I grabbed its face with my left hand, unwilling to let it die.

  My hands glowed red, and the small amount of healing I could muster stopped it from slipping away. With my hand still on it, the monster turned into black energy and was sucked into my palm.

  It hurt like hell, but this time... it was bearable. I guess it’s because it’s too weak to fight back now.

  But, damn, I was tired... So tired. It was a strange kind of exhaustion, one that only came after using my healing skill.

  I collapsed forward, my body heavy. I can’t heal anymore. I’m too drained.

  If I tried to heal even a little more, I would run out of ether, faint, and risk dying.

  I knew that from experience. The last time, I almost died trying to regenerate my legs after losing them to a boulder. That attempt ended with me experiencing cardiac arrest for the second time. I got lucky then.

  But this... this hurt so much.

  My ribs were exposed, and I was sure many of them had been ripped away.

  I needed more ether. But Jer-kel couldn’t help.

  The pain was unbearable. I didn’t want to move, didn’t want to do anything. But I couldn’t just stay here.

  Walking wasn’t an option. Crawling? Almost impossible.

  Oh wait. I have a monster now.

  I sent it out, and with a flash of black, it took form. But that wasn’t all.

  I could see through its eyes. Hear, smell, feel—everything.

  That meant I could ‘hear’ its thoughts, too.

  Kill… Plunder, take, devour, rip the guts, feast on the muscles, drink the blood, play with the brain parts, breed, have a million descendants, grow stronger, become the strongest.

  Over and over, those thoughts echoed in my mind.

  It made me nauseous. The monster’s thoughts were so immersive, it felt like I had a second brain.

  If I wasn't careful, I could mistake those thoughts as mine.

  But, guh… With the amount of blood I’ve lost, maybe that’s the least of my concerns.

  The monster's thoughts still buzzed in my mind, but the will behind them was weak, drained.

  The red and purple blood I was lying in was becoming more blurry by the second.

  What can I do?

  Think. Think.

  I needed more ether.

  I’m going to do something insane.

  "Bring me the corpse of your brethren. Or the ether organ in it."

  The monster near me struggled to move. Every shift of its body sent pain through me, especially the stab wounds in its neck. Now that it was linked to me, we shared health.

  It hurts so much.

  I breathed heavily, my body too weak to make any more movements.

  I was so weak that controlling the monster felt nearly impossible, but it was weak too, so maybe it balanced out.

  Jer-kel was still fighting. I could see her through the monster’s eyes. She was bloodied, but the Shafeline she was fighting was in worse shape. Its tail was cut off, half its face was gone, and most of its body had spider legs sticking out like spears.

  And yet, it was still moving, still trying to kill her.

  Breathing was becoming harder. I could barely pull in air, my chest tight with every attempt. I was making gurgling sounds. Blood’s in my mouth. I didn’t even realize until now.

  The monster under my command tore through its sibling’s abdomen, digging until it found a wrinkly, ball-like organ, beating like a heart—the ether-processing organ, or EPO.

  It brought it to me. I couldn’t really make it out with my own eyes, but I knew it was covered in blood and fat.

  I wasted no time. I bit down on it. Lucky for me, I can’t taste shit.

  I tried to chew, but the meat was too tough, like a toddler trying to bite a rubber toy. I gave up on chewing and tried to swallow it whole.

  But I couldn’t swallow it!

  Shit!

  I made my monster push the organ down my throat with its claw, forcing it into me.

  There was only one problem—I didn’t know if I’d be able to absorb the ether before I died.

  But... Oh... things are getting dark. Really dark.

  I tried to move my arm, but there was no strength behind it.

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  Put my left hand on my back.

  The monster obeyed. I coated my hand with my healing skill. I could only muster a little. I was hoping that the energy would stay active and become stronger when I fell unconscious, fueled by the ether in the EPO.

  Hope... it must work... it must...

  And then everything went black.

  POV: Jim

  I jumped to the side as Treecra’s leg— the giant crab made of trees—pierced through the Shafeline’s head with ease.

  Its body dropped to the ground, purple blood pooling around it.

  What is going on here?

  I turned to Lo’jul. "Are they just weak clones?"

  It wasn’t the only one we’d killed so far. All around us were exact copies of the Shafeline.

  Lo’jul answered from atop his massive, four-legged creature, which had the body of a dog, gorilla arms, and a shark’s head. "Since when are clones this weak? It’s like we’re fighting level 1 monsters."

  "So what’s this all about?"

  He hopped off his creature and walked over to one of the corpses. His monster followed, probably under his mental command.

  Its eyes glowed green, and Lo’jul made an annoyed sound. "It has some kind of active skill, but I don’t know what it does."

  "I’m starting to think this is just a distraction."

  "Yeah, me too. It’s trying to make us focus on the villagers."

  "And we fell for it."

  It wanted to level up quickly, but it knew it couldn’t take us all on. God, I hate monsters.

  "I hope Jer-kel-thuli-mal is okay. She should be. Yeah, she’s fine."

  "Let’s head back now."

  POV: Bahmos

  Julus, Merkerthy, Tom, and I lay still on the dirt, not making a sound.

  We could hear everything around us, but thankfully, we had positioned ourselves near Dreamy’s burial, far away from the chaos unfolding.

  The screaming from the villagers had faded significantly. There were still occasional cries, but they likely meant the monsters were running out of easy targets.

  We were probably next.

  Anxiety gripped me like a vice. Breathing was a struggle—everything felt manual now, and my body trembled uncontrollably.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about Natasha. I had heard some faint sounds from the carriage—hums, maybe—but once the screams began, there was nothing. But I was sure she hadn’t left it either.

  Am I going to die here?

  Suddenly, I heard the crunch of leaves.

  “Don’t… my… run…”

  POV: Vernisha

  Gasp!

  I inhaled sharply, only to cough up blood.

  Am I alive? It worked… It actually worked!

  I wanted to laugh, but instead, a crooked smile tugged at my lips. I hadn’t thought about it, but there was a real chance the other monsters could have come for me while I was unconscious.

  Lucky me, huh?

  I felt the roughness of my back, but there was flesh. I could move—weakly, but I could move. It seemed I was mostly intact.

  That EPO I’d consumed must have been packed with ether. I wondered if there was a chance my own EPO could have exploded inside me.

  Well, whatever. What now?

  I needed to find Natasha and get out of here. But running out in the open? That was asking to get killed.

  What were the chances she was alive?

  I had no idea. I just had to hope they were high.

  I moved cautiously and peered through a gap in the wall. I saw Jer-kel still fighting with the shafeline.

  Her monster was in bad shape, just like her.

  Nearby, the bodies of newborn monsters littered the ground. Had Jer-kel killed them, or had the shafeline sacrificed her young to empower herself?

  If Jer-kel falls, I’ll be next.

  I needed to heal her monster fast and run—if I could.

  But if I was spotted, I wouldn’t stand a chance. No amount of healing could save me from losing my head.

  I called over my monster, who struggled to move, and healed it. It wasn’t much, but enough to make it act like a tired soldier instead of something near death.

  I need to save the rest for Jer-kel’s monster… but I don’t think I’ll have enough.

  No, wait. I could gather enough.

  I gripped my knife tightly and muttered, “Go.”

  Mon dashed forward, moving swiftly across the battlefield. It weaved through the corpses of monsters, ripping open their abdomens and consuming their EPOs. Then, it returned to me.

  System, what are its skills?

  A strange sensation ran through my mind, and suddenly I knew everything I needed to.

  [Flame claws] [Strong charge] [Fire spit]

  It was also level 8.

  Mon made its way back into the house through the hole it had torn in the wall when it attacked me earlier. I kept to the other side to maintain stealth, and Mon came over to me, vomiting up the EPOs it had consumed.

  I can’t believe I’m about to do this.

  I wasn’t sure if the gods of this world did the whole prayer thing, but I couldn’t help but silently beg, Gods, please bless my stomach with the will of a rat.

  I held my breath, picked up two EPOs, and began eating them like they were meatballs.

  It was… awful. The texture, the taste—it felt like I was chewing on rotting dog meat.

  I fought to hold back the urge to vomit, my eyes watering as my hands trembled.

  The shafeline roared and swung its claws down at Jer-kel. The humanoid spider lunged in front of the attack.

  The claws tore into the spider. Both it and Jer-kel grunted in pain.

  Shit.

  I shouted to Mon, Distract your mother!

  Mon rushed forward just as the shafeline was about to breathe fire on Jer-kel. It slashed at the monster’s legs with [flame claws]. Normally, the attack would’ve only scratched, but the shafeline already had deep wounds there.

  The shafeline kicked back in response, but it misjudged the target, thinking it was something larger. It missed.

  I bolted from my position as fast as I could, hoping the shafeline was confused about why its own child was attacking it. It probably no longer saw Jer-kel as a threat.

  It’s right, though. She can barely stand.

  Why didn’t Jer-kel use her fairy monster to heal? Oh, right—her fairy had run out of ether when healing the others.

  The ether-processing organ only absorbs ether from the air, but the air here was of terrible quality.

  Jer-kel caught sight of me, her expression clearly one of disbelief: What is she doing here? It quickly shifted to Oh no, this kid is going to get herself killed.

  She pointed away, aggressively trying to tell me to leave.

  I’ll leave, once I’m sure you won’t die.

  I reached her, and she grabbed my shoulders—probably to whisper, Get out, but I dropped three EPOs into her hands. “Use these for the fairy.”

  Healing her humanoid spider in front of her would have been dangerous, as Natasha had warned me. The last thing I needed was for Jer-kel to realize what I could do.

  If I had no chance of survival, I might’ve risked it. But I wasn’t there yet.

  Jer-kel took the EPOs and nodded.

  She pointed at her humanoid spider. “Bring me to Shtyui. Quickly.”

  So that’s its name.

  I grabbed her, pulling her along quickly. She seemed surprised. “You’re… unnaturally strong.”

  Please think it’s just a coincidence.

  “Thank you. It’s from working out a lot. Are your friends coming soon?”

  I should’ve had Mon level us up—damn it. But at least it was skilled enough to evade the heavily injured shafeline.

  “I assume they’re busy fighting its children. But I’ll call them now.”

  She said that, but I hadn’t noticed the pyramid communicator on her. She went silent, maybe using one of her monster skills.

  We reached Shtyui. It could barely stand. Jer-kel approached and said, “You did well.”

  She tapped it with her foot.

  There was a flash of white, and through Mon’s eyes, I saw the shafeline stop and turn toward us.

  Jer-kel sent the fairy out. In an instant, the fairy went from being unharmed to bleeding from its nose and mouth, writhing in agony.

  Yikes.

  Jer-kel apologized to the fairy, then fed it the EPOs.

  “Harve…st run!” The shafeline bellowed as it charged toward us.

  The sound caught Jer-kel’s attention, giving me a brief moment to touch her monster from their blind spot(since they share vision) and heal it as much as I could in one go. It was enough to stop the nosebleed and get the fairy back on its feet.

  “Shit!” Jer-kel gasped, her eyes widening in panic as she turned towards me.

  The air whistled sharply. I saw the shafeline’s claws closing in, heading straight for my neck.

  Oh. I’m dead.