The group of 500 or so fighters that accompanied us into the forest depths was dispatched into smaller groups of 10, as having such a huge amount of people trying to pass through dense foliage was impractical, not to mention dangerous. Vadeem and I were in the lead group, along with the twins and Patar’s chosen elite bodyguards. The archbishop himself was leading the rearguard.

The plan was for me to act as a guiding beacon so that none of the others would get lost. It did mean that not everyone was bathed in my halo's light, but those not in my light had torches lit by my lantern that would at least slow down this world's weird corruption. The plan was relatively simple, our best scouts and trackers were to go ahead and keep the rest of us on the right path towards the mythical city within the depths while I followed behind.

I had my doubts about finding one city within so much forest, but Patar had assured me that they were confident in their ability to locate this city. He and his people had been busy gathering all the information on its whereabouts using the accounts of the survivors and historical documents. Either way, we must press on into the void.

The atmosphere changed almost the second we walked past some invisible threshold. The ever-present gloom seemed to thicken, and even my halo’s light was barely able to penetrate the growing darkness. The light radius was visibly getting smaller and smaller as we went deeper, and soon it was about half the size before stabilizing. Now I could barely make out the light of the torches from the groups behind us, and I was feeling my mind slip out of control almost the second I allowed my focus to falter. It was clear that the contamination was stronger the closer we got to its source.

Soon, even the sounds of our footsteps were starting to fade, and by the time the last group entered the depths, I could hear almost nothing from the people not in my immediate vicinity. It was almost like the air was alive with malevolence, trying its best to extinguish the last of the hope in this world.

What was worse, however, was the constant feeling of being watched. It was like the forests had grown invisible, judgmental eyes on every surface, and it was just waiting for a moment of weakness to pounce. Everyone was on edge, and even Vadeem’s usual calm was broken. We were all just waiting for the first sign of trouble.

It wasn’t long before we got our wish. It wasn't our group that was hit first, but one of the ones in the back. A muffled cry followed by half-heard chittering stopped us in our tracks, and that’s when we spotted the foe. Just outside of my illumination were numerous hovering figures, the only visible features were their huge compound eyes that glinted in the halo’s light. They stayed out of sight, waiting as if they were studying us.

I hated it, this constant waiting for something to happen was gnawing on my already tense nerves. I wanted to just scream into the void and meet whatever was stalking us head-on. Anything was better than just staying still while our enemies lurked in the shadows.

I got my wish and soon the first one came into view and graced us with its disturbing visage. It was large, perhaps the same size as Vadeem’s normal form, and its sinewy muscles told of deadly strength. It had the head and torso of a grasshopper or a similar insect, with massive mandibles gnawing and chewing, while massive mantis-like claws moved in a twitching fashion. Below its body were human-like legs, although these limbs were elongated and its calf muscles so swollen that it looked to be on the cusp of busting apart. And as with everything else here, its body was pitch black to blend into its surroundings.

Ah… evolution on steroids. Right.

Like those Shadow Stalkers from earlier, these insectoids seemed afraid of entering the light at first, hesitating at the edge. But unlike the earlier Stalkers, these monsters did not burn under the glow of my halo. Vadeem had already swapped to his massive battle form, with the twins quickly jumping onto his shoulders, and as if that was the signal to fight, the first of the bug-people pounced on our group. I let my new feelers free and had to bite my own lips to control my mounting anticipation. It seems that battle did intensify whatever changes were occurring within me.

First of all, these bug things were fast. They moved with a quick contraction of their hind legs, followed by a click as their muscles locked into place, before releasing that stored energy to pounce with a speed that defied logic. The first individual it struck didn’t even have the time to react before she was pulverized into a fleshy pulp.

This served as a wake-up call for all those present, and the next few that dashed into our group missed their targets. It seems that for all the speed that they possessed; they were still predictable. And just like grasshoppers they mimicked, they could only move in one direction, and their pounce was telegraphed by the retraction of their legs. Not that it did any good for the people who were struck from behind or by their blind spots.

Analyzing the battlefield, I saw an opportunity and I intersected one of the beast’s charges with a feeler. I watched in awe as it impaled itself on the tentacle and slowly died. I grinned, and with a flick of my wrist, I threw the still twitching body crashing into another of its brethren. My Xollon limbs were a lot stronger than these awful creature's exoskeletons.

My feelers moved at an unnatural speed, faster than I could ever swing my arms or legs, yet its movement felt as natural as any other part of my body. I was able to contort the limb into fluid shapes that caught the bug things off guard, impaling them from angles that they couldn’t see. I used them like whips, interrupting the monster’s movements where I could, while other times I used them like spears, impaling any that had already started their dash. The ones closest to me couldn’t properly jump at us, which allowed the other fighters to land solid blows of their own.

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One by one I picked out my targets and allowed those black tendrils to track down their positions, always looking for the ones in the middle of preparing for a charge, or ones who had their backs turned away from me. My feelers worked with deadly efficiency, and that made me wonder about the nature of these new limbs. And these were simply the diminished version of an actual Xollon feeler. What would it look like if I was complete?

And not only were my tentacles strong, but they were supernaturally tough as well. Even when those bug things crashed into them at full speed, I felt little in the way of recoil, let alone pain or discomfort. I could pick them up easily with the feelers, and these things must weigh quite a bit given their muscle mass. Was I getting stronger, or was it just some yet-unknown perk of having the ability?

I desperately wanted to check out my own stats, but since Noe’s slumber, I couldn’t access anything aside from the displayed Luck Charges. I couldn’t deactivate the skill without her here, but seeing the little numbers in the corner of my eye provided me with some semblance of comfort at the very least. As long as those numbers did not disappear, then I knew that Noe was still with me, even if I couldn’t speak with her.

“Lord God!” a voice said in desperation, and I stopped my thoughts to see who it was that interrupted my musings.

In the corner of my eye, I saw that a bug monster had managed to sneak behind me, and it was charging full force in my direction. I froze up, unable to think about what I could do. It was too fast for me to dodge, and my feelers were too far away to defend my weak human body. Would Noe still protect me even in her slumber?

I didn’t have to find out, because the brave individual who shouted drove into the charging bug and managed to divert its path. The man himself didn’t survive the impact. I looked down and quickly finished off the disoriented monster, but my gaze kept going back to the man who died to save me. Yet again I had allowed myself to be distracted in the midst of battle, and again someone else had to pay for my mistake.

More and more emotions started to fill me, almost to the point of bursting, but I forced my eyes away from the body and back onto the battlefield. The insect monster had grazed my shoulder when it passed through, and a gash had formed where its scythe claws bit into my flesh.

I concentrated on the pain, using it as a distraction from all the emotions desperately trying to free themselves from my control. I had expected things to get worse during battle, but I had underestimated how bad things would be. I redoubled my concentration and promised myself that I would find out who this man was, and properly thank him once this was done.

My other bodyguards weren’t slacking off either, and after seeing my close encounter, they had formed a new line of defense centered around my sides and back, where I was most vulnerable.

This allowed me to focus the bulk of my attention on offense. The insectoids were, thankfully, not the smartest foe, but even with their limited intelligence, they figured out that my tentacles were the main threat (if you discounted Vadeem destroying hoards of them off in the distance, but it seemed like he was the hunter and they the prey in that situation).

Their initial attempts to slice through my feelers proved to be impractical, and they had instead focused their attention on dodging or staying out of range of them. This was fine with me, as it left a 4-meter radius of relative calm around me, and the more wounded of my fighters used that space to try to recover some of their strength. Still, the vast majority of the fighting forces could not take advantage of this and were taking heavy losses.

Then a thought occurred to me. These creatures were avoiding me because they could see my tentacles coming, but what if they couldn't? The insect monstrosities were learning to avoid my strikes, but they relied heavily on sight. They never seemed to avoid my attacks when I struck them from their blind spots, regardless of how much noise my feelers made. Given how durable my Xollon appendages were, I had something that I wanted to test out.

With my left feeler, I drove it hard into the ground and was pleasantly surprised when I saw that I could move through the dirt with relative ease. I tunneled under one of the creatures who was engaged in a fight with one of my bodyguards, and with as much force and speed as I could muster, I made the limb erupt from the ground.

A look of surprise flashed through the face of the human fighter as my feeler drove through the monster’s body and into its head, before quickly burrowing back under the ground. It took a moment for the soldier to understand what had happened, and she quickly gave me a nod of appreciation before engaging the next foe.

As I thought, this tunneling tactic of mine seemed to work the best. Without the visible threat of the feelers, more and more of the creatures came back within striking distance of me, and I impaled one foe after another. They didn’t seem to understand or care about the deaths of their comrades. Before long, we were on the offensive against the bug things. It didn’t take us too long to rout them after their momentum was lost, and before long, we had regrouped to count the losses.

Those in the back suffered the heaviest casualties, but all things considered, it wasn’t a total devastation like I had feared. After meeting up with all of the groups, we tallied the damage and the reports indicate a loss of 52 fighters, with a few more wounded.

Vadeem walked towards me after he saw that I was done speaking with the various leaders, looking no worse for wear, “Damn, Walter, I know I still have my doubts about these changes in you, but those creepy tentacles of yours were deadly!”

I noticed that the twins weren’t with him this time, “Thanks. And where’s the girls?”

“They’re with the rest of our scouts, they went ahead somewhere but I’ve no idea why or for what,” he replied, “What I wouldn’t give to have your ability to understand their language.”

“It is useful,” I said with a smile, “But-”

I didn’t get to finish my words as I heard the faint gasps of shock from the men standing beside me before their bodies thumped to the ground. That’s when I saw something metallic shoot right towards my face. It was an arrow. The same one that took out the people by my side.

Time seemed to slow down as I took in everything before my eyes.

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t take my feelers out fast enough.

And worse still, Noe hadn’t done anything to save me from that earlier run-in with the monster.

But just when I had given up all hope, something ridiculous happened. It seemed that Noe hadn’t abandoned me, although the results of her intervention this time might not be a lot better.