There was a strange quiet on their side of the battlefield, one that could only be experienced by the victor. Tiria stepped out of the bodies of the dead demons that she'd slain during her rampage of self discovery.

The goblins hadn't experienced any casualties during the fight, but that had more to do with Chum and the enemies' exhaustion than any skill of their own as was evidenced by Nori's surprise.

"Damn, all you bastards survived? A few more fights like that and we might have some Elites after all. The humans should have this wrapped up soon so let's retreat."

All their eyes turned to the battle on the walls, but Tiria didn't see what she did. Somehow, Nori was just more experienced than she was at these larger battles. All of them started to walk back towards the hills and both Chum and Orchid stepped up beside her.

That was amazing! You fought like Danna herself possessed you!

"It was... intense," Chum added, a little more reserved.

"Thank you," she said. "I think... I know how to move forward now."

"Oh?"

"I have to be stronger so I can be a wall for the clan like he was. Bringing Gi back is important, but only because the clan is important. What we had back at the lake encampment was special."

Chum's concerned look didn't fade, but he did agree. "What we had was definitely special."

Tiria looked back down at her blood covered paws. Between the final Battle in Igna and the fight just now, she had enough Soul Orbs for a few levels, but it seemed higher than she would have expected.

"Were the demons worth more Soul Orbs?"

Chum nodded. "About double. My guess is it has something to do with the Monster Surge."

Tiria nodded absently. That bode well for her plan to get stronger. The cliff still loomed off to her side, a seemingly impenetrable barrier without flight, which meant the only way to the forest was through the army. She hadn't seen it, but it seemed likely that Nori had an Encampment Crystal with that-

Chum's voice broke her out of her internal thoughts and she turned to see him looking up to the sky.

"I wonder where the others are?"

****

"Weeeee!"

Babcock looked upward at the sound of Poe's gleeful return to their group. All of the Rhinos of the Peach Clan were listing on their backs as they took a break from the endless swimming.

The ocean had originally felt refreshing, but after so many days in it, they were all irritated by the salt water attacking their hides. Donut floated beside him, but instead of conserving his strength, the fool was blowing bubbles in the ocean. Each time giggling when he returned for breath.

"Take this seriously," Babcock snapped. "There's no telling what's in these waters. We have to stay alert."

"Uh, sorry...," Donut said sheepishly. He didn't stop blowing bubbles, but he did it much quieter and more reserved and honestly that's the best Babcock could hope for.

Poe's laughter cut in anew as he finally made his way out of the clouds and landed on Georgia's torso. "Awww look at this belly!"

Donut's eyes grew wide. "You're not supposed to call women fat!"

Poe tilted his head to the side confused and Georgia answered. "I'm not fat. I'm pregnant."

Donut's confusion only grew until horrifying disgust had him flinch backwards in the water. "That's gro-"

Babcock bonked the idiot on the head to shut him up before giving Poe and Georgia a smile. He pulled Donut aside and started to furiously whisper. "For once, please keep your mouth shut!"

Donut never managed to capture his tone. "But if she's pregnant... that means her and Poe did... that." He shuddered as some clearly imagined scenario came to him.

"That's none of your business if they do or did, but that's not how she became pregnant. They used the slime at the bordello back in Igna like any monsters with incompatible physiology would do."

"What? That's what the slime is for? I thought it was just for monsters to get their rocks off."

Babcock gave Donut a scathing glare, but it had no effect on the Rhino. "No doubt monsters like you think so."

"Well duh!"

Babcock rolled his eyes and swam back to Poe and Georgia who were already discussing what Poe had found in his flight. "...so I'm not really sure what to do at this point?"

"What happened?" Babcock asked, mentally cursing Donut for making them repeat themselves for him. Georgia didn't mind.

"Poe found land ahead, but no sight of Kumo and her band. There's a large forest up ahead so we're assuming they went into it, but it's impossible to tell which direction."

"So what do we do?"

Georgia shrugged, but Poe answered with enthusiasm. "We'll just have to keep looking!"

"But how?"

"I don't know!" Poe's chipper attitude was generally a boon on this exhausting journey, but after his conversation with Donut, his patience for those not willing to think was minimal.

"I understand your mission is important to you, but if we don't have a way forward, we need to start thinking about the needs of the clan. As Georgia gets further on, it won't be safe for her to be having an adventure."

"But... but... Gi asked me to look after the clan! He gave us this Heart to not just keep us strong to survive without him, but to show that we each had a choice to make just like he did!"

"I understand," Babcock said, and he did. Poe had a habit of expressing every thought he had as soon as he had it which meant he'd heard his desires almost daily on this trip. Georgia should give Babcock an award for his patience.

"And Kumo's the most lost of all of us! We have to get to her!"

"I hear you, but if we don't know where to go, should that be at the cost of Georgia's health?"

"Pshhh, I'm fine. My Vitality is so high that I could give birth in an active volcano let alone a battle."

He'd known his Progenitor longer than any of the others. She wasn't wrong about her Vitality, but she also didn't think things through. He rested a hand on her foot, the closest part of her that he could reach as they bobbed in the water.

"And what about the babies?" That shut both Poe and Georgia up. Babcock let the reality of it finally settle before he continued. "We have to look after the clan first. Let's hit land and find somewhere to settle."

"But-!," Poe started but he cut him off.

"We can still look for Kumo's trail, but we have to be realistic. The babies must come first."

****

A tension drained out of Samba as their ship finally hit land. They'd been blown off their course several times and only a lucky sighting of birds by Lamb had let them not miss the Main Continent by miles.

With their broken oars from the Kraken fight, getting turned around had been a huge endeavor, but they'd managed to get pointed in the correct direction with some pushing done by the Templar.

While no longer being at sea with monsters poorly suited to its environment reduced his stress, a new problem came with them hitting the shore.

A human settlement.

They'd come ashore only half a mile from their walls made of sharpened trees from the nearby woods. It wasn't a true forest, but perhaps that was due to the humans' needs for wood.

Many of the monsters had wanted to leave the ship when they arrived and the humans watched them nervously from behind their towers, but they didn't seem eager to take the fight to them.

Samba was happy to have the respite, but having enemies so close didn't make him any less stressed.

With their clan spread across the beach, Corin, Tala, and Lamb all gathered to him to have council. Part of it reminded him of when he would meet with Gi, Tiria, Kumo, and the Twins. The main difference now was that they looked to him for leadership directly.

"I don't like the way those humans are eyeing us," Corin said, causing all of them too look back at their little town.

Tala shrugged. "We have enough problems without inviting more. If they leave us alone, we will leave them alone."

Lamb, ironically, was the most aggressive out of their group. She would have made a much better Hunter than a Priest, but Samba was still glad to have her. "We're monsters," she said, "Shouldn't we be attacking them anyways?"

Samba rubbed at his chest as his thoughts turned to Gi. He'd gotten a bit of the fuller story from his clanmates since being on the ship, but he still didn't have a lot of respect for someone that would willingly murder Children in cold blood.

No deal with the devil would take you that far unless you were already a devil yourself.

"No, we leave them be," Samba said. "Let's see if the Cave Goblins can help us get some kind of structure set up here on the beach around the ship."

"Right here?" Corin said "But the humans are right there?"

Samba shrugged. "There's salt water for us to drink right here, but there's no guarantee for it further inland. The Myshkin jungle had a similar issue of saltless water."

"I guess..."

Tala nodded, seeing where he was going with this. "And the ship provides a base to start from. As long as more humans don't come, we're probably safe enough from the village nearby."

No one had any other objections so they started to build. The Cave Goblins couldn't do much with the rocky coast to make bricks like they'd often done, but they understood building principles well enough.

Over the next few days, Samba and a handful of Templar went into the woods and started to knock down trees for the Cave Goblins to use. They'd taken the small treasury from the Lake Encampment with them which meant they had the Twinned Daggers of Slaying. It wasn't ideal, but with enough strength they were able to carve the fallen trees into planks or logs that fit their needs.

The humans continued to eye them throughout the entire time, but their own needs eventually won through and Samba started to see their small fishing boats return to the sea.

After two weeks, they'd settled into a bit of a routine. They'd opened the front hull of the boat and then extended it on all sides to provide something of a great hall that all the monsters could sleep in.

A chill had begun to hang in the air that was worrying to Samba. Both Myshk and Igna had only ever been warm or hot so he wasn't sure what to do with the slow change in temperature. Some part of him knew it was called "winter", but that told him little about how to prepare.

"I think we should stock more wood to make a fire," Tala said, when their small council had reconvened to deal with this latest issue.

Corin agreed. "Our fur helps a lot, but the Goblins, Spiders, and Slugs don't have anything to help them. Them being inside the ship helps a lot, but we don't know how cold it will get."

Samba turned to Lamb to see if she had anything to add. "The humans had some kind of monster or animal fur on the ship like they were... blankets?" The word was new, but they all understood what it meant.

"All right," Samba said, slowly. "I'll go grab some wood. Corin, you work with Cave Goblins to see if they can work something up. Some of the merchants used ovens that contained fire to cook. Maybe we can do something similar just to keep warm."

Corin nodded and immediately left. He didn't have any tasks for the two of them so they both went back into the great hall. Samba trudged across the coast until he reached the woods. The humans seemed to be watching him more intensely for some reason, pointing and saying something in their language, but nobody left their village so he ignored it.

Not wanting to completely remove the trees closest to them, he moved further in the woods as quietly as he could. They hadn't seen any other monsters or humans, but being surrounded by the thin trees reminded him of the Noose Snakes in the Myshk Jungle.

He looked up into the branches, checking for any hiding snake monsters as he stepped through a thick brush.

A shout startled him, bringing his attention back to the front.

A human that was almost his same size stood in a clearing just beyond him. When he'd seen Samba, he shouted in alarm, backing up as Samba had. The man grabbed for an axe that had been lying on the ground and readied it before him.

Samba figured conflict would come eventually, but he hadn't expected it like this.