Thalion found out that hunting birds was not as hard as he first thought. With the new skill, he was able to kill some fire hawks, but they didn't have any good skills. When things got dangerous, he transformed into a human, which surprised the birds most of the time so much that he could finish one off with his blood thorns. If a big one wanted to go into melee combat, he transformed into the umbral predator and ripped the attacker into pieces.

He was currently hunting for some wind hawks, who hopefully were of epic rarity. He hoped that those beasts had some kind of passive skill that made them faster.

The good thing about attacking a small group of birds was that they didn't flee and instead tried to kill him.

This time, he had to transform into his human form early to kill the birds since one got a windblade attack. After killing the first bird, he took the form of the bird and placed the corpse in his spatial ring. Then he dove after the other falcon, which was running with incredible speed. Thalion learned a lot about flying while chasing the falcon. It was turning very fast and then speeding in a straight line, with Thalion right behind it, just mimicking everything the hawk did.

It took a while, but in the end, the hawk got away, and Thalion returned to the white crystal it was protecting. He checked out the skills of the hawk and took the skill skydive, a rare skill that speeds you up in one direction. Sadly, the other hawk must have been the one with the windcut ability, or some abilities got lost when he took the form of the beast.

Anyway, he now really enjoyed upgrading the eagle. The hawk got more stats, but he just felt so much more comfortable flying in his eagle form than as a falcon. Thalion saw one problem coming up in the future. He would definitely fall behind all the others, even with his forms getting the same amount of experience. If he wanted to upgrade the bodies with body tempering, he needed triple the amount of resources.

Another thing going forward was that his mythic form needed much more experience than the eagle form, which had already leveled up twice while his other form only got one level. He also didn’t have any free points in his eagle form; every point was put into agility, endurance, and perception. Thalion also didn’t have much time left. He wanted to be back in Kael’s camp tomorrow. The good thing was that he could easily travel the distance now in less than three hours, which had taken him almost the whole night before... maybe even faster. He thought of a new way of fighting the orcs by hovering kilometers above them in the sky and dropping giant rocks out of his spatial ring. Why shouldn’t it work? When they hit the blockade, the damage would be devastating. It's a shame that he hadn’t thought of it earlier. Well, it didn’t help him now; he had a few hours left to hunt birds and make his eagle great again.

<--

Evelyn and Kargul were now sitting together with Garrick and Lisa, who appeared to be some kind of couple.

"Can we help with the preparations? The orcs know that an attack will come, so the sooner we attack, the better," Evelyn said with worry, hoping the guy didn't withdraw his offer to help.

"Sure, there is just one thing that is holding me back. I promised twenty of my new citizens, who had all chosen the shapeshifter class, to help them hunt strong prey so they can take its form," Garrick explained.

"The same class as Thalion," Evelyn thought, interested. If they were even close to his level of strength, the orcs were in for a hard time.

"It would even be in our favor if they could take the form of a strong beast. I think it will be worth the time," Garrick added.

"I fully agree," Evelyn said in a happy mood. "Kargul and I would gladly help those shapeshifters, and the sooner, the better, while Kargul nodded along.

"Splendid! Let's meet at the gate. The shapeshifters should already be waiting there, and I need a bit of time to gather most of my men."

With that said, Evelyn and Kargul left the entrance hall and made their way to the gate.

Kargul bowed down to her and tried to whisper in a deep voice, "They have the same class as Thalion. How strong do you think they are?"

"I have no idea what creatures they have encountered," Evelyn said, but it’s better not to mention that again as long as we are here. I still don’t trust the guy.

Soon they arrived at the gate, where a large group of people was waiting. They all had an arrogant expression on their faces.

"Hello, we are here to help you get stronger forms," Evelyn greeted them with a wide smile.

"You help us?" A man in the front said with a smirk on his face. "And how are you going to do that? Beat the beast to death."

Kargul stepped in front of Evelyn and said in a deep voice, "Quiet, human."

Evelyn had a hard time holding back her laughter. It was always so funny. At one point, the orc was completely simple-minded, almost like a kid, and on the other, he just found the right words.

"What did you just call my husband, you stupid beast?" a woman said, stepping out of the group and glaring daggers at Kargul.

Kargul responded with all his wisdom, "Quiet, human," while starting to scratch his back and looking around as if the humans in front of him didn’t exist.

The head of the woman instantly turned red, and she was breathing heavily while her husband held her back.

"Do you think she is trying to shapeshift?" Kargul instantly asked Evelyn, who now couldn't hold herself back and started laughing. This situation was just too funny. Luckily, before both of them could do anything, Garrick and Lisa approached the gathering with over seven fighters behind them.

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"Great, so you already met each other," Garrick said with a loud voice, as if he didn’t notice the current situation.

"Those two insulted us," the man said with a huff. "We demand that they be punished."

"We don’t have time for something like this," Garrick said. "We need to get your forms as fast as possible. Then we will go to war against the orcs. You can bring that up after the fight."

"This is not over," the woman said while looking at Evelyn and Kargul.

Evelyn and Kargul didn’t respond, and so the group set out for a hunt. Some of the shapeshifters were transforming into wolves or leopards and disappeared into the jungle in search of strong beasts. The others were following them into the jungle. Evelyn made sure to stay near Kargul so no one could harm her with a surprise attack. Since that woman had killed the first party she spawned in the tutorial, she had a hard time trusting anyone. What irony that the one she trusted the most was a bloodthirsty orc.

Soon after, a leopard came back and said in the voice of a woman, "We found one—a night bear, a giant beast at Level 39. It’s 500 meters in front of you in a clearing, eating another beast."

"Great! Let’s go," Garrick said, and their group sped up significantly, soon spotting the bear, which, to their dismay, spotted them too, as a heavy warrior unfortunately stepped on a twig that broke with a loud crack.

The bear roared and charged at their group. Evelyn was already moving to the side; the movement skill she got would make it very difficult for the bear to catch her.

Kargul, however, stepped a bit to the side, clearly not wanting to risk injuries when they couldn’t fully trust the group.

A lion jumped after the bear and bit into one of its back legs, making it spin around with an angry roar. Multiple arrows were piercing its hide, and a fireball from Lisa threw it to the side. The fight was quick, and only two shapeshifters got minor injuries, which Evelyn, of course, didn’t heal. She didn’t like those people, and at the moment, only Lisa knew she was a healer, and she didn’t mention it, so everything was fine. The shapeshifters all gathered around the bear with glee in their eyes, everyone putting their hands on the beast, and soon they started to eat the bear in their beastform. It looked gross, Evelyn thought.

Next, they kept hunting. The two injured shapeshifters had already healed their wounds and disappeared into the jungle. They hunted a few more beasts. One was a big orange lion, and the other was some kind of insect that was over 4 meters tall with sharp claws. Evelyn wondered if those forms would help much in a fight against the orcs, as orcs were pretty good at killing big things—not that Evelyn cared much for the well-being of those people. After those fights, they were back at Garrick's base. The man had acted very professionally, and until now he was a good leader. If she hadn’t heard the stories from Lisa about him killing people for pleasure.

"So, everyone, recover and prepare yourselves. Tomorrow we will leave this base and attack the orcs that are attacking Kael’s fortress," Garrick reminded everyone and went back to his building.

The woman walked up to Evelyn, who in response was moving behind Kargul, and said in a sinister voice, "This is not over, especially not after today’s boost," then the shapeshifters left.

"Don’t worry, Evelyn," Kargul said. "I was holding back almost everything of my strength. If they want to do something, I’ll smash them badly."

"Let’s see what will happen. Maybe the other orcs will solve this problem for us tomorrow," Evelyn nodded. Then they made their way to their rooms. There was much to prepare until tomorrow.

<--

Thorwald was hunting with his new group, and life was very good to him right now. He was growing in power steadily while Steven had trouble keeping his lead, and even when he was not allowed to kill the man, he could make his life hard and prepare until the struggle with the undead faction was over. As it looked, Kael’s base was surrounded by a lot of orcs, and their patron had ordered Steven to help Kael break free. Unluckily for Steven, Thorwald had decided to go on a hunting trip that had gone a bit longer this time.

This all helped Thorwald even more; he had people who were spreading his propaganda that he was currently out saving new survivors, even if he was falling behind in levels from not hunting enough. He of course didn’t even think for a moment to save survivors; he was only out there for the levels and if someone happened to run his way, he would bring them back and tell everyone that he had wandered the whole night to find some survivors, and thanks to his efforts, those lives could be saved. All while Steven was hunting for levels and now wanted to go to war against the orcs. Oh, this was even better! Thorwald was of course against the war, because many people would for sure die.

Steven didn’t have much choice since he was ordered by his god directly, and it probably wouldn’t end well if he denied the direct command of a god. Thorwald could only chuckle. He had hunted the whole day, and according to one of his scouts, Steven hadn’t left the base until today busy working on gathering people for an attack.

This was perfect! If the god withdrew his blessing, Thorwald could kill the man and then march to Kael’s base, and after killing the orcs, he of course needed to take control of that base if the management was that poor. Thorwald was close to level forty right now, and he made sure that his direct men were close behind him. With Kael already starving for almost two days, he should be much stronger right now. He could already see his revenge when he grabbed the fucking ranger by the neck and cracked it with one twist.

Same with those mages, Sylas and Thalion, and that fucker Kai. The cracking of a branch brought him back, and a giant bear was charging at him. This beast was also cursed, as it seemed. It had that red mist rising from its body, which made it extremely dangerous. Thorwald had encountered multiple of those beasts the last few days. Was it some kind of disease that was spreading like rabies? He wondered. In the end, even that level 42 beast was no match for him, especially not when he had his men with him. After a few swings with his axe, the bear lay dead on the ground.

The red mist almost had no effect on him since the armor was cleansing his body all the time, which made him almost immune to all poisons and, it seemed, even against curses. Time to hunt even more, Thorwald thought. This was perfect: Steven was trying to get enough men to follow him without starting a riot, Kael and the others were stuck in their base, and he was leveling faster than everyone else. He would be the new leader of humanity after this was over.