7 in 3

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Scarlet

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It’s been around a month, as far as I can tell, that we’ve been helping the Unrak village. My little self-contained family helped fix all the damage we caused, and then some. I’ve been told that Coil is great at construction. Which is hilarious to me. The image of my aloof brother being in charge of moving rocks fills me with joy.

Pim figured out that she can just write with chalk on her skin and boost her physical strength. I’m glad she has somewhat figured out her powers. The Unraks have also told me that she’s quite talkative.

I’ve had to rely on my large frame to help work, since my blessing and class don’t help with heavy lifting. When things moved to construction, I was a bit more helpful. My control over vines let me hold up lumber for the shelled folk as they were affixed to buildings.

At one point Wight came out again. Thankfully, things went better due to Coil tying him up immediately. The kid screamed in fury for a while, eventually crying. Once he was good and upset, Emerald swooped in with some yummy food and got the brat to trust her.

Luna woke up once, but didn’t interact with the Unraks. The only reason I knew she’d been awake was the small note that was crumpled in my hand, warning me of the behavior patterns of the “clam people”. She must’ve snuck around town invisible.

Besides fixing up the destroyed section of town, I also helped the Unraks develop a more sustainable farming method. Even though I have learned some basic theory from the Heir tutor, I shouldn’t know much about farming. But when I went to help, the information was just in my head. Maybe it’s part of my class? Who knows.

Eventually Coil and I got antsy and told boss Holly that we want to leave soon. The old coot begged us to stay longer, wanting us to help with a new construction project. I said no, as I want to find my family. The boss understood, and told Emerald and Sea to chaperone me back to Wornsbirth.

I cover my eyes as I step out of the cave I’ve been living in. The blinding sun makes my eyes water, but they slowly adjust. Once they finish focusing, I see a problem.

In the treeline near the cave entrance is a massive camp with dead animals on pikes around it.

“Shit.”

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I quickly duck behind a rock, pulling my traveling companions with me. Pointing out the camp, I ask them if it’s normal. They quietly answer no, so I start brainstorming.

“What should we do? If we go back and get help we would have a much better chance of fighting these guys. But if we do that, it's possible that they’ll notice the large group leaving the cave. If they find the town, who knows how much damage they could do before getting brought down.” I peek around the rock, looking for movement.

Emerald speaks to me from behind. “We cannot… risk town. We must fight… alone. You go home… Scarlet.”

I give the self-martyr a good whack with my fist, bruising my hand. “No way, idiot, I’m helping.” I pull the woven necklace off of me, watching it expand into a large lizard. “Hack, go draw out one of the things in that camp. We need to know what it is we’re fighting. Make sure to lose it before you come back.”

The plant looks at me with an open mouth, tongue flopped out to the side. Lazily, the creature slides out of my lap. Instead of standing on the dirt by my feet, the lizard just sinks into the soil as if it was a puddle. Once Hack has completely vanished, the three of us watch the camp nervously.

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After about an hour the three of us start to draw pictures in the dirt together. Around an hour after that, a horrible screech cuts the peaceful forest air. The sound of wood splintering comes from the forest edge, followed by distant treetops disappearing. What the hell did Hack do? Soon enough I get my answer. The brush by the treeline bursts open, expelling the scampering form of Hack. The lizard is sprinting parallel to where we’re hiding so the pursuer won’t find us.

With a loud cracking sound one of the trees near where Hack came from explodes into splinters. The top half of the tree falls to the side as a massive creature lunges through the trunk. After landing with a thud, the horrible monster stands up and lets out a wail like tearing metal.

The thing looks like a monkey and a scorpion had a child and hit it with an ugly stick. The massive primate stands at least three heads above me with a face decorated by a huge red and blue nose. The surface of the creature shifts from furry musculature into black chitin. At the waist the monkey torso replaces the head of the scorpion. Instead of normal arms, the upper torso has scorpion claws attached by a jointed limb. Directly under the thick, shelled arms is a smaller, but still huge, pair of primate arms. The four-armed monstrosity chases after Hack on many legs, making a horrible clicking sound as it runs.

After glancing at me to make sure I saw, Hack runs back into the woods, tailed by the monster. The sound of falling trees becomes distant before Hack emerges from the soil near my feet. I give the green creature some praise before it jumps around my neck, turning back into the braided jewelry. I swallow hard and turn to my two friends.

“So… what the hell do we do?”

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Before the three of us have a chance to plan, the earth under us starts to swell. My reaction is just a moment too slow, and I go flying as the soil explodes. My vision dims when the back of my skull bounces off of something that feels like stone. I see one of the monkey things crawl out of the hole that just ruptured beneath where I had been sitting.

I quickly look for plant life in my rocky surroundings. Noticing a root by my foot, I press my hand against it. I look back at the cave mouth behind us and pour my blessing into the root.

The ground shakes again. Crashing sounds tear the air as the cave entrance starts to churn like boiling water. The dirt eventually falls away, exposing a massive shell of twisted wood and bark blocking the tunnel. I let out a sigh of relief and turn my attention to the fight happening in front of me.

Hack, Emerald, and Sea are fighting the - Monkey? Scorpion? I’ll just call them crabs. The three of them are battling the crab without stopping. The large creature is attempting to cut or crush the trio with its powerful arms. Occasionally it sweeps its scythe-like stinger tail through the battle, trying to cleave one of its opponents. I study its movements for a moment before engaging. The creature has some level of intelligence, always keeping the two Unrak from latching onto it.

As I jump up to help I hear a gut-wrenching screech, along with the loud sound of tearing. I freeze as one of Emerald’s pale blue arms lands in front of me. The still writhing limb is cut cleanly and still bleeding.

My vision goes red as my mind clouds with fury. I walk towards the filthy monster, shooting a sharp root towards its head. It moves to the side just before the barked spear can rip it off. I grunt in anger, sending two more roots at it.

This time the creature swings its tail, cutting the plant life before it can be pierced by the overgrown splinters. This fucking thing is so good at fighting! Dammit, I’ve never even used these attack spells before! Before attacking again, I focus my energy into my hands. I feel my power boiling in my palms, so I use my class spell ‘Root Skewer’ again.

This time, instead of a sharp root flying straight at the creature, a mass of coiled wood emerges from the ground behind me. The thick wooden serpent rises behind me, pulling back before lunging its prey. Just before launching at the monster, the serpentine root structure splits into a hundred smaller wooden needles. The swarm of roots fly in a disorganized swarm at the stunned crab.

Unfortunately, the creature is able to hold them off by cutting through groups of roots with its sickle tail. It grabs two fistfuls of writhing wood with its lower arms, keeping them from moving. The monster also attempts to pin as many of the needles as possible with its barbed legs. As for the rest of my spell, the crab attacks them with its massive claws, splintering the wood before it can get near any of its vulnerable places.

Just as I start to worry whether I can hurt this thing, I see thick green tentacles wrap around the monster’s neck. It stops its wild defensive swings to cut through Sea’s arms. The Unrak lets out a scream as they lose their limbs. In throwing off my shelled friend, the creature leaves its torso exposed. I send all of the remaining roots flying into the crab’s unguarded chest. Its aggressive movements suddenly stutter to a halt. It looks down at the wood punched through its torso before slumping onto the ground.

The sounds of wood and bone breaking fills my ears, making my anger subside. I walk towards the heap of dead flesh, looking down at the surprise on its face. The stupid fuck really thought there was no chance we could hurt it. I give the stupid thing a good kick in the head before scanning the treeline.

Counter to my expectations, there are no other crab monsters nearby. Dumbass was so sure of itself it didn’t even sound the alarm. I give the corpse another good kick to the head before passing out.

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Iota

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The sounds of bone scraping on stone startles me out of my sleep. I jump to my feet, still half-asleep. Before my eyes can adjust to the sunlight I’m thrown backwards by something hard slamming into me.

A large green stone with holes in it lays on my lap. I groan while looking around for my assaulter. I’m really getting tired of waking up in the middle of fights. My eyes go wide when I see a huge four-armed beast barreling towards me.

Biting cold spreads up my arm as I block the swing of the creature’s massive claw. The beast’s shell scrapes against the hardened ice on my arm. I quickly release as much of the cold inside me as I can. White mist rises off me rapidly, drifting into the space around me. My attention is quickly brought back to the monster as it swings another claw at me.

This time I manage to grab the sharp tip of the incoming limb with my hand. I feel the shell bite into my hand, my blood freezing over immediately. I squeeze my hand against the black surface, causing the chill from my skin to spread to the carapace. When the front of its claw starts to loudly crack the monster pulls its arm back in a panic. Not able to hold onto the limb, I’m left grasping at air.

The creature preemptively pulls back its other claw, changing its tactic. A lower set of arms I hadn’t even noticed rise up and grab my wrists. I angrily spread my aura over the monster’s skin, but it doesn’t react. I feel the thick skin of its hands tighten over my arms. It flicks its scythe tail at my head. Just before I’m skewered, another scythe blocks the monster's attack.

The creature’s face twists in confusion, looking at its comrade who stopped it. Instead of finding the perpetrator, the monster gets a fist to the face. The crab staggers back, away from me, and is cut off by another crab monster. I’m confused as to why this thing is defending me, until I notice the mist leaking out of the newcomer’s shelled joints. I put the green stone on my lap down, and stand with a smirk.

I use the time bought by my underlings to finish forming my ice blades. Once my arms are covered by razor sharp icicles, I jump into the fight.

The possessed corpse is losing badly, already having several holes stabbed into it. I block a blow from our opponent that was about to pierce my ally’s head. The corpse clumsily swings a claw at the large enemy crab. The attack is easily parried by the more experienced monster, but I see an opening.

I rush towards the arachnid, closing the gap between us. The monster swings its tail at me, unable to use its occupied claws. I attempt to dodge, but focus on getting to the creature. The sensation of tearing skin and muscle spreads across my upper arm. It managed to hit my arm, even after I dodged. Not feeling pain, I keep running forward. Once near enough to the beast, I jump up and thrust both my arms at the joint between its arm and claw. The icy blades jam into the seam, allowing me to hang off of the monster. A sheet of ice quickly spreads out from the point of contact, making musical pinging sounds as it goes.

The crab swings one of its muscular lower arms at me, so I quickly yank my hands out and drop to the ground. Not having time to stop its furred arm’s momentum, the crab punches its own iced-over limb.

The sound of breaking glass fills the air as the monster’s arm explodes into frozen chunks. It howls in pain and grabs onto its frosted over shoulder. Steam drifts from the wound, created by its blood hitting the ice.

I send another jab at its head, making it block with its remaining claw. Once the massive thing pinches down on my arm, I smirk. The beast gives me a confused look just before a blade erupts from the center of its chest. My corpse ally twists the blade, causing a crunching sound, before pulling its tail out. The dying monster lets out a metallic scream as it falls off of the scythe.

I fall to the ground, out of breath. The cold withdraws from my limbs, making my arm burn with pain. The gash on my upper arm starts bleeding profusely once it thaws. Panicking, I pull the cold back out of my heart. Before I get the chance to freeze the wound over, something heavy hits the side of my head, making everything go black.

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Wight

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I open my eyes while standing. How did I sleep standing up? Before I can do anything, something huge slams into me.

I fall backwards, causing the ground below me to crack. My light glitters around me protectively as a big bug thing moves towards me. There’s two dead ones behind the monster attacking, and past that…

A small green shell, cracked open, sitting in a pool of blood. That’s the grandma that gave me yummy food! Tears come into my eyes because the sun hurts them, and I ball up my fists. The warm golden light around me darkens, turning into a deep black flame with a white core. The fire mimics the shape of my normal light, covering me with scales like usual.

I push myself up and scream. These stupid bugs hurt my new friends, and they tried to hurt me. The yell coming out of me sounds strange, like a roar instead of my usual yell.

I run at the nasty bug that hit me and swing my fist at it. The thing raises its claw to block, but my fist punches through like the monster is made of wet clay.

The black flames spread onto the monster’s skin, quickly covering the entire thing. It lets out a horrible sound as it burns. It smells yummy for some reason. I leave the stupid bug to burn and run over to the grandma.

When I get close, I see the blue one nearby, putting goo onto the crack. Grandma doesn’t move or make a noise. I need to help her. How can I help her?

That’s simple, child. A booming voice shakes my mind. This isn’t the guy who tied me up from before. I will heal that creature, but then you must go into those woods there and sacrifice everything inside to me. I look up at the nearby forest, noticing dead things put on sticks. More bugs must be in there.

“Okay! I’ll do it! Save the grandma!” My voice startles the blue one, making it flinch.

Excellent choice, since you’re such a good boy I’ll even heal the other little creature. The black flames around me turn a deep purple before spreading to the hurt shelled grandma. The blue one screeches in fear as the fire jumps onto them as well.

The crack in the grandma’s shell slowly closes up, healing over like it never existed. I look over at the blue one to see that its stumpy arms have grown back. I sigh, they’re okay. I saved my friends.

Yes you did, boy, and now it's time for the payment. I feel a sharp pain in my heart before everything fades away.