Me and Cret began our trip to the Birthing almost immediately. Neither of us said a single thing to one another at the start of the trip and I don't blame him. If you meet your new boss and they try to kill you immediately, especially after you were promised a sort of better life than your old one from a person who has worked with said boss longer than you... the silence becomes understandable.
We walked for a bit in our silence for a bit. We walked for an hour or so, maybe less since I am bored. As we walked my instincts kicked in out of nowhere as I stopped walking. Cret probably felt it as well since he also stopped walking and got tensed quickly. We both stood there for several silent seconds.
"Do you know what it is?" Cret asked me. To be honest, I have a small suspicion that could lead us into one of two possibilities.
"I do, but I hope it's the first and not the latter" I said as I turned my right hand into a blade. Unlike my clone body, whose blade hand was just dual and appeared incomplete, this blade appeared smooth and sleek. As if it was actually forged like a real sword and not made of bits of flesh and bone.
"Alright, what is your first theory?" Cret asked me as he looked into the nearby dunes. Both of his hands flexed.
"Well my first theory is that we are surrounded by several Shapers who are either obeying the orders of a territory Lord or are a small group looking for food" I said as my eyes landed on something in the distance. It appeared to be a small bump in the surface of the sand. Shit!
"What's your second theory?" Cret said as his body tensed up and he quickly turned around. Suddenly the hand behind him exploded as a Shaper lunged towards him. Cret threw a punch at the Shapers jaw and when the two were about to make contact, the Shaper phased through him. Cret quickly launched a spin kick and launched the Shaper several feet away, its body tumbling across the sand.
"My second theory is that we are surrounded by very hungry Wild Shapers" I say as I stab the sand behind me. A cry of a beast was then heard from the sand as the sand exploded a bit and revealed a Shaper with its skin being fully red and having a human face, but a mouth of a reptile. The Shaper tried to fight back, but I quickly pulled my blade out of its body and promptly decapitated its head.
I then kicked the head towards a nearby bump in the sand. The kick launched the head at very fast speeds, so fast that when it made contact with the bump the sand was launched in the air and the Wild Shaper hiding underneath it followed with it. The Wild Shaper coughed out blood as the sand fell onto its body.
This appeared to have been a sign for the nearby Wild Shapers as suddenly all the nearby sand quickly exploded, revealing a great amount of Wild Shapers.
"So, Cret, how much do you know about Wild Shapers?" I say as I slowly walk backwards.
"I know that Wild Shapers are Shapers that don't think rationally and only follow their basic instincts such as sleeping, hunting, and forming packs" Cret said as he also walked backwards.
"Do you know how many are in a pack?" I said as I transformed my blade hand back to normal.
"From what I saw when I was sent to this world, maybe 5 to 10" Cret said as his back touched mine.
"Consider yourself lucky, cause the packs you met were probably just formed" I said as both my hands began to slowly generate white spikes, "seeing how wounded and scarred those three were, I would say this pack has existed for a year."
"Is that bad" Cret said, his eyes scanning at the great dust of sand that was slowly being cleared up. The figures of the Wild Shapers slowly appeared and their true numbers finally appeared.
"Well, a pack formed in a week usually has 5 to 10 members. A Pack formed in a month usually averages at 30 or so members. Now a year, man, they usually have up to a 100 and up members" I said as I raised both my hands up.
And as if to confirm my statement, the dust cloud of sand finally disappeared. Revealing a total number that far exceeded 80. Seeing this, I felt Cret's back shiver a bit before he calmed down.
"Do you have a plan?" Cret asked me. The pack slowly began to walk towards, their walk turning into a jog, before a full on dash.
"I do, the only problem is that I am a bit afraid of using it since you are most likely going to get caught in it and potentially die" I said as I shot several spikes at the pack. Some of the Wild Shapers fall after getting hit, but the majority either get wounded or just shrug it off. I tsked, even though it's impossible since no mouth and all, and just continued firing the spikes.
"Well it won't matter if we both are dead and if I do die, then it just means I have no right to become a subordinate to that lady" Cret said as he punched a Wild Shapers head into the sand and using his lizard head to bite a Wild Shaper, that attempted to pounce him, by its neck and drag it through the ground before tossing it towards the pack.
"Alright then" I said as I jumped into the air and retracted all my spikes back into my arm, "but I warned you!"
Suddenly a giant bulge appeared on my back. The bulge wiggled and wormed before popping open, revealing six long and bulky white tendrils that ended in giant arrow-headed spikes. The tendrils shot out into the open air and dove towards the ground. They slammed onto the ground, creating a small fog of sand, before shooting out towards the Wild Shapers. The tendrils greatly grew in size as they slithered across the sand and towards their targets.
The Wild Shapers were shocked and tried dodging. Those that were able to dodge got out safely, but those that were too late either died on impact or had a majority of their body missing. Cret dodged the attack and activated his ability, winning the 50/50 and phasing through the tendril that would have torn off his right foot.
Cret landed on the sand and quickly dashed away. He knew that he just got lucky and didn't want to test his luck again. He turned around and saw my tendrils swinging across the surface of the sand, crushing the Wild Shapers. Or launching Wild Shapers into the air. Hell, he saw a few get stabbed and turned into paste when they tried blocking the strike. This scene further pushed his will to escape the range of the tendrils.
When I saw Cret leaving the range of my tendrils, I decided to finally let loose. My tendrils stopped moving for a second before wrapping themselves around the giant pack. Turning themselves into a giant circle and trapping the pack inside, while I just stood in the air thanks to the help and strength of the tendrils.
I snapped my fingers and several holes appeared on the surface of the tendrils. The holes appeared inside the circle where the pack was located. I stared down at the pack one last time before I said one word, "burn!"
Suddenly the many holes began to shoot out a jet of blue flames that scorched all that were trapped inside the circle. I could hear the cries of the Wild Shapers for a bit before hearing their cries slowly die down until all I heard were the sounds of flames being shot out.
After waiting for a couple more seconds I promptly stopped the flames from being shot out, closed the holes, and gently brought myself down. On my way down I could see the sand below us had turned into glass and that there were the melted bones of the Wild Shapers splattered across the floor.
I probably could have ended it without damaging the surroundings by just shooting out a huge amount of poisonous gas or even just shooting long retractable spikes that would randomly appear on the surface of the tendrils and shoot out, skewering and killing the Wild Shapers. But this was the quickest and efficient option, so might as well accept it.
I had the tendrils retract back to my back, of course making the big bulky parts shrink down to their original size. As this happened Cret approached me and looked at the surrounding wide eyed. He stared at the melted bones and the glass that was once sand.
"You were capable of doing something like this, why didn't you do this when you fought me?" Cret said as he looked at me.
"Well for one, I was in the body of a clone, so I could only use 75% of my original strength. For the second reason, well I have a sort of rule that I follow that makes fighting more interesting" I said as the hole in my back was slowly healing itself, "always fight on the same level as your opponent."
"Why" Cret asked me a bit confused.
"Well it's not out of honor or respect if you're thinking on the lines of that. Although, I do think of it like that sometimes. Instead it's for my own entertainment" I explained as I stretched my back for a bit, popping it for a bit, before continuing our walk.
"I'll explain it another time, let's first get you to the Birthing" I said as I continued popping my back while walking. Cret looked at me for a bit before following behind me.
I look back at the pack of Wild Shapers. I find it strange, the pack seemed to have existed for more than a year, yet only had this many. What I said to Cret about a pack that was formed for about a year having a 100 members or so was a lie to calm him down. In truth, a pack formed in a day has 5 to 10 members. A pack formed in a week has 30 or so members. A pack formed in a month usually has 100 or so members. Now a pack formed in a year or more reaches beyond the thousands.
Yet this one had only more than 100 members? That is strange, very strange.