Corvayne considered throttling Bearer-of-Burdens, but before he could do that he was going to have to fight off packs of wolves.

Bell had finally put clothes on by the time she rushed out of her tent, hair wild as she struggled to get all the straps on her armor tightened. She looked like she was sweating as she stumbled and hopped towards Corvayne, trying to strap her armor to her legs. “What the hell is going on? It sounds like you woke up every monster for MILES!”

“Miss Burden decided we needed more practice.” Corvayne gestured to the hills which were alive with the sounds of enraged vicious rabbits.

It was almost reassuring, even in the situation they were in, to see that the princess could still get absurdly pissed off. “We got PLENTY of practice going slow and steady! I've gained at least a few levels in two days! What the FUCK is her problem!? Did she get hit too many times by her farm animals? She should have to fight them off herself! Tell her to 'Fuck Off'!”

Lady Blood Claw walked up while stretching, orange with annoyance with some olive green suggesting she was still waking up. “I'd love to hear what Bearer was thinking.”

Bearer still had her cheerful demeanor. “Thinking too much is what got you all stuck in a rut. I suggest you do all your thinking now before the fight starts, so you'll have time to evolve.”

Lady's blade started glowing red hot, matching her own skin turning furious red. “Oh, are you SURE you want me to just start going with my first instincts?”

Spears put her own black crystal spear between them, earning a glare from Lady Blood Claw. The tall woman stabbed a finger over the weapon to point at Bearer. “Spears... If she was just stupid, I'd understand, but she just endangered us all!”

“Fight first. Protect the two girls.” Spears gestured with her spear back to the rise, the only defensible spot near enough. Not that the rise would likely stop the Rabbit Wolves from leaping up, but it might slow them enough.

Bell stepped forward. “I can fight. You don't need to coddle me.”

Nyx floated past her. “I don't consider it coddling. I'd call 'not it on pulling what's left of her out of a monster's jaws'.”

Brines strode up. “Corvayne, what's the plan?”

“Stay near the center of the camp and help Lady Blood Claw with our back. Spears and Nyx, get them clumped up. I'll try to wheel between helping you and watching the camp. That, and handle Bearer if I see even another hint of whatever it is you just did, again.”

“I condensed a week of having these things ambushing us into a fun little hour long adventure. Don't worry, if things look bad I'll take care of it.”

Lady Blood Claw snarled. “How would you do that? You are the same level as everyone else here!”

“Oh, in this system? Yes.” Bearer cracked her knuckles. “What about Tutu?”

Corvayne was watching three wolves leaping along a hillside in the moonlight, still a mile distant but dipping into the longer grass to start stalking closer. There were certainly other places he spotted movement. It took a moment to register she was asking him. “How would I know? I tried to get Bell to put her back.”

The Princess huffed. “She has impulses that would get her killed if directed at someone without your own restraint!”

Lady Blood Claw groaned. “Yet you'd be furious if he decided to roll with it.”

Bell made a noise that Corvayne associated with mice, but when he gave her a sideways look she had schooled her face again. Corvayne did the same, hiding his annoyance at how placid she looked. “Can she fight, or do anything to help tilt the odds? The first wave will likely charge us soon.” He was tracking a pair that had started to bunny hop back and forth towards the front of camp.

An imperious voice called from behind him. “Worry about yourself, Little Shadow! I don't fear the wolf. I have the blood of the Empire in me!”

Hearing Princess Tutu say that, he was starting to think that avoiding the capital, even though it might kill him in the next five minutes, was probably a good idea. He snapped back to where they were. A small rise, with a broad easy to climb front and a steeper horseshoe shaped ridge. The rest of the plains were choked with thick lush grass that wavered both with the breeze on the floor and the Wolves moving through it. A few trees to one side might hamper the Rabbits from lunging at their flank, at least until they reached the tree-line. Corvayne moved to the side and with two sweeps of his spear used [Cross Skill: Reap] to lay down a line of shadow.

Nyx was now ahead of the group, already having primed his whip for a full power strike, and Spears moved past Corvayne and gave him a little kiss on the cheek, then started drawing water around herself, forming a foaming crest of mist. Corvayne adjusted his Jam Jammies, and a bevy of strawberry textured meteors he'd been saving started orbiting him.

Bearer, on the other hand, rolled up her sleeves and took her hat off and folded it into her back pocket, then pulled out a cigarette and lit it with a match, then extinguished it on her gauntlets, her face turning from the sort of vacant glee to serious.

“Why?” He asked.

“If you are the person I think you are, you'll be fine. Again, if not, I'll just bust out my secret, and maybe cause the entire Tower to try to cleanse this floor with fire, and you'll never see me again.”

“Wait wha-” Corvayne had a SERIOUS question about that last part.

“Oops! Can't talk. Wolf time.” Bearer ran forward, skipping and spinning effortlessly as she backhanded one of the first wolves, freezing its jaw then distorting herself as she instantly teleported to where she had bounded from, then leaped forward and slammed into the next one. Corvayne saw a wolf try to bite her and miss as she simply slid back to where she had been standing then fired off another of the same dashing attacks, this time sticking to her enemy and braining it before dashing again.

Corvayne got to work as well as three of the huge rabbit wolves surged from another side, with most of the pack running at Nyx and Spears in the front. It looked like these didn't have the sticky slime the main one he fought had, but they were still huge apex predators and had some level of the elastic limbs he had seen. He opened with [Cross-Skill: Bleeder] on the lead wolf, slashing it on the face as it charged at him with its pack mates looking to get around him.

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Corvayne chose to leap instead, using low gravity to jump up then quickly reversing himself to become heavier and use [Leap Strike] on the wolf, breaking at least a few of its bones as he slammed it into the grass, knocking the other rabbit eared wolves back a few feet. His shadows then took over, black limbs jabbing at the monsters and forcing them back for just a half second, letting him get back to his feet and use [Flow-Like-Water] to land a series of attacks on one, spear hitting its side and leg as the third tried to lunge where Corvayne was, missing with its claw as he fell back a step then spun and used [Cross-Skill: Thresh] to trip the monster, then as it stumbled he hit it with [Cross-Skill: Bleeder in its neck, blood spurting as Corvayne turned to see how his allies were doing.

Spears had created a lake that Nyx was floating over and drawing the monsters into, then whipping them and applying bursts of fear to keep them from getting close. Spears herself was blasting waves of water into groups of the monsters, battering mostly ones trying to get past them. Lady Blood Claw was spreading sleeping gas and dispatching drowsy wolves, with Brines running from a wolf and starting it on fire. He saw Bell following Lady Blood Claw about, as well as Tutu. Fair. Bearer had moved off to cover the other open direction the lake had left, bouncing forward and back with some impossible fist attack like a non stop pinball.

He had his own swarm of six wolves coming at him, and Corvayne let them get in close then chained his shadow limbs, the black grasping hand bouncing between monsters and downing one, while the others staggered but kept limping at him, looking less like a pack of hunters and more like a calvary charge as they got closer. He activated [Cross-Skill: Shield Wall] and stepped back as the wall of flesh hit the spears and pushed him back, dirt flying around his boots of running a moment before he turned one skill off and activated [Flow-Like-Water], claws and jaws snapping around water and barely scratching his fluid form as he lashed out with his spear. One wolf lived, but there were five more coming. Once more he pressed his shadows into a chain and flung them out, killing two outright and causing the monsters to scatter with one unharmed. Corvayne moved towards it as two others prepared to lunge, and used [Juxtapose] to throw the healthy wolf into the way of the two wounded ones. Even with those three occupied a moment, another pair of monsters, looking older and larger, were running to attack him, staggered in a way that wouldn't let him use the same trick.

Corvayne instead pulled his Firebreathing knife into a hand and created a wall of fire, causing some of the grass to ignite as the wolf he was trying to fry stopped and bounced to the side. He turned and used [Cross-Skill: Whirling Death] to fling the knife again, creating a fire disc that killed a wolf in the pile and singed another. With so many targets, even rolling to the side he got hit hard by a claw from the other older wolf and went rolling, his side screaming for a moment before [[Vitality]] took over. He stood up and switched to [[Strength]] and set his shadow limbs to hold his spear as he drew his cleaver.

As another wolf moved to lunge he activated [Butchery] as he stepped to the side, the bloody cleaver hitting the monster in the face and demolishing it with a crunch. Corvayne had a rabbit tooth hit him and he winced but yanked the cleaver free as the monster went down, and used it to keep another claw from hitting him in the throat. Another wolf snapped its jaws on his leg, the Jam Jammies holding despite feeling like a vice grip.

The monster shook its head while jumping, and Corvayne was flung up then down into the ground. Even with the grass, it was like getting punched in the head. Corvayne saw another pair of teeth and used [Phantom Throw] while igniting the dagger, sending a flaming bullet into the wolves face starting its rabbit snout on fire. The dagger came back and he used gravity to force the wolf holding him to the ground, then started stabbing its face with one hand while slamming his cleaver into the ground to help keep him from getting bounced. Finally one hit from the searing weapon got through and hit something important, the monsters jaws locking for a moment before Corvayne could bring his cleaver around and slam it above where his leg was.

Too slow though, because another wolf leaped onto him, jaws seeking his throat. Corvayne clenched his ass and used [[Vitality]] at the same time, getting his arm up to get mauled while his pants blasted another set of strawberry meteors into the monster, trading a broken arm for the entire monster getting shot up a few hundred feet into the air. With a rain of blood he sprayed fire about, then used [Cross-Skill: Flow-Like-Water] to retreat closer to camp. He saw a pair of wolves struggling with his shadows, and he swapped his knife for a gun and popped off [Cross-Skill: Bleeder] on each, hitting one in the head and one on the shoulder, then putting his gun away with shadow hands while grabbing a healing potion. He nearly had the stopper off when another wolf tried to slam into him, spilling it. He had a shadow hand catch the bottle and used [Cross-skill: Judo Throw] with his broken arm and cleaver, further snapping it but using his magical cleaver to dig into the monster's guts before flinging its face into the ground.

He screamed for a moment then grit his teeth and pushed his arm closer to right, then downed the potion. With snapping sounds, he felt his arm mending, hurt but usable again. A spear moves forward. He was going to kill Bearer for this, but first a spear moves forward.

He took his dagger out, switching to [[Agility]] as he felt obsidian spikes growing from his wounded arm, and saw the shadow of a wolf leaping from behind him, and as everything slowed he had a strange moment of clarity... and slashed at the shadow rather then the wolf above him.

It came together as his blade cut along the ground, ripping part of the monster's shadow off and drinking it greedily. [Shadow Stealer].

The monster yelped, and Corvayne saw it fumble out of the sky early, landing off to the side as if he had really hit it in the foot, and shining like the moon. It tried to stumble away, but Corvayne moved towards it, feeling suddenly fluid as more shadow limbs grew from him, rolling in smoky darkness as the impaled the monster. Corvayne felt it die and moved past it, backing towards camp as he saw a pair of wolves moving to attack Bell and Tutu, both engaged with a single wolf ripping a tent apart.

Corvayne drew his gun, dagger still in his other hand as he braced and fired. [Cross-Skill: Shadow Stealer] made him stumble a moment, draining his stamina but blasting a hole in the wolf's shadow. The monster started to both glow and bleed, and he switched to [[Vitality]] and aimed for the other wolf, just hitting it in the side a few times. The noise let Bell see she was getting flanked and pull her own sidearm to blast the wolf that was trying to circle her.

Corvayne rushed forward and watched as the wounded wolf leapt onto Tutu and sank its jaws into her belly, her scream urging him to run forward as he reloaded. A moment later, the scream of pain became one of pleasure, and the wolf started spaisming as a huge bite mark appeared on it.

“Bell! Save Tutu!” Corvayne shouted and tossed a healing potion at Bell, the surprised Princess catching it as Corvayne wheeled and switched to his spear. The wolf that had been stalking her was getting ready to lunge, so he activated [Flow-Like-Water] and darted forward...

Black clouds formed around him, and like a ballista bolt he shot forward, his vision going stark black and white with the wolf shining as if frozen, and black smoke all around him. His spear became a claw of darkness, and slashed the frozen monster as he ran by, demolishing Tutu's tent as he overshot the monster.

“What the hell?” was all he could say as he extracted himself from the ruins and saw that Lady Blood Claw had taken a few hits but was fighting a group four wolves, with several dead near her.

Well, if it worked once.... Corvayne lined himself up with two of the wolves and did it again. The moment he set his feet down, heart pumping as he watched LBC furiously swing her blade to keep them at bay, he felt like something changed, that he had crystallized an unspoken idea he had been thinking about every time he did Spear's signature move.

[Flow-Like-Shadows] sent him forward, flinging him through the monsters and once more summoning huge black claws around his spear, ripping the monsters apart as he left a trail of shadows. Lady Blood Claw flawlessly turned the monster's confusion into two slices that dismembered one and brained another, sending them to the ground. With another strike, she buried her blade in a wounded monster, then held it ready, facing Corvayne.

A moment later she relaxed a hair. “Corvayne?”

He nodded and waved, then noticed his hand was pure black. “New thing. Shadow stealing.”

Lady looked pleased, her expression forming a crooked grin before it fell to looking annoyed.

“Dammit Corvayne, you proved Bearer right.”