I hopped from body to body, slicing as many throats as I could. The plan was working out masterfully, as I knew it would. I looked back to the humans' main fighting line. The line looked like it was starting to favor the humans now or if nothing else they aren't being pushed back. Good, it's always a pleasure helping out the less fortunate.

I stole a look at my status bars before carrying on with my assault. Health was full, yet stamina was at 55%, but rising. The Energized buff was keeping my tank filled. I was burning through my stamina with the rapid fire use of Eternal Shade. It cost 10% to activate and I was activating it constantly.

Another wave of warm liquid bathed my hands accompanied by a quickly hushed squeal. Beautiful Symphony. My senses delighted in the carnage surrounding me. I didn’t bother counting how many pigs I’ve slaughtered thus far. I knew it was too few. These worthless abominations deserved recompense for their earlier transgression.

I sighed while palming my face. I can’t focus on that stupid pride shit right now.

Before any more gloating ensued, a wave of magic missiles came flying toward me. The blue glow darkened immediately as the shell of darkness surrounded me. I crouched behind the body of my last kill. And waited for the barrage to fly over or land on the pig’s body. I felt the corpse rumble, as the projectiles pierced its hide. I looked up and saw a group of moose start moving toward the frontline.

I looked at my status once more.

 

[Energized: 2:12]

 

“Crap, running low.” My hands went into the pouch, only two petals left. Enough for a minute maybe. I put them away, surveying the field in the process. The human side seemed to be pushing back now. Thankfully my efforts aren’t in vain. I hopped on the body, searching for the next prey. Those moose would make for a good one.

The magical missile throwing moose were behind a line of boars and goats. Almost as if they were being protected. These creatures never showed such tactics out in the wild. I shook my head, Focus! And pounced on the next boar. Leaving a gash on its back, but not going for the throat this time. Killing that platoon of mage moose comes first (probably the wildest sentence I’ve ever thought).

Bounding from boar to boar was easy, their massive bodies made great landing pads. Problem was now there were these stupid trihorn goats. Imagine a grown man trying to jump on a normal sized goat. Now one with three very sharp pointy horns. Doesn’t work. Like at all.

So my body hopping, throat slitting technique was no longer viable. But I still had Eternal Shade.

I ran forward toward the first line of goats, who let out a melody of awful bleats. Darkness consumed the first goat as I sliced its front leg asunder. Dashing and trying to do the same to as many as I could before the timer ran out. No time to kill. Just wound and move along. God, I hope there aren't healing monsters.

While fighting another three goats, a blue shine popped into my peripheral. More missiles incoming. No big bodies to get behind either. Slashing at the closest goat, I grabbed its scruffy beard and threw its body in front of the oncoming spells.

A pain seared in my leg. The now limp goat blocked the majority of the missiles, but one landed on my shin. Shit that stings. It wasn’t a crippling wound, I could walk and run on it just fine, it was a different problem that worried me.

Pinnacle of Nature was no longer in effect. It gave me a 5% boost in stats if my health was full. It might not seem like that big of a boost, but this battle wasn’t going to end any time soon and each little bit of help mattered.

Throwing the goat's body into its brethren, I sped off in the direction of the moose, slashing and maiming as many monsters in the process as I could. But that slowed down also. The goats and boars were mingling now, making the fights slow down.

 

[Energized 1:31]

 

“Not fast enough,” I said, through a grunt while dodging a tusk coming my way. I swerved as a trihorn goat sliced at one of my arms. It lost its eye for that. But another tusk came my way. It was starting to get difficult to keep up with the onslaught. 5% shouldn't matter this much.

I jumped on top of a boar and shoved my claws as deep into its skull as I could. Darkness surrounded me again, I was hoping it would relieve some of the pressure. But more magic came my way, forcing me to hide behind the boar’s body.

 

[Energized 0:55]

 

The moose were so close. I have to handle them. I will kill them.

But before I could plan a strategy any further. A massive explosion went off behind me. Blistering air pushed me off the boar and out of my shade ball. I landed on my feet after some maneuvering but stumbled down to one knee. A painful ring dug into my ears, I looked up, trying to figure out what that explosion was.

A crater, glowing red and filled with smoke and charcoal, replaced the monsters that once grouped up.

“Where?” I looked around. Even the monsters around were dazed and confused about the sudden blast. Finally, my eyes ventured upward. Len was soaring through the sky, sending fire and flames around the battlefield. Most attacks were aimed at the massive corpse ball that towered off in the distance.

Did he send that? I’ll have to thank him. After I bitch at him for almost hitting me.

I stood up and tried to reorient myself, encasing myself in a shade ball next to a charred boar. Where were the moose, they probably didn’t get caught in the blast.

Before finding them, I saw a very curious sight. A short guy ran along the side of the crater. In my direction. He was wearing a suit of metal armor, wielding a sword and shield. As he got closer, I could tell that while he was short, his body was stocky yet proportional. He had blond short hair. And dog ears?

He didn’t slow his pace for a second. And when he got close to me, he raised his sword. He was getting ready to attack me. Why?

His sword cut through the darkness before I could put any more thought into it. I hopped backward out of the darkness and on top of the boar’s corpse. And immediately pounced on my armored foe, knocking the bloke to the ground. I landed on his chest and put my claws on his throat.

“WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING ME?”

The small man’s eyes were wide with shock, but they adjusted quickly. He was young, probably late teens, clean shaven, and panting uncontrollably. He responded.

“I thought you were a monster. All our troops are fighting at the frontline back there. Why are you here and not there? What squad are you with?”

I lessened the grip on his throat. A wave of fatigue rushed through my body as I fell off the guy, almost passing out. But the feeling went away quickly after. I stood up and looked at my status bars. Energized was gone and the Tigris timer was ticking down.

“Shit. Must have reverted on accident when the buff ran out.”

“Don’t forget your company?” Tutor said, with entirely too much whimsy for the current situation. The small blonde teen got up. And stared at me in shock for a moment but I ignored it. I was contemplating how to handle the moose now. Probably Ursa. Raging seemed to be the best course of action. I looked back at the kid. He was opening his mouth to say something but I interrupted him.

“I’m going for those moose. You’re welcome to join but stay back when I start raging.” Before the little guy could answer, I shifted into Ursa. I charged straight in the moose’s direction knocking any monsters out of the way. Once the moose were in my sight, my vision flashed red and the raging began.

 

——

 

Fennel struck out at a tusk with his sword, diverting the attack to the ground. With a twist, he raised the blade back up and into the side of the boar. He moved forward, in the direction of the moose and his target, the shade panther. He wasn’t going to let that thing get close to the front line. Another boar ran for him but he blocked its charge with his shield, sending it behind him.

He was still puzzled about why it was killing other monsters. He hadn’t heard of any fighters with shade element powers in the ranks. But he was still pretty new to the Raid army. He gutted a Trihorn Cabran. He could handle these weak creatures well. His fighting style was mostly designed for this. But he was getting tired. His stamina wasn’t rising much, somewhere in the teens by now.

After downing another blue goat he looked and saw the dark orb, but it was gaining distance away from him. Should I just turn back? Fennel wasn’t sure what was going on. He turned back. The line was pushing back the monster’s, his last buff he gave must have helped. Along with the death brought on by that panther.

He shook his head. They should be okay. But they won’t be if that cat’s taste switches from monster to people.

With some new resolve, Fennel marched forward. Until an explosion stopped him in his tracks. He had his shield up already, so he managed to endure the blow without much knockback. He lowered his shield but had to raise it as soon as the heat washed over his face. One of Leonard’s fire attacks no doubt. But it wasn’t like Len to miss with an attack. At least not by this much. He wondered if the old man did it on purpose.

Once the heat settled he looked across the field. He saw the orb of shadow sitting still. Must be recovering from that explosion. He broke out into a sprint, readying himself to strike the beast in its domain. He knew it wasn't a good plan, but he didn’t have any time to think of a new one.

Fennel swung out, his blade entering the darkness, slowing slightly. The orb dissipated; he looked up but the beast slammed into his chest. He fell on his back and felt warm wet claws putting pressure on his throat. The creature's bright green feline eyes stared into his. Fennel knew he screwed up, but before giving up totally, he heard a voice. His eyes adjusted and he saw what was on his chest. It wasn’t a cat but a human. A young teenager like himself.

“WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING ME?”

Fennel spoke without thinking much. “I thought you were a monster. All our troops are fighting at the frontline back there. Why are you here and not there? What squad are you with?”

He felt the claws let go of his throat, but before he could ask more, the human’s eyes closed and his body fell off of him. Fennel got up and looked at the boy.

The human stood back up and looked at away. He mumbled something that Fennel didn’t understand, something about a buff and reverting. He looked at the human’s hands, but the claws were gone. The ones that were just at his throat, gone. The human turned to Fennel, making eye contact.

“I’m going for those moose. You’re welcome to join but stay back when I start raging.”

He heard the human’s words but they hadn’t registered. Fennel saw that the human’s eyes weren’t bright green or feline anymore. They were still green, but much more dull. How had this human’s trope changed? But before even being able to comprehend that change, the human’s form changed again; he grew bigger and brawnier. Hair grew on his arms along with some claws that looked way larger than the ones that were on his neck just moments before.

Fennel couldn’t even utter another word, the human rushed off, heading in the direction of the Karibu missile squad. The human charged through each cabran and tusxic that came that came his way. He noticed a blade strapped to the human’s back.

There was one thing that really bothered Fennel about the human though. Why the hell does he have such a wonderfully crafted mithral sword tied to his back?

A tusxic grunt brought him back to his senses. He redirected its charge and sliced through the leg of the beast. He gripped his blade tighter and followed after the now raging human.

As confused as Fennel was, he had to admit, the human’s strength was outstanding, most definitely on the level of a squadron captain, like himself. Way stronger in terms of pure power. But the human was taking blast after blast from the karibu, ones that should have been easy enough for him to dodge. The human would make some incredible evasive maneuvers every once in a while, maybe 15% of the time.

He decided to take the man’s advice and keep his distance, he could see the familiar red glow around the man’s head, signifying a rage ability was in use. He chose to fight more of the surrounding monsters, trying to alleviate the stress on the front line while also securing himself and the human an escape route.

A few minutes passed while Fennel and the human fought. Fennel had taken some blows but nothing substantial. His shield arm hurt but he could ignore it. But returning to the medical tent for a moment sounded like heaven. A tuft of white feather blinked in his mind for a moment. He shook the unnecessary thought away.

Fennel turned back to see how the human was fairing. He had eliminated most of the Karibu. But it looked like he was slowing down. How has he been going this long? His stamina must be through the roof. The human descended upon the final Karibu, throwing the creature into the air with a bestial roar. The Karibu flew in the air and landed with a splat next to Fennel.

The human’s head swiveled from left to right, presumably looking for more enemies. However, instead of attacking the next creature, he saw the human shrink back down to his original size and slump over, falling to the ground. Fennel rocketed over to the man, shield bashing a goat that got too close. The man wasn’t dead but had passed out. Most likely stamina burnout. Rookie mistake.

Not that Fennel could fault him too much, he had run real close multiple times in the battle. He only stayed up thanks to Boundless. The ability that gave him his great stamina recovery. And Rook. Poor Rook.

Fennel grabbed the man’s legs and started dragging him towards the medic’s station. But the monster's waylaid him immediately. First ones give me strength. He put the man down and fought back. Gonna have to wait for the line to come to me. He looked out and saw that it was still a ways off.

Hopelessness entered his mind. There is no way he could last long enough to handle this many beasts. Not after hours of fighting. And protecting a body.

His sword almost dropped out of his hand. Three more tusxic’s appeared before him snorting along with something that made Fennel's last vestige of resolve shatter.

A lesser graveball writhed up to the tusxics and enveloped them. Their bones crunching as they squealed. Its stench filled the air. That’s when his sword finally dropped to the ground. He looked down at the human. “Thank you for your help, my squad might have a chance thanks to you. Sorry I won’t get to repay you.”

The graveball inched closer. Its limbs wiggled and contorted. Fennel grabbed his shield with both hands, shielding him and the human.

KABOOOOOOM!

A blast of heat and air flooded the battlefield.