I took with me half of the health equipment. One spray and one pill. The plan for the day, scouting and testing new abilities. In the event that I would not be able to make it back to the cave, I made sure to pack a lunch of some fish and fruit. My new jacket was warm, almost hot, as I moved back into the jungle region. I was thankful of its protection, however.

We traveled with Balor in front, King behind me, and Stella riding King. I was hoping that we could use some of her skills in combat, allowing for her to grow. She was pretty small now, smaller than King was at her stage, so I didn’t expect her to grow into some powerful monster. Rather, I was hoping her special abilities, light and blink, would become more useful.

It wasn’t long before I encountered our first monster. It first appeared as a pair of red, glowing eyes. Then, it dropped from the canopy. An adult Skelky, with a slightly different skull and chitin shape to Balor. It wielded a staff made of wood. Bringing up its stats, it was a level one skelky, with nothing different than Balor at that level. This was an opportunity to test mental commands. Using my thoughts, I kept King and Stella at bay. I commanded Balor to use challenge. Nearly at the same time, the enemy used the same ability. Both roaring at each other, the challengers advanced.

They clashed with tremendous speed. The two monsters exchanging blows, parries, and strikes. Each shrieked and hooted at the other, but neither had a clear upper hand. I ordered Balor to use Battle Calm. Instantly, the effect was noticeable. It was like a switch, changing from a furious monkey into a calm master of combat. The enemy continued to strike, twirling his stick at blinding speed. But, Balor dodge every attack with simple sidesteps. He seemed to analyze his foe, anticipating strikes, rather than out-speeding him. Calmly placing his body where it wouldn’t be struck. It was cold and clinical, terrifying even. Then, he attacked. Moving his two kama in a deliberate motion, he scissored one of the enemies hands right off from the wrist. It screamed in pain, but did not back down. They had initiated a duel and fleeing was not an option. But, Balor’s skill with his weapons was simply in a different class than the enemies. This was only a one level difference. I shivered remembering the level of our current quarry.

Balor sidestepped another attack and hooked the leg of his opponent, sending it falling into the mud. Without hesitation Balor simply crossed his kamas around its neck, and beheaded it. The whole interaction took less than a minute. I was REALLY glad I fought him at level one. Now, I wondered what King could do. Balor’s arms and chest swelled slightly after the fight.

I took some time with my blade to cut away at the corpses armor. I wanted to see if I could fit it onto my jacket, or something. Then we continued with the short break while the nexos ate the leftover meat. I was feeling pretty good about our team. That was one of the few fights with no injuries, besides a few bruises on Balor’s end but he would heal. We had to cross skelky territory to get to our destination, so I was sure we would run into more of them. It would have been faster to travel across the grassland and to the jungle there, but that would risk the giant bird. I wasn’t ready for that fight.

A while later, more skelkies came to challenge us. A handful of smaller hatchlings warned us first, and a quick pulse revealed three adult skelkies. Like the dropping of bombs, they slammed into the jungle floor. Each wielded sticks smoothed into simple staves.

I acted immediately. Sending King to one and Balor to another. The third refused to help either ally, and instead rushed me. Yellow lightning zapped to life around King, causing his hair to stand on end. The smell of burnt dog breath wafted through the air as king opened his jaws, energy zapping between large fangs. Balor, likewise, activated his passive skill, challenge. He roared with a slightly deeper pitch than before. I shot a thorn at my challenger, which bounced off its shield and carapace with a cracking sound. Internally I groaned at the uselessness of the thorn.

My enemy lept in the air and came down with the staff as hard as it could. But this wasn’t my first tussle with their kind. I knew their general tactic. Sidestepping, I swung my blade. The staff split in two. Stella gave a happy little chirp and gripped harder to my shoulder. In my peripheral, I could see that Balor was locked in combat with his opponent, but had the clear upper hand. I couldn’t get a clear view of King, but based on the screaming monkey noises, he was doing well.

I closed my eyes and had Stella use light. The flash was visible even through my eyelids. The now blinded skelky attacked uselessly, giving me an opportunity to cut down hard with my blade. I aimed for the neck, but only managed to cut a gash through some of its chest carapace.

There was a sound of crunching and zapping of electricity. Kings enemy suddenly stopped screaming. Balor was taking longer than his canine companion. Lacking the destructive bite of King, he was whittling down the enemy, tiring them out so he could go for the kill.

Still partially blinded, the Skelky I was focused on attacked madly. I managed to block the blow, absorbing it with my blade and leather jacket. It still hurt, but not nearly as much as when I fought Balor. More experience and better equipment can really make a difference. A weight was suddenly gone from my shoulder and Stella appeared right behind it. With a battle-squeal, she bit onto the skelkie’s ankle. It dealt very little damage, but it distracted the skelky just enough for me to slash again. I aimed for the already cracked armor and formed an X.

Before it could retaliate, I stepped in close, placed my palm on the broken armor, and used thorn. With that sickening feeling, I released a full force bone spear into the monster, pushing both of us back. I stumbled, holding my sore wrist, the attack nearly fractured it, and was ready to attack again. No need. The spear had pierced through the weakened armor. The skelky was on the ground, bleeding out. Stella got a few more bites in as it died.

Checking on the others, Balor and King had defeated their enemies without a scratch. I couldn’t help but grin, we had improved greatly since our earlier days.

Taking the long way around the skelky nests was our best bet for survival. I couldn’t guarantee they would stay as reasonable as they have been. Still, we were attacked by five more skelkies that day. Four adults and one very brave hatchling. King and Balor each defeated two adults, I made sure to balance out experience between them. King was getting close to leveling power up. I took a risk with the hatchling, and allowed Stella to show us what she could do.

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After the small monkey approached and thundered its chest, I set Stella onto the ground. She nervously looked back towards me. “Don’t worry, we will step in if things goes south.” Balor was busy holding it back while I gave Stella a reassuring pat on the head. King have he a lick that covered half her face. We released the nexos for their duel. Stella desperately needed to grow, this life was simply too dangerous.

The skelky charged at her immediately. Just before it attacked, Stella disappeared. With a cry, she then fell onto the confused skelky from behind. Teeth gnawed uselessly on carapace. A moment latter, Stella was thrown off of its back by two dexterous arms. She rolled and King, snarling, nearly rushed in. I held him back.

Then there was only light. A blinding flash of light that blinded me. For moments, all I could see was white. Blinking back into focus, Stella was biting at any exposed place. Nips and the snap of teeth on carapace. Finally, the skelky recovered.

It swung its fists towards her, but she was already gone. Again and again it tried to strike her, but Stella teleported away from each attack. Finally, after five teleports, she failed to leap away. There was a heart breaking crunch as Stella went flying from a four fist attack. I cried out and King dashed in. In one quick moment he grabbed the skelky and shook it until it died.

I checked on Stella. Her status was wounded and she was out of energy. She made a sad little pip sound. “You did great. For not having practically any combat abilities, you nearly got him. Proud of you, girl.” I patted her head, and she made a happy chirp, then fell asleep. Checking her stats, she did improve greatly, but was only 75% of the way to being grown.

With Stella resting in her back, we left the Skelky territory and approached the prinsaur’s land. For old times sake, I swung by my old camp ground. All of my traps had been demolished, as I expected. I spent some time making a small fire and rested in the husk of the monster.

The next day, Stella had recovered fully from her fight and the extra strength Balor had faded away. After quick breakfast, we traveled in a direction I had yet to explore. Somewhere I would expect to be the heart of the Prinsaur, and hunsaur, territory. This was where things would get dicey. Stealth was the priority. So, we moved slowly and carefully. I used pulse as often as I dared.

Ground slowly gave way to a spongy mud and it was noticeably getting more humid. With pulse, I could sense puddles and pools of murky water around us. Finally, a pulse revealed a living creature. A nexo. The shape was unclear, but it was about the right size and had the correct number of limbs to be a hunsaur. It was busy eating something.

Using mental commands, I tried something I wanted to test out. Stella lept onto Kings back and placed her hands on his dome. King pulsed, giving her a clear sense of the area. Then, with some reluctance, reality ate them. It was like a wormhole prying open, sucking in the two. It sounded like the ripping of metal mixed with a thunder-like crack.

King reappeared next to the hunsaur. Immediately, he chomped down on its neck and electrocuted it. Thrashing and kicking at King was useless and its energy to fight slowly drained away. Once it was dead, I rushed over to check on them. Stella sat atop King desperately gripping his fur. She looked dazed and tired. Checking her stats, I noticed that used five of her seven energy. Ok, so that was an emergency only move. Got it.

Then I noticed the other creature on the ground. It was a pulse hound. Just like King, but with a smaller jaw and a more pronounced dome. But, it was dead. Food for the hunt. Seeing King in action, I was surprised one of the hunsaur took one down. Then the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Instantly, I pulsed through King. Two hunsaurs were watching us from about ten yards away. I commanded Balor to come closer. Looking at him, I nodded towards each of them. He nodded back in understanding. King was standing as still as a statue, snarling. Thick globs of saliva drooped to the ground.

With a command, all three of us slowly turned our backs on the hunsaurs. There was a faint sound of moving leaves, then we turned back around ready to strike.

Two hunsaurs were hurdling towards us. I launched three spikes, one missing and two hitting home. It didn’t do much other than to slow it. Balor activated his battle calm as he moved forwards. Kamas held close to the blades. King, likewise, activated his electrify ability.

Twin roars echoed through the jungle. The hunsaurs were louder than what seemed possible. Fear flooded through me and I stepped back. My fourth spike going wide. Both King and Balor also hesitated. This must be their intimidate ability, I realized.

One latched its jaws onto one of Balor’s arms, which he sacrificed to stop the creature from biting anywhere else. Kings hunsaur instead rushed past, slicing and rending with six claws. Blood began to soak into his fur. I could do nothing in this fight but watch. Stella, however, used the last of her energy to pop onto the back of the hunsaur grappling with Balor. “You idiot!” I yelled and rushed that direction.

Balor had a look of terror on his face seeing Stella appear in danger. Nevertheless, she bit down on the back of the creature, taking small chunks of flesh with her. Text appeared over her.

THIS WEAPON IS READY TO GROW.

Both pride and fear swelled in my chest as stella was thrown from the creature. Somehow, it managed to twist itself and use its back legs to attack her. Balor growled and started cutting into with his weapons. I swung at it as well, getting a satisfying cut in. That was when I realized Balor was holding its jaws shut, one of his four arms trapped within, carapace and bone shattered.

With several more attacks, we cut it down. King was already shaking apart his kill, electricity burning its flesh leaving a foul smell in the air. I sighed. How could I keep the upper hand when I don’t know the enemies abilities? I would need to keep a log of some sort. Getting paper to Luke was one of my priorities. Maybe he could check on them. Stella was at my feet, holding her arms up. She wanted me to pick her up. Normally, she would just pop up there. I laughed, then picked her up. Then I placed her next to a hunsaur. “Eat. It’s time for you to grow.”

As she feasted, King licked his wounds. I checked Balor’s arm. The carapace was shattered and the bone was clearly broken. Using a stick, I fashioned a brace for it. He winced several times, and even yelled at me once. Finally, Stella began to change.

There was the white light. It emanated from her tail. Small hexagonal metal plates popped in and out of existence around her tail. So that was where I could connect to her. That was a mystery solved. From them, the white light pulsed. Faster and faster until, with a blinding light, Stella grew.

She doubled in height, coming to nearly three feet. Other than that, she looked largely the same. Her dress of matted fur had straightened into a gown-like shape. Her tail was longer, and seemed to naturally rest over her head. Smaller eyes and a larger snout, but her eyes still swirled with the light of a cosmos. I checked her stats.

BLINKET

Designation: Stella

Level: 1

Health: Stable

Energy: 8

Status: Bonded

Bond Strength: 100%

Soul Type: Magi

Skills

Blink: 55%

Light: 27%

Bite: 34%

Attributes

Strength: 2

Agility: 3

Density: 2

Energy: 5

Utility: 2

Derived Attributes

Speed: 3

Intelligence: 7

Toughness: 4

Reaction: 5

Special Traits

Soul Burner