As the first rays of sunlight peeked over the horizon, bathing the lower half of the grey clouds in an orange hue, Al silently navigated the grassy hills, stalking his prey.

Flinching as a flicker of white appeared in his peripheral, Al ground his teeth.

He had been forcefully heightening his senses; however, just like the countless times before, the thing that had startled him was nothing more than the new, ivory-white exoskeleton that had regrown after being ripped from his body.

Though he was relieved that his arm had grown back, it reminded Al of his perceived near-death experience with the lightning lizard.

Ever since their fight, which in reality was only two attacks, Al getting hit by the elemental Rakorn's lightning bolt and Al promptly ripping the lizard limb from limb, starting with his head, Al had been on high alert and had pushed his body and mind to their limits.

Fortunately for him, though it was incredibly annoying, more often than not, whatever his senses alerted him to turned out to be a false alarm.

-"We are going to need some downtime after this," said Eve, making sure to give Al the sensation that she was about to speak before actually doing it.

Though she didn't quite understand why Al had become extremely jumpy, they had not only survived but discovered how to combine two of their abilities, she knew it was down to the physiological impact that the attack and losing a limb had and so, believed that time would solve the issue.

However, if Al or the situation didn't change soon, she would have to act.

It had been a little over twenty-four hours since the fight, and she could already feel their nerves fraying and the occasional muscle spasms that rippled across their body.

Al hissed in irritation at the offending appendage, which was the leading cause of the false alarms due to the stark contrast between the regrown areas and the rest of his body. While the new parts of his shell were strong, well coloured and slightly flexible, the rest of it, at least the bits that were not hidden by gore or dirt, had become discoloured and brittle.

The original areas were covered with small, white hairline fractures, looking similar to a network of spider webs, chips and large gashes that Al had consciously stopped himself from repairing in an attempt to improve his control over the ability.

The wear and tear the last few days had taken on his body did not stop there.

For nearly every single one of Al's claws and spikes, entire sections had been replaced at different times, making his exoskeleton seem mismatched in colour, texture and appearance, breaking up his silhouette as the grime provided a small amount of camouflage for his large, white frame.

It was through analysing the different states of his shell that Al realised that his exoskeleton had somewhat of a time limit. Instead of strengthening with age, as he expected, it weakened.

He guessed that this was because once the white liquid left his body and hardened, excluding the soft bone-like muscles that enabled him to move his tail, that it was dead and so, could not maintain its condition like his body.

That and even the best armour, no matter the material, would be falling apart after the beating Al had been through.

Though he couldn't recall how many Rakorn he had killed, the huge amount didn't mean it had been easy.

They were aggressive, intelligent and, depending on if they were the slim magic types of the larger brawlers, extremely crafty.

The lightning bolt had been the worst attack that had landed, but there had been a few other close calls and many glancing blows that had highlighted the point that he wasn't invincible.

-"On the upside, being covered in filth makes stalking our prey much easier," hummed Eve, trying to distract Al for a bit as his brooding thoughts were heading back to dark places. -"Did you even think about how we would keep a low profile during the adaptation stage? Anyone would think you wanted to be seen?"

He didn't respond, his mind refusing to be easily distracted, so she decided to try a different approach and make a joke. -"We could have just put a bell around our neck like those animals you call cats instead if you wanted to give our prey an advantage? That or have gone for a neon pink. I think we would look good in pink."

Al swerved to the right, one hand touching the ground to keep his balance at the sudden change in momentum, and increasing his speed. After a few hundred feet, he slowed down and veered back to the left having successfully avoided a warren of Spike Hounds.

Though he didn't consider them much of a threat anymore, due to their instincts they took a more effort to sneak up on and Al didn't want to lose his target.

A large chunk of the spike that extended from the back of his right elbow fell off from the rapid deceleration, causing Al to frown. -"Maybe I should shed my exoskeleton? It's not like it takes long to regenerate if I combine that speed skill with my healing ability."

-"You're joking right?" replied Eve's angry voice, trying to ignore the fact that if he was paying enough attention to avoid the Spike Hounds, then he was ignoring her earlier. -"You do realise that amount of energy that skill needs? Or the biomass we must convert? And it's even worse when we combine the speed skill we gained from that human and your natural regeneration."

-"Yes, it is incredibly fast, but the cost is almost three times as much as when we use them separately. We already lose a huge amount of energy breaking down, digesting and then melding our food into our body. That also ignores the energy cost to break it back down to be used when needed. Though we can store a lot in a very compact form, it is much harder to utilise. If we continue like this, we will end up starving to death while gorging on a mountain of food."

-”Hmm? Where were you when I needed an accountant? Well, at least it will stop us getting fat. No matter how much I eat, I never seem to get full. I am just concerned about how brittle it is.”

Eve's anger significantly diminished as Al seemed to be returning to his old self. -"Or by using it needlessly, we won't have enough when we get into trouble, which could lead to our deaths.

-"We have already been over this. After this we deal with the lizards and see if the humans will uphold their end of the deal, we will find somewhere that is safe, and we can 'shed' and generate a new one. It will only take us a few hours, and we need the rest anyway," huffed Eve.

Releasing a faint rumble from his chest, irritated that Eve was right, Al continued to skirt the nearest hill, using his enhanced senses to keep track of the Rakorn he was pursuing while remaining out of sight.

This wasn’t his standard tactic when engaging enemies, and he had quickly learnt that it would never be one of his favourites, but something about the female Rakron had put him on edge and had stopped him attacking when he had caught up with her.

That was coupled with the caution of almost getting incinerated by lightning, so he was even more hesitant to jump into something he didn't understand.

Al didn't want to take any chances.

-"Uh huh. Just like that ghost Lizard that you played with until it escaped. Turned into mist right before our eyes and our claws just passed through it. Totally wasn't taking any chances like toying with him, " teased Eve. She was still irritated that they had lost the chance to potentially gain a very powerful ability but the way Al was going, they would get him eventually.

Eve's real problem was why Al was playing with, what she considered, his food. -"I don't get why you still desire interaction with others so severely. It is not like we are alone. We have each other. Maybe we should look into getting a pet or finding another island of trees, that is home to some wolves or sentient animals, and claim it as our territory?"

Al resisted the urge to growl, not wanting to give away his position, and decided to focus on trying to solve the puzzle of why this female Rakorn troubled him so much instead of responding.

The female was smaller, much smaller, than the ones he had previously encountered, with a slim snout and greeny-blue eyes. The oval sand coloured scales that represented the Rakorn's belly, that ended just under her chin, highlighting her utterly flat chest, accentuating the many differences between her species and humans.

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-"Maybe it's because she is a reptile. Even though she has a humanoid shape, that wouldn't be a reason to develop characteristics more common in mammals."

The only sign that she was a female from her species at a glance, excluding the difference in muscle mass and sharper features, was that she was missing a, what most males would consider vital, body part between her legs. In that regard, if you ignore the lack of hair and the scales, Male Rakorn were strikingly similar to most men.

Eve sniggered. -"So the first thing you analyse is the lack of boobs and then if she has a dick or not? Pervert."

-"I am regretting our little talks between hunts." A warm feeling, commonly used when Eve was trying to make him feel better or apologising washed over Al as she went silent.

Even though Eve could recall his memories as if they were her own, she didn't want to let him know that she had that ability due to his extreme paranoia. The conversations were the perfect alibi in case she ever slipped up and revealed something she shouldn't.

Even if she was bored out of her mind.

Al continued recalling what he had learnt about the Rakorn, hoping that he would spot something he had missed as, without more information, he would be forced to take the risky approach and attack or let her go.

Unlike the other Rakorn's he had seen, with black, grey and in the case of the ones that could manipulate the elements, red, blue and green scales, the scales that covered the female's body had a green-sandy camouflage tint to them, a slightly darker tone than her stomach and chest.

Though she was different from the rest of her kind that Al had encountered, seemingly built for stealth, that wasn't what had attracted his attention in the first place. It was the small bundle of rags that she clung to as if her life depended on it.

Al dropped to all fours, using the added traction to sidestep one of the many traps that had been placed by the Rakorn in their failed ambush, before returning to his feet.

The movement reminded Al of one of his early false assumptions. He had thought that the naked creatures, only covered by coloured cloaks that seemed to indicate their status, would revert to four limbs like their Earth counterparts, something that he found more and more comfortable, but it appeared that their joints couldn't hand the angles needed.

Al sighed and shook his head slightly, taking a calming breath. -"In some ways, they feel more human than I am."

-"You say that like its a bad thing," mused Eve. She found it confusing that on one hand, Al wanted to become something greater than a human but on the other, seemed like he was sad as that it was happening.

Eve had learnt to ignore such statements but at the moment, she was willing to make any sort of conversation.

There was only so many times you could watch someone stalk, kill and then eat a lizard, even for a former 'dumb' parasite.

While Eve continued to get smarter, absorbing the knowledge from Al and having an abundance of energy, it was actually starting to become a hindrance as she required more and more stimulation, mainly because all she could do was think while watching Al do his thing which primarily consisted of killing, eating or on the rare occasion, sleeping.

Eve had the suspicion that he was trying to distract himself from something, but even with the ability to read his thoughts and memories, she couldn't work out what it was.

Well, if she really wanted to, she could do other things like control parts of their body but that was something she was extremely reluctant to do.

Even though after their attempted separation, Al had accepted her, it was still early days and she could sense that if she were to overstep her bounds, they would be right back at the beginning or possibly something worse.

Suddenly Al changed the direction he was moving in and, on all fours, scaled the nearby hill, reaching the summit at such a speed that he shot over the top, arched in the air and, after a fraction of a second, that almost looked like he was hovering, plummeted downwards.

The Rakorn warrior, who had been trying to stealthily return to the Warband, didn't even have time to contemplate what was casting the strange shadow on the ground before his head was crushed in Al's vice-like grip and his brain matter was scattered across the grass.

Landing softly, Al used his tail to reduce the velocity of the falling body, not wanting to make too much noise, even if the body hitting the floor would be barely audible, before he was on the move again. Not even sparing a glance at the Rakorn he had just killed.

-"Damn~." Eve whistled in Al's mind, impressed at how far he had come in such a short amount of time. Though she now found it tedious, and if they weren't eating them, the slaughter pretty pointless, she couldn't deny that Al was a natural when it came to killing.

-"I didn't even notice him until the last second, and before I could even warn you, the lizard was already dead. You didn’t even flinch in surprise or hesitate. Pure instinct. Top of the food chain here we come." Eve sounded extremely happy.

Al snorted, having already come up with a mental list of the mistakes he made.

His approach was too noisy, he attacked from upwind and most of all, if anyone had been watching for him, his assault had revealed his position.

And those weren't the only things he was displeased about.

Eve was right, he had reacted and killed the Rakorn on reflex which, while beneficial while he was alone and had no allies, would be a disaster if he killed someone or something he shouldn’t.

Tilting his head as he continued to follow the female Rakorn, he heard her curse as she stumbled, probably from exhaustion, and decided to take a look. He often checked her visually just to make sure she didn't have an ability to trick his other senses.

Crawling up the hill like some nightmare creature, Al’s head barely peeked over the top as he continued moving.

The Rakorn was still running, but it was clear that she was tiring and wouldn't be able to continue this pace for much longer. Al found it weird that she avoided others of her kind but it worked well for him because it presented the opportunity to eliminate them while continuing his observation.

Without being able to point out anything else, Al had put his unease down to the bundle of rags she was carrying, coming to the conclusion that it was either something valuable she stole or, more than likely, a bomb or some kind of trap.

Eve mentally sighed. She hadn't corrected him initially because she wasn't sure as it was based off his memories and without complete context, could be wrong but after asking many leading questions and focusing their senses, she was pretty sure she knew what was hidden in the rags.

Now she just had to work out a way to point out the obvious in a way that seemed natural.

-"Al, every time she has fallen, she has protected whatever is in the rags, putting its safety above all else. What could be so important to a woman that she would risk serious injury?"

-"A delicate trap, maybe something that will go off if damaged?" Al answered absentmindly as his eyes focused on the female's sprained ankle, the ability to see weakness in his prey another act that had become second nature, which is the only reason he could efficiently run around her and kill any stragglers that she avoided without risking losing her trail.

Al ignored the mental groan of his companion, thinking it was just her letting him know she was bored again. -"It's too suspicious."

Eve decided that enough was enough, not only were they wasting a huge amount of time, but the direction they were heading in was taking them even further from the human settlement and it was today that the Rakorn forces should reach it. If they wanted to pick out the ones with abilities that might be transferable, they needed to get there before the battle started. 

-"You know you are an idiot right?"

-"Huh? Why now?" huffed Al. -"You know, to criticise someone without giving information is basically moaning, and I can't stand moaning."

-"You can't stand a lot of things." The image of a grinning snake made of water, mocking him, floated into his mind's eye.

The image vanished as Eve prepared herself. -"Look, Al, while I think we are doing really well, I am concerned about how you are becoming blind to the obvious. You see everything with a tainted view. Not everyone is a threat that is trying to kill or take advantage of us.

Eve knew she was provoking him, but she needed to highlight this worrying trait that had started to develop.

-"It's not paranoia if they are really out to get you."

-"Al," shouted Eve. -"Stop using that as an excuse. Think about it. The sun doesn't revolve around us, and neither do the lives of others. The Rakorn are here for the humans, the humans are worried about themselves, we are just a... complication to their plans."

-"Meaning?" 

-"Meaning that not everyone is an enemy. I know we are exhausted. We have barely slept with your need to kill as many lizardmen as possible due to some weird belief that you won't have to think about our mortality if you are busy, but please stop ignoring the obvious."

Al was becoming irritated. -"And that is?"

If Eve could roll her eyes, she would. -"I am not going to even bother mentioning the fact that you seem to refuse to investigate the bundle with our enhanced senses. A young female is running like she is being chased by a pack of wolves, carrying an object that she deems more valuable than her own life, avoiding her own kind and seems to have abandoned her Warband, which from what we have learnt, is a huge taboo. Can you think of no other reason for her behaviour than an elaborate trap or the fact she is a thief?"

A reptilian scream, accompanied by a dull crack, distracted Al as he focused on the woman.

It appeared that her foot had landed in one of the many small pitfall traps, causing her to fall and, by the sound of it, break her leg in the process.

Even as the woman tumbled down the steep slope, she ensured the bundle of rags in her grasp was protected at all times, finally coming to a stop at the bottom.

-"Umm?" Al stopped. This was the last thing he expected to happen yet, as Eve's words were sinking in, a dull headache, in the form of pressure, began to form at the back of his mind, the sensation eerily familiar to what he started to feel when he had seen the children at the human fort.

-"The high and mighty hunter has chased his quarry to the point that they have crippled themselves," chuckled Eve, relieved that, one way or another, this would soon be over. -"The terror of newborns and mothers everywhere."

-"Huh?" Al blinked, not that he really need to as he usually had his eyes closed as he used a strange ability to look through the surface of his exoskeleton mask. -"She's carrying an egg?"

-"Egg? You idiot, since when do eggs breath?" grumbled Eve, -"If I didn't know how you thought, I would swear you were doing this on purpose. Seriously, what is wrong with you?"

Al winced as a headache became a migraine as everything started to click into place. The unsettling, churning sensation in his gut telling him that there was something wrong.

Not with the female Rakorn or its child but with him or more specifically, his mind.