Water surged as a furious beaver charged towards their group. Three Squeaks understood he’d failed pretty badly at diplomacy, but was it his fault when the other side didn’t even try? The beaver captain didn’t really give them a chance to leave, either.

With Fearsome Mandibles running off to fight this beaver, Three Squeaks couldn’t exactly choose to not fight. And though he hoped that the actual leader was more reasonable, it was unlikely that they would listen with people dead.

Three Squeaks took a shot with his bow, and was unsurprised when the waves around the rapidly approaching beaver completely deflected his attack. That made things a bit more difficult. What could he do?

One piece of advice from Anton came to mind. “If you have to fight, don’t do it where your enemy wants to.”

There was more to that, but the basic point was easy enough. This beaver had control over water. He shouldn’t be anywhere near it. Making sure he at least had Crossed Antennae with him, he began to move away from the now surging river. “Half Oink, Meep! We’re fighting away from the water! Fearsome Mandibles, I hope you can hear me because that means you too!”

He couldn’t really do anything if the void ant princess wasn’t listening. He didn’t know where she was… but he wasn’t going to be leaving her to fight alone. It wouldn’t make a difference if he was a bit closer or further.

“Who dares broach the sanctity of the Widetimber Colony?” came a chittering roar from the beaver king, or whatever they called him, as he drew closer and closer with the surging waves.

This was the part where Three Squeaks was supposed to answer with something to attempt to diffuse the situation, as pointless as it was. But by the time he found the words, someone was already speaking.

“Your people are terrible!” Half Oink squealed towards the overly large beaver.

“Also… smell… bad…” Meep augmented his volume without actually shouting.

Three Squeaks was going to have things to say to them, if they survived this. One Essence Collection beaver might be something they could take out, but he didn’t come along, bringing another handful of Spirit Building opponents along with him in his wave. Unfortunately, they were currently shielded by the waves as well so Three Squeaks just tried to pick out a good spot far enough from the river and the artificial lake. If only there were trees around, he could at least get some more distance that way. Instead, the land was basically a collection of stumps and mangled shrubs.

“I hope you have some good mushrooms,” Three Squeaks said to Meep.

The old meerkat shook his head. “None.”

How unfortunate. Three Squeaks was going to suggest he stay out of the battle, but he stepped forward and poured something out of his bag. “Don’t touch,” he said primarily to Half Oink.

“What is that?” Three Squeaks asked.

“Bad… fungus.”

“That’s… fine.” Maybe he should have been more specific. But there wasn’t any more time for that, because the beavers were at their wall… and then surfing over it. It seemed that not being near the water just meant the beaver king was going to bring it with him. It should be more tiring, at least. “Half Oink, you take out-”

“The big one!” she declared. “You got it last time!”

There was no time to argue. Fortunately, it only took a slight adjustment to his aim to snap a spirit arrow towards one of the smaller ones. Since the warthog was charging the big guy, he wasn’t so focused on defending those around him. His target tried to slap the arrow away with its tail, to half effect. Which was to say, Three Squeaks didn’t get a vital hit, but he did make its tail bleed.

The king was a swirling vortex of water, his tail paving the motion of the small lake he’d brought with him as it crashed towards Half Oink repeatedly. And in return, the warthog… cut apart the water. This was one of the things that fell under the category of things Three Squeaks might never understand. He wasn’t a sword user, so the more esoteric forms of cutting were… weird. But it certainly worked, forcing the water to flow around her.

The crashing waves still swept over the pile of powder Meep had left there, which was unfortunate. But Meep managed to be behind a stump, which protected him from any immediate threats. Though two of the lesser beavers were charging towards him, while the other three were coming for Three Squeaks. They swam through the remaining couple of meters of water before leaping onto the ground beyond.

Three Squeaks wished he could scare these people away with fire, but as they were soaking wet he doubted it would do much good. So he had to continue fighting straightforwardly, which ultimately meant ducking and dodging away from them as he took shots at them. Each of them was far larger than him, which did make it difficult for three of them to not get in each other’s way.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Though their claws weren’t meant for combat, natural energy made them sharp, and he had to spend most of his time rolling away from slashes, slapping tails, and biting teeth that managed to take a huge chomp out of the nearby stumps.

The last thing was the biggest travesty, because that meant that they could have dealt with the stumps and had just been too lazy. Though it was a bit of an odd time to be talking about conservation when they were going to turn him into compost.

Three Squeaks needed an opening, and he got the perfect one when one of the beavers went all in on an attack. A concerning amount of natural energy coiled around its teeth, and it chomped towards him. Three Squeaks was about to dodge when he saw a tiny dot springing through the air. And then all at once, that chunk of natural energy was torn away and all that was coming towards him were unprotected teeth. He shifted his motion from a backwards leap into a spin, kicking his leg into the lower pair of teeth with an uncomfortable crack which also sent the beaver flying back. Crossed Antennae was probably knocked back with the beaver, but he had made sure not to squash her.

Two enemies of this caliber Three Squeaks was well prepared to handle, even in his fatigued state. He shot his bow right into the foot of one as he dodged around the giant creatures, forcing them to pull their blows as he moved between them. His hand flickered with great speed, first putting them off guard and then going for lethal blows. His arrows didn’t have to create a large hole if they simply punctured a vital organ.

As the last of the two fell, he was able to take in the larger battle once more. Meep was… standing on top of two beavers that were frothing at the mouth. And while Three Squeaks couldn’t prove it, the other meerkat had to be responsible for the horrible green slime on the beaver king’s arm. Half Oink simply wasn’t the type- instead it was simple to attribute the criss-crossing cuts in the beaver’s fur to her.

Unfortunately, the beaver king was still going strong, and Half Oink was bleeding from numerous wounds as she was getting yanked away from completing her attacks by the water spinning around the beaver.

Not just a mass of power, then, but with some insights. There were two brief flashes of light as Three Squeaks aimed for the king’s eyes, momentarily blinding him even if he didn’t cause actual damage.

Unfortunately, it didn’t stop him. Waters surged, sweeping up Half Oink from behind where she couldn’t cut them apart. His arms spread wide as his jaws stretched, and sharp natural energy focused on all of them as his arms clawed inward.

With a twist of her head, Half Oink somehow deflected both pairs of claws with her tusks, but the beavers teeth bit deep into her nose. However, before more could come of that the beaver pulled back. Then he slapped one paw towards his neck. Feeling the hole in natural energy, Three Squeaks knew what- or who- was there. But unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything. If the beaver had carelessly slashed, he could have easily missed, and if he had relied on natural energy he wouldn’t have done much. But instinct had made him choose the greatest danger to the void ant.

None of them would miss such an opening. Three Squeaks sunk an arrow into the back of the paw, Half Oink sliced into his gut, and even Meep somehow arrived behind him and clawed into his back.

A surge of energy from the beaver king spoke of a last ditch attack, but even that was torn away and consumed. Presumably by Crossed Antennae.

The surrounding water splashed onto the ground as it was finally out of the beaver’s control. Three Squeaks had things he wanted to say to the beaver king… but Half Oink didn’t seem to be in the mood, as his head was removed from his body a moment later.

Three Squeaks made his way forward, trying to find the princesses. He just managed to spot the lack of natural energy around one- no, both of them, as Crossed Antennae carried the mangled form of her sister. Three Squeaks didn’t know what to do, until that form twitched. Only one front leg and one antennae were able to move, but if he extrapolated… Fearsome Mandibles was asking if she won the fight.

“Yeah… you won…” Three Squeaks said. He reached out his paw for Crossed Antennae to walk onto, then looked around for a good surface. Unfortunately most of the stumps were angled- a problem quickly rectified with Half Oink’s aid.

Fearsome Mandibles was in the worst shape, with many of her legs broken- but her tiny body seemed to be intact. Crossed Antennae grabbed her limbs one by one and snapped them back into something like the correct position. Knowing he couldn’t help there, Three Squeaks began to help the others bind their wounds.

Fortunately, Meep carried some useful supplies. Thread and needles were a strange concept, but with it the meerkat stitched up the largest wounds on Half Oink. Including the one on her nose, as much as possible.

“... Do you think it will leave a scar?” Half Oink asked.

Three Squeaks couldn’t lie. “Unfortunately, yes.” It would be pretty horrid, in fact.

“Cool. I can’t wait to show it off.”

It was so easy to forget she was like that. At least she wasn’t upset.

Three Squeaks collapsed on the soaked ground. If there were any more beavers, he wasn’t sure he could do anything. He just lay on his back, looking up at the sun and trying to absorb its warmth.

What was the point of the fighting? Why did it have to happen? If only they could have figured things out. The beavers just wanted what was best for them… but it wasn’t best for others. No, it was much worse. Even before they tried to kill the travelers, they were in the wrong.

Hearing the rushing river, overflowing as a testament to the grand- if terrible- work that the beavers had done, he couldn’t help but think about what they might have managed if they worked with others. And maybe been a bit more reasonable with their efforts considering how small their population actually was.

He didn’t notice as he drifted off to sleep, but something began to ignite inside of him as those thoughts filled him. It would only be in the coming days when he truly formed his twenty-ninth star and stepped into Essence Collection, but it became an inevitable result at that moment.

Meep cuddled up next to him as the sunlight began to warm them, and a warthog and two ants also joined the pile a short time later.