Damian’s group had made their way closer to the heart of the rabbits expanding territory. Rabbits became more prominent and fought harder, but the initial shock of their power was gone. They weren’t a fledgling rank but were half as strong as one and came in large groups.

“Kyrion. I need you to map stuff out from above. We should be close. Wura, Noah, our group will continue to advance. Nico and Asela, will follow much further behind. Kiara and Evevrest will wait for Kyrion to come down before advancing.” Damian had a resolved tone on this plan.

Usually, splitting up would be a bad idea. However, there was room to do so in a group of eight when necessary. The rabbits also seemed to have a sense of incoming numbers. When they engaged the rabbits previously, they began to show cowardness when overwhelmed or outnumbered.

Kyrion made his way up another tree. Making a mental note not to tell the next group he’s in that he could do so. He looked down from the top of his chosen tree; ahead, he could see a giant rabbit around the size of a boulder. In its hands was a crude shield made from wood and an extra sharp-looking carrot. At its command was a small group of even smaller rabbits wielding smaller versions of the sharp carrots.

“What in the abyss is that?” Kyrion asked no one in particular. Kyrion then summoned Jala.

Jala appeared in a puff of smoke. “What do you want, my great benevolent master.” Yawning it all out and rubbing her face with her paw.

“Do you know what that is?” Kyrion asked his partner. “I have other questions but mostly the first. The second being I can’t get my wind to cut the rabbits.”

“I see, you’re having problems performing in a group. I hear it’s not an uncommon issue. We can work through it together. As for the rabbits I don’t really know.”

“About my wind performance issues. It doesn’t cut when I want it two but it does send the rabbits flying. Why?” Kyrion stated his problem thoughtfully. He was bothered by it. Sure he could heal now, but that wasn’t enough if his power couldn’t help in a fight.

“I see, those performance issues may prove to be a bigger problem than I thought. We can talk about this later. I’m tired.” Jala yawned before fading out of sight.

Kyrion proceeded to write everything he saw down on his map. First, there appeared to be other giant rabbits. One resembled a pugilist. Another wielded a wooden bow. Lastly, there was a rabbit wielding a lance riding a feral rabbit.

From below, Kiara and Everest were waiting for their scout to return. But instead, they watched as he had a one-sided conversation with a fox.

“Do you think our friend is a few apples away from an orchard?” Everest asked jokingly.

“I don’t see what you mean.” Kiara looked puzzled by the question.

“Nevermind. Sometimes I wonder.” Everest leans against the tree, looking ahead.

“Wonder what?” Kiara seemed annoyed.

“Oh it’s nothing special.” Everest had a mischievous gleam in his eyes as the conversation continued.

Nico and Asela had been walking for a few minutes.

“How’s your back?” Asela asked.

“I said I’m fine.” Nico answered bluntly.

“Are you sure?” Asela had a worried look on her face.

“Yes.” Nico turned the page and pretended to focus on his book.

“I know I just feel bad about it. Had I been stronger...” Asela started.

“That was just a miscalculation. We didn’t know that the combustion would be that powerful. Live and learn. From what I could tell the creature was in the practitioner rank of monsters, a parasite type to be precise. While physically weak on its own, when the creature it leeches off of dies but the host becomes much stronger. From what I could tell the creature had just entered that tier recently. As it had the raw power but lacked the control to use it. If the rabbit’s ruler had gotten ahold of it then we really would have been in trouble.” Nico looks up to a lost Asela.

“So you’re not mad at me. Got it.” Asela nodded in understanding. “I do need to get stronger though.”

“You’re fine. Fire is easy to use but hard to master. When you figure out how your spirit actually works then you should get a lot stronger. We have a lot of people with room to improve.” Nico stops walking.

“What is it?” Asela was now worried for a different reason.

“It seems like our friends have lured in quite a few rabbits. We’re gonna need to tread carefully. It won’t help them if they turn around towards us. We’re gonna try to block their exits. Most animals won’t willingly jump through fire if they can help it.” Nico began scribbling symbols in the dirt with a wooden stick.

“What are you doing?” Asela asked.

“It’s a secret for now. Let’s just say it will help us make that wall more solid.” Nico put a finger in front of their mouth.

“You and your secrets.” Asela sighed.

The group had spent ten minutes traveling forward, purposely luring in groups of rabbits who followed further behind.

Damian’s group had stopped advancing when the giant rabbit was added to their map.

“We shouldn’t go any further for now.” Damian brandished his sword and entered an offensive stance.

“Is this the spot?”

“Seems so. Get ready.”

Wura formed her spear and shield, with her ability as she took a defensive stance. “Think we bit off more than we can chew?” Wura poured power into her spear, making it longer and sharper.

“Don’t kill too many, whatever your weapon does to them makes the meat smell funny. I’d like to keep a few for dinner later. If we don’t eat one then it kinda feels like a waste.” Noah transformed into his lion form, armor changing along with him.

“Engage!” Damian commanded.

The rabbits hopped into combat, choosing Noah as their first target. Due to his size and monstrous appearance. If they could take him down, then they could win.

Damian decapitated a rabbit in his path as he began to corral the rabbits hanging on the outside. A new rabbit corpse found its way onto the count every few seconds. Damian danced past them in a macabre fashion, blood coating his blade and body.

Wura went after small groups of rabbits, each swipe of her spear leaving faint silver traces in their fur. The rabbits soon fell down, spasming and going still, light fading from their beady little eyes. Wura disabled many groups of rabbits leaving behind no survivors.

The rabbits began to realize they bit off more than they could chew when shrieks of pain erupted from the rabbits attaching themselves to Noah. White-hot spikes shout out from his body, piercing the rabbits and cauterizing the hole as they pass through. Noah carved at them with teeth, claws, and spikes.

The rabbits started running away when a circle of red and black flame surrounded everyone. Rabbits that made it too close to the fire found themselves consumed by teeth and claws. Smoke rose from their remains with signs of being burned. Outside the wall, Nico and Asela stood in heavy concentration burning through their mana rapidly.

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The slaughter ended with an absurd amount of rabbit corpses made inedible in various fashions. Everyone save for Damian collapsed where they stood. As the drain finally hit them.

Everest, Kiara, and Kyrion came rushing into the brush. Kyrion out his map, which was updated quite a bit.

“We have a problem. Four enormous and tough looking rabbits are ahead. They seem to be guarding something important.”

Kyrion looked around, panic being replaced by confusion. “Why is everyone on the ground?”

“There was a big fight.” Damian said bluntly while he observed his map. “Nico. Any chance it has already hit practitioner rank?”

“It is probably really close. Four defenders in the fledgling rank are normal around rank five. This means that we were right in getting rid of that mushroom. The defenders will be around the early fledgling ranks. If we’re lucky we may even get cores from them. Each one we take out should weaken them reasonably well. We should be able to take them out in groups of four.” Nico pushed up his glasses.

“Sounds like a plan. We’re using the groups I created earlier. My group will have the mounted rabbit and the one with a small army. Noah, your group can fight the pugilist and archer since your group is good at restraining enemies.” Damian cleaned his sword and stretched.

Damian, Wura, Kiara, and Nico found themselves standing in front of a small adorable squad of rabbits with swords. Their leader was quite a bit larger, around eight feet tall, with broad rabbit shoulders and a sharp-looking carrot paired with a wooden shield.

“I’m gonna feel guilty for killing these monsters.” Kiara muttered.

“I already do. These things have weapons though. Not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.” Wura looked at them as the rabbits got into a wedge phalanx formation, carrots raised like spears, ready to stab.

Nico raised his hand, and two small balls of condensed fire appeared in his hands. “Well I can start when you’re ready.” So Nico started as the balls became small wolf heads.

Wura absorbed her shield and made her weapon much longer, adding a blade two each end, turning it into a double-ended scythe, around ten feet in length. She then let it fall and stepped back quite a bit. “I have an idea, and you don’t want to be in the way when it goes off.”

Kiara nocked multiple arrows at once and fired them into the swarm. Hitting many but draining her mana just as quickly.

“I’ll go engage the leader, don’t want to get caught up in all of that fighting.” Damian circled around the rabbits, almost vanishing all but entirely from sight.

Nico sent their attacks forward, commanding both at the same time. The left wolf tore into the rabbit leading the formation, taking an arm out before continuing meticulously. The wolf on the right went hog wild, rapidly attacking anything in its path and changing direction whenever it wanted.

Wura’s scythe began to rotate, cutting into the rabbits and disabling the group significantly as it advanced. Before falling into a puddle thirty feet away. “Damn.” Wura tried to recall the liquid metal, but it was stuck where it was. The rabbits advanced, passing over it, and Wura retreated behind her other group members.

Kiara’s arrows struck the rabbit squad, freezing quite a few where they stood and slowing down the advance. Then, when Wura lost control of her power, Kira started aiming for the ground, covering it with a thin sheet of ice while she retreated.

Nico stepped back, pulling his fire with him. The balls passed over the liquid metal, turning red, as an odd smell wafted through the area. “Retreat now!” Nico let go of the balls. Causing them to go wild as he fled from the immediate area. The other two followed as well, but not before they noticed one of the rabbits just fell dead without any visible help. The only injury was a slight cut.

“What happened?” Wura asked worriedly.

“We have a lot to talk about your power. I had my suspicions but now I know for sure. That’s a form of mercury, and it is a very toxic element. Mix it with fire and things start to die.” Nico pointed to rapidly dying rabbits. “It won’t work that fast on fledgling rank spirit masters, but it will hurt us if we stay in there too long.”

Kiara watched as the last rabbits died off. A dissatisfied expression on her face. “That’s great and all but shouldn’t we help Damian?”

“Lets circle around then. Damian is pretty good in a fight, but everyone needs help from time to time.” Nico led the group around the smog that had formed.

Noah, Asela, Kyrion, and Everest were face to face with a speedy rabbit. It noticed their approach and met them halfway instead of waiting.

“Restrain it!” Noah yelled as he started transforming.

Everest ran under its legs and dashed behind a tree, a thick woven cloth tying its left leg in place. He then ducked out of sight.

Asela let out a whip of fire that burned the creature but was quickly shaken off. “I tried. Kyrion, do the thing!”

Kyrion looked at his sister. “What thing?”

“The root thing you did to the boar!” Noah yelled as he held the rabbit in place.

Kyrion stopped and began to think. “I did that? How!”

Kyrion was slapped with the backhand of the rabbit. He flew into a tree that seemed to bend in response, almost fading from consciousness.

Everest reappeared, tying the second leg down as Asela assaulted it with fire. Noah had gotten behind the rabbit and started pinning it to the ground. Everest returned, tying the rabbits remaining arms with the weave.

The rabbit balked at the restraints knocking and flailing wildly. The thread grew much thinner, as though it was being stretched. Oddly enough, the rabbit started to bleed through the cloth wraps as they became tighter. The end of the fight was made known when Everest held out a clawed finger and cut something thin and shiny. All at once, the restraints tightened, and the rabbit was tied to the ground. Its left leg was removed altogether.

The rabbit wasn’t done fighting yet, as its ears flexed and extended. Whipping around at Noah, knocking him off of his feet. A second ear raised to deliver a finishing blow.

Kyrion let out a blood curdling yell, both hands digging into the ground as he tried to move. Rage filled him, and he fell into unconsciousness. A scary amount of mana continued to the ground in haste. The area around the fledgling, becoming hazy.

Damian was fighting the rabbit knight, its carrot blade deceptively sharp and shield surprisingly durable. He swung his sword up from his back right.

The rabbit knocked it aside with its shield and countered with a thrust.

Damian responded with a sidestep and moved inward for an upward thrust.

The rabbit hopped back quite a bit, losing a whisker.

Damian grunted, and the two began to circle each other. The rabbit moved first with a telegraphed overhead slash.

Damian intercepted the carrot, which was a mistake as the boy was sent flying.

Damian twisted mid-air and brought his sword into the ground to anchor him before rolling to the side.

The rabbit lept after the young boy aiming to stab where he landed.

Damian narrowly dodged the blade and watched as it casually passed into the earth.

The rabbit grunted before stomping on the ground a few times.

Damian rose to his feet and ran towards his foe, swinging for the rabbit’s head, which was moved in response as it tried to pull its sword from the ground. Unfortunately, the strike was feint as he severed one of the rabbit’s tendons in its shield arm, forcing it to drop the instrument.

The rabbit swung its sword towards Damian’s neck.

Missing as he ducked and back-flipped out of the way. “Very fast reflexes and attacks, but you lack the training and experience to use them effectively. It’s a shame that you have to die. Witness the dance that will end in your death.”

Damian conjured a second sword and surrounded his body in a yellow aura. Before he disappeared.

Damian reappeared twenty feet behind the rabbit. An artery in the monster’s right foot began to bleed profusely.

The rabbit, enraged, began to bulk up, trading speed for power as it hopped upwards, aiming to crush him.

Damian danced around the rabbit’s attack, making minuscule and precise cuts that made the creature bleed more and more, which fed its rage. Finally, the rabbit stomped, knocking Damian off balance, and moved it to capitalize on the vulnerability cutting the boy in twain.

The rabbit watched in confusion as no blood coated its carrot blade. It watched as Damian’s body disappeared, and the ground rushed to meet it. Its eyes looked up, noticing its body was standing up without it. The light faded from the rabbit’s eyes as a splitting sound echoed through the forest.

Damian stood behind the corpse, the sword in his left-hand vanishing.

Walking to the coprse, he reached in and retrieved its core.“I wonder what this is worth points-wise.” Damian muttered to himself.

Nico, Wura, and Kiara burst through the brush, ready to fight, finding Damian alone over the corpse of that rabbit. But holding only one sword in hand.

“I can see why they made him a leader.” Kiara said in surprise.

“I knew he was strong but that rabbit looks like it never stood a chance.” Nico observed the situation as he ran toward the corpse.

“Boss, after this mission can you teach me how to fight like you!” Wura said with excitement.

“Uh…I…umm…Yeah.” Damian shrank back into his shell, embarrassed.

“To the next fight then.” Kiara gripped her bow with adrenaline pumping through her body.

Damian’s group returned on the trail, covered in blood and a bit worse for wear.

Kyrion woke feeling great, aside from a drain on his mana.

The injuries he sustained in the collision with the tree were all but gone. Kyrion looked around, noticing a giant red needle-like root sticking up in the air. He followed the root down and saw that it pierced through the rabbit’s chest, pushing it against the wires and turning into something that looked better skinned and cooked.

His other group members were fine. Save for a few minor cuts and scrapes. Kyrion stood up and approached his friends.

“Sorry about that. I think I let my guard down. What happened?” Kyrion held his head.

“What happened? What happened! You happened! Do you not understand what you did?” Everest was exasperated, or at least he pretended to be.

“You pierced the creature’s heart with that root. It was quite a brutal sight to behold. I assume you can do that again?” Everest said with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t know how I did it and I doubt I will figure it out soon. But, I’m lucky it worked this time.” Kyrion rubbed the back of his head, finding somewhat dry blood.

Noah looked at them and stood up. “We should continue forward, we have another enemy ahead.”

Asela looked at her brother with a puzzled expression on her face. Saying nothing but watching him closely.

“Yes let’s go, I should be more helpful in the next fight.” Kyrion said.

“You killed the thing, accident or not, it’s dead now. You helped a lot.” Everest said.

The group left the area, and the rabbit they fought was dragged into the earth as the children were no longer in range to hear.

The group continued forward, two rabbits down. Two down, three more to go.