Zachary breathed a sigh of relief and got to his feet. At some point during the giant seagull’s sudden attack, he had fallen over as he watched. He hid his embarrassment as he walked toward the corpse of the flower Ensouled.

Jean-Pierre glanced at the summoning cards in his bag. He had lost three summons during the battle. A fourth one had suffered heavy wounds. He stared at its card briefly before rescinding the soul contract and absorbing the anima crystal left behind to replenish his strength. He then caught up with Zachary.

“Find what you need?” He asked.

Zachary knelt beside the withered body of the flower. Its green vines were now brown and shriveled. The large yellow petals lost their original vibrant color. There was a gaping hole where the red pistil had been ripped out by the seagull. That area had also dried up and he couldn’t get any more nectar.

“I don’t know… That giant gull took off with the flower’s primary organ which contained its anima crystal. Let me see.”

He held up a summoning card and summoned Onkie. The furry pig beast appeared and scurried around in confusion, still thinking it was in the midst of battle and looking for vines to eat.

He ripped a piece off one of the yellow petals and held it to its mouth. “Onkie, try this.”

“Onk?”

A series of munching sounds followed. The pig devoured the petal quickly and bumped his hand to ask for more. Jean-Pierre gave the beast a funny look.

“An adept rank Ensouled… is this all it's good for now, pig food?” He asked.

“What else can we do with it? It’s not like I can eat it. Do you want to try?”

Jean-Pierre scoffed and shook his head.

Zachary felt the same. He had wanted it alive, not dead. Plant type Ensouled could not be casually consumed by humans. They could cause an upset stomach, severe poisoning, or a quick death. It was difficult to tell what would happen without experience and knowledge of the specific species of Ensouled.

While Onkie munched on another piece of the flower, the group of three stood around in silence, unsure of what to do next. The excitement of the battle hadn’t worn off completely. There was disappointment for sure but also relief that the fearsome gull had ignored them.

“You have an interesting summoning style,” Jean-Pierre said suddenly.

“Who, me?” Zachary asked.

“Yeah. You bring out and then recall your summons very quickly. It’s like you can’t bear to lose them.” Jean-Pierre gave him a pointed look at the end.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“I mean… what’s wrong with that? If I can save a summon, then I’d rather save it than let it die needlessly.” Zachary argued.

“Uh huh… Summons are soldiers, meant to die its summoner in battle. They are not pets. They won’t be able to display their full strength just because you’re nice to them. If you keep going like this, you’re not going to survive.”

Zachary strongly disagreed but he couldn’t find the right words for a retort. He remembered the performances of Blue and Boba which could only be described as abysmal. They couldn’t contribute to the fight at all.

“Hey!” Katherine interjected before he could, “Why does everything that comes out of your mouth have to be so annoying?”

Jean-Pierre made a noise of disgust, “I wasn’t even talking about you.”

“Sureeee.” She said sarcastically.

“And what exactly did you do during that fight?” Jean-Pierre

“You…”

Leaving her tongue-tied and steaming, Jean-Pierre turned back to Zachary, “And you, let’s talk about that flower thing. What was your plan exactly? It was way too strong for us. How did you think you were going to kill it? And what were you going to accomplish with only two useful summons?”

Zachary felt heat rising to his cheeks, “It wasn’t like we had no chance. We still have Katherine’s cat.”

Jean-Pierre waved his hand dismissively, “Doesn’t count. You can’t rely on her or her cat.”

“Hey!” Katherine protested, “I told you already. That plant was too strong!”

“Fuck!” Jean-Pierre threw up his hands and turned away.

This argument was going nowhere fast. This was usually the case of arguments between the three but this one felt particularly heavy. Zachary felt like he had done something wrong. He wondered if he had let the desire to heal his soul cloud his judgment. It was probably the case but there wasn’t much he could do about it now. It wasn’t like he volunteered to be the leader or asked them to follow him.

The group stood around the flower Ensouled corpse at the edge of the clearing, in no hurry to move. Jean-Pierre meditated to recover the soul energy he had lost during the battle. Katherine played with Marble. She tried to feed the cat a flower petal but was flatly rejected.

Zachary was silently brooding about his situation. He was trapped in a predicament. It was incredibly difficult to defeat an adept rank Ensouled with only novice rank summons. However, even if his soul was in perfect condition, he wouldn’t have an adept rank summon to call on unless he caught one first.

He briefly considered choosing one of his summons and training it until it reached the adept rank. He shook his head and quietly abandoned the idea. His current summons were all the One Path Novice Rank. He would have to help one cultivate its soul all the way to eight paths and then search for a way to help it break through. Truth be told, he would rather throw himself at another adept Ensouled. That would probably be easier.

Suddenly, while Zachary was still lost in thought, a panicked blue bird shot out of the foliage on the other side of the clearing. Blue landed on his shoulder and buried itself into his long hair as if it had suffered a great fright.

“Looks like we have company,” Jean-Pierre said.

Soon, the snapping of twigs and rustling of dead leaves accompanied the appearance of a group of people. There were nine in total. They approached slowly, eyeing Zachary and his companions with great interest. At a glance, it was easy to tell that they weren’t simple.

They walked with purpose like they owned the jungle. Some had colorful tattoos across their bodies while others proudly displayed battle scars like marks of honor. Then he saw it, a bare-chested old man with a distinctive teardrop tattooed on his chest with red ink, right above his heart.

Zachary turned sharply to Jean-Pierre who nodded grimly. Zachary’s grip on his bamboo spear tightened. His soul sea trembled as he felt a deep sense of crisis as if he had suddenly fallen to the bottom of the food chain.

“Hey, lads. What have you got there?”