The woman who had spoken earlier glared at Angie and took an angry step toward her. “Time is money, little girl!” She hissed. “These may be weak beasts, but quantity is a quality all of its own.”

“And how long is it going to take now that you have an injured member?” Niall asked her, as he gently pushed Angie back toward Nate and Lindsay.

“We’re just trying to be efficient.”

“And we’re just trying to teach these kids how to be decent adults!” Nina shot back, her eyes flashing dangerously.

The other group pulled back after a few more words and a couple hurled insults. They left the porcupine body where it had fallen and hurried off as quickly as they could.

“You don’t think they would-“ Nina began as she picked up the arrow she had shot through the man’s leg.

“It’s possible,” Niall finished for her with a frown.

He looked at the guards before selecting Lindsay’s second one. He was a fellow that was on the shorter side when compared to the other three. He looked more like a rogue than a guard and was dressed in a mix of mottled dark colors that helped him to blend in. His primary weapon of choice was a crossbow.

“Fitch, go with my wife and guard the rig and trailer. Don’t let them get anywhere close to either of them. We can’t let those people get it in their head that they can ruin our gear in retaliation for this encounter.”

“Would they actually do that?” Nate asked as his mother and the guard ran off through the trees.

His father and the three remaining guards all nodded. “It happens more often than it should. Disabling a group’s transport is illegal, but if no one catches them…”

“You don’t have cameras set up or something of that nature?” He asked.

The third beast’s body joined the other two they already had, maxing out how many they could carry and drag for the moment.

“We do, but there are plenty of ways for them to get around that or destroy the rig from outside their range,” Niall explained to his son and the girls.

The three remaining guards were each dragging or carrying a beast.

It was sooner than Niall had planned, but it was time for the teens to step up. From here on out, all of the beast's encounters would be handled by them with his help. They were now guarding the guards. Not that the guards couldn’t simply drop their ropes or the body, but the illusion would help the kids perform better.

He winked at the three guards and motioned for them to grab hold of the beast’s bodies. “Alright, you three. With Nina and Fitch gone, that means all the guards are now occupied and we no longer have any long-range support. The four of us have to keep the guards safe while maintaining a fast pace back to the rig and trailer. Any attacks will primarily be handled by your three. I’ll step in as needed, but our safety will be largely dependent on how you perform.”

Nate shared a look with the two girls as they swallowed and gave small nods.

After a quick discussion amongst themselves, Angie took the lead spot. Her reflexes made her the best choice to be the lead striker for the group. Lindsay would still act as the group’s controller, as they had originally planned. Nate was going to act more in the position of a rogue or possibly a scout. He would be a floater and slightly outside their normal radius.

It was dangerous to let a still untrained person go out there alone. However, as long as he remained within eyesight of the group, they decided it was fine.

With their new formation decided, the group set off again. This time at a faster pace than before.

Nate moved off to the side of the group and immediately pulled up the storage function on his wrist computer. It was a little distracting having the menu floating in the air beside him, but he wanted it open in case he needed to take anything out. He had gotten a small number of healing pills during his little camping session before the bridge the night before.

It would raise more than a few questions if he brought them out, but if he needed to use them, he would.

With how much noise they were making dragging the bodies through the forest, it didn’t take long for them to be attacked.

True to his word, Niall held back and watched the three teens fight it on their own. The beast was a flying acrobatic squirrel that was far more flexible than its earthly cousin. In the air, they had no chance of hitting it. Luckily for them, the only weapons it had at its disposal were its claws, teeth, and a deceptively fluffy-looking tail.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

As soon as it gave up on flying above their heads and touched the ground, Angie was there to meet it. Her singular sword was flashing through the air, the blade meeting its deadly claws, chipping them a little each time they hit. A few steps behind her, Lindsay used the longer reach of her halberd to keep the tail occupied.

While the girls kept the beast’s attention on them, Nate came out of the trees behind it and jumped onto its back. It was a little awkward stabbing the curved blades of the kukris into its back from that position, but he pushed on. His newly enhanced strength allowed his legs to latch on and kept him from being shaken off. Pushing the knives through the fur was reminiscent of armor and resisted the sharp tips for several seconds.

As soon as the blades plunged into its back, he tightened the grip his legs had on its back and began to pull the kukris towards him. The razor-sharp blades easily cut through the meat of its back, opening dual-foot-long gashes. They had at least partially cut through the top muscles in its front legs.

The squirrel collapsed onto its face. The claws it had been trying to vainly attack Angie with now lay limp on the ground. All they needed to do was finish it off.

Lindsay flicked its tail away dismissively as Nate sliced through the muscle above it.

With its two main weapons taken out of commission, the squirrel was left with panicked movements. Its hind-legs forcefully kicked the ground, flipping the beast onto its back and sending Nate flying through the air. He had managed to keep one of the kukris in his hand, while the other was still buried in the beast’s back.

Niall ran and snagged his son from the air before his leg could be impaled on a particularly pointy branch. “Pay more attention and be careful. You should have been able to avoid that on your own.”

Nate nodded and set his sights on the beast. Angie was working to keep the giant mouth and teeth at bay. Her sword was slowly chipping away at the teeth, making them jagged while the edges ravaged the inside of its mouth. Next to her, Lindsay was busy hacking away with the axe side of her halberd.

They were doing fine on their own at this stage of the fight, but he still needed to help them finish it. He was part of their team, that was his job. They all worked together. That was the deal.

He ran towards the head of the squirrel and plunged his kukri into its eye. Nate felt something hard in the eye break and then the knife continued on to the back of its ocular cavity.

The squirrel went still for a second as he pulled the kukri back out. He hadn’t been able to get the angle right to plunge it into its brain. Instead, the tip had gotten stuck on the bone to the side of the hole he had been aiming for.

Nate saw that the hard piece he had broken through was the iris. People tended to underestimate how hard parts of the inner eye could be. He backed away from the beast as it began to freak out before he could stab it a second time.

Angie and Lindsay backed away with him and together they watched the squirrel flail about for a few moments. Blood pooled out from its back as all its frantic movements drove Nate’s kukri, which was still stuck in its back ever deeper. It was causing more damage to itself with everything it did.

The teeth Angie had chipped and turned jagged ripped its mouth to shreds and as it screamed in pain. Pieces of its tongue and fleshy inner cheek flew everywhere as it tore them to pieces.

The three shared a conflicted look and then turned to Niall. The beast would eventually die in this state, but it would take a few minutes of constant suffering. They didn’t want to waste that much time, and causing something living to suffer needlessly wasn’t in their nature.

“Dad, can you finish it for us?”

Niall nodded and threw a knife that buried itself in the large beast’s chest. Its back arched and it took a final, shuddering breath. Then it was over. His knife had taken it straight through the heart.

“Dig out the core and both knives. I’ll be responsible for dragging this one back.”

Nate needed both of the girl’s help to dig out his kukri from where it had become deeply embedded in its back. They had to widen the cuts he had made to the back to get it out. Getting the core and his father’s knife out was messy, but far quicker in comparison.

“A little weak for a core creation realm,” Niall told them as he inspected the core they had retrieved. “It hasn’t been one for long, only a month or two. You three did well, better than I was expecting. There were areas where you could have done better, but we’ll talk about those later. Think about them on your own for now. Let’s get a move on. We’ve wasted enough time as it is.”

He tied up the large squirrel beast and hefted it onto his shoulders, ignoring the dribbles of blood that ran down his back.

Nate checked the condition of both his blades before he left the group again. He found that even the one that had been buried in the beast’s back was still in good condition. They would need a thorough cleaning later. For now, some water and a quick rub down were enough to remove the worst of the blood and gore from them.

With that done, he headed back into the trees, determined to do a better job this time.

He was acting as the group’s scout. That meant he should have discovered the squirrel beast before it ever had a chance to attack them. Was he putting too much pressure on himself and expecting too much, considering his untrained state? Almost certainly, but that was life.

He was used to pushing himself, and it gave him a goal to work towards.

Nate kept his eyes and ears open, straining them to pick out every noise and movement in the active forest. It put him on edge, as he constantly jumped at the slightest of noises or movements in his peripheral vision.

However, this time, he succeeded in catching the next attack before it could reach the group.

The attack came from above as the fleshy cheeks of a butt monkey clapped together as it hopped from one branch to another. The disgustingly smooth rounded cheeks of its face wobbled as they slapped with each movement. The monkey’s face looked like a fat butt with a couple of freckles for eyes.

Truthfully, anyone could have caught this particular beast before it attacked them. With the racket it was making, it was a miracle it ever caught any prey unawares. Unfortunately, as Nate and the girls were about to find out, the noise it was making was all simply part of a trap.