It was exactly as Eik had suspected. These three special-type monsters—or at least the first one—were not nearly as powerful as the single individual his own party had encountered on their expedition.

  His first strike, a full weight downward slash with a conjured katana, severed a shoulder and a chunk of its torso. It survived and managed to retreat into the cover of the rust-colored trees but just the fact that his attack had landed so decisively proved that its reflexes were nothing compared to its kin.

  It had only barely managed to react in time to prevent a fatal injury of the skull split cleanly in two-variety and that gave Eik some hope for the prospect of fighting three of them at the same time. Possessing a total of six legs, it still moved swiftly and agilely despite losing one.

  Bizarrely, despite its insectoid shape, each leg ended in wide hands with six long, bony fingers each. Its neck was long and writhing with wiry clumps of hair sprouting from a head that had a disturbingly humanoid face. Eik had seen many monsters at this point but this one might well take the cake for ugliest.

  As it weaved in and out from cover in a clear attempt to disturb his focus, a large stinger-like growth emerged from a fleshy protrusion on its back and came free completely. With two spindly pincers, it manipulated the projectile and sent it into a high-speed spin, revealing exactly what kind of attack had been raining down upon Eik’s allies until now.

  But before it could release the stinger, a terrestrial Living Manifestation Raised to the Occasion rammed bodily into the beast and brought it clattering to the ground. Hundreds more Living Manifestations joined the party as the one Risen to the Occasion continued to harass the retreating monster.

  When barrages of shards released by Apocalypse Canvas also arrived to pelt the monster, Eik turned his back to the fight and rushed off to find the next of them. Fuckers like these weren’t going to be able to overwhelm him but the longer they remained active, the worse the odds for his friends’ survival. They had to die.

  His Living Manifestations had already located the next one and he descended upon it as True Toxic Harmony flared up and increased his strength and the potency of Profound Toxin to extreme heights.

  Sensing his approach, its long neck whipped sideways grotesquely, the creepy ass human face stuck in a perpetual grimace. Besides that, however, it was simply far too slow to properly react and could do little more than yelp as Eik encased its legs and stinger sack in solid Profound Toxin and plunged roots of crystal deep into the Earth to make sure it didn’t go anywhere.

  It struggled and howled furiously with a discordant voice. Eik could feel that his Living Manifestations had already engaged the third bastard, and while they might not be able to incapacitate it, they would at least be able to keep it occupied to the point where it wouldn’t attack the others.

  Yes, there were clear similarities between this uggo and the one he had fought during his own expedition. They both had pale, clammy skin that appeared to stretch across their bones like an old, wrinkly balloon, and faces that could give a brave man nightmares. The shared human-like features, however, were the most noticeable similarity, and something Eik had only seen on a monster once or twice before.

  “What the hell are you, you creepy piece of shit?” he muttered as he got all the way up in its face. The stench emanating from its mouth was nearly unbearable and its teeth were crooked, broken, and horribly blackened—something that made no sense at all, considering the fact that it had only been alive for, at most, a few days at this point.

  Snarling back at it, he slapped the helpless abomination across the face when it tried to stretch its neck to take a bite out of him. They repeated that five more times before Eik grew tired of the farce and seized it by the jaw, clenching so hard that the mandible creaked under the pressure. It screamed shrilly.

  “Oh, shut up, will ya? You’re way too loud. If you’ve got something to say, then come out an say it properly. Come on, I already met your kind before so I know you can do it.”

  Glaring through its perpetual grimace, it finally tried to open its mouth so Eik loosened his iron grip. “… No.”

  Eik nearly burst a blood vessel in his temple. “You little fucker,” he hissed, his fingers tightening until a nauseating crunch echoed through the trees as crushed its jaw.

  Panacean Quintessence flowed in spades, healing it perfectly. “All right. How about we try that one again, eh? What’s your plan, you absolute bag of nuts?” His nails dug deep into the parchment-like skin of its pointed chin.

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  It briefly struggled again before giving up. Drool dribbled onto the back of Eik’s hand as it stared up at him. “You are… You are going to diii-iiiee…” it growled, its voice vibrating and cutting off like a dying machine.

  Eik shattered its mandible again. It groaned but didn’t react much otherwise. Physical torture just didn’t work that well on S-rankers. Too durable and too resistant to pain. He spoke as the Panacean Quintessence did its work. “I’ll give you one more chance to realize that you are fucked and tell me what I want to hear. What is your—”

  White, fleshy, thin-stalked mushrooms shot abruptly out of the monster’s eye sockets, piercing its eyeballs with a wet squish, gushing fluid into Eik’s face. He spat and coughed as the two fungi grew a few meters taller in a matter of a single second.

  When they stopped lengthening, the cap broadened to a radius of about three meters, gradually growing heavier until the thin stalks could barely support their weight. Scales sprouted along the top of the cap and opened deep groves as pitch black discoloration spread like poison.

  At once they heaved and spouted that same black miasma that the creepy tree had done, an unseen force carrying it skyward at speed.

  The mushrooms made to do it again but a conjured blade flashed and severed them near the eye sockets. In a moment, another two sprouted but Eik cut them just the same, and then, with a wave, Eik ordered the crystal holding the monster to spread and encase the beast completely.

  Now a large chunk, it rocketed into the Apocalypse Canvas above.

  Eik was already moving toward the third special-type monster when he snapped his fingers, back turned to the detonation of the Accelerant as it ripped through the Apocalypse Canvas. He didn’t bother to look back, able to sense exactly what was happening.

  By the time he reached his destination, the third monster, now riddled with arrows as Living Manifestations continued to swarm, it had already sprouted the mushrooms, this one from its eyes as well as its back.

  Judging by the miasma beginning to cover the Apocalypse Canvas with its foul touch, the third bastard had already managed to deliver several payloads of miasma. Appearing immobilized by the transformation like the creepy tree had been, Eik went straight for the kill.

  Correcting his course and heading for his friends, one of Mn’Toakh’s arrows flying right by his ear with a whoom, he Accelerated the horde of Profound Toxic beasts on the monster. The shock wave chased him as a thirty meter long blade was dropped into the newly created crater.

  It had barely entered the earth before it too detonated. Another followed and then a handful of Living Manifestations to confirm the total destruction of that and the two others.

  “All right!” Eik said as he landed back in front of his friends, True Toxic Harmony fading with seconds left on its duration. “All done.”

  Mn’Toakh just stared at him, bow hanging loosely from her fingers. “Did you… already get stronger again?”

  “Nah, I don’t know,” he admitted. “These guys were honestly nothing next to the thing we met before. I doubt I could have handled three of those. How are your people?” he asked, peeking around Andihar who was only now lowering his massive shield, the crystal of Azure Aegis retreating back into the elf. That was still weird to see.

  “The ones that were alive when you got here still are, thanks to you. I’ll repay you for this. And you as well,” she said to Andihar and Gul. “You saved us. My gratitude.” With two hands on her abdomen she held their gazes. A gesture from her home culture, perhaps?

  “We’re already friends, Mn’Toakh. And friends save each other’s asses from time to time.”

  She smiled. “Still, I would like to do… something to show my sincerity.”

  Eik pursed his lips as he thought it over. “Then… you can become a regular at my café. Then we’re square.”

  She snorted. “I think I can do that much. But first, I would like to collect the corpses of as many of my team as we can, if you’re willing to help. What’s our exit?”

  “Headquarters should open a fracture forty five minutes after Eik went through, so we’ve got plenty of time,” Andihar reassured her softly.

  “Good.” The pain she felt was painted vividly on her face.

  Out of respect for the dead, the corpse collection was not a hasty affair and done mostly without skills, although they did remain vigilant of more monsters all the while.

  “How did it go?” Gul asked when he and Eik were alone.

  “How did what go?”

  “Your greeting, obviously!” the old man grunted.

  “Ah, that… Well, pretty well, I guess. I talked to Profound Toxin.”

  Gul’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? So it’s true that hosts can speak to their Worldbreakers. Very interesting. I expect to hear more later.”

  “Sure.”

  “So, what did it say?” he asked despite his previous words.

  “This and that.”

  “Such as?”

  Eik tilted his head from side to side. “It confirmed that we’re definitely dealing with spawn of the Lord of the Moon.”

  “Good. That’s good to know.”

  “How so?”

  Gul scoffed. “I don’t know yet, but knowing is always better than not. What else did it say?”

  “It… likes my pastries.”

  “I meant anything important.”

  “All right, all right. Ease up on the hurting of my feelings. I know how to hit X-rank.”

  At this Gul stopped dead in his tracks, turning his head mechanically to look at Eik. “Wh— X-rank? But you just reached S-rank!” the clan leader exclaimed with agitation.

  “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. I need to kill a spawn of the Lord of the Moon in order to do it.”

  “You just did that.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I said, but it has to be a “strong” one,” Eik drawled, doing air quotes.

  “I don’t know what those fingers mean but you’d better get to it. The faster the clan can get an X-ranker, the better.”

  Eik chuckled. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? But you’re right, there’s no time to waste. Luckily, I have something up my sleeve that can speed things up.”

  “And what is that?”

  The Monarch couldn’t suppress a shit-eating grin. “S-ranked perma pills.”

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