Akuji shrieked when she saw the bear. Her stance was low, and she charged the beast. The outer edge of the scythe skimmed the ground behind her as she ran.

The bear like beast saw her coming and prepared its claws, each nail longer than Akuji was thick. It pulled back to swipe at the approaching girl. With a vicious sound echoing through the forest behind it, the face of the beast split to the sides and a long, thick tongue came out. The eyes of the beast pushed forward, unobscured by the opening of the enormous mouth that took up nearly its entire head.

The other women didn't waste any time either. Most of them charged forward to support the screaming Akuji. Marj dashed ahead with a movement skill, but with a lower level than Akuji her speed wasn't a match. Brittney used [By Your Side] to try and rush to Akuji but was also immediately out distanced. Alissa began casting [Angel's Advance], though she paused her cast as she heard what Akuji yelled.

"IT'S SO CUTE!" squealed the small girl as she reached the bear monster and jumped into its chest. She held on tightly and squirmed around in its fur, her face buried deep in its chest.

The others paused, confused by her actions.

The beast was also thrown off guard as its first swipe of a claw missed the speedy girl. Then its mouth closed in surprise as it looked down to see her clinging and ecstatically cuddling it. All four of its arms moved wide to its side as it seemed unsure of how to respond.

A deep voice spoke, once more startling the other girls. It had a smooth and comforting tone that rumbled the air.

"What are you doing to my mount?" the voice asked.

A small head, slightly smaller than Akuji's, popped up over the shoulder of the bear. A face that resembled a koala, only if it had traveled through M.C. Escher pictures and into the nightmare worlds of H.P. Lovecraft, looked around at them. The white and grey fur on its face surrounded huge pure black eyes that stared at everything at once. Little spikes came from its cheeks and chin.

After a moment of watching the girls, it looked down the front of the giant beast and saw Akuji.

"Remove yourself from my ride, you pathetic native," the deep voice once more spoke.

"Mine," said Akuji petulantly while her face was still buried in the bear monster's fur. Her arm holding the scythe swung with no warning. The head of the deep voiced koala fell to the ground in front of the bear, followed by its body landing behind the beast.

Kuantan "Urktine Rider [24]" slain. 1,727 XP gained.

A scared grunt came from the bear as it looked at Akuji and then took a step back, dismayed that the step didn't create distance from the clinging girl.

"You're mine now," she said as she turned her head to look into the beast's eyes. It shook its head and then its whole body to try and dislodge her. "I'm going to name you Lucky Bear!"

The monster let out a warble of uncertainty then growled. It swung its massive claw at her but was once again surprised as the scythe deflected its attack without Akuji even needing to break eye contact.

A huge roar came from its mouth as it became angry. Claw after claw came at her to rip her from its chest, but she easily parried the attacks with the dull edge of her scythe. After a few minutes and roars, the beast seemed to give up on attacking and wasn't sure how to get her off.

"There, there, cutie," comforted the girl when the claw swipes stopped. "Everything will be alright. I have you now, Lucky."

With a little effort, Akuji climbed up the body of the beast. When she reached its head, she petted its cheeks and the top of its head.

"Its ok," said the girl. The bear tried to growl at her, but she never responded. It snapped its large mouth at her, but she easily dodged it. When it turned to look into the trees, either to escape or at the reinforcements it had roared for, Akuji added, "don't look away from me. And don't be a BAD BEAR!"

With the final words she used a skill called [Topple] and hit the bear under the chin with her scythe handle. The bear's eyes rolled up and the entire body fell backwards, crashing on the ground.

Once the shaking had stopped, Akuji slid to the ground and stood.

"You'll be the best pet ever once I train you," she squealed while hopping from foot to foot excitedly.

Then she, along with the other women, who were cautiously approaching, noticed dozens more of the bears coming towards them from the forest. Akuji gasped when she saw them and her eyes grew bigger while she smiled brilliantly.

"Who has come?" demanded another deep voice from behind a bear.

"You have come to your death!" exclaimed another.

"Natives arrive to feed us!" said a third

"We shall feast on their lives and energy!"

More voices, almost all identical, rumbled through the air as they said ominous things.

"A whole collection of teddies!" shouted Akuji gleefully as she once more dashed forward. The other women were ready to support her this time, and they stayed in step with her as she arrived at the army of invaders.

***

Akuji bobbed up and down. She swayed from side to side. A huge grin had replaced her usual glare while giggles came out of her with every movement.

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With her small hand she reached down and roughly grabbed a clump of fur and yanked it in different directions.

"See, isn't this better, Lucky?" she cooed.

The massive nightmarish bear turned its head almost 180 degrees to look up at her with a conflicted look on its face. Akuji was barely the size of one of its shoulder blades as she balanced while riding it. The beast let out a moan as if to complain. In response, Akuji laughed and smacked its backside with her scythe. The bear turned its head forward and whimpered.

"I can't wait to get Lucky back home. It's going to be so great being able to ride him all over Jackson."

The other women looked at Akuji wryly, each carrying their own opinions of her sanity.

"I'll have that Jordan guy make them a nice cave to live in for him and all his brothers. Or else. Heheheh." A glint appeared on both Akuji's eyes and scythe.

Abbey frowned and looked at the forest on both sides. More of the bear monsters, or Urktine, were hiding behind the trees. The monsters warily watched the group of women walking to either side of Lucky as he trampled through the forest on six legs.

The day was almost over, and they had spent more time watching Akuji fawn over the beasts after beating them into submission than they did fighting the koala like Kuantan who rode the Urktine. The bears seemed rightfully scared of them, especially of Akuji. They were now keeping their distance, but without their riders they seemed to have no fight left in them, going as far as to prostrate on the ground if Akuji looked like she would get angry at them.

Everyone had done well in the fights, although Marj kept getting winded from her frantic fighting style. She relied on punches, kicks, kneeing, shoulder tackles, any part of her body could lead her attacks. The way she fought made it very difficult to know how she would strike next, but it also showed that she lacked the strength and finishing power compared to those in their Tier 3 class evolutions.

While Karen and Brittney would control the fights as defenders, Angeline used abilities that enhanced everyone's understanding of their surroundings. Where their enemies and allies came from was quickly passed on to each person in the party thanks to Angeline's skills. It made fighting much easier. Marj would often yell out to bring single enemies to Angeline so that she could get a hit in for her portion of the XP as well.

It took a lot to convince Akuji not to just decapitate all the Kuantan, so everyone could share the experience. Andrea and Alissa were more used to it and could use lightning or life drain to weaken the invaders so everyone could participate.

As heavily as Marj breathed after each encounter, she always finished with a glowing smile that expressed her satisfaction from the fights.

Akuji was so determined to tame every one of the bears, that she eventually stopped attacking the Kuantan and just focused on weakening them, using the scythe to toss the smaller enemies to where Abbey and Angeline were providing support to the others.

"We can't bring those monsters back to the city," said Andrea with exacerbation. "We don't have the room or food for them there."

Akuji rounded on her, the scythe held in a threatening position. "Are you saying I can't keep my teddies?!" she demanded.

"Of course not!" snapped Alissa. "Do you think its safe to have them around lower-level people? What would you do if they killed someone?"

With shock, the goth girl frowned and began to growl. "Nothing is going to take my toys away from me!"

"Akuji," said Abbey with more calm than her friends, "think about what is best for the bears. They need the forest and animals to hunt for food. Until we know how to keep the bears safe, we should let them continue to live in this Rift base."

Akuji glared at Abbey but then thought for a minute after registering what she had said.

"Oh, I see! It's for my bears. Well, I don't want anything bad to happen to them. I guess I can have this base turned into a play area for them. I'll just have a lot of sleepovers when we aren't scheduled to raid more bases."

Andrea and Alissa threw approving glances at Abbey at her handling of the violent girl.

"Can you do me a favor though? Ask that general guy to move a portal between here and my apartment so I can come when I want."

"Why don't you just Adam yourself?" asked Brittney.

Akuji shivered and her expression showed as much fear as the monsters watching them from behind the trees.

"No way! I've seen that guy fight. He's crazy. A total freakshow. Ain't no way I'm risking making him mad."

Everyone looked at Akuji while thinking of the irony of her words.

After walking a few more minutes in silence, the trees ended, and they reached a clearing. Staring at them from the center were three of the Urktines. They were large though. Larger than the others they had encountered. However, even among themselves they differed in size. The largest was about 50% bigger than a full sized Carthraga and had a tag of "Pateras [32]". Next was a slightly smaller one labeled "Mitera [29]". The final one was a quarter smaller and had a tag of "Moro [24]".

Standing between the Mitera and Moro bears was the boss koala invader. It was much larger than the ones they had faced until now and covered in golden fur, and towards the top of Tier 3. Angeline shivered as she saw it and started sweating, though the other women weren't as intimidated. The tag over top read "Khrusos kome [36]".

A deep voice came from the boss Kuantan as it looked them over.

"Such a small group of natives was enough to defeat my people? Impossible! Natives would never be able to defeat the Kuantan."

"My brother has beaten so many of you invaders, and we will too," boasted Emily, even as she found herself trembling in front of the monsters before her.

"So, you have been influenced by the one the Scyrric call the aberration. That is irrelevant. He is not here. Only you are here, along with my pets, and if he comes looking for you, not even bones will remain."

Akuji clapped her hands together while smiling.

"Your pets? All I see are bigger teddies for me!"

Then she smacked Lucky's side with her scythe handle. He had been trying to make himself smaller while inching back to the trees. Once the order was given, he looked to the massive Urktines in front of him, then up to Akuji, and whined. A second hit and he sat down and covered his head with his front paws.

A load roar, with enough force to create a gale wind, hit them. Emily and Angeline fell backwards, grabbing their ears. Everyone else covered their ears while Brittney and Karen raised shields. Brittney used [Firm Stance] to prevent herself from being pushed back.

Once the second largest of the bears added a roar and the wind spun in a cyclonic pattern around the clearing, Brittney activated [Cover All] and [Defensive Domain] to keep everyone else protected.

Abbey used her skill [Circle of Life] to create healing for the group, then used [Get Up!] on Emily and Angeline. While Marj hadn't fallen, she was struggling against the force until Brittney's defensive skills had activated. Even though Karen was massive compared to Brittney, she didn't have nearly the strength to resist and had been struggling to hold back the winds, even with her defensive skills.

The [Defensive Domain] was enough to allow everyone else to get their bearings and begin casting buffs. Alissa used [Blessing of Wrath] on herself along with [Intelligence to Strength]. She cast [Ascending Vitality] on everyone.

Angeline was shaking, never having faced such strong opponents before. Marj wasn't steady either, but she had enough combat experience that she was able to reach out and grip her friend. Even though the intimidation didn't fade, she was able to nod her head. It took time for her to cast her buffs that would improve everyone's perception and reaction times. Then she used her skill that allowed everyone to know each other's locations. Finally, Angeline created a communication link between everyone in their group so they could hear each other even with the overwhelming noise from the beasts.

"What's the plan?" asked Andrea through the link. Even though the noise and wind force were affecting her, she wasn't scared of the monsters in front of them.

Brittney was the one who responded. "I'll take mama bear and papa bear. Karen, you're on baby bear and goldilocks. Emily, you don't have the power to damage them, so try to help Karen control them. Everyone else focus fire on the biggest bear. I get the sense that it would be a bad idea to go after the smallest while the other two are alive."

"We have no idea what the death koala can do," added Abbey, "so keep your eyes on him. I'll try to call out when I see something."

"Ok, when I say go we'll charge forward. Ready…set…"

"WAAAAAAAAAH!" screamed Akuji, not waiting for the signal. She jumped down from the balking Lucky and flashed red as her speed picked up with the cast of her movement skill.

Brittney just shook her head at their teammate's false start, then announced, "GO!"

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