“Watch out!” Jul shouted, and reached over to pull Tuk’s head back behind the safety of the thorn they were hiding under.

  “You okay?” Nar shouted back, as he buried his sword into one of the t’nothit.

  The beast’s many mandibles spasmed as green ichor leeched from the wound, but Nar reached forward with his left hand and held the dying insect in place.While its two front, scythe-like legs slashed with despair, Nar shifted just enough to avoid the worst of it, ignoring the burning stings from the shallow cuts he took. And pulling the blade back out of the insect that was as tall as he was, he stabbed three more times in quick succession, the air filling with the beasts screeching as Nar’s aura coated blade cut and burned it from the inside.

  “I can’t shoot like this!” Tuk protested from behind him. “I need to be able to see!”

  “They’re all aggroed to you! Wait until Gad pulls them away,” Jul replied, pulling Tuk back once again. “Nar!”

  “I saw it!” Nar shouted, and he kicked away one of the smaller, pill-body shaped beasts that had been sneaking over to where Jul was hiding with Tuk.

  His [Instinct] cried out in warning and Nar stepped out of the way of the glob of greenish-yellow that came hurtling his way. The movement had been almost an afterthought, almost lazy in its minimal effort, and the projectile splattered against one of the branches, exploding in an angry sizzle that added to the already pungent, and eye watering acid emanations coating the air. Even to Nar, breathing that stuff was akin to swallowing mouthfuls of fire, and his self-healing was working overtime to keep his throat and lungs from melting from inside him.

  More acid globs shot his way, and Nar dodged around each of them.

  “I think they’re focused on me now! I’m going to draw them away!” Nar told the other two.

  “Be careful!” Jul shouted after him.

  Somewhere on a lower branch, Nar spotted the telltale vibrant orange and yellow from Mul’s flame coated fists, and Rel’s red-cursed arrows streaked through the air overhead, seeking the ranged t’nothit that had their party pinned down.

  Slashing with his glowing sword as he sought to draw as much attention as possible to himself, Nar caught glimpses amidst the branches of the mess that their fight had become.

  To their left, Row’s party was embroiled with a twin-headed snake that evoked stomach-twisting memories of the far worse three-headed thorn hydra they had escaped. At least this one didn’t seem to spit poison, but its [Agility] was giving Tun a run for his XP. While looking forward (was there even a forward in that maze?) Nar caught glimpses of Leon’s party dealing with a shifting tide of hungry pill-body insects whose advance was slowly, but inexorably covering an entire section of those branches.

  Crystal! There has to be thousands of those! Nar thought as he repressed a shudder.

  Eum was shredding through bugs like they were made of nothing, and Nar managed to catch glimpses of his new beast transformation skill, which targeted his legs and nearly doubled his base [Speed]. As for Mach, he was fighting within his usual personal storm, blowing away bugs by the dozens. Medis and Calli did their best to support them with their aether amentum war spears and golden bullets, but it looked like a losing fight.

  “Viy! Behind you!” Nar heard Rel warning from somewhere behind him.

  Or is it below? Both? Nar wondered through grit teeth, as he slashed through pill-bugs with disgust fueling him.

  The creatures were the post-larval stage of the t’nothit, and while their HP was close to non-existent and they weren’t capable of much other than to crawl and climb up a delver, once they did, they revealed a nightmare of a mouth filled with serrated teeth, and a disgusting mass of tendrils that shot into their prey to facilitate both blood drinking and flesh devouring.

  These have got to be the worst thing we’ve ever fought! Nar thought, as he stepped down and crushed a bug before it could latch onto him.

  He dodged around another round of acid globs and continued on his way to the ranged variety of the beasts.

  Oh?

  The ranged t’nothit was a beast of six limber legs. It perched itself on a branch, then twisted its head backwards to see where it was shooting at, sending globs of yellow-green acid from its bulbous bottom. The first time Nar had spotted their gathering, a few branches away from them, the beasts had been in grayscale, but now, someone, likely Kur, given that each party leader or strategist was focused on their own party, had colored the targets, tagging them for Nar.

  Purple and red stripes? Yuck, Nar thought, eyeing the goo leaking from the openings at the bug’s rear ends. Yuck. Just yuck.

  With a burst of localized cycling to his legs, Nar bounced from branch to branch, his feet barely touching the black wood for more than a split-second before he propelled himself forward once more, hurtling towards the enemy.

  3867, he read, eyeing his gray aura bar. Not a lot, but should be enough.

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  Dodging in between the acid projectiles, he fired off a series of tight, shortened [Aura Blade]s, severing through bugs and lighting up the red jungle.

  Not much HP on these, as expected, Nar thought, as he quickly searched for and located another group of tagged, ranged beasts. He also spotted another group of enemies. Can’t say the same for the big ones though.

  “Kur, armored variety heading your way,” Nar said, through their individual party chat.

  “We know! But thanks. Leave those to us, and keep clearing those ranged things. We’re pinned down like this!” came Kur’s reply.

  “On it!”

  Nar bent his legs and then blasted off again.

  His heart beat steady and powerful within his chest, and his aura blazed within his restored and once again upgraded pathways. He had only just been listening to Jul’s teachings about how to better improve his senses, so there wasn’t much he could draw from them yet without the necessary practice, but given the tremendous boost he had just received, the battle was alive around him in such a way as it had never been before.

  His [Awareness], even in its passive state, derived meaning from all his senses, [NPC] and even from his [Instinct], translating what should have been utter chaos into a comprehensible near-map around him. Unfortunately, the farther away from him, the blurrier the map became, but anything within a 100-feet of him was as clear as though he had dozens of eyes.

  Secondary tank or not, I really need to invest in my senses, Nar thought, as he cut his way into another group of ranged just as Gad’s [Pull of the River] dragged the much taller, and red bulkier armored t’nothit he’d spotted towards the core of the party. Especially if… No, when I can control multiple aura blades, it will be really good to just let them loose at the enemy, no matter where they are, or how far.

  He spotted another group of beasts and jumped over… And his sword awoke in his hands.

  Oh, shit! Nar thought, as the weapon once more forcefully drew upon his aura, drinking from it greedily.

  He had expected it to happen, and in fact, he had been looking forward to it to understand what was going on. Hopefully, perhaps get an upgrade for his weapon once again. It was only a distant hope, however, as it was more likely that his master simply wanted him to experience the cons of having a weapon with such a strong affinity to it when faced with large amounts of aether of the same type. But a guy could dream of an even bigger aura core in his sword, no?

  Unfortunately, he had not envisioned his sword to go out of control just as he was trying to keep his party safe from a horde of ranged bugs lobbing globs of acid at them just as a dozen or so, almost ten-foot tall bugs with dual pincers that looked more like two-handed hammers were about to crash into them.

  Damn it! Nar thought, as he held back from any further [Aura Blade]s, lest his sword take control of the skill again. Alright, alright… I’ll keep giving you my aura, and you keep cutting the bugs. Deal?

  Nar crashed into the pack of ranged t’nothit and shoved his sword into a thorax with the usual lack of resistance. The bugs clacked their mandibles at him as their fellow beast died with Nar’s glowing sword smoking through it, and Nar spun to continue the massacre before they could react. Except his blade wouldn’t budge from the dead beast.

  What the…

  He tugged and pulled at the sword and at last it came free from the beast.

  What was—

  But his [Instinct] screamed at him to get a move on, and he had to dodge under a hail of acid projectiles. He reached out with his right arm, extending the sword into a beast perched above his head, and once again, as the beast dropped and died in a spasming mess of limbs and clattering mandibles, the sword refused to leave its body.

  What in the Pile is going on?

  His [Instinct] warned him, predictably, of another volley, but the sword was stuck fast, and he couldn’t let go of it either. Growling in frustration, he dropped down to avoid the attack, but one of the projectiles clipped his left shoulder.

  He clenched his jaw, keeping his protests inside him as the acid burned through his jungle suit and lashed at his flesh. Without another choice, he pushed aura to his shoulder, hoping to burn off the aetheric acid and to heal before the damage became too great.

  He had feared that the sword would try to latch onto the extra surge of aura, but just as it had when Nar had needed it the most against the hydra, the weapon instead withdrew its hold over his aura, allowing Nar to heal without hindrance.

  What in the Pile… Nar thought, a stillness descending upon his mind.

  One thing was for the sword to go out of control when surrounded by such an overabundance of hunger aspected aether. But another one entirely was for a weapon to know when it was, and not, convenient to do so. Or when he needed assistance…

  You’re still stuck to that bug though! Ugh! Nar thought, struggling to drag the sword from the dead beast as the others continue to rain acid upon him. What do you even want, uh?

  The blade grew heavier in his hands as he finished up the rest of the bugs. No matter how many of them he killed, coating himself and his ruined jungle suit in green-redish blood, the sword continued to be reluctant in leaving the corpses they left in their wake.

  At last, however, Crystal knew how many hours later, and after having cut through t’nothit ranged, then the armored variety and more of the post-larval pill-shaped bugs as well, then a huge thorn snake, and then a pack of salivating baboon like beasts, the Hungry Jungle finally quieted around them, leaving only the sound of their desperate gasping, choking behind masks, as they fought to recover their breathing.

  Nar dropped to the branch under his feet, ignoring the sword still embedded into the dead baboon at his side and his hand unyieldingly still clasped around its guard.

  His arms ached not from the fighting, but from the effort of fighting against his weapon. While it had initially scared him for sure, now he was just wrecked and pissed off at the damned thing.

  Why is this damned sword being so… Huh?

  He leaned forward to take a better look at the weapon, so stunned he was that he forgot to pull on his [Sight]... Rivulets of black-red goo flowed upwards over the length of the blade, snaking their way as though under a will of their own.

  Shocked, Nar traced the shifting, thick liquid, spotting bits of flesh being ferried across its surface as well, until the liquid disappeared into the spherical depression at the center of the sword, bits and all.

  “No fucking way…” Nar breathed, his eyes going wide.

  “So that’s what was happening.”

  Startled, Nar glanced up to find Kur looking down at his blade with a grimace.

  “I had my suspicions but, looks like I was right.”

  “Right?” Nar asked, floored. “About what? What in the Pile is it doing?”

  His party leader sucked in a long, drawn out breath, and then exhaled wearily into his mask.

  “Well, it looks like your sword might be gaining sapience.”

  Nar blinked at him, his mind going blank. Then he shifted his eyes back to his blade, who seemed to be drinking in the dead baboon’s blood.

  “What?”