My heart raced as I evaded attack after attack. The vine-like life elementals I had created were slamming into the monsters, and trying to grab them. Despite the large quantity of strengthening mana I was reflexively releasing into my aura with every heartbeat, the only thing they accomplished was a slight redirection. The vines were torn apart quickly by the jagged churning rocks that surrounded the worms. I felt them use the mana I was releasing out of my body to regrow moments later.

I was in a state of panic. My instincts didn't know how to cope with something they couldn't bite. The creatures were too fast, their rock too thoroughly saturated with reinforcing mana for me to have an effect on them with the form and element I had chosen.

My mind turned to my fire core, if I switched to that, even if my fire could not directly reach the worms through their stony protection, the heat would. They would be cooked inside their shells. I thoughtlessly went to follow through and switch my core.

My core shuddered as the influence of my Concepts and instincts came into conflict. It was made evident that the idea had come from survivor's selfish desire to stay alive at any cost.

It didn't take into account my friends, or the damage that I would do to the forest. That would be terribly unkind. The Aspect I was channeling also would not allow me to threaten the life of the beings I was connected with. The hungry desire to eat the meat described in the book in its pristine state, as ludicrous as that impulse was, helped push against it as well.

It took all of those things, combined with my own dislike of the element to keep my life core in place. There was another option. I simply had to avoid the beasts long enough for them to run low on mana. Moving all that stone, particularly at such ridiculous speeds, had to be costly.

The internal conflict and resolution only lasted a moment, but it was enough to almost bring disaster. My dodge was too slow.

Rocks slammed into my hindquarters, I felt bones crack, fur flew, flesh was torn. I was thrown through a tree, the wood gave surprisingly little resistance. I landed in a heap, stunned and in too much pain to move.

I felt Pierce nearby, his anger blazed through our link. The next attack was a split second away, I tried to move, but my back legs weren't responding. Pierce sped over, and kicked me, I was sent flying for the second time in as many seconds.

I heard a tremendous boom from where Pierce was as I landed at Ivo's feet.

"Stay still, heal yourself, I've got you." The man said. As he stood over me, a barely visible barrier formed around us.

The life mana running through me was already hard at work putting me back together. I checked my core and found it to already be half empty. The encounter so far had only lasted seconds. I tried to call back the mana that I had wasted on my aura, but found that my greedy elementals had consumed most of it.

I heard a bang from below. The barrier around us flashed, Ivo staggered, his huge metal shield vibrated as if it had been hit.

I felt a sense of triumph from two of my elementals that were near where I had landed before being so unceremoniously kicked to the protection of Ivo. I looked over, my vision was blurry from the pain I was in, but I could see a mass of green wrapped around a writhing mass.

I could feel how some of the thorns on the vines had tasted blood. One of the worms, it seemed, had been successfully contained.

The second worm was circling under the ground. I heard it crash into Ivo's barrier again as it tried a different angle. The man and his shield seemed strained by the second impact.

"As soon as you are healed enough, draw the worm to Pierce." Ivo's voice was rough, maintaining a barrier large enough to protect the two of us was obviously taking its toll.

"Not to hurry you, but I can take maybe two more hits like that." Ivo said, confirming my thoughts.

"Thank you," I sent, before I focused on putting myself back together.

Something seemed wrong, I was healing too slowly. When I paid attention to what was happening I could sense part of where I went awry with my Aspect choice. It was far too focused on my outward connections, that was why I was leaking mana like a sieve.

It wasn't all bad, the vine elementals were growing stronger by the second, and any damage Ivo had taken from the force his barrier absorbed had been wiped away. There just wasn't much staying in my body once it left my core. I wasn't even holding on to enough mana in my body to have shifted to my elemental form.

I scrambled to alter my thinking. Make myself the center of the web of connections I had created. Mana should pool in me, and only trickle to the others unless they needed more. Survivor helped, as selfish as it was to say, my continued existence was the most important thing to me. I was the most important part of my web.

The Aspect took the change well. Life mana certainly understood the will to survive. My host's origin may not have been the only reason my life affinity was so high.

Mana pooled back into me, and my healing sped up. Pain shot through me as my form shifted slightly, my saturation had finally reached the tipping point. I berated myself that I hadn't noticed how little of my mana I was keeping.

The strength and vitality flooded into me not a moment too soon. The barrier took another hit. This time, Ivo was forced to drop his shield as it twisted in his hand. The man fell to his knees, groaning. Mana automatically flowed through my connection to him, I could sense it healing the tiny fractures that had formed through his entire body.

I didn't need to hear Ivo's pained whisper, saying "go." I was already sprinting towards Pierce, who was standing near a cluster of vines.

The worm must have already spent a lot of its mana, because it wasn't nearly as fast as it had been I made it to Pierce before it attacked. The tyrant held his mace in one hand, it was wreathed in his shockwave producing aura. He held his other hand out in front of him like he was ready to snatch something out of the air.

I didn't have time to ask him what he was planning. I didn't even get to see it, as I dodged out of the way of the surfacing worm.

I heard a crash, and Pierce began to laugh. "Fucking one trick pony, don't like that, do you?"

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I turned in time to see a worm half buried in the rocks that used to be its armor. My vines swooped in to grapple it.

"Alright cat, find the crystal. I know you can do that. This thing's gonna be helpless for another 30 seconds." I watched him kick the lifeless rubble at his feet, muttering something about the ability taking mana.

I focused on finding where the monster's core would be. I wasn't entirely sure what to do once I found it. I didn't think you could really interact with them while the monster was alive. It wasn't hard to find, my senses were drawn to it, I had to swallow back my desire to consume. That core could be dangerous, it resonated strongly with hungry.

"There!" I sent, with a mental picture of the spot. I forced myself to take a few steps backwards. I couldn't pull my eyes away from it though.

"Thanks cat, I guess you do have a use." Pierce pulled a large knife from his belt.

"How are you going to get the core? I should have asked before. It's not like it's crystallized yet, the monster is still alive."

The gruff man eyed me as he took his knife to the worm's body. "How do you not know this? Seems like a spirit beast should know that you can do this."

He cut around the area containing the core out of the monster. I almost felt sorry for it. The moment that the section of flesh was fully removed from the creature I saw it turn into crystal.

"Here you go, boy. Here's a treat!" The man said with a chuckle.

Before I could protest, Pierce threw the core at me. My body moved without my consent, I snapped it out of the air.

The tyrant who had no idea what he'd just done sauntered away. "I'll go take care of the other one, clean up this worm before it forms a new core, eh?"

I hesitated for a moment, I knew I needed to deal with the core in my stomach. But I was so damned hungry. I lost all self control and lept at the chance to eat the meal I had been promised. I did manage to switch to my mana beast form since my instincts had told me it was better to process cores as my true self, but that was it.

The worm meat was just as wonderful as the book had said it would be. I almost felt satisfied after I finished eating. I was looking forward to the day I could have Torill help me remove the concept, because I felt as though I should be ready for a nap after that meal. But I was already looking towards the next worm.

Pierce had somehow gotten the vines to hold the worm over a foot off the ground, and release the thing a section at a time. I heard a crack as he slammed his mace down on a segment of the worm's armor. I watched it shatter and fall away from the beast's control.

He was halfway done, I had no idea how long I'd taken to eat, but it didn't seem like I could add much to what he was currently doing. I turned my gaze inward, afraid of what I would find when I looked at the Concepts on the core that I had been fed.

When I checked, I found that the Devouring Concept that the core held seemed partially depleted. Mentally prodding hungry I found it slightly more powerful than it had been before. I wanted to curse Pierce for throwing that core, but he didn't know about the danger. How could he? I hadn't taken the time to tell the duo about the potential problems.

I set to work breaking down what remained of devouring . I had no idea why it hadn't jumped to me fully, but I wanted to make sure it didn't get the chance. To my great surprise, the embedded Concept broke apart with ease. The energy that it was composed of flowed into me. I thought it may have been because hungry ate part of it already, but the other Concepts broke down just as easily. Once I had consumed the energy of the core's Concepts I let out a sigh.

I took the time to inspect hungry . It was glowing brightly to my senses, and had latched itself more firmly to me since the last time I looked. I had to be more careful. I could not allow myself to eat the second core.

I opened my eyes and saw the men waiting for me.

"Next core, kitty." Pierce said, pointing at the worm that was being held several feet off the ground by my vines.

I looked at both men, and sent them a message. It didn't go exactly as I desired.

"Keep the core away from me (I want the core), it's dangerous for me to eat too much of them (They can make me stronger). I don't want to take the risk! (Give it to me!)"

The men received both sets of words and the feelings of fear and hunger to go with them.

Ivo came over, and set a hand on my side. "Will you be okay, Angel? That seems pretty intense."

I lowered my head, ashamed of the worry I felt from the man.

"I'll be fine. Just… You could say that cores are addictive, and you wouldn't be far off. I can get power out of them, but if I am not careful, there can be consequences."

"Do we need to know what these consequences are?" Ivo asked quietly.

I was afraid to try to tell them with mind speech, I remembered the last time I had mentioned Concepts to Ivo that way. I thought, maybe I could be less specific though.

I focused intently on only allowing the words to be transmitted.

"Nefen calls it corruption. I could take on part of the monster's nature if I am not careful."

I watched Ivo for signs of pain, but it seemed I managed to avoid whatever rule it was that prevented most people from hearing about Concepts.

"That does sound dangerous."

"For us." Pierce was not amused.

I ducked my head. I felt Pierce's emotions towards me soften.

"Well, fuck, it's hard to stay angry at someone when you know how they're feeling. I guess I understand how Ivo sees people a bit better now."

I felt amusement, and love from Ivo, the intensity of the emotion made me feel like I was eavesdropping.

"Let's take care of the other worm, my elementals are running out of energy. I'll show you where the core is, just… keep it away from me (give it to me)."

I shook my head, it was disconcerting to me to send messages like that, I couldn't imagine how off-putting it would be to receive them. The men seemed to take everything in stride though.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of it. Close your eyes after you point it out, okay?" Ivo patted me on my side.

I nodded, and did so.

I felt the core crystalize, then disappear. I was glad that I had no idea what the men did with it.

"Alright, chow time kitty, then we head home. We need to have a long talk about the start of that encounter on our way back. You need to remember that when you're with us, you're part of a team.

Any thoughts I might have had about how I handled myself fled in the face of being told to eat, I pounced on the meat.