The Harvester ripped into the mushroom in front of Kabi before leaping toward him. No sound came from it at all. The music halted as it crossed some invisible line.

A rune glowed on the ground providing a dim light under Kabi.

"Going for it," I sent as I leaped from my mushroom, hitting the creature in midair. My spear pierced through its armor, and into its center. Its beak opened wide as it screamed, but nothing came out.

I forced even more energy into the tip as the ground rushed up to us. Three silver arrows flew through the air and all three pierced its armor like it was nothing.

Then we hit.

My feet slid off the armor like it was nothing, and I rolled back, leaving my spear behind as two legs stabbed at me.

One missed, but the second graced my right arm, slicing through the leather armor like nothing. The scales underneath split, but took the brunt of it.

A sword slammed into the Harviter's head, right through the armor between its eyes.

Energy rippled down the blade, much like I did with my spear, and the creature went still.

[You have gained bonus experience from combat for surviving against a level 81 Harvester.]

[You have gained a level.]

My arm hurt, but I sent some cooling energy from my necklace to fix it. Still, my stomach grumbled from the use of the scales trying to tank that damage. As I approached the carcass, I ate a few slivers of meat to settle my stomach. All I needed was to lose control and shove pieces of it into my mouth. That would scare my new friends, I had no doubt.

"I need to cut it up and see what I can eat," I said, before adding, "It's part of my class."

"We don't have long before other beasts smell it. Hurry."

Kabi marched to the edge of the clearing while Cekta raced closer. "I didn't even get to use my trap rune. That was the quickest fight I've ever seen. You and Kabi work well together."

"The silence rune was genius," I said as I yanked my spear out and tried to find the beast's center.

Cekta pointed to a few areas. "There is meat on its belly."

I switched from the side to under it completely after Cekta flipped it to its back. My spear tip made quick work and I found what I was looking for. I quickly stuffed the heart into my mouth, taking bite after bite. It tasted like freaking chicken. Or at least, what fake chicken tasted like.

[You have devoured a Harvester and gained insight into the skill Whispering Trap.]

No-go on something new. Even so, I cut huge chucks out the thing's muscles, tossing it all inside my inventory crystal. Then I snagged out the fountain crystal and washed my face and hands.

"You good?" asked Cekta.

"Good enough."

Lenna had joined Kabi at some point, chatting in whispers, and I took the lead again.

"You eat your prey," said Cekta. "But why?"

I didn't see any reason to hide it. "I gain bonuses, like experience, skills, and stats."

"That's powerful. Your victories become part of you. That's ancient magic." He paused for a moment. "I can record powerful deeds with runes on someone, and they can pull echoes from the battle. I almost did that with Kabi and the Forger, but there was too much interference from others and it wouldn't work."

Yeah, having the Forger get blown up first might make that harder.

The mushrooms continued as I scouted ahead, though else nothing crossed our path. Probably since we were following the Harvester's trail, and it had cleared out the area already.

Eventually, we needed to stop for a break.

Lenna found a creek hidden under some mushrooms that I'd missed, and I backtracked to meet them there.

Kabi's sword wasn't anywhere to be seen, but Lenna kept her bow out with her eyes searching our surroundings. Everyone drank water and snacked on dried food that Kabi shared, except for me. I stuck to eating more of the gopher, wanting to get through the rest of it.

The Harvester meat mocked me in my inventory, but I resisted.

Chicken sounded so much better than more corn.

The number of free stats I had stocked away blew my mind, and I knew I needed to use some of them up. I tossed 20 points into each of STR, TOUGH, WILL, and CHA. All four lagged behind the others because of the new stats I earned with my class. My professional stats gained now, along with the stats from titles, were so tiny it didn't make a dent in trying to balance me out, without using the free points to compensate.

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I didn't mind having some standout stats concentrated, but the difference had grown pretty big. Plus, I needed to be able to do plenty of damage, and take some as well. Though, the goal was always to dodge. Even if I could tank a hit, it usually hurt.

Something rushed across the edge of my radar and I leaped to my feet. The talking rune had worn off, and Cekta planned to redo them before we left, but we didn't have time.

I pointed in the direction the thing was coming from.

Kabi leaped into action, yanking out his sword, while Cekta quickly drew something on the ground before running to hide. Lenna leaped up, landing on the top of a mushroom, though she didn't look worried. Instead, her lips narrowed into a grim line as I faded into a shadow.

[Shelli, Runic Armorer, Reinforcement, Level 67, Prey, Unknown.]

The blue woman saw Kabi and frantically shook her head.

"Run," she whispered as she kept going past us. "A Harvester!"

Something nagged me about her as she kept going. She only had two arms, even though she had to be the same species as Kabi and Cekta. Then the Harvester pinged on my senses, though Shelli slowed down when she realized Kabi hadn't followed.

The predator leaped into the clearing, but Kabi got there first.

[Harvester, Bound, Level 70, Prey, Chicken.]

I didn't even get a chance to do anything before its beak went flying and it crashed to the forest floor, sending blue needles everywhere.

Shelli crept back into the clearing, her eyes wide and fixed on Kabi, who stared into the distance.

"Is that the only one?" he asked.

"Yes," she said bowing. "I thank you for your assistance."

His sword vanished and a rune on his chest went dim. "You are welcome. Where do you hail from?"

"Needlecrest. It is being harassed by Harvesters. I got caught outside during the attack."

"That isn't far from here," said Kabi, stepping closer. He tapped her shoulder, and she pulled her head up from the bow. "They haven't fallen to the slavers?"

"Not yet." She hesitated. "I thought we were hidden, but then so many Harvesters invaded the forest."

"That Harvester was sent to capture slaves. I doubt Needlecrest still stands." Kabi turned away, frowning.

"Can you help?"

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

I stepped out of the shadows, as did Cekta.

"How many Harvesters?" asked Cekta, before I could.

"Half a dozen at least." Shelli glanced at Cekta in surprise. "At least check it out. I got this one to follow me, maybe that helped them hold out a little longer."

Kabi let out a sigh and opened his eyes. "I will go."

"How did they find the village?" asked Cekta, moving to walk beside the woman.

Lenna jumped off the top of the mushroom she'd been occupying with her bow still drawn. She landed lightly on her feet.

"Someone is hiding a slave," said Kabi. He glanced at Shelli for confirmation. "Harvesters can track slave collars. They gather near them when ordered and eventually bring the slavers. We will need to hurry, but at any sign of the slavers, we'll flee."

"You'd leave Needlecrest to fall?" she asked, her face going pale as she reached out to grab onto his lower hand.

"I have a more important path I'm following," growled Kabi, jerking away from her.

I wasn't sure I trusted this woman, though both the brothers seemed to. How did we just randomly cross paths with someone with a Harvester chasing them? Plus, randomly close to a hidden village?

It felt too good to be true.

Kabi took the lead and Cekta let him march off, chatting with Shelli about the village. Lenna hung back behind the two, but didn't say anything.

I quickly crept after Kabi, keeping everyone within my range. Kabi glanced at the shadows frequently, though he kept marching through the forest faster than before.

"Looking for me?" I whispered, since we still hadn't had a chance to renew the communication runes.

"Be on the lookout for any traps. I thought Needlecrest fell many moons ago."

"I will." Then I took off, following the scent trail that Shelli had left behind as she fled through the forest. The trail was almost perfectly straight, only dodging around mushrooms and such where necessary.

Beings popped up ahead, and the sound of fighting drifted through the dark forest. Glimmers of light streaked through the trees as a mass of Harvesters carried slumped people overhead, marching farther to the east. A massive tree with mushrooms climbing up it stood overhead, watching the destruction.

More people like Kabi fought the creatures with weapons, though they were clearly out-leveled. The remaining 5 Harvesters were all around level 70, while the people trying to resist them were under my level. Even with double the numbers, the people weren't making progress.

I doubled back, meeting Kabi in the shadows of the trees.

"Five Harvesters left, the others have taken slaves."

"She was telling the truth," he whispered, not looking happy with that answer. Shaking his head he marched out of the shadows directly into the fight.

I leaped after him, sticking in the darkness, and looking for a place to strike.

One Harvester slammed a leg into the shoulder of a man, and he didn't dodge in time. His scream sent shivers down my spine as the Harvester yanked him off of the ground and away from the others. Two people held back a woman who screamed after him.

I glimpsed a much smaller person, what had to be a child.

I leaped before I even realized it. My spear slammed into the back of the Harvester, followed by my feet. The Harvester tried to buck me off, and in the process flung the man away.

My grip tightened on my spear with both of my hands as I funneled more and more energy into my weapon. Ice-cold frost appeared around the hole, then I pivoted to hot burning lava.

The creature reared back, and my feet went flying, but I held on, still pumping as much heat into my spear as possible. My spear burned around half a foot into the creature's back as it slammed back down on its six legs.

"Die!" My voice came out in a low growl as I twisted the spear, feeling the resource of energy inside me wane.

It tried to run away with me still on it, but someone intercepted it. One leg went flying, followed by another. It crashed to the ground.

[You have gained bonus experience from combat for surviving against level 65 Harvester.]

I yanked my spear out, and it shrunk back to its knife size. Kabi stood before the creature, while behind him another Harvester crashed to the ground as people mobbed it. A third lay dead, while a fourth looked like a pincushion. The fifth fought on its last 4 legs, but the fighters from the third joined the force holding it back and quickly finished it. The pincushion then took the brunt of the remaining anger and didn't last long.

"We won't have long until we must leave," whispered Kabi, glancing at the carcass.

I nodded and got to work, cutting into its underbelly. I swallowed a couple of hunks of meat from my inventory and wanted to hurl at the corn flavor. It took me much less time to find the heart now that I knew where to look, though part of it had gotten damaged by the cold I'd sunk into its body.

[You have devoured a Harvester and gained insight into the skill Whispering Trap.]

"Did you eat that?" asked a small voice behind me.

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