We left the cavern system in a daze. On the way out, we'd battled a pair of giant cave salamanders that gave us 25 EXP a piece, plus [Smoked Lizard Meat]. Lulu was now Level 15, but I still hadn’t leveled up again. EXP gain was slowing down, because we were higher-leveled than most of the animals in the area. I was just over a hundred points off Level 18.

We made a rough camp to eat and rest. While we recharged, Angel used the T-rex hide to make [Rex Leather], which she turned into a pair of boots that were miles above her Centurions Cadet sandals. She also took the [Raptor Skull Helmet] I’d given her and added ghillie material to it, turning it into a [Camouflaged Skull Helmet]. It wasn't as tough as her current armor piece, but it offered a lot more concealment than the leather cap she'd been issued. It also looked cool as hell.

The sun was setting by the time Angel climbed onto my back and glued herself down with Lulu's help. I could hear the Limne burbling to herself as I broke into a loping run across the waves of cold black magma, following the scent of Legions to the north-east.

“I don’t know if we’re going to make it to Level 20 before this fight, Angel,” I thought to Angel. “Not here. The enemies are too low-ranked, and there’s not enough of them.”

“Yeah. I thought they’d give more points. Sorry… that was my bad.”

There was something oppressive about the jungle as darkness fell, a bad vibe that caused any attempts at conversation to drop off into silence. The fight with the Skarpo was weighing on my mind, because I’d flunked it. The potions worked, sure, but heals weren’t permitted during our upcoming battle. Angel could see the terms and conditions of the duel, and this wasn’t going to be that kind of fight.

We were on a slow winding path back to Fort Hope, but about four miles out, my skin started to prickle. I came to a dead halt in the cool darkness of the forest, sniffing intently.

"What's the matter?" Angel voiced. She was too loud, even though she was trying to keep her volume down.

"Hold on the voicing. Something’s not right." I tuned into my intuition, swinging my head from side to side. The night-time dinosaurs had fallen silent. So had the birds and insects. "Lay flat on my back, and stay low."

Angel didn’t argue, but Lulu crooned anxiously until I shushed her. Both girls lay down against my back as I slunk down to my belly and crawled into the low-lying foliage.

I angled into the wind so our scent didn't blow toward any stalking predators. Nose and ears straining, we waited for five minutes or so in the brush before an unpleasant combination of scents blew to my nose. Motor oil, poorly tanned hides, and Legions.

"We've got company. Hell Pigs, maybe," I muttered telepathically. "I'm gonna climb a tree. Lulu, help Angel stay on my back."

Angel replied by tightening her legs. Their combined weight on my back seemed to double as I crawled to the nearest tree, set my claws into the bark, and scaled the trunk.

We waited breathlessly in the unnatural silence as the hunters closed in. Unlike Clive’s little ragtag outlaw gang, these guys didn’t whoop and holler. They stealthed through the forest with the skill of Indian braves, so quiet that even I barely even heard them as they passed.

“Four men. They know they’re in enemy territory, because they’re quiet as the dead,” I thought to the others. “And… what the fuck are those?”

Two of the four rode on ghostly, wraith-like terror birds. These [Tomb Stalkers] made little sound as they placed their feet between the ferns, save for the tiny squeaks and cracks of underbrush freezing under their smoking black claws. One man walked on foot, finger resting beside the trigger of his rifle. The last was mounted on a one-horned wolf, trailed by the weirdest looking Cute I'd seen since entering the game. It was a large floating eye within a diamond, glittering with ice as it drifted along behind its trainer. MY HUD flagged the unicorn-wolf as a [Tulevolk], and the floating eye-diamond as something called a [Yahvim].

[Tulevolk: A powerful, agile Body/Fire/Psionic Greater Legion with keen senses. Courageous and tireless in battle.]

[Yahvim: A Mind/Psionic/Water Legion specializing in ice attacks.]

These Legions both looked exotic and high-grade compared to the monsters we'd fought so far. I resisted the urge to growl as I took in other details. All four men carried guns and good quality iron weapons. They were dressed in dark green and mottled brown brigandine, dyed to work as camouflage in the jungle environment. There was no grunting, grumbling, or idle chatter.

Angel stifled a soft gasp, and leaned out to frantically sign as they cut a circle around our hiding position. "Holy… this is a hunting party, Noodles. That guy in the front is a Sponsored!"

"How do you know?" I telepathically signed back.

"His gear, for one thing. My chat, for another. I don't know about you, but my channel and my odds are popping off right now. A lot of people just tuned in to watch, too. They only do that when there's a big fight headed up."

I took a moment to check my menus. She was right. The list of odds and my streamchat were going berserk.

"Right. Just stay calm." I hunkered against the branch, anchored by claws and tentacles, watching as the squad came to a stop about a hundred feet away. My Stealth concealment icon turned yellow. Blinking rapidly.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Out here?" I heard one of the men ask his leader. “We’re not that far from the Cent fort. Is it a false positive?"

The guys were speaking Russian. I understood them as easily as I understood English and Sign. 'Out here?

"No," the leader replied tersely, in the same language. "The trail either leads to the beach, or from the beach. The boss warned us that Reaper scent could be elusive. Spread out and search for footprints."

"Yes sir." The first speaker, voice soft but crisp, saluted his commander. "Is it still with the girl?"

"Yes. Zladye can smell them. The Reaper, one human, one Cute."

"These guys are current or former military," I thought to Angel and Lulu both. "They're speaking Russian, and they know we're here. They know you're here. I’m not sure they’re Hell Pigs. But whoever they are, someone had to have given them a tip that we’d left Fort Hope and headed north. One guess as to who.”

Angel finger-spelled ‘T’ for Targent. She let out a thin, angry exhalation of breath through her nose.

“Okay. Last fight, we took on the Skarpo without a strategy and screwed up,” I said. “Let’s never do that again. We need a plan.”

“If only we’d thought of that last time.”

We didn’t have much time. The Tulevolk was sniffing around, getting closer and closer to us. The Stealth symbol was thrumming, vibrating like a panicked beating heart.

"Alright,” I thought. “First things first. That Brute's got our scent. Can you land a headshot from this height?"

"Yes." Angel signed back. “You’re going down there to fight?”

“We have the advantage of surprise right now. Might as well make use of it.”

"You need to be careful. The way their party is arranged, they're expecting to take on a Brute of your class. One B- or A-tier Legion pair to engage you head on, two spectral mounts that are immune to physical attacks to attack from your flanks, one guy on foot to run rings and dart you while you're busy holding off the others."

"Tomb Stalkers are immune to physical attacks?" My eyes narrowed as I considered how to handle this. "Elemental as well?"

"No. Physical as in Body-based attacks. Strikes and bites."

"Right. Lulu, don't answer me verbally: just bob up and down. But you're still a-okay with acting as armor, right?"

Lulu jiggled enthusiastically in reply.

"And you're okay with me using Soul Drain on you?"

She began bouncing hard enough to gently rock the tree bough.

"Okay. Then we got this." I licked my teeth. "Angel, find a good sniping position. Me and Lulu need to get down there and hit them from behind."

She gave me the sign for okay, then carefully slipped off my back. "Be careful: they might have tranqs in those rifles. They’ll need a lot of Primitive or Basic Tranqs to take down an S-rank Legion, but they might have more advanced tranq types from loot boxes because the leader is Sponsored.

"Got it. Try and take out the guy on foot first. Then aim for the leader."

Lulu was trembling as I used tenacles and feet to lift myself over Angel and monkey through the jungle canopy. My type of Legion was sure as shit made for the trees. Leaves slithered soundlessly over my smooth, hard skin, and if I took it slow, I could move like a giant spider, anchoring myself in four places at once as I found a good position. Instinct guided me until I was within springing distance of the Tomb Stalkers. They weren't wild, so I couldn’t see their levels. I'd just have to hope we were as good as I thought we were, and focus on getting that sweet, sweet EXP.

"Shit! The trail heads east, not west!" The squad leader bounded back toward the other three men, heading toward us. “It stops here! They might be on top of us!”

We were out of time.

I launched from the tree line, fast and deadly. Until now, every human I'd attacked had panicked during combat, but these guys were fast, experienced, and well-trained. As I crashed into the back of one of the Tomb Stalker riders, they whirled around and immediately opened fire as a team.

Angel was right: they were packing tranqs. As she'd feared, they weren't primitive darts, but [Hypodermic Tranqs], the kind used to take down big game. One whiffed, but two hit. Lulu soaked one. The other hit me in the neck. Two pulsing indigo ‘ZZZ’ meters appeared in my HUD, one for me, one for Lulu. They filled as the tranqs emptied their pressurized canisters into our bodies. One dart barely caused my meter to rise by just under 5%, but it filled Lulu’s by 12%. She simply didn’t have my stamina.

I shrugged off the hit and plunged the ends of all four tentacles into the Tomb Stalker's rider, punching through leather and chain like butter. He snarled, blood flecking his lips as he pulled a machete and began to hack. His ferocity took me by surprise. The blade hit me in the shoulder, skidded over my scales, and buried itself in the softer skin under the edge of one tentacle. I flinched before I realized it didn't hurt – Lulu had soaked the blow. As he tried to pull the blade out of her sticky mass, I tore the guy into bloody chunks and threw the pieces at the others as they reloaded.

"Stick to the plan! We've got this!" The squad leader rallied the others as his giant wolf burst into radiating coils of flame. Its black horn turned red, then white, spitting plasma into the air just before it howled and sprinted at us.

I clung to the Tomb Stalker's saddle. It whirled in place with a piercing screech, body flaring with unnatural cold, but it couldn't dislodge me. Riding it like a circus bear, I jammed my bloody tentacle-spikes into Lulu, hit Soul Drain, and selected Water Saber.

Lulu only had a ten-foot range with her water blast: I had a full fifty feet of reach, and with multi-limb attack, I turned myself into a whirling dervish of water. I lashed my tentacles like whips, pulling condensation from the air into half-seen blades of psionically-charged liquid. As they sprang from my body, two of them carved the Tomb Stalker beneath me into so much smoke and dust. The Tulevolk leapt at me with a snarl, and took the full brunt of the other two water sabers as I slammed them across its back. The blow sent it flying, howling with agony as its skin split and erupted with blood and steam. The Yahvim emitted some kind of psionic pulse at me, but the energy seemed to just roll off my senses and skin.

"Get him! Get him!" Tranqs hit me from all sides, followed by the rolling BOOM of Angel's rifle. There was an impact, but no scream. She’d missed? Still, the blast of sound caused all four men to jump and – briefly - freeze. The next bullet took the roving gunman in the side. His armor absorbed most of it, but the impact sent him staggering.

"Sniper! Sniper in the trees!" The remaining tomb stalker rider cried.

The squad leader's expression flickered. They hadn’t been expecting guns that weren’t their own.

His hesitation was my opportunity: I bounded past the second Tomb Stalker rider, jaws gaping, and snatched the leader before he could flee. Sponsored he might be, but this was a Jurassic Park movie and I was the dinosaur. I slammed him to the dirt twice, hard, then bit down and shook him apart. Two chomps, and his head, upper chest and one shoulder were no longer attached to his torso.

With his death, the two Legions didn't have anyone to guide their tactics. I expected the Legions and remaining men to scatter and flee, but they didn't. They yelled, rallied, and began firing on me. I couldn't avoid the darts: and neither could Lulu.

[Warning: Torpor at 67%. Lulu Torpor: 84%]

This time, it was me who fucked up. While I was looking at our Torpor meters, the wolf pounced onto my back, locked his jaws on my neck, and bore down.