When I least expected it they took out stone spheres and threw them at us, I activated Scale Reinforcement just before they impacted, but even with my skill active I received quite a bit of damage from the spheres, when I glanced I saw that Shina had been hit by one of the spheres. Before I could worry about her several mice leapt towards me and knocked me down.

They started scratching and biting my body, the good thing is they couldn't pierce my scales, so I activated Acid Body, causing squeals of pain from the mice, they tried to get away, but I managed to wrap one in my grip and activated Ardenya Enhancement to then apply pressure.

[You have killed a Terrondingo (juvenile)]

I was surprised when I squashed the mouse with relative ease, making the mouse's eyes fly out along with the rest. It disgusted me, but it wasn't the time for that, so I released what was left of the Terrondingo and went straight for Shina who was having problems with these pests.

Before I could help, I felt the biggest one approaching quickly, I didn't even get to turn when I was tackled by it, I was pushed away, however its mistake was touching me with its face. To my surprise this headed towards me as if nothing, noting that where it had hit me was somewhat corroded.

That was the last thing I could think before receiving another charge from the Terrondingo, but before flying out I bit its face with Venom Fangs, with one of my fangs piercing one of its eyes. The rat began to shriek in pain, it started shaking in an attempt to get me to let go, so I started coiling the front part of its body, it started rolling so I couldn't fulfill my objective, but after a long struggle I managed to capture the upper half of its body.

To finish this I began squeezing with all my strength and since I still had Ardenya Enhancement activated it was relatively simple for me to slowly break its bones, but the task was complicated because it imbued its bones with magic to make them more resistant. There would be no problem if the mice weren't throwing me those stone spheres that were starting to break my scales, but they suddenly stopped, which I found very odd, however I took advantage of this to finish off this pest once and for all, adding even more pressure, feeling its bones finally breaking.

[You have killed a Terrondingo]

[You have leveled up from lv6 to lv8]

[Scale Reinforcement goes up from lv2 to lv4]

[Magic Vision goes up from lv3 to lv4]

[Steel Scales goes up from lv3 to lv4]

[Bite goes up from lv7 to lv8]

[Strangle goes up from lv4 to lv5]

[Acid Body goes up from lv1 to lv2]

[Ardenya Enhancement goes up from lv1 to lv2]

When looking in the direction where the Terrondingo were attacking from afar, I noticed only 5 mice remained that were making several walls that were destroyed almost immediately by Usaki, although they were so close to Usaki they couldn't hit the stone spheres, most he dodged and those he couldn't dodge, he undid with one blow. I was about to go help when I felt a slight feeling I couldn't describe coming from the trees, when I looked to see where that feeling came from I didn't see anything at first.

[Detect Presence goes up from lv2 to lv3]

Suddenly its presence became more notable, just then some kind of Owl came flying out from the top of a tree, I barely processed this when I felt something hard hit me in the head, I turned angry in the direction of whoever threw that at me, seeing a Terrondingo before one of Shina's Shadowlight Blades pierced its head.

—What are you thinking so much about Arusai —said Shina approaching me.

—I'll tell you later, now we have to help Usaki —I said turning to see Usaki who had already killed some of the nuisances, but there were still some left that kept complicating his approach.

I approached stealthily from behind them, reaching one with Venom Fang and before they could react used all my strength to separate it from the ground and its group, starting to coil its body. Its companions prepared more of those spheres, but before they could throw them Usaki fell on top of the head of one of the Terrondingos, killing it instantly, another being killed by one of Shina's blades that pierced its head.

When I was going to kill one of the two remaining, I felt a faint presence coming from above and before we could react a giant owl appeared and took away the last two Terrondingos. We stayed looking shocked at that owl flying away with those two.

—W-what was that? —Usaki asked still not fully processing what had happened.

—Did that thing just save them? —I said looking in the direction the owl had gone.

—I'm sure it saved them and didn't just take them to eat them —Shina suggested.

—I think that's a better option —Usaki acknowledged.

—You're right, possibly it's just a coincidence, since so many monsters have attacked us at once, I already think they're all companions.

—If that were the case monsters like us wouldn't have to eat. That's basic —said Shina very confidently.

—It's basic, but since I was born monsters have not stopped attacking me, I thought they would all be companions, because it seems I can't kill a monster without another different species getting angry —he said exhausted just from remembering it.

—You must be exaggerating, how old are you exactly? —she asked curiously.

—If I'm not wrong I'm about 4 days old since being born —Shina was surprised when she heard my response.

—You're only four days old!? —she exclaimed surprised.

—It's hard to believe by his attitude, but it's true —Usaki confirmed.

Shina couldn't get over her surprise, examining my body up and down, finding it strange not to find anything unusual.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

—Are you sure you're only 4 days old, you have no sign of having been born 4 days ago —she said confused.

—Maybe I wasn't exact, but that's more or less my age —I assured her.

—And your parents, what happened to them? —Shina asked.

—I don't know, when I was born there was no one around me, not even marks that there had been someone there before.

—I see —she said somewhat thoughtful.

—Aru, you never told me about that, I thought they had also expelled you —said Usaki surprised.

—No. But they abandoned me, which is something similar —I expressed calmly.

—I suppose it's better that you didn't know them than for them to have expelled you —he said somewhat melancholic.

—Don't get like that, you yourself said not to go around remembering that —I reminded him— better let's go before something else appears."

—It's true —he said taking a deep breath, "-let's go."

—How much longer until we get out of the forest? —Said Usaki somewhat tired.

—I wish I knew —I said before tearing off another piece of meat from the Inos's body.

—But it seems we're close, we're not getting attacked as often —Shina pointed out.

—You're right, a whole day went by before this Inos showed up —Usaki mentioned— but you shouldn't have let your guard down, you were almost pierced trying to launch a ranged attack —Usaki scolded me.

—Usaki is right, you can't be trying out those things in the middle of a fight —Shina added while healing my wound.

—Sorry, I thought I would get it right this time —I tried to justify myself, a justification that didn't convince them.

It had been a few days since Shina came with us and even after all this time we were still in these woods, if it wasn't because we were being chased with less intensity, I would already be tired of fighting.

Suddenly I could feel a presence heading this way, Usaki also seemed to notice because he turned in the direction of the presence, however I was surprised to faintly feel desperation coming from the presence. I wasn't exactly surprised to feel the emotions of monsters from afar, it had been happening quite often these past few days, but it was the emotion itself, it was like it wasn't coming for us.

I was taken from my thoughts when the monster came into view, being warned beforehand by Usaki of the danger, Shina was about to throw her blades, when the deer stopped abruptly, looking closely I could see some kind of white mass coming from the tree tops, stuck to its neck, the deer looked at us with an expression of pleading.

—Hel —Before it could finish its sentence, it was pulled towards the tree top, disappearing among the leaves.

Seeing this we became more alert, you could hear something chewing, as well as observe how much blood was falling from the tree top. Suddenly there was a silence that left the whole environment very heavy, we were attentive to the slightest movement.

—Interesting —A raspy voice was heard "a cursed variant, but it doesn't seem like they are your subjects" said the curious voice.

—Usaki, do you know where it's coming from —I asked somewhat nervously.

—No idea —he said seriously— its voice seems very dispersed and I didn't even hear its footsteps.

—Oh little one don't lament, monsters with better hearing than yours have fallen before me" it said haughtily.

—But you seem very interesting to me, you are with a cursed variant and it doesn't seem to bother you.

—Although it won't matter to you when you're dead! —it exclaimed.

Almost by instinct I grabbed Shina by the waist with my tail and moved her aside just before a rather large spider landed where she was, it was frustrated by missing its attack. The spider wanted to attack us, but was met with a kick to its whole face by Usaki, barely making it move back, it looked at us angrily before launching a purple spit in my direction, receiving the full disgusting saliva.

I ignored this and headed towards it, before anyone could do anything the spider climbed back up the tree tops. I suddenly started to feel a little dizzy and weak. I got irritated when I heard the spider laugh.

—What the hell did it do to me —I thought worriedly.

[Slight poison resistance goes up from lv8 to lv9]

I was starting to hear the spider's laughter blurred and everything was spinning, suddenly I felt the same sensation as when I moved Shina out of the way, activating Scale Reinforcement and Acid Body, just before a white mass that was the spiderweb stuck to my body, being taken up above.

Once on top I was face to face with the spider, which was smiling haughtily, but when it grabbed me with one of its legs it let out a whimper. It shook its hurt leg and looked at me angrily before completely wrapping me in its web, the only good thing about being there was that light could still pass through. I figured it left me there while it went for Shina and Usaki, I tried to break the web with my strength, but I kept feeling worse, I only had one option: try to use ardenya to get out of here.

Concentrating to activate the energy inside me and start taking it out, but when trying to gather it, it dissipated, I let out a sigh of defeat.

—If I couldn't do it normally, worse now that I was poisoned —I thought.

[Adaptable goes up from lv4 to lv5]

[Slight poison resistance goes up from lv9 to lv10]

[Slight poison resistance lv10 evolves to Poison resistance lv1]

Having two skills level up was a stroke of luck, but the poison was still affecting me and I was still trapped.

—If I could shoot fire that would be great —I thought dejectedly.

But an idea came to mind, if I couldn't materialize energy directly to the exterior, I had to form it directly from my body, so I began the process of activating my energy, but instead of taking it out I formed it in my mouth thinking of a fireball, feeling the heat increase inside my mouth, it burned a bit, but it didn't matter, so when it was ready I shot it.

[You have gained the unique skill Fireball lv1]

I generated a small explosion explosion inside the cocoon, which although it hurt me, it made a hole and started burning the web. It wasn't long before I fell flat on the floor, recomposing as fast as I could, managing to observe how the spider had cornered Usaki and Shina, with the latter covered in the spider's venom, while Usaki was in front of her protecting her.

Without wasting more time I charged a Fireball and threw it at the spider, which didn't notice my attack receiving it head on, generating a small explosion and launching what I could only describe as a hideous scream of pain.

It turned in my direction angry, not hesitating a second before launching at me, being so fast that I couldn't react in time, being caught in its jaws and easily piercing my scales, I could feel how the spider injected what I could only assume was venom into my system, starting to feel worse than when it spat at me.

Suddenly the spider threw me violently to the side and although I was free of its grip, I already had a lot of venom in my system, everything looked and sounded blurry, my senses were a mess. Just when I thought I would die of poisoning, I started feeling better out of nowhere, with my senses no longer as damaged I could feel Shina next to me, seeing a black blur that cleared up until I could properly see Shina's body.

—Arusai how do you feel? —she asked worriedly.

—Better thanks to you —I assured her before getting up and seeing Usaki fighting the spider, rather barely dodging the spider's multiple attacks "but now we have to finish it off."

We both prepared our attacks and launched them simultaneously, Usaki noticed this and with a jump was on top of the spider, before the spider could do anything to him, it was met by our attacks and without being able to recover, Usaki gave it a strong kick to its back, causing it to touch the ground and make a small racket.

While Usaki moved away, I approached the spider and grabbed one of its legs with my tail, activated Ardenya Enhancement and pulled it back tearing it off with a jerk. The spider moved away feeling the pain and noticed it was missing a leg.

—You guys are more annoying than I thought —it said angrily— I was going to finish you off slowly, but I see that won't be possible now" it said before unleashing a murderous aura.

We in response to this huddled together so we wouldn't easily fall to fear.

[You have gained Fear resistance lv1]