I tried to focus.

It wasn’t easy, since our horde, once again, doubled in size. Even though it was hardly surprising by this point, the exponential growth was the one and perhaps only consistent feature behind the poorly explained system, the numbers were getting ridiculous and privacy within the crowd was next to impossible.

The fact that the power considered me the one and only focus for its monster creation mechanism meant that each time a large number of my furry companions spawned, I ended up surrounded by a large crowd of very restless, very excited anthropomorphic creatures, often quite happy to be around.

I could hardly count them as it were, but based on what I vaguely recalled from the overview screen, I assumed there must be over two thousand of them.

They giggled and chanted with their girlish voices, while some waved heaving for attention, others departed to find amusement elsewhere, with the crowd spilling all over the sawmill, to the nearby settlement looking for something to do, and items to appropriate, or even to the forest to catch themselves something to eat.

At least they didn’t ask for individual welcomes. Perhaps ‘Alphas’ bossed them with their voiceless communication, allowing me a moment of peace to select the best addition of our very pellicular host.

Sitting on the edge of the stone construction that made the sawmill, I submerged myself in thoughts and plans for what was going to come.

As considerable as the girls were towards me, it was genuinely hard to focus on the decision that would affect the rest of my journey in this strange world. A brief glance over the selection already showed there was a choice that would make or break our entire effort, and without any overarching strategy of my own, my approach was mostly about addressing the most recent concerns.

With that in mind, I discarded the ‘Sovereign of Blood’ immediately, followed by the ‘Mind Over Matter’ one - though I assumed they certainly have some utility on the grand scale of things, I wasn’t quite certain they would contribute to our current situation in any positive way and had very situational applications.

An offhand implication that my power imagined the vampire as flying creatures wasn’t worth the risk of bringing the potentially even more bloodthirsty leeches into the world, and the false expectation of the ‘force’ power disguised as the ‘mind’ wasn’t making it any better, though I assumed both could be used with a certain level of creativity I lacked.

I wished it would be simple, but it wasn’t, and it wouldn’t.

Assuming they did what I thought they would, which was never certain, but the fact I had discarded those options at my previous selection made the decision slightly easier this time.

Without any clear idea of what covered the appearance of the individual skills, and knowing they might come and go without any rhyme or reason, the process of choosing became the desperate attempt in patching the most recent issue, and improvisation was the name of the game.

The ‘Instruments of Destruction’ were much more promising in that regard, or at the very least, straightforward when it came to dealing with overly hostile natives and their fortress, and the ‘Arcane’ element hinted something of greater than others, already quite physics-breaking, abilities which were already magic in anything but the name.

However, what we lacked wasn’t firepower in the first place. Not even the ‘Ravagers’ lasted against the five ‘elites’, and it was Tama’s fire that blinded me in an attempt to overcharge her own pyrokinesis.

We won through some strange interplay between the individual abilities I didn’t quite understand, and couldn’t count on in the future.

Without even tougher monsters, which none of the available skills seemed to offer, I needed to stay close for the sake of minimising respawn delay, making overwhelming offence just as likely to backfire.

There was a fourth option, the most tempting of those with a promise to establish communication with the locals, a golden grail of my efforts so far which drove me forward through the last of those few days.

The skill dubbed ‘Architect of Fear’ did sound quite menacing indeed, but unlike the others, it promised a capability to interact with the thoughts of others that weren’t a part of our extended family where ‘Alphas’ could reach their kin immediately, without delay, or need for words, over the considerable distances. My people were all essentially telepaths, yet their basic abilities driving their coordination were never meant to interface with humans.

This skill offered to change this - the ‘mind’ was the magical keyword there, both in figurative and perhaps even literal sense.

Being able to reach out to the locals was something I desired greatly, sensing an end to this meaningless conflict.

Calling ‘mind’ an element would be a stretch, but despite the errors in calculation, and the absence of any manuals, the system had some method behind its madness.

So far, the magical abilities of my girls matched their corresponding elements - the ‘Purifiers’ controlled fire, the ‘Defilers’ drained the ‘life’ force from their surroundings, and the ‘Corruptors’ associated with ‘wood’ twisted plants to their will.

It wasn’t quite difficult to figure out what ‘mind’ should be capable of doing.

But what if it indeed did what the wording suggested? So far, most of the powers seemed to have civil applications, but even the least warlike, the Corruptors’ plants inadvertently killed a human they were meant to bind.

The ability to inspire fear in others wasn’t exactly the same as the telepathic communication my girls were capable of. The offhand chance that the newest creatures would be only capable of inflicting terror upon the humans around us posed a great risk as it would solidify the enormous divide between the natives and our horde.

It made me consider ‘space’ instead.

The ‘Stalker on the Boundary’ might have been the skill I’ve also discarded in the past as it was unlikely to satisfy my desire to find an easy way home, but now, the situation had changed.

Our movement was greatly limited, locking us to a very small area slowly being drained of resources as my girls overhunted for food, the village granaries weren’t endless to satisfy the needs for exponentially rising numbers, and even our limitation bypass through the harvesting of the essence of life itself from every plant depended on crossing the huge distances to feed.

Diversity of our abilities depended on the ability to sustain the growing population as every skill translated into the variation in specialised breeds executing tasks they were intended for, even the peace we never had depended on a dedicated species that spoke for us.

Numbers were always a key, and maybe despite their fluffy forms, my monsters were almost akin to a colony of ants or bees instead.

What would that make me then, I didn’t know.

A need for logistics perhaps superseded the need for diplomacy, but I was hardly an expert on swarm management.

And there was a matter of our increasingly dangerous enemies.

We wouldn’t be even capable of catching on to the ‘elites’ trying to manoeuvre around our forces, and the huge disparity in strength forced us to rely on overwhelming numbers to win the fight.

Our lack of mobility essentially imprisoned us here, in this valley, or forced us to migrate through the forest, to the other side of the hills, ignoring the castle in the process.

The castle in which the damned ‘caster’ hid.

The very thought of ‘sealing’ made my blood boil, it was a concept the power behind my monsters was deeply uncomfortable with, making me unable to just abandon my followers caught in the spell.

Although, deserting my girls who had been ‘sealed’ offered no reprise - the ‘elites’ came from the lands beyond those hills. From the frying pan, into the fire, I thought.

Ignoring the space between and the walls that separated us was very tempting, as was the ability to send my companions to more bountiful hunting grounds. They need to be fed, after all.

Ideally, it would even remove the need for me to be present during battles. It felt pathetic to even consider, but the undeniable truth was that I was a liability my girls died again and again to protect.

Yet, the chance for communication was hard to pass by. A truce would mean we could turn to permanent answers for food and habitation, rather than merely patching the most immediate issue.

It was the goal I blindly chased so far, yet I couldn’t simply disregard our isolation here, with the only chance for expanding our source of food being looting the city on the other side of the river or continuously migrating away from it to heavily forested, less populated areas where the lifeforce was plentiful, never staying for any longer period of time as the cycle of growth and consumption had its limits.

Relying on ‘Defilers’ we would leave nothing but a wasteland behind. Limited to our relatively slow scouts, and without maps to follow, it would be quite easy to drive ourselves to a dead end.

In the end, it wouldn’t matter if we were able to understand the local tongue or not, the hunger for resources would force our hand either way with the destruction needed to sate our horde or starve in isolation. There was a road, but the wagons for the wagon trail to carry the supplies would have to be seized from natives.

Perhaps mobility, and with it, a whole hunting and harvesting logistics, had a priority over finding common ground with already extremely aggressive, and generally unapproachable, humans.

Still, abandoning the chance for a peaceful solution, as unlikely as it was, didn’t feel right.

The dilemma was strong.

It was a choice between the two points of no return.

I simply couldn’t decide…

None of it sounded like the clear solution to all our problems, and mistakes made there only furthered the spiral of violence in an attempt to gain yet another skill selection by satisfying the system’s thirst for killing so-called ‘Major Enemies’ which corresponded with the local elite.

There was no correct choice.

I didn’t know how long it took me just to ponder those two options.

But the ability to reach the mind of others seemed to be better of those two, although not by a large margin, and with a great degree of uncertainty involved.

“Select skill…” I said hesitantly,

I didn’t get to finish the sentence.

A lone ‘Eviscerator’ materialised nearby, without any notification, or prior warning.

I jerked out in surprise.

Then another.

And another.

A battle, somewhere, my monsters - my girls - had died.

It wasn’t that difficult to figure out what was happening - cyclical patterns of violence became a grim reality of this world, and it would be only a matter of time before the death of ‘elites’ had a repercussion. I still didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

Even if I choose the path of the ‘Mind’ would we ever have a chance to explain ourselves?

Right now, at this very moment, I didn’t know.

The selection screen floating in front of my eyes flickered, almost as if it wanted to remind me that the offer was limited, and it was my call, my responsibility to make a choice for the future. Not just mine, one of my monsters, my girls, my people.

We never had peace, but I kept telling myself we’d find someplace safe we could wait out until…

Suddenly the previous reasoning didn’t seem the same as it was just a few seconds ago, yet time was suddenly a major concern and luxury I didn’t have.

The notification flashed once more as the couple of ‘Eviscerators’ materialised from puffs of ruby fog as the system prepared for the new pawns to be sent to the meatgrinder.

I, however, didn’t see my girls as my pawns in some grant scheme.

Choices were to be made to assure their - our - well-being.

“For Master!” They cried out in unison, seemingly unconcerned by their own recent demise now they were brought back alive and whole, but I felt the weight of the judgement I was expected to make.

A few more re-spawned. Luckily for me, my ‘Alphas’ weren’t as confused, or torn, as I was and didn’t wait for me to demand an explanation, or to issue orders to combat the threat they knew more about than I did at the moment.

“There were other humans near that last soldier, Master. They didn’t seem to be a threat first…” Brave reported immediately, her sight fixated on the horizon as she directed her smaller kin into battle.

“They fled, Master, but it seems they alerted stronger of their kind to our presence,” Miwah added, completing the sentence, both canines acting in unison.

I didn’t reply, while both white and black werewolves took the initiative in commanding their smaller kin. It was no surprise at this point, perhaps the road we followed the entire time justified its existence by the traffic, and our presence on it warranted the continuous escalation of attacks just to drive us out.

Perhaps it was a matter of navigation, or direction, of ‘space’.

“They won’t get to you easily, Master,” Tama said as the surrounding mob parted, rushing to secure the perimeter, while Kuma arranged her towering lookalikes around me like a barrier.

Was the fight nearby, or somewhere far ahead?

“Master. The human is wiping out our pursuer group, along with the few straggler Corruptors that found their way to the old camp. We are trying to delay him.” Miwah announced.

The ‘Eviserators’ and their ‘Alphas’ were considerably better prepared to handle the fight than Mai’s kin tended to be, a constant stream of my small, shadowy canines reforming from the restless red mist was proof they weren’t winning the battle, and the furiously flickering interface reminded me that time was ticking out.

Choose, I told myself.

I needed to pick, and do so quickly before the fight ends, I told myself, or everything would be left at the fickle whim of the system making the selection in spite of me.

The ‘space’ or the ‘mind’.

More and more little anthropomorphic canines formed, first a few, then a couple more, then a dozen, forcing my emotions to flare as a form of backlash against the necessity to rebirth that many of my girls.

A few ‘Corruptors’ appeared, they were likely caught in the very same fight once the enemy broke through some line I couldn’t see, but Miwah and Brave kept commanding through their farsight.

Time was running out.

There was no way the advancing enemy would be open to discussion.

Somewhere, far ahead a few last of my ‘Eviscerators’ were fighting a losing battle without the chance to even receive help, lost, alone.

Interface pulsated, impatient, eager, or perhaps, warning me.

My heart throbbed.

Once they perished, we would be in the dark.

Alone.

Vulnerable.

With no place to go, with the enemy uncaring of our reasons.

“Select Skill Stalker on the Boundary.” I barked out my choice, in the rush, and with it, the deal was sealed.

Skill “Stalker on the Boundary lvl.1” gained.

Despite my own indecisiveness on the matter, the system didn’t hesitate even slightly to make the ruling final, its strange announcement formed in front of my eyes, replacing the previous one in the instant.

A brief eruption of ruby mist materialised a new addition to our extended family.

The power behind my monsters could be inconsiderable towards an indecisive man like myself, allowing for no double takes or accumulation of points, but was nothing but consistent with its chosen design patterns.

The monster took the shape of an anthropomorphic animal, this time, a cat, with distinctive, albeit dull navy blue fur and dark grey patterns, once again with an unmistakable slim, athletic, yet still decisively feminine body standing on digitigrade legs. I was getting used to the fact that this was the form of my people.

Her colour-mismatching eyes with slit pupils, one red and the other yellow bore into me.

Unlike many times before, pushed by the hectic situation I didn’t bother to look at her in greater detail, I met her gaze and barked an order.

“Our girls are dying, find a way to reinforce them!”

“Not scouted yet, Master.” She meowed, with the note matching the annoyed cat she was, but feeling pressed by the moment I didn’t quite pay attention to her mood.

“Find a way!” I retorted.

“Direction?” She asked as she looked around, however, before I could reply, she simply acknowledged the order with a silent, yet somehow still playful growl. Maybe she received the answer mentally from others instead of relying on disoriented me to point her in the right direction.

“Yes, Master!”

The cat-girl purred, taking seemingly no offence from the pressure I put on her, and looked around, then up. Then she jumped forward, disappearing into this strange… distortion for lack of a better term, that appeared in front of her.

Then she, and the strange, shivering spatial anomaly she created, were gone, with a flash almost like the distance itself reassumed its meaning. Even a glimpse at it made my head spin.

Startled, if not shocked, and confused, I glanced around, trying to find out where she had gone, until I directed my sight up, to the sky where the feline looked moments ago.

There, in the distance, the strange transparent wrongness that consumed my disappearing cat-girl appeared again. It was like the small festering ulcer on the not truly existing skin of reality. Even against the vastness of the skies, it was close and far away at the same moment, a concept that my tired brain struggled to comprehend.

Then, the distortion spat out my new monster already in the free-fall, and then, again, she was gone with the same flash as the same rift of broken space swallowed her once more, possibly throwing her in some other, unseen direction.

There was something dizzying about the manifestation of her ability, and it was far from stealthy.

However, as surprised as I was, I still couldn’t ignore the returning ‘Eviscerators’ that kept materialising as their battle still continued regardless of the hasty, and not quite deliberate, decision.

Then, it stopped.

The outbursts of the bloody red fog erupting from the thin air ceased as the unseen battle ended, with the already massive crowd expanded by the hundred or so shadowy canines, all once again resurrected after their failed struggle.

Despite the seeming absence of any cost to their continuous respawning, and their apparent cheerfulness with memories intact, there was still something distressing knowing the pain and suffering they must have gone through.

It was all for nothing.

One of my furry little werewolves hugged me quite affectionately upon appearing, the last of them that respawned, refusing to let me go. I let her, scratching the shiny black fur, almost to calm myself, rather than soothe the canine monster. They were more resilient than I was, I had to admit, all things considered.

“You did well,” I whispered to the little werewolf.

“We were unable to harm the human. I am sorry, Master.” Brave said, while Miwah finished the sentence, “This one was considerably more powerful, and displayed abilities we didn’t see yet..”

There was something eerie about them finishing each other sentences, perhaps it would be another unsuspected result of the two larger variants per one breed, something I didn’t quite notice yet to happen

I let the small canine go, making a few steps into the crowd. The ‘Alphas’ followed me.

Briefly looking around, I failed to locate Helmy to verify the stray thought about the duplication of commander roles, but there were more pressing questions to be had than the twin mechanic, or apparent Helmy’s desire to run towards the next fight laughing.

Although it upset me slightly, I didn’t want Helmy to rush my ‘Purifiers’ to the charge the ‘Eviscerators’ failed in.

I shook my head.

“Where is he now? Heading here?” I asked, immediately.

“We don’t know,” Brave answered, “None of my sisters are nearby. The new enemy was very thorough”

“Mai?” I asked. The lizard girl, though still around, tried to make herself look invisible.

“Sorry, my Master.” She blinked nervously, as she always tended to do, and lowered her head.

There was an enemy that wiped approximately a hundred ‘Eviscerators’ alone, without much effort, and we couldn’t even say where he was headed, let alone what he was capable of doing against our full numbers.

Was there a breaking point where the quantity we relied on wouldn’t match the quality the human ‘elites’ encompassed?

I, honestly, couldn’t know the answer.

There was tension in the air.

“We can prepare for him, Master. Helmy has an idea.” Tama answered. Whatever she planned, it made the ‘Purifiers’ giggle. It certainly involved a lot of fire, considering the pyromaniac vulpines reaction, the usefulness of which now was debatable.

A better tactic was needed.

“Wait…” I said, but my sentence was immediately interrupted by the unexpected explosion of the ruby mist from which my newest, practically untested and still ultimately nameless feline appeared again.

“Sorry, Master. Bad timing, I went splat.” She apologised. There was something different, and quirky about the way she spoke, hasty, not wasting the words with explanation.

The feline monster was about to disappear into one of those logic-defying distortions.

“Stop!.” I ordered, and she did, the bubbling portion of the air became normal again.

Random teleporting wasn’t a good tactic either.

I already failed in providing support.

“Master?” She asked, straightening herself, shaking her long tail signalling her unrest the way the normal cats usually did. Her face, though one of the anthropomorphic cats, with a short muzzle, showed a certain level of confusion.

The blue feline bobbed her head, adjusting her moderately long hair of matching colour, looking at me. Her heterochromia made her eyes quite unusual.

“Can you…” I asked, once again, then stopped myself.

In fact, I didn’t know how her power actually worked, my mind already struggled to find a good use for her ability, and I had yet to determine whether she could transport the other girls through her very dizzying anomalies, bringing the scouts where the first group had been wiped out. Although all those tasks had one in common, they required more than one space-warping feline.

“I think I should name you first,” I decided, and after the brief and not too deep introspection on the matter I made up my mind” “What about … Sora?”

“Interesting, Master.”

She meowed, not sounding particularly happy about the choice, but without words of protest either. Unfortunately for her, the name stuck as the system didn’t allow for second guesses, solidifying yet another hastily made choice through the usual, monochromatic announcement.

Unit named! Sora, The Displacer Alpha!

Skill “Stalker on the Boundary lvl.2” gained.

I waved it away, earning myself yet another meow, fitting the freshly named Sora’s feline nature. The nearby “Purifiers” giggled as the finalised choice triggered the familiar spawning process, awarding me with the six little teleporting cat-girls to expand the already very diverse horde of monsters.

Luckily for me, my monsters didn’t seem to be prone to the usual cat versus dog infighting, and after the usual giggling, growling, and now meowing they agreed on the one, unified cry:

“For Master!”

They didn’t seem to mind intermingling despite the fact their breeds were inspired by notoriously conflicting species of animals.

I couldn’t overstate the convenience of that, although I had no pressing matter to address.

Once again, I felt the urgency, though considering the fact that the recently named Sora perished in some dangerous manoeuvre with her strange transportation magic, I was unsure whether I should push her for another jump that soon.

Yet, the fact I had another ‘elite’ inbound forced me to take a risk.

“Can you transport others safely, Sora?” I asked carefully.

“Yes. Saw landing spot, Master.” She said, “It’s going to be easier now.”

“Landing spot?”

“I can appear anywhere in the open space I saw from the air like clearings or the road, heading up the camp, Master.” She explained, “Anywhere else and I would crash through the treetops or land in the water.”

“Do you know where the attacker was?” I asked immediately.

“No, Master.” She answered, “Though I can appear somewhere he could see me.”

She, strangely enough, was quite eager to go, despite it meant appearing near an enemy that could kill her.

“No.” I stopped her. If she died, I would be without a scout until her penalty wore off, “Can you transport our kin to a nearby location, like some clearing in the forest, or a road where there aren't any soldiers?”

“Yes, Master.” She said, without hesitation, almost impatiently.

“Do it then, please.” I decided, “Take the Eviscerators, drop them away from soldiers, and make them approach the location invisibly so we can see where that elite is heading.”

“Yes, Master.” She meowed and looked ready to pounce.

“Take Brave too, so there is Alpha with the group. Then find Helmy, and deposit some Purifiers.” I decided before I added the important part that would allow me the communication: “Miwah stays with me. Tama too.”

The orders were carried out far too quickly for my liking, the ‘Displacers’ seemed to be rather rash with execution where the little cat monsters literally pushed their wolf-like counterparts into the forming rifts of broken space.

At least, Sora was slightly gentler with Brave when she teleported her with the embrace as the anomaly swallowed them both with the same flash, though that might suggest the ability did require keeping a certain proximity.

A brief gaze at the bubbling, unnaturally bent space gave me motion sickness even while standing still, though Tama and Miwah were here to hold me.

“I hope the Eviscerators don’t mind being teleported,” I whispered, though it was too late for such worries anyway.

As it stood, the ‘Displacer’ power seemed to work amazingly well - they were able to cross large distances in an extremely short time and carry others with them, with the only danger coming from consciously attempting dangerous manoeuvres in an attempt to cheat the ‘mapped’ limitation. If seeing the destination once was a limit, it was truly potent and exploitable.

It made me think it wasn’t a flawed option in the end.

“Master. I think we found the merchant.” Miwah said, interrupting my introspection and marvelling at how ‘Displacers’ worked.

“You mean the guy we captured earlier?” I asked to reconfirm, “How?”

“He was where the group emerged trying to get the chest with gold away. Humans probably missed him, Master.” The werewolf readily explained.

“Sora didn’t notice him?”

This was, without a doubt, a freak accident, considering the probability of finding one man in the very vast area of the forest, in the difficult, hilly terrain, but I couldn’t rule out could be some unexpected attribute to the ability all ‘Displacers’ had as I didn’t have any chance to investigate its limitation properly.

Bringing the man in only to release him afterwards as proof of goodwill wasn’t exactly the brightest of plans, I admitted, but with communication still being the issue thanks to my decisions, it was better than nothing.

“Brave and others didn’t feel sick?” I still wanted to confirm,

“No, Master. It’s like a quick acceleration or a fall.”

“A roller coaster?” I asked, only realising it is a modern concept no one in this world would be able to understand after I spoke it. Luckily for me, my companions always understood.

“Yes, Master.”

However, it seemed that the only apparent side effect was only minor dizziness and disorientation, caused by the sudden, fast, unexpected movement, and though it was likely to exaggerate its impact on humans it wasn’t necessarily intended to kill them.

It didn’t manipulate bodies in any direct fashion, and though accidents had happened on carousel rides, they were rare and unexpected.

“No other effects?”

“No, Master,” Miwah said. I trusted her.

“And the human is otherwise unharmed?” I asked just for confirmation.

“Yes, Master. He wasn’t harmed by us, or by the other humans. They might have ignored him.” Miwah gave an affirmative answer, ascertaining that I could use the very amazing ability to transport healthy individuals.

So, I thought about dragging the merchant here.

Despite the fact that the assault on the fortress was more inevitable than ever before, and the mind spells possibly forever out of our reach, I still didn’t entirely abandon the idea of establishing a line of communication with the natives.

The man so enamoured with gold as this merchant would be certainly able to sway others. For all the weapons, armour or supplies the fortress could hold, I wasn’t in any need of the money held with the offers.

Perhaps the man was the signal I needed to send to the locals that they could walk with their money and their lives.

“Then have Sora bring the human in, please.” I decided. It seemed easy.

The order was executed immediately, however, the moment the man emerged from the spatial rift with the howl of pure pain, not the fright I was bound to expect. It wasn’t the roller-coaster experience the ‘Eviscertors’ had felt.

The man released by the ‘Displacer’ was trashed on the ground in an intense seizure, clawing against his own already bleeding eyes and ears, screaming in intense agony caused by the unnatural means of transportation he had to endure.

I wanted to call for the healers, but then, it ceased.

A man was dead.

And my plans were changed forever with yet another ability hostile to very human existence.