Seems I’m the one dictating the ambush. If one could even call it that.

I approached. 

That’s odd.

I squinted for a moment, crouching. Slowly, softly, one foot forward at a time. Whistling, the goat reacted, something it shouldn't have been able to do as a puppet.

Could it hear? No–

I whistled once more, snapping my fingers close to the ground. The goat's head raised further, a hoof departing from the edge of the stump. It brayed emphatically, possibly a pack animal that managed to escape the fate of its master. 

Gods dangit, no way. 

The goat stepped off of the stump, another thing the stump shouldn’t have been capable of. I stood as the goat approached, clicking my tongue.

“For fuck sake, it’s real?!”

I yelled, dropping Wyrmstooth’s tip into the soil. Beryl and Vaughn could both be heard swearing in the background. 

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!”

Beryl yelled, her shaking coils falling flat to the ground. 

“Bullshit.”

Was Vaughn’s choice of words, the goat’s now echoing bleating triggering a wave of frustration from him strong enough to throw his shield into the ground. I knelt and leaned forward, planting my sword tip in the dirt like a walking stick. I maintained the mana flow, but only because we’d have to check the shack soon after. 

Better safe than sorry, that being said. 

“Bro, fuck you. Do you know how much we were waiting for this? Shitty little asshole.”

I reached forward, petting the goat's head. It licked at its lips, following my hand like it thought I held treats for it.

“Little prick, christ, how can I smell you over the guy–”

Bah

The goat lurched forward, slamming its head into my nose and sending me onto my rear. A sharp pain followed through my tail as I landed, stunning me. Whilst I held my face, the sudden impact similar to a punch stunning my sinuses and leaving my nose nearly numb. I tried breathing through it, but was inhibited in the same way one with a runny nose would be. Then the warm flow came over my lips and down my chin.

“What the fuck?”

I looked up at the goat, then back down at my hand, covered in blood. The trickle of mana into Wyrmstooth opened on instinct.

“Kiyomi!!”

Vaughn yelled in time with the cracking of bone and tearing of grassroots. The stump shifted as the goat in front of me was hoisted into the air, a series of small strings glinting in the sun. 

They're that damned small?!

The goat shrieked, its skin peeling back along the skull to reveal a puppeteered beast. The stump was torn from the ground, rising with an amalgamated mass of bones and fur. Fear flashed through me, forcing me to stumble.

—-----------------------------------------

Mana consumption at: 47%

Estimated time to hibernation: 5 minutes, 42 seconds

—----------------------------------------

“Myr’s blessings– Kiyomi!”

Beryl yelled, summoning her spell the best she could before letting it out with little time to take aim. As if knowledgeable of this lanky, towering biped of bone, fur, and wood lurched forward at me. 

Jesus fucking christ!

I kicked off of the soil instinctively, launching myself a few yards away and rolling uncontrollably in the dirt. The creature horrified me, sending a sense of fear through my body that I hadn't felt since a spider-tortoise nearly bisected me in my first year in this body. Every fiber screamed–

Get the fuck away! Away! Stay the fuck away!

—------------------------------

Mana consumption at: 100%

Estimated time to hibernation: 2 minutes, 12 seconds

—---------------------------------

A flash came across my eyes, snow, with packs of this exact creature in varying size and construction, entrapped in an arena. 

“Beryl! Fire!”

Beryl had loosed the spell just before I managed to utter my warning.

The monstrosity screeched unnaturally as air passed through harvested and rotting vocal cords from a variety of animals. Paying Beryl no mind as the lightning struck it, the effect of lightning was almost nil, as if it was fully grounded. Smoke rose from its ‘back’, where the stump was based. Small, yellow eyes pressed forward through the eye sockets, the eyes of a wolf-in-sheeps-clothing. It lumbered forward, making for me as it eyed Wyrmstooth. 

No running from this!

“No! Fire! Vaughn, hel-”

My words were cut off, and the beast attempted to throw itself upon me. I rolled to the side, using the momentum alongside shifting my legs as a lever to bring myself to my feet. It screeched once more, sidestepping towards me and reaching wood and bone arms outward to grasp at me.

Self locomotion, my ass! This may as well be a new creature entirely! Fuck! Did I piss myself?!

I used my buckler to slap its left arm to the side with a loud ‘crack’, wood, and bone shattering as I did little to mitigate my own strength. It seemed difficult to hold myself back in the way I seemed accustomed, either Kiyomi or this body, subconsciously understanding the threat better than I could at that moment. 

“Crap!”

Beryl could be heard in the background, her frantic slithering heard even over this. Vaughn, surprised just the same, sprinted as fast as he could manage, forgetting his shield. 

“Fuck you, piece of–”

I yelled, ragged and nasally. It reached out its head, the bony and teeth gnashing at me. In this one instance, it made me thankful for taking my gambison off in the first place; it surely would have snagged me had I kept it. I swung Wyrmstooth, the mana-impregnated blade near searing hot with the occasional spark shearing itself away. The sword cut clean through the monster's root leg, leaving seared wood exposed to the air. It reached with the opposite arm, managing to grasp my swinging arm's shoulder before I could bring it back. Its maw opened, the lower jaw bones splitting apart to give it a better grasp.

“Fuck!”

I screamed, just barely managing to shove my thumb into the nasal cavity of the skull. It would have been too easy to shatter the bone now, but I had no idea if I could have managed to push it back with that action. 

“Kiyomi, hold on!” 

Beryl yelled, panicked as I was locked with the horror. The sound of igniting flames could be heard, the sign she’d brought out Sol’s Spear. A series of tendrils shot out of the creature's chest and maw, planting themselves into my shoulder and side. Blood instantly soaked into my bodysuit, and I felt myself groaning as if the wind was knocked out of me. I activated mana break at that instant, the digging tendrils being cut clean off at the surface of my skin and forcing the monster to shudder a moment. I took the opening, removing my bleeding hand from the monster's head.’ The nasal cavity had somehow managed to slice open my hand, but the pain was negligible, thanks to the adrenaline. The monstrosity brought its maw down upon the same entrapped shoulder, biting down as hard as it could manage. This effort drove home a very pleasant fact. I was untouched.  

For such a dangerous variant, it doesn't exhibit any mana manipulation. Good. Evolutionary dead-end piece of–

I shifted Wyrmstooth from the swinging arm to my shielded one, half swording the blade in one hand. It burned now, thanks to the mana flow, but it wouldn't be a wound to last long. I shoved the tip of the sword through the ‘chest cavity.’ The beast shuddered, releasing my shoulder with a blood-curdling screech. I grabbed the sword's hilt, forcing it the rest of the way through, the smell of burnt fur and smoking wood making it through the blood in my nostrils. I levered the blade, forcing the monster to my right and into the ground. I balled the bleeding and burnt hand, slamming it into the creature's skull with a force that shattered it on impact. Bone fragments flew every which way, and the strange eye stalks of the plant stared up as if it only viewed the ‘wound’ as a setback. I grabbed at the stump's base on the creature's back, peeling it apart from the main body and forcing it to lose its hold on its own structure. It exposed a strange mix of spider and mollusk that grew from the stump like the bulb of a plant. 

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Estimated time to hibernation: 32 seconds

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gods damnit!

“Whoever's going to kill this thing, do it now!”

I ordered. Beryl, faster than Vaughn or I could ever hope to be, shoved the flaming spear of mana into the opening. The entire monster convulsed for a moment, each of us standing there in suspense as we waited for it to stop moving. 

—--------------------------------------------------------------------

Estimated time to hibernation: 13 seconds

—----------------------------------------------------------------------

I released the stump, its wood thumping to the ground. 

“Ah-”

I fumbled with my belt, opening one of the pouches I kept on me at all times. The mana capsules shook in their vial, its yellow structure glowing in the light, even through the blood I smeared on the glass. Dizziness forced me to the ground as I pulled the cork free. I’d have poured the entire bottle into my hand on accident had Vaughn not grabbed it before I could dump it out. He tapped a capsule into his cupped palm, raising it to my mouth and giving it to me. 

“Ah- thanks.”

I muttered, trying to swallow the chalky substance. He lifted a water bladder he kept on himself to my mouth, tilting it so I’d drink.

“Knew you were going to use that trick sooner or later, just didn't figure sooner.”

—---------------------------------------------------

Hibernation suspended, mana consumption suspended. 

—--------------------------------------------------------

Ah, the tendrils are starting to burn some… maybe I could.

A sense of wrongness pushed me to self-heal, the tendrils expelling themselves by a fragment of their length.

“Just hold still– Kiyomi!”

I was slapped across the face, not so much to do more than sting, but it was enough to shock.

“Fucking what?”

I gritted my teeth at the impact, glaring at Beryl with a sudden fit of anger before she continued. 

“Stop self-healing! Do you want more damned scars!”

Beryl yelled, pulling the body suit aside and exposing a part of my body I hated to see myself. Vauhgn’s face flushed, and he turned his head away, though still supporting me upright with one hand on my shoulder and the other on my back. 

“Whe- hey!”

I protested as Beryl lifted my arm, making the position even less flattering while she placed it over her shoulder.

“I need the room to work, now hush.”

Beryl ordered, her eyes focusing on the tendrils still anchored into my side. They were burrowed along the entire side of my body, from stomach to shoulder; the breast of the same side wasn't spared either. 

Gods bless adrenaline. 

I thought, trying to reign in my breathing as I watched Beryl work. Tendril upon tendril was ejected, the skin sealing up and leaving faint pockmarks that would disappear by the next morning. Beryl pulled the body suit back over the breast and repositioned me for a moment, taking my chin in hand and raising it to inspect my nose. 

“At least we have water to clean you up. We should camp here since there is shelter.”

Beryl muttered, the glow of mana below my eyes preceded the flood of uninterrupted fresh air. 

“That was a nasty brake.”

Beryl grumbled, releasing my chin and motioning for Vaughn to trade sides. The sudden willingness to bunker down took me off guard, considering our proximity to the body. 

“You sure? Given–”

I nodded to the source of the stench that was just out of sight. Beryl shook her head, brushing the thought aside. 

“Vaughn can just make a hole for it. We should stop so you can regenerate your mana.”

Beryl was focused in on the hand, forcing the burns to blister, then deflate seamlessly. It took just a moment longer for the slice at the webbing of my thumb and the slash in my palm to seal up. I flexed the hand as she released it, coaxing a hiss of relief from her. 

“If you’d brought up the idea independent of the fight? Hell no. But for your health? No consideration is too extreme. Don’t forget why we chose this job.”

Beryl smiled gently, never breaking her view of my hand. 

“Vaughn, can you fetch our things?”

Beryl asked with a sigh. 

“Aye, I’ll be down in a minute.”

Vaughn nearly coughed as he said so, the sound of water spilling before it sounded like a stopper being pushed into a water bladder.

Did this mother fucker just drink from the same rim I just bloodied up?

I pushed the thought from my mind. 

Nah, we’ve all got blood pumping. He’s probably got cotton-mouth just the same.

I looked down rubbing my shoulder that was damaged with the opposite hand. 

“I’ll go pull something from the body. You hang tight, alright?”

I looked up to Beryl as she stood, nodding. 

“Mhmm.”

I looked down, her teal, white, and black scales blurring together as she slithered away. 

Thanks, you two. 

I shook my head, slicking back my bangs with my hand. I looked at the loose pile of bone and knurled wood to my left. The dead and wilting yellow eyestalks of the wolf-in-sheeps-clothing seemed to eye me. 

The fuck are you looking at?

I stood slowly, picking up Wyrmstooth. 

A bonfire wouldn't hurt.

I thought, grabbing the still attached right leg of the ‘corpse’ and dragging it closer to the shack. 

“And here we said we wouldn't fall for a Gods damned trap.”