Carefully trekking between the trees I look for any sign of danger. Even now this place is alien to me and should be handled with utmost caution. The massive trees can even hide the biggest of creatures with ease, so any Monster can sneak into the range of alpha and just dismember him.

I am the only one who is allowed to dismember alpha and so, I am careful to evade any and all possible places of ambush. Searching for more herbs got more species, that might thrive in my Domain, but fallen branches are quite tricky. There are many around, but the most are way too massive to move with alpha.

Cutting them down to size must be made with the special ability of the wolves and that ability is rather draining. Cutting wind is rather strong, but leaves alpha exhausted and drains quite a bit of Miasma inside of him.

As alpha has less Miasma as the environment, obviously it replenishes the missing one from the area, and it hurts. The wind Miasma is not even the problem, but the different kind of affinities accidentally absorbed make the whole body ache. No wonder Monsters are always aggressive. I would be aggressive to, if I was always in some sort of pain.

Taking plants and wood back I notice the smell of acid in the air. This might be a good find, as it is the telltale sign of a spitting snake around here. If I can catch it of guard I would have some food for twin to acclimate to his body better or at least some more material to work with.

I am in no thought about catching it alive, as those things spit acid, and I want alpha as unharmed as possible.

Traveling after the smell shows the snake, how it hurriedly gulps down one of the electric mice. While it is wary of the surroundings it has its half dissolved prey in its mouth and devours it.

Lucky for me, as acid snakes need an empty mouth to spit their acid, unlike other Monsters that just can manifest their skills around them. Still they have a rather nasty second skill where they secrete their acid.

Standing on a root of a giant tree I look down and wait for the perfect opportunity to strike. The snake closes its mouth to press the prey down to the stomach and I use this opportunity to strike. Jumping down on top of it I bite right below the head with all my might and try to sever the head while chewing.

Shocked about the attack the Snake can do nothing but wriggle before it got limp. Luck was on my side as it did not use the acidic secretion over its body. Carefully I bring the prey back to my Domain. It is a new specimen and should be studied first.

…

As I thought there was no spirit body after disassembly. The fangs were hollow, but had no venom, which was odd. Maybe the Snake was venomous, but started to only use acid in the further mutation. I can not tell.

The Miasma inside the body was nearly completely gone but the hints of Miasma with the intent to melt something shows where it got this ability. Otherwise there is no dangerous part inside. The mouse on the other hand was a total loss. It was attacked with acid and dissolved inside the snake close to completion even before the stomach got to it.

Nothing I can do, so I just give alpha and twin something to eat. Twin as I am afraid of turning him back into a spirit body and alpha as I feel generous and he was the one who caught it anyway. Huh, snake really tastes like chicken, but leaves a strange aftertaste.

…

Alpha is gone. I did not even see, what got him, just gone. I relaxed, as I was still in the tunnel and did not think anything would happen there, but after seeing just a slight flicker I was cut of from him.

What in the Void happened? How can he be gone without me even realizing anything? Did he die? What did he die to? So many questions but my alert level is rising steadily.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

First thing was checking on my pitfall trap, as I might need it in a few Minutes. The release is even already pulled halfway to put it on a hair trigger. The next is checking the door as I want to capture whatever comes through, if something comes through. Twin is ready and able although a bit slow. I hope I do not need boost or tailless, but assembling them and putting them in the doghouse is the best option right now.

Not five minutes later, both of them jump out of my Portal and go hide inside, as I am now prepared as I can be. Let the waiting game begin.

…

Twenty minutes later, something started to stir in my Domain. Light did not reflect much and I can only vaguely notice my Essence brush against an aura. This made whatever there is stop at first, but later did come in further.

First I wanted to take my Essence back, but whatever it is would definitely notice the change, so I let it just be natural background.

What I could see after it was near the door was just a slight shadow of a creature. It is cautious with getting close to the gate. It took its time to finally show itself slightly. It was human.

Not quite human as I would call them but rather a dirty gray elf. What it does in my Domain I do not know, but I make sure it does not leave, as it might the killer of alpha.

Although I had alpha only a few weeks at most, I hate it if someone or something takes things away from me. It took alpha, so it will take his place. I have just the right things to experiment on with a humanoid creature as they can not become Monsters, unless for extreme circumstances, strangely. A creature without being a Monster will be new insight, unless even humanoid creatures can become Monsters in this World.

Typically for an elf it has a bow, but a rather strange one. The shaft even has still some leafs and is strangely formed. The arrow it has in its other hand looks also strange to me. Whatever the tip is made of is neither rock nor metal, and confounds me.

It is extremely careful until it came to the door and searched everything by touching it carefully. Obviously for traps, but I hope my trap door is not noticeable for whatever it is doing. As a precaution I create some sand in the pit and levitate it up to the cracks in the floor, hopefully deceiving it not noticing the difference. Also I started to use wind Miasma to let the faintest draft vanish inside the pitfall as this might also a telltale sign. The hollow sound… should not be a problem at how light it steps.

Finally at my gate it notices the rock wheel and chain before grabbing into its small pouch and pulling out… mud?

SON OF A… He used the mud with some kind of magic to grow vines blocking the rock wheel. I nearly got a shock as the vines grew frighteningly close to the dirt filled gap of the trap door.

Well trapping him with the door is out of the question now. I need to get him with the pitfall directly, but this will need some kind of distraction.

…

Moving inside after making sure the Wheel would not budge in any way, it perceives its surroundings. The first it noticed and stared at the longest was my Portal. Whatever it saw, it was extremely unnerved, as it regularly looked back at it, while searching the rest of the area. It saw the storage and doghouse, but stays with its sight longer on the doghouse, as it seems to know something is inside. Suddenly, I have an Idea.

A few steps inside is the ideal place for it to stand for my plan to work and I start part one of my plan. I trigger one of the instincts wolves have, without taking over their bodies. Although it is rather flimsy, instincts work somehow, even without me being fully in control, luckily.

The wolves howl. As an instinct ingrained somehow in their psyche, I could make them howl. What even shocked me, was the howl of twin. I let him not use his voice before and it is loud, deep and unsettling. And the elf is of this opinion too, as it readies its bow and nocks an arrow. But too bad, this was not the area, that is dangerous. The tiny focus on the wrong thing was enough and the floor vanished under the elf making him jump, but not quite enough to escape the pit.

Now I have to be fast, as I had not anticipated a sentient creature that early, as the wolves never seen anyone in the vicinity. Flying my Portal over the pitfall I stretch it with all my might into a disc and descended. At the same time I use wind Miasma to pull all the air I could muster out of the vicinity and hover rocks from my storage. First I block the gate with as many bricks I had in my storage while readying the spikes I created beforehand to drop them if it is necessary.

While I did that, the elf was not idle. The first thing happening were three arrows directly shooting through my Portal. The power of these are impressive and understood what took alpha out by just seeing them fly.

Now it starts to use its magic to create vines to climb, but with all my Essence and Miasma I fight against it casting. I lost the fight and the vines grew, what I took as signal to move my portal to the wall with the vine and going deeper into the pit. If it climbs it will have to go through me. Shock is evident on its face and maybe noticing the rather thin air. Shooting more arrows I pretend to warp and being pushed back.

It is luckily not smart as it shot more and more arrows while I warp and pretend to struggle going down. At the end it tries to use the vines and to jump around me, but just as it got a hold on the wall, a spike fell from the sky and impaled its shoulder.

Dropping back down the elf starts to hyperventilate. The less air and heavy fight seems to take it slowly out but not fast. Trying to stand it fell down again after being weakened. My Portal gets nearer and it seems to try to find a solution, and how many knew, a desperate solution could be a bad solution, as it crawled into the tunnel, sealing it with more vines.

Those Vines are a bit annoying, but my Portal can take them in after finding the best position to absorb them without turning the Portal intangible accidentally. Now going down the tunnel I take away all air I can to not let it recuperate. After the last turn I finally found the elf at the end, miraculously still conscious, but heavily weakened. Next was absorbing it into my realm. The fight is won.