The villagers were no more. After they left with Adam, the man decided it was too dangerous to just let them leave on foot, so he gave them teleportation tablets and sent them all straight into The City. Good thing he did it too, because not even a day later, we were attacked.

  Our base, the sandstone wizard tower, sat at the edge of between The City and a desert to the west of it. Much has changed since I last saw it, the land around it scarred and bare from recent combat. Runes glowed, lessening the impacts that were shaking the massive stones while we ran to the surface.

  As I slammed open the front door, the attackers came into view. Hexagonal glowing barriers shimmered a meter away from the tower, blocking the incoming energy blasts. Most of them were dull, barely working, but just before impact, I saw energy get redirected and reinforce the part that was about to be struck.

  [Smart home defensive system?] I turned to John.

  The man nodded. “Born out of necessity. We couldn’t spare the energy to cover the tower completely, so we came up with this segmented defense.” He explained.

  “It only activates on the side the attacks are coming from, and there is another invisible energy field that detects where that is.” Adam added.

  [Oh, yeah… I can kind of see it.] It was very subtle and almost impossible to detect even with Spirit Sense. If they hadn’t told me about it, I would have thought it was just a side effect of the first barrier and not an actual extension of it.

  “Right, enough gawking, we got limited energy reserves. Get those bastards!” John ordered.

  I gladly obliged and stepped through the wall of energy, hungry for more Souls. My reserves were nearly bottomed out, I needed a refill.

  [Last one alive, lock the door!] I laughed and rushed forward. Almost instantly I detected living beings in a half circle around the tower. There were a few dozen of them I could see at a glance. Aiming for the closest one, I simply rushed through, not bothering to even attack. Just the collision was enough to turn the guy into pink mist, which caught on fire immediately after.

  Only ash remained a few moments later.

  The Soul tried to escape, but I snagged it faster than it could activate whatever mechanism made it disappear. None of them were going to escape me anymore. It got instantly locked away into my Sea of Consciousness, never to see the light of day again.

  The remaining Drow scattered away from me, not even bothering to attack. They realized the disparity between us, and the only thing left on their minds was to escape. I could smell their fear. They were right to be afraid. No amount of spare bodies would save them from true death if their Soul got devoured.

  [Come to me, delicious Souls!]

  Well, something did come, though it was not Drow like I wanted. Instead, it was a large black creature rushing towards me from the way those pale gray twigs escaped.

  [One, two, three… seven. It has seven legs?] I counted.

  “Six. That one’s not a leg.” John said calmly as he halted to my right. Clearly, it was not the first time he saw the beast.

  [Oh, damn. That’s a big one.]

  “Ew! What is that thing?!” Thalza flinched as she came to a stop on my left.

  “We call it a Slob.” John explained. I could see why.

  The beast had no eyes, only a giant nose and ears, and an even larger maw constantly dripping green saliva. The opening was full of jagged teeth, each of which could impale a person. The beast was massive, not the biggest I have ever seen, but still a good few stories tall. In fact, it was nearly as tall as our tower. And it was rushing straight at it.

  “The Drow began using more of these monsters during the last few months. They don’t usually come so close to our territory, but I guess the three Clans are losing ground.”

  Thalza looked at John with a piercing gaze. “What? You are lying! No Drow would stoop so low as to use such a disgusting monster to fight for them.”

  John was not bothered. “Believe what you want, I’m just telling it how it is. Besides, isn’t it clear where the beast is coming from? And see, it’s not even bothering to look at those escaping cowards. That makes their relationship quite clear, doesn’t it?”

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  “No, no.” Thalza firmly shook her head. “There has to be some other explanation. There is no way the Drow allied with a monster like that. I have never even seen a creature like it.”

  [Same. It doesn’t even look like something from this world, and I have seen plenty of weird things in my time.]

  “To be fair, I also haven’t seen anything remotely like it prior to this year.” John added. “It might be a new creation. Genetic manipulation or something.”

  [So, who’s going to kill it?]

  “I thought you were going to.”

  [Nah, I’m not touching that.]

  “I’m not doing it either. That thing is nasty. The last time I killed one I had to shower five times to get the smell off of me.”

  [Maybe Thalza could do it. She’s a Drow, it might not be aggressive to her. What do you think?] I turned to the woman.

  “No.” She stated firmly.

  “Oh, you guys are such wussies. I’ll do it!” Adam volunteered. “I saw you do it before, it can’t be that bad.” He jumped into the sky with his magic rifle and conjured a platform made out of Qi to hold him there. It took him a fraction of a second for the rifle to power up and then he fired, shooting out a thin beam of energy.

  He struck the beast on top of the head, but the beast was close to the peak of Spirit Realm and quite massive, so the impact just enraged it, nothing more. It released a loud, gurgling roar, spraying saliva toward Adam in the sky.

  Energy spiraled around it and it copied his technique, creating footholds out of energy and chased upward after him.

  “Oh, shit!” The guy exclaimed and bolted away. The beast chased.

  [Think he can make it?] I asked, leaning my head towards John as we watched.

  “Nah. I mean, he is stronger than before, but he just barely reached the Spirit Realm for the second time. He has no chance.”

  That’s when we heard another gurgling roar and shortly after Adam’s scream.

  “Aaaaah! It stinks!”

  The beast covered him with its saliva.

  Alexandra behind us covered her mouth as she chuckled. Then she frowned and cursed. “Damn it! I have to clean those clothes, run faster!”

  “I’m sorry!” Adam shouted back, just barely keeping out of the creature’s reach. He suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind the Slob and shot it in the ass. He struck its tough hide, doing fuck all damage. He then fired a few more times, managing to strike a sensitive spot. The beast wailed in pain and flipped around, enraged. It charged with the intent to devour, and Adam just barely managed to dodge by blinking out of the way. He was lucky his short-distance teleportations were so quick to activate, otherwise he would be cooked.

  [Does he know the beast is blind?]

  “I don’t think so.” John replied.

  [He could just go quiet and hide his energy and be safe, right?]

  “Yup.”

  [Cool.] I summoned my throne and sat down, enjoying the show.

  “Heeeeelp! Guys!” Adam shouted. He was teleporting all over the place and shooting at the Slob, but the beast was too big and too tough for his pea shooter to really hurt it. Blasting the weak Drow warrior and a creature of that size were completely different things.

  “Should we help him?” Alexandra asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

  “Nah, he’s fine.” John shook his head with a smile. “He had it too easy the last few years. He is stronger than he was before, sure, but the difference is not that drastic. Let him get some experience against stronger opponents.”

  I felt a pull on my sleeve and looked at Thalza. She pointed into the distance. “Another one is coming.”

  [Hoh? Do they often come in pairs?]

  John shook his head. “I have only seen a few over the last few months and they were always alone.” He frowned. “I think the three Clans might have lost control of the front lines.”

  “Of course they did, humans are weak.” Thalza commented but then paused, remembering the recent incident. “Well, most of them are...”

  [Hah… In that case, should I take it out?]

  John placed a hand on my shoulder. “Let me. I might as well show you what I have learned while you were away. It’s a technique I came up with. I call it Gravity Press.”

  I grinned. [I can already imagine what it might do.]

  “Just watch.” He smiled and stepped forward, hands crossed across his chest, and waited for the beast. The creature detected his blazing Aura and went straight for him. As soon as it was a good hundred meters away, John acted.

  Energy swelled up inside him and the Slob came to a sudden stop. The creature then lost its grip on the ground and floated up, flailing around helplessly. Then John released all that pent-up energy.

  A giant gravity wave slammed into the beast, making it flinch. Then a second one forced it into a more spherical shape, limbs pressed against the body. A third one came after, even stronger, and I could hear bones cracking.

  The creature released a loud wail as the air was squeezed out of its lungs. The fourth wave compressed the creature further, making it spit blood. However, instead of dropping to the ground, the blood arched back and splattered across the beast's body. The gravity magic was pressing it towards the center.

  The fifth wave crushed everything further, the limbs buckling under pressure and sinking into the body as the bones shattered. The Slob became a ball of blood and carnage.

  The sixth and final wave ended its suffering, crushing it so utterly it didn’t resemble a living being anymore and so it perished.

  John retracted his powers and breathed out a sigh, letting the mountain of flesh splatter on the ground. “There. Done.”

  I clapped. [Six waves, not bad! I like how you slowly increased the pressure in multiple steps. Very efficient.]

  John smiled and returned, forming a seat out of stone for himself. “Thanks. I can do it up to nine times total.”

  [Cool. I usually do it in just a single long squeeze.]

  “And you just keep going until they pop?” John asked with a smile.

  I laughed back and returned to observing our team member struggling against the massive creature that tried to kill him and rearrange his guts, not necessarily in that order.

  [You know me too well.]