“You know what I really miss? Music. This whole thing would’ve gone more smoothly if there’d been some good music in the background.”

Drying the sweat and ignoring his shaky hands, Liam looked upon the newest addition to the traps he’d built, and it was good. He’d found out a relatively new use out of the special rope-circlet Maridah had given him: heavy-duty lifting. If he set the rope up properly, then it would work like a pulley system. Upon activation, it would seek to close, thus elevating things that would’ve been otherwise too heavy for him.

He was burning through the charge at a crazy speed, but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. Besides, what was the alternative? His arms were way too noodly for heavy lifting.

“I really hope I don’t just end up accidentally killing myself.” He chuckled nervously, breathing hard and feeling more than a little lightheaded.

“Nonsense, I’m here.” Bunny hopped into view, all of her two pounds of dark fluffy existence preening as she raised her head to show off a new addition.

A crown of fangs, carefully strapped upon her head and two red streaks painted upon her face and back.

He almost did a double-take. “That’s… new.”

“Since I couldn’t help with the preparations, I thought I might as well gear up for the hunt.” Her ears wriggled, eyes twinkling with pride.

“I’m sure the carrots will tremble in terror.” He chuckled, pulling her onto his shoulder. “Just how did you do it? You don’t have thumbs.”

She shot him a smug look. “Carefully.”

“Fine, keep your secrets.” He took one last look at their kill-zone. “Everything up to snuff?”

“It could be worse.”

Yay optimism. “Well, you know your part…”

“Yeah…” Her ears drooped, her enthusiasm popping a little. “Yeah…”

“Fingers crossed.”

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The crobo’s den had been invaded by countless creatures, small and large, fierce one and all. The crobo had fought them off, easily at first, but as time went on, it became harder. It wasn’t a stupid creature, but never before had it encountered this many challengers to its domain, not in such quick succession. The strangeness almost made it consider relocating the nest elsewhere.

Almost.

The location was too perfect, with all the best hunting spots, and other mana-eaters weren’t in the vicinity. More importantly, here it was the queen of this bend of the river. Any further in, and the monsters were too powerful to deal with safely; any further out, and the mana would be too sparse.

Though if there was one advantage from having this many invaders, it was that it was content, fat, and full, almost lethargic. It had eaten more than it could have ever hoped for, all without even stepping out of its territory.

So much so that, when a succulent tiny black morsel showed up, it chose to ignore it.

Seemingly not content with being spared, the bold little creature got closer, screeching at the crobo, even kicking at it with its minuscule little paws. It got an annoyed little flip of the paw, a lone blow from the crobo enough to send it tumbling back.

What a strange little thing. It was annoying, though, so when it got back, the crobo swatted at it again. This time it managed to get on its body, only then seeming to stop its incessant sounds. The crobo, suspecting that perhaps this creature wished to clean its scales, allowed it.

Then it bit the crobo’s eye.

The crobo let out a roar, clutching at the bleeding hole where the vicious black thing had torn at it with a wicked bite. Whipping around, it sought the offender, trying to summon a burst of lightning, yet failing to do more than sputter out some sparks.

Screeching drew its remaining good eye to the black furred thing.

That was it!

The crobo gave chase, legs thumping heavily as it dragged its massive frame across the jungle. Bushes and small vegetation broke under its might, lesser creatures ran in fear of the apex predator of this bend of the river. The little black perpetrator ran as if carried by the wind, climbing up the hill, all the way to a strangely barren clearing where it put itself squarely in the middle.

Uncaring and unflinching, the creature roared after it.

Too late did it realize the scent lingering in the area was the same one that had accompanied every invader these past few days. Its lone eye was too focused on the hateful little black thing to notice the movement around… and above.

When it heard the sound of snapping vines, it looked up.

Just in time for a sharpened tree-trunk to fall down on it, squarely onto the middle of its back.

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The crobo should’ve been dead. By every metric, by every virtue, that one trap should’ve resulted in the monster getting punched right through and torn in half. But no, the stupid thing’s scales were too tough, its body too hardened. The tree-sized spike was almost as large as the monster; it came down with the force of an eighteen-wheeler, its tip sharpened, and the only damn thing it did was break some of the scales on its neck.

The creature let out a roar of anger and pain, wriggling the tree off.

Liam knew its hide was tough, but this was just plain unfair!

He cut the rope holding the second, and last, tree-spike and prayed the monster was distracted enough not to notice.

It did.

With a wild flail of limbs, it twisted itself, trying to get out of the way. The spike didn’t hit it on its back, but it did crush its front left paw. With a cracking sound, the monster roared again, its body flaring up with sparks and jolts. Its lone eye fixed on Liam, and its entire body sputtered and flickered.

The air smelled strongly of ozone.

“OH SHI-”

Liam grabbed hold of the dark-circlet-rope and jumped from his perch, the black rope turning his drop into a swing. A lightning bolt surged from the creature, the spot he’d been occupying exploded in a rain of splinters and bark.

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The crobo’s mouth snapped shut, crackles and lightning sputtering around its maw and every scale on its glowing body. Its single eye tracked Liam as the human tumbled to the ground, trying to duck and roll but mostly flopping.

It opened its maw again, the light gaining intensity.

“NO!” Bunny lunged at the monster, a little ball of fluff jumping at its face.

Whether by fear, instinct, or anger, the monster’s neck twisted in her direction, just enough to avoid losing the remaining good eye, the bolt that came out of its mouth barely a spark. It tried to regain its balance, leaning into the crushed foot and losing stability, its head falling to the ground.

It was lethargic, exhausted, trying to wriggle and fend Bunny off as the rabbit was on a path to claim the remaining eye. While the massive creature wriggled and twisted, the smaller one dodged, bounced, and found purchase wherever it set foot. It was like watching a grown man trying to swat off a very determined and agile spider that wanted to bite their face.

When the crobo began to roll over, trying to use its own body to crush her, Liam saw the soft underside of its body and rushed forth.

The divine knife carved through the softer scales on the monster’s throat like butter, red blood sprung forth like a fountain, and the massive creature flung its head with enough force to throw Liam across the clearing, rolling on the dirt like a ragdoll.

Everything felt like it had broken, the world spun, he collapsed, unable to move, his body reeling from the tornado he’d just experienced.

A gurgled roar, the monster flinging its head up, the second eye missing.

Yet it moved towards Liam, blood pooling all around it, dragging itself, inhaling his scent through the slits it called nostrils. Rows of fangs were staring at the human, moving ever closer. The human dragged himself away as best he could, his heart hammering as he could barely do more than stare as it got closer and closer.

Until the crobo collapsed.

Its maw thudding against the ground close enough to put the putrid stench of its final breath over him like a curse.

Liam waited, unmoving, frozen in place. But when nothing came out of the creature, no twitch, no movement, no roars or death or lightning, he let out a half chuckle.

“You ok?” Bunny’s voice came out of the now-empty eye-socket, the rabbit covered in… stuff, her little crown of fangs peeking out over the scales of the monster. “It’s dead. Fully dead. And I will need a bath for at least a day.”

Liam’s chuckling turned into giggles, followed by what could only be described as deranged laughter. He howled, veins burning from the adrenaline, there was a numb aching across his body that warned him everything would suck soon enough, but the euphoria that rushed through him was like all the energy drinks in the world combined.

“Alive, but it will hurt in the morning,” he promised, dragging himself up, knife in hand. “I have to do something to make it worse first though. Could you please lend a ha- paw in that?”

“Not as bait, I hope,” she visibly shuddered.

“No, I need the rust-moss and the purple berries I packed. Also, water.” Time was of the essence, and he’d have to put what little he’d learned while working under Alan to get to the true prize. “I got to do this butcher job before things start going bad.”

Shoulders, neck, back.

Those were the suspect places that contained the monster’s mana-circuits.

In many ways, a monster’s circuits were like a blessing from a divinity, the special abilities and powers came out of patterns engraved onto the target, not unlike an enchanted item. It’s just that the “item” in question was a living creature. Maridah’s blessing took the same form, and Liam had no doubt he carried some of her “work” somewhere inside his body.

One of the differences was what those circuits were made of.

Liam carefully removed the scales, each one twice the size of his thigh, each one carrying a tiny silver slimy thread connecting its insides with the flesh of the creature. He cleared out the shoulder-area of the monster, and then cut out a thin opening.

Using the shimmer-chicken’s claws, he pried the wound open and locked it into place as he began carving through the fat and muscle. He was following the silver-slimy threads, carefully shaving off bits and pieces until he found a dull gray mass that shimmered when the forget-me-knife touched it.

“Whoops. Gotta keep this thing away,” he chuckled nervously, pulling the divine tool away lest it drain what mana was in it and ruin his work.

Fortunately, he still had the shimmer-chicken claws, which could do what was necessary even if not as cleanly.

“What’s your plan here?” Bunny asked with a frown as she’d dragged the requested items so he’d have easy reach. “Short of carving yourself open, you can’t transfer the circuits… even then, it should be impossible.”

He chuckled nervously, pulling his sleeve up and squishing one of the berries so its juice would spread over his skin. “Have I ever told you about midichlorians? They’re shit, but mostly because they were pulled out of Lucas’ butt.”

Bunny scowled. “I don’t… you’re talking nonsense.”

“Yeah, it helps me distract myself from what I’m about to do.” He applied another layer of berry juice, taking another to bite into it and swallow it whole. “Anyway, I had this burning question: How could monsters get their own powers without involving Gods? At the time, I stumbled onto the whole gut-bacteria craze and sort of thought that maybe old Lucas was onto something. It’s just that he was too much of a coward to double down and explore the implications.” His already frayed smile took a wild edge. “What happens if you could just use a transfusion to get powers from a Jedi? Heck, there could be awesome stories there, like some old and weakening Jedi needing blood from younger force-sensitive people so that they could keep carrying out their duty… the morality, the drama, the secrets… Lots of potentially cool shit that got flushed down the drain.”

“Liam, what are you doing? This much mana will kill you.”

“I agree.” He ate another berry, his gut felt like it had been frozen over, and the juice-covered skin was tingling something fierce. “Monkey was right, these berries pack a punch.” Liam grimaced, grabbing the next berry and rubbing it against his arm, then plopping the squeezed pulp into his mouth and swallowing. “Good thing I’ve got a guest I gotta feed.”

With a tiny cut into the gray lump, he plunged his arm into it all the way to his elbow. The inside was somewhere between fat and muscle, kind of like a layered set of mucus-coated rubber walls.

Bunny stiffened, eyes widening. “Liam, that-”

“These little fuckers were made by one of the primordial Gods, you know, the big guys from the second Age. Nasty freak, that guy; thank fuck he got his ass handed to him.” The skin on his arm was starting to prickle; he took another berry. “He was a strong proponent for survival of the meanest, these things were his attempt to perpetuate that mindset. You know how sometimes a new breed of monster just pops out of nowhere? That’s usually what you get when some wild animal eats from a fresh monster corpse. Well, if the animal’s lucky anyway, these things aren’t compatible with the digestive system.”

Liam flinched, clenching his jaw as he felt a thousand tiny stabs, like an army of ants with needles for legs walking up and down from the tip of his fingers to his shoulder. He hastily took another berry, concentrating on keeping his arm perfectly still inside the monster’s flesh lest he ruin the process.

Bunny was watching him intently, fidgeting around the open wound of the monster, glancing at it, and then at Liam.

“This technique has been discovered a few times over the ages but won’t really make a comeback until after the war takes off.” He gritted his teeth, flinching as the stabbing became more intense. Another berry down, his head was starting to feel feverish. “Because really, the best way to do this is with liberal amounts of aether, the sort that would make an Emperor cringe at the price tag.”

Words abruptly failed him, a small whimper escaping his lips as the sensations became more intense. Liam stuffed his mouth with every last one of the remaining berries, chewed and swallowed, and clenched down on a piece of wood. His arm was burning while the rest of him was so cold he shivered.

Every passing moment, he fought to keep his arm perfectly still, locked into place, not curling so much as a finger. Every other part of him was not under this restraint, so he clenched the other hand, hitting the scales of the monster, crying out and shaking his head.

Minutes felt like hours, his body was drenched in sweat, but he couldn’t stop.

Not once did Bunny tell him to stop or ask him to pull out; the rabbit dutifully took her perch at his shoulder, a lookout as Liam’s berry-consumption moved on to eating the rust-moss.

The human wasn’t even registering flavor, just chewed enough to swallow, sometimes accompanying it with water.

On and on it went, for what might as well have been an eternity, until the prickling pain came to a stop.

Only then did he pull out, collapsing under his own weight.

Now without the heat of the arm, all that was left was the cold. Every inch of his flesh radiated icy cold, all of it originating within his gut. Liam shivered like a leaf, looking down at his blood-soaked arm, at the soft pulsing lines of silver right underneath his skin.

He willed a finger to twitch, and it moved. Slowly, he curled his arm and extended it again.

"L-Liam?" she asked tentatively. "Do I call the bitch-boss?"

"Worst hasn’t happened," his voice was hoarse. "Can still feel fingers." He grimaced, curling into himself, trying not to hurl. "Not..." With a deep shudder, he clenched his arm. "Not gonna be easy, will take a while to settle."

But first, he really needed some well-deserved rest.

Yeah… that sounded nice.

Liam promptly passed out.