Alban and the imps soon arrived at the shoreline, and Alban was astonished by its beauty. The water was blood red, with sparkling shards of various colors littered across the shoreline. The gems glowed red under the moonlight, turning the beach from a faint grey into a rainbow tinted in crimson.
There was a monster standing straight by the water, its arms and legs facing the four. Its head, however, didn't get the memo, as it was still facing the sea. Sidestepping a bit, Alban tried to take in a full glimpse of the monster, and saw another pair of arms and legs facing the sea. The head turned and faced him, completely rotating as it went. 'Interesting.'
(Double Soldier Youth}
Its limbs can rotate freely. The mouth seems to be a catalyst for casting spells.
Alban was bit irritated that there was no stat estimation, but he could manage. He breathed in deep, before pushing forward and leaping towards the double soldier. While in midair, he commanded the vines on his shin guard to wrap around his leg, before kicking it at the mouth of the double soldier. He was planning to end this quickly.
The double soldier didn't stand there and take it, however. Although out a bit off by the pure savagery emanating from Alban, it kept its focus and dodged before aiming all four of his arms at Alban's back. Alban quickly turned around and his guard, his arms bracing for impact. Successfully blocking three of the arms, the fourth swung and hit his stomach, slightly raising him upward with an almost herculean strength. Before it could continue to pummel on Alban, it was met with a javelin to it's eyes.
The double soldier beat a speedily retreat in vain, the spear left a huge gaping hole in the middle of it's face. It seemed those eyes were merely ornaments, as although t was bleeding profusely it once again attempted an offense on the now standing Alban. It ripped off it's own arm and started swinging it at him, forcing him to skirt the strike and move towards the soldier's left. Like a gunshot, the remaining two arms of the soldier sped towards Alban while it's mouth started to effuse a green light, but Alban didn't let it proceed to do whatever it was planning.
Pulling out his Stressful Whittler, ducking underneath the blows from the double soldier's two fists. Alban quickly stabbed the monster's abdomen, pushing the whittler deep and twisting it a bit, before rolling off to the side. The monsters glowing mouth opened at that point, but a bit too late. A green beam shot out from it's mouth at where Alban was before he rolled. The sand billowed and scattered throughout the air, displaced by the blast.
Nevus' eyes were fixed on Alban's form, intently watching his movements. He had been watching his boss intently, ever since he had glimpsed the smiling shadow behind Alban. Teta and Lady weren't focused at all, however, as Teta was attempting to teach her how to play rock-paper-scissors. He had gained all sorts of knowledge when he evolved, and he wanted to try it all out as soon as he could.
Alban stood over the monster, watching it struggle to move. He had ripped all the limbs off of the double soldier, discovering that he could store them in his inventory in the process. He was now currently trying to make the double soldier waste all of it's mana, as he didn't want a stray beam to harm one of the imp children. After patting it's mouth until the green glow turned into nothing more than a whimper, he threw the monster over. As Teta was about to kill it, Alban speedily proclaimed "Teta, it's Nevus' turn. I thought that would be obvious..." He was answered by a grinning Teta scratching his head, pretending he had no idea what Alban met before slowly pushing the soon to be corpse to Nevus.
Nevus quickly dispatched the monster and held up 8 fingers. Alban quickly got up, a bit annoyed. Although he didn't expect Nevus to reach the threshold immediately, he would be lying to himself if he wasn't hopeful that Nevus would. Grumbling, he got up and motioned for the imps to lead him to another opponent after quickly collecting his weapons. The double soldier's corpse didn't stick around, so Alban was wondering how quickly he'd find it after it's revival.
Some hopping and crawling later, the imps caught a trace of another creature. They couldn't pinpoint the location, however, and were sniffing around for it. To their shock, the ground under them was blown away! Teta, Lady, and Nevus were quickly blown into the air, a mouth expecting their descent into it's massive gaping maw.
Alban wasn't having it though. He leapt up into the air and set his whole entire body aflame before jumping into it's gullet and lodging himself in it's throat. The worm looking assailant fell and started thrashing around wildly on the beach, its jugular rapidly showing a bright and blazing red. The worm's mouth opened up and Alban strolled right out of it. He smacked the worm's head a bit and gestured for Nevus to end it. Obeying his boss quietly like usual, he gladly took the worm's life. Nevus never wanted to be snuck up on again, in fact he would be doing the sneaking from now on. While picturing the smiling shadow, he chose his class. The dim light obscured him immediately after.
Alban was marginally disappointed at whatever creature that worm disappearing. He understood that every corpse he collected was due mainly to luck, but losing all of those materials was really...disheartening. Teta was disheartened, too. He couldn't believe Lady just beat his almighty rock...how does a paper even beat a rock anyways? The rock is covered, but it's still there...
Nevus soon emerged from the glow, gazing down at his new body. His skin was still red, but he had black patterns along his body. His human appearance was a bit more mature than Teta, looking around the ages of 8-11. The scar marring his face extended until it reached both ends of his face, his looks a bit more handsome than Teta's but losing out on charm. The hair sprouting from his head was black and slightly long, extending a bit past his shoulders much like Alban's, and his horns became longer, thinner, and much sharper. His cornea was black while his iris became a sharp purple.
Alban quickly made a black shirt and pair of shorts and handed it to Nevus, who received it with a small smile. "My class is Hushed Woe, and I'm a young shadow imp," Nevus remarked, not offering anything more nor anything less. It was prompt, exact, and quiet, much like the young imp himself.
Lady was grateful for his quick answer, and was eagerly jumping around and sniffing for any residual traces of monsters. It was clearly evident what she wanted, and Alban was definitely going to abide by her wishes. His quest was two thirds over, and was happier that the imps were getting stronger. Although his time with them was brief, he found them endearing and desired for them to remain as safe as they could, and the only way they could do that in this world was to get stronger. He looked up to see Teta and Nevus moving towards Lady, the girl in question impatiently tapping her feet.