Many trees had fallen onto their sides, and almost all of the snow had been pushed aside. He had basically constructed a dirt road, though an uneven one. Mash was covered in mud as the snow wetted the dirt and smeared his clothing. He wasn’t bleeding though. In fact, there wasn’t much damage on him at all. His clothes prevented most mundane stones from scratching or hurting him. The only thing that stung, even a little were his fingers. Although, they weren’t broken. Jorg came into vision, as he blew through a tree that had fallen on its side.

Now the breaking sound from earlier made sense. And it made Mash wince when he saw it. Both of Jorg’s hands were a mess. Bones poked through his skin awkwardly, and they bled a lot. He left a very noticeable trail as he punched through some of the rubble. His hands left prints on everything that he touched, and it dripped onto the ground too. The man’s head swung around until he spotted Mash. Then he charged. Mash quickly rose to his feet, not sure about what to do next. Jorg probably wouldn’t die, but his state told Mash that it was going to be incredibly difficult to get him to stop.

Mash frowned and resolved himself to do something extreme. He would break both of Jorg’s arms and legs. Tear them off if he needed to. That wouldn’t be easy and was more gruesome than he wanted. But he was worried about the army too. The imitations he had made were doing well at distracting them, but they weren’t able to do any real damage. Especially not with the orders Mash had given them.

[The assassins will be here in a few minutes. Your friends as well.]

[So soon?]

It certainly hadn’t been close to the half-hour that Priscilla had mentioned before. Even as Priscilla responded, Mash began to transform. All of his fur and skin turned to scales. Mash needed to end this, even if it was going to be more gruesome than he liked.

[Apparently one of those that is coming has a movement skill of some kind.]

He didn’t respond to the message. Instead, he met eyes with Jorg, trying to see if the man could respond to him or not. His gaze was still too empty, or rather it was full of animalistic rage. Mash didn’t charge at the man. Jorg was doing that for both of them. Mash set his feet and let wood dig through the ground like roots. He let his claws grow out a little more and prepared to stop Jorg.

The man had grown even more somehow. His whole body looked off at this point. His head seemed too small for his body and muscles had torn through most of his clothing. He was more like a bull now, and he tried with all of his might to move Mash. It failed. Mash had basically grown entire trees in the ground, and with his own strength, Jorg couldn’t move him. Mash couldn’t really grab Jorg’s arms like he wanted to. Rather than risking a more serious wound, Mash formed blades out of his claws and held them in place like pikes. They cut into Jorg’s shoulder.

Earlier Jorg had been able to spread the force of his punch over his whole body, but as Mash had expected, it didn’t work quite as well with something sharp. His claws dug through the man’s flesh and even cut through bone just easily. Jorg roared, and his muscles clenched together. It wouldn’t have stopped Mash if he kept pushing, but it wasn’t meant to. It killed Jorg’s own momentum and stopped him from making the injury worse.

“Sorry.”

It felt stupid to say it now, but he did it anyways. Mash swung both his arms up, nearly severing both of Jorg’s arms off. The man stumbled away, his arms swaying as they hung limply. Mash kind of hoped that he would run away after that, but his face only contorted with more anger. It wasn’t as much of a problem anymore though. He couldn’t really do anything but run at this point, and Mash could break his legs easily enough.

He needed to do it now though as the army began marching forward. They hadn’t actually beat Mash’s imitations, but they didn’t seem to care as soldiers fell to them. No, they were willing to sacrifice people to get to Jorg. He hoped that was because they knew his imitations weren’t killing anyone. Mash prepared to leap at the commander.

Lisa leaped onto Jorg’s back, seeming almost like a squirrel when compared to Jorg’s gargantuan size. She scrambled up his back, as Jorg uselessly spun to try and get her off. Without his arms, he couldn’t remove her easily. Which was probably why she was choosing this moment to jump in. He just wondered what the next step was. She got to his head and clapped two hands over his ears. They were cupped slightly. Her mouth moved, but she was too far away for him to hear. His domain reached them though. The boost to his stats made it large enough to encompass them. He saw mana moving through Lisa’s body. It spun around her in a rhythmic way, and then passed through her hands into Jorg.

Jorg struggled to resist. Although his body slowed rapidly as if she was tying weights on him. Eventually, Jorg just fell forward. His enormous frame thumped onto the ground. The injuries didn’t even seem to bother him anymore. Mash realized a second later that he was asleep. The peaceful expression on his face didn’t match his bloodied body. His arms were hanging on by strands of muscle and nothing else. The fact that Lisa could suppress the pain of that enough to let him sleep was frightening. If that was as effective as it seemed, she could kill most people in their sleep. He shook his head dismissing the thought immediately. That was a bad way of looking at it, the skill obviously had other uses.

Mash sent a command to his imitations. They immediately broke off from their fights and began to run back toward Mash. They were faster than the marching army and passed them quickly. The army had shifted when the imitations got close. A few soldiers even attempted to hit them with arrows. Only one arrow landed on target, but it didn’t do any damage. Arrows didn’t do much against something made entirely of wood, and they closed the distance quickly. Mash turned to Lisa; his mind was surprisingly clear despite the fight he just had.

“Get Jorg to his healers. Tell him that the other cities have sent high leveled people after me. I need to confront them. If Jorg will listen to you, convince him to focus on keeping the rest of the city safe. Everyone if he is willing.”

Lisa had been checking Jorg’s injuries, but she turned sharply at Mash’s words. Concern painted her face, and her voice wavered as she spoke.

“Are they here for us? I would rather die than let that happen.”

The fatalism in her voice was a little scary. Mash decided to wait for Priscilla’s response and only replied once he knew.

“No, doesn’t seem like it. At least that wasn’t what they were ordered to do. It seems like I have been branded a terrorist by the northern kingdoms in general. The orders are just for me.”

“How do you know?”

Her gaze grew uncertain as she searched his face. Mash shrugged before answering.

“I can talk to my friends in the city. They are talking with some of the guards, and they know the situation.”

Mash had explained many of his abilities but had still refrained from introducing her to Priscilla. There probably wasn’t a good reason for it. He just felt like it wasn’t something he should say in the open. Priscilla was an advantage that was more pronounced if other people didn’t know about her. Lisa nodded but she didn’t look much more hopeful.

“They will probably try and capture us afterward. Once Jorg wakes up, we can help you. I will convince him.”

She said it with resolve and began dragging Jorg over toward the rest of the army. Mash considered helping, but she was actually strong enough to carry him. The real problem was the difference in size, but Jorg’s skill was wearing off and his body was shrinking. It wasn’t a fast process though. So, she ended up dragging him by his legs. Although she did lay his arms over his chest first. Mash winced when she moved them. They were literally hanging on by a thread, and Mash was sure that Jorg was grateful to be unconscious.

Mash turned his thoughts to the next fight. This one would be a lot harder. Even with his friends around, the level difference would be impactful. Although, the strength of their classes couldn’t be understated. His class was especially unique and powerful. The people who were coming probably didn’t have classes that could match. It would matter less with those over 150, but the ones around his level should be considerably weaker than him. Like Jorg, many of them would struggle to even hurt Mash.

He did have things he could further improve. Even now with only minutes to spare, he had an idea that would probably work. The soul let him glimpse into what he imagined was a representation of his soul. And he remembered the fruit that had been a symbol of his golden body. One that he had been tempted to eat, but had restrained himself because it felt too early. Now though, he was further along the process. The fruit had probably grown. It would be even more of temptation and was also the reason he hadn’t checked his soul again. He didn’t want to ruin it by giving in to his hunger and eating it. Just thinking about it made his mouth salivate, and he needed to swallow a few times to calm down. His instincts were telling him to eat it, but he couldn’t trust it. It felt too much like his skills were trying to force his actions.

Now, he reconsidered it. His own skills should make it so that it wouldn’t harm him, but he didn’t know what it would do. What would eating a part of his soul do? Could he even do that? He considered asking Luke, but felt like that would earn him a reprimand.

[Thoughts?]

Priscilla knew what he was thinking about, and she was the only other person who could really know the whole situation. Checking what she thought on the matter seemed prudent.

[I do not know. Do you think your skill would force the action into something positive? That is your choice.]

[And if you had to choose?]

Mash replied quickly. Her leaving him with another question was not unexpected. And she would be honest in her words. Since she did not know, she felt it wasn’t her decision to make. He knew the answer even before she explained it.

[If it was a matter of life and death, I would do everything possible to live. There are many kinds of power, the golden body is just one of many.]

He found himself smiling at that. It was an expected answer, one that made him ask a different question. Was this a life and death situation?