Basil was a mess, and his body was mauled and bloodied. Auriz could only watch and ask.

"Are you good?"

"Not really. I am tired. I need to get down a little." — Told Basil while trying to walk to where Auriz is.

"I don't think we should stay here. That fall must have given you an injury of sorts we can't see." — Auriz tried to see a way to help Basil. The cries of bats and giant maggots digging towards their location were clear for her. Auriz pressured Basil — "We need to get moving. Others are coming to eat the spoils."

"We have to get to the cave where I was born. If I remember correctly, it is in that direction." — Mentioned Basil, pointing in the opposite direction of the river.

"Can you get up?"

"No, and I think I am bleeding inside, putting all those spikes out in such a short time, must have broken something, I need your help Auriz, my front legs don't work, and the ones behind don't have any strength left after bearing that fall."

"I will need something to move you." — Worded Auriz, but Basil has already lost consciousness.

"That's not good..."

Auriz was alone this time. Unlike Basil, she had a lot of knowledge but not the ingenuity to make it work how it should. This situation was not the best to learn. Either way, she tried.

With Basil's spikes and her telekinesis, she managed to cut some of the tendrils that were still complete. She tried to create a makeshift harness of the sort with those tentacles, and it was hideous, but it managed to hold the lizard's body. Now there was another problem.

How would she do to bring Basil's heavy body to the cave? She didn't have limbs to pull the harness, and Basil was too dense for her to lift with telekinesis. So she thought of something else instead. With more tendrils, Auriz tied up the tentacles covering Basil and her body together. With this, she could at least reach their destination.

The journey was bumpy, to not say the least. Some yellow worms tried to snatch Basil, but with the spikes' help, she managed to defend him and kill them by impaling them, leaving the carcasses as bait for other predators that lurked around.

After some more minutes, she reached a wall that covered her vision. There was nothing here, or so she thought. After looking around for a while, she found a deep hole in the wall with moss covering the entrance.

She pulled Basil's body inside into what she believed is where he was born. There was a gimmick in this place capable of holding something. It looked heavy.

Auriz left Basil in an open space and tried to see what she could do to make him heal faster. She could see he was still bleeding, but somehow he was still alive. He said he needed food to heal in one of their conversations.

She analyzed Basil's body and saw that his tail was beginning to become thin. His respirations sounded arduous each time he breathed. In addition, Basil's body got covered with lacerations, patches without scales, broken stumps where his spikes were, and all of those cuts and lesions were getting knitted slowly by his organism.

Auriz didn't know what else to do. At least here, in this cave, they were somewhat safe, but this is not enough. So, seeing she didn't have anything else to do, she focused her mind on something else, practicing her abilities.

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She sat on the floor and chose an object to practice telekinesis. Basil's spikes were perfect to practice control but not for improving the max weight she could lift. She detached one of the legs and tried to lift it with all of its components, and it was futile. Next, she tried to lift the rocks one by one, and she learned that the max she could lift was two.

"This is not enough. I need to be capable of lifting at least my body, and that by itself, Basil could do with some effort.

She tried to practice making the spikes go in circles around her, making forms or rotate in the air. An hour passed, and Auriz got a better feeling of control with time and each pattern she managed to do. Finally, after a while, she could lift three small rocks, but Basil was still out.

More minutes passed, and tranquility permeated the cavern where the two sat. Sadly these moments would be cut short. A small creature walked around the fungal forest's borders and found a hole in its path with dry blood on the mossy floor. The monster called a Houbarok was attracted to the scent and entered to find the source.

Auriz was still practicing when she noticed a sound coming from the cave entrance. She reattached her leg and got up from the ground, taking a look at Basil's status. He was better but not conscious yet, and she would have to fight without him.

Auriz walked towards the sound with all the spikes she could hold, four by now, rotating around her. Then, ultimately, she found an enormous Mushroom with two legs walking inside.

Its appearance was weird to no extent. Its body was thick and crooked to the side, pale skin like the tall fungus outside, with two stumpy legs supporting it and three hollowed orifices simulating a face of sorts, half-covered with a glowy blue cap; this was a spot-on description for the invader.

Every time it took a step, Auriz could hear a sound. She didn't know how to react to the creature but could see what its destiny was, Basil. Auriz couldn't permit that, so she shoots one spike as a warning against the walking mushroom. The bone got stuck in the creature's body as the same looked unfazed by the attack. Auriz was alarmed by the callousness of the monster.

"Basil, if you can hear me, I think I found a creature with the same tenacity as you."

Auriz attacked with all the spikes she had the fungus, but she got no response from it, nothing more than it walking inside the cavern a step at a time. Auriz needed to kill it or stop it somehow. She began to look around for something else to attack. The only things she could see were rocks, so she took action and throw them at the thing.

This time it affected the walking mushroom as the rocks squashed parts of its body and left marks. Seeing this, Auriz took all the stones she found and launched them at the stocky legs to make it fall. Eventually, with many failed shots and perseverance, Auriz managed to smash one of the legs, making the Houbarok fall to the side.

The Mushroom looked to only had something in mind, get to the source of the blood that permeated the ground and nothing else. Auriz took advantage of this and used her legs to destroy the body until it didn't move anymore.

After the Houbarok died, it deflated like a balloon liberating a sonorous gas inside the cave. Auriz was alarmed by this, making her run towards where Basil rested and expected something to happen to the Houbarok's body.

Basil didn't wake up after all the noise but was beginning to move, making it clear he was getting better. Nothing happened after some minutes, but Auriz wasn't sure about this. She dislodged the spikes from the corpse, and with some inventiveness, she created a saw by rotating the bone at high speeds.

Auriz opened up the body and found a couple of organs that didn't make sense to her. One of those seemed to be still working by the amount of energy it had, and she squashed it with a stone. Something terrible was going to happen, and she could feel it. Was this the instinct Basil talked about so much?

Something was coming, and the corpse of the mushroom abomination was the culprit of it. Did it call others with the spores? Auriz walked towards the cave entrance and could hear more sounds against the floor. What were those things?

Auriz took all the rocks she could and stacked them on the cavern's entrance to defend it. After some minutes, the first of many made itself present, getting out of the forest gradually. It was coming for whatever killed its sibling. Auriz knew she was against a Hivemind.

Auriz stopped the first one with a well-positioned stone against the monster's leg, making it fall like the other. Next, she tried to lift a big rock around the entrance to squash it but only managed to stop it in place. After that, two more appeared in the same manner, and Auriz did the same as the others.

"Maybe this could be easy if they appear in this manner." — Auriz thought, but this was only the beginning as more began to appear from the corners of her vision.

"That's not good..."