"Alright." I said as the...things, began to encircle us. "Just a bit closer. You ready?" Callie and I were more than in sync, with the bond in place we were basically sharing a brain. She knew what kind of tactics I used, even without knowing my stances perfectly. She nodded silently, a smile on her face. The wolf lizard stag things drew closer and closer until they finally got within range.

I didn't need to announce it was time. Callie felt my surge of adrenaline and immediately dropped into the shadows even as I triggered Moonlit Night. Belial came seconds later, and I stepped off the air as the monsters all lunged at me,roaring their desire to rend me limb from limb.

Soaring over their heads, my staff licked out rapidly, guiding the heads with slight pressure on the antlers, steering them all to crash into each other. Belial's corruption infused their horns, but it didn't seem to do much sadly. They clashed in the center of the encirclement, going down in a tangle of limbs and horns and teeth as they ripped and bit at each other, desperate to kill something.

Callie appeared low beneath one slunk close to the ground, a dagger slashing up, leaving a tear in the air behind it as her Path of the Abyss split the very space it tore through. She was already gone when the beast tried to retaliate, ignoring its own organs spilling from its split abdomen.

Two of the ones on either side seemed to smell it and lunged, riding it to the ground and beginning to savage the monster, uncaring that it was one of their brethren. I circled the outside, lashing out at joints and gangly, misshapen limbs. I wasn't getting in the center of that clusterfuck, so Belial's guiding abilities were a bit diminished.

On the upside, it seemed almost easy to direct attacks that I COULD reach, my fate sense showing me the path now that my Fatewalker Path was part of me. I felt almost invincible, which of course was when things went horribly wrong.

I dipped back from one of the monsters after a quick jab to move its footing, and one of the others picked that moment to snap sideways and managed to dig its teeth into my leg. My leg which was currently made of corrosive evil magma, but still my leg, and I had to muffle a scream as it dug its teeth in.

Despite being made of molten rock, I could still feel, specifically, I could feel the fucking venom being injected into my body and somehow mixing with and empowering my own. Suddenly it felt like battery acid was running through my veins, and my leg started to fucking MELT. I screamed and bashed at the monster with my staff, shoving my staff into its jaws to try to lever them open, but I couldn't fucking get it off me.

My other leg collapsed, and I was left clawing at the ground trying to drag my body free of the monster's jaws. This was so stupid. It hadn't even known I was there. It was wild with pain and just lashing out at the air around it fruitlessly and got lucky. Black crept in around my vision I felt like I was about to pass out, and then, suddenly, a hand grabbed mine.

Callie's fingers closed around my hand and hauled, dragging me away from the monster. My leg was torn mostly open by teeth, but honestly I was glad, it let some of the enhanced venom spill out. The monster wasn't immune, its face was melting as it tried to dig in, gnashing its teeth in my fucking thigh and not finding purchase. With a sickening wrench Callie got me free, getting me clear of the fog as quick as she could.

"Oh gods." I rasped as I got out. "Oh gods the pain. I need to turn back so I can heal this." I started to dismiss the skill, but to my shock, Callie somehow blocked me from doing it through the bond.

She grabbed my face, her hands beginning to be corrupted, and looked me in the eyes. "No! Don't do that. Shane, listen to me, your leg is basically a pile of scrap right now. If you solidify it's going to be stuck like that, and you might lose it. Stay in your magma state, we'll bind the wound so the magma is back in there. It's just rock, it can mend. You can't make your leg flesh."

That was true. I hadn't been thinking clearly, but if I went solid I'd black out. I had no healing charges. I paused. I did have scan heals. I cast one. It did almost literally nothing healing wise, being an I-rank ability, but it DID give me an idea of what needed to be done.

"The magma is recovering. Wrap it and let it heal like that. Don't put anything back in. The venom supercharged the corrosion, anything you put in will melt. Hell, the regenerating magma will melt, but it'll also dilute the shit as it comes in. You need to go back in there and make sure they all die. I can't but if we ignore them the skill will end and we'll be fucked. We only have a few minutes of time on this one."

She grimaced, but did as I said, binding the wound quickly before turning to glare at me. "Fine. I'll go, but you don't move. Stay here and recover. I'll be right back." She stepped back, vanishing into the shadows.

I groaned, leaning back. This was agonizing. Not soul sublimation second ability agonizing, but pretty fucking brutal. I'd say maybe above the shield incident. It was nice to know my life experience gave me the ability to make an itemized list of the times I'd been in soulshattering agony. I was clearly doing something right. I rolled over a bit, dragging myself toward a tree so I could sit up and lean against it.

Despite being unable to stand, I wasn't out of the fight. I could still see through the fog and watch Callie's back from where I was. My Danger Sense could be shared through the bond tooI watched my girlfriend resolve from the shadows and lash out with her abyssally infused daggers, tearing a large gash open on the flank of one of the monsters. I spotted another moving for her, and she sensed my alarm, Danger Sense giving her an impression of where it would be coming from.

She rolled smoothly sideways, down onto a shoulder and then back up as one of the monsters somehow dove through her location. They were detecting her somehow, I wasn't sure how, but I needed to distract them. I triggered Pit of Despair in the center of the encirclement where there were several of the things tearing at each other. One dropped right in, and two slipped as the ground disintegrated, felling backwards onto it.

Envenomed horns drove into the chest of one beast, while another's claws opened the eye of the first one. The long linbs stuck out past the edge of the Pit, tagging and enraging the others. Combined with the stealth that was still partially working, Callie was able to slowly pick them off, until they were all dead and I was able to drop the fog bank. We stared at the multitude of grotesque forms in disgust.

"This was our worst date ever." Callie said bluntly. "Remind me never to agree to a romantic getaway in the forest in the future."

I groaned, dragging myself up the tree. "I'd rather take one of those bites to the eye socket than willingly enter a forest for any reason beyond great personal profit or potential catastrophic injury, so I think you're safe." I paused. "Should I be taking you on romantic getaways? We do a lot of traveling. That counts right?"

"Nothing where something tries to eat my face is romantic." She said sweetly. "So that majority of our trips don't count."

I was actually kind of offended by that. "What about the spider cave? That was romantic. You got all that loot and there was a pretty spider web."

"Nope." She said popping the P. "Not romantic. Scenic, but not romantic." She smiled fondly at me. "It's ok honey, you're just not a candy and flowers kind of guy. We do other things. Fun things. Not every girl wants a romantic boat rider under the starlight."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "That was an oddly specific example. Are you hinting at something? Because if you want to go on a boat ride we can do that. I bet we could find a lake nearby. Probably even one where nothing will try to eat your face. Which I'm against by the way. I like your face quite a bit. Wish I could have Zeke make you a mask to protect it, but given your reaction to what mine can do I assume that's off the table."

She grimaced. "Off the table, out of the dining room, it's not even allowed near the house. No people eating masks for me."

"Well I'll try to be more romantic. Find moments for us to have time together outside crises and combat." I said softly. "You deserve that." I went silent, and after a minute of not talking to me she gave me a suspicious glance. "Sorry, I'm trying to think of a segue that will make asking you to collect the corpses of the lizard wolf monsters so we can get back to looking for Jessie."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Why do I keep you around again?" Despite the words, I could feel her genuine fondness and adoration through the bond, as she could feel mine. Having an empathic connection with your significant other was a great life hack for avoiding misunderstandings. Even if it was also sometimes inconvenient when a pretty girl walked by.

Grumbling, she walked around the clearing, snagging the bodies and storing them in her ring. Magical creatures and monsters could be parted out and sold or used for crafting. I also wanted to try and get some of that venom for my Belial form. It had an interesting reaction to my corrosion, and I wanted to see if I could build a tolerance and maybe even integrate it into my ability.

It wasn't something I'd ever tried before, but if it worked it would be a huge boost to my destructive potential in that form. Once those were collected, Callie came over and offered me her shoulder, which I draped myself over and used as a crutch so I could walk. I was still in Belial form, but her coat was F-rank, and I was able to hold back enough to prevent the corrosion from leaching through it too quickly.

We had to stop a few times so she could purge it, but eventually we seemed to get on the trail of a group of people the compass led us toward, hopefully where Jessie was, and we got into a good rhythm trying to catch up. State of Grace was a huge help for our progress, otherwise I wasn't sure we could have caught them.

Eventually though we came upon a small clearing where someone had made camp, and as we approached we called out for our friends. There was a small pause before Benny and Jessie poked their heads out, followed surprisingly by Callen, and I breathed a long sigh of relief. "Oh thank the gods you're alright." I breathed happily.

Benny bolted forward to check on me as Randall emerged from the trees on the other side of the clearing, having confirmed we were the ones coming near. I stopped my best friend as he approached, and he looked me over worriedly. "Holy shit man, what the hell happened? Also where ARE we?" Right. They didn't know about the academy transport protocol. Guess I had some explaining to do. Oddly, I couldn't bring myself to mind too much.