Fighting in a larger group, I found, involved a surprising amount of looking around and trying to decide if the fighting was over yet. And then you realized it wasn’t and had to ride out a hammering heart as you attempted to squash the next crisis.

It took about two minutes for the rest of the battle to settle. Flush with adrenaline, two minutes dragged. Sage did the heavy lifting, but I ended up charging and stabbing the bodies of two more Skulkers while the Bloodthirsty Fae Squirrels provided support.

In the end, I found myself panting over the eviscerated corpse of a skulker (I had slit open its belly when it had tried to roll me). The sensation was almost that of waking up, but I had just blacked out, perhaps akin to the battle rages of a berserker. Except in my case, half of it was wild panic at the encounter with alligators.

I eased my body down and lay for a few seconds in the mud, letting my system normalize. The spinning of the sky slowed, the buzzing of my skin eased.

On the shore, several Bloodthirsty Fae squirrels waved their paws at me. I wished I had enough energy to glare. Your inaccuracy isn’t cute. If you were this bad at firing Fae bolts… have I been jumping in the path of your attacks the entire time?

Still, the waiting notifications brought a little bit of ease after the adrenaline faded away.

Your Skill (Species) Interstitial Body Structure has grown to Level 20.

Your Skill (Earned) Detection has grown to Level 25(+5)

Your Skill (Temp) Weak Secretions has grown to Level 11.

You have assisted in slaying a Lvl 14 Toothy Bayou Skulker.

Your Skill (Earned) Short-Term Prediction has grown to Level 15.

Your Skill (Species) Interstitial Body Structure has grown to Level 21.

You have assisted in slaying a Lvl 16 Toothy Bayou Skulker.

You have Leveled Up! Health +5, Mana +3, Free Stat +1. Please select which Stat will receive the free point.

Considering I had already gained another Level, putting me at 18, I added the free Stat point to Insight. So long as I can keep up this growth… the Second Growth Threshold is slowly creeping closer.

What will I become after the next transformation?

“You…” The Kami lumbered to the edge of the bayou and gave me a long look. “Such whimsical physicality. Those whorls… No wonder, no wonder… despite your strange form and the unholy touch of blight, you have squirrel blood flowing through your veins.”

I blinked at the Kami in confusion for several reasons. First, his shrinking had continued. At this point, his body had decreased in size until he had settled into a slightly plump teddy bear-ish form. Second, because the comment about designs-

Finally, I realized the situation of my body; due to the earlier activation of field butchery, during the climactic ripping of the top of a Skulker’s jaw, the bloodstains across my body became…

I looked down at the way blood had dried into genuine patterns. …artistic feels like the wrong word. Purposeful and garish?

Several Fae Squirrels gave me a thumbs up; clearly they thought the bloody designs quite cool. I turned away, keeping my eyes up to the sky so I wouldn’t either shred the squirrels for their blithe inaccuracy or glimpse my reflection in the bayou. Today I make a solemn vow; I will not lose sight of leisure again. Definitely, my ability to invest in the present has grown strong. In that respect, I have no regrets.

Yet… hah…

Sage joined me in the shallows. “Well fought Tallum! Truly, your ferocity is a lesson for us all.”

“Indeed.” Nightshade moved forward, his hydra body languid. “Your brutality has laid the foundation… now it is my responsibility to finish carving this edifice in futility for all who underestimate us Chimera Cores. Weep, this strange new world. For you now host an inevitable threesome of blight.”

Without reflection on possible misinterpretations of his words, Nightshade waded out into the bayou. Sage and I followed while the fae squirrels chittered and glittered as they followed the edge of the shore.

While the front portion of the Bayou was relatively wide and shallow, interspersed with trees, at the back corner sat a dark pool. No matter how much fighting had occurred on our side, the inky depths hadn’t stirred. And now Nightshade wriggled his way forward, heading for that darkness to prove his strength.

As we swam after him, I began to frown. That… sensation…

Your Skill (Earned) Mana Sensitivity has grown to Level 25(+10).

I raised my voice. “Careful, Nightshade. In the depths, something moves.”

Nightshade was so intent on swimming deeper that he only dipped his head in acknowledgment.

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I hadn’t noticed from further away, but I felt a sluggish flow of Mana in the area, concentrating in the depths at the back end of the bayou. I felt my own worry rise. But before I could think about anything, I felt Sage’s tail settle across me. “Brother Tallum, we must speak on what is about to come to pass.”

“You are worried too, huh?” I grunted. The movement of Mana felt extremely strange; it flowed to that deepest point, but then all the energy seemed to vanish. The speed couldn’t match the force of a Kami rampant, but-

The Sage’s look gave me pause. “For such a bottom-dwelling reprobate? My heart will never stir for the fool Nightshade, nor his foe. However… I suspect that your own generosity blinds you to our brother’s worries. Can you not see how chagrined he has become? To watch you wield great powers in this life, accomplishing all our goals with just a few words?”

For a few seconds, the machinery of my mind stalled as I tried to understand what Sage was saying. I gave her a look. “...Nightshade was a Maou in his past life. I hardly think the few meager Blessings I used could impress him.”

Sage released a soft laugh. “Ah, your naivety is part of your charm. Do you think what you accomplished today, bringing this swaggering and blustering Kami into the fold, is the result of your Blessing? It serves as a necessary assurance, yes, but the voodoo you wield is one of words, Tallum, not of raw power.”

“My voodoo…?” I felt puzzled. And I hoped the System wasn’t listening, considering whether to award me such a strange skill. Yet the more I reflected, the more I could acknowledge that Sage would perhaps have a point; although not via the methods I had intended, they were reacting to my resolve to invest in this life. To create a home worth living in.

To avoid a tragedy, to avoid compromising the small remnants of my heart, I had used the tools at my disposal. I could just barely see it, the shape of a world anchored and strengthened. I worked toward it.

Just, Sage is implying that I arranged all these developments when she was the one who did all the negotiating…

“I will make one request,” Sage said. Her tail tightened on me. “No matter what happens in this fight, do not move. Watch your older brother with pride. You are the heart and spine of us, little Tallum. If you do not panic, the prospect of failure will not even enter into Nightshade’s thick ooze skull.

“And today, as I did, he needs to be able to stand before his siblings in a beaming spotlight of triumph.”

The air stirred, buffeted by the constant flow of Mana draining down into the bayou’s depths. I considered Sage as we swam. I could feel the subtle pulses from her jelly core; she genuinely meant her request.

A part of me recoiled, wanting to reject her plea. Because in the end, this was about the Health of my sibling. I didn’t want to- no, I wouldn’t be able to keep my precarious grasp on sanity if he were to die. A hulking monstrosity glittered in the back of my mind, whispering brass and soot promises of doom to the world if Nightshade were hurt. Although Nightshade was powerful, I didn’t like the sheer volume of Mana sluggishly flowing toward the pool.

Yet a more realistic part of me just shrugged. “...okay. I think I can do that.”

In the end, let’s not let Sage’s naming sense and Nightshade’s bullish attitude influence me. I am a single jelly, surrounded by threats. Right now, bear Kami is following us along, but what if it changes its mind? And when we finally get back to the temple-

No, let’s not panic about problems too far in the future. Besides… She wants a promise I won’t intervene personally, but aren’t I the weakest of the three…?

What could I even accomplish by trying to help?

Your Skill (Earned) Monster’s Wisdom has grown to Level 25(+19).

“What infuriating pettiness…!” I muttered about the System.

Next to me, Sage nodded. “Indeed. If not for Nightshade’s infernal luck encountering our generous duo, he would be a stranger to us, and we could eviscerate him and leave his entrails hung up as a sign foolishness will not be tolerated here. Alas, fate is unfathomable and cruel.”

On the shore, the leaders of the fae squirrels released a chitter. The Kami lumbered along behind them, using teddy bear arms to push through reeds. He nodded and addressed the squirrel. “Yes, you are correct. The taint of blight… for all it can be a font of horrors, is rather isolated in these three. But Corruption is a wound on the very fabric of existence.”

Sage and I found a rock, slick with moss and mostly sunken underneath the water, but clambered up on top. Nightshade swam deeper, even while the stillness dominated the pool. The lack of movement became a physical, looming presence. The few dark green lilypads in that portion seemed carved of stone. The reeds along the shore had been cast from iron, so the small breeze would not move them. Only Mana shifted, inexorably drawn toward the depths.

My skin tingled. …so how big is the bastard that rules the gators…?

Yet even as my tension mounted, Detection nudged my attention toward movement in the tree hanging over the dark pool. I blinked; there, hanging on the lowest branch of the tree was a small woven cage of reeds. Perhaps the most galling detail… was that if I had that much skill in weaving, my stump roof would have functioned more as an actual roof and less as a funnel.

“What the hell is that?” I couldn’t help but spit out the words.

From the depths of the cage, a sinuous emerald body shifted. The gecko captive quirked his head to the side and considered me. “A tasty snack. Who’s asking?”

On cue, the pool erupted. A wave of sludge erupted outward and I got my first look at the three-eyed monster, the bearer of Corruption.

I braced myself for the largest and meanest alligator so far but instead gasped at the slimy and emaciated thing cutting through the bayou’s surface. A completely different memory popped into my mind, of Nightshade pausing on an earlier adventure and looking across the wetlands to comment on how graceful a creature it was.

Because the three-eyed monster was a grey-black heron, its feathers coated in pond scum and moss. It was a gaunt, long-limbed thing, almost a scarecrow. Its beady black eyes fixed on Nightshade as my brother swam closer. It beat those rotten wings to steady itself and released a harsh shriek of warning.

(Corrupted) Bog Heron Lvl 21

Nightshade did not slow, either at the noise or the threat implied by the Level.

After taking in the whole, my attention fixed on the central portion of the monster’s forehead. Because there swirled a strange distortion; all the Mana moving was pulled to that point, the third ‘eye’, and drained out of the world.

Even from the shore, I could hear the Kami’s grumbling. “A breathing abscess on creation! Back when the powers of the Kami’s were at the apex, we would hunt these perfidious traitors for sport. One time-”

No wait, I twitched, refocused by my own concerns. The Kami continued to heedlessly ramble. Setting aside the issue of a heron sleeping at the bottom of a bayou… how the hell did this bastard weave such a structurally sound cage?!

“Are you here to rescue me?” The gecko asked. “If so, chop chop. This princess is fucking hungry.”

Nightshade’s limbs began to swell. The three-eyed monster hissed and swooped to meet him.