The naked man looked around at the 5 people surrounding him. The easiest description Stanis could think of was that he was essentially the ideal man. The whole package was here: tall, muscular, sharp jawline and piercing eyes. But this only crept Stanis out more; why was a human attacking them? And why was he naked on top of that?

As the man stood still, Stanis began creeping up on him, soundlessly flourishing his sword. Around him, Jen stood as still and dead as ever, whereas Vasile and Okoye stared into the foliage.

The man seemed to have come to a decision as he snarled, before restarting his attack on Pete.

<Empathetic spread>

The man, who had just leapt, found himself unable to balance his landing and slipped onto the ground. Pete moved with haste, using his mace to push the man's arms out of the way before striking with his hatchet. The man snarled in response as blood leaked down his chest, before trying to get back up.

Pete had already retreated out of the man's range and was sneaking in a quick drink.

The man managed to get to his feet but then slipped again, veering to his right before falling back down.

Stanis used this opportunity to attack, his sword crackling threats. He slashed down; the man tried to lean out of the way but failed, the sword catching him by the shoulder. Blood spurt out as the shoulder bone was revealed.

Seeing that Pete was up to something and not just randomly drinking, Stanis activated Layman's rush in a bid to distract the naked man. He angled his sword and attacked time and time again, each time hitting the man, who was still wobbly on his feet, but only managing to chip off a bit of flesh each attack.

Pete gestured with his hatchet and Stanis jumped out of the way.

<Dragon's roar>

A deep growling sound emanated from Pete's throat, catching the whole group's attention. It was an inhuman sound, and following the sound was a wave of thickly weaved fire, scorching the felled, naked man.

At this time a scream came out from the foliage, to which Okoye turned around and cast a spell.

<Spirit wall>

A naked woman leapt from foliage with nails outstretched. She targeted Okoye but smashed into an invisible wall mid-way, tumbling down to the ground.

<Transform>

Vasile's body began growing, his sunken skin growing fuller and thicker, his bones growing denser and stronger, his hair growing long and luscious. The transformation was finished a few seconds later; Vasile still had a human's figure but not that anyone would mistake him for one, though. He stood over 6 foot with corded muscles tightened around his body. He had claws the length of his hands and when he grinned, the long, sharp teeth inside were revealed.

He made an alien sound before pouncing towards the now-up naked woman. She defended herself with her own nails but it was clear that she was not set to win as Vasile shredded through her, each swipe taking skin, each slash taking a chunk of flesh.

Okoye joined the assault, casting spell after spell in order to ensure that the woman remained weakened.

<Shattered illusions>

The woman screamed.

<Profound weakness>

The woman fell to her knees and lost the energy to resist Vasile.

<Spirit chains>

The woman tucked her body in an abnormal posture, almost as if her body was being tightened by invisible chains.

While the naked woman was being slaughtered by Vasile and Okoye, Stanis waited for the flames to come off the naked man. From the power behind Dragon's breath, he hoped the man had died but at the same time he doubted it.

"HARRRRRRRRGGHH!" the man roared, the flames flailing around as a figure cut through the cone of fire.

He came at Stanis with a rage previously unseen. Stanis backed away while forming several ice crystals, shooting them the second they formed. This seemed to slow the man but not by much as they also seemed to have the effect of igniting the man's anger.

Eventually, after he had shot close to 20 crystals, the man weakened and finally fell to his knees, his back showing as he sat on his forearms, coughing blood onto the ground. Most of the flames had gone out due to the Ice crystals and now Stanis could see that the man's skin had actually been burnt black by the flames.

Stanis gestured to Pete, who understood, and the two of them began closing in slowly. In the case that the man still had fight left in him and attacked one of the two, the other would quickly bring him down. Luckily, this proved not to be the case and Stanis and Pete began cutting into the naked man as Vasile had already done for the woman.

It was only after a few seconds of relentless slashing that the man finally stopped breathing.

"About time," Vasile said. Stanis looked over and was surprised by what he saw. The tall, monstrous figure he saw in front of him was nothing like the dying old man Vasile had been minutes back.

"The man was stronger," claimed Pete, simultaneously wiping the blood and grit of his hatchet.

"He was," Okoye agreed. "But, not by much. Anyone got any analysis skills? I already checked and it looks like these humans don't have souls."

Stanis nodded and moved towards the dead man, who now looked to be little more than mangled flesh and bones. He cast Scout and sense and waited.

False man model 1

Rank: Medial Mosyte

Description: A creation by the Hu. One of several models. This certain model is only found in training areas as they are too weak to be used in warfare.

Since he had ascended to rank 4, all his skills had been upgraded. This included Scout and sense. While the information was still lacking, it was a lot better than it had been previously.

Stanis told the others what he had learnt and waited for their responses.

"One of several models and can't be used in warfare, eh?" Vasile asked. "I guess that means the other models are stronger, meaning we'll probably be fighting for our lives against those things."

"Mm. I guess they don't mind us taking these," Okoye said as she moved over to the false woman model 1. She revealed a hidden blade she was hiding in her colourful robes and got to work cutting into the woman's flesh, storing them with some skill afterwards.

"I guess you're right," Vasile said as he also moved to the false woman, ripping off some of her flesh before throwing it down his mouth. "Not bad. Hey Pete, hand us some of that drink,"

Pete chuckled while handing over his canteen.

Stanis felt his heart lurch while watching this. Considering what he had seen of the other group, Stanis was almost certain that their group was the one who still held onto a few morals. As for his own group, well, he doubted they even knew the definition of such a hilarious word…

"Jen, you better fight next time—" Vasile said. It sounded like he was about to add a threat to the end of it but then reconsidered. Seeing as to how Vasile's transformation didn't seem to have a time limit, it seemed Vasile hadn't been in his transformed state from the start because he hadn't known how they would have reacted to his inhuman state.

Caring about other people's opinions was something, Stanis was sure off, that everyone in the arena had been apathetic about. But that was only when the people surrounding them were weak and easily swayed, not when everyone else was just as strong and arrogant as you, which was how it had been in the arena.

Considering that Jen hadn't fought, the whole group was still moving around her on tip-toes. Was she strong enough for them to fear or was she weaker than them and as dead inside as she seemed? Stanis himself was concerned about this; if she wasn't going to fight, then she was nothing but dead weight.

On the other hand, Jen stared blankly at Vasile in response to his comment.

"Anyway," Okoye said as she hid her blade and walked away from the corpse, "We're going to have to get moving now. That guy told us to just survive, meaning it won't be as easy as this. We can argue and cut at each others' throats then."

****

The deeper they walked into the rainforest, the more times they were assaulted and the worse each attack. After the second attack, even Jen had begun to fight back. If naked, human-shaped biological weapons hadn't been bad enough, Jen's walking corpses more than made up for it. She turned out to have a class similar to a necromancer's, and easiest said, her skills and spells were all gruesome and wicked.

It was 5 hours into their search that a blinding light lit up in the distant skies…