As soon as the beef boxer's cage was open, she barreled outwards in search of enemies to fight. She squeezed up the stairs, spear that I don't think she even knew was still stabbing her clattering out of her back. I was unlocked next, navigating awkwardly with flippers on land, and Hana brought up the rear, floating as fast as her jaw could carry her. We piled out, battle clearly brewing between lizardman and... mountain man? Our attackers were somewhat taller than the lizard people, center one taller still still. He was thinner, but covered head to toe in steel, an oddly rounded shield the size of a door blocking the left half of his body from neck to knee. Starting to guess this leader was a summit person, everything clicked when he opened his mouth.

"Their monsters are no match for our-" The summit man started to shout before blocking a hybrid of hoof and fist with a clang. While a small explosion rang out, knocking both back a good foot as they regained their balance in half a second, I was less focused on the man's words and more so on the fact I had understood them at all. I had only heard one other person speak that same kind of language, not a set of chatters and clacks I somehow understood but language I learned from birth. He was speaking english, albeit with some flavor of American accent. The only other person I heard do this was Topaz, and that's when I knew he was another Contestant. And unless he had the Cheat Skill that made him a giant, my perspective was all wrong. I was only two or three feet at the shoulder, and my new punching friend only matched the armor man's height if you included her horns.

"You'll be a worthy test for my new creation." Said the armored one, reaching towards his back and making an awkward-looking stab with his sword. She tilted her horn to parry, but the downward-diagonal stab wasn't aimed for anyone. Instead, the blade locked into the shield with a worrisome click, shield spinning into action and springing open into a pair of axeblades. With a burst of strength, his weapon swung into action. It whipped through the air, shield's craftsmanship holding true, and slicing right into the combat cow's arm. Another small explosion knocked it free, likely messing up her blocking bicep. She wildly thrashed, bowling over a speardwarf in the process, but the others began to outflank their enemy. Those spears looked scary. A shaft of wood topped in a Serrated tooth each- and bound by metal, rather than rope. Thinking quickly but not exactly well, I knew I had to get both him and her out of the fight before she was surrounded. While the armor knight was distracted I crossed my necks and positioned my heads at both, spitting something at the feet of each one. A ball of water lobbed itself through the air, and the new force of my breath was enough to make it almost overshoot, bursting on the human's legs and throwing off some sort of chargeup maneuver for his axe-shield hybrid. A glob of corrosive poison coated the swabbed deck under the hooves of the already-heavy bull-ess, spreading with ease and weakening the timbers. The dwarves stepped back, sudden cracking noise filling them with unsureness before seeing her vanish down a hole below.

"Hana, the potions!" I shouted while the dwarves regrouped. A kobold with a pair of axes ran to the back of a distracted dwarf, hacking into the back of his legs. I saw more dwarves dropping fast, and kobold captain stride past me with intent to duel the opposing leader. However my decision of who to back was solidified when the back of a sword struck me like a whip, sending me staggering forward. I knew in that moment I was done playing the kobold captain's game. And would prefer the dwarf I don't know to the kobold I do.

I gave my most trusting, pleading expression to the armor knight, spinning around on my tail and lashing both my heads towards the kobold captain's legs. My left head met nothing but blade, attack out-and-out misjudged, but my right one bit into his leg. The kobold captain cursed at me, likely ordering me to stop biting, and I whipped my other head backwards. The leverage caused the captain's balance to buckle, and with my left head I saw the dwarves rally. Saw a familiar skull pouring a vial of what I hoped to be healing on the fallen dwarf. And saw the captain's sword rise, using my magic to shoot another thin stream of water into the captain's eye. It merely closed, stream making him mad, too mad to notice his balance tip. My right head whipped aside, sending the large kobold's leg right out from under him, and my left one shot towards his sword-arm. Not as able to thrash due to similar sizes, I did the next best thing and pulled apart. Kobold blood from both limbs kicked up my frenzy, and I felt something strain within his limbs. Just as all was going well, a short sword jammed itself through my left throat. Sight from that head ceased, delirium from pain plaguing my right head. My mind was too out of sorts to even activate that rapid healing, and I couldn't feel any magic- as it was in the head that just fell to the floor infront of me. The captain rose his sword high, likely speaking in his chosen language of insults, and as if in slow motion his scimitar fell on-

The armor knight's bladed shield with a clink. A sword stabbed with stability, hitting nothing but a captain's longcoat as he dodged. A shield bash sent the captain jumping to the side, enough for my crippled right head to line up an attack.

A bite to the ankle. I felt something break under a frenzied bite, splash of poisonous acid further worsening his condition. A shield protected me from above, and a sword ended the threat just as quickly as it began.

[Skill: Bite has risen to level 5. Upgrade available.]

The kobold captain fell limp. I heard words in a language I didn't know, felt a warm light of healing, all tied together by commands I could understand.

"Throulyn, heal that one. I think it's sentient."

Senses from my left head came online, to see the kobolds panic. With their captain's deathrattle, they had begun to abandon ship. Swimmable or not, the kobolds would rather lose their ship than their lives or freedom- if it was their ship to begin with. The dwarves began to take control, performing a sweep of the ship, when the armored human knelt down infront of me.

"Can you understand me?"

My left head still felt tender from the healed-over stab, but I nodded my right. I could see in my peripheral the wound was still very much there, but I was some brand of hydra. The being known not to let something as minor as headlessness slow it down. I focused my willpower halfway up my neck, minute of the intense drain passing while my wound shrunk to nothing, scab flaking off into the wind.

"If you can hear me, say no to this message." The defender instructed. I shook both my heads, slightly off-timing as they almost bumped into eachother.

"Do you have a Name?" The human ventured. I could hear the capital N in his words, and could tell they held some importance here-- just like Levels and Skills. But I nodded my heads anyway.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Well then little guy-" I shook my heads abruptly. "-Little miss, we'll get you to land soon. Are you hungry?"

I gave a slow nod, ideally interpreted as a less-intense yes.

"We don't have any mind mages in Gaham, but we can work something out..." The human pondered. I took this chance to conjure, water magic leveling up as I summoned a rainbow-inducing spray above my head

"So, you can cast magic!" he exclaimed, and I nodded my head. I was about to try and convey something more complicated, when I saw a familiar skull and smash bull rise from the cargo hold, followed by uneasy dwarves

"Are those your friends?" he asked. My heads looked at eachother as if conferring, but both turned back and nodded, one after the other.

"Then we'll get you and your friends to a good home. Follow me." The armored human walked away, and I followed.

"He seems nice" I said in monster-ese to Hana, floating along behind me.

We disembarked with little fanfare, the evening sun beginning to set. Stone and metal fences surrounded this town, dwarven nature showing in the short, wide layout of the buildings, though second stories seemed common. He stopped at the stables, gesturing for my party to enter.

"You three can sleep here for the night, if you even need to" he offered with a glance to Hana, brain still stuck in a commander's mindset. "I'll collect you in the morning so we can find a mind mage and we can talk for real. Rest well."

I was nothing if not defiant, and I wasn't just going to rest. Clearly Hana had the same idea, though I had to awkwardly flipper-run to catch up to her.

"Where are you goin'?" Hana asked, turning around. I could tell she didn't have to see me, but did she hear me? or sense me.

"To kill some monsters for real. I think I can learn another kind of magic, but need to practice it in battle"

"Whatever you say, miss bloodknight" Hana laughed. "I'm just going to look around. Enough excitement for one day's happened"

Waving both my heads in a weird goodbye, I headed right back for the water. At least I would, until I saw dark red shapes moving from behind the small hills that made up this coast. Advancing closer, I saw them more clearly. The lizardmen, no, kobolds who captured me, if their soaking pirate-looking garb was any indication. The desire for vengeance welled up, but I stayed put and watched them cross from the shores to deeper inland, their path skirting the walls of Gaham as they moved for the largest hill yet. I followed behind, distance between me and my quarry growing as I slapped along the ground. The kobold trio approached the enterance, reinforced by wood and flanked by great kobolds. The two of them waved the kobolds through, standing guard with heavy-looking hammers. I galumphed closer, unafraid of weapons designed for armor. The two great kobolds barked some form of stay-away at me, but I paid it no heed. To them, I was a random encounter. But to me, they were prey.

Seeing as the kobolds were making no attempt to approach, I gestured with my fins. I wove mana together, precision letting me pack this water arrow tight. Something in my Skillset rose, reward seeping into my every movement.

[Fundamental Skill: Twin minds has risen to level 2. Mind bonus has risen to 3.]

The water arrow sailed towards the kobolds with surprising power, striking one's chestplate point-blank. The two of them charged, no, [Charge]d, green glow around their legs letting them cover ground impossibly fast. They dodged under my acid shot, telegraphed hammer swing whiffing over my head. I leapt forward, catching the position-recovering kobold in the side and ripping backwards. The taste of blood was all I needed. A Frenzy broke loose, hammer blow from the other kobold crunching my left flipper but barely even slowing me down. I lunged towards the kobold's arms, sinking my teeth into the muscle and twisting like I was opening a stuck bottle. The hammerbold cried out in pain, deluge running down from his biceps, when I turned my attention to the other one. It pulled out a war horn, panicked expression on it's face all I needed to see before spitting corrosive poison at the instrument. A third slid down the kobold's throat like something far tastier, kobold bending forward to hack and cough as my acid ate it from the inside. It fell to it's hands and knees, and I smiled; It never should have revealed it's neck. A bite from both sides sealed it's fate, and I felt a neck bite from my side as the frenzied, desperate kobold sunk it's fangs into my right neck. My left head turned around, making eye contact with the kobold before delivering it the same apex predator-preferred treatment.

[Skill: Frenzy has risen to level 3.]

[You have slain: Kobold guard level 6 and kobold guard level 7. Level has risen from 1 to 2. Skill Point gained.]

I breathed a sigh of relief, eating fallen kobold with both heads. That fight was almost too easy, though Frenzy both carried it and extracted a caloric toll. Even more so with rapid healing. But with a threat taken out and level under my belt, I called it more than worth it. And with this level brought a skill point, sunk right into mind magic. Not only would it save having to find another mind mage, but was another type of magic I wanted to learn. When I tried to use it however, a difference in the flow of mana made itself clear as day. Water magic was calm, predictable, and impossible to compress. While this might be the fundamental nature of the skill talking: It was rational, it was familiar, and it was much easier to use than this mind stuff. Attempting to shape mana with it was like trying to cage smoke, and my kanastone ran out before I realized something critical. I wasn't actually targeting a mind. I face-finned in silliness, venturing onto the rougher stone with surprisingly little discomfort- my skin was thicker than it had ever been.

In the depths, I saw kobolds. a handful of them roamed the wooden barricades, far too many to take on at once. I lacked the magical reserves to even try and make a mind bridge a la topaz, so defeated, galumphed back to the stables for the night.

Hana was nowhere to be found, but the moo-gilist sat against the wider wall like a saddened teenager. I tapped her side with my snout as to not startle her, but earned a lazy elbow to the head, impact reverberating along my reinforced skull.

However now that I had her attention, I tried my new magic again. A mental connection wormed it's way towards her, my eyes wide and innocent-looking.

[Hello?] a deep, southern, yet still feminine voice hauntingly droned through the connection.

"Hi! it's... Hana's new friend."

[Ah, you. You were on the ship.]

"So were you! I wouldn't want to get hit by one of your... hooves? Fists? I don't know how he could have stood up to-"

[What do you want?]

"To establish myself as a friend of course! We fought against the same foes, but-"

[You made me not fight.]

My surprise evidently showed on my face, or mental connection.

[I could have won.]

"You were about to be flanked, and that doesn't end wel-"

[I still could have won.]

Sensing a vector for her to talk, I simply asked a question. "...How?"

[Smash. The big one falls. His allies scatter. I charge.]

"You smashed his shield once, and he didn't look any worse for it?"

[I was getting started.]

This raised a question. Did nature produce a creature who ramped up as a fight went on, or did she build herself like this? Only one way to find out.

"What Level are you?"

[Flat.]

"What skills do you have?"

[Smashing things. And punching things. And bellowing. Also trampling things.]

I sighed, getting nowhere. Either miss minotaur lacked a System, or was too dense to understand it. Remembering what topaz did, I attempted to roll my character sheet tight, and send it along-

The connection snapped. I fell over in shock, but she seemed unaffected. As my vision focused, I heard the tail end of a notification. Likely my level in mind magic rising.

Out of mana and out of energy, I curled up and went to sleep for the new day.