The crackling of the fire had a calming influence on Reysha’s mind. In the steady waving and flickering of the flame, she reflected her own being. On an improvised wooden skewer were several pieces of meat, gradually getting cooked to the core. She had gotten hungry again and Apexus had found another, albeit smaller, member of the species to haul back for them. After eating her initial fill, she had decided that she wanted to see what would happen if she grilled it. Never in the past few months had the thought occurred. Time or paranoia had made campfires unattractive and raw meat had been tasty enough. The craving was sudden, but it existed regardless.

Reysha pulled the stick from the ground and inspected the flesh. The juices were dripping from the meat, fat falling on the pants of Reysha’s casual clothes. “Looking fine,” she purred, despite the hesitation she felt. There was a possibility that cooking the meat burned the magic out of it. Boiling water found in dungeons, specifically the healing fountain variety, was the common way to make it drinkable. That, however, was only a diminishing measure. For the regular person, relying too much on even boiled dungeon water was a certain path to get magic poisoning. Animals outside of dungeons, touched by magic, did not have that effect.

As someone with the Noir condition, Reysha had the reverse priority. Magic, particularly the kind bound in flesh and blood, was required to keep the benefit of her sharpened senses and strengthened body. Without it, she would eventually fall in a lethargic state and potentially lose the condition. Although, as far as she knew, that could have been a thing of the past already. Noir was supposed to eventually become strong enough to last forever. Whether that also meant the lethargy never set in, she was not so sure about.

Of course, she still needed all of the regular sustenance required to keep a humanoid body going. Even if it all tasted to her tongue like the rancid remains of waste that maggots already used as a feasting ground, regular food would still fill her stomach.

It was that taste that made Reysha hesitate. As wonderful as the sizzling flesh smelled, it could turn into a sour chunk once it was in her mouth. Knowing that there was a lot of raw meat still around to overcome the taste, the tiger girl finally got over herself and carefully licked the outside of the meat.

It tasted salty and faintly sweet in a manner different from fruit and sugar, the spice of magic. Giggling, she rammed her teeth into the flesh. Tearing a chunk of the stacked muscles away, she blowed on it in an attempt to cool the hot meal. “Mishtake!” she slurred, feeling the numbness of her mildly burned tongue.

“That is your punishment for your steady impatience,” Aclysia commented, throwing a couple more twigs into the fire so it had something to consume.

Reysha chewed hastily and swallowed her meal. “Maybe… but I have you to forgive me for my sins.” Cutely, the tiger girl stuck out her tongue and made big, pleading eyes.

“I… haaaaaa….” Aclysia let out a long sigh and then put her index finger on the presented tongue. A soft, golden glow and several seconds later, the pain and numbness of the burn were gone. “I must remind you that I do not exist to counteract your mistakes.”

“I’m sawwy beeg, bawbly bawted fawwy,” Reysha put on a sickly cute voice. “I wiw behawe meez swears, meow.”

“Please stop that,” Aclysia whined.

“Why? Doz it bower you, Aclywia?”

“I admittedly find it strangely endearing and that bothers me indeed.”

Reysha snapped back to her regular broad grin. “You shouldn’t have said that,” she said and waved around with the skewer. “Now I’m going to use it whenever I want to make you feel bad.”

“Ah, yes, it must have escaped me that you required no additional motivation to discover ways to exploit and annoy me,” Aclysia responded with dry sarcasm.

“Silly you,” Reysha cackled and turned to Apexus. “You want some?” she asked.

Apexus looked at the skewer and decided to give it a try. He had tried cooked fish before, just after they had gotten out of the Clearwater dungeon (which had also been when Reysha realized the drawback of her then unknown condition). It had been okay, albeit worse than raw meat, in his opinion.

This was worse from the start. Holding a stick with specific cuts of meat on it just felt wrong. All of an animal was edible to Apexus and chewiness wasn’t much of an issue, so using tools was fundamentally against his nature. Regardless, he tore off one of the pieces.

It had a heat above body temperature, it had less moisture than was ‘correct’ for living tissue, and the liquified fat was difficult to get under the membrane. It tasted good, not as intense as raw meat but good enough to be enjoyed. “Not for me,” was the final conclusion of the slime. “I prefer it raw.”

“There’s lots of meat I prefer raw too,” the tiger girl hummed and licked her lips. Her eyes were firmly locked on his crotch, even if the presence of pants hid what he kept there. Although she still wasn’t completely recovered, that would require good sleep and a bath with soap, she had regained her thirst for something other than water. “I jusht like the change,” she added, while wolfing down the rest of the skewer.

Reysha was almost finished with her meal when she noticed a rustling from the underbrush nearby. That, on its own, wasn’t noteworthy. The forest was teeming with nocturnal animals, racoons and cats to name only the most prominent. It was the repeated rustling all around that made her wary . Her cat ears kept turning at the sources.

“Pretty dark on an Autumn Leaf, isn’t it?” she asked, her tone and expression carrying all that needed to be said.

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“Yes,” Apexus agreed and looked up above. The nights got darker quicker and more intensely than he was used to from his experiences on the previous two Leaves, Summer and Spring types respectively. The sky seemed all the more brilliant for it. His own senses were strained. The muddiness of the ground made it difficult to read the vibrations. Like Reysha, he primarily relied on his hearing.

Aclysia only realized what was about to happen when the tiger girl grabbed her axe and stiletto. Both weapons had been lying at the ready from the start. The metal fairy had predicted that fire was likely to attract some kind of attention and it was wise to be prepared for the worst. That was why Reysha still wore the snakeskin armour, despite the late hour.

With all three of them ready for combat, Apexus stood up and stared blatantly into the forest. “Are you predators?” he shouted.

“To ask if they are friend or foe is the common way to greet people sneaking up on your camp, darling,” Aclysia softly corrected.

In their position in the underbrush, the unknown people froze, uncertain what to do. Then, with a valiant cry, their leader charged out. Element of surprise or not, their plan remained the same. Seven bandits in sets of armour that were clearly cobbled together out of second hand pieces charged at them.

“Predators,” Apexus growled, like a tiger attempting to dissuade a charging wolf. It was partly successful, if only because his build was more apparent to the bandits as they came closer. They had hoped for an easy night-time robbery, now they were asked to approach a giant that didn’t even flinch at the number of assailants.

In truth, the slime did worry. All of them were armed and he had no indication of their strength. That three of them hesitated, one of them outright stopping in his charge, was a good indicator that they were not particularly powerful. The predator certain of his strength didn’t hunt in numbers and didn’t hesitate when it came to getting their prey.

Another two of the bandits slowed down when Reysha dashed into their direction. What had started as an encirclement was now a broken assault. One that made contact with a crazy woman hungry for any kind of action.

The red metal of Reysha’s axe slammed against the edge of a bandit’s sword. The steel proved to be on the cheap side, bending from the impact. Faster than her enemy could react, Reysha stung them with the stiletto. The weapon was entirely designed for stabbing and punched through the cobbled together armour with ease, sinking into the soft spot between collarbone and shoulder.

Screaming from the pain and the chill of enchanted frost that followed, the bandit fell backwards. Reysha paid him no mind. One of the two remaining bandits with a semblance of motivation came right at her.

The other, the leader of the band, came straight at Apexus. He knew what kind of men he was ordering around and that they wouldn’t do anything if he didn’t lead by example. In his certainty, Apexus found the man admirable.

The swing of the double-headed axe was clearly telegraphed and Apexus had no issue turning out of the way. Following his miss up with a wild whirl, the bandit leader forced the slime to take a step back. Both the man himself and his band took that as a good omen. Going on a relentless offensive, the leader made Apexus take one step back after the other. With each one, the other bandits had more of their motivation return.

Their assault resumed, several running towards Aclysia, who was helpless in their eyes, and the rest going to help out against Reysha.

Apexus didn’t fear getting cut, but he didn’t want to reveal what he was unnecessarily. Monitoring the situation closely, he determined that he could afford taking his time in this fight. Aclysia rose up into the air and the bandits seemed to lack any sort of ranged weaponry. For her part, Reysha greatly enjoyed her situation. Her enemies were entirely untrained and slow compared to what else the group was used to fighting. As long as she stayed mobile and wasn’t surrounded, she could keep them at bay with swings of her axe and punish them with the occasional counter stab with the stiletto.

Apexus kept dodging backwards. Soon, the swings started to lose their fervour. Not for a lack of enthusiasm by that bandit leader, but due to his waning endurance. “AAAAAHHHHH!” the man shouted in an attempt to pump himself up, raising the axe over his head. The man was tall enough to aim at the humanoid slime’s head.

The attempt ended alongside any illusion of chance the bandit leader had. Barely had he started his downward swing when Apexus grabbed the axe underneath the bladed head. The resulting contest of strength was short. Easily, the humanoid slime ripped the weapon from the man’s hand and tossed it aside. Driven by aggression, the bandit leader hurled his fist at Apexus' stomach.

If he had organs of notable importance in there, the chimera would have felt pain at the impact. As it stood, all that happened was that the bandit leader, strong for a regular human, slammed his knuckles into superhuman abs. Apexus grabbed the extended arm by the shoulder and tossed the bandit leader downhill like a ragdoll. He turned over several times, before stopping, lying still and stunned.

The other bandits were already diminished in their will to fight by the numerous small and large wounds they had sustained from Reysha. Upon seeing their leader so easily defeated, they all started to back off and turned tail to run as quickly as they thought was safe.

“That was entertaining,” Reysha remarked, strutting over to one of the nearby ponds to wash the blood off her weapons.

“You wounded several people. This should not qualify as entertainment,” Aclysia reprimanded.

“I’m very much amused though.” Reysha wiped the blades off on the nearby grass. “That aside, they attacked us. Don’t bandits deserve what’s coming to them?”

Apexus was asking himself a very similar question, as he watched the bandit leader struggle to get on all fours. Numerous times during their battle, the swings had clearly been aimed with lethal intent. Now the failed predator was before the slime, completely at his mercy.

‘Should I kill him?’ That question was at the forefront of the slime’s mind. ‘Who would miss him? Those men that just abandoned him? Would he, if I leave him, not just go and continue his work?’ The slime took half a step forward. ‘Is someone who so callously kills other people to survive a person themselves?’ Apexus stopped. ‘Am I? I killed and ate someone just to survive. Do I have the right to murder someone?’

While Apexus was struggling to come to a definitive answer on these questions, the bandit leader fought his way on his feet. Looking around, still somewhat dazed, he slowly backed away from the humanoid chimera, who stared at him intensely in search of answers. The bandit leader shuddered, feeling only uncertainty about what would happen to him next.

“Why do you do this?” Apexus asked, in an effort to work out his moral conundrum.

The bandit leader didn’t answer. Instead, he did as his men before him and ran away as fast as he could.

“Want to chase him?” Reysha asked. It would have been easy. Not only were they faster, two of them could fly and the bandits were leaving clear traces in their retreat. Getting at least one of them and finding out where their camp was would be an easy thing.

“I don’t know,” Apexus answered honestly and shook his head. “Let’s not seek out trouble. We’re going to search for a nicer area tomorrow.”