As soon as Domison walked into the inky black tunnel, he stepped through into his apartment. He was no longer in the shadow world either as Mel, Mike, and Craig were all staring at him open-mouthed as he and Pabu appeared from the middle of a black tear in space. When Domison followed their eye-line, he saw the inky black gateway to his inner world, looming like the entrance to a cave for several more moments before fading away. Domison looked back at the group with a sheepish smile, scratching the back of his head as he spoke, "I know you all have a lot of questions and I'd love to answer them as well as hear your report, but first-” Before he could even finish his sentence, Domison's stomach began to growl in an audible mutiny and Craig burst into rumbling laughter.
"Worry not, young chief." Craig waved Domison over, patting the floor next to him with his other meaty green hand. When Domison sat on the ground next to the large Urketh, Craig pulled a large, neon pink, duffle bag across the ground, "During our mission, I was able to find sustenance for us. Mel has assured me that it is of the highest quality." Craig nodded jovially, "I even tried some myself, very good." He gave no thought to the zipper as he ripped the bag open. Neon pink fabric tore, causing Mel to wince, but Craig paid it no mind as he rummaged through the now open bag. "I must say that I agree with the young maiden, it is quite the treat!" Moments later Craig pulled his hand out of the bag with a flourish, presenting a JackHammer protein bar in his palm with triumphant glee in his eyes.
Domison took the oatmeal raisin protein bar from Craig's hand with a slight grimace, "Y-yeah… Thanks, big man," He threw a weary glance over at Mel who was hiding a giggle behind her hands, "I really appreciate the thought."
The group of five was spread throughout the living room area in a rough circle, sitting with bellies full of a random assortment of convenience store foods. Craig was still digging through random bags, lips smacking, as Mel and Mike recounted their initial sweep of the surrounding city. They had kept to the streets, only entering a convenience store half a mile away on the way back to the apartment. Apparently, the rest of the city they had traversed was a ghost town, with no monsters, but no people either. Windows were dark and no silhouettes danced within their depths. Another worrying piece of information shared was the fact that the forest seemed to be growing closer. Several buildings had already been enveloped in the alien plant life on the very edges of Old Town. Viridian green trunks tore through asphalt and buildings alike, crimson leaves spilling from the top.
Domison gazed out the window towards the edges of town when he learned this. His eyes widened slightly when he saw the fat, boat-like red leaves peaking up over the buildings not even six blocks away. With the full culmination of knowledge he had procured regarding the system and now their situation, with Mel’s debrief, Domison finally had a game plan.
“It sounds like it’s time for a training arc,” Domison said as he turned back to the group around him. They all stared back at him like he was speaking nonsense and he threw his hands up in a defensive, placating gesture. “You know? Like in graphic novels or old fantasy books?” Only Mike’s eye’s shone in slight recollection at Domison’s words. He hadn’t expected Craig to have any idea what he was talking about, but he figured that Mel at least would be familiar. Unfortunately, even Pabu was quirking his large head in puzzlement.
Domison sighed, slightly dejected by their general response, before throwing his hands up in the air. “From what I have put together, this system allows growth. Very rapid growth.” He looked around at them all, holding Craig’s eyes for several moments longer than the others. The large Urketh nodded reluctantly, unsure of what he may be agreeing to. Domison nodded back and continued, “We need to train. Mel and Mike, you both need to get used to your abilities and so do I. We have also put together that everybody seems to be gone. My suggestion is that we split into two basic groups.” He had the entire room’s rapt attention at this point. “The first group will be scavenging and gathering information. We need supplies, but we also need to figure out what happened. The second will be making expeditions into the forest, to fight and grow stronger.”
After fifteen minutes of light arguing, with several irritable huffs coming from Mike surprisingly enough, the two groups departed the house going in different directions. Domison had been the decider on the layout of the groups for the first excursion and as much as Mike wanted to start training, Domison wanted to get a feel for Craig’s abilities first. He had decided it would be best for himself and Craig to go to the forest, sending Pabu along with Mel and Mike to scavenge. It almost felt like the connection he had established with Pabu allowed for a sharing of senses to a certain degree and he trusted he would be able to tell if they got into any danger. Mike had very much doubted that there would be any presence of danger and let Domison know this through several passive-aggressive comments. His annoyance was mostly due to the excitement of the potential that lay in front of them all.
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It only took twenty minutes at a light jog to reach the edges. Instead of a large stretch of open ground between the first buildings and the tree-line, that they had just walked through days before, plant life now crawled up the sides of buildings. Trees had worked through cracks in the asphalt and tore up through debris to loom over the streets below. As the forest continued its march into the city, however, it seemed to be having a harder time. As Domison noticed this, he absentmindedly crouched down and brushed a hand through some of the gravel and chunks of concrete. Immediately Domison noticed something was odd, the material under his fingertips felt different. They just felt slightly too… Dense?
Doubling down on his intuition, Domison stood and slammed his right fist hard against a street sign next to him. He knew that with his current strength, that should have warped the metal pinned to the rebar in the ground, yet all it did was vibrate intensely. Craig came to a halt, looking around sharply before turning his eyes to Domison, “Did you discover something? Why did you strike the odd-looking pole?”
Domison turned to the large green-skinned humanoid and responded holding up two fingers, “Two reasons, the first is to test a theory. It seems like the ground and surrounding inanimate objects are getting stronger.” One finger went down, “The second was to create a loud noise and attract nearby predators. I thought it would be better to start us out on better terms than the dense forest. It’ll be a good warmup” He began rolling his shoulders out as he finished and Craig brightened and then began nodding.
Yes war chief Wolfe, you are partially correct. The mana permeating the air around us is very dense and one of the mana’s properties is to enhance the things it comes in contact with.” His eyes began to glow green and he continued, “We can mainly distinguish this in our skill usage, but it doesn’t just alter fauna and flora, it also enhances the properties of everything else.”
Domison walked over and clapped a hand up onto Craig’s meaty shoulder, “Thanks, big guy.” He then turned on his heel, and a black sword that cut through the light around its edges appeared in his hand. Only seconds later the rustling of underbrush and snapping twigs filled the air, a cacophony of wet, guttural braying building in volume. Craig stepped slightly ahead of Domison and took a fighting stance, his eyes continued to glow green, but for a moment they flared brighter and the man could feel a sudden wave of power rush through him. In an instant, he felt lighter on his feet and he could instinctively tell that he had the potential to deal devastating blows with each swing of his sword.
Only five heartbeats later half a dozen, low to ground forms, shot from between viridian trunks in a blur. Two of the monsters reached Craig first, shooting up toward his throat after leaping from the ground. Domison finally caught a clear look at them when Craig snatched one from mid-air by the throat. Domison saw that it was what looked like a massive squirrel. Its form was wreathed in fungal growth, mycelium spreading under patchy fur. The fungoid squirrel was airborne for only a heartbeat before Craig’s large green arm whipped down, sending the creature crashing into the curb face first. Craig’s other fist connected with the top of the second assailant's head as he threw its brethren into the curb. His fist continued downwards even after he had punched the monster into the ground. His fist did not even stop for the enhanced concrete and created a fist-sized crater that was instantly shrouded by a bloody mist.
Domison’s attention was pulled away from their fight at that instant as three of the beasts sprinted toward him. He noticed that the last creature was also careening his way, after witnessing Craig’s punishing display, looking for easier prey. His eyes flashed and he leveled his sword at the quickly approaching monsters, “Poor choice my woodland friends,” His sword screamed forward and bisected the first, two pieces of a carcass crashing behind him. “Now come to your death.” He flashed a murderous grin at the monsters as he flicked the blood off of his blade and stepped between the next two blurred forms.
His sword thrust towards the one he had positioned on his right side and penetrated straight through its skull. A subtle shift in the energies around him made the man instinctively take a step back. As soon as he did, a fungal-covered form with matted fur started to shoot past him, right where his throat was located only a millisecond before. Cocking his left arm back, Domison shot out a heavy jab and dealt a devastating blunt strike to the beast's rib cage. A shockwave spread through its body, causing fur to ripple for a moment before the small creature was sent flying into the building next to them. The integrity of the squirrel monster's flesh was apparently lesser than the storefronts, and a wet crunching could be heard as it spread across the wall in a morbid mural.
Domison spun on his heel, ready for more battle, but he was greeted by a gruesome sight. Craig was holding the final shroom squirrel by the head between both hands. As soon as Domison had turned, the monster's head popped like a zit and a deformed body dropped to the ground. Craig gave Domison a wide grin, lips pulling tight around jutting fangs as he spoke, “You were right Warchief, that was a decent warmup.” The Urketh was unexpectedly agile, bouncing on the balls of his massive feet and causing a thick black braid to bounce around behind his massive head, “Shall we continue, Mister Wolfe?”