Subconsciously enjoying the warm rays of sunlight falling on his face after the week-long storm, a muscular man dressed in an assortment of leather and furs surveyed the devastated landscape in front of him as he sat on a large clump of earth.

Letting out a deep breath as he shook his head, he looked at the thin, mousy-blonde woman that was kneeling at his side as she attended to the bloody wound on his arm. “Just what happened here?”

“Apart from you using your arm as a chew toy for a Dire Wolf? I have no idea boss,” replied the woman in a tired voice as she held her hands over the wound. The air shimmered around her hands as the man’s flesh rapidly knitted back together and started to scar over.

The man frowned. “How the heck was I meant to know it would stand its ground. We know Crawler meat is poisonous unless drained of blood and cooked and the thing was half dead. It even had a pup. Why would it defend that lump of rotting meat?”

“Mark, did you ever stop and think that maybe it was just pissed off you were trying to kill steal?” laughed a nearby man who was currently twirling a wooden branch that looked like it had been coated in a think layer of metal as he cautiously scanned the nearby hills. “That or it was just worried you were going to take its pup. Your outfit just screams caveman paedophile.”

Both Mark and the woman glared at the man, causing him to snicker. “OK. I know, no jokes during a mission but if you exclude the whole paedophile bit, it makes a weird kind of sense.”

“You know Dire Wolfs are as smart as us and those with taming abilities like that woman in Red’s group; they have been pillaging every young animal they can lay their eyes on. I am surprised we haven't witnessed a monster horde of angry mothers attempting to get their young back.”

Mark spat on the floor. “Damn manipulators. Think they are so much better than the rest of us and couldn't even give a fart to the consequences of their actions." He took a deep breath. "If those abducting bastard’s up there told us what we really needed to know, I am sure many of us wouldn’t have made stupid choices or been so lazy during evolution week.”

Mark winced as the woman healing his arm glared.“Sorry Clare, you know I didn’t mean you, right? You’re one of the few good manipulators. The rest are cocky bastards who want to lord it over everyone.”

The spear-wielding man chuckled. “You can’t blame manipulators for your own choices Boss. I know it looks like they got the good end of the stick now, but us augmenters aren’t weak either. In fact, I heard that its likely that we will have an easier time improving compared to them. Something about our body constantly adjusting whereas they will have to have insight and breakthroughs and meditate for years or some crap. The way I see it, it won't be long until they are bowing before us.”

“Frank, please tell me we aren’t going to start this debate again? We finally had a reason to let go of all our prejudices against each other and come together in the face of adversity, and you want to start drawing lines in the sand,” sighed Clare, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she worked on healing the last bit of Mark's arm. It would leave a nasty scar, but it should be fully functional.

“Oh yes, the great and powerful force known as humanity,” mocked Frank.”It’s not like we were plucked from our beds, injected with shit that mutates us and thrown on a reserve and told ‘Hey, you have a few months to prepare before others will come and try to kill, eat, maim and if you are really unlucky, use you as hosts for their parasitic young’.”

Mark shook his head. “I know we have seen some fucked up shit Frank, but honestly, we haven’t seen half the crap you have imagined. I am starting to worry about you.”

The spear stopped spinning as it came to rest on Frank’s shoulder as a mischievous grin appeared on his face. “Hope for the best, fear the worst, prepare for the unexpected. That and incinerate or boil anything that is about to enter your body.”

Clare laughed. "I wonder if Lisa follows your advice every time you have a tumble in the grass?"

Before Frank could respond, the air violently shook behind Mark before being filled with small dots of colour, eventually forming into the image of a man, grinning from ear to ear. “AREAS CLEAR BOSS!”

Mark and Clare jumped, the latter falling to the ground and scrambling for her nearby staff while Mark bellowed. “DAVE! How many times do I have to tell you not to appear behind me like that? One day I am going to bash your brains in, and God help me, I am going to enjoy it.”

“Twat,” muttered Clare, her leather armour creaking as she moved back to Mark's arm. “Just you wait. Next time you get an injury I am going to turn your blood into salt.”

Frank laughed as Dave paled. "You can do that?"

Clare didn't respond which made Dave sweat even more. Though they had not been on this planet long, they had learnt the two essential rules when trying to survive in a group. Don’t piss off the healer or the cook. Dave seemed to be an expert at both.

At least he had the common sense to at least look regretful. “Sorry Boss, Clare. Old habits die hard.”

It did not seem to appease Clare in the slightest. “Old habits my arse. You have only had that ability a short time yet you are almost as bad as that bloody pervert who can shape-shift. I swear, if I see him ogling himself in the form of a woman when he thinks no one is looking again, I will bury you both in a shallow grave.”

Mark ground his teeth as the rapid regeneration Clare was triggering turned painful. “You’re on first and third watch tonight Dave. Now, are you going to tell me what you found or are you going to keep digging that proverbial hole for yourself?”

Dave sighed, knowing that he wasn’t going to be getting much sleep that night. “Honestly Boss, it doesn’t make sense. That creature is defiantly the Crawler that escaped the purge a few weeks back, and the damage to the surroundings and its body indicate that it was involved in a titanic battle but…”

The man paused as he scratched his beard, collecting his thoughts. “It was not killed by any of the creatures we have encountered or heard about from the other rangers reports.”

Both Clare and Frank cursed while Mark momentarily closed his eyes. “So we found a new species? Do we have enough evidence to make a report or are we going to be stuck out here for god knows how long hunting it down?”

“Why did it have to be us?” grumbled Clare. “I know we have a duty to the rest to get as much info we can on any threats but we are so close to the barriers coming down it seems pointless. Can’t we just say the Dire Wolf killed it and return home? We should all be getting recalled in a couple of weeks anyway.”

Ignoring her, Dave continued as he subconsciously checked his surroundings. “We have evidence Boss but… it makes no sense. The evidence points towards a human augmenter. More specifically, an amour type which is considered the weakest regarding combat ability.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Frank, Mark and Clare all looked at Dave like he was mad.

“How the hell can a single augmenter take out a Crawler, it is ranked as a C++ or low B rank monster?” Frank was the first to speak what they all were thinking.

Mark shook his head. “I still don’t know why we let those geeks impose their terminology. I guess it makes a weird kind of sense, but at the same time, it doesn't. And before you say it, no I don’t have a better option.”

Clare closed her mouth while her lips twisted into a pout.

Dave shrugged. “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. Anyway, a humanoid creature, at least in terms of footprints and the body impressions from where it failed in its attempts to fly, fought the Crawler here, inflicted these wounds and then… vanished while the crawler seems to have had a seizure, attempted to tear out its insides and died. All this happened around two days ago.”

He continued onto the real reason they were there. “There is a fair amount of damage to the hide, though it is salvageable. Same with the power core and the teeth however the meat is spoiled. It's already rotting.”

"Thank the heavens for small mercies," joked Frank.

Mark nodded, expecting as much. “Lucy has gone to get the collectors?”

“Yes, she helped me analyse some strange… samples and then left to inform the outpost.” Dave noticed the curious looks from his companions. “The samples? Turned out to be blood with similar properties to the troll-like monsters to the east, regenerating until it consumes all of its energy and turns to normal blood, and a white powder which Lucy thought was made from bone. She took samples so the Geeks can have a look.”

The group fell silent, absorbing the information as they surveyed the destroyed landscape around them. Almost all of the hills had scars of the violent battle that took place, large tears gouged out the ground, and there wasn’t a single patch of grass that hadn’t been torn up within a fifty-meter radius of the Crawler corpse.

“Good job the meat’s poisonous of this place would be covered in flies and scavengers,” muttered Clare, breaking the group from their musings as she wiped the sweat from her brow and stood, finally having finished healing Marks wound. “Why did I ever want to be a healer? My bones are going to ache like a bitch tonight, and there isn't even a hot spring in sight.”

Mark stood, flexing the tight skin on his newly healed arm, resisting the urge to comment on Clare’s constant whining. “Any chance you can pick up its trail?”

“Lucy won’t be getting back for a day or so, so I wouldn't hold your breath." Noticing Mark's glare, Dave continued "I will have a look around. Doesn’t help that I have to keep an eye out for that damned wolf. Can’t we just finish it off? Would hate to end up like little red riding-hood.”

“You know the rules. Unless it is a ‘real’ threat, we are to let the natives be. They are to act as a natural barrier and early warning system for when we lose our ‘protection’,” mocking responded Frank as he planted the butt of his spear into the dirt.

Suddenly he turned serious. “Dave, do you think it was an infiltrator type? You know, like the elementals and sprites in the north? I heard they overrun a couple of outposts before the manipulators that could enslave them came to the rescue?”

Already walking away, Dave shook his head. “Beats me. One thing I have learned since we arrived on this damn world is not to expect or assume anything.”

He paused. "Though if it were anything like those elementals, it wouldn't have fought in the form of a human."

“Umm~ guys~.” The apprehension in Clare's voice immediately put everyone on guard, Mark raising the large chunk of metal that appeared to be a club while grabbing a round wooden shield that was leaning against his former seat as Dave pulled out two, rough metallic daggers. “We are sure the Crawler is dead… right?”

“So dead that is actually starting to smell better,” responded Frank, who had personally stabbed the creature through the eyes and into its brain multiple times just to be sure.

“So~,” Clare was slowly backing away from the monster’s corpse. “Why is it moving?”

The others, who had been scanning their surroundings for threats and not paying the corpse much attention, focused on it.

“What the hell?” mutter Mark as he frowned, putting his shield up as the others started moving into formation behind him.

From the Crawler's side, at an increasing rate, a bulge continued to rise and fall as if something was trying to smash its way through.

“I fucking told you. Parasites!” hissed Frank, his face going pale.

“What. The. Fu-” Dave’s words died in his throat as ten whitish spikes pierced the tough hide before violently pulling apart and releasing a torrent of rotting, green sludge, far more decayed that it should have been, onto the war-torn floor.

The stench of decay that washed over them would typically be enough to make them gag. However, their brains hadn’t even registered the smell as they watched in mute horror, something pulling itself out of the Crawlers corpse.

Out of the gruesome hole, a terrifying, gore-covered head emerged. The head was around the size of a human's with a slightly extended jaw. Serrated, backwards curved teeth scraped together menacingly as the spikes protruding from the back of its head, widened the hole as they tore through the hide.

Instinct screamed at them to run, but the group’s minds were in a state of shock.

Although this world was strange, it still held onto some semblance of logic, appearing to be more dreamlike than anything, however, what was before them was more akin to a nightmare.

With a splash the creature fell into the puddle of rotting flesh that has spilt from the crawler, a whip-like, spiked tail failing around as if it had a life of its own.

Dave was the first to regain his senses. “FUCK THIS SHIT!”

Without even looking at his friends, he turned and started sprinting as fast as his legs could carry him.

He was not born brave, far from it and his skins ability to mirror its surroundings, making it seem as if he was invisible was directly related to his personality. The fact he enjoyed scaring people was mainly a bluff.

The others, though fear danced in their eyes, had more restraint and moved back slowly while keeping formation prepared to defend or dodge at the slightest hint of aggression.

“Is the barrier already down?” muttered Clare, asking the question everyone feared. “I knew things were only going to get worse but… that doesn’t look like something we can take.”

Frank and Mark nodded, their own instincts telling them that whatever the thing was before them, it was beyond their current ability to fight.

Wobbly attempting to stand, the creature fell, seemingly unused to its body as it chest shook. Two large rows, or at least the ones that hadn't snapped off in its escape, of fragile looking spikes, ran down its back.

“Kill or retreat Boss? Make your choice now as I think it may be the only chance we get.” Seeing that the creature couldn't move very well, Franks heart slightly relaxed as he thought they still had a chance. "For the record, I say we run like the devil is chasing us and never speak of this again."

Suddenly, the creature retched, half-digested green meat catching on its teeth causing it to choke before it fell onto its side and cleared its mouth with its monstrous claws.

Mark’s mouth was half open, about to call a retreat, when a rough, gravely voice interrupted him.

“I... Hate... Enclosed... Spaces.”

“It talked,” said Mark.

“It talked,” responded Frank.

Clare just whimpered, her body shaking as if she had heard the herald of her demise.

Having finished emptying its stomach, the creature rolled onto its back, apparently looking up at the clear blue sky.

A low rumbling noise steadily grew from its chest, causing its vomit and the surrounding gore to vibrate. However, just as they feared the worst, the rumbling turned into a laugh. “Pfft, bit of more than you can chew. Did I really say that? Cost me an arm and a leg...PFFT”

The creature burst into hysterics, greatly confusing the Mark and his team.

Mark's mind was a mess. He had no idea how he should react in this situation. It was their duty to collect any information on new species and eliminate any threats. However, the being in front of them could speak English fluently. -"Unless it's a telepathic"

"What is it?" Clare’s voice, although nothing more than a whisper, ended the creature's laughter.

As its head was closest to them, it slowly titled its head up, going far beyond the flexibility a human neck could achieve and faced the group.

Its brief tumble on the ground had wiped off most of the green gore, revealing patches of an ivory-white colour. Now that they could get a good look, they noticed that while the teeth were very prominent, bar the gaunt, haunting shape of its head; it had no features.

No eyes, no nose, not even ears.

A deafening silence descended for what felt like years but was only actually around half a minute. Finally, the creature broke the silence as a white powder started to float away from it in the breeze, the creature's shape seemingly disintegrating before their very eyes. "Boo?”