Hara silently turned and left, feeling a twin pair of death glares from the teachers as she did so.

Hara was a woman of multiple talents, but teaching children about the wonderful eat or be eaten world that nature had to offer, was not among them, and thus- she left that to the professionals.

Lyth was laughing at her, she felt it.

The forester sighed and drove her bike back home, glad to be leaving the beasts back in the school.

Hara checked her phone, finding nothing of interest, and decided to hunt more grasshoppers to strengthen her partner, the decision was warmly received, her partner already grinding her sharp sickles against each other.

Hara swore she saw them glitter under the afternoon sun.

The trek back up the mountain was uneventful and other than killing a few beastly bugs they encountered there was nothing worth mentioning.

________

It started raining beasts soon after they arrived at their destination, becoming a massacre soon after as Lyth danced around with her lethal beauty, sickles killing with every swing.

Even though the beasts being slaughtered were only weak grasshoppers, Hara knew, she just knew, that soon their prey would be much, much larger, and much more dangerous.

For some reason, she actually felt a rush of anticipation rush through her veins.

Hara wondered if this change in mentality- or had she always been like this- seeking for danger and thrill, was a side effect from forming a contract with the mantis beast?

Shaking her head, Hara once again kicked one of the many trees all around and let her partner begin her slaughtering as she sat back and watched, not minding the bloody sight.

Looking at the sun and knowing she'd be here for a while, she took her phone out and looked at her reception, surprisingly good, considering how far out she was.

She scrolled through the news section and only looked back up as Lyth demanded more prey, the forester gladly complied with the request and let the beasts rain down.

Looking back to her phone, she noticed a live stream and decided to listen to it, if only out of curiosity.

She gave a new tree a hefty kick and stepped back, watching a new wave of coin sized beast fall, listening to a man speaking as the stream loaded up.

"With the new information that has come to light about the beasts that now roam the world, people have begun gearing up, knives, guns, electric nets, and other self-defense items are being bought out at rapid paces all over the globe." He stated sternly, a bit of worry in his voice.

"Yeah, no shit." Hara spat, Lyth turned to her, letting a beast escape her grasp as she did so.

Hara shook her head, "Don't worry about it, just human stuff." She said, her thoughts having reached the beast long before she spoke.

Lyth had already turned back to hunting before she even finished voicing her thoughts out loud.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

It was no surprise that people all over the world had started freaking out, it had been promised that only bugs and insects could transform, and that had already been bad enough, but now, along with her partner's assurance that there was worse to come, she could hardly blame them.

Looking at the situation this far out, she wondered how bad it was elsewhere.

Hara was certain that, if word about the situation in their village leaked, people would be fighting to move, this was because their territory actually had a very small number of beast species, they got lucky.

Hara paused mid kick and asked her partner mentally,

An idea was already brewing in her mind, but she wanted an answer from her friend first, she was her insider, after all, Hara snorted at the thought.

Lyth turned her head to her, smearing her bloody sickles on a piece of cloth Hara had thrown over to her, staining the cloth with green beast blood.

The beast paused in its motion and tilted its head, thinking for a moment before replying.

She began, letting the bloody rag drop.

She went on to explain further, the emotions and concepts mixing as her partner got better at communicating with her human companion.

The blue mantis dragged her sickle on the other, sharpening them in a thoughtless motion.

It finished and demanded her partner to kick another tree.

Hara complied with the demand and asked aloud.

"Why did they turn into beasts then? Shouldn't they be smart enough to absorb Miasma to become beasts, how come they're stupid?"

In the middle of her slaughter, her beast didn't even pause as she answered her clueless partner.

Hara thought her partners answer over, it was a yes, but also a no, the beasts they have don't know they are absorbing Miasma, they aren't doing it consciously either, it's passive, and because the passive energy is so little in the area, and around the world, it takes longer time for bigger animals to transform.

In essence, the beasts they have are unintelligent and weak, cannon fodder for the smarter beings.

Lyth now counted among the smarter beings as she knew how to absorb the Miasma, but that was because she had a contract with Hara and had unlocked higher thought, they had some time before other beings smart enough to absorb Miasma appeared.

Or maybe they had already appeared, Hara didn't know, as she hadn't heard of such beasts yet.

Her partner also told her that, among the beasts they have now, not even 1% would be able to advance into stronger beasts.

Their lack of potential and the limit of their blood guaranteed that they couldn't advance further than they were now, with rare exceptions that could be caused by a wide range of things, Hara dubbed them "Mutants" and left it at that.

Hara wondered and Lyth sent her a wave of agreement.

While the two were "talking", the live stream went on, describing how people are now flocking to the bigger cities to take shelter from the rapidly transforming beasts, and how housing prices were skyrocketing.

Hara sighed softly as she listened to the man talk, sitting on the ground now covered in corpses, they would turn into fertilizer or be eaten by other beasts and animals.

She wasn't at all worried about wiping a species of animals out, they were an invasive species and she had no sympathy for them.

Lyth already guaranteed her that she had taken their energy and that no other beast or animal would accidentally get energy from them, else she wouldn't dare leave them for any beast or animal to feast upon.

The forester sighed and glanced at the time, 6 pm, the sun was starting to set.

The woman stared at the sky for a bit, she then told her beast that they should wrap it up and go home soon.

Lyth chirped and went right back to slaughtering, this time not needing her contractor as she simply leaped into the trees with newfound strength, Hara blinked, questioning if her beast had advanced.

Lyth chirped in her head, disappearing into the tree crowns.

Hara sat back and watched the show, scrolling through the news and looking at newly discovered beasts making new headlines every time she refreshed the page.

The moon was starting to creep high into the sky as Lyth finished her hunt, proudly jumping down after a few hours worth of hard work, the once glass sized beast having grown into a size that resembled a plushy, her two pairs of wings shimmering in violet glory as she flew down and into Haras' lap.

"Humanity is fucked." The human stated, looking at the beast in pure horror.