The first rays of sunlight were peeking through the window, hitting me right in the face. Despite the annoyance of such a thing, it was my daily wake up alarm. With a groan I moved my one free arm to block the sunlight as I rolled onto my side. Now with my back to the light, I cracked my eyes open.

Anna’s sleeping face was still undisturbed by the light or my movements, and so I just stared in content admiration. It only lasted a moment though as she must have sensed my gaze and woke shortly after.

“Morning,” she said before wiggling right up next to me.

Her bare flesh pressed against mine was certainly exciting first thing in the morning, which my body subconsciously responded to. She giggled as she felt my response.

Yes, we had gotten intimate. It had been ten years since we helped Trillia, so to say we were hormonal teenagers was correct. I had also gotten to that point with Clara too, but the previous night hadn’t been hers. I didn’t know how Anna and Clara came to a consensus on dividing up nights with me, but they seemed to just go with a simple switch off each night. I wasn’t about to walk into a trap by asking either.

“Again?” she whispered sensually.

I didn’t have a chance to respond as the door to the bedroom was flung open dramatically.

“We have trouble,” Clara declared.

Why did she have to interrupt? But at the same time whatever it was was worthy of interruption.

“What’s the issue?”

“Some of the boars are missing.”

That was strange. We had basically domesticated a few a while back, and the current generation of boars were from those. They had a few natural predators up here, but said predators had learned to avoid our tiny development. Being chased by wolf girls and lashed by roots and branches had that sort of effect.

“Huh? Trillia? What happened?” I asked.

The dryad poked her head in view.

“Well…,” she stammered, “I saw a shadow last night enter the fence, but I thought it was one of you so I didn’t think about it too much.”

I sat in silence as I processed what she had said and what that meant. I didn’t blame Trillia for thinking it could have been one of us, since there were no other bipedal figures of our build in the mountain forest. That is, until now. Has a tribe of primitive humans made their way here?

"Let's eat first, then we'll search for the culprits," I said.

I found it slightly amusing that we had simple ham and vegetable omelets for breakfast given how we were about to go searching for those who'd stolen some of our boars.

“You know, if there are boars missing, there probably is fruit and vegetables missing too,” I offhandedly commented.

There was a silent pause, which caused me to look up from my food. Clara looked horrified, as though she had missed something important. Anna looked shocked on the other hand.

“Will we have enough food to get us through the winter?” Anna asked.

“If the invaders take too much, it’s possible we might be stretched a little thin.”

“I can nourish the plants to bear more for you all,” Trillia interjected.

Trillia wasn’t eating with us, since as a dryad she ‘ate’ through her plant body, which was the giant willow tree. However, she enjoyed sitting with us when we ate and talking with us. Soon, with winter approaching, she would go into a hibernative state and we wouldn’t see her again until spring.

“How could I have missed that?” Clara mumbled in a barely audible tone, caught up on what I had previously pointed out.

“It’s okay, Clara. We’ll find them and get rid of them.”

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Finishing up, the three of us departed our hovel inside Trillia, heading for the pens where the boars were kept. Trillia waved as we left, since her manifested form couldn’t go even that far.

Clara took the lead, guiding us to where she had seen the footprints in the mud. Together, the girls took in the scent of whoever it was that had stolen the boars and started tracking them with their skill. I simply followed along as I thought.

Really, in theory at least, I had the Creator Skill which could probably rectify any complications we might have simply because I could make it appear. However, I would still get (ERROR) messages when I attempted to deeply analyze my Catalyst skills, so I refrained from using them.

I kind of feared using them without understanding the scope of what they were capable of. Well, Unlimited and Reincarnate were fairly self explanatory. Growth without limits meant… wait, does that apply to things like my height too? I had just been thinking that it would simply apply to my Statistics and such. I could grow into a giant. Or maybe my race provides some limits that can’t be broken by Unlimited. I was so lost in thought that I didn’t notice we had stopped and ended up walking into Anna.

“Oh! What…?” I started before she had managed to slap a hand over my mouth.

I saw the seriousness in her eyes as she jerked her head to the side. I gave a small nod and peered in the direction she indicated.

Sitting in a small circle was a group of a dozen humans. Well, primitive humans I guess would be the more accurate term based on the system. They were tearing apart the stolen boar, eating the flesh raw. Most of them seemed malnourished, so it was a sad sight to see them that ravenous. There was one that stood out among them though, a male who I guessed was in his late teens or early twenties. He had a clearly defined figure of muscle. He was the dominating force of strength among the group. It was almost cliche, though I wasn’t sure why I felt that.

“They’re really… sloppy,” whispered Anna.

“Disgusting,” quipped Clara quietly.

“Let me deal with this,” I said.

I stepped out of the cover we were behind before either of the girls could stop me, forcing their hand. My sudden appearance had caused a stir. The group of primitives rounded on me, sizing me up instantly. Compared to their leader, the meager figure that was myself was not the most intimidating. I had a simple spear in one hand with a stone dagger and a tooth dagger shoved into my belt, which upped my weapon count significantly over the group despite my numerical disadvantage.

The leader gave an aggressive sounding grunt. The four other males rushed at me, and I couldn’t help but smirk. I was sure that had I still been a child I would have been in serious trouble. I was not any more, and had trained in some weapons with my two companions.

The first took my spear to the shoulder, causing him to stumble back in surprise at my reach. The second and third were undaunted in their approach from my sides. I drew my stone dagger in my off hand, turning to my left and slashing towards my opponent to give me room. I simultaneously blindly swung my spear behind me to try and catch the other by surprise. I made contact with the leg and there was a sort of howl of pain. Dropping the spear at that, I launched myself forward from a low position.

I tackled the one to the left, swiping my dagger across his back as we fell. Scrambling back to my feet, I gave him a good stomp in the groin to keep him incapacitated for the time being. The three remaining opponents were surprised I think. The one I had stabbed in the shoulder was cautiously holding back with the one that had yet to attack. The one I had smacked in the leg was the next to attack.

I dodged easily telegraphed punches, which seemed to rile up my opponent. His movements became more erratic, a dangerous thing, and so I started scoring slashes. I then sharply turned and dropped to one knee, then brought my elbow into the side of his knee. Everyone heard the bones snapping at the unnatural angle they bent. Two down.

The last two were smart enough to attack simultaneously. I couldn’t dodge or deflect every blow as I fought, dishing out my own blows and slashes as I took several hits. Fortunately, their weakened state made their attacks bearable. Though I really wanted to leave both alive, the pressure of the situation now meant I needed to deal with them quickly. I made a deep slash across the stomach of the shoulder guy and followed with a kick to push him away. Suffice to say, important things started exiting his body through the new hole.

Back down to a single opponent, who seemed a little smarter than his companions, I let out a growl to try and intimidate him. It actually worked and he backed off. Having defeated his fighters, the leader let out a guttural shout. The females made way as the leader advanced.

“So it is you. I thought it might be,” I said

I vaguely recognized the face of one of my former tribe’s young boys. This one had led my tormentors, so it made sense that he had become some brute who ruled through force and fear. I even highly suspected that he was the one to have pushed me into the river.

My words were clearly still too advanced for primitive humans as they had no effect. Instead we began our dance of death. A contest of strength versus speed. It became more important to dodge attacks as I was unlikely to survive long if I took many. It was a stalemate for what felt like hours as we both blocked and dodged, but was actually only seconds. And then I made the mistake.

I dodged an attack that came at a strange angle, which I realized too late was to drive me into a particular position. Suddenly, I felt my foot getting crushed as the leader pinned it. Unable to move as freely, I took the uppercut punch to the jaw quite spectacularly. I felt my foot break as it failed to follow me and I slammed into the ground hard, driving my breath from my lungs.

Panic set in as a weight settled onto my chest and I felt the hands grasp my neck and squeeze. I gasped desperately for breath that wouldn’t come. My time was short and between the lack of air and decreasing blood flow, I wasn’t getting myself out. The weight and grip disappeared as blackness engulfed me.

“Lyst!” was the only thing I vaguely heard.