As it gobbled down the last silvers of meat from the rabbit, the new monster turned its gaze to scrutinize us, as if daring us to challenge it. It was a large deer-like animal with natural growths all over its body. Grass hung off of its back and vines wrapped themselves around the beast. With a pair of sharp horns and a fluff of mane running down its neck and glowing green, it looked more peaceful than dangerous. Or, it would have if it did not kill and finish up a whole critter in front of our eyes.

  I considered the option of defeating it and reaping the rewards. If I managed to defeat it, would it yield me an ability stone? If there was even a tiny chance of it dropping another one of those precious stones for my collection, it was an enemy worth fighting. Beside me, my companions and Saskia seemed to have similar thoughts, but clearly for a different reason from mine.

  Kaelen gasped, breaking the silence first, "It... It ate the rabbit, right? The cute little thing."

  "Don't forget the cute thing would have killed us if given the chance," Elias grunted darkly, but it was obvious from his expression that he held a similar sentiment. The reason why they wanted to kill the deer did not matter to me, all that mattered to me at the moment was that they would support me in my incoming battle with the monster.

  Saskia did not say a word, but her shadow essence sword materialized in her hands, and that was enough to tell me her stance on the matter. She brandished it, glancing at me. I realized then that I was the only one who did not show my opinion, so I nodded, finalizing our unspoken plan to defeat and loot the deer. Unaware of its fate, the deer still stood proud, staring us down condescendingly, its calmness invoking much annoyance within me. Discarding such distracting thoughts, I focused on coming up with a plan.

  "Does any of you want to land the finishing blow?" I asked as an idea began to formulate in my head, "We can split the loot if... necessary."

  I turned to look at Saskia, and she hummed, "Splitting won't be needed unless the three of you have other opinions, but we can alternate finishing blows whenever possible. We can trade loot among us if we are interested."

  When she finished, her gaze fell on me, silently asking for confirmation. Reluctantly, I had to admit that her idea wasn't wrong. I sighed, adding on to her suggestion, "I'm fine with that. All of us can kill this one if given enough time. I can just act as backup if something goes wrong. I'm not particularly interested in this monster. Kaelen, do you mind?"

  She nodded, understanding what I wanted without the need for words. I saw her concentrate on the space around the deer, and instantly, a dome of shimmering energy fell on the deer, trapping the creature within. This way, we could take some more time to discuss and prepare a plan. The deer did not appear to be as strong as the skeleton, or as dangerous horned wolves pack, so we could afford to use a basic method of attack.

  Saskia was the next to concede, "I have no use for this deer, either. I have enough meat for now, and I don't need to craft anything."

  "I'll handle it, then," Kaelen did not waste another second and landed a barrage of lightning attacks on the deer. It writhed as the plant growths on its body twisted and morphed in an attempt to subdue it. After about five bolts, the deer was still holding itself up. It was weakened, that was for sure, but it still had a bit to go before death. A thought flashed through my mind and I dove into my mind using my illusions Skill, and searched for the deer's energy ball. It was easy to find, the monster's mind pulsing a deep forest green at the back of its head.

  Gasping, I rose back into reality and suggested, "Kaelen, aim for the back of its head, a little lower and towards the neck."

  She raised an eyebrow but did not argue, deciding to trust my words. As her sixth lightning bolt struck the area where the deer's energy ball was hiding, it collapsed, its eyes rolling to the back of its skull. With another streak glowing gold, the deer beast was dead, and Kaelen glanced at me, incredulous, "How did you know?"

  I grinned, keeping my words cryptic, "The same method I used to reveal the rabbit's location."

  It was vague, but it seemed to be enough to satisfy Kaelen's curiosity, so we continued walking. As we hiked, I asked, "What did you get from the deer, Kaelen?"

  She clicked a few times on thin air before replying, her eyes widening, "Some meat, a horn for crafting I think, and a deer skin cloak that lets me shapeshift into something similar to that animal. That last one is amazing."

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  "That one could come in handy in battles," I agreed, "We can check out its exact properties later. I am particularly interested about how much of the deer's physical abilities it lets you copy over."

  "What do you mean?" Kaelen sounded genuinely confused, and after a brief second of organizing my thoughts, I replied.

  "I'm not sure if you saw it, but the plants on the deer seemed alive," I recalled the vines slapping the bolts away and the shrubs moving to block the strikes that managed to slip through, "I just want to know if they carry over through the cloak, or that is only for the actual animal."

  Saskia agreed, her usual light smile making me mildly annoyed, "Yes, I did catch onto that part. You are perceptive too, aren't you, Terra? However, I don't think it would apply to the cloak."

  "Did your prophetic stalker abilities let you see that too?" I whispered into her ear, perhaps harsher than I meant to make it sound, but Saskia just shrugged it off without another word. I grumbled about her lack of response as we continued moving through the forest, nearing our destination.

  As the area of choice came in our line of sight, something else did, too. Two medium-sized two-headed snakes were shooting at us at high speeds, reaching us before we could even react. One headed straight for Kaelen and Elias while the other shot towards me and Saskia. I called out my lion claw daggers while shielding my arms in a thin but durable shield of shadow essence. My first dagger deflected the bite from the head on the right, while my other claw cut off a tooth of the snake head that was about to bite into Saskia.

  "Focus," I hissed at her as I risked a quick look at Kaelen and Elias. The two were holding up much better than I had feared, with Kaelen making small but quick golden shields while Elias chose the best time to land corruption hits on their snake.

  Time to focus, like how I had instructed Saskia to do. Taking advantage of the snake's recoil, I launched three poisoned arrows at it, and two found their mark, lodging one arrow below each head. The purple snake was angered by my attack, and both heads headed for me. I dodged by throwing myself against the ground so that it missed, rolling so that I was directly below the snake. Without hesitation, I split the creature in half with a dagger and nailed the heads onto the ground, one dagger for each head. I held the thrashing animal there until its attempts at escape slowly weakened.

  Eventually, it stopped moving, and a System notification dinged in my ears. I removed my weapons, storing them back into my inventory as I spun back to face Saskia, "Why didn't you do anything? We both know that you are strong enough to take it out."

  "Thought you were enjoying the battle," the girl barely sounded apologetic, but she was correct about that once again. I could not deny that the thrill of the battle, together with the rewards I have yet to check out, was what I was looking for. I glared at her as silence stretched out between us, broken only by the battle noises from Kaelen's and Elias' fight, but eventually turned away to help my companions.

  The two of them were almost done with the snake, though. Elias had corroded away most of the snake's lower half, and he was steadily making his way up to one of the heads. When the snake tried to bite him with one head or sometimes two, Kaelen would always be there to support him with a well-placed semi-circle of force fields wrapped around his hands and any other possible points of injury. They were a fluid team, and it was clear that they did not need my assistance. Even so, I did not avert my gaze from their fight, ready to do my best to protect them if something unexpected happened.

  While waiting, I sent a telepathic wave to Hydra, sharing my memories with him through our link. While our connection had certainly grown stronger since his creation, our minds were still not close enough for him to access my memories directly, and vice versa. Even though I needed to inform him of what we were up to every once in a while (especially since he preferred his spot up in the air, intervening only when he felt like it, which was rare), I couldn't help but feel glad that my thoughts were not that freely accessible to him yet.

  I clicked open the System notification that I received after my win against the snake just so that it stopped being a nuisance.

  You have slain 1x Two-Headed Cobra [Lvl. 10]! You gained 1000EXP, 1x Venom Sac, 4x Two-Headed Cobra Scales, 2x Python Meat, 400 New Gems

  3600EXP to next level!

  The venom sac could be useful for my poison project. I also took note of the cobra scales, deciding to check out crafting later, either tonight or tomorrow. Before I could lay out a possible lan for all four of us tomorrow, I was pulled out of my thoughts by Hydra's answer.

  'Hatchling, the horned wolves are close to your area,' Hydra sounded slightly worried, something new for him since he was always so confident, but based on his words, his wariness was not unwarranted, 'You might want to reconsider-'

  He trailed off, descending from his spot in the sky just as Kaelen and Elias killed their two-headed snake, and a scene that was eerily familiar unfolded before my eyes. A large wolf with a singular horn resting on his head leapt from behind the tree in front of us. Violet flames erupted from its fur as it brandished its horn and circled us, growling menacingly. Its gaze, burning with hatred and anger, was fixated on Saskia though, and I understood why.

  It had to be the beast she knocked out earlier but did not kill. I readied my Skills and my shadow essence, expanding my wings for the first time since we set out today.

  "Remember! Don't kill the horned wolves!" I reminded my companions, as well as Saskia, and prepared to fight. This time, we were prepared for the wolves' tactics.

  Raven/Terra's Inventory: