in the flesh and made it his own. Under the right conditions, this meant he could absorb skills and abilities from his food, but that was not what he was doing now. No, now he was using the food to replenish the mana he was spending on boosting his body and mitigating the backlash of Overload.

Chewing thoroughly, Liam swallowed down the chunk he had bitten and took another bite. He could feel the power of his Calling pulling mana from the flesh, restoring most of what he had lost up to this point instantly. As he continued to eat, more arrows appeared in his vision as he heard the thumps of more apes dropping to the forest floor. They seemed to be much warier of him after he instantly killed an attacker that was directly behind him and then began eating said attacker in front of them. Not that he could blame them. Unfortunately, since a higher tier Beast was leading their troop, they had a lot more stupid going on than normal, so even his display of martial prowess didn’t dissuade them.

Before any of the apes got around to trying a repeat of what their dead friend did, Liam received a signal from Vit, letting him know the falcon was ready. Liam sent back one command. Immediately an object fell out of the sky and stabbed deep into the dirt next to him. It was a spear formed from what looked to be the wood of the surrounding trees. Liam reached out and pulled it from the ground, yanking the Core Shard out of the half-eaten corpse in front of him at the same time, and spun around to face his new opponents. There were ten that he could see, forming a half-circle in front of him, spaced roughly equidistant from one another about fifteen feet away.

“Any variants, Astra?” Liam asked, not bothering to speak quietly since third tier beasts wouldn’t understand a spoken language anyway.

No, There’re only the ten here and no variants. You should tear through them just fine. I’ll let you know if any more come near.

“Alright then, guess it's time to kill some stuff. Really not what I wanted to do today, but fine.” Liam said, still slightly growling.

Except for the jackletrout? Astra shot back.

“So, not the time for this Astra,” Liam responded, bringing his spear around and sheathing the Core Shard. The spear itself was nearly six feet long, with the last foot being a spearhead in the shape of a straight double-edged sword blade. The blade was formed from a metal that seemed to shine with its own light and was much more silver than iron or steel. “Although I appreciate the humor.” He said with a slight smile and a growl.

I aim to amuse and inform.

“Succeeding on both objectives then,” Liam said, now full-on smiling. Just then the first of the tree monkeys, either the bravest or the stupidest depending on one's perspective, decided to leap at him from the far left. Liam was ready for the attack and promptly shoved his spear right through its heart. One of the arrows pointing directly behind him flashed, so Liam whipped his spear around and, with a flick of his wrist, flung the body on the spear at the other ape charging toward him. The angle and momentum of the body flung both simians, dead and alive, into another one of their number. With three of the apes incapacitated, Liam focused on the other seven.

Three of the remaining number chose to charge him at once, probably thinking that they had only failed by attacking one by one. They might have been right, if Liam’s primary abilities weren’t all pushing High rank with Overload. His Dexterity blew right through the barrier into the early High ranks, and he was an Adept in the Spear skill. With that in mind, Liam swept his spear in front of all three of the Beasts as they came into his range, making the first two leap back. When it came around to the one farthest to his left; however, he let go of the haft of the spear just enough to extend its range and catch his attempted attacker in the neck.

The blow didn’t go deep enough to hit the spine, but it definitely cut some major arteries if the blood spray was anything to go by. In the meantime, the remaining ape to his right had recovered from its dodge and came at him again. Liam had expected this and brought the butt of his spear around to crack into the head of the oncoming idiot. The overconfident Beast dropped like a sack of potatoes, passed out cold. By now though, the middle one was practically on top of him, well within the range of his spear. Instead of trying to evade though, Liam stepped forward toward the ape and dropped his spear. With his hands-free, he reached out and grabbed the ape around the throat, keeping its massive canines away from him. This didn’t stop the creature from clawing at his arm, but Liam easily ignored the pain and half-inch deep cuts all up his arm. Perseverance was great. Before the creature could do much more damage, or go for his face since its arms were quite a bit longer than his, Liam stabbed the creature right in the eye with the Core Shard that he had conjured into his free hand.

As the ape died, Liam tore a big bite out of the Beast, feeling his dipping mana restore, and the cuts on his arm began to close as his Low Regeneration ability was fueled by Life Eater. Even as he continued to eat, Liam continued to stay aware of his surroundings. There were still over half of these stupid monkeys left, and that was only if no others were hiding outside the range of his senses. So, having replenished his mana to a greater degree and at least stopped the bleeding on his arm, Liam dropped his mid-battle snack and kicked his spear back into his hands after unsummoning the Core Shard once again. Looking around, Liam took stock of the battlefield.

Three dead in front of you, once you remember to stab the one you knocked out. The one you threw the dead body at is also unconscious btw. The dead one's skull hit him in the jaw. The one those two hit is still stuck under their bodies. Three more are in the tree’s trying to sneak up on you from above. And one is hiding in the bushes. Astra informed helpfully. Liam grumbled and then sighed, stabbing the unconscious ape at his feet through the throat. He could have figured all that out naturally by just focusing in with his Enhanced Senses, but Astra was always better at handling these kinds of situations tactically. Liam tended to just react to whatever attacked him first and fumble his way through it from there.

“Thanks, Astra,” Liam said as he sent another signal to Vit. “Ahead of me, as usual.”

Oh yes. You wouldn’t last five minutes without me. Liam laughed.

“True enough. Thanks for keeping me alive.” Before Astra could respond, a massive burst of light and a deafening screech split the sky above his head. Liam had been expecting this and ignored it, with Enhanced Senses blocking the normally stunning sensory overload, and looked downwards. Three stunned apes fell out of trees around him and lay prone on the ground. Their fall was accompanied by a flash of gold and white as Vit made his presence known. The lightwing falcon lived up to its name, with his golden and white plumage.

Vit was a large specimen, nearly three feet tall, with a six-foot wingspan. It wasn’t too irregular, considering the fact that he was nearly ready to enter tier four. He had landed on one of the stunned apes and proceeded to rip out its throat, and then tear large chunks out of the dying creature. Gulping down a chunk, Vit cawed and then pointed a wing off into the woods, tilting his head side to side. Liam understood what he meant from the impression he felt from the bird. “Yeah, I got it, buddy. You just eat up.” As Vit had begun to approach fourth tier Liam had taken to talking to him out loud and telepathically to help him advance. It might even give him some special insight during his advancement. It was the same reason he had been feeding Tasi all those jackletrout. Cravings during the period leading to advancement were sometimes an indication that some variant could be unlocked, or a special skill or ability gained.

Turning toward the last arrow, Liam took on a stance to throw his spear. As he did, Astra helpfully changed the arrow to a full-on target in his vision to aim at. Liam grunted as he threw the spear at full force. Moments later he was rewarded with a wet thunk and a strangled cry. Liam smiled. Creatures like this troop of arboreal apes needed to be exterminated. If they were willing to attack him, that meant they had no regard for his mother, since they would have smelled her scent on him. Fighting against the family of the Queen was fine in self-defense, no creature should ever lay down its life unwillingly for another. But for them to attack him outright was inexcusable. Liam didn’t care so much about himself being attacked, but what if Tasi or Nyx came out here? They would be slaughtered. He wouldn’t stand for it. Just then, a massive roar once again split the air. Liam quaked with fear. He needed to run. He needed to hide. What was coming was something he couldn’t fight, something far too-

“Shut your yap you stupid monkey! So loud I can’t even sleep! I’ll grind your guts to fertilizer and use your skull as a vase!” Gabe yelled from Liam’s mouth. This snapped him out of the effect of the roar. Gabe could only affect his body when his mind was in great turmoil. He had only done it twice before, when Liam had been hit with similar powerful effects.

“Dang, Astra what was that. I’ve never felt it before.” Liam said as he pulled out the Core Shard. Using one of its abilities, he called his spear back to himself. As the spear made its way over, he grabbed one of the remaining apes and, killing it, chowed down.

That was Beast Roar. It’s really rare in this biome. At a low rank like this, it can’t do anything more than inspire fear normally, but you should be immune to this rank… I’m still analyzing it. Give me a minute.

“Yeah sure,” Liam said as he used his spear to finish off the remaining apes, the spear having returned to him while Astra was writing. “Anything you can get from it before I fight it will be helpful. Tier four arboreal ape is no joke.” Liam sat down and continued to eat to keep up his energy.

Ok, this might be bad.

“Oh?”

Yeah. It's not a normal greater arboreal ape variant. It must have awakened a transcendent bloodline.

“What?! How?! That's insane! How rare even is that?” Liam exclaimed. He began to grow concerned. If this thing had awakened a Transcendent bloodline…

It’s like a million to one. But it's not like it's a full Transcendent Beast now. It only gained access to a very low comprehension of an Ethereal magic.

“What magic?”

Dominance

“Oh, that explains why the other tree monkeys were willing to attack even after Menace. I bet that pairs super well with Beast Roar.” Liam said more calmly.

In ways you wouldn’t believe. It’s almost a perfect skill pairing. Fortunately, it means that the only trick he has is the skill to subjugate others. So if it doesn’t work on you…

“It's just another tier four overgrown monkey,” Liam said a vicious smile on his face and anger rising in his chest. To think this stuopid monkey had been able to make him afraid...

Exactly

“Well then, let's get this over with,” Liam said rising to his feet just as a massive form leaped through the trees.