The night soon caught up to the group, and they were forced to make camp. They made sure to get a decent distance between them and the combat zone from before with the group of bandits. Anyway, all 3 men had now sat down around a little campfire and were enjoying their much-needed rest as they ate and drank their fill.

They filled in Marcus on how the fight went while he was entranced in his duel, and he was surprised to learn that there wasn’t any friendly fire committed during the fight. Both he and Drazdan released a synchronous hearty laugh, while Xandarr just sat there bubbling in mute annoyance as they had fun on his behalf.

Before long, the time to really rest had come around, and they had to decide who was going to stand guard for first, second, and third watch. An intense game of rock, paper, scissors proceeded to unfold and Xandarr was crowned victorious for the last watch, and he celebrated by laughing at his mates and calling karma on them. So Drazdan was now stuck on first watch then he was to be followed by Marcus 3 hours later, and finishing with Xandarr for the last few hours of the night.

So the group decided to begin their nap while Drazdan stood guard for them. It took a few minutes for the two men to fall asleep, as Drazdan was sitting next to the fire keeping it alive. The light may have been blinding him, and preventing him from seeing potential enemies hidden in the darkness and it most definitely gave away their position, but it would keep most wild animals at bay. Plus, if anybody tried to attack him, he would be able to see them clearly once they entered the fire’s light. Considering that his species wasn’t one that could see in the dark, it was a reasonable measure.

About 2 hours later…

Drazdan made sure to keep his guard up during his shift, since he was used to holding guard deep into the night, he didn’t have much difficulty staying vigilant. His head was on a swivel and his ear was standing proudly as it scanned the surrounding area for potential threats. A few squirrels, foxes, and so forth had visited the camp but had all stood just outside the fire’s light, they were merely observing the group before moving on. As he was paying attention to the wild animals, his ear picked up a low rumbling sound and his head swiftly flicked over to Xandarr’s direction.

Drazdan’s first thought was that it might be a wild mountain lion or some sort of feline predator, so he got up and started walking towards the wood next to Xandarr. As he was walking past Xandarr, the rumbling became much louder, but once he went past him, the rumbling slowly grew less loud. This confused Drazdan, and when he turned back around to look at Xandarr, he saw his body vibrating faster and faster. It was as if he was having a seizure, but it looked way too weird to be a simple seizure. As he kept watching Xandarr, he could see Xandarrs’ body shape-shift very slowly to different animals before reverting to his human form.

One second, Xandarrs’ right arm turned into that of a lion’s, then the other turned into a tigers’, a leg of his then turned into that of an elephant’s while his other stayed human. There were patches of fur growing over his clothes, or perhaps it was more like the clothes partially disappeared to allow his body to transform. Bewildered, Drazdan just kept watching this spectacle, he was unable to focus on anything but his friend that was shapeshifting in his sleep. The process kept going for a few minutes before his body had finally decided on a final form as it grew larger and larger. Thankfully, Marcus was sleeping quite far from Xandarr, so he was in no danger of being crushed under the growing mass of tentacles that was Xandarr.

Soon enough, Xandarr had finally turned into a full-blown octopus that was about 12 foot across and his appendages were each up to 10 feet long. Drazdan didn’t even want to measure how tall it was or how thick those lumber sized tentacles were. He just stood there, absolutely stunned at what he had just witnessed. Marcus and Xandarr were still blissfully asleep as if nothing had happened. That fact was unbelievable by itself seeing as Xandarrs’ body took out a few trees as it was growing in size, creating quite the racket if nothing else.

As he inspected Xandarrs’ body a bit closer, he could see some mucus or slime covering every inch of his body, probably to protect it from the sun or something. Who knows, he wasn’t a biologist nor an animal expert.

“I guess that explains the mornings at the tavern…” He said out loud as he scratched the top of his head.

As he was saying that, a few predators thought it was the perfect opportunity to ambush him, and they jumped out of the trees rushing towards Drazdan. Drazdan was still just looking at the gigantic octopus in the middle of the forest, so he didn’t notice the ambush until they got within 10 feet of him. He felt his instincts flare up, prompting him to pull out his sabers and slashing at the limb of the monster that was within the 10-foot radius. As he flicked around, he quickly realized that they got ambushed by 4 velociraptors. One of them had already attempted to jump at him, and his gaping jaw was aiming at his throat.

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Although they had the jump on him, his training won out over them as he had for years trained with his senses sealed, and he had managed to gain what most people call blindsight.

No creature or projectile could catch him off guard once they got within 10 feet of him, it was quite the useful skill and was worth all the time he had spent to gain it. And once again this skill would save his life from an otherwise inescapable death.

Anyway, as his saber cut through the air at a speed that was barely perceivable by his enemies, he had managed to sever the offending raptors jaw then swiftly dodging to the left. The jawless raptor kept flying through the air, eventually hitting the giant octopus and bouncing back off its squishy surface and landing maw first into the dirt below.

Although one raptor was now deemed nearly harmless, the other 3 weren’t and 3 raptors attacking simultaneously is quite the challenge. Even the athletic Drazdan can’t dodge and defend against that many enemies at once, he then barely managed to dodge 2 of them, but the 4th raptor inevitably managed to chomp down on his left arm.

Normally, a swordsman dropping his blade was considered shameful, however in this case he could probably be forgiven considering the 1k PSI bite force of a velociraptor. The pain from being turned into a raptors' breakfast was a swift and powerful reminder for Drazdan to start screaming at the top of his lungs.

The cry of pain managed to wake up Marcus, who quickly jumped to his feet, greatsword already in his hands. The sleepiness was swiftly washed out of his system, replaced by adrenalin, which then allowed him to react to the danger. And so it didn’t take him long to charge into the wild pack of reptiles, who were eagerly working on hunting their meal.

Xandarrs’ POV

In his dream, Xandarr was enjoying a nice herbal tea with Thirza at the table outside the tavern, just observing the village in silence. The morning dew still present on the rooftops, they were having a delightful and relaxing time. But when the morning comes so do the people, animals and bugs.

There were 6 of these rowdy individuals on the street next to him, 2 of them were his teammates, Drazdan and Marcus and the other 3 were particularly aggressive turkeys, one of which just bit Drazdan. His painful scream, although funny, was quite unpleasant and was ruining his relaxing tea time with his beloved. There was also that one turkey that had previously flown into their table and was now slowly getting up, ready for round 2 with the rabbit man. Xandarr looked at Thirza and saw an annoyed frown upon her face, he hadn’t any intention of participating in this charade until now.

His pleasant quiet morning was getting ruined by these wild turkeys and had not only annoyed him but had also annoyed the beautiful Dark elf sitting across from him. It could not stand, so he gently placed his teacup on the table before charging up a Thunderclap and then swiftly slapping the turkey in the back of its head. Sending it flying back towards his teammate, who was currently struggling to remove another bird from his arm. The slap had pinpoint accuracy as it managed to not only hit said turkey, but it also smacked into its relative, removing it from Drazdans’ arm.

The power behind his spell had also managed to perfectly cook said turkey, and its aroma was quite divine. As he was admiring his work, a gentle peck was left on his cheek by Thirza who proceeded to thank him for taking care of the nuisance.

Back to Drazdans’ POV

Drazdan was doing his very best to try to remove the raptor from his now limp arm, punching it with the pommel of his saber to no avail. He had even started to consider cutting off his arm, so he could kill the pesky reptile. At least that was the case until he heard the iconic sound of a Thunderclap, followed by the smell of cooked meat, and then said cooked meat hitting the raptor hanging off his arm so perfectly that it simply let go and went flying along with its partner.

Drazdan instantly looked at Xandarr in joy, he was extremely thankful for his help, well that was until he realized that the octopus was still asleep, and it had simply Thunderclapped a raptor with one of those lumber sized tentacles. Realizing this, he was now quite frightened, since there was no guarantee that whatever had just happened would succeed again. It goes without mentioning that this crazy druid not only shape-shifted in his sleep, but he also managed to cast spells while doing so. That thought sent an ice-cold shiver down his spine.

He was, however, ripped out of his idle thought by Marcus’ war cry as he cut off a raptor’s head. There were now but 2 raptors left, and one of them was knocked out and laying under his perfectly cooked pack mate. And so the fight quickly concluded once the last standing raptor was pushed into the campfire by a wild tentacle that just kept pressing him harder and harder into said camp fire.

Both Marcus and Drazdan watched as the poor raptor was slowly cooked alive, eventually reaching perfection. For the cherry on top of this hypothetical cake, once the raptor reached perfection, Marcus and Drazdan watched the tentacle holding it bring it towards its mouth and eating it.

Once it was done with its meal, the various tentacles threw the inedible bones next to the campfire, following up with a deafening belch before reverting to a normal human Xandarr.

The two men then proceeded to look at each other, exchanging their shocked gazes before looking back to Xandarr who was tossing and turning in his sleep. Xandarr eventually woke up and felt bloated before looking at his teammates, who were both staring at him as if he had eaten their child. He also noticed that Drazdan was just pouring blood out of his left arm, it had already formed a puddle at his feet, but the dumb rabbit hadn’t even realized yet.

“What the fuck are you doing, Drazdan!?” He screamed at the rabbit as he got up and ran to him.

“What the actual hell were you two doing for you to be bleeding so much, damn it!” he kept screaming as he cast healing spells on the bleeding arm.

The two men were still stunned at what they had just seen and were still just watching Xandarr as he patched up Drazdan.