The fight goes easier than he expected it to.

  Against his avatars–who have basic minds but not many complex emotions beyond the seed of them–the malora falls easily.

  A few well timed attacks, and many stab wounds later, the malora collapses on the floor, the fire scarf around its neck whisking out.

  I forgot the Blood Pouch. So much precious blood is wasted. Adrian sighs as his avatars bring him its core. Sinful.

  A sinful core. Although ominous sounding, these are actually very good cores as you can choose which sin you wish for it to embody, and the core would change automatically.

  Greed. Adrian whispers, and the core changes accordingly, the sinful core changing to one of greed.

  Pocketing it, he looks at his troops of avatars. Around 5 remain, two of them slain during the final rush of killing the horse. Apparently its control becomes stronger the nearer it gets to death, such that in its final moments it had been able to control the two avatars to kill others.

  Sensing his losing control over them, Adrian has decided to cut his losses while he can, and dismissed them.

  It is quite funny how the fight could’ve gone worse if I was a few more levels higher. My avatars might have become too developed for it to control easily.

  You have killed malora (level 12)

  You have levelled up! Manifold Warden lvl 10

  You have 2 Upgrades pending!

  After Avatar I should upgrade Prison. But how, which direction should I take?

  There are always more questions. Adrian decides to think about it later, instead focusing on his second target for the night.

  If I remember correctly, the hive should be nearby.

  The stories say that once you find a malora, the hive queen will be nearby.

  Hive queen, an existence with an amazing ability to control various minds at once. It is said that once she has her fangs on your head, you will essentially become a puppet of her. Unless of course, you have a very high Mind. Or maybe a very high Resistance.

  For an existence like her, a malora is a disgrace. With no head of its own, it is the only one who can walk freely without fearing for the hive queen. As such, hive queens always hunt maloras, to remove this one last threat from the world.

  Considering that this one was still alive, the hive queen must not have gotten it yet. But they should still be nearby.

  Adrian begins moving, listening for the sound of any buzzing noises. This time he keeps his avatars close to him. Should any of them get mind-hijacked, it’ll become very difficult for him, and he doesn’t even know if he’ll be able to cancel them at that stage.

  It is a few hours later, after travelling through such a large part of the area, that he finally finds what he’s looking for.

  A big beehive sticks to a tree in complete silence, only the slightly darker shade of it differentiating it from the trees in its vicinity. There are no bees roaming around it, nor is there any noise. Unlike the stories mentioned, the bees are not searching for a malora.

  Guess you can’t trust the stories too much.

  Or maybe they never knew about this one. Adrian doesn’t know, and he doesn’t care.

  Now how should I get the hive queen to come out without bringing with it an army? Even if I can imprison the bees, the hive queen would be unaffected for sure. It can fly too, making it much easier for it to dodge my attacks, and I can’t rely on my avatars like last time, lest they turn on me.

  What to do-

  Adrian spins, his blade cutting through the air with a whoosh as metal clanks against metal. Adrian quickly orders his avatar to converge on his attacker but they are suddenly stopped at their place.

  Adrian is about to cast Prison when the figure starts speaking, “Did you already forget me?”

  In his adrenaline fueled state, it takes him a few seconds to realise what is being said. When he does, he finally looks carefully at his attacker and asks, “Ji-a?”

  “Of course! Who else? I was gonna surprise you but then you had to attack me like that” She says, shaking her head as if in regret.

  “Why are you even sneaking up on me in the middle of the night in a forest!” Adrian stresses the night part.

  “Why not? When else will I be able to sneak up on you, if not the night?”

  Adrian sighs and lets the retort on his lips fall off.

  “Why are you in the forest anyway? Shouldn’t you be in the settlement like a normal person?” Adrian asks.

  “I can ask you the same.”

  They stare at each other, not willing to be the first one to give up.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Fineee,” Adrian sighs. He has already sighed twice in the few minutes he reunited with her, “I am hunting for the hive queen. Happy? You tell me your reason now.”

  “I’m also hunting for something. Have you heard of an agropelter? Big scary thing with long whip-like arms. They use it to throw stuff at people,” Ji-a says.

  “Yes, but can’t you hunt that in the morning as well? Why night specifically?”

  “I can say the same about you.”

  Another round of staring begins, and once again Adrian loses as he blinks first. “I was also looking for a malora. They only come out at night, so it has to be now.”

  “Ah I see.”

  “Your turn.”

  “What?”

  “Your reason?”

  “What reason?”

  Adrian balls his fist, his face distorting in a mixture of betrayal, anger, amusement. Ji-a backs away and says, “What about this? I help you with the hive queen, and you don’t ask me the reasons?”

  Adrian considers the offer, and finds it acceptable.

  “Sure, what can you do though?”

  “Just you wait and see,” She cracks her fingers dramatically, moves ahead towards the beehive, and says one last thing, “You should dismiss your avatars. They’ll only be a nuisance in the next part.”

  What?

  The next thing he hears is a slap, a thud as the large beehive falls off the tree, and then Ji-a’s shout as she ran past him, “RUN!”

  It takes the angry buzzing of the bees to finally bring the moment home to Adrian. He turns around, cancels his avatars, and runs!

  “Are you crazy!?” He yells at Ji-a who is running in front of him.

  “Of course not! I have a plan!!”

  “Does this plan involve either of us dying or being mind controlled by a monster?”

  “Not yet, no!”

  “What do you mean by yet!”

  But he never hears her answer, as she runs expertly around and even over the trees, her movements much more refined and balanced than his own, as she gets farther and farther away from him. How high is her Kinesthetics!

  Behind him the incessant buzzing of bees follows, cutting through the dead of the night and weaving in between the trees like a death cloud, chasing him.

  Adrian runs like he has never ran before. Going to his safe place as he focuses on every step and every branch around him, just to not trip and fall. The feeling of wind flowing through your hair, a possible death chasing you behind. The feeling is a bit of a rush, but Adrian doesn’t let himself be taken away by that feeling.

  A few minutes of constant running later, he finally caught up to Ji-a. Mostly because she is not running, and instead staring at the lake where he had just come from earlier.

  She looks at his approaching figure, smiles and says “Remember to hold your breath!” And then she jumps in.

  Adrian doesn’t hesitate at this point, and a deep breath later, he too jumps in.

  The cold cold water hits him almost instantly, chilling him to the bone. As expected of someone with as low Resistance as him. Environment factors still have a very high hold on him.

  He sinks deeper and deeper moving away due to the violent waves of the lake, his high Mind stat keeping him aware of the surroundings and the quickly changing distance between him and Ji-a She’s looking above, somehow floating still at a spot. Adrian is about to be taken even further away by the wave, until something suddenly holds him in place, but he can’t feel anything around him.

  Assuming it’s something she must have done, he too looks above at the swarm of bees now circling their position. In the middle of it though, is a big one. One can instantly look at her and know that she’s the hive queen.

  Not only is it her size, but also by the way the bees seem to surround her and circle around her like she’s their planet.

  Only if we could bring her here… The thought sinks in Adrian’s mind, and a few memories bubble their way out. Adrian slides deeper into his focus, his mind churning as he looks at the memories.

  The way his avatars stopped at a place when they tried to attack Ji-a, the way the beehive came down, and then the way something seems to hold him onto place.

  Ah. So this is your plan.

  He looks at her with a knowing smile, and she nods at him. Then sticks out three fingers, beginning a countdown. 3.

  Adrian brings out his sword. 2. And summons two avatars around him. 1.

  And then a force grips onto the hive queen and yanks her into the water. She resists, trying to flutter her wet wings and get away from the grip, but Adrian helps by sending his two avatars to hold onto her even tightly, while he brings down his sword at her.

  You have killed hive queen Ar’shen (lvl 14)

  You have levelled up! Warden of Everywhere lvl 11

  Oh my god the crazy plan actually worked.

  Adrian sends the two avatars above to keep the bees busy while he and Ji-a move along the lake, the violent waves taking them away into the distance. In just a few moments he had felt his connection with the avatars disappearing, but he doesn’t have to worry about that anymore.

  Holding onto the corpse of the hive queen tightly in his hands, they float for a few more minutes, at least as long as their lungs could hold, before finally emerging outside.

  Adrian gasped for some air as he swam to the nearby land, a force behind him helping him move.

  He lays on the ground for a few minutes, simply staring at the stars above them in admiration. His focus has broken a long time ago, and the rush of the adventure is here.

  “You are crazy,” He says.

  “Hey! At least I’m having fun,” Ji-a says sitting by the shore.

  “That you are…”

  A few moments of gawking at the night sky later, he finally sat up. Searched through the corpse of the hive queen, and finally found the hive core.

  “Mmhmm. Hive core will do good to your avatar ability. But there’s a catch as well. You should think about it carefully before making this decision,” Ji-a says.

  Adrian brings out the Greed core as well, and with the Hive core, presents them to the Tower.

  “Upgrade detected for Avatar:

  “Your mind now connects to all of your avatars. You can connect to their consciousness, share their senses and issue orders. Can only take over one of them at a time. You also greed for all their knowledge. When dismissing an avatar, or should they die, all their experiences will gather back at you.”

  “Ritual for the upgrade:

  “Completely crush an awakened human’s mind before killing them.”

  “All their experiences… does it also mean?”

  “Yes. A part of you will also die with them. You’ll suffer their traumas as well as their pain after they die. The way you simply left the two avatars back there, you won’t be able to do it without consequences.”

  Adrian sighs. He had known somewhere that something like this will happen, he had just wished that he would be able to avoid it.

  “I’ll do it anyway.”

  “Good.”

  Now feeling a little more sure about his decision, he looks at the ritual.

  “What the hell is this ritual?”

  “What is it? Read it to me.”

  Adrian repeats the details of the ritual, and looks at a sly smile appear on Ji-a’s face.

  “Now isn’t this interesting.”

  “How do I do it though?”

  “Isn’t it simple? You just have to die, that’s all.”

  #