Edward left the group as that adventurer was starting to brag about his younger days. While he was waiting, he noticed a few more adventurers’ teams joining the gathering. After a full twenty minutes, Osoris stomped loudly on the floor to get everyone’s attention.

“Attention everyone, I will keep it short. I’m Osoris, the de facto leader of this expedition. All of us are here because the Lusus naturae are getting out of hand. I’m sure all of you have noticed the increase in contracts lately. Monsters are getting more numerous and we have to deal with them before they leave their habitat and choose to occupy our lands.” He paused gauging the reactions of the crowd. “For those of you who are not familiar with them yet. Lusus naturae are basically bipedal wolves with an acceleration power. They are fast, which can make them deadly, but they don’t hit especially strong. Moreover, they are easily predictable since they accelerate in a straight line. I’m sure you all have tactics in mind, but I will state the obvious. Protect yourself with armor, don’t become isolated, and maintain the long-range users in the center of your formation.”

Since there were no protests, he continued. “We will investigate the last position those monsters have been seen at. Those monsters are traveling in packs so be prepared to fight for several encounters. We are leaving in ten minutes, this is all.”

A shuffle of movements happened after his speech, the warriors picking up their belongings and getting ready to move. Edward didn’t have much to pack apart from some food and water. Nonetheless, he still had prepared some spare clothes after his experience with the Murlocs where he had been left in rags. On top of that, he had a rope, a few bandages, and the ointment he had bought at Agripin to heal light injuries.

*****

When the group reached the place where the monsters had been seen for the last time, they were able to see movements at the edge of the forest. They weren’t able to see what was causing it clearly, but they could discern shapes moving quickly from one spot to another in the tree shades.

Osoris made the group stop, with the addition of the late comers, the expedition was comprised of a full thirty members. This is approximately the size of the Lusus naturae’s pack I fought with Charles, Aquamarine, Norte, and Brian. If we encounter another one like that, there will be barely more monsters than fighters on our side. If five of us were able to take care of such a group, the size of this expedition will make it overkill. Though, with the increase in the monster population, I doubt this will be that simple.

Realizing that the monsters weren’t coming out of the woods, Osoris decided to provoke them. He didn’t want to enter the forest to fight them, it would give them too much of an advantage, and would allow them to ambush and separate their group.

He drew an arrow and lit it on fire with an engraved rune stone. It’s the first time I’m seeing an enchanted artifact with fire. It must be quite rare. Contrary to his expectation, Osoris didn’t fire the flaming arrow at a tree, but rather in front of the forest, barely one meter away from it. While Edward was wondering why he had done that. Surely, he hasn’t missed his shot, did he? He noticed a few older adventurers letting out a breath of relief.

“For an instant, I thought he had gone mad. Never anger Puihi. The goddess of the wild is fierce but offers a fair challenge. If you make her furious you won’t live the next day.” Edward overheard their discussion.

Right, in this world humans aren’t in the dominant position. He thought back to the wyrm he had run away from. Some monsters are best left aside. Trying to burn the forest would probably condemn the whole city.

Bringing fire near their home was enough of a provocation for the humanoid wolves. Snarls of anger erupted through the forest and the first wave of monsters charged out. A line of monsters, some standing and some running on all four bolted out of the trees. The wave didn’t stop and more and more monsters kept coming.

“Front liners, brace yourself! Range users, fire at will!!” Osoris roared.

Edward felt goosebumps in his arms. He stood slightly behind an adventurer who was holding his position with an impressive shield the same size as him. He planned to wait for the charge to stop before engaging in the melee. As an awaken his physic was encroaching on the superhuman, but he had no desire to stop a monster charging at him at full speed with his body alone.

The monsters blurred. The next moment they were on them. Shouts boomed everywhere, as the struggle began, and the first blood was being drawn. With the situation turning into chaos, it was Edward’s turn to act.

“Rèng khwāmrĕw” he muttered, activating his spell to enhance his perception. In a place where monsters could suddenly accelerate, he had to enhance his perception to avoid a surprise assault.

He teleported being the monster that had been stopped by the shield adventurer in front of him. He killed it with two swift blows of his daggers before searching for his next target. With enemy creatures and allies fighting all around him, he was relying more on his aura perception than his sight to analyze his surroundings.

There is no need to search for a frontal fight. In such chaos I can focus on the distracted monsters, it will be a lot more effective.

With his teleportation, it was the monsters’ turn to be ambushed. Edward slayed them before they had the time to react to his presence, using his allies as a decoy. His enhanced perception enabled him to find his targets while avoiding the monsters’ attacks. Everything but the accelerated creatures were in slow motion.

In this decelerated world, Edward could see distinctly the water and wind blades slicing toward their targets. Seeing an opportunity, he teleported close to two monsters near such a blade. He pushed one in the blade trajectory with a shove and threw an uppercut to the other with his dagger killing it in one blow.

Amidst the different fights, Edward noticed an adventurer in difficulty. With its speed and momentum, the beast had managed to project the adventurer on the ground, and it was in the process of clawing at his face. Edward didn’t have much time, he teleported in front of the adventurer, parrying the blow with his dagger before pivoting his hip and throwing a powerful jab at the monster’s chest. The dagger penetrated the monster without resistance, the impact actually making it stagger. Edward activated his aura to improve the draining effect of his dagger. While the monster was faltering, he swiped with his other blade using the sharp edge to cut its throat. The beast collapsed dead.

“Th-thanks,” muttered the fighter who had been in difficulty.

Edward nodded before teleporting back to the rear line. He was already reaching his limit, his mana not able to sustain his spell for the time being. The longer his spell stayed active, the more it cost in mana, it wasn’t something that could be maintained for a long time.

However, this wasn’t problematic at the moment. With Edward’s help, the adventurers sustained the first assault. With their members already engaged in combat, the others Lusus naturae coming from the forest had trouble using their acceleration effectively. They had to avoid their own comrades to enter the fight. The monsters in a more static position provided a much easier target. The ranged user redoubled their efforts, the firing rate of wind and water blades increasing significantly.

Edward had been very effective in the first part of the fight but didn’t want to go back to the heart of the melee now that his spell had ended. I have armor protected my chest, but all it would take to put me down is a single unlucky hit to the head. Even if I can teleport, those monsters are fast enough to assault me in the cool-down period.

Instead, Edward decided to help here and there, teleporting to assist anyone having difficulties. With the beasts focused on another opponent, he was able to maximize the surprise effect of his teleportation and to fell his opponent in a few hits only. However, he couldn’t be everywhere, and casualties happened among the expedition. The injured managed to fall back with other adventurers protecting their retreat. Adventurers had their own small groups whose members were keeping an eye on each other, making sure that nobody got killed.

The stalemate between the Lusus naturae continued for a short moment until no more monsters came out of the forests. With no more reinforcement, the ranks of the beasts were thinning down, being taken down by the numerous adventurers.

Seeing that the battle was lost, the last Lusus naturae used their acceleration to run away. They were too fast for the warriors to pursue them, and they managed to escape into the forest safely. The fight had been short but intense.

Osoris didn’t let them relax at the end of the fight. “Gather the wounded! They will get priority access to the monsters’ blood. I won’t tolerate any blood looting while they are not healed. Everybody else, gather the monsters’ corpses in one place. We will proceed to the distribution once we determine how many we have. No time to lose, the fresher they are, the more effective the blood will be.”

Wow, he sure doesn’t waste time. It almost feels as if we are the bad guys slaughtering innocent beasts to hunt for their blood.

Edward watched one Lusus naturae corpse at his feet. The sun reflected on its claws and teeth. I don’t need to feel pity for such monsters. They are mindless, aggressive and a threat to anybody living nearby.

However, maybe it is not the case for all monsters. I didn’t meet any until now. But it is not impossible for sentient monsters to live out there. The wilds are mostly unexplored after all.

Luckily, they didn’t have any dead comrades. A few of them got nasty cuts, but being able to heal with the monsters’ blood would bring them back to their feet. Back on earth, they would have been in no fighting condition, and they would have had to be escorted back to a safe place, but here they were able to join back the fighter ranks. With the possibility to heal light injuries, only the dead or the maimed were definitely out of the fight.

“All right, there are thirty of us including six wounded, and there are sixty-five of those monsters.” Osoris declared. “Everyone will have the right to process two corpses with the wounded going first. The wounded won’t be granted any blood compensation. You got wounded by your own mistakes, so you get two corpses just like the others. For the five bodies in excess, you can buy their corpses from the expedition for one silver coin per corpse. The money will be added to the common reward that will be shared once this expedition is over.”

I have money and I need blood. There is no need to save, let’s convert money into power.

“I’m buying all five of them. I will pay two silvers per body.” Edward announced, increasing the price to avoid any discontentment for monopolizing all of the excess bodies.

Looks were thrown his way but they let him do the transaction with Osoris. However, some of the fighters didn’t hide their unhappiness. “Tche, rich boy. Do you think that you can buy your way to the predator level? One or two bodies’ worth of blood won’t change anything, you won’t make it.” A man in his thirties sneered.

Edward turned his way and shrugged. It is not like he is wrong, one corpse or two won’t change anything. But there is no way he can imagine the number of Bloodmaws, Teleportcrows, and Murlocs that I have killed. I’m already close to the next level, I just need a push.

“I’m just taking one step at a time, taking an opportunity when I see one. I favor power more than money.”

With this declaration, a lot of the anger was alleviated, the adventurers acknowledging the superiority of strength over money.