Being just a little bit tougher thanks to my Evolution was great, but there was an upside I hadn’t even thought of before I got it.

My Stealth ability let me get around faster. It was a boost on top of the Ash Heather form’s already existing Speed upgrade. Altogether, zipping through the trees along the ambling slopes south of Reed’s Mountain was that much smoother—almost like skiing over bunny slopes.

But that was only true when I went unseen, per Stealth’s requirements. In practice, the ability made getting caught that much more frustrating. Rarely did I have more than ten seconds of total Stealth, and every time another creature glanced my way, I literally felt that edge of Speed trickling from my body.

Either I’d rush along, keep going with a curse under my breath, or I would stop right there…also with a curse under my breath. Having an innocuous stranger reach over and lower the gear of my bike mid-ride just didn’t feel good.

But it did make me that much more aware.

And every time my Speed decreased and I couldn’t see what spotted me, I had to thank my Stealth for being more aware than me. It was like having an infuriating but well-meaning guardian angel.

…Not Sierra. A slightly cooler, imaginary one.

If you’re wondering whether I stopped for any fights, though, the answer is yes of course I did. While I was more interested in covering as much ground as possible for now, that didn’t stop me from getting a head-start on my next Level. I hid from those that spotted me from afar, but I tackled anything that was closer to my path.

This meant a bunch of air-slaps, plus three grasshopper-jumps, to catch passing dragonflies. After crossing paths with twenty-two, I reckoned I had an 85 percent catch rate. Decent! Not that the critters were worth much Experience.

Meanwhile, I also had a successful rabbit tackle! Once a rabbit was in sight and beeline-able, snagging it in this form was a lot easier. Not yet easy, mind you. It was still a race over and around hills and jags. Now, though, I really did feel like a cheetah matching muscle with an antelope.

Seconds after I tackled this prey to the ground, I licked my wounds—light wounds. The rabbit had kicked me once I’d pinned them down, but the impact was barely a bruise. In fact, my bruises from the rough-and-tumble run just now were worse. Neither held a candle to the bumps I’d racked up from rolling in Reed’s qui…

I wasn’t gonna think about that right now.

Before digging in, I checked my vitals.

EXP: 89% (1330/1500)

HP 89% (204/230) SP 84% (155/185)

And after digging in, I pocketed what I couldn’t digest yet.

Hm. At first the Inventory size increase had felt like a huge step up, but I was full already! I was currently holding a lotus flower, a clump of muesli, a screech owl corpse, an unmentionable blanketlike item, and the aforementioned rabbit.

What was I gonna do?! Well, the decision was so easy I almost didn’t have to think. With a puff of steam, muesli, still damp and warm, compacted into the shape of a snowball, plopped onto the dirt next to me. Ew…I had just ejected a clump of off-white splatter-cereal. Pigeon crap. I moved on hastily.

All my minor trials and gains aside, though, I knew all this would eventually have to give way to a bigger confrontation. Something less safe. That was just what I got when I hit an unusual part of the woods.

Here between bright, sea-green trees was a huge, crackly chunk of stone. No…a road?

An incredibly overgrown road, much too big and sunken-in to be just some old rock. Not something I was used to seeing. Grass and moss curled around it and seeped through its cracks.

Curiosity won over Stealth. I walked up to the road and tapped my front paws against its edge. At least, I thought it was the edge. All the road’s sides disappeared into greenery and stubby white mushrooms.

I heard the tiny taps of claws against tree bark. My whole body jerked to attention—but I decided not to run for cover. I slowly shifted myself into a tense, observing stance.

Turning my head toward the sound, I saw a couple of ever-so-delightful squirrels headed for the patch of road.

Old rivals.

The moment they turned to me, I sized them up. Two average brownish-gray critters, probably on their way to lunch. Maybe they were a couple. Maybe they were the exact same ones who’d chased me off that cliff so many nights ago, or maybe one of them had thrown an enchanted time-sucking stone at me. In any case, they would regret coming here.

Today was a new day! And not just because I would win. I was also about to train my Defense for once! I had a feeling I would need it.

Guard!

A very weird current washed over me.

This wasn’t quite what Meditate had led me to expect. It seemed to be simultaneously multiplying and contracting my muscles while reinforcing my very bones, which was exactly as uncomfortable as you’re thinking. If Meditate filled me with inner peace and clarity, then Guard was filling me with…calcium?

A near-transparent steam of aura left my body, making me wish I’d been filled with the kind of burning fire that makes one want to pound faces in, instead of squirmy worms. I guessed that was what the Attack-boosting Skill would be for.

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I shook all my discomfort off. All good!

DEF 39 (+50%)

I launched forward, spring-stepping with my claws out. Part of me wanted to indulge in a Leap and a Swipe, but that trifecta would’ve been costly, and even if I was probably matching Levels with these squirrels now (if not surpassing them), I still considered them unpredictable.

The squirrels squeaked and jumped out of the way—but I caught one by the tail, then coiled around them, making my body a cage of relentless fury. I hissed and battered the squirrel with front and back claws both, eventually landing on my back and tossing the critter in midair.

And then, mid-midair-ness, I realized the squirrel didn’t seem to be taking any damage at all. They’d shrunken into a ball and started glowing, like a magical fireball—and there was even a hint of yellow-orange in the glow.

Huh? That was weird.

Error: Sierra, the Goddess of Nekomata is unavailable. Please leave a message.

(Or don’t. You never bother anyway.)

N-neurrrgh!

Slapping the useless box away, pooling together all of my knowledge about what colorful magic might mean, I came to the conclusion that the squirrel was probably using some sort of fire, electric, or light spell. I mean, that would only make sense, right? And it seemed to match up with what the starving wolf had done. On the other hand, a certain raccoon a few days back had used a reddish-glowing Skill too. Or was that orange? Either way, that’d been a different shade.

Um, okay, I didn’t have time to delve deep into this train of thought either. However useful it might be later.

Suffice it to say that apparently my elemental color theory made too much sense to be true, since I’d been clawing the rodent for the past several seconds without taking any fire- or light-related damage on my end, or any damage at all.

Well, it wouldn’t matter as long as I dealt enough damage to…

Wait.

I let the squirrel simply fall into the grip of my front paws again, then squinted.

…No…I didn’t see any scratches through the glow. Had they taken any damage?

WAIT—

I dropped them and rolled to the side. Not because I had some flash of inspiration, but because I remembered that there was another squirrel mere moments away from my face, one that had clearly been waiting patiently to strike.

Whipping my head around just as the second squirrel charged into view, I sidestepped again, forcing them to skid to a halt. Their tail was glowing with white magic—weird, floppy choice for a body part to fight with, but okay. Actually, it wasn’t so floppy anymore The way they held it up and away from their body reminded me of a rigid beaver’s tail.

A ticking clock in the back of my mind—the Swipe Timer, I’ll call it—told me that fifteen seconds had passed. The Guard Skill’s aftereffects, though, seemed to be sticking around. I recalled that my Meditate had lasted longer than expected, too…about twice as long as a Swipe. So Guard, as its sister Skill, should likewise last…thirty seconds! I could do math after all.

In a move that was equally deft and janky, the tail-whipping squirrel flipped their whole body forward and struck my side. That tail was hard, even sharp, and it hit deep. Why was the pain so deep? Why sharp?!

HP 73% (168/230) SP 76% (140/185)

Revenge: I lunged for the base of the tail right as it left my body. I didn’t catch it, but I followed through with the lunge and landed in an acceptably cool fashion, acceptably close by.

At least the landing had upped my confidence. Now I felt ready for a tense standoff with—augh, I forgot already, there was more than one squirrel here.

And the second of them, the one who’d curled into a kind of fireball, was running for me with a new kind of fury, and still covered in aura. I turned quick enough to see that the flaring magic had deepened to an orangey red, and had even entered their eyes.

They came for me way faster than they should’ve.

Had their Skill absorbed my blows and turned them into—

WHAM!

They latched onto my face and dug their incisors into my cheek.

I went flying, then crashing onto the grass.

HP 32% (74/230) SP 76% (140/185)

Good thing my body was still calcified from my Guard. I had a feeling that the attack I’d just taken was stronger than anything I’d faced before.

…In a weird way, I took that as a compliment, assuming the squirrel really had absorbed my own power to reflect it back at me.

Then the squirrel gnawed again, hard.

HP 13% (31/230)

Guard! GUARD! TWO GUARDS!

Ugh! I should’ve thought about doing that earlier, and I would have if I hadn’t been cringing in face-pain.

Right as my first Guard wore off, I summoned up two more, simultaneously. And it worked, but with a metric ton of discomfort.

My muscles shook so hard I spasmed, and my bones seemed ready to break through my skin. Now the sensation of bodily reinforcement was out-and-out agony.

Of course, if agony was the only way to survive this battle, I would take it.

DEF 65 (+150%)

I recovered my reflexes in time to roll out of the way, just as the squirrel’s claws tore at my neck.

HP 7% (15/230) SP 59% (110/185)

Ow. My numerical damage wasn’t bad, but a wound on the neck was a wound on the neck.

I got on my feet and, with a glance, took in the battlefield. There was one flaming berserk squirrel in front of me. Another with a weird sword-tail at one o’clock. Both in better shape than me. Maybe neither one could Guard and endure as long as I could. But maybe they could Guard and were saving it. And maybe they had Guarded already.

Underneath them was a weird stone path that I would just have to come back to later.

A stone path with letters on it.

It had taken me this long to realize that the shapes on its surface weren’t all mere cracks. They were letters wobbling in my vision, fading into each other, refusing to keep still. Were they moving due to magic, or just because of my human-cat brain?

No time to think about that.

I escaped.