Lil’s reply contains a poignant question, “Probably was Reggie, should we fight back?” I almost expected a sardonic reply at my misfortune from Lil, instead their tone is worried. I should know by now to expect Lil to respond with tenderness, unlike how my memories say most sapients, humans at least, treat one another.

I shake my head momentarily, hoping we can de-escalate this situation, “Not yet, maybe it’s still a misunderstanding, if they see that we don’t retaliate, maybe they’ll get we don’t mean any harm, and just let us pass through.”

As three more spears sail our direction simultaneously, I hear Lil let out a slight laugh and an almost subvocal “fat chance,” through their textbox. Despite speaking in textboxes, things do still create some vocal noise as they utter their words to the text.

The frogs in particular are definitely croaking “Bully, Bully”, and I’m confused yet again on if they’re calling their target, which is me, a bully, or if they’re proudly being bullies. Trying not to make the same mistake twice, and feeling my right arm seize up slightly near the wrist, palm, fingers, and forearm, I swipe in a circle. Shoving sideways, I make contact with each of the spears' hafts from the side as I spin out of their path. Just as I make contact with each spear, they disappear into my inventory.

I launch the spears back in the exact opposite trajectory because my space skill can store objects as well as their momentum. It can redirect that momentum, reduce it, increase it, it’s honestly incredibly versatile for moving things through, well, open space. It can even add momentum from seemingly nowhere. Somewhat surprisingly, and somewhat dismayingly, there are three squelches, followed by that familiar crystalline crashing crackling noise of derezzing happening. I’m trying to not have to murder my way across our land. So far it has been a pretty mixed bag.

I used up a fair amount of mana-like energy from my mind’s-eye mental interface’s blue bar doing those inventory stunts. Lil calls it energy, I’ve alternated between calling it energy and mana. Claiming my own objects requires almost nothing at this point, but claiming someone else’s projectiles and storing the kinetic motion of them? That takes a chunk out of me, apparently. They’re almost free to expel at the same velocity, but I’m not sure if it was better or worse than just trying to physically dodge them. Especially since the first one I foolishly got cut by. My energy pool is far, far larger than it was when I started learning about my inventory however, so I’m willing to try a few things to hopefully either de-escalate the situation, or frighten away these bullyfrogs. As I try to come up with a plan to do so, lightning strikes within a foot of me, and I nearly jump out of my skin.

There’s a familiar sound once again of derezzing. Examining the location of the strike, I realize that a smaller bullytoad was shimmying through the muck unnoticed, about to stab me in the ankles or back. Looking towards the primate mounted atop the rock, I could swear they’re smiling and giving me a thumbs up. I try to make a positive facial gesture of some sort of thanks and recognition, but I’m not sure if it's even very visible from this distance, or even what to do with my face to convey my thoughts.

Oh, oh there is definitely poison moving around inside of me, but if anything I touch is something that can be mine, and anything that’s mine can go in my inventory. What if I just--? Yeah, I’ll try to claim it.

Whew, yeah, that’s a lot better. Now I’ve got a little blob of poison in my mind’s eye inventory, and a little bit of my own blood too. Possibly more than a little bit of my own blood, I’m kind of light headed now, a tad woozy. I can maybe get better at that with practice, though it’s something I hope to not have to practice very often, or ever again.

I think my right hand and forearm are still going to be seized up for a while. Whatever nerve agent that was in the toxin has messed me up fairly thoroughly, but at least it’s not going to keep traveling up and paralyze me entirely. Lil appears to be worried, and sick of waiting for the opportunity to de-escalate, so now they’re spewing little gouts of flame while riding about my shoulders, literally covering my back.

With Lil back there, and my mana-like energy pool being much higher than it used to be, I turn my head and give Lil a raised brow, querying whether they want to try the evolution thing again. Lil nods emphatically. With that, I focus on pouring my energy into Lil, infusing them with my will and my care and love and support, my desire for them to be okay and to make it through this.

I’d swear the world, or at least my mind’s-eye interface, produces a heavenly chorus saying the phrase, “Ryuga, hayazaki.”

I’d swear I heard something like that before. Was it Ryu Mankai? Ryu Shinka? Was it when the bear attacked us? I can’t recall. Hm, Ryuga Hayazaki. Does that mean dragon go early bloom? Regardless, I pass my love, my courage, my endurance, my will, my heart, my energy to Lil.

Sure enough, Lil’s form elongates. Polygons, mostly holographic looking triangles, float in from seemingly nowhere to extend Lil’s shape to that of the Agnewt, Lilagni’s winged fire newt form. I hear a round of whooping from atop the rock, but I’m preoccupied trying to concentrate on the transformation. I’m doing my best to make certain that it won’t harm Lil in any way. I’m also trying to see if I can support Lil with my energy so they don’t go into energy debt again. It feels as if there’s a literal tether around my heart that stretches to Lil. A cable that’s a sort of pipeline for energy like a power-cord. Or maybe for data, like fiber-optics.

I probably shouldn’t be focusing on such a thing as transformation and energy management, from a position surrounded by bully frogs and toads in a swamp. Frog things who are chucking spears in my direction. But Lil’s fiery breath is so much more potent in this form that they’re able to literally blast the spears out of the air. Their breath ends up incinerating some instantly, leaving ash blowing in the breeze.

One spear throw strikes me partially. Its blade misses me, though its haft clonks me upside the head, leaving me momentarily dazed. I sort of literally walked into it while dodging other things. Annoyed, I think about moving into and out of combat, because I really want to smack the toad that hit me, and I swear for a moment I was seeing from atop Lilagnewt in the sky. It’s as if I had just instantly teleported there and back down. I rattle my own head a bit, trying to shake loose any confusion in my senses. I must have been disoriented from the strike while I was closing the distance between myself and the bully that hit me. Still a bit disoriented, I strike the creature several times with my fists, not even thinking of using any weapons, just smacking it angrily.

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I scream into its face, though I know it can’t understand me, and I wouldn’t be able to understand a response, “Why, why violence and enmity and just one hostile thing after another? I even tried to show that I wasn’t going to hurt anyone if it was a mistake, why are you attacking us!?”

It continues the same croaking it has been doing this entire time, “Croaaweeeaak arreoooaaaak Bully, bully, bullies.”

I’m pretty sure that it just croaked that they’re bullies at me, and I think my brain blue screened with the most incredulous look on my face. It felt like a perfect answer to my question. Honestly my jaw probably hung slack with the blankest most dumbfounded stare before I rolled my eyes. Fine, they’re bullies, they identify themselves as jerks? Fine, I’ll give in. This land wants fantasy and fighting and death? Then here, have some.

I partially materialize a copy of a spear, and just swirl it in a circle at waist level. My space skill impresses me yet again, it’s almost telekinesis when conjuring something from my own inventory. Against biological creatures, this would be a gross evisceration where guts spill out. Instead, the familiar sound of crinkling crackling crashing smashing of derezzing fills the air from several directions around me. Some other bullies had apparently been sneaking up on me, and just had their brain pans tapped by a swiftly slicing spear. Triangular polygons spill forth until the creatures wireframes are entirely exposed, and even those are no more.

I can tell I’m still somewhat surrounded, but the croaking and ribbiting is growing more distant. The sounds of swishing muck are harder to hear as they seem to retreat while circling. The occasional puff of hot air and mild roars of fire tell me Lil is still flying about chasing off further bullies. I focus on listening, really just trying to hone my senses to make sure I’m not missing anything. Those genre senses are still tingling somehow. There is something I’m missing. This situation is far from resolved, I’m almost sure of it. I focus even more intently on my hearing. That may have been a bad idea as another thundercrack booms out from the rock in a most deafening manner. My brain feels like it rattles around in my skull as I shake loose the ringing in my ears while trying to blink and squint out the pain rising behind my eyes.

“Oww.” I groan as I continue rubbing my brow and eyelids. I hear the soft beat of Lil’s flapping wings approaching, and I hold out my arms as I can tell they’re aiming for my chest. I let my energy tether drop and I can feel Lil’s Agnewt form diminish into their usual spherical shape as they plop into my arms.

“That’s such a rush! Thank you for helping me do that partner!” Cries Lil excitedly as their tail lightly curls around me. “Though, how’d you get up ontop of me, and why’d you leave?”

My left brow raises with piqued curiosity, “How’d I what now?”

Lil responds forthrightly enough, “You were up in the air with me. It was mega cool, mega mega mega cool. I mean I think it was you, I blinked and you were gone from down below and I felt a weight on my back, and I blinked again and you were halfway across that clearing fighting a bully.”

I mumble, mostly to myself, “Did I, well, did I teleport?”

Lil, either guiding my thoughts, or thinking that I asked them, asks in answer, “I dunno, is that something you can do?”

Shaking my head, I try to puzzle out what just happened, “I don’t think it is, or I don’t think it was. Maybe it has something to do with how I connected my energy to you, to try to make sure you wouldn’t go into energy debt for me again?” My mind drifts to the fact that I have a skill that Lil doesn’t, the space skill. It has to deal with manipulating objects’ positions in space. Could it manipulate me somehow? Could it manipulate Lil if needbe?

Lil surmises, “That could be it, maybe, I’ve never had anyone connect to me like that before. It felt like I had limitless energy.”

I grin down at my Lil’ buddy, responding with appreciation, “Yeah I’m pretty sure it was coming from me, but I wanted to make sure that you couldn’t lose any more in a way that was my fault.”

Lil of course is a total sweetheart about it. Despite it having been partially my fault that they were unconscious for ages after the last time they evolved, “Hey, we’re both okay, and that’s what matters, thank you, for caring so much.”

The left half of my face wears an uncontrollable grin, despite the seriousness of our situations, “Of course Lil, I love you buddy.”

“Love you too Reggie.” Lil’s reply is almost automatic, as if there’s never any question that they could ever have felt, or feel differently. Despite the seeming loneliness of our world, we have each other. I thank all my good fortune for Lil’s existence, and their persistence to make their way into my life.

I hear a slow clapping coming from atop the rock, and notice the croaking has all but faded away into the distance. The figure, definitely someone that can change shapes on their own, sits down cross legged and slides down the angular smooth rock slope. As they approach, during their descent, Lil and I look at each other, exchanging a semi nervous glance. Our glance conveys our question of “just who is this person?” My memories say that people, well, humans at least, which, I guess don’t exist, argh, trains of thought, distractions, just stick to one thought train, brain. My memories say humans all have names. But of the four or so sapient creatures I’ve met before now, none of us had names, myself included. My mental inventory interface only obtained a name when Lil decided what to call me. Similarly, Lil was just some little draconic sphere slithering around on their only limb, their tail, no name to speak of, nor other limbs for that matter.

As the apelike creature slides to near the bottom of the sloped rock, the, I guess I’ll call them the staff ninja, the staff ninja polevaults into the air. They end up leaping a massive distance, landing fairly close. Their form, or at least facial region seems to oscillate between various primates, like a mandrill or baboon, or bonobo. Despite apelike appearances, they have a prehensile tail, and a very cocksure gait.

Again, words that I have no idea why I know them, are how I think to describe things. I try to introduce myself to Staff Ninja, and they seem pleased to see us, but there’s the usual language barrier. As the sound of croaking grows more distant, I feel like a swishing sound grows closer, though I’m not certain where from. Anyway, when trying to communicate I talk, like talk talk, but people or creatures seem to make some noises. Yet they only communicate in text boxes that pop up. The only reason I can create textboxes when I speak with Lil is because we’re in a group or party or are otherwise connected somehow.

Regardless, I continue my attempt to communicate with the primate individual. A moment later I’m worried I’ve offended them as the Staff Ninja’s eyes go wide, and they swing their bo at me. It’s quick but doesn’t contain an injurious force. It connects, knocking me to the side, as a series of serpentine heads, jaws wide open, slam down on the spot where I had just been standing. The quickness of both the serpent’s strike from some vast distance, and staff ninja’s reaction to it are beyond my comprehension. If the serpent was that swishing sound from earlier, it was hundreds and hundreds of meters away, but it’s here only moments later.

I gaze in horror at the many-headed snake the size of a two-family home. It’s easily as large as Vampguppy, likely much larger, since my sense of scale is always wonky. Its fangs and eyes glint with ferocity despite the muck and mire casting a weary gloom upon everything else. I’m almost certain it’s licking its reptilian lips on most of its faces.