Whether it was due to the hasty construction of the fracture or the anxiety he felt at the thought of what he might find on the other side, Eik’s stomach turned as he tumbled through the dimensional pocket.

  Even before he had emerged from the portal proper, a curved katana appeared in his right hand and, taking a page out of Andihar’s book, a shield on his other forearm. Rather than the elf’s golden greatshield, however, Eik had opted for a simple buckler of crystal that suited his mobile combat style much better.

  Under the effect of True Toxic Harmony, his body turned into Profound Toxin in much the same way as Goo and that allowed him to alter any part of himself into, for example, a weapon. And he had done so for a few exchanges but quickly realized that he was more comfortable grasping them in his hands.

  Despite how much he had changed and evolved—to a point far, far past human limits—he was still, after all, a man.

  For the moment, he had activated True Toxic Harmony, just in case there was something he needed to react to on the other side of the fracture but he quickly dropped the skill to conserve its cooldown when no immediate threats presented themselves.

  Since the fracture had been opened by the same fracture specialists and using the exact same spacial coordinates as the the others, Eik should have been spit out in the exact same location as Andihar, Gul, and the others had been just moments earlier, and deep footprints leading away confirmed this assumption.

  Eik’s feet sunk into soft mud as he made his way out of a circle of thoroughly trodden ground where the first team must have assessed the area and decided on a plan of action. Further away the ground was wet but not muddy. Perhaps the original number of spawned monsters was quite large because it appeared that they had moved out in three smaller groups, forking out in the same direction.

  Judging by the lack of prints in any other direction, he could assume that his friends had realized this as well but he couldn’t be sure which they had chosen to follow. The middle path had indents that appeared deeper than most of the others so maybe Kalavax had left those.

  No time to waste in meaningless guesswork. It would be better to move out quickly and figure it out as he went. Middle path, then.

  Traveling swiftly but cautiously, he listened intently for any noise that could give him a hint regarding his allies but all he heard was the chirping of what must have been millions of insects all around him. The entire area was covered in short, stocky trees which, instead of conventional leaves grew these yellow, bulbous fruits at the tip of each of the countless twiggy prongs on the branches.

  Some kind of liquid that could be sap or dew stuck to the skin of the fruits in fat, transparent droplets. The bark looked rough and prickly with a reddish hue that reminded Eik of those decorative trees made with hand-woven copper wire.

  Soaring high above the crowns, he kept his eyes on stalks, just waiting for any signs of an ongoing battle. And damn if he wasn’t hoping to see exactly that. At least that would mean that someone was still alive and standing.

  In all directions slender, rocky monoliths reached for the clouds above, each of them looking more like rounded stones stacked on top of each other than mountains. Eik reckoned the tallest of them reached heights of a little less than eight hundred meters with widths ranging from fifty meters to a hundred meters.

  Head on a swivel, he ascended one of the larger oddly shaped monoliths in three strides to gain a better vantage point. Besides the fact that it would make no physical sense for them to actually be individual stones stacked on top of each other, the smooth structural transition from segment to segment hinted at a natural formation. It was beautiful.

  Any even remotely flat surface played host to copses of those trees with the rusted appearance and the round, bulbous fruit—a phenomenon Eik would have loved to study further under less frantic circumstances.

  A blast drew his attention.

  Debris and fragments of trees erupted high into the air as a massive impact rocked the forest floor. It was about two kilometers away. The absolute certainty of collateral damage made any attempts to take care of the enemy at range with an Eik’s Really Big Ass Rail Gun an impossibility.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  There was no choice but to get hands on with this one.

  As Eik’s mind refocused to his friends and the desire to ensure their safety, a message written out in glowing letters etched itself into his arm in the moment as he was about to leap from the rocky monolith. His eyes caught it as he moved.

  [Natural skill evolution triggered — Monarch’s Will]

  [Evolved skill Monarch’s Will. Skill acquired trait Summon Royal Guard of the Monarch of Toxin]

  Without a second thought, he reached for the ability and felt his body warp—not in the way it always pulled on his limbs and torso like a chef pulling noodles when he stepped through a fracture, but in the way it felt when he turned into Profound Toxin with Toxic Liquefaction.

  One moment he was sailing through the air at full speed on the way to his friends and in the next, his nose was flattened with a bony crunch as he crashed into Andihar’s armor-plated back with a grunt. Face ricochetting off the metal, Eik stumbled backward before his S-ranked reflexes righted him.

  An ability named Summon Royal Guard of the Monarch of Toxin didn’t exactly sound like it could transport him to the Royal Guard, who was Andihar in this case, but from the moment he acquired the power, he had sensed that he could do either.

  Mistaking the Monarch’s sudden appearance for another enemy, Andihar whirled about, expecting a confrontation, but was momentarily stunned by what he saw instead and took an attack in his back. The force of the blow sent him barrelling into Eik.

  None of them actually fell to the ground but whatever formation had existed before Eik’s arrival was disturbed for just long enough for another attack to claim Gul’s entire shoulder and arm.

  Only now did Eik realize that the attacks were ranged, flying at them from an unseen location but hitting with devastating power. “What the fuck is going on here?” Eik shouted over the noise of trees and ground being ripped apart by the wild projectile that had torn off Gul’s arm.

  Andihar, a nasty hole ripped in his golden armor where it had been struck, couldn’t seem to catch his breath enough to do anything but turn back toward the enemy and raise his shield. Mn’Toakh spoke on his behalf instead as he let loose two arrows that obliterated the terrain as they traveled.

  “It pains me to admit it but we have been waiting for you, Eik.”

  “Mn’Toakh?”

  “As you can see, yes.”

  His eyes flitted to four others besides her, Gul, and Andihar. None of the other members from the team he had brought for the fight with the creepy tree monster had come along for this. Good. If another team had already been mostly wiped out, a few more A-rankers would only make things worse. “Are they all of your survivors?”

  Blood trickled down her chin as she bit her own lip hard, releasing another arrow. “Yes.”

  They were not in good condition. Only one person of the four seemed to be more or less unharmed. Two more had leg injuries that appeared to be preventing them from moving, while the last was unconscious on the back of the least injured.

  Panacean Quintessence flowed across their bodies, immediately tending to their wounds as well as Andihar and Gul’s.

  “So you’ve been turtling down here, huh?”—The clenched jaws were enough of an answer. He squinted into the distance but all of the dust raised by the constant high-ranked devastation made it impossible to peer through—“Do we have a location for those two bastards?”

  “Three,” Andihar muttered ominously, now able to speak again.

  “Sorry, what did you just say?”

  “There are three of them now,” he groaned as two projectiles clanged off his shield like bullets striking a gong. “You’re working with obsolete information. And only Mn’Toakh can tell where they are. The rest of us are nothing but sitting ducks.”

  Eik looked to the S-ranked archer who continued the explanation. “One is about a kilometer and a half out while the other two are about two kilometers out. They must all have perception skills like me because they go into evasive maneuvers the moment I release an arrow. I can’t hit them properly while they are focused on me…”

  Eik cracked his neck and knuckles. “Gotcha. Let’s get this party started.” If four A-rankers from Mn’Toakh’s team had managed to survive this long despite the presence of three special-type monsters, then they had to either be completely absorbed in inflicting torment or significantly weaker than the one Eik had killed on their own expedition.

  “I’ll cover you,” Mn’Toakh assured him.

  His eyes crackled with glittering blue energy as thousands of Profound Toxic beasts poured out of him, the cape of Armor of the Scourge billowing about him. “Find them,” he commanded and raised a hand to the sky.

  A seed of concentrated Profound Toxin launched from the tip of his finger and planted an Apocalypse Canvas among the clouds. Waves of crystalline shards plunged downward in search of the hated enemy.

  “Give me an arrow.” Mn’Toakh handed one over in the same movement that released two into the trees. He encased the smallest Living Manifestation he could create inside a thin layer of solid toxin crystallized around the shaft and handed the projectile back to her.

  “What?”

  “Just aim it at the first target you want dead.”

  She released it and Eik watched the arrow’s flight through the senses of the Profound Toxic beast.

  “What now?” Mn’Toakh asked.

  “Now you leave the rest to me,” he growled and leaped into the air, Accelerated himself, and transferred his consciousness to the encased Living Manifestation.

  In the moment the special-type monster evaded Mn’Toakh’s homing arrow, Eik’s reforming body erupted from the crystal prison, a long blade appearing in his hand as he slashed downward with murderous intent.

  Check out my Patreon if you'd like to read even more than what is currently posted on RoyalRoad

  cat videos