While waiting for Fist, I look at the two siblings in front of me.
"You two, have you mutated any of your strain?"
The two perks up and answer me.
"I mutated my eyes, I can see far away."
"I can run faster."
I look at the two in front of me a little surprised. This was the first time other siblings said anything other than their usual yells. Hmm, that means I'm not that different from my other sibling. They just speak less and can speak other things when asked specifically, and Fist is really the silent one.
I see. The two of them mutate their eyes and legs respectively. While it's not helping in offense or defense, it can be really useful. Especially the one that mutates her eyes.
"Then, I'll call you Vision and Runner. You can call me Blade and the one joining us later, Fist."
I pointed at them and they nodded, accepting their nicknames.
"I'll tell you your task later, but I have one rule you'll need to obey. That is to never push yourself, the Brood need you alive not dead. So, if you're hurt badly, stand back. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Yes."
Vision and Runner nods.
"Good."
I close my eyes and lay down my head after warning them. I don't know why but shutting my eyes, even just for a little bit of time, makes my mind feel refreshed. Even though I don't feel tired, physically or mentally.
A few moments later, I hear an egg opening behind me. Looks like Fist finally done mutating. When Fist comes out from his egg, he becomes bigger and darker, he is bigger than me now. His arm is now more synchrony with his body. It seems the strain is affecting each other. To support the big arm and fist bone, Fist' body grows to the size it is now.
"You picked Hardened Body, right?"
Fist nods and comes to me. Now that the team is complete, it's time to move out.
"Mother, we're going."
"Yes, go children and return alive."
I and the rest run out of the nest and into the forest. Now that we are running together, I come to know just how fast runners are. He is running alongside us with ease and when I tell him to speed up, he can easily leave us behind. I find some foreign white things in the forest but I ignore it. We follow the path from before and quickly reach the rocky plain. I turn to Vision.
"Vision, use your eyes and search for a creature with three arms and legs. It is now your task to search for prey and look out for ambush, it should be easy with your eyes. We're counting on you. Also, make sure to hide well, Mother said to not be discovered by red-skinned creatures."
"Yes."
Saying that she climbs onto one of the rocks and looks around. She extends her head out a little, just enough for her to observe the surrounding.
"Oh, and if you can, find one that is far from other monsters."
We need time to bring down the Hecas, it would be disastrous if other monsters or the red-skinned creatures suddenly join in the fight. Vision nods and before long, she finds one.
"Found one, there."
She points at a direction and we head toward it with her leading the way. Soon, we can see a lone Hecas. It is alone and other monsters are quite far from it. We can hunt it at our leisure.
I turn to Runner.
"Runner, how long can you keep running?"
"Long time."
"Good. Now here is what we're gonna do. I and Fist will be the main attackers."
As the strongest, it is only obvious for us to fight at the forefront and deal the most damage. And we can take hits, we need to cover for the other two who are weaker than us.
"Vision, you watch the surroundings and report if there's a hostile coming for us. You can participate in the battle but your duty is to keep an eye out, you are our eyes."
Vision nods. I think of the last battle. We were lucky that nothing bad happened last time. But if there were monsters attracted by the sound of our battle last time, we might be injured severely or worse, dead.
But now that we have Vision, we can fight in peace. With her on the watch, we can know in advance if there is a hostile coming and will not be taken by surprise.
"Runner, all you need to do is run. Run around it and annoy it. Slash at it a few times but don't get to catch up. I want you to distract it. Its movement is slow so you should be safe with your speed but still, be careful. Its hand can still hurt you if you don't focus."
With his speed, Runner should be able to dodge attacks from the slow Hecas. And if he can distract the Hecas, it will make things easier for me and Fist. Runner nods.
"Then, are you guys ready?"
Everyone nods.
"Then let's go!"
I, Fist, and Runner rush toward the Hecas while Vision stays back. We don't bother hiding and just dash from the front. Ambush and hiding are useless against Hecas, after all.
The Hecas already notice us and launch a preemptive slap, Runner rushes ahead and dodge the slap. He runs in a zigzag, the slow Hecas can't touch him. Runner lands a slash at the Hecas's leg and retreats just as quickly. A slap landed on the place he previously stood seconds after he retreated.
Runner runs around the Hecas in zigzag, attacking if he has the chance. Preoccupied with Runner, I and Fist easily breach the Hecas's defenses. A punch comes at us but we dodge it.
Fist winds up his arm and Fist Bone, his punch hits the Hecas's leg causing a loud dull sound. Don't want to lag behind, my energy-filled blade gouges a long wound at the Hecas's leg.
The Hecas cry and its attention turns to us. Its hand raises and comes down, aiming at me. I jump back and slash the hand that lands in front of me with my energy blade.
The Hecas launches a punch at Fist. Looking at the big hand coming at him, Fist winds up his arms and Fist Bone. Is he thinking of..? He really is.
Fist punches the clenched hand coming toward him, fighting fire with fire. As expected, with the difference in physique, Fist is thrown back but he left four fist marks at the Hecas's hand.
Looking at him, I think he doesn't receive too much damage. But to think he dares to put his punch with the Hecas, he is gutsy or should I say, reckless. Fist stands up with a fearless smile and charges at the Hecas again. With a tougher body, he becomes even more ballsy.
While I was watching Fist, I saw a punch coming at me from my peripheral vision. I can't dodge the punch, I cross my arm and take the punch.
Damn, it's heavy and I can feel the impact all over my body. Before the Hecas can pull its hand after the punch stops, I run to the side and slash my energy blades at the Hecas's wrist.
SLASSH!!
The Hecas's palm falls off, blood churned out. The Hecas howls and the palmless arm flailing in the air, blood rain down from the sky. The Hecas starts to attack wildly and move around while kicking. Dust flies and the situation is getting rough.
Runner smartly backs off, Fist stays close while waiting for a chance to attack. I jump back and put a distance from the Hecas. Worried, I ask Vision.
"Vision, any hostile?
"No, but some monsters are looking over here."
If others are already looking here, it is just a matter of time before they come. I looked at the Hecas and thought of an idea to stop it. I raised my arms and aimed at the Hecas's leg.
PSHUU!!
with a soft sound, a 30cm long white bone needle shot out from my right arm. The bone needle flies and hits the Hecas's leg, it pierces deep into the flesh. The Hecas stagger and I don't let the chance go, I shoot until I spend all my bone needles, I am still not used to it but I manage to hit two of the Hecas's legs. Two bone needles pierce each leg.
The Hecas is forced to a stop with my bone needles. But while the legs stop, the Hecas's arms still flail about.
"Fist, hammer down the needles!"
Hearing my shout, Fist move in. He dodges some of the indiscriminate attacks of the Hecas and tanks the rest, he arrives at one of the legs with bone needles sticking out.
Fist punches the bone needles and the needles are pushed completely inside the legs. A pained cry comes out from the Hecas as its legs give out. Fist moves toward the other leg and punches the needles in. The Hecas fall to the ground.
I expend ten energies to make two bone needles and shoot it at the Hecas's lower body before rushing toward it.
"Attack the lower body!"
Fist doesn't need me to remind him, he sees the bone needles and quickly punches it in. Runner joins in and slashes at the Hecas while running around it. Energy covers my blades as I slash at the intersection of the Hecas upper and lower body.
I don't manage to cut it off in one slash, but I quickly slash again. Blood bursts out and a punch comes at me.
I ran to the side and watched as the wound got bigger when the punch hit. I slash again and the Hecas's upper body slides down from the lower body. The Hecas is finally dead.
[You have slain LV1 Hecas, You gain EXP!]
With this, our first hunt is done, but the hard part is just starting. I silently cut the Hecas's arms and legs, I also cut the upper body into half, leaving the bloodied lower body alone.
Looking at the big pile of flesh, I and Fist are silent while Runner and Vision are excited. They still don't know the pain of stuffing yourself over and over again.
I give Runner two legs and one arm, for Vision two arms and a leg. Of course, the Bone needles are already taken out. I and Fist have half of the upper body each. While we need biomass, I want to help Runner and Vision to quickly mutate their other strains first.
Runner and Vision were excited at first, but they learned our pain after eating the second part. I and Fist, who already eat our share, smile when we look at them. After a few hours, they finally finish eating.
Vision looks around and after making sure there are no monsters near the path leading into the forest, we carry the Hecas's lower body and walk back to the nest.
When we pass through the forest, I notice that the monster's number is still low here. I wonder where they all go. I also noticed a white something from before on the tree and ground. It looks like white hair but it's sticky and tough. It takes a bit of effort to rid the hair from my hand, it is incredibly sticky. What is this?
If whatever creating this is using the hair as a weapon, it would be difficult to handle. While it does no damage, it can restrict our movement and not to mention, it is hard to get rid of. I can cut it but it will stick to my blade and accumulate.
Hmmm…
Oh, wait a minute! I look at my hand and move my energy to my Black Sludge Gland, slowly black goo flow out of the skin of my arm. The goo is thick and covers my whole palm, then I try touching the hair again. Just like I thought, the hair no longer sticks to my hand thanks to the goo. Good, now I don't have to worry about these weird hair anymore.
I ignore the hair and focus on carrying. When we get back to the nest, Mother praises us. After enjoying the head pat, Runner and Vision go inside their eggs to mutate. I look at the progress of the egg room and see the room is advancing quite smoothly.
My siblings are hard at work and used their arms and Bone Blade to dig the room. One of them ran back and forth from the nest to outside, dumping the dirt outside the nest. With how things are going, it should not be long before the room is finished. At that time, our siblings will increase and the Brood will be stronger.
I got bored while waiting and got curious about the white sticky hair I see in the forest, so I ran out of the nest to investigate. Fist, who was also bored, comes along. I tell Fist about the hair and how to not get entangled with it.
We quickly reach the place where I see the sticky hair, I look around and see if I can find more. And I did.
There is a lot of it around. It makes me curious. I explore the forest and find more white hair. I got more curious, I climbed a tree and looked around for anything foreign. I saw some creatures I never saw before, I dropped down from the tree and ran toward the creatures.
There are at least seven of them, the creatures have three pairs of long legs and a big bottom. Four pairs of red eyes and mouth filled with sharp teeth. They are about the same size as Pringos and the purple body with white lines is kinda creepy.
The creatures are crowding and eating a Broon. I recovered three of my bone needles after eating the Hecas, I aimed and shot at the creatures.
PSHUU!!
PSHUU!!
The three bone needles hit their target and killed three of the three creatures.
[You have Slain LV1 Taraqak, you gain EXP!]
[You have...
…..
Fist rushes out and pummels two of the Taraqaks to death before they can react. The other two Taraqaks shots out white hair from their bottom at Fist. The white hair hit Fist legs and I can see Fist struggles moving his legs. He quickly let out a black goo from his legs and free himself.
The two Taraqaks about to shots more white hair at Fist but I rush out and deal with them quickly, I don't even need to use an energy blade to kill them.
I take a bite of the creature.
[You have devoured LV1 Taraqak.]
[Taraqak]
[A bug monster with adhesive web and a ravenous appetite. They can wrap their prey in a web for storing. Multiply quickly.
Lead by a brood mother and are territorial hunters.]
I see, so this white hair is called a web. This web is strong enough to hinder Fist, I need to be careful and inform the Brood about this. Fist and I devour the carcass and cores. I eat four and Fist eats three.
But a Brood, is it? I need to tell Mother about this and quickly.
The Taraqak each gives three biomass, twelve for four and with the two biomass from the Hecas, I now have 19 Biomass. Time to mutate again.