As Ford, Max, and Ace walked through the forest in uncomfortable silence, Ford kept most of her attention on her radar, looking for any red dots that may appear. Ace walked around an oak tree, purposefully bumping into Ford and pushing her into Max.

“Hey! Watch it!” Max exclaimed as she stumbled.

“Sorry, that was Ace,” Ford said in her defense.

“I know. That’s who I was talking to,” Max snapped. Ford bit her lower lip and looked away, just trying to focus on finding monsters to fight. She didn’t want to start a fight with Max when they were only a few dozen meters from the wagon. “So,” Max began, to Ford’s surprise, “Why did you split the team up as you did?” she asked.

Ford blinked a few times as she processed the question, “Well, umm, what do you mean by that?”

“I mean exactly what I said. It’s not a question about relationship stuff. Why did you split the team up as you did?”

“Oh … well, each team has a healer, defender, ranged attacker, and close-range attacker. So, it’s split up fairly evenly.”

“But that would mean there are four people on each team. Last I checked, Tanya didn’t have a weapon or class. And Kii and Mizu are both ranged only. And we don’t have a healer.”

Ford raised a finger, “Ah, but that is where you are wrong for the first team being Farah, Lilly, and Gimble. Lilly is a healer and ranged attacker. And the second team being Morgan, Benet, Kii, and Mizu. Benet is a healer and close-range attacker, and Morgan is a defender and close-range attacker. All their strengths are supported, and weaknesses are covered.”

“That still doesn’t explain our team,” Max stated. “We’re two people and a weak, hungry dog.”

“I am not weak. I am just hungry,” Ace said.

“And to that point. Ace is both a close-range attacker and a long-range attacker. I’m a close-range and long-range attacker, healer, and defender. While you are a long-range attacker and defender. We’re perfectly balanced,” Ford corrected confidently.

Max rubbed her temples and said, “Okay, I can see how I’m the defender and ranged, but how are you all the things, and how is Ace long-ranged?”

“Ah ha! I can create blood shields and attack from a distance with blood weapons and my other weapons. And one of my skills, copycat, can copy another person’s skills. I copied Lilly’s absolute heal skill, and it looks like I can keep it forever so long as I don’t copy another person’s skill. And I recently gave Ace some more skill points in INT, WIS, and SOL and some time skills that can be activated at range,” Ford boasted, feeling prideful about her strategy.

Max nodded along with Ford’s explanation and asked, “Were you always like this?”

“Yeah,” Ford said, deflating a little.

“Huh, now I’m glad we broke up,” Max said off-handedly, moving ahead of Ford.

“Hhheeeyyy,” Ford complained. Max ignored her and just kept walking.

“She’s not wrong, though,” Greed said unhelpfully.

‘Shut up. You’re very unhelpful.’

“I’m plenty helpful,” Greed argued. Then Greed dropped her voice to whisper, “Take a look at that b-e-a-utiful dress Max is wearing.” Ford did so, and she felt a sudden infatuation with how it glinted in the light that got through the tree’s canopy. “We should take it. Go on. She won’t mind if we have it for a little while. No one will care if suddenly we’re wearing it. Go on. Take it for us,” Greed softly whispered.

“I –” Ford began, then shook her head, ‘No! We are not doing that!’ Ford thought, furious with herself.

“Did you say something?” Max asked, turning around.

Ford blinked a few times, “Uh, no. I-it’s nothing.” Max nodded and kept walking. Ace then looked at Ford sidelong. His flaming obsidian eye bore into her. Ford waved a hand to show she was okay.

Then Ace’s nose curled as he sniffed the air. He looked around, sniffing the air as he turned right and began trotting deeper into the oak forest. Ford quickly followed after Max noticed the change and went after Ace. He led them deeper and deeper into the forest before eventually stopping. Once Ford caught up to him, she could see a dozen red dots on her radar.

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Ford switched to speaking over comms, “We found some monsters.”

“Do you three need help?” Morgan asked.

“No, we should have this. Just keep looking for monsters,” Ford answered.

“Heard,” Morgan answered.

“What’s the plan?” Max asked.

“Eat!” Ace exclaimed and ran forward.

“Shit! No! Ace! Bad dog!” Ford yelled, chasing after him. Max ran after them as best she could but was quickly left behind. Even Ford had trouble keeping up with Ace.

Eventually, he stopped and growled at the trees, and Ford caught up with him. The red dots on her radar were located directly in front of her, and she quickly counted at least fifteen dots. But the dots on her radar had been so densely packed together that there might be more than fifteen.

“I smell fresh blood,” Ace said.

Ford activated her Linchpin skill and summoned her Obsidian Blades. Looking around, she saw thirty glowing white spots, and a text scrolled across her vision reading, “Fire.”

“Ace,” Ford said, getting his ravenous attention, “fire.” His lips curled into a dog’s smile, and a pitiful fire spray came out of his mouth, doing nothing. Ford dropped her arms in disappointment and said, “Oh right, we’re not in the dungeon anymore. Fuck. Okay, Ace, stop firing.”

He stopped the flames, and the woods became silent again. CRACK! The bark on five of the trees before them pulled off of the trees and began moving. Turning toward Ace and Ford. Thirty pairs of white eyes looked at them, followed by a cacophony of whispers.

“Who attack?”

“Two?”

“Food?”

“One eat. One can’t. One food.”

“Devour!”

The white orbs began to move down the trees toward them, and Ford focused on what the monsters were called.

Name: Barklings

Level: 10

Class: none

Once the barklings reached the bottom of the trees, she could finally make out their shapes and colors. Their skin and fur looked like tree bark and blended in with the trees when they were on them. They had two long, flat ears resembling horns and long, flat tails resembling a massive chunk of tree bark. They only stood thirty centimeters tall and had owl-like faces and beaks.

Ford didn’t wait for them to get any closer and charged forward, swinging her blades. One blade swung up and cut one of the critters in half. Then she swung the other blade down to kill another two monsters.

Pain shot up her right calf muscles as three of the little monsters began biting at her Achilles tendon in an effort to cripple her. She cursed and stored her swords and summoned her MKI and MKII versatile rifles, using the necessary mana to shift them into two ranger shotguns. More monsters began gnawing on her other leg, and she yelled, “Ace! Pull me out now!”

Then she aimed her guns at her knees and fired. The scattered shots ripped her knees apart in a burst of blood as Ace bit down on her collar, pulled her back, and tossed her behind him. Before she hit the ground, she regenerated her legs and landed on her bare feet. She looked to see the barklings swarming over each other in a pile, trying to get to the legs she left behind.

She cursed again, and Max finally caught up with them, “What happened? I heard a bang.”

“Those little monsters are eating my legs,” Ford said, pointing at the swarm pile. “I’m going to kill them and get my boots back now. Ace, level the playing field,” she commanded.

Ace nodded, and his flames turned red as he opened his jaws, and five flaming copies of him poured from his mouth and began picking off the outliers of the monster swarm. Ford aimed for the swarm’s center and used her Essence Shot skill with an earth and dark combination. The essences tore the monsters apart as Ford fired furiously at the monsters. Soon enough, there was nothing but corpses and a very bloody pair of boots with feet in them.

Ford grimaced and retrieved her feet, pulling them out and tossing them aside. She then put the boots into her Void Warehouse. Deciding to clean them later. A rustle of movement sounded above her, and she turned to see four more barklings falling from above. She aimed her guns at them, but before she could pull the triggers, a wall of spikes shot up from the ground and skewered them.

Ford lowered her guns and turned to Max, who had the base of her staff in the ground where the wall of spikes originated. Ford nodded, “Thanks for the assist.”

“Yeah, well, someone had to.”

“I would’ve been more entertained by them attacking you. Watching you scramble to get them off you would be fun to watch.”

“That would be funny.”

‘Stop it, the both of you.’

“Oi!” Lilly yelled over comms, “Is everyone al’ righ’?”

“Yeah, we’re –” as Ford began to answer Lilly, a loot bag clocked her in the back of her head. She continued talking after, “We’re fine. Just got some food for the dog.”

“Gran’, now we jist ‘av to git movin’ to the next dungeon.”

“Yep,” Ford agreed and motioned for Ace to start eating, and she didn’t have to tell him twice.

***